Playful Reese

Gani arrived home from office and hanged his polo on the chair. Reese was kinda playful that night and took his dad's polo and tried wearing it herself. She was so happy when we let her did that and in turn made her cute pose for this picture.

Here are some of the things I missed to write about her:

• She can read letters A-Z and numbers 1-9 since she was 20 months old. It's strange to me that she learned this faster than the primary colors.
• Recognizes shapes in things and food, especially when she's bored. (circle, square, triangle, heart, star, house, sun, house, T) - shapes from shape sorter.
• Could answer "What's your name?" fluently and use some phrases/sentences correctly.
  
• One time when Gani & I arrived home, she came up to each one of us and asked, "Are you okay?", and she repeated it several times. Probably, she learned it that day and just checking if it works. ;-)
• When she likes me to give her chocolates, she walks straight to the refrigerator and says: "Reese, gusto mo ng chocolate?". She keeps on saying it until I give in to her request, she is so funny! :-)
• If she didn't find her slippers beside her mat, she says: "Slippers, where slippers, where?
• When I have to change her clothes, I have to say: "then raise your arms as high as you can", then she'll respond with: "and say.... Blast off!". She learned that from Little Einstein cartoon.
• Our term for fixing her hair is "parlor, parlor!".
  
• She likes repeating the words/phrases being spoken to her and she can pronounce most of the words properly.
• Her favorite toy nowadays is kitchen/food playset. She got lots of stuff toy but seldom touches them, maybe in time.
• Her favorite cartoons, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, and Dora.

I'll be blogging about her 2nd birthday soon...

New Toy

Nope, my new toy has nothing to do with the latest gadget in town. I’ve never been fond of buying the latest gadget and wouldn't want to be part of the never-ending quest to always have something better. The latest would always become obsolete for sure! So every time I get something electronic for myself, I asked, “Is this something I am willing to stick with for the next 3 years, no matter what the new technology offers?”

Going back to my sharing, my new toy is just an automatic washing machine from Samsung. I didn't consider this as a necessity before, but in times like this that we don’t have a helper at home, I really need to have it. Of course, nothing beats the traditional hand washing especially for our favorite clothes but got no choice but to trust the delicate function of this machine. I had actually chosen between this machine and our former laundry woman but decided on the machine due to the inconsistency in cleanliness of the latter. Less headaches for me I guess. If the machine fails, it wouldn't affect me much rather than paying somebody who doesn’t deliver consistent results.

I’ve been using this toy for 2 weeks now, and so far it does serve its purpose. Most of our clothes came out clean although some needed soaking. It doesn’t consume too much energy at 330W compared to the regular washing machines. But I still need to find out how much it will add to our electric bill. As for water consumption, I think it is fairly okay. The more important thing is that I can do other things and focus less on this chore. :-)

Road Trip to Tali Beach

I consider this summer to have the most frequent beach/resort get-aways for me. I’ve been to my fourth last May 9-10 in Tali Beach together with my office friends. We rented a van and left at past 7 am from Ortigas and arrived in Nasugbu before 12 noon.

The place is a rest house with 5 bedrooms, furnished kitchen, dining & living areas and swimming pool. The nearby beach is walking distance from the house we stayed in.

The girls cooked lunch, dinner, snack & breakfast up to the next day. As for the guys, they pretended to be doing something! (I mean they helped wash the dishes twice). Everybody found their own little comfort zones during that day. Some enjoyed cooking, playing cards (at any chance they have including the ride going home), swimming, sleeping and playing PSP. But of course, we were all gathered together during meal times and the morning splash by the beach.

Here are some snapshots:

and of course, the washers!

I enjoyed spending time with my office friends, doing the ordinary things like cooking and getting to know them personally. And hopefully, there will be another off-site get together next year. :-)

Swimming Party for Mama

Can you imagine how you would look like when you turned 83? Well, my grandmother still looks way younger than her age. And to celebrate the bonus years Mama Tonie received from God, we had a swimming party last May 1 at DJ Paradise Resort in Bulacan. My mom organized the party in 1 week. She inquired at the resort, checked on which area has wave pool (for Reese) and ensure that outside food will be allowed. She made sure that this day will be memorable for Mama.

To Mama Tonie, may God continue to bless you with good health and happiness. More years to come!

3rd Anniversary

We usually pick our own travel itinerary for vacation but opted to try something pre-arranged for this year. Gani’s officemate won a package tour for 2 to Bohol and sold it to us by less than half of the actual cost. (sweet!) The package included a round trip ticket to Tagbilaran with hotel transfer; 3 days / 2 nights accommodation in Panglao Island Nature Resort & Spa with buffet breakfast & dinner; and a day tour to Bohol’s finest destinations.

