These Days

Daniela turned 5 months old almost 2 weeks ago! We've started giving her solids because we observed that she's hungrier with just milk. And she's seems interested in food especially when we're at the dinner table. So far, she's tried bananas, squash, peas and apple. She makes a funny 'mukasim' face with the apples.=) We have also started supplementing with formula milk because I only pump once a day in the office and it's not enough for her daily needs. When I'm at home, she's breastfed. I hope we can keep this up for many more months. She is gaining strength in her legs and can already lift her butt up. We find her sleeping in this position sometimes. I think it will not be long before she starts crawling. We also see better hand-eye coordination. She grabs at whatever is interesting infront of her. And that includes putting these things in her mouth. She can cry really loud now, especially if she wants attention. She's a ver...

The Huffington Post had this article yesterday entitled 12 Illustrations That Are All Too Real For Introverts . Of course I had to check it out. Introvert Doodles is the comic series by Maureen Wilson  and I can relate to most of them. After reading Quiet, these cartoons made it more evident that introverts have common experiences that I tend to believe are unique just because I don't see it in others. So this reinforces that the challenges and struggles and joys and idiosyncrasies are real and shared by others. Plus they're funny.  I looked through all of the past doodles and the ones here are all too true for me. =) Praning sa email. I don't just read the sent emails. I even recall them sometimes just to make sure. Thank you, Gmail, for the 30-second window. Or pretend to be sleepy... This is why Rich does most of the calling in our house.=) This season, rarely alone but never lonely.

High Museum of Art http://www.high.org/ 1280 Peachtree Street, N.E. Atlanta, GA 30309 We visited the High Museum of Art yesterday, September 26. It was Museum Day and we got 2 free tickets from the Smithsonian website. There were many other participating museums in Atlanta but we chose this one because they have a special exhibit of Mo Willems' art. We love his Elephant and Piggie books! Art overload! We love museums. Ela seemed to like it, too. She was calm and happy the whole time.=) This dish was particularly interesting. There was a short line to get infront of it because it amplifies sound and those kaleidoscope-like reflections are so much fun. There were more of this museum that we were not able to take pictures of, like the old European paintings and sculptures, because my camera's battery ran out. We got there before 3PM and they were open only until 5PM because of an event. We had a lot of viewing to squeeze into two...

Last Saturday, we had a get-together at Mavic's house with a few business travelers from Manila. It was potluck and we prepared chicken adobo. It's always fun to be around Filipino friends, especially over food, videoke, kwentuhan, inuman (not me) and... gym equipment! I didn't realize it was already late so we had to leave the party at 11PM. Sa uulitin! 80s themed videoke session Gym time at the basement Titas

I got a new sewing machine today! This was ordered on Friday night and delivered today, thanks to Nang Lani's Amazon Prime. It feels like my birthday.=) I didn't realize how much I've missed sewing until I unboxed this. I was so excited to start hemming pants, repairing tears or do some projects but unfortunately the threads I ordered will be delivered tomorrow... So one more day until I can test drive my new toy. Projects coming soon! Huge box Here it is!

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain . I heard about this book when it was released a couple of years back. I should have read it sooner. So many points from this book resonated with me. I took down a lot of notes. I am familiar with the idea (and from experience) that introverts thrive in solitude, quiet and low-key environments while extroverts are energized by being around many people or lively situations. What was new to me is the concept of introverts being highly sensitive. Not in the emotional sense but in terms of being easily overwhelmed by stimuli. I can relate. I feel unsettled if there are too many things going on. I easily get roused by noise and consider absolute silence a luxury. Being an introvert is a challenge because of the Extrovert Ideal. Many of our institutions are designed for extroverts. For example, modern offices have open plans, we are forced to work in teams (not inherently bad) and are expected to be liv...

Holy Smoke Festival is the annual Labor Day event organized by the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. We had no plans to go anywhere far on this holiday so we decided to check this out. There were inflatables for kids, food trucks and other vendors, musicians, silent auction, car show, and aerial demonstration and parachute jump. We didn't stay long because it was hot but we enjoyed being there. Barbecue meals for $5. Good deal! Car show Aerial demonstration

We're done with the first 4 weeks of second grade and slowly getting the hang of schoolwork and scheduling.  Neil did not have homework for the first 2 weeks so he had more unstructured time. The last 2 weeks though, we got busy making sure he gets everything done. There's a lot more this year compared to first grade. His regular schoolwork includes: Reading journal. They're required to read at least 20 minutes per day and log the book title, author, number of pages and their opinion. We don't have a problem with asking Neil to read. He exceeds the time minimum easily logging is another story. Spelling words. They get 10 spelling words per week that need to be incorporated into 3 activities. For example, using clay to spell the words or write them in alphabetical order, etc. It's easy but they also take time. Vocabulary journal. More words. They copy the given definition and write sample sentences. Words may be added everyday. Supplemental exercises on IXL.com ...