Ever since Toys R Us opened at the Robinsons Galleria in July this year, we have become instant fans.  We even made sure to check it out the very day it opened!  Compared to Toy Kingdom, Toys R Us is bigger, brighter and more organized.  However, in our book, the name of Toys R Us Galleria has been tarnished.

 

Claire, my sister-in-law, signed up her daughter, Macy, for the store’s gift registry as early as August in time for my niece’s 7^th birthday.  As in all stores which have gift registries, Claire was given Toys R Us coupons/cards which were inserted in Macy’s party invites.

 

When my mom and I we went to the store to check out Macy’s “wish list” the lady at the “I can help counter” told us that they don’t have a Cuenca in their list.  Whaaaat?  She checked and re-checked all the folders and the computer files and indeed, there was none.  Uh-oh.  Somebody’s not gonna be happy about this!  I immediately called up Claire to let her know that they have an imaginary gift registry.  Naturally, she was more surprised than we were!  She said she’ll call up the store right away to find out what’s wrong.  Uh-oh, somebody’s gonna get in trouble!  And so, we left the store for a while and left everything in my sister-in-law’s hands.

 

In less than an hour, we got a text message from Claire telling us we could already go back to TrU and look for Me-an, the manager on duty.  Obedient people that we are, we went back to the store looking for Me-an.  Well, the Me-an girl still couldn’t produce the list.  She had an excuse though: Jason, the person who assisted Claire and Macy with their gift choices didn’t encode the list and unfortunately had the day-off. This made my mom’s temperature shoot up a little.  I knew then that they’ll hear it from her!  Helpless Me-an had to call for her superior…another manager.  This other manager called up the Jason guy whose excuse was that he didn’t encode the list because it was still “tentative” and he was waiting for Claire’s go signal.  Whaaaat?  How could my sister-in-law have gotten the coupons if she wasn’t sure after all?!  My mom was unbelievably calm through all this but my sister-in-law, who was on the phone again with the TrU people was fuming mad.  And so, Me-an’s manager, called on yet another superior…another manager (Gosh, how many useless managers do they have?).  To make a long story short, the list was never produced and the TrU people told us to just choose from their range of Barbie or Strawberry Shortcake stuff, which are what’s mostly on the list.  That was just pathetic and not good enough for us.  We ended up at Rustan’s, another store where Macy was listed.

 

For all it’s worth, here are my gift registry tips, be it for weddings, showers, baptisms etc.:

 

1)     If you’re signing up for a gift registry, NEVER leave the store without a hardcopy of the things you chose.  This is your sure ticket, proof, evidence, that indeed you are listed and not imagining it!

 

2)     In my personal opinion, Rustan’s and Baby and Company (for kids 3 years old and below) are very efficient when it comes to gift registries.  In recent years, Rustan’s has improved their computer network so that even if you buy the gift in Alabang, the Shangri-la branch will know about it.  The same thing goes with Baby and Company.

 

3)    If you’re expecting a baby, register with Baby and Company and say that it’s for a baby shower, even if there’s no shower!  You’ll be able to buy the stuff your baby will need at 10% off for cash purchases and 5% off for card purchases.  You’ll be given 10 discount coupons.  And it’s not one coupon per item!  You can use one coupon to buy a number of items as long as you pay for the stuff all the same time.  And guess what, you can register again for your baby’s baptism!…but only 10 of your guests will get a discount coupon. J

 

4)     For baby showers, baptisms, and weddings and if you’re not too OC, I think it’s better to make a generic list.  Do not specify a brand.  That way, your “gift givers” can participate more actively in the gift buying process.  They can choose the brand which suits their budget.  And sometimes, when you specify the brand, the item suddenly becomes out of stock and it’s a dead-end right there and then.

 

5)    Don’t be fooled by the term “Baby Registry” at Rustan’s.  You can sign up your kids for a gift registry even if they’re no longer babies, like in my niece’s case, she’s 7 years old already.

 

6)     If you sign up for a gift registry, please make a selection!  That’s precisely the point of the whole darned thing!  Don’t make your guests go all the way to a store only to find out that your list says “Guest’s Choice”.  Grrr!    It’s like saying you don’t care what you get as long as they buy it from that specific store.

 

7)     You are the best judge of the people who are coming to your party.  Unfortunately, many are still not aware of the beauty of gift registries…how it saves time and trouble from thinking of a gift, which in the end may not be very useful or the person/s has oodles of it already.  So, if you’re confident that you know enough smart people to actually get you what you want, then go ahead, by all means, sign up!  Otherwise, save yourselves the trouble of making an appointment with a store to make a selection. Just leave it all up to fate.  Heehee.

