Last Wednesday, August 22, while typhoon "Chedeng" was storming in Manila, Matt was brainstorming with his shapes puzzle. Shapes ranging from round to hexagon to flower-like with different bright colors and numbers on it.

The toy was almost a year already, but he kept on ignoring the shape characteristics of it. He just loved to shake it while the pieces are inside or taking them out and picking them to put back inside the cube-like container.

On that day, he was seated in front of it trying to insert the pieces on it’s corresponding holes. At first I need to guide him, where the exact shape on his hand will supposed to go. He gets irritated if he can’t insert the piece he’s holding. So I encouraged him to slowly turn the piece to match the edges so it can slip through.

The scenario went over and over again for the rest of the day. Slowly, he managed to slip the pieces inside, especially the few-edged ones. And I always need to attend to his calls whenever he can’t put the shapes in.

The next day, while watching Barney (again!) I put all the pieces on the sofa next to him along with the cube-shaped container. After a few minutes only 2 out of 10 pieces were left! I was surprised! I even tried getting the shapes back out again so I can see for myself that he did it all on his own (apart from the fact that we’re only the ones there, huh?). And he really did! He keeps on turning and turning the container so I know that he’s looking for the right hole to put the shape into. Bravo, Matt! Hahah!

Matt’s also into numbers, alphabets and naming things. He’s getting familiar with his alphabet book with things starting with each letter. He’s also learning to count and write. Can draw a not-so-round circle with his hand on air and on paper, or rather on his magic slate.

He knows where his nose, eyes and ears are now. When he heard "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes", he’ll start pointing to all four parts but instead landing on the different parts of his body, heheh. He’ll point himself when asked "Asan si Matt?" or "Sino’ng pogi?" and can point where mom or dad or himself on our family picture.

Matt likes Barney so much now and he’s trying to follow the actions that goes with every song Barney and his friends are singing. He loves to party with his cousins! When he heard the intro of the "I’d like to move it, move it!" dance hit, he’ll find a way to dance! A skip is also included in his choreography now (dunno where he learned it, though).

You can even ask him to do little things like close the door, put his toys back to his toys’ basket, give something to someone, untie his dad’s shoestrings, turn off the fan.

Emotionally, he now knows how "magtampo", gets mad, insists (grabe, joel’s always saying "konting laki pa, Matt, konting laki pa ….", you all get what I mean? heheh) and still pikon.

Four more months and he’s two, everyday we are suprised on his new developments and on the things he learns and tries to do, so quickly. Looking forward on his next as-his-tita’s-called-it talent!