Piko

My kids have taken to playing on the street almost every afternoon. Our weather's so weird that sometimes it feels like summer even during this rainy season. And when it's sunny our house heats up like an oven. No kidding, it really does feel like one.



And so on sunny days my 4th child couldn't wait to get out and play. After 9 years in this village my children finally made friends in our street! At first they would ride their bikes or scooters but then there's really not much interaction with our neighbors then. What broke the ice was buckets of sidewalk chalk.



We've had buckets of sidewalk chalk in our stockroom for years, we've even forgotten they were there. Because child #4 loved playing with chalk in school I remembered we had them. The kids love them, even the older ones who are in their tweens. Every afternoon the strip of street in front of our house looks like a work of art. Then at night they would pray for rain so that they'll have a clean slate the next day.



Seeing their street art made me remember games of piko and patintero. Since the two older kids are much bigger than the younger 2, patintero was out of the question. I didn't think they'd enjoy it but now they're always on the lookout for pebbles that would serve as a good "pato". I'm glad they enjoy doing things that don't need to be powere by electricity!

Exam Week Hurdles

Every school year I dread exam week like a trip to the dentist. I always get stressed out, no matter how I try to make the whole week painless for both me and my children. This first quarter we had the misfortune of having all my school aged kids' exam week in the same week!

How did I survive? Actually I have let go of my eldest who's now in grade 6. Towards the end of grade 3 she was already studying most of her subjects alone. That left me 3 other kids who needed supervision. My preschool girl had only 2 subjects so we studied for them the previous week. The day before the exam we just reviewed her worksheets, concentrating on her mistakes. That left me my grade 1 and 3.

My boy in grade 3 is pretty independent, if he feels like studying :( he just needs prodding and cajoling so that he will actually sit down and study. As soon as I get him started there would be very few bumps before we finish studying for the day. I used to make reviewers for most of the subjects but at grade 3 I cut it down to 1 subject, Math. Since my kids basically finish off all exercises in their textbooks for the quarter I need to give them other exercises for them to practice on, after all, Math is learned and perfected through practice.

My grade 1 needed the most help since it was her first time to have more than 2 exams. With an 8 month old baby there was no way I'd be able to make reviewers for her subjects. Fortunately a co-parent in Grade 1 was so proactive that she organized a review pool. All I had to make was one reviewer which I shared with other parents and in turn they shared their reviewers with me too. It was such a big help! During exam week I just had my grade 1 girl read and review all her reference books and quizzes. Then after she was done I handed her the reviewer, voila, we're done for that subject!

It also helped that we would more often than not, review all her subjects every day. So when exam week came she still remembered most of the things that they took up in each subject. I guess for the second quarter we should be more consistent in studying daily....but for now we're going to enjoy the long weekend :D

Church Attire These Days

As I was waiting for mass to start this morning I realized how lax we Catholics have become in dressing for mass. True we comply with the guidelines that the Church came out with, but still I can't help but feel that my husband and I can do better in dressing our kids for mass.

Our laxity became glaring to me when my family was attending a get together where a Bishop was to be present. As I was helping my kids dress up, I got so frustrated at the clothes my 11 year old was choosing to wear. I told her that it had to be special, and she said "But mom, you let me wear this at church!". This was a pair of jeans and a shirt with a collar....at least it had a collar. I guess I wasn't very consistent, I am making them wear something special for a human of a certain position while I allow them to wear mall outfits during mass, when our Lord and Savior is about to come and be with us.

My husband and I agreed then that we should help our kids always out their best feet forward for Sunday Mass. Which means no sandals, flip flops, T-shirts for the boys, shorts etc.

We also realized that the youth these days no longer know how to dress for occasions. As we attended a wake last week of a poor teenager who passed away, we couldn't help girls wearing short shorts, you know the kind that are almost as short as bloomers :) I'm showing my age...anyhoo, we were shocked that these kids think it's appropriate. Some kids were even wearing red. I think they should have dressed up appropriately out of respect for the parents of the deceased. Are parents too busy these days to teach kids simple social graces? I shudder to think of how kids would behave when my infant becomes a teenager......

Eating Healthy

I thought I was pretty good in watching what my kids eat. We rarely eat at fastfood places, I don't stock up on soda and junk food at home. But my son was recently diagnosed as obese....what a shock to me and my husband. My son has always been big boned but in the last 3 years he jumped pants sizes, his pants size is 5 to 6 years bigger than his age.

