Happy 14 months! This letter is a day late, as will probably most, if not all your letters, because your birthday is sweldo day. Well, actually that's no excuse. I should have written this letter last night but I spent the time playing on the iPad and reading a book. So sorry. But here it is now. And it's been later than a day in the past, so I'm sure you're not upset. What's upsetting is I have so few photos of you, given that I had 2 months to take pictures! Not good! I will do better in the next couple of months.
Biggest, most noticeable change since my last letter. You're brand spanking new haircut! It was a big deal. Bigger than when your sisters got haircuts because for one, they had their first haircuts way way later in life than you. And also, after the cut, they still looked basically the same. Ok, Ate Desi looked like a baby vulcan. But still more or less the same. Yours was a big deal. Not only because nearly the whole family went to a salon in the mall and had pizza after but also because you totally changed! You went from baby to binata in a split second! It was so unfair, I thought my heart was going to break into a bajillion tiny pieces. Honey, you went from cute to pogi, just like that. It was so awesome. YOU were so awesome! And now I can barely remember what you looked like before the haircut. Oh wait, let me check the last blog entry. Hm. Was that really you? Unbelievable.
With your new haircut, it seemed like you developed a whole new personality. Lola Vinchu said you not only stopped looking like a baby, you also started acting more grown up. And you now had a more mischievous look on your face. It really does seem like that, but I think you've been making the same faces. Its just that with less hair, people can see it more. What is true is that since you turned one, you've become much more expressive. Much less passive. You don't just go along with what people do or say, you do what you want, or make others do what you want. You insist on certain things, you complain when you don't get it. In short, you've grown horns (nagkasungay ka na). Don't get me wrong, you're still a good baby. But I guess you've discovered your ability to control your life. And that's good. Unless what you want to do is crawl around the kitchen or inspect the bathroom. Why do you insist on hanging out in the germiest areas of the house?
What I do love about your learning to express yourself is that you can do it with signs. Yay! I almost gave up on you, since you started much later than your sisters. Which isn't your fault, since I spent a lot more focused one on one time on them than with you. Not because I loved them more, but more because they were fewer then. And at your age, their yayas had to do laundry so I really had to take care of them a lot. Your yaya is exclusively dedicated to your every need and desire. So you see, there's a plus to this. And in any case, you learned to sign as well. There's "bye bye" and "clap clap" and "flying kiss". You can sign all the actions to "twinkle twinkle." You sign for "milk" when you're thirsty, "yumyum" or food when you're hungry, "sleep" when you're sleepy. The sleep sign I am particularly impressed with because when you sign it to me, and I give you to your yaya, she takes you to your room and withing 5 minutes you're asleep. Ah-may-zing! That at just over a year old, you know what "sleepy" means. Some kids older than your Ates still don't know that when they're cranky late at night, it's because they have to go to bed. You are one smart kid.
You're a funny kid too! I love this picture. I took it at a gymboree. You just made these funny faces on the glass all on your own. You do have a sense of humor. You like to make funny faces at people, and make pa-cute faces at them, and then hide your face when they start to notice you. By the way, you LOVED gymboree. I feel bad that I can't take you as often as I want. Not that you aren't as active at home. You're everywhere! Ever since you learned how to climb off the bed, you can't stay on the bed. You have to immediately get off. And if I put you on the floor, you immediately have to climb on the bed. And get off again. And climb again. At first it drove us to distraction. But now that we know you're careful about climbing up and down, Daddy and I can "watch" you get on and off the bed even while using the Galaxy Tab and iPad (respectively).
Everybody's asking if you're walking yet, and you're not. But you crawl really fast and you climb everything so I'm not worried. What's more, you can get pretty creative in order to be mobile. Aside from making everyone carry you everywhere, you like to push around pieces of furniture to help yourself walk. My box/side table in our bedroom, your activity table in the livingroom, sometimes a plastic stool, anything that's the right height and light enough to push but heavy enough to support your weight. But darling, I don't mind if you hold off walking a little longer because when you start walking, you will be officially a toddler and no longer a baby and I won't have a baby anymore! You're my baby. You can keep being my baby for as long as you like.
And anyway, what is walking to the most important trick of all? "Kiss Mommy!" I love love love how you would turn to me, with your mouth open and you'd stick your laway lips to my cheeks or my lips, your own version of a baby kiss. So sweet! It is my most favorite trick ever!
Soon after you turned one, I moved you to sleep in your own room, in accordance to Juan family tradition. Daddy can't sleep with you in the bed, and I stopped breastfeeding right after we got back from Taiwan, so there was no real reason to keep you in our room, except to save on the electricity bill. Which I guess would turn out the same since Daddy sleeps in the den with aircon when you're in our room. Anyway, today, you've been super cranky. Crying for no reason. I know it's not hunger or sleepiness. We know by now that nothing turns you into Ramonster but a new tooth coming out. So this evening, you couldn't sleep, crying in pain, so finally Yaya and I gave you some baby paracetamol and you calmed down clinging to me. So I lay beside you in your bed, with your arm around my neck until you fell asleep. Your arm is about a foot long, so I was practically on top of you. Still, it warmed my heart deeply how tightly you hugged me, that you needed me beside you to make you feel better.
I love you so much, Ramon. I feel like one day I will blink and then you'll be taller than me and embarrassed by my presence. No more wet baby kisses or hugging tightly to sleep. And that's why I write these letters. So you know how you were as a baby, so you know how much I love you, and so that I never forget the special moments we shared even as I look forward to you growing up to a good, wonderful, admirable man.
I love you Ramon.
Mommy
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