Visit to an Army camp

Family Photos

The Yason Brothers Present!

Another live presentation by the yason brothers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99pIWkkGVpM

Gabriel was so excited to videotape his songs ... we were doing this for one whole week two weeks ago.

Joaquin moving it

We took Gabriel and Joaquin to see Madagascar 2 weekends ago.  Joaquin likes the "I Like to Move it" song ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ7qLR1bHK4

Spa ...

This is the problem with being on leave.  I have plenty of time to try out spas!

Today, i tried Butik Spa.   Here goes:

The ambience is good -- dimmed lights, scented oils, flowers.  The music is appropriate for the type of massage offered by the spa.  I asked for a head, back and arm massage because i wasn't in the mood for a foot massage.  The massage was  a tad disappointing as it wasn't any different from a usual swedish massage where the masseuse kneads my shoulder muscles to submission.  (Well, the difference is she didn't use oil so when she did massage areas not covered by the shirt they provided, friction of her hand on my dry skin was painful).  Oh - there was a difference.  She did have some stretching moves.

Overall, Ok service but nothing spectacular.  i'll try the foot massage next time.

Birds and the bees talk

Gabriel was very happy to see the new baby, but was worried --- "Mommy, will you have more babies?  We can't have more babies -- or else, there will be no more space at the table."  (Table = our dining table that currently seats 6 people.)

When  we were talking at the dining table one morning, Gabriel started to talk about how he was born then joaquin then Pablo:

Mommy, at first you and daddy got married then I was in your tummy and the doctor took me out.

Then, you and daddy got married and then Joaquin was in your tummy and the doctor took him out.

... but mommy, you didn't get married when baby Pablo was in your tummy!

A few days later ...

So, Mommy, how do babies get in your tummy?  --- difficult question to answer!

Gabriel did this in class for his talent. He was the one who picked the talent, the costume and the 'props'. The teachers said he needed very little prodding.

Gabriel

Gabriel's fever started yesterday afternoon. He was warm when we came home from Shangrila (went to mass then lagaw lagaw then lunch then lagaw lagaw). After his nap, his fever was fullblown and we had to force him to take ibuprofen. The fever stayed through the night.

This morning, when Sharon (his yaya) was washing his penis, he complained of pain when she touched his testicle. We noticed that they were swollen and he was walking as if he was bow-legged. We decided to bring him to the doctor then.

At the doctor, the pedia took one look at him and suggested that we go to a pedia surgeon. The pedia surgeon confirmed hernia (see previous post), and said that we need for the virus (or whatever was causing the fever) to resolve before we can operate. The operation will take about 2 nights (check in pm of day 1, stay overnight, surgery on day 2, recovery pm of day 2, discharge on day 3).

I hope all goes well.

(btw, in the middle of this, Joaquin managed to 'taste' his very first taste of Ben-Gay ... which is another story!)

Shoes and stuff

This weekend, we found time to clean out our boxes of stuff. We took out shoes that Gabriel has outgrown and had Joaquin try them on. It was hilarious having Joaquin try on the shoes because he had his preferences ... we heard, "Don't like" (for a closed shoe that didn't fit well). "Baliktad" (for sandals that were a little too big) and "For girls!" (for pink surf shoes given by Tita Inday).

The other not so good development today is about Gabriel. We learned that he has a condition called Communicating Hydrocele. It's apparently a congenital condition that needs to be corrected with surgery. :( ... Just read for more info -- http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1037.htm

So ... our Iloilo trip is cancelled. There will be other Dinagyangs. Until the next post!

Merry Christmas and good riddance to 2007

It's 5 am, and I've been up for 3 hours! We put the boys to sleep at 8 pm (I should say they put us to sleep ... if I remember correctly, Joaquin was still blabbing and Gabriel was complaining about Joaquin being noisy when I drifted off to lala land). I suppose 7 hours of sleep isn't too bad.

I finally found time to read my messages in friendster and upload updated photos. This year's been extremely busy, both at home and at work. Work, I can't talk much about. Home, ah ... let's see:
1. Woke up one morning to shouting and screaming -- found out that maids were having a catfight. Joaquin's yaya had to leave.
2. Joaquin had a terrible bout of asthma and we had to bring him to the the emergency room at midnight.
3. Gabriel had dengue fever, and was hospitalized for 4 days.
4. Sharon (Gabriel's yaya) told us she was planning to go to Korea and work there. (Thank God she changed her mind)
5. Arvin started a business with my niece and friends.
6. Joaquin started school.
7. We went home to Iloilo, where kids got sick after a day at the beach. The yaya also decided not to show up and stay at home ( I still hold a grudge against this girl to this day)
8. Arvin gave me an eee pc.
9. Joaquin is now toilet trained (yay!)
10. Gabriel speaks so much sometimes you want to tell him to shut up!

Latest decent picture of the kids ...

