The Balik Bukid Experience

I've been wanting to visit Sta. Elena Fun Farms ever since I've read about it in My Mom-Friday's post. They also have the Balik Bukid fair which happens twice a year, one during summer and one in the last quarter of the year.On their first year, we were busy with the wedding preps and I didn't know about them then, the following year, we were busy with parenthood. But finally this year, it happened! Just right on time for Mother's Day! :)))

Since it was our first time, I would like to share with you some of our learnings so you can enjoy your Balik Bukid experience more.

1. It is best to choose the right time you want to go to the fair. Check the schedule posted on their Facebook Page to see what activities will interest you. The fair starts at 8:00am and ends till 6:00pm. If you're coming with babies and toddlers, I suggest going early morning, or late afternoon. Otherwise, lunch time could be a little uncomfortable especially if you're going on a hot summer day.
2. Don't forget to bring stuff that will protect you from the sun. Hats, umbrellas, abanikos, sunscreen, etc. There are available stuff on site as well, but it's still best to bring your own so you won't need to buy and spend extra.
3. Think about having a picnic! Because that's one of the best things you can do during the fair. Bring blankets, pillows, etc. You can just choose a spot and setup and enjoy munching some food you got from the participating stalls or just enjoy an afternoon nap. We're definitely doing this next time.

Here are some of the photos during our visit. We particularly enjoyed watching Ava interact with the animals. She was so ecstatic. Just look at that face. :)

Celebrating One Year of BLW

It was exactly on Ava's 6th month celebration when we introduced her to solids. Her first food was avocado. That was one year ago already.

When we started out with the whole parenting thing, we were basically relying on our doctors, parents and siblings for advises. That meant doing everything the traditional way. As we adjusted a few months later, we began to have a better understanding that we are already building a family of our own. I, particularly, wanted to break from my family's norm of raising up kids. Don't get me wrong, I am forever grateful to my parents and I respect my siblings' decisions in raising up their own kids. It's just that I think, our generations have evolved immensely and there are significant information that we didn't know back then that we know now. That's where our choice for Attachment Parenting (AP) came in.

Back to Basics with a Twist

One year of cloth diapering, we have 35 cloth diapers in rotation, plus boosters and extra inserts and other cloth diaper accessories. And oh, we're still expecting a fluffy mail coming in soon. No, that wasn't bragging. If you've been into the whole cloth diapering community, you'll know that that's the average number for an ideal stash.

Let me share our cloth diapering story. :)

We were typical new parents when Ava came along, we had problems with breastfeeding, we were bickering because of exhaustion from the lack of sleep and other typical issues. Getting myself together after the CS operation, taking care of a newborn without a Yaya, going back to work and managing my milk supply were just some of the things we had to overcome. After a couple of months, we eventually got our rhythm as parents and things started getting easier. That's also the time when I found ways how we can go about the whole new world of parenting.

The answer: Fellow parents, especially Mothers, with newborns and toddlers alike from different online communities. One of them was the MCNP Facebook Group.

Before I gave birth to Ava, I've been reading a lot about cloth diapers but the whole thing seemed to be a little too overwhelming with all the do's and don't's so we decided to just skip the whole thing and go for disposables. We were buying a disposable diaper that was 14Php a piece that only lasted for a maximum of 4 hours depending on whether Ava's gonna poop on a new one or not. After a couple of months, we downgraded to a brand that's a little cheaper but still at 10Php a piece. Apparently, the bigger the size the more expensive it becomes. It was about the same time last year, summer time, and the heat was as bad as what we are experiencing right now. And that, is an instant recipe for baby bum rashes. Ava was five months then. Luckily, an Expo Mom was happening that time and we were able to get 3 cloth diapers for trial. A week later, we were exclusively cloth diapering Ava. And as they say, the rest was history. :)

Summer Time is Travel Time

It's summer time and it goes without saying that family trips are also here. For first time parents like us, travelling with a toddler could be a great challenge. Not that we have been travelling, but I've been thinking about it and thought about ways of how we'll manage when the time comes.

Just recently, we were able to travel and visit my parents in Nueva Ecija. It's usually a 3-4-hour-drive from Manila via NLEX, but it seemed like everybody was headed the same way. It took as 6 hours. Our fambam's first time to travel with Ava the toddler that long.

Luckily, our little happy belle didn't seem to bother the long drive. And it also helped that we brought some stuff that kept her busy.


Here's my take on what you can do while travelling with your toddler:

Carseats

The use of carseats in our country is not as strict compared to others. I am also guilty of this, most of the time, we're good with Ava just sitting on my lap either in the front passenger seat or at the back. But I think we should all practice safe travelling especially when we are with our children. Make sure they are all buckled up comfortable and secured. Unlucky for us, we just realized that our darling daughter already outgrew her infant car seat. So we had to take her out from it and just settle at the backseat while Mr. T drove carefully. That's why we're already looking at getting front-facing carseats so the next time we go for a long drive, Ava is already safely buckled up. :)

Left: Ava in her infant car seat. Right: Britax Front-Facing Car Seat.

Baby's Safety Online

This has been an on-going topic amongst parents and it seems like it's going to continue along with the evolving virtual world of social media internet. And ever since our very own little belle entered toddlerhood, this has become a part of our discussion as parents as well.

Amongst the articles I've read discussing/debating this issue, I've come across two questions that are always being asked. (1) Are you violating your own child's right to privacy? (2) Is it safe to post photos of your child?

And these are my takes.

(1) Violation of my child's privacy. This sounds silly to me, trying to imagine my toddler, who can't even control her bladder yet, invoking the right to control her own photos.

"The violation of personal privacy doesn’t start until an individual has the ability to understand what the violation means." - New York Times

Makes a lot of sense to me. That's why it becomes part of our many responsibilities as parents -  to make sure that our children are safe and protected - whenever, wherever. For me, bum-naked is already a violation of my child's privacy. I once posted a photo of her right after birth, blurred out except for her face. But eventually took it down after a while because I find it too much for sharing. The context of how photos are being shared should also be considered.

(2) Safety of my child. This one I find a bit too much.

“Research shows that there is virtually no risk of pedophiles coming to get kids because they found them online,” said Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the Family Online Safety Institute. While the debate makes this crime seem common, he said, all the talk is really just “techno-panic.”

Exactly my point. Of course protecting children from dangerous people should be a concern to all parents. However, these people are more likely to target children they know and who trust them already, instead of those they have only seen on the Internet.

The World Stops..

..when your child gets sick. Well at least that's what I thought, because mine did.

I came home to a feverish A last night. It was not her first time actually, because during her 4th monthly checkup, she reacted to her vaccine with a very low-grade fever. In less than 24 hours, she was back to her normal self. But this time was different.

She was holding on to me, telling me something's wrong. 

I was trying to convince myself that it was just like the first time and A will just shrug it off once again. But my little nursling was telling me something else. She was just nursing quietly, holding on to me. No acrobatics, no wrestling. She'd fall asleep but quickly wakes up at the slightest move I make. We monitored her temperature round the clock and it went from 36.7°C up to 38.3°C. It was still a low-grade fever but I knew that something else was going on. It was a long night and I was constantly reminding myself not to message A's pedia in the middle of the night and wait till morning instead. She advised us to keep monitoring and bring A in for her to see should she become uninterested or totally stopped nursing. But my little nursling didn't slow down, but her temperature went up to 39°C. It was then that we decided to bring her in.