Zoe's first visit to the dentist

We've been planning to take Zoe to the pedia dentist for quite some time now but managed to keep on delaying for some reasons. We knew that it would be a painful task since brushing Zoe's teeth alone requires plenty of patience and creative theatrics. I couldn't imagine how I can make her open her mouth in front of the good dentist. So when my cousin told me that she was taking her 2 kids, Cacai and Jessalyn, to the dentist last Saturday, I grabbed the opportunity and brought along my 2 year old as well.

Jessalyn was first to go since she had more procedures to be done. While waiting, we practiced with Zoe on how she would open her mouth (with Cacai's help) and crossed our fingers that she would really do it when her turn came. After Jessalyn, it was supposed to be Cacai's turn but our excited toddler wanted to go next so she did. The pedia dentist said that since she's still quite young, she'd skip on the dentist's chair and would go for a knee-to-knee cleaning instead. However, Zoe insisted on sitting on the chair, at least until the dentist turned the lights on on the machine and she got scared. So yes, we did the knee-to-knee thing.

I was quite surprised that it only took a couple of swipes of dental wipes to clean my daughter's teeth. After wiping the teeth (which I could've done myself), the dentist put some berry fluoride on. Finished. In 10 minutes tops and it already cost Php 1000. I'm not sure of the going rate but my husband and I kinda thought that it was a bit too steep for just a simple procedure that we could've done had we have fluoride at home.

Oh well, I guess we paid for the 'her teeth is spaced really nicely and brushed quite well' comment coming from the good dentist. Yes, I was quite proud of myself knowing the daily pains it takes to brush my toddler's teeth. I guess  our patience and efforts have paid off =)

Insanity: Plyometric Cardio

Plyometric Cardio -- yes, it already sounds intimidating but it's worse when you actually try it. The name itself suggests that this routine involves jumping and popping heart rates. Boy, Shaun T wasn't kidding. The first 9 minutes of this 42-minute workout focused on warm up. Warm up that already included jogging, jumping jacks, heismans (which took me quite longer to perform), 123, butt kicks, high knees, and mummy kicks. Oh and wait, you do the 'warm up' routine TWICE. Gosh, I was already tired by the time the warm up routine was finished. Jillian Michaels, what a shame, I thought you've already prepared me for this..

This routine involved 5 circuits which were repeated twice with 30-second water breaks in between. Here are the sequences of the circuits:

WARM UP:
- jogging
- jumping jacks
- heismans
- 123
- butt kicks
- high knees
- mummy kicks

CIRCUIT 1:
- suicide drills
- power squats
- mountain climbers
- ski down

CIRCUIT 2:
- switch feet
- football wide sprints

CIRCUIT 3:
- basketball drills
- ski drills
- in and out

CIRCUIT 4
- jabs
- cross jacks
- uppercuts
- attacks

I would love to say that I performed all exercises but I honestly wasn't able to. I told you that I was already tired by the time warm up was done but I still tried my best to keep up although I really did falter most of the time. It was sort of nice to see that even the people on the video were human enough to get tired and get some rest even while the others were pushing themselves to the limit. It actually kinda inspired me to push even harder. They say that this routine is the hardest among the Insanity routines so hopefully I'd get better at it the next time. Tomorrow I start with Cardio power and resistance. Sounds scary too, goodluck to me! Dig deep!!

Insanity Workout

After going through 30 Day Shred, Ripped in 30, Yoga meltdown, and Killer buns and thighs -- all by Jillian Michaels, I found myself bored with the routines. Sure it was still a little bit challenging but sometimes boredom is a far worse enemy. So I finally decided to try the Insanity workout program after putting it off for so long (cus I was scared of the reviews).

I did the fit test today and boy, did I sweat like crazy. I think even my ears produced sweat, if that was even possible. However, being that I haven't worked out in about a week gave me pitiful results in the fit test. Still, I was glad to have done the first step. Here are my results and what I looked like 25 minutes after:

Do you see the prominent vein on my forehead? That usually comes out when I'm very angry or very tired :P

Tomorrow is my first official day for the workout program. Below is a timetable of the exercises which should be done for a total of 9 weeks:



I have great hopes (and fear) for this workout. I wil also take my measurements again later when I get home so I can do a progress report for myself. Wish me luck! 

Sweet treats at Vanilla Cupcake Bakery

Last weekend, we went to Greenbelt and Rustan's to celebrate my Jamie Dimon money. When I say celebrate, that of course meant shopping and eating out -- two of our favorite things. We had lunch at Chili's (and was saddened by the fact that they dont serve their tomato basil pasta anymore, sniff sniff) before starting with the first leg of our shopping trip. Well actually, I already started the first leg the day before so let me correct the statement by saying 'we started the second leg of our shoppig trip' by going through the kids' shops at Greenbelt 5.

Dan promised dessert and while I wanted to have donuts and coffee, we stumbled upon a quaint and cute cupcake shop called Vanilla Cupcake Bakery in Glorietta. I've passed this shop before and had mentally promised myself to check it out so i figured , it was the right time to do so.

The interiors of the shop are very cozy and girly with white, sky blue, and baby pink as dominant colors. The furniture are also very dainty and I was pleasantly surprised to see Daphne Osena's chairs as part of the furnish. There weren't a lot of cupcakes to choose from unlike at Sonja's but I immediately chose the ones I liked: banana nutella and banana cream cheese while Dan chose luscious mocha.

The cupcakes were moist and overall, quite good but I preferred the cream cheese over nutella. I still would like to say that Sonja's are still better, although Vanilla Cupcake Bakery is a sure good contender too. What I didn't like about this experience though was that ordering the cupcakes was quite stressful and disorganized. While there were several attendants, I wasnt sure they were deployed into their own responsibilities accordingly. There was no line nor instructions on where to begin forming a line, except for one attendant who simply told me 'dito na lang po' when I asked where to start getting in line. In fact, if I stood by the 'line', it wouldve taken me hours to get my order  since customers who come in would just announce their orders to the attendants not knowing where to start. AND the annoying attendants would entertain just whoever comes their way regardless of who was there first. It was uberly annoying, my husband sensed a tantrum coming and sent me to the table to wait. That was a good catch.

So if asked if I would try this bakeshop again, I possibly would although I probably wouldn't crave it out of the blue. The price range is quite reasonable, my husband paid almost P300 for 3 cupcakes and a cup of brewed coffee.