Philippine Independence Day 2012

Swe-cha woke up just in time for us to drop by for a quickie visit to this year's Philippine Independence Day celebration at Passaic.

We got there around 6p, not a lot of stalls selling stuff anymore (not sure if there were a lot earlier and we didn't go there to buy anything anyway) but the food stalls were still open. We had good timing too because things were winding down and the food was being sold at lower prices na.

Sago went from $3 to $1 / cup. Combo meals with 2 entrees and a cup of rice went from $7 to $5. Pork or Chicken Barbeque went from $3 to $2.50 per stick. Unfortunately, getting there late also had some drawbacks - for one, I was looking forward to having some bubble tea and when we got there, all the stalls did not have the boba (sago pearls) anymore. I was relieved to not get my bubble tea fix, I really need to lose weight!

We saw Ninang A, Tito S and the gehls, A & A. He chased a squirrel and a few kids on skateboards and a motorized scooter. He was so happy!

We carried Swe-cha while we were at the area of the food stalls, I didn't want him to get accidentally get poked in the eye by a skewer, get spilled on by hot food or accidentally touch a hot plate or cooking surface.

We released him and let him run off on his own when we got to the inner portion of the park. He was so excited about the ducks swimming in this body of water.

I pointed it to him and said "Wow, RIVER. The ducks are swimming in the RIVER." He ignored me - not a surprise anyway - and just kept hopping with excitement while he alternatingly shouted "uck" for duck and "ond" for pond.  Onga naman pala, that is not a river. *bonks head*

Laundry Day

Laundry Day(s) isn't much fun in our house. Armed with only a compact washer and a dryer, and since we have a very active toddler in the house,... well,.. laundry - dirty or clean - tends to pile up. Just to give you an idea, this is what I have in my plate or rather, baskets, right now. Note that when I started, there were 4 baskets and they were all overflowing.

The good news is that these are already washed and dried, the bad news is that since they've been crammed into the baskets instead of folded & hung, most will probably need to be ironed. *sigh*

One more thing to be thankful for is that there is at least one member of our household who enjoys laundry day. It doesn't matter what he may be doing, you just have to turn the washer on and wait... it won't be long before he comes running with his little step stool.

He'll put the stool down in front of the washer...

And he'll watch and observe. He has not tried to put anything in yet, not even his hand. But I'm sure it won't be long before he tries because just this morning, he left his spot for a few seconds and when he came back, he had a toy boat in his hand (but no, he did not put it in the washer yet).

Kweh-A-pe's Train

He loves the train that Kweh-Ape bought for him.

He even sleeps with it! Mommy should've taken a picture of the train when it was nice, new and still whole because now, because it is so well-loved, it's not falling apart. The annoying sound speaker, unfortunately, is still going loud and strong.

Bye!

Thank you for the pasalubong, Tita R.


(this pasalubong was from last year but we found it again while spring cleaning and he's enjoying it all over again)

Escape Artist

You know how escape artists somehow slip out of their clothes & restraints ? Well, this is what Swe-cha has been doing these days.

I guess this is how Houdini got his start =)

My Day - by Swecha

I woke up earlier than usual today and thankfully, we already heard mass yesterday, so we all drove off to Mitsuwa for some brunch (Daddy wanted to check out some magazines at the Japanese bookstore too!).

I wore the Disneyland Micky Mouse hat that A-i gave me for the first time today, I liked it so much, I didn't even think of taking it off in the car.

We love going to Mitsuwa at this time of the day (we usually go on Sundays) as parking is still plentiful and the food court isn't too busy yet. We do not like waiting for a table to become available and Mommy does not like to run after me when I get impatient.

True enough, we got a table immediately after we got to Mitsuwa, we got one of those huge booths out by the window. Mommy and Daddy were so happy.

Daddy went to our favorite fast food place, Kayaba, to put in our order while Mommy stayed behind to guard our table.

