Just chillin'

With Malou out of the country, and Yaya Cyril having left to resume college, me and Yaya Dora are 1:1 with the two boys right now. Since they're such bundles of energy, keeping up with them when we're out is a challenge indeed.

So yesterday the four of us trooped to Anson's Ortigas to buy a new microwave oven (the old one's kaput). The two boys had a blast peering at, around, over and into the refs, ovens, toasters, washers, dryers, TVs and various other appliances. After a little running around, we got what we wanted and were back home. Baz brought his "checkbook" and his "passbook" and helped me out with the payment :)

Today I decided to divide my time with each boy, so after lunch I took Hadrien out to The Podium where we bought a few books at Ink & Stone, and then had some crepes at Cafe Breton. He still calls them pancakes, though. He started off with the cream off my hot chocolate, then ate his half of a butter and sugar crepe, which was prepared in view of him (we took a table next to the griddle).

From Podium to the condo - a 5 minute drive - Hadrien fell asleep in the car seat.

After dropping off Hadrien, Baz and I went to get the car cleaned. Since there was a customer ahead of us, we stopped for some fries at the McDonald's on 32nd Street in the Fort. There was a children's party about to start, and since it was Disney-princess themed, he noticed the Cinderella posters. He's excited to go to Disneyland, and apparently he knows - likely thanks to Gramma and Gramps - that there's one in Hong Kong in addition to the one in "North America." I explained to him that, if we go visit Auntie Na-ah for her graduation, that we'll visit Disneyworld in Florida. No problem with him, as long as there's a castle. Ah yes, there's that Disney branding magic again.

Baz liked watching the car get washed and kept saying, "Good job!" to the fellow doing it.

The boys have been taking too much time at dinner (sometimes over an hour), at times leaving the table and, thus distracted, eventually losing their appetite. So we've decided to rein that in and keep them to a 35 minute time limit, beyond which they lose dessert. Tonight Baz equated that time limit with "background music" I had joked with them about two months ago: I had said that, because I was fast, my background music was "tarang teering, tarangteeringteeringteering...," while Mommy was slow, so hers was "wekwekwekwek...".

So at dinner this evening, when Hadrien was trying to leave the table, Baz said that Hadrien's background music was "wekwekwekwek," and his was "tarangteering." Hadrien didn't take kindly to that, and said, "I throw away the wekwekwekwek ." Since Hadrien wasn't at the table, I joined in and said, "I put wekwekwekwek back on you." Hadrien: "I take wekwekwek, and cook it in the pan, and I eat it!" After a couple more minutes of this, both of them were back at the table, eating their food to the tune of "tarangteering...".

We had a one hour blackout tonight, and I realized this is the first time the kids have experienced it. They were all, "Ooohh, it's dark!" and "Where's the electricity?" They loved playing with the flashlight but mostly we spent the time just doing our individual kulit routines in the dark while seated on the red sofa. When the lights came back on, they took turns blowing out the candles, Hadrien, of course, claiming that it was his birthday.

We miss you Mommy! Oh, and don't forget our vacuum cleaner, IKEA work table and IKEA triangular steel bathroom shelves!