second year

i totally missed updating this blog. primarily due to the numerous things in the way, like work, household chores, preps for holidays and parties and papa's exodus, and general laziness and procrastination. =P

we recently celebrated pistoy's 2nd birthday. last Dec.8, 54 people packing inside our home and parteyed until Pacquiao hit the canvass face-first. =P yep, since we got food, and people are coming over, we decided to hold the pacquiao-fight-viewing at our place too. =)

updates.....

counting
pistoy can "sort of" count 1-10 na! well, technically, he can recite the numbers in order from 1 to 10. when there are pictures of anything you want him to count, you need to be the one to point to the items, and he will count until your fingers pause on the last item. if you try to make him count on his own, he will point to one item, lose his focus, point to another item which is far from the one he just counted, and then lose his place. he will then be counting endlessly. *lol* it took us a while to realize this. hahaha!

potential yaya
one of our pinoy friend's (billy) mother is available to watch over kids during the weekdays. last May lang sya nag-move dito sa US, and nag-aalaga lang sya ng mga apo nya. kinapalan na naman ang face namin at humingi ng favor if she can watch over pistoy for 4-5 hours twice a week. the set-up would be daddy je will drop pistoy off at their place before heading to work (11-ish), and i will pick him up after work (4-ish). we seriously don't know the going rate for babysitters in our area, but since this is just a sort of "to pass time" thing since she's just at home watching tv during the day, we figured we could probably go a few dollars less than the real going rate? that's my cheap side talking, but at this point, we will definitely pay whatever's the rate just to have someone who speaks Tagalog, who has the same Filipino values, and whom we know and can trust to watch over pistoy.

last week, we spent 3 days at their place around the time when we'll leave him. daddy je or i were there, just to help pistoy familiarize himself with the place and "lola grace". kilala kasi namin siya, once he gets traumatized sa isang lugar or isang tao, he won't trust them anymore. so we erred on the side of caution and sacrificed 3 days. on the third day, i left the house and stayed outside for an hour to see how he'd take it. sabi ni lola grace, hindi naman daw ako hinanap. umupo lang sa rocking chair, nanood ng eat bulaga, at kumain ng goldfish. pistoy was trying to get comfortable on the floor for his afternoon nap when i went back in. he seemed so happy to see me, kwento nang kwento na di ko naman ma-gets. hehehe! then we drove back home and he seemed ok.

it really looks promising. i know i probably shouldn't post about this or i'll jinx it. but i also want to ask for help to pray for pistoy to be comfortable enough around lola grace. and, with the long Christmas break, i hope the 3 days last week are not for nothing. =P

hitting
this is my biggest issue with pistoy recently. he learned how to hit. how, i'm not sure, but i have an idea. pag nadadapa kasi si pistoy, or tumatama somewhere, papa norbie will hit the "offending" area (the floor, the chair, etc) and say "ump!". sanay naman tayo sa ganon, sa pinas kasi yun ang usual na ginagawa right? but then, pistoy misunderstood the context. he thought anything that displeases him deserves to be hit. *gawd, heaven help us reverse this!*

we're trying the "firm voice, say 'no hitting'" thing. since pistoy is used to us being all "verbal" when he's behaving well, once he hits, we say "no hitting", holds his hands tight in front of him, pauses and won't talk to him for a few seconds. then we follow up with "magsorry ka na, kiss mo <insert hitting victim here>". he would kiss, but he won't say sorry.

i don't know what else to do!

momma janey and daddy oneal witnessed this when we went out to dinner at Orlando. we were in the van, oneal said or did something (i can't remember), and jecobie hits him! it's so frustrating to us too... he would make amends later, but it doesn't make him stop from hitting in the first place!

he hits just for the motion of it, i think. he doesn't hit hard naman. but still, it's hitting! nung nakausap ko si papa about this, sabi ko this is his fault. =P sabi nya ilalakad nya daw ng paluhod at ipagdadasal nya na tumigil na. in the meantime, we need a method that works. not for reactive results, but proactive.

bday party
so. whatever happened in the 1 week before Dec.8, i have blurred memories na. all i know is i cooked leche flan, crema de fruta, chicken sopas, menudo and lumpiang shanghai. papa cooked his signature beef with mushroom, and ribs with tausi. i ordered pizza, chicken wings, pansit bihon and dinuguan. we ordered a small half-marble-half-chocolate cake with buttercream icing and a circus train topper. =) jecobie loved the toy train topper btw. hehehe! perfect choice!

on the day itself, we prepped everything ourselves, even blowing the balloons! well, we got the kit with the helium tank, but still, we did the tying and stuff. =)

it was fun, both the preps and the party itself. i just wish we had more time to prepare. andami ko tuloy nakalimutang ilabas agad. like yung crema de fruta, at yung sopas nakalimutan kong banggitin sa iba. we left the sopas kasi sa range, so it stays warm.

speaking of staying warm, i will have to invest in food warmers eventually. especially since december ang bday ni pistoy. heheheh! buti na lang, lahat ng guests namin ay family, ka-close, at mga cowboys. so when they get their food, their just march over to our microwave and reheat it. not the perfect way to serve food at parties. =P either we get the food warmer na sinasaksak, or yung nilalagyan ng flame sa ilalim. hay, buhay domesticated. nag-iiba na ang problema. i never thought i would be thinking about those things in the past. it's like something that i'll leave mommy letty or mama ayet to worry about. heheheh!

as i mentioned, since we didn't have that much time to prepare, when the guests came in, it slipped my mind to bring the camera out. naalala na lang namin nung magbo-blow na ng candles. =( chinarge ko pa naman lahat ng spare batteries ng camera namin. loss! so meron lang kaming 2 vids nung cake time na. di ko man lang na-picture-an yung set up ng pagkain. how i miss my mama who are usually on top of things like that. ewan ko rin naman dito sa US, parang hindi mahilig mag-pic ang mga tao. *lol*

so. exactly 2 years and 2 weeks na si pistoy as of this writing. we planned on starting his potty training this long weekend, but we have a lot of stuff to take care of pa rin, kaya we decided to postpone it. as of today, pistoy says "pupu" when he's done. but he won't say when he's going. you can kind of tell though, he runs around a lot, with the shoulders kind of hunched. tapos maririnig mo syang umiire. the good thing is, umuupo na sya sa toilet seat ngayon pag hinuhugasan. twice he sat  there and tried to poop, pero after a few minutes ayaw na. siguro namimintig ang paa nya. hehe!

that reminds me, we need to get him a step stool for wiwi-training. it's gonna be a looong journey, but we're not in a hurry. =P he'll eventually get there.