Monday, August 26, 2013

MFO x googoo&gaga x Wooden Canvas


I know I’ve said before that I never win online giveaways. But alas, the thing with these giveaways is there is a 50/50 chance of winning if you join. Aside from that package I’ve won before from Mikka, I’ve won a workshop for my yaya from Manila Mommy and I’ve also won tickets from googoo&gaga to Mommy Mundo bazaar last year (although I wasn’t able to go thus forfeiting the tickets…sayang!). And then just recently I won from Tin of Manila Fashion Observer two wooden canvases from Wooden Canvas and googoo&gaga.
 
THE tweet!
 
You know how I’ve been a fan of gogoo&gaga ever since Miya was a little baby.
 








Miya has more shirts but I haven’t gotten around to letting her wear them heehee. Remember, I even blogged about Miya's feature on the googoo&gaga site?
 
So I was really beyond thrilled to have won Tin’s giveaway. My prizes included a 10x10 wooden canvas with a googoo&gaga print and a 10x10 wooden canvas with my choice of photo.

When I received the email from Audrey to choose a googoo&gaga print for one of the canvasses, I immediately zoomed in on the Got Balls design. I didn’t want to choose a design to which Miya already has a shirt/dress with the same print. I thought it would be redundant hehehe. Anyway, once Miya (or our future kid) outgrows the shirts we can have them framed. I actually chose a design that was already sold out.

And then for our own photo, I chose this photo of Miya wearing a googoo&gaga dress. I thought what better way to remind me of how I got the canvas by choosing a photo with Miya wearing her googoo&gaga dress.

 



This was an Instagram photo


As for Wooden Canvas, I’ve been curious about their products ever since I read Anna’s post about the store. See I even asked Anna how much their products were. And I thought it was awesome that they're doing canvases of googoo&gaga designs.

In less than two weeks after I emailed them my choices, the canvases were ready for pick-up! Here are the finished products!
 
 
 
 
I loved how Miya's photo turned out - like a sepia print photo but it's actually wood. And even if the photo I submitted is not high-resolution (less than 1MB) , the finished wooden canvas looked awesome! I would love to have more photos of our family printed by Wooden Canvas.
 
Once again, thanks to Manila Fashion Observer, googooandgaga and Wooden Canvas! 

Friday, August 23, 2013

Miya and Maring

Most of us have finally gone back to the normal grind after the monsoon rains and typhoon Maring during the week. I stayed cooped up in our house on Tuesday during the height of the rains and floods around the Metro. My parents have again evacuated to our place. Good thing, the water didn't enter their home this time around. We have Miya to thank who kept all of us entertained. She played with her playdoh set the whole day with me, her Lola and Lola and Ninong alternately.

She said she's taking my picture with the playdoh tub :)
Now she's using the tub as a hat

Her Ninong made her a microphone and asked her to sing for us. To which, she willingly obliged. Here are videos of her singing.





Haha can you hear us cheering for her? :) Hope you're all safe and dry! Have a happy weekend!

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

A Potty Training Story

Once Upon a Potty by Alona Frankel

That photo was taken around March this year (that makes Miya 2 years and 1 month old then). I bought the book to start Miya on potty training*. The book introduced the use of the potty and that she needs to sit on it and pee and poop on it. So we started not putting diaper on her around that time. I know I've mentioned here before that we started her on potty training even before March of this year but it was only since then that we've been really consistent. At first there were accidents, she would pee on wherever she was and THEN tell us “Mommy weewee”. There were also some incidents that she pooped on the floor. Unfortunately for yaya, this happened when they were the only ones together so I never witnessed this. There were also times when she won’t tell us she wants to pee but once we take her to the potty, she’ll pee like there’s no tomorrow hehehe. But we’re almost there, I think. We can now spend a whole day without wearing a diaper because she can tell us that she wants to pee. Although, we still put on her diapers when we go out for long car rides and when she sleeps (sometimes during the day and every night). Miya can even go to school without her nappies on. But yaya sometimes put diapers on her when she thinks Miya will poop during class. That’s the thing, Miya poops only when she has her diaper on. So usually it’s when she wakes up or in the afternoon after she wakes up from her nap or she waits until before bedtime when we put on her diaper. So that’s our remaining problem. She doesn’t want to wait for her poop to drop in the toilet bowl. Yes, my very impatient daughter doesn’t want to wait hahaha. Last weekend, I insisted on that she needs to poop on her potty or in the toilet bowl. That time, she will sit once in a while in her potty (which we put in the living room for easy access) but she couldn’t finish the deed. But I know she really needs to go because she’s “pushing” (umiire). I will also make her sit on the toilet bowl but again she’ll become impatient and tell me she doesn’t need to poop. We did this back and forth I think 3 to 5 times in 30-45 minutes. She tells me she only needs to “pee” so she sits on her potty or the toilet bowl. After a while she said she wanted to pee on the floor of our bathroom. During the early stages of her potty training, we let her pee on the floor instead of letting her sit on the toilet bowl. This time after she peed, she stood up and then she couldn’t control it anymore so the poop dropped hahaha! Hay naku! I had to scoop up her poop up to flush it down the toilet bowl.
 
