I miss my boys!

Marcus and I are staying at my parents' house for the week.  Why, you ask?  Because the hubby is on a business trip and I wouldn't want to be driving to and from work alone and without my carpool-mate.  Yes, I admit I'm a lazy driver but hey, driving south to north every single day is no joke!

Anyways, it's been three days since Jax has been away and I'm so proud of myself for not missing him that much.  Until tonight, that is.  Today happens to be my mother-in-law's birthday and she requested little dude to be picked up so she could spend time with him as our "birthday gift" to her.  That was fine because I was going to work anyway so I said yes.  However, I'm here back home and I'm used to not having a sweet boy greeting me with a "Hi, ma!" at the door. 

So, I thought to myself, this is how it feels when my baby becomes a teen and his dad is out on a race (Could he still be racing by then??!) or maybe they're together doing whatever boy-stuff. Oh, just thinking about it is making me sad.  I really should cherish this period when Marcus says I'm his favorite and his best friend.  Oh, baby, I need more time!  Can we possibly freeze time and stay like this forever?

Marcus-isms

Little Dude playing bowling (he's sooo addicted to this lately) in our room while the hubster is sleeping. Getting annoyed with all the noise, hubster sits up and asks his son to stop playing.

Dad: (grabs some pins) Marcus, no more.
Marcus: (points to the bed) No, dad. Go back to sleep!

So, who's the boss now? Hihi

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While I was busy munching on chestnuts, little dude gets my hand and insists on "fixing" the pins, which actually meant positioning them into a triangle for him to, again, play bowling.

Marcus: Mom, arrange please!
Me: Wait, baby. Mom's eating.
After a few minutes...
Marcus: Mom, that's enough!

Did my son just imply his mom's matakaw?!!!

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Little Dude wakes up before mommy does, surprised to find out that he doesn't have pajamas on (I removed it because he peed in his pants that night.)

Marcus: Uh-oh. What's this?! (Gets up and heads to the door)
Me: Marcus, why? Where are you going?
Marcus: Get pants. Wait lang, Ma. Don't move ha. Stay there.
Me: (thinking - alam kaya nya where to get his pajamas?)

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One day while we were watching Avengers on DVD...

Dad: (pointing to the TV) Marcus, who's that? Do you know them? Ironman... Thor...
Marcus: Gangnam style?!

Wahahahahahahahaha!!!

Planning for Little Dude's Third

If there's one thing I realized about having a child born on the early part of the year, that is how challenging it would be to plan birthday parties every single time. 

You see, Marcus was born on January 6th - that's about two weeks after christmas and less than a week after new year (then there's also his papsy's birthday on the 30th of December and the annual stressful year-end closing at work!).  That means all the holidays and merry-making are just about done by the time of his birthday.  The difficult side of this are:

1. Party planning adds to all the holiday rush, as if all the christmas shopping, gift wrapping, attending and arranging parties left and right, menu preparations, etc. aren't enough 
2. Non-working holidays cause some some period of downtime in terms of coordinating with suppliers who may also be on vacation
3. Bonuses have just been given out towards the end of the year and therefore people are broke by the early start of the year (well at least for me!) and so if not planned early, budget becomes a constraint

When I look back at the little dude's first birthday, I couldn't help but feel a little regret for not having been able to make it as "grand" as I hoped it to be because of lack of preparation.  By mid-December, the only thing final was the venue, caterer (without menu yet!), and McDonald's.  A few days before, I still didn't have cake, entertainment, or matching outfits for the three of us.  Oh my, just enumerating all these things is making me sad.  For an HR person like me who is so used to organizing company events, this is so... bad!  Tsk tsk.

Skinny little dude with kid Mcdo on his (bordering disastrous) first birthday

That's why I learned my lesson.  As early as now, I'm starting to plan for Marcus' third birthday party.  For a the-works party, this is still late but since I'm just thinking of a simple celebration at his toddler school, I think the timing is just right.  As I write this post, I am making a list of the things that need to be taken care of for the party - food, decorations, entertainment, and favors.  My target is to have everything polished before christmas, which is 60 days to go.  Wish me luck!

Marcus' First "Exam"

When I got home from work last Tuesday, yaya told me to check the little dude's diary.  He's going to have an exam daw, so I did check it out and here's what I found:

Oooooh.. so a graded recitation, as we call it during my time (what's it called nowadays anyway? just recitation?).  It was the first time that Marcus' school actually gave "us" something to do so I got kinda excited.  And panicky.  Haha!  The stage mother in me of course wanted nothing less than a perfect score for my boy.  I was confident with the alphabet, no problem with that.  But for the numbers, I was a bit hesitant.

The following day, I dropped by National Bookstore on my way home and bought puzzles and books.  Puzzles interest my little dude so I bought a number puzzle where he has to slot in the numbers in the right spaces.  I was hoping that would do the trick.  That and the practice we did before going to bed, that is.

Come Friday, we got Marcus' diary back and this is what Teacher Riza had to say - "He read all the letters and numbers but can't pronounce them properly."  Haha! Well, he's a little bulol but still, he was able to express how his brain interprets those figures.  So proud of you, my Marcus!

Next up - "Familiarize the numbers 11-20.  Recitation on Wednesday."  Yikes!  The long weekend is almost over and we haven't practiced yet.  Hihi.