Mommy Pehpot, Author at Mommy Pehpot

Practical Shopping For School Supplies

Summer is almost over and for us parents, it only means one thing, school year is about to start! And that comes with school supplies shopping.

Well, I am almost done with school supplies (thank goodness for blog projects and direct advertisers) just a few more and we’re ready for school year 2012-2013. Like the previous years, I went to Divisoria to buy uniforms, socks and under shirts. This year, though, I got the chance to buy other school stuff such as coloring materials and pencils. It is so hard to say no to Divisoria’s budget friendly price. If not for the pots that I bought, I could have bought a lot more school supplies like notebooks and papers, artworks and pencil cases.

I bought polo for my boys as well as khaki pants. Divisoria price for white jacket style polo is at 85 PhP (size for 7-9 year old), for the khaki pants, it’s 115 PhP. I also bought 18 pairs of socks for 600+ PhP (a dozen is at 420 PhP). I was surprised with the undershirts price, I bought Loving Couple white sando (size 14) for 560 per dozen (tumaas ang presyo!). My suki for garments is located near 168, I learned not to buy items from street vendors and look for wholesalers instead.

Initially, my plan is to buy yellow cartolina for our Spongebob Party but seeing how cheap other school items were, I just have to buy:

T-Pencil (one dozen with 3 pencils free) 48 PhP
Crayola (16 colors) 171 PhP for 6 box
White cartolina for 30 PhP, 10 Pcs

I was tempted to buy notebooks, 85 PhP for 10 pcs! ang mura! kaso wala na ako pera 🙁 My suki for school supplies is located near Divisoria Mall, same street as the gulay street vendors.

For black shoes and notebooks, we went to SM Megamall to shop. I used GC that I got from blog events…2 pairs of black shoes from Chicco Store using Chicco GC. For rubber shoes, we bought their pairs from SM department store. We bought World Balance rubber shoes as we this rubber shoes brand is tried and tested… their first pair was 2 years ago and they’re still using it until now! ang tibay di ba! at mura pa.. less than 1000 PhP each 🙂

For the notebooks, I told them to choose Advance over Orions.. eh mas mura ung Advance.. kaso lang mas kaunti characters, buti may Avengers! Actually, I want the Orions (specially Phineas and Ferb!) designs and the quality of paper (mas maputi).. but I have to be practical. We also bought a few folders and envelopes and ball pen (baka mag pen na ang Grade 3 ko) and some pad papers.

From the school supplies section, we spent a little over 1000 so were entitled with a free Lego inpired notebook.. kaso it took the saleslady forever bago nacompute ung nabili namin sa section na un.. kumusta naman sa haba ng resibo! Good thing, the manager was really nice and gave us 2 notebooks instead of 1.. yay! Their school bags from last school year were still in good condition so we didn’t bought new ones.

We’re almost ready for SY 2012-2013.. Next week I will be starting new routines so that the kids wouldn’t have a hard time adjusting.

If you’re not yet done shopping, here are some practical tips in shopping for school supplies:

List down what your kids need. List everything, from uniform to socks to shoes, to erasers and sharpeners. After listing everything, see what you need to buy and what you can reuse or recycle.
Bring your kids when buying school shoes, they will be the one to use it, so you need to know and test if the shoes will be comfortable for them. And though it’s very tempting to buy a size bigger to your kids size, don’t do that, yes their feet will grew bigger in no time but it would be hard for them to walk on shoes bigger than their feet size.
The same applies to buying uniform, parents have the tendency to buy one size bigger with the idea that their kids will outgrew it in no time. Even so, it would just be uncomfortable for your kids to wear something that’s not their size. What I always do is to buy their exact size in limited quantities and buy another set in one size bigger. In that case, if ever my boys outgrew their uniform, I have a ready replacement.
If you are going to buy school supplies and you’ll be bringing your kids, buy earlier and not on weekends. It would be more tedious to buy on weekends specially on malls as people flock malls on weekends.
Use your credit card if you have one to avail of promos and discounts given to credit card holders.
And lastly, stick to your list and don’t buy anything that is not needed.

