Growing Up With Freddy

A couple of weeks ago our little boy's child care center had a teddy bear picnic. The kids were encouraged to bring their teddy bears to child care so they can share stories about the bears they bring and where they came from. Of course, when I heard about it there was only one bear that our boy could bring, Freddy the Bear.

Freddy was a gift from my mother to our little girl. I'm not sure why she named her Freddy but I think it's just so it rhymes with Teddy. Over the years, Freddy had gotten his own wardrobe and at one stage was always our daughter's sleeping companion. But the one reason that Freddy is so memorable is because the Freddy the Bear was no bigger than our little boy when he first came home, and we had the pictures to prove it.


Our Boy circa 2003


Our Boy circa 2007

Kid Funnies Part 19

Some nights we'd forgo reading in bed with the kids and we'd just make up stories. It's interesting how kids develop their own sense of humor as my daughter began making up her own story. It was a story about a lost stuffed teddy bear, and how someone found it and brought it to a picnic.

She tells us how the bear ended up eating all the left overs of the picnic and couldn't eat anymore. "And do you know why stuffed animals can't eat so much?", she asks. "Because they're already stuffed!, she laughs as she delivers the punch line.

Geek Weekend

Last weekend was a geek weekend for me. I finally got my home network setup the way I wanted it. I've left 2 computers in the bedroom/study, the G3 iMac and the Macbook Pro attached to the broadband modem/router. I had to extend the range of the wi-fi with a wireless network extender so it could reach to the other end of the house where I put the iMac G5 with its brand new Airport Express wireless card.

I had to ditch the USB wi-fi dongle that I initially bought for the iMac G5 because it would intermittently drop out. I can reset the connection by reseating the device but I couldn't find a permanent solution. I had that set up for a few weeks, did all the necessary things like update drivers etc but no go. I finally bit the bullet and purchased an Airport Extreme wireless card ( the original iMac G5's didn't come with one ) and installed it easily enough.

The USB device was put to good use because the next day, I helped set up our good friends' new broadband connection and wireless network. Their laptop didn't have a wireless card so the USB dongle fit the bill perfectly. At any rate, I was helping them set it up we made a day of it our kids playing together and us staying for lunch and dinner. In the end I got to get their 3 computers set up for networking and on the internet. I even got to upgrade one of their Windows 98 computers to Windows XP. Yup, all in good geeky fun.

Easter 2007

Happy Easter! It's Easter weekend again and our Easter celebrations started last night with the vigil mass at our local parish church. Normally the Easter masses are a bit solemn so I had to remind the kids this time to be serious and they did try their best to listen to the readings and even tried to sing along to some of the hymns. Our little girl already knows a lot about Easter and why we celebrate it so she was keen to listen to a lot of the readings. The boy however took a little bit of coaxing to keep still and listen attentively but he did his best. At the end of the mass the priest brought out a basket of chocolate Easter eggs to the delight of all the kids there.

This morning, we had a mini Easter egg hunt at home. The wife and I hid little yellow chicks throughout our backyard and around the house and we asked the kids to look for all of them. We promised that if the found all the chicks that they'd get their surprises. It didn't take long and they found all the chicks we hid ( with a little bit of help, of course ) and they got more chocolates and sweets from us this time.

Our good friends came calling at lunch time and we had a small lunch at home. The day turned out to be a balmy 27ºC so, being as spontaneous as we are, we all packed up and visited the beach! Thinking that it would be too cold to actually go down to the water, I thought the kids wouldn't need any of their swim suits. Boy, was I wrong! At first I thought I'd just fold their pants up so they can wade in the water but no sooner have they dipped a toe in when they sat on the water and started picking shells. It didn't take long for our boy to strip down to his jocks and running around in and out of the water. The little girl followed suit and they had a fun time just jumping and playing in the water.



We spent the Easter Sunday afternoon strolling on the beach, playing at the playground near the beach and having some ice creams and chips at the kiosk. It was as close as we could get to a Easter Sunday beach excursion that's so typical of Philippine Holy Week holidays. Our Easter pictures here. enjoy!

April Fools Day and a Picnic

Not that anyone pranked us or anything but we did spend a nice Sunday afternoon in the park with old and new friends. Our old friends organized a little picnic with a few Pinoy families who've recently moved to South Australia. It was good to meet them and I'm even quite happy that a couple of them even came from my old alma mater.

