The Basketball Superstar

His dad captured a very nice photo of Gab... Look how fast he's growing! Time flies!!

I love looking at this picture again and again.

Should we let Gab sleep on his own bed?

Gab has really grown a lot. We brought him to the Doctor's clinic the other day for follow up of his check up for cough and the Doctor told us that we need to somehow control his weight gain. He's gained two kilograms within the past two months and the Doctor advised us to nail the weight to that number in order for Gab to grow taller.

We need to buy new clothes and shoes for him again. And we're thinking of getting another bed already. He still sleeps with us and when all three of us are on the bed, we cannot move and have comfortable sleep.

I've been looking around for options and I think I want to get an airbed. I saw some information on air beds that have a pump inside them and I think I can convince my husband to get one. I tried my friend's airbed and I like it. I guess it's convenient to have one at home. You can keep it when not needed and easily set it up when you have guests. In our case, I plan to buy a single airbed for Gab. We will put it inside our room and test if he's ready to sleep alone on his own bed. Then maybe later we can move him to the other room. Or if not, we can just keep it and try again after a few months.

another baby is coming!!!

My sister-in-law is having another baby! This is going to be their fifth and I’m so happy for them. Babies are blessing and families with more kids tend to have more fun. I’m not saying that families with only one child or two cannot be as happy as those with a lot, but, I’m pretty sure that with just the numbers, families with more kids are more vigorous and alive and energetic!!

Gab is going to be a kuya soon! I’m excited to go out and get some baby clothes when they are on sale so that we'll have something to give the baby as a welcome gift! Will wait until we know if it's a boy or a girl!

kuya: older male relative such as brother, cousin or friend

I hope Gab stops crying.

Gab is crying again. I can hear him from the waiting area. He was okay when I brought him to the class last Monday. But a classmate snatched the toy that he was playing with and that’s when the crying started. Gab is not used to playing with other kids. He plays with me and mommy never snatches his toys. I even give him more toys. (I wonder if I should have tried snatching some of his toys before.. just for the sake of explaining to him that sharing is also fun. Perhaps I’ll do that with my next baby or maybe Gab will do that for me.)

The playgroup is okay. It’s a two hour session from Mondays thru Fridays. Classes start at nine in the morning. When they enter the room, temperature is taken and they are asked to wash their hands with sanitizer. Then they will put their bags and water bottles on a table where everyone else leaves their things. Next comes play time until ten. Keeping the toys end their playtime and then they will be asked to line up to wash their hands with water as preparation for their eating time. When they go back to their seats, they are told to put their hands on their lap while food is given to them on their own plates. Teacher asks them not to touch the plate until they are told to do so. I guess its discipline and patience training, eh?
After eating time, they are told to put away their plates and then singing and watching starts.

So far, those are the activities that they have. I’m not sure when they will start doing other activities. All I know is that they are training the kids for now to remain in the classroom and learn how to follow instructions and get used to being left by their moms or grandmas or nannies. I hope that Gab will be over his crying and looking for mommy problem by the time they start with another set of activities.

Can you share your experience when you sent your toddler to school or playgroup the first time?

Feeling a bit anxious

Tomorrow is Gab's first day at school. I'm both excited and anxious. Luckily, my husband is doing weekend work from home tonight so he will not report to work tomorrow. We will both send Gab to school on his first day.

I hope that we will not have problems with the schedule. i hope that waking up early won't be difficult for Gab. Usually he wakes up around the time when he's expected to attend the playgroup session. Now, I will need to send him to bed early and wake him up the following if I need to. I hope this will not cause him to dislike going to school. Gab really hates being disturbed when he's sleeping. In the morning and especially in the afternoon when he's having his siesta.

Wait for more posts. Will let you know Gab's progress.... and that of his mom also. =)

Gab and Zoe opened Christmas presents together.

I have yet to visit one more close friend here in Singapore. It's so nice to be reunited with friends whom you lost contact with for quite some time. Last Christmas eve, we spent time at one of my best friend's house. We got invited because my friend understood that it would not be too exciting for Gab to open Christmas presents alone. (My friend knows because she also has only one baby.)

