Pa Pa

Today Aeisha uttered 2 new words -- "Pa Pa". Os and I were both surprised. He he. We asked her to repeat pa-pa after us. But she wouldn't. HAHA. By 8 months, she is expected to know how to wave bye-bye and clap her hands. I teach her that everyday. And she loves it when people starts to clap their hands at her. :)

The Queen

I watched the movie “The Queen” earlier. Without knowing the synopsis of the movie, I can say that the movie was all about the events following Princess Diana’s death and how the Prime Minister Tony Blair, portrayed by Michael Sheen, convinced Queen Elizabeth II, portrayed by Helen Mirren, to succumb to the British people’s plea to pay their respect to the People’s Princess. The movie showed the interaction between the Queen and the PM to reach a concession between what was the tradition and what the public wants.

The Royal family never liked what happened between Charlies and Diana. The Queen exposed coldness in her heart for Di. And I can see the same coldness in her heart towards Camilla. She scoffed with disgust when the movie showed an excerpt about Camilla. It’s as if no one is ever good for the Crown Prince. Now that Camilla is married into the Royal family, I wonder if she gets the same treatment as with Di.

It is only in this movie that I learned that the Queen became the head of the monarchy at age 26. I was surprised that she DRIVES! And a dialogue in the movie revealed that she was a mechanic when she joined the army during WWI. She loved dogs. Got lots of them. At first, the movie showed stringency between her and the PM though the movie ended with them being chummy.

Stealing some free time I had today, I found out that the Queen’s real name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. She married her distant cousin, Prince Philip. She became queen when her father died of lung cancer. She doesn’t have any brother, only a younger sister, thus she became the Queen. Prince Philip renounced his title as Prince of Greece and Denmark before they got married but was later named Prince. I wonder why he isn’t King after marrying the Queen. Anyways, the Queen and Prince Philip have 4 children but I guess only the crown prince is the most popular. So every detail of his life is very controversial and followed by the media. Even his private life and the people involved. Well, as they say, being in a royal family is like being a celebrity.

Milestone at 7

Aeisha turned 7 months yesterday. For solids feeding, she loved barley cereal the most. Then I would say oatmeal then rice cereal. For the single vegetables, I have yet to give her the peas & sweet potatoes. I have already given her potatoes, carrots & green beans. Of which she loved carrots the most. After this I am going to try on single fruits. Then I can combine the cereal, single veggies & single fruits. Not literally combine them but making them part of her breakfast, lunch & dinner. Milk intake is now 8oz. for the first feeding in the morning, and 7oz. for the rest. She still has toothless grin as of this time. My mom said that the tooth fairy usually visits babies on their 7month. So we are awaiting ours. He he. Some babies have their tooth as early as 5 months! Aeisha can sit assisted at 4 months. Sat solo at almost 5 months. We then knew that she was ready for solids then. But I still waited til she reached 6 months before giving her first cereal. She was able to roll on her side from her tummy at 6 1/2 months. And she's been trying to crawl in our bed lately. I just need to give her some leverage on the feet for her to give out her might and move forward. She can also say Ma-mah. But I read that it's just her practising her M-sounds. Not really calling me Mama since most babies say Da-da first. She also likes to move her head when we say No-No and move our head as well. Copycat! haha. She can also seem to recognize our plaque "Christ is the head of this house." above our ground floor closet. Whenever we recite the phrase, she will raise her head up and sort of acknowledge the plaque. I don't know how she does that but it's cute! I'll make an update if there are more. :D

This Sunday, we met some friends of ours. And there is this cute little boy, Jude, son of our friends. BOY! He can walk at 1yr! He's so cute!!!!!!! The other little girl, Hannah, yet another friend's daughter will be celebrating her 1 yr this week. She has so many hair. She even got her 1st haircut already! And she's got lotsa teeth! I can't wait for Aeisha's tooth to sprout. With that, I am going to Walmart or Sears to capture that moment. HEHE.

