Mommy Eds asked me,” What age is perfect for kids to enter school?” I already read about this in Nice’s site. And I was really thinking about this question seriously, that’s why it took me time to answer. (as you know I hate thinking)

Question:

For those who have kids who are not yet schooling, what age will you enter your child to school? Why did you pick that age?

My Answer:

Right now, my little boy is 23 months old. I haven’t even started to prepare for his 2nd birthday preparation let alone think about him entering preschool! In my mind, he is still TOO young. I will THINK about it when he is 2 1/2 years old already.

Funny that I was asked this now when earlier I received a call from Bright Academy. Ozzy was invited to come visit and check out their facilities. They offer a playgroup for kids from 1 1/2- 2 1/2.

We’ll see.

I don’t want to start him too early & he’ll end up hating school by the time he reaches Grade 5! Or am I being too paranoid here? Maybe a playgroup will improve his social skills..Hmmm.

I read in Milet’s blog that she prefers calling the stage “Talented Two” for terrible just sounds wrong. I agree if we keep on calling our child terrible or bad he will grow up living up to THAT name. So let’s not start them off with the wrong notion.

When my 23 month old son acts up, I always reprimand him with a calm but firm voice. When this fails I resort to glaring and high-pitched shrills. When THIS fails, I let him be. He would lie on the floor crying his lungs out calling out my name. Then after he’d realize I won’t pick him up then he’d come crawling to me.

These things worries me though; can I still call him ‘talented’ when he’s being ‘terrible’?

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Being a mom is not almost always fun. I have mentioned in my blogs numerous times reasons why I love being a mom; but honestly to be blunt about it there are some things I really dislike (hate is such a strong word) about it.

I don’t like…..

1. ……….the fact that I don’t get to sleep for 8 hours straight.
2. ……….feeling guilty every time I am away. ME-time sometimes isn’t fun when you’re mind is not there.
3. ……….having to clean poop.
4. ……….how Ozzy decides to poop seconds after I changed him into a clean nappy.
5. ……….HAVING stretch marks. Goodbye stretch-mark free tummy…for this reason alone; I ask God why MEN are not the once experiencing child birth?! teehee
6. ……….that whenever we are in a restaurant I cannot eat properly. (I almost always never bring yaya around; I want to be hands on as much as possible)
7. ……….being bitten & sometimes hit. (uh-huh he hits now..tsktsk, kainis!)
8. ……….when people assume I know everything just because I am a mom; I am human I make mistakes too. Spare me the, “Dapat alam mo na yon” speech. I am a first-timer, give me a break.
9. ……….scolding my 2 year old boy every time he picks up something on the floor & puts it in his mouth.
10. ……….Or scolding in general. Or loosing my patience. Or having to glare at the boy for being noisy in church. Or when he bites his nails. It’s not that I ‘hate‘ it but I just don’t enjoy being a disciplinarian. I want to be the spoiler. But I know that would not be a good thing in the long run.

Now you may think I am bad or what it doesn’t matter; this post doesn’t mean I love my son less or I am a terrible mother (although at times I feel I am inadequate), I am merely pointing out things that make parenting hard. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it right?

Last Saturday, while taking our evening bath, Joshua fell on the rock hard cement floor. It was completely MY fault & I feel so bad about it. I wasn’t able to watch him because I was rinsing my hair. He was just by my side then suddenly he was already falling.

What happened was he tried to get into the pail of water and lost his balance.

There was crying but something else made me freak out. I saw blood coming out from the back of his head.

Every parent’s nightmare. Seeing their child hurt & maybe in danger.

So after freaking out, putting cold compress on his bump, consulting the baby book, and bandaging his wound, Josh & I assessed that the boy is fine. His bump was not blue & black, it was just cut and there was loads (according to me) of blood because there are lots of veins in the scalp.

The boy was fine after a bit of crying, he was not vomiting, his eyelids were not dilated (we checked), and he was perfectly himself.

The whole night, I was monitoring him, I felt so guilty. I felt stupid. I felt reckless. I felt inadequate. Why the heck did God trust me with a baby, I’m so careless. I’m not at all perfect but I try my hardest for Joshua. Oh well, lesson learned. I should have known better, I should keep an eye on him 24/7.

I just can’t help thanking God that nothing serious happened to him.

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Super cute.

I always tell my son “love you ” anytime of the day. I even whisper it to him when he’s fast asleep like an angel. Earlier, after our morning bath, while putting his shirt on I said, “Love you !” again. Lo & Behold he replied.

“ah-poo ”

I’m guessing he means love you too! I’d take that any day! Love you more baby.

Mother’s day came and went by & I was pleasantly surprised on how many people even cared to greet me. (More greetings came than my birthday which was a few days ago!) Anywhoo.. That’s fine. Being a mother 2 years out of the 25 years that I am alive has been one great roller coaster ride.

How did mommyhood change me you ask?

• I am MORE conscious of time management.
• I have extended my patience (with kids & people in general) 100 fold. If you knew before you would know how I utterly impatient I am (especially with noisy kids)
• I am more aware. Aware of the environment & its safety, aware of the kind if diseases out there, aware of the hazards of not putting rubber mats on cr floors, and aware of restos to avoid because they don’t have proper high chairs.
• I have also been very keen on finance management. Before I used to buy little knick-knacks here & there but now, I stick to a budget & buy only what’s essential.
• I can now easily distinguish a real cry from the fake-mommy-i-need-your-attention cry.

Quick Updates on the little boy.

