What's your name?

Tyler can say many names, but one name he never said was his own name. I used to think it was funny when he went to his class and they'd be 10 kids that says, "Hi Tyler!!" and he can't say it.

But yesterday, I asked him what his name was and he actually said Tyler. Well, it was actually more like Ty-yer", he's working on the "l" sound.

That of course spurred me into asking him what his daddy's name, his mommy's name etc. So, now he can say Alan's name and Cody's name but mine is still in the works. He can repeat it when i say it, but he still can't remember. So, when i say, what is Mommy's name, he says "Mommy's name Tyler too!"

A little update..

I was going to do some crazy updates with cute pics of the kids, but it turned out my stolen wifi connection is TOO slow for picture uploads, so, i'll do some writing instead.

We've moved into our apartment 5 days ago which is located in Makati. It's quite a large apartment and is across from a nice little park. It's surounded by lots of restaurants which are just waiting for me to go try. The few that i have tried have been quite good.

We've been busy the last few days doing shopping, trying to get the house functional. It was quite lucky in one sense that we saved a whole bunch as there was a big sale over the weekend, but i managed to lose my purse during the whole extravaganza. Not sure our savings were enough to cover what i lost!!! :( But it was a learning experience for me and my mom and I were shown the true uselessness of Philipino administration system. My advice, don't lose your purse!

My parents who were so kind to accompany me and my 2 crazy kids to Manila have left for home yesterday leaving me to fend for myself without a maid. Today was my first day and i have to say, it's gone over quite well. Tyler was on schedule for all meals and bedtimes and we even made it out to the park where i met a few mothers and even got invited to a playgroup. Woo hoo! We'll see how that pans out.

But it's definitely harder without the extra hands to get my meals ready or to take Tyler out for a bus or jeepney rides. :) Tyler obviously misses them like crazy and still asks for Kong Kong and Po Po from time to time.

During the last few weeks of transition, Tyler's eating has probably been affected the most. He basically stopped eating for a few weeks and i had resorted to liquid diet just to keep his weight up. We've taken him to a local paediatrician and seems to be doing much better with some appetite enhancer. He has finally started to eat solids again last week but we have to continue to work on the volume.

Cody seems to have coped with the transition well and weighed in 14 lb 12 oz two weeks ago at the clinic.

Alan's job is keeping him busy and he tries to run everyday to keep himself fit.

Cody at 20 weeks

Cody is a happy baby at 20 weeks old. I thought i'd better blog all his milestones before i forget them.

He flipped over around Feb 22(16 weeks, Tyler flipped at 10 weeks) and was starting to grab stuff, mostly towards his mouth. Now, he flips onto his stomach easily and is able to grab stuff that is handed to him. He is in his tasting phase where everything he grabs, he tastes. It is quite funny to see him try to stuff his pacifier into his own mouth.. :)

He talks to himself and blows bubbles when he's happy but screams his head off when he's tired or hungry or demanding for attention.

Due to his large base(hehehe..) he seems to be able to maintain his sitting position for quite a few minutes without toppling over. He has also "found his feet" this week.

Here are some pictures of him:

Grabs toys and put it in his mouth

He likes to flip onto this tummy

Practicing sitting up

Look what i found! Feet!!!!

Cody's I'm so miserable face..

Threading, pedicures and badminton

Today i decided to treat myself to some pampering treatments as my gorilla eye-brows are threatening to frighten little kids on the streets.

I checked out a local Salon and chuckled to myself after i spent a whopping 5 USD total to get my eye-brows threaded and a pedicure! ha! What a bargain! Though this is the first pedicure that is done completely without water!! Hmm..

Oh, and badminton. I joined Alan for a badminton session last week and is proud to announce to Steffen that i've successfully sweated in a game!! (though not sure how much of that was from moving). Yes, it was THAT hot. Holy cow. So, imagine how surprised i was when i went to the bathroom and found the bathroom air-conditioned and smells really nice like a hair salon! ha!!

Tyler's new wheels

When we came to the Philippines, we decided not to take his bicycle with us thinking it'd be easy peasy to get a new one. But unfortunately, that was not true. We've looked everywhere and we can't find a kids bike that's as good as the one we got back in Malaysia.

One of the criteria of his bike was that it has to be able to go backwards so that he can do 3-point turns(yes, he makes 3 point turns). So since arriving here, my dad and I have been obsessively turning all the pedals on every bike we found!!

Tyler actually found one on his own when he climbed up a bike and backed it out of its parking spot. I was like.. "huh???". We bought it right away but had to return it due to a defect :(

Anyways, so, we'll wait on the bike. In the mean time, i bought him something i thought was like super duper cool. A TWIST CAR!!!

I saw this only once in the US at a park in Boulder. It propels itself forward when the handle is turned side-to-side. Same principle as roller blades i think.

Anyways, it took me a while to convince Tyler that his new wheels does not require feet to move!!

Tyler still uses his feet sometimes... ggrrrrr...

Tyler giving Codes a ride on his new wheels

Mabuhay from the Philippines

Just a quick update from the Millers. We are finally united with Alan in the Philippines. We've been here for the last 12 days.

My parents travelled with me to help with my luggages and kids and has been an awesome help with helping me cope with the new environment and rowdy kids!

Still without internet, i've spent many hours at Cafeccino using their free WIFI.

Will do more updates when i get more time

Love Actually Cake

I was buying some cakes for Alan and I one night and was in a big hurry and it just reminded me of a scene from Love Actually where one of the characters was trying to buy a piece of jewelry and Mr Bean was taking so long to wrap it up.

It took her longer to take the cake, put it in a box, put a ribbon on it, cut the ribbon, tie the ribbon, put it in a bag(i was actually afraid she was going to put flower petals in them too) than for me to walk to the store to get it and back.

But it was pretty and the cake was lovely.. :)

My lovely cake..