Miya's First Birthday - Bocaue Style

When I saw photos of my friend's daughter's birthday party done at their own home with all the neighborhood kids with spaghetti and hotdog on stick, I knew I wanted the same birthday party for my daughter. So even though we decided on not having a party, we decided to throw a party for Miya in my hubby's hometown in Bulacan. City kids are now more familiar with the big parties done here in Manila complete with magician, food carts and what-have-you's but the kids in the province will definitely still appreciate homemade traditional parties, much like what we (yes, you and me if we belong to the same generation) have known birthday parties. So the Friday before the celebration,  we went to the groceries and bought the essentials - hotdog, spaghetti sauce, noodles, bbq stick, marshmallows, candies for the pabitin, paper plates and other party essentials. I also bought a few sets of party hats from National Bookstore and small toys from Toy Kingdom. Everything was done by us and Joema's family - from the loot for the pabitin, the spaghetti and the hotdogs. Oh yes, I put those marshmallows and hotdogs on those bbq sticks! I was extremely proud. The cake and the birthday tarp were store bought but everthing else was a labor of love.


Clockwise from top left: (a) loot for the pabitin, (b) our simple spread of spaghetti, hotdog on sticks and birthday cake, (c) kids eating on the mini-tables and chairs, (d) pabitin and birthday tarp

Miya with her Bocaue family

Family pic



We love you so much, Anak!

Weekend at Shangri-la (EDSA)

I had one of the most wonderful relaxing weekends EVER! Prior to the weekend, I really wanted to go out of town or go on a "staycation". It's been weeks since we had a Saturday where we had nothing to go to, a party to attend, etc. So I urged the husband to go on a mini-trip. He agreed but didn't want to drive far so I opted to book us a room at EDSA Shangri-la. Yeah, it was that near haha! I booked a deluxe room with king size bed but the ever so attentive service manager of EDSA Shang, Mr. Warren Bautista, upgraded us to an Executive room and allowed us late check-out the following day because as he said, to make up for the long wait during check-in. Hurrah!

We settled down in our room and Miiya got acquainted with all the things she can reach hehe. She was walking around the room as if she owned it.

Miya inspecting the bedside table

Around 4pm we went downstairs to the pool to swim. Miya loves the water, which we're so happy about because both Joema and I love the water. We were lucky there weren't many guests in the pool when we arrived. It was bit cold, there was a slight breeze and the water is not heated but it was fine after a few minutes in the water.

Stop taking pictures and let's start swimming!

Miya: Is the water nice and warm, Mommy?

Weeee!

She loves, loves, loves the water!

When Miya started tasting the water, we knew it was time to get out of there. We went to the nearby Shangri-la mall to buy dinner at CPK and then some junk food at the groceries. Then we're back at our room to eat. Miya ate pizza, while Joema and I had pizza, pasta and sandwich from CPK. We were that hungry! Although there were still some leftover for lunch the next day. After Miya slept, we watched SNL and ate the junkfood we bought hehe.

I'm ready to go out

The next morning, we had buffet breakfast at Heat. Guess who's the last to wake up? It's almost always Joema who' wakes up last. Maybe 1 out of 10 times, he wakes up the earliest. Miya always wakes him up by tapping him, or hugging him, or tugging his hair or slapping him hahaha!

Daddy, wake up! Time to eat breakfast.

We didn't maximize breakfast time at the buffet because our little baby is the most patient baby in the whole wide world - not! She's sitting there in the high chair but really most of the time she wanted to sit on my lap. I can't leave her sight even for just a few minutes to get food.

She ate a litte bit of donut and had a lot of hashbrown.

After breakfast, Joema and Miya both took a nap while I watched some TV. For lunch, we just ate our leftover pizza and pasta. Then it was my time to nap although not much success there because Miya kept on tugging me. Before we left, Miya had one last "swim" in the bathtub of our suite. She was equally excited to say the least.

We were happy to have spent the weekend together, just relaxing. Even the little girl was extra giddy (must be the big bed and the big space in the room because she was walking about everywhere!)! As it turned out, this was our first overnight "trip" just the three of us and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Miya's First Birthday - Manila Style

The weekend after our trip to HK, we arranged a get-together with our close friends to celebrate Miya's birthday. We actually scheduled a small party for her in Bocaue but that weekend coincided with the barrio fiesta so we postponed it for the next week (different post on that). For lunch, my college barkada went to our condo to celebrate with us. It was a triple celebration for me, Miya and Reyna.

