I passed the bar!

I passed the 2007 bar exams! Woohoo! Just wanted to write this post so I will not forget how I reacted upon learning of the great news.

The chismis was that the results will be out either on March 25 (a Tuesday) because there was an en banc session scheduled on that day or on Friday March 28. Turned out the en banc session on Tuesday was for the Neri decision. Come Thursday there was an announcement that the results would be out by Friday. So Lorraine and I did not go to the office as for sure we would not be able to work anyway because of all the tension and baka mamatay na lang kami sa pang-aasar ng mga tao and constant asking na, lumabas na ba ang resulta? Anyway Friday was also Ronces' wedding so ako I had the day planned out. Morning I spent with my cute son of course. Honey and I had lunch at home, then we went to the Sta. Clara Church to pray. Then I dropped off Honey and drove to Galleria and went straight to the Edsa Shrine where the wedding was to be held at 3pm. I was there by 230. My heels were killing me. I wore my wedding shoes and while they were very lovely, I wasn't used to wearing 3-inch heels so talagang mamatay-matay nako sa heels ko. I think it was around lunchtime when there was an announcement that the results would be out by Saturday after lunch. This was a good thing as the evening class were nearly complete at Ronces' wedding. Imagine if the results were to come out on that day! Siguro di na kami nakapag-concentrate sa kasal at reception. At pano kung may hindi pumasa diba? Baka may humahagulgol sa kasal (and yes, 2 of our classmates did not make it and they were present at the wedding).

Saturday - I was just at home with my baby. Honey had scheduled a meeting in the morning and afternoon. I really wanted to kick him already as I needed him badly by my side during those times and what did he do? Talaga naman ha, of all the days and times kung kelan magse-set ng meeting, talagang walang kunsiderasyon. Finally he arrived at around past 2pm (imagine ha, the announcement was that the results would be released after lunch so talagang gusto ko na siyang sakalin by that time). Nilakasan ko na lang loob ko when pressing the refresh button at makita ko ang results without hubby by my side. Buti na lang wala pang results nung dumating sya. Sarap talaga sipain. Siya naman natatawa dahil tense na tense daw ako. Syempre tense lahat ng tao ano! Mga before 4pm nagforward si Myrvie ng text ng unofficial top ten, aba, top 1 si Menchie, the gf of my brother Carlo. Oh my God diba. Then she said that she, Far, and, May were all at MOA passing the time and I should look for their names in the internet.

We were tired of refreshing the page and CJ wanted to sleep na so CJ was breastfeeding and honey was sleeping, mga 4pm lampas ng konti when someone texted me. I told honey to get my cel nasa computer kasi and he didn't want to kasi tulog siya, syempre pinilit ko sya, then I read the message, it was Bobby saying Congrats aba I immediately told Honey to press the refresh button! Bilis! Congrats daw! Then after a minute (I think) he said congratulations and kissed me. I said really? So kawawang Cj he was off to lala-land pero dumedede pa sabi ko anak, mamaya ka na dumede and I rushed to look at the computer. And when I saw my name, hala, umiyak ako talaga as in humagolgol na halos. Sobrang emotions talaga. Then I immediately looked for my friends' names, naku naiyak ako pero ibang klase naman, kasi one of us (we were 4 in the barkada) did not make it. How I can tell her that? I could never tell her that. So I called Len and told her the good news and the bad news, while I was crying. The 3 of them were together at MOA diba. I heard Len say, of the 4 of us, one did not make it. And I pressed the end button on my cel as I really could not bear to hear Far's reaction. It would break my heart for sure.

So anyway that's it. Next time na other posts.

CJ can read!

I was supposed to write this post before CJ's third birthday but syempre diko na naman nagawa. We have confirmed that CJ can already read. We were wondering if CJ could really read because whenever we were in the car and CJ would see the sign "TAXO" above a taxi, he would say, "Taxi!". So we thought if he saw a sign on top of a car he would automatically say taxi even though he could not read it yet. One time, he got his London Taxi toy car, a gift from his Tito Carl, and he said "taxi". The word "taxi" was written at the side of the car and not on top of the car, so we thought that he could really read. So we tried other words and indeed he could read.

I think this is because I had taught him the sounds of each letter and that he should just put the sounds of the letters together so he can read the word. Part of the credit, of course, goes to Sing, Spell, Read, Write, a learning to read system which I bought from C&E Bookshop (rather, I told honey to buy from C&E bookshop, hehe). I heard about it from Teacher Jeannie of Kindermusik, and I also read about it at momexchange. I looked it up in the net and found out that homeschooling programs such as The Master's Academy use it too. In the pinoyhomeschool yahoogroup (in which I am a lurker), it was also recommended. So I used some money I saved to buy it for my baby. It was my christmas and birthday gift to him. Two-in-one na kasi medyo mahal diba, P4.5k for the whole set.