Taking advantage of the sweet deal, Gani & I headed to Bohol last weekend and spent time together for our early 3rd Anniversary celebration. It’s a month earlier than the actual date due to our previous experience of having a rainy/stormy vacation on the month of May. Below were the vacation highlights:

• Enjoyed swimming in the clear water during high tide from 8-11 am. The powdery sand was so nice to the feet. The little islet in the resort have many fish behind it that serves like a little snorkeling area.
• Buffet breakfast and dinner were awesome and most of the food we tried were delectable. I definitely ate more than I used to during our stay.
• Relaxed with nature’s fresh air, green surroundings and the Filipino-inspired ambiance. We also went to the cave inside the resort called Cambagat.

• Got the chance to ride a mechanical bike after so many years. Fun to experience once again that balancing comes out naturally.

• With the Bohol day tour, we felt like it was an exclusive tour and didn’t expect that it was only the 2 of us with the tour guide himself. The good side was that time was in our hands and we didn’t need to wait for anybody. We experienced traveling in zigzag road with 70-90 kph speed! And even we’re speeding, it took us 2 hours to reach the Chocolate Hills (one way). Another part that I liked was the Loboc River cruise with free lunch. It only lasted for 1 hour and I still wanted more. Other places we went to were the more than century old Baclayon Church, man-made forest, Raja Sikatuna’s shrine and of course, meet up with the Tarsiers. Although tarsiers were not supposed to be touched to avoid stressing them, I pitied the tarsiers coz instead of taking the usual rest during day time, they got no choice but to be awake due to people like us who like to see them.

• On our last night, we had an hour of “Simply Relaxation” massage. I don’t get regular massage and so far, it was the best that I’ve tried.

All we did there was to unwind and enjoy the simple perks from this vacation. We’re like expectators moving from one place to another. And both of us agreed, this is the type of vacation we surely prefer.

New Look

With so much time in our hands during the Holy Week, Gani was able to find me a nice website for blogger templates. I've chosen this new look for a change and Gani did all the setup. I've been wanting to have something like this for the longest time, and now, all I have to do is add more nice widgets to it. Big thanks to my pangga! :-)

Simple Rewards

Various credit cards have different rewards. I personally enjoy using BPI credit card because aside from the points earned from purchases, they do have promos with food establishment. For every 1000 pesos single receipt purchase, credit card users can claim 1 free food item from the sponsor. You can claim as many as 3-4 food items in 1 transaction depending on the establishment.

In our case, we obtain those credit card receipts from our regular grocery shopping for food, milk, diapers etc. We usually request the cashier to do multiple transactions for us if our purchase is over 1000 to get more credit card slips that will be converted to freebies.

For this period, the sponsor is Goldilocks. Gani and I were in Trinoma last weekend and had our snack of course at Goldilocks. We had palabok, puto, dinuguan and 2 sago’t gulaman. And using our receipts, we only paid 14 pesos for everything! This is what I call instant little rewards! No hassle and no forms needed. :-)

Disclaimer: I am not an employee of BPI and do not intend to promote any of their services. If you find anything that can be claimed instantly from using credit cards (hassle-free), then, I am encouraging you to share it! I am after those freebies if they don’t require me to spend more than what I am supposed to.

Summer Kick-Off at Club Manila East

We want to kick start the summer vacation mood and also to test if Reese will enjoy the pool. So without too much planning and research throught the web, we packed our things last Friday night and went to Club Manila East the next morning.

swimsuit fitting the night before

It took 45 minutes drive from Manila to the resort. We arrived there before 9 am and a lot of people were there already. Being the family representative, I waited for half an hour in line to the cashier. What caused the long wait was the manual process and some people kept on changing their minds before actually paying fees. Entrace fee per head was based on the accomodation (cottage, tent, room) that the guest would avail. In our case, I chose the cheapest option, the Picnic (tent) type which cost 310 pesos per head for 3 adults. Good thing Reese had no entrance fee yet since she’s less than 3 ft tall.

Inside the resort, the Picnic (tent) was just in front of the Beach Waves pool thus it made easier for us to take turns swimming and looking after our belongings. The place was huge and has various pools for different ages. The resort also has kayaks and floaters that can be used for free. We spent most of our time in the Beach Waves pool since Reese enjoyed it more than the other pools they have.

Outside food was not allowed but it was not a problem at all since the resort has a variety of food chains inside like Jollibee, Chowking and Shakey’s among others. I think it was a good idea not to be bothered with bringing food for swimming get-together to focus more on relaxing and bonding with the family.

Gani & Reese meet Jollibee

It was the first time for Reese to dip into the pool and she enjoyed it very much especially the wave pool. And based from this experience, it will be best to go to the resort much earlier to enjoy cleaner water just like in any other resort. Also, it was my first time to experience the traffic in that area and it took 75 minutes drive going back to our place. Traffic remains inevitable!