The Love of My Life

Nicole and Mommy Togather

A close up of my beautiful Princess

A Close Up of my fat face =)

Nike and Pigge

This is my first ever attempt at drawing an art from SCRATCH using only my computer, no hand sketch.

The Subject is my daughter and her currently favorite character a piggie.

If you guys like it, I will continue trying to make more arts of Nike and Pigge.

Please tell me what you think?

My Little Princess' dream

A Princess Tutu and a Princess Crown

Crown Close Up

Nike-Kay

You know you’re child is kikay when you take her to a store full of toys and what nots and all she ever wants to buy are these two things.

Today I brought my daughter to SM Department Store showed her toys and things and when she saw this ensemble, she would not let it go. She even insisted that she will be the one to pay for it on the cashier (using my money ofcourse). She wouldn’t let me hold it while we were inside the department store, maybe she was scared that I’d put it back. LOL.

Captures of a lovely day

This blog will be lacking in words, but will not be lacking in Emotions.

Here are the pictures I took of my daughter and our Dog today, when we were bonding in the Afternoon.

I personally edited the pictures to exemplify their meaning and drama to me.

Hope you like it.


She just gives light to my life, makes the sky clearer and light brighter.


How could I not adore the expressive face of this beautiful child. She has so many more expressions to share, but these are my favorite. (Top to Bottom: Angry, Happy, Indifferent, Shocked)


And Like I said She brings light in my life and she colors my world, how beautiful is my little girl.


She’s Enjoying the company of our precious little dog-Butchi :)


They both are just looking far away.


And this is Butchi :) another little fella that makes nike and me happy :)


These to me is a very rarely captured moment between a 3 year old girl and a 3 year old dog, they are both usually very rowdy and it is very hard to take pictures of them together. But this is such a lovely shot.


This picture is so lovely to me because I caught a moment when my daughter was imitating the dog when butchi was shaking her head. :)

And Last but not the least…

The unconditional love of two beings :)

I hope you enjoyed my first ever Photo Article. At least I know I did, because of the experience I had with every picture.

Conversations

Just a few minutes ago I was talking to my daughter because she was constantly screaming at her yaya for no apparent reason. If this happened months ago, I would already be berserk with anger and would be screaming at Nike too, but something in me changed over the last month that made me realize I have been slipping into becoming a bad mother, so I changed my ways.

So today when Nike was being mean to her yaya, I went to her asked her to go inside our room, she was already expecting the worse and started crying, I closed the door sat down on the bed and asked her to sit down beside me. She bawled like there was no tomorrow, I wiped her tears and said calmly to her, Why are shouting at ate Nalen? Do you want Ate Nalen to leave? To this she replied, No, then why are you shouting at Ate Nalen, she tried explaining it to me by saying, “because butchi is going out the gate” (ofcourse her answer wasn’t in pure english - she’s only 3 and is raised in a bi-lingual environment) So I asked her, so if butchi was going out the gate why did you shout at ate Nalen? Do you want mommy to let her go home, do you want ate Nalen to leave us? Maybe Mommy should just let ate Nalen leave? then she cried again, she said No, I don’t want ate Nalen to leave. Then I explained to her, If you don’t want ate Nalen to leave then you should be good to ate Nalen, because if you don’t then she will leave us. Our conversation went longer because being a 3 year old kid, Nike had the tendency to repeat her questions over and over, so I answered her questions patiently and explained the situation to her over and over.

After our conversation, I left the room to grab a glass of water and I heard Nike leave the room and knock on her yaya’s door and she said “Ate Nalen, Sorry, Huwag ka aalis ha?” (translation: Ate Nalen, Sorry, don’t leave me ok?). I am so proud of my daughter for realizing the mistakes she made and so touched that she took the initiative to say sorry without me asking her to do so.

I also learned that by being calm, my daughter understands more of the consequences of her actions and tends to follow the emotions that I have as well. I guess Nike only learned to shout because I used to shout, and now that I have changed, I guess Nike will also change for the better.

Momentary Relapse

I have promised myself that I will become a better mother. And I have been doing a great job at it the past 2 weeks. I felt so proud of myself. But tonight I had a momentary relapse. I got so mad at my daughter tonight when she started crying while sleeping for no reason, at first I kept asking and asking her why, but she wouldn’t say a word, she didn’t ask for milk nor did she say she wanted to pee, she just cried and cried and I snapped, I got so mad I screamed at her, then I felt she wanted to pee and brought her to the restroom, when I was pulling her pyjamas down she peed on herself and I got more upset and screamed at her again. I feel so ashamed of myself because the last two weeks I was able to hold it together. There were no anger and more understanding, but tonight I just had to ruin it. I feel so bad but I know there will be moments that I wouldn’t be able to control myself, I am not perfect, but when I looked at her again after she fell asleep I felt so bad. I took her in my arms cradled her like a little baby and told her I am sorry, in my surprise she said “its ok mommy” then I told her I loved her and she said “I love you.” A tear fell from my eyes realizing how forgiving and loving my daughter is, I knew she didn’t deserve the outburst that I had, and I will make up for it. I just need to make sure things like that doesn’t happen again. I love my daughter and I know I mean the world to her, and I will not disappoint her. I have been making progress and I will not stop, I will not let this slip up stop me from pursuing my goal of becoming a better mom. Tomorrow is a new day to make it up to my daughter.

