changing lanes

It's been over a year since my last update on this blog. A lot has changed already. We are now a family of four.

After the break of dawn on the 11th day of August, I gave birth to our second baby – our son, Liam. We have all waited for Liam’s arrival. Everyone was excited to see Caitlyn’s baby brother – the one everyone said would complete the family. Carlo and I have prepared well for the coming of Liam – bought all the baby stuff that we need, saved enough money for my delivery, renovated the 3rd room in the house for the nursery. We were ready for Liam – and so we thought. Liam caught everyone by surprise – he was born with Down Syndrome.

While parents would normally celebrate the arrival of their babies, it was different with me and the rest of the family at that time. I didn’t even know how to respond to “Congratulations” text messages. It felt like I have lost somebody. It was one of the most difficult time in my life. I wasn’t prepared for this. This was not the baby we were expecting. We have great expectations and big dreams for Liam. All of these seem to have shattered. They were all replaced by fear and uncertainties. How are we going to raise a child with Down Syndrome? Is he going to learn how to talk? Will Caitlyn be able to play with him? Will we be able to send him to school? Will he be able to feed and bathe himself? What will happen to Liam when Carlo and I are gone? Can Caitlyn take care of him? How will Caitlyn be able to accept this? There were just so many questions but couldn’t find a single answer. That didn’t seem real. I only read it from the internet. I only hear this happening to other people. Why us? Why Liam?

The first two weeks was the most difficult. There wasn’t a single day that I would not cry. I prayed everyday asking the Lord to help find the answer to my questions, to help me understand HIS purpose of giving us Liam, to help me become a stronger person for Liam and the rest of the family. During these times, I only hold on to two things: my faith and my family.

Liam will be celebrating his 6th month in 2 days. It’s been 6 months of countless trip to his doctors, consultation with a Cardiologist, Gastroenterologist, Orthopedics, Surgeon, Developmental Pedia – Liam has probably met more doctors than I did in my 33 years of existence, two long vacations at Makati Med, two pending surgeries, and a handful of maintenance medicines. We’re not out of the tunnel yet, but I can say that I’m far better now. Yes, I still cry, but for different reasons now – more often because of the overwhelming joy seeing Liam smiles.

The past six months have given me a lot of lessons in life. It made me realized my priorities. It taught me how to appreciate life. It has forced me to slow down and in the process, made me understand what is most important. It has drawn families closer to each other, and more importantly made my faith strongest. I have learned to live one day at a time and thank the Lord for each day spent with Liam. I would be honest to say that there are times when I will be all stressed and freaked out that I will end up having fights with Carlo – but these had just made us realized how much we love each other and how important our marriage and our family is to us.

It’s still a long road ahead of us, and slowly we’re gonna get there. For now, I just needed to shift gear and change lanes…

Our Liam - Jan2010

sweetest words ever!

I was busy chopping tomatoes in the kitchen when Caitlyn suddenly said: "Mom, you're the best mommy!"

I was surprised, really! Those were the most wonderful words I've heard ever, probably even better to the "will you marry me" line of my husband when he proposed to me ;)

It touched my heart, big time!

Syempre hindi papatalo, mylove asked Caitlyn, "What about Daddy?"

Caitlyn replied: "Daddy is a boy"

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

ernie and bert?

No. It's Caitlyn and Bert. This was taken this morning. The moment she woke up, she immediately went to her drawing board and drew. She said it's Bert.

In fairness, it does look like Bert, only with a moustache ;)

my name is..

Caitlyn wrote this all by herself. She's learned how to spell her name a few weeks ago but was still having a hard time writing it because she still couldn't get the right strokes of the letters. Until last Monday. She saw a credit card bill, asked me whose mail is that and asked me if she can write her name on it. I said yes and was surprised to actually see her writing her name! Too bad though that she ran out of space before finishing her name. When I offered her the other side of the envelope, she already got distracted by her other toys and didn't want to write anymore.

Nevertheless, I was one proud mommy seeing my little girl writing her name without anyone teaching or helping her :)

4 years and still counting

MyLove and I will be celebrating our 4th year anniversary in one week's time. We haven't planned anything big because we just went out of town last week.

We're thinking of just having dinner somewhere at Greenbelt. MyLove would also like to watch a movie but I'm still thinking. I'm not much into movies. I actually fall asleep most of the times so I hate watching movies at night ;)

It doesn't really matter when and how we'll be celebrating our anniversary next week. As long we'll be together, that's all that matters.

my night job

Paid blogging that is!

