From a mother and teacher instinct, I knew,  Chesska would receive this award.  By the way, rain has been pouring all morning while writing this blog post.

Over the weekend, during the card-giving day, I personally went to school to get Chesska's card and had a chance to talk to the teacher regarding Chesska's performance in class. Well, I heard the same feedback as the previous gradings like she said that Chesska was not answering in oral recitation. But on the other side,  she stressed that Chesska started to mingle already with her other classmates. In other words, her socialization skill has improved.

So, a couple of days ago, she greeted me with this certificate stating she ranks second in the third grading period. I forgetfully mentioned to you previously that Chesska also placed second in the second grading period. Meaning, she maintains her rank in the 3rd Grading. Although I haven't paid much attention to her since her younger sister was born, she continued to excel in her academic performance. I adore my husband ( as my substitute) for being patient in teaching Chesska almost every day.  The credit goes to......no other than - my awesome husband!

I actually digressed from the original plan. We have long planned to go in Samal because Chesska's birthday falls on Saturday -  would have been a perfect day -  and her favorite outdoor activity is no other than - swimming all day. However,  I was a little skeptical traveling across the city with a 4-month-old baby,  which is not convenient at all. So we ended up celebrating at home with simple snacks prepared for children and adults as well. In spite of the simpleness, the celebration was still a BLAST!

Before I share photos, let's take a look at Chesska's past birthdays from first to fourth - and spot the difference.

Dora-themed 1st Birthday

2nd Birthday at KFC with Angelina Ballerina theme

Frozen-themed 3rd Birthday

4th Birthday with Sophia theme

Fifth Birthday

Chesska's friends from the neighborhood

Chesska and her ninang

Simple meals prepared for dinner for our relatives

Ronan's relatives

I apologize for not writing very often. I am so busy ever since I gave birth to my second child. But don't worry, I'll try my best to make up this year.

By the way, how's your New Year? Ours was celebrated as normal as regular and quiet days due to firecracker ban here in Davao city. Aside from that, my brother and his family already went back to Bukidnon after their Christmas vacation here so I didn't have a sing-along buddy anymore(hehe).  So we just slept early and when the clock struck 12:00 midnight, I just got up quickly and peeked through the window to see what our neighbors were doing. Some of them were beeping the horn of their cars while some of them were hitting their pans and cans to shoo away bad fortunes.

Now as we kick off 2017, I would like to begin my blog with my random memories during last year. Here we go!

1. January - Chesska's 4th Birthday

This was the simplest birthday celebration ever yet the most memorable one.

2. February - My Birthday

3. March - Nothing Special

Nine days left before Christmas, and we're pretty excited! Seems like it just happened yesterday, didn't it? While you are all catching up with the Christmas sales anywhere, I also would like to catch up this post, which should have been published a couple weeks ago (Sorry I am crazy busy!). This lovely and colorful activity is called Christmas Sensory Bin, which is connected with graphing and sorting Christmas activity.


Here's what we used for this activity.

• 1 kg rice
• food colors (green and red)
• alcohol
• Christmas decors

Here's what you need to do.

Divide the rice equally and put them into separate bins to color. Then wet the rice with alcohol and mix the food color. (Sorry I did not take pictures.) Why alcohol? So the rice will easily dry up. Let the rice dry for 20-30 minutes, and you are ready to go. Put some Christmas decors as desired.

When my child feels bored, sensory play always comes to the rescue. It's great to keep my child busy for hours. Likewise, it helps soothe an anxious and frustrated child. While playing, I named the Christmas decors and asked her to count the number of balls, bells, candy canes, and stars.

She added some animals and buried them into the colored rice. I just let her imagination play.

I hope you'll try this at home. I can assure you it is perfectly enjoyable for your kids. Merry Christmas!

I am glad to present to you our Halloween-themed sensory play of the month, in line with this coming holiday. Since my 3-year old is scared of monsters or "momo" in our dialect, in which I used to scare her every time she misbehaves or disobeys (I must admit it was totally wrong , don't copy that), I came up with this Halloween sensory play to turn his scary thoughts into fun memories. Moreover, sensory play will encourage children to make use of their senses and bring out creativity in them. So I put together all the ideas found online and I incorporated mine too.


