Thomas and Friends

Yohan loves Thomas and Friends. He first watched Thomas and Friends on Cartoon Network when he was more than a year old. Thomas and Friends became his favorite tv program ever since.

I bought his first Thomas and Friends (Die-Cast) playset at Maxitoylab at ATC. The playset included Thomas the TAnk Engine and one Troublesome Truck. His 2nd playset was a birthday gift from his Lola Dol on his 2nd birthday.

Thomas and Friends went to the Philippines to celebrate its 60th Anniversary. They performed several live shows in different malls. Yohan was overwhelmed when he met Thomas and the Fat Controller in person. As an added treat, Yohan and his Dad had a rare ride on Thomas the Tank Engine himself.
The look on Yohan's face was enough to melt my heart. I knew that it was an experience he will never forget.


Today, he has several connectible playsets and Die-Cast trains. But Yohan still needs several more trains to complete his set.






The trains marked in yellow circles are the trains that are not yet part of his collection.
Yohan knows all of his trains. I'm amazed on how quickly he memorized their names. Sometimes, he even corrects me when I call a particular train by a wrong name. He also knows the Fat Controller, a.k.a. Topman Hat. Lately, Yohan has memorized some of the names of the trains that are missing from his collection. Thus, I sometimes hear him ask his Dad to buy him more trains.

"Daddy buy Henry and Gordon ... please," Yohan keeps telling his Dad. Then, sometimes he would turn to me and say something like, "Mom buy Edward." ha! ha! Funny, how at his age, he seems to know how to assign the trains that he want to people around him. It's always a delight to hear him verbalize his thoughts.

Jules and I have looked almost everywhere but it seems all Die-Cast trains are not available. As of now, stores are only selling wooden trains. I guess Yohan has to wait a while for the next batch of Die-Cast trains to come.

Even Cartoon Network stopped airing Thomas and Friends. I heard it has transfered to Nickelodeon which our pathetic cable company does not have. Bummer!

Good thing, there are available Thomas and Friends VCDs and DVDs in the market. I was able to buy him 2 VCDs and his Ninang Chona recently gave Yohan a compilation of Thomas and Friends DVD.

Yohan's Maraca Project

Teacher Mean gave the kids empty plastic bottles and taught them how to create their very own musical instrument - a maraca.

Yohan enjoys making crafts. You can see how eager he is here to make his own maraca. In fact, he was very excited to start with the project that he wasn't able to finish his snack earlier. Yohan patiently waited for his classmates to finish their snacks so they could start with their art project.

Yohan made his own maraca by putting glue on the plastic bottle and decorating it with colored paper and glitters. Teacher Mean distributed some beans and corn to put inside the bottles.


To Yohan's delight, he was able to make his own music by shaking his maraca from side to side.

Up Close and Personal

Yohan loves tigers. He even mimicks them with his own unique growl. His Lolo Jun gave him a tiger stufftoy when he was a baby. Yohan calls him Diego and hugs him until he falls asleep at night.

Yohan saw his first real tiger up close at the Residence Inn Zoo at Tagaytay last May 20, 2006. In the future, we plan to bring him to Zoobic (locted at Subic), which offers one of a kind tiger encounters.

My Johari Window

Arena (known to self and others) caring, sentimental, sympathetic, trustworthy, warm	Blind Spot (known only to others) able, adaptable, bold, calm, cheerful, complex, dependable, dignified, friendly, giving, happy, helpful, idealistic, independent, ingenious, intelligent, kind, knowledgeable, logical, loving, mature, modest, observant, organised, patient, quiet, religious, responsive, sensible
Façade (known only to self)	Unknown (known to nobody) accepting, brave, clever, confident, energetic, extroverted, introverted, nervous, powerful, proud, reflective, relaxed, searching, self-assertive, self-conscious, shy, silly, spontaneous, tense, wise, witty

Dominant Traits

90% of people agree that rachcorner is caring

All Percentages

able (5%) accepting (0%) adaptable (5%) bold (5%) brave (0%) calm (15%) caring (90%) cheerful (10%) clever (0%) complex (5%) confident (0%) dependable (10%) dignified (5%) energetic (0%) extroverted (0%) friendly (30%) giving (25%) happy (10%) helpful (25%) idealistic (10%) independent (10%) ingenious (5%) intelligent (25%) introverted (0%) kind (35%) knowledgeable (5%) logical (5%) loving (45%) mature (5%) modest (10%) nervous (0%) observant (5%) organised (30%) patient (5%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (5%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (5%) responsive (10%) searching (0%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (0%) sensible (10%) sentimental (30%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (10%) tense (0%) trustworthy (15%) warm (20%) wise (0%) witty (0%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 21.5.2006, using data from 20 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view rachcorner's full data.

