Weaning a Toddler from Bottle Feeding

It was the same time last year when I potty trained Amber. I trained her for 3 days only. It was really successful and from then on, I don't put on diaper on her if we're here at home. 

Now that she's 3 and will be attending school this year, I decided to wean her from drinking milk from her feeding bottle. A few months back, I gave away 2 bottles to my nephew and we were down to 3 bottles. The other day, I just decided to wean her right then and there. I remember posting on Facebook asking moms like me how to successfully wean a toddler from drinking in a feeding bottle and there were a lot of suggestions from my friends. But again, it still boils down to how the child will respond to this change, right?

Day 1: She still used her feeding bottle to drink water. She was used to this when she's lying and playing on her tablet or whenever she drinks water. Then when I decided to start weaning her, I told her that she will now start drinking milk from her cup. And as many toddler will respond, she cried and said no. There were few attempts to ask for milk in a bottle but I always tell her that if she wants milk, I will have to use her cup. And then another loud cry from her. 

And as for me being a "grumpy" mommy, I also prepared myself for this training, haha. Training talaga. I have to have a lot of patience with this because it is already given and expected she will cry if I don't give her what she wants. So Day 1, she did not drink milk, the whole day. I tried feeding her rice and ham (she requested) but didn't even finish eating it. 

Day 2: Around 2am to 4am, she woke up asking for milk. I asked her, "Gusto mo timplahan kita sa baso, Amber?" And then she insisted, "Gusto ko sa bottle!" And then I told her again that there are no more bottles. I haven't said the reason why there were no bottles anymore. She cried for about 30 minutes or less and then fell asleep again.

When she woke up past 6am, I asked her if she wants Milo and bread with cheese and she said yes. So I made her Milo and tasty bread with cheese. She was able to finish 2 tasty bread with cheese and Milo too. For lunch, I cooked Tinola because it's one of her favorite ulam. Unfortunately, she only had about 3-4 spoon of it. Then she requested for milk, this time she's requesting for milk in a cup! Yay! I was so happy when I heard it and I said I will make her a cup of milk. When I handed it over to her, she said she doesn't want it full so I had to drink some of it to make it half full. She wasn't able to finish it but it was still fine. Baby steps. :) I again gave her milk before she went to bed and she was able to finish it. Ha! (Had to make "uto" for her to finish it. Haha.)

 I made this yesterday when she requested for bread with cheese. I am not really creative and this is all what I came up to, but to my surprise she actually loved it, she said to me, "Mommy sarap ng heart na cheese!"

What made me so happy was when I realized this morning that she was asleep the whole night, she didn't woke me up to ask for milk because she was full that night before she went to bed. Ha! I also made a story yesterday afternoon about her feeding bottles. I told her that a mommy snake came here and asked her Daddy if we have feeding bottles because the baby snakes needs the bottles and so her Daddy gave it to the mommy snake." Haha. I guess it made her think why it has to be the snake. Haha. I also heard her say to her cousin, "Hindi na ako iinom ng milk sa bottle." Hahaha. 

We are now on Day 3 and I bought her Bear Brand Choco Milk and likes it very much. I can say we are successful on the 3rd day just like when we did the potty train last year. Oh by the way, we also stopped giving her chocolates, candies, cookies with fillings. I bough crackers only to stock in her "baunan" so she'll get used to eating those. I admit that I made a lot of mistakes in the past because I thought that giving her want she "wants" will be good for her, I was totally wrong. We always give her chocolates, candies and other sweets in the past whenever I do groceries for her but now, we limit the sweets we give her.

This is her lunch today. I had to buy cheese powder so she'll eat these nuggets. The nuggets I bought doesn't come with free cheese powder which she loves. She finished her food because of the magical cheese powder. :)

To all moms who are reading this, I'd like to know how you were able to successfully wean your toddlers into a life changing moment such as this. I'd like to hear good stories because I am a first time mom so it would be a great help if you share your stories too!

Christmas Shopping Online

I know this is a very late post but I want to share with you where I bought most of my gifts last Christmas. Since they say that Christmas is enjoyed most by kids, I didn't spend much on giving gifts to grown ups except for my husband of course. Haha. I did online shopping of clothes for my daughter and some of my inaanak. I have a lot of inaanak na pala and I lost contact with some of them.

Anyway, I seldom give toys to kids on birthdays, christening or Christmas. I make sure that I give something that they can use like clothes. Now, I was browsing through Instagram -- let me remind you, I am purchasing most of my stuff here as well and I am getting addicted to this, I came across this seller @rileyraye_mustloved who sells cute ternos for kids. (Check out her page) This seller is so nice and we get along very well. I did a last minute shopping, I thin ordered a week before Christmas and I had to wait for some orders that she need to buy for me. This is what I bought from her (first batch).

