Post Birthday and Christmas Gift for Kimi

Another special delivery of a Christmas gift from one of my oldest friend and Kimi's Godmother :), Ciara...

A nicely wrapped gift...
wouldn't expected less from her ;)

This gift was sent through her sister in law, Celeste, who came here for a vacation last December 2008 but due to the bad weather I was only able to get this gift last weekend :(. It was a cute and chic outfit which I would have expected from her fashion forward godmother :).

A little bit tight... :) but still fits!

Thanks Cia!

T.G.I.Fri-date night

I just love Fridays :)

It would mean a night off for a few hours with just K and I. It's like dating after the baby :)

We decided to make it a Filipino Restaurant this week...

Lechin Kawali- Perfect with Mang Tomas Sauce
... I love how crispy this dish is

Tuna Sisig with Sili
Love this with some soy sauce

Miss the Sago and Gulaman
-the pearl was a little bit hard though...

---

PINPIN RESTAURANT

6113 Fraser Street, Vancouver, BC V5W2Z9
in between 46th & 45th
Phone: (604) 322-3086

Mother and Daughters...

I have always been close to both my mom and grandmother and I miss them greatly now that I am so far away. I miss all those driving from places to places with my mom back in Manila and fetching my grandmother to go out on weekends or just for the afternoon. That is our version of girl's out... It was just hanging out and being relax with each other, sharing stories from our lives and offering support and advise. I always wanted Kimi to be a part of that tradition but we can't because of the distance...

I wish I am a better writer to describe just how profoundly they have affected my life. They made me a better person by being such a great example. They rather show me how to be a good mother and good daughter by doing it rather than stressing it with words. It really works because I am caught off guard by how much I am beginning to act and think a little bit like my mom and my grandmother.

It comforts me somehow that even with the physical distance, they are a big part of who I am that I will always have them inside me. I miss you Mommy and Grandma...

"Every Mother contains her daughter in herself
and every daughter her mother
and every mother extends backwards
into her mother and forwards into her daughter."
--C.G. Jung"
— Karl Kerényi (Essays on a Science of Mythology)


Mother and daughter relationships are complex
because the daughter looks to her mother
as a role model of what a woman is.
As she grows up and sees other woman
who live their lives differently,
she chooses between imitating her mother
or other significant influences in her life.
As an adolescent she may come to look down on her mother
and think that other woman are much better.
Of course she is not a fully grown woman
so she does not understand the challenges
and choices that her mother faces.
It is only when she herself becomes a woman
that she can fully appreciate her mother.
© Family Friend Poems

Thursday Play date

We made a play date with Anne for Thursday morning. It's Dora Land at the Go's Residence...with 2 girl's gaga over the Dora character, you can find almost Dora dolls of every shapes and sizes all over the house.

DORA HOUSE

DORA STICKERS

KIMI AWESTRUCK AT THE BIG DOLLHOUSE

DORA CHAIR w/ LIFESIZE DOLL KIMI :)

Officially a toddler...

KIMI PHASE 2 STROLLER SEAT

Kimi is finally outgrowing her infant car seat and is moving into the stroller seat itself... She is also getting better at walking by exploring on her own... My little baby is getting bigger na :).

I am blessed to be able to spend every time of the day with her (although it gets a little tiring and irritating sometimes...), I must learn to treasure everyday with her because time is really fleeting and before I know it she is all grown up and what I will have left is those memories to cherish :)

Ready, Seat, Play!

KIMI and NANA PLAYS

Kimi signals the start of a playing time with her two hands stomping on the laminated flooring... Nana cooperates by crouching on all fours and making animal sounds to the utter delight of little Kimi.

Lost Generation

A video that was submitted in a contest by a 20 year old.
The contest was Titled "u @ 50".
This video won second place. When they showed it , everyone
in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause.
So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it.

Happy Chinese New Year

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! :)
-Chua Family

Resignation by Francis J. Kong

* Forwarded tome through email. I want to share this here :)

