Disney On Ice

Early dinner at Burgoo.


During the intermission.


Watching Lilo and Stitch.


Souvenir program, lei and tickets


Playing with his new toys.


Cotton candy and Popcorn


New toys


Playing with his Peter Pan sword.


We watched Disney on Ice last night. This was Griffin's first time to watch a live show. We left home at 2 pm, went to Gateway and did some window shopping, then ate early dinner at Burgoo at 4 pm. Willie brought some stuff to the car, and came back with Disney binoculars for Griffin.

At around 5:10 pm, we walked to Araneta Coliseum. Before entering the coliseum, we bought some snow cones first. Griffin chose the Stitch mug. Upon entering, we proceeded to door 6. He got another toy, this time a Peter Pan sword. While waiting for the show to begin, we bought popcorn and cotton candy. The show started at 6:00 pm. Griffin enjoyed the show. He thought that the show had ended at the intermission.

Overall, Griffin liked the experience, although he's not the vocal type who would say that he'd want to watch again or he'd want the characters to come back on stage. What made him happiest was the new toys he got. We both loved the popcorn and cotton candy which we only finished a day or two later. I'm looking forward to watching Disney on Ice again when they come back.

Drawing and Writing

These are the letters H-O-T. It is his favorite word to spell. The letters are not in the correct order on the paper, but he had written it in the correct order, H, O, then T.


Griffin tried to spell his name. He was able to write the letters G, I, F, F, and I. I wrote the letters r and n to complete his name.


He was able to write the uppercase A here.


This is, according to him, an egg with a face.


This is the letter H. It's one of his favorite letters to write.


This is a ladder.


This is a sun.


This is a twister.


This is a face with hair.


This is his daddy because he says his daddy has lots of hair on the face.


This is a balloon.


This is a lollipop.


He spelled OFF.


He spelled TO.


This is a letter C.


This is a crab claw.


This is a letter V.


This is a letter G.


He drew a fish then colored it black.


Griffin loves doodling what he calls a "blakala" whether on his megasketcher, whiteboard, chalkboard or paper. However, he's lazy when it comes to drawing definite shapes or writing the alphabet. I don't know if his being left-handed has something to do with this.

When I ask him to draw a shape or write a letter, he usually says, "You draw it." or "You write it." He can draw some shapes or objects but he only does it if he's in the mood. It's the same when I ask him to practice or try writing the letters he does not know yet.

Recently when I ask him to try writing letters, he says, "when I'm tall already." He can write some letters like A, C, E, F, G, H, I, L, O, Q, T, V. Sometimes he tries writing the letters B, J, and N. The letters he's confident in writing are the letters H, I, O, T, F.

I can't get him to practice writing or drawing because, as in everything he does, you can't force him to do it. I guess, in his own time, he'll learn to write all the letters of the alphabet, probably when he starts going to school next school year.

Toys, Toys, Toys

Griffin loves toys. He has so many toys at home but he still can't get enough of them. When he remembers an old toy, he'd ask me to bring it out and he plays with it. The reason why I can't get rid of any of his toys, even the cheap toys from 168 or the toys from the kiddie meals is because when he suddenly remembers a toy, I have to find it for him. When we ask him if he can give away his old toys, he says, "No." He refuses to part with any of his toys. He says he'll play with them till he's grown up.

Where on the globe is this country?

Griffin can name and point out several countries on the globe. Show him the country on the globe a few times and he remembers the name and its location on the globe.

The following video was taken January 18, 2008:

Human Anatomy

Does Griffin want to ba a doctor? He says he does not. He just wants to take these 3D models apart, then asks me to put them back together again.

These models have taught him the different parts of the human body. He knows which part is the skull, brain, heart, lungs, ribcage, liver, pancreas, stomach, large intestine, small intestine and spinal column. He can even point out in his own body where these are approximately located.

He knows some parts of the eye like the lens, iris, pupil, cornea, and lacrimal gland(tear gland). He doesn't know much yet about 3D model of the skull because I haven't taught him about the parts of the brain yet.

