Maia's Favorite: Milo Dinosaur

As most little kids (and the not-so-little even) are, my little miss is also fond of chocolate drinks. She weaned from the bottle early. By the time she turned two, we said goodbye to formula milk. Gladly, she was never really picky with all the milk we tried and tested for her. Eventually, she decided for herself and settled on chocolate flavored milk (yes that popular brand that just couldn't decide what is it exactly -- gatas na choco or choco na gatas?, the little miss is low maintenance like that). Since then, that has been her daily choice. Although for the past 2 years, she only takes about a glass of milk daily and usually before bedtime.



Last summer, her love for chocolate milk was replaced by this latest discovery - Milo Dinosaur. Why is it called Milo Dinosaur, you ask? Wikipedia doesn't have much to say but to quote: the "Dinosaur" in the beverage's name on its own means "[a] heap of Milo or Horlickspowder on the iced drink"

How is it made, exactly? Well, it's really just a glass of Milo topped with the powder. But we add a spoonful or two of condensed milk to sweeten it a bit more. (no wonder it's a hit among kids, no?).



In a 16 oz glass:

4 heaping tbsps of Milo
2 tsps of condensed milk (no particular brand for us)
about 1/4 cup of hot water
a cup of ice
a shaker/container

Cover the bottom of the shaker/cover container (I usually use a mason jar) with condensed milk add 3 tablespoons of Milo dissolved in hot water, dump in the ice and shake to your heart's content. Once mixed thoroughly, uncap the cover and top with the remaining Milo powder.

A pack of 300g Milo used to last our household two weeks or even more. But now, our consumption has doubled. Since the kid has been skipping the bedtime milk drink for a few months now, I also sometimes opt to use fresh milk instead of plain water. She doesn't mind. As long as there's still a good portion of Milo on top of the glass.

What about your little kids? Are they fond of chocolate drinks too?

Baon Ideas: What To Pack For Light Lunch/Snacks

In two days, my little girl is going to start a fresh adventure as a grade schooler. We're all set. I managed to get everything done at crunch time. Books all covered, bag's packed and ready, school uniform waiting to be pressed, organized her drawers and sorted everything out (socks, undies, hankies and towels). Am I excited? Or am I excited? Can you tell? Haha.

I'm all set...except for the menu plan for her snacks and light lunch. We just learned a few days ago that her school schedule overlaps lunch break and now that school day is getting nearer I'm starting to panic (only in my head. i'm still smiling from ear to ear as I write this).

Thank God, I came across another blogger mom's post about baon ideas (thanks Mrs. C!) and I had a light bulb moment. Some days, the pack rat in me comes handy indeed. I dug up some of Maia's old menus when she still was enrolled in a "nutrition program" in school. I'm partly wishing they still offer that in grade school because that would really save me from the headache of planning menus week in and week out. I guess the good thing about this is I don't have to crack my head thinking about the household menu as well. The challenge here is for me to come up with a sustainable way to plan this (or maybe find a way to delegate the task to Ate Inday without me having to closely monitor).

For now, I will rely on the ones listed on the little girl's previous nutrition program menus. What's good about it is, they sent us copies of the menus and it was good for one quarter. At least I am safe for the next 8 weeks or so. And I know that they have been tested and proven since the kid hardly went home with left overs then.

Also I have a couple of the little girl's favorites that I've shared here and they will probably going to see their way into our weekly menus more frequently from now on. Unless, I find a way to convince the preschool canteen to still offer the nutrition program to the little miss at least for this year.

Are You Ready For The Next School Year?

My little girl officially starts her new adventures as a grade schooler in a couple of weeks.

Are we excited? Of course!

But if you believe in "action speaks louder than words", that might not really properly translate to us being very excited to have a grade schooler this year.

I did school supplies shopping rather late this year. I got sucked into a blackhole the entire summer and I barely got out of it alive. But thankfully, I'm back. Not in my best self yet but I'm just happy to report...I AM BACK.



So the cramming worked. I finished labeling most of her stuff and checked off and packed those items that we needed to deposit to school on the first day of class. Although I have yet to buy her books and cover them up. The little girl's books need to be covered because based on experience, a few months into the school year, you'd normally see her books looking like it's almost the end of the school year. Have to work on teaching the kid how to be more careful of books and school stuff.



This year, thankfully, I didn't have to buy a lot of school supplies anymore. Some of them, I still had stocks from previous years so I didn't have to buy anymore. I was actually tempted to recycle even her crayons but I found a cheap box (toxic-free, made by a trusted yet practically priced brand and looks every bit like the expensive brand) of 24's in SM Hypermart and I kind of still remember how good the smell of newly bought school supplies were (hehehe, I'm weird yes) so I didn't want to take that feeling away from my kid.

The only difficult task I had to do now is train the kid to sleep early and wake up early yet again. Her sleeping schedule changed drastically this summer (and yes, I'm partly blaming my blackhole tale for that) and we need to reverse that soon! Please send me good luck vibes. And may we reach our goal by the end of this week.

I am well aware of more challenges coming when we officially welcome the school season. I still have not thought about mid-morning snacks menu planning, for one. And we're still waiting to get her uniforms shipped from Angeles (we thought we can find a cheap mananahi there but turned out to an epic fail too). I can probably list  a dozen more but I've decided I am taking them one challenge at a time. This strategy worked well, in the past. I hope it still will, this time.

Crammer moms, unite! :)

Arts-N-Crafts: Looms and Colored Bands

I just recently found a new, effortless, no-sweat (well, except nowadays when the daytime summer temp never goes lower than 37) and very cheap way to relax myself.

And what is that?

I was down to just this few bits after spending about an hour sorting nearly a thousand bands. Haha.
Ibang level lang ang addiction.

Sorting rubber bands according to color. Last week, I went to Divisoria with my friend Scarlet and we kind of spent 1/3 of our time checking out loom bands. I finally bought a loom kit and burned a couple of hundreds on different colored bands.

I know. It's kind of riding on the latest craze. And so not me at all.

Early this year when I first heard of rainbow looms, I actually was a bit intimidated by it. I wanted to encourage the little miss to try the activity but I couldn't find cheap kits then. But I did find it very creative and I think also quite a nice exercise to test her skills on following instructions since you will have to check out tutorials before you can develop your own designs (well, that is my opinion).

But yes, sooooo expensive for my taste. (I know, I've always been a cheap-o. Not ashamed of it)

Enter friends in facebook announcing Divisoria's latest "hot" product. I just have to find an excuse to finally go and check out what is there to check out. There were plenty (too bad was too scared to take out my phone and steal a few photos)! What's even great, pasok sa budget (which was a mere 500 pesoses if I recall it right).

I just love seeing the colorful mix of the bands. And well, browsing through tutorials kind of revived my dormant crafty [albeit self-confessed] self. I wanted the little girl to get hooked on it thinking this would at least help in getting half of her attention away from her latest favorite (Thank you Lolo Boy for this priceless gift!) toy but sadly, it was me who got hooked and I have yet to find the best way to curve her gadget use.

A few minutes or sometimes [if I'm lucky] an hour during the day though, I am still able to convince her to sit with me. And sort the bands. Hmmm come to think of it, we still bond at least.

A few of my creations just this week. (clockwise: triple single, railroad, inverted fishtail, single loop, single squared loop, Maia's favorite design - the fishtail, and the diamond)

But yes, sorting is such a relaxing activity. I burn at least an hour a weekend doing this. And I'm a better person because of it! [seriously haha]





p.s. I usually view tutorials from this site: Loom Love. But pinterest has plenty of tutorials as well.

No More Goodbye Kisses!

i wanted to kiss you goodbye today before i left for work today. but i was already out of the door so i asked you to open up and come out to give me my kiss.

did you?

sadly no. you just stood behind the screen door and gestured bye bye to me.

"ganito na lang mommy!" **you kissed your palms and blew me kisses**

sigh. you are now busy doing your own thing. you are now starting to build your own world.

and no room for mommies anymore.