carousel lover

oh yes! our little nikko goes nuts over carousels! he likes them, let me repeat that, he loves them! his eyes light up whenever he takes a ride on a carousel and one round is not enough.

i remember the first time we let him ride a carousel, it was at eastwood city and we saw it just by chance. nikko was 7months then. just look at how his face lit up as he was on the carousel. and there was also a horse ride there which he liked a lot! that actually sparked the idea of using a western/cowboy theme for his 1st birthday.

nikko at 7months, on his first ride in a carousel

in another ride at market market

he's probably fascinated with riding a horse that when we took him to tagaytay for his birthday pictorial, he was in awe of the real thing.

nikko at 10months, riding on a real horse at tagaytay with ate aly

now everytime we're out in the mall, we try to look for a carousel, small or large, to give him that carousel fix. he still loves it until now.

top (left) photo: at trinoma in february '11; top (right) photo: glorietta in may '12;  top (center) photo: at trinoma in june '12

the only thing is, he now cries when we get him off the carousel! lol!

at trinoma, june 2012

a walker in the house!

nikko is now officially a walker! i mean he now walks on his own! at 13months old, my baby can now walk alone.

of course we still supervise him as he still wobbles sometimes as he walks. but he is now taking advantage of his new found freedom! he's exploring the house a lot more, going to corners he don't usually go to before. he goes back and forth from room to room, to and from whoever is holding him in the house.

in a few more weeks, he'll probably be running around already. as it is, we're starting to feel the tiredness of going after him but we are happy.

now we'll focus on improving his speech development and teaching him more things. it's a continuing learning process for my little baby. :)

long distance "love affair"

since my in-laws lives in dipolog, it's routine for us to call them every week, just to give them an update on what's happening with nikko. often times it would be on a weekend but we also call during weekdays.and since we know they want to "talk to" nikko, we call them in the mornings when he's awake.

nikko with papalo & mamala during their visit last june

nikko doesn't "talk" that much though, he just listens. and when we tell him to kiss mamala & papalo, he'll kiss the phone. and when we tell him to say goodbye, he waves his hands. and we describe these to mama & papa and we know they're happy hearing it.

with this simple routine, we're able to teach nikko the value of connecting with my in-laws. and how important it is to stay in touch with them even through just a phone call. i hope that when he gets bigger, he'll be more receptive and that he will talk to them often and share his own stories.

here is a storybook of nikko before we called mama this morning. i love how i was able to capture these photos.

gymboree play & learn

when nikko hit 12 months, i knew i wanted him enrolled in a play class.

he's been an expert crawler for the past 2 months but i want to push him further. he also "walks" when you hold him but never on his own. when we encourage him to take small steps alone, he tries but he "rushes over" to hold on to something. there are times when he just stands still and sits down instead of even taking a step. he'd much rather crawl than walk.

but, we did notice that when you don't mind him, he does try to take little steps. and he seems more confident when he's doing it alone.

since i wanted to "push" him a little more, i convinced nelo that we enroll nikko at gymboree's level 3 class. there, he'll be in a different set-up away from home. and i'm sure he'll have "classmates" in the class as well. i am hoping that this will encourage him when he sees other kids around his age.

when we went for a gym play session the week before his class, he was taking more baby steps already. i knew it was a good sign. we'll just see if he'll take it a step further.

on our first week of class, there were around five of them and mostly girls. there were just two boys including nikko. the session started with singing a song and clapping. he was a little shy as teacher mica started the class. it also made me realize that nikko needs to catch up on learning stuff. he's the type of kid who wants to do things in his own time and it makes me worried sometimes.

anyway, after the singing, they had to go through some of the play activities. nikko was participating very well! he was crawling up the slide, keeps pushing the foam roller and totally enjoying the bubble play. there was less walking for him that day but you can see that he's trying and he's enjoying the activities.

on his second week, i saw a different nikko! he was now more confident and interacting with the other kids. and he was standing on his own, less wobbly, and taking a lot more step than usual. he was also clappping now unlike the previous week. this week though, he wanted to be with his daddy more. so they were the ones doing most of the activities together.

we were so happy after this week's class. nikko had more confidence and was exploring more. we hope the next two weeks' classes will continue to improve his disposition and his learning skills.

high chair, my chair

with nikko eating more regular food now, we've made it a habit that he stays with us by the table during mealtimes. i want him to develop the habit that we should all eat together during mealtime and no running around. i know there will be days/moments when we might bend this rule but i want it followed as much as possible.

he actually got a booster chair as a gift from his ninong joel during his christening. but the problem was, with nikko getting bigger, he couldn't fit in the booster chair anymore. so we ended up just letting him sit on my lap or lola's while he eats. or sometimes, we put him inside his crib, place it by the table and that's where he stays during mealtime.

nikko was almost 7 months when we started him on the booster chair

i wanted to get him a high chair but the price of a brand new unit was off my budget. i was open to buying a pre-loved unit as long as i can find one. thankfully, i did! karen, a scrapper friend and a fellow n@wie posted about selling her high chair for a minimal cost. it had a few tear but was still in good condition. when i inquired from her, she said she'll just give it to me and i can just use the money to have the tear repaired. yipee!

it was off to binondo for us two weekends ago to pick-up the item. the unit was good and you can see that they've really taken care of it and to think it's almost three years old already.

we set it up as soon as we got home and we let nikko "test drive" it. he loved it! he's been sitting in that chair every mealtime and he sits like a king while we feed him. it was worth everything and very much thankful to karen. :)

nikko, now at 12months, on his pre-loved high chair, with daddy

gymplay at gymboree

after our father's day lunch, we brought nikko to gymboree for some play time. i actually wanted to expose him in a different setting to encourage him to try walking alone.

when we let him try walking solo at home, he's very apprehensive. he will either hold on to you or he'll just crawl. i don't want to force him to walk but i'd like him to try doing it on his own.

when we got to gymboree, there were a few kids playing also. nikko would crawl towards the balls and play with them,and he'll try going up the foam slides. and with kids around, i think he's encouraged by what he sees. so we tried to let him walk... and he did! all on his own! we definitely had to help him balance first but he was taking more baby steps compared to just doing it at home.

look at him go!

 

that playtime really helped push nikko further. at home, he's been walking a bit more than usual. and he's gained confidence in walking alone. i think it will still be a few weeks before he can really walk on his own but we're getting there.

father's day celebration

it was a simple father's day celebration for us. just our usual sunday mass and lunch out. what made it special though was, nikko is much bigger now and we totally enjoy every minute with him.

 we wanted nikko to have a gym play session at gymboree after lunch so we decided to have lunch at friday's in bonifacio high street. we let nikko explore a bit as we headed off to friday's.

at friday's we ordered french onion soup for nikko. we also gave him some fries. for us, we got a caesar salad, mushroom chicken and mushroom, friday's pork adobo and chicken fingers.

caesar salad. the perfect way to start the meal. it was light and tasted just right.

french onion soup. nikko liked it. it had this big crouton inside soaked by the soup. the cheese coating was yummy.

mushroom chicken mushroom. it was just okay. nothing really fancy.

friday's pork adobo. the meat was tender and savory. but the dip was too salty for me.

chicken fingers. a simple dish and yet the best for me that afternoon.

 after lunch, as we headed off to gymboree, we stopped by the musical pipes at high street. nikko liked the sound it makes. i'm sure he'll be able to explore it even more as he gets bigger.

 

then it was off to gymboree for his gym play!