Celebrating One Year of Baby Love Part2: The Babylove

There was so much to look forward to for April. Aside from the boy turning a year old, Game of Thrones season 4 was rolling in. If HBO does keep it going for 8 seasons (and if they can finish the story by then) that means we're halfway through!

While we have been letting him watch some episodes with us, he's started protesting against the blood and gore. It's made us realize several things:

1. He's going to vote eventually.

2. GoT isn't for small summer children. Must change child's bedtime to Before-We-Start-Watching O'Clock.

3. We have a small child who will someday learn the ways of the world.

4. We will have a teenager who will snicker at his "Throner" parents the way I did my late Trekkie dad.

While this boy is still a decade and some away from being that teenager, we've compiled blackmail material clips of his year so far. Warning: has maternal nudity. NSFW

The year certainly felt longer than these 15 minutes, and every moment of it was magical. We're starting to get the hang of this parenting business too.

His developing personality is fun to discover. If he can go somewhere, or get into something by himself, he will try first (and probably fall and recover many times) before ever asking for help. This could be a bad thing and a good thing.

He's learned how to mock cry, to threaten us (with his fingers dangling precariously close to the electric sockets), to put his fingers in my mouth when we're crying/singing/waking up.

He's learned that cats are mimings, and that pictures in books and screens of cats are also mimings, but he hasn't learned that dogs are not mimings.

He waves goodbye enthusiastically when it's time to go. He waves goodbye even more enthusiastically when he WANTS to go (regardless of whether it is time to go or no).

And he absolutely loves water.

And we love you little man.

Boom! We have a toddler (9 10 and 11 months).

If I haven't updated in a while, I have a whole bag of excuses:

1. We're moving. The lot our apartment's on is being sold, and our friends are moving out of their awesome split level rental, so we're taking advantage. I was a little sad when we found out about the lot. All my hopes and dreams of prettifying this place have been dashed to the ground forever. The other house has lots of potential. It's stuck in the 70's, with the dark brown moulding and kitchen cabinets, the varnished wood panelling, the beige everything else... with a little paint and some DIY furniture projects, we could totally go Scandinavian on the interiors.

Speaking of which...

We'll be selling old clothes, baby stuff, Xbox games (and Xbox), furniture, baked goods, etc etc.

If you want to check out the garage sale, email me at mutangpusa@gmail.com and I'll send you a map.

We move there in time for the boy's first birthday too (and my 25th, hurrah!). The partner and I've decided a beach party with grilling might be too much trouble for very very small children to enjoy. Transportation and safety are issues. So we'll have one at the house, which could also double as a house warming party. There's lots of roaming space, and it's in a safe neighborhood in case he runs out of the house and into moving vehicle space.

Apparently, there are two schools of thought in this part of the world regarding first birthday parties. One is that it's pointless because baby won't even remember. The other is that the party is for the adults, and it should be as grand as grand can get, kinda to celebrate that the baby survived the fragile first year.

Lam-ang tells it like it is.

2. Malaya's nanny went on maternity leave (she gave birth to a baby girl! woot!) right when he started roaming the "vast" apartment, deliberately getting into things he's not supposed to.

So much for productivity.

3 Months (and rude topics like child rearing practices and money)!

The boy is now 13 lbs. Doesn't sleep on my chest much anymore, probably because he won't fit. He's a handful. He smiles at us in the mornings, goes "eyo" when he wants our attention, and he's been experimenting with the Oohs and Aahs. Sometimes, he leads me when he wants to be sung to sleep. Such a bag of delightful noise this creature is turning out to be.

Observe:

And he LOVES going outside. Seems like he has cabin fever all the time. He loves going out and engaging strangers in the mall; passengers on the jeep; construction workers on the truck beside the jeep; etc. One day at the mall CR, I was hunched over the baby bag to get something. When I turned, someone was already shaking his hand. I blinked, and the whole room of girls were fawning over him.

Girls: Hi!!
Malaya: Hai
Girls: *screaming*

Oh Malaya, you ham you.

