Before we invest in college education, we need to invest on teeth

Big M's upper jaw is very narrow making his front teeth push out and the teeth next to them grow sideways. He will e wearing a spacer of sort to widen the upper jaw. The dentist asked if he has any snoring or sleep apnea , which he doesn't. But being his sister just had her adenoids and tonsils removed and her turbinate widened for sleep apnea, and Daddy's jaw broken and repositioned also due to sleep apnea, I think a dental appliance is worth it. 

Soccer has begun

Soccer actually started in October but since football only ended last week, Big M has not made any of the practices. Today was the first game though , 3-3.

As much as he loved football, soccer is his first love. He has been playing since 3 and he has invested a lot of time in it. He also realized that with football he can't so much at the same time. Football is a time commitment that requires sacrifice form all of us, even for Little M. With this, Big M is willing to not come back to football next year.

However, right now we are exchanging football for soccer - with practices 3x/week and a game. Phew. 

Football has begun

Big M has added to Football to his sports repertoire, and so the chauffeur mom & dad has opened for the year.

After 2 1/2 hours of practice on the first day, he said it was FUN! 

the birds and the bees and a conversation about love

Daddy and I knew that the birds and the bees talk must happen, though we never discussed when. A few weeks ago, a conversation occurred that told us we are actually pretty late. 

Big M: Daddy, if I have 2 tamed wolves (in a computer game called Minecraft) were to breed, would the baby be a tamed wolf also.

Daddy: What do you know about breeding?

Big M: Well you and Mommy  bred and made me!

Oh boy. Daddy and I discussed and I knew for a fact that most books started much younger than 8 years old, and yes, we're much too late. Thankfully, some friends recommended books and Daddy bought them straight away.

The books were broken down into ages, starting from age 4, then age 8 and older, and 10 and older. The one for age 4 alone showed a lot of pictures and information. The age 8 one, well... we know he has to know these things, but woooweeee!

We told Big M we got the books and we explained that we needed to read them together, and then discuss. He was fine with it. The next day, when we came down for breakfast, Big M was already down and said he is almost done with the book. WHAT?!  We're not quite prepared for that fact, but be that as it may, we are willing to answer questions. And there were questions. They didn't come all once though, they trickled down over 2-3 days.

Some amusing questions that I addressed myself, were:

"Do you have to take your underwear for that?"

"How many times do people have to have sex before they make a baby?

"Do you and Daddy have sex everyday?"

Daddy was not yet home when these questions came, so I answered them all in all seriousness. I have told Daddy that no matter what the questions were, we would address them. So I did. The conversation became hushed, as Big M new his sisters shouldn't know about these things yet. So we cuddled in the couch and I talked, and talked, and talked. In the back of my mind, I thought I'd better insert what the purpose is of sex so I managed to squeeze in diseases and religion to our discussion. I must say, it was a great conversation. 

I was able to emphasize that sex is something very special between 2 people who love each other. I was able to use our marriage as an example, and that the parents of friends that hew knew are "banana split".  Big M was very receptive, and his maturity was astounding. 

On a different day, he asked Daddy why some people we know have been married several times. Daddy was not quite as experienced toning down his thinking to suit an 8 year old, so he said "when you're older you would understand." With our boy, this is not a sufficient answer. If his questions are to be satisfied and not to be asked repeatedly, he needs satisfactory answers. So Daddy and I together addressed the idea of love. I told Big M that love is like planting a seed (he is quite a nature lover so I knew he would understand this). The seed needs work in order to grow and be healthy. He cannot put a seed down and leave it alone and expect it to be a nice healthy tree when he checks on it months later.  We told him that it must be watered, the soil must be tended to, the weeds pulled, and it needs constant attention in order to grow. Some people go into marriage not aware of such hard work and when the seed doesn't grow, and start to die, it becomes too late for it to thrive and some people give up. He understands this for now, and what he doesn't understand I'm sure he would ask us about months or  years later.

Daddy and I told him that though Mommy and Daddy have been married a very long time, we still need to work. We fight (and yes, the kids have seen us fight) and yell, but they also see us make up and hug. Big M said we do fight but it's not common. 

