my little man's first halloween

My Little son-shine had his first halloween, too bad we never went out for trick or treating as he has still runny nose from colds, well, he wont enjoy it yet anyways, he is just 8 months and almost 2 weeks old...if we did, just mommy and daddy will enjoy the treat for sure :)...

At the same day, Douglas starts crawling in is knees and after a day he tried walking a few steps while holding onto the furniture. We are just so amazed how fast he is. Now, he is more curious, more into exploring objects, when he see some of his toys like the rattles, he will really look into it, tried to shake several times, maybe he's wondering when he shake the rattle, it makes a sound. Now he is fascinated and enjoyed playing his toys, especially the ones that has a sound. Gosh! babies grows so fast, just few months away my baby will be a toddler. Now i have to enjoy every moment with him and try to catch every developmental milestone he developed every month.

Douglas

My name is Douglas, and i am 7 1/2 months old

Thats my daddy, and I love him so much!

He makes me laugh all the time, he is my clown..hehe...

reading a story book for my baby

I started reading a story book for my precious son since he was 3 months old, he enjoyed and loves it very much, i know at that age, babies doesn't understand it yet but the sound of your soft voice is soothing to them, its an important stimulation too, when you read a book, they will see the illustrations, they will be familiar with the shapes, numbers, colors and letters. He will learn to listen, memorize, and helping his vocabulary too, i know he's too young to learn how to talk yet but early as possible is the better, reading aloud will stimulate their hearing. According to the author of kidshealth.org site that i stumbled upon, it says there that hearing words helps to build a rich network of words in a baby's brain. When you start early, babies will talk early too and loves book and will carry it until they grow old.

But i stopped reading him a book when he was 5 months old, well, my fault, i was so busy trying to lose weight and i took the time in exercising. Now, i realized, i shouldn't do that. I tried to rread him again started last week, i admit, it was frustrating, it seems he is not interested anymore, i regret what i did, well, its not too late, he's still a baby and lots of room for learning, well, i'm trying even though, now when i tried to read him a book, he will turn his head away, but i know, for him its new again, pretty soon, just few days more, he will love books again for sure.. :)

home away from home....

Some of my friends and relatives asked me how my life away from my native home land, they usually assume that i'm living a wealthy life...

It's sad to say, the way of thinking of most filipinos when somebody married to a foreigner or working abroad especially in well developed countries like canada or the US, thinks that you are living and sleeping in the bed of roses.... i admit, when i was young i thought that too...but then i always wonder, most filipinos worked in these countries, they usually said "life is a lot better abroad" but then 90% of them always comes home and retire in the philippines. Is it just, the saying goes "there's no place like home"?

For 2 years living here, based on my personal experiences, i agree, life is alot different from the philippines. Honestly, you can have everything you wish here, like nice unpolluted environment, cars, nice house, gadgets, i mean all things that make your life more easier specially in doing household chores. What can you ask for more? Everything is here....BUT of course you will have to work hard to have all these....here, it is a need to own a car because the public transportation such as a bus are just in limited area due to the vastness of the land area, but in the philippines, there's always tricycle or a motorcycle that you can hire wherever you wanna go, well, it is a small country, so, having a car there is a luxury. Here, it is a need to make your house weather proof and have a good heating system or else you will die by hypothermia, hmmmm in my own opinion, i guess, that's why most people have a mortgage, because, weather you like or not, it is a must to have a good house to live. But in pinas, it is a tropical country where its always hot and humid whole year round, some people just live in a nipa hut and they are contented with it, the important is the family are together. I didnt say that filipinos has no mortgage too, but i'm talking to a common filipino, poor and the middle calss family, they have loans too but only a small amount of money. Here, it seems you have a lot of bills to pay monthly, aside from the basic needs such as, electric, natural gas for heater, telephone line, property tax and household insurance, and there's internet provider too where i find it a must here, plus some extra bills from cellphone provider, satellite tv, and garbage fee, and not to mention auto insurance too, usually in 1 household owns 2 to 3 cars here, so its really expensive. But what shock me most is the tax that you have to pay here, there's 3 kinds of tax actually that are added in every goods that you purchased and bills you pay.....one thing i find here too, it seems most people owns a credit card, well, online shopping is popular and the easiest way to pay is through credit card, and of course it's an easy way to loan money too. But in the philippines, the common filipino, the only basic needs are having a good roof that is not leaking no matter if the house is done or not, or if its just a nipa hut, people are contented when they are eating 3 times a day, as long as the family are in good health. Bills that need to pay monthly are just electric and water. Just few people owns a computer, so you can see a lot of internet cafe' in the city where they can have an internet access. We pay our yearly tax too, but thats just it. I had a credit card before when i was there but i rarely use it. Telephone line is not really a must, but you can see that most filipinos owns a prepaid cellphone. Oh, one thing too, labor is really expensive here, you can not hire a nanny or hire somebody to clean your house because you have to pay them hourly and its really expensive, that is why most houses here owns a machines to help you doing household chores. Unlike there, the labor is really cheap that even the middle class family can hire a nanny and a maid so easily, and plus filipinos are very close family, in one household, usually has an extended family, where relatives and parents live in one house, so its a realtive's responsibility too in helping you doing some household chores and specially in taking care of your baby.