Careful, the whites of your eyes are showing. (Warning: Rant)

With the toilet clogged up, our little family went to the nearby mall to take advantage of the comfort lounge. As I waited for the partner to do his thing, I found myself seated between a very pregnant lady and her partner. The following conversation occurred:

Pregnant lady: I like! Where'd you buy? That's "in" naman these days (referring to the ring sling)
Me: It's a gift from the states
Pregnant lady: Oh? How much?
Me: $$, but you can get ring slings from Rustan's
Pregnant lady: But you can make that man noh? Just buy fabric and rings?
Me: Yeah, you can probably get fabric better suited for tropical weather...
Pregnant lady: Yeah, look at him, he's so comfortable. Nakagawas lang iyang tiil, luoy kaayo. ("His feet are just dangling, how pitiful")
Me: He's too big to fit naman.
Pregnant lady: Let's get ring and fabric nalang na? (referring to her partner, then turns to me, who tried to sit down but couldn't because Laya started protesting) Mas sayon pa jud makabreastfeed noh? ("Easier for breastfeeding yes?")
Me: Oo, pero malingaw na gani siya sa sling, di na pabutang. ("Yeah, but once he starts liking the sling, he won't ever want to be put down")
Pregnant lady: Kay nakagawas man iyang tiil, mapilo man. Luoy kaayo. Nabaptize na na siya? ("Because you let his feet dangle like that, it's folded in. How pitiful. Is he baptized yet?")
Me: Dili...pa ("Not... yet")
Pregnant lady: Ha? Unya gilaag laag na ninyo? Asa man ang daddy? ("What? And you take him out like that? Where's the dad?")
Pregnant lady's hubby: (to wife) Ok ra na, uso naman na ron. ("It's okay, that's common these days")
Me: Naa diha sa sulod. ("He's inside")
Pregnant lady: Didto na na natawo or diri na? ("Did you have him there or here?")
Me: Uh, naghomebirth ko... ("I had a homebirth...")
Pregnant lady: Ha?! Wa ka nahadlok ug infection?! ("What?! Weren't you afraid of infection?!" turns to husband rolling eyes)

Home Sweet Home (Updates and a Feature!)

If I haven't posted anything, it's because things are kinda chaotic right now.

Before anything else though, Offbeat Families published Malaya's birth story the other day!

Overexcited Nanay shared the post, despite having been told off by her peers at the interlocal health zone, after people from our town assumed the waterbirth was a service the local hospital was giving now.

We're back home now. The paint fumes are gone, and the house isn't covered in cat dander anymore. The fire tree outside is in full bloom, with fallen flowers on our pathway like a red carpet for the boy.

Instead of tentacles, this is what Chris did to the vents for the AC:

Happy Martyr's Day

My first mother's, and the one who's supposed to greet me is oblivious and completely unconcerned. As long as he's fed, he doesn't have a care in the world.

And I, food receptacle, looked to the partner to honor my day by helping me tidy up. He took advantage of the AC and comforters of the swanky condo and turned his back on me. T_T

And then his own mother arrived and he started doing the dishes.

This, this is probably the essence of motherhood - we bleed ourselves for their every comfort, and then when they come of age, we use this to blackmail them into accomplishing things for themselves.

With this thought in mind, I took a video of Daddy Creature changing Lay's nappies. I didn't expect he'd take such a long time with it, but he took 7 minutes changing that particular nappy. OC daddy is oc. I was going to upload it for mother's day, shooting two birds with one stone (daddy porn + future blackmail for Malaya), but the cinematographer wasn't happy with my shot and wouldn't sign the talent release form. Hahay showbiz.

Tinuohang Buktot

Today's Easter, celebration of rebirth and fertility for all sorts of denominations and my favorite goddess figure (Astarte). No matter what you believe in, everyone seems to want to get a piece of this celebration pie. The flavor is presumably egg.

Another reason to celebrate is that the boring days are over - baby's aunts and uncles are here for the holidays and are keeping me on the move. Island hopping is out of the question though, despite getting multiple invitations over the week to go T_T. Maternal lola's afraid that if I waterbirth in the middle of the sea, baby might escape and become Aquaman.

Sorry Aquaman, even my mom thinks you suck.

So far, we've trekked to the farm to get coconuts; failed at getting coconuts by getting distracted by guavas; tried not to get trampled on by horses; failed to acquire XP points by running away from every sound encountered on the hike back to the house after sundown (sorry bunch of adventurers are we); and marathoned season 2 of Game of Thrones in preparation for tomorrow's season 3 premiere. We'll probably get it on torrent a day after tomorrow, and thankfully the show runners don't mind. Yarr!

Since maternal lola's protests about the religiously offensive tone of my previous post, I decided to dedicate this post to being deliberately offensive of out dated belief, especially those regarding babies.

Pregnant Teens and Unwed Mommies: Another rant.

 I'm coming up with so many rants I should just make a whole new page dedicated to ranting.


