Funny Moments

Olivia got a cool t-shirt from Tita Melissa it reads "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" with the pictures on it (Dr. Seuss).  During the day, Martin took Olivia to the fish store to pick out some fish for her aquarium. When she arrived, the immediately took off her jacket and went to a fish tank and plastered herself against the glass and  said "Look!  They're the same!" with a huge smile on her face.

Santa Claus Came to Town

There was some crying and pouting on the eve of Santa's arrival, but seeing that mostly everyone was on their good behaviour he decided to come and drop off some gifts.  He also brought along Jack Frost who spread some white snow for a perfect Christmas day.

William's First Birthday - TOL

Our beautiful baby boy turned 1 today. We are so happy that we were able to have him home with us for this special day.  Only 1 week ago, we brought this bundle of joy home and he has turned our lives upside down for the good.  Seeing that it fall directly on Christmas Day made this day even more special.  To the birth mother who gave our son life, know that he is unconditionally loved and is in a happy home.  

Despite the snowy and icy conditions of the road, Grandpapa and Grandmaman were able to make it down for William's TOL.  An hour after they left Ste. Sauveur the roads became much more dangerous so the cousins were not able to make it even though they were full of anticipation to meet William the night before. No worries, we would see them in a couple more days when we go to celebrate Christmas in Quebec.

We were so fortunate to go out for dinner to celebrate his birthday.  Everything should have been closed, but Ohkee from Korean Palace said that she would open the restaurant for our party.  That made is super special.  Olivia loved it because she had the whole place to herself to run around the play.

After dinner (Korean BBQ), we got William dressed in his traditional HANBOK.  He was awesome sitting through dinner and now putting on this colourful costume.

Like Olivia, we did the traditional choosing of the items on a special tray. This would symbolize what lay in his future depending on the object he chooses.  For William his first item was the googles (another win for Papa), then a pair of scissors (will be a Scientist or a Doctor), and a pen (writer maybe).  All in all, very good choices.  The funny thing is i'm sure we'll do this ceremony again with friends when we celebrate his birthday again in the next few weeks. hahahha. We will see what he chooses next time around. I guess that's cheating, but it's all fun.

A Family Christmas Eve - 2011

Christmas Eve in Otttawa 2011.  What a wonderful feeling to spend our first Christmas here in Ottawa and as a family of 4.  

We started the day early in the morning.  There was plenty to do, so we decided to divide and conquer. I took William with me for adventures at the grocery store, and Papa took Olivia all around Kanata getting things ready for Christmas and William's birthday.  We all had "lunchdates", and everyone was down for a nap in the afternoon.  In the afternoon, Lola, Lolo, and Tita Melissa arrived with the minivan full of presents.  It would have put Santa to shame!  hahahha.  A family Christmas...how exciting for everyone.

While the kids slept, Papa made his delicious turkey.  True filipino style, we had rice AND mashed potaotes, and some pancit molo soup.  Olivia's favourite.  When the kids woke up, we got them ready for  Christmas mass. EVERYONE went.  Martin said he didn't want to miss this Christmas "gathering". Our first mass together. I was ready for a long mass, but came with some snacks and Olivia and William were great!  We came back home starving, and quickly sat down to eat our Christmas dinner.  That was at 8pm.  Goodness, how the heck were we going to keep the kids up. We decided to take pictures and open a few gifts, and leave the "big ticket" items for  tomorrow.

Once we put William down to sleep, Miss O got to stay up a bit longer to make cookies with Tita Melissa. "For Santa" she would say as she bit into the chocolate that was supposed to go in the cookies.

What a day, and tomorrow will be just as tiring.  More mess to clean up. :0) I guess that's what Christmas is all about. Good food, great company, and lots of paper.

Tis the Season!

So the Christmas holiday can't start without a Christmas concert. Before the most anticipated concert however, Olivia has her first haircut at Goobers Hairsalon the night before.  The whole family trekked out in the evening to see this big event. Sigh, the event took all of 15 minutes.  It probably would have only been a 5 minute cut if she was sitting still and paying attention to the hairdresser.  Too much distraction for Miss O, but the lady did a somewhat good job.  It's a bit crooked, but it's the best she could do considering who the client was.  :0)  I got to keep her first lock of hair too. I don't know why I needed to do that. It's not like one day when she's 18 she's going to want to look at it.  Oh well. It came in a nice card and poem. It's a keepsake for me than anything else.

Again, in true Olivia-style, she stole the show with her dynamic personality.  Her baby brother William took hold of the audience and captivated them with his charm and smiles before the show.  (Sadly..the blog won't accept my 3 minute long concert film of her...ugh)
Pretty much you're missing Miss O centre stage shaking her bells, then suddenly sees her Papa and starts crying for him (even with the principal told us to sit in the back so she won't see us). Oh well.  They redirected her and started shaking those bells and bopping up and down...then suddenly her bells broke and flew on the handle.  She reached for it and gave it to the teacher (who was off stage to fix it).  She stood there waiting patiently as the song continued, still bouncing away.  The applause time came and she did a dramatic bow - up and down with her newly cut hair.  She was doing her bow so well, that I was afraid she was going to fall off the stage.  Sigh, my little girl.  She definitely has the flair for drama. :0P  Quite the day for everyone.