Shopping when pregnant is no fun

This afternoon, I went to Target to buy some outfits for our vacation to L.A. next Saturday. What I thought would be shopping heaven became a shopping hell, I am too small to fit into Maternity clothes and I can’t very well buy items which fit me now because it won’t fit after a few weeks. What a dilemma!!!! Instead I bought lots of blouses which I can use until my belly allows (I think I have 3 weeks or more) and these blouses will serve as my inspiration to get back to my original size. I gave up on buying pants because the smallest size is too BIG for me. Grrrr!!!

Our baby is on a growth spurt which means my tummy will also go on a growth spurt, oh my! Am I ready to look like I ate a basketball? Ayayay! I only have 2 jeans that fit now and the rest I have to put some tube-like extender to fit. To combat my frustration on not buying jeans, I went to the baby section and I mentally noted the items that we will soon need. Oh my! There are so many and my gulay its not cheap!!! An 80-pc. newborn diaper will cost around 19.90 bucks (almost 1k in pinas) and that will only last for a week or two. I picked one set of newborn diapers(mas mabuti nang maka-save sila ng konti) and a head-n-back memory foam and sheet protector item for the baby shower we will attend tomorrow.

Its so easy to spend big bucks on infant items with all the cute items that are available but I’m one practical mommy and I will only buy items that are absolutely needed. I’m hoping not to give in to extravagance but its going to be hard as its just hard to resist buying those cutesy items. Take for example this Baby Plus Prenatal Education System from Amazon, it is a system “daw” wherein you can stimulate your child while still inside the tummy which will make the child more intelligent, now who wouldn’t want an intelligent baby? Syet its just so freakin’ expensive but what-da-hell its for the baby so I will swallow my thrifty pride and buy one for myself este for the baby.

As early as now, I’m imagining how-to-go about his/her 1st birthday party. LOLZ!!! He/She will have piñata, pabitin, dirty ice cream cart, a magician/clown host,pop-up invites, choco fountain, a big banner, a cute themed Fondant Cake/Cupcake tree, a kick-ass table center piece and lotsa balloons. Exciting pala magplano, parang wedding mwehehehe! I will have this party in Cebu come Dec 2008 or Jan 2009 so save the date. Nabuang na ang mommy.

Dracula’s got our blood

I think my blood is draining out this week, today, blood will be extracted again for HIV, Syphillis and other test as part of our immigration application and another blood test sometime this week to check if our baby is safe from neural defects. I’m talking about vials and vials of blood, its weird here, one test = 1 vial, say one for hepa, one for hiv, one for syphillis you get the picture right? Why can’t they just extract one sample eh?

Yiek is scared shitless harharhar!!!! I even want to be in the room with him when his blood sample will be extracted, I want to see his expression. Sadista hahaha!! Not only that, he has to have immunization shots for MMR and TD (Tetanus and Diptheria), poor poor man, the needle is his enemy. Can’t you see I’m giggling with glee here? Lucky me, I have to wait after baby comes out before I’ll have these shots.

Ok, Im dilly dallying again, its just that I have no clue as to what I’m suppose to do with this stupid Strategy Manager application. They just gave me tons and tons of docs to read and I absolutely have no idea as to how I will make this third party tool to work with my app. It didn’t help when the one in charge told me “Oh you are going to do Strategy manager? you do not know what your getting into. Its complicated”. Ek! I need divine intervention.

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I’m disappointed, the doctor only got one vial of blood and pricked our skin for TB test.  The doctor is biased tsk!, he didn’t talk to me much at all while he asked Yiek some personal stuff i.e. What is your Mother’s job? Must be because the doctor is Jewish and well, their women are second class citizens. Guess how much we paid for the freakin’ check-up? Tseng! $600, that’s Php27600 for what, hearing our hearbeats, feeling our pulse and drawing out one vial of blood? In my next life, I want to be a doctor!

