The Philippine Registration started today at 12 NN. I guess Ticket World did not anticipate such a huge number of participants that’s why their system crashed for a few hours. I tried registering online and by phone, but to no avail. It’s a good thing my husband also went to National Bookstore to grab a ticket. It took us more than three hours waiting for our turn (the line was too long + system outage), but who cares? It was worth the wait!

We already have the ticket on the first day of registration. Thank God!

It’s my first time to join in this kind of event, so you can just imagine how excited and thrilled I am now.

To those attending, see you all on July 22-24 at SMX!

I got a little distracted during the service a while ago. I tried to keep my focus on what Pastor Paolo’s teaching us about God and Government, but deep inside the movie fan in me kept screaming wildly. And why not?! Piolo Pascual was sitting behind us! And not only that, he was with Mark Bautista, Christian Bautista, Erik Santos, Jeffrey Hidalgo and other non-showbiz people. Then a few minutes later, KC Concepcion arrived and sat next to us. And just when I was trying to REALLY focus on that day’s message, Ruffa Gutierrez walked in and sat one row apart from us where her friend Miriam Quiambao was waiting. What a star-studded Sunday we had, eh? I felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest! LOL.

I tried to keep my sanity intact and succeeded on hiding my excitement — that is if you’re taking it from other people’s perspective.

But who am I fooling?

I might have fooled the people around me but I could never fool myself, could I? After all, it’s not everyday that you get to sit next to a hoard of celebrity.  I knew I got a little distracted. And for a second I almost forgot why I was in church in the first place: to worship God and to thank Him for all the blessings he’s given me. We’ve been regularly attending Sunday services at Victory Fort for quite a while now and I am used to seeing one or two celebrities after the service, which is perfectly fine. But to actually be surrounded by quite a number of celebrities during the service is another story. Talk about major distraction! LOL.

Oh well…if this has been a test, then I must have failed miserably. God, forgive me!

Here are some of my favorite shots.

The much-awaited kiss

At the wedding reception

Now this is us six years later…
Happily married and blessed with two little angels.
As you can see, nothing has changed very much — except that we both gained weight.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

We spent Valentine’s Day just like a regular Sunday. We rested during the day, went to church in the afternoon and had dinner at the mall. It’s our regular Sunday routine. Nothing exta-ordinary. Because when I’m with my family, every day is Valentine’s Day!

Oh I love taking pictures of them! I Thank God everyday for giving me such wonderful blessings!

Baby Ayesha: Let me go, kuya! I want to sleep now.

Where’s Ayesha? She covered her face so she could sleep.

But Kuya Greggy kept forcing her to smile and look at the camera.

Baby Ayesha got really pissed and started screaming! LOL.

I tried the other brands when Greggy was born four years ago, but they’re nothing compared to Avent. Yes, the designs are cuter and the price is much cheaper. But quality-wise, Avent stands out among all the other feeding bottles I’ve tried. My baby boy became less colicky and I had no problems with leaks. I was very satisfied. Feeding bottles are something that every parent should invest on. After all, it’s for our baby’s sake. So I made a decision not to buy any other brands ever again no matter how cute and cheap they are. That’s how loyal I can be.

To cut the long story short, I recently bought Avent bottles for my new baby. And this time, I bought the BPA (Bisphenol A) free ones. Let me tell you that the price of these BPA free bottles are twice the price of the regular airflex ones. Since I had so much faith in this product, I didn’t have second thoughts even if it was unbelievably overpriced. I bought the BPA-free Infant Starter Set that comes with four feeding bottles, a brush and a milk dispenser. I wanted to test if these bottles were better than the regular ones. And if they’re really better, I’d buy more. Only to find out later on that I made the biggest mistake of my life!

The BPA-free bottles are the ones with the honey-colored tint

Well, it turned out that Avent BPA free bottles leak like crazy. All of them leak from the very first day my baby girl started using them. It’s so annoying that I still have to unscrew and tighten the plastic ring in the middle of the night (while the baby is screaming miserably) so it won’t leak . But sometimes it still leaks no matter what I do. And if I twist the plastic ring too tight, the milk hardly comes out of the nipple and my little girl ends up screaming even more. Now which is more annoying? The leaky bottle, the baby getting drenched with milk every feeding time or a husband screaming at your back saying that you shouldn’t have purchased these BPA free bottles in the first place? You tell me.

Since I had invested so much money on this Infant Starter Set, I didn’t want to throw them away and start over, so I did a little research and came across this blog. It turned out that I’m not the only one complaining about leaks. I was even more surprised to find out that it’s a known issue and that Avent had recalled these leaky BPA-free bottles already due to poor design. Anyway, I followed the solution stated on this blog. I aligned the nipple with at least two of the air valves within the fins before putting the whole thing together, but the trick didn’t work for me. I’m glad it worked for some people though.

I’ve already accepted the fact that I wasted my hard-earned money on a piece of junk. As a matter of fact, the bottles are now placed in the cabinet as souvenirs of my being stupid. LOL.

Despite this, I still bought six new Avent airflex bottles and I am happy with all of them. No more leaks. No more wet baby. No more hassle in the middle of the night. No more screaming husband. LOL.

Buh-bye, Avent BPA-free bottles. You’ll be remembered for as long as I live. My pocket still hurts. But since my husband and I work really hard, we’ll surely get ten times more of what we had lost.

I had to add more feeding bottles because baby Ayesha won’t be using the BPA-free bottles anymore due to heavy leaks. I’ll probably write a review about it tomorrow. I also bought a set of 9 oz bottles a few weeks ago. Thank God, they’re all working great just like what I had expected them to be!

Obviously, our little angel likes to sleep a lot during the day and is often awake during wee hours. As in, graveyard shift ang schedule namin mag-ina! Hehe. That’s my work schedule when I was pregnant so I can’t blame her. I guess she’s used to it. LOL.

Daddy took these shots.

I was in front of my computer when my little boy approached me at exactly 12 midnight and gave me the very first birthday card he wrote by himself. Then he said, “Happy birthday, Mommy! I love you…”

I was so touched when I saw his cute handwriting!

Then I saw this gift lying on the floor when I opened our bedroom door. It was a surprise gift from my sweet husband. A Midi DVD Karaoke Player. Something to keep me busy while I’m on maternity leave. Thanks, sweetie!

I didn’t invite friends to come over to our house anymore para hindi magastos. LOL. Kung ako nga lang ang masusunod, ayokong maghanda coz we already spent a lot of money for my Cesarean operation and Greggy’s 4th birthday last January 16. But my husband insisted on celebrating my birthday. Kaya ayun, we just invited our relatives to have lunch with us. Leo cooked his specialty - Menudo. I cooked Carbonara. Then we sang our hearts out using our new Midi Karaoke DVD Player.

But of course before ending my special day, we headed to church to attend the 7 p.m. service and gave thanks to the Lord for all the wonderful blessings He had given us this 2010.

I just got discharged from the hospital the day before Greggy’s birthday, but that didn’t stop me from throwing a small party for my li’l boy. I love you so much, Greggy!