W is for Wishlist

We have been reading longer books lately and Mommy has told you that there is this thing called a Bookmarker. If we are not able to finish reading a book because it is past your bedtime, we can put the Bookmarker on the spot where we stopped. This way, when we wake up in the morning, we will remember the page where we paused the previous night. You seem to think this is such a brilliant solution that when we ask you what you want for your birthday you say, "Bookmarker!"

You also want a birthday card delivered by the Postman and a birthday cake. (We think you got these ideas from our reading of "Teddy's Birthday Party").  We explained to you however, that the Postman might come when you are at childcare. If the Postman does not find anyone home, he will leave your birthday card in the letter box.

Guess what. When you woke up the morning of your birthday, we checked the letterbox and found.... ta daaaa! A birthday card for you!


What a lucky boy you are! Three presents from Daddy and Mommy on your birthday!



PS. We noticed you love riding the bike at childcare. Since you have been a good boy the whole year round, Mommy and Daddy thought you deserved a bonus (A bonus means "additional" or "on top of the usual". For example, you have pancakes in the morning. Mommy does not put nutella on your pancakes. If Daddy puts nutella on your pancake, the nutella is a bonus.)

B is for Book Week

Our ode to the Book Week that just passed (we were overseas and missed the Australian celebration).

get well soon!

Stayed at home

Four days in a row

Consulted two doctors

Baby,  you worry us so

last Sunday of autumn; first Sunday of winter

Weather can change just like that in South Australia.

We went to Mt. Lofty in the last Sunday of autumn. Mt. Lofty is about 18 kilometers from Adelaide and it took us 15 minutes by car to get there. The sky was a striking cobalt blue, the air was nice and warm… and yes.. the cappuccino was extremely good (there’s a restaurant at the summit). Mt. Lofty, which is 750 meters above sea level, is a good place to have a good panoramic view of Adelaide. It is said that on a clear day, one would be able to see as far as Kangaroo Island (one day we will have to go see this island to verify whether kangaroos still live there).

A cairn of stones were erected on the summit, replaced several times, and an obelisk finally constructed in 1885. This obelisk which is a trigonmetrical survey station, is known as the Flinder’s Column.

Mommy and Daddy have fond recollections of this place. When lola came to visit in 2009, this is one of the places we took her to. We hope that she will come to visit us soon again.

The following Sunday was the first day of winter. It was so cold and it rained the whole day. We spent most of the day at home which turned out to be a good idea since you were coming down with a bad case of coughing.

It was a good time for you and Mommy to snuggle under the covers and read Monsters University again and again. Mommy thinks we scared Daddy at some point with the screaming of the robot child ;)


Sunny days are great but stormy days aren’t too bad especially if we’ve got good books to read (again and again).

Anton Lee @ 1.8

You have grown leaps and bounds this month, belloching. You can now say your name (which comes out as, "A-to!"), the names of people close to us, and the personnel at the childcare. You can call out the sounds of some animals - cat (meow), dog (woof woof), sheep (baaa), goat (meeeeh), snake (ssssssss), duck (quack quack quack), and cow (moooo).

Speaking of cows, we have also now shifted from your formula to cow's milk.

We no longer struggle with the seatbelt. Ever since we started reading Stickybeak (a book about a school pet duck), you have understood that everyone must wear a seatbelt - Daddy, Mommy, Stickybeak, and Anton Lee.

Negotiating the use of the seatbelt has also become much easier after we grew into the practice of reading in the car. You have transitioned from "I'm Green and I'm Grumpy" (a guessing game for guests in a party, to "Belinda" (a cow who refuses to be milked), and to our current favourite, "There's A Sea In My Bedroom" (about a boy named David who lets out the sea from a conch shell). Oh how you love Mommy reading to you! Sometimes we go through a book thrice before reaching Childcare.

Your vocabulary is growing. You can name most parts of your body and everyday things at home. You can show how Sully and Mike Wazowski from the Monster University can roar and how the robot child screams in the scare simulator. You know that Dusty is an airplane and that his friend is named Chug (from the book, "Planes"). Because of this book, you also would like now to go to New York (to meet Ripslinger and El Chupacobra, the Mexican star plane!) You can do a pretend cry when we read about the tired baby in "Counting Kisses". You know how the cheese monster laughs in "Charlie and the Cheese Monster".

You have added verbs to your stack of words too! You now now how to "pat" Daddy and Momm's backs, you know how to tickle, hug, kiss, scratch, hop...

We have recently started re-reading "The Potty Experts" and you are showing interest in the potty.

