Baby Steps

I laugh when you try not to hold on to my hands. You like standing up on your own. Ever since you were born you seem to know already what you want. I was a little worried then because you're not like the babies of almost your same age who could crawl already. I was kind of blaming myself for not reading in advance the articles pertaining to "tummy time". I was thinking that maybe that's the cause of the delay. Then you surprised us when you were trying to pull yourself up in your crib! I was ecstatic! But your knees aren't that strong yet that's why you experienced also bumping your head on the sides of your crib. That's when I decided to dismantle your crib and give you instead a foam bed on the floor so you'll have a bigger space to explore.

And just look at you now! You stand up by holding on the ends of our sofa. You travel from our sala to our kitchen by holding on whatever you think is stable enough to support you. Your goal usually are things that aren't your usual toy. You really try your very best just to get it. And when you don't or you can't, you start crying. But when that thing is finally in your hands, you examine it. You look at it from front to back to front to back to front! You bang it on the floor or on the sofa or on the foam bed. Then you try to taste it and bite it until that thing is covered with your saliva! Hahaha! Then I'll be the KJ because I don't want you to get hurt by that thing so I'll steal it from you. You'll cry hard that our whole street might get scandalized by it! But I'll try to remain firm until you subside then we'll play another game instead.

I will let you stand on one corner without any support. I'll stand about one step away from you and encourage you to take your baby steps towards me. I have my hands ready to catch you when you fall. You wouldn't dare to step at first fearing you might fall. You'll close your fists and look me in the eyes. Then you let go. You took your first step then your second and then your third! You end up in my arms with smiles I can't trade for anything else!

Thank you for trusting me and I swear I will never break that trust. :)

I love you!

Why you should forgive but not forget

Maybe many of us have already heard this:

"Forgive and forget."

But most of us would argue that it's just easy to say that than to actually do it or live by it. I've tried a lot of times to forgive and forget but the latter was just really hard to do. Here are some reasons why:

1. The bruises you receive leave you scars. Some may blend with your skin tone but some would just want to share the spotlight with you. The bottom line: these scars won't leave you (unless you try to have some plastic surgery). Yet again, some scars aren't marks left by physical violence or accident. They're there deep in your soul.

2. The hurtful incident should be a lesson learned. I was hurt and I had hurt. I was forgiven and I also forgave. But I never wanted that same mistake to happen again.

3. Forgetting will not resolve the issue/s; forgiving does. We may try to ignore the things that have hurt us because we wanted to escape from it. But the more we run away from it, the more this ghost haunt us.

Now, if you can't forgive someone because you can't (or maybe, don't want to) forget what he/she did to you, just try to remember at least one happy event both of you had. We must learn to focus more on the beautiful things they did to us than keep remembering how we were badly hurt. I heard also from my friend that when you are projecting positive vibes, you are also attracting more positive energies to come to you. Vice versa: when you project negative energies, you also magnet more negative energies.

The World Is Such A Big Big Place

I'd like to be able to fly and feel the wind rushing into my face. I'd like to see the world as if they're a miniature scale of an architect. I'd like to be beside the clouds and pretend they're giant cotton candies! But most of all, I'd like to be in Sao Paulo, Brasil! Oh dreams!

Photo: screenshot from the movie Rio

My drug is called Love

My husband and I had a big dinner last night. So to let our stomach digest all the food we ate before we go to bed, we watched this movie Love and Other Drugs starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. There were lots of nude shots and sex scenes but it wasn't that intimidating. Or maybe it's just because I'm comfortable watching it with my husband. The geek brother of Gyllenhaal here was our comic relief. It wasn't really heavy drama love story. It was actually, for me, inspiring. You may have gone through lots of experiences, meet different wonderful people, but in the end there'll be just one person who could make you smile by just looking at their face. I'm happy I found that person. :)

Photo: screenshot from the movie Love and Other Drugs

Bubble Babble

My almost 1 year-old daughter tries to tell us stories we couldn't understand (for now). She's probably building sentences by combining sounds she hears and words we utter. She'd say "izzzard" when she sees the wall where the lizard would often travel onto. She'd "meow" like a kitten when we say "meow! meow!" But it's very clear when she says "dadiii"! She once exclaimed "Lala!" (or Lola, grandmother in English) when her grandma surprised her. She seldom say "mamiii" or "mamaaa" but she prefers to be with me over anyone else.

Just last night when my husband and I got home, she started saying things we'd like to think was in English because of how she twangs the "words" she says. When she felt she wasn't given the attention she wants, she'd start screaming or crying! Hahaha!

She's really our little bundle of joy and the source of our never ending energy.