Brightside Entry 24: Hugs from Presley

Presley is my one-year-old neice who is a lot like me--quite temperamental: sometimes sweet, sometimes snobby, sometimes extremely jolly, other times very crabby. That being said, we get along pretty well. Whenever I come down for breakfast in the morning, she looks at me from her high chair, stretches a hand out waves and says "A-iiiiii (Hi)! Ta! Ta! (Tita)"

But also, Presley is very stingy when it comes to affection--she shows it by holding your hand when she is walking and you're walking beside her or by obliging to show you her "beautiful eyes" trick (batting her eyelashes, basically). But it's very rare for her to hug people or to kiss them.

So tonight, when I was sitting on the floor in our living room and she waddled toward me, smiled, blew me a kiss and leaned in to give me a long, tight hug, I was discombobulated (in the best sense). In her words, "Wowowowowwww". (Yes, her first real word is "wow") After that, she proceeded to give me a big, toothy smile and hug me again.

Amazing. <33 My heart was filled with so much fuzziness. She's so cuuuuuuuute! I used to be thoroughly anti-children (it's just weird, the thought of all that DNA coming out of your hoo-hah) but Presley's existence has changed my mind about that. :)) I understand (to some extent) what parents mean now when they say that their kids make everything okay. Bundle of joy indeed!

Photo by Audrey Fernandez Puangco :)

Photo by Audrey Fernandez Puangco

Presley with her mom, Ate Audrey (this photo is also by her)