this is the first time we bought a non-canon cam for ourselves. we still have our canon powershot a630, which we bought in may 2007. it’s still working fine that’s why we held on to it this long. the main reason why we love it so much is its swivel lcd. it makes taking our own pictures easier and of course, it works very well in tackling the awkward angles. but it’s so basic. it doesnt have the face recognition feature you can find in the latest digital cams in the market right now. and having a wriggly baby, you’ll find, this feature is really helpful in getting that clear shot. that and the cam’s image stabiliser =D

after getting lots of blurred pics with our old p&s (well, most often than not), we decided it’s time to upgrade. lucky tantan found this lumix fp8 cam at a discounted price. first, it’s red – my main choice of color! and of course the features:
- face recognition. what’s more, it will remember the face after several shots and the cam will make sure it focuses on that face in the succeeding shots. it can remember up to 3 faces at a time
- intelligent auto mode. it sets everything for you – iso, white balance, etc. it’s not your usual auto mode
- image stabiliser
- leica lens (with folding optics) – lens not protruding from the cam
- hd video capability. tantan said i dont usually bring our camcorder and we have found ourselves (lots of times, in fact) in a situation where we regretted not having brought the camcorder with us. so no more excuse of not capturing that moment in vid (unless tantan decides to delete them again! – sige na nga, unintentionally =p).
- panoramic help. this feature makes it easy to photo stitch so you’ll get a perfect panoramic pic. it tells you where the end of your last photo is so you can superimpose them and create a continuous frame
- fast startup and response time, for a point and shoot
- it has a mode specifically for babies!

un nga lang, it doesnt have that swivel lcd. even canon stopped producing cams with it. oh well, you cant have everything! anyways, still discovering the new cam’s features. here’s to more memories being captured!

cayden conveniently broke my laptop. actually, he just managed to take off some keys (ctrl and alt – i was afraid del would be next! *lol*). tantan attempted to put them back but managed to break them off completely.

lucky for me, i can justify the need for a new one. besides, the old one is already 4 years old! admittedly, it still does the job but very very very slowly *lol*

i can’t say the same for tantan because he had to buy the new one! my salary has been reduced to just an allowance. i cant afford to buy one *lol*. anyways, we made a compromise. he bought mine in the US (mom brought it back here) where it’s a lot cheaper. so here’s my new pc laptop, a brand spanking new macbook pro!

it’s a very merry christmas for me!!

breastfeeding is becoming stressful for me. if this continues, im going to have break-outs and i will need the best acne treatment!

i am force-feeding cayden at the moment because he has diarrhea (it’s getting better. consistency is better and he only poops about 2-3x per day) and he needs to replenish the nutrients he is losing. he wasnt prescribed anything else by the doctor, telling me my breastmilk is enough. but cayden can sure kick hard! to top it, he gets distracted easily. any little sound, his head will be spinning right away. and sometimes, he wants my nipple to still be in his mouth when he does, as if im plastic woman or something! he also started biting me as early as his 3rd month. if im not too careful, i could easily drop him to the floor. and he doesnt have teeth yet!

anyways, i have found a solution for the distraction. i bought a nursing cover.

it’s useful too if you’re breastfeeding in a public place. i would have bought it sooner if i had known that a nursing bib is really a nursing cover. i knew of the bib from the blogs i have read and having dumb moments, took the name literally. i thought, why would i want a bib for? i can use a burp cloth for little accidents =D. besides, googling “nursing bib” did not yield much, i mean stores that sell here in in uk. anyways, he complains sometimes when i use it, but it does the job.

i am now bent on training cayden to bottle feed. i try to give him a bottle with expressed breast milk once a day, one ounce at least. i have a manual breast pump but i didnt think i will get enough milk without getting tired first. i wanted the ameda purely yours electric breast pump but it’s not available here in uk. my mom could have bought it in the states but she wont be returning till december and that might be too late to train cayden. anyways, i asked my fellow mommies for advice and we ended up buying the medela pump in style advanced, although i wanted the one with the metro bag instead. again, not available here in the uk *frustrated*

and to help with storing my expressed breast milk, i bought this milk tray from the philippines (tantan’s not happy with it because of the price – again, cheaper in the states *lol*)

the idea is that each compartment of the milk tray will hold 1 ounce of milk (it’s hospital grade so no sterilising needed). you only need to freeze the milk in the tray then place the milk sticks in a ziplock bag then put them back in the freezer. you only thaw the number of sticks (ounces) you need. no wasting of breast milk! tantan will argue that breastmilk is free thus, it’s not wasted. but given what happened in the philippines recently, babies needing milk, i say my milk is really precious. i know i couldnt donate but it’s the thought that counts =D

i have this bottle/baby food warmer that my brother gave me. it’s a hand me down from pong. and it’s very useful! it looks exactly like this:

