Since May is bike to work month, I decided to bike to work today!!! Yes, this is a big deal. If you know me well enough, and if you know where I live and work you will agree with me that this is indeed a big deal. Okay, for those who don’t, I live in Union City and work in Mountain View which is probably about 18 miles. My odometer’s battery died so I had no way to confirm but that was what Mapquest said.

I started off around 7:05am and got to the office around 9:28am. The whole 2 and 1/2 hours I was questioning whether I can do this. I mentioned to a couple of my coworkers yesterday that I was planning to bike to work today and they looked at me like what the heck am I thinking. Thanks for the vote of confidence (sarcastic) by the way (actually thanks for keeping it real).

The ride to get to Dumbarton bridge took me about 45 minutes. If it wasn’t depressing enough, there were several road bikers passing me every 5 minutes and I see them getting tinier in my view. I was on a mountain bike, maybe that’s why I am slower than most of them. Yeah I am just rationalizing hehehe well I have not biked in probably about a year now and have not had any exercise in about a couple of months, so what can I expect.

As I got into the bridge, it was actually scarier than I expected. When big trucks pass by swiftly, dust and small pieces of sharp objects fly by. So it is really important to be wearing sunglasses. The wind was blowing so hard and since the wind was from the bay it was cold wind blowing. This may probably be a bit of an exagerration but it kinda felt like Dumb and Dumber driving up to Aspen in a stupid Vespa.

The incline was too hard for me so 3/4 to the peak I just stepped down and walked my bike. There was a “fellow” biker who stopped and asked if I was okay. I guess it is valid to call her a fellow biker even if I just did this today? :-) Oh shut it.

Anyway, it was really hard. There were several times that I imagined myself like I was in the desert imagining a mirage and passing out from just extreme tiredness. But it was so worth it. Whether I am gonna try and do it again? I’m still contemplating. It is probably easier or more fun if I had company. Anybody interested? ;-)

Some biking essentials:
- a trusty pair of sunglasses that will not just fall off – it is not only helpful in preventing direct sunlight but also can protect your eyes from dust and objects that may be flying around

- a pair of gloves – believe me this prevents your hands from being strained too much

- at least 2 bottles of water – I only used 1 but it is better to be safe than sorry

- a small back pack that can carry some important items like cellphone, wallet, keys etc – keep this light, I left my change of clothes in the office the day before

- know your route and figure out other alternative routes if any

I will most likely be taking Ibuprofen tablets tonight. I still need to get through the rest of the week.

We did not take Carl to school for a whole week when he got sick 4 weeks ago which broke his rhythm. We’ve finally got him into the habit finally after 4 months, no more crying finally. But after his time off from school, looks like we are back to square one. By the way, I was seriously thinking for a while maybe it is too early or that maybe he is not yet ready to go to school because of this but everytime we visit or pick him up he seems okay. He plays with the kids and he seems happy when we watch him from afar. We try to hide sometimes so we can watch how he’s doing and he seems happy. Anyway,  I just find it funny now that he will come up with ways so we will let him not go to school.

The first thing he tried was crying. He cried and cried until we said ok, no school that day which let to a promise that we will get him a surprise from ToysRUs if he agrees to go to school. Okay, so we did that for 2 days and it worked — the reward/bribery system did get him to go to school. Okay so we thought, long term this may not be good. Bobby and I did not grow up with a materialistic lifestyle, not by choice because our families were not that well off to say the least. But really getting something nice like a Barbie doll or a bike is something we’d get probably once in our childhood if we behaved, did well and of course if our parents had the money to spend for it.  Kids these days are so lucky. They get tons of toys on Christmases and birthdays and sometimes I feel it is a bit too much.

Anyway, so the crying continues. We still haven’t figured out a new strategy that would work.

But today, Bobby called me and said that Carl has a new tactic. He was pretending to be asleep just so he doesn’t have to go to school. It didn’t work anyway, Bobby kinda figured Carl was acting. Sound familiar Ate Kamille? hehehe Kamille used to pretend she is asleep just so she doesn’t have to go down the car to do grocery shopping. I would have to tell Bob I need to stay in the car to watch the kids since Kamille’s asleep. The moment Bob gets off the car Kamille starts snickering.

