Since Monday, Caity didn’t go to school because she has a slight on/off fever which started on Sunday. During the day she is okay but at night, her temperature is a bit high. We couldn’t check her exact body temperature coz she vehemently refuses to have the thermometer placed in her armpit, but its nothing really serious. Probably her body is not taking the weather changes too well. Anyway, I didn’t really mind having her at home. It has been raining and blowing cold winds the past days, the kind which makes you just want to hide under the blanket. With Caity sick, it means I don’t have to go out too!

To keep her from getting bored, we created a cool project after I put Adie to sleep. It requires crayons, and I was too eager to have our itsy bitsy broken pieces (courtesy of Caity’s early toddler days) be put into good use.  I intentionally didn’t throw them thinking they’d be useful someday, and the time has come!

Caity helped me peel off the crayons, then I shaved each with a knife on an A4 paper which was lying on top of M’s ratty shirt.

I covered it with a wax paper, run a flat iron set into medium setting over it until all the crayons have melted and their colors mixed nicely. By this time, Caity was just sitting nearby resting her chin on both hands.  I asked her if she’s tired.
Caity: No, Mama.
Me: Are you sad?
Caity: No Mama. I am happy.

And when she saw the wonderful mix of colors, she went “Wow! Wow!” (:

I made 4 sheets, each with different color mixture.

I copied a leaf template from here and used this to cut my colored paper into autumn leaves.
Those fusilli pasta are wriggly worms eating the leaves, according to Caity.

My preschooler happily played with the leaves – throwing them in the air, feeding them to the worms, stacking them.  She loved it!

All done!  These are going to be used as autumn decors in our home.

Got this awesome idea from Vanessa Christenson. Thanks!

We recently bought Caity her FirstBike (yep, that’s the name of the bike!) which I hoped we had done sooner, like early Spring? Heh! Anyway, it’s not too late yet. Our main purpose was to get her to practice biking, and also for the fun of it. I found out later that there’s more good to it than those reasons. It helped her cover long distances without complaining of being tired; it spared her dad from carrying her on his shoulder or we didn’t need to place her in the stroller also when that happens. And she can easily catch up with our fast strides when we’re in a hurry (ex. almost late for school). And she doesn’t anymore take away Adie’s plastic bike! She just loves riding her bike. She rides on it to school and back. If she can ride it anywhere, she’d do that.

The first day she had her bike, she requested to go outside after her nap and she rode all around the neighborhood. I was a poor victim of both Adie and Caity who were zooming fast on their bikes while I was just keeping up with them with my legs. Ouch! Ouch! For the rest of the day, Caity kept saying, “I like my bike!” I like it so much!“. She was thanking us non-stop. And she was a proud owner too. We stopped in a playground and when she came out a little later, she was gushing with pride…”Mama, the boy was looking at my bike!” “Mama, the girl touched the rabbit. She likes it!“. (She was referring to her rabbit bell). Hahaha, sooo cute! I never thought a bike can bring this kind of happiness to her.

We’re kinda settling down with our new routine with Caity going to school on weekdays. If M doesn’t have morning duty, he brings the girl to school and I (with my little sidekick, Adie) pick her up. When he has to report to work early, I bring Caity to school and pick her up too. Mornings, we’re always in the rush especially if it’s me who’ll take Caity to school coz aside from getting her ready, I also have to prepare Adie and myself.  When the weather is nice, Adie and I stop at the playground in the morning from school then we go home, I feed him breakfast and off he goes to take his morning nap.  I then have 2-2.5 hours of free time which I usually spend cleaning, tidying up the house, washing dishes or clothes, working online and blogging!  Ugh that doesn’t really qualify as free time, yeah?  But at least I don’t have to be at my kids’ mercy and it’s actually my choice what I would like to do.   I thought I’d be heartbroken when Caity isn’t around, but to my surprise, I am liking the fact that I can have a quiet time at home! My ala “point of care cart” work has been decreased. Thanks school (and teachers!).

Caity’s school ends after lunch time.  She can actually stay there until 3 or 3:30 pm after their nap time or the most at 5 pm, but for new students like her, the school don’t advise them to stay that long.  She naps at home after an hour of playing with Adie.

Oh, it’s all too surreal! Caity going to school that is…  that means our little girl is growing.  School being part of our lives seemed to have happened too soon! Yay!  I have to really get used to it.  And it has only been 4 days. (:

Last week, our friend L harvested more vegetables and fruits from her garden. She dumped the baskets of bounties in another friend’s house, so we went there on Tuesday. It was a double purpose meeting; a picnic/playdate for moms and kids and a chance for us to claim our share of goodies.

I went home with a huge slice of squash, a bunch of alogbate, some peaches and cherry tomatoes. The peaches were sweet, no wonder Adie liked it.  He ate 3 pieces in a day, the next day he pooped thrice at intervals of 10-20 minutes. Yay!

Nomnomnom… (:

And here are the kids eating store-bought peaches. Photo taken yesterday.

Adie looks bigger than Caity here coz when he saw me, he got up and ran to me.

Hello blog world! Sorry for being away. I had a friend together with Vladi (her 4 year old son) from Brno who spent their holidays with us since Sunday till Wednesday, which kept me a bit busy. It was unfortunate that the weather was in a rainy/gloomy mode most of the time they were here, thus our activities were limited to the nearby playgrounds. The kids didn’t seem to mind anyway. As long as they were able to play, that was good enough for them.

