Ogalala System in Play

Children learn while playing.  Playing is their work.  For the past one month, I have been busy thinking of ways to make our homeschooling sessions fun.  When I am too busy to think of new activities, I just give Baby C her educational toys.  Our favorites are her Melissa & Doug Toys. 

Last week, I was invited by The Binondo Mommy to attend a free workshops offered by Manila Workshops together with IGMI, the company behind Crayola, Melissa & Doug, Baby Einstein, etc.  They are setting up a series of Child Development Workshops which they called as Ogalala System In Play. I immediately searched in the net what is Ogalala and found these suggested fun and simple learning activities which I can do with Baby C. 

www.oga-lala.com

Matching Letters with Tongs and Sponge for Toddlers

Baby C is now 20 months old and she knows the names and sounds (phonics) of 5 letters, namely: B,O, S, M and A.  We already did all sorts of simple alphabet activities like coloring letters, connecting capital with small letters, and finding the hidden letters to name a few but this morning, we tried something new.  

The WAHM 101: How to Be a Work-at-Home-Mom

This is not a secret.  I envy work-at-home-moms.  There are times when I wish I can just stay home with my little girl so I can focus on her.  It feels bad every time she will cry because I have to leave for work.  But how can I work at home and be a lawyer at the same time?  I have to attend hearings and meetings.  Sigh!  How I wish it is easy to quit work, give up my career and be a housewife.

So who wants to be a WAHM just like me?  Manila Workshops and the WAHMderfullife.com, together with 88DB.com and  Unilab, will hold the most awaited and the most attended workshop under the WAHMderful Life Workshop series of Manila Workshops  -- The WAHM 101: How to be a Work-at-home-mom.  

Learn from successful Work-at-home-moms from the WAHMderful Life Community.  Get to network and share experiences!

First Time Parents Workshops (Plus a Giveaway!)

Manila Workshops and Medela Moms held morning and afternoon First Time Parents Workshops last May 24, 2014 at the Medela House.   Attendees went home loaded with information and they were given lots of goodies from sponsors.

Rates are lower than previous workshops.

Lots of attendees!

Hobbes and Landes: Art Lab

It is summer time again and parents are on the look out for interesting summer classes for their kids. I was never enrolled in any summer classes when I was a child.  Summer vacation for me means helping out with our family business or going to the province to visit my aunt and cousins.  I sometimes envy my classmates taking up swimming, voice lessons or baking sessions.  Be that as it may, I do not regret working during summer because it taught me how to be hardworking and gave me a sense of accomplishment as a child thinking that I was a part of our business.

Baby C's Quest: The Search for the Missing Keyhole

Baby C likes playing with keys.  She watches intently everytime we open our car.  This morning, Yaya Leah gave Baby C a set of keys.  I followed them outside wondering what Baby C is up to.

Yaya Leah and I had a good laugh as Baby C tried each and every keyhole she can find in search of the right one.  

Skills developed in this quest/activity:

1. Dexterity of baby's little fingers and hands

2. Hand and Eye Coordination

3. Problem-Solving

Paternity Leave Benefits

Are you married, pregnant and about to give birth or recently had a miscarriage?

If your answer is yes, continue reading the Q & A below to determine if your husband is entitled to seven (7) days paternity leave with full pay during your period of recovery.

What is paternity leave?

Paternity Leave refers to the benefits granted to a married male employee entitling him to his full pay for the seven (7) days during which he is allowed not to report for work, on the condition that his spouse has delivered a child or suffered a miscarriage for purposes of enabling him to effectively lend support to his wife in her period of recovery and/or in the nursing of the newly-born child.

Facebook Online Support Groups for Mommies

Almost everybody uses Facebook!  I myself read news on Facebook, shop online on Facebook, I chat with my friends on Facebook, I search people on Facebook, I join contest on Facebook, and so on.. 

Since I don't have the time to surf the internet all day to find the right information that I need, I started joining Facebook Groups. 

I would like to share with you some of the mommy and parenting groups on Facebook which I've joined to help me to be continually abreast with the latest information about parenting.

1.  BREASTFEEDING PINAYS

Medela Moms Brings you "Seeing Doubles" Multiple Support Group

Breastfeeding is a challenge for some moms.  I have friends who struggle with their milk supply and their babies are just singletons.  Although I am blessed with abundant milk supply for Baby C, I salute moms with twins who are exclusively breastfeeding their babies.  When Baby C was 6 months old, she can consume 25 to 32 ounces a day plus direct latching at night.  If I have twins, I need to produce around 64 ounces a day to make sure they will have enough milk supply when I am at work. 64 ounces expressed milk a day?! Wow!

