Ever since Mateo was smaller, he loves balls more than any other toy. We first introduced him to a small bag of soft balls. It has a basketball, a football, a soccer ball, and a baseball. He loved them so much that he’d call anything round a ball. ‘Bah’ is his first word aside from ‘dada’, even before he was able to say ‘mama’. Even heavy golf balls would interest him.

Ramil has dreams of making him into a ball player, be it a basketball player or a soccer player. Until now, balls are a weakness for Mateo. When we went to Bora last March, Mateo refused to step foot on the sand. Only a soccer ball being played by another one of the hotel’s guest enticed him to do so. He’d willingly go with anyone who has a ball for him and a ball could stop tantrums.

A few weeks after his first introduction to balls, we introduced him to toy cars. Although he was intrigued by them, especially by the wheels, his interest for balls in unmatched. He has a lot of different toys now but he would always have his fondness for balls. I guess in this case, first love never dies huh?