ABCs of my life

My Dearest Alessandra,

As I write down this blog entry, there are only a few minutes left before you turn 1.  I don’t know where the months went by, I can still remember vividly how surprised your Daddy and I were upon learning I was pregnant with you.  You see anak, Papa Billy just passed away at the time you were concieved.  We were about to commemorate his first month of passing when I took the pregnancy test and got the good news.  Everyone thought you were going to be a boy.  That’s why at first we named you Sierra, that was his other name.  But Papa made me realized through a dream that I shouldn’t pattern you after him, it would not be fair to you.  So we changed it to Essa when you were about 4 months.

When I was about to give birth to you, I was in labor for almost 21 hours (14 hours without epidural anak, I love you that much!), the doctor had a hard time bringing you down.  The popped my water bag already and you still didn’t want to come out, I thought I was going to deliver you by CS.  Your Ninang Jeng prayed with me at the Lamaze Room, and an hour after that, I gave birth to you.  Exactly 6:16pm, I heard the most wonderful cry.  Alessandra Bibit Capilos was born.  Daddy Jelson was so brave. He watched while you were being cleaned (although he really wanted to get mad at the nurses because he thought that you were not handled with care.  I was determined to give you everything I was not able to give Ate Stacey and that included breastfeeding (you have not tasted any formula since day 1).  Less than 6 hours after giving birth to you, I was already at the nursery trying to feed you.  Up until this very day, I am still nursing you and I intend to do so until I no longer have milk to provide you.

As you grew older, I see beautiful changes.  You are such a charmer.  You give us sweet smiles as you wake up each morning.  We see how independent you can be when it comes to learning.  You prefer flipping the pages of the book by yourself than reading them to you, discovering how things work than teaching them to you is a treat for you.  The smile you give each time you accomplish something on your own is priceless.

You have such a strong personality.  You make sure that even if you can’t really say the words yet, you “talk” (but most of the time you shout) to tell us what you want.  You follow instructions quickly.  It was amazing that at 7- 8 months, you can already follow 3-4 successive different instructions (simple ones like raise your hands up, clap, beautiful eyes, and bob your head).

I can probably go on and on about the great things I witnessed during your first year, and tomorrow, I’ll be adding another great entry to my memory.

We love you Essa.  Thank you for being our blessing.

Alessandra "Essa" Bibit Capilos