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult.
I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8-year old again.
I want to go to McDonald's and think that it's a four star restaurant.
I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.
I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them. I want to lie under a big acacia tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.
I want to return to a time when life was simple; When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care. All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.
I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good.
I want to believe that anything is possible. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.
I want to live simple again. I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones.
I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.
So… here's my checkbook and my car keys, my credit card bills and my RRSP statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, cause… "Tag! You're it."
It's not unusual for me to find people down-scaling their lifestyles today. A very gifted, faithful and efficient manager of mine resigned from her work after eleven faithful years of service in order that, together with her family, they can all move back to their province, live a simple lifestyle and be away from the hustle and bustle of city living.
As we grow in age we become more sophisticated. We have forgotten the joys of childhood days. E-mails and articles like this somehow remind us that life is not confined to sales quotas, profit goals and investment portfolios.
I've realized the importance of enjoying life. Life is too short for us to miss the good things.
There's only so much we can eat in a day. Even with a closet full of clothes (and in my case I've even got a factory full of them), I can only wear one pair of pants at a time. I've only got two feet, and having a hundred pairs of fancy Italian shoes would not make me walk faster and father.
I want to go back to enjoying life's simpler things. And trusting God and thanking Him for His goodness and really enjoying life to the fullest.
And so, resignation… meaning, to resign from being an adult—that is, the freedom-choking sophistication, over-urbanization and anxiety-driven complexities of adulthood—resigning from all that is not so bad after all.
There's an escape clause in the Bible, which goes, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (An invitation from Christ in Matthew 11:28-30 THE MESSAGE)

Unknown Caller

In an effort to get our mobile bill lowered, I called up Fido to cancel the $11 dollar which also includes the caller ID. I thought that, like in Manila, the caller's name will come out on screen if we haveit in our phone book. Was I wrong! Now, everyone who calls up my mobile, even hubby, is an unknown caller. :(
So when we received a call at 4am we thought it was a prank call. Who would call at this insane hour? and since I am already awake, I went to the bathroom and heard that the upstair's phone is ringing. I told hubby that maybe that WAS an important call from Manila which turned out to be quite important....

UNKNOWN CALLER....humbug! This is quite an inconvenience.

Motor Munchkins @ Willingdon

Motor Munchkins at Willingdon is similar to Bonsor's Roaming Raskals with some different things to play with for the little ones.

They have 3 kiddie tales with play dough, art supplies and puzzles to keep kids preoccupied. Tricycles and a mini hockey court. Similar toys to Bonsor are the parachutes, toy cars, tunnels and big colorful block puzzles.

CART-FULL OF KIMI

SEMI-SPHERE OF COLORFUL BALLS

TRICYCLE

ASPIRING ATHLETE

ON TOP OF THE WORLD
...or atleast, ON TOP OF THE GYM

Roaming Raskals @ Bonsor

WAITING FOR THE PLAYTIME TO START...

We decided to go with Karl to Bonsor Community Center. While K works out at the cardio room, Kimi went to play at the Bonsor gym which was temporarily transformed to a giant play area for toddlers to have a big area to roam around. Thus, the name Roaming Raskals probably came from.

KIMI KNOWS HOW TO BE CAREFUL
UNDER THE LADDER

Kimi took a liking to the yellow car but opt to push it rather than ride it. She was getting more sure of herself and pushes the car and was even careful when she gets under the ladder. She stops for a time to bend her pretty little head to avoid getting herself being hit (he he!).

WALKING ALL BY HERSELF

Kimi just started walking a few steps at a time a couple of days ago and it was really a good time for her to take this drop in class wherein she was able to see older kids running around. It gave her enough courage to take more steps which led her to walking in no time :).

BONSOR RECREATON COMPLEX
6550 Bonsor Avenue
Burnaby BC V5H2G8
(604) 4391860

The Little Shopper

At Superstore, Richmond...

HEART HEADBANDS
Kimi: Oh no you don't mommy...

Little Kimi decided she is through with her toy pushcart and promotes herself to grownup's pushcart. She wants to try pushing the cart for mommy and daddy.

I am quite surprised how strong she was when she successfully pushes the big cart all by herself.

LITTLE SHOPPER
Superstore, Richmond

Chinese New year display @ Richmond

Father in Law n Mom in Law

After an Asian lunch, we came across a Huge Lantern Chinese New Year Display at the center of Richmond Mall. K and I decided to get ourselves a souvenir photo for our first Chinese New Year in Canada. :)

K and M
...Kimi in dreamland zzzzZZZ

Tropika @ Richmond

Our Malaysian turned Japanese dinner the night before prompted Karl to make it up to me by suggesting a lunch at Tropika for Sunday :)

The FACADE of Tropika, Aberdeen Center Richmond

The INTERIOR

Manila's street taho

Oh, how i miss the street taho in manila (soy pudding) with its sweet brown syrup (molasses) and pearls. I can almost taste it as I describe it here... I love this sweet indulgence of a drink so much that I even ask the guard at my 1st job to be on the lookout for the guy who always passed by our office to buy me some and even when I am at home, I always have a ready change waiting with the guard down at our condo just in case the seller does past by our house.
I just had to taste something like that to appease my cravings... It's a good thing that my hubby, K, was in a generous mood to drive me to two of the branches we found through the net which sells the taho, Canadian version, meaning just the soy pudding unsweetened or the one I prefer, sweetened. To my utter disappointment, the 1st address which was in Pender turns out to be a factory and the 2nd one which was in Keefer, and wherein I bought previous "taho" before, suddenly is close for business. Hmmm... I guess It is not my day.