So we still need to train her on this. My action plan is ask yaya to take out her potty (yaya already hid it somewhere) so that everytime she needs to poop, she can sit on it while watching TV. I hope this will make her more patient in sitting down and waiting for her to poop.

* Using books in teaching her things has been very helpful to us. The first time I used a book to introduce her to an acticity and prep her for it was a book about going to the dentist.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Tali Beach


18-19 May 2013
 
Our good friend E was in town for a visit last May. We went to Tali Beach with him. It was actually all planned very near the date we met because we initially planned to meet with all the Migs at our favorite place. Unfortunately, our friends H and P were not available on those dates so we had to find an alternative. Since I only had a week to look for an alternative, all the resorts that I liked were fully booked already. Good thing, I saw an advertisement at our office for this house for rent in Tali Beach.

On that Saturday, we picked up E and his niece and nephews at his condo. Then off we all trooped to Batangas. I think it was already past 6pm when we arrived at the house so we didn’t have time to go to the beach anymore. Fortunately, we were able to catch the sunset. This viewing deck was very near the house we rented, we walked going here.







After that we went back to the house and just hang out. I really love trips like this, nothing to do but hang out hehe. I can't do a full "where to stay" post on the house we rented because it's a private house. But I'm posting some photos of the house.


Love the open space concept - living room, dining room and kitchen in one big open space.

Miya playing with the piano
Dinner is served

We hang out at the veranda just outside the living room.
Miya amused with her Ninong E

I love this photo. Miya looks so kikay. She's wearing a headband with a big ribbon here.
Next day was beach day! Tali beach is not as nice as Boracay’s. And the beach that we went to was small and got pretty crowded. But it will do for a nearby beach (near Manila). Tali is part of Batangas and most people who are able to go there have a house there or was able to rent a house (like us). It’s an exclusive residential village with different beaches. I think we went to the main beach.  Although the beach was near the house, we opted to drive going there because we brought merienda for the kids and we didn't want to carry them going there. I noticed a signboard at the beach, though, that bringing in food and barbecuing is prohibited. Maybe they meant lunch because no one told us off when the kids started eating the sandwiches we brought.

 Photos of the beach after the cut...


Friday, August 09, 2013

Miya's First Field Trip

2 August 2013


We accompanied Miya to her first ever school field trip last Friday. Yes, both us, joined her. We were that excited! It was(is) nutrition month and part of their lesson in school was about healthy and unhealthy food. So we trooped on over to a nearby SM Hypermart with the rest of their class to learn about these. Our little family went there ahead of the other students and their companions who rode in the provided school bus.
 
My little preschooler.
 
Miya tends to cling to me whenever I accompany her to school activities. Well, actually this is the first time I attended one ever since the open class we joined. She didn’t want to let go of me so most of the photos had me with them. Here are photos of the field trip.

Where in the supermarket is Miya?
Talagang nasa unahan kami ng pila hahaha!


Hand in hand with her favorite classmate


Looking at the live fish

Getting her fruit salad -  the main activity of their field trip

Paying for her fruit salad

Good job, Miya!



Ah yes, di na sya nakapag-intay she wanted to eat the salad right there and then. Kaya lang she only wanted to eat the syrup and not the fruits hahaha

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