Children Grow Up Fast

Tomorrow, our daughter will be starting her regular school schedule. Her classes will be finished by three o'clock in the afternoon. Since she takes the school bus, she will be home in an hour or two after her dismissal time. She will be gone for nearly eleven to twelve hours everyday, five days a week.

It only dawned on me earlier that my husband and I will hardly get to spend time with our baby. She will be spending most of her awake time in school. We were both starting ftofeel sad especially me. I was so attached to my daughter since she was our unica hija.

I have always been hands on with Roberta. When I was pregnant with her, I decided that I would breasfeed her exclusively for as long as I can so that she will always be close to me, and that happened. I also changed my lifestyle and career path so that I could be home more often, and I was able to do that too. But I guess there are just some things that are beyond our control. Children grow up so quickly no matter how much time you spend with them.

This was exactly what I was feeling with Roberta . Though I did not like it I just had to accept the reality of life. I just told myself, make every moment count with my baby, make it memorable since there was no turning back time.This holds true for every relationship and everything we do in life.

"Carpe Diem"...Seize the day...

Earning in Blogging

Since early last year, I have decided to become a WAHM (Work At Home Mom) by choice. Somewhere along the way, I had a change in priorities. I decided to focus my time and energy more on taking care of my unica hija, Roberta, instead of trying to earn extra income outside the home. I said to myself that an opportunity would show itself. I will be able to find money even while I was at home. And it did.

Being at home, gave me more time than I had when I was out of the house the whole day. With so much time in my hands, I wanted to go back to one of the things I enjoyed most - writing. I thought of having my own blog as my writing channel. Little did I know that I could actually get paid to blog.

How to earn extra money by blogging was better explained to me by Tita Marie. We were just casually having a conversation during my high school volleyball reunion. When she found out that I was at home working, that is when she shared her own blogging experience. I was surprised to know that she had been doing this for quite some time and was at a profit. I was inspired and motivated to follow suit.

I researched and learned that the world wide web was a bigger market for advertisers than what traditional media - such as print, radio and television - could offer. With this concept, the marketing idea of blog advertising was born.

Advertisers would join a blog advertising company such as Paying Post to find potential blogs suited to post their ads. The followers of that blog would then be the target market and possible consumers of the said product. The more ads in a blog that gave positive results to an advertiser, the more income that blog would make. This was how income was made from blogging.

With this knowledge at hand, it would just be a bonus for me if I could earn something extra from doing what I like and that is writing.

Children and Their Hobbies

It's six days and counting until the big day of Roberta's first ballet recital - Little Mermaid!

This whole week, hubby and I will be busy being stage parents for Roberta's ballet practices since it will be everyday until the big performance day this coming Sunday. Whew! Imagine nearly three hours of ballet practices everyday for a six year old prima ballerina wannabe. It's a good thing that she is enjoying all this and doesn't mind the hectic schedule.

I personally think it is important for kids to have extra curricular activities outside of the regular schoolwork that they normally get. This is a good way for them to relax and recharge from the daily "kiddie" stress that they have. It is also a good way to find our children's different talents based from the hobbies or things they like to do and develop them.

Roberta at the moment enjoys doing many other things aside from her school work. She likes to sing. She likes to dance. She likes to paint, draw, make crafts, build or create things. She likes to write and read. She also enjoys different sports such as swimming, playing softball, volleyball, basketball and wants to try taekwondo. She also likes to cook though of course she can't yet since she's too young so she just pretends she does and likes to watch me in the kitchen. At her age, it's like she wants to do so many things at the same time but that's okay because later on she will discover one or two things that she likes to do more than the other and will focus on it.

I would like to share this informative article I read about Childrens Hobbies and how we can help our children discover and enjoy their different interests.

How about your little ones? What hobbies do they like to do?

Forever Our Baby

I just got home from driving my daughter, Roberta to school. She usually takes the school bus in the morning. But I let her sleep in a little more since she slept late last night.

While I was walking away from the gate of the school back to my car and watching other parents drop off their daughters, I realized that my baby is now a little lady. I still see her as my baby forever even though she is already six turning seven in a few months.

How time flies for us and our kids doesn't it? I can still remember clearly how Roberta was when she was barely even six months old. My husband, Vince and I tried our best to spend as much time with her as we can so as not to miss those special moments and bonding times. We would work at home and bring her everywhere with us. Up to now, that is what we are still trying to do. But you really can't stop time. Kids just grow up so fast.

I am just thankful that Vince and I were given the opportunity to spend as much time as we can in taking care of our little princess. I know that there are some parents who would love to but can't because of work or other important and uncontrollable matters. We are very grateful.

Even if it seems that the time spent with our Roberta is not enough, It makes it all worth it when she tells us nonstop that she loves her Mama and Dada very much ahd gives us a big hug and kiss when ever she gets a chance.

Trip to the Pedia

Roberta and I went for her regular doctor's check up this morning. The clinic hours during Saturdays are from 9am to 12nn. I decided to go to the clinic 1130am. I was thinking that by that time there will hardly be any more patients waiting. I was wrong.

I registered my daughter's name at the secretary. We were number fifteen on the list. The doctor was already seeing patient number eight. Which means we had to wait for six other patients to finish before it is our turn. I wonder how long our wait will be.

Roberta and I have been patiently waiting for over 30 minutes. Good thing I brought a small pack of pretzels with me and water for my daughter to snack on while waiting since it is nearly 1pm.

Tired of snacking, my daughter asked to borrow my mobile phone to entertain herself. She listened to some mp3s, played a game and tried watch a tv show but could not find anything interesting so went back to listening to mp3s and singing along with the songs. (My six year old princesss is no longer a baby. Huhuhu.)

