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10 days till he turns 5

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Mom I will be 5 soon right? When I’m 5 Kuya will be a big boy already!

October is a special month for us. I gave birth to a special surprise from up above. C and I welcomed a baby boy and we named him Markus Ezekiel.

Last week, while I was busy attending to Chloe’s needs Vierte approached me and said “When I was a little baby you also take care of me all the time, right Mama?” I sensed that he badly need to have some mommy time so the moment Chloe took her nap I showed him my old blog posts when he was still a baby.

V at 5 months learning to sit up

“Ohh mama you love me so much when I was a baby right? and now I’m big boy you still love me right?” 

“Yes I do! Remember that you will always be Mommy’s first baby and will always be my baby even when you have a girlfriend.”

“Mom! I don’t have a girlfriend. I will say I love you to you always Mama”

 

We spent a good time telling stories of him when he was a baby. Wasn’t it just yesterday when he just started to sit on his own at 5 months?

Ma when it’s my birthday, when I turn 5 years old can you make me a special cake?

 

I have 10 days to plan his school class party and thanksgiving dinner with friends.

 

 

Do you still remember when you turned 5 years old?

 

What kind of party did you have when your kiddo turned 5?

 

 

 

 

Preparing for your child’s Baptism in Dubai

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*Please visit St. Mary’s Catholic Church website for any changes.

StMarysChurchDubai

September 6 marked one of the important event in our lives, our daughter Chloe Isabelle received the Sacrament of Baptism at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.

We were absolutely clueless on what are the procedures in having our daughter baptized here. Basic information on what you need to do is available here but I wanted to talk to someone who actually had it done here. Luckily my friend Lanie had their daughter Elise baptized here, so there I was bugging her everyday.

Today I’m sharing with you what procedures/steps we did to have our child Baptized here in Dubai.

1) Attend Baptism preparation seminar. Visit church website for any changes.

The Baptism preparation seminar is held on the Second Friday of every month
from 8.30 am till 10.00 am in the mini hall.
Parents and God-parents MUST attend this seminar before requesting Baptism for their child.
It is recommended that parents attend the seminar before the birth of their child.
(as of June 2014)
You don’t need to get prior registration to attend the seminar, just show up (you the Parents) with your child’s GodParents. Babies/Children who are to be baptized are not required to be present on the seminar. Again for the preparation seminar Parents & GodParents need to attend.
Upon entering the mini hall for the seminar you will be asked to register your name in a log book then you will be handed a “Preparing for your child’s Baptism” book and a Baptism application form.
This Baptism Application Form is very important you need to show this on the day of your child’s Baptism. One of the officers during the seminar signs this form noting the date when you attended the seminar.
All the things discussed on the seminar is available on this book.
2) Day of your child’s Baptism
Baptism for infants is administered every Thursday (except Maundy Thursday)
at 4 pm in the Chapel of the St Mary’s Catholic Church.
Prior registration is not required, however, parents and God-parents are required to attend the Baptism preparation seminar in advance.
 StMarysDubaiBaptism
Like the preparation seminar you don’t need prior registration for the Baptism Ceremony. Just to be sure though please call St. Mary’s office if they are conducting the ceremony on the date that you’ve chosen.
Required documents:
  1. Marriage Certificate
  2. Baptism application form
Baptism ceremony promptly starts at 4:30pm. It is advise that you come at least 30 minutes before the ceremony since you still need to complete registration and when you arrive early you get to choose where you sit. We were seated the right aisle (when facing the altar) and we we’re the first family to receive the rites.
What you need to bring:
  1. your Child wearing a white dress – I’m not sure if this is a requirement but it has been a practice in our family to cloth the child in a white/off-white gown.
  2. God Parents – of course they have to be present
  3. Candles – the Church provides each family with one candle which was lighted from the Paschal candle. I bought candles for each of the GodParent.
Photographers are allowed but they are very strict on where you stand and advise them to take pictures fast. Ryan our friend was the only one taking photos for us and sadly we were not able to document some of the rites like the Baptism of Water. It was not Ryan’s fault but our camera who was once again acting up and won’t work.
Before you leave make sure to get your child’s Certificate of Baptism.
Hope this post will help you prepare for your child’s Baptism. And if you do have questions please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll make sure to reply.
Visit St. Mary’s website for more information.
There is another Catholic church here in Dubai, St. Francis of Assisi Church visit the website for more information.

Chloe Isabelle is 3 months

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Our Princess you’re growing up fast.

You have rewarded Mommy with 3-4 hours of sleep at night and unlike your Kuya you sleep in your crib. Swaddling helped you sleep from my arms to crib and you can even sooth yourself to sleep.  For morning naps you either sleep on your bouncer our flat on your tummy.

Just recently you discovered your hands and feet. You would stare at them cute fingers and laugh when you get to lift your feet up. Daddy is having fun watching you lift your head while you hold on to his fingers.

At The Top

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We have finally reached the top of Burj Khalifa!

