My Mommyology

July 31, 2011
by mymommyology
4 Comments

Cookie-Making

Yesterday after her nap my husband asked Sam to “make some cookies with Mommy”, knowing fully well that once the phrase “make cookies” was uttered, there would be no turning back. Excitedly, Sam danced and jumped all over the kitchen saying, “Make cookies with mommy make cookies with mommy make cookies with mommy…” over and over again as I began to pull out the ingredients and clean a space on the counter for her to sit on. To think she wasn’t on a sugar high yet!

So there we were, myself, mommy’s little helper and the beginnings of fun-shaped easy bake sugar cookies. Of course, as we began to roll out the dough and cut out the shapes, Jamie chose that exact moment to wail, “Mamamammm“. She wouldn’t stop until I took her from my husband, so he had no choice but to trade places with me in the kitchen and finish what we started (Well… he literally asked for it anyway). Normally he’d prefer that I pacify Jamie first and then return to making the cookies, but Sam wouldn’t have it and wanted to get to the part where she could drizzle icing and sprinkles on it. So the cookie-making had to go on.

Now it is important to note that while my husband can cook a great steak and grill perfectly well, he has never (in the 15 years that I’ve known him) ever made cookies, easy bake or otherwise. So while I was feeding Jamie from the living room, I was barking out directions for him to follow. I could not see what was happening from my position, but I could tell that some of what I was saying was getting lost in the clutter of everything that was going on at the same time.

I finished nursing Jamie in time to see the cookies already baking and my husband bent over the oven with an “Uh-oh” look on his face. As they say the proof is in the pudding (or in this case the cookie dough), and so here’s what I had to pull out a few minutes later:

Well... in all fairness... he "tried" to follow directions. Try being the key word. 😉

Thankfully the purpose of this exercise was all in good family bonding fun and nothing more, so it all turned out fine and everyone was happy. Sam didn’t care what shape or size her cookies came in either. She was all too happy to make a sweet mess: squeezing out icing and then pounding sprinkles all over it as well as the table.

Thank heavens for splat mats, is all I can say!

In the end, Sam came up with what I thought was a good idea as to decorating the four big blobs, and asked for my help in trying to execute it.

Tah-dah! (the "e" in Jamie didn't fit though)...

Not a bad way to spend a hot saturday afternoon at home, wouldn’t you say? 🙂

July 29, 2011
by mymommyology
2 Comments

My Mommyology Likes: Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty

My Mommyology Dove Campaign For Real Beauty

I personally know this girl / model! (Yes, my claim to fame).

Six years ago (Has it been that long?!) I was a part of the team that launched this campaign. It entailed a lot of sleepless nights, and probably 16-hour work days, but I’d have to say it was one campaign that I truly believed in and was happy to be a part of.

I loved the idea of a beauty debate and a beauty discussion. I felt exactly the way the premise of the campaign was built on: Beauty comes in all shapes, ages, colors, sizes and forms, and for as long as you take care of yourself (or your skin) then you are definitely beautiful in your own right (Sorry Dove Team, I know it’s paraphrased! It’s as I remember it). Don’t mistake this campaign for inner beauty — it’s definitely not. No one is debating that. And still, at the core of it all, Dove is a beauty product trying to turn a profit.

One of my favorite ads for the campaign is called Evolution. I think it even won several awards, although I don’t recall it being played in Manila.

I could nor would ever look like the models in the beauty ads, and while I know those are supposed to paint a nice rosy perfect picture that people could aspire to, it was also slightly depressing. Wouldn’t you agree?

The other part of the campaign (That was slated to be launched later on, but I think I had already left) was the Dove Self-Esteem Fund. At the time, it felt like a far off concept to me, but now I’d have to say, that having two girls, it actually hits home a little harder. I definitely would not want my girls to fall into the statistics of feeling inadequate because they cannot measure up to the impossible beauty standards that they’re exposed to on a daily basis!

Hopefully the DSEF has made much of an impact globally over the last six years. I have recently decided to keep track of its “progress”, and I would in fact love to hear from friends with girls in school that they have heard of the campaign or participated in one of its activities.

I guess all the more as parents of little women, it is important for us to remind our girls that they don’t need to alter their natural beauty. They simply have to care for it as best as they can (Well actually, Dove does have good products, so the campaign works well with it since you know you can rely on the brand to deliver on its promise!)

July 26, 2011
by mymommyology
10 Comments

Mommy Mush Brain

We all know what Mommy Mush Brain is — or have we already forgotten? 😉

Mommy Mush Brain is the term given to pregnant moms, moms with newborns, or well… moms in general. The loss of sleep, the epidurals, any and all of those combinations come into play resulting in some form of absentmindedness or temporary memory loss. I always blame the epidural. At any rate, it is a give: the transition into motherhood comes with a loss of memory cells.

Here (in my humble opinion and all too fresh experience of it) are some telltale signs that you indeed have a case of Mommy Mush Brain.

mmmmm?!

