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Posts Tagged ‘Great Mommy Ideas’

We all know how regular brushing is important to dental health. If only every toddler would understand this, it will not be so challenging to brush their teeth. Some toddlers insist that they brush on their own, which is not nearly enough to clean their teeth, or others just simply clench their mouth close. Children have the purest of smiles but it’s unfortunate that some of those smiles show teeth that have been destroyed by cavities.

Basically, if you have tried every game or gimmick you have read and heard of, and your toddler wont let you brush his teeth, you must hold him down and brush them regardless of protest. Brushing is not an option. It’s a must. But then again, if there is a better way, with less struggles, it’s gonna be easier for both of you.

Here are a few things that have helped me with my toddler Joaquin to make toothbrushing a not so difficult feat:

1. I put a lot of bath toys in the shower so while he is distracted playing, I brush away.
2. Every now and then, we would go shopping for cute toothbrushes. Recently, after our trip to Disneyland, he chose a Mickey Mouse toothbrush for himself.
3. When he is not being cooperative, I tell him “Let’s call Dora!” Then both of us shout a long “Doraaaaaa!” and while his mouth is open, I brush his molars. After that, I say “Time to call Barney!” and while he makes the “eee” sound, I brush his front teeth.

If you wanna share what you do with you toddler, I’d love to hear about them

Whenever I smell peach potpourri, I am always reminded of my 18th birthday because my give-aways at my debut were little baskets filled with dried barks of peach fragrance. Isn’t it interesting when we walk into a room and smell something that triggers certain memories from the past? How often have you gotten a sniff of a particular scent and it fills you with nostalgia and brings back feelings from a particular experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant?

“Scents have an uncanny ability to trigger memories because they are the only sense that directly connects to the part of the brain that stores emotional memories“. Because of this, I always use cinnamon-scented candles in our home every Christmas, and I don’t use it on any other time of the year. I want my children to associate that scent with happy memories from our Christmas celebrations. I want my children, when they are all grown-up already, to smell cinnamon and say “Hey, that scent brings back a lot of good feelings from our childhood Christmases!”

The fragrance of cinnamon was not a purposeful choice. It’s just that years ago, when I first shopped around for red candles, most of them came in cinnamon scent. And we loved it! So we stuck with it and continued to use it for Christmas year after year.

So as you decorate your homes for Christmas, remember what a little fragrance can do. It doesn’t have to be cinnamon, it can be vanilla or pine, but whatever scent you choose, the more important thing is to build good memories that your children can associate with it.

It was quite a long wait at the orthopedia’s clinic. Janina was scheduled for a follow-up check-up after her cast was taken out to determine if she still needed rehab or not. Fortunately, Janina brought her art kit and that kept her and Ryan busy. They were drawing, coloring and cutting, they didn’t even complain about the wait (and normally they would.) Even the adults around them were surprised to see them just quietly working in the corner.

I wish I could take credit for this ingenious idea but it was actually Janina who put this art kit together for school. She saw her Tita Mae’s (Perez) Tote-Ally which sells for $25 and thought of using a local bag organizer we bought at SM for just P120.00. She got her markers, crayons, pencils, scissors and what have you’s and stuffed them in the organizer and she has her own on-the-go art kit which she totes around with her.

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!

If you’re a mom, I’m sure you attend a lot of birthday parties. If you attend a lot of birthday parties, and your kids love to join the games, you end up with this big pile of prizes on the table. This happens to me often, and my dilemna is always how to carry all of those prizes to the car.

I got this idea from my good friend and ever beautiful Marie Bonifacio at a birthday party yesterday. When it was time to pack up, Marie put all the birthday celebrant’s gifts in a big pillowcase. A pillowcase can easily be tucked in your bag but is bigger than a regular plastic bag and is strong enough to hold a lot of stuff. What a clever idea!