You are starting to enjoy boy things now too! You love hanging out with your cousins while they are doing their thing like playing videos and you enjoy smashing cars with Zio!

Bedtime has become even more sweet. We say our prayers after lights off and tell stories about how your day went. You like singing songs before falling asleep.

You know what's the extra special thing you have learned to do this month? When we are at Church on Sundays, you grab Mommy and Daddy's hands, and we all three say the Lord's Prayer with hands intertwined. Then you say at the end, "Amen".

N is for Naptime

Mommy said you
Need to take a long nap
Because we're going to
A birthday party tonight.

You went to sleep
Only after Mommy read through
Monsters University
And only if your book
Napped with you.
(Fair enough)

B is for Book Club

Showing your friends
What adventures can be had
Inside the pages of a book

P is for Peppa

This little pig
Has taken over this week
Begging to be read
First thing in the morning
And last thing in the evening.

F is for Favourite

Reading and re-reading
Goose's adventures
When he went to school

S is for Surprise

You were not feeling
The best today.
Runny nose
Fever.

A package
From the post
Made our day!

D is for Doctor

Stethoscope + "Inside Your Outside" book
Are we on to something here?

B is for Books

These days
This corner seems to be your
Favourite place.

Sunday

Hear mass
Eat out
Go grocery shopping
Nap
Visit mamita
Read with Mommy!

2014 readings

Thank you so much for the

wonderful presents!

last bedtime reading for 2013

Wishing you
even more exciting
 reading adventures
in 2014

anton lee @ 1.1

Habit of the month:
Checking out upon waking up in the morning
 what Mommy has been reading last night.

from one booklover to another

Thank you bestie Alon for the early birthday present!

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.

 

anton lee @ 11 months (part 1)

Good morning world! I am now 11 months!

Daddy wrote this poem for you (yes, Daddy will give that bard Shakespeare some serious competition):

I’ve learned how to sit, stand, laugh, and squeal
Now I can “walk”,
It’s been almost a year!
The fun has only begun
Who would have guessed
I’m about to turn one!

There were two activities this month which you were so passionate about:

Looking at your books -

Anton Lee's indignant "do not disturb me" look at 10.25 months

Also interested in Mommy's book!

 

"What does the lion say?" "Roar!"

 

and learning to walk -

Thank you Abby for lending me your Moonwalker!

 

In between these two very serious, time-consuming activities, you’ve managed to make some new friends. As the great boxer Muhammad Ali said, “Friendship… is not something you learn in school.  But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”

Antonella's 1st birthday party

with Caterina and Matthew

"Hello Harold, glad to meet you!"



with Abby

with Nathan and first friend Alon

anton lee @ 10 months

Cruising at 10 months

 

The past four weeks have been a series of exciting social activities for you.

 

At Ninong Ricky's and Ninang Menchu's
 at Tagaytay

 

 

 

 

On the weekend you turned 9 months, we drove all the way to Tagaytay to visit your Ninong Ricky and Ninang Menchu.  Travelling 65 kilometers each way was nothing to you (this was your longest road trip to date)! You enjoyed the scenery and when that was enough sight-seeing for you, you just went off to dreamland.  You had a great time crawling your Ninong and Ninang’s long corridor and taking in the fresh morning air afterwards.  You also went along with our sampling of restaurants and listened closely to adult conversation about politics, the economy, and similar serious stuff.

 

 

The weekend after that, we spent at the Richmonde Hotel, Eastwood City, where Mommy and Daddy got married.  Your Ninang Cristine was a fantastic babysitter, reading to you the books we brought with us.

Then the weekend following, you went to not one but two birthday parties in one day. We joined our first parlour game. Was so much fun!

 

Alon's "wavey" birthday

 

Princess Janice's birthday at McDonald's

 

The day after, we drove all the way to Nuvali City, which is 50 kilometers from Manila. It was your Tita Connie’s birthday and we spent the whole day with your cousins, aunties, and uncles on your mother’s side.

This month has been one of great achievements for you.  You can already walk and run while holding on to someone, and slowly cruise while holding on to objects.  You also like your teeth being brushed (six of them!). Just rightly so, because you’re eating varied foods now in addition to your usual fruits and vegetables – ground beef with potatoes and carrots, lentils with fish, and today, your first Filipino spaghetti which Mommy cooked for your birthday!

 

Standing unassisted @ 9.25 months

Brushing teeth @ 9.75 months

First (Filipino) spaghetti @ 10 months

 

There’s not a boring moment with you belloching – reading, running, and even eating are activities charged with so much energy.

 

We're multi-taskers (eating while reading)!
@ 9.5 months

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re counting the days now to your first birthday!