Down the Rabbit Hole

Tull Lake is a man-made lake in the White Lake Charter Township in Michigan. A day after Ninang Trining's birthday , we drove over to visit Kuya Lemuel and Ate Adora. They have a house by this lake and invited us Californians over to experience riding a pontoon around the lake. Their house is a back split-level home. From the front, the house seemed to have one level. However, the backyard is sloping, with outdoor stairs from the deck leading to the lake on one side, and a lower level visible on another. The deck is equipped with lounge chairs. Mommy certainly had a field day relaxing on the deck. The backyard was huge! My son found a patch of garden soil very interesting and spent a good hour there. He had fun putting soil into a toy bus that we discovered during our exploration of the backyard. In the process, he also smeared soil all over his face and clothes; but no matter because he had such a wonderful time playing. The highlight of our visit was the boat ride around Tull Lak

On COVID-19 's third summer, I opted to bring my son along to my aunt's 80th birthday party. Since the party was in Michigan, we had to fly (we could have driven across the continental USA, but that's way too long for a toddler). And I have learned a thing or two about flying with a toddler. Here I share what I think are the top 12 things to bring when travelling with a toddler by plane. Car seat, travel cart, and gate-check bag For this trip, I opted to take the Clek Foonf over the Diono Radian 3QXT  because the Foonf has adjustable recline settings in its rear-facing mode. I was a bit concerned that he'll find the Radian too upright in the Toyota Highlander we would be using while in Michigan. He was not comfortable riding in the Radian installed in a Toyota Prius, most likely because of the steep angle, and so I decided that having recline angle options would be better. Due to space constraints and the challenges of multiple installations in such a short amount of ti

I was tapped to speak on behalf of my cousins during Ninang Trining's birthday party. When I first heard about my assignment, I intended to talk about how Ninang Trining helped me get into the sciences. As I walked to the stage to start talking—and a true testament to the impromptu nature of my talk—I decided to change course and ended up saying something similar to this instead: This is a story of a little girl. Lola Bats used to talk about how studious this little girl was in school. She decided to study nursing. Mamang and Papang were there to help starch her uniforms for nursing school. Many years later, she found herself in Michigan, still displaying the studiousness and industry that fascinated Lola Bats so much.  She has been a big influence in the career paths of Ate Liza, Ate Maddie, and Anna, who are all registered nurses. She played the role of a second parent to Kuya Rico, Kuya Allan, Ate Marissa, and Ate Grace. She is a role model of what a Filipino professional workin