I did the most horrible thing one can do in the 21st century to another person: I unfriended them on facebook.

It was over a status message he posted. I can't copypasta anymore since I did remove the dolt as soon as I read his post, but paraphrased, it went something like "Why do kids get pregnant younger and younger nowadays? Is TEET really that great? Boys are having TEET!"

I know half of the post didn't make sense, but I didn't like what it was implying, so instead of hiding him from my feed, I unfriended him. It wasn't a major loss since the person was really a work-related acquaintance rather than an actual friend. And if he was ranting about the ails of immoral under-aged coupling, maybe he wasn't such a valuable work-related resource for my lucrative career as a pornographer. Kidding.

I can't call myself a teen anymore, so why the reaction?

Of Gods and Amigurumi Monsters

I AM EARTH GODDESS!

(Repeat x number of times until completely deluded)

I'm on break from crochetry because my fingers are numb. I feel like my finger muscles got a little bit brawnier from my efforts, but doing it at night isn't doing much for my eyesight.

The insomnia is getting worse. Apart from baby's kicking, it's the water breaks and the bathroom runs that keep me up til the wee (whoops) hours of the morning. I'm just sooo thirsty at night.

The good news is that I've graduated from doilies and have moved on to beanies!

*Confetti*

I followed this tutorial. Coincidentally, the maternal lola got me material in around the same color.

For those of you too lazy to click the tutorial, this is the hat it's supposed to make:

This is my hat:

Anyone want a BJD-sized head-sock?

I learned too late about different sized yarns and hooks, and sadly, the kinds most online patterns require aren't widely available in this side of the country. T_T

Maternal lola was keeping me in the doily dark. T_T

So while I'm waiting on daddy-creature to get me the appropriate yarn for baby's stuff, I ended up looking for projects that I could use all this thread for, and I found Amigurumi.

Although most of the amigurumi patterns still ask for thicker yarns than the ones I have (worsted weighted as opposed to my flimsy size 8 crochet thread), you don't have to wear amigurumi, so it's fine to make miniature versions of the proposed projects.

Imo, the tinier versions are ADORABLE AS F*CK. Like Dobermans(men?) and mini pinschers; Pajeros and baby pajeros; Humans and babies.

One flower-filled night pre-baby, I thought maybe the nature of the divine is "Cute". Cuteness is universal. Have you ever seen a baby anything and not die from cuteness? Even animals cave in to cute:

I'd like to think that our Creation Gods are not the mighty Olympians who saw us as mites, but the tiny cells working away to grow us, the same way we build cities and become blind to the overall impact of our creations. As the father unit used to sing "The big bang never ended". As Ninong Ben put it, "In a way, that's what science is on to already- our cells all contain "programming". It would take a very tiny entity to program it! All the Whos down in Whoville?"

He's not even out yet, and everything I'm doing is already for this small would-be tyrant growing inside me. <3

As a tribute to the small Gods, I got to work on this:

The pregnancy so far

Baby likes to kick the right side of the belly. He stops when people are around and expect him to. One of my friends think it's performance anxiety. Hah. Filmmakers make shy baby. The irony.

I remember the first time we noticed him moving, we found the kicks cute, but a little hard to identify - kinda like shooting stars on a clear unpolluted-by-artificial-lights sky. Now they're like meteors on Armageddon - painful, frequent, and a sign of the end of days.

The doctor told me "Buntis na jud ka" ("You're definitely pregnant now") as if I wasn't to begin with. But I know what she means. I've had it relatively easy til now. Suddenly, my feet are ballooning, my bump is a basketball, and I feel like yoga can wait for a few more hours days. Cats gestate for less than 3 months. Maybe I am a cat, and I really HAVE only begun to be pregnant. As much as the first trimester felt like a bitch because of mood swings, why do I have a feeling these remaining months are going to be the longest in my life?

Lord of the whut nao?

Okay. First things first, the reason for this blog:

I’m bored and pregnant. I’m due in 10 weeks and stuck in the bukid staring at coconuts. The people concerned with the upbringing of this bun-in-the-oven are spread out across the beautiful globe. So to keep from repeating myself everytime each one of you asks how he’s doing, I’m going to write about him. And then we can talk specifics after.

Why the blog title? Well, I’m a pinay of the 21^st century. I cannot help but zone into punny pop culture references. 

Also, when coming up with a list of possible names for the little one, we asked paternal lola for help, who said it was hard to come up with one that would make the family name impressive, considering it derives from “linab-han”.