You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February, 2008.
(Business )
Yesterday, we had the blessing of our office, Guru Ads & Marketing Consultancy. It was a very momentous event for us especially if we look back to where we were 3 months ago. Putting up a business requires a lot of courage. It’s like walking in the dark trusting that the next step will reveal what’s beyond without danger. You never know what is going to happen next. When we started this venture, we only had P5,000.00 in Bruce’s pocket. He gathered people together to take care of the different aspects of the business. Like all births, this was not exempt from the usual pain. There were issues and concerns that eventually led to a whole new venture. Meetings were held in the salas of our homes. If we were lucky, there would be some food to munch on during those brainstorming sessions. Nonetheless, we each pitched in our own efforts to get the ball rolling. Our baby first regional show to air on Studio 23, Top Pick. Much of the success can be owed to the brilliant production team who was led by the creative spirit of Remton Zuasola. Always playing the devil’s advocate and the driving force was the big man himself, Bruce Cortes Bollozos. I was initially just tasked to be the face of Guru but as fate would have it, I ended up being the scriptwriter. Nowadays, we find ourselves having meetings in affluent places. We are very thankful for the support of our many sponsors: Ruiz Derma Spa, Hola Espana, What a Girl Wants and What A Girl Wants for Her Man, d’Che Spa Salon, Pino, Thirsty Fruit Shakes, loft restaurant lounge, Millenium Horizon, Citigym, MEMO, Hilton Resort, Club Ultima, mynimo, Sugbahan, Prana MediSpa, Jonas Borces, Desires Studio, Adventure Flight, Montebello Villa Hotel. Special thanks to those who also showed support in their very own special way: Manny Osmeña, Bobby Gothong, Terrence Bayani of Q Stick, Engr. Malee Bigornia of College Technical Sciences – Cebu (CTS-C), Dr. Mila Espina of University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R)… I think I’m missing a lot more …. We don’t want to count our eggs before they hatch but nonetheless, we’d like to thank the viewing public for believing that Cebuanos an do it!!! 
) Thanks for easing the birthing pains.
It’s HAPPY HEART’S DAY once again!!! As if it’s not difficult enough to look for the ‘right’ place to eat, being mom and dad, you now have to consider the budget, and sometimes, the family-friendly atmosphere or the ‘perfect’ valentine date. Here are some few suggestions of where one can go on a budget-friendly valentine’s date aroung the Sugbu with or without the whole family in tow:
Mountain View Family Park. While you and your honey cuddle in the cool mountain breeze, your kids can enjoy the view or go to the petting ‘zoo’ and enjoy nature up-close. There are so many things you can do at the park! Fly high on the swings, go ‘nature-trekking’, feed the animals, enjoy the view, tell stories. If you have time on your side, take a lodge and stay overnight with the kids (or not! >:->). For those who prefer being wild, you can always pitch a tent for a night of adventure you will never forget! Plus, you always have the option to order food there or bring in your own selection of favorites.
IT Park. Take your pick! Japanese at Chibori? Pizza at Da Vinci’s? Fastfood at Chowabanga? Fusion at Ila Puti(i’m craving the stroganoff right now!!!)? Let’s enumerate what else there is: Abuhan Tres, Roma Mia, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Starbucks, Rai-Rai Ken, Jollibee, Body & Sole, Premium Concepts, To Go, Bo’s, Breakfast Club, Alibyo, plus a food court on the 2nd floor of i2 for those who are on a tighter budget. Over at the Skyrise there is Loft, Patio Ecila, Ziboro (?), El Loco, Tsinoy, Mocha Blends, Brown Cup, Cheesecake, KUL Kitchen (a personal favorite), Crunchicken… hmmm… I hope I didn’t miss anything. If you’re in i2 or i1, you can always ‘distract’ the kids to go fish feeding while you and your honey spend some alone time.
Mooon Cafe. Budget friendly and family friendly too! I love their garlic chili mushroom and their pizza. There food is great plus the place is really cool too. I heard they also have live music now so it’s really a happening place, if you know what I mean.
Handuraw. The Cebuana Pizza is to die for!!! The price is really friendly too! Why do I like it? Well, for the older kids who love PC games, they have their ‘internet cafe’ right inside the restaurant. Cool ha? While junior is away, mom and day can play. Lol!
Fastfood!!! McDo or Jollibee? Don’t matter. If they have a play area, you and your sweetie will surely be able to sneak in some premium time. Don’t take my word for the cleanliness though. I’m sure they try to clean it as thoroughly as they can but geez…. kids and germs… well, they almost always go hand in hand.
