Down the Rabbit Hole

A lot of parenting guides encourage parents to start reading to their babies as early as possible. I have always thought that it's not feasible to do so when a baby is only awake for 45 minutes. In my son's case, during that wake window, I have to fit in a lot of activities: diaper change (10 minutes) feed (15 minutes) tummy time and playtime (20 minutes) By the time I was about to start reading to my son, he's already zonked out and ready for his next nap! Note that I have not done any sleep training or nap scheduling with him. We still follow a routine of eating, playing, and sleeping but not that particular order each time; it really depends on how long his naps are.  I started inserting a short segment of reading nursery rhymes in his playtime routine when his wake window lengthened to 90 minutes. If I remember correctly, he was three or four months old when we began; this was also when I was able to include a short walk around the neighbourhood in his morning routine ...

I intended to take the little one on a walk around the neighbourhood at 8am one day in early September. As I was placing him in the baby carrier, I kept wondering why the sky was so dark and gloomy, given that it's supposed to be a warm sunny day. As we walked out the door, I noticed that there was ash sprinkled all over outside. It reminded me of the day Mount Pinatubo's eruption in the 1990s and the more recent eruption of Taal Volcano . And when I looked up, the sky was a deep orange hue... it was so uncanny that I decided to stop and take a photo before retreating indoors. Ahh, the 2020 California fire season had begun. And the glowing orange sky I saw that day was also seen by a lot of other people in the Bay Area. The thick smoke that made the air quality really bad that morning came from multiple fires in northern California, Oregon, and Washington being blown by the wind into the Bay Area. The fire that led to this orange sky started because of a dry lightning event in...

Summer has come and gone. Autumn has finally arrived! And we still are supposed to limit our engagements to a few people at a time and in outdoor locations if possible, thanks to COVID-19 . California's new cases count has steadily decreased and the state has allowed some establishments to reopen (like gyms and salons). We are still cautious—wearing masks, observing physical distances, and working from home (if possible)—to prevent contracting the illness. Especially now because the fall season is expected to be another challenging time for hospitals regarding respiratory illnesses. One of the things I did to prepare for the fall is to get my flu shot during my last doctor's appointment. Everyone else in the family is doing this too, all to protect the youngest among us: the two young boys we've been blessed with.  Anyway, the fall heralds the arrival of cooler weather, finally! During my latest morning walk with the wee one, I had to wear a sweater already and he wore a lo...

On my son's fourth-month wellness check-up, I told the pediatrician that my son has started drooling a lot. The pediatrician checked my son's gums and told me that there weren't any indications of teething yet. My baby was just acting like a typical four-month-old, according to him.  I am always comforted when the pediatrician tells me that all is well with my boy. Meanwhile, the websites I've been reading about parenting and infants say that a baby's first teeth usually come out when the baby is around six months old... and that it's a very uncomfortable time. There are tips on how to soothe a baby going through a teething period. Wanting to be prepared for when the day comes, I thought that it's high time for me to ready for this challenging stage so I got him a few teethers. These were: All About Shapes with Elmo soft book Sophie la Girafe teether Nuby keys Itzy Ritzy cactus rattle Mombella mushroom Haakaa silicone teether   All About Shapes with Elmo Thi...

Two years ago, I assembled a bookshelf using only a Swiss knife (because I didn't know where the proper tools were stored). We never did use it as a bookshelf because we've used it as an open cabinet for clothes. For most of its use (so far), the cabinet had been standing tall.  But the presence of a baby has made us review the risks posed by the furniture we've got at home. The most obvious of which, for us, was that a lot of our stuff are fall risks in the event of an earthquake.  Three bookshelves are now lying horizontally on the floor. I decided to use the one assigned to me as a clothes container again with  each shelf acting as a partition for clothes (and there won't be too many clothes piles collapsing because of the weight!). The second one is also used in the same way but for Anna's clothes. The third one is assigned to the dining area or the living room; I'm just not sure how it's going to be positioned and what its contents will be. With just a ...

Adulting 101, California edition! This year, I learned how to get these utilities up and running for a residential property in Pittsburg CA. It turns out that there are three utilities that I needed to set up: water, garbage disposal, and electricity. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic , I was allowed to create my account for each utility service online rather than doing the application process in their respective offices. That's convenient because I could work on these while the little one was sleeping. Anyway, I am writing down how I enrolled to the utilities for future reference for me and to help others who are stumped... the process is quite simple. Electricity and Gas Daddy has an account with PG&E. I didn't have to do much about it. Water and Sewer For the city's water and sewer services, I was advised to fill out an application form and submit it with other documentation. The staff in the Payment Centre would then take care of processing the papers. Once my accoun...