Work / Life Balance

They say you can achieve work/life balance ... or balance is how you define it. So what is balance to me? Is it working 12 hour workdays and feeling tired all the time? Get up, get dressed, spend 10 minutes with the kids, run out the door to catch an early morning call. Gulp down lunch in 15 minutes, try to drive home fast enough to catch kids awake (more often than not, unsuccessful at this), eat dinner, check email, try to have a decent conversation with husband -- fall asleep while doing so. Get up, get dressed, ... it's a cycle. Sometimes changes in pattern because of son getting up early in the morning asking for yaya. Only thing that keeps me sane is the Sundays I spend swimming with my kids and sometimes, cooking dinner (which my husband doesn't always appreciate, but that's another story). So what am I trying to say? Oh nothing, just wondering.

More pictures

More pictures of Joaquin's birthday ...

http://picasaweb.google.com/gabriel.yason/JoaquinSFirstBirthday

Downtime

Feels good to have some downtime. Joaquin's asleep and Gabriel finally has realized that there's some joy to playing by himself. This is one of the few times when he doesn't interfere with my typing on the keyboard. ** relief **

So. Since my last post, Joaquin had his first birthday. Thank god for party coordinators. Only work I did was call the caterer, call the coordinator and buy prizes. Not too bad. I think Joaquin enjoyed the attention.


A few weeks after his birthday, we bought Joaquin better sandals. I think he genuinely likes his new sandals because when he saw it, he asked (ok, signed) to put them on. He also stood with pride and took more confident strides with it. We all joke that he's like a small 10 year old now, the way he walks and climbs chairs and beds...

Today, we went swimming upstairs (our condo building has a swimming pool at the deck area). FREEZING! Gabriel was literally shaking from the cold, but wouldn't stop. To his credit, he's now more confident and jumps into the water without hanging on to my hand.

The coming week will be lots of work

Six months

When I started this blog, I said I was going to post at least once a month. Oh well. It's been six months since my last post. When you come home from work, writing a blog is the last thing you'd like to do if you have a 2 year old kid whose favorite word is mommy mommy mommy.

Anyway. We moved to our new home last October 3 (pictures later, when I get Arvin to take decent pictures). This was a week after typhoone Milenyo. Ang galing ng timing di ba? We had the place blessed last week, January 6. Very small affair. Just us, Manang, Chrissy, Arvin's parents, the maids, the kids, the priest (Fr. Paul from St. Francis Parish just blocks away from us), pansit from pansit lucban and dessert from Becky's.

This week, Joaquin's yaya is on vacation, so I'm on leave. Don't mind doing the housewife bit. Can get tiring though, when you have 2 kids crying because the bigger one won't share the toy so the small one cried. And what do you do? Take the toy away from the bigger one so now he's crying, and they're crying a chorus (CHORUS, no longer duet -- magnified when they do it together). Donah (Joaquin's yaya) is back on Tuesday. Looking forward to seeing her again.

Work is work. Arvin's in a new project and am in semi-hell by association. His late nights have a direct impact on my sleep as I have to deal with two kids (babies, reallly) by myself until he comes home. (I try not to bother the yayas since they took care of both kids the whole day). His cranky days obviously have a direct effect on me also. So I have offered to do help him out with something that will take one thing off his list of to-dos. I suppose that's what wives are for.

Changes

Goodness gracious. Almost been a month since my last post.
Tons of stuff have happened since then. Let's see :

1. We have acquired a condominium unit in Ortigas ... targeting to move in by August (or thereabouts, depending on how soon we can pick a contractor and how soon the poor fellow will be able to deliver).

2. Gabriel's yaya retired -- 2 years na so itchy feet. Asked to go home to rest, so there. We have a new yaya now. So far OK, but Gabriel ran a fever starting yesterday.

3. Started on PMP review classes -- can you say hell. On top of my day job, I'm required to take these project management review classes and take a PMI certification exam soon after. Ugh.

4. Other resignees at work -- quite a few people that I actually care about at work left the past few weeks. It really saddens me that such a diaspora is happening. Sometimes I catch myself thinking ... why doesn't this person leave instead of that other person? ;)

Birthday gift

Yesterday was my birthday - guess what the two boys gave as a gift. High grade fever! Both Gabriel and Joaquin had 40C fevers yesterday. We're bringing them to the doctor today.

Kiss!

Gabriel's really fascinated with Joaquin and wants to kiss him all the time. We let him, but Joaquin ends up eating his nose. to illustrate:

Family Planning

Arvin and I keep joking that we're the poster family for not having a lot of children. The pictures below were taken on one of the nights when we're trying to get Gabriel to sleep AND keep from squishing Joaquin. Camera wasn't enough of a diversion.

Gabriel's first birthday

I obviously haven't spent much time on our home computer. Almost a year late, here are pictures of Gabriel's birthday. i post ko lang ang mga pictures nga may mga tawo. I'm sure those are the only pics you'll be interested in. Here goes.

Morning of Gabriel's birthday -- as if reading the newspaper. See the sheepish smile. He enjoys playing with the newspaper a lot.

















pictures with the Yuchingtats



Putting straws in partner's hair










Pictures of Alex Lim family




with Angeli and Redg

Europe

Long awaited Europe pictures ... one year late! :) This post is especially for Chrissy and Rhoda who haven't seen their pics yet.

Eating along the river. (Seine ba?)



Eto naman sa pont alexander


And another going to the army museum ...



That's it for now. I have to search for the other pictures yet.