Mommy Ruth Says...

ouch

2008-01-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

More of this week's wordless wednesday here!

mothers prefer websites for health information

2008-01-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

according to the results of a recent study, low-income mothers consider websites as a better source of information about nutrition, compard to video games or pamphlets.

Responses suggested that the mothers liked the Web site format best. They paid more attention to information presented on the Web site and understood it better. They were also more likely to say they would go back to the Web site for nutrition information, compared to the video game or pamphlet. "Nutrition literacy" scores were higher for women who viewed the Web site. On follow-up testing two weeks later, mothers assigned to the Web site were no more likely to retain the information than those who saw the other two formats.

and as a web-user, i agree. i can't count the number of times i made google searches instead of consulting a doc. however, one must be careful. you have to choose and scrutinize the websites you land on and be able to discern bogus from scientifically-sound information. there are many websites out there containing dubious information, so watch out!

manila, here we come!

2008-01-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

in just a couple of weeks more, we'll be on our way to the philippines. it's the first trip back home since we moved back to asia half a year ago. although jan and i have just been there last year, it's been almost 4 years since hubby was there last.

being the cheapskate that i am, i surfed the web extensively to find the best airfare deals. i almost booked a flight via tiger airways, but luckily chanced upon from jetstar's promotional airfares. the final bill wasn't that much different to what i would have paid tiger, but at least, we'd be landing at NAIA instead of clark, saving us a couple more hours of land travel.

we'll be staying two weeks in the philippines and i am currently fixing our itinerary, trying to see how we can maximize our stay and squeeze in as much as possible, without making it too jampacked. afterall, there's just so much a hyperactive 5-year old and pregnant me can take!

blogging bucks

2008-01-09T21:16:00.000-08:00

i've been blogging since 2004, and have been pro-blogging for the last 2 years. i've seen how paid blogging has developed. i've been right in the thick of it when it started to shoot off the ground.

today, there are dozens of programs one can join to make a bit of extra money on their blogs. and yes, that's also one of the reasons why i decided to beef up this blog.

for the longest time, i've been against paid blogging. but over the last few months, i've seen so many successful cases-- bloggers who could pay for travels, for gadgets, for household expenses, and other stuff from the income they get from their blogs. who am i not to give in to such temptation? although we're living quite comfortably, we're not rolling in money, and i certainly could think of ways to use extra income.

if you had the chance to earn a few bucks from your blog, wouldn't you also grab the opportunity? is there a dark side to this that i am not seeing?

blog revival

2008-01-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

since i transferred my personal blog to its own domain name, i've only used my blogger account to be able to comment on other friends' blogs. i do have a few old blogspot blogs though that i've created way back in 2004 and 2005, but never really paid attention to anymore, as i focused all my personal blogging over at transposable element.

but then i was inspired by pinaymommy and realized that, indeed, being a mom calls for a whole new blog in itself.

and the timing can't be better. in just four months or so, i'll be a second time mom!

so here i am, mommy ruth.

asus eee pc

2007-12-15T22:21:00.000-08:00

i want this baby:

hubby has been discouraging me about it, saying i'd go nuts with a keyboard of that size and he's probably right, considering that i'm used to a "real" keyboard and it takes me time to adjust to the keys of even a normal-sized laptop.

but it's cute. and portable. imagine, it just weighs about 2 pounds! and so small it can fit in your shoulder bag! i'm gonna have this, i tell you.

now let me see where i can tweak the housebudget....

jan's christmas gifts

2007-12-10T00:46:00.000-08:00

we’ve already secured most of jan’s christmas gifts, mostly from amazon — books, videos and cds, all in german (otherwise we would have placed our orders in the US site).

if you speak german, you can tell that jan has an advanced german vocabulary, diction and sentence construction for his age. we knew, however, that with his strengthening english and introductory mandarin, he’s running the risk of slipping on his german, so we countered this with a rich exposure to german literature at home, particularly books and audiobooks. it seems like it does help; when my FIL was here just recently, he has been positively surprised that jan has kept this, using complex sentences with clauses and almost perfect grammar.

what would we be without amazon?

nikolaustag

2007-12-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

yup, even though we've moved to singapore, we're keeping the german christmas traditions jan grew up with. like the nikolaus tag.

In Germany, Nikolaus is usually celebrated on a small scale. Many children put a boot, called Nikolaus-Stiefel, outside the front door on the night of December 5 to December 6. St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good. If they were not, they will have a tree branch (rute) in their boots instead. Sometimes, a disguised Nikolaus also visits the children at school or in their homes and asks them if they "have been good" (sometimes ostensibly checking a book for their record), handing out presents on a per-behaviour basis. This has become more lenient in recent decades.

this year, jan got the usual fillers: apples, oranges, chocolates. and a laser sword.

obsessed with action heroes

2007-10-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

for the longest time, we’ve tried to distract jan from superhero figures. we considered them to be inappropriate for his age and really, what good would he pick up from them? in germany, it was relatively easy, as there were lots of other options. there were a variety of well-made children shows that didn’t feature violence and fighting as its main plot.

now that we've moved to singapore, he’s obsessed with action heroes. it is so pervasive, not only on tv, we knew we were facing a losing battle when we implemented a restriction on them in our household.

boob tube

2005-12-21T19:57:00.000-08:00

our tv went kaputt. that means, we have been televesion-free for the last three weeks now. oh yes, it’s possible! it probably sounds abnormal, but except for some snippets of news, we don’t watch much tv anyway. here's why.

