You know how Pharmacy’s here have a lot of displays on their cashier counters? They would have anything and everything displayed near the cashier especially batteries, hand sanitizers, mints and gums, lip balms, and in Watson’s case, tons and tons of condoms of different brands.

As I was paying for my medicine, my kid looked at the display of products in front of him. And what do you know, he zoomed in on those small colorful boxes of frenzy condoms and asked in his normally loud voice – “Mommy, can you buy me frenzy?”. My jaw dropped and I immediately looked sheepishly at the one next in line, who happened to be a male by the way. I was sweaty and flushed and was tapping my foot impatiently as the lady behind the counter appeared to be taking too long in ringing up my purchase. Too long in fact that my son turned his attention from frenzy to trust. He even called out “Trust. Trust.” several times to my embarrassment. I told him, those were not candies and those were meant for daddies and not kids. He insisted for about one hundred times before giving in and it was only because the cashier had finished up with my purchase. I left Watsons in a hurry and sincerely wishing that would never happen again.

Now that my son is six years old, he is more and more curious about what things are and why things are what they are and most of the time I am unprepared for the questions that pop out of his mouth. Sometimes I feel like were on a stand up comedy show except my son is serious about his questions and I feel like a fool stumbling on my answers to them. Kids!

Photo courtesy of Rosana Prada

That is why I brought up my own kids without Santa Claus. Oh yes they see him in decorations, malls, and know him enough to call out “Santa Claus” when they see his picture or image. But they don’t know what his story is or how it is told. That many kids around the world believe that if you have been nice then you will get what you wished for come Christmas time. The he travels the world from the North Pole, visiting all the children and going down chimneys to deliver presents to those who have been good all year round.

I don’t think I am depriving my kids of anything. At least not in the way I have heard some people say about parents who tell their kids early on the truth about Santa. Kids these days are so smart do you really believe we can fool them into thinking reindeers fly and Santa can fit into the opening of the smallest chimney just to deliver presents? I am pretty sure the first question that I will be asked is – “Mommy, what will Santa use to go into our house if we don’t have a chimney?” or maybe “Do the reindeers go down the chimney too?” or even “How old is Santa anyway"?”.

My kids have grown up (and will continue to grow up) telling us what they want for Christmas instead of whispering them to some old guy wearing a red suit as they sit on their laps. To them he will only be a representation of Christmas, similar to the Christmas tree or gifts or decorations or lights or Jingle Bells. And that is how I want them to be.

Do you believe in Santa Claus?

Is there such a thing as too much studying? One of the things I worried about when I was pregnant with my first kid, was whether I can exert enough influence over their study habits to ensure they have a good future. I have seen many people throw away their future by letting their grades slip in school and I would not want that for my child.

I am now blessed with two boys and am so thankful that they display so much potential. They do well in school and although there are times they make it extremely difficult for me to get them to sit down and finish their homework, they have both managed to finish at the top of their class.

Now you would think I have nothing to worry about as I have it good. Nah. I do worry, constantly. You see I have two very different and unique boys. The eldest is very smart. He learns fast and works fast. However, he prefers to play rather than study his lessons. As for my youngest son, my 3-year old son, he prefers to study. He prefers to study rather than play. That’s a good thing. But he also prefers to study rather than sleep and even eat! And that is where I draw the line. I hope to have a smart kid but I would also like him to be well rounded and.. well normal. Children should be able to play and eat and dance around and make mistakes. I don’t want them to grow up and realize they missed a big chunk of their childhood just because I made them study “hard”.

So what do you think? Is there such a thing as too much studying?

Sacrifice is relative. You cannot and should not easily judge the validity just because you feel it to be such easy task. It may be chicken to you, but a monster to others. The real question is will you give up what you feel so strongly against because the men you so love gaze upon you with pleading eyes to “Please oh please buy a dog Mom!”.

You see I really do not like pets, dogs or cats. Fish I could consider but my kids (and my husband) want a dog. I know I know I am so mean, but I do seriously feel that our lives would change a lot once a dog has entered into the picture. With all the stress at work and outside work, I don’t think I can take having a dog invade our space. Ok MY space.

I have always told my kids that they can have a dog when they are old enough to take care of it. At 6 and 3 years of age, I doubt they can and would probably leave it to me, my hubby or the yaya’s to take care of it. I will not allow that. So I guess no pets for now. Maybe in 2 years or so.

These are some of the ad jingles that run through my head as I try to sleep every night. For some reason my two boys have caught the tune and have been jumping to the music of these TV commercials every chance they get.

My family and I rarely tune in to local TV channels and if we do, its only to watch the early morning Unang Hirit or the evening news. In addition, we often watch those investigative or feature programs that are shown on Saturday night. Fortunately the channels that we frequently tune in to show commercials that I do not find offensive. And these are what my kids have come to mimic.

Now I don’t know who is smarter, the creators of those catchy jingles or my kids who upon hearing them once are able to memorize the words and sing the lyrics. I watch them fondly as they play but each night find it difficult to chase away the words that remind me of ice cream with three flavors and an iced dessert made with ube (a.k.a purple yam).

With all the smart *ss comments and questions I received from the my two very intelligent boys, I could have created a whole season’s show on my own. Most of their comments are really turned into some form of wisecrack by the tone of their voices and the accompaniment of rolling eyes. I myself have been told many times that I have a very animated face whenever I talk so maybe that’s where they mimicked the facial expressions. Only its much much cuter when they are the ones who do it.