Probably a few years ago, Filipinos migrating to Australia and South Australia in particular would have been, if not rare at least unusual as the US seemed to be the destination of choice of many Filipinos. People with family in the US always had it as the first destination when migrating from the Philippines. It seems nowadays with Australia's skills shortage, we get more and more new migrants coming into the country, Filipinos included.

It's quite good to see the Filipino community growing here with more skilled migrants. Australia seems to need them.

2007 Philippine Blog Awards

This is interesting. Looks like someone nominated our little blog to the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards. Not that we made it to be one of the finalists or anything but we were one of the nominees in the Home and Living category.

Whoever took the time to nominate us our thanks and we're pretty flattered. So, fess up whoever you are! :)

Weekend Madness

Actually, it started last week. Our girl woke up in the middle of Wednesday night all distressed from a tummy ache. It was very bad leading up to the weekend. She threw up a couple of times and was generally uncomfortable and in pain. We thought it was gastroenteritis and went we went to the doctor on Friday that's what he thought too. He had us go for an x-ray just to be sure. There wasn't really much to see as it just seemed to be a lot of stomach gas there so there was nothing much the doctor could prescribe except to tell us just to give her bland food and lay off on the dairy.

At any rate, Saturday was a quiet one as we just let her rest. We tried to give her some antacid to counteract the gas pains but it seemed to have no effect as she was still very much in distress and couldn't even sleep straight through the night. On Sunday, we thought she was all better because she woke up all alert and almost better. We tried having lunch out but the tummy pain started again and we went back home to let her rest up. We tried to put her down for a nap but she was now writhing and crying out in pain. Being a Sunday, we had no choice but to bring her to the emergency room again. This time around, her mom stayed with her in the ER while I just stayed with the boy at home.

I took a while but they were finally seen by a doctor probably after 4 hours. It wasn't a long diagnosis as she diagnosed constipation and gas. The doctor suggested an enema and sent her home. The boy and I went back to the hospital to pick the girls up but we ended up waiting some more. The enema didn't take long at all but we had to wait for a room with a toilet became available in the short stay ward. After that she did seem quite better and was able to walk out of the hospital on her own.

We thought that was the end of it but when she woke up on Monday morning the tummy pain was still there. We were really worried that this was still happening as normally she would be all better after the trip to the ER. At any rate, she did throw up yesterday morning but after that, she got progressively better. In fact, by the time I was home yesterday she was well and truly back to normal.

She was raring to go back to school last night so today, she had her first day back at school since she got sick. Of course we were still a little worried that she wasn't going to be up to it but after picking her up this afternoon she was quite OK and much better.

Right now, I'm typing this in the kids bedroom. She's still quite chatty and obviously still wide awake but I'm just glad she's all better. Lessons learned this time around: we're making sure that she goes to the toilet on a regular basis. We even bought the enema suppositories just to make sure that she doesn't hold it in for too long next time.

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Oh, and last weekend the wife and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. How's that for a celebration. Curiously enough, the number seven seemed to follow us on the weekend. Our table number when we had lunch out was 7 as well as the ward number we waited on in the hospital. Oh well, hope the rest of the year would be luckier...

Picnic Party

We celebrated our boy's birthday with a little picnic party with friends. We had it at the Burnside Adventure Park which was a great park to bring the kids to. It had new play equipment, a giant spiderweb climbing thing, and wide open spaces. Adelaide has a lot of little gems of parklands just perfect for outings and get-togethers like this. Needless to say, our kids had fun at this park and looked forward to visiting it again.







Just the other week we ended up at Thorndon Park Reserve with its magnificent reservoir views and large and cool, tree shaded picnic spots. We discovered these parks from a website called Kidding About. I'm looking forward to going to many of these other playgrounds touted as the "best playgrounds in Adelaide."

Guess Who's Birthday?

Our little boy turned 4 today. It's been a long time coming because he has been diligently crossing out the days on the calendar since last month. It's sort of become a birthday tradition with us to have the kids open their presents from us first thing in the morning when they wake up. This time around instead of one big present chose to give him a number of small presents from us and from relatives.

It was great to see his eyes light up when he saw all those presents in the laundry basket. I guess he didn't expect that many presents so early in the morning. We had to get a present for the big sister too since she helped us pick out her brother's presents and keep it a surprise. After the boy opened up his presents, when we asked him what he wanted to play with first, he pointed to his sister's present and said, "That one!".

