Goodbye Long Locks!

With the goal of crossing one more to-do from our school-opening-preparations-list (whew) in mind, Maia and I trooped over to the nearest salon from our place yesterday to get her wild, curly hair neatly trimmed. At first, Tibs was hesitant and wanted me to do the cutting myself. But after failing for the last 2 attempts, he finally relented and agreed to have it done by a 'professional'. Having been blessed with a lot (and I mean lot) of hair since birth, a haircut is something that seemed compulsory for Maia even for at least once a year because it's really a big effort for us to keep it in place. The little girl isn't very fond of headbands or clippies or pony tails. So a haircut being a yearly requisite, you can very well say that she's no stranger to having scissors sliced through her locks. She only cried the first time. The rest of our hair salon trips were all pleasant experiences. 

First time's always a pain. 

Second time's fun!

Yesterday however was sort of a milestone for us because that was the first time she went to a grown up salon. The previous ones were all done in kiddie salons where she was kept preoccupied while sitting in little 'car' chairs. But she was fine with it. She although expressed her wish to retain her long hair because princesses have long hair (thank you for the stereotyping Disney!). I told her though that a shorter one would make her look really pretty and so she simply just complied to Mommy's wishes. The hairstylist thankfully turned out to be quite used to trimming little girl's locks. She moved fast and we were done after 10/15 minutes, I guess. Georgie and I kept the little girl amused so she kept still almost the entire time that she was on the chair. When the hairstylist was all done, she took a moment to admire her new look (yes like adults do) in the mirror. 

Sadly, the little girl refuses to have her picture taken with her new trim. She probably wants to keep some moment with her new look all to herself for now . Most of the curls have been trimmed off and what's left of it were just the waves but I'm sure she'll grow back the pretty curls soon. I just really wanted to chop them off for now because they've all become very dry and had mostly split ends. (makes me wonder, how do we prevent kids from having split ends anyways? esp kids with tangly, curly hair?)

Thank you for being such a good girl Maia! You're almost ready for school!

I was able to steal a back shot of her while she relished her reward from yesterday - an order of Jollibee spaghetti!

A Spaceship Ride To School

I seriously thought I was the only one excited for school opening in our household. When I was younger, June was my most awaited month of the year. I was more excited for June than for July (which is my birthday month). I looked forward to the smell of newly wrapped books and notebooks, to arranging newly bought school supplies in my bag (i have this secret love affair with school supplies and making tambay at National Bookstore is my idea of killing time), to neatly hanging my newly ironed school uniform (yes my siblings and I each took the responsibility of preparing our own school uniforms) and most of all I was just excited to touch base with friends again. I can only hope Maia takes after that zest I had for school when I was younger. (digress, digress, digress)

So anyway, as I've mentioned, I thought I was the only one excited for school but this morning Maia just proved to me how wrong I was. While I was preparing our breakfast, she took out her scratch papers and drew something for me and her dad to bring to work.While we were admiring the details on her drawings, she started telling us what's the story behind one of her drawings. She pointed to one of the stick figures and told me it's her daddy. Then she went to encase daddy's head. I thought she was trying to draw daddy's hat but I was amazed when she said it's daddy's spaceship suit because we are going to ride a spaceship to bring her to school. Then her next statement made me laugh: "Kasi ayaw ko sumakay sa van, Mommy kaya sa spaceship na lang"

You see, the poor little girl has motion sickness (she gets nauseous riding closed air-conditioned vehicles) so if she could get away with it she would always prefer open-windowed jeepneys over everything else. I guess that's the price we pay for being jeepney-loving, commuting parents ourselves. (On a side note, our pediatrician tells us that motion sickness is actually genetic. She attributes it being born with sensitive nerves in the ears - I'm guessing probably the same nerves causing vertigos? - and I already know who is the culprit -- ME! I've been a byahilo up until I was in my teens. She prescribed a homeopathic remedy called Cocculus Inducus for Maia but I have yet to find it since the 3 Healthy Options stores that I went to didn't have stocks on hand. In the meantime, the school service's solution to this is to open the windows when Maia rides the school service to school. Sigh, that's the only thing that's making me anxious in this new adventure)

Still, here's to exciting adventures ahead!