My daughter and my kid’s son do get along with each other, but sometimes they fight over the toys which leads to one of them crying. Boy likes to tease the girl; sometimes he hits her or takes away her things. Girl complains it’s hers and cries. My friend tries to explains to her son to respect girl’s decision if she doesn’t want to let him play with her toys; I have to explain to the girl that she needs to share her toys. Ugh! Their love-hate tale can be nerve wracking!  And to think that both of them have been looking forward to seeing each other. Boy have been asking his mama when he can see the girl. And the girl have been telling me, “I like Nikki! (another friend of hers) I like Vladi!“. When she says that, that means she wants to see them and play with them.

Anyway, after the four days they were together, my girl hasn’t asked for the boy yet. Since my friend and her son left ,  many things have kept the girl occupied; like grandma’s visit on Wednesday, then her dad’s arrival and her tita L’s visit on Thursday, at the playground with the family on Friday and spending the whole Saturday with her grandma (that’s today).  See, she had no time to think about her friends.

*First pic using cam phone.
*Second pic courtesy of Bába.

If you’ve got a little girl, you’ve probably seen those colorful candy bracelets and necklaces being sold in supermarkets. Right? And I bet your daughter have begged or asked you to buy her one time or another. Or she might have secretly placed it in your grocery cart while you’re looking somewhere.

Anyway, last week’s project with Caity was inspired by these candy treats. Most of the items you’ll need would be likely present in your kitchen. (:

What you need:
Cheerios
a yarn or string or ribbon
a baking pan (those with odd shapes would be better and add more interest to your kids!) to hold the cheerios

What to do:
Measure the right length of the yarn for your child’s bracelet or necklace.
String the cheerios together, and make a ribbon or a knot to close it.

Geezzz, my instructions are awful! If you understand it, kudos to you.

The cheerios bracelet…

Little Caity loving her edible accessories…

I enjoy having these moments with Caity. Creating stuff is actually encouraging her to be creative. I’d love to teach her how to make simple greeting cards which she can give to us or other members of the family during special occasions like birthdays or Christmas. Who knows one day she will be good in making baby shower invitations for my friends, or create her own birthday invitations.  She’ll get there I’m sure.

The house is quiet except for the sound of the birds chirping and a dog barking outside. Usually, its my children’s noise that’s filling the house with their excited chatter, or sometimes cries. But the kids are out, visiting their grandma (Bába) today. I am happy for Caity. She finally got her wish. She has been asking to see her for a long time already. “Let’s go to Bába, let’s go to Bába, Ori (her grandma’s pet dog)…” She’d say that almost everyday like a broken record. I ran out of excuses why she can’t go there. Whenever we drive along the highway, she’d point to the intersection which leads to her grandma’s place. Her memory is amazing, it works like computers’ memory cards.

Last night, she was very excited.  She kept rambling about going to Bába, playing with Ori, etc. I know she’ll have a good time there. The weather is fine – warm and sunny.  I’m sure my mother-in-law brought the kids out in the playground.  When my little girl comes home later, all I’ll hear about are stories of Bába and Ori. (:

Caity’s been interested lately with taking pictures. Every time she sees me holding the camera, she’d excitedly shout, “Me, me, me!” and asks me to give her the cam. She likes taking pictures – be it people or things. She even sometimes take pictures of the kiddie videos she’s watching on the TV or computer. hehe   I tried to find it but I guess I deleted them all already.  She’s not a pro (yet) but the more she does it, I know she will get to learn more too and hopefully get some proper results. It’s amusing how her shots come out though. (:

ABCD…

Against the light but not that bad eh?

This was supposed to be Adie and me. Hahahaha

Lovely pic expect for M’s missing forehead. (:

Today, I decided to dress up the kids and have a photo session. I didn’t know it would turn out to be a big challenge. Hah! I was their stylist, director and photographer, rolled into one. Well, believe me it was impossible to get a decent shot of the two coz I can’t really let them stay the way I want them to, even for a second. The moment I turned my back to take my spot, the kids have already moved! Grrrrr… After many futile attempts of “directing” them, I gave up. I just clicked and clicked, hoping I’d luckily get some nice shots.

Caity was sporting her new Peppa Pig sneakers (one of the fruits of my online shopping) which I’m crushing on. teehee If I was a kid, I would’ve love wearing that shoes. Adie on the other hand has already outgrown his cute Nike shoes, and got an H&M sneakers as replacement.

Anyway, pictures overload to follow! (click on it for a bigger view)

Adie was taking off Caity’s ribbon clip several times and his big sis didn’t seem to mind.  In fact, she enjoyed it.  It was me who complained a lot! Bleeh!

Separately, the pictures aren’t nice but if put together, it looked much better.

By the way, I will be posting Caity’s solo pictures in her blog. (: So if you know the URL, do drop by!

Have a nice weekend everybody!

My mom has been asking me to post more often in Caity’s site. The last post there was December 2010. Teehee And what’s the date today? Anyway, I told her I am always busy handling two kids, the house and can’t barely even find time for my work online. Buhohohooooo. M as ever is loaded with work and sometimes have to work from home. If only there is an emergency assistance I can call on when I need to take a break from mama matters and concentrate on the blog.

Anyway, in lieu of Happy Caity posts, I’ll just fill this space with some cute pictures of her grandkids for her viewing pleasure. This is for Ma ‘My!

Fave hang-out place!  inside the closet …. (:

Adie’s ride…

“Good morning Caity!” just woke up, camping with the dogs in the sofa while eating her toast for breakfast.

Pa-cute. (:

One more! (: