when i grow up, i want to be a... (at 18 months)

the one and a half year old alex weighs about the same and is maybe taller by a centimeter. amazing how time flies by. in a blink of an eye she could be anyone she dreams of becoming to be...



...doctor
she carries around her "emyo" (elmo) doctor's kit. checks heartbeat of her bears with the "cookie montu" (cookie monster)r stethoscope. says "aaah!" with the bert thermometer and "burd" (big bird) otoscope. wears ernie blood pressure gauge.

...soldier
marches to "left! left! left! right! left!"

...ballerina
walks on tiptoes and dances around in circles

...actress
pretends to cry a lot :))

...ball player
likes to play with "boi" (ball).

...singer
alex (singing): meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow! (to the tune of "tinkle, tinkle likel kay", a.k.a "twinkle, twinkle little star")

alex likes singing and listening to music. used to really laugh at the screaming part of "doo bidoo" in the the "kami nApo muna album". the one that comes after "eto na, eto na, eto na..." now, she says "bi doo wah" and points to the pc when she wants me to play the songs and sings along.

...music playing in the background...

mahal kita, mahal kita.
hindi 'to bola
sumagot ka naman
wag lang...

alex (singing): owan... (ewan)

...music playing in the background...

doo bidoo bidoo
bidoo bidoo
doo bidoo bidoo
bidoo bidoo
alex (singing): bidoowah!

...wordsmith
alex speaks four languages: english, slovak, filipino and spanish. mommy and daddy speak to her mostly in english while "baka" (babka) speaks to her in slovak. picks up some filipino words from me. and, to our surprise, she sometimes counts in spanish, or says "abre! open doy!" (open door)

ahdanda neyi msh a.k.a alex the destroyer (at 17 months)

"what is your name?"
alex: ayi

that's our girl! this 85cm and 12kg little thingy is getting cuter and smarter by the minute. likes watching dora the explorer, reading books, sorting shapes and learning the alphabet.

she recognizes almost half of the english alphabet (from watching jollibee, hehe). she makes us write on her magnetic board and likes naming the letters one by one. although sometimes she confuses "R" and "B", "N" and "M", among others.

"my name..."
alex: ihssss...

"alexandra..."
alex: ahdanda

"neri..."
alex: neyi

"mraz!"
alex: msh!


her speech has also improved considerably. well, aside from the fact that she pronounces "y" instead of "r" or "l". for example she now says "boy" instead of "bi" for ball. "foy" for four. and now, "flowo" instead of "flawee" for flower, etc.

alex is starting to recognize different shapes. her favorites are: "kar" (star), "flowo" (flower), "nganga" (triangle), "kurkle" (circle), "owaw" (oval), "quay" (square), "batitu" (trapezoid), pentagon and diamond. she may not be able to pronounce them properly but she surely can put each and everyone of these shapes into her shape sorter.

the total entertainer (15-16 months)

the poor thingy has gotten sick the last couple of days. she's had the second fever in her lifetime. but she is so strong that she only had very low fever and a teeny-tiny bit of the colds. i wouldn't even have noticed her colds if it weren't for the fever. otherwise, she has never been better.

alex has sprouted 4 pearly white molars in the last couple of months. we haven't weighed or measured her recently. we are just guessing that she's more than 82cm and around 11kg. let the clothes she wears speak for her -- size 98(cm), 2-3 years old. :)

"old mcdonald had a farm..."
alex: "ee-ai-ee-ai-eeyo-ya-ya"
"and on that farm he had a pig..."
alex: "ee-ai-ee-ai-eeyo-ya-ya"

she likes singing and dancing. she has her own version and actions of "itsy-bitsy spider", and "sampung mga daliri" (ten fingers).

"swiper no swiping! swiper no swiping! swiper no swiping!"
alex: "ah, meen!" (oh, men!)

sings all the dora the explorer songs and has different dance moves for all 3 songs.

"yum, yum, yum delicioso!"
alex: "ba-pa, ba-pa" (backpack, backpack)
alex: "ahm mee, ah mee" (i'm the map)
alex: "pi dee dee, pi dee dee" (we did it!)


another favorite game of hers is pushing buttons on her activity table to play music. then she dances around the living room. she's really funny. one time, she picked up a pair of her jammies and started playing with it.

she's always more than happy to show off all her talents to anyone. she's not very shy. but she sometimes need a minute or two to warm up to a new face. however, just recently, we visited her great grandparents whom she hasn's seen for quite some time. the moment we arrived at their home, they were so excited that they took her from me and started fussing over her at once. she was just sitting very still on the sofa, not making a sound. she was just looking at them. when i got to her, i saw tears welling around her eyes. it's as if she was trying to be a big girl about it and doesn't want to appear scared or anything. it was so sweet and funny at the same time. she got over it as quickly as it started and didn't shed a tear at all. she even ended up eating the cookies and bread sticks, which were not really meant for her.

