Out Nesting

I am 37 weeks already so I’m off panic-nesting.  Part of the nesting is migrating my blog to a new host.  Good luck to me and thank you to the best digital consultant ever The Painter’s Wife.

Photo by booleansplit from everystockphoto.com

See you next week, hopefully, if I don’t get buried in rubble!

©OCMominManila

Maricel Laxa’s Surprise Baby Shower

Janice of Mommy Mundo invited a few mom bloggers to the surprise baby shower of Maricel Laxa.  Although I don’t know Maricel personally, I am separated by a degree or two because I worked with her sister Mutya before, I worked with Angeli and Gary V. on an ad a few years back and I am friends with Janice, who is apparently a batchmate of Maricel from Grade School and High School.  Am I trying to rationalize my presence??  I just felt odd being in a shower where I didn’t know the celebrant.  I’m not used to going to these blogger events yet and to prove that, I got photos of everything else except of the celebrant.  Well, i got a photo of her but I’m in it and I’m shy so I’ll just post the event photos here. =)

Despite my awkwardness, I had a nice time, eating the yummy Mandarin merienda buffet (chocolate fondue fountain!), drooling from all the gifts she received (Aprica carseat!) and being runner-up in one of the games with Janice as my partner.  If you watched the last Mom Works episode, you would have seen me and Janice struggling to change a baby doll’s diaper with one hand only (and a few other shots of me getting food over and over from the buffet).

You can view photos of the event (and see pics of the celebrant!!) from another mom blogger, Jen, whom I met there.

Thank you to Lifestyle Network for inviting me (through Janice).  Lifestyle Network airs Maricel’s show Mom Works, which is on its fourth season.  It airs Friday 8:30 PM, Saturday 9:30 AM, Sunday 11:00 PM, Tuesday 1:30 PM, Thursday 10:30 AM.

©OCMominManila

Help for Sofia Ysabel

It breaks my heart to see an infant suffering.  I also cannot imagine what her mom or dad feel but I hope by reposting this, I am helping in the small way that I can.

Reposted from MyMommyology‘s blog.

From one mom to the next, we know the importance of lending a helping hand where it is needed.  I don’t know about you but I empathize mostly with other moms who are going through challenges and struggles that pertain to their children.  I do genuinely want to help in every way that I can.

Yesterday a very good friend of my family reached out asking for help.  This post, I hope, is one way we can do just that.

This is Sofia Ysabel.  She was born last April 4 with  a congenital heart disease (Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome or HLHS).  She has barely been out of the hospital since her birth two months ago and is now experiencing complications from the disease.

The family is asking for support in any way or means possible, as the bills continue to rise on a daily basis.  Here are several ways you can help:

• Financially:  The family is accepting donations in any amount, and all of it will go to Sofia’s care.  Click on this link for all the details, or email trishrosal@yahoo.com or gabusch@gmail.com;
• Spiritually: Prayers, prayer intentions and masses offered for her care and speedy recovery (and I would say, prayers of strength and continued faith for the family as well); and
• Virally:  Spread the word about Sofia Ysabel so that more people who want to help can.  Feel free to re-post this on any social media of your choice.

Follow Sofia’s progress through their family’s blog at http://sofiaysabel.wordpress.com.

©OCMominManila

Reminiscing About Food in Japan

Being pregnant makes me think of food all the time and I couldn’t help but reminisce about our food trip in Japan last March.  So allow me to go down food memory lane to take you through a few of my favorite food memories of Tokyo (I’ll do Osaka another day).

TRAIN FOOD

We took a Shinkansen (bullet train) from Osaka to Tokyo and back.  Since it was about 3 hours per way, we had to buy food from their food stalls in the train station.  We just chose the safe bets – Tonkatsu and Katsudon.  My husband and I shared each meal and we weren’t disappointed.  The pork was not soggy despite being in a packaged container.  It was crunchy.  There was no fat.  The pickled veggies tasted fresh.  The dill sauce was amazing.  10 thumbs up!! (What am I – an alien?)

YAKINIKU

There was a day we were so hungry from walking all over different districts, I wanted to eat beef or steak but we had no cash left and we were in the Asakusa Nakamise shopping district which mostly had cash-only restos.  Thankfully, we spotted a Yakiniku resto.  Once again, fresh beef, not at all greasy.  (Somehow the local Yakiniku restaurants leave a greasy taste in my mouth).

YAKITORI ETC.

We had the most amazing yakitori on earth in this Yakitori Alley in Shinjuku where my husband ordered Sapporo beer. We were wondering why a bottle was so expensive (650 Yen) and then when the bottle arrived we understood.  It was huge – something like 600ml.  My husband didn’t want to drink that much so he offered some beer to this Japanese guy beside him who was already a little drunk.  He happily accepted of course.  6 sticks of yakitori later, we get a huge bill (yes, it was pretty pricey despite it being, literally, a hole in the wall).  However, Mr. Drunken Businessman, who was obviously touched with my husband’s generosity, insisted on contributing 1,000 Yen to our bill, way beyond the amount of the beer he drank.  Kindness does pay!!

Maisen is this out-of-the-way tonkatsu restaurant in Omotesando.  My OB was raving about it and she said it was a must to eat there.  It was a bit of a challenge to find but we got there and it was good!  Other typical Japanese fares like Hamburg Curry or Gyoza or Tempura were similarly amazing.  We loved all the places we ate in.

