The Little Swimmer

Our little boy enjoyed swimming so much so I suggested if Nissa could enrol him in  a summer school to learn how to swim properly.

Nissa took this photo  right after Nate spent four hours in the pool  when they went swimming over the weekend somewhere in Laguna. They stayed there overnight, renting a private place with a swimming pool. As it is almost summer here, it’s the best way to beat the heat. He didn’t want to come out of the water. Such is the joy one gets when you are with the family just relaxing.

 

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Three Years And Three Months (And the Days In-Between)

Here I go again thinking how time flies and when it does, you reminisce and remember the things you should have written down.

Today, Nate turns three years and three months old. What a far cry from when he was just three months and all we had were Brainy Babies DVDs to entertain him.  I am excited to teach him new things but sometimes, it’s the other way around. You learn a lot from a three-year old.

Last Saturday, they came over for a visit and we had a grand time playing together while his mom and dad took a nap.  He seldom sleeps when they are here, maybe he is too excited to discover new things too. He knows where his toys are kept so he opened the cabinet and pointed at the big plastic bag and asked me to bring it down. He has two small robots here that he often play with when they visit. I showed him his books but he got one of my paperbacks and pretended to read. Someday, I hope he’d be a voracious reader too just like his mom and Nonna.

It was almost two hours of learning shapes and colors and playing with stuff toys in between. “Help me Nonna please” he said while trying to figure out how to assemble the shape box, identify and putting  the blocks inside. He knows his colors and can now count easily from one to ten.  I took some shots with my cellphone  since I was not able to charge my Canon camera. They were a bit grainy but perfectly captured those moments while he was so engrossed playing.

He was too enthusiastic about sharing what he does at home now that he has no yaya.  Nissa’s mother-in-law takes care of him now. At least at his age, he can play on his own.  He told me that he watches TV too (so I told him not to watch TV so much because it would strain his eyes), play with his Avengers toys and his cars and robots.  Later, I asked him if he wanted ice cream and I was surprised when he shook his head and answered “I’m sick Nonna”. He must have meant he will get sick if he eats something cold and sweet. The wisdom of a three-year old. Having a glass of milk is better, right Nate?

Ah, the joys of seeing his Ninong Josef.  He was so excited to try his Ninong’s head set and danced to the tune of  Nae Nae. I was laughing out load while he was dancing.  Kids learn fast and they learn well 🙂 I got so frustrated that my  cellphone camera can’t properly focus  while Nate was doing his rapid footsteps and hand gestures.

I was even more surprised when I received a text from Nissa early yesterday morning asking me to call her on Viber.  It was Nate on the other line saying “Miss you Nonna, I love you”. Music to my ears.  Nissa told me that as soon as he woke up, he asked if they could visit us again.

The joys of being a grandma, so priceless.

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Unforgettable Precious Moments

There is a different kind of joy when you are around a kid like Nate.  We are indeed so blessed to have him in our lives.

I taught Nate how to say three with his fingers but he found it hard to raise his three fingers all at the same time so I told him, “two plus one” using two fingers on the left and one on the right. He laughed and when I asked him “how old are you?” he said “three, three, three”. Oo nga naman, it is easier to say them in words, right Nate? Smart boy 🙂

We were both admiring their small aquarium  and I asked him if the fish inside have names. He smiled, pointed at each one and said, “Nonna, Josef, Mommy, Daddy, Nathan….” Sometimes, I am simply amazed how he makes me smile.

We were singing happy birthday while he was blowing the spare candle on his birthday cake and he was singing a little louder than we were. A the end of the song, he added, “happy birthday Nathan“.  Then he bestowed the usual wet kisses and warm hugs on each of us. Priceless moments of joy.

May you always be blessed little one. You are a wonderful blessing to us all.

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So I Won’t Forget (Nate’s 3rd Birthday)

The joy of seeing Nate again.

Yes, we were early going to their place since Josef has to attend their office party early evening. As usual, there is no dull moment when Nate is around. It’s a “Cars” themed party. They bought him a motorized racer  car and he was so happy  driving it and showing it off to us. Red  was the color of the day.

He can’t wait to blow the candles so Nissa allowed him to blow the spare one.  He closed his eyes, blew it and clapped his hands. We were all laughing with him.

It’s kind of funny that he received die-cast metal cars from Josef, a backpack bag from me with a picture of a red car but we didn’t know that Nissa thought of having the theme “cars”. She designed Nate’s birthday cake allowing Nate to add some trimmings on it.

Of course, he has to wear his race car outfit again for the photo-op. It is perfect for the theme.

Of course the fun won’t be complete without the family photo. He was just happy and we were all happy for him.

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Celebrating With Nate

Nate is so funny at times, typical of a two-year old who is turning three next month. They came over last Saturday to celebrate my birthday in advance. Last year it was “happy betday” but now he could clearly pronounce the words right.  When he saw the birthday cake  box with a single pink candle, he wanted to open it and blow it.  He was so excited saying “happy birthday” after each every blow, I think that was three times before he allowed me to blow the candle with him.  That’s the fun of having birthdays I guess, the child in you shines  once more. It feels good to celebrate with the family.

We took some pictures at the garden and as usual he had fun picking calamansi and pointing at airplanes passing by.