Happy gift giving and receiving!

The third quarter of the year is storming birthdays in our family.  I celebrate mine in July (and so does my late dad).  Jad, my nephew, and Abby were both born in the month of August (13 & 17 respectively).  My sister-in-law, Claire, and 2 of her three daughters, Kylah and Macy, as well as my brother-in-law, Chad, are all September celebrants (7, 5 24 and 2).  That’s 5 people from my side of the family alone.  Come to think of it, my late maternal grandparents, Nanay and Daddy Maciong, are August and September celebrants as well!  That makes the 3^rd quarter of the year probably the heaviest on our pockets next to Christmas, if not more than Christmas!  I used to tell Claire that they should have spread their birthdays throughout the year (as if that were possible) and not cram them up in one month. J  Naturally, the months from July to September are not the best months to diet, what with all the cakes, ice cream and birthday food we have to feast on.  And it’s almost a given that there is feasting, one way or another!

 

Since Claire and her daughter, Kylah celebrate their birthdays practically one after the other, they had a double celebration at what is turning out to be our favorite birthday place, Burgoo at The Podium.  That was on September 6.  On September 7, Claire’s real birthday, her hubby (my brother, Edward) treated her  with a hair make-over complete with highlights at my and my mom’s favorite salon, Emphasis at The Peninsula Hotel. J  Under the expert hands of Matt, the only person in the Philippines “allowed” to cut my hair for the last 8 years, Claire looked fabulously gorgeous in her new “do”.  The highlight of that afternoon is not the one on Claire’s hair but my mom, treating us to “afternoon tea”…an experience I’ve already blogged about in “Happy 60th Birthday, Daddy”.  The string ensemble played the birthday song especially for Claire while our group of 6 (4 adults and 2 kids) plus 2 waiters sang to her as we waited for her to blow out the candles on her birthday cake (on the house!).

Masquerade Ball

 

Yesterday, we celebrated the last of the September birthdays, Macy’s 7th.  Born on September 24, Macy shares her birthday with my late Lolo.  And since it’s a 7^th birthday, a party was in order (can somebody please enlighten me if it’s a cultural thing to have a birthday bash on the 7^th birthday? J).

 

My family takes our parties seriously. (tongue in cheek)  While Mc Donald’s, Jollibee and Shakey’s are always an option, we take it up a notch for milestone birthdays: 1^st, 7^th, 13^th (?) etc.  Abby had a circus-themed 1st birthday, Kylah had an Arabian Nights 7^th birthday and Macy who wanted to wear a gown on her birthday, had a masquerade ball.

 

The party was held at Cravings, Katipunan Avenue.  From the invitation, to the party décor in colors of purple, gold and green, to costumes, everything was screaming masquerade.  All the little girls looked gorgeous in their ball gowns and the boys, dashing in their black ensemble.  Siyempre, my Abby, looked every bit  a princess as well (stagemom in the house!). ;P  There were only a handful of kids who did not come in costume.  One little boy came as Batman.  And another boy came with Panday’s sword.  Talaga! (Tip to parents: Please please, if your kids are invited to a party, please try to pay attention to the party’s theme if there is one and do a little research if it’s requested that the kids come in costume.  Kasi kawawa naman your kids.  Otherwise, dress them up in regular clothes na lang.)  There was a kiddie salon and the little princesses patiently waited for their hair to be done and glittered. How kikay!

 

The party started with a cotillion. (I swear, it’s a 7^th birthday and not an 18^th!)  All the proud parents crowded around the dance area with their video and digital cams.  I too found myself a good spot to take pictures…e tita lang ako ha!  Then there were the customary games, 7 wishes and 7 treasures (Are you familiar with these? Otherwise, let me know and I shall explain.  Hee hee.)  There were two buffet spreads, one for the kids and one for the adults.  The food at the kiddie buffet could very well stand up to the adult buffet.  There were cheese sticks, pizza, hotdog rolls, spaghetti, chicken lollipops, alphabet cookies and brownies.  At the adult station, all the food groups were represented: salad, pasta, vegetables au gratin, fish in pesto, beef stroganoff, pork cordon bleu, and chicken something (Sorry, I forgot the name.  Again, I blame it on the anesthesia!)  The food was very good and I say that not because it’s our party. J

 

After dinner came the magic show, candle blowing, piñata pull and balloon burst.  Macy had a 4-tier all-cake birthday cake (no styro!).  It was oh so yummy and we got to take home the 2^nd tier from the top!  Goodie! We like our cakes soft and moist and if at all possible, with caramel filling and with dallops and dallops of high-calorie frosting! Claire surely found an alternative to Dexter’s, Goldilocks and Red Ribbon in the Shoppersville Bakeshop!

