Kimmy Schemy

Archive for September, 2011

Last week, my cousin from Canada sent me a message through Facebook. She was inviting us to her wedding in February. It seems like she wanted my kids to be part of her bridal entourage. My kids are so excited and so am I.

This is actually the second wedding. A couple of  years after they came to Canada to work as nurses, my cousin and her fiance got married. It was just a simple event attended by a few close friends. But now that they are coming home, they are getting married again in their hometown, in the church this time. I actually find it impractical, but I understand every woman’s dream of a fairy tale wedding wearing bridal gown complete with bridal bouquet, the couple wearing artcarved wedding bands and the entourage led by a pair of cute little flower girl and ring bearer.

Well, isn’t that something?

One of the activities that my kids enjoy when they were young was BATH TIME!

Yes, they love the water. In fact, it was always difficult to stop them once they started. I never had any problem giving my kids a bath except when it’s time to get dry and get dressed.

At first, I couldn’t figure out how to stop them without breaking their hearts. But since they were placed in a bath tub and were playing with the water, I deliberately splashed the water off the the tub until it is nearly empty and  no longer as enjoyable to play with as it was a few minutes back

That’s the time I drape the towel over their bodies and them a loving hug. Then comes the next enjoyable part… DRESSING UP!

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EJ* is 4 years old. He is a spoiled little boy who always gets what he wants and he wants everything he sees even those which belong to someone else.

Every time he comes to the center, he knocks things down and grabs other kids’ toys. When he doesn’t get what he wants, he gets into a tantrum that lasts for several minutes. Last week, he grabbed a toy being played by the little girl, Aira, and the girl cried. EJ’s mommy talked with him and told him to give the toy back to the girl. But EJ wouldn’t give it back, so mommy took it and handed it to Aira. EJ got so mad he dropped on the matted floor. He screamed at the top of his lungs and flailed his arms and legs wildly. Mommy picked him up and tried to pacify him. But EJ kept on screaming as hard as he could and hit mommy again and again.

Then mommy said “It’s ok, baby.. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.. Mommy won’t do it again..”

We were speechless.. EJ was taken outside the play school by his mommy who kept on apologizing to the boy. So, we went on with the class..

Honestly.. I’m lost. Why did mommy apologize to EJ?

*not real name

Today is my son Daryl’s birthday. He is now 9 years old and a big boy. Naughty as he is, he is one sweet little guy.

The truth is, he was sort of unplanned. It was because my middle child, Mika, was barely two years old when I conceived of my last born, and I still wanted to enjoy her. So the arrival of another baby was kind of not-so-welcome to me at the time. But when I got to realize how lucky I was to have yet another baby when other women are dying to have even just one, I got excited and started to anticipate.

That he is a boy was the greatest surprise of all because I didn’t bother to have an ultrasound. For us, whatever the baby is, a boy or a girl, it didn’t matter much, we love it anyway. Besides, it wasn’t a big deal for us, so we didn’t even give out a birth announcement when he was born. Only the heaven knows how joyous we felt then and how thankful we are until now that we have him, our baby boy, now a little man.

Happy birthday, Daryl! We love you Balong!

Another difficult task for a mom is getting kids to eat. It is, I guess, a known fact that kids are difficult to feed. Sometimes, they simply don’t want to eat. So, I tried various ways to make eating an enjoyable experience to my kids.

Just like other moms, I bought my kids their own plastic tableware sets. Having their own ‘stuff’ made them feel important, and to make meal time inviting, using tableware with cartoon character designs was for me not a bad idea. To make ‘eating’ an interesting event, I tell them stories so they normally focus on the stories and do not notice that they were eating all the food I put on their plates. It didn’t need to be a different story every meal time, but something I know they liked.

When my kids became toddlers, they couldn’t stand being seated for a long time so I let them get off the chair. Consequently, I had to call them back to give them food or I go to them. Tiring.. yes. That’s why, I trained them to eat by themselves as early as possible

Can you imagine teaching a student that looks like James Dean? Well.. it’s disconcerting. I feel as if I’m the ugliest and most smelly human being on Earth

Kyle* is a 20-year old incoming college student. Having dual citizenship, he lives in the US but enjoys coming here every once in a while. However, while he was here for a vacation last year, he got himself into modeling and came to enjoy the ramp. So, he feels somehow regretful that he had to stop doing the thing that he started to like doing. When I asked him why he had to stop, he answered..

