nikolaustag

yup, even though we've moved to singapore, we're keeping the german christmas traditions jan grew up with. like the nikolaus tag.

In Germany, Nikolaus is usually celebrated on a small scale. Many children put a boot, called Nikolaus-Stiefel, outside the front door on the night of December 5 to December 6. St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good. If they were not, they will have a tree branch (rute) in their boots instead. Sometimes, a disguised Nikolaus also visits the children at school or in their homes and asks them if they "have been good" (sometimes ostensibly checking a book for their record), handing out presents on a per-behaviour basis. This has become more lenient in recent decades.

this year, jan got the usual fillers: apples, oranges, chocolates. and a laser sword.

obsessed with action heroes

for the longest time, we’ve tried to distract jan from superhero figures. we considered them to be inappropriate for his age and really, what good would he pick up from them? in germany, it was relatively easy, as there were lots of other options. there were a variety of well-made children shows that didn’t feature violence and fighting as its main plot.

now that we've moved to singapore, he’s obsessed with action heroes. it is so pervasive, not only on tv, we knew we were facing a losing battle when we implemented a restriction on them in our household.

boob tube

our tv went kaputt. that means, we have been televesion-free for the last three weeks now. oh yes, it’s possible! it probably sounds abnormal, but except for some snippets of news, we don’t watch much tv anyway. here's why.

jan's food allergies

early on, we found out that jan breaks out in rashes when coming into contact with cow’s milk and products made out of cow’s milk. but slowly, the last few weeks, he has been showing greater and greater tolerance, and he is now able to finish a cup of yoghurt or a slice of cheese without breaking into hives, nor suffering from diarrhea. because jan is slowly outgrowing his milk allergy, we have been getting complacent and less vigilant with what he puts in his mouth. he himself knows what he can and cannot eat. he asks if he’s not sure and readily accepts the fact if he can’t.

but then we discovered he's allergic to nuts, too!

co-sleeping

now and again, i encounter scientific literature that goes against the grain, against instinct, if i may call parenting that. see, we’ve adapted the “attachment parenting” approach in bringing up jan: lots of physical contact and no cry-til-you-can’t-breathe-anymore and the you-have-to-learn-how-to-soothe-yourself disciplinary approach. together with attachment parenting naturally comes breast-feeding and co-sleeping; jan has been breastfed for more than a year, and is still with us on the matrimonial bed to date.

so being a breastfeeding advocate, i am confounded by a recent report saying that breastmilk cause more cavities than cow’s milk. i say, huh? and then there’s the new guideline from the American Academy of Pediatrics saying that infants should sleep in their cribs, not in their parents’ beds.

“The recommendations are very straightforward and clear: Babies should not be asleep in the same bed that their parents are sleeping in,” said James Kemp, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University and a world-recognized researcher on SIDS.

so will I follow the AAP recommendation? No way!

antonio's in tagaytay

tin just came back from a trip to manila, and guess what? she's got photos of antonio's in tagaytay. the resto looks breezy, and the food sumptuous. sounds like a good place for a stop-over on the way to the batangas beaches, or on the way back after a tagaytay sight-seeing. estimated at around P600-1000 a head (P250 for kids), it sounds steep for an average pinoy meal, but for bakasyonistas like us, that sounds just reasonable.

Antonio's is open on Tuesdays for dinner only and on Wednesdays to Sundays for lunch (11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.) and dinner (5:30-9:30 p.m.). Strictly by reservation only. Call +63 917 899-2866 or +63 917 819-1022.

here's the Inquirer feature on antonio's: Food Paradise in Tagaytay

choosing a kindergarten

when choosing a kiga, you’ll also have to decide beforehand what learning principles you abide by. most of the kiga here in germany are heavy on the learn-by-play principle. actually, it’s really mostly play at this stage anyway. that’s why i wrote teachers with quotation marks. they don’t really teach lessons per se. children are not even expected to know their alphabets before they enter the first grade. however, there are still specialized kigas employing the montessori and waldorf methods of learning. admittedly, i haven’t done a lot of research on these, but i think it doesn’t differ/matter much at this point, unless you’re set on putting your child in montessori/waldorf in primary school. which we are not. bu that doesn't make choosing the right kiga any simpler for us.