First Day Of School Traditions

The other day a blogger friend asked me if we as a family observe any first day of school traditions.

This year will be the 4th year that we will be welcoming the first day of school with our little girl. Traditions?

Well, apart from me ensuring that I personally prepare her lunch box and snacks (at least) during the first week of the school year, I'm not sure if it can be considered a tradition but we have been consistent in the last 3 years of ensuring we have our family photo taken in front of our house.

We're just going on our 4th but when I look back at the last 3 years, I can clearly see how much this little kid has grown. I personally miss the chubby cheeks she had when she was still in preschool.

When she graduates from Grade School, I think it would be nice to gift her with a collage of all these family photos, don't you think? I sure will try to keep on doing this as long as we can.

How about you? What first day of school traditions do you observe with your kid/s?

Sharing these interesting ideas for first day of school traditions that I found online:

25 Fun First Day of School Traditions : The Dating Divas

Milestone: Lost A Tooth Today

We first discovered her loose tooth 2 days ago. We attempted to remove it right then and there because it seemed to be loose enough to pull but I was wrong and the kid fell to drama mood so I decided to wait.

While I was wiggling the tooth (made sure that finger was clean):

"(sob) Is it going to be painful????" (sob)

"No, it won't be...but okay we'll just wait for it to come off on its own"

"But how will I eat? What if I swallow it?"

"I'm sure you won't swallow it. You will feel it once it comes off"

---------------------------

Two days later, we decided to let her skip school because she was feeling dizzy and nauseous. It was probably a combination of a lot of things (drowsiness, cold and maybe oil/lactose intolerance?), she was already crying while I was dressing her up. She actually didn't want to skip school and was worried about her Filipino class activity later (they were asked to bring a few cut out pictures). I assured her I will write to her teacher and that calmed her down.

After throwing up her breakfast, the tooth came off too.

Someone just lost a tooth. She had to skip school today because she was feeling dizzy and nauseous. "Mommy, I wany you to stay but I know you need to go to work *insert sob* Five minutes later, she threw up her breakast and out came the tooth as well. "Ahhhhh, maybe it was the tooth that made me dizzy" #witty #naisahanyatasimommy #milestone #MaiaIsSix #PicsArt

A photo posted by Faye and Maia Paras (@chroniclesofmaia) on Nov 11, 2014 at 3:56pm PST

Hello new tooth! #MaiaIsSix

A photo posted by Faye and Maia Paras (@chroniclesofmaia) on Nov 11, 2014 at 3:59pm PST

Christmas Traditions

It's official the start of our Christmas countdown. Today being the first day of Misa De Gallo or what is more popularly known as Simbang Gabi for most Filipinos.

My little girl has not attended any one of these morning masses yet. It's too early for her and our subdivision does not hold anticipated Simbang gabi masses yet (hopefully soon though). Can you remember the first time you attended Simbang Gabi?

I honestly can't. The closest memory I have is from highschool. When my uncle signed me up to join the church choir so I'll have something to list down in community participation in school. I've always been off-key. I love music but it never really loved me back. But my choir mates had the patience to put up with my singing anyhow and I survived that Christmas season unscathed and yes, with brand new friends.

I started this post hoping I'd finally come up with a bright idea for a Christmas family tradition but two paragraphs after, I still haven't felt that bulb light up. So much for traditions to start this year. That has long been in my list but every year during the holidays, I never seem to get myself out of urgent things to attend to at work. I super envy my friend Maqui for maintaining what in my opinion are super fun Christmas traditions. I'm sure her little boy Aki always looks forward to Christmas. What with all the traditions she has lined up.

Next year, Maia. Hopefully next year I can come up with something fun we can do as a family. For now, I hope you will cherish the memories that we will make your Pachoco cousins. We'll be spending our pre-Christmas weekend at the beach! Yay right?

Before I end I'd like to go back to the purpose of this post, would you care to share your Christmas traditions as a family?