Absolut Sofia

Nice bottle! I am sure that mom won't approve. Let's just keep this between you and me then. Cheers!

Rebus

-s+e+-v -t+d -g+r+-clu -ig+-fi -in+-sh -fi+-ea+y m+-p+-d+-at+!

Ticket to see Lara Sofia

Lara Sofia's viewing schedule is tight. The lines are long and the slots are full. Let me know if you wish to have a backstage pass to see her. I can sneak you in.

Roques Daily

Clapperboard

I just discovered some great plug ins for this blog. However, I still need to learn how to downsize my video streams. Once I am able to learn how to do so then I will upload the YouTube files.

Eli and Anais

We just received a card from our friend Elisabetta (Milan, Italy). Her baby, Anais is so grown up!
2 days before she was born, mom Eli was walking around Milan with us. We visited Eli at her beautiful eye clinic at Via Durini 24. We had to proceed on foot because she still had patients waiting. Barbara and I walked to an old castle and Eli followed soon after. We then took a nice walk around the city until we met her parents at their place.

It was only until we had our firstborn that we were really impressed with Eli and her pregnancy. She's a supermom! Barbara was bed-ridden for 2 months prior to Sofia's delivery. Eli was walking around the city 2 days prior to Anais' delivery.

Thank you so much for seeing us Eli. The Milanese dinner with Pier was terrific. Regularly send us photos of Anais. We love you!

Losing without really trying

I have been directed by my Cardiologist to lose 33 pounds within the year 2007. Before Christmas 2006, I weighed in at 178 lbs. Three weeks after Sofia was born, I am down to 165 lbs. 13 lbs in 3 weeks! How glorious! My cardiologist will be pleased. Should I just keep mum about it? Or should I tell him that I never really tried to lose weight. I just did.

I was instructed to cut back on my carbohydrate intake and to begin an hour of exercise at least thrice weekly, achieving my target heart rate of 165 for 30 minutes each cardio session.

Having a baby is so much easier, eh? Now I only have to think about the next twenty pounds. Come on Sofia, help dad lose more weight!

So which one is it?

Having two names for one baby is proving to be a bit confusing. We named our child 'Lara Sofia'. Her nickname 'Rafi' was taken from Ra of laRA and Fi of soFIa. Now we have so many names for her: Lara, Sofia, Lara Sofia, Rafi. So which one is it?

For purposes of this site, I will use Sofia in the text and Rafi in the headings. Why so? Well, because I can't make up my mind. I like all her names. Aaaarghh! :-)

Feeding with mom

January 21, 2007
Rafi's age - 18 days
Sofia loves mom so much. She loves mom's milk even more. "I just can't get enough of it!" professes Sofia's thought balloon. Thanks to the automated double breast pump of Medela, Barbara is able to supply Sofia with as much milk as she needs without the associated cracks and bruises.

Sofia currently takes in 4 ounces of breast milk every 2-3 hours. How's that for an appetite?

Visit from Clan Roque

January 21, 2007
Rafi's age - 18 days

Last Sunday, Sofia received guests from my side of the family. Tito Noel and Tita Rachel brought along their families for a little get-together. Tito Raul (Tita Rachel's husband), the hands down expert on poop control proceeds to do an index finger inspection of Sofia's poop reservoir aka diaper.
L-R: Tita Beewa, Tito Noel, Cousin Isabelle, Lola Aida, Mommy, Cousin Gabriel, Tito Raul, Cousin Beatrice, Tita Rachel. (Cousins Beatrice, Gabriel, and Isabelle are children of Tita Rachel and Tito Raul)

L-R: Tita Rachel, Cousin Beatrice, Lola Aida(partially covered), Tito Raul (about to check the nappy), Cousin Gabriel, Mom (partially covered)

Sleeping and feeding with dad

January 25, 2007
Rafi's age - 22 days

Daddy is now more careful during feedings. Sofia is now always bottle fed seated or cradled. No longer does she take on a bottle 'flat on bed'. Thank you, Tita Carina. :-)

Sofia doesn't seem to mind that she is always upright when she takes in her milk. In fact, she actually appears to prefer this position.



Here is daddy after his burping session with Sofia. She likes to take a quick nap immediately after burping.

For her passport ID

January 25, 2007
Rafi's age - 22 days

Sofia is currently preparing to apply for her first passport. If Ninong Arnel allows her to join us, she will be leaving for HK in May. This is mom's first attempt to take photos for her passport. The first photo will be submitted to DFA together with her passport application.













As always she seems uninterested in these photos. You can almost hear her say, 'Are we done yet?'

Sleeping with mom

January 27, 2007
Rafi's ag0 - 24 days
Sofia enjoys sleeping on mom's chest. Here are two stolen photos taken by dad. (love you, honey!)






