Christmas in Manila (Part 4), December 2008

DAY EIGHT

Following the long night of the family reunion, everyone needed time to rest and recover from the festivities, the fun and all the food. It being a slow start to the day, Little Nio decides to explore the family Christmas tree.





Compared to our tiny Christmas tree we have back at home in Bangkok, the tree of Lolo Jun and Lola Nene in Manila is simply enormous. It is well on it's way to hitting three meters tall and it dominates a center corner overlooking the dining room, the family room and the living room.



Despite all efforts to dissuade him, Little Nio intently explores the lower branches of the tree. He is fascinated by all the lights and ornaments.


DAY NINE

Spending some quiet time with Tito Nico in the front garden. Little Nio leads my brother, Tito Nico, around the pocket garden decorated with plants and various bird sculptures.





Marching back and forth in the garden.



Little Nio decides that the haphazard arrangement of assorted birds scattered throughout Lolo Jun's garden is just not good enough. With help from Tito Nico, he successfully extricates the sculptures from the foliage and places them right along on the entry way from the front gate.

Strangely enough, Little Nio did the exact same thing with all the miniature dinosaur sculptures that Lolo Jun had concealed in the big garden. Little Nio took them all out of their rocky positions partially hidden by plants and shrubs, dragged them to the center of the garden and proceeded to line them up. What surprised me immensely was how he managed to separate the herbivores from the carnivores without instruction. It could be something as simple as the meat-eaters where all erect on their hind legs, while the plant-eaters were modeled on all fours.



After the long and tiring exercise of migrating the bird sculptures, Little Nio takes a break on the floor beside his Tito Nico.



Later that evening, fresh from his bath, Little Nio settles down to enjoy watching television with his Lola Nene. His cousin, Ate Sofia is on the play rug beside him.


DAY TEN

Our visit finally comes to a close and it is our last day in Manila.



My older sister, Tita Via, comes early in the morning with our ride to the airport. She's able to spend some quality time with Little Nio running all around the garden. The grass has all died out, and it will take some time for Lolo Jun to get it all going and growing again, but in the mean time we have some quality dirt for digging up.



A quick hug and a loving squeeze from his Tita Via.



A final shot before we get back in the car to return to Bangkok. Lola Nene with Kuya Jose, and Lolo Jun carrying Ate Sofia in one arm and Little Nio in the other. We left Manila on Monday afternoon, December 29, 2008 and arrived in Bangkok nearing the end of the day.

As soon as we got home, we brought down our luggage from the airport limo, took our car from out of the garage and went straight away to Vichaiyut Hospital for a check up for all three of us. Little Nio had to take a blood test, just in case any of the many insect bites he got in Manila were from a mosquito that might give him dengue fever.

Fortunately, this was not the case and he only had acute pharyngitis probably a bacterial infection that a bunch of medicines and antibiotics could take care of easily. My wife, Kanittha had to get some medicines for her cough as well as for her sinus condition. I myself had to take a booster shot and take a whole bunch of medicines as well. Not exactly the best health for the holidays, but we are all happily on the mend.

Seasons Greetings! - December 2008

We wish you all the very best of this holiday season, and may all the blessings of the coming year bring you happiness and fulfillment.

Merry Christmas!

With love from Nat, Nio and Franco.

Haircut Day, December 2008

First thing in the morning, Little Nio grabs a small pint of yogurt and watches his "Little Einsteins" video collection.



Here he is intently watching his video while enjoying the first part of his breakfast.





The expression on his face tells it all.

"What? You've never seen me eating yogurt before?!!"

He can be very emphatic about these things. He doesn't enjoy being watched doing certain things... eating yogurt is one of those things.



Time to inspect our tiny Christmas tree and make sure all the lights are blinking properly. Little Nio seems to understand that the ornaments should stay on the tree. It's fine to touch the decorations, but they do look better when they are left alone on the tree.





Here's Little Nio and his fuzzy buddy, Samuel, our Siamese Cat. It looks like he's challenging the cat to see who will blink first. Sam has got years of experience at this game, but Little Nio is no slouch either.



Time to get a haircut!

In preparation for our trip back to Manila for Christmas, Little Nio is off to get a haircut so that he can look his cutest for his grandparents and the rest of the family. We're trying out this unique barber shop and beauty salon for the first time, named "Dotty Cut", located on the third floor of the Central Lad Phrao department store. They are right in the middle of the toy department. A great strategic location for their business.

You guessed right, "Dotty" is gay. Nothing wrong with that at all, but the stereotyping was a bit too predictable.





