Alab's glossary

Life has been happening so I haven't really had much down time to just chronicle much of my or the kids' life nuggets.

Sigh.

Oh well. Here's a go.

Alab is now 17.5 months. His first word was at 11 months, which was "tak" referring to "clock." Interesting that Alon's first was "lat" for "light."

In the course of a half year, he's picked up quite a few words. His pedia, during our 15th month check-up, said he was advanced with speaking.

His first batch of words included "tah" (star), "tata" (tatay or nanay[!]) and "papis" (dog or any four-legged animal).

Now, his vocabulary has just grown!
Nanay = me!
Tatay = tatay or kuya Alon (!)
Pis = please
Caht = cat
Buh = ball, balloon
Muh = moon
Te = ate
Cah = car
Bats = bus
Bee-bee = jeep (the horn of the jeep goes beep-beep-beep, just to explain)
Oto = motor
Eypen = airplane
Buh (with flapping motion) = bird
Taki = taxi
Oos = shoes or slippers
Up = carry
Baba = go down or put me down
Pis = nappies
Puhpuh = i'm pooping
Bas = labas
Nana = banana
Apo = apple

I know I'm missing some words, nonetheless, I'm quite happy that he's as daldal as kuya. And boy, do these two chatter when they talk and play.

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Christmas traditions

Last night I was thinking how much my Christmas tradition has changed since I had a family of my own. I was a little wistful. I did enjoy getting ready for Misa de Gallo then going home waiting for 12:00 to greet every one Merry Christmas and the opening of gifts begin.

The past Christmases, we had to have the Noche Buena and opening of gifts earlier in consideration of the sleeping time of the kids.

As I cleaned up the torn gift-wrappers, I was missing that old tradition. But then I flashed back a little and recalled Alon's excitement of opening every gift.

"Awwww! Nice. I like it." He hasn't really given it much look.

"Ay, so sweet!" to every time I tell him who gave the gift.

"Ako na mag-open. Kaya ko na kasi malaki na ako." This is when we offer help.

I realized, this is my tradition now... to enjoy the look of anticipation on the faces of my sons. While they are still young, I will have to relish that unconditional joy from just opening gifts, of seeing their pile grow. 

When we were settling for bed, I asked him if he was happy, He said he was. I gave him a little reminder that it was the birth of Christ and that people gave gifts to each other to show their love and to honor Jesus. He was scratching his eyes, nodding his head. I don't think he absorbed what I was trying to say. 

I doesn't matter though. There is always every day to remind him.

Merry Christmas folks! May we all rejoice in the joy of the season.

Godzilla

Alon has developed quite a fascination with Godzilla.

These past few days, he has been requesting to watch Godzilla videos. His favorite is video of stills of Godzilla over the year. Another is just his various roars. (find his attention span fascinating when he is truly interested in a particular thing.)

When Alon was a year and half, his cousin Eo generously gave an old Godzilla toy he no longer played with. He has renewed fancy with the toy at three years and four months.

One day, I arrived home finding Godzilla with double-sided tape plastered over him. Apparently, he got hurt so Alon put band-aid on him.

The photo above also has a corresponding story, as told by Alon.

"Ito si Tatay Godzilla, Ito si Alab Godzilla. Si Alon Godzilla, nasa day care."

I asked him, "asan si Nanay Godzilla?"

"Nasa office."

It seems Nanaz Godzilla is a working mom like myself. :)

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Monster Jam

Back in March, Metrodeal had a deal for Peppa Pig and Monster Jam. My instinct told me that Alon would enjoy Monster Jam more. He is obsessed with cars. The bigger the cars, the better he liked them, too. And boys will be boys, I guess. He took particular joy when the trucks would topple, burn or crash.

We didn't buy the tickets then because the event was still this June. We weren't sure with our schedule and we had to be extra watchful of our finances then.

Metrodeal relaunched the sale of the tickets at 50% off.

I asked Alon what he likes more, Peppa Pig or Monster Jam. He answered Monster Jam.

Yey! Because we already bought the tickets before I thought of asking him.

I think I'm more excited than he is! He doesn't know yet, of course. But I'm really, really, really excited. Tatay, Nanay and Ninong Roy with Alon. I'm a bit sad that Alab won't be able to go but it might be too noisy for his tender ears for now.

Alon's first live show will be bad ass! I saw on TV that his favorite monster truck, Zombie, will be coming too. He likes the wobbly hands whenever it flips.

Zombie. Photo taken from here.

I can't wait to see his excitement! :)

Kids say the darnedest things!

In the throes of a wild tantrum
Alon: Gusto ko ng cereals!
Nanay: Kuha kita ng bago?
Alon: Hindi, yung kinain mo!

* * * * *

Tatay: Greet mo si Nanay ng Happy Mother's Day tapos hug mo siya.
Alon: Mamaya na, kumakain pa ako.

* * * * *

Alon: Excuse me, Tatay, nanuod ako ng news. (watching Rated K and its feature on animals)

* * * * *

Nanay: Alon, gusto mo gupit ko?
Alon: Hindi. Pahabain mo.

* * * * *

Alon: Gusto ko ng long kasi hindi short.

* * * * *

Nanay: Alab, kakain ka na!
Alon: Hindi kasi maliit pa si Alab.

* * * * *

Paddywhack

Singing "This Old Man" in a slower tempo helps put Alab to sleep. It's quite a convenient song rhyme to sing since it can get pretty long.

This old man, he played one,
He played knick-knack on my thumb;

With a knick-knack paddywhack
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.

You just repeat the verse while replacing the numbers and the last word of the next line with the corresponding rhyme.
Two - shoe
Three - tree
Four - door
Five - hive
Six - sticks
Seven - heaven
Eight - gate
Nine - line
Ten - all over again

Honestly, I have no idea what the song is supposed to mean. I don't even know what the numbers are counting. A quick wikipedia search did not really reveal much on the song. So I'm stumped to this day.

I did, however, research what a paddywhack is. Mainly due to Alon's insistent asking of what it means rather than my own curiosity. Apparently it's the nuchal ligament of a sheep or cattle. From wikipedia, "it is a strong elastic ligament in the midline of the neck of the sheep or cattle which relieves the animal of the weight of its head. It is pale yellow in color." Apparently, it's used as a dog treat.

It ain't pretty.

Image taken from reddit

Knowing the dark past of many nursery rhymes, this really makes me wonder the deeper meaning of the song. Anyone got ideas?