All of these clothes only cost me P1390.00 and she gave me free shipping! She even gave my daughter a free sando and hair clip which my daughter really loved wearing. What a great deal, isn't it? Yay!

And then, since I became a fan of the clothes she's selling, I ordered again this week. She had a clearance sale and dropped prices on most of the items which I grabbed hurriedly! Haha. Here it is. I just got this yesterday.

As always the clothes were really nice like the first time I ordered from her. I got the 3 pieces of sando for 100 pesos, the stripe dress also for 100 pesos, stripes green terno sando for me and Amber also for 100 pesos and a sando set (not in the photo) for 85 pesos. She gave me freebies again, this time 2 hair clips. I am super happy. :)

You may check out her IG profile for clothes she's selling, you might want to order too! Haha. She's became a friend of mine already because we've been vibing almost everyday. Haha. Check her out @rileyraye_mustloved.I will definitely buy more from her because I saw another seller who sells the same clothes for kids but the price is almost twice the price of what she's selling. I'm with the right seller, thank God. Really good buy!

What would you like to accomplish this year?

Happy New Year everyone! It's been a while since I last visited and posted on this blog. Like everyone else, I've been busy with the holidays and work, hiring new people to work for me.

Anyway, I'd like to share with you some of the things that I want to accomplish this year.

1. Replace my laptop. 

- This is actually a thing I've been meaning to do since last quarter of the year. The laptop I am using right now was given to me by my father way back in 2008. It's been 5 years. There were signs of aging (haha!) with this laptop. I am looking to buy a netbook this year because it is handy and I don't have to buy a work table that is so big.

2. Organize my time more.

- This year, my daughter will be nursery. I have to organize and manage my time so I can attend to, as much as possible, to all the things I need to do for a certain day or week.

3. Improve my relationship with God.

- I just realized that I had been Born Again since 2010 but then it seems that there were only few changes in my spiritual life. With that I mean, I also have to improve my attitude towards people. I am a certified moody and mataray and I need to really do something about it. I want to participate to the church I am attending to right now and want to share what I love to do. God has showed a sneak peek of it. Back in November, I started being an emcee with 2 Sunday service and hosting our Christmas party. It was a good start for me and I am claiming God has a lot of things in store for me this year.

4. Learn more new recipes.

- I want to try out new recipes this year and try new restos and new food this year. I'd like to cook for my family more this year. 

5. Save!

- Okay. Don't judge me on this. I am a person who does not save at all. I am used to spending all my money until there is nothing left. And now that my daughter will be in school this year, I am obliged to save for tuition fees, for field trips, extra curricular expenses at school, and other things. So I am determined to start saving small amount at a time. I have yet to figure out how but I'd like to do it.

6. Write more.

- I had been a WAHM for almost a year and all I do at work is type, type, type. This year, I'd like to go back to writing journals, writing stuff everyday and so on. I am thinking of buying a small, handy journal to fit in my purse or bag.

7. Buy a new bag.

- I am not a bag person and by this I mean that I can go out of the house with just the stuff of my daughter inside HER bag. I don't bring my own bag. I just find it too heavy to carry two bags every time we go out. So this year, I'd like to invest to a new bag, not that expensive, not that big, but a bag where I can put the journal, lipstick, purse, wallet, napkins for emergency, first aid medicine like Biogesic, perfume and so on.

8. Be more cheerful and less stress.

- This is the last and best thing I'd like to accomplish this year. Don't we all want this? :) I'd like to be less mataray, more cheerful, happier, less stress and just enjoy my life as a WAHM.

There are a lot of things I'd like to accomplish this year but these are the main ones I'd like done as soon as possible. I will go back to this post from time to time so I can remind myself (and will post in my laptop's notepad as well)the things I need and want to accomplish.

Giving Tithes

I just want to share with you our road to becoming a faithful giver of tithes to our church.

Me and my husband had been Born Again since 2010 and to be honest, we do not follow what is written in the Bible that we are to give 10% of what we have such as earnings and salaries. Me and my husband talked about giving 10% of our salaries to our church. I have to be honest that it was hard for us as this will be the first time that we will do it in 3 years. 

This happened last week and I earned 4,800 for 2 weeks and my husband earned 4,200. So that means that it's a total of 9,000 and we are to give 900 of it to church. If you think of it, 900 can buy a can of milk for our daughter, groceries and pay our water bill or electricity.I was tempted to reduce the amount but with God's help, we survived the whole week waiting for Sunday service to arrive and then we gave our tithes.