For months now I’ve been planning my Nanay Lynda’s visit here in Dubai. We’ve been emailing back and forth on what they want to do.

A little background Nanay Lyn is my mom’s best friend. They argue (& cry) at the same time shouting at each other and laugh like there’s no tomorrow. Nanay, her kids and husband Uncle Lee are basically family to us.

I like having family or friends visiting Dubai because it also give’s us a chance to be a tourist in a city we have learned to love and consider home.

First day highlight is to visit The Top of Burj Khalifa. I’ve purchased our ticket a week before they arrived which advisable since you get it cheaper than buying the ticket the day. Buying ticket online cost 100Dhs while the immediate entry ticket cost 400Dhs. You can view the cost and reserve tickets here.

 

 

You have an option to buy a viewing card you can use for the telescope. The telescope will show you the historic view of the place as well as the present time. V had fun changing views from present Day to Historic. It was a nice  way to show visitors Dubai’s progress.

 

 

We went up the observatory deck at 7:30pm, chose to go up at night so we can have an aerial view of the Dubai Fountain.

 

Here’s a video inside the elevator going down. Observatory deck at 124th floor.

 

 

 

Banana Bread with Streusel

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I stare at four ripe bananas in our table and all I could think of is Banana Bread.

My go to recipe for banana bread is from Simple Recipes which you can find here and my Daddy Nonong’s favorite (he can eat a whole loaf in one day). Every time they came home from Majuro for a vacation he would ask me to bake him some.

Banana Streusel Bread

As much as I adore my usual banana bread I wanted to try something new, add something to spice it up, to make it more interesting to my V (who insists on smothering nutella to his slice).

A day has passed and in the table staring at me, 4 ripe bananas patiently waiting for me to turn them into something yummy.

While nursing Chloe I googled “80breakfasts banana bread” because I remembered reading a post on banana bread. By the way 80breakfast is one of my favorite food blog! Her recipes never failed me and her posts would lead me to new exciting blogs as well. In her banana bread post she described this streusel as high on deliciousness. I just have to add it to my bread as well.

The looney in me didn’t make use of my go to recipe nor did I use Jo’s recipe, I did another search which led me to JoyOfBaking‘s Banana Streusel Bread recipe. The recipe asked for 2 bananas but I had four, asked for walnuts I only have cashew and lastly I don’t have sour cream.

Not having the ingredients the recipe asked didn’t stop me and my lonely bananas. I doubled the recipe and replaced the those that I didn’t have.

The addition of streusel definitely made my usual banana bread happier. I love the added sweetness and crunch.

Banana Nut Streusel

Original recipe from JoyofBaking

Ingredients

4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup Cashew Nuts, chopped
4 large Bananas, mashed
4 eggs lightly beaten
3/4 cup Unsalted Butter, melted
1/2 cup Full Cream Milk
1 tbsp Vanilla extract

Streusel Ingredients

1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Butter, softened
2/3 cup Cashew nuts, chopped

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 220C

Bread Procedure:

You will need two bowls for the dry and wet mixture

Mix all dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cashew nuts.

On a separate bowl mix all wet ingredients: mashed bananas, eggs, butter, milk and vanilla extract.

Slowly fold in your wet mixture to the dry mixture just until it’s blended. Don’t over mix as this will lead to a dry bread.

Streusel Procedure:

Combine sugar and flour. With a fork or pastry blender, cut in the butter till it look like crumbs then mix in the nuts. Top this mixture on your bread before baking.
Bake Cupcakes/Muffins for 15-20 minutes & Bread for 40 minutes to an hour until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 

 

to swaddle or not?

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Sleep has been a main concern when I gave birth to Chloe. Our initial plan was to transfer V to a bed of his own so baby can sleep with me in bed (as I did with V before) but that didn’t happen. On our first week at home, Chloe slept in her crib but she would wake up every 30 minutes and with my C-Section it was hard for me to stand-up and get her in and out. With lack of sleep and discomfort on the surgery I decided to co-sleep with her in bed with me.

Chloe sleeping in a Boppy body pillow

I would get 3 to 4 hrs of sleep when she’s beside me and easier to breast feed her at night as well. One scary night came when I fell into a deep sleep and I woke up to a crying baby beside me with a pillow on covering her! Scared the life of me that I didn’t get any sleep that night. I decided the following night to let her sleep in the crib .

Chloe sleeping in crib

 

It’s the 2nd week since then and I’ve not gotten a good hour of sleep, she would wake up every 30 minutes crying. A twitter friend suggested that I swaddle her so she can sleep longer on the crib. See Chloe can sleep 3 hours straight in her bouncer but not in her crib.

 

sleeping in her bouncer

 

I’m slowly introducing swaddling, for the first 3 days I wrap just her body and legs and tonight I’ll start wrapping one of her arms and will continue to do so for 3 days. During nap though I swaddle her with both arms wrap and she manages to sleep for an hour the most. As my twitter friend Armineh said the key to swaddling is to not give in.

swaddled & sleeping in her crib

 

How did you manage to get a good night sleep with your newborn?