Our inaanak, Ashton, celebrated his 1st birthday last Sunday. The driver was out that day and Jon had to go somewhere first for something important (car matters again as I overheard him talk about car grilles with a friend over the phone) so I had to drive the kids all the way to QC for the party. Good thing it was a Sunday and traffic was bearable at SLEX. Jon just met us at the party venue and he gave me the surprise of a lifetime! Literally, my jaw dropped! Why? I think I have to keep it to myself this time.

Anyway, here are some party photos.

Mateo with the birthday boy

Me and the kids

The little boy snoozing

The kids

My long drive was worthit as Sophia was reunited with her best friend and both had the time of their lives participating in all the party games.  They took home most of the prizes too! My little boy, on the other hand, was such an angel again. Didn’t even cry even if we stayed past his bedtime already.

On the way home, we rode with the daddy as the driver came to pick up the car I used. Buti na lang.

This is the very reason why she is on a forced diet. Can you see how huge her tummy is? Way big and the daddy is pissed. I have been getting the blame all this time as I am the one who is with her 24/7. But what can a mother do? There is no way she’s taking some weight loss pills though as she is just too young for that. I’ve actually cut down on her rice intake but it seemed to have worked only in the beginning. Right now, she’s back to having a very big tummy again. At 4 yo, should I be concerned? Or is the daddy just over reacting? He is concerned as he said that having a weight problem is no joke and so is dieting. I think he’s speaking based from experience. LOL.

Seriously, I also don’t want Sophia to be on the heavy side. No offense meant to those who are and not that there’s anything wrong with being a little heavy,  it’s just merely my and Jon’s preference.  And I’m sure Sophia’s preference too when she’s a lot older.  So from now on, as the mom, I will be more vigilant on my daughter’s eating habits. Sorry but we gotta start them early, right? Wish me luck!

If there is ever a place we love visiting over and over again, I’d have to say its Hong Kong. Why? Well, aside from being a shopping haven, its also very convenient to go to because it only takes about an hour and a half or so via plane to reach. So we love going there all the time! I also love love the busy streets while my kids (well, my eldest actually) adore Disneyland, what else. So for the nth time for me and Jon, 5th time for Sophia and 1st time for Mateo, we trooped to the cosmopolitan centre where the East meets the West last August 28.

While it was freaking hot as its summer there, we still had a blast. My eldest won’t stop talking about her last Disneyland Adventure while my boy, at nine months, of course, doesn’t have a single clue where he was and what he was up to. I’m sure though that the mere fact he was with daddy, mommy and achie, it was more than enough for him to be happy.

Honestly, I was hesitant to go on with the trip as it’ll be my first time to travel with two kids if ever. I was thinking of postponing it until Mateo is atleast one. But we went ahead since my in laws were HK bound too. We boarded on different flights though. So what can I say about the trip? It wasn’t as hard as i thought! Not at all. In short, sisiw. My eldest is turning out to be a very good traveler at 4 yo while my little boy was such an angel. Now we are all geared up for a long haul flight!

I’ve posted all the pics at my flickr account while selected shots are also at facebook. All in all, the trip was stress free (to my surprise) and it was truly a great bonding experience again for our little family as with every trip we took over the last four years. Here are some of the photos but before that let me share how we evolved through the years with our every visit to Disneyland.

Past photos …

Our latest photos at the very same spots …

***I was just pregnant with Mateo in the 2008 picture and look how big a boy he is now with the latest photo. Ang bilis talaga ng panahon!!!

Anyway, on to more photos …

Breakfast with the Disney Characters

Sophia with her faves …

The kids at the hotel lobby …

It was indeed a happy trip. Never mind that Mateo’s two bottom teeth chose to come out while we were there so he didn’t like drinking milk (but would eat a lot of solids thank gawd), Sophia came home darker than ever because of too much time under the sun and we didn’t get to shop much (but we did check out some bluray laptops), it was still worth it.

Here are photos of him aboard his stroller. One of the few times we take him out malling. Surprisingly, even if we rarely take him out, he likes sitting still on his stroller while we go around. We were at the mall almost the whole day that day looking for some Murray Feiss lighting and he never got tired of sitting. I hope he continues to like riding the stroller until he gets older like his Achi Sophia so it’ll be easier when we travel soon with no yayas.

At eight months now, he still isn’t crawling and has yet to grow a tooth. Still is not fond of drinking milk that I am considering of changing his current formula. I have to ask his pediatrician on our next visit about it.  He’s on the thin side obviously but way too tall / long. Even longer than his achi when she was at his age now based on their baby book/records.  And if you’ve seen my daughter, she is TALL. So Mateo will be taller? Yaiks.

Tomorrow, we are taking him to US Embassy for his visa.  I hope everything turns out okay so we’ll all be set for our US trip soon.  Wish us luck!

On his 7th month, he can now sit on his own, loves babbling in a very loud voice but still hates drinking milk. He loves solids though. His fave right now is mashed sayote with broccoli, yummy!  He sleeps through the night but wakes up really early at 6am.  Naps twice or thrice a day and while awake, he loves to play in his exersaucer and playpen.  Both are hand me downs from his achi.  He poops in the potty seat (which I have to take a pic of!) twice a day  – one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  So far, he’s one happy baby. I don’t like his fondness for thumb sucking though. I hope he outgrows it soon.

He’s really growing very fast. Pretty soon, he’ll join his achi playing with the swing sets on our lawn. And I’ll have two kids running around the house already. I bet it’ll spell chaos. Something I really won’t mind though.

Party preparation for his 1st birthday by the way is in full blast now. This keeps me so excited lately. I just wish I could squeeze everything in with our budget. Wish me luck!

It was our usual date when her yaya goes on a day-off. Only this time I met with Mateo’s birthday party planner first.

Last Saturday was bonding time again for me and my little girl.

We were at Powerplant at 1o:30 am. First stop – breakfast.

(Mc Donalds in Powerplant doesn’t serve breakfast so we ended up having donuts instead.)

And then shopping. I got myself a pair of flats from Aldo while Sophia got another Hannah Montana DVD and a pair of sandals. Here she is while we were paying for her DVD.

Lunch time at Burgoo after.

(Reason why she wanted Burgoo was to be able draw on the table top.)

We went to see a friend after.  Since we were using my MIL’s driver (ours was sick), he wasn’t familiar with the place so we got lost! How I wish we have those gps systems so it would be easier to find our way around. Oh well, soon I hope those will be available in our side of the world.

… almost over!

My little girl will go back to school next week and she is so excited.  She really missed school badly. Proof? Last Monday, while on our “date”, she asked me if we can dropb y her school first before going to ATC.  She said she wanted to see her school because she misses it. Awww.

I am excited as well. She’ll be Junior Kinder this year and I actually called the school to inquire who her teacher is.   Can’t wait to take her back to school on Tuesday. I bet she’s also looking forward to it.  I hope this school year will be as fun a learning experience for her again just like the last, not too much pressure and all.

Now I wonder if I should let her take some piano lessons in school. Won’t it be too much for her? Although if you ask me, I also want violin lessons.  Well, lets wait and see. Will decide when she starts classes already so I can gauge if she can still squeeze the lessons in her spare time or if she isn’t too tired yet.