Hook

Photo from IMDB

Hook (Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman) is playing on TV tonight. I love this movie. It's one of my all-time favorite movies that I can watch over and over again and I always get teary-eyed at the end. Funny thing, this is my first time watching it as a mom, and I find myself sniffling at different parts now.

It's interesting how one's perspective changes as we get older.

A heart so full

This is a mundane little story but this is a typical evening in our home. These are the ones that are nearest and dearest to me and I can't help but feel so blessed to have them in my life. 

Pablo has been fiddling all evening in the den with his toys and he built a little city. Eric and I were having dinner downstairs and he yelled called for us to come up to see his creation.

Pablo City!

He's very proud of it. It's right by the doorway and we've been very careful to step over it because if we knock something over he'll "cry and become bad." (Pablo's words, not mine.)

As is my habit, after dinner I retire to the bedroom while the boys hang out in the den. Duchie usually walks back and forth between the two rooms trying to figure out what to do with herself. I'm reading blogs on my computer when Pablo pops in to show me a Mickey Mouse watch that his grandmother gave him some years back. While we're talking, Eric sends Duchie out of the bedroom because she's been chewing the Duplo again.

So I say to Pablo, "Oh no. Maybe you need to check out the Pablo city. Duchie might have messed it up." (By this time, Duchie is now in the bedroom and is looking out into the hallway.)

Pablo - "Okay."

Off he runs down the corridor.

Pablo - "Oh no!"

Eric - "What's wrong?"

Pablo - "My Pablo [city]!"

Eric - "I'm sorry Pablo. Duchie..." I didn't quite hear the rest of what he said because Duchie was looking back and forth between the den and me. When she heard her name she perked up, then looked really sheepish. I think she knew Eric was explaining to Pablo that she was responsible for messing stuff up.

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Sometimes love is in the ordinary and unexciting. It's warm and snuggly, like a well-loved blanket. Just listening to them and looking at Duchie filled me with so much love.

It's been a hectic holiday season. School ended a little later than usual, then down to Manila for an unscheduled trip to attend a reunion. Back up to Subic to host the Tolentinos for lunch here in Subic. Back down to Manila for Poste dinner. Return to Subic to host my dad, et al for New Year's eve. Our home has never had so many guests. It's been wonderfully crazy. Eric and I enjoy having people over and Pablo loved it too.

Today was a return to normal. I've been cleaning non-stop for several days to try to keep the chaos at bay. Yaya is back and she got the house back into its proper order. Bubba had a nice long nap beside his dad which gave me a chance to snuggle with Duchie on the sofa. Life is good.

Happy 2013 everyone.

An afternoon of silliness

Photo direction by Pablo. Most photos were shot by Pablo (July 2012).

Please pardon the fuzziness, he hasn't quite learned how to steady himself. 

He asked for a photo with the box on his head.

"You too mom!"

"I want a picture with Mom."

Break from the silliness

Daddy & Duchie getting in on the action.

Self-portrait of the silly boy

"Mom & Dad, put your tongue out!"

The joys of living outside the city

Last night I was tidying up the rooms upstairs while Pablo and Eric were playing downstairs. Fifteen minutes into whatever he was doing, Pablo starts shouting "Mommy come! I have something to show you!"

So I rush downstairs to my excited little boy.

"Come! Come! I have something to show you!" he says as he leads the way outside. In my head I'm thinking, he probably wants to show me some weird insect or maybe Duchess doing her business. Once outside he gestures up into the sky and proudly proclaims "Tada! Look Mom, moon and stars!"

My heart just melts. Gosh, the sense of wonder of this boy. These are the moments when being an indulgent parent pays off.

And he didn't stop there. We marched back into the house to get Eric with cries of "C'mon Dad! I have something to show you!" Once Eric was outside, Pablo went back into the house to get three chairs (I do the actual grunt work while he oversees which chairs are to be brought outside). Duchess running back and forth with us, not quite sure what the hubbub was all about.

We sat outside our house for maybe 20 minutes enjoying the cool air under the moon and stars. Duchie sniffing around and occasionally barking at a passerby. Pablo and his daddy played "what's-that-sound" while I was just happy to share this magical moment with my family.

Summer Break 2012

In the Philippines, the summer months are April-May. But because we teach in an international school, our "summer" break is June-July which are some of the wettest months of the year.

It's the first time in awhile that Eric and I both decided not to teach summer school and was probably one of the best decisions I've/we've made in a long time. We spent most of the break in Subic with a few visits to Manila. It was great to have the time together and we got to do things that we normally wouldn't have the time for.

In no particular order, this is what I/we did:


1. Read, read and read some more.

Eric has the complete series of Game of Thrones and week into the break I settled down with the first book. And kept going and going until I finished it all. It was glorious! It got to the point wherein I would put off reading texts/emails (uh....obsessed much?) and sometimes ignore my demanding toddler (What's that son? You need food? Go ask Daddy.)

