My First Blog Birthday

It was my first blog birthday yesterday and I almost forgot all about it. It was a good thing I never forgot any of my children’s first birthdays. In fact, I am the kind of mom who plans months ahead of their first (and second, and third and so on and so forth birthdays).

Our eldest daughter, Trinity, celebrated her first birthday in 2002. Being the first of the first, I (with my mom of course) carefully and meticulously planned for it. We held it in my parents home and a day before, we went shopping for food, loot bags and prizes. We went to hear mass before the party. For handa, we had spaghetti, pansit, grilled hotdogs, cake and lots of chocolates and candies. There were balloons and games like pin Piglet’s tail, pabitin, bottle-straw relay and different kinds of dance contests. We invited all the kids in the block and come to think of it, it was like pre-school Christmas Party.

The second daughter, Raia, celebrated hers two years later. Her first birthday was actually a blessing because I resigned from my job right after she was born. I used to work in Quezon City then but we decided to come home to the province because the family is getting bigger. All we had was my separation pay and the hubby’s monthly salary which was enough to tide us over but not to have a grand party like our first daughter. I was out of work for six months… and then, two months before her birthday, I was hired by my present employer. It was a blessing for the whole family and to celebrate it, we had a Jollibee Kiddie Party. It was fun but I remember our dear birthday celebrant not having much fun because she was the kind of a baby who cries when the mascots are around. Now that she’s four, she has overcome her fear of THE BEE and was in fact a dancing partner of that perennially smiling red/yellow bee in their last Christmas party.

Lastly was our only son’s first birthday. For the simple reason that our income has grown in inverse proportion to the size of our family and expenses, we decided to have a repeat Jollibee birthday party for Enzo but with much less invitees. It was still fun with much less hassle. I was also amused by my near adolescent nieces, who used to line up for the loot bags during Raia’s first birthday but needed more prodding to get their toys this time. Time flies so fast. They’ll be debutantes in a short while.

What I want by my next blogniversary?

I still need to hone my technical skills to place more widgets in my blog: placing maps, visitor tracker and ranking trackers. Anybody can please refer me some easy to use sites. I need to work on my photography subjects and skills. Lastly, friends are urging me to get a paid webhost. They say it will increase my chances to get monetized. Maybe I would. I guess I’ll seriously think and scout about it.

Blogging has given me a level of satisfaction and, of course, some self-criticisms everytime I re-read my entries. Grammar and writing styles need to be polished but at the moment, it is more important to know that friends (old and cyber new), acquaintances and (perhaps) even lurkers appreciate the ideas and stories that fuel my blog life.

To everyone, thanks and keep on visiting.