HAPPY SHOPPING!

The Mommy Bloggers Talks About Asperger Syndrome, UTI Prevention and More..

We were just talking about pukpok the other day and my first born almost cried when he saw his dad sharpens a piece of guava trunk. Pukpok, to those who are not aware, is circumcision, traditional way. Here’s a definition from WikiPilipinas:

Pukpok is a crude method of circumcision practised in the Philippines. It is performed mostly in barrios (rural villages) by a local surgeon called manunuli. On the Holy Saturday of the Lenten Season, groups of uncircumcised boys traditionally go to the manunuli to take the rites of passage. After bathing in a river or a lake, the boys are asked to chew guava leaves. They are then asked to sit on a lukaw, a wooden tool with pointed ends carved from a branch of guava tree. While the boy is seated, one end of the lukaw is staked on the ground while his penis is set on the other end. A manunuli then uses a labaha (barber’s blade) to cut the foreskin off of the penis. The manunuli then instructs the boy to spit the chewed guava leaves directly on the wound to aid healing and to prevent infection. After the operation, a piece of cloth is wrapped around the wound to be changed daily. Although the traditional or pukpok type of circumcision has been chiefly replaced by the modern surgical method, some areas in the provinces still practice the old method.

Talking about Pukpok and circumcision, I was glad that I came across Mommy Mauie’s Preparing For Circumcision article. It gives me an idea on what is the right time for circumcision and how to properly prepare my boys when the right time comes. It was also mentioned that circumcision can help prevent UTI or urinary tract infection. That’s for our boys, but for us ladies, some of the best ways to prevent UTI is not to hold our pee, as mentioned in Mommy Sam’s How to Prevent Urinary Tract Infection:

1. Drink LOTS of water.
2. Change your underwear AT LEAST twice a day.
3. Wash your underwear by hand.
4. When nature calls, make sure you answer.
5. Use a gentle cleanser for your vajayjay.antiseptic, and gets rid of the bad bacteria without the chemicals.
6. Probiotics.

UTI is also a number one problem for pregnant women..but if you’re not sure if you’re pregnant or not, take a peek on Mommy Jem’s Early Signs of Pregnancy and learn from someone who just found out she’s pregnant for her 2nd child (congrats Mommy Jem!)

And for those who’s having a second baby like Mommy Jem, you might want to read about siblings rivalry and handling tantrums just to be prepared, you know. And while you’re it, Mommy Levy’s What is Asperger Syndrome? article is a must read too. She talked about what difficulties a person with Asperger Syndrome had the face.

P&G Pampers Baby Care Building Inauguration

“As part of our celebration of this landmark occasion and in line with P&G’s global purpose of Touching and Improving Lives, P&G is giving each mother of Barangay Diezmo with a child of up to 3 years old Pampers diapers for the next two years as a way of giving back to the community we have called home for the last 17 years.” -P&G global group president for baby care, Martin Riant

Imagine how moms felt that day when P&G global group president for baby care, Martin Riant announced it. They were overwhelmed.

Well, that’s the highlight of the recently Mommy Bloggers tour at the P&G facility in Cabuyao Laguna. The moms of Brgy Diezmo were overwhelmed ad they hear the good news. Aside from that, Mother & Child Nurses Association of the Philippines (MCNAP) Nurse Rosa De Las Alas educate moms on the importance of sleeping habits. Moms with newborns and very young children were listened attentively and after the talk, moms and their kids were treated for a merienda and movie watching.

The mommy bloggers who attended the inauguration rites were toured inside the P&G museum where P&G memorabilia such as old Purico product were housed. Purico is a shortening brand, the pioneer brand from P&G way back 1930s and which according to our mom, Purico was used as viand. If we have Star Margarine, our moms used Purico! After the museum tour, the new P&G, Pampers Baby Care Building was inaugurated.