My Storyteller

Sharing a video of the Little Spanish Pinay reading for her dear mami at night.  I seriously died of cuteness overload here.   It's a good thing that I am trying to watch my diet these days (since we are still camped out at my inlaw's house and they seem to see me like some anorexic 16yr-old that they never stop stuffing food in my mouth) because I can really eat her up and swallow her whole!

She sings, alright.

She has enjoyed songs from day one and as she grows, her love for music grows even more.  She learns different songs quite fast and easily and to top this off, she composes her own songs :) I love to watch her hum or sing different songs while she plays or "read" books on her own.  She also cracks me up when she tries to rephrase the lyics of the songs.   Here's a sample how she rephrases songs:

Song: Arañita Pequeñita (to the tune of The Eensy Weensy Spider)

note: I am writing the english lyrics in direct translation of the spanish song and not how the song is sang in english

Original: La arañita pequeñita, lo alto se subio (The eensy weensy spider, so high it went up)

Her version: La arañita pequeñita, alto subio

Original: Pero vino la lluvia, al suelo se cayó (But the rain came, on to the floor it fell)

Her version:  mmmm vino lluvia, y cayó y lloró! (mmmm out came the rain, and it fell and it cried!)

I died of her silliness and cuteness and then I was resurrected and then died all over again!

Lately, she's really getting into singing that she has started belting it out.  I always wanted to take a video of her but she'd get all shy and annoyed and wouldn't let me.  The other day though, while we were camped out at my inlaw's house,  she miraculously didn't mind mami taking her video... I think she was even enjoying the limelight!

I'll end this post sharing with you some of the my-now-treasured-videos (I shall make tons of backups of these!).  Have fun and be prepared for ear-piercing vocal belting.

and here is the one where she's showing her own style playing the guitar :)

Have a nice week ahead!

Wordless Wednesday: If there's something strange, in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?

We got a menacing ghost in swimsuit in our household

And she got very, very upset when mami, the ghostbuster trapped her

She promised a revenge!

Wordless Wednesday: Chica mayor!

 

Wordless Wednesday: It never gets done

After cleaning the living room, I proceeded to the messier kitchen... A few minutes after, I went back to the living room to take a peak on what the Little Spanish Pinay is busy with.... I'm back to zero.

Wordless Wednesday: Swimming like Papi

Look mami! I'm swimming just like how papi does!

Those were her own words (translated in English)

Wordless Wednesday: I'm going to pAAAaaaaaaiiiiIIIIint!

Next phase: Daycare?

So we have decided to send Little Spanish Pinay to daycare.  Not for her to learn how to socialize but because she's such an active, happy, eager to learn toddler.  My idea of homeschooling her for at least her 3rd yr is unfortunately really hard to do.  Honestly? I feel defeated that I simply can't do it all.  I've been trying but, the hard truth is?  I am not a supermom.  But I'm over that.  I've come to accept that there can be other people who can share and help her learn new things, explore, discover and just play around with and enjoy things with. 

So, with a bit of a heavy heart and a growing knot in my stomach, hubby and I started looking around for a good daycare.  We have visited 3 so far and the last one we have visited, has been my favorite. It did seem like it's LSP's favorite too.  She liked the place at once, moved around and played with the toys.  She talked to the director of the daycare with enthusiasm (she is usually shy at the beginning and wouldn't talk), she ran around the center, went up the slide, slid down her own, squeealed and yelled with excitement.

The daycare has a blog as well  where parents can see the activities the kids have been doing.  As I was reading the blog and looking at the picture, my stomach started getting knotty again and my throat, lumpy.  I'm such a wuss.  It's like all of a sudden my baby has become a real full-time grown child - and it feels like this has just happened overnight. I know I've been talking about LSP as a toddler, etc but because technically she's already a toddler ever since she entered 1 - it's just how toddlers are called when they enter one and start toddling.  BUT this time? it's like she's really developed her wings and would start to fly away from her nest and will just come back whenever.  Ok, it's not whenever, whenever coz she's coming back on schedule but you know what I mean.

She won't start till September coz that's the start of the school year here so I still have about 3 months to enjoy more time in a day with her.  I've already asked for a week's vacation on the first week of September so I can also adjust well but it seems like it is going to be a little bit complicated with work.  We'll see.  Maybe heaven will pity me and make my bosses agree on giving me a week vacation leave.  But I am not putting my hopes too high.

