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# 2 of 50 from http://lifetoheryears.com/50rules

"2. Always be there. Quality time doesn’t happen without quantity time. Hang out together for no other reason than just to be in each other’s presence. Be genuinely interested in the things that interest her. She needs her dad to be involved in her life at every stage. Don’t just sit idly by while she adds years to her life… add life to her years."

Olivia,

People may say a year is so short. To some it is, but to a baby's first year, it is one long year of growth and change. This is one thing I am thankful to God for, that I work at home. I thank God that I am able to wake up and start my day with you and mommy. I am happy that I don't have to rush off and leave you and see you 8-10 hours later. I admit, at night or some afternoons, I'd run off to the studio to work but I always make sure to check in from time to time and squeeze in some play time or at the very least, some kisses. I usually spend hours straight once you're asleep.  

I do believe that quantity time is quality time so every moment with you is cherished and I LOVED watching, seeing, and hearing all the little changes that happened to you day by day in your first year. The growth of your hair, the way you just grew longer, and the moment you started saying "dada."

Don't worry, I plan to hang with you maybe until the time you feel embarrassed already haha but seriously, I am sure we'll have a lot of time spent together cuz I'll be teaching you drums, guitar, and piano. If something else interests you, don't worry. I'm a quick learner.

I seriously hope that I can add life to your years and I hope you've felt so alive in your first :)

Love,
Daddy 

Let's Count, Olivia!

And so my wife finally comes across this link

http://lifetoheryears.com/50rules

It's actually been in my browser favorites since way back so I can easily come back to it and to be honest, I really remember a lot of these on the list since I first read it. I also shared it online at the time if I remember correctly. It's a really nice list that all dads can put in as a little guideline for the little things. 

With this, I plan to go over each so that one day Olivia can also read back into my thoughts on this list.

OK. For #1 it says

"1. Love her mom. Treat her mother with respect, honor, and a big heaping spoonful of public displays of affection. When she grows up, the odds are good she’ll fall in love with and marry someone who treats her much like you treated her mother. Good or bad, that’s just the way it is. I’d prefer good."

So, Olivia, I guess I'm on the right track since I love your mom. She always gets respect and honor. I think she needs more PDA so I shall make a change. I just don't know with our culture being Filipino because so far I'm good at holding hands, putting my arms around her and sometimes kissing her head. She recently joked about how in movies, couples suddenly kiss out of nowhere while in public so I guess I have to put that in my to do list.... something like we're walking and then I'll just stop and put my hand under her chin and pull her close to me. hahaha I can just imagine your mom laughing right when I'm about to pull her towards me. But I hope you remember that I always show you how I hug your mommy and even call you to see how I hug and kiss her... if you're reading this and you're older, then what you usually do is make a face like "can I join, dad?" then you try to crawl towards us and we of course squeeze you in and then you get squished because mom and dad are attackin you with kisses already hehe

Reading into #1, I would stop and won't comment now about who you'll marry even if he ends up like me who loves you like I love your mom. Not now hehe I'm still the only man in your life so let's live with that for now OK?

Love,
Daddy 

Olivia Demonstrates How To Use a Pacifier

Olivia, 

You've always been a very wise little child and I've always loved how you always manage to do things your own way... like how you used your pacifier when you were around 9 months old.

Here you are in the video when you woke up in the middle of the night and mom was asleep. I had to take over looking after you because she was already out. I tried to give you a pacifier again to try if it would work because your mom and I really didn't want you to get used to it as much. As you'll see in the video, you really never got used to it at all and you didn't need one to be pacified ;) For your first year, you really didn't use it as designed but more for just biting 'around' it.

Love, 
Dada

Olivia Smiles

So far, this has got to be my favorite video of her :)

Olivia_Airplane.mov Watch on Posterous

Speaking of smiles...

As parents, it's such a treasure waiting for those smiles given by our babies. In the earlier months of your child's life, it's pretty rare, so we're over the moon when they do those "sleep grins" where they smile in their sleep. Later on, as we see in this video, they'll eventually smile for things they've learned to like. In Olivia's case, the airplane drop :)

Olivia's First Bubble Experience

I thought she would really enjoy it but it turned out she wasn't as fascinated with it hehe

Olivia_Bubbles.mov Watch on Posterous

Perfect Timing

2012-09-09_23_27_21.mov Watch on Posterous

I happened to be in front of her with my camera. Thank you Lord :)

This Video Moved Me

via youtube.com

It's funny how it was when we were young. We never really had any connection yet to parent-child type of video in the sense that we never did get the parents' bit at the time. Now that I have a daughter, anything related to a dad and his daughter always hits home to me... it often makes me tear up as well. Just like the first time I saw this vid.