"ma-meh"

i made mom a very happy momma tonight! that's because i was finally able to say "ma-meh" and "mei-mei".

yes, that's the whole "mommy" word for you. when i cry, i used to say "ah-meh" a lot. but tonight, they were surprised once more that in the middle of a crying spill, i called mom "ma-meh". i always want my mommy to hold me when i'm upset that's why i call for her. i just love how she can comfort me even by just carrying me or singing and humming to me. all the more when she lulls me to sleep while she cuddles me at her bosom.

oh how i love my "ma-meh"!

ps. but of course, i love you much as well, dad ;)

dad's special day

sharing dad's special birthday celebration in color...

since it was a lenten friday, we just had some seafood lunch at mcgraths.as usual, i had a lot of kulitan moments with my favorite dad in the whole wide universe!

it was my first time to eat with them on a high chair (normally when we eat out, i am either at my carseat or being held by mom or dad). i really enjoyed the high chair a lot!

"reading" my nursery rhyme book after we're done "YM"-ing with lolo tatay, lola nanay, aunties and cousins

i was too exhausted that day, but i really had a lot of fun!
more birthday pics here. and you can also read mom's special blog entry for dad's bday.
happy birthday daddy! mommy and i love you soooo much!!! mwaaah!

my ABC's

when dad saw the yourbabycanread infomercial from the telly, he immediately told mom about it. then mom saw the infomercial herself with all the parents' testimonials which made both of them long for their products. the said products can apparently make a baby, who has yet to learn how to talk, be able to read. yes, you read it right? R-E-A-D! and my parents saw the videos of these babies and kids reading (or acting out what they've read), with their very own eyes. my folks (specially my mom) dream big ya know, so they want the same for me.

BUT, and a big BUT at that, the set is very expensive! hence, dad decided that he'll be the one to teach me how to read using his own methods. and we started by learning the alphabet. so, he got me a set of alphabet flash cards, with big letters, small letters and pictures. each day, we'll learn two letters in order. the next day, we'll review those two letters, and start with two more, and so on and so forth. so i get to see 4 colorful flash cards daily.

here's the letter j
oh, so that's how a jet looks like!
but... let me taste 'em flash cards... yummm!
they actually aren't sure if i really am going to learn my abc's as fast as those babies on the infomercial, or if i'll possess the same interest as they do. nevertheless, it's fun doing this with dad! a bonding moment indeed!

well, i don't mind that much. i just know that they're happy doing a lot of activities with me. as long as they keep singing the alphabet song to me (which never fails to amuse me... yeah, even if i'm in the middle of a crying spill, when i hear them sing the song, i would really stop and listen), i'd be one really happy baby!

playtime is funtime!

everyone loves playtime! even the adults do!

i have whole lotsa toys (i even have plenty of 'em that are still in their boxes). and like any other home with kids, toys have been everywhere around the house. i do get to play with them everyday. my parents think that i'm just chewing on them like you would a teether though,haha.

but i would never ever trade the best playtime i have to any other toy in the whole wide universe! and that is my playtime with dad and mom. i just love our kulitan and gigilan together! they are my favorite playmates! they actually think that i like to be brutally tickled, and boy i do! and i know how happy they are when we really play interactively. here are some videos of my favorites...

dad kissing my feet... watch me pushing my feet towards him, haha

playing with the rattle ball and dad... yes, go ahead, you can laugh with me! it's that contagious! hahahahahah (watch all 3 parts here).

how about you? what's your fave?

reading time!!!

"reading time na anak!". this was what i would often hear around nighttime when i was still inside mommy. then i would immediately hear some classical music from the background, then my dad's voice, reading a book that they borrowed from the library.

when i arrived, this stopped for a while because first i was a very demanding baby, and 2nd, i didn't appreciate it as much as i did when i was just tumbling and squirming inside mom. they tried the reading sessions earlier on but wouldn't be able to finish the book at one blow coz i had a very very short attention span.

now that my senses are more appreciative, dad started the sessions once more and borrowed more books from the library. reading time for me is not only at bed time. we do it any time of the day, when im more active. i love looking at the colorful pictures and listening to dad's voice.

in the pic below, we're reading something about babies' activities, and i soo can relate! i just love reading time! here's a video showing that.



