It Runs in the Family

my dad

hubs

There’s a tagalong term that is often used in our house and it’s the word “sutil”.  The dictionary refers to it as obstinate but at home we use that term to refer to someone who is playfully naughty.  When my dad was alive, this was the best and only way to describe his sense of humor.  Years later, I find myself unknowingly marrying a man with the same endearing sense of humor as my dad.  It therefore comes as no surprise that my 2 kids seem to have inherited this particular trait. 

Nina’s Kuya had long earned the title of sutil because just by his smile alone, you would already think that he was planning some prank against you.  My dad was like that as well.

naughtiness X 2

What surprises us is the fact that for Nina, she has been displaying her naughty antics as early as now…  a perfect example happened just this afternoon when hubs asked Nina to bless or “mano”.  For Filipinos this is a traditional manner of showing respect to one’s elders – something that we would like the kids to continue practicing.  Nina must have noticed that her dad was in a sleeveless undershirt.  so, instead of raising hub’s hand to her forehead, she poked his underarm instead to tickle him!  How can a 2-year old come up with something like that?!  Who’s to blame?  Genes… that’s the only thing I can think of.  Incident’s like these make me wonder in amusement what kind of antics my kids will get themselves into for the years to come.

We're Getting There

It's been almost a month since Nina started with her speech therapy classes, and I must say that she's doing a pretty good job.  Initially, she used up the 1-hour session crying over the fact that she wasn't allowed to either nurse from me or because neither I nor her Yaya would carry her.  This afternoon, she barely even noticed that we had left her alone in the room with her teacher.  That's progress as far as I am concerned.


She's also begun to say a lot more words.  The teacher proudly told me this afternoon that the words "apple" and "cup" were very clear when she was asked to repeat them.  The other week, we were so proud of her because when she saw us open the cake box from my sister's birthday, she said "Wow, cake!" and it was VERY clear!  That to us, is yet another answered prayer, another miracle.


Of course, it's still a long way to go for us and I know it wont be easy.  But with the determination that this little girl has, I know that we will get there, slowly but surely.