The Greatest Miracle and God’s Most Precious Gift

We have been busy as bees this past month but we are not complaining. Far from it!

One of the highlights was a visit from one of Papa’s barkada from high school. We had loads of fun with Tito Henry. From the airport, we drove straight to Orlando (because a visit to Florida will never be complete without a trip to Orlando!).

We had dinner at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney and then strolled around Pleasure Island.

Checked into the Marriott for the night and then proceeded to Universal’s Islands of Adventure early the next morning.

We were thrilled that Ninong Rolly, Ninang Malou and BFF Ben were able to join us!

First stop: Seuss Landing.

Without a doubt, the best ride in the entire park was the Caro-Seuss-el. Topher must have rode at least 20 times.

The little one (and the big ones) also enjoyed the high-in-the-sky trolley train ride.

Topher was laughing and shrieking as water hit him several times while on the one fish, two fish ride. We really didn’t mind getting soaked as it was a hot and humid day.

Because we were expecting to swelter in the sizzling heat, we opted to leave Josh in the care of Lolo & Lola. Thankfully though, the day was not the “scorcher” we expected it to be which enabled us to maximize our stay at the park.

As nighttime fell, we enjoyed the lights and sounds of CityWalk.

We are planning a return trip to Orlando this upcoming labor day weekend — to conquer Magic Kingdom — this time with Joshua and the rest of the family!

It was also this month that we had our very first Trirail ride, and boy was it exciting!

Been working double time on this month’s newsletter.  But here’s a preview photo of our trip to Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

Lots more to come soon!  Have a great weekend!

Topher…

1. continues to have a love affair with books.  He has several stacks of books by his bedside and when he doesn’t see them there when he wakes up in the morning… lagot!

2. enjoys his tattered Tagalog books immensely.  Watch and listen to him read the first few pages of Alamat ng Sibuyas

Noong araw, may isang bayan kung saan ayaw nang tumilaok ng mga tandang.

Tuwing umaga, nagigising ang buong bayan sa malakas at nakayayamot na pagatungal ni SIbuyan.

Laging umiiyak si Sibuyan, kahit hindi naman sya nalulungkot o nasasaktan.

Kapag ayaw nya ang inihandang pagkain, bigla na lang syang magmumukmok at ngangawa - waaaah!

Kapag gusto naman nya ang bagong laruan, bigla na lang syang magmamaktol at hihiyaw - waaaah!

Kapag ayaw nyang maligo sa ilog, bigla na lang syang maglulupasay at hahagulgol - waaaah!

3. is still a die-hard Thomas fan.  Knows the majority of the songs by heart. Listen to him belt it out.

He’s a really useful engine you know.  All the other engines they told him so…

He huffs and puffs and whistles, rushing to and fro.  He’s the really useful engine we adore.

He’s the one, he’s the one.  He’s the really useful engine that we adore.

He’s the one, he’s the number one.  Thomas the tank engine.

In less than a month, our nerdy train engineer will turn 3.  Parang kailan lang.  We love you Topher boy!

Joshua…

1. says “wow” when he sees something amazing

2. claps his hands when he hears the words… “ang galing!”

3. sticks his tongue out when we ask him where his tongue is

4. kisses Mama’s knees out-of-the-blue which usually makes me shriek and giggle because I am very ticklish, lalo na sa legs — and Joshua knows this!

5. loves miswa and dumpling soup

6. is a computer geek.  As soon as I get home from work, he takes my hand and leads me towards the laundryroom where I keep my laptop bag so we can start watching videos on youtube (his favorite videos are those of his Ahia singing or counting)

7. looks up to his Ahia and loves to lie down next to him, hold his hand or touch his hair — so malambing!

8. enjoys taunting/ tormenting his Ahia by playing with Topher’s favorite toys and playing tug-of-war when his big brother discovers what he’s been up to — sobrang pilyo!

9. dances like a maniac when he hears music.

10. is a neat freak.  If he gets ahold of wet wipes, he cleans the floor, dusts the furniture… and he loves to vacuum — we can barely pry it away from him! I hope he will still enjoy doing chores when he’s older, lol.

Happy 15th month birthday!  We love you Joshy baby!

Where does the time go?  The summer is swiftly winding down and we can hardly keep up!

Our bunso Joshua is 14 months old!  We started the day of his ‘birthday’ with breakfast by the beach.

And then capped it with Mama’s turkey stroganoff and yummy ice cream cake at our home.

It was also in July that our very special friend Benjamin turned ‘choo’!  So we chugged and puffed to Titusville to attend his train-themed birthday extravaganza.  It was awesome!!! 

And our favorite part was hopping aboard the party train express!

All aboard!

Happy, happy birthday Ben-ben!!!

And speaking of birthdays, Topher will be 3 soon!  We will be celebrating his special day at the park, because it is one of our favorite places. 

Another absolute favorite is Barnes & Noble.  We so love the fact that we live close to B&N!

Listen to Topher read…

We’d also like to share a few photos of our prized possessions — our toys and books!  Oh, to be a kid!

