The Dreaded Bar Exams

At 12mn tonight, it will be August 1. One month to go before the dreaded bar exams. I better stop blogging and return to reading. Signing off for now.

The Toothbrushing Struggle

It's been so hard to brush CJ's teeth. He never liked brushing. And it's not wise to force him lest he despise toothbrushing forever.

We brought him to a Pedia Dentist once, Dr. Aida Salcedo at the Philippine Children's Medical Center. She was very nice and very knowledgeable. I think she is one of the pioneer pedia dentists in the Philippines (well, at least I think she is -- she trains the new pedia dentists and she's quite "experienced" already - ok, she's a little old. There, I said it.) I asked her a gamut of questions and she answered them all (though at one point she said, I have other patients, I don't have all the time in the world - hehe). She really knows her stuff. I just love it when I ask doctors so many things and they can answer my questions. It makes me feel that my family is in good hands. Anyway, she said that CJ has some teeth that need to be "fixed", and to do that, she needs to anesthesize the baby (an anesthesiologist has to do it) and the operation will be done in the hospital. I found it too drastic an option considering that we are talking about milk teeth here, they are bound to fall off in a few years. A n@wie (member of my yahoogroup, newlywedsatwork) asked for advice re:this operation, and someone even told of a case where the child became a special child because of a botched operation. Well, I wasn't willing to risk that so we brought CJ to hubby's dentist and she cleaned his teeth and said she would put pasta on his teeth on our next visit. Well, on our next visit CJwas cranky so it didn't push through. Maybe next time.

In n@w, some members suggested different ways of encouraging kids to brush. The most effective and doable I think is when the mommy sings while brushing her baby's teeth. Another one is the baby will brush the mommy's teeth while the mommy brushes the baby's teeth. I was thinking about how to implement this but I haven't started yet. So imagine my surprise when yesterday, I saw CJ brushing his teeth, alone, just like that. Siguro ngayon lang talaga siya ready. Praise God at nagtu-toothbrush na siya.

Kotong Area

I attended the Philippine Real Estate Festival 2007 last Sunday at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. While I was driving my way through Buendia in Makati, I saw a Nissan Murano making an illegal left turn from Pasong Tamo to Buendia, disregarding the oncoming traffic from the opposite lane. He was flagged down by some traffic enforcers. I said to myself he deserved it. However, I was suddenly struck with fear when I realized I will be going through an area where I have been victimized by kotong cops who flag people down with no apparent reason, except maybe to get some grease money.

My wife has been victimized once and I have been victimized twice in the vicinity of Roxas Boulevard and I was thinking about this while crossing Roxas boulevard and Macapagal Avenue, being careful and wary of the traffic enforcers. With a sigh of relief, I was able to reach the parking aree of the WTC. Once I accomplished my tasks, which was to get foreclosed real estate listings from participating banks, I happily got on my car and exited on Buendia. After crossing Roxas Boulevard, I said to myself I was home free... I was wrong. Near the intersection of Taft Avenue and Buendia, the bus in front of me suddenly made a left turn. I stayed on my lane and crossed Taft Avenue. Lo and behold, this brown clad traffic enforcer is flagging me down. I stopped and rolled down my window and asked what the problem was. He said I was swerving. What the f*$k I was telling to myself. I respectfully told him that the bus in front of me was the one who suddenly turned to the left. He then mumbles that I was not on the right lane and I was speeding and reckless. Speeding and reckless at 20kph?!?! He then asks for my driver's license which I give hesitantly. He then says he will have to temporarily confiscate my drivers license. Now this is getting absurd. He the says without hesitation "Is there anything you want to do so I won't have to take your license?". Now i get it, he's asking for money in exchange for letting me go. When I was taking out a 20peso bill, he showed me his list of traffic violations and pointed to an entry which states swerving has a 500 peso penalty. I was thinking of the inconvenience if I contested this and had to retrieve my license from the LTO so I just flashed a 100peso bill. The traffic enforcer got the money and said I should be very careful with my driving next time.

