Technically, it's still during the eighth month.
Went home last Friday with a not-so-good mood and a giant
headache. I was greeted by a smiling Qube doing "The Close-Open".
Was i happy? I was ecstatic and the giant headache suddenly
vanished!
Before the eighth month ends, let me count the ways that
Qube made me smile on this particular month:
1. Close - Open: When
we had just about given up on him learning to do it.
Starting on his 3nd month, we had
been trying to teach him this, but he always seemed oblivious to my and his dad's
efforts.
But last Friday, when I arrived and
Yaya asked him to show me – he closed his fist tightly, then opened it to show
his palm, then he did it two more times. There was no mistaking it; he was
really doing The Close – Open!
The catch? He refuses to do it more
than twice a day. Or twice to the same person. Stubborn little imp.
2. Dance, dance:
Nobody taught him. Well, I am not sure if Yaya did, but since both I and his
dad never learned how to dance properly, we simply did not include it in our
agenda to teach Qube. Maybe his daily dose of Showtime is to blame.
We just noticed one night that each
time the Dell Fabric Conditioner commercial comes up on TV, he would suddenly
turn and stare intently at the TV. Then he would begin swaying his head and
move his body in tune with the jingle. That is when we recognized that he was
dancing. Several more of “
May one rinse na ang Dell, may one rince na
ang Dell…” sang by yours truly, confirmed our theory that he was indeed
dancing to the TV jingle.
Now, his repertoire includes: Gotta
Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas, Pokerface by Lady Gaga, On the Floor by J. Lo,
The Time (Dirty Bit) by Black Eyed Peas, The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani and
Akon, and a selection of nursery rhymes and bedtime songs.
Oh, and yes, he dances when he
likes his food.
3. Clap them softly, 1, 2, 3: The first few times he did
it should not counted. Because they were so random and not connected with any
particular emotion.
This time, he claps when he is happy,
when he sees something on TV that delights him, when he sees Mama about to pick
him up, when he is playing with Leopard (his Animaland stuffed bestfriend),
when he is playing peek-a-boo with Papa, when he dances.
4. Alive, Awake, Alert,
Enthusiastic: Whenever I arrive home from work, I always try to sneak to
the bathroom, have a drink of water, change my clothes, before I show myself to
Qube. Else, he would be jumping with outstretched arms and shouting “Mama”, and
I would not be able to disengage myself from him until a few hours later.
And every day after work, at playtime,
he’d start to babble animatedly, hold his breath, tense his body, and squeal. He
always does this when he is excited or when he is very eager to talk. And
always, I’d have to rub him on his back to make him relax and just try to talk slowly.
5. Crawling little pig
everywhere: By now, I’m getting used to turning towards my back first
before making any move, to be sure that I would not be stepping on a crawling
Qube, because he now makes his presence known in every nook of our apartment.
At eight months, we could no longer
just sit and watch TV peacefully. It would always be either me or Papa chasing
Qube everywhere.
One of these days, I might just tie
him on a leash. Promise.
6. Bedtime singing: I’ve
already mentioned in another blog entry that whenever I sing him to sleep, he’s
start to slap my face and take over my singing. He does it every night.
Last night, because I want to tease
him and test his singing prowess, I started singing in a
falsetto. And he did the same!
But because I do not want to make
false claims when I boast this to friends, and especially when I write about
it, I modified my singing to use my normal voice. And he hummed in his normal
voice. Still, not contented because it might have been just a coincidence, I again
sang in falsetto voice. And yes, my Qube also began humming in
falsetto.
Well, picture me smiling smugly to
the husband*. The baby took after me, afterall.
There are many more little things that Qube does to make us
proud parents believe that he is the best eight-month old there is today. But of
course, all proud parents think this too.
This ends our amazing
– eight journey.
Welcome to nine months, Qube.
