The big thing this month was flying to the Philippines to spend time with family. A- has mostly settled in. She gets quite anxious around my dad, who's a lot sicker than he was when we visited in September.

This month, A- figured out how to sort cans into five groups by colour, label how she was drawing, cut with a serrated knife perpendicular to the chopping board, roll and slice play dough, drop coins into a slot, and turn doorknobs (!). She was interested in stringing beads with help, picking up plastic eggshells with her toes, cutting index cards all the way through with scissors, standing astride her balance bike, and lifting bags of lentils overhead so that she could throw them down. She loved getting shopping bags from under the sink, putting cans in them, dragging them around, and putting everything away. She also loved sliding down an inclined mattress and rolling things down to hit various targets.

We discovered a nice toddler pool in a nearby community centre back in Toronto. Despite the cold, we managed to make it to an outdoor playground too.

A- regularly uses four- to seven-word sentences. She seems to have a few favorite sentence groups – snippets from books, or connected thoughts such as: upset picture; cat pajamas; no wake up all; ni bed. She can name everyone she regularly sees, and she likes labelling their actions. When I offer her choices, she uses more words to describe what she wants.

She wants to be more independent, and sometimes even asks me to wait in one place while she goes and does something. She sometimes gets upset when I eat something she's got her eye on or if I do something for her when she wants to do it by herself, so I'm happy to let her take the lead. She imitates what we do: washing dishes, carrying a stuffed toy in her sling, putting things away, strumming the ukulele strings. She's doing all right.

I'm learning to make the most of the tablet and phone that my dad insisted on giving me. I'm a little intimidated by the thought of dealing with Customs on the way back to Canada, but it's the right thing to do, so I'll just keep a spreadsheet with the gift totals.

My dad might have surgery shortly before our scheduled return, so I'm thinking of extending my stay a few weeks while W- sticks with the original itinerary. We've had a lot of serious conversations just in case this is the end, and we've also had lots of storytelling and family time.

I learned more about estate tax law in the Philippines. I'm reasonably confident that we'll be able to sort this out, especially with the recent tax changes.

We were in the middle of dealing with a flea problem in Toronto, so it's been nice dealing only with the occasional mosquito bite here. We'll just have to get back to vacuuming regularly once we're in Toronto again.

The major upgrade at work went well. I helped with a few bugfixes and problem investigations. I'm glad I brought the work laptop, although it will be an interesting challenge bringing everything back if I'm traveling by myself.