Merry Christmas 2010

Christmas completely caught me off guard this year. So, no Christmas dinner, forgot presents, no Christmas letter, no Christmas picture. I tell you, having maids rots your brains!!

Anyways, here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas from The Millsers!!!

Impromptu picture on the way out to get Christmas dinner

Our guests from Malaysia and Alira(Cody's yaya)

Tyler's 3rd Birthday

Our crazy 3 year old!!

Tyler is 3 this year and i think it's a significant birthday year as for the first time in his life, he sorta understands that it is his birthday and he had a say on what kind of cake he wanted and what costume he wanted. He wanted a frog costume and a cake to match!! I was so happy to know he'll wear a costume for the party that i didn't care that it was not as cool as a super hero or even a fireman. And part of me thinks it still reflects the innocence in him, which is endearing because you know they grow up too fast.

His birthday consisted of him waking up and being surprised by one present after another. Po-po and Kong kong got him a bike while Grandma and Grandad sent him a huge big box of pressies! He was so excited about all his new toys that he didn't know if he wanted to play with new toys or open more toys!! :) After a nice nap after lunch, he had a nice party waiting for him! Not a bad day, i would say!

Tyler and his pressies (mostly from Grandma and Grandad)

With Po Po and Kong Kong

Opening his cool card from Grandma

Here are some of his updates:
1. He speaks fluently in English. We dropped his mandarin after coming to Manila(my fault). He still uses "my" instead of  "I" at times.
2. He is currently in the "why" stage. But not too severe yet. He stops after 1 or 2 "why"s.
3. He is weighing in a 31.5 lbs (50th percentile, baby!!)
4. His eating has improved and will eat quite a variety of food though it still takes lots of effort and time. But compared to before, i'm more than satisfied. Next step, eating on his own.
5. He has been potty trained since April/May this year though sometime in September though he still needs a diaper at night after i increased his drink intake.

Cody in formal wear

Since it's Christmas and i was thinking of a photoshoot for the kids, i put Cody is a few of Tyler's old formal wear. The maids had a good laugh about it!

Cody all decked out for Gingerbread House party

A trial run with the tux

Cody, Cody, Cody

It is very hard to get Cody to smile at the camera(actually to look at the camera is hard enough). But he was in a particular smiley moment when i took this pictures.

Tyler's advent calendar

To make Tyler a little more excited about Christmas, i started introducing Santa Claus and advent calendar to him. He's also a little fuzzy about days like "yesterday". He thinks everything in the past is yesterday. Like his favorite thing to say is "I was a baby yesterday and i was in mommy's tummy!".

But here he is with his advent calendar. He only likes opening the doors, not really eating the chocolates!

Tyler and his first advent calendar!

Body parts and stuff with Tyler

Tyler sometimes will ask about body parts and i had a particularly funny conversation with him. It went something like this:

Tyler : What is inside here, mommy? (while jiggling his *ahem* packets)
Mommy : Those are balls
Tyler : Why do i have balls, mommy?
Mommy : Because it makes you a boy.
Tyler : Mommy don't have balls.
(This is where i tried to be creative and failed)
Mommy : Mommy has them too, it's up here (pointing to my chest).
Tyler : NO!! Those are boobies!!!!!

We had a good laugh about it....

And another conversation that Alan has with Tyler is about getting married.

Daddy : Who do you want to marry, Tyler?? Kana? Sage? or Michiko??
Tyler : I want a boy one!!!
Daddy : ????

Another day, another party at Tyler's school (Take 2)- Toy Story

Did I mention that this happens every week !!

Here is another birthday party that is crazy over the top

Giant Pandas and a snowman

There are many many many Malls in Manila, and many many many people who visit them, sometimes you have to queue for the escalator, you always have to queue for elevator.

We recently visited the PowerPlant mall in Rockwell and saw a few giant Pandas flown in for Christmas as well as a giant snowman !!

Tyler likes this mall because they have a big indoor fountain, it reminds me of the Queen Victoria building in Sydney.

Those big Pandas

Another day, another party at Tyler's school - Jollibee

Every week there is a birthday at Tyler's school, and tradition is that you have a party at school and feed all the kids !!  This week we saw the full Jollibee crew out in force to celebrate.

Tyler loves Jollibee, and he always high fives and climbs the Jollibee man

Here he is at Tyler's school.

So what is Jollibee.  The local version of McDonalds, very popular here,  my own comment, I like the burgers, but its not exactly fast food.  Sometimes 12 minutes for a 'champ burger' !!

Cody in the park - 2

I was writing this blog and thought, hey, i've written this before! So, this is part 2. After going to the park for the last 6-7 months(Cody goes so often, he should get a frequent toddler award!!), Cody is finally reaping the benefits of going to the park everyday! He actually gets to do what he wants!!!

Now that he is walking quite steadily, he's allowed to wander free around the play area while somebody trails after him. He enjoys going up the stairs towards the slide but i'm not sure he gets the slide yet. But he does know how to scoot his butt down if he's stuck. And when he gets to the bottom, he rounds around to the stairs and start all over again!!!

Checking out the spinning boxes

Going up the stairs

Laughing at the moving bridge!

Tyler's new bike

Since moving to the Philippines back in March, we've been trying to buy another new bicycle for Tyler but we didn't find any bikes that we liked and Tyler seemed to be completely not interested in it.

When my parents were here again in Oct, they mentioned that they wanted to buy another bicycle for Tyler for his birthday. So, we were out bike hunting and found one!

