half-y birthday, ball!

The Ball celebrated her half birthday this month! She also got a taste of solids for the first time.

Not that kind of solid.

At first, she wasn’t particularly interested in food other than mama’s milk.

Then she decided to give it a chance.

And just like Poppy and Basha, one more chance.

The day after her first solid meal, she had one big poop unlike any other poop. I guess it’s the start of the fiercer poops! Good luck to us!

She also had a 6-in-1 vaccination that morning. Fortunately, I think Audrey inherited my high tolerance for pain and only cried for a few seconds after the shot was administered. Afterwards she was back to being her ballself, albeit with a slight fever in the evening.

It's my party, I can have a fever and still party!

Of course, we celebrated her half birthday with cake, spaghetti, barbecue, and chicken. 

Can’t believe it’s been six months! Next thing you know, graduate na siya! Huhuhu

Ooh, can that be my next meal, mama?

baguio eats

My husband's family loves to eat out. That's why on vacations, they usually know good places to eat. Here are some of the places we ate at during our short stay in Baguio.

Bistro by Hill Station
Our first dinner in Baguio. We've eaten here before, and as per previous experiences, arrived earlier than the dinner time crowd since the place gets full easily. No photos, as I am a (somewhat) new blogger and often forget to take a picture of food. I ordered the Herb Roasted Chicken with mountain rice, and the Panda ordered the Pork something. Both our dishes came with a salad served with bagoong, and as neither of us like bagoong, our salads went untouched. Except I ate some of the tomatoes and leaves that didn't have bagoong on them.

Wood Nymph
According to the Panda, this restaurant has been in Baguio for a looooong time. I only started eating Korean food when I traveled with the Panda and his family. It took maybe two or three times before I really liked it. My family is an Italian-Filipino-Spanish cuisine type of family. Some Chinese and Japanese and American, but mostly pizza, pasta, and fine Filipino food.

Back to Wood Nymph. We ordered the Samgyupsal (spelling?) and Beef Spareribs that we grilled at our table. Actually, Kuya Server did. We grilled the last remaining pieces. It was yummy, and it came with mountain rice and those Korean side dishes. I think you're supposed to eat the meats with the fresh lettuce they bring to the table, but being the healthy vegetarians that we are (see the fate of our Hill Station salads above), we scarfed down the meats and ignored the greens.

I believe Korean restaurants now are serving what they call bingsu, or "snowed" milk with fruits. We got the strawberry one, being in Baguio and all, and I prayed to the Lord that I won't die from hypothermia. If it wasn't a new item on the menu, I would have preferred hot chocolate.

The dessert was a very pleasant surprise! I generally like milk, and the texture of the bingsu was so unusual and interesting. The strawberries could have been sweeter, but I really liked the milk snow.

The milk "snow" was icy yet light, like snowflakes

Will be ordering this again, preferably here in Manila where a cool dessert like bingsu will be extra yummy on a hot day.

Green Pepper
We had planned on eating at Canto at the Ketchup Food Community near Wright Park, to see what the fuss and long line was about. But there was still a line when we got there, so we decided to eat at Green Pepper instead. We had wild mushroom soup.

And also this dish. I think this was....barbecued pork? I need more practice blogging.

I really liked what we ordered. I had wanted some of their moist chocolate cake, advertised outside their place (and partly why I wanted to eat there), but unfortunately they were out of slices.

So we had coffee instead.

Lemon & Olives
Another new kid on the block, we tried to have lunch here on our third day, but they were full. So we went at dinnertime instead. It was a Sunday evening, so most Manila-based weekenders already went home. They do not accept reservations during the weekend, so I would suggest getting there early. We arrived just before sunset and snagged a table outside with a great view.

Alapaap

...Gusto niyo bang sumama?

Lemon & Olives is a Greek restaurant, and their menu sounded Greek to us, so we relied on the server's recommendation for what to order. This time, I made notes of what we ate. Actually I just took a photo of their menu. Once you read about it, you'll understand why I would NEVER be able to remember what we ordered.

