Back to KiDO, June 2008

Over the weekend, we all had the opportunity to go out and spend time together as a family.





Here's Little Nio and his Mommy, busy stuffing his face with veggies.



As if to prove the point that all the veggies are indeed going down, Little Nio gives us a view of the inside of his mouth. He really isn't picky with foods, although lately his appetite hasn't been as much as it was a few weeks back. Nothing to be concerned about, just something to keep in mind.



Hanging out with Daddy at the Kanom Chine restaurant.



The next day we were able to enjoy some fantastic Italian cooking at a restaurant outlet named "Mediterraneo" located on the fifth floor of Central Chidlom department store.



Here's Little Nio trying to explain to his Daddy that Spaghetti Carbonnara is indeed a finger food.



Little Nio goes back to KiDO!



It's been nearly a year since he last visited KiDO, but all his play-teachers still remember him very well. Here he is trying to read a Thai children's book, upside down.



Trying out the slide with Daddy.



Not too bad.



Next an attempt on the slide with Mommy.



Much better results.



After a long and very enjoyable day together, Little Nio cuddles up in the big bed with his Mommy, safe and sound back at home.

Cats & Dogs, May 2008

One of these days I'm going to catch a better photograph of Little Nio together with his favorite pet, Samuel. "Favorite" is relative, since he's our only pet. Samuel is our Siamese cat who has been with me ever since he was a tiny little kitten.



This is one of the earliest photographs I have of Sam, back when I was still a bachelor living alone in Flat Phibun, behind the Ministry of Commerce.



This other photograph of Sam was taken several years ago, while I was still living alone down in Pattaya.

We're not at all afraid of Samuel's reaction to Little Nio. He's very domesticated and we try to keep him clean. Despite being a house cat, who has never ventured outdoors, we give him an invigorating shower every so often. We're actually more worried what Little Nio might do to the poor kitty. Our son is a bit heavy handed and his coordination still needs a bit of work. Without knowing it, Little Nio just might hurt Samuel, who in turn might accidentally scratch the boy.

We just have to keep watchful eyes on both of them.



Here's Little Nio getting a big sloppy smooch on the cheek from his Mommy. For those of you who think we should shower our child with as much love and affection as we possibly can, don't worry... he's pretty soggy already with all the smooches he gets.

This was taken when we went to visit our friends, Trevor and Khun Nok (whom Little Nio met a year ago). We were invited over to their wonderful new home for a fantastic barbecue, where we all got sufficiently overstuffed on very delicious food.



Little Nio also got a chance to meet their dogs, Sammy (the Golden Retriever) and Bobby (the little Black Pug). Both dogs are wonderful pets with awesome personalities. Little Nio was delighted with them both.



From left-to-right: Sammy the Golden Retriever, Mikhail (a friend of Trevor), Bobby the Black Pug, Khun Nok, Little Nio, Uncle Trevor in the back, and myself. We had a really great time that afternoon and are looking forward to another opportunity to catch up with Nok and Trevor again.



A few nights later, Little Nio had a chance to attend an indoor football match. It was a friendly competition between the designers and architects, versus the CAD operators of my design firm. After both teams had scored more than ten points against the other, no one bothered to keep score. It was just a sporting opportunity to have a good time. Here's Little Nio with his Mommy hanging out at the sidelines.

Hontiveros-Pagkalinawan & Navarro, May 2008

My first cousin, Pia Hontiveros-Pagkalinawan, came to Bangkok from Manila for a two-week visit with her family. Her husband, Rwin, who is a police superintendent back in the Philippines attended some seminars at the International Law Enforcement Academy here in Bangkok.

Tita Pia is one of the daughters of Little Nio's Lola Chit, who is the younger sister of my father, Lolo Jun. One of these days I should attempt to map out the family tree so that Little Nio can see how he is connected to everyone else.



Here we all are at our home, with the dining table converted to a card table for a serious session of "Canasta". From left-to-right, My wife, Kanittha, then that's me carrying Little Nio, then Tita Pia's daughter Zoe, then my cousin Tita Pia, their eldest son Zach is seated, with their youngest Zed, and finally Tito Rwin.