They have cute little toy cars for barber chairs, clown smiles for mirrors and they even have a personal video monitor to keep the kids from going berserk while they get a haircut.





We decided to let Little Nio get his haircut without his shirt on. A more practical approach to managing all the bits of cut hair that are bound to make him itchy. He seems to be enjoying that annoying purple dinosaur on the video monitor. Or perhaps he's wondering if he can run over Barney with the barber chair car.





Almost done with the haircut. Little Nio doesn't look too pleased with the whole process, but we got a fairly decent haircut for a good price, and we didn't lose any ears or get eyes poked out. There's always a bright side to these things.



After the haircut, we all had dinner together at "The Terrace", which is a simple food court located on the same floor of the mall. Here's Little Nio with his Daddy, working on some traditional Thai fruit dessert, with coconut milk, syrup and some ice. He started with dessert, but that didn't spoil his appetite. His meal included some pork chop, french fries, spicy flat rice noodles with braised spare ribs topped off with a chocolate milk shake.



Back at home trying on his new shoes with his Mommy. Little Nio's brand new "Bob the Builder" shoes are going to be fun to wear when visiting Manila. He loves his new shoes and spent the next hour running around in them.

Father's Day, December 2008

December the 5th is "Father's Day" here in Thailand as it coincides with the birthday of HRM King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the reigning monarch of the country. It is a public holiday here and a wonderful opportunity to spend the day with the family.



Little Nio was up pretty early in the morning and one of the very first things that he does is start his breakfast with some yogurt.





Here he is going at it, full of gusto. Very little distracts him when he tucks in to a tiny pint of yoghurt. As you can see here, a fist full of yogurt proves that even this nutritious meal can be considered as a kind of finger food.



This particular brand comes with bits of whole fruit, which means that you get juicy bits of strawberry in your strawberry flavored yogurt. So aside from letting him listen to classical music, this is another way to get a bit of culture into our young man.

Later in the afternoon we had to go to the dentist for my wife, Kanittha. Her wisdom teeth are growing out on both sides, so more than a week ago we took care of extracting two impacted teeth on one side. The stitches came out today. We will probably wait until next year to get the other two on the opposite side. It has been very traumatic for her and she has been in a great deal of pain.



Here's Little Nio giving directions on what he wants done. Not sure what he wants done, but he can be very emphatic about it. Very "Navarro", I think.



We also put up our tiny little Christmas tree today and Little Nio was delighted, amazed and excited by the blinking lights and all the decorations. He's actually seen a tree before when we were in Manila last year, but this is the first time that he has had one of his very own. Our tiny green tree is decorated with only red tinsel and red ornaments to deliberately give it a traditional feel.



He's at the back of the tree in this image inspecting the shiny red balls.

Later that afternoon, Little Nio and his Daddy went swimming. We didn't stay in the pool too long. Since the weather has changed the water in the pool was very cold.



Here's a photo taken with Little Nio standing on top of our coffee table in the family room just before swimming. He's not too happy about something but we couldn't figure out what he was all upset about. Let's hope it's not the size of our tiny Christmas tree he's complaining about.

Home Improvements, November 2008

Despite the terrible news in Thailand about the civil unrest and the closures of both airports in Bangkok — the older Don Muang airport and the more recently opened Suvarnabhumi airport, life goes on for us. There are things that are completely out of our control and things that happen as a consequence of other things, and we simply deal with what we can in the best ways we can manage.

The first and most important thing to do is to stay calm and continue doing what we are supposed to be doing. For our part, that is building up our family and continuing to improve whatever we can. At our house, the developer's maintenance contract is about to expire and there were necessary repairs that needed to be done. Rather than simply repair and replace we saw an opportunity to upgrade and provide a better home environment for ourselves and for Little Nio.



Here he is inspecting the newly completed "pebble wash" (washed aggregate) finish of our driveway. It's off white with flecks of black and grey, and accents of orange and brown. My thought was to stay away from a dark color to increase the SRI (surface reflectance index) and help reduce heat island effect. Not too white so that while it helps reflect light into our home, it won't generate too much glare. More importantly it's a sealed finish that has traction and is not too rough on little feet.



We also had a chance to seal up some minor cracks in the walls to our carport, but instead of patching it up and repainting, we opted to invest in some cultured stone facing. We selected a light warm grey stone that will look good in contrast to the off white driveway. The stone is porous so that it will retain some coolness when we water it. It will also provide a great backdrop when we set some greens in front of it. Here's Little Nio striking a pose in front of the new wall.