Dad took home some Casablancas for mom last Wednesday evening. From San Fernando, Pampanga, dad passed by the local lilies supplier for a fresh pick of the new arrivals. It took a good four days before the first bud bloomed into this beautiful flower.

Barbara and Sofia

January 27,2007
Rafi's age - 24 days
Sofia 'Pacquiao' with her red 'glove' mittens throws a wild right hook. She gets 'knocked out' in the process.

Sleeping with Auntie Sarah

January 27, 2007
Rafi's age - 24 days
Sofia has a favorite sleeping position with different caregivers. She has her patented seated position with dad, wrap around position with mom, and this position with Auntie Sarah.

Learning something new everyday

During my last set of uploads I found out that it was faster for online viewers to download images if I uploaded small thumbnails instead of the full sized images. The images could be clicked on if an enlarged full sized image was needed for viewing.

Today, I just found out that I could actually compress the images further for optimized loading speeds. The image file sizes are so much smaller. I can just keep the original large files on my hard drive.

Let's see if this works for a better online experience!

Expressions

January 18, 2007
Rafi's age - 15 days

Whazzup?










Hmmm...

New wave lullabies and more

I really have to get myself a lullaby lyric sheet. I don't really know any. As far as children's songs are concerned, all I can really remember are ABC, Twinkle-twinkle, and Ba-ba-black sheep. They all sound alike. So Barbara gets a tummy ache laughing at me everytime I sing these songs to Rafi.

Not to be disheartened with the fact that I am an idiot when it comes to knowing lullabies, I decided to improvise. I used the lyrics from New Wave 80's music and toned them down a bit. Actually, I toned them down a lot.

Lara is now lulled to sleep with the following:

1. Spandau Ballet's Gold and True
2. Tears for Fears' Change, Shout, Everybody wants to rule the world, and Pale shelter
3. Soft Cell's Tainted Love
4. Rah Band's Clouds across the moon
5. Madonna's Borderline
6. The Smiths' Charming Man, Girlfriend in a Coma, How soon is now, and Heaven knows I'm miserable now
7. The Real Thing's Can't get by without you, and You to me are everything
   

I also found out that she likes my fraternity hymns

1. Frat march
2. Amici
   

Off to her pediatrician for her Hepa vaccination

January 18, 2007
Rafi's age: 15 days

Mommy Barbara was able to have a couple of shots taken with Baby Lara Sofia prior to the visit to the pediatrician. Ninong Arnel will be giving her first Hepa vaccination shot today. This is Rafi's first trip outside of our home. Check out her excitement. Wait, baby doesn't seem to care. It's mom who's excited!

It's about time that mommy had photos with baby. Daddy has been hogging the limelight with his photo ops with Rafi. Yaya took several shots with Barbs and Rafi. It came out pretty nice.

It was a good thing that Rafi didn't mind the camera flashing.

Rafi will finally be able to use her brand spanking new 3-in-1 Graco transportation system. She doesn't seem to be impressed with the pram.

Inside the Innova, we initially set up the car seat in the back. It was a big mistake. It was so difficult to attend to her needs once she required it.

Upon our return home, I transferred the car seat on to the right middle row.

Lara Sofia at 12 days

Here is Rafi at twelve days. She already has daddy's "11". Oh no! Will she be as 'sungs' as dad? We certainly hope not. Let's hope she takes after mom. Wait! Hmmm.... Mom is also 'sungs'. Haha. We are in for a lot of trouble!

BTW, 'sungs' is slang for 'sungit'.

Rafi receives a card from Down Under!

What a wonderful surprise! Our very thoughtful relatives from Australia sent a greeting card to Lara Sofia. It screams of an Auntie Pat initiative! Thank you everyone. :-)
The romper was exquisite. What a wonderful greeting card. Thanks again, guys!
Click on the images to enlarge.

Mommy Barbara is now an author

I invited Barbs to become a co-author for this blog. She can now post her own musings. Let's watch out for it!

Preparing for Rafi's first day out

Tomorrow, Rafi will be visiting her pediatrician/ninong for her initial immunization shots. Mommy has been busy preparing all of their needs. Daddy already prepared the thank you gifts for Ninong Arnel and Ninang Kat. I hope they like it!

Spanish Steps

Why does everything in Italy have to be under construction? Check out the scaffolding at the top of the steps. Everywhere there are renovations and restorations. They really know how to protect their heritage spots. Hmmm. Can we say the same thing about our country. Oh-oh.

We left our tripod at the hotel. Imagine that. We lugged it along only to leave it at our hotel everytime. I guess next time, it's 'stay in Manila' for our tripods. And yes, we also brought along a mini-tripod which we also leave behind each time. So that explains the extended arm photographs. You can't trust the gypsies around these parts. They'll run away with your camera!

I'm getting pretty good at this!