Write Mom

My eldest niece, Michael Shaine is now 12 and is already asking me so many questions about the physical changes happening in her body, especially  about dermatology. Well, with hair and pimples growing in unwanted number, who wouldn’t seek for solutions?

Of course I wish I could tell her to visit a Los Angeles Dermatologist for the answers to her questions, but at her age it is more affirming to start with the explanation of the reasons why she is having oily skin, excess hair and acne.

Simply put, it is better to talk to her first about puberty and that it is a normal thing. More importantly, I shouldn’t forget to let her know that despite the changes she’s going through, she’s still as lovable as before and will always be. With proper guidance and education, I think she wouldn’t ask me a more daring question like “Where could I go for hair removal or acne treatment?”

Oh well, at least she’s not asking info about stretch marks removal yet!

More important than the coming Philippine presidential election is the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen from December 7-18, 2009. I deem it much more important because it concerns not just one country, but every country in our planet.

A “Green Thumb Mover” on my own rights and capabilities, I have always considered planting trees a great responsibility that should be taught from one generation to the next.

A few of my articles in my Wordpress blog talked about my simple contributions to Earth Movement.  But I don’t want to stop there.  As such, I am inviting everyone to help in saving our world by being a part and taking a stand on climate change.  It is not enough that we sympathize with those who have the same advocacy.  We must do our part.

Cast your vote and help your grandchildren and great grandchildren find out for themselves how a real tree looks like!

As a parent, I learned that there is nothing more fulfilling than being with and seeing your child grow each day and catching him or her either in…

…AMUSING MOMENTS like these

Arvid Matthew in a bucket

Arvid Matthew a.k.a. the MASKeteer

or in AMAZING FEATS like these

Arvid Matthew sings “Incy Wincy Spider” with action

Arvid Matthew a.k.a. the Builder

Watchatink?

…on letting go.

Being a stay-at-home mom, my son’s used to seeing me all day and all night long.  That makes going away from home without him tagging along with his dad and me a difficult task.  Yet sometimes I’ m having a second thought whether he’s the one having a hard time to let go or it’s me.  Hmmm…

Since my tummy’s getting bigger each day and running after my toddler especially when he is playing isn’t an easy job anymore, my hubby and I thought it would be best to get a nanny.  The idea that there would be someone to help me catch Arvid whenever he wants to jump off the stairs or carry him from the bathroom to the living room after his bath further encouraged us.  And so started the nanny-hunting-experience.

Of course we didn’t think of finding a female counterpart of Inspector Gadget who has every tool and tactic in hand as the need arises. We simply wanted someone who has a healthy mind, body and spirit. Was that too much to ask for?

For some peace of mind, we resorted to a referral process of finding a “yaya” (nanny). If someone we know has personal attachment to the applicant, then perhaps there is a good chance we could get what we wanted. Proximity is another thing we considered. The nearer her residence is, the better. Who wants someone like Nanny McPhee who literally appeared from nowhere and disappeared afterward?

Then came the interview. The nanny applicant came with my cousin’s wife. She’s wearing a brown blouse and a pair of faded blue pants. Wearing a ponytail, she looked groomed enough for an interview. Like an employer to her applicant, I tried to sound as professional as possible during the question-and-answer portion.  I asked the essentials – personal details and job experiences. And here’s what I got:

Age: 18 years old (as a first child, she helped in taking care of her younger siblings)
Sex: Female (looks female to me)
Education: High school graduate (favorite subject – Math)
Job experiences: A nanny to a 5-year old who needs be fed, bathed, looked after for
Good points: Doesn’t use a cellphone during work hours; Can do house chores ;

Willing to be trained; Has an ambition to go to college   

(Sounds good enough for a start, don’t you think?)

