Rare Moments

One of those rare pictures that my wife and I are together. This was taken last December during Mommy's birthday celebration.

Play House Anyone?

Yesterday, we celebrated Lola's 97th birthday. While everyone was preparing for the big day, Manay Cuttie showed me her kids play house.

If I got the measurement right, the area is almost the same as our living room and kitchen combined! I told Kristine that Caitlin should have this in her itinerary when visiting Sorsogon.

When Manay Cuttie showed it to me, I thought it was a full blown house. This one seems bigger than a GK-built houses. The place is full of toys for the kids. According to her, kids love it; but it's difficult for parents to ask their kids to go home.

The picture on the left is the bedroom, but it also serves like an attic. I think 5 kids (not older than 10 yo) could fit in there. You can see some stuff toys on the bed corner. While taking this picture, I realized that I am quite heavy and the 2nd floor might collapes (my pamangkin, Jarra, and 2 of her friends may not be heavier than 40lbs each). Surprisingly, the flooring never made a sound screaming for me to get out of the place.

Oh, and it has its own AC unit!

And here's the kitchen and the living room of the house. I didn't check the plastic box on the corner, but I assume it's one of those portable cooking stoves that you can buy in the hardware store in Manila. I didn't test the faucet, but knowing my cousins, I am sure it's working. This is really something for the kids to enjoy.

It might sound weird, but you can use this to train your kids on the house chores without breaking those expensive plates and glasses.

Well, what are you waiting for! Come and visit the Cubias Family's Play House! Located in Macabog, Sorsogon.

Hey Manay Cuttie and Manoy Joey, it's a heck of a play house!

Playing with Water - Learning not to drink pool water

Last December, while waiting for the rain to stop Caitlin was having her rare tantrum. So I took her outside the house and let her play with the water flowing on the busted roof gutter (there are several plastic containers spread around the garage as a water catch).

I remember the water was quite cold and it was also windy. Kristine was trying to stop me from taking our kid out because she might catch colds (or her colds might get worse, I can't remember). But Kristine normally wants our daughter to stay inside if it's raining or chilly outside.

I let Caitlin dipped her feet on the water in the container; sometimes I would let her legs catch the water from the gutter. She loved it. The reason for doing this is because I also grew up loving the rain (back in college, I was still playing with my cousins outside the house when it was raining hard) and I want her to experience growing up with nature.

And 2 weeks ago, I brought Caitlin in the pool side. There is an area for kids and I had Caitlin played there (attended, of course). I tried not to force her to go to the deeper area. Instead, I let her get a feel of the water. Then, after 2 minutes or so, I would bring her deeper. The deepest is (Caitlin's) chest-deep. After 10 minutes of letting get the hang of the pool, I just saw her trying to drink the pool water (imagine a Pelican swooping with its bill down ready to catch a fish in the water) - she did this twice, and twice I caught her before she could actually drink the pool water. I guess she mistaken it as a big drinking pool.

Once she was comfy in the pool, I would drag her around with her whole body floating. She just loved it! Sadly, I didn't have the camera with me.

I don't know if kids who show love o f the water means they will also like to learn how to swim when they grow up. But I am excited to bring Caitlin to the Guinlajon area to swim on the river and visit the falls with me and Kristine.