Busy, Busy Saturday!!!

Last Saturday was a very busy day for us. I attended the WAHMderful Life Workshop by Martine de Luna of Daintymom.com which tackled life as work-at-home moms. It was very informational and I had fun meeting other moms and learning new things. It was such a wonderful experience being surrounded by fellow moms who are able to juggle their home-based jobs while taking care of their kids. I am wondering if I could do that too. Like what I wrote in my past post, it's not easy to be a full-time mom. What more if you are a work-at-home mom??? I admire these successful WAHMs because even as I write this, I am still not convinced that I can be one. Anyway, at least I got a glimpse of their lives.

While in the workshop, I couldn't help but wonder how Yanna and hubby are doing at the Rockwell Tent for Yanna's 1st Trick or Treat gig. It's her first time and I was not there so I asked hubby to take lots of photos. I was kinda worried of the photos because I know hubby will have a hard time since he will be carrying Yanna around while yaya takes blurry photos! To my surprise, they came up with the cutest photos of Yanna! Here are some photos of our Glam Rock Girl :)

Hubby said Yanna had so much fun! And that made me so happy too! She's becoming more sociable nowadays.

After their Rockwell gig, they fetched me from the workshop and we went to Fairview for another Trick or Treat event at a cousin's house. Nothing beats time spent with relatives. We had fun going around scary houses and getting loots. This time Yanna was a Fairy Princess and she was very cooperative with her costume. Another hurray for mommy! Here's a photo of Yanna with her cousins and new friends :)

After all the Trick or Treat events, our problem now is how to eat all the candies we got!!!

So that was our very busy Saturday. I'm sure everyone had a blast with their kids' Trick or Treat. How about you? How was your Saturday? :)

Mommy May

MYTH: Being A Full-Time Mom is Easy

I know most people think that being a full-time mom is a no-brainer. That all she does is play with her kids, cook meals, and keep the house tidy. As if those tasks are easy! Some even say "Nasa bahay ka lang naman" or "Wala ka namang ginagawa". What? Excuse me!

I've been a working girl for 12 years and when I became a full-time mom, I discovered that same as working, it entails a lot of thinking, time management and continuous improvement. The hardest part of it all --- a full-time mom gets no pay for it (except for those luckier and wealthier moms) and being a mom does not end after 8 hours.

If you're one of the big percentage of women wishing to just stay home, thinking that it's just all about playing with your kids, shopping, having your nails done while kids are at school, I'm sorry to break your bubble. It's far from that. How I wish that's possible but in my case, I hardly even have time to get my nails done or brush my hair!

My typical day involves breastfeeding, thinking of what nutritious food to serve the little one, bathing her, changing diapers and clothes, looking for ways to entertain her, singing and dancing with her (this becomes tiring after 5x of replay of the same Sesame Street videos haha!), putting her to sleep at nap times (which is becoming difficult during toddler's age since she likes to play and play and play), reading her stories, teaching her the alphabet, colors, shapes, animals, etc.

Then there's the household to think about. I admit I am not such a domesticated woman. I grew up with helpers assisting with my needs. This is the tough part for me. I don't really do the household chores since Yanna's yaya is also all-around but I need to make sure that she does the chores correctly. Being the hands on mom that I am, the yaya now has less "yaya tasks". I think I'm making some progress here because this week I made her a list and schedule of household chores and I just need to check whether she follows it. As for cooking, I sometimes try to cook based on recipes I like and serve them to hubby and I wait for the verdict haha! I hope hubby notices the effort I make but I have to admit I still have a lot to learn!

There are times when I find this to be a thankless job. Unlike in the corporate world where people are being evaluated by metrics based on a more or less permanent set of tasks, a full time mom does not have that. A lot more is expected as a mom and wife and right now I don't think I pass those with flying colors. Everyday is a struggle and I hope that soon I can say that I'm a Super Mom :)

When I feel blue, I just look at my daughter and just one smile from her makes everything worth the struggle. So to those moms who can relate, I'm leaving you Yanna's gigil smile to perk you up! :)

Mommy May

Mommy & Daddy's Dictionary (Yanna version)

Yanna is now very talkative. I think I had a lot to do with it plus the fact that she loves it when we read to her! One of the advantages of staying home is that I get to teach her new things. It amazes me how many words she already knows and how she tries to say them.  This stage can be very frustrating for a toddler because she's now trying to communicate but since we still cannot understand, she gets frustrated. Well, it's hard to decode what she says sometimes so I'm listing them down for our reference. These are the words she tries to say at 13 months:

Buh - book or ball

Bah - bear or balloon

Anana - banana

Puh - pasyal (she says this while pointing at the door)

Teteh - water

Puh - apple

Dede - milk

Tee - kitty

Am - I want to eat (she says this while sticking her finger in her mouth)

Daddy

Mama

Da da - dog or duck

Ba ba - bye bye

M-muh - Elmo

17 words! Yay! Although she says these words unclearly, I'm so proud that her vocabulary is growing this early. I'm definitely going to brace myself for the coming months and when the time comes that she will be asking me a lot of questions! I hope to be patient enough. LOL!

