Rainy Sunday Out

Yesterday, Berto and I had a meeting with a client in Robinson's Ermita. We decided to bring Bea along. It was such a rainy day! We were supposed to go to the memorial park first to light candles for my mom since it's her birthday, but it was raining so hard, we decided not to go anymore since we won't be able to go down the van anyway. We'll just go some other day.

We arrived in Robinson's just in time. We went to the meeting place (Cafe Breton), met the client, said hi then after a few minutes, excused ourselves. Daddy willll do most of the talking anyway so we left him to do what he's good at. =)

While daddy's busy, us girls went window shopping. Although we agreed on just looking, when we passed by the Disney Princess shelf, we saw so many adorable things! There were Disney Princess gowns, bags, pencils, socks and shoes. Then we saw this cute ID lace. I remembered that her ID lace from school just broke, so we bought one. I thought that item was more useful compared to the princess crown that she was begging me to buy. 

After all the walking, Bea and I got hungry. We decided to start our lunch, daddy will surely come in a while, we went to the food court and ordered food from Chin's. This was Bea's first time to try their food. I ordered Garlic Chicken and Chicken Noodles. Just like her dad, Bea is not too keen to try new food. She initially resisted what I got for her, but when she got to taste it, she finally gave her nod. =) Daddy arrived after a few minutes and had lunch with us. Bea kept on telling him to get the same food, assuring him it was good! All the while, it was her dad's turn to be apprehensive to try this new dish. Argh! Like father like daughter. 

After lunch, we walked around for a bit until we met someone tall, soft and yellow: The Happy Lemon mascot! Bea squealed with joy and hurried over for a photo. The mascot was happy to oblige, even though we didn't buy anything from their shop. 

We did take her to the nearby Quickly kiosk so that she can taste one of our favorite drinks. Again, Bea didn't even want to try my Choco Loco Super, but when she  finally did, she simply loved it!  She didn't return the cup we "shared" which is just fine with me. I'm just glad she's now trying to enjoy new tastes and flavors. 

TBT: A Walk in the Park

Ok, so since I have so much backlogged posts about my Bea and her activities, I have decided to launch a brand new portion in our blog ingeniously named as  TBT or Throwback Thursdays. I know, how unique huh? I will still try to think about a new name for it, but in the meantime, I will be using TBT.

This actually happened in 2007. On a Saturday afternoon, we were scheduled to return the vcd's we borrowed. (vcd pa talaga!) We decided to bring Bea along. Whenever she hears her daddy start the van, she panics... She tries to walk to the van to make sure that she gets to go too! Anyway, we stopped by the Evolution Park in front of C & P Mall. Bea shrieked when she saw the cement cows, she started saying "mmmmm" (Moooo) while pointing at each one of them. =) Good thing the park wasn't that crowded... Except for that one kid who was friendly with Bea at first, but then started pulling her arm when he got too excited. grrr...

After our mini pictorial, we were about to go home already but Bea freaked when she saw a Jollibee sign. We had to go in! Daddy and I just couldn't resist, so we stopped by the burger joint for some snack.

Good thing that after severe bouts with GERD, Bea was eating small amounts of solid food again by then. She is finally enjoying the delights of eating out.

Bea ate some spaghetti and burger, and drank some juice... Although feeding she still took so long, we were very grateful for her improvement. At least her food aversion seems to be getting cured; (thank God!) however her milk aversion is still causing trouble for her (she's still terribly underweight and small for her age).

By the time we got home, it was dark already, and Lolo and Yaya were a bit worried, but it was really worth it because our little girl was all smiles!

These are such wonderful memories of her childhood. It was only yesterday that Bea could barely walk and talk and now she has her own passport and everything! Ahhh! How time flies!

Bea's First Trimester Examinations

Today is the last day of Bea's first trime exams, yes it's finally over! Woohoo! I feel it's more of a relief for me than for her. The past three days we've been fetching her from school. School ground looks so chaotic at dismissal time, maybe it's the children's way of letting off steam and stress from their examinations. Girls run all over the place, boys climb whatever they can climb. It was very amusing just to watch them!

Finally we see our little Bea, dragging her Snow White lunch bag and her small bag hanging down her body loosely. Well actually it's my small bag that I've decided to just give to her. After all it's pink! And it's perfect since it is big enough to accommodate her school diary and some notebooks and books. She'll get to use it during examination days.

These were taken last Tuesday, first day of exams.  We saw her from afar looking tired almost dragging her feet, but when Bea saw us, she was all smiles! I think she appreciates that her dad and I were there for her.

I hope she did well on her exams! Oh stop it! I'm sure she did! =)

How to Make a Spoiled Brat

Bratty Girl

They are everywhere. In shoe shops, the restaurants, in public transportations, in churches, but mostly, they lurk in packs… in toy shops. Who hasn’t heard the wailings of a kid demanding from their parent the latest doll (“I don’t care that I have 25 of those already mom!”) or remote controlled whatever. I personally hate it when they unleash their secret weapon, “the tantrum”: sitting on the floor, feet splayed on the ground, arms flailing, howling like you’ve just hit them on the head with a big bat, while the poor red-faced parents, heads hung low, are silently hoping the ground opens up and eat them. Yep, you’ve seen them. They’re everywhere, the spoiled brats.