He can put 2 words together now, well sort of. Like two eyes (to ays), two ears (to ees), Mommy pees (please), Mommy baba (piggyback ride) and Mommy Bee! for Jollibee.

Ohhh remember I was saying before he never smiles for the camera? He does now. Yey.

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Today, marks his 22nd month. 2 more months to go and he is officially terrible err two. Up until now we are still undecided of the venue. I think it would be at McDo or Jollibee. Jollibee has an edge because Ozzy loves that mascot. Anyway, were still really thinking about it though because

a.) Ozzy has a few friends & relatives to invite (I’m the only one in my close circle who has a kid and he is the only apo in the family)

b.) Would his ninongs&ninangs mind eating in Jollibee(most of whom don’t have kids & are single

c.) Would he be able to enjoy his own party or would it be better to wait a few more years until he really appreciates it?

4 months shy of his 2nd birthday my grabby little monster still nurses with much gusto. I even joke that he ‘strikes anywhere’ like for example one time when we were watching TV, the boy was beside me… suddenly he was nursing! I was wearing a v-neck knitted shirt that time and yet he easily got though that. Another incident was when we showering together.. well you get the drift.

“Delikado sa chicks toh” my mom keeps on saying. Hahaha

Seriously though, I am slowly weaning him from nursing. But sad to say I am failing miserably! I know it’s partly my fault. When he insists on nursing instead of taking his bottle I oftentimes oblige because he gets into a fit & cry. Also, it is beneficial for me when I’m nursing him for example:

• I don’t need to get up in the middle of the night to get him milk, I just roll over & nurse him.
• Nursing easily puts him to sleep, without it; It may take hours for him to fall asleep. He prefers to be sung! And I suck at that when I nurse him I can get away without singing. nyahahaha
• We save a bit on milk. He consumes 1 900g. can in 1 week and a half. If not; he’ll consume the can in less than a week.
• It’s our little bonding time (as if we don’t get enough!). I feel one with my baby when I nurse.
• It’s like exercising without really doing much (the way I like it.)
• I have an excuse to eat more….what?! I’m eating for two. ahahaha

So with all these benefits why am I in a hurry to wean the boy? That got me thinking; Society dictates that breastfeeding should only be done with babies up to 2 years. But some women breastfeed up until the age of 3 and more. This is called extended breastfeeding or “sustained breastfeeding”. It is believed that all benefits of human milk (nutritional,immunological and emotional) continue as long as the child nurses. This would also be a means for the child to bond with his mother.

So I read on negative impacts of sustained breastfeeding and found none.

I’ve actually found a very informative entry on extended breastfeeding from the site called Skinship and she quoted from Dr. Sears’s Baby Book (p.198): “Life is a series of weanings for a child: weaning from the womb, weaning from the breast, from your bed and from your home to school. The pace at which children go from oneness to separateness should be respected in all of these weaning milestones. /…/ We have studied long-term effects on thousands of children who have had timely weanings and have observed that these children are more independent, gravitate to people more than things, are easier to discipline, experience less anger and radiate trust./…/ In the normal process of oneness and separateness, it is not the mother who weans the baby, but the baby who weans from the mother.”

Having read that, I therefore conclude that it’s my baby’s right to nurse. Given that there are no major disadvantage of extended breastfeeding I will allow my son to self-wean. In his own pace. In his own time.

That’s how I am lately, I am super busy with Ozzy + work + being a wife + updating my blog. I’ve been nanny-less since Thursday. The nanny left after our Island Hopping thing. I didn’t ask her to stay until we’d find a replacement, wrong move on my part? Maybe. But I was thinking about it and I believe it’s best for her to be gone as soon as possible. I didn’t want her attitude around my son any longer.

That is why I haven’t bloghopped since last week! I was not able to properly update my blog. Tsk. Tsk. The good thing is I’ve spent a lot of quality time with my boy. We watched the brainy baby video on animals! He loves it so much.

Just so you get the idea on how I spent my day here it is.

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There seem to be a substantial amount of ladies getting pregnant lately. In Hollywood, there’s Jessica Alba, Angelina Jolie & 16 year old Jamie Lyn Spears. In the local scene there’s Jennilyn Mercado & Kris Aquino (?) I don’t know if that’s true. And of course, in my blogroll there’s Darlene & Peachy! Congratulations ladies!

It’s not that I want to join the bandwagon but I seem to be touching my tummy a lot these days. I’m missing those months that someone was parking there. There’s was a certain bond that existed between me & my baby. I miss my big, a bit pointy belly. Besides, nowadays I can’t use the phrase, “Can I finish your ice cream, I’m eating for 2 eh!”.

I take offense every time some of my friends discourage me to have another baby this soon. 4 years is the ideal age gap, they say. Well, it’s not as if I can exactly predict when I’m going to have a baby right? That’s up to the big boss upstairs. Even if I take extra precautions to avoid unplanned pregnancy, if I am bound to get pregnant, I will.

Ozzy was an unplanned pregnancy, but a great blessing nonetheless. A life changing blessing actually. Some young couple prolongs having a baby saying they are not ready yet. But when are we ever going to be ready, right? When I was with child, admittedly I was not ready - at all. But I took the challenges one day at a time. Slow & steady. The results? Unexplainable happiness & contentment.

I am not saying that you give birth every year! That’s plain crazy & unhealthy (for babies & moms); all I am saying is if it happens, it happens; if not, then just wait a few more months.

I’m just reminiscing here…