Well, here he is. Sitting like a boss, feet on the bar, keeping his head up so nothing gets past him. 

J and I are at the 5-month mark, and we’re getting more sleep and lots more snuggle time with this handsome man. Yesterday, he’s hit his milestone of rolling onto his tummy all by himself, 🎉 which got me looking back at the distance we’ve covered, and thinking about writing my super late update.

SOS at home

This is actually the second week of my mother-in-law and her housekeeper helping us out with the house chores. 

Our own housekeeper resigned last June 13th to be a caregiver, and we’ve struggled to keep the house intact while making sure our 5-month old stays alive. J can’t handle not being at the store for several days, so he’s asked his mother to watch Sioti while I worked and he’s away.

The best thing about the current setup is having his grandparents around to see him, get to know him, and celebrate him reaching his milestones. Their lack of presence in the kids’ lives was one of the few things I felt sadness for, so this was more than I could ask for. I’m praying long and hard Mama will remain strong enough to hold and care for him while I get back into the groove of things.

Back at work

Yep, that’s me! 

I went back to work on the 1st of June, and felt it appropriate to have a new photo taken to celebrate the occasion. 

Yes, I work remotely. Yes, none of my coworkers could see me and my getup. But I loved the feeling of looking presentable and wearing my beautiful pink tote. ❤️

In case I’ve not shared this, I work in customer experience and documentation at Todoist, a software company that builds productivity tools for teams. My job is to make sure people use the apps without issues, forward bugs and syncing errors to the developers, and write high-quality docs so people won’t have to keep reaching out to us for help.

It’s been a fruitful month with lots of warm welcomes and significant updates. Looking at my career path though, I still don’t know if I want to aim for a promotion this year. I guess I’m still let down by the rejection from last year’s attempt. 

I’ll leave it to the Lord to guide me down the right path at His designated time.

Back to school for the older kids

On the flip side, the older siblings are back at school. H is in the eleventh grade, C is in ninth grade, and N has finally entered junior high.

They’re all at this stage where they’re exploring their interests and strengths. 

• H is still on the fence of where university will be. 
• C is struggling to make his dad understand that he’d rather learn to build PC games than train for next month’s Taekwondo tournament. 
• N just shared he’s accepted in the theater guild of the school. 

They’ve got busy schedules and are always rushing to make the daily commute to school. Sioti and I would ride along with them, so they can spend a bit more time with him before heading to school.

I’ve been dwelling on H’s college choices more lately. Like any other mom to a teenage daughter, I want her to choose a path that’ll take her to where she truly wants to go. I want her to pave her way towards a future where she’ll flourish as a creative person. With the limited options she has, I worry she’ll find herself stuck for a long period before choosing to get up and make the effort herself.

If only she wasn’t just flitting from one moment to another.

End of the first half

We managed to reach the end of the first half of 2026. J and I are keeping our heads afloat, making the most out of each day. 

With so much chaos and noise surrounding the world, I’ve been doubling down on what matters and where our resources should go. Call it ‘firstborn tendencies’, but I can’t get by without looking at my Trello boards, Todoist projects, YNAB budgets, and Things 3 lists. They keep me from giving in to dopamine hits and YOLO thoughts that lead to regret.

With Sioti being older and easier to manage, I think it’s time to sit and decide what I want to achieve in the second half of the year. I’ll check back in once I have that sorted out.

Until then, enjoy this snapshot of our cat, Norbert, having a moment.