No More Good Things

I don't have anything good to say anymore about what was once my home country. The system sucks. Everything sucks. I'm 101% glad I made a decision to stay out of it. I pity those who are still there. I encourage people to emigrate. That's the only way to live elsewhere legally. Canada open its doors to me in 2000. And I vowed to sponsor my parents and sister over. That dream came true 2006 when I got approved to be a sponsor. Now, 4 months later, my parents still hasn't submitted their application just because these stupid clerks (SCs) at the provincial NSO made a mistake through their penmanship. When my parents applied for their birth certificates, instead of LIM, that SC's penmanship made it appear to be SIM. What a stupid mistake!! The fault lies first of all in the SC who had a lousy penmanship. Next, the process goes to NSO Manila, another SC who wasn't sure if it's L or S chose to put S so that she can have one certificate done and thousands more to go. Now because of this stupid mistake, my Dad can't get his birth certificate done in time. It will take a good 3-5 months for the attorney to get a court order for the name change in the birth certificate. With that, to add salt to the wound, the application will become void on my part. CIC specifically stated that the application will be void if the PR application wasn't received after 6 months they sent me the kit. Mid-June is the deadline. So if we will wait for the court order, I will just be saying good bye to my processing fees here. What the hell does the system want??? MONEY?!?!?!?! Are they just saying this to my Dad so that he can offer them MONEY??? more MONEY???? I am ranting here because I can't do anything about it. This can't replace the time I spent on the whole application. There are too many people to point fingers, too. And it's like a ripple effect. If one causes this, the effect will be like this. My parents already applied very early but once again, the place being a province, the SC said that they won't ship out the certificates unless they reach a quota number of certificates. What a stupid policy!!!!!!! What if it's a rush order? Their SW (stupid website) boasted of its fast service that it only takes 3 days or 1 week at the most. But how come it took the provinces to receive it after 3 @#$@#$ months?? I rest my case, I can only say no further good things about that country anymore. Everything about it is pointless. Not a good place to live. Others may disagree with me. And I don't give a damn. I don't care what good things they can say about that country.

Started Carrots

I started carrots on Aeisha today. And she didn't give me a frown this time. She just played neutral. I can say that she prefers carrots over potato, but loves her cereals the most. Next I will try on is the squash. I guess I might have to buy the jarred ones because I only need a few handful of scoops, the rest, who's gonna eat it? Not me. HAHA

Feature Weblink for the Day

Granny's Garden
http://www.grannysgarden.ca

This is what I call a hobby turned into a business. Even for Granny Rona, nothing beats out the creativity in you. Armed with her skills in knitting, she was able to make her creativity speak for itself. The products that she is selling are mostly hats for children and also for adults too. She also has booties that are included on some of the hat sets. Granny Rona is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, although she is accepting orders from the US & elsewhere as well. The price range for the items are $22-$25. For a small additional charge of $2.95, she will gift wrapped her creations before sending it to you via Canada Post for a mere cost of $2.50 per hat, or hat and booties sets to Canada and US. She is also accepting International orders. Just drop down a line to her at her email which can be found in her website. One more thing.. I like her website. It's straight to the point and cool to the eyes. Nothing fancy but very informative.

Holly Hobbie

I love Holly Hobbie, she's so adorable! Ever since I was a kid, I love all her collectibles. Then years passed, she's all forgotten until Carlton or I guess American Greetings revived her. I want to start her collection, but being a sane person that I am, there are other priorities that I need to attend to... especially my bag collection. HA HA. Just kidding!

Holly Hobbie has been in existence for the past 40 years already. When I logged into their website (www.hollyhobbie.com), there is a new version of the said character. I don't like it but I guess her creators want to cater to the new generation now.

I got this on the internet:

Holly Hobbie, the charming girl in the oversized, blue chintz bonnet, is a character, who personifies childhood innocence. It was named after its author and creator, Holly Hobbie, and introduced as a character design on a few greeting cards in 1967 by American Greetings Corp.

Holly’s engaging smile and friendly, country girl appeal hide a deeper wisdom and strong, optimistic outlook on life —one she is quite happy to share with others. In a
rustic, early-American setting, Holly Hobbie, her brother, Robby, and best friend Heather, share friendship and happy times together.

Hmm.. interesting. I just loved Holly Hobbie that I didn't know that there exists a brother and a best friend. HAHA.

Bag Craze

I don't know why I am so obsessed with bags. In my closet, I have a big box of bags that was previously 'worn' by me. And I still kept it. I guess there is no bag in this world that will ever satisfy me. HAHA. But I can say that the oldest bag that stayed with me was the Lacoste shoulder bag that my sis-in-law gave me years ago. I must have used it the longest. I use it during weekends as I can't use it at work. Too small. To this day, I can say that I have at least 20 bags in the box ready for storage or in my closet that's ready to be used anytime. He he. Ok, not only do I am crazy about bags.. also diaper bags. HAHAHAHA. I must have bought Aeisha 5 diaper bags up to now. And I want to buy one more. It's an Eddie Bauer blue/brown mini-diaper bag on sale. Half the price. But Os stopped me! I have too many already he said, which is very true. HIHI. I have to stop this obsession else my savings will go down the drain. I must think that there are still other important things to spend my money on than bags. Bu hu hu

