sock puppet

abi, my 10 year old niece, showed me a sock puppet i made for her years ago. i asked her if i could borrow her puppet and use it as as a tool to demonstrate oral hygiene in an more engaging manner to my toddler (who all of a suddenly had become adverse to brushing his teeth!).



abi, then 7 years, showing off her "new" toy

   i realize, though, that the puppet doesn't have teeth!

hubby brushing puppet's tongue!

 i'm reminded of the sock pupper hubby made (with lots of sewing help from me, by the way). he designed it to look like a dragon/ lochness monster. he made it at about the same time i was making abi's. we've both been searching for hubby's monster puppet but it seems to have diasppeared. good thing i took photos of it before.  



huddy's eyeless dragon puppet
(don't tell lolo that his old dentures were used as a prop!)

perhaps next time i should either make a puppet with a full set of chompers or again secretly borrow lolo's dentures!



paper doll family

all of the crafts that i have made in the past, this is perhaps one of my favorites. years ago, i made paper dolls out of a photo copied piture of me and hubby when we where in pre-school. i thought that its about time i make one of my little toddler.

paper doll of me and hubby beside an ultrasound image of alonzo
--- our very first "family picture"

step 1: photo copy a picture and cut out "head"

step 2: roughly draw the "body" on cardboard

step 3: paste "head" over cardboard

step 4: cut

step 5: with front side of paper doll facing down over wrong side of fabric, trace "body" to make clothes

step 6: cut fabric and paste onto paper doll

step 7: you may add details such as a collar, pocket, belt, etc...

step 7: bend at the "hips" and "knee" part and let doll sit over a ledge or shelf

piadina with anchovies, capers and pesto kesong puti

We've having alot of these for dinner for the past 2 weeks. Usually, it's just with tomato sauce, garlic, onions, and cheese.  This time though, after discovering that the organinc store just adjacent to where my son goes for toddler class sells kesong puti, i thought it was  great idea to pull all the stops! This would have been perfect had we not forgotten to add mushrooms. 

ingredients: tortilla flour

tomato sauce

garlic, minced

anchovies

capers

pesto flavored kesong puti, cut into cubes (plain ones will work too!)quick melt cheese, grated

procedure:

spread tomato sauce and place the rest of the ingredients over tortilla flour

fold in half and place in pan over medium heat

remove from pan once slightly brown on both sides

Remembering Ondoy

Two years ago, I was about 16 weeks pregnant and was scheduled to visit my OB-GYN for a check up at 11am at the Makati Medical Center.  Hubby and I together with his parents left the house early at about 7am to visit my MIL's sister confined at Manila Doctor's Hospital before my check up. We also planned to go Asian Hospital for my FIL's check up after that. We left Manila Doctor's at about 9:30 am but never made it to Makati Medical Center. We didn't even get past the Buendia bridge. We got stranded in the heavy traffic and floods along SSHW for 17 hours! 

I normally always keep a pack or 2 of soda crackers in my bag and there's always a bottle of water in the car. Obviously, those weren't enough to keep us satiated for that long. It was a little after 2 hours that we realized what was really going on. Hubby had to brave the murky flood waters to make it across the highway to a Baliwag Chicken stall.



hubby braving the floods while steering clear of the open manholes along SSHW to buy lechon manok



There we were stuck between 10:30am to 3:30am. Poor hubby. Not only did he have to worry about the flood situation but he was literally the only "able bodied" person in the car. There were 4 of us in the car: 2 senior citizens, one of which is diabetic and with a prostate/ bladder problem and 1 paranoid, pregnant wife.  

My sister texted that my mom was at my aunt's place in Provident Village and that they had been rescued and brought to an evacuation center via rubber boat and that my parents' bungalow in Paranaque was knee-deep in flood. They had already fled to the 2nd floor of a neighbor's house. Thank God we were all safe. 
I know this nothing compared to what others have gone through. I really pray that nothing like this ever happens again.


on our way home at around 3:30m



It was because of our Ondoy experience that we always have this emergency road kit with us during trips.  Also, in addition to the standard umbrella, flash light and car tools, we also now keep the following inside the car: rubber boots, rain coat, cell phone charger, extra batteries, bug spray, extra t-shirt and a towel.

Oh, just and in case you're wondering, becuase of my FIL's condition, we have always kept a portable urinal in car!

