Happy 4th Birthday! It seemed this year your birthday took FOREVER to come! Ever since Ate Lia's birthday last month, you would ask me nearly everyday if it was your birthday already. I had to show you a calendar to see how many days it was till your birthday. I pointed out that first, you will have your Moving Up Day, and then there's Daddy's Birthday, and then Ninang's Birthday and after that will be your birthday. And I asked you if you understood. You said "Yes. Is it my birthday now?"
It was, however, well worth the wait, because you had a very special birthday indeed. We held a Dora-themed pool party at Ninang's house. All but one of your classmates came, and many of them brought siblings. Tita Yumi not only fulfilled your special request of having cupcakes on your birthday, she even gave you a two-tiered fondant birthday cake! And then in the late afternoon, all the Juan kids got to play in Active Fun and then Lolo Dan and Lola Vinchu joined us to have your birthday dinner in Fridays where the waiters all sang and danced for you as you blew out your candle. It was a very long and very special birthday for you and you loved it and and it made us so happy to see you so happy.
You are a lovely and adorable girl. You're friendly and smart. Whenever I take you to some play area in the malls, you always greet me with, "Mommy! I have a new friend!" At home your favorite thing right now is to draw houses. It's basically the same house, but it evolves every time you show it to me. When you showed me one of your earlier houses, I asked you, what's in your house? And you pointed all the parts of your house to me. Then I asked, where's the roof? You said there's no roof. So I asked, what if it rains? The next time you showed me another house you drew, you said, "Look mommy! It has a roof!" And then I asked, who lives in your house? And you said, You, Mommy! When I asked, where am I? You went and drew another house that had "me" in it. But your house grew in detail not only at my comments, but by your own creativity as well. Soon your windows had grills, and other swirly bits I can't guess what they are. Nevertheless, it shows that you are creative and you take criticism well.
The past six months were quite eventful for you. On thing that happened was that Daddy and I went to the UK for two weeks and that was the longest you were ever separated from the two of us, well, actually the longest you were ever separated from me. And Lola Vinchu tells me you were quite sad during this time. Once when you were sleeping in Katipunan, you called her Mommy and then looked confused. I didn't see this because you were very happy when we got back. But because of this Daddy and I decided we should never be away from home for more than two weeks at a time. In December, we all went to Boracay, which was a complicated trip. It involved riding a plane, and then a bus and then a boat and then a shuttle to get to our hotel. But you took this all in stride and traveled very well. Seems you even enjoyed riding a plane. And you just slept in the bus. The journey truly is a part of the adventure for you. I'm so proud that you were well behaved. And then, just recently, your Yaya Jane left us. This made you sad too, because you really liked Yaya Jane. The day after she left, you seemed really listless, and Teacher Anne said you just clung to her the whole time in school. But the day after, you bounced right back, and started giving your drawings to your new Yaya, Ate Maulin. Without my telling you to, you did your part to make her feel welcome in our home. Thank you Desi.
You are really funny! You have a great sense of humor. Tito Chicho would try to annoy you but he can't get you to be pikon because you just laugh at everything he says. You like playing peek-a-boo with Ramon to make him laugh. And you're very sweet and malambing to everyone! When Daddy gets home in the evenings, and I tell all you kids to kiss him, you run into his arms and make him carry you and you give him a big hug and often many many kisses. And then you have this funny no-teeth smile you like to do for the camera. You squint your eyes and purse your lips to let your dimples show and you have many many photos with this funny fake smile. Fortunately, it's easy to make you laugh so you'll give a real smile. But still, I don't know where you got this funny face.
Oh Desi, you've grown so big and capable. When I got your report card last week, Teacher Anne was happy to show me that you got perfect scores in ALL ITEMS. Even I was surprised. I didn't know you could do some of the things on the card, like draw a person with body parts. I never saw you do that. So I asked her, if you tested well, because whenever I try to test you, you make that funny no-teeth smile and do baby talk. Teacher Anne said, that when the testing is serious, you answer well. But if you think it's just joke time, you pretend you're a baby and you don't know anything. Sigh. I hope you know that your entrance exam to big school is serious because if you treat it like joke time, then you'll have to stay in pre-school longer than originally planned.
I love you so much, Desi-wesi. How you like to snuggle up with me in the mornings, how you kiss me on the nose, how you told me you want curly hair just like me (be careful what you wish for). Even how you kulit me every day about the things that excite you. Like your birthday, and ballet, and going to Sarah's house. I love that you can express yourself, that you make an effort to deal with your feelings, that you are well mannered, and that you want to learn. It's been a frustration for you lately that you cannot yet read books the way Ate Lia can. But you always try, and you always make me read books to you until you memorize them. You are special and Awesome Sauce. I am very very proud of you.
I love you forever. No matter what.
Mommy
No comments:
Post a Comment