Essential Newborn Care Protocol: a Must Know for Parents and Would-Be Parents

After a couple of hours of play at the UPLB Freedom Park, College, Laguna, the family headed to Bonito's where the kids had pizza and the adults enjoyed the house specialty, caldereta.  Because of the before dinner bread, chips and slurpee at the park, the kids' attention was not really into food.  They found a hangout in front of the television in the middle of the restaurant.  What's supposed to be a cool place to relax intended for college dudes and dudettes became a play area for the kids.

I was only reminded about earth hour a few minutes into 8:30 when we started to settle down in Ami's apartment.  While preparing for an hour without electricity, I was checking out the neighborhood (at least those that are visible from the apartment) and was quietly hoping that majority of the houses would participate in this simple gesture of sacrificing an hour of comfort.  But boy was I disappointed.  Ours was the only unit in the six-door apartment building that had our lights out for the duration of the event.  When I pointed it out, our eldest said that the others might not know about earth hour or perhaps they did know but didn't care.

The skies were clear and we can see the moon and the stars from the front yard/garage.  A pretty good ambiance to talk to the kids about why we're supporting this event and the impact it might have on climate change.  We played the game "weave a story" after so many months of not doing it.

It's basically starting with "Once upon a time..." and the next person has to continue the story to any direction he or she fancies.  Our kids are getting really good at it.  We were still using the familiar prince or princess theme but the plot gets more complicated and amusing at the same time.  They're also quite creative about the names of the characters.  The story ended with "Atlas" getting banished for asking for money for the big rock he gave as a gift to the king and annoying the princess by not offering her a gift.  The part about the scroll with the secret to staying forever young taken from inside the rock when it was split into two remained undeveloped...perhaps a starting point for a later game.

Our toddler only listened to us while we weave the story.  I am confident that he'll soon join in the fun as he more recently have always wanted to do whatever it is his older siblings does.

I am thankful for the opportunity to spend time with the kids and talk to them about energy conservation, the environment and climate change, as well as play a game we've always enjoyed playing when they were younger.