It's a MelloYello Life

Dealing with a son with AS really beats you out sometimes.  Some days I come home from work and ask him how his day went and he'd say something like : "Normal. Mama, I don't want to talk about it, if that's ok."  That, coupled with a somber look on his face.  I just know that someone at school made fun of him for behaving in a weird way. Or he went berserk because he got frustrated over some little thing at school that ticked him off. Those times I feel totally useless and worthless to him. That really sucks. BUT there are days when he surprises me.  Just last week, he asks me: Mama, how do you make friends?  I ask him about who it is he wanted to be friends with and it turns out to be a neuro-typical girl in school who likes Pokemon just as much as he does. I was so excited, I rambled on and on about how to make a good impression, how to find the right timing to approach her and talk about stuff. I've been there, done that, I know how to catch someones'

  Who doesn't like ice cream? Well if you do know someone who doesn't appreciate one of man's best inventions, tell him he's  missing a lot.  Yummy, creamy, milky, flavorful, nutty, sweet, chocolatey, fruity, delectable dessert no one can deny.  One of my latest discoveries in Trinoma mall:StickHouse.  I've seen it around but never had the chance to try it until now. And boy I was in for a treat!   They come in Regular, Premium, and Sorbet flavors. Regular flavors priced P70 are: Milk Cream, Gandua, and Chocolate. Premium Flavors priced at P80 are Pistachio (my favorite!) and Coffee. Sorbet flavors  priced at P60 are Strawberry and Mango. You can choose from a variety of toppings (full - P25, half - P15)such as almonds, pistachios, coffee, and hazelnuts. You can go for milk chocolate or white chocolate dip for an additional P25. The taste is very different from the Magnolia or Selecta flavor we're all used to. It carries a distinct flavor of powdered m

My view for the next 3 days. I've always been lampa (clumsy). Growing up, I remember coming home from school with cuts, scrapes, and bruises regularly. Now that I'm all grown, I am very much conscious of the way I walk, go down the steps, and run. I'm flat-footed too, which doesn't at all help with balancing issues.  BUT, this particular mishap happened while I was quietly strolling in our community bazaar. I was simply looking for something to buy for lunch  and boom! I tripped and on the way down heard a crunch and I knew right then that I had torn something. The pain brought tears to my eyes. Luckily I was with Alice and Sky and they helped me hop back to our unit and conducted first aid: RICE - Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. (We looked this up online as we were panicking about what to do next. Oh boy. Lesson learned: mind your footing while at a bazaar. You'll never know if your absentmindedness gets you into an accident!

I haven't blogged in a while because: 1. Work has overtaken most of my waking hours 2. There is no number 2. Just number 1. But you know what? I realized that is no way to live. Man, it's just work, right? I should really learn to prioritize. Almost every night for the last 2 months, I said to myself  "I'll blog tonight." And everytime I'd go out, I'd take loads of pictures and say "I'll blog about this." But  never did. So here I am. And hopefully, I can keep this up. :)

 As my first post in months I thought this should be about something I've been excited about for weeks and so here it is: Yakimix! We got there at &:30 pm and we had to wait 45 minutes to get a table. The staff was friendly and they gave us complimentary drinks: a choice between iced tea,  mango juice, and blue lemonade. At P580 per head and P65 for bottomless drinks, who could resist such an offer? Buffet's always excite me. Being presented with so many food choices, I feel a thrill of planning out how to navigate the buffet table properly to make sure I can get a taste of everything they have to offer without overstuffing myself. Plus, at every booth/table restaurant-goers have the option to fry their chosen meats and seafood to however they want.  Now that's what I call fun! Here's a sampling of what you can cook on your own in the comfort of your own table. The Yakiniku fryer guaranteed no smoke, therefore you wouldn't smell like the food you just a

Today I have the flu.  I decided to stay in bed and rest as advised by my friends and family. BUT, as restless as I am, I turned on my laptop and searched for Asperger's documentaries to better understand my son K. You see, I have been struggling with him lately.  Unlike before, he's more withdrawn and would rather not share anything about what happened during the day.  He doesn't know it, but he hurts my feelings when he says : "I'd rather not talk about it". I know that the AS makes him blind to emotions because he simply doesn't recognize them, thus making emotions irrelevant. I find this hard to deal with but it's something I need to accept and work with everyday to prepare him for life. Anyway, allow me to share with you a video I found on You Tube about a teenager with AS. Reuben is a lot like K, being very literal, the bullying, confusion in the supermarket, self-confidence issues. Among all the videos I've seen, this is the one I can rela

