we are featured on CNN.COM!!!

every now and then, I send contributions to cnn.com's ireport.  recently, I submitted information for "Your child's travel firsts" and being that our family loves to travel, Michelle has a lot of travel firsts.  I submitted a picture from our trip to Venice in 2012 which is Michelle's favorite moment in Italy.  After I submitted my contribution, someone from cnn emailed me, asked a bunch of questions, and I happily answered all of them.  a few days later, I got another email from them and they said that they will be publishing a story on children and traveling.  On Monday, Mar 31st, this is what I saw on cnn.com!

Michelle's photo on CNN.COM!!!

my answers to their questions were quoted several times in the article.  exciting!  hahaha!  we were so excited to share some of the travel tips we've learned along the way.  michelle has been to many different parts of the world and has always been a good traveler.  it helps that she's well behaved and very respectful of other people wherever we are so how she behaves at home, is pretty much how she behaves on a flight. 

we are traveling again in a few weeks and I'm sure we'll learn new things on that trip again.  i hope to share them here when we get back. 

here's the link to the full article. 

michelle-isms

I just found out yesterday about a conversation Michelle had with a family friend from san diego last week: 'why are you in san francisco? Are you looking for a job? Maybe you can work at Tselogs Tapasor at Oneway Mission? My ninang Chel Gilla is not here, but when she comes back, I can tell her and maybe you can work at our restaurants.' Yup. She said that. Lol


here's one more:

most clementine oranges are seedless, right? so when michelle ate one today that had seeds, she said, " mommy, this isn't seedless, it's seed-with!"

tithes = tights?

Me: Michelle, you gotta give your TITHES at church today. You forgot to do it last week.


Michelle: Mommy! But what will I wear if I give away my TIGHTS??!!

a new batch of michelle-isms

my dear daughter is almost 6 years old.  she still cracks us up sometimes with her funny words but lately, she has been asking us some difficult questions...here are some of the things she has asked lately:


'Mommy, what happens to the earth when the world ends?'


'Mommy, why are there other planets and not just the earth? what are the other planets there for?'


'Mommy, what's a hypothesis?' 




did you notice her questions are mostly scientific?  hmmmm i wonder what she'll be when she grows up.  =)

kidnapped!

every now and then, when a certain classmate of hers is mentioned, michelle says, 'mommy, you know my friend gra#$%, she was kidnapped when she was a baby and ms. #$^&& is not her real mommy.'

to be honest, when i first heard this, i was a little perplexed. what discussion was going on at school where a child's kidnapping would be brought up?  i didn't bother asking michelle's teacher about this because i thought, kidnapping is a pretty sensitive topic to bring up.  

yesterday, on our way to my aunt's house for our family get-together, michelle brings it up again.  'mommy, gra#$% was kidnapped when she was a baby and ms #$^&& is not her real mommy.' tired of hearing the same disturbing story, i replied to her, 'michelle, where did you hear this story?  are you sure she was kidnapped? that's not a very good story to be telling people, baby.'  she insists, 'no mommy, she really was kidnapped!  that's what she told me.'

and then it dawned on me.  the little girl wasn't kidnapped!

i was crackin' up after i realized what michelle was trying to say....

trying to put a straight face, i said, 'michelle, do you mean your friend was adopted?'

'YES, MOMMY!  that's the right word!!!!!' michelle screamed.

and that is our michelle-ism on christmas day.  

turkey

(scenario...we're watching the news about the earthquake in turkey)

michelle: what's that mommy?
me: it's about the earthquake in turkey?
michelle: turkey?
me: yes, there's a country called turkey.
michelle: (laughing) that's a silly name for a country!


i'm not insensitive...i am praying for the people of turkey and hope they can all recover from the devastation...but kids say the darnest things!

whales eat people!!!!

michelle was drawing a whale on the board, and then she said, 'i'm scared of whales! they eat people!'



i said, 'no, michelle. whales don't eat people.'

michelle looked at me and said, 'no, mommy! in my bible, the whale ate the man, so whales eat people!'






nga naman! si jonah kasi, matigas ulo e!

michelle's room makeover

usually around christmas or her birthday, michelle breaks open her piggy bank.  this year, we decided to fix up her room and make it more conducive to learning (michelle's now in kindergarten).


so this is how it turned out.  i just hope she keeps it clean!

happy 5th birthday, michelle!

my dear daughter turned 5 yesterday and we celebrated with a cat in the hat themed birthday party at CuriOdyssey at Coyote Point Park.

the awesome birthday cake was baked by one of ninong ed's closest friends, mar.  i found a neat cake online and emailed mar the picture and she did it!  hooray!!

cake by mar 

gift boxes for her guests

catering by tselogs

entertainment by happily ever laughter parties

miss raina, the circus girl

look at alex, the little girl at the bottom center of the picture.

she kept interrupting miss raina who wanted go on with the show 

and started to politely ignore alex;

alex in return pretended to be falling asleep during miss raina's routine.  hahaha!

face painting also by miss raina

it was one, fun, party!!!!

no present this year from mommy and daddy.  they spent too much for the party.  

pang miss universe!

it was back to school night at michelle's school this evening.  we got to talk to her teacher for a little bit and she explained how the first few weeks of school has been.  


on the white board, the teacher wrote the kids' answers to the question, 'how can your parents help you do your best?'...below are the kids answers and i encircled michelle's response

BONGGA! pang miss universe!  kulang nalang, 'and world peace!'

meeting???

