Brie and Me

We already have most of Brie's toys in bins because we're cycling them. However, we keep some out in the open; mostly her favorites and, of course, her books. And right now, we're in a transitioning phase in terms of living arrangements (translated: we're working on getting our own home) so we try to keep most of our things in our room. That makes keeping things tidy very  challenging. I know we have the option to buy pretty cabinets and shelves, but I'm trying to keep our "things to move (eventually)" minimal. And I actually like doing things :) What I have are empty diaper boxes. I originally had 2 and I simply flipped them on their sides and stacked them and taped the flaps straight. Then we got a 3rd box - you know, because diapers. And I didn't want to stack that one on top of the first 2 because the flaps were flimsy and I just wasn't satisfied with it. I did a very small change and it turned out exactly what I needed! I took out the flap...

For Fathers' Day, Daddy brought Brie to the toy store. It was the loveliest thing ever! Daddy didn't want to go to any fancy restaurant, he just wanted to buy Brie some toys :) We thought about what she has been interested with and we were set on buying her dolls. But we're not very keen to buying her Barbie so, being the geeks we are, we looked for Darth Vader and for Princess Leia. Out of stock. That would probably be something we'll get sometime in the future. What we ended up getting her was a set of Animal Farms by Animal Planet . Brie absolutely loved it! We'd play games where I would ask her to point to the animal I named. And I'm trying to teach her that the bigger version is the mommy while the smaller version is the baby. What she really liked was the stable that came with. It's colorful and very attractive. It also has a door that opens and closes. The only problem with it is that it's too darn small! It's tiny! Only some of the baby...

I'm not even sure if Brie is ready for this game at 16 months but I know that she currently loves magnets. So instead of buying her a fishing toy, I decided to make a set out of whatever materials I already have. I used the following: foam sheets for the fish paper clips to make the fish magnetic a tiny magnet sewed into a cloth pouch ribbon for the fishing line a chopstick for the fishing pole glue to stick things with, scissors to cut things with, and finally a marker to draw the fish details and make them cute Cut out fish from foam sheets. Best to cut out one and then use that as a template for the rest. Then you put a paper clip on one fish and glue on another foam fish on top of that. Use a marker to draw the fish details.  I don't have step-by-step pictures for the "hook and line" that I made. It's very simple: get a tiny magnet, put it in a piece of cloth, sew it sealed, then tie a ribbon on that and onto a chopstick. That...

So this  is the time moms actually do all those fun crafts you see on Pinterest! My husband was wondering why I was taking so long staring at the crafts isles in the grocery store and all I wanted to get was a pack of magnets. Anyway, my first DIY craft for this blog is just a pretty-fied recycled chocolate box with a magnet at the back :) Finished product. Why do I need it? Because I now have a magnetic board inspired by Pinterest! We bought a huge oil drip pan from Walmart - we even bought it where they said we should! I started off with a chocolate box. I cut it in half and then glued them together in the middle to make a thicker box. Then I took a scrapbook paper and covered it. Cut the top part so you can fold it into the box. Glue on a magnet at the back. I didn't even bother covering the back part completely. And it's done!

I get weekly emails from BabyCenter to get hints. I don't really fuss if Brie doesn't follow what they write. They do keep reiterating that babies develop uniquely. But I keep the subscription because I want to be reading about might-come's. So this week/month they wrote that most around this time,  babies lose the morning nap . I thought about "enforcing" the no-morning-nap schedule. But decided against it. I kinda like our current schedule, it works well for both of us! She is down to 2 naps in a day and has been following roughly the same schedule since she turned 1. 6:00 am : WAKE UP! We usually stay in bed for 20 minutes. She nurses and snuggles and plays with my face (by "play" I mean pokes at everything until I make her stop). She will then inspect her toy bin for the day while I tidy up the bed. 7:00 am : Breakfast. This week she actually had a few new cereals. Just a month ago she wouldn't touch any kind of cereals even though s...

I am a year out of touch with our blog! I will try to add dated posts from the past year... So an update to what we have going on right now: Brie is walking fully. We're past "come on, Brie, you can walk!" and onto "Walk! Don't run! Walk!!" She took her first few steps when she was 9 1/2 months. She was already cruising then, holding on to the crib rail or on to the side of the bed/couch to walk side ways. Come to think of it, she barely crawled. Brie's younger relative, Kaidon, who is now 10 months old is crawling so much, it's amazing! It's a good thing Brie didn't crawl as much because we didn't have the floor space for it! Brie is also talking! Some of the words she has on her vocabulary: Mummy (mommy) Daddy Kahga ( karga; "lift" for getting picked up) Dede ( dede;  "milk") Manya-manya-manya ( manyaman ; "delicious") Ba (bath) Baa (bottle; yes, there's a difference) Latta (laptop...