What have we been doing?

We have been busy the past year. I really intended to create posts of what we were doing for memory purposes but often times I was already too tired to organise our photos, let alone write posts about them. I know I had not been very good with time management on this front as I'd rather sleep a little longer or play with the little man. But this year is different, because Kimi is in childcare centre almost full time now for Kindy, which is only 2 houses away. I will save a bit of time for myself after work or before bed. Yehey!

Here are some of the highlights of our 2011:

Beat the heat!

We watched the Australian Open and Che had the opportunity to have his Aus Open hat signed by Novak Djokovic after winning against Almagro. Lucky that he also won the grand slam and became World # 1! More photos here.

Sleeping kiddo

Dancing the night away



In June, we attended the wedding of my husband's cousin in Sydney. Kimi slept during the ceremonies but had lots of energy for dancing during the party. It was a fun-filled wedding. More photos here.

Kimi and I also experienced our first snow. Oh, Kimi loved it so much that he wanted to learn to ski next time. We were joined by friends, whose family is helping them with taking care of the new mom and the newborn baby. More photos here.

With the Lord Mayor of the City of Greater Geelong

In August, I took my oath as a new citizen of Australia. We celebrated it not just once but 3 times! We had dinner at home with friends, watched a Geelong Cats game at the President's luncheon (what better way to see an AFL game live for the first time?), and indulged ourselves to the 6 course tasting menu of Baveras at the Cunningham Pier (excellent food and service). I still have to try the infamous vegemite, though, to fully embrace Australian life. May be I will do that before I apply for an Australian passport. More photos here.

We drove to Sydney for the first time by ourselves. Yes, just the three of us this time. We visited family and 2 new babies. On the way back, we visited Kimi's god mother and her newborn twin sons in Canberra. We also met with friends from Geelong to see the Floriade, the Parliament House, the Australian War Memorial, and Cockington Green Gardens. Although we only had limited time, we still had so much fun. Note: This trip only proved to us that Kimi is an excellent travel companion. He didn't have any new electronic gadgets to entertain him apart from a good old digital camera from 6 years ago. He slept, sang, read, asked questions about the things he saw, shared stories, and laughed during the 12 hour travel. More photos here.

In December, we went on a "driving holiday" for 6 days on the way to Sydney for Christmas. But, I will reserve it for another post. The details are still fresh my memory.

I also started studying a diploma course in Management offered at work. Although I can opt for a recognition of prior learning to finish it sooner, I decided not to do it because my intention is to learn more about the organization and immerse myself with the local education system (this is distance learning with only a few workshops though). I still have 1 more essay assignment to do for the current module and 5 more subjects before I can finish the course. That is still a lot of juggling in the next 1.5 years. Time flies fast though so I'm sure I will finish it without even realising it.

Cheers to 2012! I look forward to an even more exciting one.

5 Word Phrase!

I love you Nanay Tatay! Yes, Kimi said that. He is starting to build phrases and sentences on his own whether Filipino, English or combined Filipino and English. I realised the big improvement after seeing again his videos taken in November 2009 when we were setting up the Christmas tree and train. He was just mumbling then when trying to communicate. He had a few clear words but most of the time he could not find the right words to say or how to say it properly. Right now, there are still some unclear words which will improve as we talk to him more. Note, not baby talk. Real talk about what he observes, what he did, what he feels, and what he wants to do.

There are times that I really get surprised with his statements that keep me speechless. The incident a couple of weeks is a classic example. We were already late for his day care. I was rushing and asking him to cooperate so I can put on his shoes. He obliged. After asking him to stand up and head to the car, he exclaimed out of the blue, "Good job Nanay!" I laughed so hard. I'm supposed to be saying that. Oh well, I can't complain.

The busy baby turned 2!

We have not been home since I migrated to Australia and our family in the Philippines has only seen Kimi through photos and videos so we decided to visit and have an advance 2nd birthday celebration for Kimi. I was not intending to have a big 2nd birthday party. But since it will not be a usual case for him to celebrate it in the Philippines, I asked my siblings to arrange one for him. I was initially undecided on the party theme. I was looking at several venues - swimming pools, play centres, eat all you can restaurants and fastfood chains. A friend suggested Jollibee. The mere suggestion sparked good memories at Jollibee and I wanted Kimi to experience it as well.