–> i could have ordered online from the states but shipping cost will be ridiculous! plus, im sure, i will be taxed by the british government separately.

im all set with bottle feeding. but after all the trouble, cayden still doesnt want to drink from the bottle. i shouldnt have listened to the midwives when they told me i shouldnt introduce the bottle until breastfeeding is established. now im very worried that he will starve when i go back to work in january.

i tried different types of teats. but my recent purchase got the most positive reaction. the nuk latex teat.

cayden doesnt use dummies (pacifiers). but i noticed that he will only take the one dummy that we have that’s shaped like the one above. fortunately, there’s a teat shaped like it. i also chose the latex one because it’s softer than the silicon. cayden chews the silicon and never did he try to suck on it.

i only have 3 months to train cayden. i hope to have the patience and the will. he looks kawawa when he cries asking for my boobies =(. i was told that if this teat fails, he might skip the bottle and go on the sippy cup. fortunately, he’ll be almost 8 months old when i go back to work. he’ll be on solids and might get away with the cup. fingers crossed!

all her bags are packed and ready to go…

my mom is leaving tomorrow. she’s off to the US (might go to Destin FL for a few days – jealous!) for 3 months leaving me alone with 2 kids (you know what i mean!). she needs to exit uk because her 6th month immigration allowance is almost up. that’s it for afternoon naps and computer time and me-sneaking-out-drives and proper home cooked meals! she did prepare some meals for us but they wont last that long *lol*

anyways, i cant wait for her to come back. not just because she takes a lot of load off of me but also, she’ll be bringing back something major. tantan’s christmas gift (for me). yey! he’ll be very galante with his gift but still being his tipid-mode self, will buy it in the US so it’s loads cheaper =D. im willing to compromise!

anyways, still on being galante, he bought me a swatch huyana watch. i told him that for me to produce good quality breastmilk, i need to be happy all the time. and little things make me happy. facebook friends say it’s emotional blackmail. i say im just cashing in on his birthing promise (i can buy everything i want yada yada) *lol*

aside from that, we bought this at a very very good price

we sold the guitar as we already have 2 guitar hero controllers. we’re keeping the drums and the mic. hope we can still play despite my our hands being full (with the baby and the house chores).

i wish i can say, “i wish it’s december already“. but that would mean, i’ll be returning to work soon after. what to do? tantan, stay at home na lang ako. please?

our house is still a mess. im partly to blame because im allowing it. but the main culprit is this:

tantan and i are hooked! i know we’re kinda like late bloomers but there were lots on our plate the last few months that we only got to “join in” recently.

anyways, we only need to reorganise some stuff and we’re done (i hope! *lol*). and with my mom arriving in a couple of days, im sure our house will be spic and span in no time! =D

leaving you with an image of this trying hard my rockstar =D

tantan gave me this:

i am was waiting for the release of nokia’s n97 but i told tantan that if i like the features of this 5800, i might not get the n97 anymore (binigyan na nga, nd p makuntento *lol*). but so far, im liking it more every minute.

i didnt want it at first bec. it’s very similar to the iphone. i had an iphone before but only used it as an mp3 player and internet browser. i feel that it’s just a fad. did not like the fact that it doesnt have any stylus and uses the fingers mainly for navigation. with its size, ang hirap kayang mag text! nakakangawit *lol*.

the n97 is a touch screen phone but it has a separate keyboard. that’s why i like it (call me old fashion, if you like). the 5800 doesnt have a keyboard but it has a stylus and it’s smaller than the iphone which makes finger navigation/control very easy. not to mention, it’s stylish too! i feel like iphone focused more on the looks than functionality. just my thoughts (and based on personal experience). no offense meant to those iphone fans.

tantan said you cant really compare the 5800 with the iphone bec it’s like comparing an apple with a pear. i asked why, he said, the 5800 has more features that the iphone doesnt have. well, isnt that proof enough that the 5800 is better? *lol*

happy heart’s day to everyone! hope you had a lovely, sweet time with your other halves (kids, families, friends….) =D

tantan’s loot. they are distracting him from doing up the nursery. i allowed him to play and finish one game (valkyrie chronicles) so he can sell it while it’s still going for a high price. that’s what he does. because ps3 games are expensive, he buys games then sells them on so he can buy new ones. but this loot will have to wait. baby’s due date is fast approaching.

