Marriage and Beyond

posted by Jennie on Dec 1

My boys and I went to check out Promil Preschool’s i-Shine at Singing last Monday. It was held at Center for Pop in Cubao, Quezon City. Our son thoroughly enjoyed himself during the i-Shine at Acting conducted by The Trumpets Playshop last month, so we thought we might as well check this one out.

At first, I was not too sure if the hubby will approve when he finds out that the i-Shine at Singing workshop will be held at Center for Pop. While I know for a fact that Center for Pop has quite a handful of products who have made names for themselves, we really are leaning towards the classical way of singing, where you just don’t open your mouth and try to produce a melodious sound without much consideration on its dynamics. We have learned for sometime now, even as we are essentially a singing family, that sing the wrong way and you are bound to hurt your throat one way or another. This is precisely why we trust the services of Teacher Pau (our son’s voice coach and Music teacher). She hails from my reputable Alma Mater, UST. She’s from Conservatory of Music. But that’s another blog post altogether.

Coach Weng instructs Jed to do some vocal exercise

We always knew that our son has a knack for singing. He has been humming tunes since he can barely talk and even up to now, he’d either sing or hum first thing in the morning. This is also how we know he’s already awake. This is also why we would love for him to nurture his gift in singing. He has always been in tune since he was an infant and now he is already able to do second voice on his own.  His Papa sure is thrilled to be driving as he listens to his son singing second voice to the one playing on radio. I can’t even, for the life of me, get myself to even listen to a second voice. Much less sing to one. Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Jennie on Nov 18

He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.  Proverbs 13:24

Even parents should know that we do not have the liberty to just spank our kids on a whim. This is something that we do not take advantage of. There are guidelines for spanking that we should take care to heed to. Here’s from the spanking spoon that I recently bought to be included in Marriage and Beyond’s 4th Anniversary Giveaway.

1. Before spanking, consider the place and circumstances. Do not publicly embarass the child.

2. Ask “what is our rule?” or “What did daddy (or mommy) say?” –> You are making sure the child understood your instructions before you correct the child.

3. Ask “What did you do?” –> You are asking the child a personal responsibility for his or her action, THIS IS IMPORTANT!

4. Explain that your love with correction, say, “I love you and want to help you learn to do the right thing next time.”

5. Spank the child, give a few swift but painful swats on the buttocks. The child’s anger or mad cry should change to a softer “giving in” cry.

6. Comfort the child immediately after spanking. do not make the child feel rejected. Hold the child close and reassure him or her of your love. The parent/guardian who spanked should do the comforting.

7. If necessary, have the child make the restitution for the damage done.

The spanking rod’s handle reads “applicable for preschooler and gradeschoolers only” and the other side reads, “Guaranteed Butt Friendly.” Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Jennie on Oct 17

My son is growing up so fast that sometimes, I think he thinks and acts like a grown up man. Time really flies so fast, so they say. Even so, I can still remember when he was still a baby. Wherever we go, we always bring Baby Jed with us. Those times were not hard for my husband, Jeff and me, because we always have with us a baby travel gear, like the baby stroller gear that used to carry him. Stroller was very helpful during those times since  Jed is very active and we’re afraid that he won’t enjoy our trips when he’s not free to move if we just carry him with our bare hands or with just a simple baby carrier.

Now that he’s already six years old, I am still proud to say that I’m a hands-on mother; I personally take care of our little “man,” together with my husband, in order to raise him aright. We even decided to home school him not just so my professional license to teach will not go to waste but also because we feel strongly that this is the road that we ought to take.  It certainly is one of the best decisions we have made as a family.

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posted by Jennie on Sep 16

As promised, I am giving a more detailed entry about Hi-Precision Diagnostics Laboratory‘s role in the early detection of our son’s bout with Dengue fever.  We first had our son take the Dengue NS1 test when he had fever last June.  It turned out to be viral.

Hi-Precision Diagnostics has a total of 14 branches. I still did not know before that they have a branch in Pasig, or if it was already open then. So our default was to their main branch in Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City.  Whenever I go to have my son’s blood tested, I always get asked if I had a doctor’s request. Both times, I don’t. I always choose to have the necessary laboratory result ready when we go to the doctor. That’s just me being prudent and practical.  It is for my own peace of mind as well. Even if the doctor won’t request for a laboratory test, with the Dengue fever incidents in the Philippines growing at such alarming rate, it really is better to be safe.

