Yesterday it was a little cloudy but hot afternoon so I brought Erika to her pool in the yard to play with the water, but she was so excited to play inside so I put her inside it and since then you could hear her screaming because of too much happiness.
Last year Erika celebrated with us tanabata festival and tonight was her second. We made her again a small bamboo tree with different style of papercraft. This time I made the papercraft decoration better than last year’s decoration. And since it is a star festival I hanged many stars on her tree. I also made a small lantern which made my husband surprised after seeing it, he could not believe that I did it better now because last year I don’t have any idea how to decorate the bamboo tree. I also made a three pieces papercraft butterfly I saw the tutorial in you tube and it was so easy but then my husband says it was his first time to saw a butterfly on a tanabata bamboo tree. 
People write a wish on a paper called tanzaku and hang it on the tree. So The wishes we wrote in the tanzaku was:
My step children too wrote wishes for their work I just can’t understand since it was written in Japanese.
After all the members of the family hanged their wishes we brought the tree to the garden and waited for the stars to appear in the sky . I remember my last year’s wish for Erika was hopefully to heal her illness and it happened. Do you have a wish? who knows it may happen…
Erika enjoyed playing on the Children playground last Wednesday when we went to the electric shop to buy a Computer Desk lamp inside the department store. You could hear her screaming of too much excitement playing inside the room full of balloons. I forgot to brought my digital camera so I took some shots of her by my cellphone.
Erika is more talkative now than before, she can sing us now and she knows how to play her dad’s harmonica too. Most of all she can kiss me back on my cheeks with a big sound. Some other words she can speak now are:
I don’t know how to begin with this. It was three years ago when me and my elder sister went back to my country because my mother died of stroke. I always remember her last words until now when we last speak over the phone “when will you come back?”. It was the most painful moment of my life to saw my mother (Erika’s grandmother) lifeless in the coffin for the last time.
Now its happening again.
Yesterday I received a message from my elder brother in the Philippines that my father (Erika’s grandfather) were brought again to the hospital. I called my elder sister whom with my father and I tried to spoke with him but I got no response, this time he was unconscious unlike before he can talk to us even hes not feeling well. Yesterday June 7, 2009 Sunday at noon he left us forever.
My father had suffered from a fourth stage prostate cancer. He was diagnosed with that desease to late to be cure, the doctor told us that he will not get well even he undergoes operation. We want him to have an operation but his heartbeat was too weak. He doesn’t know the truth that he will not get well. I always telling him you can still walk and ride your bicycle soon. I always telling him when we talk over the phone to get well soon and he always answer me “yes”.
Now I am on the saddest point of my life. Tomorrow we will going back to the Philippines to be with him for the last time and to say “Papa, thank you for giving us our lives and taking care of us. Thank you for everything. Otsukaresama deshita. Oyasuminasai.”
Please wake me up in this nightmare!
Erika putting stones inside her pool
Actually there is nothing extra ordinary, we bought a baby pool for my daughter in preparation for the coming summer and to be place in the yard. At present … daytime is not that hot but we tried to put air and water on it to see Erika’s reaction and as expected she was very delighted to see the penguins (drawing) inside the pool.
She was so happy looking for the pool full of stones.
She did not want to go with us anymore so
we give her a chance to play more with the water .
Another thing Erika enjoy is when we go shopping she loves to ride on a cart like the one on picture below. You can hear her voice laughing and sometimes she is making unusual sounds while moving the handle.
Meanwhile I think Erika learns to talk very fas. She talks not that perfect but you will easily understand what she wanted to tell.
Some words and thing she can say and do:
Yesterday we went to a nearby family restaurant for lunch. Inside we requested for a baby chair so that Erika can sit with us at the table at first she likes her place but after a while she wanted to go down and play. At this time it is still not safe for her to sit on the chair especially if theres no seat belt because she always moves and wanted to stand.
So I put her in the corner of my chair (like a sofa) and there she did play with her bag.
She carries her bag like a woman so cute.
After lunch we went to a flower shop.
On the other hand today Erika got her MR vaccine (1st stage). I hope she don’t get fever and other side effects of the vaccine.
She can talk “wa wa ” as flower
“ba ba” as bubbles when were inside the bathroom
“ba-” as bag
“bu bu” (brooom broom) for cars
And she always calls as “mama” & “papa”
Erika’s voice at 1 year 2 and half months:
