what to wake up to?

friday-off is the best. i had time to bake banana bread before kitt and kaela woke up. the sweet aroma permeated every nook and cranny of our tiny apartment. this was the first time i baked it and i was surprised how easy it is to make.

too irresistible. i broke my promise to pass up coffee for this!

finally, the duo (my mag-ama) were on their feet.

we hung out in the dining room and did our own things. i was scanning the magazine i lent from the library. kaela was pretending to read her book. kitt was playing his guitar.

a morning filled with strums

i wish friday is always this light and carefree.

homeschool classes

we started homeschooling kaela in late january after she turned one and a half years old. it is early given that she's barely two. i would say that the setup is both favorable for kaela and us. as she is learning new things, we are also learning how capable (and patient) we can be to teach.

amidst francis' hesitation to send her to day care, i put together little subjects to teach her. we structure it to have one hour session in the morning (with francis) and one hour in the evening (with me).

ANATOMY. i'm sure every parent had taught their child anatomy. kaela knows over ten parts of her body. i would ask her where the different parts are and she would eagerly point each one to me.

MATHS. kaela would line up all her shoes on the floor and we would count them together i.e. i would count them and she will point to each of the shoe.

DANCE & MUSIC. we play some music or video and she would either sing or dance to its tune. she once asked her tatay to dance with her i.e. hold his hands while they dance together. cute, isn't it?

READING. i borrow books from the library; i pick those that may keep her engaged. most of them are the things she have experience on e.g. brushing teeth, toilet training, about birds and dogs. in that way, she can relate more to what we are reading. she can't focus yet on one thing. i learned that giving her one book at a time is better than giving her a few options right away.

the best way to teach a child to be fond of reading is to see us also read

HOME ECONOMICS. if we make a mess in the room - playing or coloring, i ensure that kaela joins in the cleaning. be it throwing in the bin, rubbing off the colored marks on the table and keeping her toys in the storage box. on weekends, i let her participate in the kitchen when i bake. she helps me whisk, mix, and break the walnuts into pieces. at times, she forgets that we are preparing food, misses to spread the walnut on the mixture and puts them instead in her mouth. i can't blame her, i also like munching them.

CHARTS & COLORS. we posted charts on the wall and ask her to point to us where each item is. we  also have duplo-replicas for building blocks and studying colors.

FIELD TRIP. it's always like a field trip on weekends as we go to the mall and nearby park. we loiter at the square, bird watching. sometimes, i take her to the little rides.

nanay, i'm not really riding. i'm just sitting here. can u insert a coin please?

ARTS & CRAFTS. this is her favorite above everything else. she's very fond of her crayons. i lined the wall with butcher paper so she would have a bigger space to draw. nevertheless, the occasional marks on the table and chairs didn't escape her curiosity. i like this activity as well. it relaxes me to do something else and just color and draw. the other day, we made a collage of pictures from the catalog. but of course, she likes drawing best.

we are dead-tired in most evenings but to see her grow and learn new things, we just have to enjoy it with her and keep going.

liberation at its finest

the kitchen is in its exquisite state.  the bathroom, dainty and white. the toys,  all kept in the storage. i think i've done my work here.

kitt and kaela are taking their afternoon nap.  like a thief in the night,  i left the house to find solace in a coffee shop tucked in the heart of parramatta.

motherhood redefines the very meaning of liberation. it is when silence is too precious and seldom to ignore. it is finding a good book to read when you have an hour to spare. it is breaking away from scrubbing,  teaching and constant bickering to realize that your spirit needs nurturing and mending. it is like this - being deaf in a crowd of frenzy people enjoying their afternoon tête-à-tête because you know this is your moment.

and this is my moment.

i feel like i'm one of the luckiest women at this hour.

don't you think so?

enjoying my ricotta cheese cake

state of gratefulness

coming to office early on a friday brought me great elation. on my desk stood my two flat monitors, a coffee and buttered croissant. i couldn't ask for more.

i suddenly remembered a progression of stories about food provision at work.

i was twenty when i started working. the workplace was one-level, no pantry, not even a water station. people complained about the lack of structure. i was thankful that i got a job in three weeks after i started looking.

i changed my job immediately after a new post opened that is more relevant to my undergrad degree. in one corner of our office was a small pantry and a water-refilling area - equipped with hot and cold buttons. what else can you ask for if you have unlimited supply of drink?

i moved to singapore. there is tea, coffee and biscuit on each level. in another company, there was a server preparing kopi-c and kopi-o. and another one having a nesvita as an option. i was on cloud nine. still, there were colleagues expecting more. no coke, no orange juice, no milk! the complaints were endless.

