THE 30th LETTER

March 3, 2010 @ 10:46p.m.

Dear Baby,

How time flies! I was just about to write February in the date field of my letter for you, baby, when I realized that it’s already the 2nd day of March – wow, your birth month, actually! It’s also Mommy’s and Mama’s birth month! Wow – three generations in one birth month, how’s that?

Baby, you’ll be turning ONE three weeks from now! Daddy and Mommy are so excited to plan for your 1st birthday, baby! ONE is FUN! Yehey!

This letter has long been overdue, baby. Mommy was so busy, err, rather, Mommy was preoccupied with a lot of things. Mommy was on a roller coaster of emotions the past few days. Mommy’s grandmother, Lola, passed away last February 22. It was really a shocking news. Mommy got so emotional, and perhaps, there was a few times I did not properly take good care of you. During that period, Mommy’s Mama, your grandma, had to go to the hospital for some laboratory tests to be conducted on her. Good thing, the results of the laboratory tests of Mommy’s Mama were all normal. Thanks to Green Barley.

Now, Mom’s back to normal. I can now think well and plan well for your upcoming party. There are still questions that pop up such as: should we celebrate your birthday elsewhere? How many people should we invite to your party should we decide to celebrate it here? Where should we celebrate your 1st birthday? What should be our theme? What should be our gift to you? What should you be wearing? Ahh…such stuffs need careful planning, really, and yeah, lots of money, too. :d I’ll get to these issues once I’m done with my research. I know it’s kinda hard to celebrate parties, particularly, 1st birthday parties, when one lives overseas. But, no worries, baby. Daddy and Mommy will handle this well for you. Just sit back, relax, play, and read your books…

Speaking of books, we bought you another set of books in an Indian store somewhere in KCity this evening. Your eyes lighted when you opened those colored books! You really love to read. And oh, sometimes, Mommy is afraid that you’d tear your books just like what you did with your prayer book. :d Babies do that, I guess. This morning, I saw that you started to rip the pages of the IKEA mag. Uh-oh. Anyway. I’m sure that you’ll outgrown it once you learn how to read. Mommy already started teaching you how to read a few weeks back after Mommy learned in a video that “babies can read”.

We went to the church this evening. On our way to the gate, an Indian asked me, “are you the mama of the baby?” Mommy answered yes. Then he said, “You’re small”, and…blah.blah. And I answered back, with head held up high, “No problem.” He, then, said: “Of course, no problem. You have dimples.”, and touched his face with his fingers to symbolize where my dimples were. Mommy could hardly hear what he was saying. I was trying to locate in my memory about who this man was; if, indeed, I knew him or not; or where I saw this man. Aha. So here’s the same man who approached me last year, and told me, “Your baby is a Filipina? Small.” Or was she referring to me? This guy was so tall, really, and I wonder what he does with his height. Sure he got it, but why bother about people not having the same height as his? He must be amused about you, about me, or had no one to talk to so he started telling of some craps. Anyway, Mommy’s not hurt about such remarks. Did I tell you before, baby, that small people have great minds?

Mommy really doesn’t want to write such stuffs about height issues, weight issues. People seem to notice you everywhere we go. It’s because they are amused of your exotic looks. You are a darling, baby, and you smile a lot with people you hardly know. You seem to get their attention by calling them, by waving at them, by looking through their eyes until they are already hooked at you. Then, when people start to notice you, the inevitable happens. They would ask about your age. They always seem to be surprised. No worries. For as long as you are a healthy and active baby, and your mental development is way BEYOND your real age, Daddy and Mommy have nothing to worry about you. Let people worry about their own problems, too. One thing that Mommy has learned throughout your growing months is not to be bothered by people’s uncalled for remarks. There are babies that are slow to thrive in terms of physical growth, but, fast in terms of mental development. There are babies that are slow in terms of mental development, but, are fast in terms of physical aspect. You fall on the first category, baby. Daddy and Mommy would rather prefer the first category. It’s so hard to train a mind that is not open. The physical aspect of a person just fades through time.

You just turned 11 months last Feb. 27, and we celebrated it in Mughal Mahal. Daddy ordered a lot of foods that he barely knew the taste — only to regret afterwards. We thought of ordering your cake at WOW, but we hardly had the time to do so because Daddy was rushing to a meeting with a new friend that night.

After three days of turning 11 months, what are your developmental milestones, baby?

