Dealing with Strangers Around Your Baby

Last saturday, i had a scheduled prenatal check up for baby number 2 and since my ob holds her clinic at sm megamall, hubby and i decided to take Caleb with us.

Caleb is my 1 year old son and though he is very suplado he tend to attract other people's attention because of his looks especially his big gorgeous eyes (yup im a proud momma).

while waiting for my turn in the usually packed waiting area of In My Womb, i was surprised to see that Cale was in the mood to interact with the other patients. while making pa-cute one lady noticed him. She talked to Cale asking him the usual questions like "whats your name?" "how old are you?" i was the one who answered for my son since aside from the fact that my kid can only talk gibberish, i felt that i had to step up so she knows im watching (caleb was with his yaya by the way)

Anyhows, i wasn't feeling that uncomfortable with her asking questions about cale but then she suddenly raised her arms and asked caleb to go with her. i panicked. i didn't know what to say or do so i will not offend the lady and tell her that i feel uncomfortable with what she wanted to do. i just prayed that caleb will say no and thankfully he did.

As a mom based here in the Philippines I think one cant blame me if i am overprotective with my son due to the high and rising number of kidnapping cases here which even happens right in front of the parents' very eyes. I felt upset with the lady because why would she want to carry a stranger's kid? why does she have to make me feel awkward when i have no intentions of offending anyone? how do i deal with situations like this? 

my husband and i talked about what happend and here are the things we came up with should this happen again:

1. talk to yaya and tell her that should someone ask to carry caleb, never ever agree and give our child to the stranger no matter how friendly the stranger may look.    

2. Politely decline by saying sorry and that i dont think my son will be comfortable to be held by a complete stranger (this may sound harsh but then again why take in consideration a stranger's feelings when your kid's safety is at risk)

3. If the stranger feels offended and fires back, ignore. if he/she have good intentions he/she wouldnt mind. we are the parents, its our decision to do what we think is right for our son.

Seriously, I never thought that raising kids will be this hard and you have alot to deal with especially when it comes to their safety. Call me OA or praning or whatever, but as of now, with Caleb's age, I dont care. i would rather be known as the restrictive mom who was able to raise her son well instead of the easy-going mom who lost a kid because of her carelessness in dealing with strangers.

Everyday with Caleb

Sooo, as per my last post, I started Caleb's Journal. Im lucky that my mom has loads of stuff that I can use for it and I would like to share some of the pages of the project life portfolio that I have finished.

This is the cover

Thats all so far, as Im awaiting delivery for my 2nd baby, its harder to work on it since most of the time i need to lay down coz Its still a week before Im full term but it seems that my little boy wants to pop out already. Ill post the new ones Ill be making (if I can)

Toodles!

project life

i am amazed with photographs.

especially photos of people i love. i find it really amazing how someone can capture special moments.

I always imagined how it is if my eyes can take pictures without a camera. I have this crazy idea of having my eyes as a camera so I can be able to take a photo of all the wonderful things I saw all through out the years and not just have it stucked inside my memory so i can share it with everyone.

But thats not possible, lol. good thing nowadays we have instagram, facebook, etc,

For the past few days, I have been frustrated and somehow worried that all the pictures that we have taken of my son will be put to waste. I talked to my mom and told her that I am planning to print all of the photos that I have so we can make an album or a scrapbook out of it. My mom is a fulltime scrapper, she also teaches card making, scrapping, etc. but I am not. So she told me about project life.

I did some research and here is what I found from the project life website:

Project Life is a solution-based approach to scrapbooking that was created to simplify the process in order to allow you more time to enjoy life! It requires no glue, no scissors, no tools, and no skills of any kind. The design of our products takes the guess work out of layout design so that you can focus on recording your everyday moments through your photos and journaling. The simple design is stylish and makes it possible for you to complete more pages in less time.

Becky Higgins, creator of Project Life, is a busy wife and mother who is passionate about capturing the little bits of life, and she's making it easy for others to do the same. "It's called Project LIFE because it's about YOUR LIFE. Whatever your life is. Whatever your stage of life. Whatever your family circumstances. Whatever your lifestyle. Project Life is designed to help anyone + everyone get their pictures into a book," says Becky. Her goal is to help others Cultivate a Good Life and Record It.

This back-to-basics approach to scrapbooking appeals to the person who's never made a scrapbook in their life as well as those with experience because it allows you to feel the freedom that comes from letting go of the "guilt" that so many associate with the memory keeping process. Project Life enthusiast Liz Tamanaha says "I love Project Life because it can be anything I want. Simple when I just want to get the basics recorded. Crazy intensive when I have the creative energy for it. And for once, I feel caught up with my scrapbooking."