Around Cebu, there are so many choices. Cebuanos have always been known for being thrift and being wise-spenders so you won’t need to go far and wide to enjoy each other. Besides, if you’re true blue Cebuano, you will eat anywhere!!! Lol!!! Basta lami, limpyo, ug barato! )
Well, if there is one thing we can’t ever predict, it’s the weather. So, until PAGASA gives us Pagasa on sunny days ahead, let’s stay home lest the kids catch colds.
Here are some things we can do to bond with our kiddies while waiting for the rain to stop:
#1 Cuddle Up With A Book
Literallt bond under the sheets with your child’s favorite story. Not only will you teach him to love books but it will instill a lifelong love for learning. My childhood memories are filled with my mom reading us stories again and again and again ’til we fell asleep. I remember the day I got my library card. I showed it off to her like a badge of honor.
#2 Watch Your Favorite Show
No, it’s not a typo. Yes, YOUR favorite show! But I meant your favorite show when you were his age. Sometimes our kids have a difficult time believing that we were kids once too. Let him see that child in you so it’s easier to believe 
. While watching, you can cook up your comfort food so it really feels like a trip back in time.
. While watching, you can cook up your comfort food so it really feels like a trip back in time. #3 Play In The Rain
Let go of all that stress and be a kid with your little one as you play in the rain. You’ll be surprised how freeing it feels. Just make sure you don’t stay out too long in the rain and that you do shower right after the rainy game. Rainwater isn’t very pure nowadays so you absolutely need to get in the shower after.
#4 Have A Party
ANY party! You can have anything as mundane as a costume party, a nursery rhymes party, an egg party, a shake party… ANYTHING!!! The important thing is for you and your kids to have fun.
#5 Document A Day In Your Child’s Life
Growing up too fast? Well, immortalize his naughty streak or her inate fashion sense with short films. These will be treasured by your child forever. You don’t have to be an expert film maker. Rough is sometimes beautiful. Be candid. Steal all those beautiful moments.
There are just so many things you can do. All it takes is creativity and of course a lot of patience. You don’t need millions to spend quality time with your kids. Happy bonding to all you ‘rents out there )
)It’s colds season once more. Both my babies are stuck home sick with the bug. It’s so sad. I was surfing through the net and found this article. It’s helping some ) Hope it helps you too!!! American Academy of Pediatrics and FDA agreed that there is not enough scientific evidence regarding safety and efficacy of cold and cough medications in children. Therefore, most of the over-the counter products were taken off your super market’s shelf. You might wander about what else is out there to treat cold symptoms of your child.
) Hope it helps you too!!! American Academy of Pediatrics and FDA agreed that there is not enough scientific evidence regarding safety and efficacy of cold and cough medications in children. Therefore, most of the over-the counter products were taken off your super market’s shelf. You might wander about what else is out there to treat cold symptoms of your child.
What to expect when your child has a cold
Statistically speaking, cold symptoms are the worse on days 3 and 4. After day 5, you should expect to see some improvement daily. It is not unusual to have a fever even with a plain cold. However, fever should resolve after 3 days.
Cold Treatment in Infants
Water down her formula to help decrease mucus. You can elevate her head of bed to help with breathing when the infant has nasal congestion. Small children should not use pillows. However, you may slide something under the mattress (i.e. pillow, rolled up blanket, or a telephone book) to keep her head elevated at night. A vaporizer by the bedside and saline nasal spray will help to battle nasal congestion. Saline solution is a salty water, thus it is very safe to use as many times as your infant’s nose needs it. Children younger than 3 months should be evaluated for fevers by your health care provider as soon as possible.
Cold Treatment in Older Children
Clear fluids are crucial, especially when the child runs a fever. Chicken soup daily will help with nasal congestion, will break up mucus in the respiratory system, and will decrease mucus production.
Children over 12 moths of age can be given honey for coughs, 1 teaspoon three times a day or at bedtime if cough control is desired at night time only. Research shows that honey has better cough suppressing qualities than dextromethorphan found in most over-the-couter cough suppressants. Extra pillow, vaporizer and saline nasal spray will work as well! For aches and pains or fever you can use Tylenol as needed.
If your efforts to make the cold better fail, your child gets worse, or you are concerned, talk to your health care provider right away!
|
Dr. Hillary is a pediatric nurse practitioner with a doctoral degree in health promotion and risk reduction. She works as a pediatric clinician and writes for Plugged in Parents. Plugged In Parents provides up-to-date info on pediatric health, safety and nutrition along with movie reviews, recipes, tech-savvy tips, and a parent’s only forum. You can also contact Dr. Hillary for personal questions related to health and nutrition. Please visit http://www.pluggedinparents.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barbara_Hillary,_PhD
|
I grew up with 6 siblings, the 2nd from the eldest. I didn’t think there was ever a problem as to who was more favored or not. But now, with 2 children of my own, it is bit difficult for me not to feel guilty about the attention I give my kids.
