Day 1 of Baz and Mommy's Trip

Baz travelled superbly. He buckled his seatbelt instantly while saying that the seatbelts in the plane are much better than that of his carseat. He ate most of what I required him to eat on the plane (fish sticks, apple slices, an oatmeal bar). No luck though with the potato salad and spaghetti with meat sauce which I decided not to push. He said "thank you" when helped. He carried his backpack (he tried to get out of it though by saying he can't wear his jacket AND carry his backpack). There was no crying or tantrums. I called him my little traveller, which he liked a lot.

His excitement shone through when he would repeatedly ask me while we were at the CX lounge whether we were already on the plane. And then when we were on the plane, he would repeatedly ask "Are we in America". He got to watch Jungle Book 2 and squealed loudly several times. The "ST" word must have been spoken, as I heard him exclaim "gotcha!" a couple of times (he watched the movie 3 times). He fell asleep twice - thank goodness! After the first round which allowed me to snooze at the same time, I promised him that if he sleeps, we would land soon after he wakes up. True enough, I had to wake him so that I could fasten his seatbelt.

No, he did not shout at strangers but was very wary of other people. He did say "hi" to the immigration officer and a 3 year old running out of the elevators at Maribel's apartment though.

Baz is now soundly asleep. He's tired and misses his brother a lot. I think he said "I miss Hadrieni" at least 5 times during the last 21 hours. To emphasize how much he misses Hadrien, he said "I miss him so very so very very so very very many much!" And I'm 100% sure he means it.

This Weekend

Here are a few pictures of Hadrien's latest antics. I think he's into yoga this weekend.





Then on Sunday Baz and Mommy left ahead for the States, leaving Hadrien and Daddy to follow on May 10. We'll be attending Auntie Na-a's graduation on May 18 in Washington D.C., then driving down to Orlando to do Disneyworld with Gramma, Gramps, and Aunties Genni and Na-a.

Baz was so excited this morning as he was leaving, insisting on waking up his brother so he could say goodbye (as well as rub it in that he was going ahead). Here's Baz looking smug:



But he'll miss his best buddy Hadrien, of course. Notice how he's kissing Hadrien's foot:



Travel safe and well, Baz and Mommy! (Malou! Call me when you get in!)

How they've grown

I went through the boys' pictures (scouring the computers and hard-drives we used for the past 5 years) to assemble a collage of photos. They've grown much too quickly for me. Even if I enjoy every minute that passes with them, and marvel at the new things they pick up each day, I so desperately want to freeze time and stop them from growing up!

Here are videos that will surely bring tears to my eyes in the next few months and years to come.


The Baz Connection from malou.khan on Vimeo.


Happiness is Hadrien from malou.khan on Vimeo.


So Happy Together from malou.khan on Vimeo.

If I could only stop time...

Nguso Boy

If a picture paints a thousand words ...

Subawoo!

The boys like cars. They've got a bunch of toy cars that they play with, and a couple of steering wheel toys that they can pretend to drive with. One time when Baz visited his classmate Sebastian's residence, Sebastian - who's also into cars - points to their cars and says, "That's our Miata and that's our BMW!" Without missing a beat, Baz replies, "We've got a Grandis and a Subaru!"

So last weekend, to indulge this interest and have something new to do, we visited the Manila International Car Show at the World Trade Center on Roxas Blvd. There was a big Subaru display and the highlight of our visit was a Precision Driving Show by Subaru stunt driver Russ Swift.

But before that Baz wanted to visit the Suzuki display, and ride the cute, Mini-like Swift.



Then on the way to the large Subaru display, we came across a tractor. The boys like playing with their MegaBloks "Cat Company" construction playsets, so this appealed to them.




The Subaru display had all of the brand's models, with both old and new Imprezas decked out in racing livery.