This is a lot of talk, but whatever he does or doesn't understand just yet, we know we're laying out a pretty good ground work. Big M knows that should he have any questions at all that we would do our best to answer them all. Now we need just need to do this exact same thing 3 more times.

a mature 8 year old

Coming to church and attending class in order to prepare for his first communion doesn't sound much of a hard work, but it is. Big M's hard work this year has paid off and now he can take part of the Eucharist. Apparently, it is not required for a 2nd grader anymore to go through reconciliation before taking their first communion. But the parents were given the choice, and we chose for him go  through it. 

What I saw in Big M was amazing. Right after he had his reconciliation, he came down the isle with a big smile in his face and bouncing. He came to me and said, "I feel happy!" "Why?," I asked. "There were things that had bothered me, and now they don't. How often do we go to confession?"

I explained to him that there isn't a set time, but it could be whenever something is bothering him. He said he will do it every few months.

Then on April 14th, he had his First Communion. Big M was pretty proud of himself having received another sacrament. As parents, we are very proud of him too. As a child growing up in the Philippines, I didn't go through any such preparatory classes for any sacraments, so while I appreciate my faith (because of my grandmother) I admit that I didn't know as much. This year long class for Big M was as much a learning process for me as it was for him. Our church has made this process very family-centered. Every week, Big M meets with his class, and once a month, the parents meet with our priest to be taught ahead so that that we can then help teach the kids. It has been a wonderful experience for me and I am happy to have gone through it. 

My handsome little guys

Today is spring picture day at school, but only Big M has made it to school. J has been sick since Sunday night, and last night K had a fever. She doesn't act sick but I don't want the kids at school to come to my house and curse me for sending sick kids to school. 

Big M is the only that isn't sick and he is avoiding his brother and sisters like the plague. 

I can't believe my little baby will be 3 in a couple of weeks. He isn't a baby anymore.

And this guy? 8? For real? Smart, good looking, athletic...he will be a lady-killer.

Happy Birthday, Big M!

How can it be that my eldest is 8 years old? It seems like yesterday I was still breastfeeding round the clock, and now we are having to take him to all sorts of after school activities, getting onto him about doing his homework, and now he is running away to class before we could even hug him goodbye. When you are a parent, time is both slow and fast.

Two weeks ago Daddy and I asked him what he would like for his birthday and he came back with a plan. He wanted a laser tag party and invite 20 of his friends. Yikes! I looked into a place and found that for $200 for a guest of 10 a use of a party room and 2 laser tag games are included. It's not as steep of a price from our previous parties, but I figured we can steer him away from a party. So with that in mind, I procrastinated booking the party. Actually, I don't need a plan to procrastinate but let's just let that slide.

But to make the long story short, at the last minute, I ended up booking the party and 15 guests were invited and 12 attended. There was an almost-catastrophe, which I am not solely responsible for, we invited a boy who is supposed to be Big M's best friend. Only we invited the wrong boy with the same name, and the real best friend was not invited at all. Thankfully, through amazing coincidence it was corrected and the best friend came!

Everyone had fun. Daddy and I divided and conquered. We had no idea that this age is the age at which parents started leaving their children at the party. But we were not entirely flabbergasted. Daddy joined in the game of laser tag, including J and K,  and watched all the boys. I stayed in the arcade with Little M and followed him around. Overall, the party was less of a stress than any other previous parties because the children are getting older.

Big M had tons of fun and we love that.

Sleep specialist and a 7 year old

I took Big M to a pediatric sleep specialist last week, 3-hours south. Why we have to drive so far, I have no idea. Little M's gastroenterologist is 2.5 hrs away.

I explained to doctor Big M's sleep issue and after a long talk, I didn't really have an aha moment. Daddy didn't have that moment either after I relayed what happened with our visit. Big M takes at least 2 hours to fall asleep, sleeps lightly and wakes up several times a night and sometimes he stays awake for an hot or longer. He has night terrors frequently. As a result he is always tired and it is affecting his behavior, it affects his learning, and his emotional state. We've been trying to cope with a very low dose melatonin, but he is still barely getting enough rest.

The specialist seemed to hone in on his night terror. She said that the night terror could be the culprit and is waking him up and because he isn't getting enough sleep it is making him more prone to even more/worse night terror. That made sense to me even though I don't believe that it is the root cause of his problem.

