Boodle Fight @ home

     For somebody whose been working in some other country far from ours, being away means missing a lot of things about home, i think almost everything about home. It starts with not being with your family for some time, and with friends too, one usually suffer from homesickness, and of course what more could someone be missing about home...food, good pinoy food. 

     My hubby arrived two days ago, he's on a few days vacation from a year of work abroad. From where he came Pork is absolutely not in their daily menu, which makes him even more tulo laway with the thought of eating pork meat for over a year now. The following day we decided to prepare what he misses the most, food. It was lunch time, and to make it a little different from the usual, we thought it would be nice to have a boodle fight for the whole family. Everything was prepared and placed on  a table with a size good enough for all of us. Banana leaves were placed on top of the table. We have prepared Nilagang Talong at Okra, Kamatis, Bagoong, Inihaw na Bangus, Adobong Manok at Baboy and of course rice to complete the menu. After everything was put in place, everyone begin to dig out on the food. Even my little kiddo and his cousins Angel, Buboy, and Alex excitedly squeezed into the crowd and dig out the food, and just like everybody else they ate with their bare hands.

     It was nothing fancy though, simple feast, ordinary food, and our family having a not the usual lunch outdoor(kasi sa labas ng house hehe!) of some sort. It was a treat for all of us, for the whole family. We've even made the little ones experienced whats it's like to be in a boodle fight and i believe they all enjoyed it, we all did. 

Gradweyt na po si kulit

Sa wakas, nakatapos na sa pinakaunang yugto ng kanyang pag-aaral ang batang makulit na si ushua. Kanina lang, umakyat sya sa stage ng kanilang paaralan at tumanggap ng diploma/certificate of completion para sa pagtatapos nya sa Nursery Class. At kahit na ubod sya ng kulit at uber hyper, nakatanggap sya ng medal bilang panglima sa klase (5th Honor) at Most Neat and Tidy. Love you ushua! :D

My Little Man's Treasures

     It all started with buying VCD's for our little boy. I remember the very first VCD we bought for him was Barney, a couple of it when he was one year old. He enjoys every episode of it, and was able to memorize every song Barney sang, even some lines from the show.  We also bought several Disney Movies, to name a few were A Bug's Life, Monster's Inc, Toy Story, and Cars. Then came Dora, Diego, Spongebob, Backyardigans, and a lot lot more. Of course we also introduced him educational VCD's for kids his age where he later learned his ABC's and Numbers. But with all of the cartoon tv series, disney movies, and children's show that he has seen there is one character that caught his interest, it was Thomas the Tank Engine, the blue painted fictional steam locomotive with his running number 1 printed on his side. Of course every kid knows who Thomas is, all kids from different part of the world surely go locko with him, with the television series and  with the range of toys and railway characters they have in store. Parent's like me and my husband begin to like and enjoy Thomas since we know that Thomas cartoons is not just the usual cartoon series on tv, it does teach kids values and will never be showing violence and disturbing influence on kids.

     Thomas then became one of his favorite character of all the engines, he became a huge fan. Even me and my husband became a fan too. He has seen the Thomas series in VCD's so many times, watched it over and over again without even getting tired. At times i would ask him "anak di ka ba nagsasawa paulit ulit na lang yan?" he would answer me "hindi po. mama pagpunta natin sa sm bili mo'ko ng Thomas ha."  One time we went to the mall and bought him his very first Thomas train.

Joshua with his pullback engine's

James, Percy, and Thomas.

     Thomas pullback engine was his very first Thomas toy. A speedy little engine that you can pull backwards and watch them go. There were two other pullback engine, Percy and James. I guess the cheapest Thomas in store which only sells for 249 pesos if i remember it right. Well, we we're quite low on the budget that time so we weren't able to purchase the three, we only bought him the Thomas pullback so just to make him happy i guess. Later on when we had the money we then bought the other two that completed his adorable pullback engines, which of course made him a lot happier. 

     The next Thomas he had was a bigger Thomas, i don't exactly remember the name but it was a battery operated Thomas accompanied by a silly truck. The silly truck had four mini disc's containing eight musical tracks from Thomas cartoon series which u can play on Thomas since the engine was a mini cd player of some sort. 

     A few months before our son's second birthday, my husband and I planned to buy him another Thomas present. To lessen the guilt of buying a quite expensive toy for a 2 year old kid and since it was out of the budget we decided and initiated a piggy bank savings. We started saving every 5 and 10 peso coin we have everyday. Surprisingly after a couple of months we have already saved a thousand pesos, and just before his birthday we were able to buy him the Thomas Starter Set. The starter set includes of course the little blue tank engine Thomas with his two faithful coaches Annie and Clarabel whom Thomas loves dearly. The two coaches carry passengers for Thomas. The set also comes with a miniature tree, a miniature sign post or whatever they call it, and several pieces of blue track of varying shapes.

Joshua with his big engine 
Gordon.

     Another Thomas present came on his third birthday. Actually it was a money present from her Ninang Dang which was deposited in my bank account. Since it was a birthday present for my son and because a three year old kid won't have any idea what to do with a 500 peso bill, well then I decided to use it to buy him a Thomas toy. We went to a toy store at SM City Fairview and found one of the most popular characters in the railway series, locomotive number 4, the big engine Gordon. 
    

