My Mom Bod

I honestly don't know at the moment what to call this post. I know what I want to talk about though, and it's basically a lead up to and somewhat part of the three-part Mommy Monday blog series I will be posting for August.

I loved looking at myself in the mirror, even as a kid. When I was around four or five years old, my mother and I would ride a jeepney* to wherever we needed to go and I enjoyed sitting behind the driver just so I could watch myself make faces in the side mirror.

By the time I was a teenager, it was a means to preen. I wasn't into makeup, at least not that much yet, but I would spend about half an hour fixing my hair before leaving the bathroom to have a spot of breakfast before school. I thought I looked great but then at some point I realised that I wasn't as visually pleasing as I thought I was.

Work Modes

These have been the busiest two months I've ever had. We went from nursing our fledgling manufacturing business from birth to toddlerhood, to negotiating new businesses that we eventually decided not to support (oh it wasn't bad news for them that we withdrew though: both businesses are currently in the process of getting off the ground and we're very happy for them), and other involvements that we've had on the back burner for some years now.

It's been an amazing and incredible ride to be out and about but now I'm gearing up to take a back seat and work from home as media support for everything we have going on. I know it will likely drive me crazy to not be able to do much or go around as often but hey, what's a mom to a newborn to do, right? I guess I'll call it my maternity leave, hahaha.

Meantime I revert back to the home base duties of creating marketing materials and posting on social media. I did get quite good at that back then. I've almost completed my new work station, having installed all my necessary programs and pass times into my new laptop. All that's left is for me to retrieve the hard drive from my old computer so I can sort out the things I need to pull out from there.

I can't say how successful this transition will be but, we will manage.

The Second Child Syndrome

I often hear about parents saying that they've more pictures of their eldest child than their succeeding ones.

Last night I realised, I have been the same way. I don't have as many pregnancy photos this time around. Not that it's any less magical for me but that for some reason, photos have been the last thing on my mind.

I've been trying to capture Sid's movement since Month 6.

(Note: "Sid" is the fetal nickname we gave our second baby. This is not a reference to the gender, though I am still quite old school with this when it comes to grammar and will tend to refer to Sid as male.)

This made me realise that Sid is incredibly elusive. Most times, I feel his movement in the early morning hours when it would be too dark to capture anything on my phone. And while most parents are less paranoid as they progress to the next child, I have been more paranoid with Sid because Llew is so playful that he would sometimes pounce me and accidentally hit or graze my belly with his feet. A minor upside to this is that it's been a way for me to introduce to Llew that he will be an older brother soon. He doesn't care much for feeling his coming sibling move inside my belly but he's taken to randomly kissing, rubbing, and hugging my belly.

Has he accepted that he will be an older brother soon? I'm not entirely sure. But he has been acting strange even by his standards, especially with asking his stuffed animals to be outfitted with diapers. So maybe we have that ray of light there.

Here's hoping.

As posted on Tumblr

Note: This is an old entry reposted from my old blog called Boudoir Angel on Tumblr. I'm reposting all of these old entries because I plan to delete my old blog and consolidate everything to this one. Some posts may have its text updated and/or reformatted slightly according to the platform change.

“I’m one stomach flu away from my goal weight.”

—	“The Devil Wears Prada” (Emily)

Originally posted as Boudoir Angel on Tumblr, 10 May 2012

Coping with the Crazy

In the period between now and my last real activity on this blog, so much has happened and changed that to try and recapture them one by one just for documentation would be just plain silly.

So let's just go ahead and focus on today. Today and everything that is basically the result of those "lost" days.

In brief: The truth is that staying focused on my eldest gave me little to no time for myself beyond sitting somewhere and staring into nothingness. I found that I didn't really like blogging via my mobile phone or my tablet. The speed with which I needed to type so I can quickly capture my thoughts just didn't match the speed with which I could work on either unit.

So eventually, I gave up. Just quietly gave up.

The best part about vanity is when it gives back: Sharing my latest obsession

Note: This is an old entry reposted from my old blog called Boudoir Angel on Tumblr. I'm reposting all of these old entries because I plan to delete my old blog and consolidate everything to this one. Some posts may have its text updated and/or reformatted slightly according to the platform change.

Granted that it’s pretty easy to find them, sometimes some people just need an arrow pointing in the right direction.

Also, a little trivia: M.A.C. (Which actually stands for “Make-up Art Cosmetics) Cosmetics is actually an independent brand founded in Canada that is now under Estee Lauder. Originally it was designed purely for use by make-up artists but thankfully they’ve decided to widen their scope and offer these gorgeous cosmetics to us regular folk!

Taking a leaf out of an expert's book...

Note: This is an old entry reposted from my old blog called Boudoir Angel on Tumblr. I'm reposting all of these old entries because I plan to delete my old blog and consolidate everything to this one. Some posts may have its text updated and/or reformatted slightly according to the platform change.

...I would like to thank Jessica Schroeder of What I Wore (http://whatiwore.tumblr.com/) for her Ultimate Guide to Blogging tips (http://whatiwore.tumblr.com/tagged/blogging) that inspired me to really make my Tumblr blog something just a touch more than mere venting.

I'm doing a little bit of remodelling (just a few blog posts in so this, I think, is really the best time for such a thing) particularly with the photos and improve on the text for future posts.

I'd taken creative writing back in uni but I never really mastered the art of writing as myself, so I would seriously like to take this "vanity outlet blog" of mine...well, seriously, and make it into something of a practice space for me to not just express my new-found love for and enjoyment of all things pretty (fashion or cosmetics) but to also to continue honing my skill as a nonfiction writer.

Originally posted as Boudoir Angel on Tumblr, 8 May 2010