Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Christ our Savior is risen! Isn't that wonderful?

How are you celebrating Easter?

In my part of the world, Easter is usually celebrated by hearing religious mass as majority of the populace here are Catholics. We did that this morning (with the kid shooting question after question to me. I told her I will give her better answers next time, she just have to give me time to research) and we had shared breakfast at the nearby fastfood joint after. The kid was already very happy with that. Such fun to be a kid. They find joy in the simplest things.

Whatever race, religion, beliefs you may have...I wish you a wonderful, blessed, peaceful, restful Easter.

And as part of our Easter tradition, since egg hunting is still not very popular here, we'll do some crafts activities later this afternoon instead (when the kid wakes up from her long afternoon nap). She asked if we can do different eggs and bunnies later and I found some patterns we can use later. I just discovered this site and I'm starting to love it! Sharing it with you just in case you're looking for some crafts activities to do with your little kid/s later as well.

Easter Bunny and Egg Pattern and more Easter crafts in here. And the activity that started this tradition of our: family of bunnies.

Enjoy!

Listen, Obey, Respect

I took a bath this morning but realized I forgot to bring the change of clothes that I prepared. I called the little miss and she responded instantly. I asked her if she can bring the clothes over and she didn't hesitate a single bit. She immediately brought the clothes over to me. I said thank you of course. And as always, she answers me with an enthusiastic "you're welcome, mommy" coupled with a radiant smile.

Some days, she comes inside the house sweaty from playing under the sun and I'd just simply instruct her to change her clothes and she would come out of the bedroom fresh. On weekend mornings when I would wish to sleep in for a few more minutes and her neighborhood friends are already calling for her to come out and play, I would just instruct her to brush her hair and put on a pair of shorts and she'd be out the door looking decent (and yes as if Mommy fixed her up first).



She can brush her own hair, fix her own snacks (a simple sandwich and warm milk usually), eat on her own, fill up her water bottle and replace it in the fridge. When we go out, I already assigned her to prepare her backpack and she would make sure she brings her necessities - a pack of wipes, a handkerchief or towel, a bottle of water, biscuits/crackers/cookies, a notebook and a pen, a toy.

Many parent friends have asked me how I trained my kid to be such a responsible and obedient kid. Sometimes I ask myself that too. I never followed any particular parenting philosophy but my own. I do read parenting articles from time to time. But only to get fresh insights but now never to look for tips. I have come to accept that my kid is unique on her own and I should pattern my parenting to her personality. One thing my husband and I have always stuck on to though was being firm and consistent. We have rules in the house and even as adults, we are not exempted from those rules. We try to be firm and consistent even to ourselves. We try to be the best models we can be. We try our hardest to walk the talk.

At 5 years and a half my little girl believes she can do almost anything I ask of her. She is also a very strong willed little girl. But I always remind myself not to forget that she's still a kid. And there are tasks that can still remain inappropriate for her age no matter how invincible she thinks she is. I am still the parent after all.  That I very well know I should never forget.

And this note here -- a note that I wrote one low day four years ago, when I was feeling so guilty and neglectful of my motherhood duties. To this day, this note is still stuck on my kid's study wall. "LISTEN, OBEY, RESPECT"

There are of course other values that I have been trying to teach her to imbibe but these three words are one of the first words she learned to utter and I'm glad they were.

Maia Recommends: Fully Booked's Once Upon A Time

Our normally quite and lazy weekend was temporarily interrupted today. As I've been confined at home due to a terrible flu attack recently, I thought my family deserve sometime out. I grabbed at the chance to do just that when my mommy friends called for a play-cum-mommy chat date at the newly opened Vanilla Cupcake Bakery branch at one of the popular down here at the south.

We started the day to celebrate Palm Sunday. And then the kid being the book worm that she is immediately requested we head straight to a bookstore after hearing mass. She seemed to have a mental checklist of what books she will grab on her next trip that she immediately makes a beeline to the stall where the books she likes are when we get to a bookstore she likes.

Today was particularly made extra special because my blogger friend, Aimee, informed us of her latest project. Bookstore trip made even more exciting by a storytelling session! We were even luckier because we came on a Sunday when storytellers from Adarna are invited.

From the information that Aimee shared to us the sessions are scheduled every Saturdays and Sundays  at 2pm and 4pm. Today's session consisted of 2 Adarna book stories that ran for about 30 minutes. The storyteller was so animated and fluid that she got the kids engaged and very responsive to questions she would throw unexpectedly. I loved how interactive that session was! I am looking forward to bringing Maia to more of these storytelling sessions.

Maximizing Summer Vacation With Family Without Breaking The Bank

How have you been spending your hot summer days of late?

My health has suffered the wrath of this uber hot weather. Extremely hot, humid weather outside and winter like temp in the office is a recipe for disaster, healthwise. Yesterday I finally went to see a doctor. Now, I have to take plenty of medicines to hasten my recovery.

Anyways, as much as I wanted to make this summer a fruitful, learning filled experience for the little miss, coming home exhausted from trying days at work just makes me look forward to lazy, home-confined weekends divided into bonding times with the husband and the little miss and an hour or two of me-time. Me-time mostly spent window shopping.

I've been looking to update my office wardrobe and that of the little miss’s as well as she seemed to have undergone a growth spurt lately and I found just the perfect online shop to search for fashionable women’s (and little girls’ too) clothes at Zalora. This online shop is just the perfect place to burn my free time on since it caters not only to women but to the entire family as well (I couldn't resist looking at the men's section as well and making mental lists of several things that I can score for the husband). While I build up my shopping funds, I content myself with ogling and listing pretty things that I come across online.

my baby girl, all grown up

 Apart from online window shopping, I'm equally ecstatic to get my cooking mojo back so I also spend some of my weekend time at the kitchen experimenting on some recipes. I tried baking blueberry muffins today and made some cookie dough in advance for the little miss's afternoon snacks this week. She's about to start her summer classes (got her free passes to an 8-session ballet class) as well and she's bringing some homemade cookies to share with her classmates.

can you spot her from this crowd of pink?

We've had chances to raid the village facilities too lately - the pool and the playground - particularly and this is one activity that I've sort of missed doing too. When the kid was still a toddler, we used to spend plenty of time strolling and playing at the playground. Now, we're making the excuse to visit the playground so we can limit her TV and computer time.

We still have a couple of activities lined up this summer. But I will have to reserve them for the later part of this month and maybe early May. I hope to recover completely this week so I can finally spend more time outdoors with my loves (if only to kill time at the playground and the pool). I'm also thinking of coming up with a summer income generating project (inspired by what my friend Maqui and her adorable little Aki's summer project) for the little miss since there's an ongoing basketball tournament in our village. I'm thinking of letting her sell ice pops and homemade cookies to the tournament participants.

Plenty of ideas, eh? I hope before summer ends, I get to actually do half of them.

Sight Reader

I thought she has now master early reader but a few days ago I seem to have been proven wrong. Has she been just pulling the art of sight reading on us and her teachers?

What do you think?