But when you compare him to his classmates, he's not the biggest, there were a couple of boys who were bigger. So my husband and I thought he was ok. He was a very active boy, he would play 2 sports in school, was even part of a varsity team. But when he started staying in and wouldn't go out to play because he's tired, we started to get worried. He was so overweight that his body couldn't carry his weight. Which is why he felt tired all the time.

I feel so guilty. I should have seen it coming. But I was always assured by the fact that he was a very active boy, we wouldn't even allow him or any of our children to play with video games for more than an hour a day. They would be sent out to play in the afternoons when it's no longer too hot to be out.

So now I'm more careful, not just with what he's eating but what the whole family is eating. We try to avoid all processed meat, snack on fruits and cut down on dessert. I used to always have ice cream in the freezer. Now all I have are fruits in the fridge and maybe yogurt ice cream (my kids love BTIC, thank goodness). I make sure we have fish at least 2 times a week, and I've banned lechon kawali or crispy pata from our house.

The real challenge is food for baon. What can I send my kids to school to eat....food that they will actually eat? So far, in the last 3 weeks, we have cut down on the cookies and junk food. They always bring at least one fruit to school, a sandwich and a few other snack items. They especially love bringing corn and pineapple...I hope even if it's from a can it's still healthier than junk food.

One thing I learned from this experience is that just because it's not in a bag labelled chips it isn't junk food. I now check the RDA information, if saturated fat is more than 10%, it doesn't go into my shopping cart. I miss those chocolate bars though....a compromise would be those chocolate covered mallows. It has exactly 10% saturated fat...as long as you only have one. So we all only get one in a day.

A real healthy find that I'm so happy about is whole wheat pizza crust byMacRaf Bagels and Buns. The kids love it! Now if only I can get myself to buy the very expensive low fat mozarella cheese......

Another Money Making Scheme at LTO

Turning 40+ just recently I had the misfortune of having to renew my license. Despite the feeling of dread, I optimistically arrived at the Alabang Town Center LTO Office. I arrived at 10 am thinking that I'd be done by 12, it took me less than that 3 years ago. I dutifully lined up at window 1, no problem, I was given a form to fill out (hey wait a minute, most of the information here should already be in your system!)...which I did. Then I was told to get my drug test and medical. Sure, with a smile I approached the drug test counter. Right, a drug test, I'm sure they REALLY test for drugs. I'm an obedient citizen so I paid the fee. That's when I discovered another money making scheme some *&^*% cooked up. I was not asked but was told to pay P25 more for "Insurance". I just wanted to get it over with so I just paid up. There were easily 50 people at that place that morning, so you can imagine how much money is being made...and how many people are being duped!

Oh about that license....had to go back for it after lunch....argh! Well I won't have to be back there in 3 years!

Family Getaway

Since our family is big by today's standards, vacations are difficult to plan. For one thing we have a baby to consider. We usually go down south on a plane to visit relatives during summer but this year with 5 kids we decided to stay close to home.

Our first choice was to go to the beach, we've never been to Laiya and we've heard a lot about the beach there. But since four of my kids took swimming lessons this year we thought that they would enjoy going to a place where there's a pool.

One option was the Pontefino Hotel. I've always been intrigued by that hotel. It's in Batangas BUT it's not by the beach. I'm sure the hotel would not have been built there if there were no attractions nearby. When I called they only had standard rooms available for the days that we're looking at and they only allow 2 kids in a room with 2 adults. Which means we need to get 2 rooms. Which won't make sense because all the kids would want to be all in one room anyway. Then someone recommended New Wellbeing Spa in Clark, Pampanga. It was just what we needed! It was clean, it had a big pool that wasn't quite deep plus there was a spa (for the adults to get some rest), and the best feature was that it was affordable!

