For the life of me, I can't seem to hold my emotions...am just soo mighty proud of my little boy! What else is new, every mother is..hehe.
Lately, he's been engrossed with "animal" books. So the ever-supportive mommy in me kinda bought all kinds of baby books & DVDs with "animals" on 'em. Good thing there's a pirated DVD station in Divisoria which is very much safe & accessible to us. And that we have BookSale franchisers here. Oh, do check out Toy Kingdom too. They also have some affordable books at times.
Oh, I got plenty of books too...Brainy Baby (a bday gift from our fave videographer's family actually), Animal Zoo, MagnoPix Fun To Learn Animals (which has magnetic animals included)...this by far is the one most enjoyed by Benedict. He loves sticking the magnetic animals on the pages. we just guide him which animal goes to a certain page. Tho sometimes we indulge him even if he sticks the doggie on the water page. (Why? The doggie does know how to swim man sad dba? hehe...joke! We also have those sparkly board books with the ff. titles: On The Farm & Farmyard Babies. He just gets a kick out of figuring out the animal and the name that goes with it..
Maybe the influence also of playing Brainy Baby Animal videos and Baby Einstein's Neighborhood Animals when he was younger. I just enjoy giving my son the things he enjoys in life. I feel so glad that my little boy is taking interest in his surroundings now.
When we had dinner on the New Year at Uncle William & Auntie Tessie's place, Benedict was able to play with his cousins on the Oh side of the family (Marlon's maternal relatives). And Ate Chloe (daughter of Celeste & Mark) now 2 yrs+ shared her plastic animal toys with my little munchkin.. and the tiny tike enjoyed making the plastic toys stand on its own. We saw the spark of interest in his eyes, so we promptly looked for the same toys. But for something so common, we had a relatively difficult time looking for it. Nope, Toy Kingdom & even our local Gaisano doesn't sell such stuff. we even had to ask Tetet to buy for us in Pagadian store pa. Fortunately, it arrived sometime end of January. Oh the joy my little boy gets in playing with 'em. It's another thing that interests him aside from...cars!
Anyway, I took the time to point out the names of the animals and the respective sound it makes, starting with the cow which he calls as "moo". This is because while most kiddos would call every four-legged creature as dog, my little boy calls it "moo". Oh, dear me! I couldn't help it if we pass by many pastures and vacant lots with lots of cows in going out of our subdivision...hehe 
We do have a dog you know, but he does not realize it coz we rarely let him near its cage as we are protecting him from possible allergy triggers. So you can understand my frustration when I would pull out a tiger & a lion, and he would automatically refer to them as "moo"...hahaha 
Since he's merely 17 month old, I didn't really drill on the names of the animals. I just follow his lead, whenever he would pick out an animal, I'd just name it & make its sound too. So many days thereafter, I was kinda pleased coz now he can differentiate a lion from a giraffe, an elephant from a bear...etc.
I told his Daddy that I have a difficult time teaching him the concept of the bird flying coz he has never really seen one. This is due to the fact that we barely take him out to the veranda bec. of the dusty road while most of the neighbors are constructing their respective fences. Anyway, Marlon decided to get him a birdcage and buy a pair of "maya". We placed them under the aircon casing outside the guest room. So if you would open the window underneath the place where the aircon is, Benedict can see the birds inside their cage. Whoa! in no time, when Nana & Nono slept overnight before going to a Manila trip, he already learned that the sound of the bird is "tit..tit" according to Nono. It added to his expanding animal vocabulary 
A few days earlier, last Saturday to be exact, we had Manang Flor (an elderly masseuse) came over for a massage. And he brought with her "manok bisaya" (native chicken) which Marlon loves either cooked into a tinola or with sotanghon. Since it was alive when she brought it into the house, Benedict had fun time outside playing with the poor thing before it was turned into tinola the ff. day, hehe...Kalooy sad sa manok! Now the little boy knows the difference of the duck from the chicken
Just last night, while looking for a DVD I've stored in the guest room's closet, I found an animal chart, which Ate Dul (my sis-n-law) bought for Benedict a long time ago. Along with the ABCs, Number, shapes & Color charts she found at SM & National Bookstore then. So I mounted 'em on the wall last night carefully using a masking tape as Marlon doesn't want to ruin the paint in our bedroom. Good luck na lang nya when Benedict would be writing on walls.
