Javi at 6 Months

Javi turned 6 months old last March and he's turning 7 on Thursday. I can't believe he's now half a year old! I want to slow down time to savor his being a baby. It's as if I blinked because the past 6 months flew by.

I feel guilty as I think we didn't celebrate some of his firsts like how we did it with Miya. Like when he first rolled over or when he first laughed heartily (when I chanced upon this post I made). I noted in IG the first time he rolled over. The first time he laughed heartily, I'm not really sure when because he was laughing as early as 2 months I think. He's a very happy baby, very easy to take care of. I thank God He gave me an easy second baby as he balances the personality of his feisty Ate. I don't have a hard time making him fall asleep or nursing him. I love my darling little boy so much!

He can now reach his toes while lying down.

At first he can't put his feet inside his mouth. So he cheats and puts his thumb (from the hand holding his foot) inside his mouth. I haven't seen him do that while he's lying flat on his back. But his dad claims he can do it already. I see him doing it when his sitting down on his rocker or his carseat.

He is our little drool machine or sometimes our little taho maker (he easily spits up his milk sometimes milk that already looks like taho hence the name). His first tooth erupted first week of April.

Now, his second tooth has already erupted.

We've also started him on solids. To date, he's only tried eating lugaw. But tonight, I'll buy him bananas for tomorrow. Here are photos of his first solid and first taste of water!

He gobbled up the lugaw like it's no one's business. Ngumunguya pa akala mo naman may ipin hehehe. He's now eating around 4 spoonfuls of lugaw, twice a day (of course, he's given small bites).

Here are more updates in bullets:

1. I'm still breastfeeding him. And I'm happy to report that his milk consumption hasn't gone down even though we started him on solids. But let's wait and see for a couple more weeks because at the moment he's eating (solid food) 2 times a day only.
2. He's at the stage that he prefers to be carried standing up and doesn't want to be left lying down for long periods of time.
3. He's a loud baby, we think like his Ate. Because he can blabber on for minutes and sometimes at the point of screaming hehehe.
4. He likes to watch people singing. That's his thing with his Ate. Miya sings and then he listens.
5. He knows how to kiss us although open mouthed hahaha
6. He makes pa-cute. He crunches his nose and squints his eyes while smiling. Oh I love his beautiful smile. I haven't caught that pa-cute smile of his on camera yet. 

The Little Igorota

30 August 2013

We attended Miya’s first ever school program. It was a very simple and short program of the kids. We were asked to dress Miya in black shirt and leggings because they will be Igorots and the rest of the costume will be done in school and put together on the day of the program itself. I can’t find a plain black shirt for MIya’s size so I decided to buy black leotards instead. I’ve asked Miya’s Ninang to cut the longsleeve ones I bought to shortsleeves. Bought the leotards at Yvonne inside SM Store and bought matching black leggings from there too.

The program was for the whole pre-school so all levels nursery, junior kinder and senior kinder kids were all there. Miya’s school is a small school and the program was done in the play area. You can just imagine how jampacked the area was with all the students (around 30-50 students I think), teachers and parents and companions during the day. The parents were asked to leave the students to the assigned rooms (for them to assemble the costume) and then proceed to the program area. We were there early so we got good seats. We didn’t get the front seats because I was afraid Miya might not want to separate with me again when she sees me during the program (like what she did during her field trip). So anyways, when the program started the kids entered the “Stage” via a door at the side. I was surprised that aside from the teachers and students a lot of parents were also coming out of the side door hahaha.

 

There's my little Igorota when the students first entered

And then she sees me

 

When Miya saw me, she wanted to go with me and didn't want to stay in front anymore. Hay! I had to ask one of the mommies in front if I could seat there just so Miya will stay on stage.

All the students were asked to memorize their lines to say during the program. Miya’s line goes “Ito ang baro’t saya, ang pambansang kasuotan ng mga babae.” Miya has memorized her line days before the program and she even recited it during their rehearsals so her teacher knows she knows her line well. But guess what, this little girl decided she didn’t want to say her line during the program! Ahahaha! Here she is not saying her line.

She also didn’t want to dance, apparently. During their Igorot dance, she was there front and center but she did not dance. Well, just for a little bit when she did the hand gestures but after a while she thought she’s too cool for that LOL!