I should have taken pictures of the suite but it got messy as soon as my family moved in. The rate of the suite is almost the same if not cheaper than a standard room here in manila. The suite has 2 rooms and 2 bathrooms and a small living room. My son was ecstatic as soon as he saw the wide screen tv. But we tried to limit tv viewing as we were there to bond and not watch tv. Of course the first thing that the kids did were to jump on the bed. To their dismay it didn't make them bounce back at all. They were dreading bedtime that night. The Pillows were also very plump, I immediately dismissed them as the usual hotel pillow that were very, very uncomfortable. But amazingly we woke up the next day without the usual aches and pains that accompanies a night's sleep with kids all around you. It turns out the beds are orthopedic beds, and the pillows, i don't know what they are but they didn't make my neck or back hurt one bit! A peek into the pillowcases showed that the pillows were covered in anti dust mite coverings. What a deal this hotel was!

The only thing that I didn't like was that it looked like they use lumber to heat up the sauna. The hotel offers free coupons for their Jimjilbang Sauna. It's composed of 3 rooms, the first one is the sauna, it's supposed to open up your pores. The second room is the charcoal room, it sucks out the toxins from your open pores while the third is the Ice room to close the pores. Different kinds of massages are available but I only had time for a 30 minute foot massage, it was ok, not great but ok.

The hotel is owned and managed by Koreans. The food is ok, the price is reasonable. The staff is very attentive. We're planning a trip up North again within the year. For more information visit this website: http://www.clarksubicmarketing.com/spas/clark_new_well_being_spa.htm

While in Clark there were a lot of things that we did aside from shopping. We toured the Clark Museum, we were surprised to discover that the name of the camp was Fort Stotsenberg, after an American officer who led a troop against Filipinos in the early part of their rule. One thing we didn't find out though was how it was renamed as Clark Air Base. But there were some articles and memorabilia of someone named Clark. I guess it was him but there was no information why it was named after him. The museum didn't really look promising but the older kids found it quite interesting. My son found the old guns quite fascinating.

After the Clark Museum we went to Nayong Filipino. Because 3 of my kids are already in grade school they found it cool having their pictures taken in front of replicas of our heroes like Rizal and Andres Bonifacio. The park is not quite finished but there would be spanish and filipino sections that would surely be interesting. It rained soon so were weren't able to fully explore the park. Btw, entrance to the park is free! But donations are greatly encouraged. My husband, ever the nationalist, made sure to put in some money in their dropbox.

There was a playground near the air base that featured actual planes and helicopters, we've always wanted to go to the air force museum here in nichols. But this was good enough for a short afternoon play.

One cannot help but imagine how it used to look like when it was still under the Americans. Some buildings and houses are still in ruins, which is a bit depressing. But I hope our government can make good use of the old camp.

i'm back!

been gone for a long time, almost a year. within that time i had another baby! i guess i spent the time adjusting to the fact that i was about to have another child. didn't think i'd have another one since i already had 4 and the youngest just turned 4 when i found out i was pregnant. i didn't have anything, no more preggy clothes, baby clothes, strollers, etc. i was so certain i wasn't going to give birth again that i gave almost everything away!

the pregnancy was the hardest. nausea was really awful, mainly because i was a lot older than in my previous pregnancy. the contractions came earlier too. as early as 32 weeks i was having regular mild contractions. so it was no surprise when i gave birth at exactly 36 weeks. despite the early contractions i was stubbornly in denial, i was going to give birth as scheduled. so on the 36th week, my husband took me to the hospital thinking that they would just give me a shot and send me home. we were both caught by surprise when he was asked to go down to admissions to get me a room.

our poor baby's pictures at birth had to be taken with a cel phone :( but we were more concerned about whether she would be premature or not. all along i thought that if you the baby was born before 37 weeks the baby would be premature. but we were told that the baby is assessed at birth and by weight our baby was borderline full term :)

my other kids were so happy to have another baby at home. even the youngest one would make sure she's around when i give the baby a bath so she can help out. in fact she was the most helpful. to be honest i was dreading the going home part of having a baby because that's when life changes, reality sets in. but because the older kids are a lot older, they helped me in easing back into a daily routine.

with this baby i was determined to purely breastfeed. well, i was a bit successful. after about 3 months the baby stopped gaining the right amount of weight so i was asked by the doctor to start giving formula. i hope the few months of breastfeeding was enough to protect her from illness.

during those months of breastfeeding i realized that our country is not "breastfeeding friendly". i had to take my baby everywhere since i was her only source of nourishment. most restrooms in public places are not fit for breastfeeding. if only the ladies room would have at least a chair where a mother can sit and feed.

my baby is now 6 months old and she's very responsive which amuses my older kids. can't imagine how life would be without her.