Dear Sarah
Happy first birthday to my sweet baby girl!
You give so much happiness to all the people around you. It is such a joy to have you in our lives.
We had a very simple birthday celebration at home. I took half the day off and spent the rest of the day with you. Bought you a couple of fancy dresses with a third dress (traditional Indian one) made specially by Daddy's cousin. Ordered cake/cupcakes decorated with your favorite animals. Made you a birthday banner the night before and blew up some balloons on your birthday morning. Strolled with you at the lakeside and got you to enjoy the playground. Mama took lots of pictures of you. We sang lots of happy birthday songs. Lastly, we chatted with Mama's family back in Manila before snuggling to sleep.
Mama had a wonderful, wonderful time with you on your birthday. I hope you did too. I love you my little sweetheart. Don't grow up too fast my baby.
New year's resolutions...not!
These are not really new year resolutions per se but more on what I would like to focus for this year.
Exercise. I need to get back in shape, not that I'm too far from my weight goal (target is 51kg vs my current weight of 55kg). Last year, I invested heavily on a pair of running shoes which until now hasn't seen the light of day (haven't even taken it out of the box!). Plan then was to join the 10k Penang Bridge Marathon but I was too engrossed with Sarah to prepare for the running event. I'll sign up again for the 10k run, who knows maybe even the half marathon!
Badminton is out of the window as I don't know any groups who can 'adopt' me. My badminton gears have been accumulating cobwebs since 2009. Would really like to pick up my racket again.
Swimming. I completed the 10 session lessons before 2011 ended, a long standing "wish i know how to..." finally crossed off the list. I intend to spend more time in the apartment pool this year.
Cooking. For the Christmas holidays, my family "kidnapped" Sarah to let me do the cooking. They were pleasantly surprised with my dishes, complimenting my cooking skills. Need to do more of this, and try to create signature dishes from Marz's kitchen. =)
Blogging. Be. more. diligent. in. chronicling. our. daily. lives. 'Nuff said!
Print pictures. Printed autographs over digital stills any time of the day! Easier said than done. Selecting pictures to print from thousands of digital images is a nightmare. I'll have the time to select & print pictures next month when Ravi goes on a business trip. I already have 2008-2009 printed albums, would have to do the same for 2010-2011 pictures.
More dates with Ravi. Our weekly dates had significantly dropped during 2011 which was not a surprise as having a child meant less time spent with the spouse. I resolve to spend more dates (and weekend getaways!) with my loving and supportive husband/best friend this year.
Family bonding. 2 weeks of family equals a mixture of happiness and wistfulness.
Spent a lot of time with my siblings (Abet, Jing, Rap) and niece Sophia. Swapped babies between Sarah and Sophia. Ate out a lot, satisfied my cravings for pinoy dishes such as kare-kare, lumpia, halo-halo, kakanin, fishballs, taho, balut, etc. Did several shopping and grocery trips to Festival Mall and one to Mall of Asia. Watched local tv shows and movies at home. Did massage rotations among ourselves!
My mom and Sarah took early morning walks in the neighborhood. She would let Sarah crawl and walk onto the street pavement without shoes/slippers, climb into a tricycle and chase the neighborhood cats, dogs and chickens. My mother got Sarah to walk holding only one of her hands. Sarah would wobble as she finds her balance, it was amusing to watch!
Bicol. Sarah and I also visited my father in Sorsogon. We brought him presents and grocery supplies. We also dropped by my grandmother's grave for a quick visit, just to introduce Sarah.
Cousins. We skipped having a big reunion this year. My family only visited my aunt and her family. My mother hosted a few belly aching fun games - Meron o wala, Nativity story, Pahabaan and Pinoy Henyo! 'Twas great to laugh out loud till our tummy and cheeks hurt, with matching tears of happiness & craziness!
Friends.
Juliet. Picked her up and fiancee Alan and went to Little Angels Home at Tagaytay. We distributed food and groceries to the orphanage. Had lunch at Pancake House Tagaytay Ridge and fishballs on the side street. Made most of the chika during the road trip.
Grace. Had lunch with her together with our college classmates at Cabalen Festival Mall. Didn't have the time to visit their home to see my inaanak Chloe.
Donna. Went together to the ex-Intel Q&R Christmas party at Manong's Alabang. She came to our house for lunch and chikahan before we left for Penang.
Attended the ex-Intel Q&R Christmas party at Manong’s Alabang with Sarah.Had a good time meeting up my former co-workers.Host Clet Dizon is crazy as usual!
There were a few more friends I would have wanted to meet up with but the schedule was just too tight. I'm sure they would have understood.
