What a Difference a Year Makes

Last year, we put up our first ever Christmas tree. It was exactly how I want it to be. The husband of course would be happy with what I come up with and my then 3 year old looked up to me in awe of our wonderful tree.

Our red and gold tree

Fast forward to about 11 months and the now 4 year old has declared it is his tree and he will decorate it.

Knowing my days will be busy again, and to make up for some lost days with the boy, we decided to bring out the tree earlier this year.

He wanted to tear open the box.

And then, with the star in hand, acted as the boss of the entire spectacle.

I still think this tree is way tooo thin...

 

 

Would you be able to guess our theme for this year???

 

 

I still think it's not an appropriate theme for a tree. I mean, angry???



But surely, our boy and the birds are the star this year. And I am just too happy to smile from the sideline.

He kept re-arranging the entire thing!

And here is our bird-infested tree. I must add some nest!

The Professional Heckler

If I might borrow the title of one very popular blog, then my son is one.

This is one instance I truly regret not charging my cellphone, or the digicam.

About three weeks ago, I brought jared to watch his dad’s basketball game.
My guess is, he will be thrilled.

And he was! Very much. 

Presenting my son, the professional heckler.

His lines were:

Oh no, dad, you missed!

Here dad, here’s another ball for you (pointing to their team’s spare ball)

Then one player missed his free throw. Jared says:

Number 11, you missed!

Number 29, uh oh. Almost….

And he says these things in a really loud voice.

 

Then the following day, my son uttered what I think is the sweetest thing he has ever said to his dad.

 

"You're the best basketball player dad"

 

"..... but you lost yesterday"

 

=)

 

Asthma

Blame it on genes.

Our son, a precocious 4 year old has been diagnosed wiith asthma.

We already knew he bhad allergic rhinitis, something by OB warned us about when he checked our medical histories during our first check up.

It got worse lately, and prompted us to bring him to a pedia allergologist.

So now, part of our Saturday routine is to bring him to the clinic for his immunology shot. He is allergic to dust mites.

We are just thankful that what he has is treatable or managable, and its just to dust mites. I can't imagine him being allergic to his favorite chicken!

Here's the brave boy receiving the first of many allergen shots: he flinched but did not cry. And no tears as well during the allergy testing the week before.


Love the Healthway clinic at Festival Mall. I love the sunny space.

Asking the good doctor if the shot will hurt.

"You know Doctora I am 4 years old, almost high school na." This cracked us up!

It was nothing, mom!

His reward: a Mcdo meal, eaten at French Baker. Yey for French Baker's new store at Southmall.

Attention to Detail

He is the most observant little boy.


J: mom, what happpend to the light?
Me: why, what happened?
J: why is it now white and not yellow?

Daddy changed the bulb

  * * *

J: Tati, is that my mom's bag???

 * * *

J: Grandmaaaaa
Grandma: Yes
J: What happened to this? (pointing to the socket cover which was changed)

 * * *

J: is this my dad's slippers?

* * *

J: is this new? (pointing to the newly laundered shower curtain)

An Afternoon of Art

After the hectic day that was Saturday, the troop turned in as early as 7:30 a.m. and woke up refreshed 11 hours later.

We needed to tackle a lot of cleaning, loads of clothes of wash but the cool weather cooperated and we were done with chores at 10, just in time to cook our favorite weekend lunch of sinigang na hipon and fried galunggong.

By afternoon, we tackled a more enjoyable task: our arts and crafts.

Little boy found fabric crayons in his room, we got an old white shirt and drew our artwork.




It was a collaboration: mommy drew the sun, clouds and sea, daddy the tree, and Jared those little shapes he called traffic cones.

 

 

 

 

I was also prodded to do another masterpiece in his sando: don't laugh but this is my dragon.

After stopping at 2 shirts, the little boy went on his own businesses and opened one of the doctor sets I brought as gifts (done with my Christmas shopping-- a record for me) and played the serious doc.

Teacher Mommy, Mommy Teacher

As part of the school's thrust to be partners in education with the parents, Jared's school invited me to participate in the Parent-Teacher program.

This means that for 30 minutes, I get to play teacher to Jared's class! What fun!

I stressed over this for days. I realized it's more difficult to prepare for a lesson to a roomful of 4 to 5 year olds than to present to general managers. =)

So, since there was no clear directions on the topic, I chose to do story-telling over my initial plan of conducting a more exciting, but also more taxing science experiment lest the kids get overly excited and cannot sit still for the rest of the class.

The story...