I thought that sitting at the table was boring so I ran off to help Daddy - gotta make sure that he gets it right. *smile* We don't want him to forget anything important, especially not my soba. I also want to make sure that Dad gets a few extra drinking cups for me to play with.

Daddy did not forget my cups.

Today, I played "hide the caboose under the cup" with Mommy while we waited for Daddy to come back with my order.

I also got a plastic spoon and pretended to stir something in my cup with the spoon.

This is my favorite and the reason we all come to Mitsuwa.

It's just plain soba in broth but I love it so much. I don't care much for the tofu - Mommy and Daddy eat that - but the noodles are one of my favorite foods.

I love eating them with chopsticks, I always complain because I think Mommy is too slow in feeding me. Today, I almost finished this entire bowl, I left a few strands of noodles behind.

We then went to the Japanese bookstore in the nearby building (same compound as Mitsuwa) and I made Mommy chase me while I circled the entire building (outside) 3 times while Daddy browsed around the magazine section. I love running.

When Mommy was out of breath, she made me go back to where Daddy was and I saw these awesome erasers shaped like a helicopter. Of course, Daddy just had to buy it for me.

I fell asleep in the car while playing with it, I didn't let go of the helicopter at all, not even once!

The 20-minute snooze I took in the car revived me and when we got home, I went out to the upstairs balcony (off of the master's bedroom) and played.

Mommy says that she never realized how much fun I could have in a 3' x 6' outdoor space. She was very happy that they (Mom & Dad) finally put up that net over the balcony rails to make it safe for me to stay there.

When I got tired of running & crawling around the upstairs balcony, I dragged Daddy to the downstairs balcony so I could play with bubbles. Mom stayed upstairs so she could fold laundry and do some vacuuming.

After a while, I got so tired. Dad brought me upstairs and he & mom changed my clothes and wiped me down. They wanted me to take a nap but I showed them! I downed 2 bottles of milk and after that, I felt recharged and was raring to go again!

We decided to let Daddy take a nap today so Mommy let me out to the upstairs balcony and I started running and rolling around it again.

I cannot believe how much fun I have walking around in it. I think it must be the fake grass, I love how it feels when I walk and sit on it.

After around 10 minutes of doing this, I realized that more fun could be had downstairs, I dragged Mommy downstairs again and out into our bigger balcony.

I love using the giant bubble wand to capture bubbles that come out of our bubble machine (Gazillion Bubbles).

I also like to dip it into the bubble solution and then make Mommy blow the bubbles out.

Eventually, I realized that I have not had my daily walk around the neighborhood yet.

We for a walk outside. Mommy made sure that I stayed in the sidewalks.

I walked, ran and played with the toys our neighborhood kids left outside. I found some very small puddles left over from the drizzle we had last night and stomped on them. There wasn't a lot so I didn't get wet at all (Mommy is happy). Then I played inside our car and twiddled with the controls.

Here I am pointing to a weed growing through the cracks on the pavement beside our building and saying, "eaf" (leaf).

Of course, I realized that this was a weed and that it wasn't good for it to be growing against our building so I stomped on it for good measure and then I ran off to play some more.

By this time, we had already been out for an hour and a half and Mommy wanted us to go home and so we did.

I wasn't ready to call it a day yet so we went out to the balcony to play with more bubbles!

I fell asleep in my high chair during dinner. Mom says this is the earliest I've ever gone to bed.

- Swe-cha

Sticker

Today, Swe-cha came home with a Sponge Bob sticker on his shirt.

He didn't really care much about it but seeing him come home with a sticker pulled at my heartstrings and I look forward to the day when he'd be wanting to have a sticker to bring home already :)

First haircut of 2012

We took Swe-cha to the kiddie salon this morning for his first haircut of 2012.

He was still uncooperative and it was a struggle for everybody to keep him in place. My favorite part was when his haircutter asked him "don't you like me ?" and he vehemently shook his head. Everybody - 2 other hair cutters and 4 parents - laughed and yes, they were all looking at us.

Not surprisingly, there are parts of his hair that still seem a bit crooked. Thankfully, it's not as crooked as the last time.