Anyway, just found it hilarious to share what kids would do to get out of anything…this is like a chess game. You need to be many moves ahead.

Was chatting with Carl last night around 9:30pm…I was prepping him that he has school today…he looked at me worried and was about to cry…he got sick 2 weeks ago and we did not take him to school for a whole week which broke his momentum on getting used to going to school…he’s crying again when we leave him but not as bad as it was in the beginning…so anyway, I told him “Carl, you’re going to school tomorrow, ok?”. He cried a little bit, and I told him, “no, not till tomorrow” then he replied ”School to the Ati?” Ati is his cousin Kathleen who luckily goes to the same school…then he started mumbling that his Ati was not in school…they went to DC last week so maybe he remembers she wasn’t there…I assured him she will be there today…but he kept mumbling the same thing over and over…he was sitting leaning on me and finally I noticed his eyes was drooping…he fell asleep chatting with me!!! Anyway, I kinda feel excited…now I have someone new to chat with. :-)

For someone who is not a boxing fan, I think I have spent long hours on the web over the weekend scouring for articles about how great the fight went trying to educate myself as to what really is the big deal and what am I along with every single Filipino is celebrating. To my dismay, I found more articles around how Philippines has been celebrating Pacquiao’s win despite the disasters brought about by the recent storms. Which I found odd because around the time the flooding happened, there wasn’t a lot of articles talking about the disasters except mostly those mentioned in Philippine news and articles.
Okay, that may not be a 100% true, there were some articles that did highlight Pacquiao’s win. And Yahoo Sports in fact had him in the headline for a little while. It just feels a little down-played. With his fight with Dela Hoya, most search articles rendered features about Dela Hoya and very mentions on Pacquiao. ESPN also had an article briefly on the homepage but it was gone after the Patriots lost to the Colts. What an upset that was by the way. I also checked CNN whose sports section goes to Sports Illustrated (SI.com) and it is nowhere in the headlines. I finally found something in the MMA/Boxing section and the article is now talking about the fight with Mayweather. Give the guy a break.
I guess I was expecting something bigger this time. After all, it was an incredible fight. I think everyone will agree to that. Just found it weird that most boxing greats lists (though they are from 2007 and 2008) doesn’t even include Manny. What a shame. I guess it usually about the heavyweights or so I heard. But Pacquiao is now the only one to have 7 titles in 7 divisions, that’s gotta count for something. At the same time, he has brought back the excitement in boxing to the times of Ali and Frazier and the other boxing greats when boxing was exciting to watch.
About the singing, let me put it this way, I understand where Pacquiao is coming from. He wants to make his fellow countrymen happy. He wants the Filipino people to have something to be happy about despite the disasters, the economy etc. And he has every right to do whatever he wants, yeah he’s earned it. But at this point in his career, being one of the greatest boxers of all time — greatest athletes even — he needs to be careful around treading the lines of ridicule.  And I say that with utmost respect to his talent and personality.

With regards to his political aspirations, there is nothing wrong with his desire to help his ailing country. I think that it is noble and that he may just be incorruptible to a point which is pretty much what you want in a political candidate. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Vice President and President, really? I do fear that if he ran for office at this level, that he may actually win. You want to have people who have the knowledge and experience to lead the country. I’m just glad that the Constitution protects us from this technicality. The age requirement is 40 years old for both Vice President and President (Article VII Section 2), thank God for the people before us.  So whew!  If in 10 years he still has that desire at heart, and the nation wants him to lead the country then that’ll be a different story.
I read an article about how generous he is “to a fault” giving away $800,000 worth of tickets to family and friends. I just hope that he takes some financial advice from people who really care about him. Though his earnings are huge, it only matters as much as to how much you keep spending. Take Michael Jackson for example, how can he die with so much debt. To me it is unfathomable, but it has happened.
Don’t take this as a sports article deboning the fight, coz as I mentioned earlier, I  am no boxing fan, still isn’t. But I am a fan of Pacquiao. We’re proud of you Manny!!!

