King and I: Love's Story

Gavin has been talking so much and he surprises us with words that he says.  Here are some conversations that I love to cherish.

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One evening, when we came home from work and school, Gavin saw  pack of juice when I opened the fridge.

G:  “Can [I] have some juice, please, mommy?”

M:  “Only after dinner.”

Gavin, even though there wasn’t any food on the table, pulled his chair and sat on it.  He had to get down since I was still fixing a salad and the fish was still in the oven.  Finally, when food was ready, he once again climbed up his chair and said,

G:  “Let’s pray!!!”

He grabbed our hands and said started leading us in prayer, which was his first time doing it and said,

G:  “Dear God, thank you for our food.”  Then looked at King and said “Daddy made this.”  Then looked at me and said, “Mommy made this. Amen!”

He ate the cucumber-cantaloupe mint salad and a couple bites of fish and said again “Can I have some juice?”.

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One night last week as King and I were getting him ready for bed, Gavin was very affectionate.  He is normally very cuddly but lately he’s been wanting us to stay with him in his bedroom as long as he can ask us to.  And he give us lots of compliments wtih lots of hugs and kisses to go with it.  One night he told me, “Mommy, I wub you!”  He saw me smile and said I love you back.  Then he goes on saying, “No more time-outs?” Ha!

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Another night as he was trying to get ready to sleep, he once again got very affectionate.  After all the I love yous he started a conversation which we generally have over dinner:

G:  “What made you sad mommy?”

M:  “What made YOU sad?

G:  “Coz I miss[ed] mommy.”

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Here’s a picture of Gavin enjoying the chocolate chip-banana muffin I baked this morning.

Dear Gavin,

Wow, did time fly this year!  You are now 2.  This year was filled with some fun memories.  Here are 12 things about you this year:

1. We got to see you walk your first steps and looked forward to the second and third time you walked.  We thought it was the most exciting thing. Of course now, all you want to do is run and we’re only trying to keep up.
2. When you learned to jump, all you did that week was jump.  You’re dad was particularly excited that your feet actually do get off the ground when you jump.
3. Now you’re talking and talking a lot.  It took you a really, really long time to call me “mama”.  You already knew to call “daddy”, “bahbah” for Barbara your teacher, “hedy” and even “kathy” whom you seldom saw at that time.  It was as though you were just teasing me since you already knew a lot of words.  So when you finally called me, “mama”, it made my heart melt.  Then a few months later, you called me “mommy” and out of the blue started calling me “mom”, saying “Thanks, mom.” when thanking me.  You sound like a big boy now sometimes.
4. Last December, a few mornings you busted out counting from 1 to 11.  However lately, you’ve lost the sequence and count “1, 3, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15″ instead.  Sometimes you throw in a “quatro” or “ocho” in there as well, something you picked up from watching a lot of Dora during our trip to the Philippines.
5. Favorite foods?  Well, let’s just say you love to eat.  That makes me really happy.  You love fruits especially oranges.  You can finish 2 in one sitting and all that are left are the rinds.  You also love strawberries, blueberries and especially blackberries.  You love bananas too.  You can also tolerate spicy food and enjoy some of it.  When you discovered mangoes, you can spot it from a distance.  You love pastas, pizza, quesadillas, tacos and many many more.
6. You love to dance.  When you hear music, you start shaking your shoulders or you whole body.  That never fails to entertain your grandparents.
7. As for toys, you love cars.  You also love the movie Cars and Lightning McQueen and Mater.  You were extremely excited when you saw them in California Adventure when we went last December.  A lot of your toys have or are lightning mcQueen.  However since last Christmas, you got spoiled by your grandparents and aunties and got a bunch of Thomas the train toys.  You know your different matchbox cars.  You also know the different Cars character.  Your favorite seems to be Mater.  Now, you also know Thomas and his friends.  Other than Thomas, you really like Gordon and wanted that for your birthday.
8. You love shoes.  I don’t know where you get it from.  You have no problems wearing them and insist on picking the shoe to wear every morning.  You can also get picky on clothes telling us you like the “nice shirt” or the “monkey shirt”.  You most especially like wearing your football jersey.
9. We went to the Philippines this year.  That was an interesting experience.  We brought so much stuff with us including “fresh” milk to last 18 days.  I’ll post a separate blog on our trip.  You got to play out on the streets of Novaliches, ate mangoes, rode tricycles and called coconut trees “chocolate trees”.  We had a great time introducing you to families.
10. Last fall, you started using your big boy bed.  I was really sad because you didn’t even want to cuddle with me before going to bed.  After brushing your teeth, you rush to your bed and are ready for your bedtimes prayers.  Then I tuck you in, leave you and in a few minutes you are sleeping soundly.
11. You used to suck you thumb and took you only less than two months to not even do it even in your sleep.  We truly admire your self-control and could not be any more proud.
12. Before going to bed, we say our prayers.  I start your turn with “Thank you Jesus for..” and you say Mommy, Daddy, Gavin and whomever or whatever you saw or did that day like lola or grandma, grandpa or  you start enumerating your toys.  You sometimes are thankful for the sky, the light and difference letters.

It was a great year with you Gavin and we look forward to many more years with you.

Love,

Mommy

It was Dec 31st and we were driving to the grocery store.  Gavin typically sucks his thumb as he watches everything outside the car as we drive along.  Out of the blue, King said, “Gavin, how about if you stop sucking your thumb for your new year’s resolution?  Just do this instead..” King showed a motion of his hands, a way to keep Gavin’s hand occupied from sucking.   Gavin followed the motions and said, “this?”.  King said, “yeah, just keep doing that.”  So Gavin did just this till we got to the store, in the store and our drive back.  From the rear view mirror,  could see him put his thumb by his mouth then stop to play with his hands intead.  He did very well so we kept it up for naptime and bedtime that day.  Then he did well over days and now it’s been a few weeks.  His bedtime moved an hour later for a couple weeks because he gets so restless from not being able to suck his thumb.  I felt guilty from depriving him of his comfort at the same time so proud of his self-control.  The only times we see him suck his thumb was when sleeping especially right before sleeping.  He is honest enough to admit he still sucks his thumb.  However, this past week, he makes us leave his room when he is ready to go to bed.  He tells us “Mommy/Daddy, outside.”  Then I say, “How about Gavin?”.   He responds, “Gavin, night-night.”  He also then says, “Mommy hug.  Daddy hug.” so we could leave him alone soon.  As soon as we walk out the door, we see him through the monitor, sucking his thumb.  I cannot believe that he makes us leave his room.  He’s not even two.  I’m not ready for this!  So Gavin goes to bed, and King & I, just watch him from outside his bedroom.  Our baby is now a little big boy.

Gavin has been surprising us with the words he’s been saying lately.  This week he had a few words that caught us by surprise:

Music -  On our drive back from daycare, I had the radio turned off.  Just as we left the school’s parking lot, Gavin said, “I want music.”  I was like, “Really?  What do you want to listen?”.  He said “buhbee” for the Bumble Bee song.  As soon as the song started, he had a big smile and said “Buhbee”.

Happy – Gavin was banging his Thomas train on the table so I told him to stop doing it because Thomas will be sad.  Gavin picked up the train, looked at Thomas’ smiling face and said, “Ah, Thomas happy!”  What can I say?

Yesterday – I don’t know if he truly knows what this word means but he definitely knows to use it in context.  We’ve been working on stopping his thumbsuckng habit.  In the mornings when I see him in bed I ask him if he sucked his thumb.  One morning he answered, “Ah suck it yet-ter-day!”

This was a picture taken last Friday night at TGI Fridays.