While I was off in my own world (Eric once left me in a restaurant with whatever book I was reading and bottomless sago/gulaman while he went around the mall...I was a happy camper) Eric picked up the last book in the Christopher Paolini Eragon-Inheritance series.


2. Brought Pablo to the zoo.

We are not the most get-up-and-go kind of people. Ouch. That was painful to say. I've always thought that we're extremely flexible and ready to dash out at a moment's notice. When I moved to Subic I had visions of hiking in the nearby trails, running around the village or biking up and down the hills. We even got a dog who I thought would accompany me/us in all our outdoor adventures.

Five years later, I've only gone out once my bike. Never gone hiking. Walking has been reduced to a two block radius around our house. Hubby won't get up in the morning and neither will our old dog (she used to come out with me at 5am). And with a toddler that freaks out when he wakes up and I'm not around, I am reduced to puttering around the house to calm my need to move.

I think things would be easier once Pablo is older and he learns to stay strapped into his car seat. But for now all excursions have to be planned events because I need hubby to drive so I can keep Pablo safe in the car. So I was over the moon happy to be able to bring him to Ark Avilon last month.

The size of the animal enclosures freaked me out a little (too small!) but it was cool to see the animals up-close. I didn't know hyenas were so big and I could've spent more time looking at the big cats too. There was a funny orangutan but Pablo was having none of it. He was more interested in the feeding area upstairs.

Here's how to feed the goats. 

Pablo's turn

Need more food! 

Here you go!

I got a carrot!

Such a crazy boy.

Big Boy and Baby Boy (and a whole lotta Rhinos!)

3. Got a printer.

This is a big deal in our house. A number of printers have come and gone but for the last couple of years or so we've been printerless. We gave away our monochrome laser printer and never got around to replacing it. For some strange reason I got it into my head that I did not want to go another 3 months without a printer. After much hemming and hawing, we got ourselves a snazzy little printer. It's not a high-end photo printer (which Eric really wanted but would cost an arm and a leg) but a cut above your basic one. It spits out good quality photo prints (with the right photo paper) and has a handy dandy document feeder to scan page after page of documents.

Photo from the Canon Philippines website. Ordering was a breeze with free delivery to Subic!

4. Printed and framed photos.

What does one do with a printer? Print photos!
My shutterbug of a husband spent many a sleepless night studying and calibrating our printer. He bought different types of photo paper (in different sizes) and busied himself with printing, testing and tweaking until everything was just the way he wanted it. There were mornings when I'd wake up and find him haggard but happy; he'd show me his latest version then collapse on the bed and sleep til noon.

We finally have framed pictures around our home and in our parents' houses. I also have a nice one sitting on my desk at work.


5. Become best friends with my oven toaster.

I loved baked goods. Unfortunately, the stuff offered here in Subic isn't quite up to the effort required to get to the store. Some of our friends will bake from time to time and we've been happy recipients of homemade cookies the occasional cinnamon roll.

I, on the other hand, have a weird relationship with our oven. I like to bake, but the thought of pre-heating our oven doesn't sit well with me. It also takes a whole lot of time and effort to get it up to and maintain it at the required temperature. I even bought a digital thermometer to reduce the guesswork involved but it just wasn't working out for me.

Then one day I was hit by an obsession for homemade chocolate chip cookies. And no friends to make them because they were all out on summer break (not that I would ask but I'd probably drop a few hints). So I whipped up some batter and readied myself for the superhuman task of firing up the oven (I really do not enjoy that oven especially with a toddler loose in the house).

Then I noticed our quiet little oven toaster. Hmmmm....

And 15 minutes later.....

Yummy!

Weren't there 4 cookies?

There it is! Mmmmm....

 So far it's seen us through cookies (my favorite recipe is from here) and a really yummy chocolate sheet cake. I've always thought that I had a really sweet sweet tooth but I find myself reducing the amount of sugar or changing white to the less sweet brown sugar because most recipes are just too sweet. Is it just me or is the sugar here sweeter than the sugar in the States?

One of the things that I enjoy about using the oven toaster is that it allows me to prepare small batches. This method works best for our little family (keeps us from over-eating). Another plus is that there's no pre-heating involved. You also don't feel a whoosh of hot air whenever you open the door and it doesn't heat-up the kitchen.

You do have to keep an eye on things because the heat is quite intense and the heating element is so close to the food. There's a bit of jumping around with which heating elements to use (both on/down only/up only) and I have to rotate the pan every so often. But it's all fairly manageable and I've never had to bake for more than 15 minutes which is a far cry from the 30 - 45 minutes that I used to need to do on my big oven.

