Today marks one week of Philip’s life in the world! I’ve been on paternity leave and loving every moment of it. This beautiful boy does nothing but eat, sleep, poop, and cry all day, and yet I can’t get over him.

My quiet times of reading the Bible and praying this week have been moving, because I have to think, “Lord, is that how you feel about me? My utter uselessness and helplessness are eclipsed by Your passion and love for me?”

So in celebration, here are some things about Philip.

His Name

His full name is Philip Nathaniel Peralejo Bonifacio.

The Philip part was pretty easy to establish. We liked it because of Philippines. But more than that, we like it because of Philip the Evangelist in the Bible. No, we won’t be calling him “Phil” or “Pip” and anyone who does so to his ears will not be seeing much of him. 😉 Philip means lover of horses. So we painted a horse on his room. But I don’t think there’s much significance beyond that. Haha

The second name was harder to decide on. We had a few options, but we both liked Odysseus – the character from The Iliad and The Odyssey. But Odysseus means full of hate, and we couldn’t get over that fact.

It wasn’t until the night before he was born that we decided on Nathaniel, which means “given by God.”And that’s how we feel about our boy.

I still remember May 27, 4:30 AM when Carla jumped on the bed and waved the pregnancy test in my face. We were gonna have a baby! And that conviction that Philip is from God sustained us all throughout the pregnancy, through the 22 hours of delivery, and will continue to do so all our lives. 🙂

Funny Moments

• Carla is already having separation anxiety. Last night while browsing Instagram she said, “He’s growing up too fast. He already looks older today than he does in these pictures.” Oh well… 🙂
• She is an expert at changing, bathing, and all things mothering though. It’s from all the practice with her six nieces and one nephew. I on the other hand have the talent of changing him in the middle of his call of nature. Nice.

Who He Takes From

I really cannot understand the people who look at a freshly-born infant and immediately declare, “Oh, he has your grandfather’s eyes!”

How do you see that? Don’t all babies look alike? Their features are still to squished up to tell the difference. If they resemble any adult, I think they all look like Winston Churchill.

But then again, this is me. I didn’t see a resemblance between me and my dad till I was 15.

But while I am dubious of everyone who says Philip looks like this or that, there are two things I can’t deny he’s inherited from us.

• Carla’s weather nose: I know Carla’s cold when her nose is cold, sometimes before she feels cold herself. And Philip is the same, so we bundle him up and then test his nose. If it’s normal, we’re good.
• Joe’s expression: Man… That isn’t taught, I guess. He isn’t being rude. Sorry to anyone he might offend in the future. (And everyone I’ve offended in the past.)

So speaking of his expression, that leads us to…

The Best of the #PhilipBo Meme

I posted this picture of him and we keep noticing him striking these contemplative, reflective, kunot-noo poses. So in response people gave different captions for them. Like these two from Eauj Corpuz and Joshua Jacob Enteria.

Thank you for all your responses! And here are our favorites! Click the pic for the source. Scroll to the bottom for my TOP THREE.

THE TOP THREE

That last one might require explanation. Josephine Kate Murrell is the daughter of one of my best friends, William Murrell.

There have been so many similarities between our families already. And now with #BabyJo and #PhilipBo born six weeks apart, some grandmothers have been known to speculate…

And the winner!

And just to seal the deal that their family should’ve won this contest. Here’s the comment Miko’s wife, A Magsaysay, left on Facebook: