Isn't being a mom so amusing at times? I just introduced the word "Yes" to you, my Benedict who seems to answer all questions now with a firm "No!" with matching shaking of head pa. Here's a conversation between me (the mommy) and you, my little boy...
Me: Do you want a siobe (baby sister)? Yes or No?
You: No!
Me: Do you want a sioti (baby brother)? Yes or No?
You: No! (shaking his head pa)
Me: How about a fish?----
You: (without missing a beat) Yes! (with hand gesture pa)
***toink!***
I have yet to upload the pictures, but both occassions were very happy events... your Daddy Marlon & my natal day! We had unexpected (but very much-welcome) visitors. Your Gua Ma came over, primarily for her monthly check-up (she's a diabetic) and also from your Daddy Marlon's side of the family, Nana & Nono came over to celebrate our birthdays with us. They also have to renew their passports. What do you say son? Didn't they all have hidden agenda for coming over? Hmp! 
Auntie Heny, from L.A. here for a long vacation, arrived via PAL last Saturday with another relative, Auntie Suzy (technically your Dad & my ninang sa wedding coz her hubby Uncle Nando is our wedding sponsor).
We only had dinner at home on Saturday. That's actually your Dad Marlon's bday! To do away with stress, I told your Ah Ko Dulce, not to cook anymore & that we just order all food from our fave restos...to save on energy and to have more time to spend with each other.
Twas just us...our household & your Ah Ko's pharmacy staff and the people mentioned above who joined us for dinner. Some of your Dad Marlon's staff has to stay in the bodega so food was sent over to them na lang. Your Mama Abel & Papa Oboy and their not-so-little angel, Ate Gabby came and celebrated with us too. So, you my little boy is so ecstatic to see your BFF (best friend forever! cousin)...so much so that you were having nightmares at midnight. Your Dad Marlon's titas commented that it must be bec. you were overstimulated..hay, an understatement! When Ate Gabby is around, you can last til 1am playing ...what can i do? you are just being kids! There's only the two of you but you can bring the roof down. I can't wait for your other cousins to come over..hehe 
Sunday morning we attended mass at the Atrium and had lunch over at Kagay-anon. It's Mommy's bday!!! After that we visited Carmelites once again and toured our visitors to the Divine Mercy Shrine in nearby El Salvador. After which, we brought them to Panagatan for dinner. They love the wide assortment of seafoods. Wala yan sa States! hahaha 
And you love walking in the bridge in Opol.
Hmmm, Mommy is now 31, son...i feel old! I hope I don't look old...(uyyy, fishing for compliments, hahaha). But I am at a point in my life where I am happy and contented with who I am and what I have achieved, thus far. My family, esp. you, my little boy are the most important treasures I have. Your Dad Marlon is the soulmate God sent my way. And you, our little boy is very much the "angel" we have longed- and prayed-for all these years.
What are my wishes/resolutions?
Oh I've always been a firm believer and will always validate that God is so good.
And so I will end this epistle resting on my laurels for a while. I have been a good daughter, grand-daughter, sister, sister-in-law, friend, colleague, cousin, wife, mom, soulmate, neighbor, barkada, classmate, student and most importantly a good child of God....and will continue to be the best that I can be...hoping, praying, doing all that I can...always trusting that the best is yet to come...
Happy bday to your Daddy, my Babes and to me!!! Celebrate with us, my son as you are the treasure we hold dearest to us! Love you so... **cheers**
Your & Mommy's bonding time includes a warm bath before we retire for the night. Mostly we play with bath toys like the rubber duckies, the froggies and your turtle friends.
But last night, we added to our list of fun things to do in the bathroom the blowing of bubbles. Oh you have shriek in delight my tiny munchkin! I love hearing your pure tinkling laughters.
If you ever wonder who is the one behind the lens, of course there's no one else but Dad...who mind you had to climb over the tub just to get top-view shots I trully marvel at the things fatherhood can do to a person like you are doing to your Daddy. What can we say? We're head-over-heels in love with you, Benedict - our little boy.
See yourself, little guy? You love popping out the bubbles...and mom & dad love watching you do so
Oh, how much we love you our son!
You and Daddy Marlon checking out the new hot wheels track. See your reaction when you saw the box? You said "Wow!" over and over again. Talk about you being so appreciative my tiny tike!
