how we announced your arrival

Daddy and Mommy were married on 11 November 2011 in Australia.  One month and a half later, you came to us.  Can you imagine how excited we were of soon becoming a happy threesome?

Mommy and Daddy kept the news to themselves for several weeks until they were able to check with your doctor that you were truly on the way.  Ten weeks later, when the ultrasound test result confirmed you, that was when Mommy and Daddy decided to announce your arrival.

It was a beautiful day.  Mommy and Daddy solemnized their wedding vows in Church (you see, because of the concept of separation of Church and State, even if a couple gets married under the laws of the State, they have to go through another rite to be considered married before the Church, and vice versa).  About 120 relatives and very close friends came to witness Mommy and Daddy say their vows. Mommy’s former workmates in the real estate company she used to work for helped Mommy and Daddy to be able to get married in this chapel in the Philippines.  It was previously not allowed to have marriages celebrated in said chapel because of certain Church regulations on jurisdiction (oh yeah, you will be meeting these words "regulation" and "jurisdiction" often as you go through life, but let this not be your concern for now, little one).

 

The priest blessed Mommy and Daddy and told them to become good parents (the Priest must have had superpower vision to see you inside Mommy’s tummy!).

 

 

 Then we all proceeded to the hotel nearby for dinner.  Your Ninang Menchu and Mommy’s former workmates in this hotel ensured that we’d have a really nice time.  Your Tita Blessy even lent us her nice, white car!

 

An elegant quartet provided us music all throughout. But it was the numbers given by your Tito Ian, Tita Maimai, Ninong Matt, and Kuya Julian which made the evening quite special.  Your Ninang Cristine and Tito Frank also gave touching messages.

Towards the end of the evening, that’s when Mommy and Daddy announced your arrival.  As the saying goes, "we saved the best for last". Your Daddy raised his champagne glass and proudly said that you were now 10 weeks inside Mommy’s tummy. Everyone broke into loud cheers! Then the quartet played some more music.

 

You see how proud we are of you, our dearest Anton Lee?

first flight, first holiday

In three weeks’ time, we will be flying back again to Adelaide.  This is the second time you will be doing an international flight, the first one being last Easter time, when you just turned six months. 

But do you remember when you took your first flight? This was in December 2012, when you were three months and one week. We flew to Tacloban City to spend the holidays with family on Mommy’s side. This trip was memorable for several reasons. 

It was the first time that Mommy’s family got to see you. They said you look like Daddy! Your lolo even kept calling you "Vinci"!

 

with Kuya Karl, Ate Kim, and Kuya Julian

That year, you were the newest member of Mommy’s big, happy clan.  As you grow older, you will see how fun it is being with this big, rowdy family. Mommy spent so many wonderful summers playing with her cousins (your titos and titas).

It was during this holiday that you started getting really interested in books.  This was probably because the books Daddy brought you were the ones that gave you your “a-ha!” moment.  The books were a three-volume set of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Old MacDonald’s Farm, and The Wheels on the Bus.  These were colourful, hard books with pictures that could be rotated. We’ve got your friend Jack to thank these for.

 

It was also during this holiday that you were able to hold your head.  At two months, you could already briefly hold your head but it was in this trip that you started to do this with confidence.  When we were on our flight back home, we had to use the tarmac to disembark from the plane. Oh boy, the tarmac was the type that we had to go down several steps. Mommy used her left hand to carry you and her right hand to hold on to the railing.  You dear belloching, bravely held your head up high as we navigated the steps.  The ground crew applauded when we reached the last step!



One luggage for Daddy, one for Mommy
and another for Anton Lee!

This is why Mommy and Daddy are big believers of travel. Trips are not only fun but provide vast opportunities for experiencing and learning new things!

Christmas day at the Leyte Park Hotel



 PS: We spent your first New Year at the Dusit Hotel in Makati City.  This is a tradition in our little family. Each new year, we try to spend it in a new, different place.

 

what's in your name?

Daddy and Mommy beg to disagree with Shakespeare when he wrote, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  You see, little one, you have been named with great care and after much discussion between Mommy and Daddy.

We are naming you Anton after your Italian great grandfather Antonio (Daddy’s paternal grandfather. Daddy’s father, by the way, was also named Antonio); and Lee after your Chinese great grandfather Leon (Mommy’s paternal grandfather).  We want you to always remember how special you are, how different cultures run in your blood. We want you to have an Italian’s love for life and a Chinese’s sense of discipline and industry. 

Dear little Pebble, you are not only partly Italian and Chinese, you are also Australian and Filipino at the same time. Daddy, while born of Italian parents, has been raised and grew up in Australia, enjoying the freedom and opportunities the country has provided its migrants. Mommy is a Filipina and a strong believer that one day, her country will get its act together and be able to raise the quality of life of all its citizens.   We hope you develop a Filipino’s resilience and trust in Divine Providence and an Australian’s belief in equal opportunities for everyone.

