Chocolate Lovers

My daughter and I had our regular mom and Ava day today. We took a field trip to chocolate lovers at P. Tuazon. It's the castle looking building.

It's been awhile since I've baked. All the paraphernalia and boxes made me want to start baking again. It may not be a good thing for the waistline as I seem to be able to eat what I bake unlike other bakers.

I have a new resolution to bake with Ava weekly because it's supposed to teach her patience. That justifies all the sprinkles.

I was surprised that we had no tantrum today. She filled up the cart with her wants but when I asked her to choose only 3 things, she obliged.

Little Gym, Kindermusik or Gymboree? A Personal Assessment

I've often wondered what the difference was between Little Gym, Kindermusik and Gymboree. Luckily, we've tried them all one time or another and here's my assessment:

When Ava was about 8 months old, we signed her up for Gymboree classes.  She really liked Gymbo the clown (though I couldn't understand why). One of her first words was actually "Gymbo."  At home, we have the Gymbo that laughs, the Gymbo hand puppet and the Gymbo peek-a-boo toy.  And I think it did help her learn cause and effect and object permanence.  She also loved popping the bubbles (mental note: we can make glycerin bubbles tomorrow!). I can honestly say she learned to pack away because of this class.

I especially like the free Gymplay passes that came with the membership too. Even now, it helps  a lot that I have a safe place for them to play while I go to the grocery. 

I stopped taking her to Gymboree when the teachers kept changing and we had a couple of classes with a new teacher who really wasn't really good yet. Also, it was so frustrating because they'd have classes posted in the board but we would be informed that it was closed or not running when we came.  I couldn't blame them entirely though because the schedule I'd have on hand would often be outdated because we weren't very consistent in going.

When she was about 2 years old, a Kindermusik class opened near us. We gave it a try as it was nearer than Gymboree.  It was ok but I found personally found the class a little too noisy and the pace was way too fast.  I felt like even the book reading was rushed and class was going on fast forward mode. Even yaya remarked, "Mam parang napagod ako para sa teacher."

Ava likes going to class though she actually just lays on my lap and watches the whole class whizz by.  In a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, I'd rank it 7.

This summer, we gave Little Gym a try as I had heard that their teachers were better.  The place really impressed me because it was bigger and super clean and nice.  We've just been to a couple of classes but I do find it better than Gymboree because it teaches more gymnastics basics and some pre-school concepts (for Ava's age) too. The pace is just right, not too fast nor too slow. It is slightly more expensive though.

If we judge by Ava's rating though, she's equally excited for any of the 3 classes so I think they are all pretty much ok. As a mom though, I do like Little Gym, I only wish they had a branch near us. But when I watch Ava doing the balance beam or the uneven bars, I sometimes wish I was young enough to play on them again.

Love my Worms

Nobody seems to understand my love affair with worms. It all started when I bought 1 kilo of the worms for vermiculture during an agri fair in Bohol. I had tried composting and being type A, didn't have the patience to wait until I could use the compost. I'm sure I did something wrong because my compost stank.

My first kilo of worms suffered in my care. My helper Sandra started shrieking one day. I rushed out to see her frantically trying to shovel my worms back into my big banga. Apparently, they were trying to run for their lives. They must've known I didn't know what I was doing.

I thought they were hungry. I instructed Sandra to feed them with all the fish innards from the employees' meal from Amorita. Ooops, that didn't go so well either. I thought that the white worms were the babies of the red african vermi worms. They weren't. And soon, ants crawled all over. My worms were dead. I killed them in just 2 days.

I am not one to accept defeat so easily. I bought a kilo again and read as much as I could on the internet. Turns out, fish innards do not belong in the vermi bin. Now where did I get that idea? Plus I can only put equivalent weight of the worms... meaning 1 kg worms = 1 kg vegetable and fruit peelings per day. Got it.

My second batch of worms fared very well. Would you believe I now have more than 10 sacks in Bohol?

We also have a big terracotta jar full of vermi worms where we get the castings for our vegetable garden at home.  We put all of our vegetable and fruit trimmings in it as well as some leaves and grass we sweep from the garden.  I just take time to have a bowl ready when I cook so I drop all the fruit and vegetable odds and ends in there. 

It just takes some time and convincing for new helpers to get the hang of it.  But vermiculture is so easy I wonder why more people aren't getting into it.  

