Hyper Baby

Hailey is a very active baby. When she moves in my tummy, her movements are so strong. I sometimes get poked on the ribs. She's usually very active towards midnight.

When I was at the hospital and had a fetal monitor attached to me. she kept on moving that it was difficult to hear her heartbeat. The monitor kept on slipping off my tummy because of her movements that's why someone had to hold it in place.

I wonder if she will be this active when she comes out. Will she be a hyper baby? I will just have to wait and see. Just a few more weeks till we see Hailey.

Spotting and Contractions

I went to the delivery room yesterday to have myself checked because I had spotting yesterday afternoon. My mom, Griffin and I left at around 6 pm. I did not expect to be there till after midnight neither did I expect that I would be admitted. The main problem was because of the moderate contractions I was experiencing. I was injected brikanil twice but after 15 to 20 minutes there would be a spike again. I kept on praying that there would no longer be moderate contractions so that I could go home already.

Poor Griffin, he waited for me for so long until he got sleepy, so my mom had to bring him home. He was left with Auntie Pebbles and Tai-ma while my mom went back to the hospital and waited for Willie to come. When my mom got back, Griffin was really sleepy so they went home until he eventually fell asleep. I was really worried that he would get up in the wee hours of the morning looking for me since it's the first time that he has slept without me by his side. He slept through the night. When Willie came back for him this morning, he was still asleep, when he eventually woke up he was crying. Willie was telling him that they would go see me and it would be like a hotel room. He did not want to go because he felt bad. When I talked to him on the phone he told me, "Why are you taking so long?". It's the first time we've ever been apart for a very long time. I told him to come and see me. He was a happy little boy already when he arrived at the hospital. He loved playing with the bed. When we were about to leave, he even said, "I'm going to miss this place".

I was fortunately allowed to go home this afternoon. I had an ultrasound and everything was fine. I was given duvadilan for the contractions and an antibiotic for the UTI. Now, I have to be really careful with what I do, I have to limit moving around so much, so as not to get tired and stress myself. This is quite hard to do when I have to play with Griffin and clean up his mess everyday, but I won't tire myself anymore, I don't want to give birth prematurely. Hoping everything would be fine with this pregnancy until around the third week of May when I would be 37 weeks already and could probably give birth through c-section.

Big Tummy

Just this morning, while Griffin was hugging my tummy, he said, " Mommy, I love your big tummy. If you don't have a big tummy, I don't like it anymore, but I still love you!"

Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday, we decorated some eggs which we were going to use for the Easter egg hunt. Griffin still remembers decorating the eggs last year, he even told me that we were going to do it in the lanai like last year.



















Griffin had his Easter egg hunt this morning. I placed the eggs where he could easily see them. I did not actually hide them. He found the eggs really quickly unlike last year when I still had to show him where the eggs were. Of course, after the egg hunt, he got some prizes for finding all the eggs.

Swimming at Makati Shangri-la

It has been two years since Griffin last swam in a big pool. This morning Griffin and I went to Makati Shangri-la to have a swim. I used my voucher for a one week free trial of their health club. We arrived a few minutes past eight, got dressed then went straight to the pool. At first I gave him his swim ring but the swim ring was too big for him that's why he had a hard time holding on to it. I asked him if he wanted to try his floating vest, he agreed, so I put it on him. Initially, he was kind of scared of letting go of me. After a while though, he got the hang of it and would confidently tread around the big pool. We were at the pool for almost 3 hours. Griffin told me, he had so much fun swimming.

Monsters vs Aliens

We watched Monsters vs Aliens last Friday at Greenbelt 3. Griffin enjoyed watching the movie. He said, " I liked the movie because it's funny". After watching the movie, we ate at Wendy's then went to National bookstore where we bought a Monsters vs Aliens book. He makes me read the book all the time. He also likes visiting the Monsters vs Aliens website where he enjoys watching the short clips from the movie.

Writing Update

I've been asking Griffin to write the letters A-Z and his name everyday, for over a week now. So far, so good. He's been cooperating and he even tried writing some numbers. His number 2 and number 5 look good now. He did not write them in reverse but he still needs to copy the numbers just to be sure. I'm hoping that by the time June comes, he'll be at ease in writing numbers and letters. He's writing the alphabet in uppercase but maybe in a few more weeks I hope he could also practice writing the lowercase letters.

Boys School or Coed?

A couple of days ago Griffin was telling me...

Griffin: When Hailey* is 4 years old, she will go to my school then I will show her to my classmates.

Me: But there are no girls in your school, only boys.

Griffin: I want a school with boys and girls.

Me: Maybe you can transfer to a school for boys and girls when Hailey* starts going to school.

* Hailey is the name we call the baby in my tummy.

I don't really know if Griffin would still want to transfer schools in a couple of years. I'll just wait and see.

