Butter Cookies

Dear Gia,

Your mommy and I are proud of you being able to bake.

There was a free baking session in the mall to make butter cookies. Upon seeing it, you were instantly interested to join. I guess because you see mommy learning baking as well.

We were there about 230pm and the registration was at 330. The actual baking session was at 4pm. Even if we had to wait for quite some time, you were willing to wait and queue for your chance to get a slot.

Next week will be cupcakes, I hope we get a chance to join that baking session too. Maybe we have to be there by 1pm.

It is nice to see that you now are getting interested in baking.

My aim is to get you to do a lot of things that you will enjoy and eventually be good at. Just remember to keep on trying and if it does not work out with passion, patience and persistence, then we can let it go and try another thing.

I promise that I will not always force it, but I will push you first to get you to try and see if you will enjoy it.

I love you!

Daddy

First baby tooth out

Dear Gia,

Since 2 weeks ago, we saw that your first permanent tooth is coming out. Your mommy and I were worried what to do about it, do we need to go to the dentist to get it extracted or just take its course?

A week ago, you had the cough, so it was not possible to send you to the dentist. It is part of hygiene that if you are sick you cannot go to the dentist. So we had to forego the plan.

Yesterday, we saw that your tooth was starting to move. We did tell you about how we took out our tooth when we were young. When we were children, it was always a joke to tie a string on your tooth and slam the door. This is one of the most creative ways of removing the tooth. I cannot remember if I did that, but I think I did out of curiosity.

For your mommy, she always had to go to the dentist to have it extracted.

For me, it was always done manually and by myself. Don’t get me wrong, I am not really afraid of going to the dentist but I always felt that I can remove it. I would just keep on moving my tooth and pull it out.

When I got home, mommy was telling me the story of you wanting to catch the tooth fairy. Haha! It was hilarious. I think you watched too many fairy movies.

You were excited to put the tooth under your pillow and expected to get a coin in exchange. But the funny thing is, you asked mommy to bring a jar and catch the tooth fairy when she comes. Haha! You have very good imagination. We asked you what if you catch the tooth fairy, then all the children and when you put another tooth under your pillow, you will not get another coin.

You mommy always says that she will make sure that you and your brother have good teeth. Mommy did well in taking care of your teeth. All thanks to mommy.

When I was young, I think I did not have complete teeth. I would have a gap on my gums because of whatever reasons (lost 2 of my front teeth when we played superman and I hit the door) or my because of eating candies.

Today, your first baby tooth came out and I can say you are brave enough to do it (with a reward of having ice cream afterwards). This has always been the way dentist do it, give a ice cream or popsicle. It always works, because it will stop the gum from bleeding and everyone gets a reward (just make sure that you brush your teeth after).

Another permanent tooth is coming out soon, that means another baby tooth will come out.

Great job my brave little girl.

I love you!

Daddy

The next morning…

When she woke up, she did check if the tooth fairy came and left her something.

She suspects that I did it because we created a certificate for her and a letter and used her scissors to cut the border of the paper. Haha!

When I get home tonight, I have a difficult task to explain to her that a lot of people have this special scissors. Good luck to me.

In the afternoon…

She wanted her tooth back but was not willing to give the money. I guess she was attached to the tooth because it was her first tooth.

I negotiated with her that if she wants her tooth back, she has to write to the tooth fairy and has to give the money back. She did mention that the tooth fairy would understand and will just wire to her and not give the money back.

In the evening…

The final decision was she was to keep the money and will buy something with it. She did not want the tooth back. Eventually she bought a set of rings with the money she got from the tooth fairy. Now she is happy.

Do not give up and keep on trying

Dear Gia,

I enjoyed the conversation before we went to bed. 

I played some instrumental music to let you and you brother sleep. I just realized that I was singing along, then you asked me the question why do I know the song?

I told you that when we were young, there were no smart phones yet, so we had to listen to the radio. This then became more interesting because I think you have not heard music from a radio. So the next question was, what is a radio? Haha!

I then had to explain to you what is the radio and I put it on so you can also listen to it. But the questions did not stop there…

How do you know the songs? I answered, that these are quite old songs that I was listening to when I was young. So the radio plays only old songs? I said no, even new ones but I like listening to the old songs. 

I used the oldest phone to let you hear the music from the radio. Then a new question came. Does your old phone have games?

The old phones have games, but not as nice and good as the games on the smart phones. Then you asked me to show you.

So I had to find the old games on the smart phone for you to see since the old phones I have does not work anymore (or maybe the battery is just dead).

I showed you the old game, but it was not the same as the how we played it before. So I tried to find something similar, then you enjoyed playing it and asked me not to delete this game as you enjoy playing it.

While you were playing it, it was so easy for you at the start that you were just going through the levels. Then it became a bit more difficult, I was surprised that your reaction was I will not give up and keep on trying.

I need to find more good music that has very good meanings so you can sing and relate to it. This is one good way of putting it into the subconscious and will eventually be a norm when you face challenges in life.    

It was great to see you getting interested on all these things. 

I was really happy and proud to her you last night telling me that you will not give up and keep on trying. These are a few things I want to teach you and your brother. 

I love you!

Daddy

What is GI?

Well, GI for diabetics mean Glycaemic or Glycemic Index. 

Based on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index, it is a measure of how quickly blood sugar levels are absorbed by the body after eating specific type of food. Glucose is used as the standard of measure, it has a glycemic index of 100.

Did you know that the GI index only provides one value per food?So it does not necessary mean that if the number of the food is low, it will always be low.

