Down the Rabbit Hole

Ten years ago, I posted about the highlights of my life in 2000–2009 . I'm doing it again just for kicks... actually, because it's always nice to reflect and realise how much has happened since. Plus, I was inspired after watching the 20th-anniversary video of Google:   Here we go... 2011. For reasons long forgotten, I ended up in the USA around Thanksgiving rather than Christmas. I visited Las Vegas  and the Grand Canyon  with family. I attended one of the best training courses at work: "Enhancing Global Rice Leadership" , whose lessons I'm still applying to this day. One of the things I had to learn was pitching ideas. Specifically, I was tasked with convincing visitors to donate. Jollibee  CEO Tony Tan Caktiong 's reaction to my pitch blew me away... it's still a highlight for me, ten years on. 2012. Lola Estay passed away this year. My research direction took a turn towards sensory evaluation ; hence, IRRI's management decided to send me

Being a first-time mom, one of the firsts for me is personally installing the Diono Radian 3QXT convertible car seat. I'm not sure if I've followed the installation instructions (in the manual and in the video resources) to a T so I had a car seat inspection appointment scheduled with AAA, my family's motor vehicle insurance provider. I now write about the experience of going through one. I think that child restraint inspections are typically conducted in person but because of COVID-19, every meeting is conducted virtually these days. For this particular session, we met using Google Meet rather than via Zoom. Before the car seat inspection, I had transferred the car seat from the right passenger seat to the middle seat in the back row. Several reasons: It is the only location in the car that will never be directly hit in the event of a collision (i.e., head-on, side, or rear-end collision).  The child passenger has no access to the vehicle's door closest to him/her. Th

This year's Christmas parties certainly is very different.  The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting California particularly hard, forcing the state to issue stay-at-home orders one more time (I actually didn't realise that we were told that the stay-at-home orders in the spring were lifted). But thanks to the wonders of technology, we were still able to see each other and have fun. The organisers of the Zoom calls used Facebook's group messaging function to announce when we'd be meeting virtually. I don't have a Facebook account anymore so I only learned of the schedules from Ate Maddie (for my dad's side of the family) and from Trisha (for my mom's side of the family). It's good that the two Zoom calls did not fall on the same day and at the same time. The best part of the Zoom calls: we got to see those based in the Philippines too! The Cuevas family Zoom call was held on December 18th. Relatives from the USA, the Philippines, and Canada were online when we

I was neck-deep in learning how to install my child's convertible car seat (a Diono Radian 3QXT ) when I heard that the Philippines has enacted Republic Act 11229, the "Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act". This law states that children younger than 12 years old are not allowed to ride shotgun; if they are 12 years old and older, they may sit on the front passenger seat if their height is at least 150 cm or they can use the seatbelt properly. Otherwise, they must be placed in child restraints that are installed in the back seat of the motor vehicle. This law is applicable to private vehicles but not to tricycles or motorcycles. This is indeed a step forward towards transportation safety. Curious, I decided to check out how this law compares with the child restraint laws in the USA and practices in Sweden. I currently live in California and am using its child restraint law for comparison. Sweden, on the other hand, is well-known as a benchmark for best practices regarding c

The baby experts in the USA recommend that babies should have tummy time as soon as they get home from the hospital. In my son's case, he did not enjoy tummy time one bit, screaming each time I placed him on his belly. I was worried because babies are supposed to be on their bellies for a specified number of minutes per day. And my son didn't even last a few seconds before he started wailing. Luckily, I came across Janet Lansbury's book, Elevating Child Care , which advises parents to wait until the baby is developmentally ready. And so I waited... then my son flipped from his back to his belly all on his own. Aha! The people who formulated RIE were correct! For my son's next mobility milestones, therefore, I decided to skip reading about exercises to encourage my son to sit or to crawl. I'd place him on his back and let him roll or move in whatever way he wanted as long as it's safe. This meant that once he started rolling, I kept a close watch on him while he

Disclaimer: I am not a certified child passenger safety technician (CPST). If you need help in installing your car seat, contact a certified CPST. Thoughts and opinions found in this blog post are based on my experience during my installation and have not been influenced in any way by Diono or by any of its affiliates. --- Since my son is almost too big for his infant car seat, I took it upon myself to learn how to install his new convertible car seat, the Diono Radian 3QXT. I have chosen this car seat because: It is narrow, allowing three car seats to be placed side-by-side in the back seat.  It is designed to keep babies in rear-facing mode until they are 50 lbs. It can be used until the child requires booster seats (possibly up to 120 lbs.). Additional safety features (like the anti-rebound bar) provide more protection. The Diono Radian 3QXT installed in the car in rear-facing mode I installed the car seat in the Mercedes Benz C230 while my son was napping. I thought that would be

Frankly, I was looking forward to outdoor stroller walks with my son when it's already safe to go out of the house. I just bought the baby carriers just in case we need to travel by public transport and it's more convenient to carry him rather than push his stroller (particularly in train stations without lifts). However, I definitely enjoy babywearing. It's such an easy way to move around with an infant! Even a squirmy one, like my son! I am definitely a convert!  The carriers I got is the Moby Wrap while the framed carrier is the Ergobaby Omni 360. I was mulling whether the KTan is worth the investment but I backed off when I learned that it has to be bought according to the size of the user; that is, each of the baby's caregivers must have one if they are of different sizes. Case in point, Val and me. I recently discovered Konny carriers but I might not be able to use them enough because the Ergobaby is our workhorse. Anyway, after more than six months of babywearin

A few months ago, I first wrote about how my brother and I unboxed the  Graco Modes Bassinet LX , my son's travel system that is composed of an infant car seat and a stroller. Back then, I didn't write my thoughts down about the infant car seat because my son's not there yet. But now that he's used the car seat several times (mostly to the doctor's office), I think that I can write about it. Duration of use depends on the baby's growth. Based on the user's manual, the infant car seat is useable by the baby until he reaches the car seat's height and weight limits. Thus, I was fully expecting that my son wouldn't graduate from this stage for a long time. However, my son outgrew the infant insert when he turned three months. I just realised this when he started crying whenever I placed him in the car seat after adjusting his harness straps to get the right fit. So I removed the body insert. I would have loved to keep his head support too, but he still