Tami’s Hair Adventures
Tami has recently gotten more and more interested in styling her hair. She used to never let anyone touch her hair, not much less brush it after a bath because she says it is painful. So I learned to brush her hair slowly and softer, with much patience needed. When she was a baby he hair grew and they had soft curls on the ends. It was so pretty. I remember I used to put her hair in two buns one each side, just like Chun-li’s. Not only did it make her look neat and tidy, it also made her feel fresh all day, with her hair out of the way. My favorite part is when I undo the buns and her hair has these beautiful locks of curls all around, making her look so pretty!
We had to cut her hair because it became too long to maintain and she had also the misfortune of getting lice, due to the hot and humid weather in the Philippines. So she had Dora hair. Her dad though loves her long hair and now that we are in Japan, we are finally able to grow her hair long.
Now she would ask me to braid her hair and I do different kinds of braids for her too. She sits still and she lets me do it, although she does complain sometimes if it hurts her. Look how pretty she is!
I also bought a curling iron and the first one who got to try it is not even me, it was Tami! She loved it! She was still and she made it through the whole thing with no burns too! Here is how she looked. Remember though to not use the iron on your kids’ hair frequently. One alternative is to just put them in buns for a time being. Kids’ hair strands are soft and thin and versatile, so it won’t take long before you can undo the locks and enjoy her curls.
Tami also has a wide array of hair accessories and a lot more that she has lost over time. Among our favorites are the following:
To more hair adventures with Tami!
And Her Name is Tamika
Tamika Christa is our eldest daughter. She is turning 5 on December 4, 2012. I was 24 when I gave birth to her after 24 hours of labor. She was a healthy 6.2 lb. baby girl with a cord coil (or maybe two cord coils). Talk about tough. We made it through the ordeal with my Mom there and my friend Mei Leen who gave birth a few months ahead. I will not dwell on the pain and labor that I had to go through though. All the mothers out there who have given birth would know that it is something we don’t want to remember. What I do want to remember is the image of her in the swaddling clothes when she was first shown to me. That is a sight to behold. She was, and is perfect.
Her first year was a blur to me because i was a full-time employee in a night shift HR office at a call center in Bacolod. I would get home in the morning when she just woke up and I would remember her hands all over my face while I try to sleep. My mom took care of her while I, as they say, bring home the bacon (hoorah). Tami is a blessing from God and a very important lesson in my life, a lesson I will remember until my last day. She showed me that even when I think I cant make it anymore, I still can. She doesn’t know it though but she shows me everyday that I did the right decision of fighting for her.
She has these big beautiful eyes that is just swelling with life and laughter. Her hair grew longer and had little swirls on the tips. I would put them up on pigtails and she would look like Chun-li. When I loosened them, they would have these little soft curls and she looked like a doll. I remember she had to go through a lot of medical trauma before she even reach one year because she had to battle pneumonia at 6 months old and then again at 11 months old. She is a toughie. She did develop a phobia for people wearing white robes and scrubs though.
Then came the terrible twos but she was just the apple of our eyes. Three years old and she was still in love with Dora. Her health was still unstable but as she is my daughter, that was expected. I am frail and so fragile myself. I pray and hope that we develop Tami’s immune system though to be much more resilient. She is also as picky as I was when I was her age. I only ate rice with the broth and some small pieces of the meat or fish that my Lola or Mom picked especially for me. She went to nursery in L’ecole for three months before we left for Japan, which was good exposure for her. I learned that academically, I would have no trouble with her but we will be challenged with her deportment.
Thankfully, we are now with her Daddy so with two authoritative figures around, with good cop-bad cop strategy and time outs here and there, we are taking it one day at a time. Tami loves to watch cartoons and she likes to dress up. She is very independent and she has been like that ever since she was two or three years old. I see so much independence in her that we clash a lot of times. I haven’t even enjoyed picking out clothes for her when she already chooses her own outfits! Like I said we take it a day at a time. She learns from us and we learn from her.
She became a big sister when we found out I was pregnant last July 2010. For a while, Tami regressed because she has been so used to being the only child. It was a very challenging time but through love and assurance, we helped her get past it. All she needed to do was accept that she was going to have a sister. Now I am proud to say that she is a very good sister, and helper to me. She even wants to wash the dishes! She is very curious and asks about anything. She also is a talker and there would be times when we would ask her to please stop talking already. She is very persistent though. With Tami, we learned the art of negotiation, from waking up and all through out the day up to sleeping time.
Now I can’t wait for her to go to school. September come already. For now, she likes to help me feed our fishes and water the plants. She even named the fishes herself. When her Daddy asked her what she wants to be when she grows up, she said “I want to be Barbie, Daddy!”
That’s our Tami!
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