So Mommies and Daddies, always talk to your children and start them early on books. We started reading to Yanna when she was just 3 months old and I believe it played a big part on her wide vocabulary.

With that, I leave you with photos of our little bookworm :)

Mommy May

Project Shy-No-More

Yanna has stranger anxiety. She often cries whenever strangers or even her lolos and lolas come near her. She doesn't see her lolos and lolas often since we live far from them and so they are strangers to her. It's hard for the grandparents because they are very excited to see her but she won't come near them. Wawa naman the lolos and lolas!

I keep hearing relatives say-- "Di kasi exposed", "Ilabas nyo kasi", "ay suplada" which are all not true!!! We go out every weekends to the parks, malls, playgrounds to widen her horizon but she still is scared of other people. The only people she likes: Me, hubby and yaya. She's such a pilya and happy girl with us but suddenly becomes shy around others. I sometimes feel bad whenever I hear comments like that. Defense mode on!!! I never thought that I will be defending my daughter this early!!!

Some people say it comes with age and that I agree on. I hate it when people compare kids. Kids are very different from each other. It kinda hurts me when my Yanna is being compared to her "very friendly and accommodating" cousins. Kids have different temperaments, you know?

So hubby and I thought of bringing Yanna out more, especially now that I'm always available to take her out. So last week, we were out everyday. We went to the mall & BGC, visited my family side, had dinner out with hubby's side and went to a birthday party of a relative. I'm happy to see a big improvement on Yanna. She doesn't cry anymore! She even let one of her lolas carry her while she kissed the other. She happily walked even in crowded places and smiled a lot with strangers.

Here are photos of Yanna's week :)

 with Yanna at Jamba Juice

 Free dessert at Texas Roadhouse c/o store manager just because she was able to carry Yanna! One of the many perks of having a cute baby!

 Happily playing with cousin

 Dinner out with hubby's side

 Enjoying her cousin's birthday party :)

She loved sitting on the slide

She needs to go out everyday lang pala. She even understands the word "pasyal" now. She often points at the door and says "Puh"! I wonder where she got that lakwachera trait from? Hmmm... Oh! From Mommy of course! :)

Was your kid this shy too? Please do share on how you dealt with it :)

Mommy May

What Breastfeeding Taught Me

When Yanna was born, I decided to exclusively breastfeed only for the first 6 months to give her ample nutrition that she needs. The first 2 weeks were difficult. Yanna's latching was poor and so I had cracked nipples and it was VERY painful feeding her. I remember myself crying and practically begging my hubby to permit me to stop breastfeeding. He got mad and told me to endure it for the sake of the baby. My exact thoughts that very moment: "OMG he loves the baby more than me! Siya kaya ang mag breastfeed!!!" As usual, the obedient wife that I am, I endured the pain. I was crying helplessly whenever Yanna feeds. I felt pity for me. I thought breastfeeding is supposed to be a very lovely moment between mom and baby but why is it so difficult???

Then I realized, this is what Motherhood is! Being able to sacrifice for the sake of your precious little one. Gone are the self glorifying days from Day 1 of Motherhood. As soon as I learned that lesson, it lessened the pain until we were able to breastfeed smoothly. Now I am very glad that hubby insisted on it because at 5 months, Yanna was hospitalized for pneumonia. I remember how stressed I was when hubby called me at work to let me know of the diagnosis. I immediately left the office to take care of her. I was puzzled thinking that I have been exclusively breastfeeding her but why did she get pneumonia? Doctor said that it's not 100% illness-free with breastfeeding but a breastfed child's illness will only take a shorter time. This was true since Yanna was only hospitalized for 2.5 days and she was still very energetic during her hospital stay. It could've been worse if she was not breastfed.

So I continued giving her breastmilk beyond 6 months. At work, my breastpump is my best friend. Pumping milk is such a task especially if you're always busy at work! I had to squeeze it in my busy schedule. I'm glad that my boss and officemates then were supportive of it. A support group like that is very key for a working mom to continue milk pumping.

