OCTOBER IS ATTACHMENT PARENTING MONTH

October is Attachment Parenting Month.

For many of us in this part of the world, Attachment Parenting isn't really a new concept. How we care for our children, like breastfeeding, swaddling, co-sleeping and maintaining close contact are part and parcel of our heritage. It is deeply ingrained in our society that still sustains extended family ties and caring for our elders in their twilight years.

It's a little jarring then, and very humbling to learn that other countries don't do it like we do and take this kind of upbringing far less for granted. Since it's almost second nature for us, we tend to overlook just how valuable our customs in raising our children are.

In other countries, especially the US, there is a resurgence of this kind of parenting, which they call Attachment Parenting, a term coined by Dr. William Sears (yes, THAT Dr. Sears!).

According to Dr. Sears' theory, groups like the Attachment Parenting International (API) promote the development of a secure bond with children through eight principles or goals for parents.

These are:

1. Preparation for Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting
2. Feed with Love and Respect
3. Respond with Sensitivity
4. Use Nurturing Touch
5. Engage in Nighttime Parenting
6. Provide Consistent Loving Care
7. Practice Positive Discipline
8. Strive for Balance in Personal and Family Life

These are naturally subject to personal interpretation. Attachment parents can also choose to have a natural family living (NFL) lifestyle.

According to Wikipedia, the NFL lifestyle ascribes to practices "such as natural childbirth, home birth, stay-at-home parenting, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, babywearing, homeschooling, unschooling, the anti-circumcision movement, the anti-vaccination movement, natural health, cooperative movements, and support of organic food."

The good thing about Dr. Sears is that he doesn't require any strict set of rules, instead he 's encouraging parents to creatively respond to a child's needs. Attachment parenting, in a nutshell, really focuses on the responses that help develop secure attachments.

I really think it's just getting back to our roots. That primeval bond between parent and young that gets lost in the modern day grind of work, career, material comfort and their accompanying results. Childhood is today's greatest casualty.

From the API website:

About AP Month

What: Attachment Parenting International (API), along with the Sears family and other prominent AP supporters, have declared October to be Attachment Parenting (AP) Month.

The AP Month vision is to create one strong voice for AP through activities, events and information and to celebrate what we believe in — the value of “Giving Our Children Presence” for our families and for our communities.

Who: All parents, AP partners and like minds around the world are invited and encouraged to join with us in “Giving Our Children Presence” during the first annual Attachment Parenting Month.

Why: “Giving Our Children Presence” is the theme for AP Month 2008 and an antidote to the upcoming holidays so often filled with the giving of material presents. During AP Month, parents are challenged to incorporate more family time into each day and AP Month partners will offer resources to support and sustain these efforts all year round.

Key AP Month Goals include unifying the AP voice to:

1. Offer parents and adults support and confidence in “Giving Our Children Presence” to last a lifetime
2. Promote awareness of AP
3. Educate about API, other AP Month sponsors and their services
4. Provide a source of funds to support the API mission

Resources: The AP Month Central website is the gateway to information about AP Month. It includes a calendar of activities in which to participate and the AP Month Toolkit as resource for you to use to plan and promoting your own events and activities for October.

Our love, our presence, our time and attention are the most important things we can give our kids.

I'm glad the other half of today's culture (the "westernly" half) is becoming more involved with this kind of parenting. I'm also hoping it's not just a fad or a novelty for them, as with most movements that start out with good intentions. And for us who already use this kind of parenting style, may we learn to appreciate our parenting heritage more, value it and affirm its benefits through our own kids.

BIZZY BIZZY, IN A DIZZY!

So Blogger still hasn't restored my "store blog". Sooo . . . I made a new one.

I am a closet shopaholic. When I was nesting, RF was fighting off panic that I would buy half the department store's baby section merchandise every time we passed by while malling. As it is, we've some stuff that we had to give away or box up because Oona ended up not using them at all.

Of course, what they are escapes my memory as I've developed a convenient partial amnesia due to the trauma of putting away such cute, but barely used stuff. I am therefore determined, for the rest of Oona's stuff, to get as much mileage as possible. I don't care if she's not going to a party, but by golly! She's going to be wearing those dresses for a walk in the park! Or the lobby for all I care! They're too cute not to be worn and she's going to look cute every day!

Anyhoo . . . my other blog.

Surfing, blog-hopping and subscribing to all those newsletters ran me across so many drool-worthy stuff. I know I can't buy them all, but if I can't, someone else might! And oh the virtual enjoyment of it! I shall *lurve* it vicariously! So I'm posting them all there.

Online window shopping is also a great way to satisfy my love of seeing new things without the threat of bankruptcy. After all, my problem isn't I have to have it! . . . It's more of a girl geekazoid's awe of Ooh! Look! . . . something like that. I also have the habit of buying for people (Oh, my sister would like that!), stocking them as gifts and never mind if their birthday's still in January and it's the middle of May.

I'll have product features, reviews, shops I've gone to with my preggo needs and the results of my world wide web window shopping sprees.

