Every single moment with my child is precious to me. And so do other moms out there, I believe. Ahh, if I could only picture each of these moments...
This second set of pictures shows some of those candid moments.
Yes, that's right. Imagine how I marvel at the thought that it is as if only a few days ago when I gave birth to our little angel. Now, he's 11 months old and next month, he'll be turning 1. Whew!
A quick but careful look at his earlier pictures reveals many things, one of which is his fast physical transformation. From a somewhat generic infant look, he now exhibits a distinct aura, unique only to him. He also now has a very distinct personality.
Hmmm... i just love looking at these pictures ;)
Short but marvelous.
We were welcomed, not only by our loved ones who missed Luke so much, but also by the warm weather, which made our layers of jackets and coats heavier to handcarry.
Luke got sick from the day we arrived, till a week or so, probably coz of the temp change. Feeding instantly became difficult coz he thought everything we gave him was meds. It was hard to enthuse him to eat solids. Good news is, his rashes slowly disappeared despite irregular meds.
So he stayed home most of the time, while enjoying precious moments with nanay and tatay, and playing with his cousins. And oh, with ninang TM too!
Sad though that he never got the chance to mingle with his other cousins (my side). Papa visited us for a few days, then off to my siblings' place.
While Christmas came by silently, that is, Luke was sleeping all through the night, New Year wasn't a New Year without some fun, together with the whole cast of the DA family, celebrated in Cavite. Loud music, dancing, fireworks and lots of food, of course! Luke innocently but gamely joined in the sura (tricky throwing of coins -- and bills too, then kids and adults alike playfully compete to get the most coins). I think Luke got around 200pesos. Not bad for his first NY, huh!
First morning of 2006, time to go. Til next holidays ...
Imagine how happy this young man is when we finally landed at NAIA four days ago. He was so tame and behaved during the whole flight. It was an easy flight. In fact, he slept most of the time.
This is Luke’s first Christmas and New Year, and we are celebrating it here together with the whole family. Hubby and I are just grateful to our Almighty for giving us the most precious gift for this year – our firstborn.
Finally, the first tooth came out. Others will probably show up soon. Expect more drooling, and more giggle bites here and there. Even his tiny fingers are not spared from his biting, in fact, the first victims I think.
His teething, as I slowly realize it, must be the culprit to his being cranky most of the time. Almost everything seems difficult now. Difficult to feed, to sleep, to change diaper, to give meds, to dress up. Lately, dancing him to sleep takes about 30minutes. Really! And he wants to be cuddled all the time.
Just imagine how a baby endures the pain and itchiness of the swollen gums. So, I don't blame my child for getting easily irritated these days. I blame the teeth!
Anyway, this is just another episode that will soon pass. Wish for Luke to endure every tooth coming out.
If mommy gracie has found a heart-melting way of putting her li'l Faith to sleep, my li'l Luke prefers a different style. Actually, his sleeping regimen (can i call it this way?) varies with each month. Now that he is eight, I think it gets a li'l more complicated than the previous ones. He rubs his eyes, scratches his whole face till its full of red linings (thus making his rashes worse each time). This is his way of telling us it's time to "rock the world." Yes, we do rock our own world here in our small apartment everytime we put him to sleep. Especially now that the autumn wind has come, our Luke loves to be always cuddled (coz he feels cold) and hele while his 24/7 lullaby is softly played on the pc. And when we thought he's already in dreamland, we try our best to put him down (so we could do some chores) only to disappoint us -- he'll instantly wake up and cry and scratches his face here and there ... and the process of getting him to sleep begins anew.
We also notice lately that he cries every so often. Can I blame his teething (I know that a tooth or two will soon come out)? Or he's just showing a more distinct personality? He gets irritated right away, and cries so hard when he doesn't get what he wants. I think he doesn't fully understand yet the meaning of the word NO. Hmm, there is so much to learn ... both for us his parents, and him. But we'll take it slowly ... one at a time. In the meantime, lots of patience is all we need.
Today, Luke turns 8 months! And I am just amazed at how time flies so fast. It is as if it was just yesterday when I gave birth to our seven-pounder baby, and now he is a fast-growing little boy who loves to bounce, puts everything he grabs into his mouth, and babbles a lot while continuously drooling.
Any new tricks so far? Yes, there are a number of them. But the newest one is when he tries hard to close his mouth and put his lips together when its meds-time. Of course, mami and dadi are more clever. We tickle him so he would laugh and naturally open his mouth -- presto!
Taking care of him would now require extra bits and bots as he moves a lot now unaided. I'll take this as another episode of my parenting extra challege. Gambatte ne.
Yes! That’s right… and he’s growing so fast. New tricks are slowly showing up and mami could no longer leave him alone even just for a sec for fear of banging his head into something or flipping out.
Luke is a blabber ... to the superlative degree! Baby experts say that at this age, babies are really a blabber. But mine is an extreme one. He concocts words that mami and dadi could not possibly understand. Maybe, he does. And I hope someday he’ll be able to explain them to us what he meant. The only words I understand are "ma,ma..mi" and "ba..ba..ba" (is the latter a word??)
He easily gets bored when propped on the stroller. And when he is, he has this litany of words that he sings repeatedly from one octave to a higher one. He would not stop until mami is forced to stop from whatever chore she’s doing and rushes to his side to get him away from that immobile stroller. The ending, mami has never finsihed a single chore at one time.
This is what I call a "patience" exercise. And more of this in the coming months ... so hold on mami!
