Ayala Abreeza Breastfeeding Room

It just occurred to me that I took photos of Abreeza's breastfeeding room the other week. In tradition of my breastfeeding room posts (I have SM Lanang Premier and SM Cebu), let's review Abreeza's this time. :-)

Months ago, I used to pay P20 to use Abreeza's breastfeeding room, which is located inside the Family Lounge. It was okay because the lounge was really spacious and comfortable. However, what if you don't really need to use the entire lounge? What if you only need to breastfeed for 15 minutes?

The good news is that they didn't ask me to pay when I breastfed last time I was there. I didn't have to go through my bag just to look for a bill that's potentially dirty. I hate that!

I didn't get to take a photo of the Family Lounge, but here's one from www.skyscrapercity.com.

The front area of the lounge

Anyway, the breastfeeding area has two cubicles (unlike SM's which is a big room where mommies can talk!). It's like a roomy comfort room with furniture. Also, I forgot to take a photo of the area outside the cubicle, so you'll only get to see the inside of the cubicle. Apologies, apologies.

Here are what you will see inside the cubicle:

The chair where you can sink into after a long day of shopping. Aaah.

Circles on your throw pillows

Unless you're carrying a phone or any device with you, this is the only view you'll get. Aside from your baby, of course.

And yes, in one of the cubicles, there's a table provided for your things. The only cubicle (as I remember it) doesn't have a table.

Moi et le bébé

Well, I guess that's it. It's only a cubicle, so there's not much to see. Which is actually a good thing if you're trying to put your baby to sleep (or if you're trying to sleep!). The couch is really comfortable and provides enough room for you and your baby. Also, the lights are dim, so even if you're not trying to sleep, you will really get drowsy.

What I don't understand is the loud music coming from the lounge itself. Oh well.

Summary: If you want to relax, sleep, and put your baby to sleep, Abreeza's breastfeeding cubicles are ideal. However, don't expect to get any interaction here because you are technically isolated. If you want interaction with other breastfeeding mommas, then SM's breastfeeding rooms would work for you. :-)

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The Tale of Three Yuri's

I find it annoying when people insist on calling my son his second name because his first name, Yuri, is feminine. The first time I heard this, I was like, woah? In what world?

After doing a bit of research, I found out that Yuri is a name of a certain genre Japanese animes. My research didn't went far (got scared of Google images!), but I think it pertains to female-female romance. In short, when I say Yuri, they imagine this:

http://www.animekon.com
The most conservative image I can find

WARNING: If you're with children or if you're in the workplace, please don't search for "Yuri anime" images in Google. I did it and that was a terrible mistake.

On the other hand, I do get to meet a lot of sensible people and understand that Yuri is, indeed, a boy's name. Most of them know that it's a Russian name because of Yuri Gagarin, a popular cosmonaut:

http://www.inyourpocket.com

According to Wikipedia, he's the first person to journey in outer space. Isn't that incredible? He did it back in 1961. Thank goodness a lot of people still know and remember their Science lessons! These people have no problem referring to my son's real name because they do it and remember a particular person who is famous in Russian space exploration history. Nice!

And still, a few people get to be deviant and think of yet another famous Yuri in history, or more accurately, Philippine television history. Don't underestimate these people because my OB-Gyn is among them. To them,  Yuri is simply John Lloyd Cruz:

http://www.pinoyexchange.com

Do you still remember the popular telenovela way back, Kay Tagal Kang Hinintay? I used to love that show because all of the names are Russian: Helena, Andrei (which is my older brother's name, by the way),  Borris, Ivan, Dimitri - that's all I remember. Don't you just love foreign-sounding names?

To be honest, a year ago, John Lloyd's face came to mind when I decided on the name, Yuri. In the future, when my son becomes a teenager and asks me about his name, I will not tell him about Yuri Gagarin. I will tell him that I named him after a telenovela character just to bug him out. Hahaha!

But I won't tell him about yuri animes. Never!

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Birthday Preparations - Invitation

I know that most parents would plan their firstborn's birthdays months ahead. However, I only got to planning Y's birthday late last month, as I didn't want to go overboard. After all, he wouldn't remember a thing from the celebration. Also, I didn't want to host a huge party because Y's beginning to get stranger anxiety already.

The first plan was just to celebrate at Jollibee. It's not so expensive and wala talagang hassle. Everything would be taken care of by the staff already.

But last week, I realized that all my guests are adults. As I'm still in my early 20s, most of my friends are still single. There would virtually be no children, except for the celebrant. I thought to myself, "Baka naman hindi namin maenjoy yung kid's party? Baka magtulakan lang kami pag games na?"

To avoid the possible awkwardness, we decided to just hold Y's first birthday at home. This way, kahit anong trip ng guests, okay lang. Also, there wouldn't be any food or time restrictions. Thus, the actual planning for the house party began - a few weeks before the actual event.

I did send out this invitation already:

Obvious ba ang theme?

Well, I tried searching for ready-made Mickey Mouse templates, but I did not find one I like. So what I did is look for a background with red and black polka dots. Tapos mano-mano na yung Mickey Mouse silhouette. I just added three black circles, and ta-da! Instant Mickey Mouse invitation.

For the fonts naman, what I used were Minnie and Waltograph. These are both free fonts that you can download from the internet. I would tweak this design a little for the backdrop (the elders want an old-school tarpaulin - okay!)