to lessen the temptation, he bought me this (along with an eye toy)

i love it! his colleague lent us his to try and we were immediately smitten by sackboy. this is what my sackgirl looks like:

aint she cute?! the last 2 pics are apparently very much like me =D. im still in the early stages of the game. i still need to collect more items so i can change her look and create my own world.

a peek at the game. that’s sackgirl with humpty dumpty

click for the official trailer and demo of the game to learn more about little big planet.

since im using the ps3, tantan has no option but to do work in the nursery =D

this is what’s keeping tantan busy

he’s been waiting for a “cracked” version for ages. but since it doesnt look like it’s happening anytime soon, he went ahead and indulged himself. he’s been asking me whether he should buy or not. my stand is, if you have the extra money, why not.

besides, he’s been really good to me especially the last week when i was down with flu. he would make sure that i have plenty of food by my side so i wouldnt have to come down, that is, before leaving for work.

he doesnt really buy stuff for himself, if he can help it. he’s not maluho. sometimes, i tell him to spend some money on himself naman, which he totally deserves for working so hard. but he has his priorities. and his priority now is our little one.

im letting him play after dinner. but he’ll sure hear a lot from me if he doesnt start doing the nursery soon! *lol*

i got an email (a week ago) from emirates telling me that my miles are expiring (today) and i should give their online high street a visit so it wouldn’t get forfeited. i was surprised because those miles were accumulated when we flew with them in 2005 pa. though they’re my fave airline, we haven’t flown with them since because their airfare is one of the most expensive. i only got my priviledges last year (when my brother married an emirates staff) but i haven’t really needed to book with them. yet.

anyways, i only have 17,484 miles with them. looking at the catalogue, there’s really nothing much to choose from. we wanted the ferrari lego toys, but they’re currently not in stock. we would be able to get 3 of them from my miles, which would go to my nephews sana. the only other thing that’s worth picking is the ipod shuffle. it’s also currently out of stock but can be pre-ordered. the only problem we encountered are the shipping cost. not really a problem but the shipping to uk would be 20$, exclusive of tax pa ata. and in my experience, we always end up paying more with tax if things are shipped from abroad. e mura lang ang shuffle no! buying here would be more economical.

i decided to let my brother use my miles and have the item shipped to dubai. since it’s local, i only paid 10$ for the shipping. they chose the ipod shuffle as it’s really the best option.

not bad na rin no? 5£ for a shuffle.

i celebrated my 30th quietly here in UK. i even went to work that day so tantan and i just ordered take away for dinner. nothing fancy. afterall, our US trip was my BIG treat already =D, a 3wk-long celebration, which i wouldn’t trade for anything else (our orlando trip, shopping galore!, food bingeing). the best part was being with family (my mom, aunt, cousin and met up with my grandma and her brother and his wife). too bad i was already here in uk during my actual bday. nevertheless, i celebrated it with tantan and my brother, who’s staying with us for a week.

lots of people remembered, though. thank you! even at work, they surprised me with a little something, very much ME (kikay *lol*)

aside from the trip and mega clothes-and-shoes shopping, we got me this (to add to my kit):

canon speedlight 430ex

too bad the 430ex II is just being released here in UK at the end of this month. anyways, that would probably cost an arm and a leg as it’s just being launched so this’ll do for now. we were tempted to get the 580ex, their top of the line (the staff said so), but it’s so much more expensive and it’s bigger and heavier (and i haven’t got the foggiest on how to use one!) than the one i got. im not a professional anyway so i don’t need anything fancier *lol*. i also bought a diffuser (the rectangular thing on top of the box). i haven’t played with my new toy yet because i still have jetlag. soon!

and because we’re always having to carry lots of bags when we travel (laptop and camera bags on top of our other personal hand carry bags), we decided to buy a new bigger bag that will hold both my laptop and dslr cam and accessories. we got the lowepro fastpack 250.

the price is reasonable and lowepro’s already tried and tested since our previous bag was also a lowepro. another advantage of this one is, it has a separate compartment, supposedly for trinkets, which tantan can use to put in his “baon” (water, crisps, crackers).

so there. im 30 and proud of it!