Another Milestone For Our Baby

 

Just updated my blog on Our Precious Bundle Of Joy  posting photos of Nate on his graduation from Nursery yesterday afternoon at Manila Hotel.

It was a lovely day of celebration, family togetherness and bonding. We were so proud of our baby. Time flies fast. It seems like it was only yesterday when he was in nappies and we were singing lullabies and children’s rhymes to him.  How proud we are of him.

Next school year he will be in  Kindergarten  and it will be another milestone to go through and  tackle. I wish  you all the best Nate. I am pretty sure  you can do it better.

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Daddy And Me (A Short Story)

Chilling with daddy…

Short of  20 days to being a toddler of two. He said, “daddy, milk”.

Daddy said, “May I have my milk daddy?”

As he can’t yet speak a whole sentence, he smiled and got his wish.

Look at how happy he is.

Mommy was ready with her  cam.

Precious moment, forever freezed in a photograph.

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I Miss Baby Nate

I miss my “apo”   so much that I decided to have some hard copies of his studio portraits which Nissa sent me yesterday.  So right after  doing our monthly groceries, off I went to Picture City bringing my external hard drive along. I have all of the 25 shots printed with three pictures enlarged.  Had to kill time for at least an hour before they were ready so I visited  one of my favorite jaunts, Booksale. And what a lovely surprise to see another copy of the beloved classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I was in college when   got acquainted with Francie Nolan, the main character in the story.  A few years ago, I bought a copy of my own but lost it during typhoon Ondoy.  I guess it’s about time to reacquaint myself with this lovely book.

Wow, you can just imagine my excitement when I saw the pictures and decided right there and then to find frames for the three enlarged ones and two small shots of Nate, the Little Genius  sitting besides two encyclopedia while holding  a pair of eyeglasses. One of the sales clerks at Robinson’s’ Store helped  me find  frames  and mount the pictures.  Had a good laugh when he said, “his face is familiar, is he a model ma’am?”  “I’ve been here before”, I said, “when I bought a picture frame a few months ago and you assisted me”.  He smiled. Sometimes, I do enjoy conversing with sales clerks and cashiers while waiting for my turn to be served. And of course, I was elated  that they find the pictures of Nate lovely.  His face now occupies a major portion of our shelves where I display family pics. That’s how proud Nonna is.  How can a little tyke brings so much joy  and lots of smiles?

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Our Baby Nate

My daughter tagged this picture on Facebook. Seeing it made me miss my grandson all the more. I haven’t seen him for almost two weeks now. I am excited to discover something new that he could do.  He is five months and two weeks young now.

Mother’s day is fast approaching.  My daughter is big on celebrations like this. I remember the past years when she would plan where we would spend lunch or dinner on Mother’s day. She makes her own greeting cards and not an event would pass by without a lovely message from her. She’s now a mother too and I am excited to return the favor and greet her  Happy Mother’s Day on May 12.

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A Perfect Ordinary Day

It’s been a while. A week of not writing my thoughts seems like a month of empty imaginings. I got so used to blogging everyday that a few day’s lapse loosely translate to not knowing what to share here.

Gosh, yesterday was a scorcher. Metro Manila is really, really hot. Imagine registering a 35.4°C, the hottest in Metro Manila so far this summer. I went out though and spent my morning at MetroEast Mall. I need to have some documents photocopied and our printer is out of ink , a perfect excuse to go out and visit Booksale despite the heat. I decided to have some pictures of our baby Nate printed. I have hundreds of photos since he was born and he does not even have a framed photograph. At least Picture City still charges a reasonable fee for photo enlargement, although cropping the picture is not much to my liking. One of their staff explained that it is kind of different when you’re using a  printed copy, you can’t edit it in their computer the way you want so you have to be content with raw shots directly from the flash memory card.

It has now a pride of place atop one of our side tables in the living area. I have to source an 8 x 10″ inch frame for his picture. I smiled like crazy when some of the salesladies at Robinson’s exclaimed, “what a good-looking baby”. And I answered, “he is my grandson”. Fancy a proud Nonna in their midst. His other pictures are also my wallpaper displays on my two cellphones.

A bookworm can’t miss out on checking new titles at Booksale. Every time I get the chance to visit, I enjoy looking at the titles and find  one within my budget. Although they sell second-hand books, they’re still a  bit pricey. If you’re lucky though, you can find nice titles below P50.00. I have a growing stash of summer reads, light novels from some favorite authors that I collect. Of course, between these are my inspirational books that give me a lift when I am hungry for lovely words  – they inspire, they make you love life all the more, they make you long to write too. Didn’t we, at some moments in our busy life,  dream of writing our own stories?

The Hot Zone was a nice find. It’s a true story about terrifying virus found in monkeys. Just looking at the picture on the book cover reminds me of another book I’ve read so long ago written by Robin Cook. Outbreak  was made into a movie and it’s about Ebola virus. Of course, Maeve Binchy is the Maeve Binchy and her books are nice family sagas of redemption, love, struggles and relationships.  I am collecting books by Anita Shreve and finding another one although it’s just a paperback copy made me smile.  Yeay to An Amish Christmas,  a handy hardbound copy that I also found yesterday at P95.00. It contains four Christmas stories. Fancy reading a book about Christmas when it is only the start of summer. I love Christmas stories that really tickle the heart.

I was looking for a nice essence for this lovely tea light candle holder but found them too strong for my liking. I love a clean scent, not too overpowering but would give that sense of peace and tranquility in a room. Can you suggest some?

And to cap it all, a close friend sent me a picture of a portable hard drive which she bought for me and she said, it’s for all the pictures of Nate I’ll be taking in the future and as back-up for my blogs. You see, she is an honorary grandma of Nate. How lucky can one get?

