Excuses ...

Just in case you were wondering about the haphazard updating schedule.... here's Mama's excuse:

This Mama is kind of busy with the makeshift school/activity centre/canteen at home. We still do go for our daily walkies with participants numbering from zero, two, three, up to even five (!) kids. Combine that with the same swarm of hungry kids attacking once they finish school.... this Mama is not getting her space for twiddling with her computer.

We need to make a better schedule soon. Ha! Until then...

Missing again!

Well.... as predicted, we went missing again, for the whole month!
We do hope you had some GREAT HOLIDAYS & a FANTASTIC NEW YEAR so far, just as we did (and do!).
Let it also be said that the stack of photos this Mama mentioned before? Downright puny and laughable compared to what I have right now, with the addition of our holidays at home, roadtrip, more excursions, not to mention an epic luggage (pictured above).
Well... slowly but surely, the tortoise said. So... we'll just leave you in the meantime with a new banner, for an exciting new year. We are still waiting for Kecil's school to start, just so Mama can get back to the hang of things around here. Until then!

Side trip 2013

Did Mama mentioned we went for a little trip earlier?
Indeed. Which kind of explained the absence of posts for a couple of days.
As with most of our travels, it's bordering on epic, with so many goals and long to-do lists, as you can see from the collage above.
We'll definitely cover the trip in the following posts.
But before that, any guesses as to where we went?

For hints, let's start by saying that the pictures in the collage above are taken during the trip. For more hints, you can also check out Mama's photoblog. Unfortunately, as of the moment, Kecil's photoblog has not been updated so as to provide any additional hints.

Have fun guessing! And be sure to check out this space again tomorrow to find out the answer! Cheers!

busy childhood ....

This Mama really has like 2 post (and more stories) already in motion.
But this Mama has also been busy.
Mostly because of these culprits pictured above.
I guess childhood is a busy business, full of playdates, impromptu walks, a few small quarrels (that Mama or the other mama needs to referee for)... so many things.

We'll try again tomorrow to finish what had been started.
In the meantime, do check Kecil's {photoblog}. This Mama had started it to post pictures when time does not quite allow for full post. It was left empty for a while, but there has been quite a few new pictures. The link can also be found under the big Kecil Stories picture above.
After a visit, you are always welcome to share what you think over here.
Cheers!

M.I.A.

And so this Mama bet that you thought the playground swallowed us whole or something, for going MIA so suddenly for so long.
Ah well... actually ... it was more of life happening. Things got busy, there was Halloween to prepare for, even if it was only for the Skool celebration.
And of course, after waiting for so long, Daddy finally managed to secure his leave, our return ticket home, and so we left, willy nilly Skool, laundry, whatever.
(Kidding. We did manage to time the departure with Kecil's holiday. Also we did make provisions for the Dog to be taken care for while we are away. I think that's about it, though)

As such, I guess this Mama realizes that there are oh so many things to cover in order to get up to date. Too bad she also realizes that she's not too good at keeping up to date. Ah well... we'll just see how we'll do. I think I still have a few post due from last year's holidays stories. Haha!

Cheers!

Camera Shy

Between the rain, and the rain, and even more rain, we have become a bit camera shy, this Mama and Kecil. Mama hesitates a lot before taking the camera along for walkies, for fear it would get wet, or something.
But we have been taking our walkies, making friends, exploring, playing, just as usual, as much as the rains allow us to, anyway.
And fear not, there are breaks in the rain, which can be so welcomed, especially after days of continuous downpour.
But we'll get to that later, after we process the pics, develop the story, and do the usual boring bloggy stuff.
We'll get to that soon.

Here's hoping for better weather to continue.

Kecil's 365 stories

As much as Mama loves to tell Kecil's stories here, there are times when life simply does not allow the necessary time for composing/posting/appending pictures here.
Starting this year, apart from this blog, this Mama had started a photoblog for Kecil's pictures, which you can find @ http://kecil365stories.tumblr.com/
It is still a work in progress, but with a lower requirement of just a single picture a day, you might get some headway in Kecil stories as compared to here.
In any case, the photos displayed would be (in future) a different set from what is used in this space.
I do hope you'll enjoy it. Cheers!

Updated: I have put up the link on top of the blog as well, just under the banner, as {photoblog} for quick access.

Welcome!

Hi there! So glad that you join us here at the new address @kecilstories
While the import process was pretty smooth, this Mama is still expecting glitches and the likes.
Please do bear with us while Mama tries to iron out the kinks.
More works (such as redesign, if ever) will hopefully be done sometime later.

If you notice some flaw/glitch, do feel free to highlight it to Mama, either via the comments or via email.
In the meantime, hope you enjoy your visit!
Cheers!

A little admin note

With the recent acquisition of some new tools, Mama had been adjusting her workflow these past few weeks. Some of you might have been surprised when clicking on the images brought you to my Flickr page instead of the usual lightbox provided courtesy of PicasaWeb.
I have since revert back to using Picasaweb and you can now again click on the images to see the bigger version of the images. I am hoping to move those Flickr images in the interest of uniformity.
Thank you for your patience!

