The cable car is a famous attraction in San Francisco. During our visit last Saturday we decided to take J to ride the "trolley" as he calls it. It was rather a tiring experience because owe had to wait the qeue for 2hrs. It wasn't like that before, there was no long line and was very convenient. If not for our boy we wouldn't be patient enough to wait that long.  Good thing we were able to contain and keep a 3yr old busy during the wait. We didn't know what happened for real but according to the operator/driver, 2 cable cars broke down. There were other speculations amongst the crowd like upcoming strike , etc. 

Well, our little boy enjoyed the ride so much. He was singing songs and smiling from ear to ear. He was totally knocked out going back to the garage as he fell asleep in the trolley right after eating some snacks. Poor boy very hungry and sleepy, lucky us he didn't throw a fit. Had to carry him from the end station all the way to the parking garage in deep sleep. 

Hubs is trying to beat deadlines and doing much overtime. Whenever he needs to do overtime on weekends we try to keep him company. He wouldn't go to the office if there's no grave need, but this time he really needs to exert extra effort to keep up with the submission on Monday. We gave him a visit last Friday night and brought some dinner as well so he could go on and not starve himself. He was able to finish what he intended to accomplish but needs extra time over weekend.

Here we are right in daddy's office now again, it's Sunday and we all want to be together even if that means having to wait for him. Brought in toys, activity book, foods and gadgets to keep me and J busy. Cool that I get to blog even a bit and J occupied playing. 

Remember the post "The Shoes And Stick On The Sand"?  It took me a while to make another post due to some photo attachment issues in blogger that I have been experiencing.  Luckily today I was able to successfully upload my photos.  Here's the partial story behind the post "The Shoes And Stick On The Sand".

Every year we go to San Francisco to do our taxes.  It's quite a drive to go there but we have our trusted Tax Preparer there who's been handling our taxes for the longest time.  We take our tax day as a reason to go somewhere special around the bay area.  This year we went to Pacifica, located just 12 miles south of San Francisco along the scenic coast of the Pacific Ocean. Known for its natural beauty, Pacifica is filled with numerous hiking trails through rolling hills that overlook the ocean surf and forested canyons.

"Pacifica means "peaceful" in Spanish. However, the City of Pacifica did not receive its name from its Spanish foreparents. Pacifica's name was the product of a contest held in 1957 to find a name for the newly incorporated coastal city. The winning name was based on an 80-foot statue by sculptor Ralph Stackpole, created as the theme lady for the Golden Gate International Exposition. The Exposition was held on Treasure Island in 1939-40. The statue was destroyed after the fair was over but two of the sculptor's working models have been saved. One is over the front stairs at City Hall; the other sits in the City Council Chambers." 

So there, we went to Pacifica to spend some quality family time with our little boy.  We knew he'd enjoy the beach with the sand and the water.  I told hubs I prefer to stay under the tree to shield us from the scorching sun but to our surprise it was a hazy day.  Sun was completely shielded therefore it was freezing cold, chilly like winter!  Hubs was actually laughing at me teasing me about the tree shade I was asking for, it was so chilly even under faint sun.  Luckily we had all our snow clothes in the car trunk and managed to keep ourselves warm adding some layers.

See our happy boy gathering wet sand for his sand castle and few sticks?  It was too cold that we didn't want to stay near the shore.  Getting some "building materials" for little J's sand castle needed much effort walking to the shore and back.  Pobresito carrying a bucket full of wet sand, quite heavy for a little boy so he made mommy do the carrying for him after few rounds.

We have a little Architect in the making, he was being so crafty and creative trying to etch and put doors and windows on the sand castle.  I was even telling him not to be that detailed because I was afraid it would collapse and I didn't want to deal with crying and all.  Can you see the proud and happy daddy behind all bundled up as well?  It turned out to be a simple but special outing for us.  Having a picnic lunch at the beach and just kicking back some time.  We did more fun stuff later on but this is it for now.

Can rain stop a little boy from enjoying a day out?  I guess not, at least for our boy.  You can judge from the photo that he's absolutely enjoying the rainy day.  Normally it would be a fight just to make him wear a jacket but when it comes to some splashing on puddles, he would be so eager to dress up and go.  