I just have too many what-ifs and worries (hello! what's new?).  I'm not really used to having her away from me for more than 2 hours in a day.  Whenever she feels uncomfortable, mami comes to the rescue with a hug, a kiss and the power of boobies.  She has never, ever taken her nap without nursing first.  How is she going to take her nap in the daycare?

I know, she's going to adjust and will enjoy her time with other kids playing and learning with her. 

Maybe she will adjust better than I would. 

Tell me I am over-dramatizing things?

The one where she wants me to be far from her

A couple of weeks ago (or maybe that's 3 weeks ago already), we have celebrated Little Spanish Pinay's second year birthday. It is only now, it sinked to me that my baby is not a baby anymore.  She's in her halfway towards leaving toddlerhood.  Although she's still afflicted with mamtis, she's showing interest on independence more and more. 

Yesterday, when we were in the park, she wanted to go to the slide alone.  While this is not the first time, it's quite different this time though.  She wanted us to be far away from the slide.

The picture above is how far she asked us to stay away from the slide.  She kept pushing us and telling us LSP sola! LSP sola! (LSP on her own! LSP on her own!).  If we ever move one step closer, she'd scream and would run towards us to push us even farther.  She was asking me, her mami whom she has been sooooo clingy with, to step back and just let her be.  I've my mouth agape.

While my heart was thumpity-thumping nervously watching her go up and down the slide, it swells with pride at the same time

Now, we are eyeing for her to join a daycare.  Originally, I wanted her to stay with me till about 3yrs old and just go straight to pre-school.  In a perfect world of mine even, I was imagining her to stay with me at home till about 7yrs then she'll go straight to grade school.  But with my full-time day job, I can't focus on her and spend more time with her. 

She's a child with big appetite for learning and discovering.  She has a huge reserve of energy that needs to be channeled to different activities otherwise it just gets wasted then she gets bored then she gets fuzzy.

I cannot say I am ready for this.  About 4 months ago,  out Little Spanish Pinay felt for the first time how is it to be in a daycare.  She entered the area, without looking back, followed the care giver everywhere she went, went to the explore the toys by herself, observed the different kids in the daycare, etc.  She didn't show any sign of anxiety - just pure curiosity.  She did have a serious face all through out though.  She was very attentive with everything around her.  She seemed to be ready for a real daycare.  But not me.  She's growing and I must too... so we'll see how the search for a daycare will be and how will I adapt to the new schedule.  This will mean I'd have to organize myself in the morning so my work and schedule may fit to the hours that she'll have to be in the daycare. 

We'll see, we'll see.  I hope everything works out well.

We Now Conjugate Verbs!

A little Spanish lesson, here we go:

Saber means to know in english.  In Spanish, verb conjugation is a bit more complicated than English as each subject has a different verb conjugation.  Let's see below:

Yo (I)  se (know)

Tu (You) sabes (know)

El/Ella (He/she/it) sabe (knows)

Nosotros (We) sabemos (know)

Ellos/Ellas (They) saben (know)

Vosotros/Vosotras (You-all) sabeis (know)

See what I mean? That's 6 (Spanish) vs 2 (English).  But wait, the complication doesn't just end there. The ver saber is an irregular verb because it doesn't completely follow the general rule for verb conjugation.  What general rule?  I won't discuss all the rule but only for the verbs that end in -er (e.g. comer) since this is the one that plays important rule in this particular story of ours :)

The verbs(regular) ending in -er are conjugated for each subject by changing the -er part to the following:

Yo como (I eat) - here the -er was taken and exchanged with o. i.e. comer =  comer  = com + o = como

Tu comes (You eat) - here the -er exchanged with -es. i.e. comer = comer = com + es = comes

get the gist? So we move along to the rest of the subjects:

El/Ella come (He/She/It eats) - er changed to e

Nosotros comemos (We eat) - er changed to emos

Ellos/Ellas comen (They) - er changed to en

Vosotros/Vosotras comeis (You-all) - er changed to

I tell you, verb conjugation is my weakness in Spanish.  So what do you do with the irregular verb? Memorize them! So, you just have to remember that saber for the subject  Yo (I) is se and that you should not apply the rule for the verb that ends in -er even if the verb saber ends with -er.  Capiche?

So yesterday, Little Spanish Pinay and I were playing dress up.  She was rummaging through her drawer, picking up things like socks, shirts, dress and telling me if I like each of it and if I say yes, she'd try to put it on me or just throw it up in the air. Yes, the room ended up like a jungle after.