Layers

I had my hair cut yesterday. Kept the same length but added layers. They are not that visible though since my hair is not that long. I vowed to go back to the hair salon every 2 months to 'fix' my layers. This will post as a challenge for me since the weather is gearing towards spring and summer. But good thing that I don't need to go out if I don't want to. No obligations to stay outside the scorching heat of the sun. Read my blog from Summer 2006. All I did was to complain about the heat. One day it struck to the 40's and I was out, pretty heavy on the belly and waiting for the bus. OOOOhhh, I don't want to go back to that stage.... i.e. the summer part. HAHA

Wasabi

Today we went to Wasabi with friends. It's been a while since we've been there and been in touch with our friends. It's so nice to have a sumptous meal with them. We spent $19 each for the all-you-can-eat buffet lunch. One thing that I find it weird is that, the washroom doesn't have a change station for babies. I bet there have been comments already about it. But still they are not installed. The last time we went there was on December when the restaurant was fairly new. And we had to use a bench near the side entrance (unused) to change Aeisha's diapers. So, hopefully they can correct this and also cater not only to the 'eaters' but also to babies.

Potato with a Face

I started to give Aeisha potato yesterday and what a grimace of a face I got from her. HAHA. She was scowling on every feed. I prepared the potato the night before. As recommended by a friend, I peeled the potato. Boiled them til they are very soft and tender. Then I pureed it with just plain hot water. Then I set it for a while to cool. Then I put 2 Tbsp of the pureed potato in each cube in the ice tray. For Day 1, I cracked out 4 cubes of the pureed potato. Oh it was too much for Aeisha. So today, Day 2, I just cracked 2 cubes. And she finished it! She still frowned.. giving me her Datu-Puti look. HAHA. If you can picture what I mean. We'll see tomorrow.

Rainy Spring

Yes, I know that spring is supposed to be rainy here in Toronto. And this is what's happening right now. Well, rain is so much better than snow. Snow gets muddy in the end. Rain just dries up. He he. The temperatures right now at in the positive side although the clouds are still hovering up the sky which leaves the sun out for a while. I can't wait for the weather to clear up. There's just so many things to do outside. Plus, I want to be able to bring Aeisha to the park. She gets the shivers when we are outside just even for a few seconds. She is not adjusted to the wind yet. We can get fresh air there although it's not much since there is a construction right across the park. It was supposed to be a 'man-made lake'. But I guess business is business. A certain builder bought the whole lot and turned it into what they do best.. real estate. Oh well.

When You Reach Home with Baby

This is part 4 of my reminder blog. After a few nights’ stay at the hospital, the attending OB gives you a go signal to go home. My OB stopped by my room on her way to work the next day. I was really amazed at how after a 24hr shift, she can still manage to look so proper and up and running for her day’s work at the clinic. It was learned that her shift at the hospital the night before was extremely busy. September 21 was the busiest!

Anyways, so when you reach home with baby, make sure you have the following at home:

At least 1 feeding bottle ready to use. The rest can be sterilized after the first feeding, i.e. if you plan to bottle feed as in my case when my milk supply was at its lowest.
Have baby’s crib ready for sleep.
Prepare enough blankets and receiving blankets to swaddle baby.
Have enough wash cloths too. This is best when feeding baby. Instead of using bibs, wash cloths are good alternatives.
Formula: Buy this as soon as you are discharged from the hospital. You never know if you have enough milk in you.
Diapers: Stock this way before baby is born.
Diaper rash ointment: Just in case.
Cotton balls: To wash away the poo.
Wipes: You can buy at least one for now since we don’t want them to dry up if you stock them.
Spring water: Use this if you plan to formula feed baby.
Hot water in electric pot: The most convenient way to have hot water in handy.

What to Bring for Mommy & Daddy

This is part 3 of my reminder blog. And this list is for mommies and daddies, too.

1. Jacket: The hospital room can get chilly especially at night time. It was late September when Aeisha was born so the temperature outside was kind of in the teens. I had to be in my jacket at night time.

2. Pillow: The private room I had did have extra pillows for me. I had about 4. Hi hi. But we still brought our own pillow. Bring extra pillow for Daddy, too.

3. Blanket: This is for Daddy. If you had a private room, a couch is provided for Daddy. We were lucky to have a couch that is functionable and sleep-able. The other rooms didn’t have the kind of couch we have. You can also bring a cot but the room we had was too small. And the couch was just perfect for Daddy.

4. Bengay: Oh, gosh I needed this because I was sore all over. It did help a bit but the soreness was internal. But it did provide relief for my arms.

5. Going-home clothes: Ok, I didn’t have this!!!!!!!! The night before we were to be discharged, Os went home to get new supplies and bring home old ones. And I shipped these (going-home clothes) with him. My mistake. I learned that it is still best to bring your maternity clothes. The jogging pants will be best coz it’s stretchy and comfy. A big tshirt will also serve good as top. I had to use Os’ jogging pants in going home cz it’s loose. He he.