You are now saying the words ten thirty; eight thirty; and, teething without any difficulty! Those are in addition, of course, to the many other words that you know since you started talking at 17 days old. Mommy needs to update her memory about those words!

You are still too lazy to walk though, although, you already know how to walk when we guide you.

You just love to crawl, crawl, and crawl even when Mommy is sleeping! You’d crawl towards the bathroom, the living room, and storage room.

You love to stand up and go to where the cassette player is, and turn it on and off, until the only thing that you hear is the screeching sound of the player.

You love to look at the window and see the cats on the garbage boxes.

You love to watch the birds flying over the sky, or, the birds walking in the sand.

You love to call on the attention of people walking down the busy street by saying “psst!” A thing you heard from Daddy, and you started imitating it. Haha.

You love to stare at the old man with a cane. Do you remember that day when you stared at the old man for quite a long time because he had difficulty getting a cab? We both prayed for that old man, baby. You prayed with Mommy that the old man could finally get someone to drive him to where he was going. God heard our prayers, then. Every morning or lunch time, we always see this old man. We always pray to God that a good taxi driver or even someone (with private car) would assist him. Thank you, baby, for being Mommy’s prayer partner. How many times have we prayed together? We also prayed for Mommy’s Mama when she was at the hospital for her laboratory test results.

You love to eat Kubos, Marie biscuits, and Labaneh Cheese.

You now poop two or three times a day. Thank God! Before, you used to have hard stools. It was so difficult for you to poop.

Your teeth are just starting out to erupt – both in the lower and upper portions.

It is still difficult for Daddy and Mommy to change your nappies when soiled with poop. You’d start to crawl or stand up even when there’s still poop in your bottom. We’d give you a lot of toys to distract your attention from doing what you feel like doing during the clean-up period.

Daddy oftentimes wonder why you don’t like to be with him when you’re sleepy, or, when you want to sleep. There was a time when you woke up, and said “hey” to Daddy, and you realized Mommy wasn’t near you, you started crying! Daddy wonders, too, why you wouldn’t sip the bottle that he gives you when you’re about to sleep, but, you’d accept the same bottle that Mommy would press into your mouth. Aha. Call that favoritism, eh? :d

You know how to get down from our bed with your feet on the ground. You understand the words, “Feet first, baby”.

You love to squeeze your body near Daddy’s big arms when sleeping. One time, you woke up crying because you were already in our carpeted floor. Bogg! You fell from our bed because Daddy already got up from the bed, and he forgot to put you back near the center of our bed.

You love to eat normal foods eaten by adults. You dislike eating baby foods…sometimes.

You love to dance even to some tunes made naturally like the sound of the spoon hitting the glass; the tapping of the fingers on the table. Are you August Rush, baby? Daddy and Mommy love that movie so much! We know that you’re a music prodigy, baby, and yes, a prodigy for the English language, too.

The bottom line, baby, is that, YOU’RE A GIFTED BABY. And we thank the Lord for having a wonderful baby like you. Daddy and Mommy, and all the rest of the family members back home love you so much.

Be a good girl always, baby.

iloveyou,

mommy

THE 29th LETTER

February 21, 2010 @ 10:46a.m.

Dear Baby,

How are you, my baby?

I know you’re feeling happy and triumphant as of this moment. You’re under Mommy’s table, tinkering the laptop cable, and the extension chord. Goodness! You really love such stuffs! Daddy has to give you your own extension chord! What an interesting thing to know about our 10-month old baby, oh, you’ll turn 11 next week! How time flies, baby, and you really don’t seem to look like your age (you’re smallish than your real age, sigh), but, cheer on, your mental development is already that of a toddler!

Awhile ago, you woke up from a little nap of 10seconds after drinking the last ounce of your milk. You crawled towards the cassette player that’s playing Arabic songs. I was amazed when suddenly I could no longer hear the sound coming from the radio. You turned of the radio! And whoala, turned it on again. How did you do that? You are simply amazing. I couldn’t forget the times you taught me a lot of things I don’t know in our telephone when you found out the speaker button on it; the Samsung digicam when you turned it on without pressing the power; and, so many to mention.

