what i love here: government support

By November of this year, or earlier if baby is too excited to see the world, I, again, will be a stay at home mom. For a year, at least.

One of the perks of being a Canadian resident/citizen, is having maternity leave that lasts for 15-17 weeks and an additional 35 weeks parental leave that can be split/shared both by mother and father.

In our situation, J and I decided that it is best that I should be the one to take all of it, so .. lucky me! That is also one of the reasons why I decided that it's high time to revive this blog. I feel like I will have more time to blog again (really???).

On top of that, if the parent who is taking the maternity/parental leave was working for at least the required minimum number of months, and has contributions to Employment Insurance or EI (click on the link if you want to know more about it) prior to the leave, that individual would be able to receive benefits while on leave. That is up to 55% of the individual's taxable income before going on leave. This applies to individuals who are pregnant, have recently given birth, are adopting a child, or are caring for a newborn.

Some companies have a "top up" option. That is, aside from the 55%  or so, that the employee will be receiving from EI, the company will chip in an additional percentage to complement the income up to a certain period of time. And I believe, employees who return to work after the leave provision shall be placed in the same or like position at the same rate of pay.

Different companies mean different rules, regulations and benefits. But the EI is one thing that is universal here in Canada.

baby stuff: crib

If I'm having the baby come spring/summer, we would probably opt with co-sleeping -- the baby would sleep in our room, on our bed, close to me, the way I think babies should be (I know not everybody will agree with me on this). That's how we were with Kid #1. But since, I am having the baby this fall, I just can't imagine having lots of covers and blankets on the bed come winter with a little baby in the middle of it. So not safe. We opted to have the baby his own sleeping area, but still in our room.

Kid #1 will have to be moving out of our room, into his own room. That's another project I have to tackle before giving birth and deserves a separate post.

How important is the crib? A baby will spend most his time in the crib sleeping and inhaling the air surrounding it. So we have to make sure that we get the right and bestest crib, right? Right. 

Anyway, there are a lot of options out there for cribs and mattresses. For starters, we had this with Kid #1: 

And all along I thought this is considered a crib. Apparently, it is not. This is a play pen and is not advisable to be slept on (I guess napping is okay). A crib is something like this: 

from pinterest 

Nice. But once I actually checked up on the price points, reality sets in. I can't spend that much money on a crib. And J wouldn't let me. 

We checked out other options. Have considered buying second hand (it's pretty much common here) but I dreaded the fact of having my baby sleep on a crib with bed bugs/mites or "history". Scratch. 

As usual, we have to consider safety, the mechanical safety of 2nd hand cribs  and even brand new ones. There are cribs that have been recalled and there are cribs that are not being recommended anymore, Especially those with drop sides and big gaps on the slats, odd measurement of the posts, etc. Add to that the composition and construction of the crib. It is said that solid wood crib with non-toxic finish using non-toxic adhesives are the safest ones. One has to watch out for particle boards, plywood, fiber woods because these types of cribs uses adhesives to glue the wood together and those adhesives might have formaldehyde and chemicals that are carcinogens and would be harmful to the still developing baby. There are the exposed hardware that are choking hazards. And the paint on the crib with VOC and lead that your baby would be chewing on later on. 

OMG. 

My head is spinning. Whew. As I have said I am no expert here and I just wanted to give our kids the safest products that I can afford. If you want to know more and read about baby products to avoid, you can go here. 

And some guidelines on how to buy a non-toxic crib, just click here.  

Or to find a truly non-toxic crib.  

As for us, here's what we got:

Mercer 3-in-1 Convertible Crib (by Babyletto)

Description from the manufacturer:

This crib features an extra drawer to keep baby's essentials close at hand (ours doesn't have this). All hardware is safely hidden. The Mercer Convertible Crib has four adjustable mattress positions (important for me since I am not tall, I really would want ease when getting the baby in and from the crib). And grows with your baby, converting to a toddler bed (rail included) or daybed. 

Made of solid, sustainable New Zealand Pine Wood

Converts to daybed and toddler bed with included toddler bed conversion kit

Four adjustable mattress levels 

Lead and phthalate safe with non-toxic finish

JPMA Certified, meets ASTM International and US CPSC safety standards

Made in Taiwan

We have the white/espresso two-tone. It's brand new but on floor display and without the bottom drawer that's why we got it on a discounted price from this store here in Winnipeg. I really wanted the Hudson in grey but it is expensive. 

So I think, this is a good compromise, eh? 

Come to think of it, maybe it is much better to have the baby sleep on papag (bed made of bamboo) with banig (a handwoven mat usually used in East Asia and Philippines for sleeping and sitting, usually made of palm and sea grass leaves -- wikipedia)  and layers of cotton blankets.

Non-toxic is toxic

I have been buying stuff for the new baby, and boy, was I in a blur! There are lots of things to consider!!! I didn’t know that when I had my first son (all I know then was BPA and parabens).

I was online shopping and then I saw this ‘organic’ stuff. So I started reading about it.  The more I read about it, the more new words I get to encounter: phthalates, harmful polyester, chemicals in flame retardants, VOC, carcinogen, lead, nickel, chlorine – every and any chemical that might be harmful to a newborn (or humans, that is). In short there are lots of toxic chems that can be found on baby stuff!!!

And if you know me, I am so gullible. If I could only put my first born inside a bubble (BPA Free of course) to protect him, I would. Right then and there I decided to just buy stuff that is only pure and organic and non-toxic. But…… they are expensive.

Trying to find safe and reasonably priced baby products is no easy feat. Why are they making these things so expensive??!!! One could easily shell out $5000 buying non-toxic necessities for a new born, JUST the necessities. This is stressing me out, making me toxic.