Of course when I saw the manual and found out that it would really take a lot of effort to follow the program and I am really tamad to do that, I just let the cd play and "made dikit" (hehe, parang tusok-tusok the fishballs) the visual materials on the wall (on manila paper muna syempre para di masira ang pintura). I just point to the letters and the pictures (and the words na rin, soon) while the cd is playing, and voila! The tamad mommy's way of teaching her child how to read. Hehe.

Teaching the sounds of each letter really works. CJ has one workbook for it at Mother Goose. And shempre palaging very good ang baby ko hehe. Palagi siyang may smiley face na tatak sa kamay hehe. E pano napaka-chicken naman to ask him about the sounds of letters diba. Hehe.

Naalala ko when I asked the secretary if CJ could already enrol sa next level this coming schoolyear considering young pa sya for that level. Sabi nya, "kaya na po nya. Matalino po siya." Syempre sabi ko, thank you, ikaw naman (something like that). Medyo nahiya lang ako to say, "Eh kanino pa ba naman magmamana yan?" Ehehehehe! That is my usual line to my relatives kasi hehehe.

Ayan, na-miss ko tuloy ang baby ko.

CJ's Third Birthday

CJ's third birthday fell on a Wednesday. I really had no plans of giving him a party. After all, they say that kids only have bday parties when they turn 1, 7, and 18 for girls and 21 for boys. CJ had a party for his 2nd birthday but it was also a sort of housewarming for our house. I started to think about a party for CJ's 3rd bday when I was waiting for him at the Mother Goose waiting area (His first day at Mother Goose was on January 7. This deserves another post.) The yayas, lolas, lolos, etc. were all talking about birthday parties. Kawawa naman ang anak ko kung wala siyang birthday party diba. So that night, we decided to throw a bday party for him. Since it was going to be in school, I figured it would be very simple, so no problem with that. Parties, I learned, were usually held on Fridays because that's their P.E. day and they can play games during the party as part of their P.E. class. Turns out that someone had already reserved the Friday slot (Jan. 18) so I chose Jan. 16 (Wednesday, and CJ's actual birthday) instead. We would just be serving food during their snacktime and that would be it. Simple enough. The secretary just told me to bring invitations on Fri (Jan. 11) and she will be the one to distribute it. I think it was Wednesday when I tried to look for Cars invitations but could not find any in Landmark. I only saw Cars treat boxes and decided that I would use the treat boxes as invitations and lootbox in one. Hubby shot the idea down because the idea was to put marshmallows in the treat boxes para mura lang. Syempre hubby said e cars ang box mo, naturally children will expect to see a car inside. He had a point. So I looked for a Cars picture on the internet, pasted it on a powerpoint blank slide, put some texts, and voila! I had an invitation. I had planned to print it at Tronix in Riverbanks where the fee was only P2.50 per 3R but there was no time so I squeezed in the printing into my busy schedule (I had a meeting that day and lunch with my friend Momer/Ding) so I got it printed at the Fuji shop at the dela Rosa Carpark at P6 per 3R. Pwede na rin at least di hassle. I also bought a Cars tablecoth which I turned into a banner. On Saturday (or was it a Sunday?) I was able to buy Cars balloons at Megamall and sticks din. Hubby said he could be the one to blow the balloons using his air bomba in the car. We also ordered the Cars cake at Shoppersville. I ordered the chocolate cake (yummy!). I read it dessertcomesfirst.com that it is one of the top 5 chocolate cakes in Manila. What else? Hay, basta dumami ng dumami ang mga stuff na kailangan bilhin for the party. Naku in-underestimate ko na naman ang party.