Kyle: My dad said I have to focus on my formal education. You see.. well.. this is embarrassing, but I guess he is getting me ready to enter politics. Mine is a family of politicians…”

 

Teacher Kim: But why? Can’t you do both at the same time?”

 

Kyle: I can. But my dad said modeling is a kind of distraction and he doesn’t want any of that.”

 

Hmm.. Serious, right? When I asked him why he was late that morning, he said..

Kyle: I woke up late, hehe..”

 

Teacher Kim: Some people use alarm clocks you know..’

 

Kyle: I have one but I don’t hear it when it goes off..”

 

Teacher Kim: Oh, alright.. So, did you have any trouble parking your car?”

 

Kyle: I didn’t bring a car..”

 

Teacher Kim: You didn’t?”

 

Kyle: My dad got rid of my bodyguards when he felt sure I’ll be safe..”

 

Teacher Kim: So, how did you get here?”

 

Kyle: The jeep…”

 

Teacher Kim: Really?”

 

Kyle: My dad said I have to know how to find my way all by myself.”

 

Teacher Kim: And how do you find riding jeepneys?”

 

Kyle: Oh, it’s fun…”

 

Our conversation, for the most part, was in English, but his Tagalog (Pilipino) was flawless, complete with ‘po’ and ‘opo’

The point? Kyle is not just a pretty face, he is smart as well. For one, he shows willingness to learn and second, he learns fast. Does it sound too good to be true?

I’m not a fan of politicians, but I like Kyle. He is nice, courteous, humble, respectful and good-looking. How many future politicians can we say that about? I just hope he’ll learn to wake up early

Well, though I’m kind of confident that Kyle will pass the entrance test even without our help, I still do the best I can for the boy who, I hope, would be a fine man in the near future.. Good luck, Kyle! I would pray for your integrity..

*not real name

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The sound of the letter b is found in the beginning sound of the word bat.

Click the image to be redirected to the printable page.

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As I said in my post last week, we were attending a birthday party by the weekend.. and we did! It was the 3rd birthday of my colleague, Teacher Hazel’s daughter, SHAENI.

It was held in SHAKEY’S, Pearl Drive, Quezon City branch, from 3:00-5:00pm. The theme was, as you can see in the picture, BARNEY and though there were very few kids who attended, the games were joined by adults making the party a complete success.

These were among the prizes that we got. Mika won in the ‘Longest Happy Birthday’ greetings, Daryl won in ‘Bring Me’ and I? I won in ‘Pinoy Henyo’. I guessed the word within 5 seconds All in all, we had so much fun..

Happy Birthday, SHAENI! Thanks for inviting us.. We hope you have many more birthdays to come..

Have you experienced being awake the whole day and the whole night? So, how did you feel? I felt miserable. My head aches the whole time for trying to sleep and consequently, I experience dizzy spells. What follows added to the misery. I couldn’t eat well so I was hungry but the idea of food was kind of loathsome. All because I didn’t have enough sleep, or rather I haven’t any sleep at all.

But the question is.. why couldn’t I sleep? Was it because I wasn’t using Sferra beddings? Well, they said it’s stress. But who isn’t stressed? Everybody, except for young children, experiences stress one way or another. So, in order to get my longed-for sleep, I tried diverting my mind into something else like watching a comedy or adventure film, taking multivitamins and drinking a glass of milk before bed time. Maybe it was chance or maybe it really worked, because I’m sleeping better now..

Adam is 16 years old. He is a Filipino-American who was born here in the Philippines but was taken to Kuwait where his father was assigned.

When his parents divorced, Adam was sent back here to live  with his mother’s family. But just when the Philippines was starting to grow on him, his mother remarried and he was called back to Kuwait. Adjustment had been difficult, but Adam managed. He met new friends and involved himself in sports with them. He has been having much fun when things got tough in Kuwait and though he likes it here in the Philippines, he felt sad to leave his friends behind.

When you meet Adam for the first time, you’ll see a typical, sweet, innocent boy of 16 only more handsome than others. His good looks, however, do not excuse him for doing badly in all his subjects. He is not familiar with the basic rules in grammar, he has difficulty with simple subtraction and multiplication and he unquestionably flunk in Chemistry and other science subjects. But the worse part is his not attending his tutorial classes regularly.

The other teachers in our review center may see a handsome but indolent brat in him, but I see a good-looking, disoriented teen-ager that needs help..