1 year and 6 months

I am proud to announce that I am 18 months old today! Being 1.5 years old means a lot to me because it marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life. There are lots of development and growing going on and every minute is an opportunity to learn. I have already developed my sense of self and at this point of my life, it is natural for me to think that the world revolves only around me. However, mommy and daddy has been doing a great job in cultivating in me, the value of sharing. I love giving hugs and kisses but I have different kisses for different people. Lip to lip kissing is only exclusive to mommy. Cheek to cheek kisses to my elders and relatives; flying kisses to everyone else.

This is also a stage where there are so many strong emotions running through me. I can be sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others. For instance, I feel sad when I see another person (be it an adult, a baby, an older child or a picture of a child crying) cries. I sense pain when I see another person in pain. I have also developed a sense of ownership; when my shoe came off from my foot, I frantically tried to tell mommy that my shoe has fallen; when I saw the water bottle rolling away from another toddler, I frantically called out to her to let her know and when my pleas were ignored, I burst into tears.

I have grasped the concept of friends and mommy came to realize this when Tita Hannah (mommy's friend) asked me where is my friend. As we were in a restaurant and I was holding on to a menu, I simply turned the pages and pointed to my friend: a little girl . I regard my fellow classmates as my friends; in fact any child is my friend. I express my affection as a friend by giving them a hug and kiss. I get excited and laughed whenever I see other children.

This is also a stage where I get easily frustrated and impatient. I am very vocal as I have started conveying my thoughts, wants, needs and demands verbally at an early stage. However, when an 18 month old (whose pronunciation is far from perfect) tries to speak in long sentences, it only sends question marks to the adults and brings frustrations to me as they engage in a guessing game with me.

Mommy is glad that I have past the stage of being finicky with food. I started taking solids since I was 6 months old and I was easy with all foods; I eat whatever was prepared for me. By the time I was 11 months old, I started to be picky and wanted to expose my tastebuds to different flavors. Mommy had to give me table food to satisfy my crave for them. When I turned 16 months old, I had enough of exploration and I am happy with any food, with or without seasonings.

I have favorite past-times now and one of them is climbing high and low. Mommy has to thank Gymboree for making me such a proficient climber. A more feminine past-time of mine would be to walk around the house while holding on to mommy's handbag, playing with her wallet , cards, money, and applying cosmetics on my face while standing in front of mommy's dressing table. Finally, my day doesn't pass without reading a book; I love to read. Everyday, I will pull mommy or daddy to my reading corner and sit them down with me. Apart from books, I love reading my flashcards without pictures. I am so encouraged to read when I hear praises from mommy and daddy. I can now recognize and read more than 40 English words and this includes hippopotamus and gorilla.

Lastly, I can identify almost all of the major parts of my body:

• Head
• Hair
• Face
• Cheeks
• Chin
  
• Eyes
• Ears
• Nose
• Mouth
• Tongue
• Teeth
• Neck
• Shoulders
• Arm
• Elbow
• Fingers
  
• Back
• Hips
  
• Tummy
• Bellybutton
• Pee pee
• Poo poo
  
• Legs
• Knees
• Feet
• Toes
  

My vocabulary is expanding each day and Mommy has lost count for them. I guess in no time, I will be able to engage in a debate with my parents.

Till the next update.....

Hidden Valley Springs: A mountain resort

Three weekends ago, Daddy had a strategic planning seminar in Laguna, Alaminos and he brought me along, together with mommy.

Laguna is situated southeast of Manila and it took us approximately 1.5 hours of driving time to get to Laguna (without much traffic). Thereafter, we took another 45 minutes drive to arrive in Hidden Valley Springs Resort. As its name described, this resort is really well hidden in the mountains. It is a secluded spot wedged between 2 mystical mountains, Mount Makiling. The resort is itself, a 300 feet deep volcanic crater believed to have been formed by volcanic upheaval thousands of years ago. The mountain resort sunk 1,000 feet below sea level. The hidden waterfalls, natural spring and pools are formed by water constantly flowing from the mountaintop, said to be rainfall accumulated through the years.

This was my first experience swimming in a pool filled with warm and comforting natural spring water, nestled in the middle of a rainforest. We had to take a little "trekking" trip to get there and love the sounds and smell of nature. When we finally arrived at the pools, I was eager to get inside. The waterfalls were a little too gigantic for me and they intimidated me a little. Perhaps I wasn't too used to swimming in such an environment. However, the second day was definitely better. I am acclimatized by then and I started dunking my head in the pool. It was spring water afterall, safe for drinking. If a picture can paint a thousand words, a video definitely does an even better job:

I spent the rest of my day running around the nicely-landscaped garden, visiting the monkeys and chilling out in our nice and cosy room. Do check out some snapshots uploaded on Facebook.