Belly @ 15 weeks

Trying my hand at digital scrapbooking, first layout from a kit. Pictures taken yesterday at our soon to be apartment complex. For some reason, I am “showing” here but if I wear jeans I’m not that obvious (cge deny pa!!! hehehe). Am having some skin blemishes due to the papaya soap I used 2 years ago!!! It’s obvious now because my face got tanned from all the walking we did in NY. Note to self: must go to derma after baby comes out. Click picture to enlarge.

Credits: Bubble Gum Machine Kit by Angie Britts

Fashionably Pregnant

Being pregnant does not mean you can’t be fashionable, it all started when Demi Moore posed nude with a very PREGNANT belly. Soon after fashionable clothes came up. I very much liked Heidi Klum’s maternity dresses when she was hosting Project Runway.

I’m still 3.5 months so my tummy is still too small to fit into maternity clothes. But I have eyed a lot of cute shirts, usually saying how sexy we soon to be moms are.

Of course we can’t leave daddy out can we? After all he was one of the creator, so Daddies should have a cool shirt, something that says Men who change diapers rule!

Sign?

I suddenly have the urge to learn Pachelbel, Johann: Canon in D  from Sassy Girl, sign that our baby is musically inclined? nyehehe. We had a bbq party last Sunday and they had a piano which had me flexing my fingers, its been a looonnngg time since I played the piano and I can’t read the freakin’ notes beyond the standard notes (yung lumalampas na sa lines).I forgot what I learned years ago i.e. when to lift your fingers at the right time, when to stop for a few seconds for drama, how long I should play the note kung half note or full note, or i play ko ba yung notes na sabay or separately. Grrr! Pero, pramis gusto kung magpiano ngayon hehehe. San naman ako hahanap ng piano na malapit. tsk! tsk!

Garage Sales are Addicting

Last Saturday, we woke up earlier than usual (10:00 AM early na sa ‘min yan!) to find some garage sales. Since we are moving to a much bigger apartment next month, we are in dire need of home items i.e. cabinets, lamps, sofa bed.

So, we toured our town and neigbouring towns in hopes of catching garage sales. We had initial addresses to go from craigslist and we would just be on the lookout for garage sale sign. I tell you craigslist is the site for bargains, we also found our cheap apartment here, the one we are currently living in (this is not a paid post). We didn’t see any furnitures but we bought various items(sabi na mga butingting lang ang mabibili namin hehehe), a breakfast tray for a dollar, cute little decorative teapots from Madagascar for a dollar each, a decorative basket for $2, a babybath tub for $3(priced $9 at Target and the tub that we bought was even more durable), a fisherprice baby mini playpen for $4(looks new) and a painting for 25 cents. We travelled 50 miles, just scrounging for these sales. Its addicting, I tell you. Next time we will start even earlier.

This is what I really like in here, numerous garage sales and you can even pick-up items in the trash.Pinoys kasi, keep the items hanggang sa magkacobwebs na lang. A friend of Yiek, picked up a Queen mattress bed set. Swerte nga sila kasi daming nagbigay sa kanila, as in! plates, drawers, microwave oven, another bed, tv, sofa and lampshade. Kulang na lang sa kanila dining table while we on the other hand have to buy (Nasuya hahaha!). BUying brandnew stuff is not cheap so I again went to my favorite bargain website, craigslist and went bargain hunting. So far, I’m about to view a sleeper sofa($40) and ceramic lamps(2 for $30) tonight. Hay! Starting anew again, in 2 years and 8 months of marriage, we have moved 4 times and started from ground zero twice.

Meron pa, need your opinion on this, maganda ba tong side table na to, I looked into Ikea (known for cheap prefab furnitures) and mahal side tables nila, yung cheap is di naman masyadong maganda. What do you think? Worth it bang kunin?

Sleepless nights

I am working from home today (yes! we are allowed to so, perks of the job) because I didn’t get enough sleep last night, I felt that if I were to force myself to come to the office I’d be walking like a zombie. I’m much more relax here at home, farting with abundance (LOL! Flatulence is part of pregnancy tsk!) and peeing whenever I want without holding my bladder.