Daddy is not too happy about how Swe-cha's hair turned out. He thinks it's too short and I keep explaining that with a struggling toddler, there was no way that I was going to permit scissors near him so there's really no choice.

As I look at his before and after pics, I realize that we really shouldn't be waiting this long between haircuts.

Muddy

Swe-cha had fever all night and this whole day so I decided to keep him home with me.

He ruined 2 pairs of shoes today. The first pair in the morning when he went & played in the puddles - even sitting IN the middle of the puddle towards the end, this was when I decided to bring him back inside.

The 2nd pair, he ruined when he played in yet another puddle this afternoon. Unfortunately, the puddle was muddy this time! I didn't realize that I'd be thanking my stars that the puddle he played in this morning was clean rainwater. Washup was easy, at the very least.

Here he is, after his bath.

Start 'em young

Our old swiffer is disintegrating.

Yes, disintegrating. The rubber surface is slowly crumbling and well, it needs to be replaced. I put it out near the door so we could throw it out w/ the garbage on our next trip to the trash chute.

Swe-cha took it and started sweeping. I was surprised, I don't remember ever using it before with him around. But hey, I guess this just means that the swiffer's design is really intuitive.

All done!

Binata

Kids do grow up fast. Just this morning, I found an old picture of Swe-cha taken last June and I was surprised to realize how much he has changed in less than 2 months.

Check out these 2 pictures, the first was taken in mid-June while the 2nd was taken in early August.


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edit: on second thought, could it just be the clothes ? his face still looks the same.

St Andrew's Carnival

After hearing mass this afternoon, we brought Swe-cha to our church's carnival.

The little boy was so excited and couldn't decide where to go. He kept pointing and wanting to get on many rides but, unfortunately, the minimum height to get on any ride was 36" (even w/ an adult companion) and we're nowhere close to that yet.

Mommy and Daddy kept waiting (mostly, Mommy) for Father Rich's Funnel Cakes but it was taking so long to heat up the fryers. Eventually, we just shared an order of eggplant parmesan w/ pasta and left to pick up our Japanese takeout from Nizi (we had already called in our orders earlier).

Swe-cha did get to take home a yellow balloon from the pediatric dentists' booth. They were one of the sponsors and we dropped by to get some info (we're bringing the little guy to get his teeth checked one of these days,... shhhh!).

Happy siya and kept playing w/ the balloon, he'd run up and down the hallway at home while holding on to the balloon string - sort of like pulling a kite.

And, yes, for those who are wondering... he just got a haircut this morning. And, yes again, he still screamed and fought and kicked and did everything he could to get away. He screamed and cried so loud that he upset all the other kids who were sitting calmly, having their hair trimmed, and it wasn't long before everyone else started crying one by one too. The other customers who had just brought their kids in decided to take their toddlers & just wait outside (haha!).

I had printed out a $2 off coupon earlier from the haircutter's website but after that ordeal, na-shy naman kami to use the coupon. :P

Play yard

So the question was that after we replaced Swe-cha's playyard with a new and bigger one (well, specifically, the new play yard set is a few inches taller than this old one and since we used 2 sets, it also covers a wider area), what did we do with the old one ?

We divided it into 2 lengths of 3 panels each and used these to fence off our 2 computer tables (hubby's and mine).

While setting up the panels, Swe-cha had a lot of fun pretending that this is a play gym.

He walked on it - he loved the feel of the fencing area on his bare feet and we don't really know why - and folded it, stepped on it some more, unfolded it.

He pretended that it was a tent and climbed inside.

At the Park

We brought Swe-cha to the spray park this weekend. (Thank you Ninang A for the directions, ang lapit lang! and I do know this playground, I didn't know that there were water sprays available too!)

I put him down on the ground in front of the water sprays, he didn't want to go near. I thought it was because he was not used to walking in his flip flops, so I took them off and put him down on the ground again, he didn't want to move.