 

After all the kids performed, there was a little slide show that we watched. It showed the kids during the first few months in school. It was so hot in the play area so I decided to change Miya into another set of clothes. But after the slide show, the head teacher told us to get the kids together again for one final picture taking. Miya was the only one not wearing her black garments hahaha! Oh well, atleast they can immediately spot my kid!



Our little Igorota who didn't want to say her line and dance with her classmates hihi

Miya's First Haircut

I've only been cutting Miya's bangs ever since. But her hair has been long enough to warrant a proper haircut. No, I still didn't bring her to a cutting place, I did it by myself with our yaya keeping her distracted. So if you've noticed her hair length changing from this to this then that's thanks to me haha! I wanted to cut her hair after her photoshoot but we waited for hubby to see the final photos first. I finally did it on my birthday (I know that's over a month delayed already but for the purposes of documenting everything here in my blog, I'm doing this. Without further ado, here are her first photos after mommy's haircut.

Learning Lab

I finally enrolled Miya again in Gymboree. I was planning to enroll her in Music class again but when I found out Gymboree offers Learning Lab -  a preparatory class for pre-school, I immediately decided to enroll her on this one. You see, I want to enroll Miya in school already by June this year because she will be two and a half by then. But Joema was adamant that it’s still too early for her. In a way, this is a compromise since she still gets to school but not everyday only once a week.

Her first class was not a success, I must say. She kept on walking around the room and didn’t want to sit still to listen to her teacher. At the end of the class I asked her teacher if that’s okay. She said most kids are like that on the first day because they are not familiar with the surrounding. Although she said it might also be because Miya’s too young to participate in class and she has short attention span. She also noted that Miya seems to really want to learn and she participates when she wants to. She told me to try again the next week and we’ll see from there. When I enrolled Miya, this was also a concern I told the lady in charge. She also said the same thing that the teacher will evaluate if the child can continue with the classes or we should transfer her to another class – Music or Play or their other classes whichever I prefer.

Letter J for her first Learning Lab class

After the class, I taught Miya over and over again the things we learned that day. How to write letter J, the things she learned that starts with the letter J, the name of her teacher (Teacher Roof (Ruth) she says).

The next week, she was mostly seated all throughout the class (I think  this time there were 4 students). She only started getting bored when it was reading time. She started learning the routine after weeks of going to the class. We are now on our fifth week this coming Saturday. And I’m happy to say that she’s now more engaged in the class. She sings along now, she does what the teacher says, she answers when asked, she even eats the cookies during reading class.

The flow of the class goes like this: they sing hello to everyone and then Leap (frog who sings the alphabet song) is introduced to the kids. And then the teacher asks about the letter they studied the previous week and then a new letter is introduced and how it’s pronounced. Then the kids are taught how to write the letter and one by one they are asked to trace it on a big letter. The teacher then brings out different photos for the kids, each object in the photos start with the letter of the week. Afterwards, it was clay time where they use clay to trace the letter. 

Tracing the letter L with clay

Then coloring time where they are given a sheet of paper with the letter and some objects starting with the letter. 

She doesn't really know how to color the pictures yet so I just let her doodle with the color

After washing their hands, it’s reading time! Each kid is given cookies to eat while teacher reads them a book. After reading, it’s art time. This last activity is usually varied, they can glue papers to the letter or paint the letter but it always involves the letter of the week (of course). 

Using paint and  leaf (for letter L) to make art. I love her apron! 

Then it’s their goodbye song. After that, the kids line up to the teacher for their stamps. Miya always gets five stamps. She asks for stamps for her hands, her foot and her tummy hehehe. She's always so proud of her stamps especially the one in her tummy.

After class, it’s playtime...until the next Play class starts. 

She never gets tired of going over, under and through the different areas of the play gym

I plan to enroll her in Play class. I’m just trying to figure out if she can do two classes in a row. Because usually after LL and then playing for a bit in the play area, she falls asleep immediate when we get home or during the ride home. So I’m still undecided if we should enroll her in Play or Music class in conjunction with LL. Or we can wait for her LL class to end (I only enrolled her for 12 session) and enroll her in a different class. But I really think LL is good for her, to prepare her for school. We’ll see.

