Mommy Talk: On-a-budget-date ideas for your kids!

As promised, Wednesdays, I’m gonna tell you guys stories about being a mommy — places my son and I go to, activities we do together and well, things we’re up to! So, if you’re a mommy and you’re thinking of ideas for bonding moments, hope this will help!

Saturday morning, Kristo, my 4 year old boy, and i went on a date We started with brunch at Flapjacks at Greenbelt 2 in Makati. I wanted to try their “kids eat for free on weekends” promo It worked out really well!! There are great options for the kids’ meals. My son chose the pancake meal (I wasn’t surprised at all!) coz in the picture there were 3 tiny pancakes, plus shot glasses filled with maple syrup, candy sprinkles, chocolate chips and marshmallows. Talk about sugar rush in the morning — that would beat a mug of brewed coffee for sure! When we got our food, what surprised me was the 3 tiny pancakes i expected — WERE NO WHERE NEAR TINY!!! It was your regular ‘adult sized’ pancakes! So, the whole free food for kids on weekends is totally worth it!

Kristo and his pancakes!

If you do the math, you just end up paying for what you eat. My suggestion is to get there around 9:30, so that you still get free coffee! They only have that offer til 10am. Well, if you don’t drink coffee, their iced tea is refillable and if your kid is as young as mine, you can share! So if you’re on a budget, you can order a big sandwich, like I did, coz it’s really filling and will last you til early afternoon It’s a great way to start the day!!!

The grilled chicken sandwich came with fries and onion rings

After breakfast, we went around Greenbelt 5. If you’re on a budget, don’t be fooled or scared by the fancy-ness of the place Kristo and I found 2 really great spots to spend time in there — and way cheaper than other malls we go to! Surprised? Yeah, I was too! But at the same time really happy about the discovery, so I wanna share that with you!

If you step into Hobbes and Landes at the top floor, you and your child will be amused at all the cool stuff they’ve got there. Kristo and I enjoyed looking at the ‘science’ toys, like parts of the body that are detachable, etc. So it was sort of like ‘mall schooling’ right there But more than that, we enjoyed spending time at their Lego table. You can just sit there and play with all these Lego blocks — for free! I think we spent about 20-30mins there! It brought me back to those days when I would play Lego with my dad, as a kid

they've got loads of cool pieces

On the same level, you’ll find TimeZone. Ok, what’s different here is aside from the usual computer games, they’ve got this big play area that you can enter for 90 pesos an hour — and that includes mommies and daddies! Yes, you can crawl in the tunnels and swim in the pool of balls and enjoy the area with your kid — as long as there aren’t a lot of kids. One thing I noticed about that particular branch is it wasn’t that crowded compared to other TimeZones we’ve been to! It was a pleasant surprise We were there from around 12nn til about 1:30 and I think it was a really good time to go.

kids get to slide down into a pool of balls!

kristo and portia, his 'friend' for the day

Those are a few places you can go to if you wanna bond with your kids and have fun as a family — specially if you’re on a budget — and if you’re into malls and all that. If you’re more of the outdoor type, then you can always spend the day by the pool, swim at a friend’s house or at club house.  (That’s how we ended our Saturday date) Hope that’s helpful! Do you have any great finds you wanna share?

* This is not a paid blog for any of the establishments I mentioned in this blog. This was written for the sole purpose of telling other mommies and daddies about these great discoveries*

Walk Thoughts: His arms around me…

As I was thinking of what to write today for my Walk Thoughts, I wanted to tell you guys about how I’ve rediscovered the beauty of Jesus…as well as how I opened this box to discover what Grace is…all weekend I’ve been so overwhelmed by these ‘new’ discoveries… Oh how I wanted to tell you guys about that…but as I lay in bed, trying to collect my thoughts on how to write that specific blog, a different idea overwhelmed me. You see, I had my son’s tiny arms around me as I was deep in thought. My natural reflex (I think) as a mom was to hug him and kiss him as he was far away in dreamland…and then I started to thank God for Kristo, my 4 year old. I thanked God for trusting me to take care of him, to raise him, to love him and to learn with him. I thanked God for such an amazing son.