This is just one of those rainy days when we had to do some errands and go out in the rain.  It was just a light shower and the temperature was not freezing cold.  At first he was loving the walk without umbrella and I was the one holding it running after him.  It was just a pain to do that so luckily I wore my waterproof jacket and let him have the umbrella himself.  At first there was much complains and rejection but after having the hang of holding it, he was actually happily singing and hopping on puddles. 

I love having this kind of moment with my little boy, nothing fancy just plain old fun.  At least he'll grow up remembering he once played in the rain and wasn't just locked at home looking out the window.  We have to enjoy every moment, we can't stop the rain from falling, just like how I can't stop my boy from growing so fast....

He discovered something else about baking, it's fun to lick and taste the batter no matter how much mommy tells him not to.  Those little fingers will find its way to dip and get some batter.  After adding the flour, vanilla, cocoa, etc., he gets distracted upon seeing a nice thick batter.  I told him it won't taste good as the cocoa hasn't been completely mixed and to think it's extra dark unsweetened.  Go figure!  Well, he still got a smile on his face before tasting it as you can see.

Almost done with the batter and little boy happier with the taste.  I keep telling him he'll get ouchie tummy, this and that but it never worked.  He's happily rewarding himself with his labor beating and mixing the batter.  That also explains why I don't use my electric mixer, imagine the mess and possible accident that can happen with a curious little chef like this one.

Happy boy eating his very own COCOA BANANA CAKE!  He chose the little heart pan for his cake, he said that's baby size and the rectangle one is mommy and daddy size.  That means he claimed that little heart pan is his all alone.  The best part of the baking.... spending some quality time with my boy!  You may hear me scream here and there when he starts to do naughty things or forgets not to do things but I end up laughing at it in the end. 

This photo was taken last year, the second time J got to play with snow.  We didn't have much rains last year so we were lucky to find some snow pockets by the mountain sides.  Small shaded areas were slightly covered with snow, good enough for a little fun play time.  Perhaps this year will be a lot more different.  It's been raining so probably more snow in the mountains.  I sure hope so because J would definitely be playing there for hours this time around, hes even anticipating sledding.

Our snow trip only happens once a year a little after Christmas.  That's the only time I get to bundle up our little boy and let him enjoy wearing his snow boots.  Occasionally when it rains here around the city we would walk around jumping on puddles with his snow boots or rains boots but of course nothing beats the fun he gets to have playing in the snow. 

Wearing the proper shoes is very important as it can be freezing or soggy wet after a while.  It's also quite hard to walk o thick snow and most especially slippery melting ice.  Definitely you would have to get comfortable boots for women if you were to run and chase after a happy little boy.  To climb those hills and sled, leave marks on snow, or simply to keep your feet warm enough for hours of fun.

Christmas is just around the corner.  It seems like time is passing by so fast that in two weeks time it will be Christmas already.  Yearly we try to have baby's photo with Santa taken, unfortunately last year he wasn't so cooperative that it didn't turn out good.  

Yearly there's a "Storytime With Santa" event at the community center.  I didn't make it to the registration last year as I thought there will be slots left if I register by November.  I was wrong, so wrong!  When I called in to register, the lady told me it gets filled up right on the first day of registration so better do it really early next time.  That's what I did, I waited for the registration time to open and I did.

There's a fee of $18 for residents in our area and a bit more for non-residents.  I think it's worth it because they even have a spread of cookie assortment, hot cocoa, coffee or tea, craft tables for kids, storytime with Santa himself and the highlight... each kid has the chance to sit on Santa's lap for a little talk and photo opt.  I love this event as we managed to have a family picture all together with Santa!  They said we'll be given a copy/copies of the photos.

Seeing this photo makes me realize how much baby has grown over the years.  I'd love to go back to the past and cradle him once again like a tiny new infant.   Soon he'll be 3yrs old, surely time has flown so fast.

