Gold Investment

I still can’t believe that my Bela is already going to big school and I am sure before we know it, we need to make decisions with her on where she wants to go to college.

That is why now that our kids are still young, hubby and I decided that it is the perfect time to make investments. We were in the Makati Business district last night and I read a sign which says “Why stop at saving. Invest now!!”

This made me check out the site of United States Gold Bureau. I learned a lot about gold investment after reading their site and it made me really convince that it is a very good form of investment as its value does not depreciate over time. We contacted their hard asset professionals who can help us get the best offer in the market for gold bullion so we can get started with our gold investment.

The Perks of Being a Mom

When I was still single, I can stay up all night just talking on the phone with my friends, or have a DVD marathon of my favorite TV show, or just do anything to pass time as I find it hard to sleep at night (I even thought of using sleeping pills to get a good night sleep).

But things have changed when I become a mother. Now instead of reading magazines or novels, I read children’s books to Bela. Instead of playing on my iPhone, I join Bela as she plays with her animal toys. And when she feels sleepy already, I have no choice but to go up to our room too even if I still want to catch my favorite show on TV as I need to put her to sleep.

But in all honesty, it is a very good feeling. I love being a mom. I love the kiss that I get from Bela as her bribe to me so I will read to her the book. I love to hear her say “I love you mom” which comes with a kiss and a hug before she goes to sleep. I love how she shouts “Mommy” with so much excitement when she welcome us home from work. This are just some of the perks of being a mommy to Bela and I will not trade it for anything else.

They Heart Frozen Yogurt

Bela is like her dad who is not into sweets. She doesn’t like candies or chocolates and even ice cream. That is why when I bought frozen yogurt yesterday, I only ordered one cup as I thought that I will be the only one to finish it. Bela helped me with the toppings but I thought that she just finds it cute and she just likes to play pretend. But as soon as we are seated, Bela started eating it and she finished almost half of the cup and ate all the toppings.

I guess this is the only ice cream that she will eat (which is good because at least it is a healthier ice cream and will not make her fat that she will need to read about hydroxycut reviews to find the best fat burners available).

But even hubby enjoyed it too (like father, like daughter). Frozen yogurt is not that sweet as compared to regular ice cream so maybe that is why hubby enjoyed it too. At least now I know where to bring Bela and Howell if I want to treat them for a healthy alternative to ice cream.

Bela Ballerina

She just loves to dance. That is why when I read in one of the circulars from her school that they have a ballet club, I immediately asked Bela if she wants to join and she eagerly said yes.

The ballet class for prep is scheduled every Saturday at 9 am so this means we have to be up by 7:30 AM (8 AM the latest) so she won’t be late for class. Her normal wake up time is 9 or 10 AM so 7:30 is too early for her. But every Saturday, I don’t have a hard time waking her up as she jumps out of bed immediately as soon as she hears the word ballet. That is how dedicated she is with ballet.

I was the one who brought Bela to her class last Saturday and I was able to stay for a few minutes in class and was able to take some pictures. Here are some of them: (Pardon the [pictures as I only use my phone’s camera. We don’t bring camera during her ballet class as they are really strict and will not let parents linger while the class is on-going. I was just pasaway that day and took pictures while no one is asking me go out yet. LOL)

Our Book Worm

I am glad that Bela is growing up to be a person who really loves book. We bought her the “I wonder why” series from Groiller and every night she will bring two to three books upstairs and she will ask us to read it to her from cover to cover. That is why even if I am feeling so sleepy already due to lack of sleep from taking care of Cobi, I have no choice but to read the book to her as she will not stop unless we give in to her request. (Thank goodness there are eye wrinkle creams in the market that I can use so I will not look haggard and zombie like. To know more about eye wrinkle creams, click here).

Sometimes I would cheat and skip some pages but I can never really fool her as she knows all her books by heart and she will know if I skip a page or not. But I am happy though because Bela is learning a lot form these books. Her teacher from her previous school event noted in her report that Bela is very good in Trivia and she got all of that information that she shared with her teachers and friends from this book.

No Longer a Baby

This picture was taken a few weeks ago when I went to Bela’s school for the star gazing activity that they will be having with all their students and their family.

I was really sentimental when I saw Bela went out with her classmates and teacher and it dawned on me that Bela is no longer a baby. Soon she will ask me about pimple remover, or she will ask for advice already on her love life, or she will ask for our permission already when she wants to go on a date. How time really flies.