Early this morning I woke up to a very eager little boy pointing out to the animals on the wall. He can pretty much recognize most but has not encountered the rest of the species yet. Among the ones he can identify already, even with his eyes half-closed are...(haha, okay! okay i'm exaggerating) his ever-fave COW with matching "moooo" sound, DOG ("do") which he knows can make the "woof,woof" sound..(how come it's not "aww, aww" dear me! we're watchin' all american video you know, their dogs in the DVDs doesn't make an "aww" sound there..hehe...CAT ("meow" which we would sometimes use to scare him when he wont go to sleep yet...i know its not good so we're stopping it na...and its no longer effective too as he would only mimic us when we make the "meow" sound now...hahaha, i guess he kinda figured out that Mommy/Daddy is the "meow")...GIRAFFE, ZEBRA, ELEPHANT, LION with a "roarrr" sound, BEAR (its "beh" to him), DUCK ("dat") but couldn't differentiate it from chicken & bird as he refers to flamingos as duck too...PIG with an "oink, oink" sound, BIRD which he calls as some kinda "bohr". And he learned from Nono that it makes a "tit,tit" sound. As I have narrated, he recently get acquainted with the CHICKEN which I taught him makes a "cluck, cluck" sound but I guess he doesn't really care...hehe. Sometimes a Mom can be such a bore, too.
Oh, the "ish" (for FISH) and "tuh-tuh" (TURTLE), he learned a long time ago because we have 'em in the bathroom, as well as the duckie diay. He can even make a palm-together, swaying motion when asked how does the fish swims?..but by far, the funniest I have ever taught him is the two hands scratching his head with matching "krrub..kruubb" sound to indicate the sound/action of the MONKEY.hahaha, big time! When his Ah Ko (my SIL) learned about it at first, she was laughing so hard coz Benedict scratched his Ah Ko's head as if saying that Ah Ko is the monkey..hehe...Man! the little guy has a sense of humor.
We were at the veranda yesterday afternoon, while feeding him his snack of biscuit and strawberry-flavored yoghurt when a small, white butterfly fluttered by...ah! 
Mommy's teaching moment! Since it has already caught his attention, I didn't have a hard-time pointing out the BUTTERFLY and he even understood that just like the bird it has wings, and he would flap his hands on the side to show how the bird (and now the butterfly, too) flies.
Just for today, I had pointed out the BEE in the chart, adding that it makes a "bzzz...bzzz" sound, and the MOUSE says "ik..ik" while the TIGER (and pointing out the lion, to show that they are not the same) says "grrr" and the SHEEP goes "baaa". Before his night bath, he was shouting "baaa" already and pointing out to the picture of the sheep on the chart. But I firmly believe that the main influence is the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode entitled "Daisy Bo-Beep" where the characters of Mickey & friends helped Daisy in looking for 10 lost sheeps she was suppoed to be watchin' for Bo-Beep.
I am just left in awe on how a young mind is like a sponge...ever so hungry of information. I had always cautioned my Yaya and the rest of the houselhold staff to not teach the little boy things which would not be good for toddlers to learn...such as but not limited to spanking, spitting and the likes (you know the "cute naughtiness" we see in little toddlers but fast becomes source of major embarrassment when they couldn't shake 'em off as they get older)...As they are very eager learners, and always hungry of recognition, I wouldn't want Benedict to learn the bad traits. At least not until the good values are in place. This is somewhat an advantage on my part as I am a SAHM, so I get to monitor my little boy's activities day-in and day-out.
Back to the Bright Mind's Animal Chart, there are only a few animals now that he can't identify yet...namely, the HORSE and the CARABAO, which I honestly am having a difficult time teaching him to differentiate from the cow. Same case with the GOAT and the sheep. To complete the chart, I'd have to find a way to introduce the CAMEL and the CROCODILE. Will going to Dubai (for the camel) and Davao (they have croco farm, there...hello!) solve this probs? Good luck to me...hehe 
Thanks for indulging a love-my-own mommy story...If you've read this far, you're either my sister, my cousin, a close friend, my best online buddy...or simply bored to death. Nonetheless, I hope I didn't put you to sleep nor scare you off from my site permanently. tee, hee...
God bless!
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