She saw one of her clown socks I made for her past 2nd year birthday celebration and asked me if I like it.  I answered with a resounding YES! but then this time she said she wants to put it on her foot.  She told me to put it on her.  I told her she should put it on herself because she can.  The conversation goes like this:

Mami: Ikaw na magsuot, kaya mo yan.  Ponlo tu, que ya sabes. (Put it on by yourself, you already know how to.)

LSP:  nooooo! mami!

Mami: Sige na anak, kaya mo yan.  Venga, ponlo tu que ya sabes. (Come on, put it on by yourself as you already know how to)

LSP: noooooo! no sabo!

Mami: *blank face* (after a few seconds) *eyes wide, mouth open* (after another couple of seconds) *shrieks with excitement*

Ok, before spanish philologists out there would condemn me, I KNOW that sabo is incorrect. But what actually excites me is the fact that our LSP has just shown that she conjugated a verb deliberately!

She does say No lo se (I don't know it) or simply no se (I don't know) but because surely she has heard someone said it this way.  At this point, we can say that she has learned her verbs by just repeating what other people around her say.  BUT yesterday, she has clearly shown that her mind tried to consciously conjugate the verb based on the pattern that her mind is learning (see the rule above on the verb comer)

Of course I had to correct her because the right verb would be se and not sabo.  But I was nonetheless ecstatic about it.  It's just sooo amazing and sometimes mind-boggling how a mind of a child develops and much more if the development thrives right before your very eyes.

.... the joy of parenthood :)

Wordless Wednesday: What Having a Toddler Means

Poor TV rack...

Behind the Scenes of Terrible Two

I wrote about us officially going through the terrible-two phase about three months ago.  When parents would say Oh, we are on the terrible phase now - the normal reaction is an empathetic with a sorry-feeling "uffff, let's hope she'll go past that soon..."
Terrible two phase has such a negative conotation like it's a hurricane one need to be prepared for.  The tantrums, the fits, the meltdowns are thought to be the protagonists of this phase but I'd say they are actually the antagonists.  These antagonists often overshadow the other milestones and wonderful changes in this phase.  When we normally here the phrase terrible-two, we hiss and grit our teeth and do the empathetic bending of head sideways followed by a non-verbal-poor-parents pout.

It seems that every emotion of a 2-yr old toddler is hightened to a ten-fold level - not only the anger and the frustrations but also the happiness, the excitement, the empathy, the sadness, the admiration, the surprise, the anticipation... every.single.emotion. And that is not exactly an unfortunate thing.

I, for one, have been wishing that this "terrible two" phase would be over soon... I was getting clouded by the frustrations and pressure of her meltdowns and for many parts, failed to see pass this behavior.  All I was seeing was her tantrums and meltdowns especially upon waking up from her naps and I just couldn't understand where are these coming from. I was feeling helpless and finding myself defeated.  I am really thankful that I have a husband who knows when to step in and help me see beyond what is just obvious.

At 2 yrs old (or maybe a little earlier), children are discovering tons of great new abilities, interests and a whole new exciting stimulants around them.  This is what is exactly happening to our Little Spanish Pinay.  She's been learning new abilities and independence that most often than not, she doesn't know where to start and at the same time she feels like she can even do more when she's still limited with some of her physical abilities.  She wants to explore everything and do everything at the same time because y'all? These are all new and in the eyes of a 2-yr old, eager to absorb everything the world can teach her, she.must.try.everything.because.she.can.  So, imagine the frustration and disappointment if met with sudden limitations... can be too much for a 2-yr old to handle.

But on the other side of the coin, where her needs to discover, to explore and to express herself are met, it's a whole new world ala Jasmin and Aladin in their flying carpet.  Even for us parents.  Seeing her squeal and open her mouth in such awe and excitement upon arriving at her favorite park is beyond joy.  Receiving an unexpected hug and brute kiss from her (even if it means she'd step on my foot and head-butt on my nose) is a reward to keep for life.  When she tells different stories on her words with ultra cute and funny expressions, our hearts are filled with laughter filled with admiration.  These moments would then make me wish she'd be in this phase forever or she'd carry over this characteristics on to different phases of her development.