When we were deciding if we should already send Bela to big school or not, my worry that time as a mother is if he can adjust to the big school setup. I feel that she is still a baby and I am not sure if she can survive, if she can be independent enough as they will only have one teacher in big school to assist all the students unlike in her play class where they are really pampered and they have two teachers and one yaya in class.

But when I was still on leave and I get the chance to bring and fetch Bela from school, I can really say that she has matured already and she really did not have any problems adjusting to the big school setup. She even wants to be really independent even at home that she wants to do things all by herself like taking a bath, brushing her teeth, dressing up, etc.

I know we can’t stop her from growing up so I guess the only thing we can do now is enjoy every minute as we watch Bela grows up to be a fine lady.

Bela, Our Future Swimmer

Bela has been enrolled in the Aqua Kids program of Aqualogic since summer. We noticed that she really enjoys the class (except for the one time when she had a one-on-one session with Teacher Ria. But now she is already so used to Teacher Ria that she doesn’t get scared anymore and she now knows that she has to follow what Teacher Ria asks her to do. LOL). That is why after the summer program, we decided to enroll her again for 12 more sessions as we see a great potential in her to be a good swimmer as she is just so comfortable when she is in the water.

During the summer class, they tried to teach Bela how to float from her back but she is having a hard time doing it as she feels ticklish in her ear. But just look at her now, a really big improvement:

She knows how to do a back float and last week, they already started to teach her how to use her hands (using the angel-fairy-princess technique) so she can start to learn how to do the back stroke.

I am really happy with how Bela improved and because of that we will enroll her again for another 12 sessions come October.

Her Favorite Games

I need to look for xerox phaser 8560 ink sticks to replenish the supplies that we need in the office but then I did not realized how time quickly flies because I got busy installing free applications for my iPhone that Bela can play with.

I upgraded my iPhone 2G to iPhone 3GS and so it doesn’t have that much applications installed unlike my old 2G phone. So when Bela saw it, this is what she said:

Bela: “Mom, why does your iPhone only have two pages of games. Tita Vj’s iPhone have plenty of pages.”

So I promised her that I will install new applications to my phone so she can play with it. And so I just searched all the free applications in App Store under the Games for Kids category and I was able to find tons of fun activities and games for kids.

So far, Bela’s favourite games are I Wash my Dogs and I wash my Cats game where she can give dogs and cats a bath, the When I Grow Up Game where she can dress up monkeys to different characters, Kids Genius game which has different kinds of activities like matching game and the application Read Me Stories where she gets to listen to bed time stories.

There are still more free applications that I can install from iPhone and I am sure Bela will be happy to see lots of pages on my iPhone filled with her favourite iPhone games.

Hidden Agenda

Bela: “You know mom, our house is already filled with so many toys. You should stop buying me toys or our house will be full and we have no more space left to move.”

So I was really surprised when she said this as I know that it is impossible for her to get tired of hearing the sound of the barcode scanner every time the sales clerk from the toy store scans her purchases. So I asked her:

Me: “Are you sure you don’t want any more toys? That’s good. So from now on I will stop buying toys for you and we will just save the money.”

Bela: “No mom. We should use the money for vacation instead.”

And so I thought that my daughter out grew her toys already. I should have known from the start that she has a hidden agenda why she is telling me this. LOL.

Top Priority

I can’t believe that my daughter will be turning five years old already in just matter of months. Now I realize that time really moves fast and now that our kids are still young, we should take this opportunity to start saving up for the future of our kids.

One of the investments that we are looking at is buying gold coins. Unlike gold bars, coins are cheaper so it is something that we might afford. Gold is a good investment as it doesn’t depreciate unlike other paper investment so it is a good way to preserve our extra money.

I checked the website of United States Gold Bureau and I learned that we can contact their experienced hard asset professionals so they can help us with any the inquiries that we have regarding our gold investment.

Securing our children’s future is really our top priority and gold investment is really one way of doing that.

Conversations with Bela: @ 4 years old

During her swimming class:

Me: “Bela, be careful, you might hit the wall.”
Bela: “Don’t worry mom. I will be more careful next time.”

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Me: “Here Bela, you can sit now. I already removed the bags.”
Bela: “Now that is the problem. That is the reason why I can’t sit properly because there are bags on the chair.”

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Me: “Bela, I am so sad because I will be going back to work already. It means you won’t see me when you wake up in the morning.”
Bela: “That’s okay mommy. I will ask lolo to fetch you so you won’t be sad.”

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Bela: “Our house is already full of toys. We should not be buying toys anymore. We should just go on vacation instead.”

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When the electricity went off one evening:

Bela: “Come one mom, let’s go to a hotel.”