Would you like to contribute to my Johari Window? Please enter the link below:

http://kevan.org/johari?name=rachcorner

Fun at the Arcade

Yohan loves going to the arcade!

After Yohan's class yesterday, we let him play at the Pixie Forrest, Festival Mall.

I let him choose the games that he like.

After getting tired of hitting pop-up dogs and mice with a hammer he ventured to other token operated games.

He enjoyed winning tickets after playing with the machines.

I told him that we'll collect more next time so we could exchange the tickets with a nice prize.

After a while, Jules and I decided to join in the fun.

The three of us took turns hurling yellow balls to feed a funny looking bird ... it looked like a crazy pelican. :->

It was a fun afternoon!

An exhausted Yohan quickly fell asleep in his car seat on our way home.

Congratulations Liverpool!

May 14, 2006: Liverpool won the FA Cup for the seventh time today beating West Ham United 3-1 on penalties after the teams drew an epic final 3-3 after extra time.

Yohan proudly wears his Liverpool jersey with Gerrard's name and the lucky number 8.

Happy Mother's DAy

Thank you for being a wonderful mother. You've always been
there for me since I was young. You were always there to
guide, teach, inspire and love me. Now that I'm all grown
up and a mother as well, you're still there for me. Always
ready to help me fight my battles and help me stand on my
feet whenever I feel weary and down. Sometimes I think, do
you ever regret having me? I know I've disappointed you in
so many ways but you never judged me. Instead of hurtful
remarks, you encourage me to become a better person and you
praise me for trying my best. You're so remarkably kind,
patient and understanding. Pity, I think those are the
genes that I did not inherit.

Thank you Mom for loving me the way you do. I only wish
that I could make it up to you somehow. I hope that someday
I can truly make you happy and proud of me.

I hope that I could be a good mother to my son as you
are to me.

3am hunger pangs

i skipped dinner ...
the lengthy brownout made it impossible to use the rice cooker.
the maid must have gotten used to cooking rice the easy way.
when prompted to cook rice the old fashioned way, she simply
failed ... thus, a somewhat burned rice.

jules had his usual dinner while i futilely tried to trick my brain
that the rice was palatable ... but my taste buds disagreed. i
just couldn't tolerate the taste and smell of burned rice- no matter
how mild it seemed to be.

jules earlier gave me a kitkat bar. i ate it to console my disgusted
taste buds.

but now it seems, my stomach is letting its hunger known. i have
hunger pangs at 3am.

i don't want to go down to rummage tidbits from the ref. i better
wrap this up and get to bed.

today is mother's day. i need to have my good night sleep just in
case we go out to celebrate.

Yohan meets coolest car in town

We checked out the Disney house display at ATC after Yohan's class at The Little Gym.

Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy were there ... plus someone new ...

Yohan meets the coolest car in town ... Lightning McQueen.

Yohan felt drawn to his friendly grin.

So the out with the camera. Pose here. Smile! Another pose there. Smile!

Yohan tried to say still and smile when asked but he just couldn't help but get

distracted with the adoring Disney characters all around him.

Jules & I decided to join in the posing craze.

Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) is a hotshot rookie racecar. While en route to the Piston Cup Championship in California, Lightening hits a detour on Route 66 where he makes a pitstop in the town of Radiator Springs. During his stay, he gets to know a few of the town's eccentric characters, including Sally, a 2002 Porsche (voiced by Bonnie Hunt), Doc Hudson, a 1951 Hudson Hornet with a mysterious past (voiced by Paul Newman), and mater, a rusty, trusty tow truck (voice of Larry the Cable Guy). The quirky town vehicles teach McQueen that there's more important things than trophies, fame, and sponsorship.
Other featured voices in Cars include Cheech Marin, Richard Petty, Tony Shaloub (Monk), George Carlin, Michael Keaton, John Ratzenberger, Michael Wallis, Paul Dooley, and Jenifer Lewis.
Cars is directed by John Lasseter and produced by Darla K. Anderson.