Ate Mariel is back :)

Yey!

I am sure most of you are familiar with the anxiety that comes with a very good household help going on vacation. The past two weeks weren't really that difficult for us, thanks to Mommy E and Tita Nice who watched over Lucas while we were at work (one major perk of living with my in-laws :) ). 

But was I glad when Mariel sent me an SMS saying that she's already at Dumaguete airport's waiting lounge, waiting for the boarding announcement. Sigh of relief indeed. Now we can go back to "regular programming". Back to regular gym sessions, aero class and other "me-time" activities :)  Of course, date nights are back too.

A month away from his second birthday

Lucas turns 23 months today! Whew! In a month, our little guy will turn two years old. Sniff. Sniff. I know it's such a cliche' but really, how fast time flies.

Here's a couple of Lucas's pics:

At Isabel's 1st Birthday Party

Hi Mom! Lucas watching the games for adults

Obviously, starstruck! He kept on pointing at him and shouting his name but he refused to go near Jollibee.

"Water!"

With daddy and with mommy...

Choo-choo train at Festival Mall

At a family dinner

MILESTONES:

• "A" = apple, "B" = B, "C" = coo-coo (for cookie), "D" = Da, "E" = egg, "P" = P, "R"=R
• Can count from 1-5, when he's in the mood. Can fill in the next number until number 10 (Thanks Tita Nice for patiently teaching Lucas)
• Says the following words and uses them in the right context: Mommy, Daddy, Lolo, Lola, Ate, Danel (Daniel), Cwaker (Cracker), Yumyum, Up, Joo (juice), Igs (Migs), Bath, No, Ya, Cake, Cream (ice cream), egg, bread, jump, book, please (pwease), swim, etc. (forgot the other words na but he says a lot. he also imitates the words from his tv shows (Dora, Thomas, Sesame Street). Lolo G often calls him a myna bird.
• Can identify the following animals and can say what they are aloud: dog, nyaw (cat), rabbit, frog (fwog), mouse, duck, pig, ipi (ipis or ladybug, ipi tawag niya :) ), elephant (elepa). He barks when he sees dogs and says "Nyaw!" when he sees cats.
• Imitates actions
• When he hears people call our household help "'day", he calls them Day too instead of his usual "Ate"
• He sometimes calls his daddy, "J" and calls me "Chie" when he hears people calling me by name.
• One day, he was writing on a paper. When we asked him what he's drawing, he replied, "Ipi" (ipis). Believe me, his scribble was nowhere near an actual ipis :)
• He loves Thomas the Train. He'd eat, sleep, take a bath, travel, etc. with his trains. We love buying trains for him because his face lights up with delight when we show him his pasalubong.

Mini Shopaholic

I dropped by Amazon earlier today and saw the synopsis for Sophie Kinsella's upcoming book. Mini Shopaholic will be available by September 2010. Oh I just can't wait!

I got the UK version cover from Sophie's website

Click here to see the synopsis at Amazon.

Wimbledon 2010 Champion

Celebratory forward roll

At the Champions Ball

With Serena

Vamos Rafa!

Pictures by Julian Finney/ Getty Images.

I Love Breaking Dawn

I started reading Eclipse a few months ago but after three chapters of Bella and Edward professing their love and saying they cannot live without each other every time the opportunity presents itself, I decided to put it back in the shelf and moved on to another book. Hubby was insistent that I continue reading as the mushy parts will give way to the exciting parts of the book soon after the third chapter. I only conceded when I saw the Eclipse Movie trailer and saw a group of vampires and asked, "Ano yan J? May army of vampires?". And his reply was, "Tagal ko na sinasabi sa iyo na basahin mo na kasi ulit..". And so I did. And finished it in two days.

As all you Twilight fans know, you just cannot put the third book down and not want to start on Breaking Dawn and see how it will all end. This one I also finished in two days. It was just so hard to put down!!! For me the fourth book is the best. Meyer did a great job in developing the story in the past three books. It was marvelous how she made everything work out in the end.

