I spent some quality time with daughter Cesky yesterday after weeks of non-stop work on top of seeing to her needs while she was at the hospital recuperating from dengue-like symptoms. Oh, don't worry about her. She's fine now and back to her old wriggly self.

Our day started with her asking me to look for a new game to occupy her restless afternoons (she's at school in the mornings and spends the afternoons either playing, watching television, or studying).

So being the good Dada (she still calls me that despite knowing how to properly pronounce Daddy), I scoured the Internet for that one game that can turn my daughter on, shying away from her usual haunts like Playhouse Disney and Nick Jr.

Fortunately, I received an email from the publicist of Mind Candy, an online games developer and publisher that has just come out with a new online game for children called Moshi Monsters.



Here's a brief description of Moshi Monsters from Mind Candy:

Moshi Monsters is a free online game for kids, where they may adopt a monster and look after it. Kids whose parents give us their approval can become users on our site, and can adopt a Moshi Monster. Kids care for their monster by solving puzzle games, which earn their monster virtual rewards called Rox. Kids can spend Rox on virtual items like food, furniture and other treats and toys for their monster. Over time, their monster will increase in level, be able to visit new locations in Monstro City, and earn all kinds of in-game rewards for playing. Monster owners will also be able to make friends with other owners and leave messages on their pages.

Wait! Before you stray away from this page to check out Moshi Monsters and endorse the game to your kids, there are a few things you have to know.

First, it's not for all kids. What I mean by this is that it may appeal to your child or it may not. Monsters aren't exactly the character of choice for most children. We have to hand it to Mind Candy, though, for presenting monsters in such a way that would have served us better when we were children ourselves. It could've saved us a lot of time staying awake after vivid nightmares brought about by too many monster stories.

Second, Moshi Monsters is text heavy, meaning it requires its users to read more than listen. Because of this, parents might need to sit beside their child while playing the game and guide them through every stage, from account registration to character creation to actual gameplay, including most of the minigames.

Third, some—if not most—game features are off limits to free-to-play users. Moshi Monsters has an optional subscription that lets its users explore more areas and enjoy more features. I feel sorry for those who can't afford the USD$5.95 monthly subscription. Sadly, this select group includes us. And to think I review video games for a living!

Still, Moshi Monsters is worth a try if you have the time. Parents are advised to check out Moshi Monsters FAQ for Moms and Dads before introducing the game to their children.

Our four-year-old, Cesky, for which this blog is named after, has just recently been discharged from the hospital after spending nearly a week there. The cause of the hospitalization: suspected dengue.

Here's a short description of dengue from HealthPinoy.com:

Dengue fever is an infection caused by a virus. It occurs commonly as dengue fever. Occasionally, a patient suffering from dengue may develop bleeding. Common sites for bleeding are the nose, gums and skin. Sometimes, the patient may have coffee-ground vomiting or black stools. This indicates bleeding in the intestines. The patient with dengue fever who develops bleeding has dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Fortunately for us, it wasn't dengue but simply fever brought about by an infection or other that she probably contracted at school or some other public place. Other patients at the Divine Word Hospital in Tacloban City, the capital of the southern Philippine province of Leyte, weren't so lucky.

Cesky's ordeal began three Sundays ago, January 17th, 2010. We were supposed to go to church that day. Heck, we were already dressed. Something prompted the young girl to tell us, her parents, what she was feeling.

"Mama, Dada, I feel cold," and this these words she slumped on a bed, shivering with the onset of fever.

When we checked her temperature with our trusty mercury thermometer, we found out that her fever wasn't common as it had already hit 40 degrees Celsius. Adding to our worry was the fact that she had been coughing the entire morning and that she claimed she felt pain in her head.

Now, you may ask, why didn't we go straight to the hospital with the onset of cough? Well, Cesky is asthmatic, so coughs, especially one that is accompanied by light wheezing, is pretty common, but not to be taken lightly. We usually rush to the hospital when coughing or a runny nose comes with a fever.

So we ran to the hospital, and sure enough, the emergency room doctors recommended her confinement pending the results of the complete blood count (CBC) and urinalysis.

The next day, Cesky still had fever, and her doctor, Myrna Diaz, told us the result of the CBC left much to be desired—Cesky's white blood cell count is elevated.

To make a long story short, it was simply fever brought about by an infection, hence the cough. The point of the whole story is, sickness, most especially in young children like Cesky, should not be taken for granted.

Read up on dengue and what you can do to prevent it at HealthPinoy.com.

If I had any doubts about sending Cesky, our three-year-old bundle of cuteness, to school at an early age, it's gone now. After reviewing her test results from last semester, I can safely say that we—Joyce and I—made the right choice.