We are also giving you a third name, Thomas, a name you can reflect upon in times of great challenges.

Sir Thomas More, who lived from 1478-1535 in England was a lawyer, a statesman, and a humanist. He was ahead of his time. During a period when women were not generally given access to education, he believed that women were just capable as men of academic accomplishment. In this regard, he attended to the education of his daughters. His eldest daughter, Margaret, was much admired for her learning especially her fluency in Greek and Latin.

Sir Thomas More was a loyal servant to King Henry VIII, the king of England at that time, serving him in the capacity of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1525-1529 and as Lord Chancellor from 1529-1532. His loyalty, however, had its limitations. He simply could not agree to the separation of England from the Catholic Church and accept the king as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Thus, he refused to sign the First Succession Act. He resigned his post as Lord Chancellor and became an ordinary citizen again, leaving behind the power and wealth that came with his position. The king, however, was not satisfied. Sir Thomas More would be imprisoned, then charged with treason and beheaded in 1535.

Ok, this beheading business is a bit grim. The point of this little one, is that while Mommy and Daddy love you very much and will protect you from all harm, it may come to pass that you will have struggles that you alone will need to face and overcome. If this happens, you can pray for clarity and steadfastness from your namesake, Sir Thomas More (he was canonised  by Pope Pius XI in1935) who stood firm in his beliefs and held on to what he believed was right and just.

P.S. Mommy’s only reservation about Anton Lee Thomas is that it may be a challenge writing your full name once you start school. When Mommy was a little girl, students who were noisy were made to write their name 100 times on the blackboard before they are allowed to go home. We do not know if this policy will still be allowed by the time you go to school but Mommy is a bit worried that by the time you finish writing your name for the 100^th time, dinner will have gone cold at home and that will upset Daddy (Not that Mommy is saying you are going to be a noisy pupil. This is just in case you get caught by your teacher one day more active than usual).

buckle up, little one!

You are a child borne from much travelling.

Your nonno (Daddy’s father) came to Australia by ship from Montefredane, Avellino, Italy (just outside of Naples) in February 1955. He was only 19 years old when he sailed to Australia.  Your nonna (Daddy’s mother) also came by ship from Summonte, Avellino, Italy, around the same year. Your nonno and nonna, while almost neighbors in Italy, got to know each other only in Adelaide.

Your lolo sa tuhod  (Mommy’s paternal grandfather) came from China to settle in a fishing village called Villareal, Samar, which is in the southern part of the Philippines.  Here he would marry a Filipina and they had six sons and one daughter. Two of the children would become lawyers; another two, engineers; and the other three would become a doctor, teacher, and an accountant. Their youngest son was Mommy’s father.

Your other lolo sa tuhod (Mommy’s maternal grandfather) was a Philippine war veteran who fought the Japanese in World War II.  His wife had to take care of their seven children while he was at war.  This lolo sa tuhod, when Mommy’s mother was a little girl, went to Manila (the capital of the Philippines) to prepare and take the bar exams so that he could be a lawyer. Your lola sa tuhod (Mommy’s maternal grandmother), who was a very smart, creative, and industrious woman, would thereafter move to Manila too and stayed on there even after your lolo sa tuhod passed away. Mommy used to visit her on weekends when Mommy went to Manila to study so she could be a lawyer like her grandfather.

Your Daddy has travelled a lot:  Europe, Canada, and the US.  Mommy also has travelled a lot too, most of Asia and parts of Europe.  But guess where they’d meet... in Adelaide, just like your nonno and nonna.  When Mommy looks back, she finds it interesting that the first picture of Mommy and Daddy together was in a German village called Hahndorf, somewhere in South Australia.

But the travelling didn’t end there. Since Daddy met Mommy six weeks before Mommy had to fly back to the Philippines (she was in Adelaide only for a year to get her Master’s degree), Daddy had to fly to Manila several times to make sure that Mommy didn’t forget him.  Mommy also would keep flying back to Adelaide so she can sit in Daddy’s kitchen to watch him cook Italian food (as you will soon know, little Pebble, Daddy is the Master Chef in our house).

Mommy and Daddy married in 11 November 2011 (how cool is that, 11-11-11!) in Adelaide at 3:00 pm. A few months later, Mommy and Daddy had their marriage solemnized in church in Manila on 29 February 2012 (that means, they celebrate their Church wedding every leap year).

Daddy lives right now in Adelaide while Mommy (and you of course, since you’re inside Mommy’s tummy) lives in Manila.  But don’t you worry dearest Pebble, one day you will wake up with both Mommy and Daddy beside you already. In the meantime little one, you’ve got to get used to a lot of flying.

If you announce to Mommy and Daddy over dinner that you want to spend a year in Tibet, we don’t think we will be very surprised.