I thank my hubby though for cruising around through downtown just to search this 2 addresses with me...

Sushi sushi

Friday night. Karl took me for dinner date at Broadway. We initially plan to go for Malaysian cuisine at Banana Leaf but ended up having to wait for a long time so walked to a nearby Japanese place for dinner instead. Sushi sushi is a small Japanese restaurant with just a few tables. I wasn't expecting that much in terms of their food but was surprised by how tasty their misoo soup was. The tempura was also very good plus the sauce has a certain Japanese element in it. The sushi was ok. It was the chicken teriyaki that disappointed me a bit because it was dry.INTERIOR OF SUSHI SUSHI

EBI TEMPURA

TUNA MAKI

CHICKEN TERIYAKI

CALIFORNIA MAKI

PS I Love You

"...What if this is all there is to our life?
You have to have a plan.
Why do I have to be the responsible grown up who worries?..."

***

"What do you want? I know what I want, cause I'm holding it in my hands...YOU."
.....Aaaaw!

***

"So now, alone or not, you've got a walk ahead.
Thing to remember is if we're all alone, then we're all together in that too."
(sad but true...)

Strawberry Craze

When I was expecting Kimi, we came here during Strawberry season and I ate strawberry with sugar almost everyday. Now, I am having that same craving for strawberry but now instead of just the fruit, I also am craving for the choco strawberry items from Meiji... YUMMY! I came across a variety of these yummy sugar rush treat on one of those regular market days in Crystal (another asian place with small boutiques and marketplace...).

BRIGHT RED and SWEET STRAWBERRIES

MEIJI's YUMMY CHOCO STRAWBERRY TREATS

... and nope, I am not pregnant.... he he!

Chinese New Year in Canada

It will be the first Chinese New year that will be spent in Canada. I am determined to search for something familiar to celebrate the Chinese New Year. There are a few establishments that recognize the upcoming event. Afew of them are: Kin's Market, TnT Supermarket and surprisingly, Purdys (the Chocolate store...)

Purdys Chinese New Year Display

Purdys: Ingenious twist to the familiar red money envelope

The Familiar tikoy :)
or the Sticky Rice Cake

A patch of color

COLORS! amidst the snow

Finally! After weeks of white all around... it's beginning to melt down and some patches of colors are finally surfacing...

Freedom!

SOUND EFFECTS By: Kimi

Kimi cruises around the house with her pushcart.

This is one of the toys we managed to bring from her baptismal party. A 3 in 1 toy which converts from a learning toy to pushcart and finally to tricycle when she gets a little older. This is so worth bringing :) ....!

Heidi and Adrian vs SNOW road

Heidz and Adrian braved the snow covered pavement with a map for a guide to come here all the way from Richmond, Canada.

YEEEEY! CHEERS!

They made it except we had to shovel some snow before they were able to park infront of our house... Oh well! a little sacrifice... he he!

SITTING PRETTY

MOMMY HEIDZ
AN ARMFUL OF BABIES

WHAT ARE U BOTH LOOKING AT?

... After the short visit, we had to figure out a way to get the car out of our driveway...AGAIN!
The shovelling was longer than the visit.... OooopS! SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE! It was really a great surprise having you guys come here :)

Another Snowy Sunday

Because of the continuous snow, we were surprised to see that we were the first one in the children's room for the Sunday's mass...

ALL ALONE

*THANKS AUNTIE COL FOR THE WINTER JACKET
...it finally fits just in time for winter :)

...white car?!

Just after a trip to meet our friends... and a couple of hours parking INSIDE the mall...

This is what our car looks like!...WITH THIN LAYER OF ICE

WITH ICICLE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SIDE MIRROR

Brrrrrrrrrr................

Posh Lunch

Japanese Hot Pot lunch for the weekend.

The difference between the Japanese hotpot and Chinese is the lack of balls for japanese. They also have 2 teapots: 1 filled with water and 1 filled with soy sauce for u to mix on the hot pot for your own mix of the taste of the soup.

Posh

105-6462 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC

604-434-7674

SLICE OF THIN BEEF AND PORK