When people ask me, there is never a day when I have the same answer. Sometimes I say both are on equal footing, sometimes I favor my princess, sometimes, my son. But is it true? Last night, as I was about to sleep, I lay in bed typing away another script that was due last week. Matt was still awake while Martina was fast asleep already. I couldn’t shake off the guilt. I’ve been spending too much time making ends me that everytime I would be home, Martina would be fast asleep already. I hardly get to spend time with her.
When I had Matt, I would make sure that everytime I get home, I spend time with him either reading a book, playing, or just cuddling and holding. But with my little girl, when I get home, I’m usually to tired. I immediately favor a nap and when I get up and energized enough, I wake up to find her asleep. I feel so guilty. Does it mean I favor Matt more? I always made an extra effort to be a hands-on Mom with him but this time, I have too many excuses. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Always tomorrow. Never today. She’s already 14 months and a half. I haven’t done anything about it yet. Sigh.
I like cutting my son’s locks. Every after I cut it, I feel better. It seems that it serves like a bonding activity for both of us. It’s been more than a 2 months since I last cut it but I didn’t have the time and energy ’til early this morning. I had been tempted to take him to the barber but my cute 4 year old insisted I cut his locks instead. Unconditional trust in mommy, I suppose. If he had known barbers need to be skilled he probably would have welcomed the idea of sitting on the barber’s chair even if the long lines meant waiting for hours. Anyhoo, I got my trusty pair of scissors and had a go… ) I was too scared to cut the hair on the back of his head part so he ended up with a mohawk…. lol…
I guess the bucks that I save are just icing on the cake… the talks we have (about Thomas and Friends, Lightning McQueen and Mater, etc.) are far more important to him than the funny looking ‘do right after. I love my son )
On certain special occasions, much time is spent in the kitchen preparing food to make the occasion more festive. Our family has always been in the food business but even if things aren’t looking up right now, someone still finds time to cook a family guarded recipe every once in a while. Having kids around always prove to be a challenge.
The ensaymada recipe we have is a pride and joy that we show off to the community at least once a year. Although most of my family members are busy, most of us find time to take part every when someone whips up a batch of these famously fluffy and chessy pastry.
Cooking the ensaymada is not for the faint hearted. It requires a lot of ‘throwing and banging’ or ‘masa’. It is a skill that takes years to master. The generation’s favorite Aunt, TJ, has mastered the art and we always look forward to watching her do the difficult part of baking. While we wait, the kids get restless so we have to distract them. Most of the time, toys don’t work as they want to get their hands dirty too. The last time this happened, the kitchen was in a mess. Flour was all over the flour and the different types of sugar all found themselves in one container… so the next time my little boy got restless, we topped him off with the chef’s hat.
Although he didn’t do the difficult parts of baking, he felt proud and happy and very very important while touching his own piece of dough. No mess, just happy faces. At least on the next special occasion, we all know that baking will be less difficult with the little ones lending a extra hand.
At a year and eight months (1y8mos), my son stopped wearing diapers, and peed only once on the mattress while asleep. Potty training.
While most parents associate Potty Training with tantrums and coaxing, my experience was short of effortless. True, it was a long shot but it proved itself effective. Sleep wise, lots of investment but economically very very wise.
For all you mothers out there who might want to try what I did, here’s what I did:
When my baby turned 6 months (strong enough to hold his head up) every morning, the first thing I did when he’d wake up was introduce him to his potty. I took off his diapers, held his legs apart in a seating position and let him face the potty. I did this even when we were both groggy from sleep ) . To help him out some more, I made the peeing sound (in our tongue it goes wiswiswiswiswis – something like that. Lol). It was actually successful on the first try. Yeah!!!
Of course there were days when he wouldn’t pee. But when he was about a year old, we stopped wearing diapers during the day and put the potty in the living room so he could run to it and pee when he wanted. We still kept wearing diapers at night though. When people ask how I potty trained my son, I would proudly say he potty trained himself.
When he was about a year and six months (1y6mos) old, he hated wearing diapers already and would refuse to wear them at night. It also seemed like a waste of money too since even he did wear diapers, he would rarely pee in them. So two months after, with still lots of diapers in supply, we stopped letting him wear them to sleep.
In the first week he didn’t wear diapers, he peed on the bed twice and we were worry free from then on. There are still instances when he pees on the mattress but we’ve discovered that he only does so when he had too much activity during the day so we often predict an unexplainable tantrum where my husband and I take turns in carrying him to the bathroom to force him to pee. Lo and behold, he pees buckets and the tantrum goes away as fast as it came.
If anyone tries this, tell me what happens ) I’m on my second child and she just turned one. I’ll keep you guys posted!
Recent Comments