Hadrien apparently likes rallye cars:






















So anyway time for the stunt driving show. Russ Swift (what a great name for a stunt driver) has a got a signature move, in which he parallel parks the car at high speed. Baz appears to have been impressed because he was clapping the whole time:













Bravo Russ Swift!



But apparently Hadrien didn't like all that fast driving. His reaction: "Stop it!"



Which may explain why Hadrien wasn't around when we went to get Russ Swift's autograph after the show.

Conversations with Baz & Hadrien (Part 6)

We haven't had this argument in a long time. Each time this exchange takes place, there's a variation that will surely make you smile, if not burst into laughter!

Baz: I want classical!
Hadrien: I want rock!
Baz (covering ears): I throw away rock to outerspace, you'll never find rock now! hahaha!

___

Hadrien: I'm driving the van now cuz I'm Jerome (Gramps' former driver)

____

Daddy: What are you building? (referring to a new structure which Hadrien was building with their fave toy of the moment - lego blocks)
Hadrien: A factory!
Daddy: Oh a factory?! What is the factory for?
Hadrien: To fac you!

We were shocked but tried our best not to react as we were positive that they didn't mean f___k. We'd sometimes ask them about the factory and what it produces and our questioning would always lead to "for facking you", "for facking"

From Ninang/Auntie Ritchie, The Bubble Gang

6 April 2008, Las Pinas

After a few tries Baz got the hang of blowing bubbles. His bubbles
even came out in pairs or in triplets stuck together. After several
very successful bubble making, he says cheerfully, "I'm becoming an
expert!!!" Gramma assures him, "you already are an expert!" Then
after about 45 minutes of bubble blowing, he asks, "do you think I've
made 100 bubbles yet?" And I answer him, "I think you've made 200!!"

Meanwhile, Ham has only been successful once...chamba pa...he realizes
that and after several more attempts, hands me the bubble
bottle...choosing to entertain himself by chasing the bubbles his kuya
and I blow for him instead.

Birthdays Galore

Birthday season opened on March 25 with Raffy's birthday. Baz and Hadrien have been preparing for it bursting into the occasional "happy bot-day, daddy, happy bot-day daddy, happy bot-day, happy bot-day, happy bot-day, daddy!" days before. On the eve of Raffy's birthday, Baz artfully made this for him and posted it on their easel.



The next day Baz woke up with a smile eager to sing to Daddy, this time on his actual birthday. Hadrien joined him and the duo rendered a "happy bot-day" duet - with matching clapping and skipping! We had dinner at Apartment One B which the boys thoroughly enjoyed. Baz loudly entered the restaurant belting out his "happy bot-day" song causing not a few diners to smile and chuckle. He held his tears when the waiters brought out his daddy's birthday cake (for those who don't know, Baz has this thing about someone else singing "happy birthday" - he doesn't like it and actually cries or tries his darnest best not to). To Baz, what was most important was hearing his daddy say that Baz's card was the best gift he received!

Then came April (not Na-A) and Baz couldn't wait for his and Auntie Genni's birthday. He actually said a prayer for Auntie Genni - again, on the eve of her birthday. We celebrated with a BBQ lunch at Las Pinas.

Not surprisingly, Baz has been looking forward to his birthday. Ever since he became fascinated with calendars, he would occasionally remind us that his birthday was coming up in April (as if I could ever forget the day we became parents!). Lest you think that I'm exaggerating - here's the best evidence of his excitement.

(Bazs birthday gift is coming soon)

We were planning to hold a joint party for the boys but seeing how excited he was about his birthday, we coudn't let the day pass without some celebration so we invited his usual playmates to a play date at home. In fact, Baz personally chose who to invite and the design of his invitation - all the while making sure that we invite Hadrien as well.

Tomorrow is Baz's birthday. Since he says he won't actually turn 5 until he blows a candle, we'll have some cake and ice cream with his friends. Perhaps tomorrow will be the first time he'll allow us to sing "happy birthday" to him.

Next comes Hadrien's birthday on May 2 - he'll be turning 3.