Tala is 10 months old! She looks as surprised as I feel. Is she really just two months shy of a year old?
Lots of new things this month: some good (her first four teeth popping out on Christmas Day) and not-so-good (high-pitched shrieking, getting used to feeding her three solid meals a day).
The best thing about the last month is that she spent most of it back home, in the Philippines. She may not remember her first visit home, but I always will.
The first week was a huge adjustment for her: all that time stuck in the car, all the noise, all the people who wanted to hold her, kiss her and play with her, and an uncharacteristic December heat. Even with the aircon on, she woke up those first few mornings with her hair plastered to her head with sweat. (I kind of regret not taking a photo.)
But I can’t really dwell on that, or the time we got stuck on the Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay highway for three hours, or those first few nights of jet-lagged cries. Not when there were too many good things to cherish: daily baths in the palanggana, the laundry washbasin (a must for every Filipino baby)…
morning walks with Lola…
afternoon swims at the clubhouse…
and an abundance of tropical fruit that made mealtimes a (messy) delight.
The baby formerly known as Little Mango discovered that Philippine mangoes are the sweetest…
but that new sandals taste even better. (It was her first time to wear any kind of footwear. Purely for aesthetic purposes, of course.)
She became part of some of Mommy and Daddy’s favorite Christmas traditions…
and celebrated her very first Christmas!
Clearly she wasn’t very happy with the long-sleeved Santa outfit I packed for her. After struggling to get a few token photos, I gave up and decided it would be perfectly okay to let her be the naked New Year baby instead of Santa.
Tala was baptized over the holidays, too, although she took greater interest in taking off her shoe than in becoming a Catholic.
I didn’t realize the white baptismal gown only gets put on in the middle of the ceremony—if I had known, I would have chosen a nicer dress for her to wear! After wrestling to get our wriggly baby dressed in her white outfit, I understood why it’s so much better to baptize babies while they’re newborns.
Still, waiting to get Tala baptized at home was worth it. We’ve been asked so many times here why we would still want to baptize Tala in the Catholic Church. Being at home felt easier—like we were among people who simply understood. It was a good feeling.
That was the best thing about the last month, really: sharing the joy and gift that is Tala with family. After a little bit of getting to know you…
she settled into the arms of her family…
who each love her in their own special way.
How lucky is she to have her very own team of bodyguards? Boys, beware!
Kidding aside, it’s always been a joy to watch her grow. This month, the circle of people who love her, beyond just Marlon and myself, grew exponentially, too—and it was a joy to see that as it happened.
Aww, now I’m missing home and feeling all warm and fuzzy inside!