You couldn't seem to contain your excitement too...Daddy had a hard time assembling the whole set bec. your tiny hands just love "helping" Daddy out...hahaha 
We also love watching you at play lately 'coz you kinda mumble to yourself and would even include us in your "talking"...sometimes engaging me or your Daddy in an "animated" conversation. I would usually sort of decipher your talks and guess what you mean...reading between the lines. Part of the role of "mommy" is being the interpreter. Your Daddy Marlon would oftentimes give me his clueless look and I would immediately bridge the communication gap in your conversation. So far, I must have been successful coz you, my son would reward me with a quick hug or the sweetest smile...which would promptly melt my heart...
Just take a look at this particular pic of yours. Although this is not for me. I am guessing that it is for Dada, who got you this latest toy of yours.
For the life of me, I can't seem to hold my emotions...am just soo mighty proud of you, my little boy! But before you squirm out of embarrassment, let me assure you...every mother is..hehe.
Lately, you've been engrossed with "animal" books. So your ever-supportive mommy (yours trully) kinda bought all kinds of baby books & DVDs with "animals" on 'em. Good thing there's a pirated DVD station in Divisoria which is very much safe & accessible to us. And that we have BookSale franchisers here. Oh, there's also Toy Kingdom which sometimes has some affordable books.
Oh, I got you plenty of books too...Brainy Baby (a bday gift from our fave videographer's family, Tito Teddy, actually), Animal Zoo, MagnoPix Fun To Learn Animals (which has your fave animal magnets included)...this by far is the one you most enjoy, son. You love sticking the magnetic animals on the pages and we just guide you which animal goes to a certain page. Though sometimes we indulge you even if you'd stick the doggie on the water page. (Why? The doggie does know how to swim man sad dba? hehe...joke! We also have those sparkly board books with the ff. titles: On The Farm & Farmyard Babies. You get a kick out of figuring out the animal and the name that goes with it..
Maybe the influence also of playing Brainy Baby Animal videos and Baby Einstein's Neighborhood Animals when you were younger. I just enjoy giving you, my son the things you enjoy in life. I feel so glad that you are taking interest in your surroundings now.
When we had dinner on the New Year at Uncle William & Auntie Tessie's place, you were able to play with your cousins on the Oh side of the family ( Daddy Marlon's maternal relatives). And Ate Chloe (daughter of your Ninang Celeste & Ninong Mark) now 2 yrs+ shared her plastic animal toys with you, my little munchkin.. and the you enjoyed making the plastic toys stand on its own. We saw the spark of interest in your eyes, so we promptly looked for the same toys. But for something so common, we had a relatively difficult time looking for it. Nope, Toy Kingdom & even our local Gaisano doesn't sell such stuff so we even had to ask your Tita Tetet to buy for us in Pagadian store pa. Fortunately, it arrived sometime end of January. Oh the joy you, my little boy expressed in playing with 'em. It's another thing that interests you at this point, aside from...cars!
Anyway, I took the time to point out to you the names of the animals and the respective sound it makes, starting with the cow which you call as "moo". This is because while most kiddos your age would call every four-legged creature as dog, you, my little boy calls it "moo". Oh, dear me! I couldn't help it if we pass by many pastures and vacant lots with lots of cows in going out of our subdivision...hehe We do have a dog you know, but you do not realize it coz we rarely let you near its cage as we are protecting you from possible allergy triggers. So you can understand my frustration when I would pull out a tiger & a lion, and you would automatically refer to them as "moo"...hahaha
Since you're merely 17 month old, I didn't really drill on you the names of the animals. I just followed your lead, whenever you would pick out an animal, I'd just name it & tell you the sound it makes, as simple as that. So many days thereafter, I was kinda pleased coz now you can differentiate a lion from a giraffe, an elephant from a bear...etc.
I told your Daddy that I have a difficult time teaching you the concept of the bird flying coz you have never really seen one. This is due to the fact that we barely take you out to the veranda bec. of the dusty road as most of the neighbors are still constructing their respective fences. Anyway, your Dad decided to get you a birdcage and buy a pair of "maya". We placed them under the aircon casing outside the guest room. So if you would open the window underneath the place where the aircon is, you can see the birds inside their cage. Whoa! in no time, when Nana & Nono slept overnight before going to a Manila trip, you already learned that the sound of the bird is "tit..tit"...that's according to Nono. It added to your expanding animal vocabulary 
A few days earlier, last Saturday to be exact, we had Manang Flor (our elderly masseuse) came over for a Daddy & Mommy's massage. And she brought with her "manok bisaya" (native chicken) which your Daddy Marlon loves either cooked into a tinola or with sotanghon. Since it was alive when she brought it into the house, you had fun time outside playing with the poor thing before it was turned into tinola the ff. day, hehe...Kalooy sad sa manok! Now you, my little boy knows the difference of the duck from the chicken
Just last night, while looking for a DVD I've stored in the guest room's closet, I found an animal chart, which your Ah Ko Dulce bought for you a long time ago. Along with the ABCs, Number, Shapes & Color charts she found at SM & National Bookstore then. So I mounted 'em on the wall last night carefully using a masking tape as your Dada doesn't want to ruin the paint in our bedroom. Good luck na lang nya when you would be writing on walls.
