life is one long laundry day

                                                                                                    Source: tradingphrases.com via Valerie on Pinterest

It's laundry day. I was sorting our dirty clothes earlier. As I made piles of whites, lights and darks, I found myself wishing I could sort all my thoughts and feelings like that. Just pile them high on the floor, by color. It would be definitely easier to make sense of all of the intellectual and emotional clutter when you can organize them like that.

Ziv, lately

Ziv turned 14 months old yesterday! He's still not walking but he's got a lot of tricks up his sleeve.

He can now follow simple instructions such as "Help mommy put this in the dryer." He loves to be involved in some (everything?) of the things I do so I let him. It's way easier to make use of his curiosity than to resist and put a damper on it.

Ziv loves the playground. He thoroughly enjoys going up and down the steps, crawling around and climbing the slide. It's quite difficult to keep up with him though so I prefer having ze hubby around when I let him play there.

Crawling on the park is another thing he loves to do. The surface there isn't smooth at all but he doesn't seem to mind. When the bumpiness gets too much for him to handle, he raises  his butt, straightens his knees and uses his feet and hands to go around.

One funny thing he does is hand me the stuff he discovers while crawling around, from a grain of rice to a piece of meat from yesterday's lunch, to fallen twigs and cracked tree barks. I don't know why he does it but I find it so amusing!

Ziv has also learned about the magical powers of the remote control. He knows that when he presses a button, he could make snowflakes appear on the TV, and he knows that when he points the remote on the AC, it will turn on. Amazing how much kids could learn simply by watching.

 

Things have improved in the food front. Ziv tries everything we offer him--from sweet and sinful ice cream and chocolate chip muffins to uber healthy blueberries, strawberries and dragon fruit. I'm very happy with the way he eats.

We also got him his own table and chair because I want him to be able to walk away when he's full and/or no longer interested to eat. It was difficult but I've learned to trust him when it comes to hunger and fullness. I believe he knows how much food he needs and that he knows when to stop eating. I don't want to override his body's cues just because I feel he hasn't eaten enough or because we have to stick to a schedule.

On the other hand, things aren't going as smoothly as I want to in the snooze department. Ziv's transitioning from two naps to one and it's been a rough couple of weeks. He sleeps really well in the morning but he refuses his afternoon nap with vigor so ends up being very tired in the afternoon. 

The boy even had disrupted sleep a couple of nights ago but I was relieved that he was able to sleep well last night. I guess putting him to bed early helped. He slept ultra early yesterday (6PM) and he woke up for his morning bottle around 5 today. To my surprise, he went back to sleep and got up for the day at the fabulous, sunny hour of 8!!! 

We don't get to sleep in very often in this household so me and ze hubby were so happy. I know that wishing it would happen everyday is shooting for the moon but I do hope the sleeping situation will get better soon!

It's amazing to see Ziv become his own person little by little each day. A child growing up is indeed the best show on earth, and we're extremely lucky to have been blessed with front row seats.

 

dear Ziv

Look at the stars, see how they shine for you? 

Ziv's birthday party: the deets!

More than a month has passed since Ziv celebrated his first birthday and I realized I haven't done a post about it yet! So here goes.

Ziv's lolo daddy took care of the catering and the entire setup so all ze hubby and I only had to handle were the invitations, balloons and cake. I started a Pinterest board a few months back and after collecting inspiration from all over the web, I've decided on an UP-inspired, balloon-themed party. We love the movie and Ziv loves balloons!

Back in January, I asked my Photoshop master brother Miko to draft an invitation design for me. I wanted bunches of balloons in the sky. The initial design he gave me had that but after two or three revisions and several days of thinking, I ended up with this design, which we distributed to our guests:

After that was settled, I picked a cake design. I had these as pegs:

And here was what we had on the party:

Cake by Gem See, same lady who made our wedding cake

The cake was delicious! The top layer was vanilla while the bottom layer was in chocolate. We chose to have boiled icing instead of fondant since it was cheaper. The only problem was the balloons almost fell off during transport because the icing couldn't hold'em!

No party is complete without balloons! I have exchanged e-mails with my high school classmate turned businesswoman Dang regarding balloon decor possibilities. She had lots of great ideas but we just didn't have the budget so I ended up just getting about two dozen helium balloons from her. They were in metallic rainbow colors and were so vibrant!

