Mother’s Day has always been celebrated on the first Sunday of May each year. It has truly changed everything, four years ago, when I gave birth to my youngest, on the first week of May. More often than not, we celebrate her birthday and Mother’s Day within days of each other. This is the first year we are celebrating it on the same day! I am excited about that – it will be more her day than mine, because it because of my kids that I even have the right to celebrate Mother’s Day, so why deny them of her birthday?

For now, she wants a Little Mermaid cake and costume. Let us see if she changes her mind a week before her birthday. Last month it was CInderella cake with a crown and a princess dress. She still wants a dog though. I was telling her she would get a bike or a princess table for school (That’s what I plan on getting her!).

If one would ask me what I want for Mother’s Day I would say offhand I want 24 hours of alone time, doing nothing but take care of myself. Times have been very stressful for me lately that I want one whole day devoted just for myself. I also want some jewelry. The initial necklace I saw from Molly Brown Jewelry (www.mollybrownlondon.com) took my breath away!

I would want my kids’ initials in a necklace (M+B) because they are my pride and joy – I want everybody to see them. Plus necklaces are close to my heart, and they are the ones closest to me right now. They even have the Dolly Mixture necklace, where you can mix the initial of your choice of a gemstone cross and an enamel heart. The gemstone cross has pink tourmaline, blue and white topaz and amethyst for choices while the enamel hearts have sterling silver, pale pink, deep pink, red, pale blue, lavender and white.

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I have two kids and if ever there is a lesson I have learned with regards to their toys it is the fact that not all expensive toys are favorites, and kids can really play with anything and make it work. Their imagination is unparalleled and free! I remember with my firstborn, I bought the most recommended toys and yet he only played with blankets and used them as capes and imagined he was a superhero. With my second, she loved boxes the most and would imagine it was her playhouse.

What I would spend money on are educational toys. Learning Toys that teach children about the alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes are worth the money. You might even be surprised how cheap some of them are!

 Award Winning Toys are called as such because they are evaluated and have been found to be effective in shaping a specific skill on a certain age of a child. There are also parents’ choices which weigh heavily on the awards too. After all, they are the ones who really see if the toys are effective. I actually rely heavily on the Parents’ Choice seal in toy packaging on the rare chance I shop for new toys. I also look for feedback on toys online and recommendations.

Baby Toys in conclusion need to be taken with a grain of salt and a mother’s intuition. Be informed with the latest recalls in the industry and go with your mother’s instinct if you think it will be good for your child or not.

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I am not really surprised that my kids have big feet, I can safely say that they all got it from their mother. I have size 11 feet and I am also extremely flat-footed. Up to when I was around 9, I was also knock kneed as well. My mom had to buy me the ugliest shoes to correct them.

My son, who is 9, is size 8 (men’s) and my daughter, who is turning 4 in 2 months, wears size 11 (kids’). I foresee that we will be having a hard time finding perfect shoes for them in the years to come. I am already having a hard time even now.

In the coming schoolyear, I would have two kids going to school and I am anticipating a hard time looking the right school shoes for them. I actually look for shoes that are high quality, I don’t care if it’s expensive. My kids will use them to death for 10 months, 5 times a week, 7 hours a day. If it will be last the whole school year, then the expense will be worth it. I also know the importance of having shoes fit perfectly. The feet of our kids can still be moulded into whatever shape you have their feet fit into, so I veer away from pointy shoes. Ankle support and shock absorption soles  which are non-slip (I imagine school kids run a lot, even if they are told not to) are also important. Leather school shoes need to be soft and supple too, so that their feet won’t have callouses and corns.

I strongly suggest you use this gauge to measure the size of your kids’ feet, especially if they are babies and are just starting to walk. Your babies need all the support they can get!

And yes, we are only talking about shoe shopping here – we also need to cover books, supplies, uniforms. I feel I have a headache coming!

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Ever since I can remember, we have never been the couple to celebrate Valentine’s Day. It is too much of a commercialized holiday for me, it occurs a day before payday and I celebrate my birthday two days after – go figure. We just decide to celebrate an event solely made for me.

I don’t get presents as well. It is because 1) I don’t like receiving flowers (before) and 2) The husband would never give me anything that will make me bigger than I already am –chocolates.