So, pardon the unfinished look of the new place. I'm still painting a few corners and putting up some more shelves, but you're all welcome to drop by and poke around at Luscious Picks!

CALL OUTS FOR BLOG ACTION DAY!

October 15 is the BIG DAY for bloggers, podcasters and videocasters all over the world wide web! It's when all of us talk, post and blog about one topic, create enough noise to be heard about it and hopefully effect a change that would go beyond our computer monitors. This year, the topic is about Poverty. We see enough of it everyday, but what do we do about it?

Ripples, people! Ripples! The power of the written word, bloggers! Pen, mightier than the sword! The spoken word puts ideas into other people's heads! Let's use what we have to bring this issue out and make it possible for our thoughts, ideas and feelings to walk out into the world and into concrete action.

Just one day. Imagine what could happen if we all talked about it, all at the same time! How far would our ripples go? Let's see it touch the lives of people all over the world!

Join us! Click that graphic up there and contribute a little of your time to make that ripple grow!

THE FIRST NINE MONTHS

I was largely uncomfortable when I was pregnant.

AND uncomfortably large. I ballooned to 200 lbs. and the bad part was that I didn't look pregnant. I just looked FAT.

I also felt so over-heated that I needed the air-conditioning on with the electric fan. RF would swear he was in the Arctic Circle, freezing his butt off while I would be complaining that the Gobi Desert was probably cooler than our room at high noon.

I had food cravings, aversions, mood swings and crying bouts. I'd get irritated with RF but didn't want him out of my sight. I cut off my long hair because it was falling off in alarming amounts. Then I regretted it big time. I felt ugly. I waddled. Nothing would fit me.

Hay! That's not even half of it.

Nevertheless, making my pregnancy album took me back to that time and surprisingly made me laugh. Sure there was pain, nausea and Goddess knows what else, but there were pay-offs that continue to this day.

I'll be sharing the album I made as a series with a trimester-ly write up, not only to share what I and RF went through, but also to help others out there who was as clueless as I was.

Spam Blogged Out!

I spent the past week and a half fixing up the blogs and setting up a "store" blog. The shopaholic widgets make my pages take forever to load, so I decided to put them all in one shopping page.

Last night, the hardest part was bending the blogger templates to my will, given that there seems to be a quirk with saving my work and an error would appear. But I was able to re-layout the page to make it look like my other pages with extra panels to accommodate a lot of widgets. I spent hours wrestling with CSS code and the usual html/xml mumbo-jumbo.

I went to sleep with a slight headache and my dreams full of frameset=char/script/noscript>.

Then I wake up to THIS --------------------->

AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaRRRRRRRRgh!

Cue Music: *Psycho Shower Theme*

WTF?!

Apparently the blog I was making made their robots suspicious that a Spam blog was being constructed.

Kasi, I wasn't able to post any articles yet. I was still trying to make sure my Amazon widgets fit and if they looked good on the lay-out. Unfortunately because there were four links to Amazon when I turned in for the night and not much else that personalized the page by way of original content, I got shut down.

So now, I sent an unlock request to Blogger to prove I'm not someone else's robot bent on clogging the search engines and wasting human beings' time. And to further hammer it down to Blogger, I'm blogging about it too while I wait for the requisite 24 hours or so while a human being reviews Luscious Picks!

And if they still shut it down, I'll put up another one! I'll beat their robots' logic yet!

Oona's Growing Up

Oona's becoming more and more pilya.

Oona with an electrical cord (NYAAA!).
Don't worry, that's not the business end of it. She also doesn't put it in her mouth.
Plus she's well supervised. So lay off the lecture, self-righteous people! Get off my blog!

Of course, she's still as lovable as ever, and getting more so everyday. She's also developing a sketchy sense of right versus wrong already, but I'll be darned if she actually knows what right or wrong really means. Sometimes she thinks it's a game, until her plans (like opening the kitchen cabinet doors and going through the bigas) is foiled.

She knows that when Lola or Yaya Rina says "No" or starts shaking their heads, it means that whatever she's doing is, er - unadvisable. She merely takes it as a suggestion though. She somehow knows how to get around them by appealing to their tender-hearted natures with a sad, saaaad face.

She'll also appeal to her doting father with the look. I think all babies have that innate ability to look at you and make your insides melt at will. Ooh, POWER!!!

(<--- That's the "I am not amused" deadpan/blank stare.)

She's also developing a few impish tricks of her own.

An example would be, whenever she wants to go to the space behind the sofas (forbidden because we put the electric fan and the cables there, out of her reach), she'll "accidentally" drop a toy there and point to it. As soon as you move the barricades to pick up the toy, she'll make her move! She'll scoot past you on her little butt like greased lightning, laughing all the way! (She can toddle but she can't crawl on her hands and knees.)

Of course, she'll cry at the tragedy of being picked up and put out of harm's way when she's noticed. She'll sniffle a bit but she'll try the trick again...and again...and again.

I think the only way to counter the look is by developing the voice. It's a mother's most powerful tool, next to mom's the stare. Since the stare only seem to affect older kids than Oona (it varies or so I've heard), the voice seem to be a good alternative to develop.

