Archives for March 2011

No More Mr. Butiki

March 22, 2011 by

March.21.2011

Jade woke up from naptime earlier in a good mood.   I know she was able to sleep well and was in a good mood mainly because she was chattering nonstop right from the very moment she opened her eyes.  There was no gradual transition from asleep to drowsy to awake then to alert.  Like a spring, she bounced off her bed and walked to where I was and said “Hi, Mama!  I’m awake now.  It’s a sunny day!”   She rattled off story after story, question after question, but one topic stuck to my mind.

Jade looked up the ceiling and said, “Mama, there’s Mr. Butiki.  I’m not afraid of Mr. Butiki anymore.”  She then pointed to herself and continued, “I’m not afraid because I’m brave. I’m brave, Mama, I’m brave!”

To say that I’m proud of how my two-year-old has conquered her fear of Mr. Butiki is an understatement.  Just days before, she was so hysterical when a lizard crawled on our ceiling right above her bed.  She was crying and screaming, totally terrified of it.  I’m glad she was able to overcome one of her many fears.  Now, our next goal is to overcome her fear of ants, dogs, cats, and pretty much any other animal.  Hopefully, she’ll be brave enough also to conquer them.

Filed Under: Toddler Conversations Tagged With: ,

All About Scrapbooking: Scrap ‘n Tell

March 21, 2011 by

When my son was born, I bought two scrapbooks and scrapbooking accessories and had pictures of him and my older daughter printed. I had in my mind this vision of pages oozing with creativity, teeming with memories, chronicling my toddlers’ first years of life. If you are interested in starting a scrapbook, then one thing that you might want to consider is getting something like these svg cut files to really help improve the way your scrapbook looks.

Now my daughter is turning 3 and my son is turning 2, yet the scrapbooks I bought are still in the storage box – unopened, unused, virtually brand new. The vision remains as it is. Well, all that is about to change! Inspired by the Scrap n’ Tell: Bloggers’ Scrapbooking Event, this Mom has resolved to turn that vision into reality.

I was fortunate enough to have scored an invite for this event through Jennifer Aspacio of Pinay Mommies Community. The event held at the Filstar Distributors Corp Office at Kapitolyo, Pasig was truly a delightful afternoon. The organizers prepared well for it as everything was oozing with their creative juices, from the invitations, to the name tags, and the demonstrations and the hands-on activites. Here are my fun memories of this awesome scrapbooking event:

I never got to actually starting my scrapbooks for my toddlers mainly because I knew how time-consuming it would be. Let alone, the mess I would have to clean up after I’m done. But after experiencing scrapbooking, I found it to be a very relaxing activity, somewhat therapeutic. I didn’t mind cleaning up the mess at all when I was done. I still have much to learn as my creative juices are equivalent to that of a five-year-old. But I do know one thing, Scrapbooking is an art and to be good at it, you must have the passion for it.

(*pictures courtesy of All About Scrapbooking Facebook Page)

Filed Under: Mom's Corner Tagged With: , , ,

Quick Lunch at Brothers Burger

March 19, 2011 by

Brothers Burger has been a favorite burger joint of mine from the time it first opened here in the Manila.  I used to try the different burger add-ons until I found an absolute favorite in cilantro.  Until now, my order remains one Brothers Burger with cilantro, onion rings, and milk shake.

Today, I was able to eat my favorite burger with cilantro again after quite a few months.  The toddlers had appointments for their vaccines this afternoon and my husband decided to treat all of us out for lunch before going to the doctor’s clinic.  It was a weekend, so the branch that we visited was not crowded.  There were only 5 other diners when we came and halfway through our meal, we were the only diners left.  So I was able to take a picture of the toddlers sans the crowd.

ate jade, being the “big” sister that she is, protectively holds jakei’s hand

 

Though we prefer eating at this Brothers Burgers branch particularly because there usually isn’t much of a crowd,  we seldom chose to eat here because they only have one high chair available.  When the toddlers were younger, we would have a hard time dining out without high chairs for both of them.  But now that Jade is a bit more independent and can stay seated in a regular chair, this isn’t a problem anymore.  Alas, we were faced with another dilemma.  The table was much too high for Jade to eat properly by herself.  Good thing, Papa was able to find a solution.

 

chair too low or table too high?

ate jade eating by herself;                                            thanks to Papa’s makeshift high chair

 

With the seating problem addressed, on we went to feed our famished tummies.  Hubby had grilled chicken sandwich and garden salad. I, of course, had my Brothers burger with cilantro and onion rings (I’ve gained a few pounds too many so I shunned the milkshake). Ate Lanie had breaded chicken with rice and the toddlers shared fish fingers with rice.  The rice meals came with half a brownie and iced tea so it was already a complete meal.

 

jakei drinking water after a filling lunch of fish fingers and rice

 Are we going back there?  Definitely yes!

 What did we love most about the place?  the BURGERS, of course

 Our Toddler-friendliness Rating:  9

Filed Under: Kids At Work Tagged With: , ,

Mommy Moments: Purple-less

March 18, 2011 by

I missed joining Mommy Moments twice so I was very eager to join again this week. But, alas, the theme for this week is not one of our favorite colors. It’s now Saturday night and I still have not found any picture of the kids wearing purple. Now I’m making a mental note to get them some purple stuff to complete their rainbow colors.

After scouring our picture folders, I found these pictures which I’m very reluctant to share but would post anyway just to be able to join this week’s meme.

Last year, this 33-yr-old mom became an instant ramp model.  We went to Skydome to swap a couple of empty boxes for gift packs from Olay Age Defying Bar and to buy some shoes for my father-in-law.  Well, we ended up staying longer at the Swap as I found myself being made up in the backstage and being briefed for our walk on the ramp.  It was my 7 Minutes of Fame (or Shame as I would call it).  It was nerve-wracking, somewhat embarassing, but it is definitely one for the books.

with Jackie Lou Blanco and the other Olay Ladies – I’m easy to spot as I’m the only one who’s under 5′

my ever-supportive hubby and our little Jade who still claims until now that “Mama is a model”

 

Check out other mommies’ PURPLE stuff at mommy moments.

Filed Under: Mom's Corner Tagged With: , , ,

Saying Goodbye to Secondhand Smoke

March 17, 2011 by

My Dad has been a cigarette smoker since he was a teenager. Efforts to put an end to this unhealthy habit have been futile and our pleas to save us from secondhand smoke have fallen on deaf ears. He wouldn’t even look at some of the products that could be found on a website similar to Nicotine-Pouches.com.

Our scare tactics of providing him information on the many diseases he could acquire from his habit have been answered with “I’d die if I stop smoking, I won’t mind a slow but happy death.” We changed our tactics and implored that he protect us from the dangers of secondhand smoke. None of us wanted to have respiratory illnesses nor cancer for that matter. But then, he just decided to smoke his precious cigarettes outside the house.

Thankfully, he has agreed to try out the ecigarette we bought when we went to the mall the other week. It was actually recommended to us by one of our friends from Canada. He uses a vaping pen to smoke cannabis – he has all the different flavoured liquids and even likes to buy distillates. As for us, we have been smoke free for a week now and we’re hoping that he’d get used to it and never go back to his smoke-puffing habit. Our next goal now is to lessen the nicotine level in his new smokeless, earth-friendly electronic cigarettes, and so he continues to use it I may get him something like a Vape Starter Kit so he can see there are a lot of different models, liquids and ways he can use his ecigarette.

Filed Under: Mom's Corner, Products We Love
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