Miya’s 2nd Birthday at Las Casas

WARNING: PHOTO HEAVY POST

We celebrated Miya’s actual birthday at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar. Since the place is in Bataan, we figured we should stay there for atleast two nights so that our drive will be worth it. So I bought two vouchers from DealGrocer way before Miya’s birthday and immediate booked the dates. We left the day after my birthday and since our car was coding, we left the house at 10am. Which is just about the right time for us since check-in is at 2pm. We arrived at the hotel/resort at about that time.

After checking-in, we explored the nearby grounds (the place is huge!!!) and took photos.

Then we went back to our room to change into our swimming attire and headed for the beach.

The water in the beach is not that clear – almost black, I think because of the black sand of the area. Since it was only me and Miya swimming, I wasn’t particularly brave to go deep into the water. We only stayed at the beach for a short while. We had to convince Miya that we will go back the next day because she was so happy with the waves splashing about. We then headed to the swimming pool where we stayed for a while.

After swimming, we ordered dinner at the restaurant and had our food delivered to our room. We then went to our room to wash up and change. After taking a bath, we were back to exploring the place. Not long after, it was time for dinner. Miya ate along with us. I’m happy to say that Joema and I can now eat together with Miya. No more Joema eating first while I entertain Miya and then I hand Miya over to him so that I can eat. Although, there are still times that we do that especially during the times that Miya doesn’t like to eat. But if she wants to eat then I can feed her and myself at the same time.

The next morning, for Miya’s birthday, to keep up with our tradition, we gave her a cake, sang her happy birthday and gave her our gifts. I even hang up a “Happy Birthday” banner on the wall. 

Forgive our bedhead hair hehe

We then went to have breakfast at the restaurant. After breakfast, we went swimming again but only for a short while because as I’ve mentioned before their pool is not heated.

Before eating lunch, we stayed at their gazebo to hang out. We love it there.

In the afternoon we joined the heritage tour of the place. There are currently 27 houses in the property and some of these houses can be rented out to guests. 

We were given hats before the start of the tour

Four of the 27 heritage houses inside Las Casas

Intricate ceiling done by an artist from Paete

This is inside a very luxurious bathroom

The original UP building from Quiapo was transfered at Las Casas

Those pillars are original from the old building

It’s a very interesting tour because you will get to see all of the 27 houses. You can enter some of the houses while some are not open to the public like the house that the owner of Las Casas uses whenever they are there. Suggest you do the tour in the morning since it gets pretty hot in the afternoon and you walk from one house to the other. At the latter part of the tour, Miya started getting restless she wanted to feed in between houses (see our photo here). The last stop for the tour is our gazebo. So we stayed there for a while before going back to our room.

After using the cold towel provided after the tour, she decided her angel friend needed a cooling down as well.

Yehey Daddy bought Pringles

Happy as a clam

During dinner, it was so thoughtful of the restaurant staff to give Miya a leche flan (in lieu of a cake) with a candle and sang her a happy birthday. I didn’t intentionally tell them it was her birthday. It just came up because she was being her usual daldal self so one of the servers asked how old she was. So we told her she turned two that day. Funny thing is when the singers came to our table, we immediately asked for our bill haha. I don’t know I’m just not comfortable with these singing groups at restaurants because I always worry if we should tip them or not since we didn’t ask them to sing but there they are singing in front of our table. Anyways, I digress, when the singing duo finished their second or third song, I asked that they sing "Happy Birthday" for the little girl. That’s when I knew something was up because they kept looking back at the kitchen and they were a bit hesitant to sing the song. And I also had to ask for our bill again and the servers kept on looking back at the kitchen and signaled me to wait. I don’t know what took the servers that long to prepare the leche flan and candle but it took the singers several songs before they sent out the leche flan hehehe. Nonetheless, we appreciated the gesture. I was so happy for my little girl. 

For our last day at the resort, we went for a swim after breakfast. But as I’ve already told you we had a little bit of a mishap at the beach. I’m not sure what irritated Miya's skin, if it was the water or the sand. But she kept on running up and down the beach saying “Hapdi, hapdi.” At first we thought, she was just playing around because it looked like she was having fun running up and down the beach. That was until she cried hehehe. Sorry but this girl knows how to tease us. Sometimes she says one thing but means another. But no worries, it’s nothing tap water can clean and fix. 

More photos of our last day after the jump:

Miya's 2nd Birthday at Our Fave Place

You know how I love celebrating with small parties. We did that last year for Miya’s first birthday, we had a series of parties for her. This way, we didn’t have to stress out about preparing for a big party and she got to blow a lot of "1" candle from her cakes. This year was no less different. For her first birthday celebration, we celebrated it with some of her Ninongs and Ninangs at our fave place.

She celebrated with her Kuya L. It’s just us but I wanted to have a theme for her birthday. I initially wanted an F1 theme but that suits our birthday boy more. So when I decided to get each of the celebrants a birthday cake, I searched for a cute theme for Miya. I thought I’d give her a Mickey Mouse cake but that would seem repetitive from last year since we already went to Disneyland so I searched for more. And I found a cute Lalaloopsy cake online. That was the peg I sent my colleague who did the cake.