I was asked to fill out the Patient Registration Slip as soon as we got there.  During our first visit, I also had my son’s blood and Rh (Rhesus Factor) typing done, while he was already there for blood testing anyway. This earned him his Hi-Precision Diagnostics Patient Card.

The Hi-Precision Diagnostics Patient Card serves as his blood type card as well. My son’s blood type is printed on the covered portion of his card (above photo).  This card also serves as a discount card, 10% off on all laboratory tests.

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posted by Jennie on Sep 15

I flew back home yesterday from Davao practically groggy from lack of sleep. Spent time with my son while attempting to work on the side. He was blabbering about the many things he has been reading. But before that, we played “Hospital Story” on my phone for a while after our afternoon nap. I just had to sleep off the migraine that was kicking in.

When he just would not stop telling me about the solar system, facts about the moon, how a particular desert was once fertile enough that farmers toiled on it, I just thought I’d just stop trying to work altogether and give him my undivided attention. I thought of recording a video while he was deep in his thoughts.

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posted by Jennie on Sep 9

Our family has been considerably vigilant against Dengue and yet it somehow managed to creep in and attack our six year old son last week. We don’t have mosquitoes and bugs in our house. Credits to our trusty JML Pest Shield, which we’ve had for around three years now. So whenever our son gets out of the house, I always make sure to spray all over his body some insect repellent. One brand of which, I even bought one liter of. Just to make sure we can easily replenish the atomizer we use whenever it runs out. It started with fever one Thursday afternoon. We tried to manage the fever. It went swinging from 38°-40° until the day after. I tried to book with Hi-Precision Diagnostic for a home service blood extraction, but was told that their Saturday schedule was already fully booked. We took our son to the laboratory first thing Saturday morning instead.

By Saturday morning, my son’s fever has been on for more than a day. Normally, with regular laboratory test – CBC and Platelet count, Dengue cannot yet be detected. We were not willing to take the risk. So we had our son take the Dengue NS1 Test. I will blog about Hi-Precision Diagnostics later. It took less than 2 hours for the CBC and Platelet count result to be available online. We are just thankful that this kind of service is now available for our convenience. Result came back normal, save for some differential count abnormalities, which practically reads as infection, I was told. Because my son’s high grade fever was not responding to any paracetamol medication, we decided to take him to his doctor before we were able to download the Dengue NS1 test result. He was given an antibiotic prescription (Co-Amoxiclav), because the doctor saw that his tonsils were inflamed. Most likely, viral.

It was when I got home from an errand that we were able to download the result – Dengue Positive (Weak Reaction). This basically explained why his fever did not respond to any medication.  We decided to take him to Jesus Immaculate Conception Hospital, where his doctor is, for confinement that Saturday night. Just so his platelet count will be closely monitored.  We were just really blessed that even through what could easily be tagged as a deadly disease that our son had, he was still chattering about and with energy, for the most part. To see our children suffer is the most painful thing in the world.

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posted by Jennie on Aug 18

How did it all happen so fast?! It was towards the end of July when I was surprised to see my 6 year old son’s first two lower incisors peeking behind his still standing baby teeth. I am not sure what made me think of checking.  We were then killing time while waiting for my turn to have my wires adjusted. I remember checking just  a few weeks back and there was nothing yet.

For fear of sounding overly dramatic, I have  stalled on blogging about it. But then again, I was reminded that it was because of my desire to journal these milestones that I decided to start blogging in 2004, to begin with. Hence, blogging away, I am.  I can’t help but second guess myself if I was normal or not. Because it did feel like it was just nothing for my husband, when I broke the news to him. He was then with us.  His reaction was just plain, “Oh!”  As opposed to my being almost jumpy during that time. Thrilled but at the same time a little sad. Not the bad kind of sad.  It is, for one, some sort of coming of age moment for our son. Typing through this entry alone takes on a melodramatic mode. It all seems like yesterday when I was a struggling young mother and now my son is slowly moving away from my apron strings.

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posted by Jennie on Jul 21

Be an Undercover Mother with Baby Bond Couture.  In a nutshell, the benefits of breastfeeding for the baby are: breastfeeding protects the baby against illnesses and allergies, improved vaccine effectiveness, enhances development and intelligence. For the mother, delays fertility (for some), decreases the risk of breast, uterine, ovarian, endometrial cancers and financial savings to the family. The cost to supply artificial baby milk (ABM) to one child is between $800 and $1,200 per year depending on the brand and area of the country. You don’t need to be a lactivist to figure this out.

