Gabby’s Alternative to Counting Sheep

People who can’t sleep are often advised to drink hot milk, stop worrying or count sheep.  If I remember correctly you have to count like this “one little lamb, two little lamb...’ and so on and so forth. Tonight, I heard her doing The Alphabet as she was putting herself to sleep.  It goes something like this.

“A for Apple, B for Ball, C  for Cat…”

We used to play the Alphabet game a lot when she was in kindergarten. I am just glad that she hasn’t forgotten it.

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A Cell Phone for Gabby?

Last weekend my sister, Jeanne of I Am Jeanne, asked Gabby what she would like to receive for her birthday: a Vtech laptop or a cell phone. My daughter unwaveringly asked for a cell phone. She says she wants to be able to call me and her aunts whenever she's at school.

Later that night, as I was working in an Internet shop, my daughter texted me: MAMA. She was using my mom's cell phone as she was scheduled to sleep there. When I didn't reply, she again texted: MAMA SUMAGOT KA.

Then, last Monday, my sister texted me. My daughter's texting her again and asking her to help her with her lessons in Math. She was amused that after filling all 160 characters in the text message to my daughter, Gabby only answered OK. As per her words, "ang haba haba ng text ko, OK lang ang sagot."

Obviously, my daughter has yet to learn to put the letters on caps lock and learn to maximize every peso that it costs to send a text message to a different network. Me thinks I have to teach her the ins and outs of texting soon.

Gabby's Bed Time Routine

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Ever since Gabby was little, I make it a point to give her a massage during bed time, especially when she's annoyed about something. And guess what, we've always used Johnson & Johnson products.


Her bed time routine starts with a bath. Since we don't have a hot and cold shower, she's quite accustomed to taking cold baths. Then she calls me for our massage time. She lies on the bed naked and I do her back first just like they do in day spas. The massage usually lasts 10-15 minutes during which we talk more about school or her to-do list for tomorrow.

 
If the weather's hot, we use Johnson & Johnson's Baby Milk Lotion. I buy the largest one available (costs Php208 in Puregold) because it gives you the best value for every peso compared to the smaller ones. During the colder -BER months, I stock up on Johnson & Johnson's Baby Oil. We use this to keep her warm. We both the like the smell of the classic baby oil but we do try other variants like the Lavender one.


After the massage, she wears her pajamas and drinks a cup of milk or choco milk, whichever is available during that time. Since she learned to read, she will take it upon herself to read a few pages of her book and before I know it, she's fast asleep with a book covering her face.


Of course, there are variations to this routine especially when I'm busy with work. I limit the massage to a 5 minute foot massage, which she also loves. There are times when she's too tired from school to even finish her milk, which I do for her.


By the way, I must stress that it is very important for kids to have an established sleeping routine. Since the summer of this year, we both make it a point that she be ready for bed by 9PM. By this hour she has to be ready to sleep. Even if she has school work to do still, she must be prepared for bed by 9PM. Now, she feels really sleepy when the clock hits 9 and she wakes up like clockwork at around 5:30.

In School

In school we have seven subjects: English, Math, Filipino, Sibika at kultura, writing, communication and science. In morning our lessons are English and Filipino and in the afternoon our subjects are math and sibika at kultura

We have recces 2 times: one for morning and one for afternoon.

My favorite subject is English and my teacher says that I am very good in English.

Counting Fingers

Since we moved to our new house last Sunday, Gabby's afternoons became play time with her classmate KIM who lives next door to us. Today we had KIM come over for snacks because it is her 8th birthday. They were telling me stories about school life when we got to math.

I learned that she only got 53% in a substraction quiz in Math. She never liked subtraction. But what caught my attention aside from her poor grade was the fact that they were borrowing fingers. It turns out that when they need extra digits to add or subtract numbers more than 10, they borrow extra fingers from their seatmate. It amused me for a while but it also worried me. Time to pay attention to her arithmetic skills!