Arts-N-Crafts: Primp-Up-My-Rockies

When Maia was still a toddler, our house converted to a daycare during the afternoons. Maia had made friends with several village kids and they soon became regulars in our household. I never worried about my little girl's social interaction then because she was with a playgroup every day. Her inherently shy demeanor started to fade away as we began to notice that she's started warming up to other kids easily. I can also tell how influential this daily interaction with other kids was to improving her communication skills. She soon became really verbal. She looked forward to these play dates everyday but all that had to end abruptly when Ate Inday left. The kid had to quickly learn to be by herself and instead make imaginary friends to invite to her 'parties'. She coped well with the changes in her environment and we could tell that she finally was having fun on her own but we also know how she longed to be with real kids to play tag, fight over toys and have real conversations with. Now that Ate Inday's back (yes, she's back! yipee!), imagine her delight. It's been two weeks and our house has never been without a kid since! The daycare resumed operations! :)

Even on a weekend, we had a kid over.  So last Saturday while Shea (Maia's BFF) spent the morning with us, I took the opportunity to inject something creative into the kids' day by giving them painting duties. I took out some stones that I brought back from our Antique vacation last April and everyone got busy primping up their little rockies. Even Ate Inday joined in the fun!

Maia, Shea and Ate Inday's masterpieces

What You Will Need:

• Stones (flat ones are better)
• Poster/tempera paint
• Googly eyes/Buttons/Beads
• Tinsel decor I saved from a few Christmases ago
• Ribbons
• Glue
• Scissors
• Paint brush
• Used newspapers

How to do it:

1. Cover the area where you plan to do the activity with used newspapers, grab a stone and paint it with your favorite color.

2. Let it dry in the sun for a few minutes.

3. While you're waiting for your little rocks to dry, the kids can be occupied by free style painting. In our case, we just handed them some scratch papers and they painted away.

Check out Shea's artwork. Isn't that pretty?

This was a funny scene. While Maia was painting on her paper,
I think she suddenly recalled their wet-on-wet painting sessions at St Michael.
She started with "Over the meadow"...
long pause, then she goes "ano nga sunod nun Mommy?" (what comes after that again, Mommy?)
I had to stifle a laugh because I know Maia always gets self-conscious when she hears us laugh over her witty/funny remarks.

4. When the rockies dried up, they each took their stones and started decorating it till their heart's content.

little girl was so engrossed with primping up her rockie

5. Primped up rockies can be made into paperweights and even as storytelling characters. Just let your kid's imagination flow!

Maia and Shea enjoyed this activity. They even showed their masterpieces to Shea's mom when she came to pick Shea up. Next time when I have more kids over, I'll have more art activities ready so they'd always look forward to spending a day in our house (talk of bribery no?). That way, the little kid will stop pressuring me and her dad to buy babies at the palengke (marketplace). Works well for me (since I am on the win-win side here).

Are We Ready For School?

In two weeks (even less I suppose but I don't want to count the days yet), we will be officially starting school. Last weekend, we already bought the supplies on the list that Maia's school provided us. The minute I got hold of the list, I immediately wanted to cross all of them out. I didn't want to cram this time (but I know I still will no matter how hard I try not to because cramming runs thru my veins hahaha).

One reason that I wanted to get this list done and over with is because a recent exchange with other preschooler mommies (southern n@wies, actually) made me realize I am not even halfway done with shopping for Maia's school needs. The school supplies as it turns out is just one part of it. That realization actually sort of turned my panic button ON but since I don't have room for panic these days, I forcefully calmed myself down and started putting together my BACK TO SCHOOL LIST.

I also found this printable list online and it's something to start with. It divided the list into two: SUPPLIES and CLOTHING. For the supplies, I guess I'm pretty much done with ours. ESS listed the following:

• Folder
• Notebooks
• Manila paper
• Oslo paper
• Typewriting paper
• Bath Soap
• Toilet paper
• Cartolina
• Apron
• Poster paint
• Construction paper
• Glue
• Expandable envelope
• Sequins
• Colored glitters
• Eraser
• Pencil
• Crayons
• Hand sanitizer

I just added in a few more that I think we also need at home once school starts:

• stapler
• scissors
• ample supply of tape
• plastic to cover books (National bookstore has the pre-cut ones, they're more convenient)
• ruler
• paper clips
• fasteners

CLOTHING:

• uniforms
• socks
• leather school shoes
• rubber shoes
• jacket
• rain-gear = raincoat + rain-boots

ACCESSORIES:

• hairbrush
• ponytails and clippies
• hankies/face towels
• umbrella
• lunchbag
• small bag
• water bottles
• plastic containers for baon

Handing all of these over to Maia's teacher during the first day of school.