Ever since Big M was an infant, he is a light sleeper. I have to rock him for him to fall asleep. Then we had to lay with him for him to fall asleep. Daddy and I remember that at 1-2 yrs old we had to be in constant contact with him in bed. We learned to inch away a little at a time so that we could sneak out at night, only for him to extend his arm or leg so that he could keep touching us - when we were pretty sure after 1 hour that he was already sleep. It makes sense now, that he probably wasn't sleep because it took him very long to fall asleep.

We have no answers yet and we don't expect to, not until the actual sleep study. We are going to get called by the sleep lab within the next week or so to set up an appointment . Daddy will be with him , for the over night stay. Hopefully then we would know why Big M has such a hard time sleeping.

the super bowl is providing a new obsession

I let Big M watch the Super Bowl. I thought with Daddy being away, it would be just a good family time. It turned out the girls were excited about it too. The whole school did football related activities so they were quite pumped. 

We have never watched football before so it took a little bit of figuring out who to root for, though we decided to root for the Ravens being in the east coast and all. Big M was fascinated. I only let him stay up until the half-time though. He left specific instructions for me to find out the final score.

Early in the morning, he heard on the radio the news about who won. Darn public radio for news! We have our radio set to classical music day in and day out for the kids to go sleep to, but there is that darn news. Big M loudly cheered, "Oh yeah, oh yeah, Raven win!"

Fast forward to days later and we find ourselves in the library with Big M checking out a few football books.

My young padawan's Jedi training at Hollywood Studios

Big M began his Star Wars journey when we bought his first Star Wars Lego at 3 years old. You can just imagine that at almost 8 years old, the Jedi Training at Hollywood Studios would be one of his absolute favorite at Disney World.

We went to Hollywood Studios on our 2nd full day at Disney, and we walked in on the middle of a Jedi training. We were all mesmerized, so Daddy and Big M ran in to sign him up for a later show in the evening. J and K were going to sign up, but they both changed their mind at the sign-up.

When it came back later that evening, K, J, Little M and I sat ourselves in front of the stage (we were one of the 2 families already waiting) and waited. One of the man keeping an eye on the area were chatting with the girls and just having fun. A few minutes later, I heard the man on the radio asking if there were room in the Jedi training class for 2 more girls. He was talking about my girls. Good thing it didn't work out, since the girls already said they didn't want to do it. The man was thoughtful though, which is one of those things that makes an already magical vacation even more magical. :)

Little M was engrossed watching his big brother fight Vader. At some point he started getting mad at Vader, too. He is just like his mommy, ready to defend a family member.

Here is a video of the later half of the Jedi training, which includes a funny skit of the storm troopers. We got a kick out of this one.

What a fun evening! We loved watching Big M enjoy himself....and yes, he's the boy wearing a rebel alliance symbol that I made. :) He and Daddy wore the same shirt that day.

Serious soccer

Big M is very busy with soccer; some weeks he has practice 3x a week. He is learning so many things we can't wait to see where he will be in spring!

handmade custom home applique with name: Big M's order

The other day Big M came up to me and he said he wanted to out an order in. He has been seeing sew so much lately and I guess he just wanted something.

He said he wanted a frog. I thought it would be more interesting on a soccer ball. The two actually represents him very well. He loves it and that makes me happy.

I've been cresting a few things lately gearing up to open an online shop. I want to open with several inventory so I am busy creating. However, between creating things for the family and things to sell, it's been busy. I am not opening shop to get rich, I just want I make enough money to fund the creations I make for the kids and keep the hobby going. I figure this way, I can help a little bit financially - I can dress the kids with something they absolutely love.

Look out, world. The Collins brook is taking over!

I can hardly believe that 3 of my children are off to school. My girls in kindergarten, who would have thought. I remember the assembly-line process of changing and feeding them as infants, and now they are in school. I can't even remember the in-between.

K, Big M, J looking like rock stars! They were all excited.

We were outside waiting for the bus about 10 minutes before our scheduled pick-up. Of course we knew that buses would be late with parents trying to figure things out and taking pictures. Little M had to have a backpack too. What he didn't know was that he wasn't going in the bus, so it was a big tantrum. He "wand machu, dodo and tatie!" Then he cried and cried after Daddy left for work. After that he started asking for everyone, like his Nana!

