My soon to be two year old

RC's 2nd birthday is coming. This time, there will be no party. We are planning to just go and eat out then go to the city zoo. My wishful thinking, if we only have time and money, then I would buy Neon Party Supplies and maybe also have a costume party. RC can wear a costume, like a Casper the Friendly Ghost costume, and I could wear a womens ninja mask. Did I just make it sound like a Halloween party rather than a birthday party? Maybe I should think more about princesses and castles instead of ghosts. For now, I hope RC will enjoy whatever we do on her birthday and I hope that the weather will cooperate, it's been raining on and off for the past few days.

When she's two, does that mean I should stop counting her age by months and she's no longer a baby? That makes me sad. But, I should take note that she's becoming smarter each day! She's learning new words and phrases, and I'm so proud of her. Being a mother, we have a lot of bittersweet moments with our child/children. I'm not usually the dramatic type but it's so easy to feel emotional reminiscing RC's baby days, and thinking about the great days to come in the future.

Here's me and my soon to be two year old. This is what happens when she wears her shoes and we don't go out of the apartment right away.  You can probably tell that she colored on her legs.

The links on this post is brought to you by become.com

Gift opening

How was your Christmas? We had a good one.  Here are some pictures of me and RC opening her gifts. I did open one of mine when it came in the mail. I can't wait for Christmas.  She had great gifts, and some much needed items.

The pompom on her hair was part of a gift wrapper.

She got some super cute clothes.

I did not buy anything for her for Christmas  but we ordered one gift just yesterday online so it will just be late.  The dress she was wearing, she also wore on  her first birthday. It's runs small now but I thought she should wear it one more time.

I hope you all had a great Christmas.

Charter moms

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.


One of the reasons I want to be a stay at home mom is because I want to have more control over what RC eats, her activities,   even the TV programs she is watching. Watching TV is a very convenient way to entertain our kids but we don't want our kids to watch adult-oriented or shows with mature plots, especially when they are still too young. I personally want educational programs for her. I want her watching Dora the Explorer, Sid the Science Kid, and Sesame Street. Her favorite is Elmo's World on Sesame Street. Those types of TV shows are fun and made for kids.
I'm sure a lot of moms feel the same way. It's great to know that moms have a VOICE about this issue.
Charter Moms Panel Facebook page is giving moms a chance to be the first to know about new services and programs. A lot of moms are joining the panel. Their Facebook Wall also provides different questions of various topics answered by moms from different areas. If you're a mom, feel free to join.
This may be a sponsored post but I'm glad that I am learning about these women's communities and I am able to be expressive.  There are times that I just want to babble about stuff concerning motherhood instead of posting too many pictures and this is a great chance. Not only was I able to do that, but I am learning as well about these great and amazing companies and communities like Chartermom.  

Happy Holidays!

Because she was wearing the reindeer headband backwards, I took a picture of what it looked like infront., it's so festive.

RC was wearing this Gymboree dress yesterday. I took her to work before my shift started for about 10 minutes, everyone said she was cute. Then she went with my husband (work) for a few hours and went home. So all in one day, she was able to go to mommy and daddy's workplace.

Wicked Fresh

This post brought to you by Toms of Maine. All opinions are 100% mine.

I am happy to receive an email allowing me to write about Tom's of Maine. I actually have a Tom's soap beside my bathroom sink for handwashing. It works great and does not dry my skin.

I just learned that Tom's Of Maine uses natural products and for 40 years it has been there to support people, communities and the earth. I believe that these are the companies we should support. The more I read their website, the more I learn about being eco-friendly and the more I want to use their products.
I haven't tried Wicked Fresh toothpaste yet but they do have great reviews. Almost everyone says that the fresh breath stays all day. 
I will surely go grab Tom's Wicked Fresh toothpaste and mouthwash on my next stop to the grocery store. If you can't find it at a local store, it is available at different websites online.
This company is also full of fun, share your Wicked Fresh moments for a chance to win Wicked Fresh Prizes at That's Wicked Fresh contest page. I have to think of a way to have that wicked fresh moment with RC and join this. They have great prices. I just checked.
For updates, you can also join Tom’s of Maine on Facebook and/or follow them at Twitter @TomsofMaine. This is really teasing me to join Twitter which I still have yet to try. 

Christmas trip down memory lane

Here's a couple pictures of us from last year's holiday season. I'm planning to do the same this year, picture of us by a Christmas tree and a trip to see the downtown city lights. But we'll try to do it after Christmas so things are much easier and not as busy. We did not have the Christmas parade in our area this year so that was kind of a bummer. But at least we still have all this activities coming. 