I'm not so hot on spanking my kid, I mean jeez! She just turned one. I'm not about to yell at her either. But I figure we have to aggressively start her on discipline for her own protection. It's about time for her to learn that not everything is safe for her.

So far, when I use the firm tone in the voice she seems to be responding. She'll shake her head and pull her hand away from whatever dangerous thing she's bent on examining.

Then she looks at me. She grins.

. . . And does it again.

Sigh. I have an adorable imp of a daughter.

***

It brings to mind the blog series I wasn't able to finish. The last entry was about how we were just given the news that Oona, then called the Bean, was not attached to my womb securely. There was a threat that we could lose her.

***

The Clinic Chronicles: Part 6
Keeping The Bean

“It’s going to be okay.” The doctor said as she patted my hand. “Just keep on drinking the medicine and taking it easy, alright?”

I just nodded and thanked her as Mr. F helped me out the door. I wanted to escape so badly but needed to keep as much dignity I could muster.

Can you imagine how it’s like to swing from ecstasy to utter despair in the space of a few minutes? I could be schizoid for all I know, but given the circumstances, I would have a legitimate excuse. I now felt like a baseball bat walloped the back of my head, my throat was too tight, and my heart was too big for my chest.

It amazed me how these doctors could take on that kind of responsibility. They literally have their patients’ lives in their hands. They could make or break a person with a few words.

How do they handle it, facing mortality every day?

I think Mr. F and I just went on home afterwards. It was exhausting: exhilaration and the dregs in one unbeatable combination. We just ate something to dull the headachy feeling and talked.

We knew we wanted to keep the Beanie Baby, as the sprout was now called. I’ve stopped smoking (cold turkey since the day before), stopped drinking (last drop of alcohol was the week before), and we agreed that I’d have to stop the helter-skelter pace of my work life.

Curled up on our comforter, we cover random stuff, basically musing about how we would be parents. I wondered which of us would be the disciplinarian and the devil’s advocate. Of course, Mr. F claims to be the spoiler.

“You would be the Supreme Court. I’ll be the Court of Appeals!”

I scoffed at Mr. F.

Right. Like that’s going to happen.

***

Of course now, she's as rambunctious as they come and RF is the spoiler! Hehe!

Time flies so fast!

Mommyluscious Goes Mobile

I guess this is my equivalent of the little notebook where you scribble stuff for further elaboration, random thoughts and word doodles.

This is also my contribution to my advocacy as a green mom. I'll be using my PC less when I'm writing my blog drafts. I'll shut it down completely and just use my very capable, very versatile Nokia N95 8GB, publish via Opera Mini (through our WiFi) and edit later.

After all, my excellent DSL service is there to be used! Why not further maximize my resources while allowing myself more freedom AWAY from the desk? I made our DSL into a sweet WiFi deal with a simple router to make sure RF gets a connection anywhere in the house (while he's out smoking, in the living room, while in the loo...did i mention that I'm married to a workaholic? He always needs to check work email!)...So why not make it work for me too?

Especially nowadays, Oona's much more mobile and terribly pro-mommy, I can barely go anywhere without her toddling after me. True she's got her yaya but here's me feeling like others get to spend more time with my daughter than me, her own mother! She's growing up so fast that I'm afraid I might miss out on something while I'm cooped up in the room.

Blogging will always be there for me after all. I can put it off for later, when she's tucked in for the night, when she's bonding with her lola or dad, or she's being fussed over by her yaya. It's not like it's going anywhere, unlike Oona's childhood: so fleeting, so precious, so infinitely special.

I'm glad there are resources like these available to me. It makes me feel so spoiled as a new mom. I'm just thankful at how blessed I am to be able to choose to be there for Oona and still be able to do my own thing. Right now, i am writing this while Oona has her afternoon nap. She wouldn't go beddy-bye without me and would wake up should I try to get up. I am watching her gentle breathing and lovely face and can't think of anywhere else to be...or anything else more blog-worthy than her.

Hehe...I know I sound like I'm such a blog-addict! In truth, while I am building my on-line presence, blogging has afforded me a measure of sanity, an avenue for individual expression and a way to make sure my creative muscles don't atrophy. Especially now that I am technically a SAHM (stay at home mom), I need the extra-curricular activity. I used to be a workaholic too, you see. And while being a mom has a more frenetic, action-packed schedule, the periods of down time could drive a former career person nuts.

By this paragraph, Oona's been up for about two hours. I've fed her, bathed her, changed an incredibly smelly poopy diaper and am currently watching her play by herself. In the interim, I get to jot down a few thoughts here.

Not for long though. Oona doesn't let me off the hook that easily. As soon as she notices I'm sneaking in a few lines, she scoots on over and pounces on me!

So before she starts grabbing for my cellphone (bright shiny mom's toy!) or crying (because mom's cellphone is not a toy, Oona and I am not giving this to you!), I'll be signing out now to be my daughter's activity play center. :-) Later I'll be editing for final post, tags and adding pictures.

Sigh. I just love technology.

