I love to cook. And one of my dream is to have an industrial grade kitchen where I can spend hours and hours trying and experimenting on recipes. I dream of sharing that kitchen with my daughter. I really do wish that one day this dream will come true. Who knows.
But for now, I am just really happy that Maia is starting to show some interest with helping me out in the kitchen. I have been dropping hints in the past especially after she experienced helping out with cooking in summer school but she never really caught on them.
Last Tuesday, imagine how elated I was when she suddenly climbed on one of our dining chairs and grabbed the whisk from my hand. Well, we just whipped up pancakes (not even from scratch but straight from the package) but I take that as a good start. I am sharing here a short video of her kitchen moment.
I am really now psyched to research on more recipes that we could try together. We'll start with the simple ones while we await the coming of that dream kitchen of mine.
Here's what came out of that stirring and mixing, by the way. She helped make the first pancake but had to leave me alone to finish the batch so she can buy taho. And I didn't make any attempt to hold her longer since she needed the protein anyways.
I am still recovering from my odontectomy 3 days ago so I thought I'd spend the entire stretch of my no work Monday in bed. I was really grateful that Maia was very cooperative and never threw a single tantrum when I told her Mommy needs to rest and couldn't carry her for the meantime. Come midday however, I couldn't take it anymore. I just had to get up and make myself useful. I thought of doing some arts and crafts with Maia but I cannot think of a project so I scanned old issues of Playhouse Disney hoping to get ideas and lucky me, I came across this project.
A page from an old issue of Playhouse Disney that is full of Maia's doodles
I checked my stash if I have all of the materials on hand and fortunately, I did have most of them. I thought I could improvise on the other materials that I don't have. What's even better is I can finally do something useful out of the toilet paper rolls that I have been saving for sometime now. I got inspired to try arts and crafts activities with Maia by a fellow n@wie and momblogger Maqui so I have since been collecting (well more of accumulating) art materials in case the inspiration hits me.
Here are the materials we used to make this project:
- Japanese paper
- Goggly eyes (2 pairs)
- Foam cut outs
- Glue
- Scissors
- Tissue Paper Rolls
- Cardboard (we just recycled from one of Maia's toybox)
- Pen/Marker
Some googly eyes and torn Japanese paper
I was initially aiming for full participation from Maia but unfortunately, she found amusement in cutting the rest of the cardboard so I didn't force her. I decided to just continue with the project hoping to eventually catch her interest before I actually finish the project.
Well mid-way through, I did got her to participate by tasking her to put glue on the tissue roll but I eventually did the rest of the project on my own. (Note to self: do research on more age appropriate arts and crafts activities)
Glue finally got her attention!
Still, I was happy to see one beaming little girl when I showed her the finished product. She kept making Meow-meow sounds because she thought those were Kitty Pencil Holders we were making (when we were in fact making Mice versions hahaha). Manang also joined us on the latter part of the activity and was in fact the one who decided to put cardboards at the other end of the roll so Maia can put to use these pencil holders (instead of just throwing them around).
I am really starting to get the hang of these crafty adventures and I love how I surprise even myself sometimes (I was never good at ART but now...I am starting to really believe that I have potential Wahaha.)
Little Girl Making Good Use of Shirt Racks At The Mall
What's a beautiful noise to you? To me they are my daughter's shrieks and squeals. They always seem to radiate pure, unadulterated bliss.
On a recent and quite rare trip to the mall the little girl was just in that mood! Being put on house arrest for several days probably rendered this little girl really bored (due to the rainy weather mostly) that when Lola told her she should come visit her "tindahan" she was going over her head with excitement. When we were on our way, she refused to sleep despite the long travel from Cavite to the city.
When we got to the mall we had a few errands to run but she didn't mind. She treated the entire department store as her playground and made use of clothes racks and display boxes as her hiding places. She was screaming, "hanap mo ako Mommy!!!!" (find me Mommy!) that made even the sales ladies at the store laugh.
She didn't realized the display shelf had an opening at the other side.
She shrieked when she saw me standing behind her.
I should have taken a video of this hide and seek session.
Her shrieks are so contagious even the sales ladies ended up laughing.
Good thing nobody was around when she was hiding in this rack of white shirts! Lolz.
After putting her dad and me into a rigorous instant workout we went back to my Mom at the trade fair in the hopes that we could assist her. That never happened though because the mini bahay-kubo that was on display at the fair immediately caught Maia's attention. She didn't waste time claiming the kubo all for herself. She wouldn't share it with the other kids. She was singing bahay-kubo non-stop and was running around jumping and pointing to the plants as if they were the plants in the bahay kubo song.
This Kubo Is Mine
Bahay Kubo, Kahit Munti...
I wish I can freeze moments like these. Or put them in a time capsule so I can playback anytime I wish to be in that moment.
I recorded the first part of this drawing session in my phone and the hubby wasn't very happy at how it turned out to be (super low resolution) so I had to take out the camera and asked her to describe again what her drawing was about. You could really tell that her attention span is already expanding because in the past she would most probably disregard our question and drop the entire activity and move on to a new one. She was restless like that. And most days, she really hates the attention and would cry for me to stop taking her videos. But these days (well for the last week at least), she's been very cooperative and seemed to understood why Mommy is fuzzing over her a lot.