One time, she was eating her sandwich and suddenly she wrapped it around her dress smudging it with tuna and cheese. With my hand on my head, first in my brewing tempter was the dress! the stain! the work needed to remove the stain! As I tell her that this is not right to do, she defensively tried to tell me El tawiks tiene frio! (The sandwich is feeling cold!)  She was definitely playing one of her make-believes games.  She then told me that it's a baby tawiks (sandwish) and therefore it's cold.

I couldn't get mad with this 2-yr old just trying to explore on her imagination (tender andcompassionate if I may add).  The ruined dress? I can just exhale a big sigh.  I told her that the baby sandwich is now fine and prefers to be eaten by her because it will never feel cold inside her tummy.  It took her a few seconds to digest what I just said and told me no and a a lot of thumping and crying.  Yeah, I know another sigh.  I figured she's not hungry anymore so I took the sandwich and told her that the baby sandwich needs her mommy sandwich so we have to bring her to the mommy.  It took a bit while to convince her but in the end, she agreed. I gave her her doll so she can continue to play-mommy.  This hasn´t been the first time this happened and by the looks of it, it wouldn't be the last.  Yesterday, she wrapped a lollipop with her trench coat.... with the same story.

It wouldn't be easy and I am sure that there will be times(many) that I will lose my composure and just see the mess that's been made but knowing and understanding what's behind her different behaviors, it'll help me see passed the tantrums and the meltdowns and the messing around the house.  It's not that she misbehaves rather, she's just a 2-yr old filled with life and emotions and hunger to learn and explore her environments, her abilities and her own limitations. And my role? Participate and help foment his development through discovering, experimenting and playing.

Wordless Wednesday: The Acrobat Show

Circus themed 2nd Birthday Party

Yep, two years... just like that.  My birthing experience is still very fresh in my mind... every second of it, I can still remember in detail but here we are, already on our 2nd year of being parents.  And we survived those two years! With flying colors if I may say ;-)

We had a very simple celebration last Saturday and it had been really fun.  We had a birthday merienda circus-themed party only with close family.  Sadly, 3 of my close friends weren't able to make it because of different personal reasons.  One of my friends had to fly back to her country of origin due to a family emergency.  My heart is bleeding for her but I know God will give her strength and her family will recover from this in His time.

Although partly broken hearted, we went ahead and celebrated Little Spanish Pinay's second birthday as everything was already planned and her godparents were only here for the weekend. 

As I've said, it was a simple celebration anyways.  Everyone had a very nice surprise when they were greeted with the birthday celebrant dressed as a clown.  Their reactions were priceless.  Each died of cuteness overload! We've also died of sugar overload from the sweets prepared by yours truly :-D 

I've tried to do everything on my own but time fought really hard against this poor trying-hard mami. With all the limitations, I just managed to do some party garlands and a poor birthday poster finished in 10 minutes!  If time hadn't been mean to me, I would have done so much more... like pinwheels, stars everywhere, baloons (can you believe we didn't have baloons!?) and flowers, flowers, flowers.  Those will have to wait another year, I guess :)

Let me share some photos of Little Spanish Pinay's special day celebration. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy looking at them over and over again. 

She's getting ready. 

She was her own clown on her own birthday ;-)

Great idea for clown shoes by my friend V. 

We really missed her and her daughter D!

All prepared to greet her guests

I tried to make a birthday poster but alas... in 10 minutes, I whipped this up... poor, poor thing.

It looked so small in the wall where it was hanged.  (See the background of the first picture) 

Can a clown get any cuter than this?

Just a simple effort I did to give some more circus-y party mood

The table full of sweets and some sandwiches

The cake pops!

Far from professional looking but hey, it's my first time to do these

and I am more than happy with the result :-D

The buttery sugar cookies ready to be served

The sandwiches! My hubby's obra maestra ;-)

The fillings are hmmm, hmmm, good!

Hubby and I couldn't get enough of them we even had them for dinner!

The crowd is singing happy birthday in 4 languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Filipino and Engish)

and she was singing along :)

She blew her candle like a 2yr old should! ;-)

Ok, the cake.  It is supposed to be a circus tent... but it looked like Aladin's turban in a bloody state LOL.  I really had fun laughing at my own work after.  But I was really in too much of a hurry and that's all I could do with the limited time and resources I had. 

But with the birthday celebrant this cute?  The cake by her side looked cute just as well ;-) 

Apart from it's unpolished look... the cake was unbelievable moist and oh so chocolatey.