kitt and i migrated to australia. i joined a good company generous enough to provide your choice of cereals (muesli, corn flakes, weet-bix etc.), milk (lite, full cream, soy, almond), juice and unlimited coffee (cappucino, mocha, latte, espresso etc), soda and sparkling water, chocolates in the chiller, wine, beer and pizza, chips and fruits or dinner if you ended up working late. i can't believe my luck!

people still rant. no chef-prepared lunch. the juice is concentrated, not fresh. the coffee was not as good as in another level.

as i ate my croissant and sipped "savouring-ly" my free caffeine drink, how could i not feel grateful to have my daily manna!

commissioned work from kitt

activity-filled valentine weekend

we started our day early.

i had an appointment at 8am, so i cooked our breakfast early. kitt also had to play basketball. kaela was up early to join the morning rush.

after kitt dropped me off the imaging laboratory, our paths diverted. kaela and i went to the library to pick up the book i reserved for. kitt went to westmead to play.

it was fun-fun day from then on.

there is centenary square a few meters from the library where a fountain was installed quite recently as a proactive measure to give a facelift to the area. oftentimes, i would point to kaela the gushing water and promised her that as soon as she started walking i would take her to the fountain and she could play with the water. it was a lucky day yesterday as the temperature was hot. soaking became an immediate option. and of course, it's a beautiful day to fulfill that promise!

splish splash, as she taps her hands on the trickling water

she was scared as the water suddenly splashed out around her and she was the only one left at the center. she was terrified to go past the fountain. poor li'l one! the drama didn't last long as the water receded to a centimeter tall and the happy baby was back.

still within the same square are trees which are home to flocks of pigeons. someone was kind enough to give kaela grains of rice to feed them.

"buuh", as kaela points to the birds.

we went to church street next. a portion of the road was closed for a flea market. there was a man playing acoustic guitar for passers-by and for people generous enough with their time to stop by and have coffee.

we were joined by kitt for lunch at ribs and rumps for ribeye steak and fish and chips.

with fish and chips, eating outside with a kiddo became so much easier

we parted again and left kaela with kitt while i went to my doctor's appointment. thank God, everything was pretty much alright.

kitt prepared our dinner - roasted pork with eggplant sautéd in onions and fish sauce. ahh! this is a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of day. vegetables are still very much part of our weekly menu.

but my cholesterol is now at 5.6!

it was valentine's day, the next day. as usual, no one's greeting "happy valentine's". it's not a big cause for celebration in our household. but before mid-day i was teasingly annoying kitt that it's valentine's and he should greet me (di nakatiis!).

we all took a nap after lunch and i quickly sneaked out of bed to read some magazines i borrowed from the library. kitt was also up and asked for the web designer mags i brought for him. itching to go out, i took all my reading materials and went to a coffee shop. 

i remembered that kitt's leather belt got spoilt in a rush while in the philippines. it was nice to buy him a new one (did i mention that we don't celebrate v-day?). i also stopped at reject shop to buy a storage bin for kaela's toys.

i came home feeling refreshed and fully-charged after my moment in the mall. kaela was up when i arrived. i was in the mood to do arts and crafts with her despite telling myself that it's weekend and i should not attempt an hour to homeschool. buuuutttt it's valentine's! i brought out all the art materials i bought kaela in january. i could see she was very attentive on what we would do next. she followed all my instructions. we smattered colours here and there. we did hand painting. it must be her highlight of the day.

seems like i bought the time to silence her!

 

 and yes! we made tatay a painting for valentines.

proud of her art works!

we finished the day with a trip to the church. i thank God that today i heard at least half of the homily (well, at times... most of the time rather, we had to go out of the church as kaela couldn't be still in the pram). 

where did my weekend go? haha! to my family, of course!

nanay's little drama episode

i thought i got rid of it already.

i received a disappointing news this morning. i was frustrated.
kaela was not in her best behaviour. i snapped.

for months, i thought i already rose above my old self. well, it turned out that the recent episode reminds me how human i am. how vulnerable to stimuli that trigger me to choose to be unkind and impatient based on the negative emotion i'm nurturing.

i forgot that i always have a choice. it's a God-given grace.

for the nth time, i asked for forgiveness to Him and to francis.

tomorrow's another day. i'll start over again.

