Happy 5th Birthday Celestine! + A Photo Montage

I was in the middle of a big wave (details on another blog post) when my daughter celebrated her fifth birthday. It was also my nth birthday on December 13. Try not to do the maths, okay, I'm not YET 30! Ha ha. This post is nearly two weeks late because of the "big wave", but anyway, December is still our birthday month so I figured it's not too late. While Typhoon Nina whips up the Bicol Region , I'm whipping up a concoction made up from some childhood photos of my beloved scrumptious little chocolate baby cupcake, who sometimes insists on being called Sweetheart Love. Not being emotional here; just reminiscing on some old memories. Thank God they were captured by the lens. They are golden. :) She is who she is because of the wonderful people who surrounded her from the very beginning.

Moments before her christening.

When I actually saw her up close for the first time.

 I have dim memories about seeing her for the first time after delivering her. I only remember seeing a slimy head. There's a sense of peace, knowing that you did well in the labor department.  For once I didn't want to be bothered with thoughts about the challenges that comes with motherhood. I just wanted to stare at her.

Sick for the first time.

And thus the feeling of  having your heart trampled and crushed over and over again. She had neonatal jaundice right after we were discharged from the hospital. She underwent a week-long phototheraphy at the Divine Word Hospital; we also spent Christmas there.

Those moments under the morning sun.

She badly needed it after the bout with neonatal jaundice.

Learning to bathe someone so fragile.

Not an easy feat.

When she was just about the same size as Baby Tin Tin.

I don't know if when did we start calling this white teddy as Baby Tin Tin. She still has it; it's still her favorite bedfellow; we would all be damned if this teddy suddenly got lost. She can't sleep without it; it's basically part of the family.

When she was dressed up for winter, in the middle of summer.

'Nuff said.

When she sported that haircut.

No hard feelings. The sole purpose was to keep the hair away from the eyes.

Enjoying an otherwise unhealthy meal.

Yeah yeah, we indulge them sometimes.

There there. I have tons of photos of her actually but I've chosen a handful from the ones taken before her first birthday because I'm stoked at how tall she is now. How far we've come and still a long way to go! We have a tall five year-old. We're looking good and hopefully might hit the 5'8" mark someday. Ha ha. 

This is me, always looking at you, golden girl. Forever.

XO,

Mummy Cassie