Weekend at Winslow Farm

The weather this morning was a bit cloudy with cool breeze, a little bit cold for a toddler. There was rain in the forecast so I thought it would be lousy to get out. But since I got up early anyway, I decided to wake up my two boys to get ready to go to a farm in Norton. They have an event for sheep shearing and I haven't seen any of it up close yet so I thought it would be exciting too to take Mikey to watch. Mikey loves animals, we've visited two farms in the past and he's not scared to touch and feed them at all.

Winslow Farm is a petting farm that houses rescued, abandoned, and mistreated animals. It provides a 'stay-for-life' sanctuary and rehabilitation for these poor animals. The caretakers are really nice people and they call each animal by name. The goats are roaming around like dogs They have goats, horses, donkeys, emus, peacocks, peahens, turkeys, cats, ducks, chickens, birds, roosters, rabbits, sheep, pot bellied pigs etc. Most of them just mingle with the visitors and they're very tamed. Mikey was just walking with the goats, ducks, cats, and a dog without getting startled.

But its a bummer that when the 'shearer' guy arrived to start shearing the sheep's wool, the battery of my digicam went dead, so we didn't get any picture of the main event. We didn't get also the peacocks when they spread and showed off their lovely and colorful feathers. Anyway, the shearing of one sheep's wool took about 20 minutes using a big electric razor. I wonder how long it took way back when these electric gadgets were not yet around?

The sheep and the cute pot bellied pig


Dada was pointing to Mikey a peacock, and
Mikey got fascinated with the colorful feathers.


Mama and Mikey looking at the sheep being fed before shearing their wool.

Mikey petting one of the cats.
I was surprised that he's not bothered by the cats in the farm,
because when we visit Mei, he's scared with her cat Sebastian.

==> READ MORE

Family Day at the Dentist

Just by coincidence, hb and I had the same day of dental appointments. His appointment was at 8:15am while mine was at 9:45am. Since he decided to just work from home today, I thought that it would be nice to tag Mikey and hb along so I can have Mikey's teeth checked as well. Actually toddlers are required to be seen by dentist when they are at least 3 years old unless there is a concern or issue with their gums or teeth. With Mikey, I noticed that there is a build up of brownish-cement-like thing above his two front teeth. I always brush his teeth after meal and would scrape that build up with my nail, but they wont come off.

After the hygienist was done with me, I went to the other room to see the dentist for final check up. Before the dentist arrived, I got Mikey from his dada and sat him on my thighs facing me while I was lying back for the dentist. He was just there curiously watching what the dentist was doing and I could see him even opening his mouth too while he watched. Afterwards, the dentist asked him to open his mouth for him but he wouldn't at first. Then after some prodding, he obligingly opened his mouth and the dentist scraped some of the deposit on his one tooth.

Oh I was so proud of Mikey because he didn't mind at all the dentist touching him, unlike the Pediatrician. He was so brave and didn't cry. Well the deposit didn't come off completely so the dentist asked us to come back in July for another appointment, this time he will use the grinder. He was just concern that it might not just be stains but may be cavity so to be sure we need to come back. I guess it will be easier to take him for dental appointments in the future, so its less stress for me ;-).

==> READ MORE

Scared of the Man Wearing White Robe

Mikey had his doctor's visit today. He was his usual cheery and excitable self. He said hi to the nurses and patients in the waiting room. He was oblivious to what will transpire in a little while, after all it has been 6 months since he was there last. Then his name was called by a nurse and he was asked to stand on the weighing scale. He was hesitant to step on the scale and then started to cry maybe anticipating that this routine will take him to a room with a man wearing a white robe waiting to stick a needle in his legs. Oh my god, you should see how the happy face turned into a pitiful puppy face begging for me to rescue him from the wolves. The doctor was good in diverting his attention to something else to calm him down which he did eventually.

And then the time came for a nurse to get blood sample for lead testing. She asked me to wrap Mikey's legs around my hips while he sat on the examination table and hold his right arm while the nurse pricks a finger in his left hand. Mikey screamed and cried out loud and was inconsolable. I thought the nurse will just get a little blood drop on a small dish since she used the tiny little finger to extract the blood from. After the procedure, she showed me a small tube of blood, no wonder Mikey was so miserable.