Come party day, we picked up the cake at around 10:30 am, then we went to Riverbanks to order 60 spag meals (with coke, bahala na kung bawal yun sa bata, minsan lang naman hehe). May allowance na meals for the teachers and other bantay, etc. For delivery at 12:50 pm sabi ko sa Mother Goose. Umuwi muna kami then hatid si CJ sa school then andar na naman. Hay I forgot to write about the balloons. Okay mga 10 balloons ata nablow ni hubby then nasira ang pang-bomba. Ano ba yun. We had to pay P6 per balloon para i-blow nung neighbor namin na may balloob business. Hehe. Bumili kami ng ice cream eto pinaka-hindi ko na uulitin talaga. Medyo natutunaw na yung ice cream nung party, we had to scoop it pa because I had this bright idea na lalagyan ko pa ng marshmallows, chocolate chips, m&m's, at hershey's chocolate syrup ang ice cream. Ayun sobra na take up ang time at di na kami masyado nakapag papicture. Next time talaga bibili ako kung in cones mga cornetto either that or yung ice cream in cups na o kaya sundae from jollibee basta sobrang hassle. Yung spag naman from Jollibee nagmamadali ata sila di na nilagyan ng scotch tape, ayun may konting lumabas na spag from the styro, sige na lang. Tapos ako naman akala ko dapat ilagay na yung food sa tables ng kids para pagdating nila derecho kain na. Ayun may mga bata di na nakapagpigil kumain na, e dapat pala maghugas muna ng kamay at magdasal. Sobrang daming lessons learned. Party talaga, kahit gaano kasimple e di dapat ina-underestimate. Anyway masaya naman si CJ and that's what's important. Nakakatawa sya kasi when he was told to sit in front tapos the kids will give them their gifts at siya magbibigay ng giveaways, deadma siya sa gifts kasi busy siya sa kakakain ng marshmallows. Hay after a while ang dungis na ni CJ dahil din sa ice cream hehe. Pero happy naman siya sobra.

My thoughts on everything:
1. Nice sa Mother Goose. I like the facilities, the kids, etc. so much more than Child-Parent. 'Nuff said.
2. Do not underestimate parties. Parties need a lot of planning. Btw, yesterday I paid na for CJ's tuition for Feb and March and his reservation fee for the next schoolyear. Junior casa na siya next year. Pina-reserve ko na rin yung Jan. 16 kasi Friday yun, malamang may kukuha nung date na yun for sure. Ang daming may birthday ng January nakakaloka! I'm seriously considering hiring a party person to organize everything at wala nako problemahin/ May budget na lang siyang pagkakasyahin. Kasi sa costly mistakes kung ako lang gagawa e baka mas makatipid kung professional ang gagawa kung baga.
3. Ang laki na talaga ni CJ. How time flies. He is such a cute and adorable and super intelligent kid. Haay.

My 29th birthday/ CJ's first field trip

This is overdue but I have to blog about this. I spent my 29th birthday with my little baby CJ on his first field trip. Cost was P650/head and the itinerary included: Gardenia Factory in Laguna, Lucky Me Factory I think also in Laguna, and Paradizoo in Tagaytay. Call time was at 630 and naawa talaga ako sa baby ko kasi I had to wake him up at 5minutes before 630 (our house is just literally a stone's throw away from the school). Syempre nabwisit ang baby. At ang pinaka-nakakabwisit pa e the bus left at past 8am na. Bad trip diba. May mga tao talaga walang respeto sa time ng iba. Hindi na nila inisip na mga bata ang liit-liit had to wake up at 630 because of the call time tapos ganyan sila. Bastos diba? Ang baby ko pinaliguan na the night before dahil na-foresee ko na na imposible mapaliguan yun before 630 am. E ang regular wake up time nya e 9-10am. Imagine at 630 am di ko pa napapakain ng breakfast ang bata, at di na nga nahilamusan o napunasan man lang kasi umiyak na e, nilabas ng bahay at napunta sa school para tumahan na pag nakita ang kids ayun, tuloy-tuloy na, I totally forgot na di pa sya napupunasan and such.

So anyway, as expected, naurong ang skeds ng lahat. Ok naman gardenia factory, very high-tech. Mainit kasi syempre bakery nga diba. We watched a short video then nagsuot ng hairnets/haircaps. Shempre wala naman naintindihan mga kids hehe. I bought some bread at the factory store, factory price daw, e 5 piso lang ang minura. Nye. Then lucky me factory. Dami noodles (obviously). Amoy noodles kahit sa labas ng planta. Bawal magpicture. May official camera sila at 1 picture lang tinake. Mga 12nn something na nun so ang mga kids gutom na diba. Buti na lang pala napakain ko si CJ ng breakfast sa bus at natulog din siya sa bus. Usapan diba bring your lunch, syempre some people mga engot (including the school directress) na walang food so we had to go to Jollibee to buy lunch. Since gusto ni CJ ng Jollibee bumili na rin ako. Usapan take-out lang then eat lunch at Paradizoo. Some people na naman sarap talaga sakalin ayun, kumain pa ata at ang tagal bumalik sa bus, sarap talaga sagasaan. Hindi na nila inisip ang mga bata gutom na! Ang ending we were able to eat 130 pm na sa Paradizoo. Bwisit talaga. Paradizoo naman so-so, nothing spectacular. Mabaho din. Anyway the whole trip happy naman si CJ eto mga observations ko shempre from the point of view of an adult na diba. Pero I'm sure wala siyang naintidihan na educational dun or anything hehe.

Sana matutunan ko na magpost ng pictures dito sa blog para makita ko rin to as reference in the future.