A Father's Love

It's a running joke in my family back home that one, poor goat got slayed (caldereta, ei?) on my birth day all because dear father was immensely delighted "it's a girl!", finally (after two boys).

Naturally, I grew up a Papa's girl.

I am born to an utterly hilarious father.  He can get you laughing 'til your tummy aches and your eyes wilt.  Perhaps it's his frisky nature, among others, that drew both of us closer.

Papa is my first love.

                       September 2007

Twenty-nine years later, I married an equally hilarious man. And no, I didn't saw it coming.  It was strange to me then, that I don't have a criterion in the bag for a husband, like most girls do.  Brian walked into my life in the most fortuitous way.  A surprise.  But it was a happy surprise. 

The husband is overtly full of character.  It astound me still that the person I end up with, is very much selfsame to the person I've loved forever.

    March 2011.  Back when little Geb is still a bun in the oven.

As to how we end up each other, well, that astound me more.

For Brian~

Barely a year ago, on a Sunday drive with Job, I watched as you two snicker giggles at the front seat.  I was smitten by how compassionate you were as a father to your first born.  Little did I know, you'd be one day a father to my own child. 

You are, indeed, a terrific Pop as I had imagined. 

A hands-on, affectionate keeper to our little bundle.

Geb is nutty about you, no wonder.

   first week

   seventh week

In celebration of Father's love, I applaud you for being a wholehearted Tatay to our son.

Thank you for putting up with my inadequacies as a wife and a mother.  In every challenge, in every difficulty; you persevere.

You ain't perfect (hey, no one is!) but you are wonderful just being YOU.

For bringing so much life, and color, and energy to our little family with your funny antics-- thank you. 

I can always make use of your witticism when I'm darn downbeat.


**What's up with my Father's Day blogpost in mid-July? Well, aside from I didn't make it on the day the whole world commended all fathers;  now that I have my own family, I'm convinced, a father's love is worthy of praise any day, any time of the year.

Eight Weeks Rewind

Care to know the dillema of a first time Mama?

A stockpile of baby photos!

Loads of photos roll in every single day that I go crazy putting them together.  On some days, I'd excuse myself from feeding, diaper changing, or lull-the-baby-to-sleep routines just so I can pore over an 8GB memory card that always run out of space (thank goodness for Photobucket and Shutterfly).  You see,  I couldn't let go one from thousands of images.  No matter how hazy or similar-looking they appear,  I refuse to delete any.

It's insane. 

Ironically, I simmered down on Facebook uploads because, really, you'd also go crazy browsing through 8++GB worth of Geb portraits.  Nonetheless, it's fun to document every sweet age and stage, and milestones of our baby.  Taking pictures has become second nature, I have to say. Parenthood seems to equate photography in our household.  Both came oh-so naturally when we first laid our eyes on our pee wee.

Here are some of my fave snaps throughout Geb's first eight weeks of life.  Who knows how much .jpeg files a single blog post YOU can handle. 

We'll see.

Baby Burrito

I wish we can still swaddle Geb ala-burrito.  When all he does is sleep like a snail in his shell, looking so snug and hushful.  We start to see toes peeking out of the blanky after two weeks of swaddles, even if he's wrapped in it tight.  We'd giggle with delight when little feet shows up.

3-week old little feet

Splish Splash

                    second week

          

Certainly not the first bath ever.  We were cramped when we did it the first time that I missed some clicks away.  Brian bathe him on his second day at home, his tub on our bedroom floor.  And don't get me started with the actual bathing.  We were in state of panic the whole time! First of all, we have no idea how to do it right.  Of course we youtubed/googled on 'how-to-bathe-an-infant' tutorial but it ain't easy in real life, especially with your own baby.  I couldn't bathe Geb until he was six weeks old. I waited until the cord in his navel wear off and his circumcision healed completely (both were already okay as early as 2 weeks though, so yeah, that doesn't make sense).  Truth is,  I'm scared to death.  But I had to give it a try.  

Did I say it's scary to bathe a tiny baby? A stinky baby is scarier, absolutely!


ZZzzzZZ

             first week
My two boys snoozing (or simply lazing around) next to each other fascinates me much-- definitely one of my top 5 parenthood moments of all time.  

Geb's first night at home was spent shifting him from the crib to our bed, then from our bed back to his crib a gazillion times.  The next thing we know, we passed up sleeping ourselves.  We felt anxious putting him to sleep in his crib through morning.  Oh well, we're anxious with almost anything during the early weeks.

Breastfeeding VS Bottle-feeding

This, too, is on top of my best parenthood moments list.

                      second week

                    third week


Feeding, though tiresome in the night since we do it round the clock, but it is when we bond the most.  Thankfully, Geb is at better schedule when he reached the 7th week mark.  I love his gaze when he starts to feed on his bottle.  He gulps his milk like there's no tomorrow. Hee.

Those huge gulp while his eyes locked to mine is just so precious. 

I was sure I'll breastfeed long before I gave birth.  But Geb had dificulty, or doesn't latch on at all.  Also, the after-effects of epidural (anesthesia) were awful headache and back pain that I took high dosage of pain relievers two weeks straight.  He shouldn't feed on my milk at the same time.  Consequently, my milk supply ceased; we ended up in bottles. 

*****

Aren't babies the cutest when they yawn?

    2 days old

How about I stop talking, ei?

    third week

 

Dizzy now?

Okay, enough.

Ah-TWO

Lookie how our little guy have grown!

Geb is now two months old, folks.

Remember how we could hardly keep him awake during his first month?  This time, all we get is knit brows, sulk-lookin' peewee.

Enter the stripy candles tucked in a toothsome blueberry muffin. 

No luck, you see?

Somebody make this baby SMILE please! Me, saying.

And so, enter my 'make-the-baby-SMILE' team.

Of what seemed eternal peek-a-boos and tickles, finally, he gave in.

Such a cute little MONSTER trickster, this baby.

Apparently, Geb is stricken with awful heat rash (mostly on his face) about two weeks since.  He itch like crazy, putting him to sleep is a whole lot of challenge.  Poor thing, he's ill at ease.  

Super thanks to the awesome Auntie who paid a trip to his pedia last weekend. 

We had fried GG (galunggong)/buwad/hotdog/humba.

Sounds like a parteeh?

Party-ng bisayaa, ei!

Happy happy second month, Dodong!  The candles were blown for you, my love, like we did 30 days back.

Oh, have a look at your PINKy soothie... 

Just the way you like it, baby chickee!



Happy, sad or blue.

Deep down in your heart you know ~

We will always love you.