Christmas In February

 

aka my Valentine’s Day gift for Aki

I finally chanced upon a copy of You are my Miracle in Booksale. I am in love with Mary Causano’s first book, You are my I Love You. I blogged about it here. So, when I learned that she came up with a second book, I knew I had to have a copy.

 

You are My Miracle by Maryann Cusimano Love
I am your parent;
 you are my child.
I am your quiet place;
 you are my wild

I am your hot cocoa;
 you are my marshmallow.
I am your nutcracker;
 you are my cookie dough.

I am your gingerbread;
 you are my frosting goo.
I am your paper;
 you are my glitter and glue.

I am your wrapping;
 you are my surprise.
I am your don’t peek;
 you are my wide eyes.

I am you bundle up;
 you are my dash outside.
I am your uphill pull;
 you are my fast sleigh ride.

Wakeful Moments

A regular day with Aki is filled

With a lot of happy moments,

crazy moments,

playful moments,

fake crying moments,

Bitter Dilemma

We have a problem. A bitter one. The ampalaya (bitter gourd) crawled upwards into the neighbor’s house. From what I remember from the days when I used to watch Ipaglaban Mo, if your neighbor’s plants and their fruits are in your property, they are yours.

The wall is too high for us to reach even with a ladder. I also  noticed that some of the ampalayas dried before they are mature for picking. Maybe because they are in direct contact wit the neighbor’s metal roof.

Family Field Trip: First Train Ride

As a single Washington girl working in Ortigas, I probably rode the MRT at least a thousand times. Most trips are boring but some are quite memorable. How can I forget when my bra got unhooked because there were just so many passengers?! haha. I will also never forget when I sat beside a mother in her 30’s and her toddler. It was the little boy’s first time to ride a train. Everytime another train would pass by, he excitedly shouted a name. According to mother, the kid was shouting the names of the characters in Thomas the Train series. From then on, I promised myself that I want to be there when my kids ride the MRT for the first time.

A few weekends ago, I finally convinced my fellow home buddy, Franco, to drive to Makati. We parked in Alphaland where we enjoyed watching fast trains go by.

This is it! Yes!

Alphaland is connected to the Magallanes MRT station

Stoooop!

When we were inside, Aki was so amazed that he could not be bothered to smile for the camera

I was expecting that the train won’t be jam-packed because it was a Sunday. But nooooo. There were a lot of people. Franco had to stand up.

Look, Aki! A river a deep cold river! (from our We are Going on a Bear Hunt book)

Instead of calling out the names in the Thomas the Train series ( he only knows Thomas because I haven’t let him watch the series), he kept shouting “Go, bus! Go, bus!”

We got off the Shaw station. I promised Aki that we will ride a carousel that weekend. Unfortunately, the carousel in Shang-rila Mall was taken out last December. But look who we bumped into.

 

Efren Cruz, our financial adviser.

On our way back to Alphaland, I just had to have a picture taken here. I have always thought that this bridge is visually interesting.

Dear Aki was already tired and sleepy so we went home immediately.

Family field trips are love love love. I wonder where we go next.

Got Water?

Trained

Slipper-trained that is. Aki is finally interested in wearing slippers.

I have had my slippers since 2004. Franco got his in 2006. I doubt if Aki’s slippers will last for more than 3 months.

We are taking a relaxed approach on potty training. I actually have two books on potty training.  Both of them I haven’t read thoroughly.

Aki Gets A Time-out

This is Aki on the first time he had a proper time out.

He went on time out after I saw him hit Lotlot’s leg after Lottie refused to give him an item that he wanted to get. I gave him a warning but he hit Lot again so I had no choice but to put him on TO. He looks so sad and helpless here. He kept saying ” Mummy peees  nooo (Mummy please no)”. I firmly and calmly told him that only the timer can say when time out is over. I also thanked him for staying in the corner. After that, I pretended to ignore him.

This is him  a less than a minute after I made him sit in his time out corner.

He sat there quietly until the timer rang. I was really surprised that he stayed in the corner alone for two minutes.
In our previous unofficial time-outs, we would sit him on our laps with our arms around him or we would sit on the floor of the 2nd floor hallway while we were holding his hands. It had always been a parent-child power struggle. I knew we had to change how we do our time outs because when he gets bigger and stronger, we won’t be able to restrain him in our laps anymore.

Science Project Update

After 10 days, the mungbean plants are still alive!

Thanks to our little gardener.

Aki meets the Azkals

Speaking of football, Aki met the Azkalz last December when we visited Lola Maring, Franco’s paternal grandmother. It has been a family tradition to visit Lola Maring every 24th of December.

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The highlight of the visit was Aki’s new friends.  I just love the curious expression on Aki’s face when he sees something interesting for the first time.

Catch!

Before Aki turned one, he was obsessed with basketball. When he became a toddler, kicking balls was his favorite hobby. And now at 2, he likes to play catch.I am so proud and happy seeing him proud and happy when he catched his football for the first time. I am relieved that Aki did not inherit my clumsiness when it comes to catching. Butas ang kamay as we call it in Laguna.

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I just hope he doesn’t learn how to play American football because this clumsy unathletic mommy is not ready to learn how to tackle.