Anyway, I thought that since Mikey is already 2 that he has overcome the fear of going to a doctor's clinic. I guess it will take a little while longer before he finally get used to seeing the man with a white robe.

BEFORE - Stomping his feet to the music on TV while in the waiting room.

AFTER - Poor little thing has a sore finger after a blood extraction.

==> READ MORE

Many Thanks To All

Finally, we had our son's birthday party over the weekend. I've been anxious all week at how things will turn out and finally it's all over. It was a success (if I may say so myself ;-)) and thanks so much to all our dear friends who made it all happen.

Believe or not I thought about having a party for Mikey awhile back. I always wanted to do it in the backyard and have imagined all sort of things to go along with it. But invites were already sent out and I never lifted a finger till just over a week before the actual day. Close friends should know by now that my adrenalin only kicks in when I cram ;-). That is why I'm always so exhausted right after the party. Today, we all lingered in bed for a long time and got up pretty late than usual, it was a holiday afterall.

For those who were not at the party ;-), let me give you a run down of what took place. We had a Sea Friends moonwalk and a large lawn tent set up in the backyard and a small tent on the deck. We had toys, bubbles and rocket balloons for kids to enjoy. We also had few games with kids and adults and a Pinata. The theme of the party was Cars. Mikey is crazy about them and 'car' was one of the first few words he uttered. I only cooked two dishes and we just have the rest catered. We had Chinese dishes, Italian pasta, Pancit, chicken nuggets, pizza, fresh fruits and lots of different chips and of course the cake. Kids took home loot bags and balloons. I was all over the place that I forgot to serve the ice cream ;-).

Thanks to our dear friends and their kids who helped us celebrate this special day, you made hb and I 'doubly' grateful - Barb and Tim (Amber and Tyler); Lanie and Kenny (Andrew); Jason; Joan; Ed and Joan; Ed and Julie (Shanara); Rhea and Johnson (Steven and Christian); Ruchi and Raj (Dhruv); Mei and Chris (Jamei, Micah and Kelli); Julie (Benjamin); Eunhee (Daniel); Michelle and Mike (Kiefer, Kielen and Kiera); Richel and Jack (the 3 J's brothers) and Loannah and Robert (Antonio). Imagine we had 2 Joans, 2 Eds, 2 Julies, 2 Roberts and 2 Michaels in the group, very unusual huh;-).

Right after installation of the moonwalk, Mikey went in to try it out

Fascinated with the multi-colored balloons

He practiced four times blowing his candles while waiting for dada to come down ,
but on the 5th and final blow, he got cranky and just wanted to get down.

Posing with all the gifts he received.

==> READ MORE

What a Hectic Week

This week has been hectic, so many things to do so little time. I even neglected my blogs, I've got tasks waiting for me to write, I just let some slipped away for lack of time. Sorry to my blogger friends for not showing up in your sites lately, I will make it up to you after Sunday, promise.

I was occupied with getting things ready for Mikey's birthday party on Sunday on top of the regular schedules and errands I needed to finish on the side. The bulk of the preparation is getting the backyard ready for little people to play at. Oh geez, dried leaves and annoying weeds were just everywhere and branches of some trees grew wayward. Raking leaves and pulling weeds took most of my time. But still, I was able to plant some flowers and put mulch around the trees and on the beds. Thanks to my honey bunch (hb) for taking time off from work to help me with the yardwork. He cleared up the bottom of the deck but we were so pressed for time to have some gravel delivered to cover the ground. Actually hb, after seeing the bottom of the deck all clear and clean, is now looking at the big picture of having bricks laid out there, well goodluck to that. Probably I need another party to make that happen ;-)

It is really exhausting to prepare for a party just like this, but the upside to all these chaos is we were able to clean the yard finally!

