Summer Activities

With Mack being here and all, I planned some activities for Gabbie to prevent her from getting bored. Aside from the McDonald Kiddie Crew, we enrolled her in Modern Dance And Drawing Lessons in Teatro Marikenyo, on top of their usual morning and afternoon biking around the village and playing Filipino street games with the neighborhood kids.

McDonalds Kiddie Crew

Gabbie and cousing Ate Bengbeng as McDonalds Kiddie crews this summer

Hashtag 100 Happy Days

There's an ongoing trend in FB and Instagram where people post pictures that make them happy everyday for 100 days. A hashtag #100happydays must be included in the post, though, and the posts should be made publich so that the pictures can be easily tracked by whoever started it all (or created it) because at the end of 100 days, they are supposed to send us a photobook or a compilation of all the photos that we have uploaded and hashtagged.

Here are some photos I have shared so far. I don't know and I'm not sure of the authenticity of the makers of this program but for me, sharing these photos (as what we usually do in FB and IG on a daily basis with or without the hashtag) means sharing my happiness, too.

Im already on my 50-ish days and I'd say this is something I look forward to doing everyday, because each photo that I share has its own story to tell.

His first days

Our baby boy is here!

April 1, 2014 at around 8:16 in the morning, we said "hello" to our baby boy we named Aivan Mikael D. Marasigan, whom Ate Gabbie nicknamed Mack the moment we knew the baby inside mommy's tummy was a boy.

Mack weighed 7 pounds and 7 ounces, and measured 49 centimeters. He was delivered via CS at 37weeks, due to premature rupture of my water bag.

We welcomed Mack home three days after he was born. We had a small welcome feast for him and we thanked God for my safe delivery and of course, for giving us a healthy baby boy :)

More Than Love At First Sight

It's amazing how a 2-yr old can already love someone she hasn't met yet. Rafa is like that with her little brother Mack whom we still yet to meet a few weeks from now. She talks about him as if he's already here, as if she can already see and touch him. Isn't that so sweet?

Just the other day, daddy and Rafa and me and Gabbie went on our separate ways in SM to save time and to get things done fast (me and Gabbie looking for her graduation dress and daddy and Rafa went to buy some stuff from Ace Hardware). When they were done, daddy told Rafa "Let's go now to Mommy and Ate." Rafa then asked, "And baby Mack?"

And then one evening, while relaxing, Rafa got a piece of paper and a pencil and asked me to write the names of each of us. And so I wrote "Daddy, Mommy, Ate Gabbie and Rafa" and without battling an eyelash, she immediately followed with "and Mack!"

Then she asked me to draw something. I drew her and Ate Gabbie and wrote something like "Abby and Rafa ganda" but when she looked at it, she said, "how about Baby Mack?" And when we're dividing or distributing food among ourselves, she'd be quick to say "for Baby Mack also" and then when we pray at night, she never forgets to mention "Mack".

Well if this isn't love, then I dont know what to call it.

Lovenote Blooper

Today (like some days that I get the chance), I wrote a note on Gabbie's school baon. It was a few pieces of cookies in a plastic container where I taped a small note on the cover. My note went "Abby, you're no.1 in my heart. --mommy".

Then she went to her class and I with my usual morning routine.

Come lunch time, in the middle of finishing her food, she said, "Mommy, you wrote something in my cookies. You said 'Abby, you're no one in my heart'. Why did you say that?" 

Realizing what I have done, I told her that it meant "number one" and then it occured to me that what I wrote was "No.1" which is short for "Number 1". So I had to explain it to her.

Then she continued, telling me that when she showed the note to her classmate Bianca, Bianca said, "ibig sabihin wala ka sa puso ng mommy mo". 

Ouch.

"Oh, sorry, I didnt mean to say that", was all I could say to let her know it was unintentional. But inside I was laughing at myself and I wanted to pull my hair and pinch my ears. 

But knowing my daughter as easily forgiving (though she doesn't easily forget), she just said, "Next time, Mommy ha, just write the the complete word 'number' in correct spelling ha."

Hehe. *kamot ulo moment*

Practice Cutting Day

Yesterday was a special holiday for most schools, to commemorate Edsa Revolution Day. Since it was only a Tuesday, even if there's no school and no homeworks, the kids were not allowed to watch a movie (their current favorite is Frozen). 

And so we thought of making it as our practice cutting day, since I noticed that Gabbie is not comfortable yet in holding and using scissors. I bought them one that has spring that is really for kids' use.

I gave them clay sticks to practice on at first, then later, cardboard, plastic and paper.

Here, Rafa said,"Mommy, look, I cut this airplane!"

When Ate Gabbie finished with her cutting exercises, she played with the clay. She said she wanted to build a tower but she couldn't figure out how to make shapes with the clay.

So I showed her.

But when we were busy moulding clays for her tower, Rafa suddenly grabbed Gabbie's ponytail and cut a portion of her Ate's hair. I should have been quick to stop her but she was quicker.

So needless to say, Ate Gabbie lost this much hair. But thank God it was a little in the outer part so her hair looks like a little layered now.

Rafa's reaction? "It's OK, Mommy, it's OK!"

Good thing Ate is very forgiving, she just shrugged it off and asked "Will it grow again and how fast?"

Lesson learned... Be quick and always on the lookout :)

Staycation in Tagaytay

Our original plan was to have an overnight stay in a hotel in Tagaytay for Ninang Joy and Tito martin's wedding last February 1. But a friend of mine, Mariz, offered their vacation house in Tagaytay Country Homes that was named Zimar in the Garden. It was located in a far end of the subdivision so the place looked really province-like, with a huge well maintained garden, grand staircase leading down to the house that was decorated and designed in such a way that it looked like an ancestral house with old fashioned decors, 4-poster beds, curtains, chairs, tables- name it, they have it. 

We stayed there for two nights and the kids, although they felt a little different on the first night, enjoyed the blooming flowers, the unusual things that they can not find in the city living (old rotary telephone, charcoal heated iron, grandfather's clock, etc.

On our first morning, despite the chilly weather, we walked around the village and saw really nice houses.

Finally, a baby boy!

We've done the ultrasound for gender determination and it's a BOY! Finally :)

Now we're thinking about a name that will complete the archangels that we now have- Gabrielle and Rafaelle. Most probably it will be a variation of daddy's name Michael. We're thinking of Mikael with a first name that also starts with A, which we cannot decide on yet. But Ate Gabbie has given a nickname for our baby boy already, and it's Mack. "With CK, not C, not K, but CK" in her own words.

She has actually started writing notes for her baby brother. One morning, after school, she went to me and handed me a piece of paper. Written there is her first ever message for her baby brother.

In a few days, we will be having a big sister shower for Rafa this time although we think that it's really too early for her to understand anything about being a big sister. But she knows that there's a baby inside mommy's tummy and she calls him "Macky".

Baby Mack is expected to say hello to the world in the first half of April. I have already started shopping for baby clothes, and I realized it brings a different exciting feeling that I am now looking at blue shirts, blue socks, blue mittens and blankets, etc. I want to say I can't wait to see you soon Mack but I know that you have to take your sweet time inside mommy's tummy and I pray for your health and wellness and complete and normal development and of course, uneventful delivery. We love you Macky :)