31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 18

meet sleepy bear.we got him at carrefour (of all places) but guess what, baby adores him! tsk.tsk.she likes gnawing at his hat.

**

so i went to this (free! yay!) workshop called the "uae cultural awareness." a very energetic, open-minded and smart emirati gave the talk.it was very enlightening and interesting.i have been here for five years, and i realized i still have a lot to learn about the uae.Just to let you know, my three favorite arabic words are: "Alhamdulillah|" (Praise to God) "Masha'Allah" (God has willed it)and "Inshallah" (God willing). "Inshallah" reminds me of our very own "Bahala Na" which can be translated to "God will take care of it." It's nice to learn that their language is very much connected to their religion.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 17

so yesterday i went to mothercare to buy some stuff for my colleague who has recently given birth.we all pooled money together, and i volunteered to get her the presents.any excuse to go to mothercare.hee.

i came across this pink doll, and i could not resist it, i just had to buy it.i called her ling-ling! i was so excited to show it to baby.well, baby then took one long look at it, took the doll's hand, and threw her across the floor.

i don't know about me and my choice of toys. :-( first there was uglee monkey. now this one.i bought it 'cos it's a cute chinese doll.i want baby to play with a variety of dolls, not just your typical blonde, blue-eyed dolls.

guess baby and i just have different toy choices...hmph.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 16

mr t's high chair when he was a baby.now, it's baby's turn to use it.the sentimental value of this chair is priceless.we brought it all the way from germany to dubai.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 15

this is one of the games from baby's class called little maestro.it's supposed to be fun, but mommy has to work so i've never seen baby enjoy the class.ah, the joys of a working mom.:-( i'm hoping that i can at least attend one class before it gets over by the end of august.it's the holy month of ramadan so we actually have reduced hours on which we only work from 8-2 pm.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 14

mommy & baby's sunglasses (mine was from a tiangge/market in manila, baby's was from hello kitty in h&m in garmisch)

we visited a, baby's half-italian, half-filipino friend.she's a month younger than baby.she was already eating carrots and sweet potato and seemed to be well-mannered.kyot!i wonder how she and baby will communicate in the future.in tagalog?in english?in taglish?in ilonggo?haha!

things i'm grateful for: together in germany part 3

road trip!

things i'm grateful for: together in germany part 2

so this is a continuation of our trip in germany.aside from fixing stuff, doing errands, eating out a lot, and meeting with friends, we were also able to go out of munich and visit these pretty places.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 11

view from the outside, reflecting baby's play area.i took this photo while mr t was swimming in the pool that you can see on the bottom right side...

***

today marks the start of ramadan.

wishing you all ramadan kareem (blessed ramadan)!

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 10

our dinner.mr t had to work late so we ordered in.we had japanese food from haru robatayaki.yes, we love our asian food. we had sushi and maki take, miso soup and vegetable tempura.

arigato!

**

baby was wearing her sleeveless, red blouse today.so cute! u have to get her more sleeveless dresses.i just want to pinch her arms.hihi.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 9

Meet Maja Bee. Her name was derived from the leading bee in the German animated series "Die Biene Maja." She and Tigger are thisclose.Don't mess with her.She can sting really badly.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 8

mr t makes the best pasta dishes and salads.a combination of both, you have a pasta salad.teehee.


our dinner

i remember my mom would always reprimand me for not wanting to cook.she would scare me, "hala, you will never find a husband.you should learn how to cook." i got so scared that i always said to myself that the man i would marry should have the following traits in the proper order: 1) he can cook; 2) he should not be a senorito or a spoiled brat.one brat in the family is enough; 3) he should treat waiters and service staff nicely; 4) he should have nice, smooth skin (haha). and my husband has all these qualities and more.gosh.thank you, lucky stars.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 7

We took baby to the beach and she got in the water for the first time.She seemed confused.Haha.She did not look upset, but she did not look ecstatic either.Somewhere in between lang.


I have a thing with baby feet, especially ones that are covered in sand.

