One coin

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Marjorie

this has been the longest blogging hiatus I’ve had in this website. The reason being no other than that I am overwhelmingly busy at work. Hope to blog some more real soon.

In an industry that has seen casualties and injuries during a course of a project, milestones like a year or a million manhours that’s incident free are celebrated. Recently, our project celebrated a year sans injury among its project members. As a thank you note, we were given a coin token bearing our project’s logo on one side (reminding us of our objective and goal) and the “no change” sign on the other side (reminding us of the expectations in the project).

We thought of ways of how we can make use of the token but we couldn’t think of a novel idea other than the reasons why it was given to us in the first place – a token of celebration of safety among members and a reminder of our goals/objectives/expectations as we move forward in our project execution.

When my colleague who was seated next to me got to his desk, he noticed the coin and asked me what it was and from whom did it come from and what it was made of (gold plated? Not sure, probably not). And so I explained. Now this colleague usually has a serious face. But the expression he had and what he said after my explanation (and also partly because I know his wife died at a young age) left me speechless that I can only say “ooohhh”.

With a tender expression and a smile on his face, he said, “I’ll give this to my son”. His smile was a knowing smile, confident that his son will be happy with it.

We surely can’t beat that novel use for our token coin.

baby diaries: hai

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Marjorie

Your Dad and I have been wondering for some time, baby, on what would be your first word apart from Addy/Daad/Dy and Mom-ma. Would it be Japanese, English, or to stretch things out, Filipino or Visaya? For simple instructions so far, you can already understand either Japanese or English as you are equally exposed to both languages.

The first time we heard your Addy (around the time you were eight months old), it was just so cute! Yes, you said Addy/Daad/Dy first before saying Mom-ma. And oh how proud and happy your Dad was. But when you finally said Mom-ma at 13 months, your Mom-ma almost couldn’t contain the joy and pleasure it brings. Thank you.

Then henceforth we waited further on the other first word – Japanese? English? The wait didn’t take long. And it was to your Dad that you first said it. Earlier this week, your Dad was teaching you yet again about giving and taking. And in one of those sessions, right after Dad said “choudai Yui”, you said “ha~~i” while giving the toy to Daddy. Then you said it again yesterday.

So there we have it. It’s Japanese then. 🙂 🙂

sleep crawling

Posted on October 12, 2013 by Marjorie

Recently, with three new teeth making their way out Yui’s gums, Yui has been restless in her sleep. There were nights that I could only appease her if I lay her down really close to me, using my forearm and shoulder as her pillow and after which I’d ease her out my arm and we’d share my pillow. She got used to this that there were times she would just suddenly get up from her crib (attached right next to my side of the bed) and slide down my bed to snuggle against me. And this she does without even a teeny weeny cry. Baby version of sleep walking – sleep crawling.

This evening, after giving her her bottle of milk (up to now, I still give her her milk by holding her against me as I did ever since she was a newborn. Since I started giving her solids for breakfast, she can only drink her milk from the bottle twice a day – once at daycare at the other before bedtime. So these evening snuggles I really treasure) and putting her to sleep in her crib, I resumed with my housework. After I was done with chores and with preparing myself to bed, I went to bed – and stopped in my tracks when I found Yui’s crib empty. I felt like my heart stopped beating and jumped out my body leaving my body numb and cold. “WHERE’S MY BABY??!!!” was the sudden cry inside me, slowly mounting in volume, almost about to burst out my mouth. And then I saw her in the dim light, sprawled in the middle of my bed. She must have been looking for me.

All those fearful feelings just passed by in a split second yet it made me realise the extent of my reaction should it take me longer than a second to look for my missing child, God forbid.

I’m starting to get worried she’ll develop this sleep walking habit, a habit that started because she just wanted to be beside me, a habit that’s totally scary considering the possible consequences especially when she’ll already have her own room, a habit that that has got to stop. I’m dearly hoping this would only be when she’s teething. Please?

out with white bread

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Marjorie

Finally, an access to my WordPress app! Couldn’t access the app for a almost a couple of weeks in that I had to reinstall the app. Thing is, I had to try several times to get the right password. But finally, thankfully, I now got an access!

So. Last post was about eating healthy goodness and here is yet another one!

As much as possible, whenever I feed Yui bread, I try to give her the healthier option. Thankfully, she loves it as well!

