In July 2006, we brought Abby to the dentist for her first ever dental check-up.  I can’t believe it has already been six months since we first met Dr. George (not Jorge as I earlier thought).  A few weeks ago, on 06 January, we brought Abby to Dentista Inc. for her follow-up check-up (Visit your dentist at least twice a year, remember?).

We thought it would be an “easier” visit, it being the second time.  For almost a week leading to January 6, we would always tell Abby that she’ll again go see Doc George who will look at and clean her teeth and who will give her a balloon and stickers afterwards.  You can just imagine our surprise when we were finally led into the pediatric room and Abby became every bit uncooperative.

First, she refused to sit on the dental chair.  It was ok because I could sit on it while she sat on my lap.  But then, she won’t let me sit on the darned chair.  When I did, she decided to cling to her Dad for dear life.  And when she got the chance to stand, she immediately rushed to the door and attempted to get out.  She even cried a little.  This is the classic scenario we all see on tv when a child screams while at the dental clinic and the children at the waiting room end up terrified.  Good thing the pedo room is not within earshot of the waiting area! ;)  Throughout all these, we were all very calm, most especially Doc George who tried his best to convince Abby to sit on the dental chair with me.  He showed Abby all his “magical instruments”…the magic hand-held mirror and another magic little mirror (the one you put inside the mouth).  Well, waddaya know, my vain little daughter found a speacial liking for the mirrors!  She then consented to sitting down on my lap while I sat on a clerical chair with the handheld mirror on her hand.

Poor Doc George had to do everything will Abby and I sat on the clerical chair.  He counted Abby’s teeth (short of 4 for a complete set), removed “poopoo” and remnants of our lunch (hehe!) and finally brushed and wiped them clean.  This time, Abby already knew how to rinse and she gladly showed Doc George that she could!  Those were the only times she stepped on the dental chair, so she could reach the little round sink where she could rinse her mouth.

The verdict, I’m proud to announce, is “No cavities!”.  Yipee!  You have to understand that one of my daunting tasks as a mother is brushing Abby’s teeth everyday and everyday is different in the sense that Abby isn’t always very cooperative.  Doc George said that other parents would have just reschedule the check-up if their child becomes anxious, cries or refuses to cooperate during a visit…like what happened during our first few minutes there.  It’s very difficult to schedule an appointment with Doc George since he is only available every Saturday and there was just no way I was going to reschedule!

After the check-up, Abby reminded Doc George that he has to give her a balloon…and stickers.  And he did. :)  Doc George was also able to convince Abby to try out the dental chair while she sat on my lap.  Yup, kung kailan tapos na!  And so we sat there while Doc George made the chair go up and down and recline twice.  Abby promised to sit on it on her next visit.  She’ll be a month short of her 3rd birthday then.  The damage on our wallet this time is a little over Php 900 (it was only Php 700 the first time!).  I don’t know if the slight increase in price was to compensate for the chase and cajoling in the beginning of the check-up.  But like I said, we don’t mind expenses such as this. :)  We’ve already scheduled Abby’s next check-up, which is about 6 months from now.  Hehe.

I forgot to bring a camera to Abby’s first visit to the dentist.  This time, I came prepared.  Everyone probably already knows that I get a little OC when it comes to documenting Abby’s “firsts” and other activities.  Here are the pics…

The door of the pediatric room

The pediatric room - See how cutesy cutesy it is?

This was after the check-up.  Abby is holding the “magic straw” a.k.a. suction, on her left hand.  I know, I look a little harrassed.

Presenting…Doctor George Junio…Abby’s dentist!

Does the title sound a little too violent?  I meant shooting rampage with a camera. :)  Heehee.

We’ve been a “suki” of The Picture Co. (The Podium branch) for two solid years.  That’s from 2004 until 2006.  I had my preggy pics taken there as well as tens of Abby pictures from when she was a new born until she was a year and a half old.  We were really huge fans of the place!  But after our membership with the studio expired in 2004, we didn’t renew it anymore because we thought they were getting a wee bit expensive (more about it later).
We weren’t studio less for long though!  A few months ago, Claire and I discovered Blow-Up Babies at Gateway Mall in Cubao but it wasn’t until they opened a branch in Serendra when we finally decided to sign-up.  That was in December last year.  Being the kuripot practical people that we are, we decided to split the merbership fee between us.  (I’ll tell you more about that, too…later.)