Lalaloopsy cake for Miya and a Red Bull F1 cake for L.

I also made a “happy birthday” banner!

Our spread for the evening.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to the celebrants and blowing the candles.

So grateful to all Miya’s Ninongs and Ninangs and Tita for giving such generous gifts!

After dinner it was the adults’ time to party. Yes, I now drink alcohol but only very minimal* and Heili (who’s also breastfeeding) and I drink only wine and not the hard drinks.

The next day, it was time for swimming!!

After swimming the girls had a little pamper time. We called in the neighborhood manicurista and had foots pa and mani-pedi. Would you believe that that’s my first time to have a complete mani-pedi treatment? I had it once before for my wedding but I only asked my nails to be cleaned and only clear polish was used. But this time, I asked for a beige nailpolish hehehe. I can’t believe how lady like my hands and feet looked like after! And I can’t believe I only did this now hahaha! I regret not having a photo of my hands and feet after. That was such a milestone for me hehehe.

Then it was time to say goodbye again but not without some “class picture”.

Thanks so much again to Ninong T and Ninang H for letting us celebrate Miya’s birthday there!!!

*Keyllmom's article on Breastfeeding and Alcohol

Still Breastfeeding

If you noticed my post on “Miya Loves” one of the things I listed there is breastfeeding. Yes, my little girl is still breastfeeding – now, at 2 years and 3 weeks. I’ve stopped pumping milk at the office when the year started but she still nurses directly from me whenever we are together. As I have mentioned previously, it’s like drink-all-she-wants the moment I get home on weekdays even if she has just eaten or drank her milk or juice. When we go out of the house, I usually tell her that she can only drink milk while we’re in the car.We stick to this deal only when we’re out for a few hours. But if we’re out for the whole day, I can expect her to come asking for “dede” even with other people around. Well, this does not pose a problem really because when we’re out of the house the whole day, we’re usually really at other people’s houses or we're transferring from one place of the other so this means she can still breastfeed in private (at another room of our host or while in the car in the two instances). I don’t wear nursing tops any longer, although I still wear nursing bras when I’m out with her and I avoid wearing dresses (although I can wear buttondown dresses) so that it will still be easy to whip out my breasts for her. We are trying to talk her into weaning telling her she’s already a big girl and that she should drink her soymilk instead. I don’t think I need to anything drastic yet (one mom I talked to told me she put catsup on her nipple sas “blood” so that her son will stop breastfeeding). And I hope I won’t have to resort to that. But I’m hoping I can wean her from night feeding. She sleeps around 10am then wakes up between 3 and 4am to feed. And then again anytime between 5-7am. So I just need her to stop feeding at 3am. Nursing at around 5am is just about right since that would have been 7 straight hours of sleep for her. Iwill try out this sleep training that I’ve read. I’ll share it with you when I’ve been successful with it.

*****

I’ve read this post written by Topaz Mommy: “What boobs are for”. She wrote: Whenever and wherever you are, just pop out the boob and nurse your baby!  And that’s what I do. Tips to mommies out there: when breastfeeding in public, don’t make a fuss out of it. Wear a nursing top or if not then wear a loose top that you can use to slightly cover your nursing child and wear a nursing bra. You don’t really have to expose anything else. If you’re just wearing a loose top,your child will cover your belly. I find that the more I fuss about nursin gMiya in public, the more other people are aware that we’re nursing. But if I just nurse her quietly, it just looks like I’m cradling her to sleep. Believe me, I’ve done this a couple of times. I’ve nursed Miya inside restaurants herein Manila (Tip: ask for a booth table or a corner table), inside a train in HK,outdoors at the Avenue of Stars while waiting for the Symphony of Lights show to start (it was freezing then!). You don’t want to believe me?

Exhibit A: Nursing in Boracay

Exhibit B: Nursing in Las Casas during the heritage tour (on her 2nd birthday)

A Quickie

I have so many things to blog about (including Miya’s 2^ndbirthday). I just don’t have enough time in my hands to complete them so I haven’t been updating my blog as often as I should. So I thought I should make a quick update here.

Last weekend was quite full for us. On Saturday, wehad Miya’s Gymboree class in the morning. Then we headed off to my office forher and Daddy’s dental visit. I also took this chance to get her ID picturetaken. I’m amazed at how long she can go now without her morning and afternoonnaps. But she still needed them, when we arrived home around 3pm, she was knocked out for her nap until 6pm. Here are some photos:

Miya OOTD: Dress from Ninang Charline, Mickey Mouse socks from Tita Aines and TOMS mary janes

Hurrah! The "My Dentist" book and training at home worked! She fully cooperated for her dental check-up.

Photo-op at the garden at our office

The next day, Lolo Arthur treated us for a post-Valentinedate. We went to Ayala Triangle hoping to eat at Amici, only to find out theydon’t open until 12 noon – we were there before 11am. So we picked Poco Deli toeat in and we were happy we chose this restaurant. Their food is delicious – weordered their Bacon Slab, Truffle Oil Pasta, Sausage Platter and Citrus Delightfor drinks. We also bought cake from Banapple for dessert but we brought thathome to eat. And before we left the park, we bumped into Mands and his family.

Parehong ngiting aso hahaha