I looked for Jollibee's youtube videos and showed them to him. Kimi liked him instantly especially his dance! Actually, I wasn't surprised. On the day, Kimi couldn't take his eyes off Jollibee. He showered him with lots of hugs and kisses as if he had known him for ages. His joy was priceless. Worth every penny paid. The host was great, the crew were pleasant, and Jollibee was really fantastic with his dance, making the kids and the kids at heart enjoy and strutt. Talagang at home sa Jollibee.

more photos here

To our family and close friends, thank you for celebrating with us. It was great catching up even for a limited time.

To God, thank you for giving Kimi to us and for always guiding and blessing our little family. You are our lucky charm in our journey downunder.

To Kimi, we still have a lot of fun things to do. Tatay and I are just grateful that we can now hug you everyday and marvel at the rate you're growing. Always be happy 'beesy' baby!

PS: Thanks to our friends - Jay Perth Llave, Diana Dig, and Jordee Queddeng for the photos. Sa uulitin!

First Flight

After 4 months of staying and living in Geelong, Kimi would visit Sydney to take part in celebrating Enzo’s 1st birthday. Enzo is hubby’s first cousin and, in fact, Kimi’s uncle. Yes, blood relations can be confusing at times.

I booked our flight early and chose the early flights as usual to maximise our stay. I was excited for Kimi. I know he would be delighted to see a big version of Jayjay the jet plane. However, I saw too many crying babies that the thought of Kimi having difficulty with air pressure also worried me. I shoved the thought away and packed our bags early than usual as this is the first flight I’ll be travelling with a toddler in tow. I packed Kimi’s stuff in my carry on bag to make sure that I got everything he would need – including banana, apple, nuts, raisins, biscuits, and milk to make him eat and chew and release the pressure on his ears and books to pre-occupy him during the waiting time and the 1.5 hour-flight.

On the day, I woke him a little before 4 am just enough time to dress up before the Avalon airport shuttle picked us up. Good enough he woke up in a good mood. He rarely wakes up in a bad mood anyway so it was not really a problem. He stayed awake during the entire wait for boarding, amusing other passengers beside us especially the elder couple a few seats away.

As expected, he was ecstatic to see the Jetstar plane. He was repetitively saying “Jayjay” and “airplane” until we reached our seat. After all the passengers were seated, Kimi started to wind down. Tatay (dad) was preparing the nuts when Kimi positioned himself comfortably on my lap hugging me to sleep. In no less than 2 minutes, he was already in wonderland and woke up 20 minutes before touch down. Upon waking up, he looked at the window and pointed to the beach below saying "water" and "beach" alternately, non-stop, until he got the attention of the passenger next to us. He also marvelled at some of the clouds and mountains. How wonderful it was to see a curious and excited toddler -- both eyes beaming.

Overall, it was a hassle free flight apart from the difficulty of carrying Kimi and some luggages. Kimi was a cooperative travel companion. I guess he sensed it’s not the best place and time to throw a tantrum.

Christmas Train Express

We were surprised to see a package sitting outside our door. It was for Kimi from Nonno and Nonna!

When we opened it, Kimi was so happy to see a train. It was a Christmas train express big enough to occupy our entire living room. We quickly bought a nice Christmas tree and colourful decors to complement the Christmas train.

Within a week, Che, Kimi and I were able to buy everything we need. We stayed up late to finish decorating and see the lights and train at work. If you notice, there was no ornament at the bottom. It was part of child-proofing the house. The glittery things can easily be swallowed by a very mobile toddler. We still need more Christmas tree ornaments though. I plan to add a couple of really beautiful ones each year as a Christmas tradition. And note, buy extra ornaments nearer to Christmas as the prices are heavily discounted as what I have observed.

Say "Puno"

Tatay and Kimi picked me up from work. About 200 metres from my work place, Kimi blurted “puno” (Tagalog for trees) out of the blue while pointing to the trees on the road. Again, I was the surprised mom. Apparently, Tatay was casually telling Kimi about the trees on their way back after giving me a lift in the last couple of mornings.

I guess this is the tipping point of more words to come. He will learn them in time as my sister said. I am just too excited and a bit impatient. I know that boys speak later than girls and kids in bilingual/multilingual households tend to speak later too even if they can understand both languages. This, however, did not stop us from speaking to Kimi in both Tagalog and English as it is the best time for him to learn with no difficulty. We speak to him more in Tagalog though as he will easily learn English when he goes to school.