Of course, the grandparents called him up to send their wishes. We haven't planned a birthday party for today but we'll have friends together for a picnic over the weekend to celebrate. At any rate, the boy and his mom spent the day watching the Disney movie Cars on DVD while they played with the many toy cars he got. He's still excited and proud to proclaim himself the birthday boy even when he as about to go sleep tonight.

Photo Booth Pictures

Just clowning around with Photo Booth. It's a photo application that comes free with my new computer. :)

Box Car Racing at School

Since Adelaide recenly held the Clipsal races, our little girl's school decided to have a box car race among the younger students. First, they were asked to bring some carton boxes to school a week ago. Next, they were asked to decorate them with their names, sponsor labels of popular car products ( eg. mobil, bridgestone, NEC). And then they were divided into two teams: Holden and Ford.

The day of the races came on Monday morning, it was a bit chilly at 20 degrees and the school grounds were a bit damp. But that did not dampen the spirits of all the race participants (kids) and the raging fans (parents and teachers). The race course was set up on the entire field with plastic cones. First up were the girls in the Holden team, and then the Ford team, then the boys came.



When Bianca's race was up, hubby and I eagerly cheered her on at the starting line. As I was still sick, I tried so hard to shout and cheer on my little girl. And off they went from the starting line with a wave of the flag, she was leading for the first 5 metres .... and then she fell down. With a little encouragement, she got up and continued the race. She fell down a couple more times but it did not bother her, she just got up again. By the time she finished the first lap, she was obviously tired and decided to walk the rest of the race with another friend. They looked like they were having a stroll in the park and having a nice chat! She only picked up the pace when she was told that the 2nd lap was the last lap, and ran to the finish line .... proudly taking the second to the last place!




At the end of the race, hubby was saying "This was just too much fun .... even for me!". When she came home from school that day, she talked about the races with so much excitement. I noticed it did not bother her that she finished nearly last in the race, all she knows is that it was so much fun. She was so proud of the certificate she got that said she was 18th place out of 19 participants. And if she fell down, all she has to do was get up and move on. To me, that sounds like a good attitude to have so early in life, right?

Cars and Kids

After months of planning, and a few test drives, we've got ourselves a new car. We traded in our old one which has served as well for the past seven years for a Hyundai Tucson City. Say what you will about Hyundai but we think it's great value for money and with a 5 years, 100,000 km. warranty, we think it will serve as well for a long time too. We haven't done a long drive yet but we really should if so we can break in the car.

Boy and girl were, of course, very excited. Almost every weekend now for the past several weeks they've been asking us when we were going to get the new car. We took delivery of the car just in time for the last weekend and we promptly took it around for a spin. No need really to get into a car review but suffice to say that we liked the whole experience.

The boy just loved the power windows in the back seat. The girl likes the extra cup holders and the separate openable rear glass. We're happy as long as they are... ;)

New Walls

What a busy week this has been! I said that when the new floor came in that our walls looked a bit tired and needed a little spruce up. Well, over the last few days we went ahead and did it and gave our living room walls a fresh coat of paint.

One of the hardest tasks to do before we even started was deciding on a colour. I guess the wife and I didn't really want too much of a dark colour as we felt it wouldn't look too good at night and we had to be sure that it went well with the colour scheme we already had with our blinds. We went and chose a selection of light greens and blues and finally deciding on a light blue colour called Angora Blue.

My wife scoured the internet for some DIY guides and found some handy tips from Bunnings where we eventually bought all our supplies: plastic sheets, rollers, brushes, paint tray etc. We had to prep our walls by cleaning them with sugar soap which the kids were only most enthusiastic to do. I let them to it because once we started painting it wouldn't be a good idea to put house paint and kids in the same room together.

At any rate, once we had our walls cleaned and prepped, it was almost a simple matter of using the roller brushes. It took a couple of coats but the results were good enough. Of course, we're not professional painters and there are blemishes here and there but it was our first attempt at a DIY/renovation thing and I dare say it's not half bad. Ok, ok, if you see a few errant paint marks here and there that would be my handiwork, not my wife's.

Valentine's Day

This year we didn't really fall into the Valentine's day trap of overpriced flowers and chocolates. Fact of the matter is, our little boy went into a full blown tantrum this afternoon when we picked him up from daycare. He insisted on going out to eat as we sometimes do when we're too tired too cook. We didn't have plans on going out as we wanted to go straight home. He didn't quite like it and didn't want to take no for an answer. All the way home he was bawling his eyes out and kicking his legs against the back of the front seat. He was screaming and carrying on and when we reached home, I had to carry him to force him out of the car.