What I really want to do… These past few weeks, I’ve been crazily into Facebook games like Farm Town and Farm Ville. Yeah I know, I am pretty much late joining the bandwagon, but what the heck. What was supposed to be a time of relaxation has turned into some tedious labor of harvesting and seeding…yeah laugh if you want, that was what I felt hearing my friends talking about grapes being ready and they have to go and harvest now or else. At first, I wasn’t really interested…with a 2 year old kid and a husband who works nights, there really isn’t a lot of free time, but once I got hooked, I could no longer remember why I was spending all those wee hours past midnight trying to get a harvesting or plowing job in the marketplace. Anyway, that’s when I realized, gosh…I probably had time to do things I really want to do. So now I thought hard what it is I really want, here’s a short list (at least for now): 1.     Read more books — I was never a book worm, back in school I only read if it was a requirement, and I detested it like it was a chore. But now I really love it. Here’s a few I’d like to queue:

a.     Glenn Beck’s Common Sense
b.     P.J. O’Rourke’s Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People I thoroughly enjoyed Judith Martin’s Miss Manners but thought some of it is a little bit traditional might be interesting to see if some has changed in modern times
c.     Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers
d.     “Alice Schroeder’s The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life” I really disliked “Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and I’m quite hopeful about this one
e.     “Mike Dooley’s Infinite Possibilities: The Art of Living your Dreams” really loved Prof. Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture and I saw some good reviews about this one, hopefully it’s as uplifting
f.      Finish “Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga” though very mushy, I’m quite curious how it turns out. My niece Kamille who is in 4^th grade has been asking me what “mushy” means, funny how she is well ahead of me in the reading the series.

2.     Read Carl more books — I want him to love reading…right now he is addicted to Thomas and Friends, he can name all the trains from watching his DVDs. I’d love him to love reading as well.

3.     Learn new recipes and perfect old ones — I  love cooking and baking, by the way, I said I “love” it, I didn’t say I am good at it hahaha…I grew up seeing my mom whip up the best meals out of nothing. I remember her making yummy churros on stormy days and all she used was flour, salt, water, sugar and oil. I wish I could say I am like her in terms of being a magician chef, but not really, it’s been a hit or miss especially in my baking. I’ve been slightly disappointed recently with my previous attempts in making brownies that turned out bad. My record is probably 4 successes out of 6 attempts when I did things exactly the same. Not sure what went wrong. Anyway, I still am hoping I can do better on my next attempts just laying low for now and let myself forget my disappointment J I love making fresh pasta and so far that has been pretty satisfying, but I can’t cook pasta often enough, we’re still rice people. Pasta has been my interest after being disappointed at the results of my bread making.  So far I’ve made lasagna and linguini and I love the textural difference from dried pasta.

4.     Take care of our plants — by taking care I mean, really caring for it and make it live — for some people this is a relaxing hobby. For me this is plainly stressful. I love having plants in the house — I really HATE plastic flowers. I think it is tacky and collects a lot of dust which is not good when everyone in the house has allergies. But the idea of it has been brought up by Bobby due to my lack of a green thumb. Yes, it’s that bad. Our plants only live because Bobby takes care of them. I’ve murdered different kinds of plants at home, maybe my next try can be a cactus

5.     Go to the Library more often

6.     Finish my cross-stitching projects, I know it’s no longer a cool hobby but I really find it relaxing, different folks, different interests I guess. I have a few projects I started several years back and I want to be able to finish some of them.

7.     Finish a scrapbook for Carl. The last finished scrapbook I have is from when I visited my brother in the US back in 1999. I haven’t even finished our wedding scrapbook. Oh maybe I’ll do that first. My problem is that I over think it. But the quality of the scrapbook is also enhanced by its spontaneity so I guess I’ll just do it with the first ideas that come to mind.