(i hope this is just brought about by quitting coffee cold turkey)

to five years and beyond

we celebrated our fifth year in melbourne, the foodie capital of australia, in the company of our dear friends.

it was consistently sunny during our short vacation, a sweet surprise given the irreverent weather in melbourne.

we had a few places in mind where to go to. amongst on our list were rod laver arena, federation square, royal botanic garden, national gallery of australia, shrine of remembrance, sea life, brighton beach and werribee mansion. we were lucky to go to most of them and so much more.

located at one of the strategic locations in the melbourne cbd,  the shrine of remembrance stands tall and proud. 

at flinders station

national gallery of victoria.

next to claude monet's piece (right) 

at federation square,  enjoying the breeze on a sunny day. 

degraves street. i wish i could have as much coffee as there is.

the royal botanic garden offered us the shade and chill we just needed on a hectic pasyal day. (do you notice how kaela adores her tatay?) 

kaela had her share of the moment at sea life

we were welcomed by ampel and harold for lunch in bear brass at southgate.

thereafter, we had a simple anniversary dinner celebration with our friends, the barcenas and the islas, along with tita yolly, at tgi friday's. we headed to lindt cafe after to have our daily dose of caffeine.

on our last day, our friends (still the same crowd) treated us to a hole-in-a-wall filipino restaurant at melbourne central.

i was in heaven to find the truffle oil in QVM. i can't get enough of this place.

anniversaries may be deemed as a celebration between husband and wife. this exclusivity won't work with us, though. as we celebrate the highs and lows in our relationship, we can't discount the fact that we wouldn't be where we are if not for the help and support we got from people who made sure we would have a smoother sail in our journey. no, we wouldn't have it another way.

happy anniversary to us. and cheers to all the love and friendship we have!

best christmas ever

we had high hopes of having time for ourselves when we were planning our christmas vacation in the philippines. afterall, it's nine long years of not coming home for christmas! so we decided to stay for three days in cebu and to spend at least an overnight at sofitel in manila. we just needed this little piece of relaxation to reward ourselves after months of working abroad and raising kaela all by ourselves. come on, we deserved more than a pat on the back.

neither of the plans happened.

we reached manila at the height of the storm. it took us almost three hours on the road from naia 3 to vito cruz. we had to pass up staying at our condo in makati (we have yet stayed there since we bought it in 2012 and it must have been nice to spend even a night after three years) and went straight to my in-laws' place.

two days after we arrived, we attended my brother's wedding in bulacan. the next day, kaela was down with fever and coughing badly. two more days after, i got the same virus. to make it worse, mama was also not in her pink of health as there was some accident during one of her dialyses. not a pleasant way to start our most awaited vacation, eh? you thought so!

fast-forward two weeks....

• i had bonding time with mommy and kimm.
• papa spoke a few words to me. it was pure bliss!

• mama spent time with me and kaela in a mall nearby and we had chats in some mornings and evenings despite the sparse times she felt restless.

• we went to bataan and nueva ecija to visit francis' relatives. it's good to see nanay (francis' grandma) who, to my surprise, can still read tagalog novels without specs!

• most of my relatives on papa's side visited us on the 26th dec.

• we met up with our godparents (in marriage) - ninang chit, ninong frank, ninang lina, ninong cocoy, ninang lita and ninang marietta whom most of them we've never seen since we got married. we also had gone to ninang lulu and ninang olang's house. they were very short visits and yet, ours is the honor of spending these precious times with them.

• we met with kaela's godparents - our dear friends yel, pat, christine,  johnny,  boc and michelle. it's always nice to catch up with these amazing people. i wished we had more hours to kill.

• i had spent time with my highschool friend,  dada.  she also just embarked into a lifetime career of "motherhood"  and it's good that after all these years we still find a common ground.

• flor and hiram were generous enough to reserve their precious time, coming from paranaque and cavite, just to have time to talk and bond.

• most of the dlsu-itc friends turned up at Mama Cata's place. it's so nice to see and be friends with them through these years despite the rare chance that we gather almost everyone together in the same roof.

• our cousins,  together with kitt and i, went to a coffee shop to bond. we ended the night being quizzed by a six year old,  only to realize that intelligence doesn't always go with age.  (main highlight -  ano ang tagalog ng pond? everybody fell silent!) 

• francis got a taste of mama's traditional 'paagaw' on new year's eve. 

• we managed to spend time (mamasko,  in our common term during christmas) with our grand parents -  lolo enteng,  lolo pete and lola beth. we also went to inang chayong,  our aunt,  and never hesitated to bug her during her bedtime.  it's definitely worth being with the old-and-wise in the family. 

• it was nice to have a chat with ate cora. it's been years since we had one. 

• whenever we went to manila,  kaela bonded with her cousins. 

• i had little time talking about serious business with my brothers but they spared some time on our last day discussing our plans for 2016. (what a shame that mike wasn't even in this pic) 

we may never had time for ourselves but nothing was lost. everything seemed to have fallen into its perfect place. we enjoyed our vacation,  surrounded by people whom we love. it's more than what we asked for.

we will come back again for christmas.

by the time we flew back to sydney,  to come home to an empty house,  our hearts were torn again.  but that's for another blog.