Saturday Morning Pies

Once a week Alan takes the opportunity to take part in the Makati Who Ate All The Pies competition.  There is one place that sells pies which are like traditional English Pies.

It is a complex process involving going to the market at the right time, if you get there early then the pies may not have arrived at the stall that sells them  (not JIT, more JTL), if you get there late then the pie selection is very small, or worse no pies at all.

I wouldn't say the pies are the best I have ever had, and at 160 pesos certainly not the cheapest but all in all not a bad experience.

The pie in question...

Restaurant Etiquette

Can somebody tell my husband, though cute, that it's not proper to teach my son to play drums with crayons in restaurants??! haha..

First you drum...

And then you hit the cymbals! CHINK!!!

Fashion Buddy

I was just looking at pictures for the next blog and came across this. haha! Although i look like i'm choking him, he was for once a willing participant! And although i look anorexic in this picture, i'm not really!!

Tapella - Greenbelt 5

Alan seems to be my only fan for food reviews blogs as he is making me do it all the time. So, here we go.

Disappointing experience i must say for a Tapas and Paella place. We started with a slightly interesting dish that was serrano ham and cheese in phyllo pastry. Very light and had good flavor. We thought, we were off to a good start. Unfortunately that turned out to the peak. The following dishes are not even really worth writing about, so i'm going to summarize.

Camembert sandwich - uninspired and the caramelized onions were a little overpowering
Some meat and garlic chips sandwich - meat was tough and tasteless and garlic chips were just sauteed chopped garlic(i know, so lame)
Moroccan Chicken Skewers - again uninspired though not dried out which is a good thing.
Mushroom croquette - uninspiring mushy insides though had a nice crispy coat.

Lastly - seriously, it took so much longer to get the paella, it almost got me tingly from waiting. However, my black squid paella again missed it mark by a long way. It's not horrible but it really was nothing special at all.

This was not a cheap and cheerful place and i certainly expected a little better food than what we got today. Won't go back for sure!

Serrano Ham and Cheese Bite

Black squid paella

The Millsers reunited!

The kids and I are finally home from our jaunt around the world. We really flew all the way around!! ha!

It's nice to see Alan after 3 weeks and Tyler especially was talking up a storm during the taxi ride home(he, of course, always had to act all aloof when he first sees Alan). When we got home, he was so excited to be home he ran from room to room and taking out all his toys, chatting at top speed. Unfortunately it was about 1 am, so although it was heartwarming, we had to tell him it was time to sleep! I'd never thought kids that young could be homesick, but i guess i was wrong!

All in all it was a good trip. I caught up with a grand total of 2 friends(Yeoh and Michelle, thanks for coming to see me!) in Malaysia! ha! (lots of kite flying friends). Spent a day with my brother and his kids and a day with my parents. In the US, we got a few errands done and spent some time with a bunch of friends and did our annual Bolder Boulder 10K run with a full set of Millsers(including the adopted one). Our last stop was in England, where we got to spend LOTS of time with grandma and grandad and even got to go do lots of adult and children sightseeing. I think it was nice for Tyler to see the grandparents as he is beginning to remember people. He seems to remember my parents from the last visit and after this visit, he's not going to forget grandma and granddad! We also got to spend a weekend with the other set of cousins Jake and Daniel and visit Will and Cristina.

Anyways, it's good to be back as Tyler was definitely showing signs of homesickness and I was tired of playing the bad cop. It's nice to resume my role as the firm good cop mother role! ha! Tyler managed to lose a few pounds which of course spawned comments like "What happened? Why is he so thin?!"

It's been a week since we've been home and we're still battling with a little bit of jetlag and Tyler's weight is finally on a gaining trend for a change! :) and i have a ton of blogs to catch up with! I'll start now i guess..

He is crawling, teething and maybe clapping.

After really trying for a week in England, Cody finally did his crawl across measurable distance(around 3 ft) a day after we got back. Maybe he wanted his Daddy to see it! :)

With that, he also figured out how to get up from a lying down position to a sitting position. First he turns onto his tummy. Then he scoots backwards and until he gets into a sitting position.

But he is not completely convinced with his own ability yet as i think he sometimes forget that he has this new skill and cries when he wants to go somewhere!

Look at me..

A proper crawl too!! Not like Tyler's gimpy ones

And to make me happier, my maid informed me that Cody's two lower teeth had broken thru! Yay!!! I swear they weren't there when i checked 2 days ago!!

Can't completely swear about the clapping yet but i found him repeatedly putting this hands together like he was clapping. He did it again when i clapped again to encourage him. But haven't had much success apart for that one occasion. Will have to review that skill! ha!

End of England trip

Like all trips, the last few days always seem to fly by and that's what happened. I can't even remember what we did and i have no pictures apart from these.

Anyways, it's been a lovely lovely 3 weeks with Grandma and Grandad. I think we did everything I had in mind and most importantly got to spend loads of time with the grandparents. Tyler and Cody definitely enjoyed being spoilt rotten by grandma and I was definitely impressed with Grandad who balanced his doting and disciplinary figure perfectly just to remind Tyler that he's not above the law!!

Watching tv

Playing peek-a-boo with grandma

Goofing around with mommy!

I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Evelyn and Patrick for making our stay so fun and comfy! I know Tyler will remember this trip for a LOOONNGG time and we'll have to do another one some other time!!