election season



Anton Lee Thomas reacting to news that
 Jinkee Pacquiao is running for Vice Governor

Mommy is aghast. Splashed on the news are reports that our favourite boxer’s wife is running for a Vice Governor position in the Philippines. That’s not all.  Pacquiao’s brother has also been said to be eyeing a seat in the House of Representatives.

From the Christian Post:

Maria Geraldine "Jinkee" Pacquiao, the wife of Filipino boxer and congressman Manny Pacquiao, is reportedly filing for a certificate of candidacy for vice governor of Sarangani, Philippines.

The decision for Mrs. Pacquiao to run for office reportedly came one hour before her husband decided to file his own certificate for candidacy for Sarangani representative. Malapatan Mayor Alfonso Singcoy reportedly said that the suggestion for Pacquiao's wife to run for office was made by Sarangani Gov. Miguel Rene Dominguez, according to Sun Star reports.

The suggestion was reportedly made after several mayors disagreed over the decision to have another candidate, Juan Domino, running with Vice Governor Steve Solon. Pacquiao's mother, Dionisia Pacquiao, agreed that her son's wife should take on the responsibility of being involved in the politics of her country.

"She should no longer be shy in public," Pacquiao's mother said in the Sun Star report. When Mrs. Pacquiao first met her pugilist husband, he was a struggling boxer while she worked in sales and promotions for cosmetics at a department store. However, her husband has grown to take on the responsibility of being a civil servant for his country and she may be following suit.

While Pacquiao is known for his boxing skills worldwide, the congressman said that his political role is equally important. Before the town of Glan in Sarangani was declared to be under a state of calamity due to the flooding of several villages last week, the boxer said he was passionate about improving the lives of his constituents.

Don't be surprised, Little Pebble, if Mommy won't be in such cheery mode today. While Mommy was not ecstatic when Manny Pacquiao ran for public office three years ago, she did not join the ranks of Pacquiao supporters who scoffed at his political ambitions. But Pacquiao's wife and brother joining the fray in 2013 is another matter and smacks of nepotism and traditional politics which have have taken repulsive proportions in this country.

 

Too much, too much, Manny Pacquiao.

Shamzz & I

Thank you Sanger5 for my first teddy. We've decided to name him.... Shamzz.

                                                                                    - Anton Lee Thomas



Anton Lee Thomas trying on his "toughie" stance

two weeks old!

You are two weeks old today, Little Pebble, and you’re turning out to be a guwapito (of course, Mommy and Daddy are biased in this department).

The past 14 days have been humbling. Mommy thought she was ready with all the guidebooks she has read but she had to go through each and every one of them again and again after little mishaps.

In one of Mommy’s panic reading sessions (very similar to cramming for an exam), Daddy asked her, “Don’t you get confused with all these things that you’re reading?” Mommy said that she does not completely trust the advice she’s been getting from some of the hospital personnel and she’s doing her own research. Lest you think that we’re building you a Time Machine, the questions Mommy and Daddy have grappled with the past few days may sound surprisingly mundane to you. Examples: how to check if baby has jaundice; how much sun does baby need; how to sponge bath the baby; what to do about a colicky child; or how to clean the umbilical cord).

You’re asleep most of the time during the day we hardly had time to socialize. Mommy’s Infant Stimulation Program has flown out of the window past two weeks and has been substituted for the Parents-on-the-Job Training Program.

Q: How many people does it take to bathe the little pebble?
A: Three, and they're still not doing a very great job.           

We’re getting better though, little one. Yesterday, we’ve been able to wash you properly without making the whole procedure seem like a major surgical operation or absolute mayhem. Mommy and Daddy have asked for a demonstration on how to bathe you before we left the hospital but it seemed much more complicated to do at home. On our first try, Mommy forgot to wash your face. On another day, you pooped all over Daddy’s hand just as we finished washing your behind.

 

Am cool!

We’ve also been able to get you out of the flat and give you your sunbathing sessions (You look so cool lounging by the pool, Anton Lee Thomas with nary a care in the world). We’ve also managed now to get you into a schedule which has allowed Mommy and Daddy seven hours of sleep last night, interrupted only twice to feed you and clean you up.

What’s happened:

1.       On your first week, you could track your black-and-white checkerboard by 45 degrees! Not bad, little one, not bad at all.

Look! No more umbilical stump!

2.       Your Baby First Year’s Journal says that the umbilical stump generally falls off between the second and the fourth weeks. Your umbilical cord stump has fallen off by the end of your first week! 

3.       You love your head and face being washed but it’s quite another story with the rest of your body.

4.       By the end of your first week, you’ve been smiling a lot in your sleep. “What to Expect the First Year” says that most babies don’t smile in the true social sense before four to six weeks of age.  So most of your smiles now are just gas or may be signs of comfort and contentment.

5.       You can hiccup quite a lot (there is no known cause for a newborn’s hiccups; these are not bothersome to the baby but if its bothers the parents can be addressed by nursing the baby).