Top Ten Things #1

It is interesting how mothers have to be forever "girl scouts" for their children. Or in other words, we mothers always have to be prepared for all kinds of situations such as waiting long for your turn or a bathroom accident while out in the mall.

Gone are the days that we just pack a handful of our own personal necessities. Now, we have to pack another bag. This time, it is a handful of necessities that we think our children might need when we are not home.

TOP TEN THINGS I take with me when I am out with my daughter:

1. Water
2. A snack
3. A toy, coloring book or book
4. Tissue and wet ones (travel pack)
5. Hand sanitizer (small bottle)
6. Baby cologne (small bottle)
7. Baby powder (small bottle)
8. A face or handtowel
9. Extra clothes
10. Brush or comb and hair clips
    

What are the Top Ten Things that you bring when you go out with your children?

Down with a Fever

My unica hija, Roberta is down with a high fever right now.

I'm staying up watching her sleep and checking on her temperature from time to time. If she starts to feel a little warm, I apply a cool damp folded face towel over her forehead to try and keep the fever down. She will be taking her medicine again in a couple of hours.

She's sleeping soundly now. I hope she gets better quick. I do not like it at all when my Roberta gets sick.

I don't think any mom likes to see any of her children in this situation. It's heartbreaking and you feel helpless. If there was only a way to trade places and let me be the one to get sick instead of my baby girl, I wouldn't even think twice.

But I have faith. Things will be better tomorrow. Roberta will be okay. She will no longer have fever. She will be back to her jolly, lovable, and playful self.

I know she will because I will make sure that it happens.

(I wrote this post a few hours earlier using my PDA while keeping myself awake watching my daughter.)

Are you a CMT?...

...a Certified Multi-Tasker =) hehe..got you there didn't I?

I'm sure all your eyebrows were raised trying to figure out what that acronym stands for. It's just my own term for us busy mommies or should I say SAHMies and WAHMies...

People think that staying at home to work is a piece of cake but reality says otherwise. We all know very well that there are a lot of distractions when you have a home office. It's not just about accomplishing your work duties but trying to juggle it with mommy duties too such as watching your kids, preparing lunch and dinner, answering the door, attending to calls, doing the laundry, doing homework, naptime and the list goes on and on.

It's so easy to get caught up with all the activities that you need to do at that moment. And by the end of the day, you realize you really did not end up accomplishing the important tasks you set out to do for the day. This has happened to me often.

That's why I try my best to keep track of all the important things I need to do in my planner. Yes, it's still the old school way that I got used to doing ever since I was a kid in spite of having gadgets that can also do the job.

Here are things I do to manage my time and organize my day:

1. Make a list. - I list down all the things I need to do for the week. These would include appointments, things to do, reminders etc.
2. Prioritize. - I take note of which things in my list are urgent, have deadlines and needs my immediate action.
3. Plan it out. - I plan out my week. I write out in my planner the things I need to do according to the day it should be done. This way I will not feel so overwhelmed that I have a lot to do since it has been spread out through the week.
4. Color code. - I like to color code the things I need to do so that it will make the tasks seem lighter when I look at the colorful page in my planner as well as making it easy to spot.
   
5. Check it off. - This is my favorite part - checking out from my list what I have finished doing already. It gives me a sense of accomplishment especially when all I have set out to do for the day are done.
6. Be flexible. - There are some things that you just can't plan like a surprise visit from your in-laws or having to run to the grocery coz you ran out of oil for cooking. No need to panic or get all flustered since things did not go as planned. Just try to get back on track.
7. Be positive. - If at times it seems things are not going as planned, just always look on the bright side and keep trying. You will get it done - eventually. =)

Do you have any tips that you can share with me?

Laundry Duty

I just finished doing some laundry. And take note, I handwashed it!

Yup, it was a labor of love washing my daughter's Prep school uniform and ballet uniform too. Honestly, handwashing is one of the things I never really enjoyed doing. I did not like the feeling on my hands coz the soap dries it out and even worse my hands get sore from scrubbing. But when you are a mommy things change. Even if you did not like to do something when you were single, it's a totally different case now. As they say, it comes with the territory.

But hey, don't get me wrong. I don't mind being a mommy. I love it! I don't mind the responsibilities either. I am just thankful that there are laundry soaps that do a great job in loosening dirt making handwashing easy for me. I got a new favorite - Champion! That did the work for me.

I just wish the washing machine could be fixed soon so I don't have to do this any longer. Hehehe.

My angel in pink and pigtails =)

I am a WAHM

I never though that it would actually be fulfilling and satisfying to be a WAHM (Work At Home Mom). I did not even know that there was such a word or should I say acronym. When I first heard it, flashbacks of the popular ‘80s pop band that George Michael belonged to who sang “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” came to mind but I soon realized that it was spelled differently – WHAM. Hehe =)

After doing some research online (thanks to Wikipedia and Google Search) and reading articles about it, I have come to my own understanding of the word. WAHM describes a new generation of mothers who are striking a balance between family life, parenting and earning a living all in the comfort of their home.

This new title or should I say concept is not very popular yet in the Philippine society who is accustomed to the mentality of branding. To a majority of the Filipinos, your career success as an individual is based on the company that you work for (how popular and how big is it in the business sector), the job title that you get with it (the flashier sounding, the better) and where your office is located.

Even though the amount of salary may matter to most, it may not weigh as much in value as the previous items mentioned not to include the other perks and benefits of the job such as travel, company car or free gym membership etc. This ideal may work for the fresh graduates who are still hungry to prove themselves to their parents and the world as well as wanting to have their chance to be part of the highly competitive corporate world. But it is no longer true for the individuals who have been part of the “rat race” and want something different.

I guess you can say that this is what happened to me. Though it definitely was not an overnight decision. But one thing was for sure ever since I started working at home I did not want to leave the house again. Why should I? I was "Home Sweet Home."