BabyBond Couture – Cover mom, not her baby!

BabyBond covers the mom, not her baby. Mom is able to maintain her modesty. Baby remains uncovered benefiting from the infinite opportunity to make eye contact, interact, and communicate. After all, dining is social. Preverbal skills, eye contact and attention are vital to a baby’s cognitive and language development.

I learned that nursing tops are not really the cheapest when my son was still a baby. Here’s the better alternative. One lucky mom will be receiving this nursing accessory, hopefully, by the month of August. This contest is running from today until July 31, 2011 at 11:59PM.

Step by Step Instructions for both “Nursing from the top” or the “bottom of your shirt” is stitched right on the inner portion of the BabyBond Couture.

Nursing from Top

Nurse from the bottom of your shirt without having to expose your belly.

BabyBond Couture is adjustable and can be worn with shirts that are accessible to nurse from the top or the bottom. It rolls up into itself to store. BabyBond is machine washable, 100% cotton, and made in USA.

Contest Mechanics:  Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Jennie on May 23

The Velveteen Bible from Thomas Nelson arrived a few days before Jed’s 6th Birthday. Since I ordered it around February, I totally forgot about it. I know how crappy our local postal system can get. So I was kind of not expecting to receive it altogether. But the timing cannot be more perfect.

Velveteen Bible (New King James Version)

posted by Jennie on Apr 9

Right from the time our son first had his Time Out when he was just a year and three months old, we already explained to him why there are rules. Merely saying “No” to a child will never be enough. Even as a child has got to do what he’s got to do – that is to explore, parents should as well do what they’ve got to do-  discipline, that is and explain the values behind rules.

Truth be told, rules go beyond just a list of Do’s and Don’ts. It is the very avenue that children learn values from that they take with them as they grow older.

Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Jennie on Apr 9

Summer has officially started and so is Promil Preschool’s i-Shine Talent Camp 2011. Last year, my son and I attended the 2010 camp held at the Activity Center in Shangri-la Mall and I remember him having lots of fun during the whole program. Too bad we had to miss this year’s event. But for those who are outside the Metro, you can still catch the schedules. Happening in SM Cebu on April 15-16, SM Rosales (Dagupan) on April 27-28, and SM Davao on May 2-3.

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posted by Jennie on Apr 8

Forgive my lack of posts. Our family has been busy with the little guy’s graduation from ABC’s with Ace and Christi. We have been rehearsing since last week and the week before that was his Karate promotion for Yellow Belt. Whoever said that a homeschooler’s life can be boring couldn’t be more wrong.

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posted by Jennie on Feb 5

One of the many things I have learned by being a hands on mom of almost 6 years now is the importance of showing my son I value him by allowing him to usher me in his world of play. It is often easy to see a kids ongoings as petty and all. But I find that it means a lot to him that I indulge him as he creates robots and out of this world creatures out of lego pieces.

Jed calls this his tunnel tree.

With a lot of things in my head as being the lone person to take care of the house (and everything else), you can just imagine how easy it is for me to get distracted and do something in between the conversations of one robot to the other.

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posted by Jennie on Jan 26

In connection with the blog post I published last year is this entry dedicated in defense of Babywise. I figured with my response as lengthy as the one I posted below, I might as well dedicate a separate blog on it altogether. But you will have to refer to the specific post on parenting to get hold of the exact context.

I don’t remember mentioning that Babywise as middle ground. I know a lot have labeled it as the other extreme and it could be for some reason. This is why there were just certain principles that we took from Becoming Babywise and it worked for us, still does. It did say that scheduling does not have to be rigid, you device a system where it will work best for all concerned.

Our son started sleeping through the night at two months and he is not undernourished in any way. In fact, all through his infancy up until now that he is five, all his developmental milestones (physical and otherwise) are all above average. Babywise has very practical and Biblical principles, if one will really look into it. Like not allowing babies to play with things that are not toys. It protects them from dangers that they could get themselves into otherwise. I cannot remember a moment when my husband and I had to run towards our son just to make sure he does not play with electric sockets or mealtimes will have to be a chore that turns into a chasing game.

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posted by Jennie on Jan 26

At what age should kids start to have mobile phones of their own? Not that this is a dilemma for our family now. But given that our son now habitually sends SMS to his papa everyday he is out as they send each other sweet nothings, I know that it is just a matter of time that this little guy would want to have his very own cell phone.

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