Posing
Just some old photos of Sandy during summer school.
Whenever she goes home, the first thing that she’ll say is:
Mommy, take my picture
She still has the mullet hairstyle here LOL.
She really can pose when she wants to. And after every shot, she always runs to me to check if the shot is good. She’s probably copying me because that’s what I tell The Husband everytime he takes my picture hehe.
Hello Monday
Well, if you’re wondering if I accomplished anything from my list below, the answer is no. Oh wait - we didn’t spend money except groceries so I think I deserve a star for that. No luck for everything else. I’m still as tired as I was last Friday night, while working on a rush design job at 10:50PM. I tried sleeping in the afternoon but my busy mind refused to cooperate so I turned on the computer and designed some scrapping papers. I didn’t know it could be so hard and fun, by the way.
As of this day, I’m happy and proud to announce that Sandy has been sleeping on her own for 7 straight nights, without nursing at all. She now breastfeeds ONCE A DAY only, just before her afternoon naptime, for 5 minutes. But other than that, she’s as good as weaned 
For those who didn’t have a hard time training their kids to sleep, this may sound like a small feat but not for us. I’m very proud of myself and Sandy because one, I don’t give in at night even when I’m dead tired, and two, the little one just doesn’t ask for dede anymore.
It really helps that I work from home. I can wait for her to sleep on her own (even if it’s taking more than an hour already) without worrying that I need to get up really early. And because I’m home all the time, I was able to potty train her at two years old. This is why some of my friends prefer to find small business opportunitites online than work in a real office.
My Big Girl
Forgot to blog about this. Sandy attended a farm party for her cousin Chloe last June 14. There were two Piglets if you will see from the photo below LOL. She had fun as usual. I thought at first that she’d demand that they sing for her (she loves parties) too but she was so behaved and didn’t even once try to steal the spotlight from her cousin. She helped Chloe blow her birthday candle though, but only when Chloe’s dad (Sandy’s ninong) asked her to.
And even though it wasn’t her birthday, she received some gel pens, an orange watch and plenty of stickers from relatives too.
She looks all grown up here. Everytime I look at this photo, I can’t help but feel proud that we were able to raise a smart and good kid.
Sleeping On Her Own
Whenever Sandy sleeps on her own, I can’t help but do a happy dance inside my head. Last night, when she wanted to nurse, I told her no but offered to carry her in my arms. She agreed but after 10 minutes, she went to her own bed and “looked for her spot”. After 30 minutes of tossing and turning, she stopped moving. As I kept my movement to a minimum, I hopefully checked if her eyes were really close or if she was just pretending to be asleep. And there she was, mouth open, sleeping like a log. I was so proud of her that I wanted to wake up the sleeping husband to share my joy hahaha.
By the way, I’ve changed my weaning plan from June 21 to September 18 (her 3rd birthday). However, as of this moment, she has not nursed since yesterday 2PM. So hurray for the both of us. I’m still letting her nurse during her naptime so I can get back to work quickly. For night time, it depends if I’m too tired or sleepy. But as much as I can, I try my best to just carry her until she’s sleepy enough to find her spot and sleep on her own. Wish me luck because I badly need it!
The Preschooler
Say hello to my little preschooler.
I know I said we’re not going to enroll her but we changed our minds when Sandy couldn’t stop talking about her school, teacher, classmates and the songs that she learned last summer. Plus her tuition isn’t that high so I didn’t feel like I’m paying a lot for something that can be done and taught at home. The pre-nursery class consists of five 2-3 year olds. Some of her classmates didn’t attend summer school so they were a bit shy. When Sandy noticed this, she stood up and taught the youngest girl the ABCs and numbers. (Balak yata maging teacher paglaki) She helped the other girl with almost anything, from getting crayons from the basket, drawing a “straight” line, singing songs, showing her the dance moves, etc. It was a great start and she appeared that she’s really having the time of her life. I really feel that we made the right decision to enroll her.
TGIF
No school tomorrow!
*wearing her pink leggings under her uniform because she finds it itchy LOL
Yep, she started school this week. More stories this Monday
Weaning Plan
I have this plan to wean Sandy on her 3rd birthday (September). I’m not really ready emotionally so as early as now, we’ve started telling her stories about a Princess who sleeps on her own and doesn’t need dede from her mommy the Queen. Sandy responds more to storytelling so we figured we could start from here. Her Papa tells her the same story of a little girl (or a bunny, a princess, a star) that wears her blankie and embraces her hag-hag (hotdog pillow) or Barney so she can fall asleep. She tries to sleep on her own, I give her that. But most of the time, she’s really having a hard time. I pity her as I watch her open and close her eyes in the dark. There’s this one night when I saw her crying without sound. My heart just went out to her. I asked why and she said, “I can’t fall asleep”. Hay nakakakaawa talaga. I know we should train her but I’m just too soft.