Although we didn’t binge, we still ate a lot and my husband and I noticed that despite all the food, we never felt bloated or full.  The food didn’t taste oily and didn’t leave a greasy feel on your chest (like all the oils are stuck there).  NOT EVEN A QUARTER POUNDER FROM MCDONALDS!! (I can’t eat a quarter pounder here without feeling like I want to turn bulimic after)

What do they put (or not put) in their food?  They ate pork, beef, the same things we did.  They put sauces.  They cooked in oil.  It boggles my mind.  And when we came back, I actually lost 4 pounds despite all the food.  There was a lot of walking though but we also ate a lot.

I really can’t think of a local Japanese resto which can match the food quality and somehow the trip has spoiled my taste for local Japanese food.  Well, maybe Keizo in The Fort (near Burgos Circle) comes close.  Yum, anyone care to join me for lunch?

©OCMominManila

O.C. Gadget Wednesday: Simplehuman Soap Dispenser

Today’s feature is the Simplehuman Soap Dispenser.  It’s a soap dispenser that:

• 

  Photo c/o Simplehuman

  Can dispense soap or lotion (but soap is the preference)

• Automatically dispenses the soap without the need to touch it but it also has a manual option (well, in case no one is sick anyway and the thing runs out of batteries right?)
• Controls the amount of soap dispensed
• Has a clear soap dispenser for easy visual reference on when to refill
• Best of all it has a blinking LED that lets you know how long to lather for germ-free hands (if you’re too lazy to sing Happy Birthday twice)

The official description is: The perfect tool for dispensing soap, lotion or sanitizer in the bathroom or at the kitchen sink without worry of cross-contamination.  (Less contact, less contamination!)

It goes for $32.85 on Amazon.   (Hmmm, maybe singing to yourself is not so hard after all.)

©OCMominManila

It’s Snowing in My Blog

Image by ecstaticist via Flickr

I have a dozen things to blog about but I just can’t seem to get around to doing it.  It’s either I lack the photos or the info or I just want to go shopping.  Anyway, while I’m trying to organize my thoughts, here’s a little treat for you — it’s snowing in my blog!

For those moms who actually have snow, do you allow your kids to eat the snow?  Is that safe?

EDIT: So I did a little research (something I should have done before posting) and this is what I found.  Like the article said though, “Licking a little snow off a glove is probably OK…A meal of snow is not.”

©OCMominManila

The Worst Thing that Can Happen to OCMom

I knew it; I shouldn’t have done it.  I knew karma would bite me in the butt because of my previous post.  Well yesterday, it DID (almost literally)!!

I was getting my hair colored and cut (by OC hairstylist Cherry Reyes — more on a future non-gross post) in Essensuals Toni & Guy in  Mega Mall.  After 2.5 hours, I needed to pee so I went out garbed in my black salon robe (whatever you call it) and went to the ladies’ room near Amici.

(Ok, think Sherlock execution for this part) Three things that most likely led to the horrifying climax of this story come back to me now as a haunting memory:

1. I did not want to remove my robe (even if I would look like a dementor going through Mega Mall) because I was wearing a white top and I didn’t want to risk getting any remnants of the hair color on it even if my hair was rinsed already.

2. I had to bring my phone with me because I was afraid someone would swipe it.  Of course, I left my MacBookPro and bag just lying there by the mirror.  There was security anyway.  I JUST HAD TO bring my 3-year-old Gen 1 iPhone.

3. I was wearing skinny jeans which had really tight front pockets so I put my cell in my back pocket.

Do you see where this is going?

So I enter the cube, struggle with my robe and as I pull down my skinny jeans (sorry TMI), I hear a plop and see my iPhone taking a dive.  I honestly thought for 5 seconds (it seemed like an eternity), held my breath, dunked my hand in there and pulled it out.  (All this going in slow mo in my head with the Psycho soundtrack in full volume.) I got my pants back on with my left hand and got out of there to save my hand and my phone.  I shook out all the water from my phone then I spent the next 5 minutes scrubbing my hands with soap. Then the next 5 minutes drying my dying iPhone in the hand dryer.  Back in the salon, I think I used up 50 mL of alcohol on my hands and the phone.  ARGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Despite the horror, I am thankful for two things:

1. That I was in The Atrium section where you have 1 person using the washroom every 20 minutes – so it’s 1/1 millionth of the usage of the regular Mega Mall bathrooms.

2. The toilet was actually clean.  (Oh dear God, please give this one to me.  Please please please)

Purell Ad by JWT Australia: How I wish you could get an actual skin-like glove after today! (without the hair of course! ok, here I go again...)

My right hand feels alien to my body now (just like Evil Dead).  It seems like there is this super disinfected glow around it (because I kept scrubbing it when we got home) but my brain still knows the truth.  I still can’t use my right hand to touch my face or DD.  I still cringe when I remember it.  I won’t blame you if you stop reading because you’re super grossed out.  I just had to let it out.  I’m sorry!!!

Today, I’m buying an iPhone 4. And I promise not to talk about bad grammar again!!

©OCMominManila

Photo Credit: ibelieveinadv.com