"Hogwash!" you might say, but you must know that the test being administered to kids these days—yes, even those who are in pre-school—are pretty long and will always, I imagine, test the mettle of your child.

Battery doesn't even begin to describe the finals examination given by Tacloban Angelicum Learning Center to Cesky. It's amazing the way kids nowadays remember all the lessons being fed into their growing brains.

Of course, I am speaking from the viewpoint of someone who started school at five or six years old. Oh, sure, we had classmates who were younger, but they were more of, hmmm, how should I term it, just pretending to go to school. Filipinos have a term for them, Saling Kit, which literally translates to, hmmm, Joining Kittens(?). LOL!

Although I'm not aware of what grades I received when I was in pre-school, I'm sure it's a hell heck of a lot lower than Cesky's shining 94 percent.

I'm proud of you, my daughter ...



Image showing Cesky and classmate Sera taken by Joel using a Kodak EasyShare M893 IS digital camera.

Is your child manipulating you?

I'm posing this question because I just had an argument with Cesky about her tantrums. You see, just like any other three-year-old, little Cesky uses throws a fit whenever we, her parents, don't do or give her what she wants ... immediately.

Wait a minute, before we proceed, we have to ask: What is a tantrum? Let's turn to Wikipedia for the answer:

A tantrum is an emotional outburst of ill humor or a fit of bad temper wherein the higher brain functions are unable to stop the emotional expression of the lower (emotional and physical) brain functions. It can be categorized by an irrational fit of crying, screaming, defiance, and a resistance to every attempt at pacification in which even physical control is lost. The person may not stand or sit on their own. Even when the "goal" of the person is met, he or she is not calmed.

Very technical, huh? But it fits Cesky's actions squarely.

So why do toddlers—yes, those cute bundles of joy you brought into the world a year to a couple of years ago—throw temper tantrums? Because they think it's the best way to get things done his or her way. It's not a totally negative thing. Remember that your child is only asserting himself and your reactions to his actions will shape him.

In Cesky's case, it's probably because of so many restrictions we impose on her. Being first-time parents, you can't really fault us. We just can't tell whether what we ask of her is already too much. She's probably thinking—and thinking hard—about all the don'ts. Yes, don'ts. As in, "Cesky, don't suck on your thumb," "Cesky, don't talk while your mouth is full," "Cesky, don't jump on the bed," and "Cesky, don't touch this and that."

It sucks for her, I'm sure. But once we parents start laying down rules, we have to see them through.

Want expert advice? Let's see what ParentingToddlers.com has to say about temper tantrums (emphasis in bold font are mine):

Toddler temper tantrum is something very common. Between the ages of one and three, your previously gentle and loving toddler will have a change of personality. He will no longer be content to accept your rules for everything, but will want his own say in what he does and does not do. Quite frequently, this will result in toddler temper tantrum.

When a toddler starts having tantrums, the first thing the parents should do is decide what is important and what isn't important. If you want to have your own way in everything your toddler disagrees with, then you're likely to spend the majority of your time in a battle of wills. The best plan is to make as few rules as possible. Your child will be more likely to adhere to a lower number of rules and he will also know that those rules are important. Letting him get away with eating breakfast cereal with his fingers may be worth the mess if you know that he will definitely hold your hand to cross a road.

Once you do decide what is important, don't give in. Make sure your rules are constant. If you make a rule that no biscuits may be eaten an hour before tea-time, stick by that rule, even if your toddler's cries are loud enough to annoy the neighbors. Once you give in and hand him a biscuit, he will expect one every time he cries.

A toddler has a tantrum to try and get what they want. If this usually works, they will continue to have tantrums. If, on the other, a tantrum never produces the result they want, they will soon give it up as ineffective.

Pretty straightforward, if you ask me. The site then goes on to enumerate four techniques in dealing with toddler temper tantrums. Go check them out here.

Joyce, my wife, and I recently went downtown to visit an aunt who had just come out of an operation to remove a lump in her left breast. Nothing seemed amiss, except for that nagging feeling parents get when they leave their children at home, alone or with someone you're really not related to.

Oh, sure, we've left Cesky at home before, but always with someone we trust explicitly. The longest we've ever been apart from Cesky is a week, and that had been a very long week indeed. It's hard to shake off that, like I said, nagging feeling ... something akin to separation anxiety.

In the case of our short trip to the hospital, it turned out that our fears were unfounded. We arrived at home about five hours after we left, and found young, rambunctious Cesky happily playing with her temporary sitter, Maricel.

Actually, sometimes, it's better to leave Cesky with people who are not close to the family, as she behaves herself and gets into less trouble—a tough act for a three-year-old. When we leave her with, say, her maternal grandmother, she becomes quite a grouch or cries her eyes out the entire time we are away.

