Image via Wikipedia

My baby’s exactly 25 months today, and, thank God, her vocabulary has increased tremendously. I am happy that, in the past, I was able to teach her the basic words. If not, it could have been difficult for me to know what she’s feeling.

A few days back, she was telling me that her ear hurts. I just didn’t mind it. I thought it was because of her colds. But, after complaining upon waking up, I thought that the hurting of her ear/s (because she was pointing to her two ears) was a big deal. I peeked into her ear. There was something that was blocked at the center – a white thing which I thought could be removed by cotton bud. But, no, husband said the white thing was not hard, but wasn’t soft.I tried to remove it with cotton bud moistened with baby oil. I even thought of removing the white thing with a hair puller. For heaven’s sake, I thank God I wasn’t able to find the hair puller.

I trusted my baby’s doctor, of course, next to God, that the pedia would know what he would do with my baby’s ear. We went to Al-Salam last night. There, we knew that baby had a fever at 38.8 degrees Celsius! God, we didn’t know that she had a fever! The doctor examined my baby’s ear, and he didn’t remove the white thing. We asked him, and he said that it was wax, and need not be removed, but, he gave us ear drop for baby because baby’s ears have an infection! That infection must be the cause of baby’s fever and heavy coughs and colds. Uh-oh.

I thank God that my baby knows the basic/important words to communicate with me. If she didn’t tell me that her ears were hurting, I wouldn’t have any clue about what she’s feeling. I thank God that my baby’s able to comprehend a lot of things at a young age.

It’s important that we teach our babies/toddlers the most important things/words that they need to know, especially, those that concern their bodies, and their feelings.

T H E  87th L E T T E R

Dear Baby1,

How are you, my baby?

You’re two years old now! WOW. The terrible two’s, they say, but, I’d say, you’re a terrific two-year old. You’re Mommy’s look-alike now. Thank God ahihi. Daddy says that your new haircut looks good on you. It shows that we share almost the same features.

I was trembling when I cut your hair. You kept on moving around here and there. I cut your bangs first, and gotcha, they were crooked, and so short – middle of your forehead. Thank God, you have a beautiful face. No matter how the hair is messed up, it looks good on you.

A few days before you hit your 2nd birthday, I was surprised to hear from you that you understand the Dora episodes you’ve been watching — the way you tell the stories to our family friend-driver. Then, a day after that, I was surprised even more when you started to tell the conversations way ahead from the characters of DTE. Now, at two years old, it has become pronounced. You’re consistent in knowing the conversations and telling them even before we hear them from the TV. You’re so amazing, my baby.

This afternoon, you also surprised us when you asked your nanny to draw your whole body on the paper by tracing you as you lie down on the paper. I asked you not to move and you were very cooperative.

You also tend to mimic our words – a lot – including our accents and dialects. Oh no. We hope to speak more in English at home, just the way you do.

What Mommy would like you to concentrate on (no pressure) is about familiarizing yourself with the alphabet, numbers, and colors. You know the shapes now. Although you know how to sing the alphabet, you just get bored when we teach you about the alphabet. You long have wanted to read (you “read” with your eyes) — pretending though that you’re reading books. Hehe. Anyway, glad that you love to “read”, and you love to be read.

Glad, too, that you’re now eating again. I hope that you’d gain more in terms of height. Let’s concentrate on your height gain in the next few days, months, and years.

You’re still awake at 8p.m. Well, these days, you’re sleeping at 9p.m. or 10p.m. You also tend to sleep late in the afternoon at around 2p.m. or 3p.m. You find it hard to sleep with Mommy so I let your nanny lull you to sleep. With Mommy, you always think of playing or with Mommy’s Iphone, watching youtube, or book-reading so sleeping is secondary to you, unless your eyes become so droopy.

I once tried to go outside last week, I mean, to “work” away from home — at a cafe — so that Mommy could concentrate, and for you to eat well, too (there are times when Mommy’s around, you don’t eat that much). You were crying when Mommy left, and when Mommy arrived after four hours, you were already eagerly waiting for me. After that incident, I didn’t go out to “work” yet. I guess it’s much better to work at home just like what I have been doing because I can concentrate more (because of net connection and no expenses for food outside at the cafe), and I can hear and see you anytime. There are times though that you wouldn’t want to play with your yaya when Mommy’s at work-mode.

This is all for now.

iloveyou,

mommy

T H E  9th L E T T E R

Dear Baby2,

How are you, my baby?