     After the pullback engines, the mini disc player Thomas, and the big engine Gordon, we've added a few more character engines from the Railway Series. He has James the number 5 Red Engine, Percy the number 6 Small engine, steam engine Donald, crane engine Harvey, diesel engines like Mavis and Salty, and super cute and adorable Bertie the bus. He also has the Talk 'N' Action Magic Rail Set which consists of 26 pieces of blue tracks, 6 magic interactive green track pieces, an easy to assemble tunnel, a battery operated Thomas with his faithful carriages Annie and Clarabel, a station house and 5 trees. I had to buy him a long rectangular plastic caboodle to store his Thomas toys. 

     Each Thomas became an addition to his toys to play with. But for our little boy, it's not just toys to play with but it became his little treasures. It was a little expensive yes, but  buying it doesn't mean that we intend to spoil our son with toys, definitely not. It's not like we purchase one every time we wan't to, we can't afford to buy that often. We only purchase when we have extra savings from our budget which only happen once in a blue moon i think. But all in all, what's important to us is not the idea of making it a some sort of collection, but to make our little boy happy having a variety of Thomas toys to play with.

   

Finally Coming Home...

l     It has been almost a year since I've seen his face up close, the last time i did the face was sad with teary eyes. It was at the airport, the day he left for work abroad. That time I remember there were those kissing, some exchanging tight warm embraces before their love ones bids goodbye to work in some other country far from ours. I believe each of us were having the same feeling at that very moment, but of all the people there, we were the only ones with teary eyes. Probably because we know we will be million of miles apart from each other, and him not being able to see and be with his little boy for quite some time makes him even more teary eyed.

     To be apart from him was quite hard at the beginning, i guess even up to now i feel the same. Days, weeks, months have passed since that day. I have been living and taking care of our kid by myself, yes it's hard but that’s no big deal. What’s even bigger is the longingness i feel. I begin to miss everything about him, from what he usually do, his habbits, his irritating snores when he sleeps, his slight yabang at times, his sweetness, times when we go malling, times when i easilly get irritated with the things he does, wala na'kong mapagalitan. I miss him playing with our little man, even our son misses their ‘kilitian’ time. I even miss his appetite, and just him being here is what I miss the most. I guess i'm just used to with how we were before, having him here all the time, doing things and all with him, arguing and laughing with him. There were days when i feel a bit envy when I see a family, may it be at the mall, at my son's school, at the office, or just whenever i see one. I often have this thought in me that if only what we earned here would do then I definitely won't allow him to leave, then we could be the usual happy family like before, like the others. Though i didn't say that we're not a happy family now, we are and definitely we will be as always. It's just the 'not physically together', being apart, that's making the whole happy thing incomplete. 

 

     But with all of these, i feel relieved and even more excited with the thought that a couple of months from now hubby will finally have his vacation and at long last be coming home. Having him here again, and be with us even for just a month is more than enough and worth the wait. I’m just thankful, happy, contented and blessed with a responsible and loving hubby, a good father to our kid as well.

     Can’t wait...  

An exhausting way to end the day...

     Last night was one hell of a night. I still can't believe what we went through just to get home. It was damn exhausting!

     We left the office at 5, when we got to UN Avenue, we came upon flooded streets along Taft Avenue, and of course when theres flood in Manila expect traffic my dear. Short heavy rain, flood, immobilized traffic...it's a given already. But it was not just the ordinary traffic, it was extreme traffic. Public transport was literally at its worst that time, bumper to bumper, and "walang galawan" just what everybody clamors. Number of commuters started to build up, "lakad mode" na ang lahat just to find a ride home. With my officemate, me and son walked from UN Avenue to Quirino Avenue hoping na makasakay, but sadly and frustrated as we were, still we weren't able to. It's raining, my feet is soaked and wet already, my back is in pain, and the worst thing and really broke my heart is the fact that my little man is complaining from exhaustion, he was deeply irritated and weary. 

     Finally at Quirino Avenue, while waiting less patiently, the only jeepney to cubao came along kaya sumakay na kami even if it's out of our way. We just wanted to get the hell out of Taft Avenue that very moment, plus the fact that our feet was aching bad from a long walk that we just badly needed to have a sit. Huge volume of vehicles and commuters as well we're stranded along Taft Avenue, some patiently waiting and the others were obviously frustrated and irritated with the situation. Vehicles were still paralized, parang pagong kung umusad. The jeepney dropped us at Welcome Rotonda and the same scene awaits us. All bus, fx, taxi, and Jeepneys were full, commuters were on the streets already. It was almost 11 when we spotted a bust going to sm fairview, and it was 12 midnight that we were able to get home, finally.

      

      

A typical 4 year old boy...

     I won't deny the fact that my child can be naughty at times, that he's the hyper active and super kulit type of kid, and that even I get too stressed by it most of the time kakasaway. But with all this, it doesn't mean na "SALBAHE" ang anak ko! I believe he's just a typical four year old kid like every other kid. Every child has their own SALBAHE MODE, even your kid too, every mom should know that. So It's unfair to single out a kid just because he's acting he's age, and IT"S SO NOT RIGHT to give a bad impression to a child by passing on negative comments around.