Animal Mechanicals

For three days now, we always hear Bela talking and crying in her sleep. During the first night, we woke up when we heard Bela cry and so we thought that she is awake. But then, Howell and I got surprised when we learn that Bela is still sleeping and she is crying over her purple balloon. She kept on saying “My Purple balloon. It popped. It is now broken. I cannot fix it. Fix it, Fix it dad.” And she is really crying because she has tears while sleeping. The next day, we woke up again in the middle of the night and she is crying again while sleeping over her purple balloon.

Last night, she was crying again but not because of her purple balloon but because of her nail polish that her Lola applied on her nails. We went to Ace Water Spa last Sunday and she took a shower with her Tita Veejay and her nail polish got erased after staying in the pool for more than two hours. So during her sleep, she is now saying: “My red nail polish. Tita Veejay washed it. It is now gone.”

This afternoon, Howell and Bela were watching the new TV Series in Playhouse Disney entitle Animal Mechanicals. You know how crazy Bela is for animals and even though she has only seen the series once, she already know all the names of the characters in the TV series. She wanted to watch it again and again but since it is just a series on Playhouse Disney, we have no choice but to wait for its next screening schedule.

So when I arrived home, Howell immediately asked me to look for a DVD of the Animal Mechanicals online so Bela has something to watch. Howell even reminded me of Bela’s crying spells and Howell is afraid that she might wake up again crying and looking for the Animal Mechanicals show this time (Oh well, the spoiler dad). So instead of looking for my diet pill online, I will check out the net first for Animal Mechanicals merchandise for Bela. Any leads?

To big school or not to big school?

Last week, I was able to find the time to read the n@w archives regarding schools for grade school. I panicked when I learned that as early as September, schools are already accepting applications for admission. Some schools only have a quota for the maximum number of students that they will accept and as soon as this quota is met, they will no longer accept applications.

Bela will be turning 3.7 years old by June 2009. Since her birthday is November, she does not meet the age requirements for Kinder so our choice is either to enroll her early for Nursery or just enroll her for Kinder come 2010.

I was talking to Jacqui last week and asked her views regarding enrolling her daughter to a big school. She said that some parents moved their kids to big school by nursery so they will not be culture shock to the big school set up when it is time for them to move to Grade 1. My mom doesn’t like to enroll Bela to a big school next school year. Baby pa daw si Bela and she suggested that we just enroll her again to Toddlers Unlimited. We were able to have a preview of the Nursery level in TU and it looks ok as they already teach Science, Math, English and Writing in a progressive method which is really the approach that we like.

If I were to ask, I want to move Bela to big school already but my problem is the school that I like for Bela which is near our place is St. Theresa’s College and the youngest that they accept for Grade 1 is 5.5 years old. The schools that are on my list now are schools in Makati (CSA, Assumption) and Pasig (OB Montessori) which is like 1 – 1.5 hours away from our place. This means that Bela have to travel for 1-1.5 hours everyday just to go to school which I think is stressful for a toddler.

If we decided not to enroll her to a big school, we might move her to Early Achievers' Learning Center's in QC which is a lot closer to our place. It is also a progressive school that has the same method as TU but we might move her here as she now has to attend class 5 times a week for Nursery level so we would prefer a school that is closer to our place.

What do you think? Should we just move Bela to Early Achievers and then move her to STC when she is already 5.5? Or should we consider enrolling her to a big school in Makati or Mandaluyong area then move her to STC when she is 5.5 so she will be prepared for the big school environment? Please share your thoughts.

We now have Playhouse Disney

Yipee, we are now subscribed to Sky Cable Platinum, which means Bela can now watched Playhouse Disney.

I made a post here before about Bela’s love for the Playhouse Disney channel. But we are only subscribed under the Gold plan which does not include Playhouse Disney. But due to budget constraints, I kept on postponing our plan to upgrade from Gold to Platinum plan.

But since I earned a little extra this month from our cellphone shop, finally, I was able to call Sky Cable last Saturday and they were able to visit us last Sunday to install the Digital box (which is required for the Platinum plan) and in just a couple of minutes, everything was up.

Bela was really happy as she does not have to go to her grand dad’s house to watch Playhouse Disney. But I think, it’s a good investment too since Playhouse Disney really gave good educational shows not like the other cartoon channels which have violent cartoon shows.

So Bela is one happy kid. She is now watching “My friends Tigger and Pooh.” I am letting her finish the show and then it’s her sleeping time already for her.

Play House Disney

This is Bela’s favorite channel now. She loves watching Thomas and Friends, Backyardigans, Little Einsteins, Jojo Circus, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, Mickey Mouse Club House and a whole lot of shows. In fact I think she loves all the shows on the Play House Disney channel. What we like about the shows under this channel is that the shows are all educational and are for kids. Not like the cartoon network channel which have the Sponge Bob show and we find some of the scenes and languages there to be unfit and violent for kids.

But the problem is, that channel is not available in our subscription since we only have the Gold plan of Sky Cable. So there are times that Bela will stay in her lola’s house to watch and would not want to go home so she always ends up spending the night at her lola’s house.

We initially planned to upgrade our cable subscription last month but due to unexpected car repair expenses, we have to postpone our plan to upgrade our cable subscription.

Good thing now that Sky Cable is offering that channel until May 31 as part of their promotion of the Platinum plan. So my daughter gets to enjoy the shows under the play house Disney channel. Hopefully, before May 31, we will have the budget for our cable plan upgrade.