Celebrating our first 5 years

Anniversary breakfast in Tagaytay

Yesterday, we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Yup, 5 years of wedded bliss alright! It's been 5 years since we first said "I do" to forevermore and decided to begin our journey to happily ever after. This also means that this blog is a little more than 5 years old to date :-) Coolio!

And since we were on an "anniversary hiatus" for the last two years, this year we decided to go out and celebrate. Yey! Our itinerary was kind of an unplanned trip down memory lane as we retraced those familiar roads and landmarks of our 5 years of marriage (the hashtag for this is #Nakanaman). We only realized this at the end of the day because save for the breakfast part, everything else was at random :-)

Late lunch at the sunken garden

We woke up at the break of dawn and headed off to Tagaytay to have breakfast -- yes, just that. It seemed that the weather figured this one out as it was drizzling on our way there and back! Hahaha! The coffee and tea was all worth it and breakfast was simply a smack. We thought of getting good massage from there but the scare of traffic got the better of us, and so with that, we headed back to QC and hoped to indulge on the wellness part of our itinerary from the nearby spas instead.

Up next, we scouted Maginhawa Street (our address of 4 years) for spa salons. Unfortunately, parking was such a hassle that we ended up in the mall! Hay! Our massage was replaced by an "enduring" facial treatment that lasted like a lifetime! Anchakit e. But it was all good :-)

Five years later, we are now three :)

That facial made us realize that we have yet to have lunch. Nakakagutom ang tusok-tusok sa face! Since we're running behind our schedule for the day, we ended up grabbing burgers in a brown bag and headed off to UP to feast on our late lunch. As we sat down the sunken garden, it dawned on us that it was the same (well...almost) spot where we got engaged (now insert the hashtag #MushyButSoWhat). That was 6 years ago! Who knew, right?!

We reunited with Yeyo for an early dinner to cap off the day. We checked out the banchetto at the Technohub and along with the tables of the food fair was Yeyo enjoying the illuminated "bola! bola!" in the open area. Watching her chant on the lights (imitating Mother Gothel from Tangled) made us feel so blessed even more. 

Our marriage has been blessed a millionth fold. We thank our God for our first five years and look forward to many more 5 years to come!

Yeyo turns 2!

Today is a very special day for us! It's our dearest Yeyo's 2nd birthday! Wow, where have all the monthsaries gone? It's not quite apt to count in months to celebrate her every milestone from now on kasi ang bilis lang talaga ng panahon :-) Soon, she'll be in school already! Haaay...

This morning, after breakfast, the two of us had a mother-daughter bonding time. We went to the clubhouse and played at the playground. We actually have lots of time together as I'm on leave from work for the entire month -- her birthday month. The timing is just perfect! But today's playground bonding is extra special, of course :-)

Play time with Nanay

We didn't throw her a party for her second birthday. Her first was quite a baptism for us since it was a production number of sorts -- balloons, games, invites, photographers. So today, it's just the celebrant and her Nanay and Tatay (and Ate, too!). Vincent ordered dinner to be delivered at home and took care of our birthday gift (a PinyPon boat set, which we later on figured that is not age-appropriate for her yet, so after letting her play with it for a while, we boxed it up again) while I went out to get the banner and the cake. Simple yet intimate.

Blowing her cake

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

'Nay, 'Tay, thank you po sa gift! :-)

Happy birthday, Anak! 

Our prayer, aside from you to grow up to become a good girl, is for you to be grateful to God always because you are so loved and blessed. Mahal na mahal ka namin! :-)

Analyze this

We've been observing the little girl's 101 (oh, wait, perhaps even more) ways, tricks and antics lately. Aside from doing that, I have this list of her growing vocabulary which I only started building when she turned 19 months, but I've given up on it a month later, kasi marami na. I couldn't keep up with her pace. In a nutshell: she sings, she mimics (so well that we in the household would have to spell out some words that we wouldn't want her to pick up), she recites the ABC (pronouncing the letter 'W' as 'ku-lu-lu') with sign language she learned from Sesame Street...Hay, LOTS!

But she has this very pronounced behavior that's just too hard to ignore: She likes filing. We see her "Yeyo was here." or "I did this. – Yeyo" imprints around the house.