I also need to do another important list but that one I'm doing last because it's going to drain me down to the core and that list would be THE BAON LIST. So much list, so little time.

Do you have tips to share to first time preschooler mommies like me? Any list of your own that you would like to share? I'd really appreciate it if you would!

Stepping Into New Clothes, Starting A New Adventure

I was staring at these uniforms this morning and as most of my little kid's milestone were, I was overwhelmed by all kinds of emotions once again. 

You know when they were infants and feeding, you wished they'd start holding their feeding bottles so you can at least have a decent hour (or two if you get lucky) of sleep. And then when they were crawling, you'd wish they'd start walking so you won't have to stay by their side to keep them from constantly falling. And then when they start mumbling, you'd wish they'd start talking so they can finally tell you what they really want. 

You wished all that and the minute they happen, you start wishing they go back to being infants. Small, dependent little beings who would just coo or blow raspberries at you and then melt your heart without even realizing it. 

Oh I'm being emotional I know. And she's only starting preschool so yes, medyo OA. But it never always stops - that realization of how fast time flies and even if I've metamorphosed into a totally different being (not in my wildest dreams did I ever see myself to be such a cam-whore but I just had to freeze the moment somehow) from how I was say 6 years ago, I still sometimes feel that I didn't document enough. Truth be told, I suddenly realized (yes suddenly like just a few minutes ago) all this fuss about documenting every single milestone was probably all for me and never for Maia. Because I want to remember everything. Every single thing about this little adorable girl. 

My dear Maia, if I could stop time I would. But of course, that isn't going to be doing you any good so I will make the effort to stop wishing I could. I hope you find great joy in this new adventure of yours. As always, we are just here to support. And provide all the love that you need. With everything else in this upcoming journey, we shall go by your lead. 

We love you Maia! Have fun in school!

On Pets And A Boy Named Diego

I was supposed to be doing homework and catch up with my back log exercises for my class tomorrow but I'm still hung up from today's lazy activities that all I could think of was getting an early shut eye as soon as I'm done with this post. And that's probably what I'm really going to do. Oh yeah, tomorrow will take care of itself. What's important right now is I have a kid who I made to feel like a VIP today and who couldn't stop saying I love you, we rock till she was taken over by sleep. 

Before she drifted to lala-land, we said a short prayer and I was struck to hear her pray for Diego today. Diego was a name she chose for her baby brother, if ever we will be blessed with one. She asked me tonight what's taking Diego so long to arrive. But as always, I just tell her to be patient because Diego will come when it's time for him to come. (I am not even sure if the kid understands my explanation but she always just nods and affirms it with a YES, Mommy).

Honestly, we never expected for her to be asking for a sibling. And we were settled on having just one kid (especially after factoring in the economies of raising a child these days). But at the beginning of this year, Tibs and I just suddenly felt that emotional readiness for another kid. We decided we will try for another. We consulted with my doctors and got the go signal from all of them. They were even happy that we have decided to try again. But all that had to be put on hold because things have also started to get exciting and challenging for me at the work front and I wouldn't want to overwhelm myself so we're still waiting and waiting for the right moment to come. I'm positive it will. But I'm hoping our little miss can still stretch her patience. 

So while we wait for that right moment, we considered getting her a pet to keep her mind off from Diego (and to save us from the constant badgering as well). We sort of made a wrong move (parents are supposed to decide for kids her age, right?) and asked her what kind of pet she wanted. She initially demanded for a dog. We actually almost gave in to that but I got scared the last minute and decided to beg off my co-workers offer. Luckily, another co-worker was happy to take over ownership of the dog so that somehow took away the guilt. Then she moved on to rabbits. That one we had a hard time coming up with excuses. But we know for a fact that she definitely isn't ready for a dog, a cat, or even a rabbit.