==> READ MORE

Happy Birthday My Little One

Today is my son's second birthday. He weighs exactly 25.96 lbs and stands 33 inches tall. He can climb up the stairs without any problem but loses footing sometimes coming down. But overall his grip and feet traction and balance are really great. His vocabulary grows everyday and he can say two-word sentences like "I pop, I kick, I eat, I sit, among others. He can definitely express himself pretty good now. He can recognize most pictures in a book and his love for books is really amazing. He can sit in his high chair browsing through his book for a long time before getting bored. He loves to tinker a lot, he is fascinated with zippers; car seat and high chair belts; power outlets; remote controls; appliances buttons, etc. My husband told me that he was fascinated with buttons too as a kid, so I am looking at a future software engineer just like my hubby.

My little one is a happy kid, very friendly and easy to get along with other kids. When in a new place he will warm up for a little bit and then will eagerly join in the fun. He is very excitable, screams when very excited. He is nosy too, he likes to be in the center of the action all the time. When I hug his dad, he wants to be in between us to hug him too. He learned to say 'dada' very fast but he called me 'mama' quite late. I was kinda jealous with dada for that ;-). But today, my little one gave me a special gift. When we were at his Gymboree class, he was pretty sweet, he called me mama all the time. He usually just run around every play equipment on his own without even noticing me. But today whenever he turned his head and not see me, he will call 'mama', and as soon as he saw me he'll run to me and hug me. It was quite unusual but I was so happy.

Here are some photos I took today from the morning he woke up till before he went to bed.

At 7am I went to his bedroom to greet him Happy birthday!

After a breakfast of oatmeal, grapes and apple juice, he was wiping his placemat
and pointing to letter M for Monkey (he loves Curious George)


After his afternoon naptime, I took him to McDonalds to have a snack of Happy Meal.
He loves French fries and apple juice, and some chicken nuggets.


Before he went to bed, he blew candles on his birthday cake.
It took a lot of prodding and practice to finally get him to blow the candles.
Hopefully at his party on Sunday, he can blow his candles without a problem.

==> READ MORE

Drive Traffic With Your Own Zookoda Newsletter

Has anybody heard about Zookoda? Nope its not a zoo nor a brand of bubblegum, it is an email marketing applications designed specifically for bloggers. Zookoda enables bloggers to send a daily, weekly or monthly summary of their latest blog posts directly into their visitors inbox. In other words your visitors are kept updated with what you post in your blog with the use of email marketing. It is not meant though to replace the feeds that your blog already have, but it just offers you an alternative. And the fun part of it is, it's all free.

Zookoda enables you to promote your blog with the use of professional email newsletters that you can match with the design of your blog. It is the blogger's complete email marketing solution. It offers you full control over visitors subscriptions, email design and content, broadcast times and conditions, and real-time reporting. As bloggers, we know that regular posts are key to attracting new readers and encouraging regular visitors to keep returning to our blogs. The problem is, once we have posted new content to our blog, there is little to no way of informing visitors that its time to revisit your blog. So it is really great to have a way to promote your new content to visitors, encouraging them to return when your new posts are live. You can drive and increase traffic to your site with your own email newsletter. So if you want to enjoy all the benefits I have mentioned and more, sign up now with Zookoda, its 100% free.

==> READ MORE

Playdate Birthday Party

Yesterday, Mikey and I were invited to a playdate birthday party of my Korean friend's son Daniel. I thought Mikey was going to be cranky since he only had few minutes of nap in the car on the way to the party. But when he saw the toys in Daniel's house, all of which were very new to him, he suddenly became a live wire. Funny because he doesn't care much for his own toys lately. He would rather be around me in the kitchen watching as I do my chores or run around the yard during our afternoon walks, or browse through his books. Everything was new to him so he was so interested.

Mikey had a great time with his little friends Daniel, Ben, Dhruv and Kristen. We often have playdates like this with moms to take a breather from our individual busy schedules and to have some adult conversations and for our kids to play and interact with little people like them. Next week, it's gonna be Mikey's birthday and I'm anxious at how things will turn out, but I'm looking forward to see all my mom friends and their hubbies and Mikey's little friends.

