Hadrien's 3rd Birthday (Cont.)

Hadrien hosted an intimate dinner with family on his birthday. He chose Fely J's - a "comfort food" place in Greenbelt 5 run by the same people who own Abe's in Serendra and Cafe Adriatico in Malate. Gramps, Gramma, Papa, Mama, Aunties Genni and Ritchie, Uncle Jolly and Tita Kristine, Graunties Enya and Neny, Granuncle Ernie and Uncle Japes, and Yaya Dora and Lita were all there!









Hadrien was early, and entertained himself by drawing with his pastel crayons:



He's in his Jackson Pollock phase, apparently. Here he explains to Auntie Genni that the black part of the painting represents "darkness" (his word - he didn't say, "night").



The "darkness" is riven by flashes of red ("fire") and yellow ("lightning"). But apparently there's a double meaning: the red and yellow also represent the "sun" - it's rising because it's almost morning. The Grandparents' Committee was impressed and congratulated him on his latest work:



It was a good meal, and later the waiters and waitresses came out with a birthday cake (actually, three slices of cake with candles on top) singing "Happy Birthday!" loudly, startling Hadrien who, nonetheless, responded with equanimity and his "nguso" style of candle blowing.







He was so excited to be the center of attention that he wouldn't eat at first, until Daddy (pretended) to call Teachers Maica and Weng to tell them that Hadrien wasn't eating his meal. With his "No, no, no!" he immediately began eating prompting Auntie Ritchie to remark that I was playing off his desire to maintain his "good boy" public image in school!

The ebullient host, in his favorite Doraemon shirt, shown here with his entourage:



He rolls 15 deep!

Bad Bear!!!

Hadrien and I are just chillin' this weekend at home, principally because I threw my back out and can't stand. We've both been reading our respective books (me, Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policeman's Union; Hadrien, his Shark Pop-Up Book) and last night, watched Auntie Ritchie as she guested on an ABS-CBN news show to speak about World Press Freedom Day:



For the past couple of weeks Hadrien's play has involved getting away from the "Bad Bear." This started with Baz and him pretending to ride a boat surrounded by "bad crocodiles" or the "bad shark" - the only times they're allowed to do "gunning" i.e. pretending to shoot these bad creatures with a gun, as other times gun play is forbidden. (Hadrien gets around that by saying that he's "spraying," not "gunning.") Then it became "bad bear" - think black grizzly bear.

Hadrien's first reaction is to run away from the bad bear, so he gets me, Mommy or whoever else is visiting (yesterday it was Gramps and Gramma) to get on his bus, which he then drives away with the bad bear chasing:



Notice the passenger seats behind Hadrien's driver's seat. Once, seated on the third seat, I pretended the bad bear had run fast enough to grab me. Hadrien stopped his bus, got off, pulled me back into my seat, then ran back to his seat to drive away.

Looking out for the bad bear was also a theme of this Diego playset installation he made:



The 'propeller' is actually a wind machine that you turn on when you see the bad bear, blowing the bad bear away. Diego stands by the rail, looking out for the bad bear, who might come through the forest at the base of Jaguar Mountain.

But lest you overanalyze this play theme and think that "bad bear" is some deep, disturbing fear that Hadrien's trying to confront, bear in mind that "bad bear" isn't all bad. After all, Hadrien takes the time to talk to him on his walkie-talkie, saying among other things, "Hello? Bad Bear? Stop fighting me! OK, bye bye."



And, "Hello? Bad Bear? I know the flags and you don't, hahahaha!" (That is, his flash card Flags of the World, in which he's mastered recognition of the flags of countries as diverse Vietnam, Somalia and the Czech Republic.) OK, so it's not exactly a friendly conversation with 'bad bear," but at the same time, it shows that he isn't scared enough to not taunt him.

Day 2, (US, April/May 2008)

I decided to hit the ground running and met up with my college friends on our first full day in NYC. Since Baz had slept from 5 to 11 pm, and then again from 3 am to 9 am, I thought that he was read for some action. And ready he was!

First stop was Whole Foods where we picked up some apples, oranges, bananas, blackberries, milk, veggies and some cookies. As I had to walk back in the rain with a child and groceries in tow, I stuck to the bare necessities.

Then it was off to meet with my college friends - Carol, Eleonor and Rowena. We took the PATH train. Baz likes navigating so I asked him to look out for our stops. On the way, he kept asking, "what city are we in". Much as we were moving and that I didn't know exactly which city we were heading to, I answered "We are now going to the state of NJ , we came from the state of NY. Remember, there are 52 states in the United States of America?" To which he replied readily, "no, 50 states". I wonder where I got 52 as he turned out to be right!

Eleonor has a 3.5 year old son, Dylan, who Baz didn't want to talk to at first. After 20 minutes or so (and with me falling asleep leaving him no one to talk to), they had become fast friends. Dylan reminded both Baz and me of Hadrien because of his mischievousness, height and voice. Soon, Baz played with Dylan and his toys, and was specially fond of his train set. Here are a couple pictures of the 2 -


And here are the two gamely "posing" for the camera - guess who's idea this was:


Kate, Rowena's daughter who turns 2 in June, and Riley, Eleonor's second son, joined in on the fun.


After play time, it was off to dinner at Legal Seafoods.



It's been a long time since my friends and I got together. Hope we find a way to do that soon :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Hadrien!

It's Hadrien's 3rd birthday today. We had a 'videoconference' with Baz and Mommy in New York last night, who got to greet him. Plus Baz, who kept saying "I miss you" to Hadrien last night, made sure to post his greeting cards to Hadrien:



I took Hadrien to Toys R' Us last Tuesday (ironically, that same day Baz and Malou had gone to the big Toys R' Us in Times Square), and asked him to look around and pick something that he liked. Still interested in construction, he selected the 'CAT Company' dump truck - but this time, big enough to ride on. I didn't purchase it then, but surprised him this morning when he woke up.



It's a cool toy; it makes sounds for when you're backing up, raising the dumpster, and has a horn. Thankfully, it also has two volume settings.



Hadrien compared it to his old dump truck:



We've got a dinner with family later. I'll post about that later. (Malou, call us when you read this so you can videochat!)

Leaping Monkey

Hadrien likes to describe himself as a monkey, particularly when he climbs up chairs, tables, or me (at which point he clamps both his legs around my torso, and becomes a panda). In fact there was this T-shirt in Japan I so wanted to get: it had a drawing of a monkey, with the words, "DO NOT BE A MONKEY!" Too bad they didn't have it in yellow.

Here's today's proof of Hadrien's monkey antics:







Notice the look of concentration as he makes buelo (top picture), then leaps high into an arc (middle) and lands with both feet together, steadying himself with his arms (bottom).