Are you planning on buying toys for your kids or as gifts to your friend or relatives’ children? Then here are some of the tips that you can consider before purchasing a toy:

1. Age of the child. Each kid in different age level has different developmental needs that is why it is really important that you know the age of the kid who will receive the toy. This will make sure that you will be able to buy a toy that is appropriate for his or her mental and psychomotor skills.

2. Hobbies and interest of the child. The interest of the kid will give you a clue on what toy the kid will love and appreciate. If the kid loves to play pretend, then you can buy a doctor set where he or she can pretend to be a doctor.

3. Safety of the toy. When purchasing toys for your kids, it is also important to check if it passes the safety standards. You can also check the toy association website for any toy recall. It is also good to inspect the toy, especially if it is to be given to babies or toddlers, to make sure that there are no parts that might fall off and may cause choking.

4. Budget and value for money. The price of the toy should also be checked and assess if the price offers a great value for your money. There are a lot of hot items that might be popular for a particular time but not all popular toys can be considered as best buys.

There are a lot of online stores where you can shop for utah toys and with the above tips in mind, you will surely never go wrong when choosing the perfect toy for that special kid in your life.

I have posted on Bela’s blog my dilemma on if we should send her to big school already or not this coming school year. She already took entrance exams at St. Theresa’s College and St. Scholastica’s College and luckily she was accepted at both schools. Now all we have to do is decide which school we should choose or if we will just let her stay for another year at her current school.

I was reading one blog of a mom like me who is a pre-school teacher in a progressive school. She mentioned that before, parents don’t have other options but to send their kids to traditional schools because there are no progressive schools that time so it is really something that parents nowadays should think about.

I was telling my mom why it is so complicated to make decisions like this for parents like us. I told her that I feel that we really have a big responsibility to make since it is the future of Bela that is at stake here. My mom just laughed at me and told me that Bela still has a long way to go. She will have her first communion where I have to look for communion invitations, she will have her first crush, her first heart brake, go to college, get married hopefully and have her own family.

My mom told me that in time I will know what to do if I will just listen to my mother’s instinct. It is natural to feel this way especially Bela is our first child but my mom is confident that whatever decisions we arrived at, she knows that we will only choose what will be best for Bela so I should stop worrying.

My husband has been talking about his desire for our second baby. He wants a baby boy, that is. He knows that I am still not ready for a second baby and I have been asking him if we can postpone it till next year. I know Bela will be turning three this year but I don’t know what it is in me that is stopping my desire for our second child. Maybe it is because I got traumatized with Bela. Most of you know that she has a congenital heart disease when I gave birth to her and it was so painful and traumatizing on my part when I found out about it as a first time mom. Maybe, that fear is still here and I am scared that the same thing will happen to our second child. But I know that God is good and with prayers everything will be ok which is what happened to our dear Bela since it was confirmed a year ago that the hole in heart is now closed.

I promised my husband that we will start to try for our second baby next year. He is all excited already and he even promises me that he will give his toy collection to our next child if it is a baby boy (which is really a hard thing for him to do since he loves his toy collection). He even started to look for activities that he and our baby boy (We’re praying for this) can do together. He can already imagine the two of them playing baseball together or soccer or basketball. He even showed me his batting gloves and he demonstrated how he would play with our baby boy. (That is how excited he is to have a baby boy).

I know my husband really can’t wait to have his baby boy. But for me, it doesn’t matter if it is a boy or a girl again for our second baby. My only prayer is that God will give us a healthy baby.

Life indeed is very unpredictable. There are lots of ups and downs that we have to face. Sometimes, it’s hard for us to deal with all the pressures in our life. There are times that we can’t actually understand some situations that are happening to us. More often, we are having a hard time to surpass all the trials that we encounter.

As we go on with our life, we have to be more prudent with all the decisions that we are going to make. We have to work harder in order for us to survive and have a better way of living. We have to be more practical since life today is not that easy.

This is the main reason why I always work hard to provide the needs of my family. I always want the best for them especially for my daughter. In fact, as early as now, my daughter has her own savings account so she can have an assurance for her own future. I know this can be one of the greatest ways of providing my daughter the best things for her life. Of course as a mother, I don’t want her to experience too many hardships, so I always give her the things that she definitely needs.

We should always remember to be ready so when time comes that we need support, we can have something to use to provide our needs. It’s not wrong to invest in something that will eventually make our life more meaningful.

Today is the second birthday of our dear Princess Ysabela. We celebrated it with the kids of Hospicio de San Jose.

To our dear Bela, you are truly God’s precious gift to us and we are forever thankful for having you in our life. You are our source of joy, strength and love. We love you very, very much anak!!

I will post Bela's birthday kwento soon as I need to hit the sack as we have another long day tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with these teaser pictures:

Am I a cool parent? I chance upon this link in one of my former college classmate’s blog while I was checking his profile in freindster and I immediately have the urge to check if I would really be a cool parent to my daughter, ysabela.

and below is the result...

You Will Be a Cool Parent

You seem to naturally know a lot about parenting, and you know what kids need. You can tell when it's time to let kids off the hook, and when it's time to lay down the law. While your parenting is modern and hip, it's not over the top. You know that there's nothing cool about a parent who acts like a teenager... or a drill sergeant!

Would You Be a Cool Parent?