On the night of our first day, I witnessed my very first partial lunar eclipse. Earlier in the evening, I thought I saw a full moon but later in the night, the full moon took the shape of a crescent. I was excited that I kept pointing to the sky and said "moon, moon"!. Mommy then explained to me that an eclipse occurs when the moon travels into the path that passes behind the earth. When the shadow of the earth covers the moon, a lunar eclipse occur. Interesting isn't it. Mommy commented that she first witnessed a lunar eclipse when she was 14 years old.

Our short little retreat very quickly, came to an end. It was definitely an eye-opener for me; fun and interesting.

Happy 17th Month

Yipee, I recently turned 17 months old (Tuesday). Needless to say, I am getting very active, cheeky, and mischievous. I am more sociable and friendly. I like to entertain people with my funny antics but at the same time, enjoy testing the limits and patience of my parents. I think I am already a big girl so I want my independence in everything I do: eating, cutting up my food, climbing up the stairs, taking a bath with Mommy's facial wash, and even climbing into the stroller and car seat to buckle myself up. And yes, I do not want any assistance.

My gross motor skills are also getting fine tuned...I enjoy walking backwards (and into things since I have no eyes on my back), twirling around in circles, jumping, running and climbing up big chairs and my rocking horse (with wheels; I am a little daredevil too). As for fine motor skills, I love putting different shapes into my shape sorter and I feel encouraged to do more when I get them right. I like stacking blocks too and mommy gets really amused whenever she sees me stacking blocks on my ball. Another skill I have is arranging and aligning things (from shoes, colored blocks to pebbles) :)

My cognitive development is also on track. Mommy has been counting the words that I can say. She is very happy and impressed because for this particular month, I have added not 5 or 10, but over 20 new words to my existing word list. She did a tally and ta da, I can now verbalise at least 80 English words. I got to thank my daddy and mommy for speaking so much to me since I was an infant and more importantly, they did not speak to me in baby language but in proper sentences. As a result, I can understand up to 3-step commands, nod and shake my head accordingly and finally, started my first steps speaking in sentences (e.g. cold water, come daddy, what's that, see it there, are you). My new words are:

• out (out)
• book (book)
  
• brush (brus)
• bib
  
• stack (stax)
  
• hug (hug)
  
• door (oor)
  
• house (house)
  
• swing (ting)
  
• feet (peet)
• arm (arm)
  
• head (hed)
  
• hair (air)
  
• nose (ose)
  
• eye (eye)
  
• ear (ear)
  
• bellybutton (beh beh)
• drop (rop)
• muck
  
• catch (cach)
• zoo (zoo)
• bus (bas)
  
• moon (moon)
• press (bes)
• cold (cold)
  
• hot (hot)
  
• egg (egg)
  
• apple (ple)
• bread (brea)
  
• banana (ba)
• mango (mang)
• yogurt (gurt)
  
• cockroach (cock)
• flower (powber)
• socks (sox)
• box (box)
  
• take (take)
• marble (marble)
• twinkle (kle)
• ouch
• blue (blue)
• spoon (poon)
• buckle (buck)
• stop (lop)

My word recognition skills are also getting better. I can now recognize and read more words than before. Mommy also realized that my print awareness has gotten better because when I see words, I attempt to read by the sound of the letter that I see in the words (e.g. arm for aircon, ca for cabinet). This goes the same for numbers. When I see numbers, I start saying things that sounded like numbers (though they might not be accurate; e.g. oh, oo, ee, orh, ive). I can also identify a few numbers when I see them; 2,4,5,7,8,10.

That's it for now. There are so much for me to learn and do stay tune for more updates.

My last Gymboree play class

I am now enrolled in Julia Gabriel Playclub and so I had to wave goodbye to Gymboree playclass and tumble tots play phonics. Mommy was feeling nostalgic even before the class ended as she saw me having fun during the usual bubble popping session, parachute time, pushing the air long, and singing the gymbo song. I have been attending Gymboree classes since I was 7 months old and for the past 9 months, not only have I gained a good set of agile motor skills but also confidence and good social interaction skills. Most importantly, I have developed a strong relationship with Gymbo and the mere sight of him just sends me grinning with joy. According to the Babycenter Developmental Milestone Chart, most kids becomes attached to an object by the age of 16 months old. I guess I have grown attached to Gymbo. Knowing how much I love Gymbo and that I will not be seeing him anymore, Mommy decided to buy me a Junior Gymbo. Needless to say, I was very happy. Thank you mommy.