While the four of us played "Canasta", the three older children watched several movies in the family room. Zach is on the left, with Zed lying down on the sofa behind, and Zoe seated on the right. Little Nio went up to his room to try and take a nap.

On the weekend we decided to rent a van and go off to Ayutthaya. Despite the heavy duty shopping they did manage to squeeze in some cultural activities... like riding elephants, wondering around ruins, and visiting a couple of small museums.



Just after the elephant rides. From left-to-right: Tito Rwin, Zach, Zed, Tita Pia, Zoe, then Little Nio being carried by Daddy, then his Mommy, and then finally Pa Kut at the end.



Here's Little Nio with his Daddy feeding the elephants.



We were also able to do a bit of walking around the ruins. My wife, Kanittha, then an Indiana Jones reject carrying Little Nio, and then Pa Kut. We're standing if front of some of the ruins leftover from the destruction of the ancient capital of Ayutthaya.



Here are the Pagkalinawan's stopping to strike a quick pose while walking around the market stalls surrounding one of the local temples. Tita Pia all dressed in blue, with Zed holding on to her. Zoe stands to the other side of them, with Zach behind her. You can see Tito Rwin in the back, waving.



All that walking around got us all tired and we sat down to a long leisurely lunch. While we started eating, Little Nio decided on taking a power nap first.



On the last evening of their visit, we were all able to get together for dinner at their hotel, Rama Gardens Hotel. We had dinner at "Capriccio's", which is the Italian restaurant of the hotel.

Swimming and the Hexagon, April 2008

My wife, Kanittha, took this photograph of Little Nio and his Daddy enjoying the pool in front of the clubhouse to our village. After a while the garish decor of our village isn't so offensive that you are able to ignore it without too much effort.

Personally, I suspect it's because I'm having way too much fun enjoying the company of my son to worry about the architectural crimes being committed by residential developments like the one we live in. He's growing up too fast, and keeping pace with him is as much as I can do. I suppose all those other things are just background clutter.



Here's Little Nio posing with his name. "N-I-O" in the pool. His Daddy is somewhere underwater holding him up.





Summer is almost over and the monsoon season with its heavy rains is almost upon us here. Little Nio takes his Daddy swimming as often as possible before it's too late and the rains force him to take to the indoors.

We've also gone and recently purchased a hexagonal shaped playpen. Very sturdy, very heavy duty. It's become a mini-activity center for Little Nio.







It's a place for drinking a bottle of milk.





It's a great place for taking a quick power nap.





And it's also a great place for hanging out with stuffed toy friends and doing a bit of exercise.

One of the other things that Little Nio has started to do is to role play. Or perhaps he is merely reliving a past life with very strong residual traces of a Mexican luchador? Highly unlikely though... he doesn't even have a mask.





Here's Little Nio standing in his hexagonal playpen, strangely reminiscent of the octagon that is an icon of the Ultimate Fighting Champion (UFC) competition. It's one thing to grow up unafraid, but perhaps training for the role might be going a bit too far.




This video clip shows Little Nio displaying his foot stomping skills. We suspect that he's actually copying his Mommy stomping out cockroaches. Here's his game face.

Sonkran, April 2008

We didn't go out of town for Songkran (Buddhist Thai New Year) this year. It actually can get very dangerous on the roads during this holiday season with the accident rates being alarmingly high. We stayed in Bangkok and simply went to have a nice family lunch together. Here's Little Nio with his Mommy, waiting for the lifts at Siam Paragon.



Posing near the pond right outside one of our favorite restaurants at Siam Paragon, Café Chili. It's located on the ground level of the mall and it serves fantastic northeastern (Issarn) style food. My wife, Kanittha, is from that part of the country and she gives the cuisine here top marks.



Back home after lunch, Mommy teaches Little Nio a few important rituals to pay respect to the Buddha during this religious holiday.



Here's Little Nio with his Daddy standing in front of the house.



It's a really good sign that a child is curious about his environment and Little Nio has shown nothing but a healthy interest in everything around him. Despite barely being able to walk, he shows tremendous manual dexterity and mechanical capacity. Not only will he try opening drawers, but once he finds something interesting he will try to find out more.



The colored photos in this catalog look interesting, but for all we know he might have spotted a real bargain with some of those discount prices.