BioResearch must have sensed our dilemma.
They gave us an immediate solution.

Fortunately, last April when we visited Lost Eden Educational Park in Sucat (separate post on this trip still on my drafts folder will link up as soon it's published) we were given free pet fishes (from BioResearch which is the park's affiliate) to take home. Tibs was hesitant to take them at first, but I thought the kid might take it as a replacement of the rabbits that she's been wishing for us to buy for her. She wouldn't give in at first but when I bought a fish bowl and showed her how she can help take care of the fishes, the rabbit wish was temporarily forgotten. Since then, she as soon as she wakes up she would go straight to the bowl to greet and feed her FISHIES (they are five and they're called - FISHY 1, FISHY 2, FISHY 3 and so on...). 

This afternoon, we had a wonderful discovery when we came to say hi to them FISHIES...the 5 have now almost doubled. We found 4 small FISHIES amongst those original FISHIES who have undeniably grown since we made them a new home 4 weeks ago. Tibs couldn't believe they multiply that fast but well, they're there. The little girl just kept saying - I'M HAPPY MOMMY! I'M HAPPY FOR THE LITTLE FISHIES. :))

that little spec of black in there is the newest member in the little girl's fish bowl.
sigh. i miss having a real camera.

A Happy Friday Post

I was scouring my brains for something nice to post today. Some cheerful mommy news to perk up the remaining hours of Friday and as a sort of joyful welcome for the weekend. But it's been hours...and I came up with NONE. NADA. NIL. 

So I'm just going to call it a day and squeeze myself into Maia's little space on the floor and shower her with kisses while she's deep in slumber. Ate Inday told us it has been an awfully tiring day for her having foregone naptime to spend a full afternoon doodling and playing with her village bff, Shea. She's probably even snoring in there and that would be fun to listen to. The snores are a rare treat for me and her dad because those always remind us that she played like real kids do during the day. And that's exactly how we always like her days to be. 

Since Monday, she's been looking forward to spending the weekend with us so we planned for another lazy family day for our Saturday. We're probably going to hang a DO NOT DISTURB sign on our door tomorrow so don't bother knocking okay? This household is going to be busy being lazy tomorrow!

Have a great weekend everyone! Leaving you with Maia's version of Barney's I Love You song (plus a bonus track lolz)

Arts-N-Crafts: A Card For Mommy on Mother's Day

Today was some sort of a downer for me. I spent half of my day fighting my way through Hiragana and Katakana charts in my 4-hour Nihongo class. I felt I was at my dumbest today. I was stuck at learning the alphabets while everyone around me were already discussing and exchanging sentences. And mind you, my classmates were just in their early 20s. Amazing kids. Their memory just blows me away. I'm all praises.

But I'm glad we had a teacher who doesn't give up (thank you, Maam!), 30 minutes before we wrapped up the class I was finally able to construct my interrogative statements successfully and finish an assigned interactive activity with a classmate. That felt really good, I tell ya. Still, it drained me hard and left me with no energy to think of mother's day celebrations. All I wanted then was just to get home and sleep. SLEEP. sleep. All these things happening around me are making me miss a lot in the family front. That makes me even more guiltier than ever. Not that anyone's complaining.

If there's one thing that I realized amidst all these raucous around me, it is the fact that I think I found where my calmness lies. And that is in this motherhood thing. I may stumble in many aspects of my life, but it was from being a mother that I find my strength. I may be amiss on my family duties but they always rally behind me. No matter what. And while I was devoid of energy already when I finally got home this afternoon, I enter our bedroom and find this little surprise hanging by the cabinet door.

Tibs rarely makes the effort to engage on arts and crafts with Maia but today he surprised me with something that I never expected him to do - a handmade card for mother's day. You see that binding on the card, they painstakingly sewed that to convert the cover of Maia's used drawing booklet unto my mother's day card.

Admiring her work of art. She kept pointing at the heart doodles. Ang galing ko Mommy, di ba?
Tibs claims he didn't guide her hands while writing the Happy Moms Day part. Ang galing, galing nga ano?

And one more thing that made my heart flutter was that hearing the little girl say this straight and clearly: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOMMY!

