Alfonso Gabrielo's first Birthday

ALFONSO GABRIELO'S (Gab or Gabe) FIRST BIRTHDAY

Alfonso Gabrielo, my grandson celebrated his 1st Birthday at the Jollibee Global City in Fort Bonifacio last April 5, 2009 the day after my daughter Aurora's wedding to Paulo. Friends, relatives and officemates of Ponchie and Babes with their children came to enjoy the fun with full entertainment from the Jollibee Staff with parlor games, dance, trivias, food, drinks and with special participation of Jollibee himself to amuse the children and adults as well. . . . . . .

Who would have thought that after a year Gabe would turn out to be a healthy and intelligent bouncing baby boy. He was born prematurely at 8 months. He spent some time in an incubator at the hospital in Medical City. He was very frail and was infected by Sepsis, an inflammation caused by bacterial infection from the facilities in another hospital. . . . . . .

He is learning to walk now by clutching and reaching on anything to hold on with his hands where he could move around easily with his shoes on or by his walker. He could utter words like "Dada","Mommy"and "Turtle" and can imitate sounds like the ringing of a telephone, whistling and especially the "r" sound as in "vrrrooom" when he plays the toy car. He likes to make bubbles adeptly on his mouth wth his saliva. He also loves to chatter a clacking sound that he learned from us.  Gabe likes to ride in the car and observes everything that we passed by and does not sleep or bore him as most babies do. . . . . .

Everyday, Gab would hear music from CDs, like Baby Mozart's, Baby Bach's or Chopin just before taking his bath. He loves to watch TV and his favorite are mostly commercial ads and cartoons. My lovely wife, Edith and I would sing some lullabies and Nursery Rhymes on Gab on many occasions that he is already familiar with the songs. What we noticed was, Gab would hum to the tune of the music. I practice my Korg Piano at home very often and Gab loved to watch me how I played. Then I would let him tap the keys which he would gladly enjoy doing it. He does not bang the keys as other babies do but tries to listen to the sound of the notes at the speaker monitor. Very fascinating for a small tot like Gab. . . . . . .

His biggest drawback though is, he seldom eats solid food like veggies or anything that a baby boy must eat at his age. He vomits easily if he does not like the taste of the food. He depends mostly on formula milk throughout the day. He consumes an 800grams can of Nan 2 in 3 days. He drinks vitamins regularly like Vita Zinc and Tropicee. These vitamins have lysine, taurine, zinc and ascorbic acid that promote brain and phsycomotor development, stimulates appetite and strenghtens the immune system. His weight and height is just right for his age by following the advice of his Pediatrician which he regularly visit for a check-up. At this early, we try to teach Gab on sign language which will promote and help his communication skills and for better IQ . . . . .