Two-time heavyweight champion of the world

My pregnancy tracker says I am 30 weeks and 5 days pregnant today. I'd like to think that I'm having an easier time with this pregnancy. But there's also the effect of knowing what to expect. For example, I know my feet are going to swell eventually. I also know that I will be having trouble sleeping and will have to go to the toilet a lot. In other words, my expectations of being comfortable for the next 9 months have gotten quite low from experience. So technically, even if I'm uncomfortable already, I still feel like I'm having a blast. I'm able to trick myself like that.

Nine months of discomfort -> a lifetime of happiness

If there's anything that I'm sure of, it's that I've gained A LOT of weight. The last time we checked, I've gotten to (drumroll please) 143 lbs!

There's Baby No.2!

This was my weight when I gave birth to Malik 3 years ago. I was able to trim down to my pre-pregnancy weight after a couple of months, plus or minus 4 lbs. (more plus than minus, honestly), but I don't know if I can recover from this one. I've just been eating everything in sight. And the holidays aren't helping! Hay. 

A lot to love

We just got ourselves a new camera. I like how things are turning out so far. Our pictures are better now (This doesn't necessarily mean that I'll get to post more often. I just hope so. We'll see.)

Malik in my office collecting gifts.

Here are some more photos of Malik at our annual Kids' Christmas Parteeh.

I don't think Malik knows what money does yet. 

Everytime he receives them, he runs to me to give me the "paper."

This set-up works great for us. To me, at least. Heehee 

Our son is such a goofball. How can you not love this kid?

This is you. This is me.

Now that I've decided to start a new blog , I should get around to finishing this post. I've uploaded some more pictures after the jump. Click to see Gladi some years and many pounds ago. 

The Kindle Paperwhite: A Review (Sort of)

I've had a series a technological glitches last week. First, I ran out of storage space at my old blog. Then my iPod refused to start, for which we had to take it back to the dealer's. And then my Kindle died. This one left me most devastated.


You see, I was in the middle of reading a book. So the natural thing to do was to look for a replacement. I thought of having one shipped from Amazon, but the model (Do people still use this word? Hee) that I liked will not be available until December 21st. I did not have the patience.

Parol

This year, we bought our very first Christmas lantern ("parol" in Filipino). We got it from the strip of stores along Gilmore Ave. Malik came with us, because the strip is not to long as to be overwhelming even for a child.


I've gained some weight, courtesy of Baby No. 2. Can you spy him here?



After walking back and forth for about an hour, we took home this one -


That's how its looks like unlighted, at least before Kuya Greg put it up outside our bedroom window.


We got this medium sized capiz lantern for P1,700. The next I day, I had to take a day trip to Pampanga (where most lanterns are made in the Philippines) and found out that they sold the same lantern for the same price. We didn't even have to travel 2 hours and spend on gas. Yey, Ironman.


- posted via BlogPress for iPad

Pre-school Hunting

Malik will be 3 years and some months in June next year. The time is ripe for him to start school. So last week, Pao and I took a day off from work to look at pre-schools for pogiboy. We took him along. His opinion counts, you know.


My first consideration is whether the school's teaching philosophy is consistent with what I hope Malik would take away from going to school for the first time. I just want him to develop a love for learning. After pre-school, there will be plenty of time to learn about calculus and financial markets. In the meantime, Malik just needs to be curious and have fun with kids his age. That said, our next considerations are (in no particular order) the school's facilities, the quality of their teachers, their location and of course, tuition.

It's good that most pre-schools in Metro Manila have Internet presence. That's really convenient for households like us where both parents work full-time. We need to get our hands on a lot of information and quick. Some don't respond to parent inquiries as quickly as the others though, which is sad but helpful in a way. Those pre-schools that do not bother to reply to our emails get stricken off the shortlist. Yey.

However, very few of these pre-schools post their tuition in their websites. We had to personally inquire at the schools to get the rates, which I am posting here to hopefully help other parents in their decision-making. By the way, as you may already know, fees vary per level. The fees posted here are for kids around Malik's age (3.6 - 4.5 years old). Some schools call that Nursery, others Kinder, still others some odd name like "Master Explorer".