THEN CAME THE ON-THE-JOB PROOF OF THE NANNY’S BACKGROUND AND CAPABILITIES:

Age: 18 years old  

(wakes up when woken up;

enjoys playing with my 6-old nephew;

plays with Arvid’s baby toys)

Sex: Female  

(asks for names of pretty teenagers she sees at our church; likes men’s clothes)

Education: High school graduate, favorite subject Math

(day 2:  7 x 6  = 36;  day 3: 7 x 6 = 40?; day 5: 7 x 6 = 43)

 Good points: Doesn’t use a cellphone during work hours; Can do house chores

(work hour lasts for 5-10 minutes; sits down in the living room to send SMS after a work is done)

Willing to be trained

(has to be told what she has to do all the time )

After a few days of observation, there was no doubt we found, not a nanny to my toddler, but a playmate to my six-year-old nephew.  Add this to the nanny’s inability to run after Arvid whenever he’s jumping off the sofa or the stairs and presto, the nanny-hunting failed!

On top of these, we’re sad to let the nanny go as she didn’t want to leave us anymore. I guess she liked living with us (who wouldn’t want to be in her place?) But in life, there are times when we have to let go of someone because he or she is not the one for us. Well, I’m only talking about the nanny!

Wish us good luck for another nanny-hunting job ahead!

Another good reason why couples should plan birth spacing aside from the physical and medical effects of delivery to the mother is the growing cost of  immunization for babies.

(Vaccination cost from 0-24 months = Php 42,660 or approx. $900)

Nonetheless, immunization or vaccination is perhaps the best way to protect your child from dreaded diseases and as such, should be included in a household’s “must-do-list” and budget. To serve as a guide to moms with babies 0-2 years old, here’s a list of vaccines and their dosage taken from “The Kids Clinic” owned by Dr. Rene H. Francisco, my son’s pediatrician:

Aside from following the schedule of your baby’s shots, it is always wise for mothers to keep their babies’ immunization card especially when traveling abroad;  to  consult your pediatrician about any unusual reactions after vaccination; and to have your child vaccinated.

For more information about immunization, please visit Kids’ Health.

Teaching a child to eat greens and fruits may be one of the most difficult tasks for mommies. Well, asking one to take his or her medicine is another thing, but let me focus on veggie munching this time.

If you are a mom-to-be or a new mom with a baby below 6 months old, I’d say you’ll likely succeed in raising a veggie-eater because you still have a chance to choose the foods that you’d introduce to your baby. This is so because 6-months is the start of the weaning stage or is the period when solid foods could be introduced to a baby. At this point in time, your baby still has to drink milk though. To train his buds, it is best that you feed him pureed cooked vegetables and fruits instead of processed ones which are usually sweet and don’t provide a variety of tastes that are necessary for your child’s eating training.

For a start, you may get the sayote, potato, squash or carrot from the main dish you cooked for the family and mashed a spoonful of it in the dish’s soup, if there is any.  Feed him or her with the mashed mixture in very small amounts as the process of eating solids is a new experience for your baby.  It would also be a good thing to remember to always make your precious one’s eating experience a happy one so that he would always wait for the next feeding and eat whatever it is you prepared for him.

Meanwhile, if your child has already passed through the weaning stages without any taste of vegetables, your task is more difficult as his taste buds have already developed specific likings.  Still, don’t lose hope.  All you need is to use your creativity and a few tactics to get him running after greens and fruits.  One thing you can do is to include vegetables in your child’s favorite dishes in small or unnoticeable amount until he has developed a liking for its taste.  Another thing is to prepare veggies and fruits in appealing settings and invite your child’s friends to your house for some sort of party.  This way, your child would see other kids eating what you prepared and would somehow realize that it is okay to eat carrots, beans, melons, apples, bananas and the like.

On top of these, it is a must that parents eat what they want their children to eat because action speaks louder than words.

The devastating effects of typhoons Ondoy (a.k.a. Ketsana internationally) and Pepeng, specifically the raging floods it brought to many cities in Manila as well as in Rizal, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Baguio City drastically and dramatically shifted many Filipino parents’ attention to calamity readiness.