UP NAMING MAHAAAAL...The Meme

More on a reminiscing note and for UP students to grow misty-eyed over...

1. Student number
95-04292

2. College
College of Mass Communications

3. Course
BA Film and Audio Visual Communication...pamatay isulat sa Form 5. Absolutely kills me writing the whole thing.

4. Nag-shift ka ba o na-kickout?
Overstaying. Kamuntik na ma-MRR (Maximum Residency Rule). Wala na raw nun ngayon?

5. Saan ka kumuha ng UPCAT?
Sa building tabi ng BA. Stat pa siya noon.

6. Favorite GE Subject?
Humanities.

7. Favorite PE?
The pool PE's. I just hated what the pool did to my hair. Or the fact that there would be frogs. Mega ligo ako after.

8. Saan ka nag-aabang ng hot guy sa UP?
SECRET!!!

9. Favorite Prof/s?
My Prof in Anthro, Prof. Armi Vallejos Santiago for Photography/Thesis and Prof. Hammy Sotto.

10. Pinaka-ayaw na GE subject?
Math, SocSci and NatSci.

11. Kumuha ka ba ng Wed or Sat classes?
Yep. College was my time in the sun!

12. Nakapag-field trip ka ba?
Yep...Banahaw, Tagaytay...etc.

13. Naging CS or US ka ba sa UP?
Nope. I studied but I wasn't trying to compete with the other brains.

14. Ano ang Org/Frat/Soro mo?
UP RPT Mutiny Batch '96; Cineaste yata

15. Saan ka tumatambay parati?
1st year: AS, FA, Sunken Garden
2nd year to 4th year: AS, CMC, UPRPT tambayan, Sunken Garden
5th year: Bahay Alumni

16. Dorm, boarding house or bahay?
Bahay.

17. Kung walang UPCAT at malaya kang makakapili ng course, anong pipiliin mo?
Fine Arts

18. Sino ang pinaka-una mong nakilala sa UP?
Basta blockmates ko...sina Hilda, Crissy, Will, Odessa, Armin, Kat, Sharon, etc...

19. First play na napanood mo sa UP?
Dammit forgot na.

20. Name the 5 most conyo orgs in UP.
Frats or soros ata, especially in AS. Meron din from BA. Law and Eng'g.

21. Name 5 of the coolest orgs/frat/soro in UP
FA for meeee.

22. May frat/soro ba na nagrecruit sa iyo?
Hinarang ng Nanay ko e. Tapos recently kong malaman na Frat/Soro people pala parents ko! Kaloka!

23. Saan ka madalas mag-lunch?
Beach house sa likod ng Library, Casaa, Arcade, International Center...RODIC'S!

24. Masaya ba sa UP?
BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE.

25. Nakasama ka na ba sa rally?
YUP

26. Ilang beses ka bumoto sa Student Council?
ONCE is enough

27. Name at least five leftist groups in UP
STAND-UP, Alay Sining, League of Filipino Students, Gabriela, er...

28. Pinangarap mo rin bang mag-laude nung freshman ka?
Sus. I was just to happy to be there. I was determined to have fun.

29. Kanino ka pinaka-patay na patay sa UP?
Sa College of Fine Arts.

30. Kung 'di ka UP, anong school ka?
Honestly I wouldn't have been able to stand being in another school. Maybe if things were different, or di ako napunta ng UP, baka kaya ko pala. I just wanted to be in UP.

***
Photo courtesy of Butch Dalisay...

Die hard na kung die hard. Pero I love college. Most of my adventures happened then. I was also at my coolest...for this former high school wall-flower, college gave me so much freedom. I was free from the vagaries of high school girl cliques! Free to wear my retro clothes! Free to act contrary to norm (which of course made me fit in UP all the better, so ironic)!

Ah...and to have the future at your feet.

I want that for my daughter: the freedom to be who she wants to be without fear of prejudice, censure or scorn.

WITHIN REASON, of course. And provided she keeps me up to date.

This Mom wrote the book on collegiate adventuring (within reason). ---> uuy! disclaimer! kaloka!

My Time Capsule

Tagged by Mec

RULES:

1. Answer the question below:

If you are to leave an important memory, what would that be?

I can't help it! I have to put this and my baby popot, Oona! If only just to prove that miracles do happen and plans, even if they don't go the way you want them to, ultimately has a better way of turning out. Yes! Falling in love and having a family wasn't in my plans. But here I am! Loving every minute of it!
Made this for our 7th Valentine's Day together. "Celebrating Evolution" was how RF described holding hands. "Imagine," he had said casually while walking around during our spare-change dates, "The dinosaurs died and gave way for humans to evolve through the ages, to this point in time, to us. To something so simple (but infinitely meaningful) as holding hands..."

I melted. Here I was, no newbie to the lines guys spout off and I just melted. It was certainly the most original and it struck me two ways at once: straight to my brain and my heart. I think that was the most romantic thing anyone ever said to me. A bit on the brainy-geeky side, but so what? I think it was then that I really knew I was totally into the guy. To this day, I don't know if he knew what an impact that made on me.

