Blessed with Isabella

I would like to dedicate this post as a shouts-out to my eldest daughter, Isabella who is the most responsible, understanding ATE in the world.

Our most recent household help unexpectedly left us AGAIN! Well, we're no longer surprised that our household help never came back after her 2-week-long holiday vacation because that's how it is with our helps. It's like most relationships built on nothing - You suddenly realize that it's over and you keep asking yourself if there's anything about you, or anything you did wrong, but at the end of it all, they're just not that into you (errr, your household.). Moooving on...

So we're living away from our parents where it's near Isabella's school and without a help, we cannot depend on anyone else to stay in our house to care for our kids while we're working. It so happened that we just recently moved to a new workplace where we do not have the liberty of choosing schedules. Because of this, there would be at least an hour when the 2 girls would have to be left at home without an adult! Risky, I know, but there was nothing else we could do, so we talked to Isabella about our yaya-less routine plan and she was cool with it. In fact, when I woke up without an alarm and it was time for me to leave, I have heard Isabella rolling on her bed which indicates she was awake. She had expected her time of responsibility and all I had to do was whisper in her hear and she stood up, took her pillows and layed beside her sister! She even had the consciousness to take instructions like where the milk was and all that!

God is really true in His words. Some day, I know that He will give us the perfect setup where we won't have to choose between our means of living and our family, but until then, He blessed us with the Isabella so when times like these comes, we wouldn't have to worry that we won't have household help for the next couple of days... maybe weeks... or months... Thank you, Lord, for daughters like Isabella and thank you Isabella for honoring God and your parents by being the best ATE in the world.

your every woman,

Read More

A Visit to My Mom

We visited my mom's house yesterday for the town fiesta. I'm really happy bringing Ella there because that's the time she gets to show everything she learned. I love seeing the look on my relatives' faces especially my elder brother's when Ella does all of her "tricks". I feel that he must be very proud of me and his niece.


me and my siblings when we were kids...

Love lots,

Read More

Offspring Intelligence...Nature or Nurture?

I have been raised to believe that I was born with intelligent genes. Even so, my grandmother still continued in me, my siblings and cousins, what she had done for her kids whilst growing up --making the home the first school. I never knew how early she started it. One thing I'll never forget her account of me being able to write my complete name by age 3 (think: Bianca Helen Del Rosario).

Now while some people in my family tree did grow up as achievers...Still, some didn't really make it to the honor rolls, despite being trained the same way as everyone else. I'm not talking about honor rolls literally. I believe that this list as well as test scores don't really mean more than just an assessment of what one has kept in memory. My idea of intelligence is having what it takes to live through life successfully. A person blessed with genius DNA can flunk without good guidance. In the same way that a person who didn't have good genes can progress through the support of family and teachers. 

With this in mind, I am still in constant efforts to provide a good learning environment for Ella. I can say that she has fairly intelligent parents (Ehem! Ehem!). But, she still needs all the help she can get. So, I buy her toys, read to her and engage in proactive play with her when I can. But sometimes, I feel guilty whenever I'm not around during learning opportunities because, my being a working mom means I'd have to leave her to a nanny (Why not relatives[?] will be a different blog...). As a resolution, I decided to enroll her to a playschool! It's not like parents should enroll kids in some school at an early age...It's just that I don't have enough time and energy to come up with novel ideas to feed her growing hunger for knowledge. However, I haven't found a good school yet. Ella seemed to be a bit advanced compared to the kids at one Gymboree class we got to try.

Now let me share what my Ella has learned without school over the past few months...

1.Can do the close-open routine by 4 months

2.Can say mama and papa with meaning by 5 months

3.Can brush her teeth using The Angel Brush by 7 months

4.Changed mama and papa to mommy and daddy by 8 months

5.Walk by 10 months

6.Dance by 11 months

7.Recognize names of people and her favorite toys by 12

months. You can ask her to "love" (hug) each of them and she'll know who to pick! I remember when she was climbing my chair on day, I told her "Ella, don't climb. Are you a monkey?". She left and got back to me with her monkey stuffed toy.

8.Follow basic instructions such as getting something by 13 months.

9.Has an extensive vocabulary by 14 months:

-"mimi" for cat

-"bo" for ball

-"bu" for bird

-"babi" for bubbles

-"babu" for pig

-"bibi" for kids and babies

-"do" for dog

-"nono" for lolo / "nana" for lola

-"toto" for her favorite stuffed toy, Cow-cow

-"didi" for her kid friend, Jinjin

-"ona" for her nanny, Lorna

-"chu" for shoes

-"namnam" for food, "nami" for delicious

-"jijo" for Jesus. She recognizes Jesus in almost all His images...pictures, the cross, sculptures, etc.

10.Continuosly updating sounds and letters and lots of additional words on her vocabulary.

11.Can name parts of her body, name every family member and say "please" by 16 months.

Considering how much she knows at this age, I feel it's negligence on my part to not nurture her God given intellectual capacity. I don't want her to look back when she grows up regretting not being able to meet something just because she didn't have what it takes.

Does anyone have suggestions for a good learning environment?

your every woman,

Read More