Miya blowing her birthday cake (well, mine and Reyna's too - thanks Cris for the cake)

I'm so proud of Miya because she knew how to blow the candles without us teaching her. I knew of this "skill" of her only after I saw the photos. We never taught her how to blow the candles. *beams*

With Ninang Kae and Kylie

Thank you for celebrating with us!

For dinner, we met up with Migs to celebrate as well. We're a bigger group so we can't fit into our condo. Thankfully, Miya's Ninang Heyl was more than willing to have us over to celebrate in their home.

Blowing her 3rd "first birthday cake"

Showing Ninang EJ her Mickey Mouse face

Ang dalawang makulit - bow!

Next to our families, these are the people who were happy and excited when I gave birth to Miya. We are blessed to have them in our and our daughter's lives. Thanks friends for celebrating with us!  

8-Day Pass to Gymboree

Have I ever told you I'm addicted to these groupon sites?? First there was Ensogo, now Deal Grocer! I bought this 8-day pass to Gymboree on DealGrocer. Actually, this wouldn't have been the first voucher I bought from them. I would have bought a one-year membership on Gymboree but alas, I was too slow to purchase the voucher. By the time, I decided I will buy the voucher, they were all sold out. Anyways, I got this voucher in December. It's about to expire by the end of January so I finally took the time to get off work early and bring Miya there on the 10th of January for her first day.

It was amazing for her and doubly amazing for me seeing how she was stomping about the play area, how fascinated she was with everything around her. She walked by her own every single day she was in Gymboree. And she never did that at home because we don't have enough space she can walk around in. That's why I'm really really happy with this voucher and Gymboree. We have hundreds of photos and a few videos of her 7 days there including her two sampler classes - we availed the Music class and Play class. But let me share some photos with you.

Walking around the play gym

Cruising with the help of that foamy cylinder

I'm happy here, Mommy!

She doesn't want any help while walking

Going through the barrel

More photos after the jump.

Bday Girl at The Happiest Place on Earth

After our celebration for the birthday girl, we went to HK Disneyland for the second part of our celebration. But before going to the park, we stopped by IFC mall to have breakfast at McDonald's.

My little Parisienne in the streets of HK

The required photo at the HK Disneyland entrance

Another requisite shot

It was good timing that the parade was passing by the Main Street when we got inside the park. We were able to see the parade without wasting a time of waiting for it.

Miya was so sleepy during the parade actually. She wasn't able to take her morning nap that day so she was really sleepy by then. Disneyland has a baby center where you can change your baby's diaper, feed them or nurse them or bring your baby there if she needs care. I'm hitting myself in the head for leaving the camera outside because I really want to share with you how the room looks like. When you enter on your left are high chairs where babies can eat and chairs where Mommies can feed their babies. After that there's a nook with changing tables and the next nook they have a bottle/food warmer with a few cupboards with food and diapers, which I think are for sale. Across it are two nursing rooms with two rocking chairs each. I used both nursing rooms the two times I was there. The first time I was there I used the second one (farther from the entrance) and then the second time I used the other. And then at the end of the hallway is a restroom. I nursed Miya and she was asleep after a few minutes. I had to remove her coat because the center has heater. When we got outside, we didn't put her coat anymore because she might wake up.

Locals were wearing their winter coats while my daughter was in a sleeveless dress hehe

We took advantage of the time by going around the souvenir shops and buying, well, souvenir for friends and family back home. Ninong Jay bought a Mickey Mouse stuff toy for Miya while we bought her a red dress. When she woke up, it was time to go around the park.

We were able to watch the Golden Mickeys but had to wait in line for a few minutes. Miya, the ever so impatient child, was so fussy while we waited in line. There was even a time she was crying, I think she was scared with the man beside us. Nevertheless, she enjoyed watching Golden Mickeys. After the show, we continued going around the park.

When we passed by the big tents with cafeterias, we ate an early dinner already.

And then by luck we chanced upon the Disney characters for picture taking in the Fantasy Gardens. Side story: after the picture taking, Miya learned a new trick. When asked what does Mickey look like, she makes this face where she almost pouts her lips. I discovered from the pictures below that she was already doing the face during the picture taking with Minnie and Mickey Mouse.