And the surprise Christmas child! She's our late Christmas present, supposedly conceived around Christmas time. I found out I was pregnant a few days after New Year. Sometimes I can't believe she's mine! Never, in all my dreams did I even see her coming. Being a wife is an adventure, but being a mother...ibang lebel na ito! It's a whole different dimension altogether.

I know I'm supposed to put just one, but one cannot do without the other for me. My hubby and my baby are the memories I have that are forever intertwined and inseparable. They are as one.

2. Copy the entire list and add your name below the person who tagged you. Then tag at least 5 friends (But you can tag as many as you like) and visit their blog to let them know you tagged them.

Bloggers who shared their important memories 1.)Kaptyurd 2.)and so I am 3.)Princess Vien 4.)Princess Bela 5.)Our Journey to Life 6.)My Planet Purple 7.)Women Xplore 8.)Crazy, Happy ARevalos 9.)MEComposing 10.)Hope This Helps You 11.) Mommyluscious 12.)add your site here

I am tagging Rei, Jonas, Johnny, and Pheng!

tip: to easily get the url, right click on this page, click on VIEW SOURCE... and just ctrl F on the keywords that you'd copy... ahehe

THANKFULLY BLESSED LIST: FRIENDS

4. Friends

New ones and old ones, the ones that remain through it all. Pressure counts for a lot, makes diamonds and breaks coals.

I'm thankful for this time, and all the other chapters in my life when something highly intense happens. I am shown what my friends are made of and who they are. Adversity brings out the worst in people, it's true. But it's when the best in people shine the brightest.

I am thankful, deeply grateful for the blessings that have come my way through these people; who, but for a chance meeting or quirk of circumstance, would have been total strangers, not bound to me by blood or other, more tangible relation.

These people are the ones who restore my faith in the human race; replenishing the hope that maybe the world is not going to end anytime soon, that the spark of human kindness continues to burn in the heart of this cut-throat, modern civilization.

You guys know who you are. And in case I haven't told you enough, THANK YOU.

***

Thus ends my THANKFUL series. Of course there are a lot of other things I'm thankful for. The experiences, for example. I've been taught a lot of things over periods like these. But above all, these are the things I'm truly thankful for.

What are YOU thankful for? Have you conted your blessings lately?

THANKFULLY BLESSED LIST: FAMILY

3. Family

It's a classic scenario. Growing up, we wish we had different parents, different siblings, different upbringing, different households...different anything from what you have at the moment. Ad nauseam.

You swear you'll never do it like your parents did and are horrified by the saying that we all grow up to be our parents. We have sibling rivalries. We ignore some, fight some, rival some. But when you finally grow up, certain things fall into place. You realize that no matter what, someone's got your back.

Of course it's a given that you all love each other (to each his own way of loving, though). Growing up begins to take away the cringe-worthiness of expression little by little. It's easier to reach out, easier to understand. It's easier to recognize the bonds that hold you to the family that bore you.

They say this happens especially when you have a child of your own. I agree. I still draw the line at becoming my parents but for all I know, I just might turn out that way (which one, I wouldn't know). I'll probably have to ask my daughter (and other children, hopefully) when we get to the stage when we're finally not killing each other over curfew.

Ooh! I Got An Award!

Got this award from Mommy Angel Mec! Just when I was feeling down in the dumps, she popped this one on me out of the blue! She's got a second sense about people, this Mom!

Rules of this award are :
1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

I am awarding this to:

Jonas-For a brave, BRAVE man who, I dare say, is an honorary lady in my book. Your integrity in the face of adversity is incredible (although it's more than I can handle to try and keep up with your horse, Mr. White Knight!).
Johnny-For being one of the rare people I know who stand truest to themselves. You have such a beautiful soul and a generous heart!
Rei-There are few words to describe the kind of person who would stand by you through clear, present and mortal danger...in a red bikini and live to tell the tale of your friendship. You are my ageless soul-sister. I will be so put out if we don't meet up in our next lifetime.
Carver-Because I *heart* you! Your work makes me crack up when I need a laugh awful badly. Your talent inspires me no end. Plus, I AM A SHAMELESS FAN GIRL. Is there a fan's club I can join?

There are others who I wan to give this award to but these are the few I have who I know blog on a regular basis. You guys know who you are. I *HEART* you no less!

PARTY PREPS: THE LAST DETAILS

I spent the last few days mucking about in maintenance and other practical life matters, that I realized that I was backed up a few entries. So, to make up, here's the last of the Party Preps!

***

Since we couldn't splurge so much, if at all, I went gaga over Oona's invites.


TADAAAAAH! Likey? We too!

We sent one to the oddparents and re-sent a reminder to everyone a week ago.

We also posted the event on Facebook.

But people who are sometimes tamad as they are to RSVP or even go through email and mark their calendars, still managed to lose the details or forget until they're pestered about it.

Ang ku-cute ng gawa ko tapos 'di man lang binabasa! (But people still came so all's well!)

We still love them though and put it down to the comedy of errors with which most of our family events are usually marked (i.e. our wedding and Oona's birth).

