Work, play, and everything in-between.
Originally uploaded by iandexter.
Julian Emmanuel’s first birthday is coming up.
I gave this flyer a grungy look because it fits Julian’s personality well. He’s got that gritty look in him, and just the right amount of mischief peeks through every time he smiles. We call him “sutil”, a Filipino term that’s similar to “naughty” but not quite there.
(Fonts from dafont.com. Grunge brushes from bittbox.com.)
Our son, Julian, just got out of the hospital, after being confined (again) for what appeared at first as severe cough and fever. He was diagnosed with pneumonitis on both lungs. His doctor also said he has also acquired asthma.
We spent a total of six days in the hospital. I can tell you that despite the creature comforts that the hospital provides, there’s still no substitute to lying down in your own bed or playing in the yard with the kids. We all missed being home.
Now that we’re back home, hopefully, Julian and his kuya, Gabriel, will settle in to their routine. For Julian, it would be waking up early (at around five AM), play a bit in his crib before getting his mom or yaya’s attention for his first meal of the day. The only deviation now is that he has to take a puff from a measured dose inhaler twice a day, along with a battery of antibiotics and other meds. It’s difficult, specially for him, but the prognosis is good: if all goes well, he’ll be off the fluticasone/salmeterol cocktail after two months. We’re planning for the long term as well: get him into sports (swimming, for one) when he’s old enough; and other activities that would strengthen his lungs.
Still, life goes on for all of us. Hopefully, it will be better tomorrow, and onwards.
In a good way, that is.
Because of my shifting (shifty?) work sked, I had to take Monday and Tuesday off. It was a great weekend, though, since we got to accomplish many things.
We took the two kids to the doctor, just for a routine checkup. Allergies have been bugging Gab, but the little one is quite healthy. After that, we took the afternoon off at the apartment in Pasig. That night, we went out shopping for a walker. We let the little one try it out. Guess what he settled for? The most expensive one. Ugh.
The next day, it was off to the Department of Foreign Affairs to apply for the kids’ passports. It was madness. We should have settled for applying through an agency. If Gab wasn’t with us, we wouldn’t have been able to cut through the queues. (Applications for minors were given priority so our time there was significantly cut in half.) There must be a better way of processing passport applications.
It was mall time again after the trip to DFA. We were bothered by Gab’s frequent nosebleeding. The pediatrician attributed it to allergies, but cautioned us that there may be other underlying causes. Hope this turns out to be *just* caused by Gab’s nose-picking.
We had the kids driven home while Peng and I went on with our shopping chores. We went out on a “date” — our first after so many years, it seems — and it felt good being by ourselves once in a while, without the children. But guess what, we talked of nothing else but them still.
This morning, we went to Peng’s dentist friend so she can have her prophylaxis. Her friend’s clinic was in Fort Bonifacio. That place has improved, and turning out to be the next big place away from the decaying urban squalor that is the rest of Metro Manila. But for how long, I’m not sure.
Like Calvin, I should say my days are just packed. Still, it was a very great if screwed up weekend.
Originally uploaded by iandexter.
He got his mom’s sweetest smile.
We’ve been in the hospital for three nights now. The little one got confined because of high fever. The doctors have been doing some tests on him for a few days now, trying to find out the cause: x-ray, blood chemistry, urine and stool tests turned out negative.
He’s been battered with antibiotics and other meds, and seeing him like this is very painful for us. At this age, he is already acquiring a phobia on hospitals — he freaks out every time a nurse or medical staff comes in the room.
We hope he gets well soon.