UPDATED: Here are photos of the classroom:

The kids are allowed to have one companion inside the room

Miya's First Dental Visit

On the Sunday, in between Christmas and New Year’s day we went to Megamall for the little gir’s first visit to the dentist. See she had a crack on one of her front teeth way way back. But just recently, the other had a crack too. You may have noticed it in some of her photos here in the blog. I got a little bit worried at how brittle her teeth was. She was only recently introduced to sweets haha. Well she had a lot of sweets during the holiday season so I was a bit alarmed. So we decided to bring her to the dentist.

We went to Little Ones at SM Megamall. We were supposed to go to Dr. Smile but when I called on our way there, the receptionist said that they were already fully booked and the next appointment time was at 6pm (I was calling around 11am). So I called Little Ones and was happily informed that they service on a first come first serve basis. Good!

We waited for a bit before Miya’s turn but there were a lot of toys in the clinic’s waiting area so she played for a little while. They also had a lot of books so I read her one when she got tired of playing with the toys. But she’s really so impatient that she got tired of reading too. Good thing it was her turn finally when she started getting a bit restless.

Playing while waiting for her turn

There were two lady dentists at that time. One of the dentists sat in front of me and asked me to hold Miya facing myself and then I’ll let her head rest on the dentist’s lap while Miya’s legs are wrapped around my waist (so that she won’t fall if she moves). MIya didn’t want to lie down so we had a hard time. The other dentist said that she might cry but that’s okay as long as they are able to see her teeth. Haay. She cried because we had to force her to lie down. This is even after we practiced her saying “aaah” to the dentist and showing her teeth at home. Good thing though is everything’s ah-okay. And the crack is just a crack. The dentist said it doesn’t seem to be because of cavity because it doesn’t hurt her (as I confirmed to her). And that she didn’t see a hole in either teeth. She told us to brush Miya’s teeth twice a day and that we can continue using Sansfluo as her toothpaste. We also bought Sansfluo teeth wipes from the clinic. She also said we can start bringing MIya for teeth cleaning every 6 months. I had to ask if we’ll do the same position when they clean Miya’s teeth. They said that I will sit down on the chair and Miya will sit on my lap if Miya doesn’t want to sit on her own. This is actually what I was hoping they would do when they checked Miya. But oh well, hopefully next time there will be no more tears. They said they will only do the same position as her head on the dentist’s lap if she won’t sit on my lap on the chair.

We paid P500 for the consultation and P150 for the teeth wipes. We were also told that we can dropby the clinic anytime we’re at the mall and have Miya sit at the dentist chair so that she can grow accustomed to it even if they don’t get to clean her teeth (no fee for the just-sitting-down).  

In the end, I’m happy everything’s fine with my baby’s teeth. Sadly she cried during her first visit but I’m pretty sure she’ll get over her fright on our next visit just like how she eventually got over her fright of Jollibee.

Time Out

We're trying our best to raise Miya as a good kid. I sometimes catch my subconscious me telling myself not to give in to every single thing she wants. Last night was the first time we told her to take a "time-out" and asked her to stand on one "corner." She got gigil and bit my lower lip and it hurt like hell. So I told her she's having a time-out because we wanted to make a point that she should not bite other people because this will hurt them.

My good girl* 

So she stood in that little corner of her while we (the adults) are looking at each other trying to hide our smiles. I thought of asking her to stand still because I remember a friend who told me that this was a very effective way of "punishment" on her daughter who like Miya can not stand still for a brief moment. Well, after a minute maybe I thought I should document this and snapped this photo from my phone. Miya heard the clicking sound and figured out the time-out was over hahaha! She came to me with a big smile and I think she knew we were just making fun of her. This morning while we're having our Tuesday date, hubby said we should try this again next time so she'll know that we're serious. I told him we should also not confuse our daughter because Miya probably thought she was just playing with me because she learned this biting thing when her father is roughhousing with her. He even taught her to "bite his nose" - you know, that playful thing you do when you act like you're going to bite but really don't do it. Haaay! Being a parent is hard!


*Note to self: I should cut her bangs again!

Miya Calls Me Mom-meh (and Other Updates)

Remember when I told you how Miya calls me (#8 in the list)? Well, last night she finally called me “Mommy”. Well she says it like “Mom-meh” hahaha! But that’s okay. She can say Mama but she knows me as Mommy really (refer to #10  of my previous list). As I've mentioned, she learned to call me Mama before but that didn't stick. 