You use shampoo on your face and put lotion in your hair. Or something along those lines;
You’ve just shampoo-ed your hair and are rinsing it off when you think: Did I just shampoo my hair? and to be sure, you do it again;
You wake up not knowing what day of the week it is;
You put reminders and notes down on a post-it, but then forget where you’ve placed said post-it;
You open the refrigerator aiming to get milk, but once the contents of the ref are staring back at you, you think, What did I need again? And you pick up water instead. As the door closes that’s when you remember;
You’re getting the girls and their things ready, out the door and into the car muttering, “The bag, the water, the shoes. The bag, the water, the shoes. The bag the water the shoes…” And as you pull out of the garage you stop short, “The water!” And end up running back in to get it;
You play memory game with your toddler and she wins fair and square;
You ask your doula “How much do I owe you?” She says $9 and you give her $19 (Thankfully she counts it and laughs, returning the surplus to you);
You’re talking to OCMominmanila and she answers your question, but 5 minutes later you ask her the same question as if it was the first time you’ve asked it (Yes, I know I do it to you a lot but I know you love me anyway, haha!);
You’re talking to someone and somehow use all the wrong words to describe what you want to say but can never get it out right;
You hear your child saying, “Mommy! You forgot again!” more times than you would like;
All of the above, and many more!

Let not the name of this “condition” derail you from the fact that dads are prone to Mommy Mush Brain too.

The other night my husband put two pieces of Green Tea Mochi ice cream in one bowl for us to share. One each, he said. We were in front of the TV, and I had my computer in front of me as well (multitasking, what can I say?!). Because I hate melted ice cream, I immediately started eating, and was halfway through one before I set the bowl down to get to my emails. The other piece was left untouched.

My husband then took his turn and finished the half that I left off. He passed the bowl back to me and said, “You haven’t eaten your Mochi, it’s going to melt.”

I replied, “No I ate half,” and looked into the bowl to prove me right. “You ate my half!” I exclaimed.

“No I didn’t. I ate one whole. You haven’t eaten yours.” And we continued to argue about it into the next day, thinking that the other has completely misplaced his/her marbles.

Well, even if I am the mom with the mush brain, it is my blog, and I’ve told the story — so of course I’ve remembered it correctly. 😉

What are your Mommy Mush Brain moments? 🙂

July 24, 2011
by mymommyology
2 Comments

Say a Prayer

Two bits of news today.

The first is a request for my 7-year old cousin from Canada who has been found to have AVM (Anteriovenous malformation). It is a rare condition for kids her age to have, and as far as we know she has already undergone brain surgery due to an aneurysm. I’m told that the surgery went well, however she is still being closely monitored and yesterday had a seizure due to fever.

I cannot imagine what her immediate family in Canada is going through, and so I ask in behalf of my entire family to please say a silent prayer for her speedy and full recovery.

The other bit of news I just received was that Sofia Ysabel has passed away. She was 3.5 months old. Although a part of me feels a little relief that she is not suffering anymore, and I’m told that she went peacefully in the arms of her parents, I am still deeply saddened. No parent should have to suffer the loss of her child(ren).

So again if you would, kindly say a prayer for the eternal rest of her soul.

Thank You for Praying!

July 22, 2011
by mymommyology
9 Comments

Music in the Family

I’ll go ahead and say that we are a musical family. We’re not the next Von Trap family singers or dance troupe that’s for sure (I wouldn’t go that far!) but my husband and I definitely appreciate a variety of musical genres which we like to expose our girls to on a regular basis.

I’ve heard of soothing classical music for children and the benefits music has on infants and newborns. With both girls we’ve been very conscious to expose them to classical music to stimulate their brainwaves, even while they were both still in the womb. Up to now, our car radios are set to the classical station by default. Sam will once in a while request for her Kindermusik songs, and so between those two options we have pretty much our playlist set.

While she is listening, I am meanwhile learning tidbits of trivia about the featured artists.

Jamie, as I’ve come to observe, is turning out to be a jazzy kind of person. Here’s the thing: I have discovered that the Smooth Jazz Channel (Channel 934 on Time Warner Cable) actually helps rock her to sleep much faster. It has become our afternoon ritual, right after storytime with Ate (big sister). I take Jamie out of the bedroom with me, tune in to Music Choice and after about 10 minutes of swaying to the beat she is fast asleep and ready to lie down beside her big sister. Coupled with a few lunges, squats and leg lifts, then ladies and gentlemen, there you have our multitasking mid-afternoon dance-work-out routine! 😉

KK our doula says it’s much easier to teach them to go to sleep by constantly uttering the words, “go to sleep” or “time to sleep”, but well — this apparently works just fine. Hopefully that helps Jamie learn to appreciate music and movement just as much as it should help me achieve my baby weight loss goals.

I’m trying to think back if I listened to the Jazz Channel a lot while I was pregnant. Surely I had it on a couple of times. Maybe it sounds familiar to her? That’s possible right? In any case, I do hope that daily exposure to it is beneficial to her in the long run. As it is she can already recognize (or so I’d like to think) certain songs from Sam’s repertoire of shows and cartoons. She perks up and turns her head when she hears the opening song from Dora the Explorer, and will sometimes stop nursing when familiar tunes from the Sound of Music start to play.

Sam for now is a sponge to all kinds of music and songs. After listening to the lyrics to a song a couple of times, you’ll catch her singing it while playing, before sleeping, or in the car on the way to somewhere. I’ve kept her musical exposure to the wholesome kind, from what she’s seen on her shows (Barney, Annie, Beauty and the Beast and the like), while her father has, shall we say, “expanded” her taste and variety to the more modern kind.

A few weeks ago she came home from a date with her dad, half dancing and stepping towards me saying, without skipping a beat, “I want to kick it in the back-seat Mom!” I laughed and dismissed it, thinking that it was a phrase she heard from somewhere, as she has been picking up phrases from her teachers lately. Her daddy had this mischievous grin on his face, but he didn’t say anything.

And then today on our way home from some errands, I turn on the radio and hear this: