Gymboree is a line of clothing for children. My wife first saw this brand on Kris Aquino’s magazine. Kris Aquino listed all the gifts she got during her baby shower for Baby James. I think it was Lucy Torres who gave the Gymborees to Baby James. Since this is a brand we never heard before, we asked the help of Google to look for more information. As soon as we found the website, my wife immediately fell in love with the cute clothes. When we discovered that there is no shop that sells Gymboree in the Philippines, we got a lot more interested since the clothes would surely be unique if in case we manage to get a hold of them.

So we tried to think of people who could help us buy the clothes and ship them here. I asked my Tita, if she knows the brand. It turned out, there is a Gymboree shop a few blocks away from where she lives. What’s even cooler is that my ever generous Tita gave Joaquin the Gymborees as a gift and shouldered the shipping as well. We love you TitaP!

Now my son is a Gymboree image model.

Let’s forget about that bad experience . . . I’ll be blogging happy stories from now on.

Our first family picture, taken when my son was 1 week old:

The alibi:

A representative of a car shop came to the police station to talk to us and explain what happened.

The owner apparently brought his van to a car shop to be fixed. On the night of the accident, the van was apparently being road tested by the mechanic. The mechanic got scared that’s why he ran off and according to the person we talked to, the mechanic also went into hiding in the province after the incident. Apparently the shop owner does not have any information that could point us to the driver. They do not even know his surname. According to the shop representative, this particular mechanic is only doing extra jobs for them and he is not actually a regular employee of the shop. Actually according to the representative they fixed the van outside the shop’s jurisdiction.

The flaw:

1. Would you do a test drive at 9pm in the evening?
2. If they do not have any information on the mechanic, how come he was allowed to test drive a customer’s car?

The good news though is that the owner of the shop accepted the responsibility of fixing my car. We even made a contract that they will fix it in 2 weeks and I have no liability in paying them for the fix. The investigator also asked us to bring the car to the police station after being fixed so that we can take care of the legal aspect of the case after.

I accepted the offer of the owner to just fix my car and pay for all the damages because I figured this should be ok, just to get over with this problem and spare us from the hassle of filling a court case. Knowing our judicial system, this is the best solution for me.

My dilemma now is that, should we still go and find the driver of the van and file a case to at least pay for the liability of running away from the scene of the accident and at the same time endangering our lives?

For now, I consider this case, closed. Thanks for all those who helped. :)

My wife and I were in a car accident last Tuesday evening. A starex van with a plate number of WFE 928 hit our car in an intersection. The worst thing about the accident is that the van ran away after hitting us. Good thing I still had the presence of mind and was able to get the plate number. If someone knows the location of this van, please let us know. The police managed to track the registered owner already, but we are not yet sure if he is still the actual owner, we’ll know next week.

This is the position of the car after the collision. Our original direction was going towards were the approaching cars are coming from.

The impact was really hard, the van was fast and hit directly into the driver side of the car, I don’t think the driver also tried breaking because I did not hear any screeching sound and we did not see any tire marks as well on the pavement. The car’s windshield was shattered, 2 doors badly destroyed, driver window shattered as well, while inside the car the driver seat was moved inwards towards the center console of the car.  

Immediately after the impact, I checked my wife if she was ok because she was crying. Luckily my wife and I got away from this accident with just bruises. We are also very thankful that we did not bring along our son with us. Before we left our apartment, we were discussing if we will bring him with us. Fortunately we decided not to. The people who passed by and saw the accident scene were asking what happened to the driver. When I told them that I was the driver, they were amazed that I am ok after what had happened. I think our guardian angel saved us.  Even in the worst situation, there is always something to thank Him for. Thank you…

Joaquin’s first time in the crib, yo! Spot the hidden Mickey!

Joaquin’s proud father with his trademark smile.

Sooo . . small. Sooo . . cute!

My wife and I always see to it that every Wednesday is “Pasyal” day for our son. We also always bring him along with us as much as we can every time we go out. I don’t know if this is good parenting but we only want to be with him every single time. And I think my son could handle it, he’s a strong boy. That’s why our son was tagged by our relatives as “lakwatsero”.

Come to think of it, I think they are right. My son has visited all the major malls already; Glorieta, Greenbelt, SM, Powerplant, Waltemart, Bonifacio High and even Trinoma to name a few. This does not include the provincial malls he has visited. Mall tour. He has also attended a christening in Laguna and a Golden Wedding at Coconut Palace.

This picture was taken at the SM parking lot. My son was 2 days old in the picture. You can see my wife still looks tired from giving birth. Lakwatsero nga.

I think my son’s being lakwatsero is partly because his parents are “lakwatseros” as well. My wife and I like to travel and go to new places. Before we got married we love going to the beach.

As early as now we are planning to bring our son to the same places we’ve enjoyed and to the places we haven’t been yet and this time enjoy the place with our son.

Ofcourse we need to intoduce the star of this blog . . .

Vital Statistics:
May 21 . . . this date may be familiar to those who know me  .  .  . we have the same birth date. Isn’t that cool? That’s what you call family planning. The best birthday gift ever.

Meet Boy Cruz or Elijah Joaquin Cruz . . . 
No words could explain the feeling the first time you see your child . . .

I wanted to keep track of the progress of my son. I want to be there in all his firsts . . . 

I was thinking of a way on how to do that. My wife and I have been taking a lot of pictures of our son. We even bought a new compact camera, so that we can take the camera anywhere and take a picture of our son in every moment possible. So that handy dandy camera is part of the baby bag we always bring every time we go out. But I figured, a picture gallery won’t be enough, I want to capture the story behind the picture as well.

As a proud father, of course I want to share these precious moments with relatives and friends. So this blog is my attempt to do that. 

This blog will show the growth of my 2 newborns, my newborn baby and my newborn family.

So expect a lot of pictures and stories after this entry, I need to hurry up because my son is already 2 months, which means I have 2 months worth of pictures and stories to tell you…:)