I once painted that same photo above during my college years and gave it as a gift to someone dear to me.  I wonder if they kept it hanging on their wall because if not, I wouldn't mind having it back.  hahaha

Me and hubs had the pleasure of replicating the model of this house, using Lego.  It's not ours but his officemate's.  It was given by their boss as a birthday present since the guy is a big fan of this architecture.  Being a fan doesn't mean you'd be willing to submit yourself doing lego building so the job of "constructing" it went to hubs.  Actually, I was the builder and he was the material sorter and supplier, as well as control supervisor.  We carefully followed every step and he would check every procedures done.  Finally after few hours of building, we accomplished the task.  We have built our very first Fallingwater.  Hubs plan to make a time lapse video as we documented every step from scratch.  I will definitely post it once it's done.

Happy Hollow is a children's fun park and we love this place.  We've been there several times and one of which, baby meets Danny the Dragon.  He was so excited and happy but only from a distance.  He didn't want the dragon to hold him even for a quick photo.  Baby tried to get near several times but will break a scream or two with much giggling when the dragon gets near him.

This is a very nice photo of us when we were about to leave Manila during our short 3week stay there.  All photos looked sad and finally something in which everybody's smiling.  Too bad my sis isn't there, she called me up and asked if she would still go straight to the airport from work but I told her she might as well go home because she'll be caught up so much with heavy traffic.  Of course we would've wanted to see her as we leave but sometimes you have to consider practicality over sentimentality.  At least we were able to talk for a bit and she even saw us before heading off to work that morning.

I can't believe it's been a year and looking at Jariel there, he's so small.  Our little boy has grown so much already and he's been talking a lot more.  We have to plan our next trip back home so we can better prepare for it.  It's always good to plan the trip ahead so better choices for cheap flights can be checked.  We never go on last minute flights, that could only happen if there's some sort of emergency.  We can't expect fare prices to be lower anytime soon due to the gas price hike, therefore better planning must be done so we won't end up losing all our vacation budget to air fare alone.  Only if we can teleport from here to there then there's nothing to worry about.

Hopefully for our next visit there we'll get more time for vacation and get to meet up with our friends.  We didn't have the luxury of time to do that before due to some other things that we had to do.  If we do get more flexible schedule then we can take baby to the beach or other farther places.  By that time he'll be more settled in the car, probably can have longer drive time without baby fussing.  We wouldn't mind going to HK Disneyland or other neighbor Asian countries if possible.  It's easy to find flights there and best deals on last minute accommodations, unlike coming from here.  I'm wishful thinking right now but who knows?  It would be nice to see and spend some time with my family again and for them to enjoy Jariel a bit while he's still a baby.  Just us being back home will make them happy already regardless if they need to go to work and can't really be with us at all times.  It will also be good for our boy to know more my side of family as he grows. 

Climate change, I'd say there has been an extreme change here. We actually had a dry fall and winter, the anticipated rains didn't come though we're quite experiencing a slightly late winter right now. Weird right? The dryness actually scares us of the coming "hotter" summer season. When it's hot here then it's too darn hot.

Funny that when it's freezing cold we kind of complain that we couldn't enjoy the outdoors. That wasn't the case this winter since it's been pretty much pleasantly cool and warm on most days. We actually go to the parks almost everyday and stroll around the neighborhood just like what we do during Spring time.

Since there wasn't enough rains unlike last year, the snow was also very scarce. I guess you can't have the best of everything. We brought baby to Nevada to enjoy sledding and experience snow once again but it wasn't as much as before. We were lucky enough to see a good snowy area enough to play but no snowman building this time around.

The rain chains hanging on the cabins along the way were not all frosty like before. If last year we were mesmerized by the winter wonderland feel upon driving through the snowy roads and snow capped mountains, it was mostly dry with little patches of snow under the shaded trees. The icicle chains rain frozen before were at no sight at all, just plain hanging rain chain and not frozen anymore.

The rivers and streams were all just flowing though I can't forget that great view of the railroads with hanging icicles under its bridge. That's the most of what we saw for our little snow trip. Nevertheless it was fun and worth remembering, we're lucky to even find a place to do some sledding. The climate might have changed but we tried to enjoy it as much as we can.