At first I thought two dozen balloons wouldn't be enough, but on the day itself I was pleasantly surprised that the caterer put a balloon centerpiece, albeit a simple one, on the tables. Had my dad told me there would be centerpieces, I wouldn't have worried!

While scouring Pinterest, I found this and I thought it would be nice to have one for Ziv's party:

Celebrant's faces through the first 12 months

Since we had a balloon theme, I decided to stick Ziv's faces on balloon shapes cut out from felt paper. Here's how my DIY project turned out:

I originally wanted to have gold helium-filled microfoil/mylar balloons to spell Ziv's name but Dang didn't have them. I found a supplier in Singapore but I discovered they were a bit complicated since they had to be heat-sealed. I didn't want to bother myself with such hassle so I just cut out Z, I and V out of carton and wrapped them with gold foil. Turned out okay to me!

I wanted rainbow colors to be prominent during the party so when I found this online, I knew I had to do it:

 

I bought crepe paper in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet then cut them out into strips. With the help of my tall hubby, I stuck them onto our garage's arch on the day of the party. Here's how it looked like:

Overall I was satisfied with the look and feel of Ziv's party. I dreamt of having a well branded party, like this, but I am happy with how Ziv's party turned out. It was us--relaxed and festive!

*****

I wanted Ziv to smash a cake when he turned one. It's an American tradition we first heard of when our nephew (ze hubby's sister's son) Jake turned one. I thought it was a fun photo opportunity. However, I didn't want Ziv to do it during the party itself since one, it would be messy and two, I wasn't sure how the guests and Ziv would react to it. So we did it on Ziv's actual birthday.

I just bought a ready-made cake from Gem's, and ordered a bunch of balloons from Dang. I set up the scene at our lawn using a blue blanket as background. I tied the balloons onto an IKEA house shape sorter (UP-inspired kasi) then laid the cake on the ground. We then waited for Ziv to wake up from his nap.

It looked like it was going to rain so when Ziv woke up, we immediately undressed him and put him down on the set. He was confused and didn't understand what was going on. He started to play with the balloons and didn't pay any mind to the cake. In an attempt to get things going, we put his hand on the icing but he wouldn't have any of it! He began to whine and asked to be carried.

I guess we shouldn't have hurried him but it was about to rain! My SIL also mentioned we should've had a rehearsal with a cupcake so Ziv would have known what to do on the day we were taking photos. Oh well. I'm glad I managed to get some cute photos though. Those would be a great way to remember the day he turned one.

do what you love

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After sister left, I was scheduled for two job interviews. Ironic, right? Haha. Good thing ze hubby could work from home so we didn't have to worry about childcare.

One interview I had was with a big media company here. I already took a qualifying exam a few weeks ago and was already scheduled for an interview. A few days before the appointment, HR called me and told me the post is closed and has been offered to someone already. I was disappointed but I let it go. A couple of days later, HR called again, told me there was a "problem" and they wanted to invite me for an interview again. I accepted the invitation and prepared.

Fast forward to the interview proper, I was surprised that the editors seemed to have no idea about my qualifications. They were taking glances at my CV on the spot and then went on to tell me I seemed too junior for the role. Said they were looking for someone with more experience. 

I answered their questions to the best of my ability, even selling my skills to them but it seemed they made up their mind about me. I tried to be polite and mask my dismay but I was thinking what a waste of precious time and resources it was!!! So rude! They're a big and important company here but they should probably take a look at their hiring process. Hiring managers should review CVs first before they call candidates in for an exam or interview.

One good thing that came out of the experience? I realized I don't want to work for them. Maybe it was God's way of leading me to the right path. It could be His way of saying, this isn't for you sweetie.

*****

This job hunt has once again made me think real hard about what kind of job I want. If it would be based solely on my skills, then I'd still probably be in an editorial function. But the right job isn't just about what fits ones skills. If it were, then the search wouldn't be half as hard as it is.

The right job, for me, should sit well in my heart, not just my brain. It should be aligned to my values. It should be meaningful to me and something that I'm truly interested in. I want my job to not just be a means to an end but an end in itself. I want to wake up each morning (or at least most mornings) excited about the work day ahead.

That's the reason I haven't undertaken a resume blitz. I choose the positions I apply to because I want to find a job that would make spending time away from my son and leaving him in someone else's care worthwhile.

Is that too much to ask for?