From Dawn Till Dusk

Time and again, the saying that goes: “if you give your child a secure start by building their sense of trust, they will eventually be confident enough of themselves to explore the world”, has never been more true. Likewise was a parenting article which says:

Don’t be afraid to let them try and fail, if need be. Be supportive. Don’t be critical or demanding, however, do build character traits in them such as responsibility, dedication, determination and diligence, good working habits and enthusiasm. When they see themselves succeeding a little, they will want to do a lot. If they truly love something, they will stick with it. —Article on how to find your child’s talent

The very first day of Nico’s swimming lessons, he was too reluctant to even get the feel of the water. It was the worst. Well, not anymore. Day 2 of the swimming lessons, my Little Snapper was all ready and eager to learn and love the water. Thanks to the ever patient and persevering coaches of BLSS, they sure brought out the confidence in my Little Boy. And just last Monday, the Little Snapper learned the trick of floating. Yey!

Of course, the Mom is beaming with pride for the nth time. Sharing some photos and a video montage of this milestone. Continue Reading »

How do you keep a four-year old from getting bored in the middle of summer vacation?

First, every corner and walls around the home are pasted with Manila paper for the Little Boy to draw. This should keep the busy Mommy from rubbing and cleaning smudges of crayons. Second, the Mommy invite kids in the neighborhood to come over the house once in a while to play with the kid whose just plain bored playing with either only Mommy or Daddy. And third, occupying him with an hour or two of swimming lessons in mid-morning that was meant exactly to exercise his lungs, tire him, and eventually lead him to a deep slumber for the rest of the afternoon.

All of these, Mommy dragged everyday just to keep a four-year old occupied… and yet, the Little Boy is still bored? Whattda???

But the other day, in the middle of doing the endless cycles of house chores, the clever Mommy found something in the garage already dusting in gray. Then suddenly, ting! She had this brilliant idea! Continue Reading »

A good Sunday to everyone! For those of you who visited this Blog for the past days (as if meron daw bumibisita, nyahahaha) , sorry for the inconvenience it caused you. I appreciate receiving your sweet thoughts though and for asking about why the Blog was on maintenance mode.

The legitimate comments in the Blog has been constantly classified by Akismet as spam and since bulk and bulk of spam comments are coming, recovering the legit comments from the spam folder for the past weeks has been much of a burden that though technically challenged, I dragged myself to learning geeky stuff. I had to intentionally splash a maintenance mode on the homepage temporarily to find out what seems to be wrong.

Decreasing the spam comments
Apparently, during the little researching I did, I found out that aside from other reasons, the culprit was the CommentLuv plugin. The plugin, which gives incentive to commenters in the form of a link to their latest posts, is apparently being abused by some and uses this trick and spam blogs with useless comments just to gain backlinks. Sad isn’t it? When I learned about it, I had to drag myself hard to deactivate the plugin because the truth is, I so love the CommentLuv plugin. Good thing though, Continue Reading »

Finally, the stalled swimming lessons for the Little Boy pushed through today. We were fortunate enough to squeeze in a pretty good schedule with BLSS within our area after about two weeks plus of waiting. Talk about having a positive outlook and being patient enough for the right time to come huh. The schedule we got was 9 to 10AM though, one hour late of our preferred time which was 8-9AM, but just the same, we’re pretty okay with it.

Nico belonged to the Little Snappers class. The swimming program for this level is designed for kids 4 to 6 years old who are expected to be fairly independent and ready to play and learn without the parents/guardians. The program introduces water safety and the five basic skills of swimming: diving, submerging, floating, moving forward and breathing.

Surprisingly, during the first dip today, Nico was all whining and crying and wouldn’t want to get to the pool. All the while we thought he was very excited with the swimming lessons but to our dismay, he didn’t even want to take off his clothes. Don’t know what’s wrong. Good thing the BLSS swimming instructors are experts in dealing with reluctant children. They succeeded in gently building a trusting relationship with the Little Boy, thanks to their ever-patience and praises as they go through the ordeal.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Nico will enjoy the rest of the swimming program and hopefully, God willing, he’ll develop a sense of loving the water. That should keep the threats of asthma at bay.