We brought crema de fruta and shrimp tempura. My friend cooked spaghetti and fried chicken. There was wine and a lot of chips and chocolates. The food looked and tasted even better because they were laid on the cosy and contemporary dining room furniture that my friend has at their place. We were one big happy family feasting and celebrating the holidays.

After eating noche buena, Gab and his baby sister Zoe exchanged gifts... opened them and started playing with their new toys. They ate plenty of chocolates and candies. It sure was better that Gab was with another baby on Christmas Eve. They shared toys. They watched Barney together. Nice photos were taken.

When the babies slept, the daddies had wine and the moms had chips and chit chats.

Gab is a school boy on Monday!

I can't believe Gab has grown up this much. He's two years and more than two months now and he's going to be a school boy on Monday!!!

Well, it's not really formal school. I enrolled Gab to join the playgroup at the next block. It's a lot of play and a little academics. I'm so excited to see Gab interact with the other kids. I am so excited to find more progress in the way he plays and does things and talks and a lot of other developments that moms and dads see in their ever fast growing kids.

At first, I was doubting if Gab is ready to be sent to this playgroup. But as the days go by, I'm becoming more and more certain that it's the right thing to do. Check this out!

After finding the right size, he did not want to take off the uniform anymore so he played and went home on it.

Thanks to my friends who always share tips on how they raise their kids. Thanks to the people who support us in playing a very tough but exciting role as parents to Gab.

will get halloween costumes for Gab next year!

It’s really nice to see kids in their Halloween costumes. When I was little, I did not get the chance to join Trick or Treat events or Halloween costume parties. Maybe, it was not a common event for the common people during our times. You know what I mean, maybe for the rich, they have these. But I noticed that now that there are malls in our province, they already have those sorts of activities during the Halloween.

When I started working in Manila, I got invited when one of my nieces celebrated her birthday party at the mall on the 31st of October. It was then that I saw kids walking from one stall to another in their Halloween costumes trick-or-treating! I thought it was fun. I thought to myself that when I have kids already, I will let them join Halloween parties. And I imagined shopping for my kid’s Halloween costumes. It was fun day dreaming that time.

Since I became Gab’s mom, I have never really shopped for a Halloween costume. Gab is only two and we (my husband and I) agreed that we’ll start involving Gab when he turns three. We want to save the money first until he’s big enough to enjoy things like that. We want him to experience it when he can already tell stories that he was part of those parties. For now, what we did was to let Gab watch the kids as they roam around the mall on their Halloween costumes. We let Gab watch movies and we let him see books with such costumes so that when it’s time for him to join, he won’t get scared.

Even if I need to wait for another year, I already started searching for nice Halloween costumes! I even got into one site where you can see different Sexy lace Halloween costumes. It's funny I browsed and saw some costumes that maybe applicable when Gab wouldn't want mommy to shop costumes for him. =)

Play time at the park

Gab and I spent almost two hours playing at the park opposite our block yesterday. Gab had lots of fun running and jumping and sliding and screaming with the other kids. It was in the afternoon after school hours that we went to the park. We used to go to parks in the morning but Gab did not enjoy those times because he was alone playing with his mom. Not so much fun for him, I guess. LOL.

Later we'll go to the park again. I love it when Gab enjoys his play time and when he sweats a lot. He's 20 kilos at 23 months... There's a lot to be burned.

gab and his king's crown

i'm very happy that gab can identify a lot of objects already.

TV, aircon, bus, truck, table, chair, spoon, fork, car, toy, laptop, pillow, bed, bag, shoes, slippers, towel and a lot lot more.

he can identify animals.

he knows the parts of his body.

ears, nose, mouth, chin, neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, head, hair, toes, hands, eyes, cheeks, butt, tummy, etc.

he can follow simple instructions. pick up this or that. get mom's phone. keep your toys.. get this and throw this in the trash bin. etc etc.

he knows how to keep his things and which places to put them.

mom made a king's crown out of a cookie box today and gab so loved it. =)

next time i'll try other objects. i'll make him part of the construction also but i got to buy a safer pair of scissors first.

it's so amazing to see how your kid develops and how you see him apply things that you teach him. isn't it wonderful to become a parent?

i'm excited to see a lot more...