In my own opinion, why filipinos still going back to the philippines in spite of tthe good life they have here, well, first, since filipinos are very close family ties, they want their family to enjoy what they have too, its not perfect when your family is far. Second, though you have everything here, nobody will help you, still its hard when no one helps you here and third, it seems you will work until you die, as you need to pay a lot of bills, but when you work hard and earned enough money, its the best way to invest and spend your dollar in the philippines since the value of a dollar in exchange to philippine peso is really high, so when you live there, you live like a king, and whats more inportant, is you will be with your family too....No matter what the status of your life as long the family are together, happy and in good health.....life is a lot better......This is just all my opinion, based on what i saw and experienced too.

Douglas at 6 and a half months

my little one just had his first solid food, the first food he tasted was a steamed broccoli, and slowly i gave him 3 other kinds of vegetbles using the baby safe feeder mesh bag just to have a taste of the food for a week. And then after, i slowly introduced him to 2 kinds of fruits using the mesh bag too. The reason why i waited for a week before i gave him fruits is because i want Douglas to like veggies first, if i given it the same time, he will love the fruits more because it is sweet and tastier than the veggies, and the tendency is he will lose his appetite in veggies then. Some parents start to feed thier babies around 4 months, but our doctor told us to do it around 6 months so the baby wont develop allergies in some foods.

After 2 weeks. i fed him twice a day with pureed veggies and fruits. I tried to cook 2 kinds of veggies with alittle meat on it, this week i made a semi afritada for him, with potato, carrots, celery and a little prok meat and tomatoes, and then i pureed and devided it in a small container and freeze it. I do fed him infant cereal too but i made sure that its an iron fortified one, babies needs more iron at this time, though full term babies got enough iron from the mothers until 6 months, so at this time, the iron begin to decrease and we know that iron is an essential meniral needed for the growth and development of the body. There are some infant cereal that are not really the best, my husband and i always read the labels when we bought one for Douglas, some are really high in sodium and some are high in sugar which are bad for the babies. The best one we found is from Hienz an organic one, well, we know if we talk about organic, we expect to pay double, but if it's best for babies, price wont matter at all....well, as long as we can still afford it hehhe....if its the case, then its better to make your own baby food then, rest assured that its low in sodium, low in sugar and definitely low in msg and chemicals......

reminising the past...

was super tired today, i cleaned the entire house and did extra things too...if mama and papa knows about it, i'm pretty sure they will be proud of me. Gosh just super super tiring! at times like these, i always remember my life back in the philippines, i grow up in a family were my parents worked in the government and earning fairly decent salaries, over the years, maid come and goes, though we had somebody to take care of the house, us (kids) are well trained to do things around the house mostly every weekends, i remember, when we were in elementary and high school, we had to pull weeds or scrub the floor in exchange for something like if we want a new clothes or accessories, but most especially if we wanted to watch a movie. One thing, my parents made sure that my twin sister and i knows how to cook, infact eventhough we had somebody to cook, we still the one in-charge in the kitchen, it's our responsiblity....excluding washing the dishes though...hmmmm, i guess thats it! the reason why i hate doing the dishes until now is because i'm not used to, just once in a while when maid is on day off, when i was a kid......now, i appreciate more what my parents did to us, we know how to value money, if we want something, we have to earned it first, and now that i'm married, away from my family and relatives, i do everything around the house, no maid or relative to lend a hand, including washing the dishes, shockssss!!! the first time it was hard, it was a shock, i dont deny, i cried, but it was just a short time, with the way my parents trained me, it never really a hard time for me....but i still admit, for almost 2 years now, i still hate washing dishes hehehe.....

i want my son to value money, he has to do errands to earn it.... be responsible, respectful and knows God and be the center of his life....i will do my very best to instill to my son what i have learned from my parents.....

To mama and papa, i love you so much, thank you for the wisdom you've shared, for everything you've done to us, you made us a better person.....I love you!

Passion Profiles

I really miss my family back in the philippines, i've been away for almost 2 years now...i miss the bonding of the family at dinner time everyday. My twin sister and i usally take turns in cooking especially for supper, we just love to cook. Every occasion at home like birthdays and holidays or simply just for fun, i am usually the one incharge in the kitchen, but when my twin sis took the cuisine lesson, i was just simply her side kick then, but it was fun, she taught me everyting she knows, lucky for me as its free of charge hehe....i remember, if ever we are out and tasted yummy food, we tried to copy and try to cook it at home, sometimes invent new recipe for the family too...believe it or not, i still have my recipe i've learned in my high school cooking lesson....me and my twin sister always had fun in the kitchen, we're perfect partners in the kitchen as we shared same passion.....But now that i'm away, i still have the passion in cooking, i love watching food network as one of my past time and trying some of the recipe i've watched.
Lucky for me as my husband loves to cook too and bought a lot of recipe books, i kid you not, we got 2 bookshelves of cook books alone, but still not contented i've copied a lot of recipes from the internet too. Now that its summer, barbeque is always in the menu...i love to share one of my recipe: dina-style barbeque kebab recipe (filipino style bbq), you can check the recipe soon as i am trying to post some of my favorite recipes at i love foods category by visiting my blog. Right now i'm still updating it.

It reminds me that one of my favorite host from The heat aired in food network will be on PASSION PROFILES this coming August 25, 2010. Passion Profiles is a very inspiring online series talk show sponsored by Haagen-Dazs where it showcasing some of canada's finest chef, musicians and designers, sharing their life stories, thougths and inspirations. Hosted by ET Canada star and host, Cheryl Hickey. This is not just for entertainment where you can watch your favorite personalities but you can acquire ideas and inspires you pursuing your passion and be successful. Dont forget to watch this inspiring talk show that truly entertains and inspires the viewers.