Poikilia (Greek appetizers) with Greek village sausage, spicy soutzouki sausage, saganaki cheese, tzatziki dip, and pita bread.

Souvlaki plate: Grilled meat with the Chef's secret Greek sauce, served with pita bread and fries, and accompanied with garlic, chili, and tzatziki dips. We ordered the Lamb, Chicken, and Beef mixed plate. (Or was it Lamb, Chicken, and Pork?)

I'm not usually a fan of Greek food, but this one was actually very good. Panda ordered rice so I practically ate all the pita bread pieces by myself. At the end of the meal there were only a couple of pieces left, and as we were heading back to the hotel I regretted not finishing them off.

Since there's only so many meals in a day, we didn't get to sample every restaurant we would have wanted to try. But thanks to the TPLEX, Baguio is getting nearer and nearer to Manila, and there would be plenty of chances next time.

barangay ball in baguio

Our little family trooped to Baguio last weekend for a short getaway. The Panda spent the last six months being a new father and campaigning for our new VP, so this mini vacation was his rest period.

Of course, Audrey the Ball had to go with us. And when Audrey goes with us, the whole barangay goes as well.

Baguio, baby!

She'll be turning six months old this July, so we already wanted to take her somewhere more than two hours away from Manila, to see how she is on vacation.

Looks like she's fine with long drives.

We left Friday around 9:30 AM from Quezon City. We had planned to have lunch at Matutina's in Urdaneta, but we got there past noon and the place was FULL. So we decided to drive on. Panda remembered that there was a Mang Inasal in Pozorrubio, so we first bought some corn to tide us over until we could have lunch. But Mang Inasal was also overflowing with people, so we drove on to Rosario where we finally had lunch at Chowking.

We arrived in Baguio at around 3PM. It was the first time we stayed at The Forest Lodge, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the one-bedroom we booked was very spacious. The sofa in the living area was quite roomy, and made for a good bed for Yaya, who stayed with us in the room. The room was bigger than Manor's one-bedroom suite, we got it cheaper, plus it includes a buffet breakfast. When it comes to hotel deals, the Panda has really got it down.

Living and dining area (from the bedroom)

The biggie sofa that can serve as an extra bed. Say hi to the ball!

Our kalat at the closet area.

Our kalat at the TV area in the bedroom. First time I've seen this room layout in a hotel, with the TV in the center of the room.

Our kalat in the two queen beds. Kalat ko lang pala.

We made sure to pack sweaters and long sleeves and sleepsacks for the Ball. She likes the cold, unlike her mama. Still, we didn't want her to be uncomfortable in the cold Baguio weather. It's a good thing she had a surplus of clothes, because she peed through her pajamas and sleepsack the first night while the Panda was changing her diaper. Sigh.

One of our favorite places to go to whenever we're in Baguio is the Cantinetta cafe by Illy. It's beside Starbucks near Camp John Hay, the one not in Technohub. We like it there because unlike the Starbucks next door, the place is always quiet and cool. People prefer Starbucks so there's almost always no people when we go, which is how we like it. Besides, I like Illy coffee better than Starbucks.

We brought along the Ball with us, while the rest of the barangay stayed at the room to rest for a bit. She liked looking out the open window at the trees and feeling the cool breeze.

Audrey having an Adele moment

Hello, it's me!

When we were babyless, we used to bring our laptops and do some work or some other stuff at Illy (which has free wifi), and stay there for a while. A baby on vacation really does change a lot of your schedule. Right after we finished our pizza and coffee, we decided to head back to the hotel before Audrey got cranky.

Outside Cantinetta

The next day we went to Good Shepherd to buy ube jam and some of their other products. We also took some pictures around the area.

Audrey wondering where we are and why she has a bonnet on.

Mama and Ball

Afterwards, we went around the shops near Mines View. It was 11AM and getting hot, though, and I felt Audrey getting a bit warm. She had on a onesie under her long-sleeved pajamas, and I was wearing her so she had on extra layers. We went home afterwards.