6.       When you do your toilet business, you make it sound like the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. “What to Expect the First Year” says that these movements and sounds are normal, the result of gas being forcefully expelled from an immature digestive system.

7.       The skin on your hands and legs are starting to peel. Your Baby First Year Journal says that this is a natural process that makes way for a new layer of skin. 

home sweet home

 

We finally got home on 19 September, Wednesday, late afternoon, after spending six days at the hospital.

You were sound asleep during your first car ride and you didn’t stir even after we put you on your new bed.  Little did we know that you were just gathering momentum.

An hour after we arrived, you woke up demanding to be fed. Then you pooped. And then pooped again. And pooped some more. Three and a half hours after we got home, Daddy has become an expert changing your nappies!

It was a sleepless first night for Mommy and Daddy. Mommy got up to feed you. Then Daddy burped you, and you decided to stay awake. Very wide awake. By the next feeding, Mommy and Daddy have wisened up and started to do shifting schedules to keep you company.

Mommy and Daddy were exhausted with the first night that we all had breakfast at 9am the following day. We missed the morning sunlight, little pebble sorry.  We will hope to wake up earlier tomorrow.

You’ve been asleep the whole day today, just waking up for your feedings. You had no time for Mommy’s Infant Stimulation Program. Just in case you wake up later in the middle of the night and Mommy and Daddy are asleep, we put within your eyesight range your first toy (Mommy has lots of faith in you little pebble. She’s sure you will voluntarily sign up for her Infant Stimulation Program).

welcome little pebble!

Daddy is calling you an accelerated child.

You were supposed to arrive on 17 September, Monday, but when the doctor examined Mommy last Wednesday, the doctor said that we shouldn’t wait anymore and have you out at the soonest possible time.  Mommy’s blood pressure had suddenly gone up to 150/80 and her hands and feet have become swollen. The doctor asked Mommy to have a urinalysis. Good thing it was negative for protein otherwise the doctor would have taken you out on Thursday and Daddy was just en route to Manila. He would have been very upset.

So Mommy and Daddy’s grand plans for Thursday until Sunday have all been for naught. Daddy wanted to have dinner with Mommy at their favourite Italian restaurant Friday night, have early morning breakfast at this really nice café in Salcedo Village on Saturday morning, and meet some friends during the weekend. Mommy had to quickly tidy up last Thursday at work since she was expecting to finish on Friday. Little Pebble, you know you had two more Board meetings to go through before you were scheduled to arrive. Did you try to escape these last two?

And so you arrived on 14 September, Friday at 10.57 am. You were 17 ¼ inches, 6.3 pounds, and with an APGAR score of 9.9 at 38 weeks. (There is another child at the nursery with an APGAR score of 9.9 but Mommy bets he is 42 weeks old.) You were perfect Little Pebble, Mommy and Daddy couldn’t stop looking at you. Daddy was fabulous as well. He didn’t pass out even if he saw Mommy at the operating table and was able to take great photos and videos of us three.

In all these excitement Little Pebble, you have taught Mommy and Daddy their first lesson: Now that you’re here, you take precedence. Yes, they may make the most grandiose of plans, but the Little Pebble has veto power. Mommy has a feeling one day, much as Mommy and Daddy may want to go again to Italy, we will possibly end up in Disneyland. Or Universal Studios. 

one more week!

Hang on there Little Pebble! Daddy is arriving in 7 days. But don't get too excited yet. You still have 2 more Board meetings to sit with Mommy.

happy father's day!

Port Adelaide gave Daddy a wonderful present for Father’s Day. Today, in their last game, our team tied up with Richmond. Wooohoooooooo!!!!

We’re now on our official countdown, Little Pebble – 15 days to go! We went to the doctor last Tuesday as Mommy has been having tummy pains for two days.  The doctor told us to take it easy little one, we don’t want you coming out before Daddy arrives on the 13^th.  Anyway, the doctor gave Mommy instructions for symptoms to watch out for, and whether we like it or not, we need to rush to the hospital, if she experience any of these signs.  We don’t want to upset Daddy, ... so hang on there until he arrives, ok?

Because Daddy likes seafood and it's his special day today, Mommy made today seafood pesto pasta for us.

Seafood Pesto Pasta

¼ kg shrimps

Tuna (200 grams)

1 bottle pesto (200 grams)

Cheddar cheese, cut into small cubes (about 40 grams)

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic, chopped

Olive oil

Butter

Olives

Capers

Salt and pepper

1.       Heat olive oil in skillet

2.       Brown onions and garlic

3.       Add butter

4.       Lightly cook in shrimp

5.       Add tuna

6.       Slowly add in pesto

7.       Add cheese

8.       Add olives and capers

9.       Add salt and pepper to taste

You definitely love your pasta, Little Pebble. Mommy notices that you even start getting active now even while she is cooking. Seems you’ve really gotten used to your weekend treat.

We’re really, really, really getting near to having you, dearest.  You cannot even begin to imagine how excited Mommy and Daddy are. All we do is keep talking about you now.