i am 7!

"and that is the sludge-of-a-birthday-cake my momma made" :)
joaquin on his 7th birthday

{still can't believe our baby is now seven}

why do they grow up fast?

it feels like it was just yesterday when i gave birth to you.
and now that you are almost 7, you choose your own clothes and shoes.
fix your hair, yourself and already wear perfume.
how i miss the little you yet love every bit of the growing up you.



and as what i always tell you, no matter how big you get (bigger than mommy).
you will always be my baby.

how would you feel when someone questions your parenting skills?

a tough situation to be at, huh? a big YES indeed.

it is quite challenging raising children nowadays. i am sure most of you would agree with me on this. children today are rambunctious. so different when it was us. we sit in a corner and we won't speak unless we are spoken to. i was that kind of child and so it was pretty difficult dealing with a very active boy {to say the least}.

am i a disciplinarian? i think i am not. yet i think i am.

my siblings and i grew up with disciplinarian parents. that given, i knew i didn't want to completely adopt this when i raise my own children. i do want order. yes. but i didn't want to control my children or their childhood.

and i often find it good. children showing independence and willfulness. as long as they don't get hurt in the process of their exploration, i am good with that. guidance is the key and not control. but be questioned for being a parent because your child is simply being a child? is it fair?

i guess i can only shrug my shoulders and wish that people would see my son as we see him everyday. a very loving and sweet (unruly, yes) but sweet as it is. knowing that, i guess being questioned doesn't bother me that much (no one knows me better than i know myself and no one knows my son better that we, his parents, do)

and so i rest my case.

a successful attempt

with all the baking that i do, decorating has never been that good to me.
i usually slump some frosting and cover my cake using a spatula or a spoon.
but this time, i decided to bring out my mom's wilton tips and see what happens. :)

hopefully, this is going to be the first of many successfully decorated cakes from me. :) TFL!

my boys: my pride and my joy

looking at these photos,

all the exhaustion i felt these past weeks was all worth it.

{wanted to share this milestone in our son's childhood}




he was serious, he was raving of becoming a chef :-)
(our mini bobby flay)


and despite his absences from school due to asthma attacks,
he was able to snag some awards


what's a family portrait without the mom in it ;)


and concluded the day with a thanksgiving dinner with his grandparents
(my parents, my aunts and my grandmother - JP's great grandma)

it was a very-fine-day :-D TFL!