So happy. He said ” I like it here”. His mommy asked if he wanted to live here but he answered “no, I like it here”….haha!

Ready Nate? Say cheese!

Capturing the playful moments….

Celebrating with Nate and the family, I am so blessed.

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Nate At Play

 

I had a lovely bonding with Nate when they came over yesterday for a visit.  My daughter and son-in-law went to the dentist so I was left  with Nate with just the yaya. Unmindful of the camera, he played on his own with colorful blocks that he said he will make into an airplane, a house for me (haha), car and other objects that he could think of with matching sounds and shouts that a typical almost three-year old can do.

Watching  him with those playful and serious expressions on his face was a joy. My camera was set on a fast-moving mode but I was not able to catch up with how fast he moved and assembled his toys sometimes according to colors and sometimes according to size.

Kids are so creative nowadays. They learn fast and they learn much in a short time.  I haven’t seen him for about a month but I was amazed at how he has grown.  Our only contact  was occasionally talking over the phone during weekends.

There was this instance when I said “I love you Nate” over the phone and I was really surprised when he answered, “I love you too”.  Yesterday I told him I’ve missed him a lot and he said “miss you too”.  Hahaha, he is learning.  When he alighted from the car, that was followed  by a tight hug and a wet kiss.

We picked calamansi later, on his insistence and he smiled and clapped every time he picked one. Never mind that the ones he picked were still too small.  Just watching him smelling the lemony scent of the calamansi flowers was a joy too.

He kept asking where his mom and dad were and we reminded him that they went to the dentist. Then he said, “dentist din ako”  while showing his teeth to me. What he meant was, he would also like to go to the dentist and have his teeth cleaned. The wisdom of a child.

What will it be this time? Play ball with Nonna? The joys of being a grandma – precious moments indeed.

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Some Funny Moments With Nate

He was clutching a 235 ml box of Selecta Moo Chocolate Drink which he got from the ref. I told him, “Come here, I’ll teach you how to read” at the same time pointing to the letter M written in the box.

Nonna: M

Nate: M

Nonna: O

Nate: O

Nonna: O

Nate: O

Nonna: How does a cow sounds like? Without second thought he shouted, “Moooooooooooo……” with such panache I can’t help but laugh. Every time they come over, he always checks the ref if he has a box of  Chuckie chocolate drinks inside.

I earned a kiss and a hug after that.

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Chef Nate

Just can’t pass this off. Look at our big boy learning the rudiments of cooking. Who knows, he might be our Chef Nate someday.

Was he really looking for a real knife? Not for you yet baby.

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How Do Dragons Dance?

I haven’t updated this blog for quite a while and it’s the first time I’ve seen Nate for the past two months.  My daughter and son-in-law were busy for sometime so we have missed the monthly visits and this weekend was the perfect time to be together again. We celebrated my son’s 31st birthday last night with some orders of pizza and pasta dishes. We were so happy to see Nate again. He has grown, he is taller now at 3.1 ft. It’s nice to see him show what he has learned the past two months. His favorite toys now are robots and transformers. He brought along some toys but he has some favorites here at home. He can entertain himself shouting like crazy and the silent moments were spent  looking at pictures of some magazines.  I have this old copy of Travel Time magazine with a colorful dragon head drawing at the front page. He was always curious.He asked me the name of the animal and when he learned it was a dragon, he asked again how they looked up close so I told him to scan the pages and see the pictures of a dragon dancing. He has earmarked the page and kept coming back to look at the photos.

choosing what to read….

I showed him his previous photo with his dad with a dragon in the background, he smiled. That smile must have meant he remembered.

quite the serious reader ha?

 

what are you smiling at Nate?

start them young even if they could not read the words, at least they could appreciate the pictures.

We have a brief storytelling about dragons. He saw the close-up pic of a dancing dragon. I was surprised when he suddenly asked me, “how do they dance Nonna, the dragon?” 

I was amazed. The question was how, not what. So based on the dragon dances that  I always see during Chinese new year, I bobbed my head several times, spread my two arms and did something like a rain dance. His yaya was laughing out loud while I was doing it while Nate was trying to imitate my head bobbing and hand gestures. You see, it was one of those crazy moments that we both enjoyed.  Last night, we had this game of hide and seek and bahay-bahayan  with Nissa, yaya and me holding each end of a bed sheet while Nate was trying to hold the other end. We were laughing so hard while Nate was jumping on top of the bed.

it’s quite hard to take a good photo of Nate nowadays, he knows how to make faces in front of the camera.

look Nonna….

He found my sturdy shoes that I use when we go to the wet market. The simple joys of a child, the smiles that make you smile  too and laugh, the hugs and kisses when he is in the mood.

They left after lunch. Another overnight stay worth-remembering.

 

 

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Did You Say Jollibee?

A child’s life would not be complete without experiencing what fun it is to visit Jollibee. Its logo is probably more known to kids than some other franchises that dot Metro Manila. Jollibee is a Filipino multinational chain of fast food restaurants which is based in Pasig and serves hamburgers, rice-based meals, side orders and desserts.

Nissa took several shots of Nate enjoying moments with Jollibee.

Just a simple way really to make a child happy.

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