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When she was asking me to buy her another ballpen with cute characters as the cover:

Bela: “Mom, I think I lost my pen.”
Me: “No, it is upstairs in our room. I kept it.”
Bela: “But if there is no more ink, I need another pen that I can use. Can I buy another pen?”

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Me: “Bela, do you have something to show me in your notebook number 1?”
Bela: “Nothing. But I have a folded letter for you.”

And she handed me the circular from her teacher.

Bela: “You have to cut from this line, and then sign here and I will give it back to teacher.”

Protection from Dengue

I received a circular from Bela’s school informing parents of the preventive measure that the school is taking to prevent Dengue since dengue cases has doubled for this year. So all prep students will be asked to wear the following on specific days:

Monday – School uniform with knee high socks
Tuesday – Grade level t-shirt and jogging pants
Wednesday – Maong pants and t-shirt (I rarely buy t-shirts for Bela as I don’t find it good on her but now that they will be required to wear t-shirts once a week, I have to look for wholesale lots of t-shirts so Bela will have a lot of t-shirt to use during their civilian day).
Thursday – P.E t-shirt and jogging pants
Friday – school uniform with knee high socks

All the parents are really happy with this step that the school have taken to protect our kids from dengue while they are in school. I know that dengue is a very serious illness and so I am really happy and I feel at peace now that my Bela will at least be protected from dengue.

Kudos to the school administration of St. Scholastica.

Black Friday Sale

I really hate it and the timing is so bad because I have no Internet connection during the weekend. And this weekend is really very important as for sure, a number of online sites had their Labor Day sale.

I received an email from Old Navy, which is my favorite shopping site for clothes for my kids and since I had no Internet connection I missed the sale. But maybe it is still a blessing in disguise since I know that it is really better to shop during Black Friday sale as the discounts are bigger compared to other sales. I know that most of my friends are already waiting for this sale and they are already making their wish list as they were really happy with their Black Friday shopping last time. The prices were really a steal that it is almost getting the item for free.

So I guess I should be thankful instead that I don’t have Internet connection during the Labor Day weekend because for sure I will not be able to control myself and I will surely end up shopping for my kids again even if I am on a tight budget this month.

So what I should do now is start saving up and start making my wish list for the Black Friday sale.

For Her Discriminating Taste

At her very young age, Bela is already the one deciding which clothes she will wear, what brand of shoes she will buy, what style she wants for her blouse, etc. That is why as early as now, I can see that Bela will be a fashionable and trend conscious woman.

I am sure when she is already working and she can already buy jewelries and timepieces on her own, she will not think twice in buying one of the world’s finest timepieces, the luxurious, elegant and fashionable IWC Watches.

You can buy IWC Watches from Lussori which is located on Main Street in downtown Los Altos, CA. They have been in the business of selling the world’s finest watches and jewelries for over ten years now. Aside from IWC watches they also sell other brands like Dior, Chopard, Hermes, Blancpain to name just a few which I am sure will pass the discriminating taste of my daughter.

Souvenirs for Her 5th

I can’t believe that it is already September which means that it is just a few months away from Bela’s fifth birthday party. It will just be a small celebration as we just want her to feel extra special especially on her birthday since she is really very jealous now of her brother.

I booked almost all the suppliers that I need for her party but I still have to finalize where I will order the souvenir and the cake. For the souvenirs, The Creamery is already providing a loot bags for all the kids so I am contemplating if I still need to order a personalized bag just so I can satisfy my OCness. LOL. I inquired with Jelly Bellies and Business Shoppe and these are my choices:

Small Back Pack / Lunch bag which cost P95-100 each and Personalized Loot Box for only P45.

I really like something personalized but I have to convince hubby first to increase my budget. LOL.

I Want Chicken Noodle Soup

I need to look for an insurance company that offers motorhome insurance for the RV of a friend as I heard these types of insurance are better than ordinary auto insurance but I am not having a good day today. So as my stress reliever, I am doing some window shopping again.

Bela is always requesting for chicken noodle soup for her snack at school. I think she saw one of her classmates eating it during their snack time at school and you know how kids are, they sometimes imitate what they see from their other friends. And chicken noodle soup is Bela’s one of her favorite snack too so I told her that I have to buy a sealed container first for her soup and something that will keep her soup hot for hours, and so I thought of buying this, Funtainer Food Jar:

I showed it to Bela and she is so excited about it also as it has a Littlest Petshop design. This food jar comes with a Free Super Saver shipping but I need $10 more before I can avail of this promo. I wonder what else I can order.