==> READ MORE

Mommy's Little Helper

It's not too early to teach your child the value of helping. I talk to my son a lot, even while in the kitchen cooking or cleaning up, I'm explaining to him what is going on. Like, "Look Mikey, mommy is dusting the table." or "push and pull, this is the way you vacuum the floor." And he really picks up pretty quickly. He knows what a gadget is used for. He likes to clean up his toys too, which I wish he would carry till he is grown up ;-). I like to involve him in the chores that I do because that's one way he will learn fast. I remember that when he was not yet talking but just babbling a lot, I thought he was delayed. But since kids have different developmental level, I thought I shouldn't be worrying too much.

It's funny that even when I go to the bathroom to relieve myself, my son would be quick to follow and hand me pantyliner and toilet paper, then he will flash the toilet. Talk about service deluxe huh ;-). He likes to help in vacuuming, in dusting, in wiping, in loading clothes in the dryer, in washing, in just anything. Sometimes I'd let him if I have a lot of spare time, but if I'm in a hurry to finish up like if we need to go somewhere, I will just put him in his playpen so I can finish right away. Oh you should see how he was displeased with that, but "sorry buddy", I'd tell him, "mommy needs to finish up quick, you can help mommy again tomorrow ok?". Then he will smile.

Oh this is one of the perks of motherhood, when your sacrifice and dedication are paying off. I love being a mother and being a teacher to my little helper.

When he sees me with the duster in my hand, he likes to have one too.
So here I let him use it and he just started dusting the sofa without being told.

He volunteered to put butter on mommy's toast.
He's got a pretty good grip with the butter knife, don't you think?

==> READ MORE

What Is Your Mom Worth?

Being a mom is the hardest job ever without any monetary compensation. Our job description calls for a 24/7 continuous work. If we were to be paid for every year we have been a mom, we could be millionaires by now.

*****

What is Your Mom Worth? Are you wondering what mom should be paid for her work as mom? Salary.com has valuated the "mom job" of both the Working and Stay-at-Home Moms! Based on a survey of more than 18,000 mothers, Salary.com determined that the time mothers spend performing 10 typical job functions would equate to an annual salary of $116,805 for a stay-at-home mom. Working moms ‘at-home’ salary is $68,405 in 2008; this is in addition to the salary they earn in the workplace.

The job titles that best matched a mom's definition of her work are (in order of hours spent per week): housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, laundry machine operator, computer operator, psychologist, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive officer and janitor. Now moms and their families can use the Mom Salary Wizard to create their own "mom paycheck". The tool allows moms and their families to price the "mom job", based on location and mom's personal hours worked in each of the 10 roles. Users can create a hypothetical mom paycheck and mom pay stub, which can be printed and emailed to family and friends for Mother's Day.
Source:Mom.Salary.com

==> READ MORE

Fine Dining Not For Toddlers

There is a pretty new restaurant in South Easton, just few miles away from us, its called Loco Tapas and Wine Bar. We pass that area often when we go to Costco and we're kind of intrigued with the place that we decided last Saturday to drop by and maybe have lunch. Unfortunately they were closed and are only open four nights in a week from 5pm to 10pm. We usually go out to dinner on Fridays, and tonight my husband and I were thinking exactly the same place to go, at the Loco.

We arrived at the place at past 6pm and the parking area was almost full. When we went in, we were surprised to see that its an upscale restaurant, with candle lit tables and nicely dressed people dining. I wanted to back out because we were dressed in blue jeans, wearing raincoats because it was raining and with a toddler. I was already anticipating that it might be a dinner nightmare.

Well as I anticipated, it was not at all a fun dinner, not for me anyway. I had a pretty good workout trying to restrain my son who was sitting on my lap because they don't have highchairs. I tried all kinds of tricks trying to entertain my son to keep his mind away from wanting to go down and walk. He was pretty behaved for most part but only up to some point. I was begging my husband to just forget about the dinner and just go to other place that is toddler friendly. But he was so hungry and the food selection in the menu was really appetizing.

