Mga eskrap ni Lynneth

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2006-12-24T10:15:00.000+01:00

Family Affairs

2006-08-03T17:03:00.000+02:00

David's 2nd Birthday Party

2006-06-06T21:45:00.000+02:00

Oui-oui images courtesy of noddy.com and for the party theme from annikid.com

A very messy tsokolate

2006-06-04T16:54:00.000+02:00

First Halloween Costume I made

2006-06-04T16:46:00.000+02:00

Funny Faces

2006-06-04T16:30:00.000+02:00

First steps

2006-06-04T15:58:00.000+02:00

First solid food

2006-06-04T15:53:00.000+02:00

Just three days old

2006-06-04T15:48:00.000+02:00

Facelifting and remodelling

2006-06-04T14:58:00.000+02:00

This blog has been changed into a photoblog of all my digiscrap creations!

Greetings

2005-12-31T04:01:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year to All!!

I'm still having so much fun in the Phils.

Sakit

2005-11-13T01:56:00.000+01:00

Ten days in the Philippines, David got sick. The day after his baptism, he started having a fever. He refused to drink and eat. We brought him to the hospital and the doctor advised us for David to be hospitalized as he was starting to dehydrate. And since he wasn't drinking or eating, dextrose ang ending ni David. His blood, urine and stool lab tests all turned out fine and we were released the following day.
Now our baby is enjoying Boracay. He is loving the sea and the sun and is eating a lot. Tuloy-tuloy ang bakasyon. He still continues to say french words and my family is at lost at times ha ha ha...

You make me smile today. Genuine Smile

2005-10-18T17:04:00.000+02:00

Well son this actually happened a week or two ago. It’s only now I have the time to write it down. Nevertheless, every time I think about it, I smile at myself and feel a genuine excitement.
We were in the small playground, the one in our street. You wanted to play in the area for bigger kids, I believe that’s where you feel more challenged and excited. So you crawled in the elevated (it’s in fact at my shoulder level) tunnel, “counted” the balls hanging on the bars and ran around the maze and small bridge as I stood below watching, guarding your every step. Then I carried you to the slide. This one has rope-steps so it’s actually impossible for you to go up without my help. Even if you are just ten kilos, after several times of lifting you up, my arms did scream. But they were outdone by your jovial mood. So I had to continue carrying you to the top of the slide and after three counts, I said go! And down you went, son…
Then we did it again, but after 1, 2, 3 go, and more, you just looked at me strangely. I cooed you to go down. And you were there on top, holding on to the sides of the slide, one leg stretched, the other bent. Strange look on your face. “Go David!” I said. “Go!” In a transparent moment you looked at me and said: “My shoes!”
For a second there I was tongue-tied. Complete, comprehensible phrase. I came to you and saw that your left shoe got stuck at the corner of the slide.

Lolo David

2005-10-06T13:13:00.000+02:00

The adultness in him:
- He climbs on the sofa, and jump! Laughs hard at the impact. Did it from our bed, much higher than the sofa, fell on the carpeted floor and limped a few second afterwards. Didn’t laugh or cry. Just shock! Mais oui, David, you have to start internalizing gravity.
- After drinking his fruit juice from a glass, he puts the glass on the table.
- Collects my mug of coffee and puts it in the microwave.
- Sees his soiled diaper lying on the changing table, takes it and puts it in the garbage bin. Like a big boy!
- Pulls the vacuum cleaner, tries to plug it in the electric hole and goes vroooom! Son, our vacuum, although it has wheels, is not a car.
- Goes to get the phone every time it rings. Talks to it like an adult.
- Plays alone, makes his own joke and laughs hard. Sometime his laughter scares me. Makes me wonder if there are ghosts tickling him.
- When it’s reading time, he literally chooses what book he wants to read.
- He kicks like a bull on heat! It’s really painful especially if it’s “human balls” that are busted! Careful dadi!
- Cleans his own ears with cotton buds.
- I put lotion on his tiny palm, and he scrubs it on his face.
- Takes dadi's electric shaver and shaves his face.
- Walks around the house dragging with him dadi's briefcase.
- Puts on our shoes.
- When we play parts of the face, he quickly pulls my eyeglasses and throw them away, just to make sure he could poke my eyes correctly. I need another pair as a replacement for the other ones that have lost their arms completely.
Whew 18 months of compact energy. He doesn’t seem to run out of it. I do.

