17 months :)

Dear Rocco,

Today you turn 17months old.

You are growing up so fast, and we are always left in awe of your wonderful milestones. Gone are your behaved days because now, you are truly full of energy!

You usually wake up late now, except when we turn off the aircon super early. When we do that, you wake up almost immediately and cry, with matching kamot in the head. It seems like you're telling us that it's hot. Hehe. As soon as you wake up, you check if we're awake. If not, you take time to wake us up, patiently saying "Mama Up, Papa Up" while slapping our faces. Sometimes we pretend to sleep some more just so we can hear you say those words over and over again. Of course when you become impatient, you use your ever powerful cry and we're left stumbling to wake up just to calm you down.

Morning is our bonding time. You love to eat a variety of food now, but for breakfast, Oatmeal and Duchmill is always the perfect combo for you. You love it when we walk around the village, and sometimes you find your little spot to squat, and then you poopoo. Sometime soon anak, Mama will find the energy to fully potty train you. Until then, you still have your diapers.

You can communicate well now, through words and sign language. You proudly say your name as "Coco", and you call me "Mama Ya" even when I teach you to say "Mama Yan" :) It's ok anak, soon you will learn to say my name correctly.

You know your body parts well, and I'm extremely amused that when I say "Where's your bubot?", you point to your butt while saying "Uu-uu" (popoo).

You have a lot of friends now, but are particularly close to Ate Misha, Badang, Hugo and Lucas. I do hope you cultivate your friendship with your village playmates because you will have a lot of adventures with them.

There are more stories to tell anak. It's only been 17months, and we're looking forward to more stories to tell you!

Love,
Mama

Pic of the Day: April 14 to 20

Disclaimer: We are not raising a couch potato. We do allow him to watch TV in moderation, and most of the time in our presence. 

Every morning during weekdays, we allow 30minutes to 1 hour of TV time for Rocco. He is now very receptive to dance and music, so we believe that a little TV time will also be good for him. His favorite show at the moment is Pocoyo.

Funny because everytime we set the TV to his cartoon DVD, he would immediately go to the couch and sit pretty. He consistently did this, and I was able to capture one week of Rocco's "sitting pretty while watching Pocoyo" moments. 

How cute talaga!

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Previous links:
March 17-23
March 24-30
March 31-April 6
April 7-13

The Haircut Dilemma

Last Tuesday, we brought Rocco to the newly opened chic barber shop at Robinsons Supermarket. They have experience handling toddlers so we decided to give it a try. Just a brief history, Rocco's last haircut was a disaster. He threw a serious fit and since then, was so sensitive with his hair. Ayaw pahawak. Just the mention of scissors or haircut and he would cry :)

His hair is getting longer again, so we had to find a tempo solution to tidy up his hair, especially with the super hot summer weather. This is what his Papa thought of. Cute ba? Hehe

I clipped his bangs pero pahirapan pa din kahit pag-clip na lang. Ayaw talaga. The only solution I could think of was to cut his bangs while he's sleeping.

Hubby and I helped each other cut Rocco's hair while he took his afternoon nap. It turned out OK naman, except for the slight crooked bangs. At least maginhawa na ang pakiramdam :)

I guess we'll be doing this until Rocco gets over his barber trauma :)

Pic of the Day: April 7 to 13

Photos are described from top-left to right, going down. 

April 7:
Putting Rocco to sleep when we're at home takes so much effort. This was not an exemption. It took us almost 2 hours, and all the tactics possible before he finally shut his eyes for his afternoon nap. 

April 8:
Oh yeah, that's a tantrum right there. He wanted me to give him his Ipad which I couldn't because I was still taking his picture. 

April 9:
Was a holiday. I wrote of my domesticated day in another post. I was REALLY contemplating of buying Rocco his own bike. I talked to Hubby several times about just to get his approval but he kept on reminding me to take it slow because we might spoil Rocco too much. We'll just give him his bike on his 2nd birthday, if I can control myself until then, haha!

April 10:
Rocco has his alone moments now. He can just sit in a corner looking at books, pictures, and lately at photo albums of his grandparents. I guess he misses them.

April 11:
I honestly can't remember what happened that day, all I can think of was how hard it was to take a photo of Rocco.

April 12:
That's before his breakfast, naunahan ng toys. 

April 13:
He is seriously addicted with cars. He's now learning how to remotely control his toy car. Great for his hand coordination skills!

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Previous links:
March 17-23
March 24-30
March 31-April 6

Today I was a domesticated goddess :)

We were planning to purchase the oven we canvassed last week, but decided to just buy it this weekend because of the freaky hot weather which makes it insane to even go out. Instead we had a general cleaning in the house. All the carpets and sofas were vacuumed, the floor mopped and washed, and cabinets cleaned. Ang sarap talaga ng amoy ng malinis na bahay :)

We also passed out going to the wet market because we overslept, so we're bingeing supermarket food for the entire week, courtesy of the nearby Robinsons Supermarket. We tried to bring Rocco to the newly opened posh barber shop at Robinsons but he wailed when he realized he was having a haircut. Better luck next time! On the way home, we passed by a gardening supplier and bought 3 sacks of decorative stones to beautify our mini garden.

Tadaaah! It's a bad picture, doesn't even give justice to how beautiful our mini garden looks like. Haha!

I cooked chicken afritada for lunch. Seriously, hindi ako nagbubuhat ng sarili kong bangko but ang sarap talaga ng naluto ko. I'm not sure if mauulit ko pa iyon kasi usually when I cook, I don't measure, I just go with my taste. I cooked a lot pero ubos, pati si Rocco nasarapan because he ate a lot!
Sayang I wasn't able to take even one picture kasi gutom na lahat. Next time!

After lunch, it was a movie-mania afternoon for us. Rocco was as usual, his active self, kasi ayaw niya matulog. He's like that when we're at home.

After the scorching heat tamed a bit, we went out to play. Rocco has a new playmate, Ate Misha. She owns the big boy's bike which Rocco SUPER likes. Buti nalang ang bait ni Ate Misha because she lets Rocco play with her bike. Everytime I'd pull Rocco out of the bike, super iyak sya ng iyak. I just gave Ate Misha our specially made ice candy as a thank you gesture for being so nice to Rocco :)

Ang sarap pala ng taong bahay paminsan-minsan. I accomplished a lot, and at the same time, spent time with my family, and got to know my neighbors more :)

Till the next weekday holiday!

Pic of the Day: March 31 to April 6

Photos are described from top-left to right, going down. 

March 31:
I received some flak from my sister for letting Rocco use the Ipad. Of course I had to explain that what you see in pictures is not what happens ALL the time. So this week, I'm focusing more on his other favorite activity, which is READING. By the way, that's his fave book that he's biting up there.

April 1:
The VTech toy was a gift from Ninang Genevieve. It was his super fave toy/book when he was still an infant because it produced a lot of music. Until now, it's still one of his fave toys.

April 2:
Everytime I see Rocco in his crib, I'm reminded that he's still a baby, just getting longer and chubbier by the day.

April 3:
Rocco saw his Papa putting on his socks, and he wouldn't say NO for answer, so his Papa had to put on the socks on him too, boot style. Tadah!! Nice shoes Rocco!

April 4:
That's 12kilos of solid weight!

April 5:
See, he loves to read also! Those are great buys from Booksale, my fave store for super unique hardbound books.

April 6:
Naaah! He wasn't sleeping, just dazed why he was moving to and fro inside the grocery :)

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Previous links:
March 17-23
March 24-30