One of my son’s new favorite tv show is Special Agent Oso. I’m not sure if you’ve seen one of its episode but you can find some videos on YouTube and you’ll probably know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, Liam just adores him. He never fails to watch all recorded episodes on our DVR every single day, sometimes even twice or thrice a day. He sings to his songs even if he can barely mumble the right words. He calls him “OTO! OTO!” (which I’m sure you figured as a distorted way of saying OSO) everytime he sees this “stuffed bear” and jumps up and down as soon as the show starts. So when you have a kid who pretty much owns the tv, you’re kinda obligated to watch the same kind of shows. 

The other day as Liam was watching an episode where Oso was given some instructions on how to do a particular task, I decided to watch it and really listen to the story. This other agent told him that he needs to find the door with a handle that looks like a steering wheel and turn it to the right. Easy as pie right? Nooooo, because as soon as he goes his way to find that damn door, he forgets and asked his audience which way to turn! Sheesh! I was so irritated that I decided to ignore it and took a nap. My IQ could have dropped 10 points if I finished it. As soon as my husband came home from work I told him, “Etong si Oso, lasa ko’y hu-le, gawa ng kasasabi pa laang na pa-kanan nga ang pagikot e itatanong pa sa audience nia kung pasaan daw dapat ang pagikot e! Kakaiyamot!” And then he started laughing.  After a while I realized, oh my goodness, patulan ba pati ganitong show?!

I know, I know! These are just some of the ways how children shows connect and interact with their audience, who are primarily growing toddlers. But dang! I don’t think I’m up for that on some days. Nakakawala ng bait! But I must admit, I do admire that a lot of these kind of programs are really going the educational route. Some of them even teaches good values and proper manners.

As for me, I think I was just being a smart-ass that day so ignore me. Stress do that to you sometimes. Hahaha! In fact, I was actually debating if I’m having a Special Agent Oso or Spongebob theme for Liam’s birthday on the 9th of June. So we’ll see.

To continue…

Dec 27

• Town fiesta in Tanauan, Batangas and the christening of my newest godson, Yuan Miguel “Miglet” Biscocho . After the christening at this new church in Darasa, with this obnoxious priest (pinapagalitan ba naman ung mga tao sa buong simbahan, ang hindi daw magdasal ng malakas e doble dapat ang pakimkim, praning!), we went straight to my Ninang’s house.

  

• There was soooo much food and I think I may have stuffed my mouth way too much. I was so full that day.
• Hanged out with some relatives, cousins and their girlfriends. I have one female cousin and I believe her baby’s daddy is out of country that time. Sorry I don’t even know his name.
• Went home before 5pm since we wanna watch either Avatar or Sherlock Holmes. Ended up not watching at all.

Dec 28

• Scuba Day with hubby and G (Grace)! We woke up early because we thought the drive to Anilao may take up to 2 hours. Surprisingly, we got there in about an hour. I guess because it was too early and there wasn’t any traffic at some of the towns we passed by that made the travel faster. And being the atat that we were, our scuba instructor was still asleep when we got there, so yeah, we’re totally wayyy too early!
• Had light breakfast then we suited up and started to do the basics in the pool. It wasn’t as difficult as I expected it to be. The hardest part was the process of taking out of water in case it goes in the goggles.
• A couple of hours later, it was lunch time . Food was great. Buffet is always the best. I wasn’t sure if we can eat a lot right before a dive but I couldn’t help my “piggy” self. Rested for a while then we decided to do the actual dive in the ocean.
• Our instructor told us that we will be renting a boat so that we can go to the area where we can feed the fishes. It was about 15ft deep. Scariest part: sitting down on the edge of the boat and letting ourselves fall down from it, back first. I thought I was going to drown. Fun part: we got to see and feed a bunch of schools of fish and was able to capture it on video. Cool!
• Day ended with a side trip to this house-type resto where they only serve street foods like isaw, adidas, leeg ng manok and barbeque. Delishhh!For more pics: check my Facebook Album.