I really don't know if there is such as thing as Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder, but I can relate to the following joke and it's making me worry a bit: Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests: I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So I decide to put the bills backon the table & take out the garbage first.. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the

I'm quite sure that for most 13 year olds, going to the mall, and hanging out with friends on the weekend is a normal activity. This isn't so for my son K. Having  Asperger's Syndrome (AS), K has difficulty socializing. He isn't an introvert or anti-social. He is simply incapable of recognizing and responding to verbal cues from others.  A couple of years ago,  buying his own burger and fries at McDonald's was enough to make him sweat nervously and clam up.  He needs to rehearse what he needs to say to the cashier before he gets in line to order. It takes him forever to muster up the courage to get in line.  Lately, I've been "training" him to buy the stuff that he wants so he has no choice but to do it. I was excited and nervous when he told me that his good friend A invited him to go to the nearby mall and play network games. K, got down all the details of the "play date" and relayed them to me. I was happy that he finally had the urge to

I'd like to think that there is still something I can do to help save what's left of our dear old mother earth. I've been bringing my own shopping bag to the grocery and refusing plastic bags when I buy something from the nearest convenience store. I have been trying to reduce my use of drinking straws as much as I can (speaking of which, can't someone invent reusable ones already?) and just recently got myself a pair of green shoes. Yes, they are literally and figuratively speaking, GREEN. Enter Simple Shoes , the first biodegradable shoes I've encountered so far here in the Ph. I was going to buy a new pair anyway and the designs were interesting so I decided to try some. The soles of these shoes are made from the recycled rubber of tires and the laces are made from PET bottles. They use HEMP   to make the body of the sneakers (no, I did not attempt to light up my shoes) because it is one of the strongest and most breathable fibers available and apparen

The Recto Train A and the LRT Ticket I've lived in Metro Manila all my l ife and never been to Ongpin. Shame on me, I know. I just never had any time (or interested friends to go with) until now. So, one Saturday, Alice, Oh, Rhy and I decided to go on an Ongpin food adventure. We took the LRT 2 from Cubao to Recto. You can go through Gateway Mall from the MRT (the one that goes through EDSA) to get to the LRT 2.  The four of us met up at the Isetann Mall close to the Recto stration and got on the jeep going to Divisoria (P7.00) and got off at the Aranque Market entrance. From here we could easily navigate through the Binondo Food Wok Map which I borrowed from my officemate Kat and find our way into the heart of Ongpin. Thanks to my dear officemate Kat, we had a Binondo Food Wok Map to help us through to get to the heart of Ongpin. Sights, sounds, and smells of Ongpin! The streets were narrow, traffic everywhere, the heat was really on! But we happily strolled through

Thanks to a Samsung event I attended for work, I got to try some variants of the Messy Bessy line. If you aren't familiar with the brand yet, Messy Bessy manufactures home cleaning products which are all non-toxic and environment friendly.  They are available in selected supermarkets nationwide at reasonable prices. The Samsung organizers launched their new microwave, french door refrigerator, and front load washing machine. I was  hoping to win the raffle and take home a neat home appliance but I wasn't at all disappointed when they handed me the Messy Bessy gift pack.  I tried the all-purpose cleanser on my bathroom sink. It had a pleasant eucalyptic scent which I love! The texture is quite grainy which worked like a scrub on its own. Like Axion. Another favorite is the Minty Orange Surface Cleaner. You know how when you're cooking and you mess up your kitchen counter WHILE you're cooking and need to clean up as your cooking? This is the perfect solution. Since

Given my association with the world-renowned Philippine Madrigal Singers, people naturally ask whether my son K also likes to sing. You know, I believe I haven't heard him sing more than 10 times in his entire life. K reacts to music. That manifested when he was about 3 years old and we were on a taxi home and the radio was playing "I never had a dream come true". All of a sudden I heard sniffling. K was crying! I asked him, "What's wrong?" He just shrugged and buried his head into my lap. When the music stopped, he explained that "the music made me cry".  Another instance was at the end of the first Harry Potter movie, he begged me to stay and finish the end credits. I asked him what he was waiting to see on the screen. He said he wanted to finish the music. I noticed that since then, he prefers soundtrack or theme music than songs with lyrics. However, K would occasionally grant us a song or two when we had our Magic Mic moments, but not happil