Below is a picture of me taken a few days ago before a Christmas party dinner with coworkers at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. It's the most expensive restaurant I have been  (at least as far as I remember). $60 for mashed potatoes and steak. I just drank water! So I wonder what my bill could have been if I have ordered an appetizer, drink and dessert. The food was delicious though.

I like this Celebrity pink (brand) denim dress except it is way too hot to wear in the morning. This picture was taken at the messiest part of our apartment so I cropped it. =)

I'll make up with all your comments from my previous post this weekend.

Have a great holiday ahead!

LadybugsNButterflies

I was happy to receive these pretty hairclips from LadybugsNButterflies. As a mom of a little girl, I am always on the lookout for something fun to dress up RC and these clips will surely pull her outfits together. I sure do love to shop for her.

The hairclips are CUTE and beautifully made. I picked the white flower because it is a good contrast for RC's dark hair and the cherry hairclip is just too cute to pass. When I saw it at their website, I knew right away that I want it for RC. LadybugsNButterflies even let me choose which type of clip/pony and color(s) I wanted. Shipping was fast and communication through email was great.
 

You will see more pictures of these hair accessories on my next blog post. RC is going to be wearing them a lot.

Please check out http://www.ladybugsnbutterflies.com/  and you will see a lot more of their products-- hairclips, headbands, even hair accessory holders.

I received free hair accessories in exchange for this post.

Christmas train

This Saturday, I went to the mall with RC to meet three other mommies with their kids. It wasn't too great because of the crowd and waiting for each other but I was still glad I did it. RC had her first Christmas train ride. I did not take her to have a picture with Santa which I initially planned because Santa was located in a separate building. Also, it would cost $20 for a picture while this train ride was only $3 and one of the ladies I was with paid for it.

You can probably tell that RC was not too happy riding the train. I think she wanted me to ride with her but at least she did not cry. All the Christmas decors I saw wanted me to decorate our apartment but as lazy as I am right now, I would rather blog. Next year, I will really try to buy Christmas decors.

After  the train ride, we went to Borders bookstore, all the other kids were listening to one of the mommies who was reading a book but RC refused to be with them. I guess that is why I did not enjoy this much because all the other kids are a little older. RC is still at the age where she would constantly run when she wants to and wouldn't sit still. Anyway, I found this maze toy and she enjoyed playing with it.

This was me and RC before we left the apartment that morning. I am finding more and more pieces of clothes that does not fit me anymore. I know I am probably not considered fat chubby but it's just that  my stomach is sticking out all the time now.

I only bought some clothes from Charlotte Russe that day and one shoes for RC from Payless. It's more of a kid's type of day than shopping.

Are you ready for Christmas already? We don't have definite plans yet. I miss Christmas in the Philippines where we barbeque at night and wait for the midnight to come and then feast on food that we made from the whole day of Dec 24th. Praying the rosary (not all Christmas) then greet each other Merry Christmas at exactly midnight then exchange gifts. Although, I miss this event in the Philippines. I am very happy with my family right now and I wouldn't trade it with anything.

Advance Merry Christmas!

Give me a kiss dolphin

Me and RC at a kid's gold course. We did not really play but we had fun. I was wearing my "wild" leggings. I did not know how to wear it and when so I went for a "just wear it" attitude. I bought so many leggings from the Philippines last August and  they're not really work appropriate so as you see from my previous posts, which are mostly weekends with RC, I was wearing leggings.

Here is how I got my title for this post. It's good that this dolphin is a non-living thing. If s/he is alive, he probably doesn't want to kiss me.

 Native chickens

 This is at least the third time that I went to this scenic lookout, it is always very windy and this time it's even worse because of the rain. But the view is fantastic. I would like to have a view like this by  my window.

How is everyone doing? I am glad it's midweek, it means I'm getting closer to the weekend. RC is not feeling so well right now, she  has runny nose and I think she might be having some toothache. She is probably having her last set of teeth but it's hard to tell now if it's all the way out or not. It's getting dark so early too that we don't go to the park so often but she is a little addicted to coloring now. I know  most of this blah blah blah are not connected to the pictures. I'm going to say bye for now.

Again, thanks for all the comments and clicks to my blog.

Forest

I consider this as RC's first hiking experience.

This place (below) used to be a runway.

Happy Sunday! I know it's Monday to some of you. I don't like this day too much because it means I have to work tomorrow. I want to keep babbling here on this blog but my  husband has to use the computer now to watch Football. The game he wants to see is not on TV.

See you all around (I mean here in the blogosphere).