**

You have all seen satc2, right? they were supposed to be in abu dhabi and staying in a luxurious hotel. in reality, abu dhabi did not allow them to shoot in the city, and they had to make do with morocco as the location for the shoot.

the hotel that the satc girls were supposed to be billeted in is the emirates palace, and experiencing a day of luxury in this hotel is enough to make me want to work the bejesus out of me so I can be rich someday and so check-in there anytime i want to.hush.a girl can dream, ok?!


emirates palace hotel (swiped this photo off from the net)

upon check-in, they provide female guests with roses. a lady staff accompanied us all the way to our room (east wing) and explained how to navigate our way in the hotel.this place is huge so for somebody as direction-clueless as me, I would have needed a map.

there was a butler assigned in each room.ya, haha.there was a butler.we did not make use of him though 'cos we did not know what to ask.haha.clueless! it was the first and last time we saw him.although we could have requested for another kind of pillow 'cos the hotel is offering seven kinds of pillow to choose from.well, i got overwhelmed with the choices that we just stuck with what we had which was heavenly as well.

the room was superb, and of course, everything that can be adorned/painted in gold is adorned/painted in gold.we had the room with the city view. the tv was huge and they had this fancy remote where you can basically control everything.of course, i had to take lotsa photos.








terrace


their hallways look like this


and the hall ceilings look like this

we then went to the beach that is exclusive for hotel guests.they have two pools, one pool caters for family with kids and one pool caters for singletons, couples, business travellers, etc.i did not swim, though.i just stayed in the jacuzzi.

views from the beach:











pools:











may nalalaman pa silang gold vending machine:



we went to hakkasan for our anniversary dinner.it's a modern chinese restaurant which is also located at the emirates palace and it offers the best chinese food i've ever tasted! (well, outside of china,at least. we went to a random restaurant while we were in beijing two years ago and it was excellent. but i digress).

we had dimsum (best dimsum ever) and hot & sour soup.for the main course we had duck, red snapper, mullet and rice.we had oolong tea afterwards.







hay naku, decadence, opulence, lahat na meron sa emirates palace.we had a blast! fun times.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Days 5 and 6

i know, i know.i missed day 5, so i'm making up for it.i have a valid excuse, though!

mr t and i celebrated our anniversary.teehee.*sweet* he surprised me with a stay at the emirates palace hotel in abu dhabi.*swoon*

will blog about it once i'm back to the real world.believe me, that hotel is luxury at its best.

thank you so much, mr t.together forever, xox.


the view from our room. that's the entrance gate to the hotel.it's only open for vvip's.so we used another entrance!


hotel beach

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 4

i think that's supposed to be ibn battuta, the great traveler.this was taken at ibn battuta mall in dubai.

**

baby's been eating green veggies for the past two days.so far, so good.we're just a bit sad 'cos we haven't seen much of her as we've been both very busy...sorry, baby...she's been sleeping on her tummy also, and it doesn't make her upset that much anymore.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 3

meet tigger, the wannabe superhero.baby fell in love with him immediately.she could not stop looking at him.'cos he's so orange-y.teehee.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 2

we went for a dinner buffet at choiches in rotana yas island.we were pleasantly surprised that we liked the place, plus some of the food.we did not get so full like what usually happens when you do a buffet.probably because it's a working day.

i like this impromptu eating out.mr t was just picking me up from work and we were supposed to go home, but we decided to take a detour and go to yas island for some munching.

31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 1

Tracy of sh1ft.org is doing a fun game where you post a photo per day for 31 days. So I'm challenging myself with this one. Basically, this also means I will post everyday this August. Let's see if I'm up to this (delightful) task.

my so-called healthy living.harharhar


Bob's Easy Diner

ramblings

mr t probably got tired of my whining: my neck hurts, my back hurts etc that he finally decided to get me a "work station." we went to ikea last thursday after work.we managed to find this nice chair and desk.before i would just plop the laptop on the couch and type away.

no wonder i'm having neck/shoulder troubles.speaking of which, the physical therapist in our office clinic just called me and said i still have two sessions of therapy.yay.according to her, my insurance called the clinic and told them i still have two pending sessions.well, i don't know how it works, but i immediately booked myself for 2 more (free) massages!

ramblings

mr t will be away for 2 days 'cos of work.so i'm here on my own, sulking.spoiled brat! baby is feeling poorly for a few days now 'cos of teething.eww, i don't even want to think of the pain. :-( so yeah, baby and i will miss daddy for 2 days.please, can it be thursday already?

anyway, rewind to what we have been doing since we got back.well, aside from working like a kalabaw...