After having the appetizers of Chicken croquette, marinated olives and fried calamari and a lot of force on my part to make my son stay on my lap, finally I persuaded my hubby to just have the main dinner of Paella, Grilled Venison, and Asparagus with Prosciutto wrapped to go!!! The kind people to the next table who picked up my cellphone that my son dropped on the floor had a quick conversation with us. They asked how old our son was, and when they learned he was just turning 2, they said he was pretty behaved for his age! Maybe because he stayed on my lap and was kept entertained for pretty good time.

Next time we eat out at Loco, we will find a good-hearted friend who will baby sit for our son, so that we can have a perfect candlelit dinner just my hubby and I!

==> READ MORE

Planning For A Party

Entertaining friends and organizing get-togethers are one of the things that I love to do. It could get overwhelming and exhausting sometimes but my great joy is to see everyone enjoys and is having a good time. In less than 10 days I will be hosting a birthday party for my son and his friends and their families. I need to plan the menu, the loot bags, the games, and entertainment for kids. It's good to have a mom's group where you can post a message in the message board for everyone to read. I posted a question for everybody regarding rentals of party needs, and I got a very good suggestion from a mom. I want to try a rental company that somebody had already tried and had a good experience from rather than browsing through the internet by myself.

Well almost everything is all set and ready I think. I went shopping yesterday, and I went nuts and spent quite a lot. If I didn't time myself to get everything done before 4pm I would have bought the whole store ;-), oh well of course I'm exaggerating, LOL. Everything is so expensive now, including party stuff. Anyway, what matters most is the fun and and excitement that the kids will have and hopefully the weather will cooperate too!

==> READ MORE

The Week That Was

Happy Monday! It's 20 minutes past 12 midnight, and I'm still up trying to read and reply to some e-mails before I retire to bed. The week went by pretty quickly, most of my to-do-list were completely done, but some were started but not totally done. I just have to add them up to this week's to-do-list ;-).

Mother's Day was fun. I got my early gift on Friday, a bunch of pink tulips from my honey bunch! Then on Sunday I got a very nice card from my sweet boy. We didn't really do anything together, we just went to hear the 10:30am mass, went home afterwards and put MIkey to nap then got ready to attend our friend's son's first birthday party. Rob was not feeling very well, he's got stomach upset, perhaps some kind of food poisoning. Well you see on Saturday we had lunch at a barbeque restaurant and he had a big slab of back ribs. He didn't finish everything and we took the left-over home. But we didn't go home right away, we stopped at Costco to do some food shopping and the food was left sitting in the car. The temperature yesterday was quite warm so probably it spoiled the left-over ribs, but hubby still couldn't resist eating it when we got home. So that ribs must be the culprit to his misery ;-)

At the birthday party, we had so much fun seeing old friends and meeting new ones. It was Dhruv's first birthday party, he's the son of our good Indian friends Raj and Ruchi. The food prepared by Ruchi were all great, she made it not too spicy just mild for the kids to enjoy. The weather was excellent till it gets chilly late afternoon. The kids were running around their backyard, just the way Mikey likes to play. We came home before 7pm.

As soon as we got home, I just let Mikey play for a while then I gave him a bath before dinner. He had noodles and chicken tenders for dinner and I just let him eat on his own now not minding the mess, yikes! Well I do mind the mess but how else can he be independent if I wont let him eat on his own? After putting him to bed, I then started my scrapbooking. This is my second week now of joining the 52 sketches, 52 weeks sketch challenge contest of Julie Bonner. She gives a layout design and scrappers are enjoined to work around the design, and winners are drawn randomly. I didn't really join to win, but I just wanted to challenge myself to deliver and be creative and hear how other people appreciate my work. I put my design together and sent it to Julie photo finished, LOL. The deadline was Sunday at midnight, I sent it at 11:58pm.

Now, regarding paid blogging, I've been blessed to get more tasks than I used to get, so I'm thankful for that. Hopefully this week will also be a productive one for me. And my blog hopping, I need to do in batches. It's hard to do everything all at once, it hurts my bottom, back and my eyes.