jan's food allergies

2005-11-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

early on, we found out that jan breaks out in rashes when coming into contact with cow’s milk and products made out of cow’s milk. but slowly, the last few weeks, he has been showing greater and greater tolerance, and he is now able to finish a cup of yoghurt or a slice of cheese without breaking into hives, nor suffering from diarrhea. because jan is slowly outgrowing his milk allergy, we have been getting complacent and less vigilant with what he puts in his mouth. he himself knows what he can and cannot eat. he asks if he’s not sure and readily accepts the fact if he can’t.

but then we discovered he's allergic to nuts, too!

co-sleeping

2005-10-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

now and again, i encounter scientific literature that goes against the grain, against instinct, if i may call parenting that. see, we’ve adapted the “attachment parenting” approach in bringing up jan: lots of physical contact and no cry-til-you-can’t-breathe-anymore and the you-have-to-learn-how-to-soothe-yourself disciplinary approach. together with attachment parenting naturally comes breast-feeding and co-sleeping; jan has been breastfed for more than a year, and is still with us on the matrimonial bed to date.

so being a breastfeeding advocate, i am confounded by a recent report saying that breastmilk cause more cavities than cow’s milk. i say, huh? and then there’s the new guideline from the American Academy of Pediatrics saying that infants should sleep in their cribs, not in their parents’ beds.

“The recommendations are very straightforward and clear: Babies should not be asleep in the same bed that their parents are sleeping in,” said James Kemp, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University and a world-recognized researcher on SIDS.

so will I follow the AAP recommendation? No way!

antonio's in tagaytay

2005-06-13T19:31:00.000-07:00

tin just came back from a trip to manila, and guess what? she's got photos of antonio's in tagaytay. the resto looks breezy, and the food sumptuous. sounds like a good place for a stop-over on the way to the batangas beaches, or on the way back after a tagaytay sight-seeing. estimated at around P600-1000 a head (P250 for kids), it sounds steep for an average pinoy meal, but for bakasyonistas like us, that sounds just reasonable.

Antonio's is open on Tuesdays for dinner only and on Wednesdays to Sundays for lunch (11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.) and dinner (5:30-9:30 p.m.). Strictly by reservation only. Call +63 917 899-2866 or +63 917 819-1022.

here's the Inquirer feature on antonio's: Food Paradise in Tagaytay

choosing a kindergarten

2005-06-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

when choosing a kiga, you’ll also have to decide beforehand what learning principles you abide by. most of the kiga here in germany are heavy on the learn-by-play principle. actually, it’s really mostly play at this stage anyway. that’s why i wrote teachers with quotation marks. they don’t really teach lessons per se. children are not even expected to know their alphabets before they enter the first grade. however, there are still specialized kigas employing the montessori and waldorf methods of learning. admittedly, i haven’t done a lot of research on these, but i think it doesn’t differ/matter much at this point, unless you’re set on putting your child in montessori/waldorf in primary school. which we are not. bu that doesn't make choosing the right kiga any simpler for us.

manila by foot

2005-05-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

how well do you know manila? they say the best way to know a place is to go through it by foot. okay, the manila breeze may not exactly be good for your lungs, but if you want to really know manila, there's no other way. i know my hubby would be happy to know there are already walking tours being offered nowadays. he'd no longer have to go through escolta, quiapo, cubao, or bangkal, makati alone. and besides, i'm not exactly sure i'm qualified to play tourguide in manila, being a promdi myself and having nearly flunked philippine history. for the measly price of 400 to 500 pesos of per adult, we can have the time-featured carlos celdran for a tourguide instead. pretty good deal, i think.

wedding photos

2004-06-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

jan scribbles

2004-06-08T19:34:00.000-07:00

jan learns to write at 1 and a half! :)

cousins

2004-05-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

dear jan,

today, we're nearly halfway through our philippine vacation. you have been enjoying yourself so much, revelling in the company of your pinoy relatives who dote on you hand and foot. we visited your cousins bea and jack last week and you enjoyed it immensely. they were also so eager to be with you each waking moment. i wish it will stay this way as you all grow up. i, myself, have drifted away from my own cousins and was never able to see them very often during my growing up years. i blame it on geography. it's always nice to go and visit them in pampanga or nueva ecija, yes, i wouldn't describe the relationships as close. i hope it will different for you. you will have far less cousins than i did (your dad having just one brother, and you having just 2 cousins on my side), so each one matters. bea is now 7 and she will have fond memories of our visit (and the last one in september 2003). i have faith that she will always be eager to see you again. as for jack, i'm not sure if he will remember more than you will. he's just 3 and i'm not sure how far back memory goes. should your (our) memory falter, i have taken photos and videos ;) ...

love,
mama

jan, year one

2004-04-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

dear jan,

in your first year, we made sure you had as little exposure to television as possible. and since we were almost inseparable, that also made me unaware of the goings-on in the world. my world revolved around taking care of you and the war- and terrorism-riddled newcasts wouldn't move me in the same way as you made your first step, or compare with the angst i went through as you had your first fever. actually, until now, you show very little interest in watching tv or cartoon movies. which i find great. we spend comparatively little time together now and there's so many other interesting things to do instead of sitting in front of that box! things that will develop your motor skills and make your bones strong. things that will pique your curiosity and make your mind sharp and creative. things that will improve your speech and comprehension. yes, these are the things i think of when i plan our activities. and it's not easy, because there are times that i'm tired, uninspired, or simply not in the mood. but i'm doing the best i can. and you make it all worth it.

love,
mama