When I was younger, I found out I was allergic to crustaceans when I had a small bite of crab meat and my face blew up, my heart raced and I couldn't breathe.  Since then, I never touched crab and I bring along an antihistamine in my wallet for emergencies. People tell me that I can overcome my allergies by eating a bit of it every chance I get. I haven't been lucky with crab yet, but I believe I am totally over shrimp. I try to limit myself to jut 5 pieces of shrimp per meal. BUT when my friend A and I go out for shrimp at Bubba Gump, I most certainly will eat a lot more than 5. To order a Bubba Gump, customers have to flip the sign on each table to say: Stop Forrest, Stop. This way, servers will know that you need something from them and have no excuse not to pay any attention to you.  Once you've given them your order, you can flip the sign back to Run Forrest, Run. A and I had shrimp in mind so we ordered the Shrimper's Net Catch (P699)which was a pound of s

Normally, going to the hospital is my least favorite activity.  I usually expect to wait for hours for my turn to get a consultation from the doctor assigned by the company HMO. Well, that was the case for this particular visit. I had to do a 12 hour fast for my blood test at the Makati Medical Center , so I went at 7:30am so that I can have breakfast early as well.  I looked around the newly renovated MMC and found some familiar food stalls: Pizza Hut, Burger King, Dairy Queen, Seattle's Best and Mary Grace. However, I was really looking for, you know, BREAKFAST. So I asked the guard and he recommended the Floating Island which served all kinds of meals. Situated on the 3rd level of the MMC, it greets you with an aroma of Lavazza, a brand of coffee I first had the chance to taste while in Italy with my host family from Mel , in the province of Belluno.  Immediately, I decided, this is it! The staff seemed attentive and friendly and gave us the menus right away. I ordered the B

Out of necessity and fear of being helpless (and foodless) once the gas runs out, I decided to get an induction cooker . An induction cooker cooks/heats food faster and is more energy efficient only because you are supposed to finish cooking meals faster than over a fire. The induction cooker only works with any stainless pot or pan. If you place any other cookery with it, it simply won't heat/cook the food . The price for an induction cooker ranges from as low as P1,000 to P15,000. I got my Hanabishi induction cooker for P2,300 at Automatic Center in Cubao (Quezon City, Philippines). It came with a free stainless steel pan so it was ready to be used in case of emergency. The day finally came when I ran out of gas while in the middle of preparing our breakfast (thank God it was a weekend!). I took out the manual, skimmed through it and was eager to start. I put some oil in the pan, since the manual said "never put an empty pot on the stove", placed it on top of the hea

A lot of parents know this: the first day of school can get a little crazy. For my son K, it was just that. All throughout the week he had been wondering which class he'd belong to and who his class adviser would be. So when I told him that he'd be in the same class and under the same teacher, he was pacified. You see, people with Asperger's Syndrome need to be aware of their schedule for the next day. If changes occur unpredictably, it would be very devastating for them. We started the first day of school morning like we had during the school year before: we woke up at 5, I cooked breakfast and prepared his lunch while he got ready for school. We chat for a few minutes during breakfast, he brushes his teeth and goes downstairs to wait for the school bus. Everything went smoothly and I was assured that he was ok until his teacher sent me an SMS saying that he had been transferred to a more mainstream class. I knew I should be ecstatic. I had been excited for the day w

Some will say that giving birth to and living with a child with Asperger's Syndrome is a curse. Imagine teaching someone how to look at people in the eye, or, how to crack a simple joke, better yet, understand one. Or think of how you can work on conjuring an "acceptable" smile, or teaching him how to pause between sentences as "normal" people would. Let me tell you, it's hard. Most parents are concerned with their child's bad behavior, worrying about peer pressure, or being too independent, too early. Parents of kids with AS worry about totally different things. I've consulted several books on how to understand, help, and live harmoniously with my child who has AS. The books all helped but I believe the best way to go about it is to listen, observe, and remember. You have to listen to him and try to "get" him. He doesn't talk like other normal/neuro-typical people. He talks like he was reading off an encyclopedia in a monotonous

I make it a point to go out and treat myself to something nice every Friday night. Be it a movie, eating at a new restaurant, buying my favorite magazine, or shopping for simple toiletries, it makes me feel like I'm doing something nice for myself and I deserve it after a hectic week at the office. Last Friday, my friend and I decided to treat ourselves to something sweet. It was something we rarely did as we are always on a diet and are very conscious about the calories we take in. However when we passed by Gelatissimo in Greenbelt 5, we just had to give it a try. Gelatissimo, Greenbelt 5 Stepping inside, you will be confronted with an array of flavors which can be quite overwhelming. You can ask to taste any flavor before making your choice. You pay for it at the counter: P110 - 1 scoop/flavor in a cup. You can also choose to have your gelato in a cone (I'm not sure how much more you have to pay, but it isn't too expensive