baby's milestones

i'm so delayed with my blogging duties, but i just have to write down baby's remarkable milestones so far!

things i'm grateful for: together in germany part 1

mr t and i were like a lovey-dovey couple during our trip in germany.we went out a lot and met his friends.

on this trip, i was grateful for:

things i'm grateful for: baby in germany

during our germany trip, i was grateful for:

-baby sleeping on mr t's crib when he was a baby.it was a wooden, simple crib re-painted yellow and red.i fell in love with it right away.it gave me shivers to think that he was sleeping there probably until he was a toddler, and now it was our li'l sweet pea's turn to use it

-baby behaving well onboard on the way to munich.so cute.the plane was full of kids and mr t remarked it looked like a kindergarten.it was another story though on our way back to abu dhabi.baby was behaving strangely on the plane, like she was on a sugar trip.haha.

-baby sleeping remarkably well.probably the cool breeze did her well.the weather was so nice.it was sunny and cool.when mr t was busy fixing stuff, we were hanging out in oma and opa's (lolo and lola/grandma and grandpa) garden.





-baby loving the bath tub.in dubai, we would bath her in a baby tub. since we could not take it with us, we bathed her in the big people's tub.she was screaming and kicking happily in the water

-baby using all kinds of transportation - planes, trains, trams, buses

-baby meeting other kids, from babies of her own age to pre-schoolers.she met one baby boy and she laughed at him in a mocking way.we found it so cute.we have never seen her laughing at another baby before.the poor baby boy looked bewildered as why this li'l baby girl was laughing at him.i hope he won't hold a grudge against her!

-a family photo shoot! i always complain that mr t and i don't have lots of photos together.of course, for pinays, we can never have enough of photos.so off we went to a professional photographer to get nice family photos done.and they turned out remarkably well!

-sale!sale!sale!i think the entire world is having massive sales.dubai is having its summer sale now, and munich shops were also blasting sale signs all over.arg.arg.we went to nearby villages and they were also on sale.h&m, c&a.i went bonkers on behalf of baby.hehe

-baby listening to deutsch.mr t's friends and parents were actually telling him to speak to baby in deutsch.back in dubai, we usually speak with her in english.nanny spoke with her in english, and sometimes in arabic.yep, nanny used to work before with an arabic family and she caught some useful words.so apart from german and english, baby would probably be fluent in arabic and ilonggo as well (nanny is from iloilo and she hangs out with other ilongga nannies as well).funny.

-nanny being with us for a week.mr t and i were able to go out at night or hang out with his friends.we would not be able to do this without nanny.

-baby drinking her milk well with little assistance.she was holding on to the bottle really well, and she was trying to put it in her mouth already.

-baby adjusting nicely to different timezones, climate, milk, beds...

-mr t's parents who accommodated us for almost a week.thank god they were able to preserve mr t's baby stuff.all over their house, you would see mr t's stuff when he was little.his drawings, his wooden toys, his books.i wish my parents were able to do this.sadly, our place is prone to typhoon and flooding so i don't really have a lot of my stuff saved and tucked somewhere.





-a high chair!since we were planning to put baby baby on solid food once we are back in dubai, we decided to take with us mr t's high chair when he was a baby! yep, it was nicely preserved, all in its yellow-painted wooden glory.oh i was in high chair heaven.i love it.

sorry for the lack of photos.i will post them soon.

we're back!

back in sunny, 45 degree dubai, after a cool perfect 25-27 degree weather in munich.

i've been to germany for the sixth time, but i cannot get enough of this beautiful country brimming with history, fairy-tale castles, magical forests, and quaint villages.

stories later...

xox

off we go

our li'l family is off to munich for a two-week holiday.this will be baby's first ever plane ride and our first holiday as a family.can't wait for her to meet mr t's friends and relatives.can't wait for her to experience a nice bavarian summer.can't wait for a lot of things, actually.am so excited for her.right now, she's on her playmat doing all sorts of vocal exercise.lol.she's also blowing bubbles now, and turning to her side quite a lot of times.

nanny is coming as well, and this is really a blessing as we always need an extra pair of hands to help.

**

yay,team germany! yay, team japan!