 

The party started at 4pm and ended at around 9pm.  It didn’t seem that long to me!  And I’m sure Abby and all the other kids didn’t mind the 5-hour long party!

 

After Macy’s bash, the next big one will probably my nephew, Jad’s 13^th birthday which is 2 years from now…unless we can make up an excuse to host another party. J 

My little princess.

 

 

Macy, princess of the ball.

 

 

Princesses Macy, Abby and Sophie (or Lucy to Abby)

 

Princess Macy and big sister Princess Kylah

 

 

 

 

My literary ducts are clogged (feeling!), which explains the title.  See, I can’t even think of a title!

For the meantime, here’s a very informative site for parents with kids aged 0-3 years old: zerto to three.  If your kids are no longer within this age bracket, perhaps the information will be useful for your next baby. :)  Doting titos and titas and responsible ninongs and ninangs, or people who simply like to “make pakialam” in the lives of their friends with children might also find this site interesting.  It will help you, I mean us, understand the development of our kids better…hopefully. (sigh!)  I meant to share this site a long time ago but totally forgot about it.  It’s the anesthesia!  So sorry.
And here’s a site for wifeys: wifespeaks.   I will no longer explain what the site is all about.  You can pretty much get the idea from the site’s name. ;)  “Curious” hubbies may also visit the site…so you’ll know what the wifeys are talking about. 

There.  I leave you with these two interesting sites while I wait for my literary juices to flow (feeling talaga!) or until I find another annoying tv ad, whichever comes first.
Enjoy the weekend…or whatever’s left of it!

There’s a relatively new Promil ad being shown on tv which I find to be a tad bit annoying.  It features a little girl, who is probably between 9 and 12 years old, flawlessly playing the violin, in what I believe is a violin recital or an international competetion in Australia. Sitting In the audience, among the sea of caucasians (as opposed to "white people"), is the proud mom, who barely succeeds in keeping her tears of pride and joy from rolling down her cheeks as her daughter is given a standing ovation and she, the mom, is congratulated by the people around her.  What cheeses me off is the female voice over with accompanying flashbacks of the mom and daughter in earlier years…

"When you look at your child…your gifted child…you remember…your sacrifices…your secret hopes…and you realize…it was all worth it."

It ends with a male voice over saying, "Together, let us nurture the gift."  The ad is for Promil Pre-School and Promil Kid.  Who’s the target market? Parents of gifted children?  Otherwise, I think they just alienated millions of parents whose children are not gifted!

The first time I encountered this ad, I had my back towards the tv.  After hearing the female voice over, I couldn’t help but say out loud, "Excuse me, it’s all worth it kahit hindi gifted ang child!" 

As a mom, I can’t help but feel a little offended with the suggestion that because the child is gifted after all, the sacrifices are worth it.  What becomes of the sacrifices of moms and dads whose children are not "gifted" as we know it?

Did I misunderstand the ad?  Promil ads have always put so much emphasis on giftedness.  They even had an ad which says how long this and that gifted child have been using Promil, like since birth, etc.  Now, that I’m more informed, I consider those ads to be misleading.  For one, it takes more than store-bought formula milk for a child to be gifted and to nurture the so called gift!  Grrr!  No matter how many gallons of Promil or whatever brand of formula a child gulps down, if he or she is not cared for properly, not given the chance to be intellectually and physically stimulated, not given "quality time" with parents, and so on and so forth, then there would be no "gift" to talk about and no "gift" to nurture.

I’m just glad Abby didn’t like Promil when I tried introducing it to her in the hope that I could wean her from breastfeeding.  She took a liking for Enfagrow which has DHA, ARA and SA which are the building blocks of the brain (or so they say).  Just the same, my stuborn little girl only drinks but a few ounces of formula in a day, and that’s if I’m lucky! The smart little one prefers mother nature’s supply.  I hope to "retire" from nursing soon as I can’t do this forever, or can I?! Nay!   

A few nights ago, as I entered the “family bedroom” with Abby in my arms and Dondi just a few steps ahead, we were startled by a mouse which made a quick dash from under the bed to hide behind the study cabinet.  It was horrible! Just like any normal human being, I let out a very Pinoy screech, “Aaaay!“.  Abby was more than amused by the incident and couldn’t help recounting it to her Mommy Emy in her own toddler style a few minutes later:

Abby:  Mimi! (Mommy Emy) Mouse!…..room! (pointing towards the direction of our bedroom)…Aaaaaaay! (with both arms raised for emphasis)…Mommy! (pointing to me)

My Mom, to say the least, was entertained but I had to tell her the story in its entirety.  Now, if I hadn’t been in the room with Abby when the little creature made an unwanted appearance, I would have wondered what the heck my daughter was talking about!