She has lots of tricks too when she can’t sleep. One minute, she’s facing the wall (her favorite sleeping position) and the next minute, a small hand will poke my back. She’ll then say:
Sandy: Mommy, no more dede ha?
Me: (I know this is a trap) Yes, no more dede. Go to sleep.
Big pause here.
Sandy: Why no more dede?
Me: Because you’re a big girl. Come on, sleep na.
After five minutes.
Sandy: Mommy, no more carry ha?
Me: (Oh my God) Yes, no more carry. Go to sleep.
Two minutes
Sandy: Why no more carry?
Me: Because you need to sleep on your own.
An hour will pass and she’s still awake. I’m usually pretty beat up by this time so standing up to carry her is close to impossible. And so we won’t disturb her Papa who needs to get up in five hours, I’ll just give in and let her nurse so she can sleep. It’s my fault, I know. We told her that after my birthday, she’s not allowed to dede anymore. I hope I can stick to it. She didn’t nurse last night. I just embraced and carried her while I sat on the bed until she fell asleep so one point for me.
Sandy and her Toys
So many tags and comments to reply to, so little time. If you want to be updated, just visit my flickr. It’s more updated than my blogs: My Flickr
Here are Sandy’s latest photo with her latest doll, Alice. She names her dolls by the way. Sometimes it will be as normal as Alice, but most often than not, it’s something weird like Kreki, Trapi or Kolti.
Still curly eh.
I’m not sure if I blogged about this before but she now plays on her own. She knows how to wash the dishes too 
This is what keeps her busy lately. I thought she’d never play with this for more than 10 minutes but now, it’s all she can think about. Having four Barbies in one room gets crowded so some of them have to sleep on the floor and on the stairs hehe.
I’m planning to buy her a whole playhouse when she gets bigger. I’m even lining up a project where we will build a house from scratch, something similar to the properties in Outer Banks when she’s about 5 or 6 years old. I bet it would be fun and messy!
I love this year, really. It’s so much easier to take care of her now. She will only ask for me if she’s done something cool and wants an audience. More work time and browsing time for Mommy! 
Guess How Much She Loves Me
There are small things that make me know for certain how my daughter loves me.
Whenever I’m working hard, I will notice that something will always, and I mean always materialize at the right side of my table. It could be a plate of banana, pizza, pasta, celery and like yesterday, a big chili pepper made of red clay. And it doesn’t stop there. The plate will have a fork or spoon and a cup of soda or the soda bottle itself.
Sandy: Mommy……..
ME: Yes baby?
Sandy: Look (pointing at the plate)
ME: Wow, you have food here. Are you going to eat?
Sandy: No. It’s for you. I ate already.
Sometimes, she’ll even give me a cup of coffee with ice cube. All of them are toys, but you get the picture. This happens everyday. She makes sure that I don’t get hungry when I’m working.
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When I hurt myself, she will rush to my aid while I whimper and whine from the pain.
ME: OUch, ouch, aaaaaaaargghh! Ouuchhh!!
Sandy: What happened? What happened?
ME: I hit myself. I’m okay, it hurts a bit though.
Sandy: (in a mothering voice) Come here, come here. MMmmwaah (big kiss with matching embrace). There. No more aw aw?
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After washing my face, I sometimes forget to wipe it because I was so busy doing something. She’ll say:
Sandy: mommy, come closer
Me: okay, what?
Sandy: I’ll wipe your face (then she’ll wipe my face using any cloth near her, a dirty blouse, her lampin, tissue)
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She knows now that working is important. She rarely disturbs me anymore except when she’s sick and needs extra TLC. But sometimes I miss her so I take a break and go to the bed to read her a book. She’s always surprised to see me. She will ask, “Mommy? Are you done working? Can you play now?”. Of course, I’m never done working. But I’ll smile and hug her tight because she’s so considerate and tell her, “yes baby, we can play now.”
Sandy’s First Haircut
Yep, that’s right. Last Sunday was her first official haircut. Since she didn’t have that much hair, getting a haircut wasn’t a priority until her pedia told us that we should have her curls trimmed. I was really hesitant knowing that we’d find it hard to make Sandy sit still. So we practiced several times and even showed photos of Jane’s Sophia and Jacq’s Sam having their hair cut in a salon.
The result? She was so behaved. Of course there were some moments when she couldn’t help but look at her reflection. And just when I was so sure that she will freak out at the sight of a hairdryer, she looked down obediently and let the guy dry her hair. She also said, “I’m not moving ha.”
At the Kid’s Salon in Rustan’s Makati
Her curls
Last Day in School
Sandy finished her summer school last Friday. There was a small party and the parents were invited. Before the games, they showed us what they usually do everyday. Sandy was the youngest by the way but she can follow all the lessons and activities from drawing to singing to dancing to ABCs to counting. The only activity that she can’t join is reading and sitting in one place
Sandy in school
With her “favorite classmate” AJ. She has a love and hate relationship with this kid.