Ako gwapo!

2005-09-26T14:56:00.000+02:00

I wish David would say that. But no. For some reason since last Friday, he started saying "ako gago, ako gago, ako gago" to my shock! He hardly hears tagalog with us. I have no idea where he got it from. Blame it to his cold and flu!

I'm giving a twist to his ryhme. Every time he says "ako gago", I reply with "ako gwapo!" We'll see how it runs!

Sleep tight my little one

2005-09-23T13:12:00.000+02:00

For the past days… or has it been weeks, David has a troubled sleep. It has turned our nocturnal activities into a wild circus of a child screaming, or going wild playing around or watching never-ending Barney show. The night has turned into days and the moon is not rising. My and dadi’s eyebugs are black, eyeballs on red-hot fires. The scenario has put us parents on the edge of a nerve-cracking patience painfully stretch to the opposite ends. One of us is bound to snap.
It did. Dadi’s. Understandably tired and worn-out after a day’s work, no one wants to come home with a screaming child. And no wife would want to open a door for a gloomed face of the most expected person.
We’ve come to the conclusion of lessening David’s sleep during the day. An experiment. It could help. Usually David wakes up at 7 am and has a morning nap and an afternoon nap. I’ve decided to manipulate the clock and make him nap from 11 am until he wakes up.
When he is tired at night, David takes a pillow and his filou, marches around the house looking for me, and then grabs my hand, goes to our bedroom, and taps our bed. A toddler’s straight-forward declaration. I refute. Naturally. I court him gently to sleep in his bed. Cuddles, books, kisses, lullabies, cds -- formula that don’t work. There is no magic in putting a toddler to bed. His bed. It’s all hard work, lots of kempt woo, lots of fake smiles, lots of repressed aggravations. On my part.
The experiment was put to test yesterday. We've spent almost all of the afternoon outside. As dusk sat in, David’s battery was low. By 8 pm he was ready to go. But then as soon as I put him gently in his bed, he gave his piercing scream. Dadi was exasperated and told me to take him to our bed. No, I said. Let him scream until our neighbors bang the walls. The scream didn’t last long this time and soon I only heard the lullabies in his stereo. What a bliss! But only for two hours. David went screaming in his sleep. Yet again. I froze on my spot and listened intently, let go for few minutes and see if the cries would ebb low. No. Unfortunately. I rushed to his bed and saw David in a foetal position crying. My heart broke. Took him in my arms and whispered to his ears sweet nothings. It took him twice longer to calm down. We sat together on the sofa and gave him massage until he went back to his dreamland. Dadi and I ate our dinner in unwanted silence, mindful only to the sound of David’s rhythmic breathing that signalled he was fast asleep. I put him back to his bed and thankfully slept all night long. All three of us.
Night 1. Experiment – 7/10

Surprise present! Lucky me!

2005-09-23T12:22:00.000+02:00

Merci beaucoup lolo Pierrot, Lola Sarah, tita Laetitia, tita Alyssa and tito Matthieu for these lovely presents. I just love them!

Back to being MAKULIT

2005-09-05T19:21:00.000+02:00

David's fever is gone and he is back to his usual busy self, working on demanding, heavy tasks! See for yourself!

Wrecking his dadou's pc!

Harvesting our tomatoes!

Feeding a cow!

Refreshing in his baby pool!

Asa imong pusod David?

2005-09-01T17:12:00.000+02:00

Exaggerations:

Q: Where is your belly button David?
Act (A): Bends over searching for the button lost amongst his layers of tummy fats. He bends so hard until he topples over.

