Month 22

Dear Desi,

Yowza! 22 months?! Where did the time fly? In two more months you will be two years old! On one hand I can remember you as a teeny tiny rumply baby who can barely move. And on the other it feels as if you've been walking and talking forever! Was it really only a few months ago that you started singing? Cause I could have sworn you've been at it for years.



Right now you're sleeping in my bed as I've been sleep training you since Daddy has been abroad. What a learning experience that has been for the two of us. You learned to sleep through the night. (Yay!) And i learned that sleep training isn't that hard. I think it helps that you are a very good natured baby. On the first night, it was wailing and wailing and more wailing. On the second, crying na lang at bed time. By the fourth night, you were politely asking for a bottle of milk before sleeping, and then settling yourself down quietly for the rest of the night. Sure there's the incessant kicking me in the face and fiddling with my nose. But there was no more waking up or crying after the fourth night. Except last night when you woke up at 4AM, nudged me awake and said, "Milk? Milk? Milk? Please???" You were so pleadingly polite I actually got up and started to make you a bottle, until I realized, hey, this is exactly what I'm training you to get over. So I went back to bed and said, "Sorry Desi, it's still night time. I will give you milk when the sun is up." To which you said, "Ok. (whimper whimper, short cry, sleep again)."



I must say even if you wake me up as early as 7AM to give you your morning bottle it has been rather enjoyable to have your smiling face in front of me when I open my eyes. Mornings have been a bonding time for us, when we're both awake but you don't want to get out of bed yet. For an hour or so, you prefer to just lie in bed with me, and cuddle or tickle, or sing ABC, or Twinkle Twinkle or any old song that comes to your head. Have I told you you have quite a repertoire already? The Wheels of the Bus, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Eensy Weensy Spider, even Bahay Kubo just to name a few. Of course, most of the songs are still very bulol and hardly intelligible, but I always know what you're singing because you're mostly in tune.



Aside from sleep training, the past two months have been quite eventful for you. A couple of vacations, several parties, weekly visits to Katipunan and St. Ignatius, and daily trips to the park. Oh the park! At around the time we started sleep training, I went with you guys again for the first time in ages (Mommy's belly is quite big now and walking is a chore I'd rather reserve for when absolutely necessary) and learned that you are majorly spoiled with your Aya! My goodness Desi! It seems you have begun your terrible two-ness. The whims and the moods, and the, dare I say it? Tantrums. I never knew! Cause you always do what I say. I guess that goes with me never having spoiled you. But that time we went to the park, I made your Yaya Fe absolutely refuse to carry you to the park and you CRIED! Cried and cried and cried all the while running after your Yaya to the park. Thereby announcing to the entire subdivision what a cruel, awful mother I am, imagine forcing an almost-two-year-old to walk  for five minutes straight? Inconceivable. At the park you were in such an awful mood, you alternated between crying at your yaya, hugging her and avoiding me. Finally Yaya hid behind a tree and you sat in the middle of the grass WAILING loudly for maybe two minutes (felt like an eternity) and then you got tired of crying and stopped. So then I approached you and asked, "Do you want to go home?" You said, "Yes." I said, "Ok, let's go home. But you have to walk, ok?" You looked at me, seemed to consider wailing again, but then said, "Ok." And we left Ate Lia, Luis, and all the Yayas in the park while the two of us walked home without any fuss or drama at all. We even played with our shadows on the street. And you were laughing by the time we reached our gate. And thus I demonstrated to your Yaya how to just let you cry and not give in. Your spoiledness days are numbered! I hope.



Of course you've been learning a lot of other things, like now you know all your letters and all your numbers up to 10. You can identify most shapes and colors too! You can complete picture puzzles on Mommy's iPhone all by yourself. And you know the words to many things, especially things that are important to you, like coloring book (kolo-buh), raisins (isins), TV (tibi) and slide (lise). Although you're bulul, you can really talk now. You ask for things you want, you say Please. When you receive something, you say Thank you (Tikyu!) and when we say Thank you to you, you say Welcome (wikam!). You even say Here you go (Iyugo Mommy!) when you give me things. You are really very very sweet. You like to sit on my lap during meals and eat my food. You like to kiss and hug for no reason. You love playing with your baby cousin Luis, even if he can't really play yet. You like to gently pat his head and wipe his laway with his bib. You're never pikon when "Ninang" Michelle teases you. You love eating vegetables (but don't seem to like rice). And you like to be included cause you've learned to say Me! Me! Me! whenever something is going on with Lia that isn't going on with you.



I still do my best to read and sing and play with you everyday, although lately I've been busy with several projects. It's a good thing we sleep in the same bed now, or I'll miss all the bonding time I enjoy with you. I really really want to hug and kiss and spend as much time as I can with you, because in less than three months (ohmygodanglapitna!) your baby brother will be born and I won't be able to give you as much attention as I would like. We've been preparing your Ate as best as we could, by talking to her about what will happen when she's four and when the new baby comes, and she seems to understand and is even getting excited. You, on the other hand, know that there's a baby brother in my tummy, and you kiss it all the time. But I don't know if you know that another baby will come out of there soon. One that will take your place in Mommy's bed, and will be attached to Mommy's chest, and sleep in Mommy's room.



Only never think for a minute that any new baby will replace you in my heart. I love you so much, my Desi. Your Ate and baby brother may grow up, but you will be my baby forever.




Love, Mommy