Our First Four Seasons Family Vacation at Langkawi

A perfect stretch of beach just for us

 

Our dream villa in the background

As far as unforgettable vacations go, our Malaysia trip last year was really something.  Even our 3 year old daughter Ava who was just 2 then remembers our vacation.

It was supposed to be our first trip just husband and wife for a long time. But a week before leaving, Emilio still didn't want to drink milk from the bottle.  I couldn't leave him to starve in Manila so we decided to take him along.  While packing for our trip, Ava brought out her little Minnie Mouse suitcase and I just didn't have the heart to tell her we were leaving her behind. So off we went to buy her ticket too.

Turns out I made the big mistake and we ended up with an 8 hour lay-over in KL arriving on the Cebu Pacific red-eye and leaving on the Malaysia Airlines 8:30am flight in the morning. And it also turned out we had to take a cab at midnight from the low cost airport to the international airport. Yikes! And we had to do this on the way back too.

Needless to say we were so tired when we arrived at the Four Seasons Langkawi. We were upgraded to a beach villa and it took my breath away. 

We were just supposed to stay for 1 night and move to a less expensive resort nearby the next day.  It was dirty beyond words and not child-friendly.  I could just see the rest of our  vacation falling apart. I am very glad they agreed to refund my payment and allowed us to move back to the Four Seasons. I didn't even get mad or anything like that.

Wouldn't you know, we were the fastest ever returning guests of the Four Seasons Langkawi - 4 hours from departure to arrival again. 

We had a much simpler room this time around.   The Kids for All Seasons made a mark on Ava as well as the sincerity and warmth of everyone at the resort.  I could go on and on about everything the staff did to make traveling with 2 little children enjoyable - from giving me white cold towels to wipe off Emilio's spinach baby food (and they didn't bat an eyelash) to wrapping up my cold dessert and bringing it to our room when the children got sleepy and cranky over dinner to laying a big duvet on the floor so the two kids could play in the room.  It was just amazing.

Overall, we had a great time. We're saving up for another Four Seasons vacation as luxury really doesn't come cheap.  It left such a mark on Ava that she would rather go to Four Seasons than go back to Disneyland. And despite all the hassle of budget carriers, moving airports in the middle of the night with 2 sleepy toddlers, strollers, luggage, hand carry where water spilled all over inside and all it was our best family vacation ever.

Ps. We were not in any way comp-ed or remunerated by Four Seasons for this post:)

www.fourseasons.com/langkawi

My Top 5 Sanity Savers

It's quite a challenge balancing work, a 1yr old, a 3 yr old and having a husband who works out of town.  I've learned to find ways of keeping my sanity. Here are the little things I do:

1. Lists

I love making lists and scratching things off them.  I've learned through the years to keep my lists per day only down to 6 items, 10 maximum. And I make lists for the helper at home, my secretary in the office and yes sometimes of things I should remind my husband to do (though I never actually hand him the list).  It's helped me get more done the past few weeks and I feel good at the end of the day.

2. Post-it

Post-its make my many lists even more organized. I use them as tabs in my meeting notebook so I can easily find the last meeting with the different people I coordinate with. I make post-its for reminders for events in the future so that my planner stays neat and I can move it around should my schedules move. I only like how they line up neatly on my desk and stay put. I have post-its in the kids' closet to remind yaya where to put their clothes and what to pack in the diaper bag.  I have post-its on my ref to remind yaya on healthy snacks.  Recently my husband bought the big post-its with lines. I still like the square ones with no lines better though.

3. IPhone

Having lists, photos, email and games for bored toddlers to play with during traffic really makes the Iphone worth it.  I'm not really a techie.  I was convinced to get an Iphone only because of Facetime (for my husband who works far away).

4. Speed Queen Washing Machine

My brother convinced me to get a set of Speed Queen washing machines. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend for them because we had the old school washing machine we bought when we got married and a tiny dryer for when we used to live in a condo.  But each time I lack househelp, I am so so thankful for my fantastic washing machines which are super sturdy and easy to use.  It also helped me survive cloth diapering my son for a year now and still going despite the constant lack of household help.

5. Facebook

I have to admit, mindless Facebook-ing (hmmm, is that a word?) really relaxes my mind when I'm feeling overwhelmed.  My current schedule really hardly has time for going out but it's really nice to be updated with friends and to feel connected even just "like"-ing their status updates.

We all have our little things to save our sanity... what are yours?