alex is not only talented in the arts, she's also a very smart baby. she names animals by their sounds: "hawee" (dog), "meow, meow", "moo", "hee-ha" (horse). and some more: "ba-kee-ka" (butterfly), "kaka" (kacka, duck), "kwog" (frog), "buh" (bird), "bug" (ladybug), and so much more.

like a sponge, she picks up everything we try to teach her. sometimes, i would try to teach her some words and she would never repeat after me. then surprisingly, after some time, you would just hear her saying the words when she's playing by herself. she now knows, "moon", "nyan" (sun), "hak" (heart), "apuh" (apple), "book", etc., etc. she can also identify the letter "A" and "B", and sometimes "C" but she says "ee" :))

it's amazing how fast she's learning new things. sarah taught her one day after church to bless. it's a filipino tradition of giving respect (to elders) known as "kissing the hand", which evolved into holding an older persons hand to your forehead. now she asks everyone "bi" and puts the hand to her forehead.

she has also learned to attach names to people. daddy is "dadi", mommy is "mama", lucia is "tita" (aunt), sarah is "nina" ("ninang", godmother) and peter is "tito" (uncle), "baba" is "babka" (grandma), and she's still trying to practice "dido" for "dedko" (grandpa). "tita" and "tito" she also uses on our friends. alex would sometimes remember them even when they are not around. when we are at home, she would sometimes call "dadi", "tita", or "nina" and look at the door. she's probably expecting them to come. most often she misses her daddy and calls him a lot during the day when he's working.

our little angel is really growing so fast. learning so many things that sometimes we are the ones who can't keep up with her. from her remix version of "old mcdonald" to her countless words, she's really the total entertainer. it's not a secret, but alex and all babies are mysteries, and so is "kudi" and "kay".

alex: "mama kay. nina kay. dadi kay."

baby talk (13-14 months)

she's now 10.5kg. gained weight in a matter of 5 days. it's amazing how much she has changed. i was expecting that most changes after her first birthday would be gradual. boy, I was wrong!

she talks even more now. i know, we never thought that was possible also. but her vocabulary is fast growing.

it's funny how she constantly immitates vocalizations and tries to repeat the words we say to her. she learned the "i" ("ee") sound on our way home from philippines. she kept saying "da-dee", with very strong emphasis on "dee". by emphasis i mean, with all her breath and strength :)) and after that she started to learn more words and uses "ee" a lot.

from her first words: "baba", "papa", "mama", and "dada"

expressions (some with hand/body gesture):

bye-bye (slovak, "papa") - waves bye-bye and say "papa" or "baba" or "paba" or "bapa"; or other combinations of "ba" and "pa" (as many times repeated as she pleases). she says this when saying bye-bye to someone, or when she wants to go.

light - her first official word. looks up, points to the light and says "lai", which evolved from "lah" in less than a week

give me/thank you - gives to or takes an object from someone and says "pa pi", which evolved from "pa bum" or "pa pum"

i don't want (filipino, "ayaw") - waves both hands frantically in criss-cross motion, and says "aya aya aya". it is often used when she doesn't want anymore during feeding.

no (slovak, "nie") - "nie nie nie" and sometimes waves her point finger from side to side

papapa (filipino, "to eat") - "papapa"

muah (kiss) - pouts lips or puts her lips closer to you and says "mmm ma"

words with more than one meaning:

daddy - "dada" has evolved to "da dee". but it could also mean mommy or other members of the family like grandma ("babka") or grandpa ("dedko"). or, when she wants to say something we haven't deciphered yet.

mommy - "mama" has evovled into "ma mee". but sometimes means "no more" when accompanied by two hands shaking. or, when she points to an object she threw down and wants it to be picked up.

"meeya meeya" - could mean "yummy", "my! my!" (slovak, "moja! moja!") and then strokes a person/object with her hand, or "meow! meow!" referring to a cat.

things (recognized objects; can point and identify the object):

flower - "wla wee"

dog (slovak, "havo") - "haw haw" or, more often "ha wee"

ball - "biy"

nose - "nou"

commands(phrases she understands):

no! - sometimes she obeys, but most often not :D

hug (object)! - hugs the object and swings her torso from side to side

come here!/let's go!

where is (your) head/ears/nose? - points or holds that part

throw the ball!/catch! - throws the ball/says something that sounds like "catch".

step! step! - used to encourage her to walk on her own.

whew! those are a lot of words for a 14 month old baby :) but that's not all. she can also repeat after us most of the time. except when we make fun and try to make her say "mee ma" or "dee da". it's funny that this really puzzles her. although lately she babbles "ee ai" repeatedly on her own. amazing isn't it?! :)

last, but definitely not the least, the talk of the town -- alex is walking. although she still gets a little scared sometimes, or walks too fast and loses balance. alex can also climb up and down the sofa or bed. she has really become more dangerously cute these last two weeks :)

a.k.a (at 12 months)

12 months
10 kilograms
78 centimeters

wow! it doesn't seem that long ago, but here we are, on the first year mark. alex is so special that she celebrated her birthday 3 times. twice in slovakia and a swimming party in philippines. it's mostthe fact that mommy and daddy has so many friends and relatives, hihihi! but also, it's just proof that she's so much loved by everyone. (^.^)

i could still remember long before she was even conceived. there was only name for her -- ALEX. now, she could give the FBI's most wanted a run for their money for acquiring so many aliases in such a short time.

