Ooooops... she did it again...

and again.... and again!

One week on and Cerise continues to impress us as she goes to the toilet every day without fail to do poos. Dad sorted her out alright! Hahaha!

She's extremely proud of herself and we make sure she knows that we are too. Pink bicycle coming up on her birthday! Until then, she will have to live with plenty of praises, bear hugs and kisses.

No more pull ups, no more nappy bags! She now gets to wear her collection of knickers, more or less 50, which I have accumulated over the last 24 months in the hope that the beautiful designs and colours would encourage her to become fully toilet trained much sooner. When she was into Barbie, I bought barbie knickers. She became a fan of Dora the Explorer, so mummy naturally bought Dora the Explorer panties. She became very fond of hearts, so she just had to have knickers with hearts printed on them! Before I knew it, I've hoarded this huge pile of panties. She could wear brand new knickers every day of the month!

Oh well.

Really Reely

If I have to live up to the name of this blog and make a confession... that would be... that I'm addicted to 3 of the hundreds of reality tv shows infiltrating today's tv! The Amazing Race... Survivor... and just recently, Rebel Billionaire. Dig that!

Yup! I race home from work so I don't miss the start of the show. I finish dinner early and stay put in the couch until the show is over... no household chores, no phone calls, no demands from Cerise, no nothing could interrupt my one hour indulgence. If I have to eat dinner in front of the tv, I would... never mind setting a bad example to my daughter and if she dare tells me off like the way I do when she doesn't stay put at the dining table for a meal, I sneakily declare it the "exception to the rule". My girlfriends would arrange catch up dinners and they know that any night one of these shows is on is a no go. They try to be okay with it, with their eyes rolling at me of course.

I don't know what it is but I just LOVE them! I'm totally addicted. There are other non-reality tv shows I watch regularly. But these 3 are different. I can't and won't miss a single episode or else I go insane. One time I sooooo needed a retouch on my highlights but my hairdresser was available only on the night Survivor was on, and even though her next availability was two weeks after, it didn't matter. I gave it a miss and waited two weeks. That's when I knew I was hooked.

I get emotionally and mentally immersed like i'm in a roller coaster. I'd be very excited then really nervous the next, almost killing me, which later on turns to anger or extreme disappointment and suddenly it's absolute euphoria. That's in no particular order... it all depends on who I'm rooting for and how the show progresses and ends. And yes I know, that's just me being the victim of theatrical editing of thousands and thousands of otherwise humdrum footages. But what the heck?!

Anyone out there who shares this strange, embarrassing penchant to shows I couldn't even stand 2 years ago? No? Well hey, "vote me out" if you must but I think they're brilliant!

WARNING: inputting an average of 7 passwords a day drains the brain

Do you realise how many passwords you use every day? Try and count yours....it's amazing!

Dearest Tuesday, Marie and Phia,

Thank you for the comments posted in my last entry. I have been trying to post my own comments in reaction to yours but believe it or not, I can't remember my password! I know! Unbelievable! So anyway, I thought I'd just put a new entry instead.

Tuesday, thanks for the links. Cerise did go to the toilet on Friday night and did her poos. She was very proud of herself and so were we. However, she hasn't been doing poos since then. My fear now is that she might get constipated. I don't know. This is really tricky. But watch this space. I couldn't access your blog though. Do you mind giving me the complete address please? Thanks.

Marie, first of all, happy birthday. Sorry I wasn't emailing with the others to greet you. Extremely busy and stressed out here at work it's making me insane. Yesterday I felt sick and I thought I was really going to throw up. I knew it was due to stress. I need a break. But anyway, the cream I mentioned was not sebo de macho. Ikaw naman, alam ko pa rin naman ang sebo de macho. Gamit ko rin yon nung bata ako. Pero hindi yun yon. I don't know the name, only the mixture. Unfortunately my friend who visited the Phils and stayed in Tarlac didn't find a Mercury Drug branch that could sell the mixture. So I'm on a hunt for it still.

Phia, yes, if you come to think of it, this problem of Cerise not doing poos in the toilet is quite funny. Pero right now medyo hindi na funny coz I don't really want her to get stuck in kindy all because she refuses to poo in the toilet. So we'll see.

Thanks, girls.

NOW is when the word "poo", the sight and smell of it...is not taboo!

Cerise not wanting to poo in the toilet is becoming a major concern now because she's starting primary in 7 months. Of coure the rule is - She's not in unless she can get "it" out...onto the toilet.

It's not that she can't. She just won't. Mind you, she doesn't wet her pants nor her bed at all (Thank God!). She has been doing wees in the toilet on her own since she was probably 18 months old. If she has to go wees in the middle of the night, she'd wake up and go. But why she wouldn't poo in the toilet and how we'll manage to make her do that are the two questions that need answers pronto.

And yes, we have asked her.... she went from "I don't want to" ...to..."I'm scared of the flush" ...to... "I'm shy". I-don't-want-to-do-it and scared-of-the-flush excuses were easy to handle and we have successfully addressed them. But now....she's shy????!!! What's up with that?! I've reached the point of frustration.

I don't remember how I learned to do it when I was little but surely, it couldn't be that difficult, right? Cerise and I have had plenty of converstations about this ---- ranging from quiet heart-to-heart talks, to bribery, to volatile confrontations. And same with dad but on a more serious, no-nonsense negotiations and with the exclusion of bribery. Plenty of kiss-and-make-up in between of course. Seven more months of this and maybe we'll get there.

Well, in times like this, a mum would have to look at the bright side of things. For one, a milestone.... we finally discovered an effective cream for Cerise's eczema. No, it's not one of those breakthroughs from Germany or the US. It's simply a mixture of vaseline and dermovate courtesy of .... tadadada!....Mercury Drugs! Quite pricy but I don't care. I must have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars already buying every potion, cream, lotion, shampoo and body wash I can get my hands on (and stocks of them) - whether I'm here in New Zealand or Australia or even America. Anything that promises relief and cure for eczema, I buy it without question. But what do you know? Only a simple concoction from my homeland will do the job. Iba talaga ang pawis ng pinoy! I don't even know what it's called. I just know the mixture. I'm waiting for my next stock to come in when my friend visiting the Philippines comes back. I will forever be indebted to Rommel, a friend, for recommending it and giving me a sample to try for free. Apparently he's used this cream from when he was little. Cerise's eczema was the bane of our life... until this. So yes, I'm counting our blessings.

B(L)OGGED DOWN

two glasses of chardonnay... combined with second-hand smoke...

a nice home cook dinner...

a disappointing short trip to a supposedly filipino tiangge which turned out to be a business opportunity seminar for direct selling of shoes made in Marikina (yup! it's april fool's day alright!)...

here I am now in front of my laptop trying to get my head around this newly created boring blog. So boring I had to immediately change the name from "the-life-of-us" to...

"the-not-so-secret-life-of-us"

Uhuh.... that should jazz it up a bit...

Yeah right!

Posting a new entry was made easier by Phia who just happened to be online and smarter than I am. Of course that was only after I had to try and retry and retry and retry signing up coz I couldn't remember my bloody username and password!

Tonight's plan of attack was to glam up my blog...

but it looks like knowing my username and password by heart, a name change, a time & date change, and a new entry should suffice

I'm calling it a day.

My Own Blog!

Wow! That was easy!

I now have two blogs of friends that I visit regularly. Thus, the inspiration to create my own.

I didn't realise how quick and easy it is. In less than 10 minutes, I have created my first ever blog!

But now comes the task of putting entries in.

we'll see about that.

but for now, let me celebrate this momentous occasion with a drink or two. Chow!