Author Archives: Marjorie

baby diaries: your morning smile

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I love it baby that the first thing you do when you open your eyes in the morning is to tilt your head a bit to look me in the eye and then give me a big, sweet smile.

I am blessed enough already that you sleep through the night when you were yet six weeks old. I am blessed enough already that it’s very rare for you to wake up in the morning crying. But to have you wake up in a good mood, looking for me and bestowing upon me that very angelic smile, God indeed is very good.

Love you, Moirraine anak. Grow up well, my pretty.

Christmas 2012

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Where there’s queso de bola, hamon and/or lechon among other handa for Philippine Christmas, there’s fried chicken and Christmas cake for us in Japan.

So cute isn’t it? Santa is edible by the way. 🙂

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Baby is eyeing the cake, looking as if she wants a piece for herself.

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A Merry Christmas to one and all from our little reindeer who’s having her tummy time in this photo.

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precious moments

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Moirraine is getting social by the day. She already looks at people when they look at her, rather than sleeping like she used to. But it’s still a very rare chance for her to smile at people other than at me, her dad and her aunt who lives with us.

The first time she did smile at a “stranger” was with Maj, her Ninang. But it took two meetings before Moirraine smiled at Maj. Albeit when she did smile, she made me so happy with her milestone my smile was ear to ear myself.

But earlier today, Moirraine’s second smile at a “stranger” was to somebody whom she only got to see closely that very first time: her great-grandmother. What a joy it was.

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Precious moment indeed. Merry Christmas everyone! 🙂

realisations

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Realised again how Hubs (and his family) had been very supportive to me. Not only did he support me with (and respected) my decisions, but he also never forced me to do anything that I didn’t want to do nor forced me to do something that I wasn’t ready yet. True that my being spoiled is putting me in tight spots nowadays because I still can’t speak Nihongo. But the fault lies with me, I had been very lax and had been very dependent. So dependent that I still ask Hubs when to put out which garbage because our guide table is in Japanese. Hence as an act of being independent, when we went to the ward office earlier for day care application, I also asked for an English copy of the garbage collection schedule (see how DETAILED the segregation is!!).

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I know this is just a very simple act. But I can’t tell you enough how liberating it is to be in control even when it’s just as simple as knowing the detailed segregation of garbage and when to throw it out.

I have to step up. Have to speed things up. Have to make things a little easier for Hubs.

My daughter would hopefully be starting day care by middle of next year and I know things will be more difficult for me/us simply because I can’t speak the language. I can’t be lax anymore. True it’s kind of a tall order, wanting to be able to speak the language by next year. But I have to.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me – Philippians 4:13

pamana

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Moirraine loved this bear-on-a-swing on her crib mobile so much that she gets excited when she sees it and that she talks/gurgles at it and laughs at it – for long periods of time.

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Hence I thought that it was just about time to introduce her new bear bedmates to her.

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This was when Moirraine first explored and touched her bears.

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I gave her the Hard Rock bear first (we’re calling him Rocky-kun) and she talked/gurgled to the bear for a long time. She always eye its guitar as well haha.

It’s sort of my early pamana (bequest) to Moirraine since these bears were given to me by two of my best friends. The Bestfriend Care Bear one from Kat given to me back in June 2009 and the Hard Rock London one from Maj that she gave me back in March 2008. Maj had been around the world quite a lot already and has been very thoughtful of me and my doll collection, so much so that I have dolls from her sojourns in the US, UK, Ireland and Taiwan. I hope she remembers me and my collection while she’s in Spain. And also Kat while in Australia. Hehehe!

Anyways, I digress. For safety reasons, I kept Moirraine’s bed as minimal as I can, sans stuffed toys of course. But I thought that if I just let her play with them and sleep with them during nap time with me looking in on her, then I think it’s safe enough. Then I would remove the bears when we sleep at night. She’s now napping with her hand resting on top of her bears.

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Somehow, I find Bestfriend care bear as somewhat holding some similarity to Moirraine teehee.

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Hubs himself had a bear in his bed when he was a child and he told me of how he slept hugging the bear. Call it “marjorism” again (it’s what my friends and hubs call my sometimes weird assumptions and suppositions) but I think it helped instill in Hubs a sweet nature, one who likes to hug. And so I’m hoping with this, I’m one step to helping Moirraine have that same sweet nature albeit at the moment we think she already has a sweet nature!