What's up?

I know, I've been neglecting you, blog. So sorry. Life happens...

Current obsessions:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/OpQFFLBMEPI

http://www.youtube.com/embed/JRfuAukYTKg

Current baby-isms:

"I'm not a princess! I'm a prince!"

"The king is coming!"

"Im not pretty. I'm maganda!" (sabay irap)

LOL.

So baby started with her swimming lessons along with two of her closest girl friends. She is also attending a hip-hop class twice a week. She still goes to nursery three times a week, every morning. Busy lang ang lola.

:)

check!

our weeks of potty-training had paid off! yes, you read that correctly -weeks.i know some parents probably did it successfully in a few days, but our baby took her time.

it's been almost a week since she started going to the potty on her own, alerting us if she wants to make wee-wee.and it's the third day now that she's making poo-poo (sorry for the toddler language) in the toilet.oh we are so happy! she only wears nappies only at night now.oh, our baby is really growing up.

and just a snippet of our daily conversation:

me: baby, do you want to invite anyone to your party?
baby: yes, B-I-N-G-O! (as in spell out pa ha)
hahahaha! (For the clueless - Bingo is the dog's name in a popular nursery rhyme)

**

this is how i see my lil' one.kyot and feisty!

babyisms

i think our baby is witty :-)

aunty j (looking at baby's watch): what time is it?
baby:  time to go out!

**

me: please say pardon, instead of "what?"
baby: who is pardon?

**

and my favorite...

baby (to me): i want to love you.

**

awww...

baby's expressions

i'm curious where baby is getting all her favorite expressions now.

just some examples:

oh my god
oh my dear
that's a good idea
(and my favorite) whoopsie daisy

it's just so cute hearing these from her!we are not a british household, and so baby must be getting these expressions from her nursery. or maybe from some of her playmates?

her playgroup is a mini united nations - an italian-filipino girl, two french girls, a canadian girl and a south korean boy. plus a bunch of kids coming from several arab countries like lebanon and syria.

she's already added the arabic slang words "shuhada" (in tagalog, ano ba yan? sorry, i can't find a proper english translation!) and "kalas" (finish) to her vocabulary.

and her deutsch has improved a lot after a month-long holiday in germany with oma and opa.

she still has to catch up with her filipino, though.

we have a linguist in the family, and we could not be any prouder!

things i'm grateful for: al ain!

this year is a very busy one for my husband, so a staycation in the uae comes as a blessing for us.

it was sort of a pat-in-the-back gift for ourselves as we managed to keep the household sane as nanny went on three-week holiday.

so amidst summer camps, weather in the 40s, sicknesses, work duties, we emerged triumphant!

we got ourselves a good hotel deal, and off we went to al ain, an oasis in the desert.

it was a very-much needed boost.

don't you just love mini-holidays? they make you anticipate of lovelier things to come!

it's june!

i can't believe it.it's already june, and i've just finished posting about our christmas holidays.

time does pass when you are a working mom. no offense to the sahm's, i know you are doing one heck of a job.and i salute you for that.but to each his own naman, di ba?

baby has started with nursery.and it is going ok,so far.at first she did not want to go and actually proclaimed she disliked it.but after two weeks,she suddenly decided she liked it.

her school reports are positively glowing with praises.so she must really love it, and we are not just imagining her love for education.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011 and new year's 2012

i'm very, very choosy when it comes to friends.that's why i only have a select few of them.they are the ones who have been with me through thick and thin (and i for them!), who know me inside out, who love me (i hope so!) warts and all.

so i also consider it a blessing that i get to "inherit" mr t's close friends. they are a lovely bunch of people, and although we may not speak the same language, our bond with mr t brings us closer together.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 20121

we have been to garmisch a few times before. i've written about it a lot of times, and i am going to write another post about it as i like that place so much!

baby's godmother, l, lives in garmisch so that's why we always have a reason to visit.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

we are very thankful for the chance to see vienna in its christmas glory and to marvel at bratislava in its quirkiness, but it is always a blessing to come home to somewhere familiar...

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

so...bratislava...

i'm still amazed at how much our little family had so much fun in this historical town.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

who would have ever thought i would set foot in eastern europe? it seemed so far-fetched, but we did it. bratislava in slovakia is just an hour away by train from vienna. we took this opportunity as god knows when we would ever have this chance again.

we set off early.early being 930 in the morning.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

after a few hours of basically doing nothing at the cafe we ventured out to one of the most beautiful palaces i've ever seen - the schloss belvedere.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

the adjoining schonbrunn gardens are arranged in french style. as we visited right smack in the start of winter, the shades were either in brown or grey. however i got enthralled of this seemingly sad combination of colors.

promise!

sorry for the lack of posts! mommy duties come first before blogging duties - my poor baby was sick for almost a week.she is ok now, thank god.talkative and bibo as ever.
you should be reading more posts in the coming days.promise! haha.

meanwhile, i am leaving you with these feel-good stuff. you know, just to keep us going!

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

"yes, it's more than a little twee in places, but how can this festival ever be anything but? a few glasses of orange-peel-scented grog and you start to appreciate the work that goes into those little gingerbread houses with their snowy roofs and tiles made out of sweeties; the heart-shaped cookies and oranges stuffed with cloves; the extraordinary array of glass baubles and musical boxes. this is also where you come for paper plates of sharp shredded cabbage and slender sausages, twists of bread dough and slices of spice cake, paper bags of chestnuts fresh from the roaster, baked potatoes and mugs of steaming wine.

vienna, it would see, is made for christmas.." - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

it was a blessed christmas day!

our christmas day morning was spent playing with baby's gift from oma and opa - a train set!

how could we not take advantage of  a beautiful, sunny day? it was a very ideal day to go walking around...the schonbrunn palace!

things i'm grateful for:

"it is difficult not to warm to a city that smells of baked apples.strands of white fairy lights hang across the narrow streets like falling snow caught in lamplight.the bells of stephansdom chime deeply, and every now and then there is the ghostly clatter of horses' hooves on cobbles.the shop windows, when they are not full of curiously sinister antique dolls, are glistening with caskets of sugar plums and chocolate fir cones.vienna, icily cold and smeling of sweet spice, is like walking into a christmas card" - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

and what a christmas card it was! vienna certainly delivered in its promise of christmas glory.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

"...a twinkling, sugar'n'spice city that seems just made for this season..." - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

'twas the day before christmas.

we thought to take it easy as the shops will close early, but how can you take it easy in one of the most beautiful cities in the world?

when you would just take off from a tram and be greeted by this? (no, not the in-your-face coca-cola banner)

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

so i would never have imagined that this narrow street led to a full-grown christmas market! the stalls spread through narrow streets and backyards of spittelberg, with all the works! brilliant!

and somebody was also lurking!

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

" there is some amicable jostling among the duffel coats to get to the front of the queue (it is not easy to fight in mittens), all of us eager to get our hands on a piece of the stallholder's hot toast with its waves of molten cheese. there are few moments more perfect than the one that finds you biting into blistering cheese on toast while snowflakes fall on your eyelashes." - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

we reached the neue burg wing of the hofburg.

this palace has housed one of the most powerful empires in europe, the habsburgs, starting in 1279 to 1918.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

"vienna manages to retain the feel of an advent calendar, complete with a dusting of glitter.the christmas markets, of which half are dotted around the city, are heavy with the fragrance of freshly cut pine trees and freshly baked ginger biscuits." - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

this day was definitely a christmas market day. we started off with a simple breakfast

and trekked to the mother of all christmas markets.i mean, this must be the biggest christmas market ever!