Lastly, we’d like to post pictures of our favorite tree.  Papa wanted to cut it down a few months ago because it looked scraggly and out-of-place.  But lo and behold, it bore beautiful yellow flowers.  Taught us to look past first impressions.

Till our next post! 

Love, Topher & Joshua

I normally don’t post these kind of pictures, but this is just too funny (plus, it’s 3AM, and I can’t seem to get my zzzzzzzz’s).

This is the priceless look of panic after I almost put Coy’s cake on fire, LOL.

There are just way too many candles when you turn 30.:)  Happy birthday to the bestest sister in the world!  We love you Ninang!!!

(Photo courtesy of Tita Sofie.  I will post more pictures of the celebration soon!)

It’s a Friday afternoon.  I am sitting at my desk buried in tons of paperwork that I have to review and include in patients’ medical records… and then it just hit me…

How blessed I am.

I have a wonderful husband who loves me.  We have gone through so much and our  marriage has evolved into a much stronger and much more stable one.

I have two healthy, smart, overly cute boys.  They are my joys and my source of inspiration.

I live close to my family and despite our love-hate relationship at times, I wouldn’t trade them for the world.  My parents have always been here for me, untiring in their support, unwavering in their devotion.  My sister is the best! (Advance happy birthday Coyski!).  And my brother-in-law comes in a close second.

I have a job I absolutely enjoy and provides personal fulfillment and financial security.  I have a purely outpatient practice and I am literally out the door by 4:25 every afternoon.  I do not have calls and I don’t work on weekends.  Eventually, I might set up my own practice, but not until my boys are older.

I have my health.  Aside from the required 48-hour postpartum stay times two, I have never been in the hospital (as a patient).  I rarely get sick, if at all.  My husband just told me last night how amazed he is at my “physical strength”.  Yes, I am small… but terrible.

We have a beautiful home.  We enjoy our neighborhood - close to the mall, close to the library.  We were at Barnes & Noble last night after dinner, reading and playing with the boys.  Happiness!

Thank you Lord, for all of the above.  I truly am very, very blessed and I couldn’t ask for more.

To wrap up the month of May, we had a few more celebrations including…

Nico’s graduation party (May 25)

We are so proud of you and we wish you all the best.  Congratulations Nico!

Courtney’s sweet 16 (May 31)

The party was held at the Riverwalk clubhouse.  I was one of the designated photographers so there are a lot of photos. 

The theme was “Hollywood”, so the birthday girl arrived in style and was preceeded by her “entourage”.

From the food, to the decor, to the surprises, speeches, and dances… it was a sweet celebration indeed!

Happy birthday Courtney!

Then June came and before we knew it, Joshua was 13 months old!

Father’s Day 2008

As is tradition, lola cooked up a storm for lunch.  Then we had a refreshing afternoon cooling off in the pool and enjoying halo-halo.

Some random photos of the boys…

…at Fuddruckers

…and at City Place with ninong and ninang.

Thanks for looking!

Almost half a year in the making, our celebration of Joshua’s milestone 1st birthday was a day of thanksgiving for the miracle that is our son.

Location, location

We started scouting for a venue in January, panicking a little after realizing how popular Memorial holiday parties were, and how most places were already booked on that particular weekend. We eventually decided to have it at the clubhouse inside our village. Incidentally, this is the same place where we had my bridal shower and both baby showers. An added bonus — it has an adjacent gameroom that was well-utilized during the actual party.

The theme is everything

Choosing a theme for someone whose main interests are putting things in his mouth and then throwing them on the floor was extremely difficult. But we did notice Joshua’s propensity towards athletic activities (basketball, golf), and he does have a great pitch. So a sports theme it is!

It’s all in the details

The save the dates, invites, tarps, stickers, sports flags, photo mosaic were all courtesy of the ever-reliable, ultra-talented, mega-patient Melisse. It is a joy to work with her, and obviously, I am very, very satisfied with how everything turned out. The quality of the magazine-type invite was just amazing, much better than I had envisioned. It garnered a lot of rave reviews from our guests.

All the (heavy) stuff were especially carried from the RP to the US by our very kind Tito Nestor.

We gave out sports bottles with goodies (kids) and gatorade (adults) as souvenirs. Melisse designed a special “Joshuade” sticker to personalize our thank you tokens.

Accumulating prizes for the games was no easy feat so we collected it all over the course of several weeks.

And to quench my thirst for D-I-Y, I created a guestboard with matching guestcards, as well as picture banderitas.

May 24, 2008

The day started early for Chris and I as we set out to decorate the clubhouse, with the assistance of Ninong Ferdie. By 1PM, we were at Party City purchasing the balloons. And while I did some finishing touches, Chris went back and forth transporting party goods and supplies from our house to the venue.

It was exhausting to say the least. But we would endure anything for our precious Joshua.

Paparazzi

Call time was 4PM and guests trickled in early. As soon as we arrived, Stacy started taking photos of the birthday boy…

…and our family.

And as always, Stacy’s work did not disappoint. Just take a peek at these photos of some of the kids — aren’t they adorable?