Image from: Behindmyblueeyes

A New Adventure

Yesterday My Sister (Tiggy), her son (Kian), My Daughter (Nike) and I went to Eastwood to celebrate the weekend. This is something both my sister and I thought would be something necessary to do for our children, so that they have something to look forward to every week. Last weekend we all went to Robinsons Galleria to Celebrate Kians 3rd Birthday. We ate at Burgoo and enjoyed a whole afternoon in Tom’s World where the children had so much fun riding the Ferris Wheel and Nike had a go at the crazy bus. It was all new for all of us, we usually just go to fun ranch - active fun and let the kids play with slides and balls. But we decided we wanted something different to try every week. And we did.

Yesterday all 4 of us went to Eastwood to celebrate yet another weekend. My sister and I decided we will enroll them to Gymboree Play and Music. We both had 5 free 1 hour play stubs along with our enrollment and yesterday my sister and I used 1 each to let our children enjoy the play gym. It was a smaller place compared to Active fun, smaller slides and no pool balls, I thought Nike might get bored with the place, but lo and behold she loved it even more than she loved active fun, which is saying a lot, because she loved active fun to bits!

They had mattresses everywhere where babies from as young as 6 months can play, though they have an age limit, only children aged 5 years and below can play. I like the set-up this way no bigger kids who plays more rowdily and dangerously can harm the babies who are just learning to walk and the little kids who can barely stand up straight.

They had balls that children can play with, and these soft contraptions where I can play hide and seek with my daughter. There are a few small slides that little children will not get scared of riding, they also have 1 rocking horse, a wooden monkey bar and a wooden 2 way swing that up to 4 children can ride. They have inflatable Donut shaped things that children can hide in, or parents and guardians can lie on.

The ambiance is really great, its colorful and well lighted, well ventilated, and its light to the eyes. It really was a very charming place, and my daughter and my nephew loved it there. I even had a short conversation with my daughter on the ride home from Eastwood:

Me: Nike did you have fun?

Nike: Yes!

Me: Did you love Gymboree?

Nike: Yes!

Me: What do you love more, Gymboree or FunRanch? (I purposely ended the question with Fun Ranch because I did not want Nike’s answer to be influenced by what I said last - kids tend to just repeat the last thing they hear.)

Nike: ummm… GYMBOREE!!!!

And from that short conversation, I realized that I did make the right decision of having her enrolled in Gymboree for a month long class in July. So we will see more of Eastwoods - Gymboree really really soon.

The Best Date with my Daughter

Today was a great day! It was spent with my daughter. And it was the greatest day we have ever spent together since daddy left for Singapore. After lunch I had a scheduled pick up of the Gift Certificate that I won from Belle De Jour’s Contest - it was a 2500 Gift Certificate from Browhaus, which I plan to claim some time next week. Nike and I got ready to leave the house at around 1:30 PM - I prepared my map because I had no idea where I was going, and since Noel wasn’t around I won’t have my usual suspect who will help me go around the city with a map. The pick up point is at the Viviamo office in A. Mabini St. Addition Hills San Juan, I had my landmarks printed on my mind and was ready for the battle of searching for a place unknown. I arrived Mabini Street with no problems, but the difficulty arose when I realized the Buildings had no names and some of them doesn’t have numbers. As I looked at the right side of the street there is a newly constructed building that made me feel like that was it, but drove past it. The next thing I knew I was looking at a house numbered 186, when I was supposed to be looking for A building numbered 166. Yup! I passed it! and the problem was, Mabini street is a one way street. So I turned right on a street named recto and just followed my guts on where to turn right next, before I knew it I was back in Mabini street and was in front of the same building that I felt was where I was supposed to be, and I was right! I claimed the Gift Certificate and went on our way to eastwood, or atleast I thought we were. Since I only looked for directions on how to get to the Viviamo office, I didn’t realize I can’t back track the road. So I went with the flow of traffic - and no longer than 10 minutes later, we were lost inside addition hills LOL the funniest experience ever. Although I knew I was already lost, I just kept driving, and kept my cool, I stayed level-headed and just thought that if I keep on driving, I’m bound to see a road that I am familiar with and viola 30 minutes later we were still lost, I just kept choosing a car to follow and after 15 more minutes I found my way back to shaw boulevard and was on our way to Eastwood.

We arrived Eastwood around 4:00 PM bought our tickets to watch Toy Story 3 in 3D and had 50 minutes to kill before we can enter the theater, so we just went to fully booked and read a few children’s story books. Around 4:30 we went to the concession stand and got our free popcorn and drinks and went inside the theater.