I just signed up with payperpost and was surprised to get an approval after just a few minutes.

Actually, this has been my second time to sign up with them. The first time was last September but didn't get approved. I learned though that it's easier to sign up now so I tried my luck the second time around. It was true indeed! I didn't have to wait for an email confirmation. It was approved almost instantly.

I tried paid blogging a few months back but got hooked up with other things so this took a back seat for a while. But now that I'm back in the groove for blogging, I decided to get back on my blogging "career" as well. I would be very happy with the extra treats I'll be getting from paid blogging. I could use these for my trinkets and some indulgence :)

I've also signed up with other paid blogging before but what makes PPP better is that you got to choose the topic that you want to write about. You can choose only those that interest you. You will not only earn by writing topics that is of interest but you'd get to learn from the information that's available from the web.

I'm just so excited about it and I'm hoping to have the time to diligently attend to this night job.

the new me!

After almost 5yrs, I finally got the courage to bring my hair back how it was prior to getting married :)

It felt liberating!

Sana next time, yung katawan naman ;)

meet mike

Meet Mike, Caitlyn's friend according to her :)

Background: She just finished drawing when I entered the room.

Caitlyn: Look Mom, it's Mike!
Me: Mike? Mike Wazowski? (from Monsters, Inc.)
Caitlyn: No, Mom. It's not Mike Wazowski. It's Mike!
Me: Who's Mike? Is he your friend?
Caitlyn: Yes, Mom. It's my friend! Can you take a picture of me and Mike?

Hay.. kawawa naman ang anak ko. May imaginary friend na...

bad day!

Before I got up from bed this morning to prepare for work, I felt that Caitlyn was a little warm. I checked her temperature and confirmed that she had fever. I immediately decided not to come to work anymore so I can bring the little girl to her doctor. I was quite worried because it could possibly be related to the ear pain she was complaining about yesterday.

We brought her to Makati Med and had her ears checked. Her doctor said she has ear infection and was given oral and topical antibiotics for her to take for a week.

We also have her eyes checked and was referred to an ophtalmologist. Caitlyn's right eye has been teary since she was a baby and was often times irritated. The opthalmology said her tear duct might be blocked. She was given a topical antibiotics for the eyes and asked us to observe. If it doesn't get any better, he may need to flush it out. I'm hoping it'll no longer be needed because if it does, the little girl will have to be in general anesthesia :(

Except for some (or a lot) of complaining and crying on having her take her antibiotics, Caitlyn now feels better. She's now deeply asleep. I'm just hoping her ear won't hurt tonight anymore.

i'm no superwoman

Right after we turned off the lights and I kissed Caitlyn goodnight, I went downstairs to finish some work. It's half past nine. About an hour later, I heard Caitlyn crying so I rushed upstairs. The little girl was crying hard and complaining that her ear hurt. I had to calm her down and put her back to sleep. She laid down very close to me as if she didn't want me go anywhere. I had to stay with her for about 30mins until she fell back to sleep. When I felt that she's back in slumber, I quietly sneaked out of the room hoping she'd not wake up and her ear would not hurt anymore.

Now, I'm back in front of my laptop - trying to finish some work and send some files which I promised my boss I'd send to him tonight. It's almost 11pm... still working.

Not that I'm complaining.

But again, I'm still human.. I do still feel tired... and drained...

caitlyn's version of..

a turtle..

a giraffe.. according to her.. can you actually see it? ;)

i'm mad!

This is how Caitlyn looks like when she's mad (aka nagiinarte).

Sabay sabi ng "I'm mad!"

sushi day

Had lunch at Sakae Sushi at MOA today. Caitlyn enjoyed watching the conveyor belt sushi and can't stop pointing which one we should take.. akala yata libre!


MyLove and I love Japanese food, but it was a first sushi-go-round experience for me and I sure had lots of fun. I would definitely come back, but will make sure it's between 2-6pm so I can have their sushi buffet!

last hooray!

And when we thought Caitlyn's birthday season was over, we got a call from my mom the other day that her Ninang Eryll from Virginia sent something for her..

She just loves her new Dora so much!

I'm just a little worried.. Dora may start having falling hair in the next few days...

Thanks, Ninang!!! :)