My parents "surprised" Tyler with his new bike on his birthday. He seemed quite happy and excited to get a new bike, but riding it was another matter. And for the next 2 weeks, we threatened, encouraged, bribed, forced, tricked and taunted Tyler to go on his bike but to no avail.

But one day, for no apparent reason, he decided that he was going to ride his bike and off he went round and round the house and even requested to bring his bike to the park. And since then, he's been riding it nearly everyday and is very comfortable on it and even brakes appropriately! He's even started a bike trend and a few of his friends bring their bikes to the park now and they tear around the park together.

Thanks Kong Kong and Po Po for the nice bike!

Tyler checking out his new bike

Out riding with daddy

Ring leader

Negotiating sharing time

Riding around with the boys

Cody is 1!

Crazy as it sounds, Cody is 1!! Though he had his big party on Oct 31st with Tyler, we had a little personal small birthday song session for him on Nov 1st. Though i forgot to take pictures of the grandparents during the party(what, my photographer didn't show up!!!), I'm happy they were there to celebrate his first birthday!

Huh? Why is everyone singing?

And what is this??

Tastes alright..

With Po-po and Kong Kong

With mummy and daddy

And here are his presents



Here are some of his updates:

1. Despite his slow start, he finally started walking on his own a few days before his birthday and significantly stabilized within 2-3 days. So, he's off exploring on his own.

2. He weighs about 20.5 lbs on good days!

3. He has 6 teeth.

4. He babbles a lot and the only word he says is "mama" which may or may not mean "mommy"

5. He waves bye bye, flies a kiss, kiss you on the mouth if you say "kiss" and does a cute high five(which makes him chuckle).

6. His current dance moves involves bobbing up and down and shaking side to side while holding hands(which also makes him laugh).

 7. He fights with his brother by screaming at the top of his lungs

8. He is weaned and sleep trained!(yay!!)

9. He likes to talk on the phone and loves going round the house dismantling the child proof plugs!!!

10. He is quite demanding and points and grunts to what he wants.

11. His eating is still not great but we're working on it.

12. He shakes his head and nods to say no and yes. The head nodding is particularly funny.

13. He laughs and shrieks uncontrollably when he's playing with his brother.

Tyler's first(distinguishable) drawing

Tyler likes to draw and doodle a lot but he hasn't actually produced anything that is of distinguishable shape yet. He can now write "T" and maybe "Y" from his name. We've been encouraging him to trace and according to his teachers, he is the best tracer in his class "when he is willing!!!", which is not very often, unfortunately!

But a few days ago, he produced this picture under the guidance of his daddy! Not sure who i am more proud of, his daddy for his excellent guidance, or Tyler for his "willingness" to follow!

Tyler and his first picture

Cody's new wheels

As a second child, Cody hardly gets anything new. But on his birthday he did acquire a new bike that he takes to the park everyday. We think he enjoys it more than the stroller as he gets to sit up more and feel like he's in more control. He will even beep by yanking on Mickey's ears if we say "honk honk, Cody!"

Cody on his new wheels

Tyler painting

One of the few things that Tyler apparently likes to do in school is art. Even at very young age, the teachers always commented that whenever it's painting time, Tyler is always the first in line(though i haven't seen any awe inspiring work yet).

Anyways, he got a cool train set that he can paint and put stickers on for his birthday and he was chuffed to bits and even posed for pictures. That's like 9 on scale of 10. (10 is when he ACTUALLY asked for a picture to be taken)

Daddy helping out with paint

The concentration.....

All proud of his train

Palawan - Sabang Beach

We took a trip to Palawan and stayed at Sabang for a few days at the Daluyon Resort

Here are a few pictures of everyone.  More to follow

At the beach

Cody Big Balls

Get off my turtle

What would Bob do?

Who is chasing who?

Corregidor Island -

Guarding the entrance to Manila Bay, Corregidor island is just one short (okay 90 minutes) ferry ride away.

Corregidor Island housed an army post known as Fort Mills, so a day trip to see it was in order

The ferry ride is quite quick and when you arrive you take a tram ride around the island looking at all the buildings that were destroyed during the war, and all the memorials to the war. 

On the way you can take a 30 minute trip through Malinta tunnel which is just over 800 feet long, took 10 years to construct and now houses a light and sound show, which isnt too bad.

It is strange to see a bunch of ruined/bombed buildings, its almost as though time stood still 70 years ago, although there is now a hotel on the island where we had lunch that you can stay overnight.

Here are a few pictures

Big Guns

More Big Guns



Movie Theater



Outdoor Movie Theater !!





The Lighthouse



Dim Sum at the Shang

There are not many places to eat Dim Sum in Manila, one place that does offer Dim Sum is the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati.

I wouldnt class this as cheap and cheerful Dim Sum, nor would I class it as buffet. It is all you can eat, but you have to order from a menu, then they cook it and bring it to you.

Siew Gin says that it was good, I thought it was upscale and they had plenty of choices

Here is a picture of the fancy palace...

Many, Many dishes..

Ocean adventure in Subic Bay

For our second day in Subic Bay we visited the Ocean Adventure marine park.   This is certainly not sea world, but we did get to see a dolphin show, a sea lion show and an eco show.

Tyler liked the shows and wanted a toy dolphin as a souvenir,  and now he wants to watch Shamu on youtube and recognizes Shamu in happy feet, so I guess he did get some education.

A few snaps from the day

Mummy is that a snake?

Its an 'ickle one'

Dolphins Ahead

Sea Lion