THE OUTFIT

Of course she has an outfit! Quite a few to be exact.

I loved being a little girl with all the girly trappings of ribbons and flounces. I want to make darn sure my little girl has her girlhood. There's going to be time enough for jeans and shirts anyway. And RF, more the fashionista these days than I am definitely agrees.

So, RF and I went on a serious hunt with Oonapotpot in tow, combing the malls in Makati.


Over at Greenbelt there was not much by way of boutiques that would fit our budget. Most are in the upper tier of income-spending. Still, it is always nice to walk through the park even during the rainy season.

At Glorietta, the dresses in the baby shops and children's section were adorable but were way over the budget and too gownish.



It was a pity there were only casual clothes at Gingersnaps. They don't have much by way of party frocks. Frou-frou was the order of day but we wanted Oona to be able to wear the dress for other formal occasions or just when she (rather, we!) feel the need for frills.


We went over to Landmark but the choices were limited to the long baptismal gowns in organza and tulle with matching bonnets Oona would hate. She just hates things on her head. We didn't want her dress to be impractical or itchy either. Girly was good and a bit of formality with personality, but nothing uncomfortable. I'd hate for her to develop a bad rash because of cloth. She would be wearing the dress all day and sweaty babies make for a grand tantrum for babies and everybody else.

Finally at SM Makati, we landed this pretty number! We were looking for Little Bitty but couldn't find it. Nevertheless, this seemed just right.

It's simple, we know, but you should see it on Oona! Shows off her chinita-ness, her skin and doesn't overwhelm anyone from the ultimate focus of attention: Oona.

Oh to have a daughter to dress up!

We had a bit of a problem with the shoes, as this is the best we could find. At least it's off-white too. Besides, nowadays she's in her sandals or barefoot, so buying a pretty pair she would be only be wearing once and would quickly grow out of, wouldn't be practical.

We also managed to snatch a dress that she could wear after for the party at Max's with a pair of tights and her squeaky sandals. It's the exact miniaturized version of Tita Diday's 70's retro mini dress. (We're daring her to wear it for the party. We'll see if she takes us up on that!)


OTHER DETAILS

We're going to buy a few extra candles and maybe, a few more giveaways if we can afford it. Pictures and coverage would probably be done the old-fashioned way. . . whoever has a camera, bring it and click away! As it happened at our wedding.

RF and I are still thinking of what to wear, but at least the more important bits are taken care of. We don't know what's going to happen on Sunday. We're nervous and excited, of course. I'm just hoping Oona enjoys the day as much as a one-year old can!

I'M GETTING "PUBLISHED"!

Well, interviewed actually. Online. But it's basically the same banana.

Hehe. Watch and be mesmerised! Dance, banana, dance!

Anyhoo, back to earth, Kate Hughes of Databazaar came by Scraps Away! and liked what she saw. So much so that she's asked me to participate in their site's blog feature articles called PrinTales.

*smugnessss* Let's take a moment to worship me . . . . . . . . . Alright, moment done.

Basically, Databazaar is a website for and about mostly printers. Desktop printers, large-scale printers, you name it, they know about it. They have information about faxes, paper, ink cartridges and different brands. Their articles in PrinTales are stories of people who do creative stuff with their printers.

And I'm being intervyoooowd! La-la-la-la-laaaa!

Of course, I have to come up with a project "with a special twist" to showcase on their site. The twist is to personalize it somehow for Databazaar and the project is whatever I can think of.

At first I thought it would be easy-peasy. But scrapbooking, per se's been done; cards and giveaways are out; framed stuff, someone's wrote in about that too. I wanted to be spectacular! Well, I could settle for original. Or at least, hasn't been featured yet.

So, my deadline being on September 2 and having no other time to do it, I did it during the weekend. I went back to basics, to way back when I literally threw scraps together and came up with something (Recycling is good!) like gift wrappers, notebook covers, etc. It was easier this time because I can jam things together using digital materials and I don't have to worry about the mess.

After it's approved, I shall post it and sleep! It's simple enough but I hope it shall be liked.

Again, the dancing banana! Yay! Shake it, baby! Shaaaake eet!

THANKFULLY BLESSED LIST: MY HUBBY

2. My husband, my true love.

RF and I never meant to become a couple. It's still a source of wonder, joy and amazement for me that we've lasted this long. I'm not bored nor tired of being with him. If anything, I need and want more of him to myself as a wife, his partner and best friend. I need and want more of him for our family as a Father and haligi ng tahanan as the saying goes, because he's doing it so well. If I am the Mother, the light of the home, he is our foundation, strong, firm, and holding us together, as lovingly as only he can.

We miss that he works nights and for extended shifts. But through it, he does more than enough to make sure that we are a family. It's a side of him that began to emerge from our early days as a newly-wedded couple; emerged in full at Oona's birth and continues to amaze me as we continue growing through experiences and situations as a family.

Sometimes, I wonder, in a fit of nostalgic disbelief, how and why I find myself married, with a child and all but domesticated. I had no plans for this, nor did I dream of it.