Hijiki (seaweed) rice bread (the one with white powder on the top) and rye wheat bread.

I also have these two for lunch at least once a week.

When I was pregnant, I love Muji Café’s wheat bread. Now, both Mom and baby love the bread.

Let’s opt for the healthier choice Moms and Dads!

eating right, early on

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Marjorie

Whenever I prepare the ingredients for Yui’s food, there’s only one phrase I have in mind – only the choicest of ingredients. So I was really thrilled when I saw this “baby leaf” package in the store. Only the choicest of leaves for our baby. With ten different salad greens.

Each leaf is already quite small actually but I still cut them off in halves before steaming to avoid Yui’s choking on them. I steam a batch, store and get a portion to match with a serving of another batch of dish that I made. One example, this minced pork-tomato-potato-onion-natto dish.

Yep, there’s natto on it – that sticky, stinky but very healthy fermented beans. The first time I served natto to Yui, she had it with tofu and rice cereal.

Did she like it? Just look at that smile.

Now, I really wasn’t a healthy eater. But buying all this healthy stuff for Yui makes me think of making healthy dishes for Hubs and me as well. So even if we’re not babies, I also had the baby leaf for us adults.

I added in tomatoes, bacon, cottage cheese topped with onion dressing.

I sometimes vary our salad and put in boiled eggs and yellow bell pepper instead. Still with cottage cheese and onion dressing.

Last weekend, I decided to let Yui taste ampalaya/goya/bitter melon. As I wasn’t sure how Yui would like it, I added the ampalaya/goya/bitter melon in this asparagus-minced beef-tomato-string beans-cottage cheese-bean sprouts dish, all of which Yui had before in different mixes.

When Yui tasted it, her eyebrows were at first furrowed. But as she chewed on, a smile slowly crept on her face until it became this.

And since of course I only use up a portion of the vegetables I buy for Yui’s food, Dad and Mom had the remaining vegetables. I decided to have a goya champloo.

We had a superstition on the Philippines – that if you cook ampalaya/goya/bitter melon and it doesn’t taste bitter at all, you will have kind in-laws. Now, I’m really blessed with the kindest in-laws. Suffice it to say that my goya champloo absolutely didn’t taste bitter. 🙂

I’m not a medical professional so what I know about health and nutrition I only got from our doctor, books and Internet. But having had read extensively thus far, I am quite sad and surprised that some doctors in the Philippines still advise that milk is still enough to provide nutrition for toddlers. Toddlers and preschoolers definitely need more than milk for optimum growth. Let’s do our best Moms and Dads!

baby diaries: our sweet

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Marjorie

It’s been a while since Mom had one of these diaries, baby. We’ve both just recently recovered from fever/cough/colds (and Dad too!) albeit Mom still has “residual” cough. Mom can only hope you won’t catch this cough again otherwise we’ll be on a cycle again – you’ll catch the virus then Mom (and Dad) will catch it, und so weiter.

You’re growing up really expressive anak and even your senseis are commenting so. You have that happy pride look whenever you achieved a new feat (and you’ve been having some almost everyday, recently!) and even led your baby classmates on eating well – one which your sensei wrote (in renraku note) as something you took a pride on. I can just imagine the look you had then. 🙂

You also tilt your head whenever we say ohayou gozaimasu/konnichiwa/konbanwa/hi/hello similar to the one below, whilst showing a big (and now, toothy) smile.

You’ve also been very hyper recently, so much so that it’s been a bit difficult to calm you down at bedtime, even after having a bath. One way to calm you down was to have you sleep on Mommy’s arm.

Whenever Mom picks you up at daycare, the moment you see Mom, you immediately put on the floor whatever toy you’re holding and spread your arms. This afternoon however, right after hastily dropping your toy, you had on a laugh and crawled towards Mommy really fast. It was more than enough to bring happy tears on Mommy’s face, Yui Moirraine. Thank you.

Yet even when I already have the jackpot with that alone, Mom still got some bonus. All your baby classmates and some of your older schoolmates also come to Mommy to either give/take a hug to/from Mommy. Thankfully, you’re not the jealous type, you just let the other kids crowd around Mommy, sometimes even smiling at them.

Grow well baby, we love you so.

On Chocolate Hill

A chocolatey journey, with Yui!

Category Archives: parenting