So I carried him and *then* he wanted to touch & play with the water. Turns out that the water was so cold! I wonder how those kids playing in the back fared ? They were soaking wet and they were wearing their street clothes! I hope they brought a change of clothes.

It wasn't long before the water was turned off. Sunset na pala so we went to the other play areas. Swe-cha didn't like the swing.

But he liked the slide so he played on the slides with Mommy. We managed to get a few video clips but the stills came out blurred.

Check out his little tongue, his tongue comes out when he slides down.

He also liked to defy gravity by climbing up the slide - not easy considering that he was wearing flip flops.

I should remember to bring a pair of sneakers when we go there the next time so we have footwear that is appropriate for the activity that Swe-cha prefers.

When he got tired of the slide and the play gym, he walked around and around the pavilion while looking up at the sky.

He ignored our calls and pretty much pretended that he was walking around by himself - hmm, I hope this is not a preview of how he will be when he is a teenager.

He probably just does not want the pretty girls to think that he's there with is parents. Big boy na eh.

He ended the day by painstakingly picking up the mulch one piece at a time and then dropping them into the little holes on the steps of the play gym. (He's been doing this exact same thing at every playground that we visit).

When it was time to go home, he fought us tooth and nail (literally, I still have the scratches). He enjoyed his time at the playground and we did too - I was happy to be in a place where i could just let him roam and walk around without worry about him getting run over by passing cars (which I do when we walk around in our compound in the afternoon).

...

and yes, his hair is getting long. He needs a haircut. :)

Bath time

Bath times are fun times in our household. Always!

For starters, we like playing with the Yookidoo. It comes with 3 stackable boats, and 3 characters that look like Pac-man ghosts. They either spin around or have holes in them where water comes out when you turn the Yookidoo on.

This stopped working a month ago but Daddy did great today and managed to fix it! It turns out that hard water buildup froze the motor, he took care of that with some cleaning and oil.

We also survived the month without the Yookidoo by just playing with water. Swe-cha's favorite bath toy is the pirate duckie from Tita R last Halloween but he also likes to bring pretty much anything that shouldn't get wet into the tub such as his wooden Thomas train, his metal hotwheels, his soiled diaper,... you get the drift :)

He likes to make Daddy put his hand on the spout & divert the water so that it sprays all over him.

If all else fails, Swe-cha also likes to pull the whale spout cover & will let the whale swim in the tub with him.

Swe-cha also likes to rinse. He'll choose a water container (tabo in Filipino) and will pour water over himself while saying "aaaaah!".

He likes to pour water over Daddy (sitting behind him) and sometimes, would also pour water over Mommy who is supposed to remain dry while she is seated on a stool just beside the tub.

This is the part where both Daddy and Mommy are supposed to pay attention, otherwise, Swe-cha will also try to pour water out onto the floor - fun for him, but *not* fun for Daddy/Mommy!

Poopy face

This is Daddy's face when he changes Swe-cha's poopy-diapers.

Hindi drama yan, he's always like that and I don't blame him, our little one can sure make 'em really smelly!

Happiest Place on Earth

is Home Depot ... for now :)

This afternoon, we dropped by Home Depot to pick up some supplies - the water level assembly in our 2nd upstairs toilet is leaking and the door knob in the master bath keeps sticking.

And, well, if you've been following our blog, you know how crazy our little boy is about wheels. He was already very happy when I let him walk in the aisles (when there were no carts and dangerous tools like hammers and axes around) but I wish I was able to capture the way that his face lit up when he got to the casters and wheels section and saw all these goodies.

He immediately got one caster, laid it on the floor and started turning the wheel. There were casters and wheels of all sizes! He couldn't decide which one to get.

Then, he walked over to where Daddy was eyeing the toolsets and of course, he wanted to check those out too.

He liked the toolsets so much, he climbed on top of them and didn't want to leave.

Chismoso

Swe-cha had just finished his meal and was still in his high chair, reading a book, when he heard Daddy use the ice shaver....

Of course, my curious toddler just had to see what was going on.