Oh my heart was just bursting at the seams when I heard that. Of course, that came with her trademark "I LOVE YOU, WE ROCK! SWEET KISS!" But given this and the effort on the card, I just feel I'm the luckiest momma in the entire galaxy!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY AGAIN TO ALL YOU FANTASTIC, HARDWORKING MOTHER'S OUT THERE! 

How was your Mother's day celebration?

p.s. Tibs was nursing a little tampo the past few days because Maia has been refusing to kiss him. He feels bad that he now had to coerce the little girl who once generously showered him with kisses into giving him a tiny peck on the cheek while I would just say a simple good morning greeting and get not just one but a pair of kisses on the cheek. So he thinks by writing this, he's finally gotten back at me.

Sorry to disappoint you Sir. But I bet when she wakes up tomorrow, you still don't get a kiss while I -- still get tons.
**Evil Laugh**

Love Notes

Maia has a new hobby. She makes love notes for me and her dad. In the morning after breakfast, she would hand each of us a piece of rolled scratch paper with scribbles on it.

"Sa yo to Mommy. Sa yo naman to Daddy. Dalhin nyo yan sa office ha?" "Tingnan nyo muna. Sinulat ko yan para sa inyo. Galing galing ko di ba?" (This is for you Mommy. This is for you Daddy. Bring it to the office, okay? Check them out. I wrote them for you. I did great, didn't I?)

too bad I wasn't able to get photos of Tibs' notes

She's been doing this everyday since the beginning of this week. Times like these make me look back and think about what we might have done to deserve this uber-loving and thoughtful little girl. You see, Tibs and I were never showy and affectionate to our respective families (parents, siblings). Although undeniably, we tend to be quite affectionate to each other. I guess, it does pay to model the values that you want your kids to emulate. 

This morning, while I was instructing Ate Inday on their activities for the day, Maia kept interrupting. So I asked her if she likes to contribute as well. She went to point out several activities in her Art Voyage kit so we wrote them down as well. Being a sucker for surprises (even 'planned' ones hahaha pathetic no?), I dropped hints of wanting to get something special for Mother's day and guess what she did? She got a piece of paper and immediately got down to write. With Ate Inday's help, they came up with this.

Of course, she still had to roll it before handing it to me. (I don't know where she got the idea. She rolls it like the paper scrolls in the ancient times lolz)

ISN'T SHE THE SWEETEST?

I miss blogging so much. I have around 50 drafts sitting in this blog alone but I'm still swamped mostly by work that by the time I get home I usually go straight to sleep after putting Maia to bed. 

But....it's a Friday! So let's get those positive vibes going. Advanced HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO US AWESOME ROCKIN' MOMMAS! 

Woodwork and Gardening Class At St Michael Playhouse

traditional photo by the daycare door

Maia recently finished Woodwork and Gardening Class At St Michael Playhouse (A Steiner inspired daycare). The class was only intended for 12 students and the slots were already filled when I called to sign up. But since we were just so eager to join, they decided to accept us. I just love everyone behind this daycare (and I bet so does Maia). 

I initially planned to have Maia join the first 2 classes - Baking and Cooking then Arts and Crafts - but I just couldn't escape my deliverables at work so I had to push plans until finally, I got clearance to at least take a day off so I could bring Maia to the first session of this last class. The class ran for 3 days - Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 2-415 in the afternoon (which was just perfect since Maia's active during this time of the day).

The class was to be Maia's first official kiddie class where she will be left on her own. I was all kinds of emotions when I was bidding her goodbye on the first day of class but she proved my fears wrong by showing to me how ready she was to be in school. When I came to pick her up she was all cheerful and just excited to tell me about the things they did in school. She showed no sign of dislike whatsoever. 

This class however being the least of my choices among St Michael's 3 offerings this summer had me setting my expectations at lowest (on second thought, it was even to none). I only had three goals enrolling Maia into this class:

- To establish a summer tradition/routine. I wanted her to have something to look forward to every summer and having already gone to summer class last year, I wanted to make it a yearly thing for her.

- To check and reinforce her independence. With her officially starting Kindergarten this June, I wanted to see how emotionally ready she was. And she did great. She was more than ready to take the plunge. Some friends were even kidding me that it's probably me who is going to suffer separation anxiety come June (and that's probably very true).