8.     Finish my list one item at a time.

9.     Add new items in my things I want to do.

10.  Enjoy life the best I could.

The last time Bobby and I went to the movies was 2 years ago, it was the week before I went into labor. We watched Ocean’s Thirteen.  We’re so excited to finally take Carl to his first big screen experience so we picked Disney Pixar’s Up. The movie was great. And to our great surprise he actually was very well behaved in the whole ~2 hours! He was so engrossed watching that we even have to remind him to blink cause then otherwise his eyes get all watery from staring at the screen.  

We went to the United Artist Theaters in Elk Grove and to my amazement, the food was so expensive! Has it always been this expensive? I could remember Bobby and I went pretty frequently. How could we have afforded it? How can anyone afford it?  We went Matinee which made the cost of the movie cheaper than going in the evening. The line on the food was fairly long and the cashier where we lined up was pretty slow so I couldn’t help but pay attention to what the people in front of us was ordering and can’t help but overhear what the dad and the kids behind me wanted to order.  

In front of me was a mom with 2 kids ordering a bucket of popcorn and a couple of kids meals which pretty much contained popcorn, a mini M&M pack and a small soda. Their bill was $30.25. Can you believe it, for popcorn and soda? The family behind me had 3 kids, each of which I heard wanted kids meals and a big pack of candy. I wouldn’t even try to know how much they paid. I got one medium popcorn which costs $6.75. I also got a medium soda which costs $6.50 and a bottle of water for $4.50. Call me crazy but I should have just walked away. Everybody knows popcorn doesn’t cost that much. But who goes to the movies without popcorn? Bobby hates popcorn, so it was pretty much me and Carl who chowed down on it. Yes, Carl loves popcorn. We just made it halfway through the container. I finished the stale popcorn 2 days later, convincing myself it still tastes good just so it doesn’t go to waste. Have I gotten cheap? I mean what the heck happened in 2 years?!? I still think I have some point here. I’d like to say I will boycott going to the movies because of this, but I don’t think I’m strong enough. But really, I think the theater companies are milking every penny from their customers and are really testing the limits of price elasticity. Don’t get me wrong, I think their marketing tactic is great, just evil. 

Maybe we’ll try Alvin and Ann’s suggestion of going to a movie drive in next time, they said you can bring your own food. It’s just been tough to try right now because by the time it gets dark, Carl is already sleepy. So maybe in a few months, it will get darker earlier again.

Carl has had great progress in the past couple of months in words he can speak. I find it really exciting because now he gets to express what he feels and he get frustrated less when we cannot understand what he is saying. His comprehension is great and he understands a lot of Filipino and English words he just does not say them – unless absolutely necessary.

We know and heard that we should not encourage him to do baby speak – we actually talk to him straight but for some reason, he seems to have decided to speak these words the way he can. Right now, I just prefer that he speak at all, than properly. I grew up thinking that if I had nothing important to say, I do not speak at all which now I regret because I really think being able to communicate is one of the most important skills needed in life. And the very first step to being able to speak well is to speak up. Anyway, enough sidetracking and back to my blog topic.

Here’s a list of the words Carl has been able to speak recently.

a mi/mi mil (pronunciation a mee): windmill, he calls the windmills in Tracy his friends and waves at them every time we pass by to Elk Grove

Avi: Alvin, as in his Ninong Alvin for some reason this is one of the first names he said, sorry Ninang Ann

ba: banana

babye: bye

basketball-chi: basketball

beeball: baseball

bibi: baby

bue: blue, as in Thomas is blue

chips: ice chips, he loves munching on this, not sure why

choochoo/choochooey: choo choo train

daddy/dada: dad

dape: grape pronunciation: dāp

duce: juice

eww: ew as in yucky wash poopoo

fishy: fish as in Goldfish Crackers — he loves those

gree: green, as in Percy is green

I did it: I did it, he says it after “succesfully” doing certain tasks like handing mom/dad the remote, getting water, surfing youtube for more Thomas and Friends episodes

I do it: I’ll do it, as in I’ll feed myself or let me type in your keyboard mom

I drive: I’ll drive, he loves to sit in the car’s driver seat and put coins in the A/C vents and pretends that he is driving