How about you how did you celebrate Mother's Day? Do you make a to-do-list? How did you make out for last week?

==> READ MORE

The Good Old Playpen

When I need to finish something in the kitchen I always put my son in the playpen to speed up the process. But sometimes I let him watch me because I could see his enthusiasm and he learns very fast from watching. But as curious as he is, you can never let him understand to "just watch and don't touch"

I was in the middle of cleaning seafood and cooking some and Mikey started to be a nuisance touching the minced garlic; watching me chop onions up close; grabbing the bowl of raw squid; and following me around carrying a stool. After being told not to touch anything several times, I just decided to pick him up quick and put him in the playpen. Oh he was not happy about it, and he was whining the whole time. He kept getting my attention screaming "ahwt" (out) and "me see" (let me see - he wanted to watch what I was doing).

I was still talking to him even if my face was towards the stove or sink to entertain him. But then a sudden silence followed (I thought his attention switched to his dvd show playing on tv) so I still continued what I was doing. And then I heard heavy footsteps coming towards me, and I turned my head real quick. Oh my god, how on earth was he able to climb out of the playpen??!!! Oh no, I have another problem now, I can't rely on the good old playpen anymore.

Every after breakfast I will put him in the playpen so I can vacuum the kitchen and family room before I let him play. When I need to answer important phone calls, I will keep him in the playpen so I can concentrate in the conversation. When I need to answer the call of nature, to the playpen he goes. Now, I won't trust that he will stay there anymore, my son is outgrowing the playpen already. Oh gee, I just wish he would not hurt himself trying to escape out when I thought he was still napping and I was not around.

My son is officially entering the terrible two stage, there's no escaping anymore!

==> READ MORE

Terrible Heart Burn

I have been feeling weird in my stomach since last night. I feel bloated and gassy, then my heart burn kicked in. I've been chewing tums but nothing really happened. Today to make things worse, I went out with my husband to eat at an Indian resto. I really didn't eat much, but still since the food was spicy I felt my stomach grumbled. Oh well, I should know better, spicy food is the worst enemy of heart burn. Also since I have not been eating on time lately and then eat when I feel very very hungry (which I know also is a bad thing to do, but stubborn me) so now I'm suffering, arrgh!

Anyway, I had my favorite green tea and I felt a little better, still gassy but better. Green tea really calms down my stomach. My Gastroentorologist in the Philippines told me that when I get heart burn again, green tea is the safest drink to take. So I learned to love green tea ever since.

==> READ MORE

Gift Card For Convenience Or More Hassles?

If you read my recent post in my domain Random Thoughts about To-Do-List, at the bottom of the list I wrote, "18. And other things that may come up unexpectedly that need to be dealt with first". Well here's a perfect example that got my time running just talking on the phone with my aunt and with the CVS manager to complain.

I recently sent a gift card to my aunt as a birthday gift. She's one person who doesn't like any hassles. She's very straight forward, she never maintained any credit cards. She only pays either by check or cash in any store she goes to. But in the past I introduced her to gift cards, well mainly for my convenience too. It's very hard to please her, so I thought it would save me time to think about what to give her and also give her more options as to what to get for herself, thus the gift card.

Anyway, yesterday she used it at Rite-Aid and it was declined at the counter. What a shame, the main thing that she's avoiding to happen happened! Today she called me to tell me about it and I immediately called CVS Pharmacy where I bought it from. I threw all my old receipts already, so I had to dig the garbage and luckily my garbage day is Wednesday yet. By the way, I had to pay $3.95 as activation fee for that card too, what a bummer! Anyway, I was on hold for like 30 minutes on the phone, I could have just drove and be right on the face of the manager in no time. The manager told me that the minute I paid for the card, it will then be between me and the bank already. I need to call the 1-800 number of the bank to complain. Either the bank fixes it over the phone or sends me another card to replace it.

My aunt doesn't like to use it anymore even if the bank can replace or fix it. She wants to return it to me. Next time I will just give her scratch ticket or lotto tickets, those she will appreciate more, LOL.

==> READ MORE