I am truly blessed and it was a perfect ordinary day 🙂

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This Is Nice

Congratulations on getting 20 total follows on Our Precious Bundle of Joy.

Just got this message from WordPress, thank you very much. It’s my latest blog dedicated to my first grandson Nate which I started a month ago. To all my regular readers and visitors here at Dreams and Escapes, thank you too for appreciating my new blog and leaving your comments at the site.

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Awaiting Christmas

 

For some strange reason, this simple pair of socks touched me more than the many gifts  Nissa received during the  baby shower in her office. It’s the thought of having our first Christmas too with baby Nate that makes it an event worth waiting for. A few more days to go…..I’m thrilled!

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Just Getting More Excited

My own photo album on Nissa’s wedding finally arrived today after a long, long wait of almost a year. It’s a mini version of their  own wedding album and it took them a while to choose which to include in it because it  was just limited to about 150 pictures among the more than 2,000 shots done by their official photographer. Anyway, I still have to watch the DVD on the wedding itself and probably choose more pics and have them printed too. We have all the pictures in CDs. How lovely and it’s nice to recall an event that somehow  made my only daughter so happy. We’re waiting with bated breath for baby Nate….about five weeks more to go!

I had fun sorting the baby layette –  booties, diapers, baby clothes, pajamas, receiving blankets, bonnets. I was excited, who wouldn’t? So I started washing some of them using a baby liquid detergent. Love that feeling of nostalgia –  remembering those days when my two kids were still babies. It really feels good to have another baby in the family, this time, a wonderful baby boy who would give us joy and happiness. If  Obet and Nissa are excited, I am more excited than they are. It’s Nissa’s 30th birthday in a week and with that little bundle of joy coming soon, what a beautiful birthday gift. It seems like only yesterday when I blogged about the joys of being a mom and my own power moments. And it seems only yesterday when it finally dawned on me that my daughter is getting married. How time flies and I remember blogging about their lovely November wedding last year. And now, she has her own family to speak of.  Am I getting old? But they say that age is just a number, and when you add numbers to your age, you grow a little wiser. But still, I am excited.  The baby that I used to cradle in my arms is now a mother in her own right.

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Saturday, Saturday, What An Amazing Saturday!

I was chatting with a friend last night and I told him Mama Mary must be proud of me because every time her birthday comes, I blog about it and my stat goes haywire. And I mean, it could not be crazier than this. Last night, I thought I have surpassed my previous stat last September 08, 2011 when it registered a total of 1,553, my highest so far in my two years of blogging. Last night though, it registered a high of 1,686, surpassing my previous stats on the same date but then I was truly amazed when it kept pointing up, up and up today with total views of 2, 410 as of this writing and when I took a look, they were mostly about Mama Mary. Oh, she’s doing a little magic with my blog 🙂 Amazing!

Nissa finally brought the DVD they have especially made for Nate.  I love it, what a lovely thirty-minute bonding with the family. My nine-year old niece was so caught with Nate’s movements and asked why  he  was always covering his face. And we all laughed when she said that he looks like her Ate Nissa, “mas matangos lang ang ilong”. Hahaha! I love the Biblical quotes they inserted in the video and the texts, wow, so touching!  I just could not wait to see him come into the world. Truly Amazing!

It was quite, quite an amazing Saturday, time spent with my daughter and son-in-law, my younger brother and his family and with Mom  who was so excited to go home to the province after almost four months of stay here.  I will miss her of course but I know she’ll be happy to visit her sisters and tend to her vegetable garden. I guess it’s time to catch up on my reading. I found three more books of Luanne Rice yesterday at Booksale.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA MARY! Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the inspiration. You are one amazing mother of all!

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A Prayer For Nathaniel Owen

It is always a welcome thing to see my daughter  and son-in-law during weekends. The few hours that we spend together more than make up for the days that we get in touch just through texts and phone calls. We had an early dinner or shall we call late “merienda”, I prepared spaghetti while Nissa made Panini bread with cheese.  When we are on the dining table, the topic seems to veer on food.  Kev says he hasn’t tasted nor seen a zucchini yet so he suggested to Nissa that it would be their first find on their next trip to the grocery store.  I told them we could try to plant them outside just like what we do with squash or pumpkins. Zucchini belongs to the family of squash, right?  I love zucchini and I always buy some when I chance upon them fresh from the market.

Nissa showed me the much-awaited  sonogram of our baby. At 28 weeks and a few days,  it is so exciting to see him inside Nissa’s womb and our conversation goes this way:

“He has your nose”, I told Obet  (my son-in-law) and he smiled.

“Thank God for that”, Nissa said adding “he has my lips”.

There is this standing  joke in the family that is always retold  with family members and close friends. Nissa was  a premature baby  because I got complications when I was pregnant with her. She was only eight months when my OB-Gynecologist induced her birth and at 3.9  pounds,  she was left at the hospital for about a month before we were able to take her home.  There was this oxygen attached to her and hubby said, “ang tangos ng ilong niya” meaning her nose  was not “pango” or flat as we say in Tagalog. It turned out that it was just the taped nasal cannula to make her breathe.

And I said, “maybe that’s the reason why medyo flat ilong mo”  and we all laughed.

Anyway, it is really so exciting to see baby  Nathaniel Owen and by God’s grace, we will welcome him to the world in two months. Nissa wants to call him Nate. Nice name, I said but we all laughed when we realized that his initials would be N.O.A.I. So how do you pronounce that? Nissa forgot to bring the DVD, we could have seen Nate move inside her womb. It is something more to look forward to, I just hope on their next visit, I would be able to see it.

I am praying hard everything would be okay when she gives birth in two months. We are all excited to see Nathaniel Owen.

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