until the next book dad! can't wait!

my daddy's day

today is my dad's very first father's day, so this day is very special to all three of us ;)

after mass and the special blessing given to all fathers by fr. dennis, we all went to crafts to get the wooden letters (that spell my name of course) and the paint for mom's diy project for my nursery. everything in that room is being worked on by my loving dad, so this was her way to help somehow, haha. by the way, the paint on my nursery is done, and they were finally able to stick the wall borders on. it looks really great, that mom and dad would always take a peek inside the room as they pass by. hooray for dad and mom! you'll have to wait till the whole project's over to see the pictures :). then we went to babies r' us to buy the graco travel system for me, unfortunately though, the one they were eyeing on was now discontinued and out-of-stock. so the search for another one goes on.

when we got home after a hearty father's day lunch at texas roadhouse, dad was surprised to see a gift lying on their bed. it was our gift for dad! (well, actually mom got them for me, but just the same, it made my dad extremely happy and all the more excited for me!). he got everything out and found these...

a pink onesie with "i love daddy" in front and "and daddy loves me" at the butt area; a sleepwear saying "daddy said i can" and a matching bib that has "daddy's little princess" on it... can't wait to wear all of them!
happy happy happy father's day daddy!!! i love you soooo much! as soon as i can, i'll give you all my kisses and cute little hugs! for now though, i'll shower you with kicks to tell you how much i adore and love you. mwwwwaaaaaahhh!!!

PS. tomorrow, mom will attempt to undergo another OGTT, please please pray for her just so she'd be able to get through to the end of the test without puking! (and for her to pass the test of course) :)

25th week updates

again, there were just sooo many things happening around me that i will just load this post with snippets...

* on mom's special day
we celebrated mom's birthday last week, just the 3 of us. dad prepared his special carbonara and bbq ribs. i enjoyed the food with them of course. and as always, i obliged when dad told me to greet mom a very happy birthday by giving her a good kick. teehee.

* on mom's pregnant belly
last thursday, when mom was about to prepare for work, she stopped at the mirror, called dad and asked "are these stretch marks or bed marks???". she was pointing at the lower left portion of her belly, where there are some reddish little lines. they both concluded that they're just bed marks. but the next day came and the marks didn't even move, so yeah, they're stretch marks. ugh. it seems like that expensive stretch mark prevention lotion didn't work at all... or did it? since the lines were just few and can still be counted? hmmm... well, mom calls these "red lines of bliss" anyway, so i guess she's fine :)

* on my baptism
eventhough they haven't finalized my name yet nor my godparents, my parents were already inquiring about baptism schedules in our parish. since my lolo dadi and lola mami (and hopefully tito ruprup) will be coming to visit me in september, and won't be able to stay really long, they had to schedule the baptism when my lolo and lola are still here. and since the parish only does baptism every 4th weekend of each month, they already informed the parish secretary that they will have me baptized on that last week of sept. so there! soon, they willbe attending the seminar, and hopefully before i'm born, i already have my own name :)

* on my nursery room
with mom's nesting instinct finally kicking in (mostly because of dad coz it came through to him a lot earlier, heehee), dad and mom were finally starting my room. dad actually started buying modular shelves and drawers for the built-in closet and began to plan further for it. he also borrowed a book from the library and had been surfing the web about nursery rooms. they actually had a solid idea of what my room would look like. they kinda had a theme already. but when they visited lowe's today and that wallpaper specialty store to look at borders and sample designs, they just acquired more ideas. hopefully, they'll finish putting borders and paint on the walls before they get the crib and bigger furniture in. exciting!

alrighty! i hope you all had a great long weekend!

the "moves"!

24 weeks and 3 days old. that's how old i am today... and as always i am getting plumpier... well, bigger :) as for my latest updates...

my movements are really stronger now that if you touch mom's belly you'd already feel my light calisthenics. these acrobatics would sometimes wake mom up (well, aside from the uber active bladder) in the middle of her deep slumber. most often, when mom wakes up to pee, she'd have a hard time falling back to sleep coz i would move almost nonstop when she's awake at dawn. i know, i know, it's such a bad time to choose to play.. but i just want to play with her ;). i'm sure she doesn't mind. she always tells me to move coz that soothes her (yep, call mom a masochist coz she'd rather have me kick her hard, even if it causes some pain sometimes, rather than not do anything at all).

there was this one instance when she woke up at around 4am and couldn't sleep anymore (yeah, coz of me) coz she felt hungry as i was playing inside her tummy. worried that i was hungry too (coz i really moved non-stop), she went downstairs and braved the dark just to get us a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk. dad was still in deep sleep and she didn't want to wake him up. dad told her afterwards though that she should've asked him instead so that we wouldn't need to go downstairs anymore... well, next time dad, and of course i'd be happier if you'd eat with us too :D.

also, the night of mother's day, before dad started reading to me, he told me to greet mom by kicking her hard. i'm a proud daddy's girl remember? so i obliged and kicked mom so hard that both of them saw it. dad was ecstatic! he then cheered on me and kissed me right away. as his lips were on my mom's tummy, i kissed him back... well, alright, i kicked him hard too that he really felt me on his lips. if i just kissed him back, he wouldn't feel it and he wouldn't be as happy as he were when i did that, hahaha.

oh, there's another proof that i'm getting really big (or is mom getting big? teehee)... dad cuts mom's toenails now. yeah, she couldn't bend down that much anymore. so my ever loving dad, does that for her now. how sweet! :)

that's all folks! ... i just hope that tonight my parents would be successful in hearing my heartbeat through the bebe sound "microphone" (stethoscope-like thingamagig) that tito kim and tita hiyas lend them. thanks tito and tita!

random updates

23weeks and counting! ... i'll just fill you up with random updates since my last post...

** we went to see dr. bouchard today for our monthly appointment. as usual, mom asked quite a number of questions (most of them are just out of paranoia,haha). and as usual, the doctor told them that everything's fine. my heart rate today was measured at 148-151bpm which is great according to her. and she also measured mom's uterus. from the pubic bone to the fundus, it's 23ish cm. so right on spot for my age. by next month's visit, a diabetes test will be done on mom. and before we left, they scheduled our 3wk appointment after next, three 2week appointments, and a series of weekly ones til i come out ;)

** mom thinks that she's too big. she sent some preggy pics to her family and while lolo dadi called her a "butete", my tita tokti was telling her that they both have the same belly size (and she's already due next month). and with a 2-lb weight gain from last week, she got worried. dr. bouchard assured her though that her weight is right on track. alrighty then!

** dad already saw me! finally! hooray! the first time he did was at church last sunday. during the liturgy of the word, mom felt me and told dad right away (yeah, i'm also active at church). and boy was he happy when he saw mom's belly protruding! he can see me more often now though, specially when i have the hiccups! i'm glad i'm making dad happier even with just a few little hiccups here and there. oh, and tito john had a funny question about hiccups. he asked why babies in the tummy still get hiccups when we can swallow lots of amniotic fluid to prevent it! ...makes sense? haha

** we won!!! i am now a proud owner of this. we went to the library last saturday and saw a booth from babies r' us. mom giddily signed up for free coupons and raffle. they didn't expect that they'd win though. they actually don't know if i finally am bringing them luck on raffles/contests (coz i certainly didn't when it comes to winning powerball, haha) or they were the only ones who signed up. haha. so they picked up the price at the store on sunday... refer to the next update then.

** my folks finally stormed babies r' us on sunday. it's another haven for them (but more pricey compared to burlington). they got to see lots of baby stuff and i think that's where they're getting my travel system from coz there were lots to choose from.

but you know what my mom likes about these baby stores? ... the expectant mothers parking space! she longed to park on these spaces one day. so finally, her dreams came true! haha

daddy's girl

i'm proud to say i am! :)

it just soothes me to hear his voice (my mom wonders why when he doesn't posess the nicest voice in the world,haha). whenever he reads to me, i just stay still and listen intently. sometimes i'd fall asleep. (mom said that it could be the soft music at the background that makes me sleep, and not his voice). haha.

but last night, he was reading the name choices that they had to me. he gave me 30 seconds to kick or move for each of the name that he'll say, if i like it. so he was just there. his face so close to me (though it super tickles my mom). but again, since his voice was sooo soothing to me, i just stayed still. mom said that i moved when he mentioned the last name. but that's mom's top choice. besides, the movement according to her is too soft. not very like me :)... so he'll do it again next time.

dad was watching bringing home baby from tlc yesterday morning. to mom's surprise, he really watched til the end of the episode. talk about an excited dad preparing for dad-life! haha. he's still too scared of carrying and holding newborns though. they all seem fragile, he said. anyway, this show just got him all the more excited that he watched another one this morning (and he's looking at the directv schedule to see when the next episodes are, heehee).

ahhhh, can't wait to be held by you dad! :)

***

thanks tito by and tita nova for giving me more new stuff! they gave me a winnie the pooh crib set (pooh is for girls according to them, haha), avent breast milk storage kit and a 2-in-1 head rest. cool! kuya garbriel wasn't able to use them so my parents would make sure to put them into good use :)

growin' and kickin'

i am 21 weeks old and still growing!

maybe because of that, my mom had another mild cramping on monday (coz the uterus is expanding?). also, on tueday morning, she woke up telling my dad that she feels like her body is breaking in half (crosswise by the tummy -- like "manananggal"?!). she remembered though that at this point of tita tokti's pregnancy, she told mom that. and her ob told her that it's just because ate jo-c's growing and tita's center of gravity was shifting. ahhhh, ok.

moreover, my little kicks are being strongly felt by mom. on monday night, when dad was preparing to read to me. mom felt a strong movement in her tummy. so she just looked at her belly. and i probably kicked too strong that it kinda poked out of my mom's tummy. instead of freaking out, she got more excited and watched her tummy and saw the protruding me twice. dad watched with her soon after, but when dad looked away for awhile, i did it again. he missed it! he waited patiently and talked to me to make "pasikat" one more time. but i stayed still. teehee don't worry dad, pretty soon, you'd feel and see me too :)

halfway point!

uh-huh, 20 weeks and 3 days old today! 20 (or less?) more weeks to go and i'll soon be meeting the parents! (wait, isn't it that 40 weeks = 10months?!... whatever! we don't want to deal with pregnancy math anyway, do we? :D).

mom's been feeling my movements more frequently this week. she feels me at least once everyday now! hooray! it was different from the first few times that she felt me according to her. she's describing it to my dad as something that's brushing through inside her tummy (yap, that's me). too bad dad couldn't feel them yet. soon dad, soon.

oh, by the way, my parents finally made the big announcement! you can look at mom's blog, mom's friendster and mom's multiply page. i loved the collage that dad made for me (mom posted this on her blog). i specially liked the picture of my pair of tiny feet. everyone who visited mom's site left really exciting and happy comments and had nothing but well wishes for my family. awww. thanks so much!

both sides of the families now know what my gender is. and they're as excited as my parents. but it's been pretty obvious that they both have a preference for "blue". for one, they just recently found out that my cousin jo-c (joanne cara) is going to be an "ate" for me. so there'd be two grand daughters for lolo dadi and lola mami this year. on my daddy's side, my lolo tatay was probably still in denial and kept on telling them that it's too early to tell and that sonographers can be wrong sometimes. teehee. can't blame him though since all my 3 cousins on dad's side are girls (almost ladies now). so he's probably secretly hoping for a boy with his unico ijo (uh-huh, my dad's his only boy). haha, ain't that cute?!

on the "names" end, my parents told ate ishang their list of names. and she suggested some more. hahaha. but at least, with her help, they were able to trim the names down to 4 (or 5?). but i'm pretty sure they'e falling for just 1 or a couple. i just hope they'd finalize that before i come out. i still go by "kiko", by the way.

oh and don't you know that dads-to-be also experience weird dreams about their babies-to-be?! in my dad's dream, he's showing some friends my ultrasound pics and those experts told him that i had 8 fingers and 8 toes on my right, and 6 fingers and 6 toes on my left. then he was already holding me and confirmed that i do! in his dream, though a tad worried, he still assured himself that those can be fixed by surgery anyway. haha. what is it with finger and toe count on parents-to-be?!