She learned some new things, too. She has a small book that contains first words, she can identify in real life the ball, chair, towel, shoes, shorts and moon. She can mimic a gorilla, dog, elephant and squirrel. She can say bird (boird like Mickey Rourke's character in IronMan 2), trees (tees), daddy (dah-deh), pizza(its-ah), ball(bol), papaya (papa), tuta(tuta), baba (baba), wala (ala), moon (moo), ate (a-teh), ipis (pisss), grapes (gehps).

She knows how to "jog". When we ask her to jog, she runs in place with little cute steps. So cute!

She swerves her hands when we talk about cars. This is influenced by our watching F1 every single race.

I really should  enroll her again in Gymboree. She has never tired of watching her Gymboree videos in my phone. she sings "ha-ha" when she wants to view the first view and does the horsey thing, tapping her hands on our bed if she wants to watch the second video.

The crying and hitting phase has started. We are so worried she's going to be a bratinella. She cries when she doesn't get her way and resort to hitting us when we talk to her. Joema even joked earlier today if this already the terrible two's! And she's only 16months old! If I have not read in Babycenter that this is a phase common her age, I would be really really worried. I hope she grows up to be a good kid.   

Breakfast at Antonio's

The redeeming factor of our recent Tagaytay trip is our lunch at Breakfast at Antonio’s. I’ve read so many rave reviews online about this place and I’m happy that I wasn’t disappointed. I love the place! It’s a big compound but feels very homey! The gardens surrounding the two main halls, I think, made the place cozy. Here are some a lot of photos of the garden.

Miya had so much fun walking around the garden

This is the main restaurant - Antonio's

I love this garden set - feeling ko bahay ko!

We just had to take a family photo - at our sala LOL!

Another family photo

Everyone was happy with what they ordered. I would have been happy if the rice had bigger portion hahaha! Suffice it to say, I was the only one not so happy with my order. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve tasted some of what my friends ordered, and they are delicious. My pork barbqcue is delicious as well, I just blame my simple taste for not appreciating it that much. The barbecue has some herbs and spices kasi just like how Jamie Oliver does his <> and I was only expecting a Reyes bbq for my order hahaha! It’s just that for this breastfeeding mom, I want my portions BIG! But don’t worry, I was still full when I left the restaurant because I ate an extra slice of pizza and pancake aside from the pork barbeque I ordered hahah.

Now, we're happy!

This is also where Miya learned how to drink from a straw. I ordered their mango slushy and as usual, Miya wanted to cry it. I was surprised that the straw got cold, meaning the mango slushy is going up the straw towards her mouth. Hurrah! Galing mo, anak!

Miya: Told you I can do it!

Btw, we also saw Anne Curtis and her beau dining there hehe. Icing on the cake? =P

Day 21 of 30 (x2)

What the Little Girl's Been Up To

At 15 months, Miya is now in the stage where she can mimic everything we tell her to do. And she’s getting louder too with shouting bouts to boot.

Here are the things she’s been doing. The list may sound like I'm gushing about my daughter. She just really amazes me everyday. She's this tiny human being who was just a baby and now can really do so many things already.