I had a little cake accident and I swear, I almost ruined the entire thing.  I was so lucky I was twittering with Kristeta and she helped me save the cake! Oh the power of cyber friends communication or whatever it is called ;-)

She missed her nap that day but she was still amazingly hyped and gleeful.

Even Roque has a gift for her!  She was really touched by the dog's gesture ;-)

I just had to include this.  They are totally cute! 

On the left is LSP's grandfather and on the right is her godfather she lovingly calls ninong :)

(ninong is godfather in my native language) 

 

The whole troop!

All in all, we all had a blast.  LSP was incredibly still with tons of energy after - even after around 12 midnight!  To think she didn't take her nap in the afternoon.  She must have been super energized with happiness and excitement for the gifts.  As for me? I was really glad that hubby and I were able to pull this off - inspite of little time for planning and preprataion.  The best of all is that LSP really enjoyed her party!

Happy 2nd birthday, our precious little star! Looking forward to many, many, many more birthday parties with you :)  We love you sooooo much!!

p.s.
The Copy-Kids giveaway is still on-going!

Product Review and Give Away: Copy-Kids

Little Spanish Pinay's nanny made an interesting comment before they went out for a walk this morning.  She said: "I can never understand those moms I see in the park." She said this with a strong ridicule in her voice. Surprised, I asked why.  She said: "Those moms that follow their kids everywhere carrying spoon with food and pleading for them to eat.  They tick me off. Can't they just leave their child alone and let them play?"  I kind of hesitated whether to respond something or not but I felt that I should in defense of moms.  I gues it is easy for other people to judge what moms do for their kids but if they only know how to widen their understanding about different situations, then there'll be no room for a bit harsh comments like this.

If I am a mom of a picky-eater or a no-eater, I know for sure I'd do ANYTHING just for my child to eat something except push or force them to eat.  If  following them everywhere she goes in a playground with the food in my hand would make them eat even just a little bit, I'd do it.  If cutting vegetables into interesting shapes would make her eat them, I'd do it.  If singing and dancing in front of her while she eats will make her eat her portion, I'd do it.  ANYTHING.  That is, any trick I can get my hands on.  No forcing as I don't want her to relate eating as a negative experience - that'll just make things all the worse. Eating should always be fun!  I've heard of advices on just letting the kid and have them just come to you when they feel hungry because they would anyways.  While this is true, there are still cases of kids that can even pass hunger by just drinking water or juice.   With a little more effort, we as parents can do certain things to encourage our kids not just to eat but to eat healthy and if there is something I can do, I'll do it. 

Fortunately, I don't really catergorize Little Spanish Pinay as a picky-eater - she does eat a good variety of food.  But I still would love her to learn to eat more varieties of vegetables and fruits. Most especially, I'd like her to learn to eat fresh apples, grapes, oranges, baby carrots (she eats cooked carrots), etc.   No matter how we tried, she never liked apples.  It would also make me a happy mom is she eats a little bit bigger of a portion.  Right now, I do not worry much (like my level of worry is about 6 out of 10 being 10 as the highest) because she still nurses and I know that the breastmilk gives a very good compliment for her current diet.  But the moment she stops nursing though and the amount of food she takes daily would still be like how it is now, I definitely would start to worry more.

One day though, while we are in a play date, my friend's daughter D (4months younger than LSP) started to eat her snack.  She was eating grapes.  I was amazed because she eats it like them alone (peeled and seedless) without fuss.  LSP was never really fond of grapes but when she saw D eating grapes, she started telling me she wants grapes too.  My friend gave her grapes from D's plate.  LSP put one in her mouth, made a face but chewed and swallowed and asked for more!  I was ecstatic (but enbarrassed at the same time because LSP is robbing some snacks from her playmate).  My friend gave some more grapes to LSP and she happily ate more!   I realized that kids seeing other kids eat healthy food is contagious because kids love to copy!  Especially toddlers.   I thought back then that if I can only borrow my friend's daughter every meal time, it would be really great.  But of course, that can't happen.

Until I've discovered Copy-Kids Eat Fruit and Vegetables DVD.  So, all you moms (and dads) out there especially those with picky eaters, read on! It is a compilation of videos of kids eating different fruits and vegetables.  It is a genious idea, really.  When I got a copy, I immediately watched it and was so engrosed with the cute toddlers in each video catergory.  The videos are unscripted.  They're just like normal home-videos of kids taken by parents but with high quality.  It's like that part of Modern Family where each member is interviewed minus the script.  I love the spontaneity and quirkiness of the kids, they literally made me laugh out loud everytime.  Side note:  I definitely love kids and watching the video, made me dream all the more of having my own daycare. 

