Our Little Book Club

If there's one thing I want to push for Ava to love and enjoy, hands down, it's gonna be reading. But since we allow her to enjoy things at her own phase, I cannot really force her. So what I did was to set her up by collecting books! And it worked! Lol.

I started buying books by popularity. Checked online which books were highly recommended and bought some of them. Before I got fixated on completing Google's most popular books, I realized that I don't have a guarantee if Ava will love them. It's important that you understand your child's interests and see how he/she responds to things, in this case of choosing books, observe how they respond to the visuals and the contents. By doing this, we ended up with a small library of books that we all enjoy reading. Our setting allows Ava to reach the first and second (using a chair) that's why we see to it that we rotate our books.

We love reading together. Ava loves it when we read with her, instead of just reading for her. Notice the difference. As parents, we need to be expressive, intentional and entertaining all at the same time. The rewards come in giggles, hugs and kisses.

After much reading and searching, we're finally able to fill our very own library that we love, like really, really love. See below which ones are our favorites, authors and books!

Toddler Fun and Play

Ava is currently 2 years and 8 months old.

A couple of months ago we started noticing how her curiosity and interest in a lot of things were developing rapidly. She communicates very well now and she's very interested in interactive and creative play. With the rate she was learning, she eventually outgrew her toys, about 70% of them - most of which were made of plastic and battery-operated.

When Ava was still a newborn, we used to go to Numa along E. Rodriguez to get some of our nursing stuff. That's where and when I actually noticed how cute wooden toys are. But at that time Ava was still too young and I haven't understood its advantages. At the same time, we received a lot of gifts from our families and friends and they were all wonderful which Ava loved playing with. But as I've mentioned earlier, she outgrew most of these toys and playtime has turn into chaos. Something needs to be done

It was only a month ago when we finally decided to ditch most of her toys. We knew that changing our play environment as well as our materials will definitely catch up and hopefully sustain the needs of our ever-growing tot. I researched about toddler activities that are fun but will be a great learning experience at the same time. That’s when I stumbled upon the How We Montessori website. The simplicity of the Montessori approach was interesting and are very similar to the activities that homeschooling families do. I am totally open to the idea of homeschooling Ava if our family’s setup will allow it when it’s time for her to start school. We'll where we'll be in the next years to come.

For the meantime, let me share some of the activities that we are currently doing in rotation. 

Creative Building

Having a set of wooden blocks is definitely a must-have for every curious toddler, even babies. We have an Ikea set and a basic block set which I’ve had (actually a Jenga set) since college. These pieces in different geometric shapes and forms highly encourage imagination and creativity.

Mula Building Blocks with Wagon, Ikea

We Love Human♡Nature! :)

It was during our first trimester when I encountered an article with a list of some ingredients found in beauty products that could be harmful to pregnant women. And some of those were found in the facial moisturizer I was using back then. With a little research, I stumbled upon Human Heart Nature (HHN) products. Two years later, I'm still using the same moisturizer, beauty oil plus more.

Here's a list of our much loved HHN products and know why we love  using them:

100% Natural Day Moisturizer - I don't really use a lot of facial products but there are three items I cannot live without - facial wash, scrub and a moisturizer. This HHN moisturizer feels really good on my skin because it's not sticky nor oily. I spend my whole day inside an air-conditioned office so just imagine how dry my skin can get. There were times when I would forget to moisturize and by lunchtime, my skin is already cracking. But with the HHN moisturizer, I only need to apply once in the morning and it lasts the whole day already.

Sunflower Beauty Oil - This one I used more when I was pregnant. See, Mr. T is not really fond of oils and lotions. He hates those sticky stuff. But this oil he didn't mind using while massaging my legs after a day's work specially when I was on my last trimester already. I also massaged this to my super stretched tummy everytime it itched. I love how my skin felt after using this oil, soft and smooth but not sticky nor greasy. Since it's an all-natural product, I also tried using it on Ava's legs to even out her skin from dark patches caused by insect bites. It worked for us because I saw the dark patches eventually lightened up to Ava's natural skin color.

When your child becomes mobile, you have to be ready with a lot of insect bites. The first few insect bites, you will question the universe how and why. Heck, you'll even chastise Yaya for it. Lol. But I guess insect bites are just part of childhood. So there's no use fussing over it. Just keep watch on the serious ones though.

Mama Goes Shopping

Now, I truly believe that "Shopping is a girl's best friend." And I also found out how it starts and who's to blame - the Mothers. Hahah! I'm raising my hand here.

Having a baby girl is like having a life-size doll. I remember how I used to play with Barbie dolls and paper dolls. I learned how to sew in grade school because of them barbies. But I enjoyed playing with paper dolls more because I get to easily cut and draw different clothes. Now, I get to dress up a real doll! :)

So I'd like to share with you my favorite brands and shops where I get most of our stuff, not only for babies but also including breastfeeding accessories and other Mama stuff. I included the items we got  and love from them that are totally noteworthy. Here we go.. :)

My Reading List

I love reading. I stopped for a while though because of so many things happening at the same time. I sucked at managing my time. Funny thing is, now that my list of things to do has multiplied by a hundred from work stuff to being a mother to a toddler, it is when I found time to finally read again. Lovely.

One of the reasons why getting an iPad last Christmas was a good decision. Though holding a real book is nothing compared to flipping pages just by swiping a glass screen, there's just people like me who benefits from the convenience of ebooks more than a paperback version. But when the day comes and maybe when I'm just at home with time in my own management, I will definitely go back to bookstores.

Read books.