Month 48

Dear Lia,

Happy Happy Happy Birthday! Today you turned 4 years old! Well, no, you turned 4 three days ago. Mommy is late in writing this letter and there is no bigger culprit than Farmville. There are other culprits, like the baby in Mommy's tummy that makes her tired all the time, or that Mommy felt daunted at the prospect of going through six months of photographs of you before being able to even start this letter, and of course there's all the other things that just had to come first, like supermarketing and playdates and all that. Whatever the reason, there is no excuse. Nevertheless, late is still better than never, and I could never EVER not write to you on your fourth birthday.



In fairness to me, I've been writing your letter in my head for weeks now. Lying in bed trying to sleep, I think about all the many many things that have happened since my last letter to you, and it's almost overwhelming, the stories I could tell. It's going to be hard to pick and choose from the very eventful last six months.

I guess the biggest event we had as a family has been the move to our new house. They say moving house is one of the most stressful events a young child could experience. Well, perhaps it's the pink room, perhaps it's the floor space you can run around in, whatever the reason, you took to your new home immediately. That the following day, when your Lola and Yaya needed to pass by the old house on the way from taking you home from your old school, you CRIED! You must have been so distressed because you cried in Filipino! HINDI DITO!!! You have consistently refused to go back to the old house since, despite your Lolo Art's insistence that you go back there.



Because we moved to a new house, necessarily, we put you in a new school. We visited three different schools in the village and in the end, you were the one who chose which to finally go to. It was clear how being in that particular school excited you and you could talk of nothing else afterwards. When you started attending Nursery Class, almost immediately, they accelerated you to Junior Kinder. And despite my apprehensions, you fit right in with the slightly bigger kids. You made fast friends, and showed everyone that you are just as good, and in some ways, was even better. You're even more mature than most of your classmates because you feed yourself and a lot of them still need to be spoonfed by their yayas. I've also made friends with some of your classmates' parents so I'm really glad you were transferred to this class. You were even allowed to join the Trumpets Christmas play even if you've only been in the class for two months! You were the littlest squid of all the squids, but you knew all your cues and songs and actions, performing on stage in your typical "serious fun" way, you made Daddy and me, and both your Lolas in the audience really really proud.



Another change is that we welcomed a new baby to the family. Ninang Michelle and baby Luis have been living with us since he was born and you've adjusted well to their presence. You politely tell your Ninang to "Could you please stop teasing me?" when you're nakukulitan, and you're very protective of Luis, whom you don't want to allow to each chocolates, or to go out and do dangerous things, like walk or dance, because he is still "Too little." Soon, we will be welcoming a baby brother to the family, and we've been doing our best to prepare you for this. You were very disappointed to find out the new baby would be a boy, and not another baby sister as you so insisted you wanted. But you quickly got over it and now you like to kiss my tummy and say things like, "Hi Baby, come out na so I can share my toys with you!"



The four-year-old mark is important in preparing you for the new baby, in that because you are now four, you are a big girl and you don't need a Yaya anymore. You know that Yaya Felma will be helping Mommy take care of the coming baby brother since you're big enough to do most things on your own. You've stopped calling her Yaya and now call her Ate Felma instead. You've even stopped using your car seat three days ago, because you're a "big girl na." Of course you are still very much attached to your Ate Felma but I'm hopeful and positive that you won't mind very much when the time comes that you'll have to share her with the new baby. I have faith and confidence that you're smart enough to know that the new baby will need your Yaya more than you. And I am also counting on you to help take care of the new baby. I can already see us having a lot of fun taking care of the new baby together.



Right now you're going through the obligatory phase to all little girls over three-years-old: The Princess Phase. You are a princess, you are going to be a princess, you eat, sleep, breathe princess. Since before Christmas last year, all you could talk about was becoming a princess and wearing a princess dress. Which is why your Lola Cora had a gown made for you so you could be a fairy princess for Holloween. When you got it, you insisted that your Lola buy a dress for Desi too! You really are the best Ate in the world. Later on, come around Christmastime, you developed an obsession for just one particular princess: Sleeping Beauty. And I have to call it an obsession because every other word from your mouth since then was Sleeping Beauty. You were quite disappointed that the Three Kings didn't get you a Sleeping Beauty gown for Christmas, but you prayed every night to Jesus for one for your birthday, and lo and behold, you were Sleeping Beauty for a whole day last Tuesday. When you saw it, you even exclaimed, "And it's the perfect size!" There will be pictures of you in your Sleeping Beauty gown on your Multiply site soon.



Truth is, while you prayed every night for about a month that Jesus would give you a Sleeping Beauty gown for your birthday, I already had that gown hidden in my closet the whole entire time. I just thought it would be more special if it were a birthday surprise you didn't know you'd be getting until the day itself, and also I wanted you to learn that when you pray to Jesus, He will answer you. While it's true that He doesn't always answer in the way we want, we should always pray to Jesus anyway, because He loves us and wants us to be happy. And you were really really happy on your birthday.



Oh Lia, you are growing up so fast and so well. So articulate (you talk in straight English, nonstop. for over an hour sometimes.) and so smart (you read entire books almost everyday. Usually the ones about princesses). So loving and caring (you made Valentines for everyone, but you had a special Valentine for Desi) and funny and hilarious (you love to pose and do funny faces for the camera). And so, sooo beautiful. I really have no idea how you turned out so well. We can all tell you will succeed in anything you ever want to do in life because of all these qualities. When you came into my life four years ago, you changed it forever. I can't imagine my life any other way.

Thank you for being my daughter.

I love you more than you can ever understand, until you have a baby girl of your own.

Love, Mommy