"alex"
yes, that's her nick name. ALEX is a nick name mommy has always wanted and so she was named ALEXANDRA.

"neri" (var. "nerinka")"
she was born on the feast day of St. Philip Neri. Philip doesn't really seem fit for such a pretty baby, so we adapted the surname instead. "nerinka" on the other hand, was coined by the nurse of alex's pediatrician. it's a slovak way of changing names for calling small children or as term of endearment (e.g., minela = "minelka", matej = "matko")

"uu maker"
it's a mystery to us how a baby who only takes milk can make such fowl smelling poopoo! we really didn't have problem knowing when to change her diaper. well one could smell it from a mile away :)) now, just imagine what happened when she started having solids... well it's not so bad, or maybe we just got used to it. 3 times a day is no joke.

"the thing" (var. "it")
so far, this is the most used nick for her between mommy and daddy, that is, aside from "alex". for example:
* "the thing" is already asleep.
* "it" is looking at us.
* look at "the thing".

"tiger"
we're not sure now where exactly this nick came from. but it's most probably from the one of the funny sounds she creates which probably mimics that of a tiger. :)

"koala bird"
this was adapted from when she was much younger but is not so much used now. "koala" refers to the way she holds on to the person carrying her, which very much looks like a koala bear hug. "bird" comes from the high pitched screeching sound she makes.

"lazy piglet" (var. "piglet")
as you may have observed in her pix (specially earlier ones), she really is on the chubby side. "lazy" is self-explanatory :) well, she didn't want to hold her own bottle for long time even when she already could. sometimes, she also didn't want to walk. she crawls instead because of the fact that it's easier for her.

"marshmallow bear"
alex has a cousin, ayie, who's only one week older than her. we used to joke how alex would bully ayie when they grow older. it's the fact that alex is bigger and taller than most babies her age. but the irony of ironies, alex turned out to have a softer physical nature. so even if she's a big girl, she's as soft as a marshmallow and as cuddly as a bear.

there's so much more that i couldn't remember them all. we come up with different nicknames for her whenever she does something so special (which is every minute of her waking hour, but sometimes even in her sleep :)

at one year:
* we think she's more talkative than most babies her age. she can say "mama", "dada", "papa" (usually, when she waves bye-bye). she also makes gibberish sounds as if she's really talking.

* her first word is "light". although she could only say "lah" in the beginning, she really knows what it means. everytime we enter some room, she would look up, point and say "lah".

* she can stand alone pretty well for more than two (2) seconds

* she walks with two hands held. then confidently with just one hand held. surprisingly, she was also able to make her first two (2) steps.

* all her eight teeth are out.

teething alex (at 11 months)

sorry guys, i wasn't able to post for alex's 10th month. but hopefully this will help you catch up.

alex growth rate is slowing down now. probably due to the fact that she's much more active. she also grew two more teeth (upper middle) during the tenth month and somehow lost her apetite for a week. we didn't have statistics for 10th month so here's for 11:

statistics:
* weight : 9.57kg
* height : 76cm (previous measure, now measured at 74cm?!?)
* head c : 45cm
* chest c : 45cm

   

there's not much new tricks except for the fact that she's mastered most of her previous tricks and that she can do them more on demand.

improvements:
* goes to sitting position from standing without any problems
* cruises (walks holding on to furniture, not just playpen anymore)
* picks-up tiny objects with thumb and point finger

  

new things:
* stands alone momentarily
* walks with two hands held
* points with index finger (to get what she wants)
* casts/throws her toys
* imitates vocalizations
* understands "no!" but sometimes complains with a fake cry :))

  

funny tricks:
* holds hear head ("where's your head?")
* claps hands ("clap your hands!")
* points upwards ("where's the light?")
* hugs toys and people ("hug!!!")
* does fake laugh when she hears others laughing

last tuesday, we discovered she's growing possibly four new teeth. one on the lower right is very much visible, sharp and pointed. two more on the upper part are just sprouting. but the lower left is not so visible. must really be a pain for poor alex. she has a hard time sleeping during the night. otherwise, she's doing great and is as babbly and as happy as ever. :)