Learning to talk was one of the most awaited of Abby’s developmental milestones and to be at the front row seat to witness it is priceless, rewarding and very entertaining.  For the record, “Dada” was her first word but somehow forgot all about it after some time and replaced it with “Mama”. :p  It didn’t take too long before she started saying “Dada” again much to the delight of her dad, and much to my relief.  Whew!

She referred to dogs as “Aw-aw“, cats as “ngyaw-ngyaw“, lions as “raaarr“, frogs as “kokak” and the neighbor’s chickens as “coo-cook”.  Mommy Emy  is “Mimi“, Ninong is “Ngongong“, Ninang is “Ngonga“, her cousins: Kuya Jad is “Kuya“, Ate Kylah is “Kylah“, Ate Macy is “Kylah” and Ate Sophie is, well, still “Kylah“.

Sometime after Abby’s 1st birthday, she started calling me “Mommy”.  Dada didn’t become “Daddy” until a few months before her 2nd birthday.  Sometimes, Abby calls me “Mom” (all on her own!) and her Daddy, “Dad” (also on her own!).  She tries to call me “Mommy Weng” but ends up with “Mom-eng” sounding more like “Mameng“.  Eeeew!  There were several times she called her Dad “Da-do” (for Daddy Dondi) and “Do-dong”.  Double eeeew!  Now she already calls her Ate Macy, “Missy” and Sophie, to our astonishment, “Lucy” (we need to work on this!).
When we’re out malling and she sees grey-haired people, she would look at whoever’s holding her and say “Lolo” pointing to a seemingly elderly man or “Lola” when it’s a woman.  Not once have we “shhhhd” Abby for this because we were afraid she’d get us into a fight with people who are not yet lolos or lolas.  Well, you know children, they are the most honest people in this world!  Hee hee!

In an effort to get to know the things around her better, Abby often asked, “Wa-di?” (What’s this?).  Lately, she has replaced this with, “Wa-dat?” (What’s that?).

When greeting people, she says “Hi” or “Hello“  with a single-hand wave, and says “Bye” or “Ba-bye” with a flying kiss when it’s time to go.  She yells “Done!” when she’s finished with something.  “Uh-oh!” and “Uh-no!” are her expressions when something goes wrong, like when she drops a toy or when something falls off a table.  She replies with an “Ok“, more like “Uh-k!” when we tell her to behave or to be good.  She answers “Yes” or “No” to questions worthy of these answers.  She says “no” in a variety of ways.  There’s the simple “No”, a relaxed “No, no, no”, when she feels she does not need help with something and is being helped, an emphatic “No!!” when she thinks she means business and an even more more emphatic “No, no, no!!” with matching waving of both hands in refusal when told to do something she doesn’t like.

As she develops her “talking skills” further, conversing with her can sometimes be likened to a game of Charades.  One time, she was carrying her box of blocks and kept saying what to me sounded like “Ey-bi! Ey-bi!”.  I thought all the while she was trying to say the ABCs.  Trying to hide her exasperation with her mom, she laid the box on the floor, held it on its two sides, lifted it and said “Aaargh” as if she’s having a hardtime.  “Oh! Heavy!”  10 points for Mommy!  I give my daughter an A for the effort she puts in making us understand what she’s trying to say.
Shopping, too has become more interesting when Abby started talking.  We used to be able to take her to a toy store and leave without actually buying anything.  I know, that’s so cruel!  Hee hee.  Now, she comes after us saying, “Buy! Buy!” carrying the toy she wants to be bought.  No more toy store visits for her!  Joke! When shopping for clothes, Abby says “Wow!” when I show her an outfit I’d want her to try on.

In church, during offertory, she would pull on Dondi’s pants and say “money” or just go straight to my bag and attempt to open it by herself.  After putting money in the offertory basket, she holds out her pointer finger and says “A-pa” (Isa pa!) to ask for more money!  This can be a tense moment in church when we refuse to give her more money and she starts to act up!

My all time favorite is “Ab-yu” for “I love you”.  And having her say it to me, with or without a hug, on her own and not as a response to an “I love you” from me is most precious.  If “Mo-ning!” for “Good morning!” gives our day a good start, then “Nyek” for “Good night!” is a heartwarming send-off to slumberland.

As Abby builds her vocabulary and becomes more aware of the things and people around her, I know in no time, she’ll be an unstoppable talker!  I know she’ll have very interesting stories to tell and I’m more than willing to lend my two ears and listen!