He even knows about the parts of the skeleton like the skull, mandible, ribcage, coccyx, carpal, metacarpal, phalanges, patella, tarsal, metatarsal, and spinal column. He learned these by watching an animation from the Science With Me website.

Griffin's books

These are Griffin's current favorite books.





Griffin loves these books. He's learned a lot from them. He asks me to read them to him, over and over again so that he'll remember as much information as he can. The following are some of the things he's learned from books:

Insects - what are insects and what are not, life cycles, can name and identify different kinds of insects, knows the life cycle of the butterfly in detail, knows that spiders are not insects but arachnids

Reptiles - can identify and name the different kinds of snakes, crocodiles, lizards in the book

Amphibians - knows the life cycle of a frog, can name and identify different kinds of salamanders, frogs, toads

Plants - knows how from a seed comes the fruit

Sea creatures - knows different kinds of fish, knows that the octopus use their suckers to catch prey

Bats - knows different kinds of bats and that they sleep upside down

Human body - digestive system (when food is swallowed it goes down your throat then to the stomach then to the small intestine then large intestine then it comes out as poo poo)

Mga kuwento ni Tito Dok - knows what worms and germs can do to you, knows that xx is for girl and xy is for boy

Griffin's favorites

Favorite color - violet

Favorite food - chicken with rice and sauce, fries with gravy, hotdog on a stick, frankfurter with rice, kropeck

Favorite candy - mentos

Favorite fruit shake - mango shake (green or yellow)

Favorite TV show - anything on Nickelodeon

Favorite clothes - shirt (not sleeveless, not collared)
shorts (cream color)

Favorite footwear - sandals

Favorite books - books about reptiles, amphibians, bugs, sea creatures, mammals, human body

Favorite movie on video - The Power Rangers Movie, Transformers the Movie

Favorite toy - loves all his toys (old ones, new ones, cheap ones and expensive ones)

Favorite songs - Beautiful Girls (Sean Kingston), Love Come Down (Evelyn King), Divine Emotions (Narada Michael Walden), Papaya (Urszula Dudziak), Angels (Flora Purim), Butterfly (DJ Mystik), Janejana (Dance Dance Revolution), The Song of The Count (Sesame Street), Itaktak Mo (Joey de Leon)

Popcorn and The Bee Movie

We watched the 1:50 pm showing of The Bee Movie at Glorietta 4 last week, January 12. It was Griffin's first time to watch a full length movie at a movie house.

Days before, I bought him 4 of the Bee Movie Happy Meal toys at Mc Donald's, then I told him we were going to watch The Bee Movie on Saturday. I even told him that we would buy popcorn so he can eat it while watching the movie. This made him excited about it.

Before entering, we bought some popcorn at Taters. He chose caramel popcorn but they only had strawberry so he settled with that. When we went in, movie trailers were still showing.

Griffin watched the whole movie while eating his popcorn, with some side comments since he recognized some of the characters from his Happy Meal toys. He may have been a little restless after a while from sitting in one position the whole time because he's used to moving around while watching movies at home, but he did not ask to go out of the cinema. He's even eager to watch another movie next time.

What is a fruit?

Me: Tell me about planting a seed.

Griffin: First, you plant a seed, it becomes a plant, then it becomes a flower. When the flower is fertilized, the ovary of the flower ripens then it becomes a fruit.

Griffin and nenen-na

Nenen-na is a term Griffin uses when he wants to nurse. He has been breastfed since he was a day old, but purely breastfed from 3 weeks old.

He hasn't stopped nursing up to now, at 3 years and 5 months old. He mostly nurses at night to get to sleep or when he has tantrums. Maybe, its partly my fault because nursing has been so convenient. It makes him stop crying when he has tantrums or when he's hurt. It gets him to sleep specially when he wakes up in the middle of the night, and it makes him feel better when he feels bad. In fact, when he has tantrums recently, he tells me, "Mommy, I want to nenen-na so I'll be happy."

