Trick or Treat!

for a 1 year old the whole trick or treat experience was for the parents- especially the MOM- ahem... who so excitedly dressed their little bundle of joy with the child having no choice as to what costume he would like to wear. poor little babies... hehehe...

for aqi's first trick or treat experience we took him to sm southmall, a stone's throw away from our house. he was dressed as a dragon which i got on sale at old navy.


the costume was not presko as it was designed for use in the US but aqi was such a trooper because he didn't attempt to struggle his way out of his costume. he was game with doing the trick or treating while the parents and the yaya enjoying every minute of it.

we decided to eat when we sensed that aqi was already tired and rest he did. as we were giving our orders at kenny roger's aqi was already sleeping in yaya's arms. i think we stayed there for an hour and a half just to have a comfortable place (meaning strong aircon) to stay while aqi napped. he never slept that long in a mall before.

let me leave you a picture of us after aqi woke up- recharged and ready for more kalikutan!

Show Me Your Uvula!

we noticed that aqi has a signature smile- head tilted a little backward, squinting eyes and a very big ( i-can-see-your-uvula) smile.
where did he get it? we really do not know.

yesterday we visited Del Monte, Malabon the place where hubby spent his childhood days til he was 7 years old. he would always tell me stories of those days wherein he would just be like any filthy street kid hanging-on to jeepneys passing by and relieving himself of pee and poop along the shallow canals beside the houses.

i have lived in the south all my life so the very long trip was enjoyable for me. it was my first time to reach Monumento!

aqi also enjoyed the visit because the place where we stayed was a busy thoroughfare. there were a lot of kids loitering outside and there were just so many things to look at. aqi was fond of looking at the talipapa and was staring at the lady chopping meat and even wanted to touch the longganissa hanging by her stall.

aqi being aqi was still a snob (especially to his lola) but surprisingly he willingly with outstretched arms went to one of hubby's distant relative and giggled to this man's antics. it was such a funny sight!

let me leave you with a picture of aqi with his cousins

nazh, thor, thea and my hyper aqi

Seoul Survivor

i've been living in and out of seoul for 7 years and admittedly i have taken it for granted.
i have never truly seen the beauty of the city and have just contented myself with subway trips to kangnam or ehwa university and the usual bus routes from the airport to the hotel.

so to prepare myself for my final days in korea i decided to take a downtown tour via the Seoul Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour.
this bus tour costs just around 10,00won or around $9 and goes around 26 popular tourist spots. you can hop off at any destination and hop on again at anytime. some of the major sites this goes to are the National Museum of Korea which is the 6th largest museum in the world, The War Memorial of Korea, Namsangol Traditional Korean Village, N Seoul Tower, Gyeongbokgung Palace and the National Folk Museum.

i wasn't able to go down at all the stops because i ran out of time! i would have loved to go inside the National Museum and take some photos outside as the place is so beautiful. i also missed some photo ops at the War Memorial which is so grand with all its monuments and aircraft on display.

since i was touring alone i was always on the lookout for surfaces to prop my camera to set in on the timer. surprisingly i was able to get good shots and crappy ones from well-meaning strangers offering to take my picture( i am such an ingrate). it's so disappointing how people can be so poor in organizing a shot. they'd always focus on the person being shot and not the view! geez... i could have taken my picture at home and tell the whole world i was in paris!
let me show you an example

crappy shot

with a use of a timer

i'm so bummed out that i wasn't able to bring the charger of my new canon camera( which is a pasalubong from hubby) so i settled on using my trusty old casio camera which never failed me on its battery life but would always give me sub-par shots. being submerged in icy cold water in Yosemite has something to do with it though but that's another story.at the Namsangol Traditional Korean Village (with the timer)

inside a traditional house

at the National Folk Museum (again with the timer)

gotta fit in the picture!

at the Gyeongbokgung Palace

a building facade, cute huh?

a cover-up for a construction in the middle of a busy thoroughfare

Happy Hyper Birthday!

we had a party for Aqi last saturday at Madre di Portofino Clubhouse and it was fun! fun! fun!
The Chubster was our host and magician and Partytime Philippines was our caterer and venue decorator. they did great!


aqi surprised us again as he didn't throw any tantrums during the party unlike what happened 3 months ago during Aidan's party he refused to enter the party room in Shakey's and cried his heart out at every attempt to enter the room.
i guess it shows that my son is maturing alright. atta boy!
it's a work in progress though as he still snobs and refuses to interact with other people- even his lola(hubby's mom)- but he's very friendly with kids.


gotta give aqi some credit as he was lively and energetic all throughout the party. his spirit was up and about until we left the clubhouse at 9pm. but by the time we stepped in the car after only a couple of minutes he was dozing off in my arms.

more pictures here at my brother's site.

click here for aqi and his balloon video.

Aqi's 1st Birthday

we had a simple feast on aqi's actual birthday.
hubby prepared all the dishes and it was absolutely YUMmm-MY!
my gosh i ate a lot as it was an ala- Almon Marina menu:

the melt-in-your-mouth Cheesecake Factory cheesecake uh-hmm

creamy shrimp pesto

grilled garlic chicken

hungarian sausages and schubligs

Aqi's First Haircut

aqi had his first haircut on his birthday last friday.
hubby had to cut some of aqi's hair to follow his elders pamahiin to keep the baby's first haircut and keep it in a book. you can actually choose what book to keep it in and hopefully the baby will be a genius of that subject in the future. i kept aqi"s hair in 3 books: a Bible, an algebra book and hubby insisted on putting it in a Tom Clancy hardbound book to hopefully make aqi fond of reading.

surprisingly aqi was well-behaved during the haircut. he was a bit fidgety but that was okay because we expected him to wail and cry.

hubby holding aqi during the haircut

mohawk courtesy of the dad

Couch Potatoes--Rejoice!

i am such a couch potato.
i have a lot of books that's waiting to be opened because automatically i would always reach for the remote and watch TV all day long.
it pisses me off when my next destination doesn't have the program or channel that i religously follow.
i guess i need to choose all my flights because Fall TV Season has begun!

what tv program are you looking forward to? let me know!

Moving On

i did it.

i have officially submitted my resignation paper and i've got 3 more flights to go before i become a stay-at-home mom.
i received a good amount of crappy advice from the male overseas crew manager when i submitted the paper and said that quitting a job to be a housewife is not a wise thing to do. a lot of korean crew who quit the job to be a housewife regretted their decision of doing so and that being a housewife would mean being stagnant and lessens the opportunity to grow as a person.

WHAT??!!

being a non-korean crew in this company is the same as his description of a housewife- STAGNANT.

in the 8 years that i've been with the company they only increased our salary twice(by a mere $50) and the chances of promotion are close to none. oh but before i forget they did try to promote some of us seniors to business class duty, and it was the first time in history, that it was received by mixed reactions by some of the korean crew. some liked it and some thought that we had no place in their territory. they respect us filipina crew as exceptional employees but that was about it. even if i'm the most senior in the flight they would always go for the next korean senior. we actually don't have a voice. so where's the growth in that?

yes i would miss the travel and earning my own keep and being able to shop everywhere but i wouldn't have it any other way. eversince i could remember i have never imagined myself as a working mom. i'd like to be the kind of mom who is always there for her kids and understands them in all of their phases. i'd like to be the one to teach them good values as well as their ABC's.
i'd like to be the one to witness all of their firsts and be there on every special occasion there is.

the finances would take a toll but that is hubby's problem. it's time for him to be the breadwinner this time and me to be finally be a MOM.