Amazing really how she can now come up with a story without our prodding. Mind you, she just asked for a piece of paper here and shouted - "drawing ako, drawing ako". So I took out some scratch papers and handed her some. She initially wanted to write her name. I showed her how an 'M' is done but she ended up making a rectangle. She laughed at her version. Then she started doodling (zigzags mostly, she likes making those these days) and.so I asked her to draw me a flower because I could sense her restlessness. Voila! This is what she ended up with. Do we really have a story teller in the making here?
Ever since Maia stepped into the active, adventurous and exciting world of toddler-hood, we try to make our bonding activities interesting and at the same time educational. We never try to force her to learn anything but each time she shows an interest on learning something new, we take that lead and evaluate the resources we have and come up with a fun activity.
Let me share with you one activity that Maia really enjoyed doing. She learned her basic colors from this activity. She's already moved on to more age appropriate activities these days like painting, coloring and scribbling but we enjoyed this for some time. You can use colored plastic cups in lieu of the nesting cups we used here. We just had these balloons on hand because Maia went through this balloon crazy phase so we opted to stock up on mini balloons and a hand pump. Who knew we would find other use for these thingies too...hehe.
pumping some air into a mini red balloon
Here comes my favorite part of the week again. I hope the weather will remain sunny this time so we can all enjoy some outdoor time as well!
an old balloon from her first bday makes for a perfect doodle page
It really amazes me how verbal Maia has become since she first uttered a clear word (9 months old and she screamed for Daddy at the ER - she went Daaaaaaaaah-deeee!). From simple phrases, she's now speaking in sentences. What's even more fascinating is, she can relay a story to us from weeks and even months ago vividly. Like this story from one of our summer vacations to Antique for instance of how her cousin Gogol who was without slippers would chase chickens in Lolo's backyard. The chicken was red and black, she would add. That came from out of nowhere. (In between chuckles she'd go: Mommy, si Manong Gogol wala slippers takbo sya dun sa likod ng bahay ni Lolo. Habol nya chicken. Yung red. Tsaka yung black)
During breakfast, I was preparing her a bowl of oatmeal when she exclaimed - "Ayaw ko nang oatmeal, Mommy! Ayaw ko nyan!" Then she proceeded to say, "Gusto ko ng egg! Egg ang gusto ko!"There was this one time that I called home to ask how she was doing and she goes: "Mommy, nasan ka? Nasa office? Nasan Daddy ko? Maya ha? Chuckie ko ha?" Then I go, "meron ka pa dyan sa ref isa pa." She answers back, "Eh inom ko na to. Mamaya wala na"
Yes, along with the verbal progress came the realization that she can now speak her mind and influence us to give in to what she wants. We did and still do encourage her to speak out. And it is on our conscious effort to always talk to her straight (no baby talk please) and communicate constantly that she learned to speak this way. We are truly happy with how that effort has come to be.
On the other hand, we also realized that from this day forward we need to be extra cautious and conscious. We do acknowledge that we are entirely, fully responsible when it came to censorship of the things that this little girl reads, hears and sees. So now we have to be more choosy of the movies we watch when she's around and of course be even more picky with the shows she watches on TV or on the computer. We try not to watch the news when she's around because one time when a police report on TV flashed a dead body she was quick to react and ask what it was. "Ano yun Mommy dog? Nabundol ng car ang dog, Mommy?" I didn't know how to respond then. I just said Yes. We are not trying to shield her from reality but we just want her to take things slowly. Violence is the last thing we'd want her to learn at this point so we try to delay that as much as we could.
It isn't easy trying to be watchful of every single word you say. Especially with my quite talkative nature (yes I am, once I've warmed up), it is usually me who accidentally spills in a 'bad' word or two and end up wishing I could literally take back what I said. But of course I couldn't, so I'd end up praying she didn't hear it. Or if worse comes to worst and she speaks of it we try to explain to her what that word meant and when would be the appropriate time to use it. Some days we get lucky with the explanations, most times they seem to have fallen on deaf ears but we shouldn't give up. That's our mantra at home.
There's no denying how smart kids of this generation are and I don't think we only have genetics to thank for that. The technology of this age just makes all types of information readily accessible and available for people of all ages. And as working parents, my hubby and I acknowledge that we do not have 100% control over that accessibility. And with that we think the best weapon we have against that is our unyielding guidance and constant communication with the little one.
Most days, we really relish this milestone because it is the greatest way our little girl ever could express to us how much she loves us. Like this morning for instance, while bidding her dad goodbye she goes: "Babay Daddy! I love you! Sabihin mo, I love you too!" (Bye Daddy, I love you. You should say, You love me too!)
Ah the joy of parenting a toddler! It isn't always terrible, most days they really are terrific!
I leave you with this video of a 3-month old Maia talking to her Dad. I didn't know that was already her cluing us in of non-stop conversations to come.