Materials needed for the Halloween Sensory Play:

1. large bin
2. black gelatin (2 packs)
3. orange balloons as jack-o-lanterns (3 pieces) idea from teachingmama.org
4. tissue papers cut into rectangular strips
5. DIY bats
6. cotton
7. spiders
8. some scary halloween design (thebestdecor.com)
9. sand

I used black gelatin instead of black beans since the former is less expensive than the latter. The fact that gelatin is edible, it is safe to use with children in case they accidentally swallow it. I also put tissue papers in rectangular strips to add more glow to the sensory bin.



I filled the balloons with sand to stay them in place and tried to draw scary faces but I didn't achieve what I wanted to (I am terrible at drawing...). I also cut out bats and pasted them on the side of the plastic bin.

I also put spider with cotton on it.


My 3-year old was curios of what's inside the balloon. She kept squeezing and shaking it.


She also loved to slice, dig, and bury creepy-crawlies which practices her fine motor skills.




I hope you will find this activity engaging and fun for your preschoolers.
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P.S. Images are edited at picmonkey.com

It's been a week since I gave birth to my second child which made my life and the baby somewhat in peril. It really never came to my mind that my delivery was riskier than my first because in the first place I am no longer newbie as far as pregnancy is concerned. But thank God I survived all throughout the pregnancy period and was able to deliver a healthy and strong baby!
Although my baby would complete its full term (40 weeks) on October 4, 2016, and supposedly my official due date, my doctor had decided to have me undergo repeat CS (my first born was CS because she was in breech position and the second one is automatically or normally CS also ) two weeks earlier than my EDD (expected date of delivery). So we finally set a date for my CS on September 20 and advised me to be admitted one day before the agreed date.

As polite as I am (after all doctor knows best), husband and I went to the Brokenshire hospital late in the afternoon and submitted myself for an interview and several check-ups (weight, temperature, etc). But prior to my admission, I already felt the hardness of my tummy when I was already on the verge of 36 weeks. But I just ignored it and never imagined it would endanger my baby's life.

After the interviews and check-ups, I was ushered to the delivery room for ultrasound using Doppler device to check baby's heart beat for at least 20-30 minutes. While at the half-way of the procedure, they noticed sudden drops of the baby's heartbeat, which made the attending physicians and nurses in the panic state so I was rushed right away to the Operating room for cs. Everyone was hurrying, busy with the assigned task. One was inserting a catheter, while the other one was shaving my private part (no time to be ashamed of). Some were injecting a medicine, getting blood,  putting heart device on my chest and donning sphygmomanometer to check blood pressure. The scariest part was when they asked me to curl up like a shrimp so they could inject anesthesia at the bottom of my backbone. Since then, I slowly felt numbness from my feet all the way to the lower breast. It seems like I was being slaughtered. But the nurses praised me for being so relax and quiet, not knowing that deep inside me I was praying fervently that I could get through this operation.

At exactly 8:45 P.M., I successfully delivered a healthy baby. No amount of words could explain how ecstatic I was the moment I heard her cry. Meaning she was well and alive! Then my husband was called right away to have him see her and take some photos.

Then at around 12:30 in the morning, I was moved from OR to our room for recovery.  While the anesthesia slowly vanished from my body, I slowly felt the pain of surgical incision. I was given antibiotics and medicine to at least relieve the pain. I wanted to cry but it's been said "Big Girls Don't Cry" (hehe), so I had managed to endure the pain. Every 3 hours, the nurse took a round to check my temperature, give medicine, and monitor my pulse as well. Unexpectedly, they saw some irregularities on my heart beats (skip beat as they call ) in which  I had to undergo ECG and blood test.  At the back of my mind, OMG, am I dying? Never in my entire life have I experienced heart problems. I was deeply worried until the cardiologist assured me that everything would be alright. The following day the nurse confirmed that my ECG result and blood test turned negative. I sighed with relief. Thank God!

Sorry I didn't have pictures lying flat on my bed with dextrose and catheter connected. It took me 24 hours to have those stuff removed from my body (see picture below).

I still looked pale and weak, continue fighting with the surgical incision pain.

Happy Granny together with her Apos (grandchildren)