Then, when I look at the two of my most beloved sleeping amidst a sea of toys, baby bottles and blankets in a glorious mess, I am thankful and relieved for this undreamed of present-future.

WELCOME TO MY BRAND NEW LAYOUT!

So will someone pop the cork from a good bottle of wine?

Hooray! Hooray!

I am SO proud! This entire blog layout was the fruit of my labors. I managed to wade through indecipherable xml and long-forgotten html for the sake of tweaking the basic Stretch Minima Template to this little baby!

I am SO good. *smugness*

Fine, for all you geeks out there, this may be nothing. But demmit, I DID IT! I shake my fist at the coding gods! I had help, of course, but in defiance of dem coding gods, I tweaked and tweaked!

WHOOOOP-DEE-DOOOOO!!!

Of course, I still have to fix the header image, but that can wait 'til I get to the other things I put off for today to finish this coding.

I am SO gooooood! Anybody want me to do their blogs now? Heehee.

BLOG MAINTENANCE GOING ON!

Sorry for the inconvenience! I'm currently wrestling with html and xml code as of the moment.

I should be done in a few hours...as soon as I finish HTML for Dummies.

Bleh.

THANKFULLY BLESSED LIST: OONA

As promised.

There, but for the grace of God, go I; as the adage goes.

I was feeling terribly down yesterday and because I refuse to totally succumb to a black mood, it got me to counting my blessings. I'll be posting this as a series as it's too long to post in one go!

1. My child.

Oona was an unexpected Christmas present.

Every time I see her antics and her four-toothed smile, I can't help but feel wonderfully, totally blessed. While maybe it's true that a child at her age can't help but love the people she's with (if they are capable of categorizing things like this at this age), babies and children in general, seem to have that infinite capacity to love.

They're so intense.

A smile, brilliant as the sun, as good as yells, I LOVE YOU! All caps, bold and underlined. With little flashing lights and a big red arrow. It's as intense when they cry, of course. But it's amazing how, when you're the focus of that smile, your whole world stops, flowers bloom and sappy as it's getting, but you can swear that angels laugh along with her.

ON A DOWN-SWING

It's been three months since I quit work. And while I refuse to give satisfaction to people who would love for me to make a mess they would glory in, I am just plain exhausted.

Exhausted, that most of the hard work we put into ventures and people gave us poor returns and betrayals. Exhausted, that there doesn't seem to be a pay-off in sight. Exhausted, that our budget needs augmenting but there's nothing from my end coming in yet and the bills folder on my desk is beginning to burn. Exhausted, that there's nothing I can do about it for the most part.

I know. This too shall pass.

I'm trying my darnest best to stay positive and keep the faith. But sometimes, I am so near to losing it. People aren't always as nice and generous of heart as we'd love to think. This is not an ideal world where neighbors greet each other by name because they really like each other. Kids can't play on the streets without fear of getting run over or swiped to white slavery by strangers for whom the death penalty is too kind for what they do. And money doesn't rain from the sky or grow from trees.

Such a morbid train of thought I have today. It's all I can do not to just bury my head in the sand, waiting for the world to show me a brighter day.

If only wishes could come true at a time like this. I suppose though, there would be a price to pay for it, just so the universe would be in balance.

Hay, susme. Why do we always wax philosophical when we're in the pits?

Anyhoo, there are a lot of things I truly am grateful and thankful for. Indeedy. But today, I'll indulge my melancholy for a bit.

Tomorrow is soon enough to list all the nice things I'm blessed with.

Tomorrow.

PARTY PREPS: THE CHURCH THING

Picking out the church was easy.

St. John Bosco Parish was a stone's throw away from our house. We liked its simple, peaceful ambiance. There was none of the garish, overwhelming religiosity we aren't too fond of.

On the practical side, there was a parking lot near the entrance and no steep stairs. The church wasn't so big either so it wasn't going to be a long walk to the front pews or anywhere we needed to be. It was perfect for our older, arthritic relatives who we knew would want to be there when Oona was baptized at the church font. After all, they've been waiting for this for a long time now. Tradition, tradition.

Waking up early for us non-morning people wouldn't be a problem either as it took all of ten minutes to walk from the house to the church. Squeezing in an extra few minutes of precious sleep on a weekend would be great! It reminded me of childhood grousing when Sunday church was mandatory. Hehe. Tradition, tradition!

Officially on paper, we were only able to have two principal sponsors, one living just around the corner and another who could arrive early for the required seminar on Sunday before the mass. We weren't sure if proxies are allowed.

As per requirements, we had to book two weeks before the Sunday date we wanted (the only day baptisms are done). As luck would have it, the schedule fell on a long weekend (when everyone's supposed to be out of town) so we weren't even sure if all the godparents could come.

I was too chicken to ask if we could add more names to the church list of godparents later on. I'm sorry to say that the lady in the church office was so forbidding and dismissive that I just wanted to pay the fees and get out as fast as I could.

At home, que horror! I found that Church Lady botched the schedule on the receipt by TWO DAYS. I was afraid we'd get kicked out of the church if we showed up and we weren't on the registry. We had to go back to have it fixed, and I had RF talk to her instead. Her kung-fu was no match for my Mr. F!

