baby, baby, baby

weekends are starting to be baby-stuff-hoarding days for us, and last weekend was no exception. we bought the baby girl's new peg perego viaggio infant car seat at tj's kids (we seem to be there every other week!) on friday, installed it when we got home, and woke up bright and early the next day so we could have it inspected by the fire department. (the previous week we saw a bulletin notice that there was a car seat inspection project by the vancouver fire department so aldo decided to book an appointment.) informative and helpful it was, as the firefighter-in-charge went thru a checklist of safety standards and gave us tips on how to place a baby in it. (we practiced with a teddy bear the night before. LOL.) the car seat we bought had high marks, and is the safest seat because of the latch system - which was music to my husband's safety-obsessed ears.



next stop was a community baby shower of sorts by Welcome Wagon at richmond. i guess it's a marketing ploy to get pregnant women on marketing databases for prenatal and infant products... but heck, it was worth checking out. there were probably 30 pregnant women around, each happily holding a bag of freebies and more literature to bring home! there were raffle draws throughout the boring presentations... but we eventually won something - a pro first aid kit from st. john's ambulance (again, much to my husband's safety-and-first-aid-kit obsessed delight).

funny that we would win that kit... aldo had been obsessed with first aid kits after i clumsily fell off-balance and scratched my knees last week (which is another story altogether) - aldo ended up in a panic frenzy in the drugstore and bought 3 first aid kits!

back to the baby shower... aldo had to join this diaper game for 1st time dads. they had to blow-up a balloon and put a cloth diaper around it. aldo made it as far as the ballon-blowing part while the dad beside him had the diaper on the balloon in no time. LOL. oh well, that's what prenatal classes are for!



with all this baby frenzy... we still don't have a name yet. it's easier thinking of a promo name or an ad headline than a baby name! argh!

pinoy food in vancouver

Aldo and i headed over to Pin-pin Restaurant last Mother's Day to find a long line of people outside waiting for a table. we figured we were too hungry to wait so we went to another filipino restaurant for our crispy pata and sinigang fix. today we headed back to Pin-pin and were lucky to have gotten a table when we walked in. Pin-pin serves Fil-Chinese dishes.. so their menu was like going to Dencio's or Gerry's Grill, and Chowking. They had chicken and beef mami, and siopao on the menu... but they had run out of siopao so better luck next time! We tried their sisig, lechon kawali (cholesterol!!!), and chopsuey. The sisig wasn't bad... but I guess if we had that in Manila it wouldn't really compare to Dencio's or Gerry's because it didn't have the usual liver in it. It was crunchy though, so it was good enough for us! After gobbling up our hefty cholesterol-laden lunch, we were FULL (also because we had sago & gulaman yum!). So far, Pin-pin is the best filipino restaurant we've been to... also because it's not carinderia style like Goldilocks, Aling Inings, or Galing-galing. Definitely 2 thumbs up for this one... with lots of reasons to go back!

I miss filipino food staples - especially Purefoods Corned Beef, Yakisoba, and Connie's Kitchen's bottled tuyo! For some strange reason, Purefoods Corned Beef is nowhere to be found here, even in Filipino Stores. The only brand sold is Palm (from New Zealand) or some Brazilian brand.

tempting!

aldo and i saw this yesterday and nearly bought it... but for $200 + GST it's a bit costly for a bag. argh. but as every woman will say... but it's a pretty bag*!

*i won't be carrying a separate purse, ergo my bag purchases will go down to zero. therefore i can justify a pretty diaper bag. LOL.

but the practical third-world person in me says it's too expensive... $30 more and we could have just bought a Peg Perego Viaggio infant car seat! hmm... cool bag or an infant seat?!?!



and how cute are these baby havaianas??? hay, if only we lived in a tropical country! if in manila, everyone goes crazy with wearing expensive tsinelas, here they don't really give a hoot about what sort of flipflops they wear... basta the sun is out, any flipflops will do (since sunshine and warm weather is a more precious commodity!).

