Toy Hunt: Toys With Letters

I have only gotten one photo to feature today as I haven't got much time to spare on the web. We will be very busy cleaning up the house for tomorrow's visitors (and probably checking out dog supplies for friends). Anyway, here's my entry for this week.

Here is a portion of Erin's Leap Frog Activity Table. It's got numbers, shapes, and yes, letters as well! This is one of her favorite things to play with because it plays different children's songs when you press anything on it.

Thanks for looking! :)

Mommy Moments: Bonding Time

I am featuring several bonding moments with Erin, and they're not all with me. I know that it calls for "mommy" moments but I couldn't help but share the rest as well.

This photo was taken when Erin was just three weeks old. My mom flew in from Manila to help us out with the new baby, and since the little girl is her first grandchild, it was no question for her to be there for her coming. This photo is one of my favorites of Erin and her grandma.

Here is a photo of Erin and her dad. The little girl was just five days old in this picture, and J was still learning how to carry her in his arms. She seems so tiny here that I can understand how fearful J was of not carrying her in the best position.

Here she is at play with her dad. I could have sworn she was a wrestler in her past life because she really does enjoy rough play! And we, her parents, are her poor victims. I hope she outgrows it soon, so when she goes to school we won't get called to the principal's office. LOL.

And here is my moment with Erin. We were at the Parliament House in December of last year. She was 21 months old.

As I am almost always the designated photographer in the family, I rarely get caught in bonding moments with the little girl that's captured in photos. And so, pictures like the one above are quite precious!

Thanks for stopping by and looking. I'm off now to research about a certain Mesothelioma lawyer. See you all next week for more mommy moments. :)

There's No Such Thing As A Silly Question

I am reposting this from my other blog and would like to share it with my regular visitors here, as I figure that not all of us are lucky to have perfect health in our families, and that this book is a good reference for parents who have kids with chronic illnesses or conditions.

There’s No Such Thing As A Silly Question is a practical guide for families living with a child with chronic illness, disability, mental illness or a life-threatening condition. It provides valuable insights into what other families have learnt, felt or found helpful in their experience of caring for a child with additional needs.

Click here to download a PDF version of the book. If you happen to reside in Oz, you may also request for a hard copy through the address provided in the link.

Okay, got to go read up more on Super Cissus. Better finish this soon because I have yet to cook dinner! :P I'll be back tomorrow with Mommy Moments. See ya! :)

Final Invitations

It is at this time of year that's one of my favorites, as we approach our birthday month. I say "our" because all three of us are celebrating our natal days in the merry month of March.

But of all three, I am most excited for the little girl's, as it gives me a reason to scrap for her invitations. I started drafting layouts in January of this year, and thank God for all those freebies I found which I feature on my other blog, I get a whole lot of material to choose from. But that certainly does not make my work any easier, as choosing which ones to use is a whole different story altogether.

My brainstorming for creativity is documented in my other blog and as a result, I have managed to come up with five layouts all in all. The last two have gotten approvals from friends and family so I have decided to use them both for this year's invite. Here they are:

The last layout here is our main invite. As for the first one featured here, I had it printed just the same to see how it is in hard copy. I've changed its picture as well from being a black-and-white one to this colored photo of Erin.

I'm glad that's over. Now that they're at the printer's, I can relax and focus on other things like reading on this article about the best diet pill known to man.

Layout Credits: LO#4 and LO#5

Birthday Predictions and a Visitor

My birthday is coming up next week, so I gave this meme a go.

Your Birthday Predicts You're Sensitive



Ever since you were born, you've always been able to cooperate. You enjoy supporting and being inspired by others. You appreciate the dynamic of a group. Getting along with others is essential to you. You are both fair and well mannered. You are very intuitive and easily effected by other people. Sometimes you are too delicate.

What Does Your Birthday Predict About You?

That is so spot on! Yes I have always been a sensitive person. And I think since I've been a mom, all these hormones have made me more sensitive than ever. I cry at the smallest and trivial things like watching lost family members being reunited or seeing a baby being born on TV. :)

Anyway, speaking of moms, there's another mom who's visiting our home in time for our birthday month. It's the Blessed Virgin Mary. She'll be arriving on Sunday and will be with us for a week. We always feel honored to have her in our home, so much so that we have made it a yearly tradition ever since I moved here to Oz.

TTFN. I just remembered to get those Votive candle holders ready for Sunday.