If you were able to read one of my first blogposts entitled "My Pumping Paraphernalia at Work", you probably know that I recommend Medela Swing Maxi for working moms.  I bought mine from Medela Moms Inc., the exclusive and authorized importer/distributor of Medela Breastfeeding Products in the Philippines.  Medela Swing Maxi played and is still playing an important role on my breastfeeding journey.

We Love Babywearing

Below are photos of our family babywearing Baby C.  Me, Doc A and Yaya I.

Baby C at 6 months.  Recently I was told that front facing should be made with caution.  After that, I never carried baby front facing again.

Doc A babywearing Baby C using a Next 9 pouch.

OOTD: Purple Dress

Who loves playing Barbie Doll?   Well.. I do.  Errr.. I played Barbie until I was 14 years old because I love dressing her up.  I even sewed and knitted some of her dresses.   My sweet elder brother would always buy me a Barbie dress every payday.  It was only P50 per outfit way back 1990's.  

Now that I have Baby C, it was expected that I'll make her my Barbie Doll.  I started by making her cute hair trinkets.  Since I don't have the time to sew her dresses, and Doc A forbade me to spend much on her clothes..  I settle with whatever my friends or relatives gave her as gifts.  I mix and match and that's it.  

I've been wanting to post her OOTD since the day I started blogging, but I want her pictures taken while she's standing up.  Ohh well, baby can now walk unsupported but she won't let me take her pictures standing up.. alone!  So for now, here's her OOTD.  We took these pictures when we were on our way to a nearby church.

Look at Doc A wearing a purple t-shirt!  Nakiterno pa!

12 Months of Sweets

How do you celebrate your baby's monthly birthday?  

We celebrated Baby C's monthly birthday with a cake and I take lots of pictures.  I regret I failed to take a monthly picture of her beside a stuffed toy to compare how much she has grown every month, I'll just do that for our next baby.

Baby C's monthly birthday is our excuse to indulge in sweets.  Majority of her cakes were bought at the nearby Goldilocks Bakeshop.  When Baby C turned 10 months, Doc A started baking her chocolate cakes.  For Doc A's yummy moist chocolate cake, please click HERE.

Cloth Diaper: Our Story

I started buying cloth diapers when I was 6 months pregnant.  When Baby C was born, I have a stash of 22 cloth diapers.  We started using cloth diapers when she turned 3 weeks old since the smallest size that I have is still too big for her.  With 22 pieces, we have to wash every other day to make sure we won't run out of clean diapers.  I have 21 pocket diapers and 1 all-in-two (AI2).

Baby C at 3 weeks

Baby C at 5 months

We Want to go to The Mind Museum!

As soon as I got home from the Blogapalooza yesterday, I showed my husband, Doc A and Yaya I the brochure of The Mind Museum at BGC, Taguig.   There are so many interactive exhibits to see and we know that a day will not be enough to explore everything.  Then we started to debate which gallery is the most interesting.  We debated and debated but there is one thing that we all agree on.. we want to visit The Mind Museum!

Ceelin Plus Syrup

Baby C was exclusively breastfed for Six (6) months.  She did not take any vitamins, water or solids.  Just pure breastmilk.  Breastmilk is sufficient as the sole source of nutrition for the first 6 months.  However, after 6 months, baby's diet needs supplementation by introducing solid food.  

When Baby C turned Six (6) months, aside from solids, I also started giving her multi-vitamins.  I thought this was enough until Baby C caught a bad cold giving her cough and congested nose.  It was so severe that her pedia prescribed antibiotics and we even bought a nebulizer for her.  At first I don't want to give the antibiotics because she was just 8 months then but I was advised that it might lead to pneumonia.

Barely a month had passed, I saw the symptoms again - congested nose, coughing and lost of appetite.  My sister-in-law, Florence, advised me to give Ceelin Drops.  To my relief, the cold symptoms went away after 5 days.  Since then, I have been religiously giving Baby C 1 ml of Ceelin Drops everyday together with her vitamins and lots of nutritious food.  Ceelin Drops is pure ascorbic acid.

You can Homeschool and a Giveaway

Can I homeschool?  This was the question I had been asking myself eversince I was pregnant.  After attending the homeschooling seminar conducted by The Learning Basket held sometime early this year where I heard testimonials of homeschooling parents and after talking to their smart children, I finally decided to homeschool Baby C.   

Baby C showing her tongue when she saw this flashcard for the first time.

BDO Junior Savers Club and Metrobank Fun Savers Club

I can still remember how my mom taught me how to manage my money when she opened a bank account for me.  My dad also taught me how to earn my own money when he helped me with my "samalamig" business one summer vacation way back 1993.  All my ang paos (cash gifts in a red envelop) and all income from my "samalamig" business were personally deposited by me on my bank account.  At an early age, I already learned the value of money and saving for the future.