The Project Life "way" of memory-keeping is so crazy-simple, it has become known as revolutionary in the scrapbooking industry. All you need is one of our Core Kits, an Album, and a Big Pack of 60 Photo Pocket Pages. By pairing your pictures and memories with these basic products, you will be able to document your story in a hassle-free system that results in a complete and beautiful scrapbook. The Project Life line of products has grown to also include many other items that enhance the memory-keeping process for those who want to do more.

All Becky Higgins products are available on Amazon.com (in the U.S.) and also coming to retail locations around the world in May 2013. All Project Life designs are also available as digital components through ACDigitals.com which allows you to use your photo editing software to create your own pages and projects. We have also partnered with Shutterfly to offer photo books in several of our most popular designs.

Whether you choose our physical products or one of our new digital options, Project Life takes the "scrapbooking" out of scrapbooking so you can focus on turning your everyday stories, your celebrations, your challenges, and your big moments into albums to be cherished.

(taken from the project life website www.beckyhiggins.com)

in other words, its actually making a photoalbum with a twist since it has multiple packets per sleeve that you can put not only pictures but little cards or notes that can best describe what the photos are about. its really cool since as much as i'd love to try my hand at scrapbooking i dont think Im that creative. 

Here's a sample that i saw:

photo courtesy of: http://www.nettiodesigns.com

I have already bought a whole set for my "project life project" and will be printing photos of caleb later and try to work on it. Im really excited to start with this project life thingy and ill be posting some photos of what i have managed to work on in the next couple of days.

ta-ta for now while i catch more sleep first.

1sts

This morning, during breakfast, I was quite surprised when mom suddenly asked me:

Mom: Do you know what the first movie you saw was?
Me: No
Mom: Star Wars, Return of the Jedi, when you were 2 yearsold. We took you with us inside the cinema and you behaved.
Me: COOL :)

Nice for me to hear things like this which reminded me that I wasnt really keeping track of Caleb's 1sts so while im on it (and while I can still remember) Im posting it here so maybe a couple of years from now, he will be able to read this or if ever he will ask me (which should probably be a gazillion years from now), I can make this post as a reference.

Here are some of Caleb's Firsts:

First time to hear mass was on June 30, 2012 at St. Arnold Janssen Chapel.
First restaurant to have been taken with: Something Fishy, Trinoma for my birthday lunch (August 2012)
First Christmas: Eastwood City,  Ate at Uncle Chefy's, Mass at Holy Family Parish
First New Year's Eve: Cocoon Hotel
First Zoo: Parks and Wildlife
First Children's Party: Evan Sy's 1st Birthday Celebration

I would probably add more once I remember them.

Toodles!

I cant believe Im posting this

So, its the time of year for the NBA Finals. My husband, who is seriously a fan of NBA, unfortunately is on the morning shift so, he misses out on most of the games.

Earlier today, is the Game 6 of NBA Finals for this year between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat. I dont know why but Im cheering for Miami Heat.

When I turned on the TV it was the end of the 1st quarter and Miami was up 5 points. I had breakfast first, contemplating if I should watch. I think my husband and I make a great tandem coz when we watched Game 4, Heat won but lost Game 5 when I was the only one watching. I tried to keep up with the rest of the quarter but after the half time, Spurs already lead the game by 10 points, I saw a very, very angry Lebron James so I decided to turn off the TV and got ready for lunch with the hubby. I was home alone again and since I was feeling quite ok, I decided to lunch out with him at his office.

I told myself, that going out was a good call instead of watching coz I felt that Miami will lose again since Im watching alone. When I got to whistle stop, Lo and behold, their gigantic tv was tuned in to the game and I was shocked to see that Miami was already leading the game. 5 points with a couple of minutes left in the 4th quarter

I had to text my husband to get there quick, I felt that Miami need our tandem to win (ahahaha!) Unfortunately when my husband arrived, the Spurs was already leading, I dont know how many points but I thought the game was over. A few seconds left I think around 5 seconds, with Spurs leading 3 points, Then this guy, Ray Allen took a chance on a three-pointer and it went in leading to an overtime!

I already lost all hope that Miami will win this game for a final game 7. Guess what, they won the overtime!

I guess my husband and I really make a good tandem when it comes to NBA as long as we are both siding for the same team :)