1. Last week she suddenly decided she loves her books. Before, even if I read to her she wouldn’t be bothered with her books. But one night last week she pointed on the pile of books beside our bed and we went through them one by one. We have small books titled Little Elephant and The Littlest Turtle (both four pages each) which are more age appropriate for her because her attention span is so short. She also loves going through her book The Silly Emperor’s New Clothes. This is sort of a pop-up book where you open parts of the book where the emperor is revealed or the letters of the tricksters, that sort of thing. Before, she would destroy this kind of books, tug the pop-up parts. But now, she knows how to open those parts and well, she still tugs at them but she’s more “careful” now. The book is still whole albeit with a few creases on the pages. Her book “Love you Forever” is one of the shortest reads we have. We never get through the end of this book. The other night I think we went through the fourth page where the boy is already in his teens. She always do the “Lagot Ka” with her hand when we go through this book because of the cover. She knows the baby is in trouble because of all those kalat.  I don’t know why but we went further in reading The Velveteen Rabbit. Although of course for this book and same with the Emperor’s New Clothes and Love you Forever, we don’t really read the whole text to her. We just make up our own narration. For the Velveteen rabbit, last night, I’ve read to her until that time when the toy rabbit was left in the woods and was found by real rabbits until the boy went back for it. For Guess How Much I Love You, we only reach until the page where Big Nut Brown Hare answers Little Nut Brown Hare with I love you this much with his hands raised up above his head. So because of Miya’s sudden interest in books, Joema and I bought her new ones but only similar to her small books. Joema said because these are more appropriate for her with her short attention span. (I wonder if she has ADHD…hmm..I don’t want to be paranoid!) We bought a few books in national bookstore the other day for less than P300. The books were more or less around P50 each. But we did not show everything to Miya all at once. We only took out one of the books for her the one with “The First Words”. She points to the balloon and she says “Boo.”
2. She’s so interested in lizards or butiki or “Tiki” how she calls it. She points up to our ceiling and my husband brings her near our ceiling. See, we have low celing so when my husband stands on the bed she can bring Miya up over his head and she’s arelady near the ceiling. Right after we go upstairs to get ready to sleep she points upward and says “Tiki”. This morning when she woke up the first word she said “Tiki” with matching encouraging smile to her father. That’s my husband’s cue to bring her up to the ceiling haha!
3. Her newest trick is when we say “talino ‘to!” she points to her forehead. Feel na feel nya as if she really understands. Aside from this she has her "good girl" and "busog tiyan" gestures.
4. She likes to scream and yell when she wants something. Good thing I read about it in Babycenter that this is common for her age. I was so worried she’s becoming a brat!
5. She likes to sing, too! You can sing a phrase of a song to her and she can mimic the tune even if she can't speak the words properly. We discovered this on her last Gymboree class where the themes was Divas. One of the songs is Shanaia Twain's Feels Like a Woman where the baby will sing along with the teacher everytime Shanaia sings the part "Uh-Oh, Oh-oh". And she can sing along! Her teacher was so amazed with her. My mother taught her a song where the they sing the phrase "Kukurukuku Paloma." I wish I have it on video but she's so hard to record now, she doesn't want to be recorded. She's like a celebrity and I'm the paparazzi!
6. Speaking of Gymboree she well remembers the hello song from there. It goes like this "Sing, sing, sing hello. Sing hello to . Sing sing sing hello. Sing hello to ." I sing this to entertain her during long car rides. After each phrase, she says "Hi!"
7. She can also say "Bye!"
8. She has forgotten to say "Mama" and calls me by gesturing like she's calling a dog and then says "tsk, tsk" like when you call a lizard. That or "Dididi" for dede hahaha!
9. She calls her Daddy "A-di" which very well might be the same as "a-te" for her yaya.
10. She can identify each one of us including herself. When we ask her "nasan si Miya?" she will point to herself and everybody we ask about even her lolos and lolas. What amazes me is she knows she has two sets of grandparents. We tried this because when my MIL was staying with us, she taught her this, Miya knows to point to her when asked where is Lola. But then when my parents are with us and Miya's asked where Lola is, she will point to my mother. 
11. My parents taught her the McDo sign, where you put your hands on top of your head to form an M. But with her she just puts both hands on her head without forming the M. That's her McDo. What's amazing is when we were watching TV and she saw the McFloat commercial of Xian Lim, she did the McDo sign. I'm amazed because she was able to associate the McDo sign with the commercial. My parents taught her how to do McDo without referring to a TV commercial. What's more amazing is, after several times of seeing the commercial on TV (we were watching American Idol where the TVC was shown several times during commercial breaks), she does the McDo sign just upon seeing Xian Lim's face. And when you have the time seach the TVC on youtube, the commerical starts with showing only the upper portion of Xian's face and then goes down to a McDo float. Miya does the McDo sign right when she sees Xian's face and not after the McDo float. Isn't that amazing?
12. She loves pizza and pasta. When her Daddy brings home a big box a pizza she lets out her big smiel and says "It-za!" She can finish off one slice of pizza in one seating. And can finish a small plateful of spaghetti. But on separate occasions. 
13. She knows how to say opo but pronounces it "po-poh" which is so cute! Even if she doesn't understand why she's saying opo sometimes hehe. 
14. She has learned to tickle us in our armpits - I taught her this haha! Everytime she sess our armpits she tickles us with matching "Yiiii!" from her.
15. When asked "Sinong maganda/mabait/mabaho poopoo, taas kamay!" she raises her hands and gives out a "Yiiii!" too as if getting kilig haha!
16. Her father taught her how to laugh like a bad girl with garalgal voice and all hahaha! I'm sure you can't imagine it, but just for record keeping I'm listing that down here. And then sometimes she laughs and then puts her hand on her mouth, like a mahiyain laugh. Different ends of the spectrum this little girl.
17. She's so cute when she does her beautiful eyes because she just crinkles her nose and her eyes looks like little slits on her face. I'm not sure if I blogged about that here or in my other blog. She does the same face when I tell her to close her eyes when she needs to go to sleep already. I think she's kabisote and her cue word is "eyes."
18. Another proof that she's kabisote is this. When we ask her "Pano magpatay ng lamo?" she claps both her hands as one does when you kill a mosquito. She sometimes does this and says "Uhm!" to emphasize the "killing". And then when asked where's the mosquito she points to her open palm even if no mosquito there. So anyway, one time we were riding the car and then we passed by this street where for days there was a wake, I blurted out to my husband "Honey, wala nung patay noh?", Miya suddenly clapped her hand and said "Uhm!" hahaha! Obviously her cue word is "patay."
19. One time my parents were at home with us and my father suddenly farted. Then we taught her "Pano utot ni Lolo?" then she does a cute fart sound like "pooot" hahaha. Then if we ask her if it's mabaho she does her baho face hahahaha!
20.  She very recently discovered how to use the headset. She's so cute when she tried using it the first time because she's really swaying to the music. Actually I think she really likes music as evidenced by #5 above. Her latest favorite song is Somebody by Gotye. One time I was nursing her, when she heard the song being played on TV, she finished nursing and sat right up and watched the video and started swaying to the song. 

