A few days ago, a friend of mine who just recently gave birth was asking me about my experiences on parent-directed feeding or what is more commonly known these days as “babywise.” You see, it is always a joy for me to share how this feeding method have had a great positive impact on my mommy life.

When I had my firstborn Nathan, his first few weeks was very exhausting for me. I breastfed him on demand, and his schedule was so erratic. I hardly got any sleep, went anywhere or did anything else but feed, feed, feed. I remember times when I would cry whenever he started crying because I was just so tired. I noticed my milk supply decreasing too as a result of being so stressed. On Nathan’s 4th week, a friend of mine lent me this book entitled “Preparation for Parenting” by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo, which is also published under the title “Babywise.” I am telling you, it couldn’t have come at a better time. I implemented the principles shared in that book right away, and by Nathan’s 6th week, his body got used to a feeding schedule that allowed me time to rest, visit with friends, go to the parlor, and even go out on dates with my husband. By the 8th week, he was sleeping straight throughout the night without waking up to feed. What a blessing! Amazingly, Babywise produced the same results on my 2nd, 3rd and 4th baby!

While there is not one perfect parenting method, I highly recommend Babywise because it helped me put order into my baby’s day. It allowed me to establish a routine for my baby that took into consideration the other members and schedule of the family. It taught me how to train my baby to sleep on his own, in his own crib, without being rocked or danced to sleep. It taught me how to discern the cries of my baby, because not every cry is a hunger cry. It taught me how to define boundaries for my baby, that became the foundation of discipline in his older years.

While this method worked wonders for me and my babies, it might not necessarily work for you. If you do want to try Babywise, one word of caution though. Do not be legalistic. You do not have to follow everything to the letter. Just take what is helpful to you and forget about what is not practical for you and your baby. You would know. You’re the mom.

Yikes! I can’t believe it’s September 1! It was just like yesterday we were opening our Christmas gifts by our tree. Why does time have to fly so fast? I remember last September when I was walking in the mall, tears filled my eyes when I heard Christmas songs being played. I am always overcome with a feeling of nostalgia at the thought of Christmas. For the most part it’s because of a lot of happy memories of past Christmases, but also it makes me sentimental to think that another year has flown by just like that.

Christmas 2006

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2008

It is never too early to prepare for Christmas. Especially here in the Philippines where Christmas trees are already being set up as early as October, it is always good to plan ahead. Here are some tips that year after year I remind myself of but never actually get to do. Haha. Well, I hope to do better this year.

1. Update your Christmas gift list. If you know who’s on your list and some sort of idea what to get them, you can start picking out their gifts in the next few months whenever you make a trip to the mall.
2. Schedule your family portrait photo shoot. I always tell myself to do this early but end up doing it late. Hence, the not so nice pictures.
3. If you are planning a Christmas getaway out of town, it is best to book your accommodations early. Or if you are planning to stay at the hotel for New Year’s Eve, better make your reservations now. Christmas is peak season and these places get fully-booked fast.
4. Make an inventory of your Christmas decorations. Give away or throw the ones that you don’t want to keep anymore and dust the things you plan to use.
5. Remember your Christmas family traditions. Our family has our own traditions that we keep, year after year, like decorating the tree together followed by pizza dinner, giving goodies to street children, making chocolate lollipops, to name a few.

And most importantly, get your children involved in all the preparations. We don’t want to get so busy and realize we have overlooked our children. Let us do our best to give them happy Christmas memories that will stay with them long after we are gone.

As a mom of 4 and a pastor’s wife, trying to meet everyone’s needs and meeting with different people leave me very little time to work out. But I do feel my age taking its toll on my body so I try to exercise somehow, even just at home. For my husband’s birthday this year, I got him an elliptical trainer which I actually ended up using, because he prefers to work out at the gym. My personal best on it so far is going 5 km in 18 minutes. You might laugh at it but yeah that is such an effort for me already.

Lately though, my regular workout has been disrupted by expected and unexpected events like the death of a friend, hosting a South African family for a week, the flu going around the household and the like. It’s been challenging to go back to a regular workout routine. What I’ve found helpful though was YouTube.com. One day I just thought of looking for aerobic dance videos, just to help me jumpstart,  and found some that I really enjoyed doing. You get to have your pick: from hiphop, to latin, belly-dancing, even gospel dance aerobics. Most of them are for beginners and are therefore very easy to follow. Even my toddler Joaquin enjoys exercising with me. Try it!

Janina told me the other night that her least favorite subject was Filipino. She told me she didn’t want to learn the language anymore. I told her that a Filipino who didn’t know how to speak Filipino is like a bird who didn’t know who to fly. Yesterday when we were reviewing for her Filipino exam, I asked her to give me an example of a “bayani.” She asked me what “bayani” means. I told her, it means a hero. She said “Superman.” Oh my! Not only doesn’t she know our own language, but she is far from being patriotic. When most kids would have said “Jose Rizal,” she said “Superman.”

I am to blame. If my kids don’t love our nation and our language, it is because I haven’t instilled it in them. If they are not proud of their race, it is because I haven’t taught them to be proud of it. I haven’t modelled a life of patriotism and nationalism. Our kids watch how we respond to things like the hostage-taking at luneta or the major major blunder of our Ms. Universe representative. Our kids hear us whether we mock or defend our fellow Filipinos. Our kids listen when we bless or curse our nation.

I pray that I will always be a good role model to my kids.

We just finished dinner in the mall and our son Ryan wanted to buy some cotton candy. One bag costs P25.00. I knew I didn’t have enough cash anymore so I rummaged through my wallet and bag and came up with one 20 peso bill and 4 peso coins. I was short by P1.00. I asked Paolo if he had any coins in his pocket but just like me, he was broke. My poor Ryan, he was so looking forward to enjoying his cotton candy. We proposed for him to sing in front of people and maybe someone will throw in a few coins. Or he could give the saleslady at the cotton candy stall his most pitiful, heart-rending look and maybe she would take pity on him and accept his P24.00. Of course, he didn’t agree to do any of these. I told Nathan to do one of his magic tricks and get one coin from my ear. Well, he tried, but he came up empty-handed. So finally, I said, “Ok let’s pray that somehow God will make a one-peso coin appear from nowhere.” That seemed like a ridiculous prayer, right?

As we were preparing to leave the restaurant, I turned to grab Joaquin’s baby bag, and lo and behold, there was a shiny silver one peso coin just sitting on top of it!! I asked Paolo if he was playing a trick on me and put the coin there, but he really didn’t! God did literally make that coin appear from nowhere! How amazing is that!

1 Timothy 6:17
… but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.