With all the changes going on, the one that is most affected of all of us is our little kuya. Yes, mateo is affected more than he lets on. In fact, whenever we ask him, he says he’s very excited but his actions seem quite the opposite. He’s been more stubborn the last few days than ever. I don’t know if it’s his way of establishing his very own semblance of order or if it’s all a form of defiance to the changes around him. Either way, he is struggling.

We’re not so surprised though. We expected this much from mateo. Although we tried to prepare him really well for the changes, we know the actual experience is going to be different. This is the reason why we thought of buying him something as a gift from anika – to ease the transition and acceptance.

You see, a few months ago, when we passed by the department store, we searched for toys that the two will give each other during their first meeting in the hospital. For kuya, we thought of a black train. For anika, however, it was a bit more complicated. We wanted mateo to give her riding boots, or a dress, or maybe a rattle, but at the same time we also wanted mateo to choose which one he’d like to give her. In the end, mateo got the train and a puzzle bear (the bear we gave already, but the train is still in hiding), and anika got the rattle along with a loot bag of other action figures. Hehehe!