These are the pads from the holes of letters B and P of her alphabet mat...

...which she would sometimes line up on the floor.

Here are for battery-related stuffs.

(Save for that pink comb that belongs to Smurfette. Hehehe.)

Cotton buds on the floor.

Smurfs waiting for their turn in the bathroom.

RCs on the bed.

Her toy dinner plates.

Finally, the culprit :-)

I would ask Vincent, "Is this normal?". Could this be a sign of compulsion – falling under the category of counters and arrangers (read HERE)?

Or she just wants to get things organized? Because if she does, and if this could be inherited, then I would say that she definitely got that from me (among the many attributes). Hehehe.

Or, if librarianship could be inherited, then, there. It goes without saying :-)

Tatay's Day 2012

Nagtitinga na si Yeyo. Hahaha!

06.17.2012
Seoul Garden

And because it's Father's Day, we go with Tatay's choice: Korean :) Tito Mike came with us to babysit me.

We love you, Tatay! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

19 months today!

Where did the time go? We're now in the middle of 2012, school's here, and our little girl is more than a year and a half old now?! Now that is a wow!

What is more wow is this toddler right here:

A little more of waiting and she'll soon carry a "Baaaa-kit?" -type of conversation. But for now, we are marveling at her Upin and Ipin babbling. Hahaha! So cute 

One year onwards, Four years ever after

Been quite a while since we last posted up here. Things have been whirlwindy since the little girl celebrated her first birthday November 6th of last year - the holiday rush and the prepping of our new home.

So, what's been up? 

Yeyo turns 1

Happy 1st birthday!

First off, we celebrated Yeyo's first birthday with a kiddie party at...ta-dah! KFC (insert fake surprised look now! hehehe)! It was made extra special as our baby, well, now a toddler, learned how to walk unassisted exactly a week before she turned one, and that at the time of her birthday, she was already trundling back and forth at the party area. It's true what they say: kids grow up fast! Truly, you wouldn't want to miss a thing. 

She's 14 months to date and at this rate, she can follow instructions by association - "Kunin mo 'yung lampin" (she picks up her lampin and gives it to you), "Pagpagin mo ang mga kamay mo" (when her hands get dirty), "Ooops! Bawal ka d'yan" (she doesn't go near the plugs and anywhere she's restricted to go to or touch, although she would sometimes tease you) - and claps her hands with her every accomplishment. She calls her sapatos (shoes) "Sshhhs", and loves it when she sees us brushing our teeth. She says "Baaah!" when we gargle. For that, we got for her her first milk teeth toothbrush. The first time she got a hold of it, she wouldn't want to let it go! Hello tantrums indeed! She has now perfected blowing kisses and even the cheek to cheek, too, that she says "Mmmmwaaahh!" with every kiss. Nakakatuwa!

Brush, brush, brush, 3 times a day!

We decided to communicate with her in Filipino (sometimes in Sambal - the vernacular of Zambales, hehehe) for now. She will have at least 14 years to learn English in school anyway, so we will just let that be. Right now, we're teaching her "Paa, tuhod, balikat, ulo". After four or five rounds of singing, she knows where her paa and balikat are. Not bad, ano?! Hehehe.

Oh, and she loves watching Eat Bulaga! and shouts "OO!" (Ah! Ah!), "HINDI!" (Dee! Dee! Dee! Dee!), "PWEDE!" (Dee! Dee! Dee! Dee! pa rin. Hahaha) when it's Pinoy Henyo time with her Ate (nanny). Hahaha! Cute!

Our fourth anniversary

Yep, we've been married for four years and nearly a month to date (December 15th) and we couldn't help but marvel at how God has immensely blessed our marriage! Things have turned full circle since Yeyo arrived, but we've become solid partners through and through. We must have done something right one way or the other to deserve such blessings!

We were a bit occupied lately that we weren't able to really "celebrate" (meaning, go on hols or even just have a nice dinner) our past two anniversaries - Yeyo's coming in 2010 and moving things to our new home late last year - but still, that doesn't really matter much. Anyhow, things will settle back to normal levels in the coming months. What matters most is that we celebrate our love every single day ;-)

We're excited to see all the wonderful things that God has in store for us this year! More love, more growth, more milestones! Can't wait!