Here’s sharing random photos of our Little Snapper’s first day at his swimming lessons. Continue Reading »

[This post is especially for Teacher Julie. Hope your busy schedule would still permit a visit to the fair. It will be worth it, I guarantee you.]

…

This year marks an important milestone for the bi-annual trade event (the fair is held every April and October of the year) as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. Continue Reading »

12-13 April 2008 — We slept over my Mom’s place in the province Saturday night. It was a sleepover unplanned because we’re only supposed to fetch Nico who spent almost a week at his Lola Mommy’s. But chitchatting and eating out with family members and playing with the kids went far too long and enjoyable (like there’s no tomorrow) that we decided to stay for the rest of the night.

The following day, my brother invited us to join them in an early morning walk at the dike at Tanay, Rizal. They regularly do the early morning walk at the dike every Sundays with my four-month old niece in tow. It’s been ages since I last saw the dike while Hubby and Nico haven’t been there, so off we went for a leisurely walk.

The dike, except for some little improvements in infrastructure, barely changed. Since I last stepped foot on the place years ago, it still remains to be a favorite venue of families especially those with little kids and babies. It’s a belief by Tanayan folks that early morning breeze and basks of sunlight near the lake are good for babies’ and little kids’ health. My niece was no exception.

The breathtaking view of the lake and the glorious clouds alight in the golden hue of sunrise, little by little, they perked the wee bit sentimental in me to look back and reminisce how life was so simple then. I suddenly remember what Erma Bombeck, a woman journalist whose famous in writing humorous housekeeping columns, said about a family—

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.

We were exactly like the quote above years ago, until we have our own families to keep. Sigh. Geez, here I go again, me and my sentimyento de potpot on the joys and pains of living alone. Can’t help but think about it even if it’s a concern resolved for so many years already. You know, a thought that sometimes… I’d just wish my original family is just a door knock away where there’s a Dad to consult with, a Mom to comfort me, or simply have my brothers and sister to hang out with. But reality says it can’t be so. And besides, Hubby and I love the independence that we have.

Okay, end of sentiment. Photos to keep of that impromptu weekend in my hometown Continue Reading »

Hubby and I always pass by C5 whenever we’re Makati or Manila bound. One thing I amuse myself in the light of heavy traffic along our way are huge billboards that never fail to interests me, especially when we’re heading up to the bridge near Buting.

The billboard that Ayala Malls uses to announce the latest events in their chain of malls, Gretchen’s demure poses for Plains and Prints, oozing Dingdong Dantes in an underwear ad (I forgot the brand because it’s Dingdong which makes me look back again and again, heehee), Sam Milby for a local bank (again, I forgot what bank, ang gwapo kasi ni Sam, heehee)—name it, and you’ll be amused and surprised you’re okay and alright even stuck in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic.

Anyway, there’s this one billboard though that never fail to catch my attention and always makes me pause for a while and think: Continue Reading »

Don’t you just feel sad when things you’ve been meaning to do didn’t push through as planned? Well, much as I didn’t want to admit it, I do. I really do.

Over the weekend, we’re suppose to celebrate Nico’s fourth birthday somewhere out of town, in the company of close friends. It was a plan agreed and arranged for the longest time and we’ve been anticipating the dear day since it was firmed up since will be the first time in two years that my bestfriend of all time gets to see and bond with Nico. But for reasons very important, my bestfriend (whose based in Calbayog for the last four years) postponed her trip to Manila on a later date. A family matter that can’t wait not to be attended to, we understood the situation and decided to postpone the plans to a later date or whenever she’s in town.

Then Monday came, supposedly the start of Nico’s swimming lessons. Much as Nico is excited, I’ve been really looking forward to this day too because at the very least, my Little Boy would have something to be busy with while on school vacation. Just imagine how excited he was. The Little Boy usually have a hard time waking up early in the morning and yet, he’s up so early in the morning of Monday just in time for his 8AM swimming lessons. (Yes, we choose the earliest session since the sun is not yet that strong to bite on the Little Boy’s skin) But then again, Continue Reading »