Seriously, I admire those families who are really into this. There are a lot of websites and blogs that you can find and read about this stuff. I am no expert here. Just google it and you can spend your entire day reading about it. 

Ideally, in my perfect world, I really wanted to go this way, but in reality, I know that I can’t. We can’t. Even if I buy all those non-toxic stuff for our new baby, it doesn’t end here. I can buy a crib and a mattress for him that is so, so, so very safe. But our bed isn’t. The couch isn’t. Our clothes are not. What about the entire house? Flooring? Paint? It doesn’t start and and end with just the baby things. It has to be all of us, our way of living, our lifestyle.

I will just have to keep on telling myself that, alright, alright, I will exert an effort to buy only good and safe products but I don’t have to stress myself out if I can’t. I just have to be calm and believe that everything is going to be okay the way it was with the previous generations. I mean they don’t know a thing about this before, right? 

old dog, new tricks

So as promised, to revive this blog, here's a summary of one of the drafts that i deemed good enough to share. Some new things about me .... Although of course, the newest would be I will be a mother again, but you already know that :)

~~~ 

I have learned to be in the front line, Customer Service at its purest form! :) I have been a Sales Associate for 2.5 years. Let's just say that anything that a girl at SM can do, I can do it too.

I am now a proud, legit driver. That makes me feel kind of grown up, don't you think? I don't have to ask J to drive me if I wanted to go somewhere else. I have done whole winter season driving. No accidents, thank, God. Just got caught beating the red light.

I have enrolled in a gym, for 3 months (I know, I know, really not that committed), and went for about 5 times. Fail. I have long accepted that I am not an exercise type of person. Let's not lose hope. Maybe gym is not for me. I can try jogging again. Or swimming.

I have wanted to try Yoga for the longest time. I know, so late, the train has left decades ago. I signed  up and attended to Fall and Winter classes. Don't ask what kind of Yoga. I am just a poser. And breather. Namaste.

Owned a sewing machine and have actually sewn a thing. Or two. I am also doing alterations, of my own clothes. I am not that confident enough to do somebody else's, afraid that I will ruin their clothes.

Set up my own website. Yeah. Website is up for about 3 years but hardly any updates. Let's just leave it at that.

hello

uy andito pa ako!

why did i stop blogging? hahah wala lang...di na kasi uso. pero looking back at my old posts and the drafts, masarap ding basahin. reminds me of how i was ....

anyways, here's me hoping to revive this again. see ya.

i'll check if there are draft posts that can be publicly shared. mostly kasi hinde ;)

baked

have you tried baking? i wanted to for the longest time (back in the philippines) but wasn't able to because we didn't have a functional oven then. so when we got here, finally, i got the chance.

the first few months that we were here, i was baking brownies. every week. even twice a week, for a month. no fancy thing though, just store bought brownie mix that i have to mix and put into the oven. sometimes i experiment and put in nuts, choco chips. the house always smells good but then the 3 of us we got tired of eating brownies everyday.

so then late last year, i began to try again. i did the chocolate cheese cupcake turtle. hehehe. anyway, these were the ones from my 1st batch.


my son liked. it i think i was able to bake 4 batches after this (not on the same night though). i baked this on ordinary days. i baked this to g ive out to the carollers. i bake this during our christmas party.

i watch kris tv often, and after watching one of their episodes with erich g baking the butter cupcakes, i did that too. i think the result was not at par as what i was expecting. my son was not a fan, but my husband and brother in law liked it.

and then i did a carrot cake with cream cheese icing for my husband's aunt's birthday. it was good and moist. you can eat it without the icing but i think the icing makes it perfect. i liked it. the birthday girl liked it too.

on that same night, i also baked blueberry muffins. this was also a hit -- with aquim. he'll have it as dessert, as breakfast, as school snack. i was able to bake 3 batches.

for tonight, i'd like to try corn bread. my peg is the corn bread with raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream from racks at megamall. maybe i should include vanilla and raspberry sauce in my grocery list.

what's for lunch

lunch is usually at the foodcourt of the building where i work. these days i often have sushi/rolls. there was a phase that i eat pad thai and sping rolls almost everyday.

we used to bring our own lunch but since j is now assigned to a different location and i am so arte i dont want to carry a separate lunch bag, i dont bring lunch.

and that made me think: why is it that filipino food is not as known or as popular as other cuisines?

here in the food court we have italian (not authentic though) -- pasta, pizza, we have the burgers and sandwiches, chinese, the sushis and the teriyakis, thais, even east indian food. but no filipino restaurant.

is it because we dont have a signature dish? we dont have something unique to offer. our food can be compared to chinese and thais -- the pansit (noodles), lumpia (spring/egg rolls) and ginisang karne na me gulay (stir fried veggies and meat)?or is it not palatable enough? can't be cooked on a per order basis?

natives here and other caucasians lined up not just for burgers and sandwiches. so i can tell that they have open mind and palate with regards to food. i can see them enjoying the chinese and thai food as well. some even venture to the samosas.

everybody will like adobo, no question on that. but would they like our nilaga? sinigang? dinuguan? karekare?

i asked j before while we were on the road noticing the restaurant signs of different cuisines -- polish ,ukrainian, italian, mostly chinese, thai, east indian, korean, japanese. but not filipino.

we have filipino "restaurant" here. but just like in the philippines, they are more like carinderia. and will only cater for a limited number of people. so unlike the chinese buffets which are big and always busy, and the other restaurants that are not too big, but seem to be more relaxed and they have a menu that put a name on their dishes and describes their dishes.

what would it take for our cuisine/dishes to go mainstream? our lechon is so much better than their suckling pig! hehehe our lechon manok is mas masarap than their chicken bourbon.

here's me hoping to see a fine filipino restaurant one day here in winnipeg.