Not that we are endorsing you to leave your child with total strangers. Of course, there has to be an element of trust involved, not only with the person you are entrusting your child to but your child as well. A child, after all, is most precious, more precious than all material wealth in the world.

Image taken from Parents-in-a-pickle.com, a website that has some of the best parenting advice on the planet. Go check them out!

Whew! Such a long weekend. Well, it wasn't really a long weekend, it just felt like one. Anyway, the reason for our sudden blogging hiatus over the weekend was a little kitten we named "Fallen." Why Fallen? Read on.

The neighborhood stray cat that frequently barges into homes to raid food-laden tabletops and trash bins gave birth in the crawl space between our bedroom ceiling and the insulated aluminum roofing of the house last Wednesday. From the time of their birth until Friday morning, the kittens—and their mom, we suppose—made it hard of us to get some shuteye. People who have cats as pets should know how noisy a litter gets when little mouths go hungry. Add to that the bumping and the scratching mama cat makes, and you've got a virtual disco with large speakers blaring with the strong boom of the bass.

Anyway, to make a long story short, a kitten fell through the vent from the crawl space into our bedroom and somehow made it into Mama Joyce's open shoulder bag, which had been, at the time, sitting on the dresser that was directly underneath the vent. We didn't know how long the little kitten was in the bag, but she gave us quite a fright when Mama Joyce reached into the bag and felt something furry. She yelped, thinking it was a big nasty rat that got into her bag. Haha.

So we placed the kitten in a cloth-lined shoebox and placed the box on the front porch, hoping that mama cat would discover one of her brood missing and go look for it. We waited patiently, but the big stray cat didn't come for the kitten. Being around cats and other animals in the past, Dada Joel decided that we should feed the kitten since it might take days for the mama cat to track down the kitten—if she'd come for her baby at all.

Mama Joyce and Cesky fed the kitten with warm milk using a syringe. While feeding the kitten, the two discussed what they should name the little feline that fell into our bedroom. Suddenly, the name came to them, naturally. We named her Fallen, for obvious reasons.

After feeding Fallen, we tucked her into the shoebox and headed for the dining room for a well-deserved evening meal. But Cesky couldn't contain her excitement at naming the cat. So she hopped off her modified dining chair in mid-meal, ran to the porch to "have a talk with Fallen," and got an unpleasantly pleasant surprise. Fallen was gone!

We looked around the porch and the garden beyond it but could not find Fallen or any trace of the kitten. So we assumed that Fallen was spirited away by mama cat while the humans were having their meal. We explained this to Cesky and witnessed her angelic face twist with myriad emotions, from confusion to anger to desperation to understanding.

Cesky is all right now, only asking about Fallen once in a while "just to check how she is." We no longer hear the kittens mews, so we're assuming that mama cat has moved them to a "safer" location.

Image features Puss in Boots, a character in the 2004 film Shrek 2, produced and/or released by DreamWorks SKG, Paramount Pictures, United International Pictures, and Universal Pictures.

Cesky and I are in the neighborhood again, so I guess it's prudent for us to drop in on old neighbors who we have missed dearly this past year. It's just like my trip to Manila last June, when I had to say hello to as many people I know in such a short span of time. I visited some, called most, but there were still people I missed or failed to get in touch with.

And so here it is, without further ado, our knock on the door, ring on the bell, and tap on the window:

• AJA seems to be taking things seriously. Her blog, Season and Reason can't be accessed, even by old contacts like Cesky.


• Jayme, on the other hand, is as bubbly as ever. Recently, she talked about the christening of daughter Kalia. Whew! Time sure flies fast. Last time we talked to her, she had been at a crossroads of her life, trying to decide whether to go back to the daily grind of working or staying at home to take care of Jamaine, her first baby.


• Tita Dine Racoma seems to enjoy her new (renewed?) passion for the arts through poetry. Check out her latest masterpiece music ... magic ... mystery.


• I never knew Marjie could wax sentimental. But when she learned about her grandfather's demise, it suddenly came out in a torrent. Don't worry, Miss Marjie, I'm sure your grandpa would have been proud of you. Keep those fireballs coming.


• Peachy Galias is a great writer, so great that sometimes we have a hard time discerning between fact and fiction. A recent entry, about pretty faces, is one such blog post. Shed some light, please.


• It's good to know that Noemi Dado is back in the Philippines again after a short trip to the United States. We must confess that we have yet to read her past entries on Touched By An Angel, so we can't really say anything more than, "Welcome Back, Miss Noemi!"

It's great to be back in the neighborhood!