Today’s sort of a lazy day for me, the work-from-home momma. Well, it’s how my schedule permits me to do so.

There were times I worked like hell, say, 12 hours a day – like yesterday, 6 hours was spent in answering clients’ emails, and the rest for other important things in my business — (whew, 12 hours – I don’t care, I am working for myself!; in my previous works for other companies, I worked for 14hours non-stop a day!).

I realized that working for myself for 12 hours or less doesn’t make me feel tired at all. It’s because I know that what I’m doing is for myself, for my family’s future. Unlike when I was still working outside home, and when I rendered free overtime, there was always a feeling of tiredness (I wasn’t a complainer. I was a good worker for others; but I give my best for myself now).

Anyway, so back to my topic for this post.

I just couldn’t resist my baby’s sweet voice when she’d tell me, “momma, come…come”, and we’d play with her toys or study in her blackboard. Just this morning, I was thrilled when I introduced to her the vowels of the alphabet (A E I O U), and she knew them at once. She got thrilled when we drew her hand on the blackboard, and she thought, too, that drawing her foot was possible.

After an hour of tutoring her, I told her that “mommy’s gonna be back to work” (in my home office), she wasn’t pleased. I asked her to join with me in going to our room. She saw my ballpen, asked for it, and started to doodle on the piece of paper. She sat down beside me. When she saw that I was typing at the keyboard, she went down from her chair, went under my table, and started to put the unplugged USB of the speaker back to my laptop. She wanted to watch her favorite singers, Charice and Justin Bieber.

As my baby’s secretary, all that I could do then was to save all that I was doing in my laptop, and clicked on youtube and watched the videos with her. After 30minutes or so, I told her that mommy needed to finish my pending tasks. She obliged and went down from my chair. I noticed that she wanted to see more of her idols. I told her to use her mini-laptop. We got her laptop, and as I was opening it, she said, “mine…mine”, meaning it’s her laptop – her hand on her chest. Whoala. What a smart baby!

After her laptop had powered on, the inevitable happened. She immediately grabbed the laptop from me, and started to pounce heavily on the keyboard. Ahh, she knew it’s her laptop so perhaps she could do anything with it. Huh. With my laptop, she would type on the keyboard but lightly, and whenever there’s a video playing on my screen, she’d just watch it and would occasionally press the mouse. I got back the laptop from her, and told her, she’d use it as soon as she turns 2 – that’s exactly 2 months from now.

We played again — in our bed, and I got surprised kisses from her! She must be overjoyed with the time I bonded with her. And, that meant, my work was interrupted for several hours. But, who cares, my baby dictates my working hours. Nah. I work when I want to, where I want to – the beauty of working for myself. The most important thing is the emotional bonding I have with my baby.

Her soft, little kisses still linger on my mind.

When my baby was three days old, I started singing to her regularly. I sang for her to sleep. I sang just to pretend, too, that I was hearing some voices around me. I was all alone at home during the day with my new born then. Then after two months, she was “singing” herself to sleep! She was humming the lullaby song, the same song that I sang to her over and over. On her 3rd month, my husband and I experimented on singing our family themesong, in fact, daddy’s themesong for my baby and me — Mark Wills’ I DO. We captured on the video how she sang with us – she even said a part of the song – I WILL. It was a momentous event.

My baby has learned to distinguish what a song is from what isn’t at a young age of 3 months. She first played piano at 5 months. And on her 19th month, she was able to compose a melody that you wouldn’t believe it was coming from a toddler. I still haven’t downloaded the videos from our video cam.

When I got hooked with Charice’s amazing voice, I played her songs everyday (via youtube). With my baby on my lap, she started to love Charice’s song, “Pyramid”, and Justin Bieber’s song, “Baby”. Every time I play songs in my laptop, my baby would join me. We have been doing music tripping for two months now. And the effect? Fantastic. She loves to watch Charice and Justin Bieber and follows their movements when singing or dancing. She claps after their superb performance. Yes. My baby just watches her favorite singers on youtube (I connect the laptop to our 42-inch TV for bigger screen). I dream that one day, my baby and I will meet our favorite singers, Charice and Justin. Yes, they have become my favorite as well.

I realized that it’s not hard to cultivate any talent in a child. It’s something that isn’t born with, in the first place. Any talent can be cultivated. But, of course, the genes are an added-value. My hubby is musically inclined. But me – I listen to music when I want to, but, not all the time. I just did what I needed to do as a mom. I sang, sang, and sang for my baby, and she was able to build on that skill at an early age.

This morning, for our bonding moment (my baby and me) — we watched the youtube videos of Charice and Justin Bieber for 1 hour! I really didn’t intend to let my baby watch for 1 hour, but, she wanted to watch for more. When she got tired watching, she was the one who told me to close the TV. She’s now playing with her building blocks, and I’m back to my work-mode.

A parent plays a good role in harnessing any talent in a child. It doesn’t mean pressuring the child to do whatever we wanted him/her to do. Harnessing any talent means showing/exposing the child to all things as much as possible by repeatedly doing it until it becomes a good habit to break. By giving the child a variety of activities that you and your child both do, you’d know the strengths and weaknesses of your child at a young age.

For example, my baby is bored with her educational stuffs. I thought she wasn’t learning because she hardly looked at her educational videos in the past. She was listening but not watching. But she loves to watch movies – cartoon movies. And she loves to watch performances by great singers. She knows when one singer is a trying hard one. I have a story about it but opted not to share it here. It’s just between my baby and me, and her nanny. We witnessed how my baby was bored when I shifted to watching other videos of some artists back home. She knows what a quality voice is.

If you’re a parent, an expectant mom, don’t worry of making your child a genius or gifted one by pressuring your child do things beyond her limit. Just observe your child well whenever you do things with her. One day, you’d be surprised with the effect on how you have greatly influenced a wanna-be-singer child in the future, or anything that your child has grown accustomed with.

The future of our child lies in our hands, dear parents, and not on anyone else’s. We shouldn’t rely on those videos that promise our child to be geniuses. Being a genius or gifted doesn’t happen overnight. It can be cultivated in our child – through our adequate, effective, and efficient baby caring and parenting practices.

T H E 1ST LETTER

Oct. 28, 2010 @ 8:45p.m.

Dear Baby2,

OMG. I just couldn’t believe I am writing my first letter to my baby2 in my womb!

Hi, baby2. Mommy feels the need to address you as baby2. It’s because Mommy is also writing letters to your ate, baby1. WOW. Now, Mommy will have two babies! Mommy just confirmed that I am pregnant two hours ago at 7:15p.m at Starbucks! Read the rest of this entry »

I should have written this post as a letter to my baby, but opted not to.

I find this anecdote with my baby a funny one so I am writing the story as to how my conversation this morning with my baby went on:

Mommy: What’s your name, baby?

Baby: My name.

My mouth dropped, literally. Read the rest of this entry »