Dear Cyrus,

"Where did all the time go?" is a question that I repeatedly asked myself since the day you arrived. It does seem that time fly by a lot faster...and I try to keep track of your milestones (and that scrapbook that's been collecting dust), update your social media accounts (by the time all these make sense to you, it'd have been a thing of the past! The bane of technology.

Five months old today and you are the apple of everyone's eyes - truth be told, Momma never thought you'd fill my heart with so much happiness, and to think I planned to be away from you during the pregnancy already and when these trips happen I guilt trip myself on those milestones I have missed and will be missing.

You've achieved so much and never seem to stop marveling us every single day. When you were so tiny, G-ma and I were afraid to shower you and would make do with just wiping down and coming up with a hundred and one reasons why you need not have a shower that day - sorry baby, your head really smelt so bad during those early days!

Let me try to list your achievements to date;

You've been sucha chatty little bub, Dadda would engage you in serious conversations before dinner..we vaguely heard ar-lo, bo-bui and mama amidst all that babbles. Dinner with us is almost a daily affair where you get propped up in that baby seat of yours with full view of our dinners, you remind us to include you in our conversations every now and then and tried to sit up by doing crunches. Haha! Too cute, baby boy.

Tummy time is your nemesis, you feigned sleep before, wailed your lungs out and got so horribly upset with us for cursing tummy time on you. And then one fine day, you flipped and landed quite proudly on your tummy. Since, trying to crawl is your nemesis than tumtum time. Haha, the irony! Your perseverance impressed all of us, the incessant practising that went on for hours, days and weeks just so you can roll over with ease..
 
Your face recognition skills amaze me, pry you away from G-ma and that cues meltdown. Your order of preference goes as follows - G-ma, momma, dadda and Gong Gong. We all get a treat of gummy smiles when you see us at the end of the day, the same smile that pulls down all walls of resistance when you get naughty.

Tula-time is your favouritest, it keeps you snug and makes nap times happy. Except, you've gotten so chubby, we are all feeling the weight (literally).

I'm thankful you aren't fussy - formula, ebm, fbm...you lap them all up with a vengeance. The only grouse is, you've begun to have a preference for warmer milk once it gets slightly colder than it should.

Impatience is what you've inherited from us both - and boy, you are a screamer. No amount of cajoling can come between you and your milk (but really, the milk is warming up! We aren't going to harm you.)

You are our water baby, shower times can be teary affairs when you are hungry but splashing in the water always makes you grin with such delight.

Recently, you learned to laugh. Your mirror reflections and peekaboo games elicit that cute laughter that got us all laughing with you.

You used to scream to get your diapers changed pronto - and those were the days where we made it through more than 10 diapers a day. Dadda cannot blame momma for morphing into a cent-scrimping auntie!

Those ceiling lights are your best friend - since day one. Going into a lighting showroom is one hell of a treat above all other favourites. And secretly, we wish Santa would grant you lights in your present this year.

You know the existence of the camera, and would humour both me and my camera if your mood is right.

Car rides are fun and you love going into tunnels - must be those lights again. 

Crowds intimidate you sometimes, and you prefer to take a cat nap in the baby carrier. Devoid of all noises.

Your fingers and fists have made their way into your tiny mouth, doesn't having your face wiped with saliva gross you out? Because you proceed to feed my face with it too.

I can go on forever listing the smallest and biggest achievements really and it won't stop. We love you to the moon and back and thank you for coming into our lives. Just don't grow up so fast please? As I tick the months off and you go from not being a newborn and soon not a baby anymore...where did the time go when I wished you'd exit from the womb quick?

Elizabeth Stone said, “Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ”

I used to tell your G-ma, what is there to worry about me? I'm grown up and can fend for myself and...until I became a parent myself, this journey is lifelong. I became a worry wart. Leave the worrying to me baby boy, just be healthy, happy and dadda and momma have got you covered.