Lia Ahryn's Second Month

Baby Lia turns two months yesterday!

Now she's smiling more often and she's starting to respond with eye contact and various babbles when we talk to her. (Although she doesn't want to give in to yesterday's shoot, as you can see on the photo above). She's also beginning to have longer sleep times during the night, which we are very pleased of, especially the Mommy. I had my small share of the graveyard shift during the weekends and I tell you, it's not fun, at all!

Good thing this baby sleep patterns gets better as they grow older. Soon, we'll be all sleeping the whole night through! So we're torn between wanting her to grow faster so that life will be easier or slower because it's such a joy to have a little baby.

In other news, we have already applied for her stay to be extended in Singapore and she is now on Special Pass. Yes, babies born of Permanent Resident parents are foreigners and they are given 42 short days to regularize their stay here in Singapore. Failure to do so, the baby (obviously with a parent) needs to go back to her home country. It's a lot of filling forms, queues, and application processing but we are hoping for the best. Right now, I have already collected her passport and soon we'll be applying for her PR before her Special Pass expires.

There are a lot of things to look forward to and we are praying for God's guidance and mercy in all these.

By the way, those were home-baked Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Yum!

Our Little Filipina

Here's our schoolgirl Ashrie donned in the Philippine Terno in celebration of Singapore's Racial Harmony Day 2014 today.

We always think of buying a national costume for her during our not-so-often visits to the Philippines but when we're there, time is really not enough to get one. There are a lot of costumes to choose from- Muslim dresses, Tribal dresses, Maria Clara dresses, Baro at Saya, Kimona, and Patadyong among many others. 

This one in particular is from Lucky Plaza, Singapore. The mom just paired it with pastel pink shoes and hair accessory, both from H&M. The Terno is popularized by the former First Lady Imelda Marcos. There are many variations and evolutions of the terno but hers is basically a long gown with butterfly sleeves accessorized with the alampay (shawl) and the tapis (apron).

I think clothes can really empower a person. Her classmates said she looked like a princess today. Bet she felt special. But to me, she always does and always will be.

Lia Ahryn's Welcome Party

I was in the brink of losing my patience when the caterer decided to take their time and not show up as scheduled. But all's well that ends well. They come just in time before the majority of our guests arrived for dinner. And it turned out that all the dishes were good (the Chicken Curry was phenomenal as well as the Braised Spinach Beancurd) and were piping hot until the end of the party.

Yup, we hosted yet another event last weekend. A Thanksgiving Dinner for Jane's safe delivery and a Welcome Party for Baby Lia. After the crazy months of  May and June, it's time for thanksgiving and celebration.

Our friends asked to see the baby and we told them we will just set a date for everyone. Doing this saved us time on preparing for each and every visit and we need not tell the stories repeatedly. Right now, time is our most valuable resource as we do not have extra hands in the house. We are busy as ever now that we have a schoolgirl and a baby to look after to. We just find comfort in knowing that time flies and this stage will soon pass so we are trying our best to enjoy precious moments with our kids and living one day at a time.

The bunting and most of the paper crafts were done even before Lia's birth for the (postponed) Baby Shower. We had to cancel the event because Jane was in the ICU with drips and all. You know the story. The rest of the preparations were done nightly for a week or so, mostly after midnight. But it's all worth it. The place was party-ready, the food was awesome, and we were in the company of fun-loving, loud-laughing friends.

In spite of the merrymaker's noise Lia just slept throughout the party, well most of the time. And she didn't even let the guests hear how loud she cries. She even slept during her feeding time, but was wide awake when everybody went home.

Thanks to our friends who came. Blessings to all of you!

Indeed, what a night!

Singapore Home&Decor Magazine Cover

 

Our home is on the cover of a magazine!

Well, not really. It's just my entry to win Tovolo kitchen accessories from Home and Decor Singapore.

If you are a Singapore resident, you can join too. Simply upload a snapshot of your living space, a little text editing here and there, write down your particulars and you got a chance to win as well.

Here's Home&Decor Singapore's contest link.

Ashrie's Room: An IKEA Room Makeover

I could still remember this room when we got the place, white wall on one side, the built-in closet on the opposite side, and then two big, black chalk paint walls on the remaining two walls.  It was dark and definitely not a room a five-year-old princess would call her castle.

We chose Nippon’s Frost Pink for the walls and plain white for the ceiling, cornices and trims. We got all the furniture from IKEA- the extendable MINNEN bed, the TROFAST storage unit, the MICKE desk and add-on unit (which has a magnetic white board, by the way), the SNILLE swivel chair, the hacked RAST chest of drawers (the drawer's front panels are in the same paint color as the walls), the pink HAMPEN rug, the beddings and other textiles, and even the pink GAVIK table lamp.

It's the smallest bedroom in the house but the most lively and lovely in terms of color, feel and character.

I hope Ashrie loves her new room and have sweet princess dreams every night.