Do you have a collection of your own? What memorable quotes or quips from your kids can you remember?

• Son: "Mommy, nagbebenta ako, bili ka" (Mommy, I’m selling, buy something)
  Mommy: "Magkano to?" (How much?)
  Son: "100 million pesos". Expensive!
• Son: "Mommy use these brown shoes, not that. Magsusugat paa mo dyan. (You’ll hurt your feet if you use that)" (The brown shoes were ballet flats and I was wearing heeled pumps).
• Son: "Ang baho mo Mommy. (You stink Mommy)" I then realized something smelled back. I realized he farted! LOL.
• Son: "Ako payat, si Yaya payat, si Kuya payat, si Mommy mataba" (I’m thin, Yaya is thin, my brother is thin, my Mommy is fat). What the?!!
• Son: "Mommy, why is the moon following us?"
  Mommy: "Uhh, I don’t know baby. Maybe he is stalking us."
  Son: "What is stalking?"
  Mommy: "Uhh… we’re home!"
• Son: "Mommy, is salt good for you?"
  Mommy: "Not really."
  Son: "Then why did you put salt in my egg?" Uhh. Says to myself – yeah Mommy so why did you?

Its these precious moments that make me suddenly smile in the middle of the day especially when things get too hectic or stressful. Sometimes I think, I must have done something good to be blessed with such lovable kids.

I have not met one parent who did not have a problem with getting their children to eat vegetables. Just a few days ago, I witnessed one mom trying to coax her son to stop taking the lettuce out of the burger she bought him. I looked at them amusingly and turned to look at my son who was busy finishing his share of our food. He was eating everything, meat, onions, veggies, everything.

Not to say I have not had my share of cajoling and encouraging and maybe even some bribing just to get my kids to eat one more vegetable. Although I can’t really recall the last time I had to do it. I guess I have always been lucky or I must have done something right that my kids picked up on.

I think it happened when they were at that copycat stage, mimicking everything their parents and everyone around them would do. Being the food enthusiast that I am, my face turns very expressive whenever food enters my mouth. Be it yum, yuck or otherwise. When they saw that I was putting the icky veggies into my mouth and not spitting it out, they must have thought it was good for them and so started eating it as well. Then they started having favorites and by then it was easy to "force" other varieties to them, even when they did not like it. I say force because there are still moments when they are not in the mood to eat veggies.

Leading by example. The power of imitation. Now isn’t that the perfect example of taking advantage of something that can sometimes prove to be irritating?

I wonder why I rarely (or never) hear about being the older child. I don’t necessarily mean eldest child, but older child. I feel that anyone who has a younger sibling will experience a sort of older child syndrome.

When I was young, I recall constant reminders to be the better sibling, just because I was older, bigger and presumably wiser. I witness the same being said by many other parents to their kids. I used to recall hating it. I hated and resented having to be the older child. I wanted to play, demand, run around, be immature, roll in the mud and not be reprimanded for it. I did not want to be the role model for my younger sisters. I wanted to fight back when they teased me and pinched me. I wanted to be a kid and not an adult.

Its funny because now that I am a mother of two, I observe that I am guilty of doing the same thing to my kids. I don’t think that children should fall under any syndrome middle, older or otherwise so every time I notice myself saying things like – "let him have be, he is younger than you", or "don’t fight back, he is younger and doesn’t know what he is doing" – I check myself and try to say something that would make more sense to my kids than justifying an action just because of age or birth order.

I want my kids to grow up strong, independent, willful, kind but no doormat. These days when size or age is no longer an issue, I find it so wrong to bring up a child thinking he owes something to people just because of these two factors.

What do you think?

I am not new to taking pictures but have only been focused on learning to take great pictures this year and I actually started out with photos of the food that I use for my food blog. Just today, I played around with the camera and took plenty of shots of my kids playing around in the yard this morning. It was an exhilarating experience to be taking action pictures of kids, catching their smiles and their funny faces.

It was a good thing, I found the PhotoHunt theme, Together. One of the pictures I took today is perfect for that. The picture below shows my eldest son scraping the soil in the yard as his little brother watches and does the same thing. Funny.

I am the kind of mom who prefers not to leave home without my kids (at least not if I can help it). Going to the grocery or mall even if its just to run errands always means a day out to my kids. They are the ones who look forward to accompanying me on those errands more than I want to do them. So I try to schedule these kinds of trips when I know it would be ok to take my kids with me.

Oh but every time we do these family trips to the mall or the nearby grocery, I find myself wondering if I am the only mother who thinks its an extreme physical activity. Did you ever come across a small, slightly plump woman in jeans and flats, pushing a grocery cart (filled with items like food and diapers) where a small boy is seated talking nonstop, while at the same time holding on to a five year old who keeps jumping and skipping and sprinting back and forth despite pitiful pleas from his mom to stop – that was me.

I swear some women I meet out there make it look so effortless. I, on the other hand, often lose poise, sweat it out and turn out like an evil witch to my kids. Sigh. Despite all that, I never think twice about bringing them along. So what if my hair gets messed up or I get aching legs, arms and back at the end of the day – to me its still worth every minute.

Do you leave your kids at home when you have to run out and do errands?