Having Abby pose and smile for the camera used to be such a breeze.  Just a few funny faces and a tickle here and there is enough to make her giggle and smile.  Last December, in addition to the funny faces and tickles, we had to cajole, bribe and well, threaten.  Heehee.  Anyway, here are some of the pics from that photo shoot…

Abby’s skin collage

Abby’s ala “Memoirs of a Geisha” pic

The Iron Chefs

“Abby Meal”

Mommy Emy and Abby

The people I hold dearest and me

Abby and her cousins (L-R) Sophie, Kylah, Abby, Jad and Macy

Our “official” family portrait

A collage of our goofy family pics

Here’s the complete album.

oOo

Having pictures taken in a studio can get a little heavy on the pocket.  But I still think it’s a wise investment (At least,that’s the excuse that helps me sleep at night.)

If you’re thinking of signing up for membership in a studio but haven’t quite decided yet which one, allow me to at least compare the two which we’ve tried so far: The Picture Company and Blow-Up Babies.

THE PICTURE COMPANY

The atmosphere at The Picture Co. can be summed up in one simple word, FUN.  They have a huge reception/waiting area with plenty of toys and thingamajigs which will keep the little ones busy and entertained while waiting for their turn to flash their smiles.  They have a plethora of props and costumes from a bumblebee to Disney’s popular characters.  If donning costumes isn’t your or your child’s style, then you can come in whatever clothes you like.  That’s fine, too. :)  It used to be that all the photographers at TPC are female, which makes it easier for the expectant mommies to strip and show-off they pregnant bellies. ;)  I hear there are now male photographers at TPC, at least for The Podium and Alabang Town Center branches (I’m not so sure about Powerplant).

Membership fee is, hold your breath, Php 2500, which will allow you free seating for one year.  The member can also have 4 extentions limited to his/her immediate family.  The cost of (1) 8 x 10 print with only one image is Php 890.00.  One can combine different sizes of that one image in the 8×10 print, say, (1) 5r, (1) 4r and (2) wallet-sized pics.  You can’t combine images (meaning photos of different poses) until the 3rd sheet.  For the 3rd 8×10 that a member will order, 3 - 4 images can be combined plus, the member will get 3 mms images.  If you order a 4th 8×10, you’ll get a photo cd with 10 low resolution images.  See, this is why I said TPC has gotten a wee bit expensive.  It used to be that a sheet costs only Php800 and it used to be that you can already get a photo cd when you order a 3rd sheet.  Now, if you want to take home that much coveted CD, you’ll have to order at least 4 sheets!  That’s a minimum spend of Php 3,560.00. 

Nevertheless, if you have a few more hundreds, maybe thousands to spare, I would still recommend TPC.  They are very good with kids plus the place, costumes and props are all spotlessly clean.  Costumes are available in a number of sizes so one is sure to fit your child.
The Picture Co. has branches in The Podium, Alabang Town Center, Mall of Asia, Powerplant and one is set to open soon at the Bonifacio High Street at The Fort.  One more thing, to save on membership fee, sign-up when the mall where the TPC branch is located is having a sale.  That’s 15-20% off!  Sayang din!
BLOW-UP BABIES

Don’t be fooled.  This studio is not just for babies.  In fact, the Serendra branch can even take a photo of your pets (for a slightly higher fee).  Their reception/waiting area is a little smaller than that of TPC’s and if they want to keep the kids busy and entertained, they’ll have to invest in more toys.  They do have candies, chocolates and lollipops for the kids though.
The biggest and most obvious difference between The Picture Co. and Blow-Up Babies is BUB’s play with lighting, which renders the photos more dramatic and more professional looking.  That is why it takes a little while to set-up for a particular theme.  I won’t even tell you how long we had to wait for them to finish setting up for Abby’s “Geisha” shots!  They have a variety of themes to choose from but if you want to opt for simpler shots (like we did in our group shots), that’s also fine, not to mention it will also save you a lot of time.