as for my last update, my parents finally have enlisted themselves on the childbirth preparation lamaze class by st. alphonsus. breastfeeding class comes free with enrollment too. they'll have the childbirth class on july 26. i hope they learn tons from it so that they won't get too stressed out just thinking about how i will come out. harhar.

alrighty, that's all folks! but before i forget, we'd like to thank tita ge for giving my parents some baby items list to start with. so now, they had been seriously window shopping for baby items, scouting for the best prices and finding good bargains for my stuff. mom said that they won't buy any baby items on garage/yard sales until they got me something new first :)

updates and more updates...

hi, i'm kiko. and i'm 18 weeks (and 4days) old. there were just so much happening around me so i will just share different experiences and stories with everyone...

let's start with how i am... i actually am feeling as good as ever. i may be as big as a huge pickle now. hmmm. my parents will visually find that out on wednesday. i also am still trying hard to make my mom feel me all the time. so far, it's been successful. not everytime though. but that's fine, as long as she's noticing the stretches that i do. it's just funny when she'd feel me coz she would tell dad right away. and my doting dad would really get excited and would talk to me and cheer for me for doing that. ;)

oh, and i have another funny story... whenever my mom or dad would read to me at night, one's been carefully observing (while of course, listening to the bedtime stories) the inflections and diction of the other one. usually it's mom who would always laugh at dad coz he's really creative on how he reads the story that he would sometimes forget how he made a particular character sounded like before or his diction was wrong. i tell yah, there almost wasn't a single night when my mom never giggled. it really makes me always look forward to the next nightly session!

ah, mom considers these as "perks" of having me. and because of these, all the discomforts that she's feeling right now were nothing compared to having ME. awww... talking about discomforts, let me list down some of 'em that mom's feeling now:

- now that i'm getting bigger, mom's uterus is also expanding. hence aches and pains were getting pretty common for mom. she'd sometimes feel sharp pains, or mild cramps on her lower abs and hips. but her dr. told them that as long as it's not prolonged and there's no accompanying bleeding, it's perfectly normal. scary huh?!

- she's also experiencing some difficulty in breathing. and she now easily gets full (and if she eats some more, she would feel the food coming out and she would want to throw up). and all these could be because some of her organs have moved somewhere else? (huh?).

- also, it's getting hard for her to get out of the couch or the bed. tsk tsk. yeah, i am getting heavy. dada's support is always there anyway.

- she is also now finding it hard to sleep. yeah, she can sleep, but she has to find the lying-on-the-left-yet-comfy position first. she'd feel her leg restless or crampy though most of the time. and she'll get scared whenever she would wake up lying flat on the bed (i might not be able to breathe with that position according to her) and would quickly go back to lying on her left.

- the tailbone pain is already making it's presence felt now. not as bad as tita jen's yet. but she has to find a really good sitting position to get comfy.

the list is getting long in addition to those that she'd been feeling before (ie bloated, gas, never-ending constipation, frequent urination etc). but when asked by anyone on how she's feeling, she would simply say she's ok and that she's happy that i never gave her a really difficult pregnancy. yep, she has a realy minute tolerance for pain, but what she's feeling right now are the same ones that other pregnant moms feel according to her. but i guess, nothing beats the overwhelming excitement and happiness that every mom (specially first-time moms) feels, so these are all nothing! mom says, "bring it on!". ammm, mom, i'm not that big yet. wait til the 3rd trimester, then say that again. teehee.

probably she'll get some more humorous tips from laura wolf's diary of a mad mom-to-be (she gets the serious ones from the bible of all pregnant moms, what to expect when you're expecting, of course). she just recently remembered this follow-up book to laura's debut novel, diary of a mad bride (which she read during their wedding preps) recently and borrowed a copy from the library. she once saw this book at powerbooks right after she got married and vowed on reading it once she gets pregnant.

alrighty! that's all folks!... but before i end, i'd just like to greet my dad once more...