New haircut. I initially wanted to grow my hair longer this year but Sarah kept pulling out my ponytail everytime I carry her. It made me look like a crazy mom! So off to the salon I went to have it chopped off. I'm now currently sporting the shortest bob I ever had. Truth to tell, it doesn't suit me very well but I would not have known it if I didn't try right?
I bought Sarah her first Indian dress for Deepavali 2011. It was kinda unplanned. We were buying something else when we passed by these cute Indian dresses for kids. I figured she's half Indian so she better have some Indian dresses too.
Forgive a biased mother but she looked so cute and charming!
Time flies...
Here's what happened this November 2011.
November 12. Pinoy Christmas Party @ Gold Coast Resort.
Lots of new faces, the Penang Pinoy community is growing! Loads of fun, as expected from a typical pinoy gathering. Daming pagkain, tingin pa lang busog na ko! For food, we contributed 2 pandan layer cakes and a brocolli/carrots/shrimp dish.
Ravi joined a game, their team lost though :)
Reena almost won one of the kiddie games. She had fun playing pinoy games.
Sarah met Raine again, she wanted to play with her.
Group picture with the Intel Q&R group.
November 18. Avago's Masquerade Ball @ Trader's Hotel
It was the company's annual dinner. Good jazz band. Chinese food. Had drinks with Ravi afterwards.
With Yuki, Mi Mi, Hong Choon and Boon Hong
My only solo shot of the night :)
November 27. Visit to Straits Quay.
Enjoyed the Christmas decors at Straits Quay. Strolled along the marina. Bought homemade nougat at the bazaar (yummy!) Had dinner at Blue Chips.
Coming out of the parking lot, I felt the car was moving kinda funny. I parked on the side and checked the tires. My dreaded suspicion was confirmed, I got a flat tire! Left rear to be exact.
We got the Toyota Estima last February but never got around to finding where the spare tire was. So a couple weeks ago, Ravi looked for it. To our disappointment, there was no spare tire! We knew we have to get back with the Naza car shop at Autocity Penang and claim the spare tire, most likely on a weekend when we have to go to Nibong Tebal. (Autocity will be on the way to Nibong Tebal).
Then this flat tire happened. On a Monday morning. When Ravi is in Vietnam until Friday.
Panic mode galore for me! I.have.never.changed.a.tire.
Called Ravi up and asked what to do. He told me to go to a tire shop near the house and get the guys there to replace the tire. So I walked back to the house, waited for an hour as the shop opens only around 10am, and got a cab to the tire shop.
Ravi and the shop guy talked for a while (over international call!) and agreed on what tire to put in. The shop fellas did everything for me, thank goodness. They found a nail pierced way deep into the tire, about 1/4 inch thick nail.
All in all, it cost us RM350 to replace the tire. What a way to start the week! :S
Donald, Lhet and baby Raine visited us one rainy Saturday afternoon. It was like a play date between Raine and Sarah. Raine was a shy and quiet most of the time, Sarah as usual have no problem being noisy!
I know, I know. I've been negligent with this blog. Tsk, tsk, tsk! Need a lot of catching up to do...
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Ravi's friend at Intel Penang Design Center, Suresh, came with his family for a visit last September 10. They have a baby girl named Anya who's 3 weeks younger than Sarah. It was supposed to be a playdate for the babies but it turned out to be more of the parents' chika time!
Sarah was very comfortable with the baby guest, not shy at all in trying to gorge Anya's eyes out or pull her hair! Anya took a long time to get used to the new surrounding but later was also crawling all over the place and playing with Sarah's toys. Sarah was very protective of her toys, grabbing them away from Anya each and every time!
The husbands had their man-talk at the kitchen drinking whisky while the ladies chit chatted at the living area. Suresh then made a joke that it used to be the women who would stay in the kitchen to talk and gossip and not the other way around! We committed to hold the next get-together at their place.
I miss writing. I used to do a lot of writing on notebooks for lessons, different sized pad papers for quizzes, manila papers and cartolinas for projects, and of course doodles on any writing space during boring class lectures! :)
My cursive handwriting used to be pretty good, if I may say so myself. It's not so nice anymore because nowadays, all writing I get done are mostly a few notes here and there.
I’m embarking on another(!) project - to write more often on paper. Let's see how well I'll do by the end of the year.
***
I’ll let you in a secret.I still send out greetings cards for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Valentines, and all other occasions. I like writing personal messages (sometime with some artwork on the side!) on the cards. Of course I love receiving greeting cards too!
Sadly the greeting card collection here in Penang is very limited. I'm guessing though that it's the same for most bookstores anywhere else.
I miss the good old times when people take time to carefully read through many greeting cards in the bookstore, searching for that perfect card to give to a friend, a family member or to someone special.Now, it just takes a few minutes (even seconds) to write in a facebook message, send email or an e-card, and twit (for those who are into twitter) to greet people.Tsk, tsk, tsk!