Posing with her classmates
Whenever the teacher asks them to stand up, Sandy goes to the front as if to lead them bwahahah
The teacher was singing ABCs here when Sandy stood up all of a sudden to point to the letters on her own.
Eating time
The teacher asked me if I want to enroll her already this June but I said no. Sandy might be ready but I’m definitely not. I think I can teach her the basics at home anyway plus I’m reading about homeschooling and might give it a try. IF, and that’s a big if, I can still afford to squeeze some time.
This just in: Scratch that last line. We have decided to enroll Sandy this Friday. We figured since she enjoyed her summer class and knows her teachers already, it wouldn’t hurt to have 1 1/2 to 2 hours of school/play time daily. The tuition is not that high compared to other schools so her savings accounts are safe, for now.
Happy Day
I’m so glad she didn’t get her smile from me. If you want to know why, just look at my smirk/smile on the right section of this blog.
taken one afternoon while she’s playing on the bed.
And I scrapped using this photo! Click here.
I love seeing Sandy’s smile. She used to be a crybaby but now, she seems to find happy things on almost anything. Whether it was her tripping on the carpet, her doll losing its head, seeing Neville dancing with Ginny on Harry Potter or something as mundane as a pimple on her Papa’s face, it never fails to crack her up. She definitely won’t be needing any anti wrinkle cream if she continues to be like this when she’s older.
Happy Friday!
Meet Sandy’s latest friend - Dora.
We take Dora with us every time we need to go to the hospital. The doll helped us a lot especially when Sandy didn’t want the doctors to touch her. We just put Dora on the examination bed, raise her legs, etc and Sandy will immediately copy and try to outdo her.
On TagLish
My sister-in-law who raised her daughter Gabby to talk in English kept reminding me to teach Sandy how to speak in Tagalog. She said although Gabby knows Tagalog, she’s still having a hard time on her Filipino subjects. We don’t really have a problem with this because Sandy is very bilingual LOL. The Husband is right when we decided to teach her English first. He said Sandy will always learn Tagalog even if you don’t teach her since it’s the primary language used around her.
Anyway. I love hearing Sandy talk in Tagalog. I find it hilarious the way she pronounces her words. Whenever she speaks in Tagalog, I ask her immediately if she can say it in English just to test if she knows them both. Sometimes, I catch her talking in Tagalog with her yaya but as soon as she talks to me, she will change to English.
Just this morning while preparing for school:
We always watch Harry Potter or Hi5 to cheer her up in the morning.
Sandy: (just woke up) I want to go to school
ME: Okay. But let’s watch Harry Potter first while you eat your breakfast.
In the middle of our conversation, her yaya said, “Ate nandyan na yata yung tricycle” (Sandy’s service).
Sandy: I want to go to school!!!
ME: Yes you will go to school but first, let’s eat baby Oreo then take a bath. Want to watch Harry now?
Sandy: No, no, no! I want to go to school. The tricycle is there!!!
ME: (ignoring her) Ate Arlyn, please put the Prisoner of Azkaban ….
Sandy: Waaagg Ate Arlyn. Wala nga, wala. Wala naman DVD sa tricyle. Wag na lang.
Since we always watch movies when going out, she thought I was trying to give her the DVDs so she can watch it on her way to school. It’s really cute. It may sound normal to you but we’re so used to hearing her speak in English that we can’t help but laugh whenever she talks in Tagalog.
More excerpts:
Ayyyy ano ba yan Ate Arlyn?? Bakit mo sara ang pinto.
Hesusmaryosep! Delikayo dyan!
O Ma? Asan ka? Pauwi ka na ba? (copying her Papa)
OH MY GOD. Bakit may Papa dito? (pretending that she didn’t see her Papa)
Just a tip, though. If you plan on teaching your kids both language, just make sure that it’s either straight English or straight Tagalog. Otherwise, they’ll get confused or worse, sound like Kris Aquino ROFL. (I’m guilty of this one)
Happy Day
I’ve had enough of being sick today. I’ll just post this photo to cheer myself up.
This was taken yesterday when we visited Sandy’s newest cousin, Adrienne. It was also my father’s 56th birthday so we had a mini family get together too. I know I should’ve at least bought Adrienne a baby gift basket but we were too busy last Saturday to get one. It’s been four months since I last saw my parents. I missed them a lot and I’ve been feeling guilty about not visiting them often so I promised myself to visit them at least once a month from now on. Too bad I was sick so we had to get home early. And thanks to The Husband and my brother’s nonstop stories about paranormal beings, my dreams last night were filled with white ladies and poltergeists.
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About Joy
I am Dzoi, a 28 year old Filipina who currently works as a web designer. I am a loving wife to my equally loving husband Sherwin and a mommy cow to my 2-year-old daughter, Sandy.
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