MY WEEKEND IN PICTURES

Said goodbye to the little boy Saturday morning.

Ang gwapo noh? Bagong gising pa yan.

Left for Tagaytay with officemates to de-stress.  And because girls just wanna have fu-hun!

The weather was perfect! It was cloudy and cold but it wasn't freezing.

Stayed in this cozy house in Tagaytay Highlands.

The house was surrounded by pine trees. I loovve the smell of pine trees!

After lunch, we headed to Picnic Grove to zipline!!!  Everyone wanted to go in pairs.  Well, everyone, except me.  I wanted to this solo.  

We all opted to do the 2-way zipline for the sole reason that we were all too lazy to walk going back.

Going back, one of the zipline crew(?) stood in front of me. Ass in my face.  So, this happened. Hehehe!

A view of the zipline area.  That's 300 ft above the ground!

Then we went back to Highlands and rode the cable car. Weeee! Feeling Hongkong lang!

Then we bowled.  The last time I played bowling was in Astrobowl in Magallanes and God knows how long that place has been closed.  

That's me crossing my fingers that my ball hits at least 1 pin. (My team lost, by the way)

We were all starving after the game.  Dinner was a toss between Leslie's and Buon Giorno. Bulalo won! 

We also had sisig and ensaladang talong!

We wanted to have coffee and dessert. Good thing we saw a newly-opened branch of Bag of Beans near the rotonda.

Pretty Lantern!

Bag of Beans has the BEST Blueberry cheesecake, EVEEERR!!!

and the most boring carrot cake I have ever seen and tasted 

Mukhang Spam/Maling tiba? (I was really disappointed coz I'm a BIG FAN of carrot cakes)

Then we went back to the house for a date with Jose Cuervo! 

It was a night filled with stories about our struggles and tribulations. It was nice to get to know my colleagues on a more personal level.

I was home by Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the day with Joaquin.  We went crazy on photo booth before going to bed.

I had an amazing weekend. How was yours?

:)

BOREDOM

1 - Go to wikipedia and hit random. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. 2 - Go to quotationspage.com and hit random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. 3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”. Third picture no matter what it is, will be your album cover. 4 - Use photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) to put it all together. 5 - Post it with this text in the “caption” and TAG the friends.

SORRY

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TRUTH IS

I just want someone to worry about me.  Just once in a while.

Is that too much to ask?

I only have 2 things on my TO DO list for this weekend:

1. Go to Little Lamb on Sunday for Joaquin's haircut.

2. Get a copy of This Is Where I Leave You

I can't wait to read.

THIS IS WHAT'S UP

Some of you might be shocked but back when I was younger, I read the Bible. A LOT.

My favorite verse has always been this:

The mouth speaks out of the fullness of the heart (Matt. 12:34)


I've always loved it because it's so simple. So true.


So let me speak from my heart.


I haven't been blogging much because I had to deal with so much heartache last year.  Apart from the separation which has been difficult (Now, I can actually say that I'm a-ok!), my dear Joaquin was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder right after his 4th birthday last November.


Our Pedia noticed Joaquin's hyperactivity early last year so she asked me to set an appointment with Dr. Bernie Benitez.  I called late April and the earliest appointment I got was for November.  It was worth it. She was amazing and Joaquin had no difficulty liking her.


The verdict-- mild autism, because he only has a few symptoms.

• Poor eye contact
• He lines up his toys
• He likes to repeat what you say
• He's obsessed with a particular toy or object (my son is obsessed with electric fans)
• During birthday parties, he'd rather play alone
• His outbursts! He cries about every little thing!
• He flaps his hands when he's super happy or excited about something
• He can't tell detailed stories. (Like if you ask him what he did in school, he'll just say, "I play.")

On the upside, Dr. Benitez says Joaquin has the smarts--she was showing him shapes and asking him to name them and was surprised that he was able to name a hexagon.  She was also impressed by his memory skills.

Joaquin started pre-school last June.  His teachers (nuns) were concerned because he wasn't paying attention in class and he would always go out of the classroom. He was distracting the other kids.  So after our appointment with Dr. Benitez, I called the school and pulled him out.

He can still go to school, but it has to be a progressive school where the student-teacher ratio is smaller so they can pay more attention to him.  I already have a couple of schools in mind.

My little boy has been going to Occupational Therapy twice a week since December.  It has only been a month but I can already see the improvement.

He can now tell stories in detail.  If you ask him what he had for lunch or dinner, he'll tell you.  Last week, I asked him what he did with Teacher V (his therapist) and he said, "I jump on trampoline, I crawl under a tunnel and I put up boxes!".  My heart jumped for joy!  

He still lines up his toys (I woke up this morning and there was a carpet of aluminum foil on our floor. Should have taken a photo).  His eye contact is still a problem. He doesn't repeat much of what we say anymore and wow, I just realized that I can't remember the last time he flapped his hands.

His social skills are also improving.  He now plays with other kids although he still has outbursts sometimes but at least it's not that often. 


He's an amazing kid and right now, I'm not the least bit worried. I know he will manage beautifully.


So, that's what's up.  How are you?




P.S.
I hope I keep my resolutions this year.
1. Read more.
2. Blog more.

Yum!

Mix equal parts of Tazo's chai and milk. Heat. LOOOVE!

IF I HAD TIME

If I had the time, I would update this blog at least thrice a week.

I would write a lengthy entry (and share tons of pictures) about my fun trip to Coron which happened close to 4 months ago.

I would post pictures and recipes of all the food I've been cooking at home as our helper is currently on vacation and won't be back till this weekend.

I would tell you stories about Joaquin. While most are funny and cute, there are a few stories that makes me think, "This is the karma my Mom was telling me about".

I would also tell you that being separated is difficult. Not having anyone else to share responsibilities like errands with is exhausting (and draining my bank account) but I have felt more peaceful in the past 6 months than I have been a year before that. I know I made the right decision in agreeing to the separation.

I would be proud to tell you that I am slowly losing weight and this is confeermed (haha!) because a lot of people have been noticing--even the cashier at the 7-11 I frequent said, "Ma'am, pumayat ka na talaga. Hindi ka na chubby!" (Hoorraaayyy!!!)

I would also ask you to pray for me as I am running my first 10k race on the 24th and I'm REALLY nervous about it.

If only I had the luxury of time, I would write separate entries for all these things. However, juggling motherhood, work, my social life and time for myself has been a dilemma I am coping with and sadly, this blog has been pushed aside. I'm sure I will get the hang of things, eventually.

I hope everyone is doing well. I truly miss writing and envy my friends who still blog regularly.

SUN JAR

When Ssowy of Twitter announced that he had one Sunjar left from his online store, I grabbed the opportunity and bought it.

Solar energy rocks! I. LOVE. IT!

I leave it under the sun during the day and before I leave for work, I leave it on the table in our patio and you know what, when I arrive home from the office (around 4am), the light is still on. What's so cool about it is it won't light up until it's dark. No wasted energy! Very cool!

The sunjar I bought has 2 lights: a blue one and a yellow one.



Nice, noh?