6. Socks: You need this since it’s cold at night. I found it very comfy to wear socks.

7. Toothbrush & toothpaste: You will have likely to have visitors so it is good to be prepared.

8. Laundry detergent: You need to soak your bloodied undies. Yes, you will still be bleeding and staining can’t be helped.

9. Sanitary pads: I used Moddess maternity pads but you can also use long Always Maxi pad with wings. It worked the same for me. The moddess was given to me by my friend who recommended it and my mom also brought some. In total, I must have hoarded 10 packs of 8.

10. Razor/Shaver/Shaving cream: for Daddy.

11. Face cloth: You do want to wash yourself everyday. Since there are no area to shower, there’s no need to bring a big towel which will consume space in your bag. But have one (towel) for Daddy since he can bathe at a relative’s house nearby. You don’t want Daddy to be out of your sight for a long time.

12. Telephone numbers of friends: Jot down all the numbers of friends that you want to call. I felt bad that I didn’t include one of my friends’ number. And we haven’t talk since.

13. Notepad/Pens: If you want to record anything.

14. Rechargeable batteries: for your digital camera

15. Digital camera: You don’t to miss the moments with the little one.

16. Videocam/Videotapes: Same as #15.

17. Video charger: Same reason as #15.

18. Stroller luggage: It’s easy to lag your things around rather than have bags. Surely you won’t need just one bag. You also have to consider baby’s bag and Daddy’s bag, too.

19. Foodstuffs: Mostly for Daddy since mommies aren’t really allowed to eat til they pass gas. I did pass gas on the 2nd day already. Plus you’re on dextrose so you won’t feel like eating. One tip: Put the foodstuffs in 1 bag. Daddy will share your hospital food but will most likely be hungry still. There are microwaves in the hospital pantry so bringing of microwavable foods is recommended.

20. Juices: For daddy. Although water is available in the pantry, too.

I bet this will be edited still.

Barley

I started the Barley oats cereal on Aeisha. And she loves it as well. It's like our Cerelac back home. The smell. The consistency. No wonder it's every kid's favorite. Hehehe. It's day two tomorrow, so we'll see if she will still like it. :)

Let it flur...Let it flur... Let it flur...

I know.. I know.. there's not even a word in the entire world called FLUR. HAHA..

Anwyays, we've been having flurries since last night. And now they've accumulated on the roof. Here are pictures up for grabs. See it for yourself. :) I took this picture from the inside. This is our neighborhood.

Temperature right now is freaking cold! We're back on the minus side now. In fact, it's -4 right now as I type and it feels like -12. Oh boy! Spring...

Hand in Hand They Fall

As I blog right now, flurries have started falling since dusk today. They came down together with the rain. I guess they go hand in hand during Spring. It's a nice feeling when you hear the raindrops hitting the windows but when you're outside, it's a different story. It's freaking cold! bbbrrr. We postponed our trip again to the mall because of the cold weather. So tomorrow then. I need to buy the Barley cereal for Aeisha. Then I can proceed with my home made potato puree. Ciao!

Flurries in Spring?

It’s kinda bizarre to have this kind of forecast. Starting tonight, there will be rain/snow shower combination. Then overnight until next week is going to be flurries. I just find it weird to still have flurries in spring. Oh well, maybe the forecast will change again.

Rain Rain Go Away

Yes, I am singing or reciting this. I want to go out as soon as Os comes home from work but we couldn't because it's raining. And I don't want to go through the hassle of bringing Aeisha out. The weather station forecasted that it's rain rain rain starting tonight until tomorrow afternoon. It's supposed to clear up partly tomorrow evening. But who knows? It's just a forecast. And it will change again. Hay.

What to Wear

What should babies wear? From the time they were born, parents should have their 'welcome clothes' ready. In my case, since I had a CS birth, what we prepared had gone haywired. Os didn't have any idea what to bring. I was in a state where I want baby to come out already! We missed bringing the baby clothes and cap to the operating room. So baby was swaddled... naked except for a diaper, which the nurses in the room provided. Because of tension, Os didn't cut the umbilical cord, didn't see the placenta, didn't take picture inside. What we planned for, they didn't happen. But of all its worth, Os was beside me, comforting me. When the attending OB said, "It's a girl!". All I remembered was, "YES!" coming from him. So he wanted a girl! HA HA. I was in a groggy state so I barely remember everything. He just keep on reminding me that it's a girl. And she looks like me. When I saw her, she has her eyes closed, and yawning, and blinking her eyes, as if to tell me "Mommy, I'm here." Hi hi hi. It was so perfect a sight to see. And so much a relief for me. Finally, I thanked God for making it so smooth and FAST. Just like what I prayed for. HA HA.