Q: Where are your eyes David?
A: Pokes his eye so hard, tears well up!

Q: Where’s your nose David?
A: Pokes his nostril deep down to the hole until he gives a weird grimace!

Q: Where’s your tongue David?
A: Pokes his fingers deep down his throat until he chokes and sometimes pukes!

Q: When you’re happy and you know it stamp your feet! Stamp your feet David!
A: Stamps a foot, outbalances, falls on his butt and stands up again to virtually repeat the act again.

-----------------------

*His fever is gone but some kind of skin rash is surfacing out... current mood: grumpy, wants to be carried all the time.

** Sabi ni doktor ang kanyang lagnat ay sanhi ng kanyang bakuna. Umeepekto daw ito pagkalipas ng pito hanggang sampung araw!

***Mama's mental and health status: on the verge of insanity, kuba-kuba-kuba!

Fun and Misery

2005-08-30T11:05:00.000+02:00

Disneyland Paris round 2 for David, round 3 for me and dadi. We had fun, only later that day on Sunday, while waiting for Winnie and his friends’ show, David’s eyes were watery, less overexcited by the chaos and just lying quietly on his stroller. He’s got a fever and we had no medicine with us. Not even the enormous park of Disney had an emergency pharmacy. David took lots of fluid, slept a lot while we stole some rides and guiltily screaming with glee as the rides brought around some high-powered adrenaline rush.
Almost 48 hours later, David is still sick. Vomited on both us plus on his Filou, the juice and medicine he drunk. My head is ticking announcing the rebirth of a migraine. The kitchen looks like smokey mountain, the toilet doesn’t flush, loads of clothes to be ironed. I smell puke.

Half day of fun = days of misery.

Have you seen my baby?

2005-08-19T22:34:00.000+02:00

Thursday night. Dadi came back from work and decided to buy something in the grocery store. I was preparing dinner, and Dadi volunteered to bring David with him. “It’s going to be quick David, let’s not put your shoes on,” he said.
Thirty minutes passed, unreasonably long. I begun to worry and was actually wondering where they went. They couldn’t have possibly stopped at the playground as David was shoeless.
More minutes passed and I heard the juggling of keys behind the entrance door. As soon as David was released from his belts, he went running all over the place. Dadi looked weird, really weird. “I was so bloody scared!” he exclaimed. “What happened?” I queried curiously. “I almost lost David a while ago. He was sitting on his car next to the cashier’s counter as I keyed in the code of my card, and when I turned around he was gone!” I ran to the street, the piglet wasn’t there! I came back to the store and asked the cashier if she noticed a baby boy, she didn’t. I ran around the store with my heart pumping! Then I saw him carried by a woman!" "I can't believe he can lift the protection of his car, get up so swiftly and go lost!"
"Actually da, he can do that now! Growing is his only main occupation you know!"

---------------------------------------------------

Accidents are just really an inch away these days. I was half-engrossed talking with my mother, auntie and sis on a videoconference and half-wondering where David is. Mamang noticed that David wasn’t on my back anymore so she told me to go and check for him. Indeed! The piglet was in the balcony attacking my lemon grass plant and was about to harvest my still green tomatoes!
Few hours later, I caught him manoeuvring to climb on our coffee table. With success! I’m now at an interior designing dilemma. We’ve pushed that table already close to the TV set because he knows how to put his dvd in the player. The table is there to block his way.
And now with progress, he has found out that climbing over, the whole TV set could be used as his support while he uses the table as his theatre stage. If I have to put back the coffee table on its original placement, our dvd player and stereo won’t last a minute and he could still climb so there’s the danger of going over on the opposite side of the table. If I leave the table close to the TV, I will have to clear everything on top of the set but that would give him another way to meddle the buttons just on the side of the television!
I think I won’t be able to sleep tonight!!!