paul has a conference call at 9 pm Pacific with folks from either India or Israel (not sure).  dahil maingay sa living room (malapit ng maging adobo yung mga ibon namin!  jk!) and michelle and i are in the bedroom, he went to michelle's room...


michelle:  daddy, why are in in my room?
daddy: maingay kasi sa labas e dito muna ako.
michelle: (heading towards me)  mommy, why is daddy going to my room?
me:  daddy has a meeting, wag ka maingay.
michelle:  meeting?  he can't meet anyone there, there's nobody in the room!


walang meeting pag walang tao.  

michelle-ism from june 30, 2011

Michelle wants her own tablet pc. I said, ' when you start working and make your own money.' She replied, ' I work at tselogs and one way. Ninang gives me money sometimes.' She has a point. So I just said, 'you're too young. Pag malaki ka na, pagusapan ulit natin.'

michelle-ism from july 15, 2011

Took michelle to her pediatrician for her vaccine and tb test (required before school starts). After the tb test she said, 'that's it mommy? i thought iwas going to watch tv and you'll ask me questions.'

michelle-isms

i keep forgetting to post michelle's funny remarks here...

the latest is this:

(scenario) at home watching discovery channel's shark week.

michelle:  shark week! hu ha ha! like in nemo mommy.

mommy: anak, it's shark bait hu ha ha. iba yun.

michelle's first book

Illustration and story by  Michelle.  Hand-writing by Mommy.

call me a stage mom...

but isn't she just precious?!?!?!?!

after our trip to the vineyards today, we stopped by the napa premium outlets.   the sales people at cole haan were all over her, gushing over her...napabili tuloy kami ni paul ng tig-isang sapatos!

i really find her cute.  =)

quite frankly...

another interesting conversation with michelle...

(we have a strict 'no eating on the bed' policy here at home so when i saw crumbs on our bed, i quickly called michelle.)

me:  'michelle, what's this?  why are there crumbs on the bed?'

michelle:  'is it sweet, mommy?' (parang may difference kung sweet ba o hindi yung kinakain nya)

me:  'quite frankly, i don't care if it's sweet or not. you're not supposed to eat on the bed, understand?'

michelle: 'frankly?  frankly?  mommy, i'm not frankly! i'm michelle!'

(i just started laughing...how am i supposed to reprimand her after that?) =)

ants, spiders and worms

last night, before going to bed, michelle said this prayer:

'jesus, Lord, we pray to God..eat lots of vegetables. we don't like ants and spiders....and weeds and worms. in jesus name, amen.'

 today in the backyard, while we were gardening on this, the first day of spring...she saw ants, spiders, worms, lady bugs,snails and a bee.

she's fine with the last three.  but when she saw the ants, spiders and worms, she said, 'mommy!!!!!  jesus didn't hear my prayer!!!  there are still ants, spiders and worms!!!!

how to be the best mommy in the world

i was making my 'famous' buko pie in the kitchen earlier when michelle saw me pour the sugar into the pot. she said, 'mommy, is that sugar?'

'yes, it is sugar. bakit?' i asked her.

'can i have some?' she asked.

i replied with a firm 'no.'

she paused...then she said, 'mommy, do you want to be the best mommy in the world? if you give me sugar, you're the best mommy in the world!'

i laughed and said, 'giving you sugar doesn't make me the best mommy in the world. i already am the best mommy in the world!'

ako pa inuto nitong batang to.

teaching michelle to eat balut

i love balut!

i remember as a kid growing up in the philippines, street vendors were out from dusk til dawn, yelling, 'ballllllluuuuuuuuuuuuuut!' i would go up to my dad and ask him if we could buy some and he'd say, 'sige tawagin mo yung tindero.' (go ahead and call the [male] vendor). i'd run out of the house and yell 'ballllllluuuuuu!' to get the vendor's attention. he'd look back and hurry towards our house where my dad and i would be waiting.

when we moved to the states, the local asian markets carried them so i can still get my balut fix. every once in a while we would buy some and my childhood balut memories would come flooding back.

we bought some balut over the weekend and i've been teaching michelle to eat this stuff. she loves egg, but balut is not quite the egg she's used to eating. she drinks the sabaw but when she sees the rest of the stuff, she goes, 'eew!' i am dismayed!!! kainis! so i would reprimand her and tell her that i wouldn't eat it if it wasn't good and that ever since i was her age, balut was one of my favorites. she had a small piece of the yellow part and duck embryo part. she left it in her mouth without chewing. however, she finished all of the sabaw inside the egg. then she told me, 'mommy i'm finished with this' and she points towards her mouth. 'no, you have to chew it and swallow it.' her eyes opened wide, but she knew i was serious. she chews and shudders as she swallows. my mom and i started cracking up at the sight. it really was funny.

i asked her how it tasted, and she said it was ok and i knew she'll grow to like it. part of my struggle as a filipina(/american) mom (filipino by birth, race and heritage, but american by citizenship) is how i could raise my daughter the filipino way, in every way, and encourage her to embrace both her being filipino and american. it's hard. she speaks english almost 100% of the time even if you talk to her in tagalog and understand every word you say in tagalog. like this evening, my mom instructed her and said, 'michelle, tawagin mo ang lolo mo sabihin mo magsisimula na ang tanging yaman.' she went to her lolo and said, 'lolo, lola is calling you she said tanging yaman will start soon.' haaaaay! a trip to the motherland is really in order!

she does know how to say po and opo which i'm happy FINALLY picked up as i have been trying to teach her this ever since she learned to speak.

for paul's birthday at the end of the month, we plan on cooking isaw...and again i'll teach her to eat that.

it's fear factor in our fun little household!