How can you not love them?

I find it so hard to talk to my daughter these days, and she’s only 6 years old! Everytime she says something, I need to decode it. About a year ago, when she was

starting to learn how to spell words, a typical conversation in our
house would be like this:

Gillian: Nanay, can we have H-O-T-D-O-G for B-R-E-K-F-A-S-T?
Me: Sure, anak. Pero B-R-E-A-K-F-A-S-T yun.

Gillian: Nanay, sabi ni T-E-A-C-H-E-R bring daw kami ng M-A-N-I-L-A P-A-P-E-R sa S-C-H-O-O-L T-O-M-O-R-R-O-W.
Me: Sige, pero sleep ka na.
Gillian: O-K-A-Y.

Now that she’s in grade one, she’s taking it a notch higher, she’s now talking backwards. She now talks like this:

Gillian: Nanay, gagawa daw kami ng glaf sa school para sa margorp next keew.
Me: What!?

Gillian: Sakal naman ng nalu!
Me: Ano!

Gillian: Yannan, where’s the etomer?
Me: Ano daw? Tony, kausapin mo nga anak mo!

How can you not enjoy motherhood? I only wish somebody told me that things like this will happen. I wonder what she’s gonna do next year?

And about my Balong, well, he’s not too crazy about school, he lives for the weekend, may pinagmanahan. I’m a little worried about him, though. He looks normal but I think something is wrong with him. I suspect he is dyslexic, how else can you explain his disability to write? Baka nahihirapan yun bata? It’s okay, I told myself. A lot of successful people are dyslexic, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem naman siguro. Tom Cruise is dyslexic, i-compare talaga kay Tom, of all people. Even Anderson Cooper had a mild form of dyslexia. But then again, I can be too paranoid sometimes. OA lang siguro ako. He can write his name but he doesn’t write like Gillian. My friends keep telling me not to compare him to Gillian, but I can’t help it.

All he does is draw, he loves drawing and coloring. And he loves me, I’m still the only girl in his life and I so enjoy it. Although, just last week, he told me something that still brings smile to my face everytime I am reminded of it, he said "Nanay, mahal ko na sya, ok lang?" referring to Kitchie Nadal, we were watching her "Same Ground" video at the time. "Yes anak, it’s ok," I told him. I’m not worried, I’m sure he’ll get over her. I don’t really think Kitchie is a competition, I am my son’s only girl, or at least for now.