Bananas!Bananas!

Ivy's eating skills improved from sucking milk to moving solid foods forwards and backwards in mouth with tongue to swallow. When she is hungry she either cries or show eagerness to food by opening her mouth to the spoon. with that, she now know how to refuse to foods whenever in full stomach--she pushes nipple and food out her mouth and turns her head away from spoon.

Her present diet includes formula milk, biscuit, water with caramelo, and instant cereals. Today we decided to introduce Banana :)

Banana is the most common food to introduce to babies six months and beyond. Since Ivy been introduced to solid foods a month ago she may now be ready to add another solid food. We chose banana over any other fruits and vegies mainly  because of its soft consistency and its availability all year round. We had some at the fruit tray :)  Experts recommendation for Bananas as baby food is due to Vitamins (A, C, b6, and B2) and  minerals (potassium,Selenium, Magnesium, and Calcium) baby can have. We will be introducing solid foods slowly.

Today's Menu

• Breakfast: Banana and Milk Instant Infant Cereal/water
• Lunch:Mashed Banana/water

Add "Convenience" on why Bananas are best solid food for babies. So easy to prepare! it only takes one ripe banana, a regular pork and a bowl...

• Afternoon Snack: Banana and Milk Instant Infant Cereal/Marie Biscuits/Water
• In-between meals: milk formula, 5oz each feeding

Like it or...Ivy seems not, will be eating more bananas!
I mean...enough bananas not to cause constipation :)

Decorating the wall

apart from the "celebrating for the sake of celebrating yesterday, I was actually looking forward to buy the 366 fairy tales book by brown Watson--to read Ivy one story everyday throughout the year; and two sets of  Barbie flash card alphabet...

To my surprise, the book was printed in a very small font and each page has three columns that makes reading painful! designed to be read everyday like of a daily devotion :D thus stories are in somewhat summarized and is very short except for the first story for the first day of every month. Not bad at all! 

As for the Flashcard, I intentionally bought two sets not for showing Ivy one by one but they are for our wall:

In my hope to make our room intellectually stimulating  environment for our growing baby :) the cheapest way and easiest way I guessed--A fancy flashcard, scissors, double-sided tape and time

A personalized wall, I spelled Ivy's name: C-H-A-R-L-O-T-T-E-I-V-Y-M-A-R-I-E using the flashcards, the rest of the cars randomly lined Ivy's name:)

In time, Ivy will be familiar to her name, how to spell, and later on will learn how to write...

I stayed late the other night designing our wall...

First, I put the all the letters of  her name in arc form and also added pictures of Ivy in group as one barbie picture, two barbie pictures to four barbie pictures...

second, I tried to just line-up Barbie's picture horizontally... 

And because rearranging cards, sticking them, peeling them off creates an annoying sounds Ivy woke up while I'm working... 

We went to bed with this design :)

but this morning, I decided to rearrange the card once again...

and there! thats final! because I have no way to rearrange again...I don't have double-sided tape left to stick cards anyway:D

I bet they love my work :)

I love you Ivy!

Busy Day

Dad promised us that we'll be celebrating today...just for the sake of celebrating. But he has to go to Manila  first...

now...While Dad waiting for him...

After bath:) I tried to comb Ivy's hair :) Tadaaah!!! 

entertained her with books/playback flashcard slideshow/and showed her flashcard alphabet over and over again

Allowed her to play under the chair... she is beginning to invade the whole room!!! This calls for childproofing! 

tried from play and fun time Ivy went to sleep then, allowing me to go online to update our facebook.. too excited to post the above picture to show our relatives she now plays.
when she woke up after an hour we went downstairs to watch tv...She was such a good girl, we were just there sitting while she babbles as if she wanted to say something.
then she went back to sleep again...and because she had plenty of sleep she woke up with a gummy grin...

we played once more...

and played

and as dad promised us: Baby's day out again!!!

Today marks her first time to use a high chair :) we had our merienda at jollibee. and guess what? I forgot to bring the number one item on the Must-bring List :(

Mission 101: An attempt to touch Daddy's laptop

Ivy seems to be ready for a mission, her eagerness to touch Daddy's laptop (in a way a mission to disturb Dad) became a good way to discover new things and practice to crawl, develop motor skills, while making sweet baby moments

1st Attempt...

2nd and 3rd Attempt

4th Attempt

5th Attempt

6th attempt! time to make some trick... Watch a movie first before going back to mission

Mission failed?

Job well done! 

ready for another mission :)

The explorer need a rest... Good night!

"Must-bring" for Baby's Day out

Disclaimer: The author did not receive any compensation or cash payment in writing this post; the author does not mean to persuade readers and has no intention to promote either. This is an honest opinion. 

Aside from stroller and baby carrier, that? I intentionally crossed out because Ivy prefers to be held than be in carrier nor relax in a stroller. Below are the must-bring items every single time we go out, may it be a walk to the nearest mall or visit a friend for an hour or two.
After some moments of "ops! where is the diapers?!", "arg! forgot to bring extra clothes", "my! gone out of feeding bottles" and "oh no!!! my baby turned completely messy!!!' I finally realized what should be inside my bag

• camera with a fully charged battery and emptied memory card
• Disposable Diapers
• Light weight blanket to lay baby on when feeding/serves as changing pad/in our case shade Ivy :)
• Wet wipes for diaper change and clean sticky fingers, as well as to wash baby if ever she threw up
• small sized towels/bibs
• extra clothing (two shirts,two pajamas, underwear) 
• favorite toys  to keep her entertained
• feeding bottles with distilled water, quantity depends on how long we decided to stay outside
• milk dispenser with milk powder
• Small bottle of disinfectant/Alcohol
• Whenever possible, plastic bags to wrap used diapers
• A jacket/ sweater because whether changes anytime of the day. Also a must bring when going to the mall
• coin purse :) in cases we needed to buy something for her

Indeed, A baby needs a large and it should be a light weight baby bag to carry this all... Because we have to expect the unexpected. We can't be spoiling baby's day out and heading  our way home earlier than what is supposedly be just because we forgot something.

Our rule: To Bring 'Extra items' won't hurt us

Sunday :) we are scheduled to visit Townhomes

Excited to go out:)

My smile, and my teeth at the lower part, middle left :)

Watching Tv while waiting. We are supposed to go to Carmona before lunch time

3:00pm.time to go!

At Carmona Townhomes

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on our way back to laguna

AS soon as we're home we realized Ivy and Ate Sisly wearing clothes of the same color:)

Playtime

Making Ivy comfortable in the summer heat

Ivy's ideal wear this summer is to wear 

•  loose-fitting, light weight clothing
• made of cotton to absorb perspiration better than any fabrics
•  preferably white to keep her cool
• No-no to Pajamas first
•  anything that will make her comfortable during the hottest time of the year

and she sleeps anywhere she wanted :)

Phonic bus is not just to learn ABC's

Leap Frog Phonic Bus

it cpmes with an easy-press letter around the bus that says its name and sound, it also plays fum learning songs/it has an ABC rap, ... sure way to learn A-Z!

Since Ivy still has no idea on how to press buttons and may press them in a random way, she discovered a different way to play with her Phonic Bus. The character is removable and it encourage her a creative playing, she tries to return Lily the Frog inside the bus every time it goes out :) and she tried a couple of times just to put the frog back. She can sometimes turn the bus upside down and enjoys to play with its wheels.