If only he can give me something in a classic blue box:

I love necklaces!
Here are my top three (from left-right):
1) Heart and Tiffany Box Lock Charm Necklace
2) Engraved Round Tag Necklace
3) Star Lariat Necklace

Jewellry remains to be one of the Top Valentine’s Day Gifts of every year. And Tiffany Jewellry remains to be a popular choice among couples. Try giving the perfect gift – Tiffany Jewellry for Valentine’s Day!  I kid you not, I have seen many a women cry when given such a precious gift!

Check out the Valentine’s Day Sale 2010 at TiffanyStore.org. You can take 10% off your entire order with the coupon LOVENEW. Act now! You never know who will make your day come Hearts’ Day!

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Christmas is just around the corner and before you know it is here already! Anybody of you are like me who hasn’t even started Christmas shopping yet? Year after year, I always promise myself that I will prepare earlier next time and year after year it is always the same. We still do not have a tree up yet. We have been incredibly busy with parties and attending the traditional Simbang Gabi (Nine Masses) that there is really no time to go to the mall, and even wrap gifts. Not that I have that much cash to shop anyways. I have not run out of ideas for Christmas gifts though and this one, parents might like to receive for their kids. The best part of it is you can order it online (my most preferred choice for shopping!) and if you order by December 17th, you can still receive your order by Christmas.

You can buy one share of stock of any company (like Hershey’s, Gap, Target, Ebay) and you can give it to them! These are real shares of stocks in publicly traded companies in certificate form. They can actually increase over time too.

And what better way to invest than to get a Disney share? Walt Disney has built one giant kingdom where dreams DO come true – you can never go wrong with this!

They have a promotion going on – Get $5.00 off your order when you use the discount code STOCK at checkout. Or if you do not use the word STOCK at checkout, you will get a free frame with the purchase of a stock.

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Last week, the items I have bought since August started to arrive one by one. See, I tend to buy little things here and there every month and just  have it shipped when it’s many enough through my good friend. It was particularly more exciting this time because my friend included so many gifts for her goddaughter Martha and the items I bought for the kids and a few of niece and nephews as Christmas gifts are there as well.

I still have a lot of things to do and hopefully, presents to buy for the everybody. It is going to be a big Christmas for us this year and I am excited for it.

The one things that is missing from the things I thought I ordered were the juzo socks for my Mom. I thought I had ordered it already but it turns out I was wrong. These socks are support stockings, which come in different styles and colors, designed to support your legs and veins due to prolonged standing.

My mom needs support or compressions stockings nowadays because her sciatic nerve is bothering her all the time. But since she wants open-toed and nude-colored stockings and it is not available here, she requested that I order them from the US.

What is great about Juzo socks is that it has a variety of compression pressure that you can choose from. From 12mmHg to 50mmHg, you can order in different sizes, lengths and colors. I need to confirm what pressure my Mom needs and can tolerate though.

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I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the box from Glo this month because it holds my dear motherboard from DELL. G, Dell Inspiron laptop, has been incommunicado since June already and while I have quite grown accustomed working in our ancient but still so very effective desktop computer (gotta love the big screen), I miss G every now and then. I miss her more whenever the kids would stay over my parents’ place and I would need to go home because I can’t afford not to work at night – I try to work as much as I can (even writing subjects for future entries and investing on one more project) so that I can take it easy in the coming weeks as I expect that we will be so busy. I also ordered a Magic Jack from Glo so we can call relatives from the US and now it will serve as our phone line too, as my Dad will have one and Edil has one in Manila. More cost effective than calling from the cellphone (my prepaid load bill tripled this month because of Ondoy and Edil working at Manila), dont you agree? I think we are only expecting one more box before the year ends and I am excited for that one because it houses Glo’s gifts for the kids You need to see Glo’s boxes to appreciate how she packs things, very very efficient and no space is spared when she packs stuff. Adhesive Packaging Tape and balikbayan boxes are now bought in bulk, she told me.

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Online:

1. Flickr renewal
2. GoDaddy Gift Certificate (so I dont have to worry about expiring domains)
3. Old Navy GC

Local:
1. Powerbooks GC
2. Starbucks Mug and GC
3. Rootote (North Pole or London – London preferably)

Easy Easy

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