Congratulations, we’re now on our 30th week, baby2! Yipee, 9 weeks and 6 days more to go, we’ll gonna see you, baby!

Mommy’s so happy that we’re perfectly doing well – you and Mommy – in this pregnancy. I’m so proud of you! You’re so strong. You kick Mommy so hardly that there are times I’d wake up in the middle of the night. Tehee. Keep it up, my baby.

I can’t wait to see you and hug you and kiss you. A few days back, your yaya washed your clothes already. You have lots of clothes, my baby. Daddy and Mommy bought them a couple of months back. Ate A has lots of baby clothes for you, too. Ate A keeps on kissing “you” in Mommy’s tummy while saying your name. How cute. I know that you and Ate A will be the best of sisters, best of friends.

Baby, let’s pray for a healthy, safe, normal delivery of Mommy. I know that you will cooperate with Mommy as I give birth to you by June.

Now that we’re on our 3rd trimester of pregnancy, Mommy started listening to nursery rhymes and other audio books. I have yet to listen to Mozart songs. Forgive me, baby, for there are times I couldn’t read to you, but, I will always make up for it. Later tonight, I will read to “you” and Ate.

By Saturday, we’ll see you via SONAR. Wow, we couldn’t wait for that day. Who would be your look-alike in the family? Daddy says you should be Mommy’s carbon copy. Yeah, yeah, but not Mommy’s nose. Please do get it from Daddy.

This is all for now.

iloveyou,

mommy

We were set on celebrating our baby’s 2nd birthday at TGIFriday’s, but, last week, someone called re: our baby’s birthday. That meant changing the venue to accommodate other visitors.

Since we don’t have much friends with kids, we opted to celebrate the party at home although it’s smallish. Our old flat here overseas was much bigger than our current flat. I cannot imagine how we can accommodate everyone should they come all together at one time.

We bought balloons and party decors from Mubarakiya. We still need to buy some more decors, and the disposable cups and spoons. As for the food, we’d be looking for a caterer; it’s too tasking to cook.

Two nights ago, we bought sound system and guitar from AlDawhiya, Hawally. We thought of buying the mixer and microphone, but, preferred not to. There won’t be any program, I guess, or maybe there will just be greetings for my baby. I am thinking of having games for the guests, but, the space is so small it would be cumbersome to conduct such. There won’t be any entertainment as we don’t have TV cable, and, we don’t have Mediacom yet. This is something that we should consider buying in the future, if parties would be held at home.

We have been surprised with our baby’s developmental milestones a week before my baby’s 2nd year birthday. She could recognize almost all of the pictures of anything in her books. And she pronounces the words well. Last night, she even surprised us when she recited the letters from the word ‘moo’ as M-O-O! Wow! Would she be reading soon? I was really surprised that she was able to identify the letters. She’s too lazy to be taught of when it comes to the alphabet. But she does like to read. There isn’t a day or night when she tinkers her books. And when she wants to read or let us read the books, she wants to read everything on her bookshelf – even at 2a.m. when she’s suddenly awakened from a deep sleep.

We bought her a lot of toys last weekend, and I opted to buy more balls for her because she loves balls a lot. Daddy said that I really know our baby because she played more with the balls than the other toys.

Both my baby and hubby are musically inclined; in fact, they are gifted in music. When we bought the toy guitar for baby, we also bought a real guitar, as I mentioned earlier. Both the daddy and baby were trying their guitars and they were singing together – much to my envy because I am musically-challenged, instrumentally speaking. I was just contented in getting their video. The next morning, my baby asked me to strum the real guitar, as she strums her toy guitar. She asked me then if we could perform a song. My goodness, it was a horror to refuse her, but, it would be more horrible, if I had tried to play or strum the guitar. I wish…I wish…that someday my fingers would learn the chords.

My baby has been exposed to an environment that fosters creativity, learning, and self-confidence. Her daily activities are varied from doodling in her notebook with her crayons, to playing with building blocks, to reading books with Walter, to playing the guitar, to watching Dora and Barney, to watching Your Baby Can Read videos, to playing with her dolls (although not much), to playing with her balls, to watching Justine Bieber, Charice, Miley Cyrus, Glee cast at Youtube, to dancing, singing, counting numbers, and more…She amazes me everyday.

I am now thinking – if I haven’t been a WAHM, I wouldn’t have witnessed her developmental milestones. I wonder, too, how she may have been in terms of her total development as an infant and toddler.