It took a good while before he got to calm down again but not without a lot of raised voices and threats of putting him into the "naughty" corner. In the end, we got him to quiet down after we explained that we couldn't go out to eat all the time. He said his apologies to me, his mom and his sister for spoiling what was otherwise a calm Valentine's day for us. A few minutes later, he was all smiling and laughing as he played with his sister and had himself a cookie or three. Now, he's happily snoring away in dreamland.

He doesn't do tantrums very often but when he does, it's a real doozy.

Keeping Up With Blogging

I know I said I'd be posting about some of our trip to the Gold Coast but since we've got back I've been finding it hard to sit down in front of the computer and just write. I don't know, could be we've just been too busy at home and work. When we got home, it was already our daughter's first week at Year 1, and my wife has started regular work as well so we're all getting used to the new routine. On days that my wife works, she leaves home early so we get the kids ready for school first and as my wife leaves for work, it's up to me to bring the kids to school and daycare. We pick them both up together at the end of the day and head for home for dinner or sometimes just eat out when we're feeling particularly tired.

At any rate, with the new flooring, we've also noticed that our lounge walls are looking a bit tired so we're now contemplating painting the walls as well. So we've been occupied looking at paint colours as well as finding a right time to do it. Ah, well, real life catches up for the moment and I hope to resume my regular posting schedule soon.

Gold Coast 2007

We just spent a nice 5 day vacation up in the Gold Coast in Queensland. We usually take our holidays going back to the Philippines but this time we thought it would be a real treat for the kids to see some of the theme parks here in Australia and also we parents thought it wouldn't be as hectic as going back to the Philippines. We thought it would be nice to go on a "real" holiday for a change.

The hotel we stayed in was voted best resort hotel for families in a poll conducted last year so we really had high expectations of it. However, our first impressions were quite dashed when we saw our room. It wasn't exactly what we pictured in the brochure but we tried to make the best of it. The rest of the resort, thankfully, was up to par. It had 4 swimming pools with a small water slide and even a hot spa. The resort catered for the kids with an adventure playground and even a Kids Zone where parents can drop their kids off for a couple of hours.

Except for the swimming pools ( and the buffet breakfast! ) , we didn't take advantage of most of the resorts amenities. We had quite a full schedule. The day after arriving, we went to Warner Brothers Movie World, the next day we visited the beach at Surfer's Paradise. The 4th day we went to Dreamworld, another theme park, and had a day of shopping on our last day.

I'll try to post about our theme park adventures next time. I've put up some pictures in our Flickr site just to show how tiring it was!

Click on picture below to do a slide show of the pictures we took.

Just Got Back

There's a reason for not having posted this week: we just got back from our short holiday in the Gold Coast in Queensland. Now, we're all back to reality! It was a fun few days of swimming, theme parks and eating. I'll post some more later but suffice to say we all had a good time and are now thoroughly tanned. :)

New Floor

Ever since we've learned about our boy's allergies, we've been trying to find ways to keep our house allergen free. Stuff like replacing the drapes with blinds, or just taking peanut butter out of the pantry. Yesterday, we went and got rid of the biggest dust catcher in our home: the carpet.

These past few weeks have been sort of hectic as we prepared the house. We cleared out the garage and moved furniture around. The other day, our good friends came over and helped us move the bigger pieces of furniture and helped us rip out the carpet. Yesterday, the tradies delivered and installed the floating floorboards in a day. There's still some carpeting to trim today but otherwise they did a good job of it.

Now, this is the first time our floor has been really clean since we've moved!

At The Mall

Kids enjoying their smoothies. One way to spend a hot summer's day.

The High Cost of Holidays

A few days ago I got a text message saying that my brother was in hospital. I tried to call him as soon as I could and although it was worrying at first, I was just glad to hear from him in good spirits. Well, apparently his blood sugar got way too high which causes this particular episode. Yup, the holiday feasts have caught up. He's a full fledged diabetic already and from now on I think he's going to live like one. That means healthy living and the daily insulin shot.

He's hopefully doing well now and taking as much rest as possible. I've always heard that doctors make the worst patients so I know his doctor ( and our good neighbors and friends ) will probably have their hands full just making sure my brother is not being too buluyagon with his health. :)

Take care for now 'bro. Get some sleep. I'll check up on you soon.