I cannot wait for the two-part movie...

As for Eclipse the Movie, hubby and I will try to find time for it. But maybe by next week. We're banking on a lesser movie house crowd :) I cannot blame those who wanted to see it ASAP and endure long lines though. If everything went on as in the book, I am sure the movie is all worth the long wait.

Pahabol Summer Getaway

Our pahabol summer getaway was so much fun because we spent it with dearest friends and my sister. I am glad that our little Lucas enjoyed his first trip at the beach. Sure, there were challenging times (our son is after all, just 22 months old and is bound not to behave himself 100%) but as my husband says, he wouldn't have it any other way.

Welcome to Kalibo! We got the 7AM flight. Little boy was amazed that we were riding the big plane. He was just a little bit scared when we took off. After a few minutes, he asked for "dodo" and fell asleep.

Lucas enjoying his popsicle. Dungis dungis. Right: We weren't able to check in immediately. While waiting for the 2PM check-in, my boys decided to swim in the pool. Astoria' s pool is really nice.

"Swide, daddy! Swide!"

Little boy got tired with all that "swiding". By dinner time he was still sleeping. JJ and my sister decided to get takeouts from Deco's (the Original La Paz Batchoy) and Jonah's fruitshakes. After dinner, we decided to call it a night. We were all up  by 4AM given our 7AM flight and we all needed the sleep.

DAY 2: 

Stroll before breakfast

After breakfast, we again decided to have a stroll by the beach. We encouraged Lucas to walk for as long he wanted. But I was always near him as there were lots of broken glass by the beach :(

Swimming with Mommy. Lucas was saying "akkkk!" each time he'd taste the water. He enjoyed the beach but he had more fun in the swimming pool.

Daddy was building a "sand train" for Lucas.

Lucas loves playing with the sand. Probably thinking, "Why is Mommy letting me play with dirt?Hmm, might as well enjoy the moment before i hear her crazed 'Nooooo! Lucas!'".

We had dinner at Hawaiian Barbecue and frappes at Starbucks

Lucas enjoyed dancing to the tunes played  by the solo performer in a restaurant near Astoria. By the musician's smile, I'd say he was delighted with his audience too.

DAY 3:

Our day began with a boat trip around the island. Pics were taken while we're waiting for everyone to finish breakfast.

At Puka Beach. While this pic has all the makings of a "posed" candid shot, it really is not. This is just us convincing our son to move near us so we can have a decent family picture.

Family Picture. This is the best that we can do, given the circumstances :)

He loved chocolate popsicles

Group lunch at Hawaiian Barbecue

My son is notoriously a picky-eater but he eats a lot and with no complaints whenever we eat out. Go figure.

Beach scene

Night swim with Mommy. Daddy stayed out of the pool to be the photographer for the night.

DAY 4:

Our flight to Manila is at 2:45 PM. As we were set to leave the island by 11AM, we took one last stroll after having breakfast. It was a rainy morning. The gloomy day mirrors how we feel about leaving the island.

Looking back, I knew I was sad to leave because I had a nice time with my boys. From these pics, I do hope the hubby had fun too...

Still "swiding", until the last minute...

Bye Kalibo! Hopefully, we'd be back again soon :)

~*~

As much as I loved the trip because I was with my family, I was disappointed with a couple of things.

1. There were lots of broken glass and cigarette butts by the beach. I wonder what happened to the daily cleaning thing these days?

2. The algae. Enough said.

3. JJ and I had minor tummy troubles our whole stay. The culprit is probably the purified water we brought from a sari sari store. It's Natural Springs. Wonder what they put in there???? Good thing Lucas had his rotavirus shots and was not at all affected.

4. Most heartbreaking of all was when we snorkeled near Crocodile Island. The marine life was probably just 20% of what I saw when I snorkeled in 2006! That was just 4 years! I wonder what my son will see when he's old enough to snorkel :(

A few days after our trip, I read an entry entitled "Bora-cry" from Anton's website. I do hope that something can be done to save the island.