the toddler and the machine

Day in, day out, Ari pesters me with requests to play computer games. And while I remain impressed at how easily he has learned to navigate the computer, I get increasingly worried at how addicting the computer can be to my 4-year old.

Computers have become such a necessity nowadays even I find it hard to get by without accessing the internet at least once in a day. Working as an independent consultant, my netbook is practically my office–data storage, processing and presentation all happen here. I normally work from home and it should not come as a surprise that my kids are as interested in tinkering with the computer as they often see me do.

The computer is a fantastic learning tool. My kids plays number and alphabet games, puzzle and matching games using the computer. Imagine the cost of having to buy a new puzzle each week as Ari gets tired of the puzzles he’s already mastered putting together, or a new set of flash cards every so often because Uri’s already memorized all the pictures on them.

our little rockstar

There’s no denying Ari’s interest in music. We’ve noticed it since he was a baby and did our best to nurture his love for music as best we could. We exposed him to various artists and genres, mostly those Turo and I both liked to listen to, but we’d realize he has musical preferences of his own. From orchestra music to Coldplay to The Dawn to Lady Gaga. Ari has one diverse playlist, which up to now still has me wondering what really is his type of music.

A recent development in his musical journey is getting him into music school. I’ve been inquiring on music classes for toddlers but most child education institutions only offer music and movement classes, something I’m not interested to waste money on because we always do these things at home. I’m looking for a more “serious” music class that can develop Ari’s highly sensitive ear for music and maybe even get him to learn basic musical concepts. UP Conservatory of Music, Yamaha and Ryan Cayabyab School of Music were among those I considered. Sadly, they didn’t offer classes for toddlers.

Luckily, I came across the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra School of Music through a news article. It’s a fairly new institution, not much of a track record in terms of their graduates, but have professional musicians and Conservatory of Music graduates as teachers. They’re starting their toddler music classes for the first time next week and Ari’s going to be one of their first students!

time for some pet lovin’

We had long been contemplating on getting a pet for the kids seeing how happily they run after street pups and stray cats and how often they visit our neighbor’s dog cage each day. We’ve almost decided on getting a pot bellied piglet from a friend of my brother but the piglets were sold before we could get one. I guess we have to wait until the next birthing season.

diaper duty

It’s difficult to accept how we have become enslaved by products that do much harm under the guise of convenience. Life seems too hard and we rationalize patronage of such products as a means to cope. Disposable diapers are probably at the top of our “convenient but harmful” list. But after the flood reminded me of how environmentally unfriendly diapers can be, I vowed to get these evil goods out of our lives.

This vow was followed by a frantic search for washable diapers. Don’t get me wrong. I am an advocate of cloth diapers. My children have been fully cloth diapered since the day they came home from the hospital.  But only during daytime. There was a time that I tried using cloth diapers on Uri even at night but Turo was annoyed because Uri would have his clothes and crib sheets soaking wet while he slept. At that time, I thought there was no alternative but to use disposables at night. And since we had two toddlers, imagine how much disposable diapers we consumed in a month, in a year, and in the past two and a half years. I don’t even want to do the math.

I knew I previously saw a washable diaper featured on TV but didn’t give it much thought until now. Luckily, I read about Tushywushy diapers in a parenting forum. I also saw other similar products mostly from other countries and another type that is made locally. I did some background investigation and finally decided to give Tushywushy a try.

things to do with bamboo

Bamboos are the fastest growing woody plants in the world. But no matter how tall they get, they’re still grass.

Have you ever wondered what the many uses of bamboo are?

li’l barista makes iced citrus mint tea

The mint leaves I harvested last time are now completely dried. The babies are out of juice (although they’ve been having a lot of fruits lately) so I decided to try making homemade iced tea using the dried mint leaves.  I was lucky to have a very eager kitchen assistant to help me out. I’m not quite sure whether his eagerness was for helping me out or for gulping down the soon-to-be iced tea.

are we just lucky?

I did not go to work today. I was supposed to, but decided not to after I checked my mail in the morning and realized there was nothing urgent that requires my coming to the office. Instead, Turo & I spent the day at the mall with the babies. Well not really the entire day but just a couple of hours, enough for us to do our grocery, have lunch and buy some stuff. The babies needed a new bag because their old bags were now too small and are almost torn to pieces from over use.

ari’s corner

We’re trying to keep the kids from the TV habit, especially Ari who now knows how to turn the TV on. So we decided to set up an activity corner for him away from the evil TV. The idea is to have a special area where he can do his coloring, browsing picture books, pretend cooking & waitering, and storytelling with nanay.