Pacifier Updates and Night Terrors

Well, I think we've managed to wean Erin off her dummy (aka soother or pacifier) because she does not ask for it anymore. J and I have made it a point not to even mention the word so she won't get reminded about it. And ever since that dummy fell off the bed the other night, I never tried to get it back so the little girl won't see it anymore. Even so, she still manages to wake us up in the unholiest of hours. I reckon it's because she can't go back to sleep sometimes without her dummy so we have to give her a bottle of milk just to have her suck on something.

Other times though the culprit is night terror. If you're not familiar with it, here's a definition from the RCH:

A child who is having a night terror is stuck halfway between being asleep and awake. They are awake enough to get out of bed, talk/scream and have their eyes open, but they are asleep in that they do not respond to a parent trying to console them. They usually do not remember the episode in the morning.

I know she's not having nightmares because it is so difficult to console her when she's screaming her lungs out in the middle of the night. One thing that seems to jolt her out of this is turning the lights on. You see, Erin can't fall asleep by herself if the lights are on (except of course if she's really tired). Having the lights off keeps her sleeping throughout the night. So when I turned them on one night terror occasion, she stopped crying and went back to sleep after swaying her in my arms.

I am guessing that too much rough play could take part in a recipe for night terrors. I've observed that whenever we had such play sessions at least an hour before sleeping time, she'd usually get these attacks. But we do tend to forget so in the end, we pay for it. Lesson learned! We certainly need more quiet time in our routine so we can all have peaceful night's sleep. Otherwise we'd all be sleepy sitting in our computer desks while we work. It is truly a challenge!

Toy Hunt: Toys with Numbers

It's the weekend again and time for another Toy Hunt! :)

The first photo is a portion of Erin's Fisher Price activity table. And of course, in the second one, what's a phone without numbers, eh? It's got the old style rotary dial, which rings a bell everytime it goes around. It's also got a string attached to it so kids can pull it along with them. Pretty noisy contraption I should say.

That's it for me. Thanks for stopping by and see you all next week for another toy hunt. I'm off to check out the net for extended stay hotels. :)

Mommy Moments: Feeding Time, and an update

I've been pretty out of whack this week. We're trying to get the little girl off her dummy (aka pacifier) and we've been having sleepless nights for some time now. Last night though was a relief as she slept all through it without waking us up. Thanks God! It looks like we are nearing the end of the tunnel as I am starting to see some light. :)

Anyhoo, speaking of the little girl, here are some of her feeding time moments captured on camera.

Here she is at three weeks. Her daddy J was in a playful mood and put the bottle cap on her head, just for this photo shoot. :)

And here she is at six months, having her very first solid meal. We fed her rice cereal with milk at that time, and we were so proud of her because she finished everything on her bowl. At this time we did not have a high chair yet so we fed her in her stroller.

I can't believe we don't have any of those messy shots. Maybe I should start taking pictures of those moments as well, while she's still young.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a great weekend ahead.

Toy Hunt: Valentine's Day Special!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! And as it is also Toy Hunt day, I hope you will hang out with me for a while as I feature some photos with hearts on them. Quite a bunch, as you can see! :)

Alright, here's more information about the photos. The first and second photos are part of a dress-up fairy costume given to Erin last Christmas. I just love the material used for these hearts! They're really for pretend play so I guess they still fall under the toys category.

The third picture are of cubes within a cube. It is part of a shape sorter set, with others having similar objects within them.

And this last photo is my favorite of all. It's a stuffed ballerina which the little girl received on her first birthday. Although it's stuffed, it isn't exactly round and cuddly like most other stuffed toys are. She's flat! And that makes her unique. I so adore the Princess Leia buns and the bright, vibrant colors they used for this toy as well.

That's it for me. Hope you all have a love-filled weekend! :)

Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

Before I head off to check on this website for discount dining room furniture, I'd just like to share with you that Ovarian Cancer Australia Awareness Month was launched in Melbourne last February 8.

Did you know that...

One in 70 women will develop ovarian cancer in their lifetime. It could be you, your sister, your mum, your gran or your girlfriend.

Every year in Australia around 1500 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and more than 850 women will die from the disease.

There is no test to detect ovarian cancer early on.

That is why they call it a silent killer, which really is scary! What we can do though is to be aware of certain symptoms and risk factors.