Hubs just finished building our home server so now I am extra busy organizing some files. The extra little time I have now goes to some more organizing though I admit it's not as tiring as moving around here at home fixing things in order since I just need to do it through the home computer network. As I was moving some folders into the server space I came across my parents' visit here last year. I kind of got stuck browsing the folder looking at all the photos we had then. Baby was way smaller and just started walking and running. Mom and dad enjoyed all the little trips we had around the city and all the beautiful flowers in bloom during their visit.

Though we were able to relax last night, the day was so busy that I didn't even get to turn on the computer to do anything else.  I managed to send some sms to some people and that's just about it.  Attending baby's activity session was just the start of our day the proceeded by some other errands before coming back home. One of the things that I got for our special night snack were strawberries.  I told my bes that we will use the fondue gift set she sent us last Christmas and so we did.  Right after putting baby to sleep I prepared the chocolate fondue and the strawberries, called hubs and enjoyed a nice quiet night snack.  

I didn't get the conventional flowers this Valentine's.  Hubs knew that I am not too fond of flowers and would rather have something practical so he gave me a bag full of Filipino goodies.  He put there our favorite snacks and even got baby's special yogurt drink.  I also got a special magazine to read!  I like how my big baby (daddy) thought of his gift because all of us get to enjoy it too.  I'm glad he didn't just go for those chocolate business gifts you can find almost everywhere and threw in more sentimental thoughts to his gifts. This year hubs did surprise me, I didn't know what to expect from him.  Too bad my gifts for him and baby weren't delivered yesterday, now you can tell that I'm really late on schedule with so many things.  Good thing I just received the package today and I will have something to surprise my boys!!!

Sharing duties is what we do, though it may seem like very simple tasks there's a whole lot more meaning when you do it together.  One best example is taking care of baby at night.  Giving a little time for mommy to prepare dinner while daddy is playing with baby is really good.  Daddy gets to spend some time with baby and mommy can concentrate making food for everybody.  

Showing baby how mom and dad help each other can promote better values for the boy.  He will learn that helping is necessary and something he should also do with mommy and daddy.  Mailbox duty is one of baby's favorite thing to do with mommy.  Though there were days when daddy gets to check and clear the mailboxes, baby surely enjoys it when it's out turn to check mail boxes.  It's like magic to him whenever he sees the tiny mail door opens and there are bunch of mails and papers in there.

There are many other chores and things to do at home that mommy and daddy try to share doing together.  Regardless if both are tired from the day's work, sharing some duties can make things lighter on their shoulders.  Keeping things this way can be beneficial for the little boy's development for him to have a great sense of responsibility too.  Sharing duties might not work for other couples and families but it certainly does for us. 

I can't believe it's been two years already since I gave birth to a tiny baby boy. Time flies by so fast indeed. Our once tiny baby is now a little boy. He runs around the park with unlimited energy, climbs up the playground like a cute little monkey and plays with sand and puddles just like any other kids do. There were times when he's all wet from jumping in the puddle or going through the water fountains, those days we end up having a murky car. 

Having an active little one is not easy but it's a lot of fun. I love the chase, I love the screams, the jumping up and down and even the mess. Seeing him grow and explore makes us feel so proud and happy as parents. Though time might be scarce having all so occupied with our little boy, it's all worth the sacrifice. He'll only be a baby for a couple of years and later on he'll start doing his own things. We'll only get to cradle him while he's small because in time no more babying. 

I've got to thank all of our dear friends and readers who are ever supportive to jifPJ. I haven't had the luxury of time to visit any other blogs or do some extra things most especially this past year. My time is mostly consumed with mommy duty, taking care of daddy as well and little works and errands here and there. I've survived getting our groceries and other supplies done online, that's the most convenient and practical way for me to shop. It might not be the best way to get better deals in-store but with some resourcefulness I manage to clip some savings with my purchases. It helps to check frugaldad for amazon discounts whenever I do my shopping there.

There are many things in life that challenged me this past year having to juggle life, work and family all at once.  Prioritizing what's important and giving up some things were just among the few things I've learned.  Right now our focus is to give the most attention to our growing boy and have a little more family time together.  All work and no play isn't good right?  Pardon my absence for the coming more months, mommyhood comes first right now and helping hubs level up our business comes next.  At least I can proudly tell you all that things are getting better and we're sailing smoother this year.