Day 2 of 30 (x2)

Miya's First Haircut

31 March 2012

Miya's hair was not getting any shorter haha. Her bangs kept on poking her eyes so I decided to cut her hair one afternoon during her naptime. We tried cutting her hair while she's awake but she won't have any of it. so I grabbed the opportunity that afternoon.  I was alone with her so I had to make do with the camera timer heehee

Tulog na tulog si taba - pwedeng gupitan!

See how long her bangs is?

Snip...snip...snip..

Ooopppsss nagising na! - Wacha doing, Mommy?

See, anak, you have nice hair na..I can see your bochog face again :)

Nice haircut

Miya's First Birthday - Bocaue Style

When I saw photos of my friend's daughter's birthday party done at their own home with all the neighborhood kids with spaghetti and hotdog on stick, I knew I wanted the same birthday party for my daughter. So even though we decided on not having a party, we decided to throw a party for Miya in my hubby's hometown in Bulacan. City kids are now more familiar with the big parties done here in Manila complete with magician, food carts and what-have-you's but the kids in the province will definitely still appreciate homemade traditional parties, much like what we (yes, you and me if we belong to the same generation) have known birthday parties. So the Friday before the celebration,  we went to the groceries and bought the essentials - hotdog, spaghetti sauce, noodles, bbq stick, marshmallows, candies for the pabitin, paper plates and other party essentials. I also bought a few sets of party hats from National Bookstore and small toys from Toy Kingdom. Everything was done by us and Joema's family - from the loot for the pabitin, the spaghetti and the hotdogs. Oh yes, I put those marshmallows and hotdogs on those bbq sticks! I was extremely proud. The cake and the birthday tarp were store bought but everthing else was a labor of love.


Clockwise from top left: (a) loot for the pabitin, (b) our simple spread of spaghetti, hotdog on sticks and birthday cake, (c) kids eating on the mini-tables and chairs, (d) pabitin and birthday tarp

Miya with her Bocaue family

Family pic



We love you so much, Anak!

Mum-ma, Mum-ma

Hello Miya!

You've started talking and I'm so happy that your first word is Mama - although you pronounce it Mum-ma! You first said it when I started doing your Halloween costume. I think you thought I wasn't paying attention to you and you got jealous. Hence, you started calling me - Mum-ma, Mum-ma, Mum-ma! At first I thought it was some random syllable you were saying - because most of articles I've read said that babies don't really associate their first words (usually mama and papa) to the persons identified with the words. But but but not you, Anak! You knew it was me because everytime you say it, you'll look at me with outstretched hands. Oh the joy!