Imitating Minnie at the left photo

Imitating Mickey at the left photo

Miya also had her photo taken with Pluto Goofy.

We went back to the baby center after this and once again Miya fell asleep after nursing. We decided to go home after that instead of waiting for the fireworks display. That will be a reason for us to go back again.

The Week That Was

I have yet to blog about the continuation of our HK vacation. But I've been offline the past couple of days. Miya was sick from Monday to Wednesday. Monday morning I woke up next to a very warm baby. Her temp was 38 degrees but this got me worried. Did not go to work that day to take care of her. Her temp was normal by mid-day but was up again in the afternoon.

Sick baby with her "rosy" cheeks

Her temp goes down with a drink of paracetamol and her sleeping and eating did not change so that was a good thing. But the next day, Valentine's Day, she was warm again and her temp was 38.4 degrees so I decided not to go to work again. Joema woke me up before he left for work and kissed me "Happy Valentine's Day." Same thing happened as the past day. I had to give her sponge bath to bring her temp down in the morning and in the afternoon because I  thought the paracetamol was not working anymore. I also called her pedia by early evening to report what happened. Fortunately, he advised me to just continue what I was doing and that nothing to worry about because Miya's fever is low-grade. Joema went home to Miya and me watching "50 First Dates" with flowers for his two best girls.

Miya's first Valentine gave her a yellow rose

But by Wednesday afternoon and the fever still coming back, we went to Miya's pediatrician. He said the same thing to just give her paracetamol and continue with her fluids. Surprisingly, her fever did not come back after our check-up. I was able to go back to work on Thursday. Thankfully, Joema had his day-off that same day so I was not too worried to be leaving Miya at home. That was the 16th - it was our 12th anniversary as bf-gf. Unfortunately, we weren't able to celebrate it as well because Miya was waiting for me to come home the whole day. Aaaawww.

After work on Friday when we got home, Miya developed some rashes on her face, chest and back. I was so worried I wanted to bring her to the hospital right there and then but Joema was able to calm me down. So I said, we can observe the rashes and then later on decide if we should bring Miya to the ER. By 10:30pm she had more rashes than earlier that evening and I was getting really worried that it might be dengue. I was trying to call her pedia but I wasn't able to contact him. I called a friend who had dengue before and asked when she developed her rashes when she had dengue. She advised me to go to the ER and just get Miya tested because she developed rashes when her fever was gone.

My baby at the ER

Fortunately and thankfully, it wasn't dengue just Roseola infantum or the common tigdas hangin. Her rashes are almost gone now. And she doesn't really look sick anymore so I'm not that worried anymore. I hope to God she won't get sick again in the near future. It's so hard for me to not to worry about her.

Miya's First Birthday - HK Style

We’re not the big party kind of family that’s why we opted to celebrate Miya’s birthday by going out of the country. But of course, we cannot not celebrate our first-born’s birthday even in a simple way. The day before her birthday, after watching the Symphony of Lights on our way back to the apartment, we bought a birthday cake from Mrs. Fields – there’s an MTR store near our exit (Exit C – Central Station). I brought the party hats and tarp from Manila. Since we were going to HK Disneyland on her brithday, I thought the natural choice for the theme was Disneyland characters. Problem was I didn’t know we needed a stapler to assemble the party hats. Hence, it was only the three of us who wore the hats. Miya’s was the only one who had a string for her neck. Joema’s and mine were just placed on top of our heads hehehe. Our baby was so happy. She knew it was her special day. She beamed her enchanting smile evertyime we sang “Happy Birthday”.


Photos photos photos!

Good morning, birthday girl!



Putting on her party hat

the Princess with her balloons

Her birthday cake - incidentally not her 1st but her 12th bcoz we celebrated each month

Our little family

Time to blow the cake

With Lolo and Lola

With Ninong holding her birthday cupcake since we didn't let her eat the cake. But she didn't like the cupcake - at first.





Opening her gift

Our happy princess


Anak, you're now one year old. You're now a toddler, no longer a baby. You brought Daddy and me so much happiness. I never knew this kind of happiness exists until I had you. I pray that you grow up to be a good girl. Always keep that smile and bring joy to everyone you meet. I love you so much!