Three Passports and a dozen needles

2005-08-16T22:33:00.000+02:00

We’ve been busy preparing the necessary papers for David’s trip to the Philippines. We actually had planned to introduce David to my family last year and for that we got him a Filipino passport because Dadi is just so excited to show to the world that his son is a Filipino. His French identity is attached in Dadi’s passport. But that planned trip was unfortunately cancelled due to some unforeseen circumstances. The planning for this year’s trip is far from finished. David has just recently been issued a French passport since going back to France it will just be me and him, sans Dadi. I still carry my maiden name in my passport and without the livret de famille (Family book), my passport won’t satisfy the fact that David is my son. As a matter of fact we are not at all related based on our two passports. So to make sure that everything is smooth, David can go back to France without hassles, he has his own French identity paper.
Last Saturday he got another kind of passport, the one issued by the World Health Organization. It contains pages of David’s vaccination as set by international standard. This thing just freaks us out. Aside from the obligatory vaccines required in France, he has to be immunized with four others, WHO passport calls it “Other Vaccinations” namely Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Rabies and Japanese encephalitis. These are particularly recommended for travels in South East Asia. We went to Air France’s International Vaccination Center as they are the only ones who could provide such vaccines without having to wait for months.
The people who poked a needle on our little one’s tiny arm just made us nervous. Their reaction towards David’s record of vaccines was unnerving. They seemed surprise that David is already vaccinated that much. It’s true that at 16 months old, he already received a dozen of needles. But we haven’t really gone overboard. We follow David’s immunization by detail as set by the French standard. The record might look overwhelming but most of it is just booster doses.
The people in Air France are really tackless and they lack of sensitivity towards the parents’ feelings. “Le pauvre, il a déjà autant de vaccins!” (Poor thing he already received these much vaccines!). They might think that we are on the trip of making our son a guinea pig, but no, every visit to the doctor and every tear that fall from David’s eyes is a pierce in our heart.
They won’t immunize David against Typhoid because it’s only given for two years old and above, and they hesitate of giving him the Japanese encephalitis. David got only his first of the three doses of rabies. Next week they’ll give him a second shot plus Hepatitis A. We are still weighing up the Japanese encephalitis (JE). This is a mosquito-borne flaviviral infection and principally occurs in rural agricultural locations where flooding irrigation is practiced. I’m afraid a part of David’s holidays will be in this scenario, added to the reality that it will still be rainy season there. On the other hand, according to CDC, JE is presumed to be endemic on all islands. That leaves me no choice but convince the people of Air France that David needs to get JE vaccine.

*These past days I’ve been digging infos about health issues in the Philippines and I’m quite surprise and impressed by the data available. There’s so much out there to be learned and understand. The stuff I’ve found out makes me so paranoid about bringing David to the Phils. But then some articles also gave the same kind of paranoia when traveling in France and other countries in Western Europe, so I give it a benefit of a doubt. The only thing I can appreciate about the readings is that it helps me in deciding what’s best for our son. I am not just a passive parent who would agree to what doctors or nurses say. A white robe doesn’t mean “I-know-everything-in-the-medical-world” and be loud about it.

** So far with all the vaccines that David received, he never developed any nasty reaction, no allergies, no fever, not a change of mood. Thank God little one!

*** Excellent sites I'm currently digging:
CDC Traveler's Health
Department of Health Philippines
Travelling in the Philippines (Jens Peters Publication)

Nudity is beauty!

2005-08-09T22:05:00.000+02:00

Can you beat that?

Happy Birthday Ninev!

2005-08-04T07:30:00.000+02:00

LOL

2005-07-29T19:00:00.000+02:00

I just need to post this, his biggest laugh ever captured. I told him to smile for the camera and that's what he gave me. How generous! Can you count how many teeth in that small, errr big mouth? 14!!!

*The other day 27 July he turned 16 months old. We've promised ourselves not to do the monthsary party anymore since he turned 1. As it turned out, I bought him a pair of new shoes, dadi bought two Barney dvds from Amazon.com and lola bought Mickey and Babar. If he gets spoiled it won't be his fault!