Michaelmas Celebration at St. Michael Playhouse

undersize me: miniature food part 2

Although I did notice (not just recently) that several locally branded items such as instant noodles, chips, canned meatloaf, sausage and corned beef, etc. have shrunk in size to adjust to rising costs, grocery shopping to accomodate my current obsession for miniature-sized food turns out to be harder than I thought.

I was hoping to find miniature-sized condiments (I know Heinz, A1 and Tabasco have these), Campbell's soup (only found the ones that come in boxes....oh well, will just have to make pretend soup cans out of toilet paper rolls) and wouldn't a miniature Spam be adorably precious?

 Anyway, these are what I have found from my recent miniature food grocery shopping hunt. (the small block of cheese isn't in the photo as Alonzo was already busy playing with the empty box).

home-made finger paint

A couple of days ago, several fellow n@wies shared recipes on how to make home-made finger paint. Among the different recipes contributed i find this the easiest to make. It also requires the least number of ingredients. The original recipe calls for 2 cups of flour and water. I thought that that might be too much to make and only made half that amount.  

Here's what you'll need:

 2 cups flour

2 cups cold water

food color

Step 1: Pour water onto a bowl

Step 2: Gradually add flour and mix well

Step 3: Divide the mixture into smaller bowls (empty baby food bottles work well for this purpose!)

Step 4: Add food coloring





Note: You may also use emtpy yogurt cups to hold or dispense small amounts of paint

Needless to say, my little toddler, who seems to have an affinity to any activity that is synonymous to the word "mess" (whose toddler isn't?), had fun smooshing and pouring the paint around.

He, however, seemed more interested in spreading the paint over garden rocks instead of paper!

top 100 children's books of all time!

Maqui's blog post got me all excited. For those who do not know, I have been collecting children's books years before I had a baby. Although majority of the books are about teeth or dentists I have also acquired several books that I thought my future child would love and therefore, do not necessarily fall under the former category. 

We have 8 books out of the 100 on the list. Five out the the ones we have were bought for a fraction of the original price (hurray for Booksale!). 

I really regret now more than ever that I have lost several of my books because of the Ondoy flood 2 years ago. Among those that were lost are "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle and "Someday" by Alison McGhee (even had a special order for this from Power Books!) Hopefully, I could replace those books soon and I'm crossing fingers that those titles find their way to my favorite Booksale branch :)

I am quite surprised, though, that "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery didnt make it the top 100. Anyway, list or no list my son's favorite bedtime read at the moment is "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown and I absolutely adore "How to Catch a Star" by  Oliver Jeffers (thanks Chloe!) and "I Already know I Love You" by Billy Crystal.

DIY pretend food: pancakes

step 1: prepare batter

step 2: pour batter on griddle

step 3: serve with blueberries and bacon

DIY pretend food: eggs

i suspect that i might be enjoying playing with my son's "pretend food" more than he does. oh, don't get me wrong he loves to pile, sort, and toss everything that the room resembles what it really looks like during his actual meal time! 

i know he gets the idea that these are things that you play with and just make believe because he pretends to eat and does a lot of "air chewing"

however, he also teases me by pretending to bite off the "bacon" from his pretend sandwich! :)    

anyway, this project makes use of a bit of paper mache (will make a tutorial on this soon) and the usual cut out styrofoam placemats to make the broken "egg". 

      

step 1: crack egg open

step 2: fry egg in pan

step 3: serve with buttered toast and ham!

fun with a magnifying glass

i just had to post about this. i was rummaging through a file of old photos a couple of days ago and found a folder containing these pictures. i remember it was a bright and breezy sunday, just the perfect weather to just lounge around. our then 7 year old niece (she's 10 now!), however, was bored and tired of playing with her dolls. she then asked hubby to help her think of something else to do. hubby took out a magnifying glass and showed the little girl a couple of tricks!

together they observed an ant trail.

truly, a magnifying glass is the easiest way to observe little things and it gives us a different perspective of the things around us. it took them a good half hour before switching to another activity.

  he also taught her that you can burn things and make fire with it (gasp)! obviously, this should only be taught  to children who are old enough the know how to use this trick responsively. 

 and lastly, they made funny faces with it!