I'm glad to say that I have been breastfeeding her for 13 months now. I consider that as my achievement as a mom because I know how difficult it is! I'm just really lucky to have a very supportive husband, family and friends who kept me inspired to continue on. So what lessons have I learned from our breastfeeding journey? I learned patience, selflessness, time management and I learned to love this demanding, biting, clingy and chubby little sucker :)

For breastfeeding tips, you may read: http://www.askdrsears.com/?q=topics/breastfeeding.

Mommy May

Yanna's fave place: Bonifacio High Street

Today we started early with our weekly family bonding. Hubby and I decided to take Yanna to the Terra 28 Park in BGC for her to practice walking. The park is beautiful but really hot! I wish they can put more trees in it. Wawa naman the kids who were playing. I recommend to go here late afternoon or night to avoid the heat! Yanna didn't want to walk around this time. I guess she feels the heat and knowing her, she loves cool places. Imagine: Every night in our airconditioned room, while hubby and I are freezing, Yanna sleeps contently and refuses to use the blanket!

                                                          See how hot it was???

Sensing her discomfort, we took her to her favorite place: Bonifacio High Street's ampitheater. When we got there, she got soooo excited and started walking and climbing up and down the stairs. Gosh! I got tired and sweaty!!! She still wants us to hold her while she walks since she's not yet very confident that she can already walk by herself. It was great exercise by the way. Who needs the gym if you have a toddler climbing up and down the stairs with you haha!

Of course the parents got tired! We went to Jamba Juice for some refreshments. We ordered her a smoothie. One sip of her smoothie and she gave us a very sour face. Unfortunately we weren't able to capture it in photos because we were laughing about it. She still looks cute though :)

I ended up drinking Yanna's smoothie. Although she didn't enjoy the drink, she did enjoy walking all over the store and dancing to the store's music. Hmmmm I think I see a future gimikera! Dancing to the tune of Good Girls Go Bad??!! Oh no!!!

The store also has a photobooth and hubby and Yanna tried it out (minus Mommy, hmp!). The photo will be sent to the hubby's email. Very creative of Jamba Juice!

So that was our Saturday morning. Laid-back but tiring at the same time! LOL!

Mommy May

Just Reminiscing

Sigh! How time flies! It was just like yesterday when I first saw my sweet little baby and the very wide grin on my hubby's face. The Firsts are the most amazing and at the same time nerve wracking moments! Let me share some of the photos of these Firsts :)

YANNA'S FIRST CRY: A very long ear-pinching cry haha! I will create a separate blog about her birth. So many things to share :)

FIRST FAMILY PHOTO: Aaaawwwhhh! I have long waited for this moment! It wasn't actually what I envisioned it to be since I was so groggy with the drugs. It was a blur!!! I remember seeing her, kissing her, breastfeeding her and then I was knocked out! I couldn't remember this photo being taken but yet I was smiling in it haha!

FIRST BREASTFEEDING EXPERIENCE: Gosh it wasn't easy! Yanna's latching was poor and so I got sore nipples to the point that I cried everytime I feed her. I was about to give up (which my mom supported since she didn't breastfeed any of us anyway) but hubby was very persistent that I continue breastfeeding! I really want to give the best for my baby and so I carried on...crying in pain while she feeds. That's when I realized how amazing a mom's body is because our bodies adjust to the baby's needs. Suddenly, breastfeeding isn't that painful anymore and I'm so blessed to have great supply of milk. I'm proud to say that until now that she's 13 months old, she's still drinking my milk (no formula ever). Thank God for this and I am still able to donate some milk to the sick babies thru UP-PGH :)

FIRST FAMILY CHRISTMAS: Yanna's 3 months old then. She's so chubby and cute :)

YANNA'S FIRST TRIP TO THE MALL: We took her to Powerplant Mall. This is also a memorable moment because this was the first time she behaved and slept on her stroller. Hurray for Mommy's rested arms! :)

Whew! There are so may photos of her and so many firsts! If I put them all here, I might not finish today haha! Oh well, I'll just blog about them next time :)


Mommy May

Welcoming myself to the blogging world!

Hello world! I'm excited about starting my very own blog! This blog will feature my everyday experience as a mom of a 13-month old beautiful baby girl. I left my corporate job 2 months ago and is now adjusting to life as a SAHM. It was not an easy decision to make since I have been in the corporate world for 12 years already but I really want to be with my daughter everyday so I took a leap of faith. Here's a photo of my cutie pie Yanna on her 1st birthday :)

I'm so happy taking care of her everyday but sometimes I miss having a job and own income. My hubby is a very good provider but still, I'm not used to asking money from him haha! So now I'm searching for home-based jobs just so I can help out with the expenses in my small way while enjoying time with Yanna :) Hoping to find one very soon.


Mommy May