Milestone: Learning To Tie Laces

My plan for today involved only 2 things - a corner table and my office laptop. Due to the torrential rains that we've experienced for the past 3 days, the area where my company is situated was severely flooded and we were advised not to come to work anymore last Monday. Had it been any other week, I would have jumped in glee. Who wouldn't appreciate an extra day to spend with her family?

But it's the end of August (in our financial books) and a day or two missed translates to piles and piles of paperwork that I will have to catch up and make up for during the same week. And it just so happens 2 public holidays were set less than a week apart.The more that I gotta work extra hard (and maybe put in more hours).

Good thing I'm finally allowed to work from home these days so I only had to condition the kid that I cannot be disturbed for a few hours during the day because I needed to get some things done. Good thing, her school also declared that they are taking the entire week off so I had no reason to be implementing gadget-free school day rule. 

Just to be sure, I woke up extra early today so I'll have a few hours headstart before the kid regains full energy at breakfast. 

Being a working parent and actually bringing in work to the home sucks big time. But I guess, it helps if you poured extra efforts in her earlier years to train her to be independent. These days, apart from the non-stop craving for mommy and daddy's attention, the kid can pretty much do a lot of things on her own. And that includes feeding herself, dressing up, entertaining herself mostly through pretend plays (yes complete with a script and an imaginary playmate to boot). So the gadgets remain my last resort even during days like today.

She really can survive the day without me asking how she's doing but being at home and not doing my parenting duties always leaves me guilt-ridden. Luckily today, I finished work early and we still had the few hours of the day to bond. I wanted to do an art project but ditched it when I realized I was just too exhausted to gather materials to use. 

Then I remembered I'd been planning to try to teach her again how to tie laces. Last December, I attempted to teach her that but I guess she wasn't ready because she was losing patience every time the ribbons would jumble up. Well, she still has a lot to learn on being patient but when I took out the P20 pair of laces (mahal pa actually because I bought it from the supermarket) that I bought a few weeks back she was eager to be taught. 

I remember a book about tying shoelaces that I saw in NBS recently and thought I can maybe do something similar to it. At no cost. Of course the book came with a story but we're experts at that already, we can always make up new ones. We just need the props.

So I got a pair of scissors and a cereal box from my recyclables stash, traced the little kid's cute feet on it, cut two pairs of feet and punch 3 holes each on the sides. Viola! We now have 'shoes' that we can practice tying laces on.

She grew really impatient in her first 2 attempts. But I remained calm and assuring her it's an easy task to do. After 3 repeats, she grabbed the laces again and was able to make a loop and tied the laces tight! Yay! She seemed so proud of her achievement she gladly replayed the same to her dad and ate Inday.

Now...it's probably time for us to get rid of those velcro P.E. shoes and get her a pair of decent laced rubber shoes. Agree?

Sandwich Making Contest In School

Tomorrow my charming little miss is going to join her first ever school competition. She represents her class along with another classmate in a sandwich making contest. I have yet to decide on what kind of sandwich she will make but I will definitely choose the easy-to-assemble and friendly-to-the-kiddie-palate kind. Her one and only requirement would be to make sure there are scrambled eggs in it. The rest she gave me the freedom to choose for her. Here is the criteria to serve as our guide:

No pressures whatsoever on the winning part but I was hoping she will impress the judges with her uber-delicious sandwich. WHICH I HAVE YET TO DECIDE ON. Sorry Tita Maqui, crammer lang talaga tong nanay na ito! We really wish you are just next door to help us!

Train 'Em Young - Helping With Household Chores

This past week kid has been showing A LOT of interest at helping with simple household chores. And who are we to reject her offer for help?

Apart from the never-ending downpour of  hows and whys and the occasional tug-of-war on who gets her way, I am really loving this stage in her childhood. She's starting to show signs of real independence. And by real I mean, she can now play on her own for instance. We only need to watch from a distance but she doesn't bug (and insists) us anymore to play with her. We're lucky to be surrounded by kids (most of whom are within the same age range as her) who are ever-ready to jump into a play invite anytime of the day. Our home is always a mess. But I've always embraced kid's mess as a happy mess so there's no issue there.

And then these came along - volunteering to help assemble sandwiches for snacks, stepping in to slice the cheese while Ate or Mommy is cooking spaghetti, moping occasional spills on the floor, washing the dishes, sweeping her food crumbs off the dining floor area, watering the plants, folding her clothes, packing away her toys without being told. (As I type this, I find myself amazed with how this list has grown)

And I hope to add here soon - doing her homework independently. But I'm in no hurry. I am more than willing to wait. The thought of it just excites me (just a little bit).

Happy news we received from her class adviser too - she was picked to be one of the two students to represent her class to a sandwich-making contest next week. We are the proudest parents.

fixing herself some easy breakfast.
she does this without help from anyone in the household.

refusing to sleep yet,
i told her to go and help ate inday fold newly laundered clothes and she didn't hesitate

first thing she said after saying her morning prayer, "I'll make you coffee Mommy!"

volunteering to wash the dishes after breakfast this morning
(i came out of the bathroom and saw her propped on a chair, already soaping the plates and mugs)

washing her *Babbie's clothes with her cousin (*current fave doll)

I can see that the two summers she spent in St. Michael has indeed made a big impact on how she views chores. Seeing all this development really makes my heart swell. It makes me feel like I am doing things right. Because my first goal really before she learns all the complicated stuff in school is to see her being able to take good care of herself. To me the way to achieve that is to encourage kids to do their share of chores at home (it's messy, but to avoid stressing myself I view that mess simply as part of their learning process). And we do seem to be heading to that direction, don't we?