The GI can change depending on a number of factors: type or variety of a food (an example will be rice, there are white rice, jasmine rice, brown rice and others), the method of cooking the food (such as boiling, baking, frying, steaming and others), how ripe is it (this is more on fruits and maybe some vegetables), how much fat content (fat helps to lower GI of food), How much fiber (fiber reduces the carbohydrate absorption), how it is processed (just like milk, cheese, ice cream), the length of storage and amount of protein (protein also helps lower the GI).

A lot more things to know about.

 

 

 

First time you sold your bread

Hi Mommy,

I am so proud of you having sold your first batch of bread. This is a start of something good.

On Friday, you will have another order of 10 pieces. This is really something that I am proud of.

Wishing you all the best and a start to a new career.

I promise you that I will help you in all ways possible. We can brainstorm and see how we can make them better.

I love you.

Daddy.

Will try it for 30 days

I saw this add about a 30 days challenge and I wanted to try to do it.

A lot of ideas come to mind,

• No rice for 30 days in the evening
• Better photography in 30 days
• Origami for 30 days with the children
• Drawing for 30 days with the children
• Writing for 30 days
• and a lot more.

I will definitely try one first and will try to continue so that I keep on learning something.

The day they removed the pins

Dear Gia,

Last Friday, it was scheduled to removed the pins from your displaced elbow.

I asked you the day before if you needed me there and your answer without hesitation was “Yes”. With that answer, I made sure that I will be there, even if it calls for me to take leave. Mommy also asked me if I can be there, I said “Yes”. I knew mommy also needed me there for her support. 

On the way there, I was talking to one of managers in our company, who was also very kind to give me a lift to the hospital. He did mention that for him, the family comes first and work can wait.

I agree with him, for me the family comes first. This is what one of the most important promise to our family. 

I could not imagine how they will pull-out the pins and was worried that it will be painful. I wanted to make sure that you will be ok and everything was fine. Asked a lot of questions to the doctor and to make sure that we know what we need to expect and what to do. 

I was so proud of you on how to confronted, managed and faced the situation. I think not a lot of children can face it like you did. It was all right to be scared and cry, I would expect everyone to be in that situation. But how you handled it amazed me. You really are a brave girl.

I did tell me friend in the office that I brought you to the playground to play. He told me why did I do that? I said it was because I do not want you to have a phobia in the playground. This is something that you grandparents taught me. You have to concur your fear.

In life you have to learn to concur your fear. It is one of the most important things that you should remember. When we were young, we were forced to do it and it was not explained properly why we are doing it (as far as I can remember). But the way we bring you up, your mommy and I make it a point to give you the confidence you need to be able to concur your fear and not just push you to do it. We never forget to always congratulate you on a job well done. 

Now that your elbow is well, please remember to take care. 

I made it a point that I will be there to support and comfort you especially in times of need.

I love you!

Daddy

Family field trip

Dear Mommy, Gia and Vito,

Yesterday was one of the most enjoyable weekends that we had in a long time. I enjoyed every minute of it. We visited the SEA Aquarium.

At first when we told you guys that we are going to the SEA Aquarium, Gia said “to see the fishes, that is a little boring.” We did told you that there are a lot of fishes, dolphins, sharks and others. Then your perception quickly changed, “I want to see a hammerhead shark”. That is when I knew that you are now excited and looking forward to it.

The bus ride was a long one, it took us around 1 hour and 30 minutes just to reach there. In spite of that, I knew you enjoyed the ride because we played a couple of new games we invented (reading the signs along the road and tallying the scores), I did too. It was a bonding moment for us (and you won both times, one with daddy and another one with mommy).

Once we entered the SEA Aquarium, Gia shouted, “I am excited to see the hammerhead shark.” You did have a lot of questions, mommy and I took turns to answer as many as we can (to the best of our ability).

I gave you your own camera, so you can take all the pictures you want. You took some cool pictures especially of the dolphins. Great photos!

You even said that when you grow up, you want to be a trainer of the dolphins.

Vito was so excited that he screams when he likes what he sees. There were so many fishes all around, so all the way he was screaming. I cannot imagine when we visit the zoo and you see all the animals. 

Having spent time out and enjoying the time together was well worth it. I was just half a day, but it felt like the whole weekend.

I want us to go to this kinds of family field trips of ours at least every other month (or every month), if possible.

I love you,

Daddy

Best Sister

Dear Gia,

Last night proved to me how much you really love your brother and I am very happy to see that. I can say that you are the best sister in the world that a younger child would want to have. 

I know that when children are in the womb of the mother, the first sound they hear are the heart beat and all the sound in the mother body.

I guess that is one of the most comfortable places your brother likes to be. Maybe it makes him relax hearing what is the sound of the heart beat, stomach sound, lungs taking air and exhaling and maybe all other sounds. 

Mommy was in class, so only you, me and your brother were in bed getting ready to sleep. You knew that mommy would always allow your brother to sleep on her tummy at night. 

I really was amazed on how much you wanted your brother to be comfortable. All of a sudden, you offered your tummy for him to lay down on.

 

From what I can remember, you said, “mommy is not here yet but she will be home later. Come brother, you can lay down on my tummy. Ok, go to sleep now.”  

I really felt the love you have for your brother. 

I love you.

Daddy

Freshly baked breads

First of all, I would like to thank mommy for spending time learning to make breads. I know that it is time consuming to do it. 

There was a time when you were making the bread, it took you until past midnight to bake and let the bread cool down. You did say that you will not do it again (I do felt bad since I know I did encourage you to make the bread). 

We (me, Gia and Vito) are really happy that you are enjoying what you are doing. We can never complain, because we are enjoying the freshly baked bread every other 2 days (at the least). 

I do enjoying bring and eating the bread in the office, instead of the commercially available bread that we buy. 

You make a variety of bread that we are not able to request from bakeries here. 

I think they are also healthier than what e can buy off the shelf bread.

Thank you!

I love you,

Daddy