- To have fun. I really wanted for Maia to get the chance to mingle with kids other than the ones she's always with in our village. And St Michael (in my personal opinion) is one of the best places to do that because Maia gets to be in a school set up and yet don't get really burdened with school work. And I am leaving her in the hands of well-trained nurturers. Plus she gets to bond with mostly Waldorf kids who (again in my personal opinion and experience) have gentler demeanor. It wouldn't hurt if she gets to pick up some of that gentleness (I know that's shooting at the stars with only three days of exposure but...) as well. :)

I'm glad I didn't set any expectations as this turned out to be a really great, awesome experience for Maia. Till next Summer, St Michael! I hope there's going to be a repeat next year! 

one of maia's favorite activities - the freeplay! she never forgot the toys
and their 'sleeping' quarters and the minute she learned she was coming back,
she immediately planned on raiding this part of the classroom. lolz

Leaving you with photos of Maia in class (that I grabbed from St. Michael's Facebook page):

They had a wonderful class photo but I have yet to ask permission to post the photo here since it has faces of the other kids and I don't know if the parents would permit me to post them here. 

GARDENING

Getting some potting mix into her pot of Stevia plant

Day 2, "Hello There Planty!"

Day 3, "We're going home to Cavite today Planty!"

WOODWORKING

Kids helping and observing Tito Robert and a classmate at work

playing with the car wheels

the kids' creations (we aren't sure though if maia indeed made her car,
she kept saying i wasn't ready to slice mommy (which i reckon means
she didn't like the sawing part - she developed a fear of knives and
pounding lately)

ST. MICHAEL PLAYHOUSE is located at the 
Ground Floor
6241 Palma cor Manalac Sts.
Bgy. Poblacion, Makati City 1210
(just two minutes from Rockwell Drive)

Call now to schedule a school tour.
Call or text 0917-847-0848 or email 
st.michael.playhouse@gmail.com

Arts-N-Crafts: Paper Tube Flower Stamps

I got this idea from Pinterest and yesterday when what I thought was going to be something that would take us the afternoon to finish turned out to be something that the little miss could finish in a jiffy, I got the remaining paper tubes that I had out and started making these.

 

Can you see the two stamp patterns?

What We Used:

 

 

• paper tubes
• heavy duty cutter
• paint (poster or watercolor, just as long as their colors would stand out)
• used microwable container covers
• imagination running wild

How We Did It:

 

1. Ask an adult to cut out the other end of the paper tube into even lines. I divided mine into 6-7 portions. 

2. Fold the cut portion and make sure they are of the same size each when pressed down.

3. Trim edges to your desired flower shapes (We had the plain elongated ones and the other one I cut the ends to resemble a triangle or maybe a pentagon)

4. Dip the paper tube stamps unto your paint and stamp on clean paper.

 

 

Tadah! Here's our finished artwork :) 

 

 

Arts-N-Crafts: Choo-Choo Train From Paper Tubes

I couldn't remember where I first saw this project but this has been in my to-do list for sometime now. Yesterday, I finally made the time to do it with Maia. It didn't turn out to be like the picture below but it was good enough for Maia to play with so it didn't really lose it's real purpose :)

Photo Source
The Project Was Supposed To Look like This

Materials We Used:

• paper tube 
• egg tray carton 
• poster paint
• paint brush
• glue
• cotton
• tape
• scissors
• cutter

Kalat starts ... NOW!

How We Did It:

1. Cut the egg tray carton in half (keep the other half for future projects)

2. Assemble your painting materials (I usually dilute the poster paints so I keep clean water on hand)

3. Turn egg tray upside down (bottom facing up) and paint that part with your desired colors. Set aside to dry when the tray is fully coated with paint. Do the same for the paper tube.

4. Ask an adult to cut two half an inch circles from your spare paper tubes. Form into smaller circles about 1.5 inches in diameter

5. Stick the wheels under the two opposite sides of hollowed part of the egg tray carton.

6. Using quick drying glue, stick the painted paper tube unto the egg tray carton. 

7. Stick some cotton on top of the paper tube to represent a smoke stack. 

Tadah! You're done. Enjoy. :)

Here's what our project turned out to be: