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?

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?

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.

Earth Day Special: Tree Planting - A Family Bonding

April 4, 2012
Hamungaya Sugarmill,
Durog, Belison, Antique

A few days before we left for Antique, my dad (Maia's lolo) called to tell his apo that he's already prepared the seedlings that they will be using for their tree planting project. For several years now (three if I remember correctly), my dad made sure the little girl and her cousin Gogol plants something to commemorate their summer together. Planting a tree is I guess my dad's way of celebrating lent. And Earth day after all is also celebrated in April so everything is just so timely. And trees and plants have played a big role in our agricultural family so it's only fitting that we always give back.

In the past, the kids would just plant their trees in my parents' backyard. My dad has been growing fruit trees since we were little kids and each time he anticipates our home coming, he would set aside a fruit tree for Maia and her cousin Gogol to plant together.

This year was different however. My dad prepared something that we could do as a family. And it turned out to be one great familly bonding experience for all of us. I just let the photos speak for themselves

top (left to right): me digging a hole for my banana plant, maia kissing her banana before we moved on with the planting,
Gogol digging a hole to plant his own tree.
bottom: our very own Kalumpit tree. hopefully next year it's going to be bigger and stronger (rawwwr hehehe sorry can't help it)

Lolo's treeplanting 101 with the kids

lolo's idea of a perfect bonding activity with maia

And here's a funny clip of my sister and dad teaching Gogol and Maia how to plant a tree. Maia was initially hesitating to touch the soil because she found it 'icky' and 'yucky' (a city kid eh?) but when she saw Gogol handling the soil like a pro, she dove right in and started throwing in some soil unto the pit too (such a competitive kid).