The membership fee is Php 1500.00 and the principal member can have 4 supplementary members which may be a friend or family.  And get this, the principal member’s immediately family automatically becomes supplementary members (in addition to the 4).  This is what basically lured us to BUB.  Claire is the principal member and Dondi, Abby, my Mom and me are her 4 extentions.  Edward and their 4 kids are automatic members as well, being Claire’s immediate family.

The cost per sheet is Php 800 (that’s for one image only) and unlike TPC, you can already combine 3 images in the first sheet for a slightly higher price of Php 1320.00.  If you order 3 sheets, you get a free upgrade to a collage or theme package with 3 images on the 3rd sheet.  Plus, you get to take home a photo cd with 10 low resolution images and a vcd of the photos ordered.

For now, BUB only has two branches: Gateway Mall (cinema level) in Araneta Center and Serendra (2nd floor). 

OTHERS

There are 3 other studios I can think of, Sweet Dreams (Greenhills), Picture This (Shangri-la Mall) and Child’s Play (Eastwood and Megamall).

If you think these studios are a little “over” be it for price or whatever, then, there’s always Great Image and Kodak. ;)  Ok na rin yun.  Heehee.

First there was this…

It’s the Family Album page of the July 2005 issue of Smart Parenting.  The theme was “Daddy and Me”.  I wrote about it in Celebrity Dad and Baby.

Then came this…

It’s the January-February 2006 issue of the same magazine and the theme was birthdays.  I failed to brag blog about it.

And now, presenting, the Top 10 Cuties page of the January-February 2007 issue of Smart Parenting…

The mag made a little mistake though…I don’t see Suarez after Cuenca. :)  Anyway, is it just me or is my daugher really the most artistahin in this lot of 10 cuties?  Haha!  This is my site so I get to say whatever I want. 

The Christmas season officially ended last Sunday, 07 January and I have to say that I’m still suffering from holiday hangover.  I hope it’s not too late to share our holiday highlights. (Warning:  This will be another one heck of a long post. )

15-23 December 2006, Simbang Gabi

I have never in my life attended Simbang Gabi as we all know it.  I could go to mass everyday but to go at dawn for 9 straight days is another story.  So we (my Mom, Abby and me) did the next best thing, which was the Anticipated Simbang Gabi. :) 

I was 3 days short of completing the 9-day masses (unlike my Mom who completed it!) but I’m still happy.  We heard most of the masses at the Holy Famiy Chapel, in Eastwood City.  It’s a very small chapel, which made the masses intimate and more meaningful.  The chapel was hardly filled with people, mostly residents from the towering condos and a number of employees from the various offices.

I think the Holy Family Chapel is the only chapel (or even church) which hosted a small salo-salo after mass for the entire duration of simbang gabi! I thought it was kinda cool. Every night there were juice, tea and coffee plus a simple but filling merienda.  The first night we were too shy to partake of the suman and bibingka prepared for the mass goers.  It wasn’t until the 4th night that we joined in. :)  What can I say, we are fans of goto and tokwa’t baboy! :)  One night, we brought a bilao of our favorite brown puto with cheese on top as our share in the nightly after mass "ritual".

24 December 2006, Christmas Eve

The biggest Christmas surpirse came in the early evening of December 24.  Our close friend Jeric and his wife Melisse came to our house (while we were away hearing anticipated Christmas mass!) to deliver their Christmas presents: lechon de leche (yes, one whole freakin’ roasted pig!), a huge chicken galantina and lots of fat overstuffed empanadas, among others!  Grabe!  I was shocked to find the lechon sitting lying down comfortably on the kitchen counter.  The day before, Jeric mentioned that he will be dropping by our house to bring lechon.  I didn’t think he’d bring a toddler pig!  We had instant handa for noche buena and for Christmas lunch!  Since then, there’s not a week that would go by without us having lechon paksiw for ulam.

Even more special is the fact that every Christmas Eve, Edward and his family are with us.  For noche buena, other than the lechon, we had macaroni salad, callos, prawns, crabs, and the customary hot cocoa. 

The kids tried their best to stay up so they can open their presents after noche buena and they succeeded. :)  They were giddy with excitement opening gift after gift after gift.  Christmas, as they say, is for children.

25 December 2006, Christmas Day

Christmas has always been a day of family reunions for both Dondi and me.  It’s good that my side of the family gets together for lunch and Dondi’s side gets together for dinner.  Whew!

My mom’s elder brother and her two other sisters came with their respective families.  We took advantage of this time together to chat and catch up with one another.  We also went to visit my Dad at his Loyola Marikina home as well as my maternal grandparents at their Heaven’s Gate home.

In the evening, we went to Camp Oz (that’s Campos St. in BF Executive Village) just in time for Tito (Fr.) Kit’s annual raffle, usually held after dinner but this year, it became a sort of appetizer as it was held before dinner.  Tito Kit is Dondi’s uncle priest and every year, he hosts a raffle with various prizes: cash from Php 50 to Php 1000 and goods like bath soap, toothbrushes, corned beef etc. Some of the goods are gifts to Tito Kit.  And every year there’s a grand prize.  This year it was a DVD player and a table top hot/cold water dispenser, which were both won by Abby’s Ninong Monty (Dondi’s cousin)!   Tito Kit’s apos, pamangkins and thier spouses, and brothers and sisters had 5 turns each to draw a raffle prize.  Even though we came late, we didn’t do bad in the raffle at all!  The only "goods" we took home was a noche buena bag (contents: spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, a liter of juice, cheese, Nestle cream, evaporated milk, chocolates, etc.) drawn for Abby by her Wiwa (Dondi’s Mom).  The rest of our prizes were cash.  (Sorry na lang, Keith!).  We brought home a little over Php 5000.00! ;) 

After the raffle came dinner and the usual exchange gifts. 

I truly truly love Christmas!  Here’s our complete Christmas 2006 Album.

29-30 December 2006, Baguio Trip

Going to Baguio after Christmas is becoming a family tradition. In 2005, we went up to Baguio the day immediately after Christmas and stayed there for 3 days and 2 nights.  Last year, we spent only one night in the City of Pines, but we had a grand time, nevertheless.

It’s very fortunate that my sister-in-law, Claire, has an aunt who lives in Baguio and found a house for us which we could rent.  The house has 4 bedrooms plus a driver’s quarters and 2 bathrooms.  It’s big enough for a group of 20 because all the rooms are double-bed double deckers and 2 of the rooms have pull-out beds!  At Php 4000 a night, it surely beats staying in a hotel! 

We left Manila at 5:30am on the 29th and got to Baguio at around lunch time as we had to make 2 wee-wee stops.  Travelling with the kids this time is so much more different than our first trip to Baguio.  They are more anxious now and you can’t imagine just how many times they asked, "Malayo pa?", "Matagal pa?", "Ilang hours pa?"

I was so hoping to have lunch at Cafe by the Ruins but the place was packed and we didn’t know how long it would take to get a table.  After waiting for about 10 minutes, we decided to just have lunch at the nearby Sizzling Plate.

The only Baguio landmarks we visited were PMA, Botanical Garden (for horseback riding) and Mines View Park for pasalubong shopping.  I’ve mentioned so many times already how we all love to eat and we love a good dessert so it was just natural to buy ube.  Ube at Good Shepherd is quite costly and when the owner of the stall where my Mom bought Baguio goodies mentioned that the jars of ube he was selling were made by a student of Good Shepherd, she was easily duped  convinced to buy 3 jars.  She bought 3 more round plastic countainers with ube in a pasalubong center just before entering Marcos Highway on our way home.  All the ube we bought, sad to say, were a big disappointment!  It seems that the Good Shepherd student forgot to sweeten his ube and the last batch we bought were just a few notches better than the ones from Mines View Park.  Nothing beats real home-made labor-of-love ube!

We left Baguio well after noon and it was already 7pm when we got to Isdaan in Tarlac where we had dinner.  It’s our 3rd time to visit this restaurant and 2 out of 3 visits were terrible in terms of service.  We cannot complain about the restaurant’s fishing village concept.  It’s just gorgeous.  Patrons can dine in nipa huts of varying sizes, all of which are surrounded by a man-made body of water 6-9 feet deep with lots of fish!  It’s s.o.p. to have the kids wear life vests and they are given feeds for the fish! 

Service is another story.  The place just can’t handle too many guests, as we’ve noticed.  2 of our 3 visits were during a peak season and the servers just can’t seem to get their efficiency button to work.  On this particular visit, girl who was taking our order wasn’t the least bit familiar with their freakin’ menu!  Almost every item we ordered, she would excuse herself to ask another server if they had it!  We asked for water a hundred times!  To cut a long story short, we vowed never to come back to Isdaan again.  We’ll probably just go to the ever reliable dining places at Luisita.

Here’s our Baguio Album.

31 December 2006, New Year’s Eve / 01 January 2007, New Year’s Day

New Year’s Eve is so much quieter for us than Christmas Eve, mainly because it’s just my Mom, Dondi, Abby and me plus our househelp Rachele at home.  Edward and his bunch spent New Year’s Eve at their home, this time, with Claire’s side of the family.

To welcome the new year, my Mom bought a few Dragon fireworks, while Dondi bought some lowly fountains from a neighborhood seller. :)  Abby loved the sparklers that my mom bought.  There was fireworks everywhere we looked and Abby just couldn’t help clapping her little hands at this mini pyro-olympics all around us.

On New Year’s day, we pretty much stayed home except for a short visit to Dondi’s parents.  We make it a point to stay in on the first day of the year to avoind spending.  Ok, laught if you must, but there’s this pamahiin that if you spend on the first day of the year (and on Mondays) one might find money on the "out-and-out" the whole year.  Better to be safe than sorry!

Here are the few pics the first few minutes of 2007.

05 January 2007, My Mom’s Birthday and Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

My mom needs two days for her birthday, one day alone to be spent replying to all the text greetings!  What can I say, my Mom is simply a well-loved person!  We had to ditch having lunch at Richmonde Hotel because it was already almost merienda when we finally got our butts out of the house.  Dondi, on the other hand, had to go to work so we had to postpone our own little celebration for the next day. 

It has been a tradition for my Mom to at least take a quick trip to our factory to bring food for our employees.  For this birthday, she ordered individually packed miki-bihon at Buddy’s for everyone.

For dinner, we all went to Cabalen at SM Megamall.  It’s sad to note that Cabalen’s food quality is deteriorating.  It’s now in our "do not visit list", to think that there was a very recent glowing article on Cabalen in the Philippine Daily Inquier!  Food which are supposed to be crispy are a little too tough and the food is not warm at all (except for the soup!).  In fact, there’s a sign at the buffet counter which reads: "We will gladly heat the food for you upon request."  What was that all about?  Shouldn’t the food be warm already?  Our dinner’s saving grace was the halo-halo from the dessert corner.  All the ingredients were of home-made goodness!

Click on to view my Mom’s birthday pics.

06 January 2007, Our Anniversary Lunch and New Year’s Dinner with Friends

For our belated anniversary lunch, Dondi, Abby and I decided to try out the newly opened ClawDaddy at the 6th floor restaurant strip of Shangri-la Mall called The Ledge.

ClawDaddy, as we were told, the old New Orleands Restaurant and Red Crab in one.  We ordered only three items from the menu (which is a lot considering only 2 and a quarter people will eat!):  New Orleans Shrimp Popcorn and Calamari, Blackened Pacific Cod with Dirty Rice and ClawDaddy’s Bountiful Beef Plate.