Benefits of Walking

It's been a few days since Gab and I got the chance to have our morning walk bonding. As I said earlier, it's because for the past few days, it's been drizzling and all we can do was watch Gab's favorite cartoon DVDs.

I so like it when I spend half an hour or so everyday bonding with my baby. We get to bond and exercise at the same time.

Gab enjoys walking around.. chasing birds and butterflies... watching other kids playing outside... giving hand salute when we pass by the subdivsion guard... and following his shadow when the sun is up and smiling :-)

Mom enjoys the walk also... I get the chance to teach Gab other things like the fun of exploring... things that we can't learn inside the house while playing with his toys, learning from his books and the internet, and watching DVDs. I enjoy it most importantly because I know that with the little time I spend walking, I get lots of other benefits.

Does your toddler get all jumpy when having a hair cut?

Went out to get Gab a nice hair cut today and like in the past, it did not turn out as nicely as I wish it would. It’s his 4^th time and we still had problems keeping him calm. Like his first and second and third… we were not able to hold him still long enough to get the hair cut done. And again, he was hysterical the whole time.

All I wanted was to give him a fresh feeling because his already shaggy hair makes him sweat a lot when the weather is hot. But I think my good intention caused something bad. He was screaming and crying all throughout and I can only wish that the experience did not give him a trauma. I’m planning to buy a nice pair of scissors to train him at home. I’m not sure yet what scares him when at the barber shop but I’m guessing finding it out will help control the situation when I decide to bring him back.

Summer is over and I hope that a chilly weather will give us enough time to let his anxiety fade.

I learned Spanish

I learned a lot of Spanish words today! We bought a “Fiesta” CD of the Sesame Street some few weeks ago but my kid did not like it at first. And because we bought other CDs with it…. Barney and Dora which he likes better… weeks passed without watching the Fiesta CD. I decided to add some “lively participation” when I tried to convince Gab that Fiesta is as interesting as the other new CDs. Now, Gab requests for it when it’s movie time for him. Mom’s lively, and add to that, silly participation when watching always works in pinning Gab’s eyes on the TV. LOL.

As I said, I learned some Spanish words after watching it for the nth time now. When Gab learns to talk, I’m pretty sure he can say and understand the words listed below. =)

Hola – Hello/Hi
Carnaval – Big Festival / Street Party
Carroza – Float
Uno - one
Dos - two
Tres - three
Cuatro - four
Cinco - five
Seis -six
Siete -seven
Ocho - eight
Nueve- nine
Diez – ten
Buenos Diaz – Good Morning
Buenas Tardes – Good afternoon
Amigo – friend
Siesta – nap
casa de los alimentos – house of food
arroz – rice
papa – potato
gracias – thanks

There’s actually a lot more Spanish words used in the educational CD. If you are a mom or a parent or you are thinking of a gift for a little one, then maybe this one is a great idea.

P.S. I just don’t like Oscar. The CD is for the little ones so I think his attitude of being harsh or different to the other characters is not appropriate.

Elmo the Fighting fish

We bought a fish bowl and a Fighting fish for Gabriel. Fighting fish is the only one available at the pet shop which does not require filters, aerators and big tanks according to the attendant at the store. Since the fish is red and Gab cannot talk yet to give his first pet a name, his dad decided to call it Elmo.

Gab is entertained just by watching Elmo swim. He’s very happy when he feeds his pet every morning. Dad let’s him watch every time we clean the fish bowl too.

Having Elmo has already taught Gab to be careful; like the glass fish bowl should not be pushed and that he should not shake it or Elmo will die. For only less than a week, Gab already learned to care for his pet. He would normally ask someone to come with him (every morning) while he check Elmo. He knows where the jar (for Elmo’s food) is. He’d point at the jar to tell us he wants to feed Elmo. Surely, having his first pet will teach him a lot more things in the coming days.

It’s great that there's a lot to discover when it comes to finding ways that will both educate and make our kid happy.