Little M and I headed to school for the parent coffee, but we arrived there much earlier than the kids. I got to see K find her class. She saw me and waved with a big smile in her face.

Then I saw J. She is all smiles here but as they marched to their classroom, she wanted to make sure that I could pick her up from school. I had to remind her that she is riding the bus but that I would be waiting at the bus stop. She had the saddest look in her face after waiving goodbye but she marched on. She is wearing a picture necklace of her and me, and Daddy and her. I told her she could look at the pictures when she felt sad.

After running some errands, Little M and I had lunch together at a local restaurant. We had Bacon, scallion, spinach quiche and sweet potato soup. He loved the food. He was a handful, and it took a while for him to stop asking for everyone but we did enjoy our meal together.

NYC, panhandling, and a 7-year-old

Here is a lesson that kids learn from being in New York City; I almost forgot to post about it.

Big M said he wants to save $63 for when we go back to NYC to buy something I wouldn't let him get. He asked repeatedly at different times while we were there, to give him the opportunity to earn it. I told him I would think about it. 

Later that day he said, "Mommy. I know what to do to earn some money. I'm going to play my Beyblades (spinning top game) and put a bucket in the front so people can put money in it."

The meaning of panhandling, brought to you by NYC.

face painting at home

J and K loved their face paint so much, they kept asking me to check if it was still on or whether it has disappeared. After a billion times, I told them to check with each other instead.

The girls also asked me to paint another one on Little M after his was completely rubbed off. And this is what happened when I showed it to him for the first time.

baby, I think the kids grew

The high today was only 50 but we took the bikes out anyway. It's been a while, and obviously the kids have outgrown their bikes. Big M's bike is now the perfect size for J, and J's Barbie bike is actually perfect for Little M. Poor J was frustrated with her bike and cried and begged for us to buy her a new bike. Today. I told her we will probably buy her and her sister new bikes, before the weather gets warmer. But really, that means we need to buy 3 new bikes. Yikes.

growing crystals from a kit

I took Big M with me to an errand to Michael's and he wanted me to buy a crystal-growing kit. With Daddy's help, they set it up and after 4 days the crystals did not grow as big as the box said it would. What a disappointment for children. With the disappointment, we researched into growing our very own at home and so Big M is once again excited. Daddy is excited to be doing something with his boy that is his expertise.

This morning Big M took some of his crystals in a bag and planned to show them to the school bus ladies and his 1st grade class. The ladies from the school bus have been asking him for days if his crystals had grown. The boy is truly a talker, just like his Daddy. But I am glad, since the one time he read a book in the bus, he came home with sick bag. So after that, I told him the only thing he could do was to talk, talk, and talk. The school bus ladies I'm sure would like that better.

Where has time gone?

This big boy might drive Daddy and I bonkers, but everyday we see evidence of maturity in him. I can't even believe he turned 7 years old today. 

My big man, though you have changed a lot since you were born, you have retained the qualities that have both frustrated and amazed me and your Daddy. You are smart, you are intense in your happiness, sadness and anger, and you love physical contact. You have grown with such love for your sisters and your little brother. We love you!

out shoe shopping

Unlike the girls and adults in the family, Big M has only exactly 2 pairs of shoes. He has a tennis shoes and snow boots. For school, it isn't working out so much. He wore his tennis shoes one day after it had rained and he said water seeped through to his socks at recess. So then I told made him bring his snow boots and tennis shoes to school, but he is not adept yet at tying his laces that he kept his snow boots on. The boots were not the best thing indoors because they were too warm. He also was not allowed to play in the snow because only kids with snow pants were allowed to.

Today I took Big M to go shoe shopping and decided to get him a waterproof hiking boots. It will keep his feet warm and dry for the still cool and yet to come wet weather. The problem is that we are almost into spring and these snow boots were no longer in stock so we went to store after store after store. Finally we found one. Hopefully between snow boots, hiking boots and tennis shoes he is all covered. I'm not going to bother getting snow pants now of course though.

Next year I will be ready for the winter - 3 snow pants and 3 snow boots.

after school aggression on the snow

On his second day, Big M didn't have a good day. He said he didn't play with anyone at recess because the girl and the boy he played with the day before were playing house this time and he definitely did not want to play such a boring game. We had a discussion of what alternative would be better, to play alone or to play a boring game with someone.

He came home very happy today though.