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."