Oh well, at least I spent no more than 10 minutes and 100 pesos in exchange for spending a whole day lining up at the LTO office to get my license back and pay the 500peso penalty. Some might say I am contributing to the corrupt practises of these traffic enforcers but If you experience going to the LTO, you'll also swear that you'll never go back there ever again. I guess the only word of advice I can give to fellow motorists is to avoid that area altogether, there's just too many corrupt traffic enforcers and they will flag you down sooner or later.

CJ the Bookworm

I just had to make a blog about CJ’s feats these past few days. Halos ma-memorize na nya ang “The Foot Book” and “Hop on Pop”, both by Dr. Seuss. And to think we just bought those books in July! I am so glad I got the idea of buying books from Booksale from Mommy Trina of homeschoolphilippines.blogspot.com. I don’t know her personally, but I came across her blog when I was researching about homeschooling. She wrote about the books that she bought for her son Nitoy. I tried buying some books too ( I got some tips from my friends Farrah and May that I should buy Dr. Seuss books). And now CJ is hooked! He is only 2.5 years old but he loves books! Of course he doesn’t know how to read yet (though we are thinking if we can read somehow because it’s quite difficult to memorize sounds and connect them with the pictures. It’s amazing how he knows the right words that are written on the pages when he flips the pages and “reads” them. Hmm.) but he always wants me to read to him. I read somewhere that when reading to a child, be as animated as you can be, and I do my best to read “with feelings” so to speak. Reading aloud is good for me too because it forces me to brush up on my English. I don’t usually speak English (I usually only speak straight English when I’m angry hehe) but with this exercise, I’m hitting so many birds with one stone. I’m teaching CJ to love books, how to read, and how to pronounce, I’m brushing up on my English, and of course my son and I are getting closer as reading is one of our bonding moments.

I don’t remember reading many books when I was a child, though I do remember that we had a few board books. As we (my brother and I) grew older, our parents bought us those nature and science books, but not the simple story books. Would you believe I wasn’t able to read any Dr. Seuss book? Well, I guess there are also many others who haven’t read his books but I’m glad that I am able to read them, albeit only now.

My next idea is to bring CJ to a nice bookstore, like Powerbooks or a different bookstore. Once when we were in Mall of Asia, I went into a bookstore where a mother was reading to her child in one corner. The child was so young, probably only 2-3 years old and she knew what the story was all about already. What a cool idea. You can read all the books that you want, and for free! Naka-aircon pa. Probably the family can do this by end of September.

Kindermusik with Teacher Jeannie

We first attended a Kindermusik trial class on June 22, 2007. It was Teacher Gimbey’s practice class, and we were privileged to attend for free because Teacher Gimbey is the friend of my good friend Eugene Teves. We liked the idea of a music class for CJ. We were looking for a class to improve his socialization skills. Nothing academic or structured. We had never enrolled CJ in any class at that time. We were careful not to send him to just any school because he might be traumatized and not like learning at all.

Anyway, during the practice class, it was Teacher Jeannie who really made the effort to make CJ comfortable with the surroundings and helped him participate in the class. The class was actually for 3-5 year olds, and we thought we would just be observing, but Teacher Jeannie was nice enough to let CJ participate. She was really nice and CJ liked her very much. So we enrolled CJ for the first semester class which started last June 30, 2007.
CJ likes his classes very much. He likes their play area. He likes the Pete and PJ book that’s part of the take-home kit. He loves, loves, loves the Home CDs too, so much so that we play them so many times during the day. I think the CDs now have so many scratches from being played too much. The CD player has also given up now. Daddy says it’s probably because the CD head(?) is dirty. We’ll probably be able to clean it by tomorrow when Daddy brings a cleaning kit.
I’d have to give some credit to Teacher Jeannie and Kindermusik for CJ’s improvement in his speaking, singing, and dancing skills. He is so musically inclined. And he loves to sing and dance. We are so proud of him.