My sunshine, now at 15 months is becoming more and more active, tirelessly running to and fro, climbing the stairs, pulling out all the stuff in her dedicated shelf and eats much to her heart’s content. I love it when she smiles so beautifully whenever she sees her dad coming home from work or even at me when I just came from my bath! Isn’t that cute? If she’s done something that she knows mommy’s not happy about, like touching things in “mommy’s shelf”, she’d run to you and try to appease you with a hug.

I am happy that she keeps a good appetite. She eats cereals for breakfast; thankfully she likes cow’s milk now. She enjoys her servings of whatever pinoy dish I cook and her favorites are — pork or beef sinigang, beef nilaga, chicken or beef afritada, Filipino spaghetti or chicken macaroni soup. With the appetite of my two charms, who would not be motivated to cook everyday? 🙂  Amelie will typically have lunch with me, a serving of rice (she graduated from rice porridge since 1) and viand then slices of oranges or rock melon will come after. We try to always have fruits on the table though it’s a challenge to stock up a lot. She will join me and R for dinner later in the day. She loves orange juice and Yakult (this helps her digestion). From 4 bottles of 8 ounces of formula per day, she now drinks just 3. Yey!

She loves books, enjoys her time alone playing with her toys, plastic containers and even CD cases! Whenever she’s bored though, she will call your attention by turning up the DVD player volume or she’ll come to you and pinch you. Yea, one habit I hope she’ll outgrow. She pinches me a lot when she’s trying to put herself to sleep. Even if I just clipped her nails, her fingers are just too precise not to miss the muscles and fat I have on my arms.

R plays a lot of “hide and seek” game with Amelie. I tell you, once you start playing this with her, she just won’t stop. You’ll be catching your breath and she’ll still be running and hiding and wanting for you to surprise her.

She says the words “ilk” for milk and this has helped avoid crying spells whenever she’s hungry. There’s no more guess work when she gets cranky. So she asks for “ilk” when hungry, pinches and whines when sleepy. Ha ha.

Amelie loves action songs. She first learned how to clap and stomp and raise both arms to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” before she turned 1. Her next favorite is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, far from her “close-open” antic when she was still a young baby, she would open and close her hands and motion her fingers to form a diamond and sing “kul” “kul” when she watches the video. Now she’s learning the “Eensy Weensy Spider”, she started to do movements on her fingers but have yet to learn the rest.

When she sees me and R dressed up, she’ll drop whatever she’s holding and run towards us. She knows we’re going somewhere and would want to go too – and fast! When you say “shoes” she’ll be so alert that it will be difficult for you to dress her up, she just wants to put her shoes on and go!

There are lot of little challenges to come – teach her to brush her teeth (she bites the brush before it gets in her mouth), potty training (which I dread!), better sleeping habits — she takes 2 naps daytime and sleeps through the night and with “better” I mean for Amelie to sleep on her own. She only does it now when she’s very tired.

Parenthood is REALLY tough work but the rewards are priceless! Happy 15-month birthday, darling Amelie!

Late August this year, my Ate C forwarded an email from her company’s brand manager requesting for leads on potential baby models for a new TV ad. In my excitement, I bothered less if our dinner wasn’t ready yet and that I was very tired that day coming from work. I immediately picked-up Amelie, gave her her evening bath, fixed her hair and diaper and grabbed my trusty Canon camera! Talk about priorities! Hee.

The photos in this layout are just two of what I sent to my sister. Kaya lang, when the brand manager inquired about Amelie and learned that she’s in Singapore, she told my sister that the shoot is scheduled in the 1st week of September and it therefore followed that she’s dropped off from the list. Sayang no.

But despite that, Amelie remains to be a JNJ baby.

Amelie had always enjoyed bathing save for the first few weeks when she was still a newborn. But when she was in her 10th to 11th months, she started to dislike it. The mere sight of her tub just sent her shrieking and wailing. I had to improvise like using plastic containers and what not to entice her to stay put in her tub because bath toys didn’t do. If R was around, he would hold Amelie while I wash her up. Her struggles and wails often led to 5-minute baths and a wet mom and dad.

However, a few days after we reached Manila, she surprised me most when she all of a sudden changed her mindset over bathing. She stayed put until I finished the whole bathing ritual. Now, unless I take her out of the tub, she wouldn’t stop splish-splashing! A pleasant surprise indeed!