Mommy Pehpot, Author at Mommy Pehpot

Metro Manila Traffic Navigator

2 hours. 4 kids and one hilarious joke: Jose Rizal is not our national hero.. he is our National Doctor!

HAHAHAHA

If a 2 hour traffic will always end up like this,well, I wouldn’t mind.. in reality, this only happens once in a while. Usually, the kids are already bickering at each other, complaining about the heat, about the need to go to the bathroom. And of course, we’re slowly losing our patience.

For a family with 4 kids (plus my nephew) being stuck in traffic is very stressful and I wish there is a way to know the traffic situation of the roads that we’re going. Well, my wish has been granted.. and I was really grateful to be invited in this event, the launching of TV5’s latest innovation:

Metro Manila Traffic Navigator, a project between TV5 and the Metro Manila Development Authority aims to give people the traffic situation which they can access in the internet which is updated every 5-15 minutes.

The traffic navigator can be found at http://mmdatraffic.interaksyon.com.

It covers main roads which include:

EDSA: from Balintawak to Mall of Asia
Quezon Avenue: Philcoa to Mayon
España: Welcome Rotunda to Lerma
C5: Libis Flyover to Market! Market!
Roxas Blvd: Anda Circle to Coastal Road
SLEX: Magallanes to Alabang Exit

A user can opt to see the traffic situations in 3 ways:

System View where in a map of the roads is presented with different line colors that represents the traffic situation.
Line View shows the situation through description such as light traffic, moderate traffic or heavy traffic
Google Map uses Google Maps to present the current traffic situation.

The media launch was held at Palawan Ballroom in Shangri Hotel, the event was hosted by Paolo Bediones and Cheri Mercado:

We had the chance to ask questions to the panel during the event forum:

This partnership will be very helpful to me and my kids. We know have an access of the traffic situation without having to call the MMDA. All we need is our cellphone and we can manipulate our way to my in laws.. faster and more convenient.

Before, Between, After

In their Language or Reading subject, one of their lesson is arranging words alphabetically. I asked them to arranged the phrase: document management software and they did it well. Knowing the alphabet makes it easy for them but they also need study what comes before or after.. they also need to know what is a letter in a between of certain letters..

They are not that familiar with before, after and between since English is not our main language.. so I have to explain each..

Before means bago

After means pagkatapos

How about between?

…….

Silence

……

Then my nephew answered..

STAR?

“Wala Ba Kayong TV?”

Year 2004:
“Wala ba kayong TV?”
“meron no, perong walang cable.”

Year 2007:
“wala pa rin kayong TV?”
“meron nga, meron na rin cable, pero.. ”

Year 2009:
“di ba may TV naman kayo?”
“hehehehe LCD pa nga.. ang sarap manood ng..”

And that’s what our family planning is all about. bow.

Would you believe if I tell you that we lived together for 3 years before I got pregnant? And that my pregnancy was a planned one? Of course we were doing it, hey we were doing it even before we had our 2nd monthsary. But we know what we were doing. I never got pregnant during those years. It was only in 2003 that we decided it’s about time. See? we know family planning even before we start a family.. and that’s what we thought.

October 2003 and I was the happiest mommy. I gave birth to my first born child. During my pregnancy, all I can think about is the excitement of being a mother. We never even discussed our child spacing. And when I gave birth, the pain, the trauma and the finances told us not to have another child in the next 3 years. Four years sounds reasonable to me. So it was set, 4 years.. 4 years.. 4 years..

I’m breastfeeding.. so it’s safe. Oh wait! who told us that? OK we assumed that since I am breastfeeding, I will not get pregnant. But hey, remember our TV has no cable? By the time that my first born is celebrating his first birthday, I was already 4 months pregnant with our second child.

Giving birth was not easy. It was the most traumatic and painful thing that ever happened to me and here I am again, like time bomb waiting to explode. I can’t remember how I was able to battle the 9 months wait without feeling nauseated with the thought of having to go through labor again.. having to go through post partum again.. and having to go through the finances again. I was always nauseated that time but that’s because of morning sickness not the thought of the above mentioned.

But I did! I waited for 9 months and gave birth to another baby boy. And that’s the end of it. I said no more babies (for now). I do not know what birth control method to use, I am clueless and afraid to try anything. When we brought our second child for his BCG at the Branggay Health Center, they told me to use Injectibles (in a not so nice way I tell you), so I did. It was very cheap, only 100 Pesos and it will last for 3 months, then I have to be back again for another shot. It was very convenient but it massacred our sex life, and it introduced me to high blood. After 18 months of using it, I stopped.

My OB Gyne suggested IUD but I was afraid, so I end up with pills. That’s in 2007. Two months and more than 4 missed pills, I stopped and we relied on ryhtm method. By September of 2007, I was pregnant again. And as if history is repeating itself, by the time that our third son is celebrating his first birthday, I was already pregnant with our 4th baby, only I was on my 3rd month then, not 4th.

It’s very amusing how we end up with four kids. We both know when it is safe to do it and not. I know my cycle, I have a regular cycle. Funny that even though we were armed with that knowledge, 3 out 4 of my pregnancies were unplanned. And it is as if we never learned from each of it.. oh well except for the last one. I am not saying I regret having 4 kids, I actually feel I am the luckiest mom in the whole world for having these adorable babies, but It just made me realize that if unplanned pregnancy can happen to people who knows something about reproduction, cycle and birth control, what more to the people who don’t know a thing about it?

What more to those people na wala talagang TV?