One thing I also noticed, you've been extra clingy ever since. When I was sewing your costume, I would put you to sleep first and then go back to my little project. But every single time, you wake up from your sleep and cry as if asking me why I wasn't asleep beside you. There was even that one night when I went down to go to the bathroom when you finally went to sleep only to get back upstairs with you awake and crying in Daddy's arms. Nowadays, I can't even go to the bathroom without you crying. I'm happy you can't seem to get enough of me but deep down I'm also getting worried  you're starting to have separation anxiety. Which is a bit weird because you're not like that when we leave the house in the morning. Our ritual is, you go down with Mommy and Daddy to the lobby and you see us off. I wave and wave and wave goodbye to you from the car but you don't seem to care hehe. I think you were more mesmerized looking at everything outside to care that we're even leaving.

I'm extremely happy that you're really showing your personality now but sometimes I get sad because you're also starting to be a little girl and no more a baby. Anak, don't grow up too fast. I love you very much! I want to enjoy every single moment of your life. I don't want us to hurry.

Mommy loves you! Mwah!

This Is The Way I Brush My Teeth

I know I've said that up next will be Miya eating her first solid food but let me share this with you first. Since Miya's been purely breastfed, she doesn't get that white thingy on her tongue. But she started getting that when she started drinking orange juice. So I bought her a toothbrush but the one I got is the one where you put it in your finger and put it inside the baby's mouth. But since sometimes she doesn't like it when I'm poking inside her mouth I decided to buy this toothbrush I saw in ManilaMommy's blog. Confession: I've been reading Neva's blog since before when I started reading Anna's blog but I've been a lurker forever. I remember her blogging about this when her kid was just a few months old (and I didn't have Miya then). So I was bracing myself to read all her previous posts in Multiply when to my delightful surprise she re-posted her post about the toothbrush.

Wacha looking at? Don't disturb me I'm brushing my teeth..er gums and tongue.

Look at Miya, she looks like she was born to use the toothburshhahaha. This was the first time she used it and she already knows how to! Although now there are days when just plays with it and doesn't want to use it properly.

OJ

We were given by Miya's pedia the go-signal to have her drink orange juice (1 teaspoon freshly squeezed juice: 3 oz of water) even before her 6th month birthday. But I wanted her to be on pure breastmilk until her 6th month so we waited until 30 July. And here she is. She actually was enthusiastic in drinking the juice, but didn't really get to finish the bottle. She can finish the 3oz bottle in two sittings (half in the morning and the remaining half in the afternoon). Nowadays, she wins over her yaya and doesn't want to drink anymore. Her yaya says she tastes it first and then taps away the bottle when she knows it's orange juice. We've tried having her drink water and she can finish 2oz in one drinking. Her yaya also tried feeding her milk first and then alternating it with OJ but since Miya knows the tastes she will push away the bottle of OJ (smart kid naks!). Her yaya tried giving her pure orange extract only a teaspoon and per her report Miya was able to finish it. So I asked yaya to dilute it with a teaspoon of water before letting Miya drink it. I'm paranoid Miya's little stomach might not be that ready for citrus/acid. We buy Mandarin oranges for her which are surprisingly sweet compared to "orange oranges" - the one with the hard to peel skin. Forgive me, I haven't tried Mandarin oranges before this.

Next up: solid food!

Miss Piggy Pooping on Kermit

She was wearing her clothe diaper when she started pooping and I was carrying her. So instead of getting poop myself, I decided to try to use her potty trainer. This was the second time we tried it but during the first time she was still too small then. This time around, she enjoyed it. I was surprised she can sit on her own - she was leaning on the back support of the potty and holding on the sides. So proud of my little girl. And yes, her poop's getting oh so smelly!

Miya's First Overnighter

I'm a little bit apprehensive to have Miya sleep overnight in other houses even if it were my parents'. I was worried she'll get fussy and cry so much and wake up the neighbors in the middle of the night. But fortunately, my worries were uncalled for. Last Friday we slept at my parents' house since Joema was away for a team building activity in Subic. Miya slept on time the night we were there and she woke up for her usual feedings during the night. All in all it wasn't a traumatic experience for me. I'm so proud of her.

Here she is during breakfast the next day.