To have a memoir to look back on…recalling my days being a first-time Mom. To keep a time capsule of my son’s first memories. To capture the lessons learned, inspirations gathered, and yes…even trials faced along the way.
This is why I have this blog.
One of the things I’ve written up to this point is “The Miggie Report”…a growing up progress report of sorts for our son, Miguel. It’s a blog post that captures his antics, favorites–and all things in between–for a certain milestone age. I’ve stopped doing the monthlies once he reached 24 months (two years old), but I think half-year marks are worth the mention.
So here goes…
Miguel’s Current Age – 2 1/2 years old (+ 1 month…I’m actually a month behind in writing this post)
Antics – He’s now super talkative. He’s always been a talker, but I feel he became a real little chatterbox once he reached this age. He’s more conversational, more curious by way of asking questions and repeating phrases that come up in grown-up talk (in short, this is the age when you want to watch what you say around him for fear of embarrassment he might repeat something you wouldn’t want said by someone his age in public).
Favorite Toys – His train sets, puzzles, dinosaurs, and blocks. He does this thing now when he pretends he is baking a cake with his blocks. He layers them up like a rectangular sheet cake and gives me “pieces of cake” to eat…the red blocks are strawberry cake, the yellow banana cake, the green blocks are apple cake, and the blue are blueberry cake. I think we may have a budding pastry chef… (I must remember to buy some bakery toys/pretend cakes and pastries on our next trip to the toy store.) He also likes building airplanes and tall towers and robots with his blocks, and he gets quite frustrated when the blocks break/fall apart (call us mean, but we find this entertaining). I’ve had to teach him it’s OK that the blocks break because he can just build them up again.
Nursery Rhymes/Songs – Miggz loves to sing. Especially at night right before bedtime. He likes to sing, sing, sing until he falls asleep. (That said, I’ve found that this is also the most effective time to teach him a new song). He also likes to sing when we are eating at the dinner table. So far, his library of full songs he can sing up to this point include:
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
ABC
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
The Wheels on the Bus
Jingle Bells
The Itsy-Bitsy Spider
Jack & Jill
“Bahay Kubo“ – this is a Tagalog (Filipino) folk song about a hut-house surrounded by various vegetables in the garden
This is the Day (that the Lord has Made)
He also picks up songs quite easily from YouTube and TV cartoons (sometimes, songs from the radio too!!). He loves to sing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song after his baths, as well as sing along to shows that he watches.
Education – For a kid his age, Miggz watches a LOT of TV. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing. He learns quite a great deal of educational things from TV, and we make sure we balance the TV watching with actual “lessons.” Miggz knows his ABC’s, colors, numbers. He can count straight to 30 and understands basic math (1+1=2, 2+2=4, etc…). He knows the concept of what happens if we add/take away stuff and how many remain (if we have six apples, take away two, he’ll count how many is left). He can also identify animals and the sounds they make, knows his dinosaur toy species, can pinpoint fruits and name vegetables (now if he only ATE his veggies, I would be TOTALLY happy and we’d be golden…)
The Outdoors – He still LOVES to pick up rocks. And play on dirt/sand. I guess this comes with the territory of having a boy.
The Terrible Twos – Up until this point, I thought we’ve so far skipped this stage. But yup, the terrible two’s upon us. Miggz has definitely found his whiny voice and tantrums now. Funny how they also develop a “pride” thing this early. For example, I had no trouble teaching him to say “Please” and “Thank You,” but for some reason, it took him really long to learn to say “I’m sorry”…not so much the meaning of it (though he knows what it means now) but just the act of saying it. His “NO!” voice has also gotten so pronounced (most of the time with a sting) that I’ve had to teach him to say “No thanks” instead. Of course, now he says “No thanks” to everything…
Learning Discipline. I’m a believer of “the earlier you teach them right, the sooner they’ll learn.” I’m definitely the bad cop in the house. I want to teach Miggz right from wrong, and for him to know that we love him unconditionally. This part of parenting is not easy, but something you have to deal with.
Below is a printable I got from Pinterest and framed in Miguel’s room. It captures my thoughts for him, for this age and beyond.
And here’s a look back on when Miggz was JUST six-months old…a care-free time when he was so little (and we didn’t have to think about discipline yet…)
Miguel at six months...no "Terrible Twos" here!!
I'm Kaye. I am Philippine-born and raised but lived most of my life in central New Jersey. A year after becoming a NewMamma, my little family--made up of me, husband and baby boy--made the move of our lives from the Northeast to the Southwest. We now call sunny Arizona our home, where I am discovering the joys, challenges and triumphs of new motherhood. Since moving, I am grateful my decision to put my career on pause allows me to explore new avenues to support my family as well as time to travel, expand my knowledge, and discover new friendships and adventures along the way with my husband, son, and new baby girl. I keep track of all my memoirs and musings during this exciting time here in my NewMamma Diaries.
New Mamma Diaries 