Abby loves shrimp and the shrimp popcorn was her hands down favorite.  Dondi and I just picked on the calamari.  The Pacific Cod was tenderlicious and the dirty rice didn’t taste dirty at all!  Hehe! :)  Dondi’s favoritte would have to be the beef which came with 2 sidings of our choice: stuffed baked potato and fries (for Abby again!).  The beef was just juicy and tender!  In our book, ClawDaddy now in the first spot taking the place of Burgoo in the American food category.  Dondi and I both agree that the food is reasonably priced.  We paid only a little over Php 1200 for the food and our refillable drinks. Not bad, ei?

Here are the pics from our heavenly lunch.

In the evening, we met up with my high school amigas at Italiani’s in Greenbelt 2.  We were a group of seven then: that would be Carol, Ana, Kathy, Eloise, Jackie, Aileen and me.  Now we’re eight including Lissa. However, Ana and Jackie now reside in the US and Aileen is taking up her PHD in Singapore (Thank God she came home for the holidays!)  We’ve been trying to get together for dinner since before Christmas and I’m glad we finally straightened out our schedules to afford a get together a few days into the new year.

We had a filling dinner and had an exchange of gifts going.  I was counting on Geloy, Eloise’s son to be Abby’s playmate for the evening but he couldn’t come. :(  Abby got oodles of gifts from all her Titas.  She wouldn’t allow not opening all the gifts!  Ninang Eloise’s doctor gift set kept her busy…for a few minutes.  And then she got sleepy and whiny, which signalled the end of the evening for me. :(  Just the same, I was thankful for the few hours I spent with my friends.  Ana and Jackie were definitely missed though!

You know what’s coming…the pics from that dinner!

07 January 2007, Pyro Olympics

To cap off the holiday season, which officially ended on 07 January, the Feast of the Three Kings, we drove off to SM Mall of Asia as early to catch the 3rd night of the 2nd World Pyro Olympics.  We attempted to catch one night of last year’s Pyro Olympics.  We had tickets and all but were greeted by the heavy reclamation area traffic due to the event.  It was impossible to have a nearer and better view of the fireworks then because of the ocean of cars surrounding the bay area.  SM Mall of Asia wasn’t yet open then and now that it is makes a big difference!

The organizers made sure to make a killing this time!  Last year, there’s a 100 peso fee to be able to enter the Esplanade located behind SM MOA.  This year, there were three categories: Php 100 for the general viewing area, Php 500 for special seats with merienda buffet and Php 1200 for even more special seats with dinner buffet.  Unbelievable!  We won’t be duped into paying more than a hundred bucks! 

And so, we were at the general viewing area by 5:30pm and realized we didn’t plan as carefully as we thought.  We should have brought a banig to sit on!  Those who have "careered" the pyro olympics had food baon (which was supposed to not allowed!) and some even brought their kids’ bikes!  Now we know what to bring next time.  Thankfully enough, there was a man selling sako material at Php 20.00 each.  We bought two and sat ourselves comfortably on the ground.

One other good thing that came out of this whole thing was the experience of the goodness of a stranger.  The lady sitting right next to us bought my nieces and Abby those really cute light-up wands. :)  She probably took pity on them because not one of us adults would buy them the stuff!

The 20-minute and 15-minute fireworks display by Germany and the UK respectively, was just a wonderful spectacle!  I can’t find the right words to describe what we saw.  All I can say is that it was worth all the trouble and the very long wait, not to mention the traffic on the way home!

Did you think I had no pics from the Pyro Olympics?  Haha! Meron siyempre!  Just click here when you’re ready.

The holidays just bring out the child in me.  I have to say that at my age, I still look forward to Christmas. :)  I hope everyone had a most enjoyable holiday season as well.  Can’t wait for December! Haha!

Ika-limang taong anibersaryo ng aming kasal ngayon…bukod sa kaarawan ng aking mahal na ina.
Happy 5th Anniversary, Munchkin! :)  May God bless us with many more blissful years together.  Having you in my life for the past 13 years is such a wonderful blessing.  I can’t thank God enough for the precious gift that you are.  I love you very much! Mwah!