When he was younger he used to nurse all the time that's why I didn't want staying out of the house for a long time because he'll surely ask to nurse. First, he used to ask for nenen-na even when we're at a store or in a restaurant, then as he got older, he would ask to go to the car to nurse.

Later on, he no longer asks to nurse when we're at the mall, but that hasn't stopped him from nursing when we're at home or in the car. When we tell him that big boys don't nenen, he says, "but i still nenen." He just won't stop.

Just recently, we asked him when he is going to stop nursing, he said, "When I'm 4 years old." We'll see what happens when he turns 4.

Baby no more

A few months ago, when I would say, "Where's my handsome baby?", Griffin would immediately say, "I'm here. I'm here." But now, when I ask the same question or when I or anyone else call him baby, he would answer, "I'm not a baby anymore, I'm a big boy." He doesn't even want to be called little boy.

Griffin Smarty Pants

I just want to put in writing some anecdotes about Griffin I still remember.

September 3, 2007

Griffin and I were doing some fingerpainting. He told me to spread the paint on the paper. I did so shaping the paint like a tornado.

Griffin: Is that a twister?
Me: Yes. Where did you see a twister?
Griffin: In Wonder Pets. It's a very strong wind.


December 17, 2007

Griffin has been very fond of insects lately. He loves his insect books and knows the names of the different insects. He knows the stages the insects go through, example, for a bee, from an egg they become a larva, a pupa and then a bee. He also knows that there are queen bees, drones and worker bees. Last month while we were in Rockwell eating at Jollibee...

Griffin: Jollibee is a cooker bee.
Me: Why?
Griffin: Because he cooks food for you.


January 12, 2008

Iper and I were talking while eating at Food Choices in Glorietta when Griffin says. "Iper, don't talk when your mouth is full. You chew first, swallow, then talk."

Little Gym

Griffin's Appraisal Card


One and a half months after Griffin stopped going to school, I decided to enroll him at The Little Gym for the Fall Quarter (August - December 2007). He enjoyed the trial class he attended that's why I decided to enroll him.

He had his first class last August 31 and he had a blast running around, jumping, hanging on bars and doing forward rolls. He still had to get used to following the teacher's instructions in his first few classes. In this quarter, I saw his progress from the boy who used to run around during the class, sometimes refusing to do the routine to a boy who wanted to do the routine himself and following whatever the teacher tells him.

I wasn't going to enroll him for the next quarter because I planned to enroll him in preschool. I told him that he would no longer go to Little Gym next quarter. He agreed at first, but I think he enjoyed his first Show Day so much that he told me he wanted to go to Little Gym again so I enrolled him again and postponed his schooling till next schoolyear. He started the new quarter last January 4 and he looks forward to going to Little Gym every friday.

Griffin's 3 Years Old

Griffin is growing up really fast. He no longer misses out the letter N when singing the Alphabet Song. He can also do his puzzles all by himself.

The month he turned 3, he could already spell his name. He could also spell HOT and write the letters H-O-T. Knowing that he could already remember how to spell some words, I started labelling some things in our room to familiarize with the spelling of the words. After a while, he could already sight read most of the words. There was even an instance when Griffin was playing with JD and Auntie Marie overheard him saying, "It's H-O-T hot but you can use the F-A-N fan."

The following are some of the words he can read as of October 2007:

it
is
a
red
bed
blue
fish
yellow
wall
all
go
little
no
jump
big
on
in
off
my
yes
say
hot
griffin
to
up
at
cat
sat
boy
fan

Griffin as a 3 year old is very talkative and sociable. He doesn't hesitate to talk to other people specially kids. He is a very smart boy and has a very good memory so he easily absorbs and retains information in his mind. He remembers the smallest details, whether it was something he saw on TV or in a book, something about his toys or something that he experienced. It's like he has a photographic memory. I bought him a book about the Life Cycle of a Butterfly. He tells me to read the book to him over and over again. To my surprise, he has memorized the book almost word for word.