I was chatting with Mama last night and here is an excerpt of our conversation:

Me: kanus-a man ka mo anhi? (When are you going here?)
Me: ganahan tani ko after 2 months nako nanganak (I’d like you to come 2 months after I’ve given birth)
Me: para di magoverlap sa akong maternity leave (so it would not overlap with my maternity leave)
Mama: Naunsa ang importante pag gawas bya sa bata. Mao man na ang kinahanglan ug kamao (its more important that I come once the baby is there so I can teach you)
Me: kya man gani nila haidee nga sila ra (Haidee made it why can’t I)
Me: lisod man gud kaau (Its so hard)
Me: inig human sa akong maternity leave kinsa man mo bantay? (After my maternity leave who’s gonna take care of the baby?)
Me: kung dili diay ma approve si tia? (What if Tia won’t get approved?)
Me: di man pud ko pwede mo resign dayon (I can’t resign right away!)
Mama: Naa, maglisud gyud ko maabutan ko ug last week of May kay naa miy reunion diri ako ang ga organize (Its going to be hard if I’d be there last week of May, I’m organizing a reunion)

Grrr! The hell with reunion. So there I was tossing and turning all night long, worrying about the coming of the baby. Honesty be told, I’d gladly resign from my job, take care of the baby until he’s 6-8 months old BUT Yiek wouldn’t agree to that.He said that there are daycares available for that, that there would be no need to quit my job. This early I’m already attached to this growing life inside of me and I don’t think I have the heart to leave him/her in a daycare at such an early age (3 months). True we’d be moving mountains and hills to make Yiek’s salary enough for the 3 of us and we’d have no savings(not even a penny) for those said months that I’ll be out of work but no amount of money can ever replace the joy of watching your child grow.

I then said a quick prayer “Lord, guide us on our path” and I somehow felt at peace that when the time comes, we will make the right decision.

Starcraft

I was in college when Starcraft became the craze, my classmates would troop to a nearby internet cafe and play their hearts out, shouting as if they were the one in war with the crazy aliens. Yiek that time was working in an internet cafe and I was so bored waiting for him that I learned playing StarCraft, heck I even went as far as completing the game’s campaign, I was invincible and killed all aliens without batting an eyelash (I cheated LOL!). I’d usually use Protoss because Zerg is to alieny for me and using Terran means that I’d be killed too easily (I’m slow in building Terran army). I even defeated Yiek when we first played together, ha!

Months ago, Blizzard announced that they will soon be releasing Starcraft 2. Hmmm, will the aliens now be in 3d?

Expense dito, expense doon

Problemado sa utang.

I usually hate the second half of the year because the list of bills to pay never seems to stop, there is Yiek’s insurance this month, an increase in the our condo’s monthly rate in September (Manila condo), also we are moving to a much bigger apartment next month, so that would mean a hefty deposit (1.5 deposit + rent + inspector’s fee + credit check fee Arrrgg!!!), 4 insurance bills to pay in october and november (da pataka pa ug kuha! nganong ning enter) and then its December, the season were the poor becomes poorer, we have to of course give some mullah back home for their celebration and buy gifts to give to our friends here(last year namigay sila kami lang hindi, kahiya naman kung di kami bibigay this year). As if the expenses would not send my mind reeling, we need to buy furnitures for our bigger apartment, a sofa-bed for Mama when she comes here and for us to have a sofa as well, drawers because our new apartment does have any space for folded clothes, a coffee table and some cabinets. I also need to buy maternity clothes which is not cheap! Thanks to gifts from family and friends I now have a few which will be not-so usuable by the time my tummy gets really big because its all short-sleeved and winter is coming! BY January we are as poor as a rat but then the baby is coming and we have to buy numerous stuff i.e. crib, carseat, stroller, baby tub, diapers,wipes, clothes etc. (Sana may baby shower ako pero I don’t see this event coming true, wala naman akong close friends dito eh!) I don’t want to be an adult anymore!!!! Mahirap pala ehek! Oh! We also need to change our car brakes and we might need to change our tires soon. Damn it! Bakit timing pa ngayon?

Please don’t say that we are rich because we are earning in dollars I am so sick and tired of explaining, the expenses here more than makes up for what we earn. We are still struggling like we were back home. *Rant* *Rant* *Rant*

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Ok! Ok! I’ll stop ranting and be happy that I’m blessed. Eto na lang isipin ko, ang bakasyon namin next month, we are going to LA’s Disneyland! We need this vacation, we’ve been working hard and we need some reward. Hello Jollibee, Hello Chowking, Hello In ‘n Out (super sarap daw na burger) and Hello Hollywood. L.A. is 6-7 Hours travel by plane, hope it won’t be too stressful for me and the baby. Oopps, di kami rich! Letse talaga.. utang po ito, swipe sa credit card. Kaching! Plastic money.

Bird and bees

*I’m writing this in Cebuano. Sorry po, mas expressive lang ako pag cebuano*

Nagkalingaw na pud ko ug chat sa akong taga Manila na amigo, nangutana siya sa ako unsa kuno bisaya sa “Sorry”, hala ka! wala man ko kabalo. Bisdak tuud ko pero sa tinuud lang sak-saksagulan dyud ko na ug english. Cguro ang bisaya kay “pasaloy-a ko” pero “forgive me” man pud na di ba? Duul-duul ra choks na na.

Unya nag huna-huna dayon ko unsaon nako pagexplain sa akong anak sa birds ug bees… kabalo ko di related pero ana man dyud ko lagpas ug huna-huna. Nagdamgo gani ko akong anak daw kay condom. Wa dyud ko problema ana sa una, wa koy paki unsa nang ten2 ug bilat. Nganong lahi ang iya ug ako, wa dyud ko nangutana. So what kung lahi ang imo, wa koy paki ana. Katong mga January Grade 6 ko, nangihi ko nya pag tan-aw nako sa akong panty naa dugo, ning adto dayon ko ni mama, “Ma, awa gidugo nako, unsaon man ni?” Wa uroy ko nagpalihi, eeww dyud ipahid sa nawong. wa pud ko nag ambak2 pero molakaw ko mura ko nag kiang-kiang. Ning ingon ako classmate, “nganong ingon ana man ka molakaw?” ning hung-hung ko sa iyaha “naa man gud napkin”, gikataw-an man noon ko sa hinampak!

Pila ka adlaw after ato ning tapad si Mama nako nagdala ug papel ug lapis. Huh? mag unsa kaha mi ani, drawingon niya akong nawong. Unsa kaha itsura no? Ning drawing dayon siya ug babayi nag bilangkad, “claire, mao ni buto, kani hymen”, drawing2 siya ug murag grass, magtubuan unya ka ani, kulot ni siya ug modaghan. Drawing pud siya ug oten. “Kani siya mosulod ni siya diha sa bangang” iyang gitudlo ang iyang gidrawing. Kung mosulod ni siya mabuntis ka. “Maghulat dyud ka nga minyo na ka …” wa nako naminaw kay litanya na pud hehehe. Pero wa dyud ko na-igno, ikaw ba kunoy drawingan beh! Plus daghan pa dyud kaau siya ug nursing nga libro so cge ra ko pangukay kun unsa na wet dreams. Ako pa gi imagine sa una kung ma deverginize ko hilantan ko sa kasakit. Abi gani nako mag bike lang or masobra-an ug ballet ballet ma buak ng hymen, tsk! mga tiguwang dyud pataka lang ug tabi.

Kung mangutana ang akong anak, kung gamay pa ingon nako nga naa itlog sa sulod sa tiyan ni mommy, nya naa tadpole si daddy. mag amigo ug amiga ang itlog ug tadpole, hantud nga na porma ka. Ngeks murag sayop man! Kalisod man diay mag-explain sa bata, alangan drawingan pud nako siya, kung 5 years old diay siya mangutana, dili kasabot! Di man pud pwede pakit-on nako siya ug itlog, nya akong lingkoran, di man ko himunga-an! Ay ambot unsaon.. bahala na! Basta kung sakto na siya sa edad akong drawingan pud, paghuman drawing ako patan-awon ug video ug babayi nga nanganak kung babayi kung lalaki akong patan-awon ug picture nga mga std-infected nga pictures. Para dili pataka bilangkad ug panuslok!