pistoy in pinas

one of the MANY things we learned in this trip, is that jetlag is harder with a little one in tow. =P

hubby je and i tried to adjust to the pinas timezone as fast as we can, but it didn't really work. why? dahil pistoy is taking his own sweet time. =P i totally did not anticipate this little inconvenience. =P

tinatry naming gumising sa umaga at matulog sa gabi. pero si pistoy, tulog sa umaga, gising sa gabi. so what happens is gising kami ni je sa umaga, at gising din sa gabi! so i think, if you have the luxury of time, let jetlag run its own course. take a nap (don't sleep in like the little one does) when he's sleeping his "night sleep" sa umaga/hapon, just so you'll have some energy to stay awake at dawn when he's also awake.

another lesson, which might be applicable to pistoy lang, i dunno... is to let him sleep when he needs to, and don't wake him up if he doesn't have to. what this translates to is that gimiks become a little challenging to schedule. i'm lucky that most of my friends are also mothers/fathers now, so they know how it is. they were pretty flexible with time, and they understand if we have to call "pack up" once pistoy starts getting cranky because he's sleepy. also, if there's an event that coincides with his nap/bed time, an event that can't be rescheduled, we leave him with family at home. it seldom happened, as we try to work around the schedule, but we did this nung binyag ng anak ni jotster (a high school friend). dinala namin si pistoy sa church so our friends could meet him, but he went home with papa after the ceremonies. kami na lang ni hubby je ang tumuloy sa reception. it worked out well. pistoy was able to rest well (he was still sick that time), and we had time to really catch up with friends dahil we had time for ourselves. of course we missed him big time, lalo na when our friends rommel/tenten was attending to their son jecjec. we suddenly wished pistoy was there too. but in the end, it was a wise decision.

probably due to the extremely different weather, or maybe kasama na rin yung pollution factor, expect the little one to be sick. pistoy, who seldom gets sick, was sick the entire first 2 weeks of our stay there. sipon then naging ubo. sobrang handy ng snot sucker namin (babycomfynose). we never leave home without it. a lot of our friends and family also loved it, and requested for one. hehe! pagbalik ko tuloy dito sa US, i have to buy 8 of them! =P

another thing we learned is... no matter how careful we are with regards to sanitizing pistoy's stuff, he will eventually put something dirty in his mouth. hahaha! i think i've become a germophobe when i moved to the US. things that don't usually gross me out when i was living in pinas, now grosses me out! =P ang arte. hehe! the trip to pinas certainly reminded me of my roots, and to be at peace with germs. hehehe!

we borrowed my niece's stroller na parang stroller-convertible-to-bike thingy, and pistoy keeps reaching for the wheels! eh ginagamit yon sa kalsada, and shempre sa pinas, the streets are not really the cleanest. =P hubby je freaks out, and i freak out, and we bring out the sanitizing wipes or wash his hands with soap and water. but our relatives will just dust off pistoy's hands and that's it! =P but he lives still. then one time, my niece yana handed him a ball, and pistoy happily obliged to smack it to his mouth. in a few seconds, he managed to cover the entire ball with his saliva. =P then i later saw yana playing with the same set of balls on the street, and it rolled into the sidewalk canal with stagnant water. my cousin took the ball, ran it quickly through the faucet, and gave it back to my niece. and yet, pistoy and yana lives! in my "safeguard commercial" eyes, there are germs all over the wheels and the ball. but pistoy lived.

in fairness to my relatives, they treat pistoy with extra care when it comes to stuff. they are very protective of what pistoy eats. they choose the taho vendors ("wag ka dyan bumili, kay tatang na lang, mas malinis"), the lugaw vendors ("kay pareng toi ka bumili, sabihin mo para sa apo ni norbie"), etc. also, they stopped bringing in their slippers inside the house ("gumagapang dyan si pistoy, hubarin nyo tsinelas nyo! bawal sapatos!"), and our househelp cleans the floor twice a day instead of just once. =P


hmmm, ano pa ba. pistoy had a great time playing with my cousins and niece and nephew. pistoy is usually suplado with people he doesn't know, pero pagdating sa pinas, lahat sinasamahan! =) i think that almost 1 month in pinas did wonders to his social skills. "kinakausap" nya si jhairee (anak ni alpair), at nakikipaglaro sya with yana (anak ni dorein). fave nyang i-kiss si eibron, jaymie at dorein. at ang daldal nya ngayon! kung ano-anong syllables ang sinasabi nya. sa pinas, he usually chants "yana" and "chukoy". i think nakilala nya si yana kasi laging tinatawag si yana ng mga tao (sa sobrang kakulitan!), and "chukoy" is probably "it's ok". hehehe!

we tried to document a lot of things for pistoy's firsts, but a lot of firsts also came undocumented, like his first plane ride (it was pretty tough the first time, flying from FL to NY on an 8pm flight, his bed time), his first tricycle ride, first serving of taho, etc. but i don't regret not being able to capture them. just seeing pistoy enjoying is enough. after all, this won't be his last time to visit the native land. it would be nice to bring him back some time when he's a bit more aware of what's happening. then maybe he'd enjoy dirty ice cream more. =)