 Additional bonus is an interview with renowned pediatrician Dr. Jay Goron, MD, FAAP, author of Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow.  He answered each interview question with short but very informative statements.  Nothing boring.  I popped in the DVD, watched it for myself and finished the whole 115 minutes in one sitting! The Outtakes (spoofs) video will also make you laugh and want to pro-create again because of these kids' cuteness LOL.  I did! Made me want to eat those kids in the video. My husband kept asking me what was I laughing about.  I made him keep guessing :-D He couldn't come over to see because he was working haha! (Of course later on I told him what was I laughing about.. I am not super evil).

The following day I tried it on Little Spanish Pinay.  To be honest? I was kind of hesitant about it.  I have a fierce child and when she says she doesn't like something?  There is no way in the world you can convince her to say otherwise.  So ok, we started the "trial" video watching.  I peeled carrots, cut them in small portions (I didn't have baby carrots so I just used the normal ones... next time I promise to buy baby carrots). and put them in a small plastic bowl.  When she saw the kids, her face lit up (she loves kids).  The DVD menu is composed of different fuits and vegetables.  I clicked on carrots. With a super animated voice, I started telling her look how Mattea is eating carrots. She loves to repeat the names of teach kid being shown in the video.  Then I told her, oh wow, LSP has carrots too... look!  She smiled, picked one carrot, the continued watching with an amused smile on her face.

OK, so the result?  She started eating the raw carrots!  Not just once, but she repeated when she was done with the first one.  I was ecstatic.  Later on in the evening, I tried another fruit.  I only have plum in my ref (as well as pear and bananas but she does eat both so I had to try plum without pealing them), so I washed one, and put it in a small bowl.  Plum is not included in the list of fruits in the video but I figured if she sees the kids eating, she'll want to eat too so whatever she'd have in hands might do.  I was right.  She ate the whole thing.  Peel included!

Funny thing is that she not only copied the "eating" but also some cuteness that the kids in the video do.  This Kid Audrey is too darn cute.  In one of the videos, she was covering both of her eyes and then counting silently like as if she's playing hide and seek.  Later at night, when I was putting LSP down to sleep, she started doing what Audrey was doing.  It is amazing how kids copy!
Copy-Kids has given me a sample of their DVD for review but the opinion and review in this article are all mine and very honest and from real experience ;-)

Wait, Copy-Kids has been kind enough to give another copy of their DVD to one of you! Enter to win!!!

Wordless Wednesday: As Big As I am!

Wordless Wednesday: Nursing a Boo Boo

Our Little Sevillana

Little Spanish Pinay is a fusion of different cultures.  Being Spanish, she's half Galician and half Andalucian.  Hubby's mom is from Galicia (where we currently live now - north of Spain) while hubby's dad is from Andalucia which is in the south of Spain.   Andalucia is divided into 8 provinces: Almeria, Cadiz, Cordoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaen, Malaga and Sevilla.  Sevillana is how women from Sevilla are called as well as a typical dance that is similar to Flamenco.

Having said all these, our Little Spanish Pinay seems to have inherited a good amount of Sevillan blood from her abuelo.  Look at her moves below:

Check out up to 05 seconds.  After that, I just ruined her concentration so you can stop the video :-D .  I was so ecstatic about how she danced that I couldn't help but yelled in excitement.  Obviously, she thought mami is crazy and lost her concentration so she started doing something else.  All my pleading for her to dance again were in vain!  I really can't get enough of this vidceo and can just play it all day long. Yeah, call that pride of a doting mami.

She got the modern moves too - which is how she dances most of the times.  Check out her video below:

this always cracks me up everytime I watch this video

Both videos were taken when LSP was just a bit more than 1 yr old.  I was trying to clean up some files on my mobile phone and saw these videos.

Weekend was quiet for us except for me working a little bit on some database maintenance.  LSP was also a little bit sick so we missed the swimmming lesson.  But we all got a nice rest so, yay! :)

How did weekend treat you?

Friday Fun Food: Sneaky Veggie Part 2

Yesterday is another one of those many days where I couldn't think of anything to prepare for hubby's pack lunch for today.  I'd like to share this recipe I did that unexpectedly, was commended by both hubby and the little rascal in the house.