Not your usual Filipino Family

Labor costs are not prohibitive in the Philippines and the average Filipino household has at least one resident housekeeper, more if the mother works outside the home. Growing up, our family of six always had 2 to 3 helpers. We moved to a smaller home just before I started college. Mom passed away a few years earlier so I was the designated home manager. I had to deal with cooking, cleaning, marketing, grocery shopping and training the househelp. Not fun considering I had 3 brothers and a father who never had to think of any of these things. (And they had the misfortune of having to deal with a fiery, strong-willed sister/daughter who was not about to take their shenanigans sitting down.) After 10+ years of running my dad's household I realized that I did not want to be dependent on helpers. No. No. No.

Which brings us to my little family: Dada, Mama, Little Monster and Dog. Someone once commented that post-partum depression rates in the Philippines was fairly low because there is a more readily available support system here and that I should take advantage of it. After I gave birth, we had our twice-a-week housekeeper come in everyday so I could focus on taking care of the baby and not need to worry about preparing food for myself. Ate Jane was wonderful and we would have gotten her as a nanny but we wanted a second person just so there'd be an extra set of hands in case of emergencies. Two and a half months later Ate Tess later joined us and she's been Pablo's nanny ever since. She comes in at 7am and leaves when I get home at 5pm. Ate Jane left some months after I went back to work and was replaced by another housekeeper who used to report on a daily basis but now comes in every two weeks (more if the mess at home becomes too much for me).

At the end of a workday I'm exhausted but I make it a point to keep a bit of energy on reserve because our little dynamo is still on the go. He's older now and needs time outdoors so we'll romp around outside, visit the nearby playground or take a swim. It would be infinitely easier (and cheaper!) to have a stay-in yaya. I would have a cleaner home, less expenses and more time for my own needs.

But I love our privacy and do not want to give it up. I actually like putting our house in order and having things exactly where I want them to be. When I'm too tired to cook (which has been happening more often recently) there's always the option of having food delivered. We can't leave toys lying around because Duchess will chew them up so there are big plastic bins in all the rooms for packing away. When household clutter gets out of hand I just dump everything into a bin and deal with it when I'm in a better mood. Pablo loves to do laundry and I enjoy including him in my chores (even if it takes twice the time to complete).

Our expat friends don't see our situation as anything out of the ordinary but we've had to explain things to our Filipino friends. My dad was not a fan of our decision in the beginning but he gets it now. It drives me a little batty that we could have a stay-in helper for less than half of what we're currently paying our nanny but such is life. I can't do any work at home and have to get up in the wee hours of the night to fulfill professional responsibilities. It's not an unconventional set-up and some of our friends are in the same boat. We also know people that have both maids and yayas (and sometimes one yaya for every child). It's all good. At the end of the day, you do what works for your own family.

Belated Happy Birthday Bubba!

Pablo turned three years old last month and I'm embarrassed to admit that we haven't thrown him a "proper party." We celebrated his 1st birthday with family at a restaurant and although it was a biggish bash, it wasn't quite the party that I thought we would have for our little boy. Part of it was because we wanted a low-key celebration and the other part was because I just did not think it through. Oh well, there's always next year I told myself.

The following year, I was out on a school trip. February is a crazy time at school so again, no celebration. Pfft. Mommy fail. We got him a nice gift though, his beloved Y-bike that arrived a few weeks before is birthday.

When 2012 came in, a friend mentioned that she needed to cut down on big birthday bashes because with 3 sons, it was just too stressful. Whoops. I only have one little guy and I haven't done anything. Hookey, gotta step things up. But February being the way it is, I was totally stressed in the days leading up to the annual school camp and could not focus on his birthday. Happily, I was back the day before his birthday. Yay! But we didn't do anything. Pfft. Another mommy fail. And I sort of cheated on his birthday gift. I got him a Christmas present but was a little overcome at the gifts he received during the holidays so I kept it and gave it to him 2 months later.

Anyhoo, hubby said we should celebrate Pablo's birthday with his classmates in school. That decision was made in early February but it wasn't until the end of the month that I actually thought it through and planned it out. Thank goodness for the internet. A whole lot of research, a little bit of reality check, numerous emails and text messages, some DIY work, a sprinkling of fairy dust and we're ready with...

Thank you tags

Loot bags

two freezers full of drinks for kiddies

and yayas

Mini-cupcakes are arriving tomorrow morning and we'll drop by a nearby fastfood for spaghetti (not exactly ideal but we have an awkward schedule and suppliers are sparse in the boondocks of SBMA). Inside the loot bags we have: a sticker/coloring book, a small box of crayons, a memo pad with a pen and a cardboard puzzle. All packed in a brown paper bag (I'm feeling Earth-friendly), sealed with a sticker thank-you-tag with a blue satin ribbon for a handle. (There was a surprise toy but when we opened the sealed pillow pack, we didn't like what we saw and so I pulled it out of all the loot bags.)

Phew. Not difficult, but not easy either. It's all in good fun and I'm totally psyched for tomorrow's celebration.