I sowi: I’m sorry

kuy: “kumot” means blanket in Tagalog. This is his fleece security blanket that no one can borrow. He is so attached to this blanket that we went and got a back up but for some reason he still knows which one is the original — even in the dark.

mama: mom

mooey/more: more

nanay: nanay, means mother in Filipino

no: no

one-two-fo-fie: counting from one to five :-)

opee: open

owie (pronunciation auie): ouch

peas: please

strobi: strawberry

su shu: shushu as in shushu dolls, this is from his ate muy’s vocabulary which means they want to be carried like the shushu doll in cradle position to sleep

tete/ati: ate as in ate muy and ate kat

tey: thomas the train

the soup: soup, he loves all kinds of soup even hot and sour. He started calling and enjoying soups after watching Pixar’s Ratatouille

tie: thank you

this!: yes, as in Do you want this? This! Do you want mangoes? This! :-(

tootchie: cookie

touie: ratatouille, time to watch the movie

wa wice: fried rice, he loves fried rice, especially the green peas and carrots which he hand picks when he sees them with the fried rice

wa/wawa/wati (pronunciation wä, wäwä, wä-tee): water

wash: wash hands or poopoo, eewww

Here is a link to Carl’s First Birthday Video courtesy of Ninong Kyo:

http://www.vimeo.com/1288850

I heard buong araw ito inedit ni Ninong, thanks!

Thanks to everyone who came and sent their well wishes for our little boy. Carl had tons of fun…hope you all had fun too.

It’s coming by really fast…we’ve been trying to get all the stuff needed for Carl’s first birthday, loot bags, cake, food, renting the jumper, calling the clown…wow I didn’t realize there is so much to do…but it’s all worth it. We’re really excited. I’m sure he is too. Things he’s doing now: when he sees kids playing outside, he’ll start yelling ‘ata! ata’ means ‘bata’ and would wave his hand like a beauty queen. Then he’d like to go out of the house. He knows how to say ‘ball’ or ‘b-b-ball’, guess who’s influence that is. He’d say that everytime he sees a ball or a basketball court. He gets really excited seeing his dad play and would try to hug the regular sized basketball which is bigger than him. He has 5 teeth now, 3 at the top, 2 at the bottom. Bites when he gets really excited and grinds his teeth. We’re trying to break him off of it. Kulit na, but really really fun and sweet.

Carl had his 9th month well-baby checkup last April 11, 2008.

Here’s a summary of his stats:

height = 30 1/2 inches (95th-97th percentile)
weight = 22 lbs (75th percentile)

Ok, he’s slowed down a little bit on his weight, there goes our football player haha…actually, he’s still eating well but he just started to get really active. He keeps squirming, wants to go down when you’re carrying him, loves to walk a lot, of course still supported.

He sleeps a lot, usually naps from 2 to 4 hours maybe that’s why he keeps growing tall. By 8:30pm he’s usually ready to go to bed. He sleeps overnight except to have his milk and wakes up at around 7am.

 He still loves his yogurt, likes to eat rice with some veggies and sauce or broth. We tried giving him french fries and he loved it too.

He just learned how to kiss. He doesn’t like playing with stuffed animals but once he gets a hold of it, he would just smooch on the toy. He also saw a picture of his Ate Muy and Ate Kat and kissed it too. He loves seeing kids. When there are kids in the park, he would shout at them like he’d like to start playing with them.

 He’s drooling so much again, maybe he’s getting his next set of teeth soon. He also likes to bite so much, maybe the gums are getting itchy from the tooth that’s coming out.

keep looking »

January 2012

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Recently Written

• My Bike to Work Day
• Carl’s new tricks to avoid going to school
• My New Chat Buddy
• Thoughts Around the Pacquiao-Cotto Fight
• What I Want To Do…
• Theater Dining – Just another term for extortion
• Carl’s Vocabulary at 2 years old
• Carl’s First Birthday Video
• Countdown to Carl’s First Birthday!
• Carl’s 9th Month Well-Baby Checkup

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