pastel de pollo

if you ask me to name 3 dishes that i could have everyday for the rest of my life, chicken pastel will definitely be one of them. i just love it! for special occasions we make it with the crust although as a regular, everyday meal the crust is ommited. it was just one of those "regular" days last sunday but i felt like going the distance a bit and made a crust. i even made a miniature one for my little boy! 

ingredients:
chicken breast fillet, cut into chunks
chorizo de bilbao
1/2 cup butter
onion, chopped
garlic, crushed
carrot, cubed
potato, cubed
mushrooms, chopped
sausage, cubed
olives
1 cup evaporated milk
chicken or beef broth
cheese, grated
salt and pepper

procedure:
brown garlic in butter
add onions chicken and chorizo, cook for about 2-3 minutes
add carrots and potatoes. let them brown a little
add some broth, cover and simmer
add mushrooms, sausage and olives
stir in milk, remaining broth and cheese
when chicken and vegetables are cooked transfer onto baking dish
cover with crust*

*crust
ingredients:
2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
water

procedure:
add salt and sugar to flour
cut in shortening using 2 knives
gradually add water
mix with hand but do not knead
roll on a well floured board
fit to top of prepared pastel
brush with beaten egg or milk
bake at 350 degrees F until golden

toilet paper craft: pretend canned food

this craft idea is a result of my current obsesion. if you have been following me these past few days you probably know that i have been obsessed lately with toddler sized miniature food for my little guy's kitchen pantry (maqui, this is partly your fault! hahaha!). that reminds me, i'll be posting some of my miniature food finds soon. in the mean time, here's a really fun project that you could do with toilet paper rolls. ENJOY!       

materials needed:

toilet paper roll

canned food label

cardboard (or an empty soap box, etc..)

scissors

glue

duct tape

marker

note: this project works best when using the labels from smaller cans (you can use earth's best baby food labels!). the larger ones won't look good unless you use rolls with a larger diameter.  however, you can also just cut out pictures of canned food from grocery cataloges or magazines OR you can download and print your labels this site (and this too!).  

step 1: cut toilet paper to length that matches height of food label

step 2: make 2 tracings of the ends of the toilet paper tube

step 3: use tracing as a guide and cut a circle about 1 cm larger

step 4: make several vertcal cuts perpendicular to the circle and fold inward

step 5: glue folded part onto the inner ends of the toiler paper tube

step 6: repeat steps 1-5 on the other end of the tube

step 7: cover tops and bottom ends of the "can" with duct tape

  

step 8: wrap food label around

step 9: with a marker draw "pull-open tab" and concentric rings on top  

this craft project would have kept me up all night had i not ran out of canned food to peel the labels from. hubby would now have to guess the contents of our label-less cans!  

God loves Alonzo

now here's something that my mom (mima to my little boy)

made for alonzo.

this hangs over the bed where alonzo sleeps in my parents' house.

she made this by re-using excess ribbon, crochet thread, scraps of fabric and lace, tissue wrapper, an empty bag of potato chips and    

take note of the letter "E", which is made out of alonzo's used diaper waistbands!

sosing tuyo

i found this recipe from hubby's adobo cookbook. it's been quite some time since i last made this and i have been looking for hubby's cookbook which has strangely and sadly disappeared. i made this based on memory...which seems to fail me sometimes. anyway, i might not have followed the exact procedure but i know it tastes just as good. this time though, i mashed the tuyo almost to a paste instead of just shredding it into little segments. 200 grams of tuyo may yield about a cup. it may not seem like a lot but, trust me, a little goes a long way. this would really go well over crusty bread, basil leaves and kesong puti; mixed in with pasta and mushrooms; topped over a plain cheese pizza and or just simply poured over a mound of streamed garlic rice! yum!!!    

ingredients:

tuyo

olive oil

minced garlic

vinegar

sili (add as much as you can tolerate!)

procedure:

cook tuyo the usual way in olive oil, set aside to cool

once cool enough to handle, remove heads, tails, spine and scales (this can get really messy!)

pour more olive oil (be generous) onto heated pan, add garlic, sili and tuyo

pour vinegar

let boil and allow vinegar to evaporate 

DIY pretend food: waffles

i still had a few wooden coasters left from the pretend sandwiches that i made a couple of days ago and thought that i could make waffles out of them. the procedure and materials needed are pretty much the same.

step 1: use a marker pen to draw grid marks

step 2: cut foam placemats into shapes that resemble whatever fruit you like

   

step 3: put it all together and you're all done!