18-month baby joining a preschool?!

our new gastro advised us to enroll our little girl to a preschool just to expose her to other kids. she said that it is typical for preschools to set aside time for meryenda and that they will eat their snacks together... bea will then be exposed to kids happily eating... and maybe, just maybe, she may get over her food aversion issues. the question is, where do i find a preschool that accepts 18 month old students who are there only for recess? hmmm? and how much are we supposed to pay for this? (where we are going to get the money is another issue!)

just thinkin' out loud =)

feeding clinic?

i wish we were rich enough to go to california and stay there for a month so that we can take bea to a noted feeding clinic specializing in behavioral therapy. oh well. why is it that when i surf the net, i read all kinds of cases of babies and children with similar feeding problems as bea's but when i talk to the docs, they are so bewildered.
abroad, they even have feeding clinics meant so address these problems. has anyone heard of such clinics here in the philippines? maybe a doctor who has actually worked on similar cases?
anyway, here is a link that i chanced upon, and i contains the best explanation for bea's feeding problem.
http://www.reflux.org/Reflux/webdoc01.nsf/(vwWebPage)/Feedingtherapy.htm?OpenDocument

bea's first therapy session

last saturday, we went to st luke's for our first therapy session. we were 10 mins late. yaya, bea and i went ahead while hubby went off to search for a parking spot. we went straight to the rehab clinic which was located at the basement of the hospital. we looked for flora, the ot recommended by our doctor. she then led yaya and bea into one of the rooms in the clinic while i had to rush back up to the ground floor cashier to pay for our session.

when i got back down to the clinic, they were sitting on a mat with toys spread all around. "ate flor" was trying to feed bea some arrozcaldo. bea won't allow the spoon to even reach her mouth. but ate flor continued to play with her, until bea felt at ease.>

ate flor then used chopsticks with cotton on the tip, dipped this in ice water, then massaged bea's cheeks, lips, tongue and palate. this was meant to stimulate her mouth and to familiarize her with different textures and temperature.>

after this she tried feeding bea again and surprise! bea opened her mouth willingly and proceeded to eat. galing>

of course when we tried this at home, she just spit the food out of her mouth. daya. why did she respond to the therapist and not to us? over familiarity? oh well. we'll try and try again. this is an exercise to be done everyday. hopefully she will improve. ate flor told us to give her a variety of food. earlier today hubby prepared champorado. to no avail. spit spit spit. almost all the champorado just dribbled down to her chin and clothes. same with her milk. she just keeps on spitting her milk. i am really concerned. i really hope she improves soon enough.>

house blessing

last sunday we were invited to a house blessing. hubby's tita girlie had her house (the one where we stayed in the early years of our marriage) blessed and invited some family and friends over. good thing hubby and tita are now in good terms with each other, you see they had a falling out a few years back, and just recently reconciled. =)

here are some pics:

we meet again mr. potter

yup, watched the new harry potter movie on the first day! hmmm. this was my least favorite book among the potter collection, not because of the writing but because of harry himself, as he says in the trailer, he just feels so angry all the time! (in heavy british accent) i didn't like this book simply because we don't see the same adorable harry as in the previous books.

but this blog entry isn't about the book, it's about the movie... i absolutely loved it! the unforgettable umbridge giggles (the actress who played umbridge was perfect for the role i tell you!) , the drama, the suspense, the magical wand fights...perfect! i won't blog about the details of the movie in respect for those who haven't watched it yet, although all potter fans know it is a grave sin not to watch this movie on the first day! ;)

the only things i found off with this movie are the actors who played cho and dumbledore. with cho, i just didn't like her, i think she's not pretty enough... as for dumbledore, i think he's just to nimble for the old wizard that i imagine him to be. i just can't help but wish it was the actor who played gandalf, playing dumbledore. i mean he's wise, old and frail enough but deep inside you know you can still count on him for he exudes an inner strength. oh well. wishful thinking won't hurt right? =)
anyway, those were my thoughts about the movie.

we felt a bit shy having our pics taken at rockwell (too jologs!) so after the prayer meeting, picture muna sa mega! =)

die hard 4.0

ok, this blog entry may be a bit late. we watched this movie last saturday, after our 4th post mss at st paul's makati. (our anti-tardiness campaign failed yet again by the way, 30 mins late hehehe...) anyway, we went to megamall to watch the movie but before going in, hubby insisted on buying some krispy kreme donuts, his new fave. (needless to say, our diet was ruined for the day, hmp)

back to the movie, here it was released as die hard 4.0 but in the states it was released as live free or die hard. i'm not a john maclane fan to begin with, but hubby is, he watched the whole trilogy! i did like the first one though,released back in 1988. it featured a very young bruce willis trying to impede the take over of the nakatomi building where his wife holly was working. don't ask me about die hard parts 2 and 3 though, because i can't remember a thing... i slept through the movies! (much to the dismay of my hubby)

back to the present, die hard 4.o, released 12 years after the third installment. maclane is now divorced and trying to have a relationship with his daughter, lucy.
in the middle of the night, on his way home, his boss calls in a favor to pick up a young hacker and drop him off in washington dc. sounds harmless enough, so he accedes. of course this supposed to be "simple" mission turns out to be just the beginning of an assortment of life-threatening adventures between maclane and matt farrell. ( he's the guy with lindsay lohan in herbie)

hmmm. what can i say about the movie? well, bruce willis reprises his role as a dark, brooding detective with a temper, who loves talking to himself. (yup, he still does that) only in this movie, it was a war in the digital age, so he was a bit lost sometimes, hence his need for a sidekick, matt. although it is quite obvious that maclane has aged a lot since the last movie, his action scenes were more demanding on this movie. i mean, he is simply indestructable. sure he gets cuts and bruises but heck, he falls off a couple of stories in a building and lands smack on concrete... and walks off as if he does this everyday. i guess his appeal as the simple everyday guy caught at the wrong place at the wrong time is now replaced by the indestructible superhero who can do just about everything, i mean kudos to maclane, the more he ages the more imperishable he gets.

well, anyway, i did enjoy the movie, even if i didn't expect myself to. it had a simple plot, very easy to understand, plus there were a lot of computers and tech stuff involved... my weakness! the action scenes were great! who would've thought that it is possible to have an F35 involved in a truck chase?! credible? not really... but quite entertaining.

looking for an old fashioned action movie to amuse you for a couple of hours? go ahead and check this movie out!

not getting any better

bea's not getting any better. she vomits still, a couple of times a day. the meds are therefore not absorbed by the body. now, even feeding her by syringe is proving to be a challenge since she has mastered the technique of spitting almost everything put in her mouth be it water or milk. we are really worried. should we bring her to the hospital? but even her doctors are puzzled with her case. we haven't met a single doc (and believe me we've met a lot!) who actually told us that they know of a case that is similar to bea's. even the gastro doctor! and to think this is supposed to beher field of specialty. this is really hard for all of us. feeding times are often tensed moments for the whole family. hubby and i often fight, since both of us are tired and sleepy and broke (the cost of milk and meds and vitamins is no joke i tell you, as evidenced by our credit card bills!) . we try our best to keep our cool for bea's benefit, we patiently feed her, but when she continually spits everything out, and then whatever little milk that managed to go into her stomach is vomited out after hours of feeding her, tempers tend to flair up!

it is so hard! if only someone can tellus what to do. who do we talk to? even the docs are bewildered.

can anyone help us?
please...

smiles that make everything worth it!

these smiles make all the worrying and tension go away...