My apologies for the 4-day hiatus. My husband and son both got sick at the time that I myself was feeling physically and emotionally drained. My pregnancy hormones continue to drive me crazy.

Now I’ll try and catch up with my rounds so my online friends will know that I still exist.

First off, let me show off the awards given to me by my fellow blogger moms.

Thank you Eileen, Pat, and Joey for these awards.

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A very good friend, Senator Mon as I call him, tagged me and “obliged” me to display my desktop for everyone to see. I’m at work right now and I decided to do a quick post on this because I sooooo love my desktop here.

Click on the image for a better view
I am one of the lucky few to be issued a 19-inch wide-screen LCD monitor, so my desktop is quite wide. I so love this particular picture of my son, which was taken last New Year’s celebration.

I just realized that in majority of my favorite shots of him, he’s wearing that striped brown romper. Useless trivia.

I won’t be tagging anyone because I saw that most of my blogger friends have done this already. To those who haven’t, feel free to grab this tag. Don’t forget to let me know you’ve done it so I can take a look.

Got tagged by Eileen and Joey.

1. His name should have been Corvinus Keith, but my husband and I changed our minds a couple of days before his birth and named him Constantine Keith instead. We’re using the name Corvinus for his baby brother due to join the family this summer.
2. We got his nickname, Issen, from a video game. Poor kid has got geeks for parents.
3. He stayed at the hospital for seven days when he was born due to some minor complications. I had to go everyday to the hospital to breastfeed him, but it gave me time to recover physically before having sleepless nights with him.
4. He is a spitting image of his Dad.
5. The first thing he’s ever watched on TV? Daddy’s game of Final Fantasy XII. He was about 2-3 months old then. Oh yes, he’s gonna grow up to be geek as well.
6. He never had troubles switching to and from breast and bottle. He never had troubles adjusting to a new formula when he reached one year. He’s generally a fuss-free baby, for which I’m very thankful.
7. He forgets about the whole world when he’s watching his Sesame Street home videos.
8. The first word that comes out of his mouth every day upon waking up is “Dada”.

I just want to share this video of my son playing with the cloth diaper I was using to wipe his mouth with (he’s teething and he’s drooling all over the bed )

I can’t wait for the week to end. I can’t wait to give birth, but this time, for something very different from my usual reason.

I’ve been having back pains since Saturday. It’s tolerable, but it feels like I’ve been reaching for my toes the whole day. At times it would be gone, only to come back a few minutes later.

It’s driving me crazy, really.

I went to my OB yesterday and she said the pain is caused by the increasing weight of my tummy. Also, she informed me that I’m not that far along and she’s expecting me to give birth “soon”. God knows what she meant by “soon,” but I certainly hope I still have time to prepare.

Argh. I’ll get back to you as soon as I get my mind to think of something else other than the damn back pain.

I owe a couple of girls some tags; I promise I’ll do them as soon as I feel better.

Yes, finally! Wooooot!

The pregnant nanny is still here with us, as I still need her while Issen warms up and becomes familiar with his new nanny. Today is the new nanny’s first day, so I couldn’t really say much about how she is, but so far, Issen seems to like her.

This whole week will be their time for transition. Hopefully, my boy won’t have a hard time adjusting to his new sitter. And I certainly hope that the new sitter will be up to the task, as Issen is already quite a handful at almost 16 months.

No, don’t worry, Issen doesn’t have “special powers of darkness” like Jack Jack of The Incredibles. Well, at least, he hasn’t shown anything yet, unless you consider farting like a grown-up man (sound and smell) a special power of darkness.

Oh.

Credit goes to USA Today for the image of Kari and Jack Jack of The Incredibles.

I feel so stupid to wonder why my Google Page Rank is still N/A (not available), which, according to Page Rank Checker, means “it is not possible to show any page rank now.”

And how could I get a page rank when my blog is just a little over a month old and I haven’t really done much to boost its traffic?

When I realized that, I immediately searched for blog networks similar to my interests and signed up. Thus, you will find a couple more badges on my mommy networks on the sidebar.

It’s a two way-thing for me, being a member of blog networks. One, I get to expose my blog to more bloggers who share the same interests as mine, meaning they would most likely become regular visitors of my blog should I come up with significant content. Two, I get to discover new things and learn from fellow bloggers whenever I do my rounds within the network.

The give and take philosophy taken to a new and more high-tech level.

And of course, I haven’t forgotten that the key to getting more and sustaining traffic is good content. Don’t worry, I’m working on that. I just hope they’d be interesting enough to those who are kind enough to drop by.

By the way, here’s a tip I got on how to become a famous blogger.

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Note: This post is a revised version of a blog post in my other blog.

I can’t wait to give birth. I can’t wait to breastfeed again.

I enjoyed breastfeeding Issen, my now 15-month-old boy, so much that I was so devastated when we had to stop. I got pregnant again when Issen was about 8 months old, and my OB advised against breastfeeding while pregnant. Also, my irregular schedule of milk expression at work caused the continuous decrease in my milk supply. I was using a manual pump then and the stress at work didn’t do much good to milk supply, add to that the fact that I sometimes skip my pumping session because it has become a really tiring chore to me.

Still, I was lucky that I didn’t go through the usual first-timer breastfeeding dilemmas. Issen learned very easily to latch on to me, and I never experienced cracked nipples or extremely painful plugged milk ducts.

Here are a couple of lessons I learned that could have made my breastfeeding easier and last longer.

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As a mother, I always want to be able to give the best of everything to my kids. Of course, I’m conscious about the cost, but there are things that I’d rather splurge on than risk my babies’ health and safety.

I don’t hesitate to spend, for example, on his medicine/vitamins, milk, diaper, drinking water, and food. I scrimp, however, on a lot of things that I know he wouldn’t appreciate the financial value yet or those that he would outgrow in a short while.

Toys, however, are a little different. I won’t hesitate buying him something pricey if I know that the toy will have a positive effect on at least one aspect of his development. I find ways, though, to get pricey educational toys at a low price. Like second-hand but in excellent condition toys off eBay.

Anyway, a friend sent me this video about why you shouldn’t have to buy expensive toys for your babies to enjoy. Check out its version I found on YouTube, it’s hilarious.

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The stress I’ve been experiencing since last week has drained away my creative juices and left me with nothing to rejuvenate this blog with.

Anyway, I do not follow mixed martial arts fighting as religiously as a big fan does, but I do know some personalities and I try to watch every chance I get. Same thing with porn. C’mon, give me a break. I’m a married woman.

So why am I saying this? I’m probably waaaaaaaaaay behind the news but I just found out that Ultimate Fighting Champion legend Tito Ortiz has been dating “the world’s most famous porn star,” Jenna Jameson, apparently since 2006.

Check out this video of the couple being lovey-dovey, after signing autographs for fans.

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