As experienced, the Philippine government was caught helpless and the people could not rely much on its government to save them as the whole country relied mainly on the Chinook helicopters and rubber boats that the US government lent.  Without foreign help, many more must have lost their lives as tens and thousands of Filipinos tragically waited for help on their rooftops.  Still, many waited for their death as they were swept.  With the given scenarios survival in such a calamity has become a family obligation.

For the affluent few, this reality must have pushed a move to relocate and shop for a new house or condominium, a car, a speedboat, clothes, appliances and the like.  Those who don’t know how to swim must have been convinced to take swimming lessons in a blink.  Everything’s possible because they can afford to prepare for a most likely repetition.

Meanwhile, for the ordinary families, the tragedy must have instilled a sense of preparedness but relocation nor shopping are not their best options.  Instead, they must be back to their houses to clean the mess and if there’s shopping to be done, it would be for the most necessary things only.

Going down the ladder, those who barely make ends meet must have been more traumatized than anyone else.  What makes that worse is the fact that all they could do is remain in evacuation centers and wait for help until supplies last.  The worst scenario would be to see them going back to their places to rebuild their houses beside riverbanks and underneath bridges because they really have nowhere else to go.

Whatever conditions the distraught families face after the the calamities, which turned out to be tragedies, there is only one reality that prevails — calamity readiness means going back to the simple life thirty-something rural-born citizens like me had in the countryside.  It is high time for parents like me to bring the past back and teach the younger generation to plant trees, use energy wisely and save the planet in the process.

I didn’t really think that food craving is part of conception until I experienced it the other day. All of a sudden I just wanted to eat roasted duck badly!  And it’s not any other duck but Cathay Pacific’s roasted duck with noodles.

Of course I knew I couldn’t eat what I wanted.  What made the situation worse was that there isn’t any restaurant in my town that offers at least any duck meals.  Nah…I guess food craving’s not a good idea in times like this!

A good friend of mine told me that at 4 years old, her daughter stopped talking. She said she used to say “Mama” already when she was two.  However, things changed a couple of years after when she started disregarding anything other people ask her to do.

Having taken some units in speech development, I advised Nica (not her real name) to recall the medical history of Helena (not her real name, too)  including any untoward incidents that might have happened as these may have caused the problem.  She only remembered that her child had two attacks of German measles and it was after the second attack that she stopped talking completely.  That’s when my friend was convinced she ought to seek some help.

With some information I got from Smart Parenting, a magazine for moms and moms-to-be with kids from Omonth to 6years, I was able to refer Nica to a speech pathologist featured in one of the articles.  Those who need help in a similar matter may try An Abregana, a speech and language pathologist at The Medical City.

Meanwhile, the following information taken from Integrating Reading and the Other Language Arts, Carole Stice et. al, pages 65-67, would definitely be a good guide for parents regarding their child’s speech development.

TABLE 3.1

Development of Speech Sounds

The table shows the general stages of speech development among babies from 0 to 14 months.   You’d see here that even a baby’s cry is considered a language.  This only proves that at a stage when the child cannot speak yet, he already has an idea of communication and uses “crying” as a way to transmit what he wants.  It is therefore a must that a mother becomes sensitive of the non-verbal ways her baby communicates with her and the environment she lives in.

TABLE 3.2

Growth in Words per Utterance

Table 3.2 shows the number of words a child may be able to speak at one time.  From 12-16 months for example, children may say 1 to 2 words, which according to linguists may actually represent an entire thought unit.  My son, for example would call his dad “De” and at the same time point to something he wants.  In that instance, his “De” means “Dad, please get that toy or thing for me.”  At other times, he’d say “De” and point to his shorts or pants.  By that he means “Dad, please help me I need to use the bathroom.”

On top of these, it is quite important for parents to bear in mind that children, even from infancy already understand the language pr languages used by their caregivers and those which they are exposed to in the community.  From these languages and conversations they get their notion of the people and the community they live in.  As such, it is a must that parents provide their children the appropriate environment that would enhance their speech or communication growth because language acquisition is parallel to learning in general.