We didn't add more names to the church list anymore. We agreed that paper is just paper anyway and the more important stuff regarding Oona's platoon of fairy oddparents were already taken care of. They all know what it's about and that was that.

Yes, we'd rather Oona grow up to think and decide for herself what spiritual path she is called to follow.

For now, however, living in a predominantly Catholic society has its downside. Without the required certificates from the required ceremonies to give you an identity, you're prone to run into a lot of legal hassles. Rather than let Oona experience that, RF and I go through the SOP's.

Make no mistake however, our spirituality is just fine.

We believe that all blessings essentially come from a good place. The ceremony in church is given its meaning and its power from the people surrounding us, regardless of creed, predilection or physical proximity, to mark our child with blessings from their hearts.

And thus, may I not be struck by lightning with this posting.

Party Preps: THE GODPARENTS . . . er, ODD-PARENTS

Most of our friends are oddballs.

Nevertheless, we love the few that have lasted this long with us and whose level of intimacy with our lives are on the blackmail-able level. Hence, the term.

Zoning out on cartoons every so often didn't hurt either.

As inspired by Nicktoons, "The Fairly Oddparents". I think Ninang Rei would be the one with pink hair, being the pink-haired lez type. Heh!

We take the duties and responsibilities of being second parents quite seriously. For us, it means that if the entire genetic family was wiped out, leaving the kid as the only survivor, we'd be comfortable in the afterlife knowing people who are virtually family will be raising her. Pretty heavy, huh? We believe in the traditional Filipino values that dictate the role of the godparent: ensuring that the child grows up into the best person he/she can be, in mind, body and spirit.

Anyhoo, we sent the godparents' invite months ago. Of course, everyone said yes. We know not everyone was going to make it to the day itself, schedule and geographical impossibilities being the reason, but knowing Oona will be occupying a special place in their hearts and minds was enough.

Party Preps: Have Event...Will Party!

A SIMPLE CELEBRATION

RF and I wanted a simple celebration for Oona. Yes, we would've wanted games, coverage, an AVP presentation, a performer, a tarpaulin banner, fireworks...heck, the whole deal! But apart from not being in a financial standing to splurge, we know the celebrant would not even be able to remember the fun that's supposedly to be in her honor. That party would have to be when she's old enough...say, three years old.

It would also give us enough time to save up for the arm and a leg it's going to cost. Hehehe!

Call it envy of my other mommy friends. Going all out would be great but again, reality demands practicality.

So, we agreed that we'll just hold lunch for everybody at a restaurant with good food. Everyone we know enjoys satisfying meals over bongga-ciousness anyway. The bottom-line: GOOD FOOD, GOOD COMPANY, GOOD TIMES.

Then the hunt began.

We tried a couple of restaurants, thinking of a buffet lunch our guest list would enjoy. At first,
there was Jaymie's Grill along Arnaiz Rd. (which would have been convenient because it was near Don Bosco Church and our house. But the time slot we needed was unavailable.

Then we considered the Triple V Buffet Triumvirate of Kamayan, Dad's and Saisaki. No go as the nearest branch was too small to house our projected guest list (100pax). They have very good packages though. My nephew celebrated his first birthday there and the food was to die for. However, you just can't go wandering over to the other buffets that aren't included in your package. You're going to have to pay extra for hapless guests.


TGIF and Hard Rock Cafe? A real rock n' roll shebang would be SO cool! Rockin' at One Year Old! The stuff of legend...but really too steep. Ambisyosang Nanay!

It really is sad that Jo-ni's is gone. It would have been perfect to hold Oona's first party with a family tradition like Joni's. At their main branch in Makati, I remember they had a big reception area on the second floor. I wax nostalgic everytime I pass by the place. Their food was filling and delicious and their cake remains the indulgence of my childhood. To date, the building houses Citibank, an Art Gallery, a dental office, Philosophy Salon and Spa and The Cafe.

Eventually, we wound up with the tried and tested food at Max's Restaurant. Years Of Sarap To The Bones. TheTradition. Sixty House That Fried Chicken Built.

I love their house chicken and the crispy bites satisfy RF's cravings for cholesterol.

We reserved the Baptismal Party Package for lunch over the Kiddie Birthday Package.

We liked the simple elegance over the more garish theme that passes for what kids are supposedly interested in these days.

(Not to make okray but no mascots and too-bright colors for this family if I can help it.)

With a menu that would satisfy picky eaters (Soup, Kare-kare, Veggie bites, Crispy Pata, Chicken, Pancit, Rice and Leche Flan served with Softdrinks and Ice Tea), it fit our budget for a projected 100 guests with a cake, give-aways and balloons.

We knew we wouldn't be having a program as we only had three hours for the venue (they threw in an extra two hours free anyway) and everyone would be more interested in eating and catching up on each other.

So with the venue and menu picked out a few months in advance, I was sure we wouldn't be too stressed about the event itself.

Boy, was I ever so wrong.