Seven month old Phoebe

Here is our little cutie at seven month

 

you are so adorable and i love you so much

Phoebe is six month old

This is a super delayed post but I just want to put a photo of my cutie baby when she was six months

I love you so much Phoebe.  I always pray to God that you will have a happy and healthy life.  Mama and Papa is always here for you. xoxo.

This month, Nanay flew back to Manila.  Ang daming iyak nung naghatid kami sa airport.  Miss ka namin Nanay.  We love you.

Phoebe is five-ulous

Woohooo Phoebe turned 5 months last Saturday.  Phoebe started to
- roll front to back - back to front
- stand while Nanay pulls her from her hand
- makes shouting noises
- jump! jump! and jump! while we hold her in her armpits
- laugh at loud while doggy barks at her
- eats her toys (lagot giraffe)
- a real delight!!

31st Birthday

Woooohoooo!! I celebrated my, (31st yesterday, 24 March). Well- nothing really fancy and extravagant because it's the start of Holy week. Palm Sunday, it is.  We srated our day by attending the Palm Sunday mass.  I was really craving for pork siopao and McD's caramel sundae but we though of sacrificing eating out this week so I skipped eating the cravings.  We went straight home after mass and ate lunch.  Bug ate the left over grilled fish, again with rice.  Ohhh and Bug also prepared pansit for my birthday, so that was my lunch.  Super simple celebration but I'm happy!

This is the photo of the pansit Bug cooked for my birthday.  Really yumm!!! Not bad for a first timer!!

This pansit serves 4 to 5 persons (estimated cost is $5)

Saturday activities - Birthday weekend

I'm officially on my 39 weeks last Saturday (23 March) and bub's really getting heavy so we decided to just relax at home.  We started the day by having breakfast. I just whipped up a bread, spread it with tuna (from can), add grated cheese and salt and pepper to taste and just toasted it in the sandwich maker. Bug had some rice with left overs and breakfast is solved!!

We then proceeded to do our weekly grocery.  First stop we went to Fresh and save.  Fresh and save is a new discovery we had. This is an Asian grocery where you can find veges, fruits, meat, Asian condiments, Asian snacks and everything Asian you can think of. I have bought hopia (mung beans and waxgourd), dingdong, some veges, fruits, canned good, condiments,chix minced,  etc. Total bill summed up to $41.74. Not bad!

Next stop was Mad butcher.  Mad butcher is where we always buy our meat.  I was tempted to try the meat from Fresh and save, but maybe next time.  We bought 2 week supply of our meat from Mad butcher since we were thinking that we might not have time to do meat shopping next week due to bub's coming. Total bill on this shop is $48.97. Good deal since this includes Chix, Pork and Beef for 2 weeks!

Last stop was Pak&Save.  This shop is where we get our dry goods such as toiletries, cleaning products, rice, juices, cereals etc.  Total bill from this shop is $85.06.  Quite expensive, but this includes items that we do not buy weekly such as - garbage disposal bags amounting to $10.79, 8 pack of sprite-$8.99, body lotion-$7.39.  But still, I find it expensive.  Oh well....

Normally, we would eat out for lunch after doing our weekly grocery shopping, but this week we just went home and decided to have our home made lunch.  I cooked Shrimp in oyster sauce. Bug cooked a pumpkin dish to complement our shrimp meal. We also had leche flan for dessert. I had cooked this flan during the week.  I really enjoyed our lunch.  Too bad, I have to cut down on my rice as bub's getting chubby already.  So photos from our Saturday homemade lunch are below.  I also added our dinner which was grilled snapper, of course grilled by the Bug.  The fish was a gift from a fishing trip of Bug's relatives! - so yum!!!

Shrimp in oyster sauce (estimated cost is $8)

Pumpkin stir fry (estimated cost is $2)

Rice for 2 (estimated cost is $2)

Leche flan for dessert (Estimated cost $2)

Grilled fish (Fish was a gift, estimated cost for cooking and condiments added is $3)

So that's it!! The Saturday chillax!!

Bug with Bub

I just want to share as this photo is sooo cute, bug hugging our bub at my tummy. Im at 38 week going 39 when this photo was taken.

39 weeks preggy shot

My brother requested me to send him a photo of me so here is my photo at 39 weeks. One more week to go!!! woohooo!! I also had my scan today and midwife said that she estimates my bub will be an eight pounder!! ohhhmyy!!

Fried Chicken in fish sauce and lemon

This dish has only 3 main ingredients and so simple to prepare:

Ingredients:
7-8 pieces of chicken wings
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:
1. In a bowl, mix the chicken and fish sauce (adjust the measurement of the fish sauce depending on your taste);
2. Squeeze the lemon into the mixture;
3. Add salt and pepper to taste;
4. Marinade for at least 2 hours;
5. Deep fry when ready;
6. Serve with rice.

Yummy!!

Filipino style coconut macaroons

It's long weekend here again for the annual celebration of the Auckland anniversary.  Bug came back Friday night from a field work just in time for the long weekend celebration. Woohoo!!!

We started our weekend on Saturday morning by attending our ante natal classes.  We had breakfast at Starbucks then off we went for our 9.30 am ante-natal class.  This session is the first of four so three more sessions to go.  It was really informative and will help first time moms to have an idea of what we will be going through.  I'm on my 31st week and have 9 more weeks to go so it's good to have information that makes me realise that all I feel is normal! no dramas!

After the 3 hour ante-natal session Bug and I headed to the International Food Court in Sunnynook.  As usual we had our deep fried snapper with 2 rice.  Bug told me to order something else because he though it would not be enough for us. I ordered two chicken satay from the Korean place and it was yummy as well.

We initially planned of attending open homes but we were late on the ones we wanted to see.  Instead of attending open homes, we ended up looking for baby capsules, prams and other baby products.  We visited Baby factory and Baby on the move but they do not have a lot of choices for the capsules and prams so we ended up empty handed.  I was able to purchase some baby bathing products from Baby Factory under the Mustella brand. I heard these products are good so hopefully the bub does not get any allergy. I hope bub's skin is clear. I always have this frustrations on how my skin is not clear but hopping that bub's will be better than mine. We were also able to purchase baby wipes. These were on special at 3 for $5 so I purchased them.

At 3.30 we were home. I did some cleaning and then baked a Filipino style macaroons.  My friend from the office, C, gave me this uber easy recipe below:

Ingredients:
1 200 grams pack of dessicated coconut
1 250 ml pack of sweetened condensed milk
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup of light brown sugar (for me this is optional as the sweetness from the milk is enough)
1/2 tsp of lemon rind or a few drops of lemon extract
48 pieces of small paper cups (this recipe will make 48 mini cupcakes)

Procedure:
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs.  Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until well blended.
Arrange the paper cup on a shallow baking tray.
Fill each paper cup with the coconut batter until 3/4 full.
Bake at 180 degrees C for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Cool for ten minutes before serving. It can also be eaten straight but be careful -they are hot!

Photos:

Mixing the coconut butter

Coconut batter on the molds

Finished product - Filipino style macaroons

New Year 2013

This is the first time we celebrated New Year with relatives with us here in Auckland.  We did not really waited for midnight to eat, instead, we just had a lunch feast on new year's day.  We had nilagang baka, grilled fish, grilled squid, roast pork and leche flan.  We invited Ate Glenda and Kuya Ruben to have lunch with us.

Celebrating New Year with family just makes it extra special!