Early this morning I woke up to a very eager little boy pointing out to the animals on the wall, who else but you...my fave tiny tike! You can pretty much recognize most but has not encountered the rest of the species yet. Among the ones you can identify already, even with your eyes half-closed are...(haha, okay! okay i'm exaggerating) your ever-fave COW with matching "moooo" sound, the DOG ("do") which you know can make the "woof,woof" sound..(how come it's not "aww, aww" dear me! we're watchin' all american video you know, their dogs in the DVDs doesn't make an "aww" sound there..hehe... the CAT ("meow" which we would sometimes use to scare you when you wont go to sleep yet...i know its not good so we're stopping it na...and its no longer effective too as you would only mimic us when we make the "meow" sound now...hahaha, i guess you kinda figured out that Mommy/Daddy is the "meow"...trully smart, my little munchkin)... the GIRAFFE, ZEBRA, ELEPHANT...the LION with a "roarrr" sound, the BEAR (its "beh" to you), DUCK ("dat") but couldn't differentiate it from chicken & bird as you also refer to flamingos as duck... the PIG with an "oink, oink" sound, the BIRD which you would call as some kinda "bohr". And you learned from Nono that it makes a "tit,tit" sound. As I have narrated, you recently got acquainted with the CHICKEN which I taught you to make a "cluck, cluck" sound but I guess you don't really care...hehe. Sometimes the Mom can be such a bore, too.
Oh, the "ish" (for FISH) and "tuh-tuh" (TURTLE), you have learned a long time ago because we have 'em in the bathroom, as well as the duckie diay. You can even make a palm-together, swaying motion when asked how does the fish swims?..but by far, the funniest I have ever taught you is the two hands scratching his head with matching "krrub..kruubb" sound to indicate the sound/action of the MONKEY.hahaha, big time! When your Ah Ko learned about it at first, she was laughing so hard coz you have scratched Ah Ko's head as if saying that Ah Ko is the monkey..hehe...Man! my little guy has a sense of humor.
We were at the veranda yesterday afternoon, while feeding you your snack of biscuit and strawberry-flavored yoghurt when a small, white butterfly fluttered by...ah! 
Mommy's teaching moment! Since it has already caught your attention, I didn't have a hard-time pointing out the BUTTERFLY and you even understood that just like the bird it has wings, and you would flapped your hands on the side to show how the bird (and now the butterfly, too) flies.
Just for today, I had pointed out the BEE in the chart, adding that it makes a "bzzz...bzzz" sound, and the MOUSE says "squeak, squeak" while the TIGER (and pointing out the lion, to show that they are not the same) says "grrr" and the SHEEP goes "baaa". Before your night bath, you were shouting "baaa" already and pointing out to the picture of the sheep on the chart. But I firmly believe that your main influence is the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode entitled "Daisy Bo-Beep" where your fave characters of Mickey & friends helped Daisy in looking for 10 lost sheeps she was suppoed to be watchin' for Bo-Beep.
I am just left in awe on how a young mind like yours is like a sponge...ever so hungry of information. I had always cautioned my Yaya and the rest of the houselhold staff to not teach you, my little boy things which would not be good for toddlers to learn...such as but not limited to spanking, spitting and the likes (you know the "cute naughtiness" we adults see in little toddlers like you but will become a major source embarrassment when we couldn't shake that habit of yours off when you get older)...As you are very eager learners, and always hungry of recognition, I wouldn't want you, my Benedict to learn the bad traits. At least not until the good values are in place. This is somewhat an advantage on my part Mommy is a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom), so I get to monitor your activities day-in and day-out.
Back to the Bright Mind's Animal Chart, there are only a few animals now that you can't identify yet...namely, the HORSE and the CARABAO, which I honestly am having a difficult time teaching you to differentiate from the cow. Same case with the GOAT and the sheep. To complete the chart, I'd have to find a way to introduce the CAMEL and the CROCODILE to you my darling son. Will going to Dubai (for the camel) and Davao (they have croco farm, there...hello!) solve this probs? Good luck to me...hehe
Thanks for indulging a love-my-own mommy story...I hope this proves to you how much Mommy loves you so, as if you haven't really felt it yet . Nonetheless, I hope I didn't put you to sleep.... tee, hee...
God bless you! I'll always adore you my little boy!
