ROUND UP DAYS

Bela's seventh birthday is 10 months away but as early as now, I was able to start planning and preparing for her big day. I was able to book the venue already and contacted some of the suppliers for the food and invitation.

Originally, Bela wants to have a Safari Adventure theme party and so what I did is to contact my friends if they recommended trusted suppliers for all the things that I need for the party. They recommended some companies to me, which include dinosaur birthday party supplies and jungle safari supplies. After all the research, suddenly, my daughter changed her mind. She remembered that she had a safari Adventure party before when she was 3 years old (though I kept on reminding her about that), so she asked me if we can change the theme from Safari Adventure to a Rockstar or Musical Party Theme. Of course I'll agree with her since this will be her party.

Good thing that I have a friend who set up a somehow the same theme before for her son as well so I asked for her suggestions and provided me contact information for her suppliers like for justin bieber party supplies that she booked and purchased before.

As of now, I am negotiating with her contact person and she's giving me discount party supplies because of the recommendation that my friend did. We haven't finalized the orders yet but good thing that I still have lots of time to finish all the preparations.

I'll focus more with the bigger details now including the souvenirs, invitation, photo and video coverage and food, which I have to finalize as soon as possible. I'm sure my daughter will have a blast on her birthday because even as early as now, she's pretty excited and she even wants to help with all the preparations.

It’s always nice to look at this picture. This was taken during Jacobo’s 1st birthday while we were doing his pictorial just before the party started.

These are my two kids and whenever I see this, I get teary-eyed because I can see how sweet my daughter is to her brother and I always want them to be like that because I really want them to grow up very close to each other. More and more, I feel so blessed for having them as my children and every moment like this will surely be treasured.

Just by looking at the smile of Jacobo and how Bela kissed her brother makes my heart melt because I can feel the sweetness and their love for each other. I know both of them are happy to have each other as their siblings even at the very young age.

I am glad that my children took after their dad, his love for music. They love playing with different kinds of musical instruments and this is one of their favorite past time. We nurture their love for music by surrounding them with different kinds of musical instruments and we encourage them to try it out. We even enrolled them to different classes so they can master their musical skills.

I guess they grew their love for music because ever since, they have been surrounded by different kinds of musical instruments. We have a drum set, electric keyboard, violin and tons of guitars. Some of them are from hubby’s old collections and so we realized that we have to take good care of these instruments so my kids can enjoy them until they grow up.

One of the projects that hubby is embarking on is turning one of our spare room as their music room where hubby and the kids can have jamming sessions together. Hubby bought several guitar wall mount which he can use to hang their guitars. Aside from organization, guitars hanging on the wall can be a good decoration for the music room too. They have also moved the drum set, the beat box and electric keyboard in that room and all that is needed are amplifiers to create their very own music studio.

I am happy that my kids are growing up to be musically inclined like their dad. It is nice to live in a house filled with music created by those you love the most.

• He stills breastfeeds almost the entire night. He will wake up for a few seconds to shout “De-De-De” (Milk) and will fall asleep again as soon as he gets his dose of milk from me. Since I go to work, I only get to breastfeed him before leaving for work and as soon as I reached home and all through the night. Thankfully, I have tons of electronic books loaded on my phone to keep me company as I feed Jacobo.

• Some of the phrases that has been added to his list includes:
- “Let’s go down”
- “I like it”
- “Ate Bela, No!!”
- “I love you Mommy”
- “Please get it”
- “Yaya, I want hotdog”
- “Buy Potchi”

• He knows the different sounds of the animals when asked:
- Cow: Moo
- Frog: Kokak
- Horse: Neigh
- Bee: Buzz, Buzz
- Dog: Aww
- Cat: Meow
- Etc

• He likes to eat by himself


• He can identify the parts of his body
• He can finish one full length movie (we brought him with us when we watched Cars, Happy Penguin and Alvin and the Chipmunks and he was behave the whole time. Though he usually shouts due to excitement when he sees his favorite character on screen.)

The Gymboree branch at Sofitel has been close for several months now as their center has been badly affected by Typhoon Sendong. I enrolled Jacobo to their Level 4 play class a couple of months back and so we have been waiting for months for their re-opening.

Hubby got a text last December that they are finally opening their doors for Gymboree members but since I know that December is a very busy month for us, we decided to let Jacobo start with his class on January.

And on January 7, Jacobo is back at Gymboree after almost a year of not attending a class. His last class was in Gymboree Serendra which we never renewed because there is not much enrollees for Saturday class, which leaves Jacobo interacting with Gymbo, the clown if his one and only classmate is absent.


Unlike his elder sister, Jacobo did not warm up right away during class. I was not feeling well that time so I told hubby that he should go with Jacobo but Jacobo kept on crying and is asking for me.

I have to encourage him and assure him that I will just be beside him before he participates in an activity. He does not like to ride the parachute and he cried the whole time we were inside the parachute.

When it is bubble time, I thought that he will let loose as I know he just loves to play with bubbles but he hang on to me and did not want to let go.

But his teacher said that I should not worry. He will get used to the routine soon and before we know it, he will be running around the gym non-stop.