Matti and Cousins at Chikitings Playhouse

Having a baby at the height of the pandemic had several disadvantages. I mean, it was not the best time to really have a child, if I was given a chance to choose, I'd pick a time when I could cross borders without problems and restrictions. But life doesn't work that way, we were not expecting a pandemic and a lock down three months after knowing that we were expecting!

So fast forward to when Matti arrived, we were stuck in our house. I got a little depressed and all I wanted at that time was to go home to my parents' house. Thankfully, my husband was already on a work from home set up so we left Cebu, had to work on many papers to get this done which took over a month, and finally on October 2020, we were home but still, we needed to go through community quarantine for two weeks, then we also have to stay indoors the whole time but it was better because I can now interact with my family.

Anyway, why am I telling you this? It isn't really directly related to the subject but I just want to share that having a baby who didn't get to see a lot of people surely has an effect on his personality.

Matti gets silent and stays still when there are kids around him. He is not used to seeing a lot of kids although he has cousins to play with at home, he is more reserved and won't even go near his cousins. I had to exert efforts in getting him to interact with other kids, not to be shy, but to encourage him to say hi, hello, and mingle.

One of the things that I decided to do was to expose him to play areas. When we traveled to Cebu, I brought him to Kidzooona.

I remember he was not very comfortable with other kids, he would distance himself and since it's the pandemic, most parents would not allow their kids too to be very interactive with others.

So whenever there's an opportunity for me to bring him to a play area, I would do it. This time, I found a playhouse in Tagbilaran City inside the Island City Mall so I brought Matti there and since we were with the cousins, I treated them all for a two-hour play!

This is Kuya ZM, he is four years old and he is very active, very sociable, he instantly got friends with the other kids, in the photo below, he was playing at the slides with a new friend, that boy in red.

His parents didn't even bother looking after him, they asked me to look after ZM instead, well, it didn't really require much effort because he was just inside the room, he could run around if he wanted to. All I did was to tell him not to do such and such.

Children tend to test our patience and it is not worth becoming angry or responding in anger because these kids need to explore and discover their potential, sometimes, things like jumping in unsafe places require them to experience the pain and the tendencies so they'd learn. It is the worst-case scenario if they won't listen to their grown-ups.

Here comes Amari, she's my niece who's also very sociable. The issue with Amari is that she would throw things at other kids. Her parents don't understand why she has that attitude, even if the other kids were not doing anything, she does it. Sometimes, she pushes other kids away and then runs around laughing. It felt like she enjoys the act and she thinks its just play.

She had been spanked many times before as well because of doing those things. For me, I think she had experienced having that treatment too so she was just copying what she had observed.

Matti is three months older than Amari and Amari has a girl cousin too who was born a month after her. So these three kiddos are of the same age and I am seeing a future of these three kids being playmates and close friends. But Matti is again not very sociable. He would prefer being by himself instead.

So I wonder if this can be developed overtime so I am letting him engage with other kids. Whenever he is in a play area, as much as possible, I would just let him do whatever he wants, I'd just stay at a distant and observe what he is doing.

In Chikitings, I am glad to see that they have a lot of sections but the problem is that there's not much floor area to run around. If there are a lot of kids, tendencies are that they'd be bumping each other if they will all be running around.

We were fortunate that when we arrived, there were only a few but as the next few minutes passed by, more and more children came in. There was even one who puked and the staff asked for the guardians but no one came in. We were all worried as to what happened to that boy, he was brought out of the play area because he has to be cleaned up.

This one up here is Pipay, she's Amari's cousin and we brought her along with us. She was already just content with staying in that corner playing with the balls. I guess she's like Matti who loves their own presence.

I brought the three of them into the blocks table. Immediately, Amari left the table, she was not amused by the blocks while Matti found a stethoscope, and Pipay, on the other hand, loved the blocks. Kuya ZM was busy with the slides and interacting with the bigger kids.

Soon after, Matti found another thing to play with. He got a little excited! The room was becoming crowded as well and there was only a little space left for running. The mats seemed okay and safe and they got a second floor too by the way!

Down here, you'll find Amari peeping through the wooden fence, she was encouraged to take the spiral slide next to it but she won't. She'd just look over and say hi to everyone and then get down by the stairs and then back up. She was doing that for almost the entire time, she seemed scared of the slides!

Matti found his way to the grocery section. It seemed like a lot of customers had bought their displays as there were a lot of empty shelves!

Matti enjoyed his time here identifying the vegetables and fruits. In his hand are pear and cucumber. He went to show me what he found here.

Aside from the grocery, the playhouse also has a kitchen. Matti played there but he started crying so I went looking for him only to find out that he pooped! Oh oh!

This always happens when we are in a play area. I wonder what triggers perhaps the physical activity! Anyway, I was able to clean him up and he got back to playing afterward and he was happy again!

Two hours went by so fast and it was time to go. I asked Kuya ZM to sit on the stairs so I could take a photo before we leave the place. He was already very sweaty at this point and he kept on looking at the slides because he still want to play but unfortunately, it was time to go.

I am just glad that these kids had fun and they were all fine leaving the place. None of them cried at all while there were many other kids who got tantrums, crying, kicking, and shouting as their guardians carried them out of the play area.

Chikitings is a Tagalog slang that means little or small children. The playhouse is located on the second floor of Island City Mall in Tagbilaran City. They are open 9 AM to 7 PM. Chikitings below 3 years old MUST be accompanied by a fully vaccinated parent/guardian. And they require customers to present a Vaccination Card and a Valid ID upon entry.