(it's pretty funny that the Old Navy or Gap flipflops remind me so much of wet-market-type tsinelas because of the material!)

happy mother's day!

moms are the quintessential superheroes of the 21st century... and i cannot imagine where the hell i'm going to get those superpowers come july!

my mom has always been my best buddy, worst critic, and carpool-mate. since i moved a thousand miles away, i miss our constant arguments and regular breakfasts at Pancake House, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and Dulcinea. i miss her now more than ever, especially as the reality of family life creeps in. i miss being a daughter to this Wonder Woman, and am proud to say that i am who i am now because of her.

thanks for all the sermons mom... and you're right, now i am beginning to understand the meaning of the title "Mom".

Immigration Sale?!?!

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced plans Friday to halve the immigrant landing fee and make it easier for newcomers to find employment.

Speaking to an audience of new Canadians in Mississauga, Ont., Harper promised to follow up on his election pledge to slash the right of permanent residence fee from $975 to $490."

i wish there was sucha a thing as a refund! LOL. but oh well... that should be good news for immigrants applying this year - it's a huge amount off the applicant's shoulders!

a growing list of things to be thankful for

since aldo and i live and work downtown, a car wasn't that much of a necessity... that was, until we got pregnant. so we've decided to get a car on our third trimester (pushing it as far back as possible since the car will just sit in the apartment building's parking anyway), and ended up going back to good old Toyota for our very first car.

one sunday we just walked into the showroom... little did we know that they had a Red Tag Sale of some sort where the security deposits and some other fees were waived. it was apparently the last day of the Sale and since it was an opportunity to save on a few bucks, we applied for a lease on a Matrix '06 (it's like a Corolla with a hatchback trunk).



before we knew it, Toyota had approved our application - and they had the car sitting in their lot already. talk about a whirlwind purchase... it only took 7 days! so there we were yesterday, staring at a Matrix '06 in Indigo Ink with our name on it.

it's funny too that apparently, you get to literally pick your own plate number here. the insurance agent had 4 plates in front of me and told me to pick what combination i wanted. LOL.

next stop? i have to get a driver's license now... and study this whole booklet of a thing before i take the written exam, and pass that before taking the driving test! sabagay, if you can drive in manila, then you can drive anywhere (minus the horn honking and singitan of course!).

aldo just realized... he's on his way to daddyhood already... his first car is a hatchback type that's definitely for the family. LOL.

grown-up stuff... bring it on!!!

a new shopping list

Layette (noun) - a set of clothing and bedding for a newborn child.

hay... it sounds so simple.

last weekend we bought shelves and a cabinet for Baby Girl.. because right now, her little things are pretty much stuck in shopping bags for lack of cabinet space. i haven't really gone very far into the layette yet - i only have a handful of cute stuff... which i've only picked up for aesthetic purposes, rather than everyday use... such as this little pink dress from old navy.



ok so maybe she's only going to use that once or twice during the summer - that is, if she's big enough and if it's even warm enough. LOL. but heck... it was too cute to resist.

there's still a loooong list of baby basics like onesies, pajamas, kimono shirts, and socks. thank God for brands like Gerber and Kushies that sell those things 5 pcs. at a time! too bad we still have to cross the border to get to Target.

next stop... bottles and feeding stuff. pretty weird but i haven't seen colored and printed bottles here, save for Pooh and Precious Moments. all i've seen so far are the branded clear ones which look boring and straightforward. LOL. but i'm still keeping my fingers crossed that we'll find ones soon.

with the little girl's shopping list, there's definitely not much room for this mommy-to-be's shoes, bags, and books! LOL.

post-script

thanks for the correction Joy... the principal wasn't filipino pala. tsk, tsk i must have been blinded by disappointment while reading, thus the confusion! that article seems to have flooded every pinoy's inbox by now, as i've received it 5x already from different e-groups!

it's sad though but in the real world... that one little incident is just half a teaspoon of sugar in a jar - there are so much more untold little racial descrimination cases here and virtually the whole world where filipinos are second-class citizens. if you're in manila, it's pretty easy to defend yourself - turn on your colegiala english and show your college diploma - pronto, you get respect. but out here... well let's just say there's a lot of humble pie to eat.