We also finalized the menu already. Oo kami ang magluluto. My mom is a mean cook kasi. :D

Now, all I need to do are the following:
- Finalize plans for the cake.
- Discuss plans with the baker.
- Look for (cheap) Mickey Mouse giveaways.
- Canvass and buy stuff.
- Basically everything else :P

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OC Davao Mommy

I usually don't call myself OC. The honor goes to my dad, who is clinically obsessive-compulsive. I'm not kidding. He's a certified germaphobe and his favorite fantasy is to ultimately defeat bacteria. Oh well. So what's the point of this post? Nothing, just that I am an obsessive planner and listmaker, and I think the habit's becoming "worse."

I've been like this for the longest time, but I think being a mom and working from home intensified it. But trust me, it can easily become an irritating habit. Even J gets irked by it sometimes.

The classic example is my BDJ planner, which I can't live without. But there is more than meets the eye. Within this planner are lists, doodles, and more lists. Here is a couple of them:

I also created a salary logsheet for my only employee, Y's yaya:

Of course, I also follow a schedule to guide us throughout the day. I'm glad our yaya follows suit. Without it, or when the schedule doesn't get followed, I feel that my life for that day is thrown off-balance. This schedule is very detailed and includes all of our major chores. Here's our schedule, if you want to see it:

It is detailed. Don't say I didn't warn you!

And in my phone, a couple of my most favorite apps allow me to create lists. One is EasyNote for random note-taking and list-making, while the other is MoBill, where I can list my bills and payables.

 

In my future home, I plan to have lots of lists. Would you laugh at me if I say that one of my fantasies would be to frame some of those lists? I can't do that here in my parents' house because my clinically OC dad complains of the dust my lists gather. Really, pa? Really?! 

When making lists, I get the satisfaction of knowing that things somehow gets into order. I also get satisfied by the thought that my thoughts are written on paper so I won't forget them. Aside from just making list, I also get immense satisfaction by crossing out the things I've already done. Aaaahhhh.

I also have lists for my dreams, things I want to do, things I want to be in ten years, the websites I plan to visit the next day, the books I intend to read, grocery lists, needs-list, wants-list... You get the idea.

How about you? Any other self-confessed OC or list-addicts out there? 

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Saturday Meetup with Former Officemates

Happy Monday, everyone! Antagal kong di nakapagblog. Imagine, I didn't blog for just four days, my ranking in TopBlogs already went from 135 down to 213. No justice! Hahaha! :P

I kid, I kid. Anyway, how was your weekend? Mine was pretty uneventful, but it was fun. Last Saturday, I met up with some of my former teammates from my former office, Pepper. It has been months since I last saw them (I think last September, during Y's baptism), and it has been almost a year since I left the office to work at home.

Gee, time really does fly so fast, doesn't it? It makes me want to get into a nostalgic mood...

Nah, sayang oras. Time runs fast nga, diba? Hahaha! Anyway, before I digress, we have been planning to meet up since January. And palaging napopostpone (I'm glad to say hindi ako ang reason! Yay! :P). We were finally able to meet up last Saturday, March na. Haha! We decided to meet up in Abreeza Mall.

I decided to bring Y along because our yaya's on leave. My sister also wanted to come due to boredom. Okaaay! Here we are with our "obligatory" OOTD shots:

Smile, baby!

I was having a good hair day - before I stepped outside the house! It was literally mahangin sa labas.

See what I mean? Hahaha we look so funny in this photo - especially Y! :D

Ayan, the wind stopped blowing na. Whew!

Blouse: From our neighbor's garage sale
Shorts: Old Navy
Shoes: Solemates (as usual)
Bag: Parisian (as usual)

On Y:
Rompers: Carter's
Shoes: Luvable Friends (Sorry, mommy is tamad to change shoes.)

My sister didn't want her photo taken kasi naka-tshirt lang daw sya. Okaaaay! Hahahaha.  Well, our day didn't start so well because we had a bit of a trouble with the taxi driver. Let's just say that instead of the usual P120-P130 fare to Abreeza, our meter went up to almost P170. Haist! #breathes #letsitgo

We were already running late and lunchtime na when we arrived at the mall. We decided to eat at Hukad because my budget was limited. (I really do plan to simplify this year!) Good thing my sister only wanted to eat chicken; nakatipid ako! Here's what she ordered:

My 11-year old sister took this shot! :-)

I fed Y before I ate, but after eating, he got irritable and started shouting. Buti na lang Hukad had an outdoor area. I got him outside while my sister and officemates ate. Later, my sister followed. 

Y's "I'm irritable - face" at the outdoor area of the restaurants in Abreeza

After a while, I was starting to get hungry. So my sister got Y from me, and they were outside for just enough time for me to eat. Afterwards, I went outside again and took Y from my sister. He started acting up again. I checked the time and saw it was time for his afternoon nap. So I excused myself from the girls and went to the breastfeeding room.

Ahh.. Cocooned in one of Abreeza's breastfeeding room's sofas

My sister's only photo from Saturday :P

What I didn't know was that wala pa lang signal sa loob ng breastfeeding room. I didn't know where everyone was! After breastfeeding Y, my sister and I decided to just stroll around on our own. I did saw them later (They were eating gelato! Unfair! Haha!), but it was already time to do a quick grocery shopping and go home. :-(

In short, I almost never got to talk to them! I never even got a photo of us in my camera! Next time, I will go alone. Haha!

PS: Rona, I'm still waiting for the photos from your DSLR! Sorry daw sabi ng point-and-shoot ko.

UPDATE: Rona finally uploaded the photos from her DSLR. Feast your eyes on these! Chos! Hahaha!

Hukad Golden Cowrie

Is this the tuna belly?

Tin and Claire :-)

Practicing walking outside Hukad

Firing squad girls: Claire, Tin, and Camille

We caught them eating gelato! Hehe. That's me, Y, Camille, Rona, and my sister.

Hi! Bye! :P

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