NEXT on the blog: Places we ate at. Sarap!

places i've pumped

We just got back from Pampanga yesterday after conducting a two-day training session on Communication and Design Thinking for our public school principals for Excel. Running it meant being away from Audrey for 8 straight hours, which happens rarely because I bring her to work on regular days and I haven't been out on a social trip that lasted 8 hours.

Eight hours without baby means I absolutely have to pump milk. For the benefit of non-lactating people, breastfeeding mothers need to pump when away from the baby so that:

1. our milk supply does not drop. Milk supply is dependent on demand, so if there is no action to extract milk from the breast, the body thinks you no longer need milk and consequently reduces supply. Pumping removes milk when mom and baby are not together so the body continues to produce milk.

2. we avoid getting infections. When the breasts get engorged with milk and it is not expressed, it can lead to plugged milk ducts, which can lead to a painful condition known as mastitis, an infection of the breast tissue. Mastitis may require surgery if not treated right away. Pumping relieves engorgement and therefore reduces our risk of getting plugged ducts.

3. if ever we need to be apart again, baby still has food because mama pumped milk and has several bags of milk ready in the fridge.

I once spilled milk right after pumping and almost had a heart attack.

Because I would be away for 8 hours, I planned on pumping three times throughout the day. Thankfully, during the first module of our training program, the DepEd Superintendent, Sir Ding, allowed me to pump in the anteroom of his office. So I knew that at least I'll have a private place to pump milk.

I've pumped in more random places. I've also read about Bianca Gonzales-Intal who pumped in her seat under a shirt while watching an NBA game live. Also a mom who pumped while watching Les Miserables in Solaire. I mostly pump milk at my office and a few times in legit breastfeeding stations. Other than that, so far, I've pumped milk at/in:

1. the car, on the way to wherever we have to go (several times; car tints are lifesavers)
2. the car, while parked (several times as well--in parking lots outside a restaurant, across the US Embassy, outside DepEd Pampanga)
3. Funeraria Paz (not their restroom, but at the actual room of the wake. Thankfully it was 8 in the morning so there were no other visitors but my high school friends and me)
3. The waiting area beside the ladies' restroom at CCP
4. DepEd Division of Pampanga Superintendent's office's anteroom
5. At a corner of the Teachers' Training Center in DepEd Pampanga

At the DepEd Pampanga Superintendent's office

I once wondered if I could pump while watching a show in CCP. But I use an electric pump and it's not exactly the quietest machine in the world.

Indeed, you never truly realize the needs of other people (especially the marginalized) until you experience their life for yourself. I never once thought about breastfeeding stations even when I knew a lot of breastfeeding mothers. Now that I am one, I'm beginning to see which places here are really mother- and baby-friendly. There's a law mandating companies to provide lactation rooms and lactation breaks for working and nursing moms, but I feel we still have a long way to go before breastfeeding and pumping mothers are given the space they need to feed their children.

training preps

Have not been able to update this blog for over a week. The Excel team has been busy preparing for the second module of our Leadership Development Program for school heads in Pampanga tomorrow until Friday. We will be tackling communication and design thinking/innovation for these principals. My staff--all two of them--are new hires, so we have been inserting transition and turnover stuff in the midst of our preps. I myself have been reviewing and getting ready to conduct a design thinking crash course for the second day of our seminar. Thank God for nonprofits like IDEO and schools like Stanford that provide free resources for budget-constrained organizations like us. Thank God as well that I took that design thinking course at Penn. I'm actually quite excited and anxious at the same time.

My supplies arsenal

I'm hoping to be able to squeeze out our Fellows' creative juices enough that they are able to come up with innovative solutions for some of their schools' problems. Our goal really is to support them in improving the quality of education in their respective schools, which benefits not only the students, but everyone in the community as well. When they begin to communicate well and think in innovative ways, who knows what leaps the school can make with regard to improvements.

Great schools produce great (and happy) students!

We travel to Pampanga today. Of course, the baby goes with us, so the house goes with us as well.

Did we forget anything?

Internet is slow where will be, so updates on our training will have to wait. In the meantime, let me get back to reviewing.