The Dance of Life

5 Months Old:  Happy Babies, Happy Mommy & Daddy

Really amazing how time flies.  Helena just turned 6 years old and Wyatt is about to turn 6 months. Having 2 kids who
are growing too fast, I constantly have to remind myself to pay attention.

Mike and I are very lucky to have healthy and happy children.  As we watch
Wyatt grows, we can’t help but refresh our memories of baby Helena at the same
age.  I like to look at our old photos over and over.  Mike calls it
Nora’s obsession.  Even our wedding video, Helena’s
baby videos, family gathering videos, travel videos, etc.  I must have
watched them a million times already!

So I was browsing Helena’s baby
album and it overwhelms me to see the similarities of my babies.  There’s
a photo of Helena that for a second
I thought it was of Wyatt’s.  They are such beautiful babies.  As we
call it "mistiso/mistisa."  They really are.  It’s so nice
that even when we’re eating outside or strolling, people stop by to take and look
and tell me "you have beautiful babies" Really a very nice
feeling.  I am so proud.

As Helena grows, she’s looking more
and more like me.  Sometimes while she’s playing, I watch her unnoticed
and I see a bit of my childhood in her, especially her body language.  But
most of her personality is a mix of me and Mike. 

Now with Wyatt, he got most of him from Mike.  He’s like the baby version
of Mike.  He even got Mike’s "pagkasuplado" attitude but Wyatt
is a very strong baby and when he smiles, it melts your heart.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been complimented with my smile and I’d
love to see that smile coming from my children, too.   

Wyatt has all these different laughs, one of his laughs reminds me a lot of my
brothers’ sarcastic laugh where they laugh and give it a sudden stop.
This makes me laugh all the time.  Whenever Wyatt laughs, I love the way
he opens his mouth so wide, from sly little chortles to full-on belly
laughs.  He stares at me lovingly and smiles back the moment I start
smiling at him.  He coos and gurgles and when I coo back at him, he laughs
and kicks with excitement.  I love the way he "talks" to
us.  One day, on my way home from dropping Helena
to school, I thought I heard him say "dada"… Could dada be his
first word?!

You know what happens when babies utter their first words and excited parents
copy what the babies said and keep saying it over and over again waiting for
the babies to say the words again? And of course, they don’t say it again…..
until you are not expecting it. Hahaha!  But it’s really awesome!
And from then on, he’s become talkative.  He’s more alert and lots of
bababa, dadada, tatata, adi-adidi, adada, or he whoops just one syllable like
"ah!", "bah!"

I called Mike, excitingly and he was happy to hear it. "He misses me,"
he said.  And I agreed.  I turned to Wyatt who was in my arms and he
was giving me big smiles at the mention of the word daddy.  So it’s
official, Wyatt uttered his first words just right after he turned 5 months old.

Wyatt brings out the Wyattness in him

Wyatt continues to be vivacious; he’s such a happy baby.  He laughs
at Helena’s playful tricks and
magics as she works them on him.  He utters all these syllables that can’t
be found in the dictionary, it’s so cute. 

Whenever I feed him rice cereal, the moment I take the spoon away from his
mouth, he cries or grabs it back to his mouth.  Aggressive and strong.

He can handle his toys now and clasp when he’s not tapping them.  He has
been gnawing his toys and hands too, which tells me he will be teething very
soon.
Wyatt can’t sit up independently yet but he can hold his head up and his back
is strong.  He’s a strong, bold, cheerful baby.  He can turnover now
and enjoys relaxing on our bed.  Whenever I put him down on our bed, he’s
all smile instantly.  If he isn’t playing with his feet, he goes on his
tummy, lifts his head up and looks around.  Then suddenly he buries his
head on the bed, he sticks his butt up in the air, pushes his feet out,
desperate for some sort of forward momentum.  And turns over again to lie
on his back, expecting a playtime.

Wyatt’s favorite games are tickling time, peek-a-boo, airplane (where
we lift him up in the air and sway him right and left or up and down.
These games always give him a good laugh.

Restlessness, weariness, betterness!
I rarely get very sick. I get the usual colds, but they’re no more than
annoyances, really, easily beaten back with a well-timed dose of
glasses of water or soup and rest. But I seem to be restless these
days. And it really sucked.  The good thing is that although Helena and
Wyatt are still coughing a little, they have defeated the flu bug.

Sadly, Mike is now starting to feel sick, too.  So the whole household
has been sick. Helena and Wyatt still have the phlegm that makes it
hard for them to breath but thank Goodness, it’s not as bad anymore.

I
really miss the full body massage I used to get back in Asia.  It was a
treat I give to myself whenever I feel stressed or exhausted.  It helps
tremendously when my body screams and pleads for rest, especially the
times when there was no sleep to be had. And now with two kids, this is
usually the case.  Sometimes Mike or Helena give me a massage and
considering that Helena is only 6 years old, she’s surprisingly strong
and can do exactly what I taught her to do. 

No matter what I
do, naps don’t work so well with me.  I know I could squeeze in a nap
time for me too when Helena and Wyatt are having one but my mind just won’t
let me nap.  The thing is whenever Helena and Wyatt or any of then are
either asleep or busy, I feel like I should take the opportunity to
work on something in the house - chores, lists, bills, and or whatever
is on my "to-do list" that day. 

Mike’s finger is getting
better, he can bend it a little now which is very good progress.  But
even then, it upsets me when he doesn’t listen.  Yesterday, no matter
how I tried to persuade him not to play basketball, it was no effect,
he still insisted and played.  After less than 2 hours he came home
with Rick and said he played lightly and that his finger wasn’t hurt.
I was glad to hear it but still sometimes I wish he wasn’t so stubborn.

Sick Sick Sick

Helena’s been sick almost all week.  It started out
with sore throat and tummy ache.  Until one morning she woke up coughing
and I almost couldn’t hear what she was telling me.  Her voice changed all
the sudden from sweet high-pitched voice to a very low hoarse voice.  I
decided not to bring her to school.

Wyatt picked up Helena’s cold.  I was ready to collapsed, I had to
tend to Wyatt cuz he kept waking up at night and Helena kept calling me from her room.

I think Wyatt’s cried more these last 2 days and 2 nights than he’s cried in
his whole life. Usually it’s very easy to put him to sleep but while he’s not
feeling well, he’s grumpy and only goes to sleep after we walked him around or
rock him in our arms. Lying down with him wouldn’t cut it, which was usually
worked for him fine. Movement had to be involved. These last 2 nights were very
long nights.  I wish they both get well very soon already. 

Dr. Mommy

This weekend Helena and Wyatt were
sick and crying. Mike and I exchanged at tending to them, especially when I was
at work, but ultimately both kids needed me — Wyatt because I have the milk, and Helena
because, well, I dunno, just because when you’re sick Mommy always makes you
feel better. Caring for sick children is an exhausting job that very quickly
makes you feel like a grown-up.

Exciting events at Helena’s bedroom

Helena and I have been doing a bit of
learning in her room.   We have been working on her reading skills
and she amazes me.  She learns fast.  I have all these kindergarten
sight words from my previous teaching job and Helena can read all of them now.   

Her momsy’s been teaching her how to play piano as well and she’s learning
little by little.  She really loves music.  Mike’s family is
musicians and so is mine.  Amazing how genes work eh?
Now if only she can keep her room tidy and neat all the time.