This is the most memorable movie for me in so many ways. First because it was the first 3D movie that I have ever seen, Second it was the first movie that my daughter and I watched alone together and Third this is the only time I allowed my daughter to Pee on my hands. Yup you read right! haha, what happened was when there were only around 5 minutes left in the movie Nike suddenly said that she had to really really pee, I asked her to hold her bladder for a short while but she seemed like she really needed to pee, so I decided I didn’t want to miss any movie scenes so I pulled down her skirt and undies, placed my hand just the right place and angle so her pee would drip on my hand and drip on the cup I was holding to catch her pee. It may seem a bit yucky but luckily I had alcohol and baby wipes ready so I was able to clean my hands after.

All in all it was a fun, interesting and memorable day spent with the love of my life. :)

Loving Singapore

When I went to Singapore last March I was able to go on some of the child friendly tourist spots in Singapore. But before I enumerate all of them I want to emphasize how beautiful the country is and how organized everything is in Singapore and any place that you go to or visit is like a tourist spot in itself.

Some of the amazing places I visited with my husband and daughter is Jurong Bird Park, which holds the biggest man made waterfall in the world. They have bird feeding times where you will be able to feed the birds with live worms and see gorgeous birds and even the weirdest birds that you have ever seen up close, they even have the birds and friends show where people get to participate and interact with the animals, it is really amazing.We were also able to experience the Singapore Zoo where they have feeding times for a white rhino and a giraffe.  

The zoo also offers a lot of shows and entertainment and bathing suits and change of clothes is a must if you will visit the water slides within the zoo. 

The Night Safari is also a great experience for us, seeing nocturnal animals up close. Although the walk around the park is a bit intimidating as it is really dark, and sounds of the night gives me chills, but all in all a great experience. Underwater World is also a good place to spend the day in. They have a small indoor tank where you can feed the sting rays, fresh water fish and salt water fishes. You will be able to see enormous fish that even taller than Yao Ming. 

The end destination of the underwater world tour will bring you to a large outdoor pool that holds 5 or more dolphins that shows off a bit when they see their trainers holding buckets of fish.

More unexplored tourist spots for me is the newly established Universal Studios Singapore in Sentosa. They have great new rides that the whole family can enjoy. Street shows and delicious food also awaits their guests. And currently being constructed is this kind of wild safari for water animals that will be finished in 2012, so thats also something to look forward to. They also have Jurong Reptile Park, this is somewhat similar to Jurong Bird Park only the reptile park will have, well, reptiles instead of birds. The Singapore Flyer in Marina Bay, G-Max Reverse Bungy in Clarke Quay, Songs of the Sea in Sentosa, Chinese and Japanese Gardens, are must sees too, and I am sure there are lots of not very common but very interesting places in Singapore to visit too.
But the best place I loved in Singapore is theirCommunity Playgrounds and community pools that is just extremely beautiful and great for my daughter and my family to bond. You would not have to spend a penny to take your child to a beautiful clean park, because it is there free for everyone to use. And the public pools are unbelievably clean, fun and is like a water park that should cost more than it actually does.

I am just loving Singapore, every bits and pieces of it is amazing, truly amazing.

Nike and Kian Team Brasil

Today Nike, Kian, my sister and I went to a soccer themed first birthday party. The host was Shannon King (an old officemate from IG) for his 1 year old son Ethan. The Activity host was Gymboree and Nike had so much fun playing and learning with Gymboree which is a good thing because Noel and I had planned to send Nike to Gymboree Play and Learn within the next months for a once a week class for 1 whole month. I saw Nike sparkled and glowed when she was following the teachers instructions along with other kids and she could follow instructions really well. :) I am so happy we were part of this birthday party.

A Daughters Pain

In my situation right now, being away from my husband, I did not know there will be something more painful than having him away from us, until tonight.

I was busily looking for ways to get our family together in Singapore in the earliest possible time. Researching about Nike’s Student Visa and how it works and if it works for Pre-School children, according to my research it is possible, so I started researching for Pre-Schools where I can inquire to enroll Nike next year (2011).

Then Nike spoke to me as if feeling that I am thinking about Singapore, she said

“Mommy, yesterday Nike rode the big airplane… and then Nike cried in the big airplane, yes?” — for her yesterday means any moment in the past.

I said “yes baby”. Then went on doing more research.

After a couple of minutes she stood in front of me, looking troubled, then she approached me silently and carefully as if looking for comfort, so I put my arms around her and hugged her tight. When she pulled away she said with pain in her eyes and tears rolling down her cheeks — she said only one word which said it all: “Daddy”.

So I carried her and put my arms around her and asked, “You miss daddy?” and between silent sobs she said “yes.”

I never knew that with Noel being away, there would not be anything more painful than me enduring the distance, but now I realize, my little girl, a 3 year old heart is full of pain and longing for her daddy, she is in a situation that she can not comprehend and all the hurt must be confusing for her. It breaks my heart hearing the pain in her voice and seeing the hurt in her eyes.

This just makes me more eager to make it possible for our family to be together again, because I know, right now, nothing will make my daughter happier than seeing her family together.