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! and i love you too! ;) ... i hope you had loads of fun celebrating your 30th last thursday with just me and mom (and with your superb carbonara and pinoy pork bbq on stick). i sure had a blast!

sing a song

whenever mom is driving herself to and from work, it had been her habit to sing songs out loud. she really loves to sing. she told me once that she's singing for me so that i'd recognize her voice and i'd get to sing like her someday :)

recently, she's been singing kiddie songs like the alphabet song, some batibot and sesame street songs too. she told my dad one night that they had to practice these kinds of songs so that they'd be able to sing these with me easily.

so one night, my mom and dad were singing and found out that the alphabet song, twinkle twinkle little star, and baa baa black sheep, all have the same tune. and to prove that, mom sang twinkle twinkle and dad sang baa baa black sheep at the same time. but my dad's song, went something like this...

baa, baa black sheep
have you any wool?
yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.
one for my master,
one for my SELF,
and one for the little boy...
who lives down the DRAIN

mom really laughed out loud! so yeah, they need to practice some more. or else, my would-be playmates would make fun at my songs!


*****

my mom's pinoy officemates really get surprised whenever they'd see my mom's tummy really showing now. well, first because most of them recently just found out, so they were still thinking that i'm too young to show (but i'm already 15 weeks and 5 days old). secondly, my mom was always wearing smocks at work since she's oftentimes at the lab. and lastly, the last pinoy gathering that they went to was in december, after christmas. so for them, it seemed that my mom just swallowed a small watermelon and suddenly had a bump in her tummy. teehee.

the 14th week appointment

it's been a month since our last appointment with dr. bouchard. my parents were really looking forward to know how i'm really doing through these checkups. last friday, we met with dr. bouchard again, and the checkup was really fast compared to the first one with her (the wait was even longer :D).

she asked some questions, my parents just asked questions, and then she just checked my heartbeat through that doppler thingy. it took a long time for her to find me (hide-and-seek is just a favorite game of mine). when she finally found the very fast haertbeat, it got lost again. she said that i was probably moving too much, teehee. so i stayed still. everyone then heard the loud thumping! just magical! the count was 158bpm and she said that it's within the normal range and you could just see from my folks' faces how happy and relieved they are to know that. wow.

dr. bouchard then told my parents to schedule the 2nd trimester ultrasound with the maternal-fetal care unit of st. alphonsus. during this procedure, they will measure everything and will also check my internal organs one by one. and it's normally scheduled around the 18th week. hmmm, i'm pretty sure that my parents will ask me to "show-off" again during that time (as they always do on all our checkups :D).

so there! we'll be seeing dr. bouchard again next month! :)

***

i finally did my very first trip to the library (through mom's tummy of course) last saturday. my mom was soooo happy with all the children's books at the basement of the library (she never knew where they were until now... thanks to dad).

they borrowed 8 books for me. and they are planning to get books from the library every week so that i'd be able to listen to different stories each night. and since there are just sooo many books, they started choosing from the authors whose surnames start with the letter A (since the books were arranged through their authors, alphabetically). that way, they'd know which shelf to look at next. they really are cute stories, i tell yah!

when i get a little bigger (outside mommy of course), i'm sure the library would be a favorite hangout for me and my folks. they don't only lend books, they also have fun activities for kids of all ages. fun time!

woot, books!

i've been looking forward to the nightly reading sessions that we started last sunday. dad and mom were taking different characters in the book to read. on sunday night, mom was the mama cub and dad was the baby cub. the next night, they switched roles. i just love hearing their voices. the classical music on the background was also soothing to my ears.

yesterday, dad borrowed quite a number of books for me from the library. so now, i'd be able hear different bedtime stories at night! yey! can't wait to listen to them all!

by the way, as mom expected, her pinoy colleagues already know about me :) tito renan did the announcement there through email (they're expecting their 2nd baby too). so most of them were congratulating my parents. my titas, most specially, are very happy and excited for them. they too had been waiting for me for a long time :) so i guess, the secret's out! :) once my dad is done with that picture collage, my mom will post it in her blog asap.

and oh, i'm 14 wks old today! ... can't believe i'm stepping on my 2nd trimester already! woah!

classical music and books

when tita chel called last friday, she shared lost of great tips with mom during her pregnancy. she told mom to start reading a book to me, even at this early stage, and play some classical baby soothing music to me through mom's tummy.

so they bought me my first book today...



dad also transferred the baby classical music songs from the cds that he borrowed from the library to their ipods.

we'll start this nightly reading and listening sessions tonight. i'm pretty sure that dad will also read the book to me. i'm really excited.

so... goodnight!