`Til this very day, I am in awe of this little man (and I don’t think it’ll ever change). I have always been amazed to see him learn new things, from trying to feed himself, to taking off his socks, to knowing how to play a computer game and this weekend – to be really interested in the human Anatomy. I know right??? Even I was surprised!!! *side story* As we were in Hobbes and Lands over the weekend, out of all the toys that would interest him, he spent most of his time checking out toys which were parts of the body, like parts of the ear which had detachable parts, parts of the brain, torso, etc. I thought it was all just because they were ‘toys’ in his eyes and they really were cool… but yesterday I found him looking at his cousin’s giant human atlas book. I confirmed his interest in anatomy when for a bedtime story, he asked for the atlas. Then he had me discussing the skeletal, nervous, musculoskeletal system to him. Then I heard him say “I have a skeletal system” – and touched his ribs! I couldn’t help but be amazed. Then what followed were thoughts of – “I wish I had paid attention in my biology class so I could tell him more about the body and answer his questions” (so that’s why they teach that stuff – so we could teach our kids about it someday!!!) Besides that, I am still in awe of how he can just absorb and remember so many things he just heard of once!!! I can’t stop thanking God for how smart he is! (You see, I find it tough at times to remember things, so to see my son like this is just such a thrill and a blessing!)

Ok, back to my Walk Thoughts…I am thankful…Thankful that I see life unfold in front of me. Thankful that I see this little man trust in God’s healing power when he has a wound. That he would rather insist for prayer than just give him a peck where it’s needed. I am thankful for his little arms that embrace me. I am thankful that he surprises me with remarks like ‘you’re so pretty, mommy’ or ‘I love you, mom’… I know it’s normal for our kids to feel God’s love thru us, after all, we are their parents here on earth… but how about those times when we feel God’s love thru them? I’ve felt that sooo many times – specially when my son calls me when MY favorite cartoon is on — and it’s such a wonderful feeling. I’ve learned so much about Jesus thru my son…I’ve seen how patient God has been with me, as I deal with my son…and well, there are just so many instances where I get to understand my relationship with Jesus, thru my relationship with my son..  I pray that it’s the same for all you mom’s and dad’s too…

Thursday…Thinking of…

…What exactly to write on this site.  Ok, let’s back track. Why am I even starting a blog? Isn’t facebook and multiply tough enough to maintain???  What’s pushing me to do this? Why have I been thinking of this for days? Well…I’ll tell you whose fault it is!!! It’s Ganns Deen’s and Ardy Roberto’s fault!!!

Ganns is a Filipino Christian Blogger and is such an expert at it! Try to google him, you’ll know what I mean.  Ardy is an author — and well, click here to find out more about him.  They were two of our speakers at the Redeem the Airwaves 4.0 Conference.  Ardy talked about being a writer and gave tips on how to write. The most important thing he said that still rings in my head is “write. write. write.” If you’ve got something to write, write it, NOW!!! ok, I got the message. Usually I find myself in situations where I say to myself, “I gotta write about this!”…but I don’t.  So it was huge to hear that. It  makes so much sense! Then Ganns talked about blogging — and WordPress! So ok, write.write.write….and the avenue — WordPress.

So since they talked at the conference last week, I’ve been trying to figure out what to write about on this site each day. So far, I’ve come up with:  Mondays, I’m gonna talk about my walk with Jesus, thing’s I’ve read about him, lessons learned and the like. Tuesdays, I wanna tell you about what’s happening on my show at The Edge Media — or well, anything related to my ‘extended’ world — work.  Wednesdays, I was thinking about sharing mommy thoughts, stories about my son, parenting tips I’ve read or heard and tried — just anything that’s got to do with being a mom. For Thursdays, well, this is where anything goes – anything I’m thinking about for the day, thoughts about a book I’m reading for the week, a movie I saw or a friend or person I wanna feature. Then Fridays, I’ll try my best to give you guys updates of what’s happening during the weekend, like gigs, events and maybe places you can visit as a family. I’m not really sure if I wanna blog on weekends, so we’ll keep it to what we’ve got so far How does that sound?

I’d love to hear what you think of this gameplan Whatchathink???