Deadlines

There are times which are set aside specially for the Little One, for photo ops, for playing and everything.
But there are also times when Mama needs a lot of time to herself.
This week (and next, me thinks) Mama have a few deadlines to meet, as well as some exciting stuff to happen. We'll how that will work out with the blogging schedule.
Be well.
(and if you have some spare prayer, you can also wish Mama best of luck with her deadlines. Hehe)

Signal 3 ...

We were under signal 3 alert yesterday as typhoon Pedring made its way across the Northern Philippines. Amidst howling wind, crazyly spinning rains, falling tree branches, and flickering lights, Kecil and family 'survived' unscathed on instant noodles and each others' company (no school nor office for Kecil & Daddy).

We are (hopefully) back to slightly more normal condition, with the exception of regular TV and school, but hopefully Mama will be back with more normal blogging, not to mention stories from yesterday's typhoon soon.

Take care!

It's the 200th post!!!

The journey to 100th post took 2 years plus. But the 100 post that followed merely spanned 6 months! Mama either gets so much more click-happy (so many pictures!), so much more verbose (so many things to say!) or simply more into blogging.

Well.. whatever the case, I hope you are enjoying the ride anyway. With 200 posts up, we are looking into some changes around here. So... for the regular readers, don't be too surprised. 

New here? Well... you can always check out the evolution of Imoet to see how the blog has evolved so far.

Thank you for following us so far. This Mama sure hope you've enjoyed the ride.

Here's for even better days in the future! Better pictures, and better stories.

The evolution of Imoet

A lot of blogs, I notice, tweak their design, lay out, etc from time to time.
I guess it's kind of cool, especially once I started doing that as well, to reflect a certain improvement in my know-how as well as the development of the subject in question.
She does not remain a little baby all the time, no?

So.. just as this Mama does a sporadic weekly showcase of Kecil's growth through time, we can also go through a show case of the blog through time.
Just because this Mama keeps a record of them.

Imoet still under the old name, Little Cute Baby.
I do not actually have a record of the blog design earlier than this one. But then again, there wasn't anything special with that (rather plain) design, no?
I think this design went up shortly after Blogger came up with a new template designer, in which I found that gorgeous background image. A quilt top in gorgeous, warm colors, perfect for putting my 'baby' on, yes?
I have yet to find a better background than this one, so we have been with this one ever since.
I suppose one day I would love to be able to use my own image rather than somebody else's. But designing, photographing and editing... does not happen overnight, yes? so.... we move on.

 The next time I went a tweaking, I found out about 'banner'. You know that top part with the blog title that you can click to bring you to the home page of the blog?

It took a while until I got a good enough image for the banner. Then that Sunday we took out the curtains for washing and drying, and voila! Suddenly I got my banner image! (after some editing, that is)

I would also like to add that at that point, it seems a bit strange to keep calling Kecil a 'baby' when she was already running around looking like a proper 'kid' instead of 'baby'.

So... well.. I guess she's not so little anymore, no?

As for the latest one... well... the banner happen simply because Mama found a photo of banner potential in her loot of photographs that day. So... again after some editing... it just seem appropriate to reflect the season that we are currently having, a season of storms, rains, and raincoats.
Most of my photo editing are done on Picnik, love that thing!
It's also helpful that as part of Mama's birthday loot, she got herself the premium account on Picnik which has enabled quite a few extras when it comes to editing the photos.
I still have a queue of ideas waiting to happen for future. Let's hope for them really coming true.

Just one last point:

It is such a thrill to see the blog growing, in content, if not really in readership. (but hey, it's after all created mostly for family). If you compare the sidebar on this last pic with the sidebar on the first pic.... such a big difference.
I love that search box by Google, and I personally think that every blog should have one, even when the content is organized. Just because sometime the reader's mind is a bit jumbled, and a search tool is just a handy tool to have to help you with that jumble in the brain.

As you can see, I do try to take a screenshot of the blog from time to time just to reflect on the whole appearance of the blog. When I remember, I also try to do the same to some of my favorite blogs out there. The blogger might know when she/he's going to change, but as a reader... I don't want to miss out on .. things.
Just as you keep photo albums of your real baby, I also enjoy having a photo album of my 'blog baby' to see how it evolve over time.

Thank you for indulging this Mama. We'll try to go back to the usual subject in the next post.
In the meantime, do drop me a line about what you think on the whole blog design, photo album thingy.
Have a good day!

broken links

Lost in uhmm... jungle?

Ah yes, this picture would perfectly describe how Mama is feeling.
Broken links on the blog! Mmmm... Mama is so NOT happy.
And the best part? Some pics had even gotten the nerve to go missing from the web album!
Arrrr.... me thinks it's best that Mama does some serious maintenance on the blog.
In the meantime, intermittent blog post is expected for the next couple of days.

Stay tuned....

one hundreth post!!!

Has it really been 100 posts? After oh so long (this is the 4th calendar year, according to the archives)...

And in the mean time, THAT baby, has grown into THIS kiddo:

Who can already run, jump, talk, spout arguments, say Please, make logical demands...

This Mama is still learning, is still exploring.
Thank you for coming along. I hope you do enjoy the ride, together with the Little One.
Do expect more 'memory lane' kind of posts as we look back into the in between that happens between the two photos above.

In the spirit of properly acknowledging contribution, this Mama will start from this post onward to attribute images not taken by the official photographer. The first image was by Eyang Kakung, I believe. Mama back then was still resting from uhmm... all the efforts of bringing Kecil into the world.