Some symptoms include:
Pelvic or abdominal pain,
Increased abdominal size or bloating,
Needing to wee often or urgently
Feeling full or having difficulty eating
Change in your bowel habits
Unexplained weight gain or loss
Vaginal bleeding
Back pain
Indigestion or nausea
Excessive fatigue

Keeping track of all this using OCA's Symptom Diary will make it easier for you when you see your doctor about these concerns.

For more information on ovarian cancer, visit the OCA website.

Toy Hunt: Teddy Bear Toys

Here's Erin's bunch of teddy bears she's acquired ever since she was born. And like the lamb that I featured last week, most if not all of these have never been played with the little girl except for the one with the blue nose, which was a favorite of hers when she was younger and was ignorant of Dora and Iggle Piggle.

Thanks for dropping by today and see you all for next week's Toy Hunt.

Mommy Moments: Preggy Days

I went through all my online albums for solo pictures of myself when I was pregnant with Erin. I came up with only a few of them. I would have wanted one of those taken by a professional photographer. But as you can see, that didn't materialise as well.

Here are two shots taken at separately two different periods of my first pregnancy.

at 14 weeks during Canberra's Floriade (with a little bulge to show!)


at 20 weeks (By this time, we knew we were already having a girl.)

Thanks for dropping by and hope you all have a wonderful weekend ahead! :)

More on Erin

We are seeing the little girl liking more table top activities of late. Although she enjoys gross motor activities like jumping, running around, and dancing, she has recently developed a fondness for pretend play and cognitive activities. This keeps her busy for hours as she has learned to appreciate her toys more and somehow use them for what they were intended to be. We're going to get her a decent table and chair set so she can do them all there. I hope to keep all my wholesale housewares out of sight and get miniature ones for her own use for even more pretend play activities.

I've noticed too how she sets goals for herself. When she does a great job, she claps gleefully, but does get frustrated when she doesn't accomplish what she's set out to work on. Babycenter confirms this with 22-month-old toddlers:

Your toddler will begin to have very particular ideas about what he wants to accomplish, such as pushing his car down the path or fitting together all the pieces in a puzzle. The outcome will be important to him. He will be pleased when he's successful and frustrated when he is unsuccessful.

It's fun watching her grow in so many different ways. Sometimes, she just surprises us with the things she does and say.

Energizer Mommy

Your Energy Level is High



You are a very enthusiastic, productive person. You have no trouble getting anything done. Beyond having a lot of energy, it's likely that your energy level tends to be quite steady. Unlike people with very high energy, you don't tend to be impulsive. By keeping your energy in check, you are able to use it as productively as possible.

What's Your Energy Level?

Well, I need all the energy I can get. Got to keep up with the little girl, apart from the many other things that is on my daily agenda.

Free Yaya (Nanny) Seminar

While not all of us are lucky to have nannies or caregivers for our children (or yaya in Filipino), can you believe that they have seminars for these hired help? Well, they do, and here's one that is being held in conjunction with the launch of a new yaya training manual. I am sure it would be cool to have your nanny complete the course, and who knows you might pick up a few promotional pens as well along the way. Read announcement below (which I got from my N@W e-group).

Dear Parents and Parents-to-be:

The Parenting Company invites you to the launching of the I LOVE YOU, YAYA HANDBOOK -- A yaya training manual by Maricel Laxa Pangilinan, Felichi Buizon and Dr. Donna Simpao

The "I love you, Yaya Handbook" is a two-part guide containing informative articles on hiring, training, and nurturing caregivers as well as practical guidelines on first aid for children, common illnesses, developmental milestones and even fighting stress.

What's more, it comes with an audio CD containing the lectures in the handbook so yayas can listen to the trainers themselves! It's like listening to the actual "I Love You, Yaya!" seminar in your own home!

At the launch, learn from the authors themselves through our FREE YAYA SEMINAR! Get tips, useful information and sensible advice! You can also have your handbook personally signed!

Come and join us!

February 8, 2009, Sunday
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Fully Booked – High Street
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
Speakers: Maricel Laxa Pangilinan, Felichi Buizon

March 29, 2009, Sunday
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Powerbooks – Megamall
Ortigas Center, Pasig City
Speakers: Maricel Laxa Pangilinan, Dr. Donna Simpao

For inquiries e-mail us at theparentingcompany@yahoo.com or you may call tel nos. (02) 638-4156 / 994-5918 look for Jovette Pangilinan.