I talked to my husband about it and he said that he was also feeling the same way. He thought the amount was too high but then he thought it will be for God. We are so proud of this achievement. It felt good when we are able to provide and give back to God all the blessing we received and we believe that there will be more blessings to come.

The Dress is Here!

Hey everybody!

I just want to share with you the photos of the dresses I won on Instagram (see my previous post about it) and I am so happy with the dresses that arrived today.

My daughter was so happy to see the pink tutu. It was her dream to have one. Haha. And the purple clips you see on her hair was a freebie from the seller as well. Imagine, free na yung damit, may freebie pa ulit? Yay!

When I tried the dresses on to my daughter, I was a bit sad kasi hindi kasya ang purple dress. It was small for her and I was sad because the dress is really nice, elegant ang dating talaga. However, me and my daughter decided to just give it to her cousin Agnes who's more than a year old because I think this will fit her. Christmas gift nalang namen sa kanya. :)

I am still in awe for winning this super nice dresses. I really recommend their dresses because of good quality. You can follow her IG account, @pinkkishboutique so you can check out other nice dresses and jegging sets for you toddlers.

Thank you @pinkkishboutique! May pamasko na ang daughter ko. Off to see some shoes naman for Christmas! :)

First Time to Win on Instagram!

I just want to share with you the good news I received last night while I was working my ass off.

As you all know or probably not, I am so into Instagram nowadays. I buy clothes here for me and daughter. There's this one online store where I bought my daughter's tutu dress and they had a "Race to 2k followers" contest on Instagram. I think I was on the first 50 people who reposted the photo and I was actually not hoping to win on it. 

Last night, I saw a photo posted by the seller that they already reached 2k followers and they will be selecting the lucky winners. There will be two winners and prizes are the cutest and prettiest dresses she is selling. One gets to have 50% on the dress and the one gets 2 dresses of their choice and the winner would just need to shoulder the shipping fee. Guess what I got?

I was so kilig when I received a vibe message from the seller. How sweet of her to message me and told me to check out her video and that I won! Woohoo! Until now, I can't help but be excited because I get to choose any 2 dresses I want for Amber. And since I won, the seller allowed me to choose even the most expensive dress on her shop! Yay! So I did. I was a bit hesitant at first but then gave up in the end. Haha. I hope to get the dresses this weekend. 

I am so happy because Amber will have her Christmas and New Year dress all free from this shop! I am so thrilled with this because this is the first ever contest I joined that I actually won! Hahaha. Thank you Pinkkishboutique!

Follow her on Instagram and I'm sure you will love the dresses she's selling! Super gaganda talaga!

A must for WAHM

I just read a blog post about the things she wanted to change in her life now that she's a WAHM and I realized that what she wrote on her blog was the exact same sentiments I have when I became a WAHM this year. So I want to share with you my thoughts about this ever rewarding job (yes, I consider this a job!).

When I started working from home last March, I only had my laptop and my internet with me. I work in our bedroom after lunch, after all chores are done including washing the clothes, cooking and feeding my 3-year old daughter. I didn't realized that I should have at least a desk or a little working space where I can work decently. The blog post I read gave me an idea. Yay!

I have a condition called dextroscoliosis and a lot of times, my back hurts especially when I am working long hours on the computer. And my work space right now is our bed, literally our bed. I have bed table where I put my laptop and I sometimes work there and most of the time I put my laptop on our bed, on top of a pillow. This must end and be changed.

So I browsed the net and scouted for possible small work space I can find. I actually just need a decent desk and chair. And these photos made me smile and made me inspired to pursue my goal to create my own little work space in our bedroom.(Photos are not mine)

Aside from this plan of having a decent desk and chair, I am also planning to buy a netbook. I currently own a big laptop and the screen has black inks on it already and it distracts me whenever I use it. I really should save up for this major change in my WAHM career. I guess I have to start scouting for desks and chairs when I go to the mall and save up for it. Awww! I am getting excited. I wish I have 13th month pay too, just like the regular employees, but then I am happy and contented with my current work because I love what I'm doing.

By the way, I am also not decided on what brand of netbook I should buy but definitely not too expensive as I don't need to install major applications on it. I just need a VLC player, MS Word and MS Excel for my work, really basic so I don't need a very techie-pricey netbook. I should create a savings jar for this whole project. Awww! Why do we have less money every time we have things that we need to buy? I always wonder about that.

I will update everyone when I have saved and purchased one item at a time. The netbook will definitely the last thing to buy. My target for that is next year.