After leaving Gymboree, mommy and I headed to Trattoria Gourmet for lunch. Mommy got ourselves Linguine de Vongole. Yes, it has clams and yes, I know I am too young to have shellfish...so mommy only let me have the pasta with vegetables...**grin**

We took a long time having our lunch since we have to wait for daddy to finish work and join us at the mall. To kill more time, we went to the bookstore and we browsed through different books. Mommy is proud to announce that she did not succumb to temptation to buy more books for me...for now :)

5 PM came but daddy has not arrived. I was getting restless and so mommy let me run around the atrium as we waited, and promised to let me ride the merry-go-round when daddy arrived:

Our day ended with dinner at Casa Armas at Podium with daddy's friends. It was indeed a long day for me :)

Invading S & R membership shopping

It's been a good 2 weeks since the blog was last updated. Ever since the new semester started, Mommy has been relatively busy and hence, there are less updates.

My Ninang Camille had an advanced birthday celebration on Saturday and it was held at Velle Verde Country club. I was excited because I get to wear the new red polo tee that mommy had gotten for me (oops I am also excited because it's my ninang's birthday :P). Before we set off, I did my usual morning strolls in the garden and handpicked my favorite flower:

When we arrived, I greeted our relatives and then sped off to roam around the place, watching fellow children swimming in the pool, looking at the water fall and enjoying calling out to the fish. Mommy got tired from running after me and so I had to reluctantly, stay in the stroller while I wait for my lunch; spaghetti bolognese.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR NINANG

After the luncheon, mommy and daddy brought me to S&R membership shopping for our routine stocking up of supplies. As a curious, active and a toddler who is striving for independence, I preferred walking and running around instead of sitting in the push cart. I had a great time moving around, touching, and naming things that I see. I love pushing things and this includes the giant push cart that is 3 times bigger than me. It was fun for me but tiring for daddy and mommy :P

Before leaving S&R, we had a quick snack. I was restless and hungry while waiting for mommy to get us food...

...and when mommy came back....tada...food and water for the hungry and thirsty invader

**Thank you mommy and daddy for this wonderful day **

Shrek 4

Ta da....yesterday I went on a movie date with mommy and daddy. This was my very first time watching a movie in a cinema...Shrek 4: Forever after...Mommy decided to bring me for a movie in the cinema because she saw me watching the trailer intently when we passed by the ticketing booth. So she took a risk and brought me in the next day :) The movie was shown on 3D (since it was not a new movie and the normal screens had ended) and I don't really like putting on the big eyeglasses that were meant for the adults:

Before the movie started, I was dancing along with the background music. There was a large white screen right in front of me and just as I wondered the purpose of that white screen, images appeared ...oh the movie has started :) Although I might not be able to fully understand what that big green guy on the screen said, I enjoyed the animation, music and effects. My favorite character in the movie would be Puss in Boots and Donkey since those are the only 2 characters I am able to identify. Halfway through the movie, I fell asleep for a good 45 minutes and then I woke up again. By then, Shrek was already trying his best to make Princess Fiona fall in love with him again. I finished watching the movie with no fuss and towards the end of the movie, I stood up and dance along with the theme songs. It was definitely a fun day for me. Mommy, can I have more movie dates with you please???

Hotel H2O

Mommy, Daddy and I went on a short getaway in Hotel H2O. When I entered our hotel room, I was so happy to see a gigantic aquarium spanning across the room. I took no chance and scrambled onto the bed to take a good look at my "personal aquarium". I couldn't stop wowing and saying "fish" as I pointed to them. I also kept repeating "what's that", "oh wow", as I was really excited. Mommy was glad that she made the right choice as she was having a dilemma when she was planning this. We started taking photos and videos of me going ecstatic on the bed. Check out my photos that mommy has uploaded on FB (Hotel H2O).

Came complimentary with the hotel room was the entrance to the Oceanarium in Manila Ocean Park. This is my second visit to the oceanarium (the first was when I am 8 months old) and this time I definitely felt far more excited. I was intrigued by the colorful aquarium, the huge sting rays and sharks swimming pass and above me. Again, I was "wowing" all the way :) There were no nice photographs taken since flashlight photography was not allowed. We also visited the Zoocology museum where I got to see real preserved animals that originated from the different continents. It was a good experience.

Overall, I had an enjoyable experience because nothing beats the full attention from my parents. Also, this acts as a celebration for Daddy for being awarded by the University of the Philippines Medical Society in America (UPMASA), the Best Teacher in a Basic Department (Good job Daddy!). Thank you mommy and daddy for letting me have my personal aquarium even if its only for 3 days :)