first embarassing moment with alex

what a nice evening it was. monday, 7th of january, our 2nd year civil wedding anniversary. hubby surprised me with a nice dinner in some fancy restaurant. however with alex, a dinner could be anything but quiet. the moment we entered the restaurant, she started naming every item she recognized: "boat!", "kacicka!" (duck), "candle!", "light! light! light!", etc., etc....

luckily there weren't so many people. there was one group on my left and then 2 serious-looking businessmen in front. everyone went on with their dinners not minding alex's litany. until....

one of the businessmen accidentally hit his wine glass. he profusely apologized to his partner, who immediately dismissed the accident and went on with their conversation. at that precise moment, alex pointed at them, started her big fake laugh and said in her booming voice, "it's funny!"

we couldn't help but laugh of course. good thing the businessmen were pretty good sports and became alex's fans for the rest of the evening. ;)

2008

new year's eve dinner with babka. unfortunately, alex wasn't able to greet the new year. like last year, she was sound asleep amidst all the fireworks. :) but it didn't stop her from bobsledding the following day in nice sunny-snowy weather...

... and two days after ...

christmas 2007

Christmas 2006
Christmas 2007

it's hard to believe that a year has passed. so many things have changed yet so many things also stayed the same, like our christmas family picture. :)) well the facts are: a) alex is much bigger and has much longer hair; b) 2006 was in philippines, and 2007 in slovakia; and, c) we are wearing different clothes (luckily!).


7 december: mikulas (nicholas' name's day, actually falls on 6 december), sunguard system access celebration. in slovakia, this is the traditional start of christmas. children receive sweets and candies from santa if they have been good. and of course alex got a bag of goodies.

24 december: christmas eve dinner at home. we had the traditional slovak christmas dinner. except for alex, everyone had:
1) oblatky (replaced by airplane crackers :D) with honey
2) garlic (phew!)
3) kapusnica (sour cabbage soup)
4) fried fish with potato salad

25 december: we went to another christmas meal, lunch with great grandparents.

these are some of the christmas gifts that alex got (from left to right): baby doll with stroller, trike (from "dyeko", a.k.a. dedko), dora (from "tito pito", a.k.a tito peter). she also got nice home socks, shirt and sweater (from "bahka", a.k.a. babka), interesting magnetic books (from "tita lutita", a.k.a. tita lucia), and a new ball (from babina and dedino, great grandma and great grandpa).

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."