I brought my laptop, introduced the characters and played the video. Because August is Linggo ng Wika, I downloaded a Tagalog video.

Okay in defense of me presenting a video, most kids speak English and cannot understand what I will say (I think) if I just presented the story from the book, so the video helped them with the story.

I still had to translate all the lines though.

And because looks are always a part of the entire package, I created an antenna headbacd so I can be the ant. =)

 

 

So, what did we do again?

 

I introduced the charaters, I am the ant and they are the grasshoppers, or tipaklong. I asked them to stand up, and hop and hop like a grasshopper.

 

 

After the story, I asked them for the lesson in the story. Glad to know they were actually listening!

 

Here is my son with a dazed look on his face. Still cannot believe I am his teacher!

I also distributed the old-fashioned dry-erase boards. They were only P8.00 each and amazed the kids no end.  Apparently, ths kids know the more high tech versions of this toy only.



Then, I also brought a piggy back and gave them all toy coins. Then one by one, they dropped the coins in the piggy bank- to reinforce the value of saving.

This little girl asked for my antenna after the story.She said it matches her jacket.

A picture with the happy bunch. I am carrying my son at the back.

 

It was a fun, fun, fun moment for me.

Independence Night (First Time to Sleep on his Bed)

Last night was a bittersweet moment, for me at least.

It was the first night our boy declared, no make that trumpeted, his independence by declaring he will sleep on his bed.

It was my idea in the first place... to fix his room up. Get him a bed, store his toys in his own room. He's really kicking and slapping and doing all sorts of acrobatics while asleep that I fear I will wake up one day with a black eye.

While the said bed (just actually the mattress) was moved inside our room, I can't help but feel sad and sob that my little boy is really not so little anymore. We had been co-sleeping since he was a baby and his smell (no matter how sour it gets during play) comforts me. Last night as I watch him sleep on his own, I can't help but long for those kicks that come randomly at night. hehehe.

Maybe, I will return that mattress back to his room tonight.

Unsuccessful Tries

A few years from now, reading on my blog posts, my son might mistakenly think I am supermom. Although I would like to think so, I'm still a few-hits-here-and-there mom, baby.

So, here are our projects that were not so well-received, or those that did not look too good to warrant a separate entry, or both.


1. Superman cape
I used a really old, tattered white undershirt of my husband. The thing Jared willingly put on--but only few a few seconds. I don't blame him-- it doesn't make him look like a superhero at all.

 

 

 

2. Homemade Gak

This is a pinterest inspirattion where you form a slimy ball with glue as the main ingredient. We started out fine, but lacked glue so no matter how much cornstarch we add, the slimy thing just won't hold.

 

 

3. Captain America

Then to indulge in his Captain America fascination, I thought of bleach painting a shirt with the iconic star. This is another Pinterest inspiration.

 

 

The shirt looked pretty good...

 

Until I sprayed too much bleach..... and the star was literally wiped off.

4. Reusable Bag
Because I can't quite make up my mind if banning plastic and using paper bags is good at all levels, we tried to go a bit more and sewed our own reusable bag from an old tshirt.

This is my first ever sewing project, and the result was this really useful yellow bag my son uses to tote his toys around.

Sadly, it just didn't look too cute.

So, Jared, mommy tries hard in coming up with activities for us. It's just that mom isn't always so successful. =)

Keeping my Hands Busy

There are some days when I have this urge to just create-- anything actually.
This usually happpens when we're in the house most of the time during weekends (which is a rare occurence and something we need to do more often).

One rare free Saturday, I spotted a box. And my mind went on overdrive.

I was about to throw this away when inspiration struck.

Why not dress up the box with these leftover kitchen towels?

Use a spray adhesive, cut and cut the cloth and stick it in alll the right places.

And this box now holds toys in the little one's room.

It's not perfect by any means... farrrr from it. But from a distance, and in the eyes of a 4 year old, it doesn't matter at all.

My son thinks I'm the greatest. =)

Stay Sane in a Crazy World

So, what is a girl (on a diet) to do when pressured and tired???  Hmm, I cannot eat the yema cake I so love, or the 3-in-1 coffee that has accompanied me through difficult times at work.

Hie off to the nearest mall and get her eyebrows done.

It's free and gives a much needed morale boost.

eyebrows almost non-existent. stray eyebrows yucky!

 After a few minutes.....


Well-groomed eyebrows make you look polished and ready to take on whatever life throws your way.

This is now my new favorite product. Even I can do it and believe me, if I can, so can you. =)


A very dramatic post for such a trivial matter eh =) Maybe this is what will bring me out of blogging drought.