Dec 29

• My in-laws threw a post 1st birthday celebration for Liam. And by post, I mean, 6 months later! Haha! Again, food was just everywhere.

  
  

• Relatives and some friends from both our families came. Unfortunately, by the end of the day, I wasn’t feeling good already. Ended up sleeping early.

Dec 30

• Sore throat + Fever = Cancelled meet up with friends. BOO!

Dec 31

• New Year’s Eve celebration in Tanauan. Still not feeling 100% but what the heck. I cannot greet the new year feeling all gloomy and sickly.
  
• Everybody had to wear red. My Ninang, Tita and Mom was all feng shui-y so they did a bunch of different things before 12 midnight hits.
• Pagkain na namannnnnn! Burp!
• Slept around 130-ish since we still have to wake up early. Our flight to Singapore is around 830 so we have to be there at least about 530-6am.

Jan 1-5 2010

Ok, I’ll make this a bit different. I’m tired of typing about all the things that we did so I’ll let the pictures (click on the link to check out the album) speaks for itself. I mean, that’s 5days in Singapore. I cannot elaborate any further. My head is about to explode. But because I promised a detailed kwento, I want to finish this. By the way, another shout out to Tita Helen, Tito Jason, Paula, Patrick, Macy and the rest of the Navarro family for welcoming us in their house! And to other friends who helped us tour the city: Che, Daryll, Merel, Ipe and wifey (oops! sorry I’m bad at names) and Ate Gelen.

Things I love about Singapore:

Their airport is one of the nicest I’ve been to!
Clean, no scrathch that… a very clean country.
Cheap foods and most of it taste actually pretty good. Fruits are the best, always fresh.
Amazing places to go to like the Merlion park, Jurong Bird Park, that place where it looks like a big durian (crap I forgot the name!), Sentosa, the malls and so much more.
Most of these places are easily accessible.
At ang mga taxi, in fairness, Chedeng! First time I ever rode a Mercedes Benz and it’s a freakin’ cab. Wageeeee!

There were some things that I did not get so excited about Singapore but I’d rather leave it unsaid.

Fast forward to Jan 6

• Hubby and I went to Manila, Quiapo to be specific. He promised last year that he’ll at least visit the church there but unfortunately, we weren’t able to go so it was our mission to do it this year. We were also able to hear the mass and got blessed by the priest.
• Went to Glorietta on another mission. To buy my christmas present from hubby. I’m in watch heaven right now. See what I’m talking about right here. Love it!
• After this, we went back to Hidalgo which was close to Quiapo (we were so probinsyano/probinsyana type, we didn’t know that the two places were just a few minutes apart) and tried to check out the cheapest price we could find for the lens that hubby wanted to buy. Mission failed on this one. It’s still cheaper here.
• Went straight to Mall of Asia after. Had a very late lunch at Kenny Rogers (we wanted to make sure we ate here before we leave the country).
• Planned on watching Avatar on IMAX but the line was sooo long we decided to just go home.

Jan 7

• Spent the day running errands like a maniac in Lipa. Making sure that we have most of the things/foods we want to bring back to Alaska.
• Attempted to have a final foot spa/massage, twice. BOTH FAILED!
• Friends came over. Others I’ve seen for the first and final time. Others twice. Shout out to Ate Apol, Eel, G, Ely and Kiko for taking the time to come over even for the last time. Next time, we’ll plan better. And to Pia and Tin-Tin, sorry we weren’t able to see each other. Dami pang ibang panahon.
• Started packing at around 10pm.

Jan 8

• Flight to Taipei is at 1045 am. Wasn’t able to eat breakfast so we end up buying some pretty expensive food and bottled water in the airport.
• Boarded around 1030 and then we’re off.
• Around noon, we landed in Taipei and layed over there for almost 4hrs. Then off to our flight back to Anchorage.

There you go. This is as far as I can recall everything.

I’m pretty sure you can guess how exhausted we were! Even just by re-reading this freakin entry makes me feel tired. But it’s all good. At least, I can honestly say that I did enjoy this trip.

Now I’m off to going back to a bunch of work. Till my next post…