I also took the chance to sneak in carrots in the recipe.  Little Spanish Pinay eats some leafy vegetables but carrots is not one of her faves.  So, for picky eaters, this can be a good trick to get them eat some healthy veggies.

Without further ado, here's my winner recipe for yesterday.  The pictures from below is from a repeat performance I did today for lunch... you know what they say about one good turn deserving another one?

Fresh parsley chopped, garlic chopped and grated carrots.  The carrots is our secondary star ingredient.  It gives nice orangey color to the rice plus it's packed with vitamins and all other goodness like giving you that skin glow because carrots is rich in melanin!

Be careful not to grate your fingers... if your carrot is this small already, stop grating and just eat it, it's good for you! ;-)

Of course we need some rice.  It's our star ingredient.  This is a left over rice.  I sprinkle is with a little water and then mash it a bit with my hands (that's the secret!) so it's kinda loose.  I also added a little bit of iodized salt just to give it a little more taste.

We proceed on heating the olive oil in the pan... I used a little butter together with the olive oil to give it some more yummy taste but the butter can be omitted for the health conscious :)  Then sautee the garlic until you can already smell its goodness or until it starts to brown.

Then sautee the grated carrots and the green peas.  I forgot to mention the grean peas at the beginning but it's actually optional. 

After a few minutes, add the rice and mix until everything is beautifully even.



When you feel like the veggies are almost done, sprinkle the parsely in the most artistic way you can.

Let's see all that goodness up close and personal.  Yum? YUM!

We got some left over fish from last night so I placed it on top of the rice to heat it up.



The rice can be eaten as is or accompanied by your other favorite comfort food.

Try it it's good! :)



The one where she kept denying she did some serious business...

This is sort of a potty update.  I regre to say that I haven't been religious with our potty training.  She started getting used to sitting down on the toilet bowl or on potty but I really don't know well how to teach her to tell us when she needs to go.  What's been going on is that she got used to the routine every morning upon waking up to sit down on the toilet bowl and do her thing.  During the day,  I got used to reading her signs and would sit her on the potty whenever I see her showing these signs.

Lately, she has already learned to tell us when she needs to poo.  Almost always, she does this but not for peeing.  For some reason, she doesn't mind having this kind of accident.  Around 11 months, I let her go around the house without diaper so she'll get more aware of the feeling of peeing then getting wet or getting dirty.  So to this date, she doesn't have problem sitting down on the potty when we tell her to and she has the need to go.  She would also do this on her own from time to time... not most of the time though.

Having reflected on all these, I guess she's not doing so bad... but she can definitely still improve and by golly, I hope soon!

Anyways, funny thing the other day is that she had been soooo active and wouldn't want to take even a few seconds of her precious time playing and discovering to go and sit down on her potty.  One time she told me she need to poo so I sat her down but after a couple of minutes trying to concentrate, she decided she doesn't need this and want to continue playing.  So off she went.

At night, before dinner, she again told me she needs to poo so I sat her again on her potty and patiently "help" her concentrate.  After a good while, she decided again to stand up and play with her toy push cart and scatter her toys around the house instead of doing her needful business.  I don't like forcing anything to anyone so I let her be while I prepare dinner. 

Just before dinner is served, I heard hubby ask the little one if by any chance she pooed and didn't notice. LSP started yelling no-no-no-NO! In a quick defense.  Hubby asked her again if she was sure... or perhaps it was just gases because it sure smell like it.  LSP answered with the same defensive tone no-no-no-NO!

I was laughing on my own hearing hubby and LSP's conversation.

Mother's instinct said there's some monkey business going on so I put down the wooden spoon and went to see LSP and just by a quick look from a far, I already see something protruding her behind.  I chuckled.  I asked her if she want to sit down the potty or the toilet bowl.  As expected, I got a resounding no-no-no-NO! Then I said to come with me so we can clean her up.  She ran for her dear life.  I caught her and naturally, she tried to wiggle away from mami.  It suddenly occurred to me to tell her that if we don't clean her behind, ants will surely go up there and eat the nasty thing between her behind and her leggings. 

I know.  What a thought.  Sometimes a mother can get desperate and think and say things like this.  But this sure caught LSP's attention and kept her quiet with a thoughtful-look in her face and definitely made her cooperate and confess that she DID the serious business.

Why do we call it serious business by the way?  Because...

It's each one's business, y'all and when ya hafta do this, you gotta be serious!

I hope I didn't cause her trauma because of what  I told her about the ants?