aldo's mini-me

without a doubt, amori looks more and more like her papa each day.



while in manila, she's learned to flip over, bite her lower lip all the time, reach and grab for things, and sleep on her side and tummy.




can't believe they grow and learn this fast!

manila tales

it's been 3 weeks of family, friends, shopping, and eating. amori has transformed her lola's office into a day care center twice a week, as protective lola does not want her in and out of the mall while i shop!



i think i have gotten what i have come here for - a trip to the salon, a hair treatment, a trip to greenhills and a christmas bazaar, and time with the family.

trips to the mall here with amori are not as simple as what i am used to. to begin with, i've gotten a lot of curious stares when i took amori to lunch with a few friends. i don't know what elicited stares - amori's hair, bringing a baby in a car seat, or bringing a baby without a yaya. LOL.

ten days more to go. it's quite bittersweet - i'm half happy to finally head home, but half sad to think about saying goodbye yet again. til then, we're quite happy hanging out at home, with a few side trips to the mall at odd hours.

amori's first airplane ride

... was thankfully smooth and uneventful!

we were assigned to the bulkhead and given a basinette that resembles a leather overnight bag LOL. she followed her night-time sleep pattern, and was asleep by the time we lifted off from vancouver. the rest of the way, i placed her in the basinette and she woke up only to be changed and fed. and on the descent, it did help to feed her so she wouldn't feel the pressure on her ears.

by the time we got out of the aircraft in manila, amori looked like a sweaty tomato - her cheeks were so flushed she looked like an eskimo, and for the first time in all her 4 months of existence, she was sticky because of the humidity! and when we got home, we bathed her and she felt better. she was flushed for 2 whole days, so we didn't take her out of the airconditioned room. if not, she would be cranky and sungit!

now she's a normal pinoy baby... she bathes twice a day, and is in a thin shirt and diapers during the day, with matching damp forehead when she's not in an airconditioned room. LOL. and to think she was just about to get used to wearing 2 layers of clothes back in vancouver.

have passport, will travel!

got amori's passport friday, taking the flight to manila on sunday! yaay! wish us luck - it'll only be amori and me... please, please, sleep on the plane little pumpkin!

the ladies do lunch

as proper downtown vancouver ladies do, amori and maya had lunch with their mommies on a crisp fall day.



after 15 minutes, amori got dizzy with the menu choices and decided sleep was the best activity during lunch time, while maya thought she'd ask her mum if the cappucino was alright.

Do Not Call

we just about had it with annoying telemarketers from Times Telecom the whole year. it was time we did something about it.

Times Telecom had been trying to sell us their services and special offers, and with every phone call we had asked to be removed from their lists. but then they kept on calling.

by law, consumers have a right to know the registered business address and phone numbers of the product's company, so aldo asked the call center agent where she was calling from - to which she said (quite stupidly i must add) makati, philippines. ah so that explains the thick accent (in one of their calls, they said they were offering pai-dow-powns - which was actually Fido Phones LOL). aldo ended up talking to the call center supervisor who did not want to give the vancouver number of times telecom (they only gave out the toll-free number)... and when the supervisor could not pacify my quite-irritated husband, she just apologized for the phone call and then click - she put down the phone. weird.

after that call, aldo lodged formal complaints with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), our phone service provider, the vancouver office of Times Telecom, and Fido. thankfully, his efforts were not futile - the CRTC gave him a case number and promptly followed-up his complaint with Fido and Times Telecom.

Times Telecom and Fido did call though to say that we have been placed in their Do Not Call lists - we hope it stays that way. it's been one whole week without a call from Times Telecom... i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

i wonder what call center in manila services Times Telecoms. i swear, they give filipino call center agents a bad name.