It Wasn't Long Ago...

Taken in October, 2005

It wasn’t long ago when I was able to carry him for hours on ends without straining myself. My arms had felt numb once in a while during those innumerable marathon-carrying sessions, but it was only because his weight had been resting on my veins.

It wasn’t long ago when he seemed so helpless and so fragile that I couldn’t wait to see him take his first step.

It wasn’t long ago when the only word he could say was “fish”.

He learned to recite the English alphabet soon after he turned one… with the exception of the letter “w” which he used to call “wee”. At around the same time he learned to count from one to ten.

Books, trucks, toy cars (matchbox/hot wheels), and robots… pizza, pasta, cakes and bread… these are a few of his favorite things.

He says “Peyngkyu” for “thank you”, “amals” for “animals”, “opopus” for “octopus”, and “po bear” for “polar bear”. “Chew” for “two”, “etric fan” for “electric fan”, “chip n dayo” for “chip and dale” (the chipmunks), and “donna duck” for “Donald Duck”. “Chelelas” for “tsinelas”, “Milo a day” for Milo (the malt drink) which he used to call “coffee” not so long ago, “akyet” for “akyat”, “wayo” for “whale”, “sa-boon” for “sabon”, and “neyn” for “name”.

He says “Daddy/Mommy, water” when he’s thirsty.

He says “Daddy/Mommy, dodo daw” when he wants his bottle. And if he specifically wants the 8oz bottle, he would say “big lang”. By the way, “dodo” and “milk” are two different things to him.

He says “Ihi ka” if he wants to take a pee… which, more oven than not, is when he almost couldn’t hold it anymore.

He says “pukpuka” if he wants to take a dump. He got the “pukpuka” from the time when we were potty-training him… that time we would ask him “pupu ka?”

He says “Wake up, Mommy” when his mommy would pray with her eyes closed in church.

He says “Daddy/Mommy, punas…” whenever he drools. And if you don’t do so right away, he would approach either Mommy or Daddy (whoever is present) and pull Mommy or Daddy’s shirt and wipe himself with it. <-- kasalanan ni daddy yan

He calls his going-out clothes “pogi”… <-- kasalanan ni mommy yan

He says “sakit ako” whenever he’s hurt. He only knows of five insects… “ipis”, “lamok”, “butterfly”, “ants”, and “bee”. If you hear him yell “A bee!” repeatedly, it only means that he saw an insect that is not any of the four others, and he’s terrified of whatever it is.

He also knows “spider”.

He says “that tickles” almost every time I wash his feet at night.

He says “bo-be” together with “no” if he really really doesn’t want something.

He puts his toys back in their box when told to.

He likes to group hug. He likes to climb up and down the stairs.

He knows how to say “sorry” and “be careful”. He knows how to say “it’s ok Daddy/Mommy” but I doubt he knows what it means. He knows how to say “please” when asking for something.

He doesn’t like having his teeth brushed. He doesn’t like soft drinks. He’s not a fan of rice… so every time we would feed him rice with soup (sinabawang kanin), we would very often hear him say “soup lang”.

He has this thing about asking people to open their mouths and looking inside them and saying “Hala! Dirty!”

Just the other night I bit his butt cheeks, he was yelling “No! Daddy, no!” as I was doing so… afterwards, he sat up, turned around to face me and said while waving his finger “No… mouth… kimmut… sakit yun.” Which had me and my wife laughing really hard.

Also that night, he asked me to open my mouth. After looking inside my mouth and saying “Hala! Dirty!” he asked me to close it. I didn’t. He tried to close my mouth by pushing up on my chin. I still didn’t close it. Then he said “Sira… mouth… daddy.”

To my dear son…

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY!

Just a few days ago at "Pan de Manila"