You’re still as active as a grasshopper, hopping from one site to another in our room – all of your toys cluttered onto our carpeted floor. I think you’re not sleepy yet or rather you don’t want to sleep yet. I don’t force you to sleep now. I really am sorry for the past days last week wherein I forced you to sleep by rolling you over for three times. I thought that was beneficial to you because you’d really sleep for straight two hours after that. Oh no, don’t get me wrong, baby. Mommy’s not hurting you, I think, because I do that gently. I just stopped doing that when I thought of the book I read about Past Life Transgression. I really don’t want that thing to be a habit, that is, you’re having a difficulty in sleeping. When you were still young, you’d fall asleep at just the sound of Mommy’s lullaby; or the slight brushing of Daddy’s caressing fingers on your hair. But not these days. You need to tire yourself for you to sleep. I saw that when one time Mommy fell asleep waiting for you. I dozed for an hour or two just the other day. When I woke up, fortunately, you’re still playing. I just called on you and said, “Come, baby”. You immediately crawled onto the bed and laid your head on Mommy’s tummy, grabbed that bottle of milk, and fell asleep. Wow. I cried at that moment. How on Earth did Mommy roll you over for the past three days just so you could asleep when all that Mommy could do was allow you to play, play, play until you get tired and your eyes sleepy that you could no longer resist Mommy’s call that you should finally sleep. However, the problem is, you’d oftentimes resist your sleepiness by tinkering a lot of things that you see in our room. Like right now, you just could not seem to rest those sleepy eyes. But, hey, here you are…tugging on Mommy’s legs, begging to be carried…hmmm, you must be so sleepy now.

I carried you and put you in our bed. You cried. You were so sleepy, indeed. You rolled over on your own. Aha! That’s where I got the idea that you wanted to roll over for you to sleep. Maybe it’s why I did that last week so you could sleep. But rolling over should be done by you, and not by Mommy. So here’s Mommy, just allowing you to get tired all by yourself. How many times did you get up from bed minutes ago, and tinkered everything that you saw on the floor, on the bed, on the sofa…then, Mommy went to her table and did her thing. That’s when you begged her to lift you up and lulled you to sleep while the Mozart music’s playing on the background. Glad that Daddy put the cassette player in our room last night. Oh, last night, too, you were amazed at the sound coming from the Bose speaker on the upper left corner of our room. You’re really amazing, baby. You just know where the music or sound comes from. You have this habit of tossing your hand on the air, as if saying, “see?” whenever you sense that something you thought of is right. I am not so sure, too, but there are two occasions when I heard you say, “I know…”

Last night, too, someone called Daddy, and there you were, you were also imitating that you were talking on the phone with someone. You put your hand on your left ear and babbled some words as if you were conversing with a caller. Haha. Just like you did a few minutes ago when someone miscalled Mommy on the phone, and you immediately put your hand on your ear and said “hello”.

Last night, baby, you made Mommy cry. It was past 1a.m. (you were suddenly awaken when Daddy sat beside you in our bed) when you saw Daddy’s mobile phone. Your eyes lighted and begged for Daddy to give you his mobile phone. Daddy finished texting someone and he gave it to you. But he was afraid because you were about to delete Daddy’s contacts so he locked the keypad until such time that the lights of the mobile phone went away. You touched my arms and looked at me with your eyes begging me to open the phone. I didn’t unlock the keypad, but just sort of touched one button to light up the screen of the phone. You were gleeful again! I looked at the screen, and there, you were happy to see our picture together, baby. You were trying to make a signal like “eating” (with your mouth opening and closing and a sound of slight ta-ta-ta). I looked at our picture again and, indeed, you were pointing on the bread on your hand. Daddy forgot that there was even a bread on your hand. He was unsure why you signaled like you wanted to eat. He also forgot that it was the picture he took when we ate at the Kentucky last February 7. How’s that, baby? We were really thrilled that you have a very vivid memory at barely 11 months!

You’re sleeping now, baby, and my heart goes out to you as you sleep. I am completely blessed for having you. There are times though that sometimes you wanted your way out, you wanted to always be pleased (hehe, I guess, all babies do), you wanted to do things on your own. But you know, it really touches my heart whenever you ask Daddy or Mommy for permission before you touch a thing or two, or go somewhere else in the four corners of our room. Well, there are times you’d just slip away from Daddy’s or Mommy’s attention, and you’d find your way towards the bathroom, the hallway, and the kitchen of our new flat here.

This is all for now. Sleep well, baby.

iloveyou,

mommy