As you can see, it meets with Little Nio's happy smile of approval. And even though he isn't green like a plant the wall serves as a great backdrop for him as well.



We're all doing fine. As you can see here Little Nio is playing tag with our Siamese cat, Samuel. This is the kind of game that is fun for a while, but it doesn't get too far when the cat is fine with being tagged.



Bath time for Little Nio. We just had a nice long conversation with Lolo Jun and Lola Nene in Manila. We're all getting ready to go out and do some errands, like eating some nice big pancakes and buying disposable diapers and paying our bills.



Here's Little Nio trying to drain his bathtub using a sponge. He's determined, but his Mommy is going to make sure that he gets clean first before he can finish draining the tub.



Almost done. Next is a quick drying by Daddy, then his Dad will dress him up and we're off for the day.

Things are getting tense around Thailand, but the situation is not without hope of a quick and peaceful resolution. Thai people are generally very kind, calm and generous, but these are extraordinary times for them. The best we can do is offer prayers for safety and a quiet solution to all their problems.

Playtime at KiDO, November 2008

What better way to have a family day together than to go out and spend time playing at KiDO and then having lunch together at Triple O's.



Here's Little Nio back at KiDO, reaching over a plastic tunnel and flashing his mischievous smile.



Up on the play slide all by himself, ready to go.







Little Nio climbs up some steps, then through a tunnel to jump down into a padded pit full of colored balls. For whatever reason, we think that his favorite color is blue because he only seems to want to take the blue colored balls.



Back at home in the afternoon, Little Nio takes the hose and is ready to clean up the new pebble-wash (washed aggregate) driveway we just had installed.



After kicking off his sandals he gets up on the sofa in our family room to turn off the lights. It's been a very fun afternoon, but now it's time to catch a bit of shut eye. Time for Little Nio's afternoon Power Nap.

Growing Up, November 2008

Our miracle, Little Nio, is growing up very fast. He will be 19 months this November and is well on his way to becoming a big boy. He's a very good eater and without a doubt he has a healthy appetite, which we try to compliment by offering lots of nutritious foods.







Although sometimes chicken nuggets and french fries are also a part of his diet. We try not to give him junk food, but Little Nio sometimes gets foods like these from time to time. We don't allow him to drink any carbonated beverages, like Coke or Pepsi. It's plain drinking water, fruit juices and his milk formula, which he still drinks before his nap times and for his middle-of-the-night feeding. Or so I am told. I have to leave for work early in the mornings, so that feeding time is something that I tend to sleep through.



He spends at least an hour a day outdoors, even if it is only in our tiny garden or just around the neighborhood. He gets his recommended ten minutes of Vitamin E from sunshine and a wee bit of exercise. When he gets older, we will get him to spend much more time outdoors. We haven't been going swimming recently as the shared village pool is getting some needed repairs to the tile work.





Here he is trying to pull out the yellow leaves from the potted plants we've got lined up on our carport.



Little Nio sitting with his Mommy on our carport. She's planting a little flower on his head, and I think that he's attempting a smile. We're in the process of changing the surface of our carport to a washed aggregate finish (pebble wash), which should be a bit more attractive and more hygenic because of its ease of maintenance.



He also likes to wander around the house with a little hammer. The hammer comes as part of a gift from Lolo Mon and Lola Charing, and it is his favorite thing to bang things with. Here he is banging on our home entertainment system.



And here he is preparing to do a bit of banging on our Siamese cat, Samuel. The cat seems to know what's coming. Sam's got his ears perked up and he looks ready to run just in case he's going to get a hammering on the head.



Riding at the back of our family car, Little Nio is all buckled up sitting beside his Mommy.



My wife, Kanittha, still as charming and beautiful as ever.



Little Nio is buckled in and is intently watching his "Bob the Builder" videos from a monitor mounted on the headrest behind the driver's seat. He get's to watch a lot of educational videos, ranging from "Little Einsteins", "My Friends, Tigger & Pooh", "Dora the Explorer" and of course "Bob the Builder".

We try not to watch television shows with lots of commercial breaks and we don't let Little Nio watch the Cartoon Network as there is very little of educational value on there. It's entertaining and funny, but he's not going to learn much from watching that sort of thing. If the cable tv is on it will usually be on Animal Planet, at least there he can see animals in their natural environment.





Here's Little Nio back visiting KiDo. It looks like we will be starting him there again next year when we get back from Manila. We're scheduled to visit there for Christmas and will be back in Bangkok in time for the New Year celebration here.