**

meanwhile, i leave you with this:



(sorry, i forgot where i got this from)

happy father's day!

happy father's day to my husband, and to my beloved daddy and manoy as well!

it's mr t's first ever father's day so as a surprise, i dressed up baby with a romper that says "my heart belongs to daddy."

aww.

to my husband: i keep on repeating myself, but i just have to say this again: you are one super-duper amazing dad.you are so hands-on to baby that you almost deserve a best mommy award.yep, you do.

happy father's day to the best dad in the world, from baby and me.

**

i wish i can speak a lot of languages.it's really one of my frustrations.i can still remember when i can converse in japanese.what happened? where did all my nihonggo words go?

here in dubai, you will meet a lot of people who are conversant not just in two languages, but in three or four more.i've met taxi drivers who can speak spanish, arabic and french apart from english and some of my colleagues can speak/read/write urdu, farsi, hindi, english and arabic.c'mon, wouldn't you get jealous also?

a foreign language is a gift that you can give to your child.and like this french politician said, the two modern languages now are chinese and arabic.let's see, for sure baby will be able to speak english, tagalog and german.why not throw in a bit of arabic and chinese, too?

warning: daydreaming mother on the loose!

let's make keanu happy...please!

we can also thank him at thankyoukeanu.com

**

world cup!

I have to thank crushwitheyeliner.blogspot.com for this link: kickette.com. Haha. Perfect for the season.Wee.

So, which team do I support? Of course, for the love of mr t (and jogi, and mario, and basti...heheee), i fully support germany.i'm also for two asian teams - japan (i have a minor in japanese studies, after all) and south korea (my friends adore koreans). or probably, i will support the team with the hottest players.hmm... have to browse kickette.com to look for and validate the cutest players.

**

my husband and i went on two impromptu dates this week.as usual, i get "kilig" when this happens.

we went to barasti at le royal meridien to meet his friend, l.






as l had to stay only for an hour, we just went ahead to have dinner and to go to the barasti stadium that the hotel constructed only for world cup viewings.there are lots of these viewing places in dubai.

then last night after work we met up at marina mall in abu dhabi.i was just initially planning to window shop, but lo and behold, mango was on sale! heee.we were also able to get some clothes for baby.

we went to the yas hotel for dinner, but the restaurant that we wanted to go to was under renovation.ok...

we just walked around outside the hotel since it is in the yas marina circuit after all (where they have formula one races).







we decided to go to amerigo's, a mexican restaurant in park inn hotel.we did not expect much 'cos honestly the place looked like it did not have much to offer.but we were pleasantly surprised that the food tasted nice.

Babies!

i wanna watch this film called "Babies" (also known as Bebe). See link. Oprah has endorsed it, and anything that Oprah endorses, I follow.Yes, I'm gullible that way.Anyway, this is a French documentary film that follows four infants from birth until they are about a year old.They follow babies from Namibia, Japan, Mongolia and the U.S. How cool is that?

If I were not a mom myself, I don't think I would bother.But I think this is just so cute, and it would be a nice DVD gift to a new mom or mom-to-be.

**

Twenty-five years of Goonies - The National Newspaper

Twenty-five years of Goonies - The National Newspaper

Goonies!

**

the world cup fever is hitting the t household.look what's posted on the door in the boiler room.and yes, that's a very filipino "walis" (broom) hanging there.haha. mr t still insists that we vacuum at least two times a week, though.



so almost everyone here seems to be feverish with the world cup bug.it's not really surprising as every country seems to be represented here. all the bars are promoting their own special shows.some are building tents to accommodate thousands of fans who want to watch the action live on gigantic screens.here in our area, some organizers have built a huge tent for fans.so yeah, this is a whole month of football mania.

**

i really dislike my hair now.it's so long, it's so dry, it's overly rebonded, it's so boring.i wanna chop it all off and copy katie h's hair, but i'm a little scared to do it.i might do it slowly.for now, i might try to copy jennifer a's hair, but mr t said it looks like any american girl hairstyle.hmm...

Wonder of the World 3 (cont.): Amazing Jordan - Amman

our last day in jordan :-(

after breakfast, we drove going to amman, the capital of jordan, to return the rental car.goodbye, nice hotel.goodbye, dead sea.

we thought it would be the perfect time to visit the baptism site as it was on the way.

not really.

Wonder of the World 3 (cont.): Amazing Jordan - Petra

And finally, our destination.

PETRA.