My Package of Joy

While vacationing in Manila, I was having second thoughts if I should buy the Twilight DVD from there. After having read witsandnuts’ post about how the Philippine-released DVD is wanting for a lot of features, I told myself that I’ll just wait for it to be released in Amsterdam. As difficult as it was to resist purchasing the DVD (which was seriously calling out to me while we were in the record shop), I managed to hold my ground and look the other way.

When we returned here, the first thing I did was check out the local record shops and to my dismay, the Twilight DVD is not yet available and I was told that it will be released sometime in June. I was about to kick myself when my colleague told me about the sale at Amazon. When I checked out the site, well what do you know? The Twilight DVD is already on sale. I was ecstatic. I immediately placed my order plus some books that I’ve been wanting to buy for a while now, which luckily enough were all on sale.



After three days of waiting, I was so thrilled to go home hoping that my anticipated parcel has arrived (or was left to our neighbours). The moment I stepped into the door, my eyes immediately spotted the white and orange slip, I knew the postman has come. I picked it up to see where the package is and immediately asked honey to go and get my parcel from our neighbour as indicated in the slip.



I have a big, wide grin as I welcomed honey back inside the house with the box in his arms. I was like a child opening a present on Christmas Eve. There it was my Twilight DVD, Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking, Complete Novels of Jane Austen and a children’s book entitled The very Hungry Caterpillar (for my little baby Bee). Oh, the simple joys of life. I have a lot of watching and reading to do.

The Second Trimester Begins…

(baby Bee @ 11 weeks and 4days)

It’s been a smooth sailing ride for the three of us for more than three months now. I can’t believe how much joy, excitement and anticipation your daddy and I have while waiting for you to come out. I vividly recall that morning the stick finally turned blue, we almost jumped for joy. I still remember the first time we saw you on that screen, you tiny little angel, it was pure magic. And how about the first time we heard your heartbeat… oh we were ecstatic, I had tears welling in my eyes and my heart filled with so much love and yearning to finally hold you in my arms. You are the gift that we’ve been praying for, for quite a while now and now that you’re finally here, it’s so surreal, I have to pinch myself sometimes.

Now that we are embarking on the second leg of our journey, the three of us, I’m so looking forward to feeling your first kick inside my tummy, to soothe your movements with my voice and to caress my belly knowing that you’re there appreciating the touch. I can’t wait to learn if I should buy you pretty tiny little dresses, or will I be shopping for cute little shirts and shorts. There are a lot of other things that we are about to experience together and your daddy and I are looking forward to all those marvellous things.

I cannot guarantee that your daddy and I will not have doubts or fears in the coming months, for like you this is also something new to us, but if there is something that I can guarantee, that is, you are loved and will forever be loved. Hang in there our little baby Bee, mommy and daddy are patiently waiting for you.


(baby Bee @ 11 weeks and 4days)

Bohol Sea Adventure

Our third day was spent basking in the glorious sun, sand and beach of Bohol. We were fetched by our bangkero, kuya George at around 5:30 to start our sea tour bright and early. As part of our itinerary, we were scheduled to watch dolphins at play, snorkel (well honey snorkelled, while I fed the fishes from the small boat) at fish sanctuary and island hop to Balicasag and Virgin (Pontod) Island.



I was surprised that as early as six in the morning when we reached the spot where the dolphins were supposed to show up, there were a lot of other boats, passengers of which were also tourists like us hoping to get a glimpse of the marvellous sea creature. We saw a couple of them dolphins jumping about but each time that we would go closer to the last spot where the dolphins were seen, all the rest of the boats followed suit and the dolphins just swam and went to a completely new spot. After an hour or so of aimlessly going about the wide area, although we did saw some flips and flaps from the ever elusive dolphins, I begun to feel tired of running after them and told Kuya George that we might as well go the next stop. Little did I know that where we were going next would be a much better location for us to spot the flirtatious swimming of these intelligent creatures. I couldn’t help but wonder why kuya George would want to spend all those time running after the elusive dolphins in the first spot. He explained to us that in the first spot that went to, the dolphins were much bigger and they are more playful. Oh, well, I was more than happy to just get closer to the dolphins, the flips and flaps of the bigger ones were a mere bonus.



Next, off we went to the fish sanctuary where honey snorkelled the entire day. I opted to join him and went into the small boat that we rented and thinking that I won’t be going in the water so I can take the camera with me. We took the bangkero’s advice and bought some crackers with us to the snorkelling site. At first, I thought I’d be bored to death while waiting for honey to finish exploring the fish sanctuary. However, while honey was busy floating and dipping and flapping away through the beautiful corals, I took some crackers and dipped my hand in the water. I was amazed by the number of fishes that came to my hand, the crystal clear water made it so easy to see all the fishes and I sure am glad I brought the camera, I took pictures of the fishes as they feasted on the crackers I gave them. I didn’t even have to ask if honey had a grand time, his smile said it all. We were nicely brown and toasted from the burning sun when we went back to the bank where a hearty lunch was waiting for us.






(virgin Island)

After lunch, honey did some more dipping and flapping in the beach but I managed to pull him off from the shore and we went to our last stop for the day, the Virgin Island. This is a half circle stretch of white sand beach that people can see during low tide but is completely out of sight during high tide. This was where we found the henna tattoo guys. Since I’m not allowed to swim and honey also wanted to get henna so badly, we spent half an hour or so waiting for the guy to finish the tattoos. I must say, I loved how my tattoo turned out, it’s so intricate and pretty.



When we finally returned to our hotel, I can’t believe how tired I was, I guess the heat of the sun really took a toll on me. However I must say that I haven’t seen a beach more pristine or sand finer than the ones I have seen in Bohol. It’s breath taking.