But how are they made? It is not so hard to turn little bundles of joy into little monsters. Here’s how:

Bribe them, buy their love. In our society where both parents are often working, we are constantly beset with guilt: guilt that we often leave our children to caregivers or grandparents, guilt that we are not there to witness their milestones in life, guilt that there are times when we are not there for them. So how do we compensate? We shower them with expensive gifts, treat them to any toy of their choice, we give in to just about anything they ask for, after all we owe them. Here’s a newsflash, kids are extremely intelligent creatures, believe me they will catch up on what you’re doing. They will try to stir every situation to their advantage, they know that mommy and daddy will eventually give in.

Ignore the work that they’ve done. Not letting the kids know that you appreciate the extra effort they made to make their beds or bring the dishes to the sink will surely nurture the little brat in them. After all, whether they do good today or just slack off, it will all be the same with mommy and daddy. Slacking is much easier.

Be a bad example. How do we act in front of our kids? Do we also act hard to please and demanding? Do we give more importance to the monetary value of the gifts we receive, rather than the thoughtfulness of the giver? Do we constantly berate our household help for the littlest things? Perfect!

Be inconsistent. When trying to discipline our children, we often unleash a torrent of threats: don’t watch tv on a school night or you’ll be grounded for a week; if you hit your sister one more time I will not give you any cookies; if you don’t pass all your subjects this quarter you won’t be allowed to leave the house forever! And when the set rules are not met, we don’t follow through on our threats. Again, kids are really intelligent, after a while they realize that by saying that they are really, really, really, really, really sorry (plus a sad puppy look to boot), you eventually let them off the hook.

Ok, I’ve given you so guys some guidelines on how to make a spoiled brat, now go on and check on your little ones and see how far along they are in making their way into being the next spoiled brat in your neighborhood. Good luck! (you’ll be needing it!)

* Photo from http://www.child-behavior-problems-help.com/

Lactum 3+ and 6+ Disney Freebies

Yesterday while we were at the grocery, Berto and I remembered it was time to buy Bea's milk. We usually buy Lactum's value pack since we find that it have more value for our money since it has 100g of milk free! When we got to the milk aisle, imagine our surprise when we saw that Lactum not only had extra grams of free milk, it also had other freebies featuring Disney Characters! 

The Lactum 6+ 1.2 kg had a free Disney tumbler featuring Goofy or Pluto with it! We chose the orange one. There was no pink tumbler so Bea will have to do with this one. =)

Apparently, this week Lactum 3+ and 6+ offers FREE Disney Mealtime Surprise!

Lactum 3+/6+ 350g/370g: Sticker Set

Lactum 3+ 600g: Pouch

Lactum 3+/6+ 900g: Spoon and Fork

Lactum 3+/6+ 1.2kg: Tumbler

Lactum 3+ 1.6kg: Food Keeper

Go ahead and try to complete them all!

Head on over to their facebook page for more info: https://www.facebook.com/LactumPhilippines

Teacher Yaya: A Workshop for Your Assistant

As much as we'd want to, not all of us parents can really manage without help in the house. In the Philippines, households with children are often with nannies or yayas, especially when parents are working. We reluctantly leave our children at home, sometimes alone with our yayas. Sadly, not all yayas we hire have the same values we have, or at least the values we'd want to impart to our kids. It's not only important that our nannies are competent in taking care of our little ones, it is also vital that they understand their impact to their ward's life. 

Thank goodness for the Teacher Yaya Workshop by the Learning Basket. It is a 2-hour workshop on September 21, a Saturday at 9am-11am. Seminar costs only P400. The Speaker is Ms. Mariel and she will be speaking to our assistants in Filipino, so they'd be more comfortable and can understand the topics better.

You can accompany your yaya for the 2-hour seminar. There is an air conditioned room in the Madela House where you and your kids can comfortably wait for you yaya.

Venue of the seminar is the Madela House, #29 First Street, New Manila QC.

To register click this link! 

For more information hop on over to The Learning Basket's website: http://www.thelearningbasket.com/

Too bad, I don't have a nanny as of the moment. If I did, I would definitely send her to this workshop. It's an investment for my child's well being and good upbringing. =)

Buwan ng Wika Presentation

Last August 30, Bea's school had their Buwan ng Wika culminating activity. This is after more than a week of no classes because of heavy rains because of habagat. She appeared as one of the fishes in their play (and the cutest one at that!). I posted my fishy problem here, and thankfully we were able to borrow this cute fish costume from her cousin. It was too small for her already, but we made do. Look at her, all smiles! In the last picture, she's with Kayla, our neighbor, her classmate and her best friend since they were 3.

In previous years, Buwan ng Wika activities are such pain in the butt. We had to scramble for various costumes: patadyong, baro't saya and ifugao. We have no one to borrow from so we have no choice but the buy. It took such an effort to look for the costumes, prepare the props and not to mention the cost of everything! Prices for Filipino costumes skyrocket every August. This year though, in respect for those affected by the heavy rains by habagat, they were not required to come in costume. Those who already had costume may wear them, but it was ok to wear their PE uniform too. Plus, it was just a few hours presentation, after which they proceeded with regular classes, to make up to the many days they didn't have any. Yey! Kudos to their school for being considerate.