Last Narrative Report by Teacher Cristy

The last few weeks have been very busy for all. The children worked very hard to do their scrapbooks. As they looked back through each page, they remembered many things that they learned, fun activities that they had, plus memories that they will be carrying with them, hopefully for a very long time. Teh different pages will show bits and pieces of their hard work, creativity, and love for learning. :)

We also had our second semester Assessment, where we again determined how much the children have grown in the different areas of development. Griffin is really a smart boy. Learning concepts has always been easy for him. He thinks faster though than he can write his answers which makes answering worksheets a bit of a challenge for him. And while his ability to handle frustrations has improved, he still gets stressed out once in a while because he always wants things to be perfect.

It has been a very good and fulfilling 10 months! It was long but fun! As I was collating some of their pictures during the first few months, and looked back at some of their pictures last year, I couldn't help but smile, as I see how small they were then, and how grown up they seem now. I am very lucky to have been witness to their laughter, feelings of triumph, success... and also their moments of tears and sadness, fear and anger, and even of disappointment. How lucky I truly am, to have been able to hug them and be given a big hug in return.

I now say good-bye, with a sad and happy heart. I had a wonderful time with the children and will truly miss them, especially those who will be going to big school already (Griffin being one of them). I learned much from them, maybe even more than what they've learned from me. Allow me to say again, thank you for entrusting Griffin to us here at KIDS. It has been a privilege to be part of his small school experience.

Love,
Teacher Cristy

P.S.
We will pray for a safe delivery for you and your baby. We hope to see you again in a few years when it's your little one's time to start school.

K.I.D.S. Moving Up Day

K.I.D.S. Moving Up Day was held last Saturday, March 14, 2009 at the Mariners' Home in Malate, Manila. We arrived at the place at around 8:45 am. Griffin looked so handsome in his white polo and blue jeans. My baby is now Moving Up to big school this coming June.

I feel kind of sad because I really love K.I.D.S. If only they offer Grade School, I would still let Griffin study there. I don't know how Griffin is going to adjust to big school. I hope he doesn't have a hard time as he still has difficulties in writing. He has to practice writing this summer. I hope he cooperates when I ask him to write. That is my main worry for next school year.

I also don't know how he will cope with Chinese as a new subject for him. Anyway, I'm open to him transferring to another school if he won't like studying Chinese. I asked him the other day if he wants to learn Chinese and he said, "no". I told him that there's going to be Chinese in Xavier and he fell silent then told me that he would just study at K.I.D.S. again. I don't want to force him as he will probably have a hard time also once he starts having Filipino as a subject, and we can't do anything about this. Hoping that everything turns out fine specially with another adjustment for him once the new baby comes in May.

Check Out This Outfit

Here's a photo of Griffin trying out his white polo and blue jeans for Moving Up Day on Saturday.

Narrative Report: February 9 - February 27, 2009

Narrative Report
Period Covered: February 9 - February 27, 2009
By Teacher Cristy

I really missed the children during my leave of two weeks and I am glad to see all of them again. It's unfortunate that I missed several special activities like our Valentine's Day celebration, the class picture taking and the Family Day. Everyone seemed to enjoy the Family Day as they talked about it when they got back to school. Griffin said he liked playing in the sand and where there were ropes, as others talked about the different animals and riding a horse and going fishing.

T. Mina's observations about Griffin are very consistent with how he has been performing in school these past months - He is smart, witty, very quick to learn, follows directions without difficulty and works with very little supervision. He just gets easily frustrated when he makes a mistake, as he wants his work to always be perfect. He also continues to have difficulty writing but is always willing to do his best.

As we learned to tell time (by the hour abd half hour), Griffin was quick to grasp the concept and answered his activity sheets with great ease, except when it came to having to write the time, as he has to be reminded not to write his numbers too big and to write within the space provided.

Griffin continues to spend play time with boys although there was one time, he played "house" with girls. When his friends asked him why he was playing girls stuff with the girls, he just looked at them and said, "it's ok". He also continues to remind those who are not sharing that "sharing is good". He is extremely observant and knows who brought a particular toy and left it in the slide outdoors. He even noticed that Maddie came to school one day wearing the same clothes she was wearing the previous day! "Why are you wearing that green shirt with pink flowers inside, you were wearing that yesterday!, he told her."

New Black Shoes

Yesterday, I bought Griffin black leather shoes because he's going to be a ring bearer on May 10. This will also be his school shoes when he goes to big school in June. When we got home, he put on his shoes and was showing it off to everyone...

Griffin: I'm going to wear these shoes when I go to Xavier. Xavier is Apit's school but he doesn't use it anymore becuase he's big already.

Blue Jeans, Fat Genes

After going to Mass yesterday, my mom, Griffin and I went to Mc Donald's Kingswood to eat. While eating, I was telling my mom that Griffin sometimes has a big appetite. Just the night before, he ate hotdog with rice, then when Willie brought home some fries and chicken with rice, he ate again. My mom said that it's good that he's eating a lot more now.

Me: It's good that he doesn't eat so much because he has bad genes.
Griffin: What's bad genes?
Ama: Ama and mommy have bad genes because we have fat genes.
Griffin: Me, I have blue jeans because I'm thin.