Bye bye Formula!

In mid-August, a very close friend, Carla, made an entry about her experience in finding the perfect growing up milk for her daughter Simone (my goddaughter) who is barely 3 weeks younger than my son Kimi. It was a very good read especially for new mums who have no idea what milk to give their babies when either their breast milk supply is already dried up or when it’s not enough and they need to top up. Of course, I can't help not to comment and share my experience as below.

Finding the right formula is indeed a nightmare for some moms who can’t fully breastfeed due to insufficient milk (like my case) or another reason. I was decided to give Kimi 100% breastmilk during the first three months that he is staying in Geelong, I did not buy any formula prior his arrival. But he was not sleeping very well during his first three days and he seemed to be very hungry so I decided to top up with formula. Choosing the right formula was tricky.

Doctors and maternal child health nurse down under do not recommend any formula milk as much as possible. When asked they usually say that formula milk is just the same for any brand. So, I limited my choices with the brands that I also saw in Manila – it’s either S26 or NAN. My niece and nephew were on NAN HA before so it was easier to decide. I just opted though for the regular NAN 1. Good enough that Kimi doesn’t have allergies. He gulped his first bottle like there was no tomorrow and his tummy liked it too straightaway. Breastmilk and formula took turns in fattening Kimi for the first month. When supply dried up eventhough how much hot soup and hot compress I had, NAN 1 was still reliable to keep Kimi happy.

We moved him to NAN 2 at 6 months and to Neslac Toddler Gold at 13 months as NAN 3 was only being introduced in the market at that time, a bit difficult to find NAN 3. At 16 months, we introduced him to drinking fresh milk from a sippy cup with Neslac in between. He is alright with the fresh milk but he still loves his formula in a bottle. I plan to reduce his bottlefeed to 2 when he turns 18 months — one when he wakes up and one before he sleeps. Ultimately, I want him to love his fresh milk more than his bottle. No flavoured milk though. Not even my favourite strawberry milk.

Yes, it was my intention to put Kimi on cow's milk as advised by the Maternal and Child Health Nurse but not 100% this soon. He just turned 18 months. However, when we went to buy another batch (I usually buy 4 cans at a time) of Neslac Toddler Gold, there was nothing on the shelves at My Chemist, where I usually buy it. I immediately called the attention of the sales assistant to check if they got something in their stock room. There was none. I requested him to phone their other store. Again, nada. In fact, it's no longer in their computer system. It was hopeless as it was already difficult getting a can a few weeks back. A friend even checked in Melbourne. It's indeed already phased out to fully introduce NAN 3.

The battle of choosing the right milk again started and it caught me off-guard. There were very few choices and the brands I'm familiar with are both in vanilla flavour -- NAN 3 and S-26 -- which is not an option. Hubby and I compromised to put Kimi back to NAN 2. Hubby was not keen to moving to another brand as Kimi's tummy may react differently. I bought 1 can of NAN 2 and 1 small pack (good for 4 servings) of Karicare to try. He instantly liked Karicare but he was passing wind throughout the day so hubby was not happy with it. I gave Kimi NAN 2 but he rejected it straightaway - maybe not sweet enough like Neslac and Karicare. Because of that, we decided on giving him cow's milk. I cleaned and packed the bottles, steriliser, and the glass pan exlusively used in boiling water for safekeeping.

The story did not end there. Almost 2 weeks after, I observed that Kimi was losing weight or I just thought so. Out of the blue, I grabbed his bottle from the top of the cupboard and prepared him 60 ml of NAN 2 to try again. He was ecstatic to see the bottle of milk. But when he had a taste, he gave me back the bottle. I tried to offer it to him again and this time he just blurted out "nah." I was still worried he was not getting enough so I decided to buy a can of Karicare 3. I was almost sure he would like it again until I offered it to him. To my surprise he rejected it.

This time instinct tells me that Kimi is alright with the cow's milk. There are just days that he will look thinner when he has not slept much during the day. To other mothers out there, don't be a worry wart like me. Just compliment your kid's cow's milk with healthy food and your child will also be alright. Kids need only 3 servings of dairy food anyway to meet the calcium requirement.

Testicle issues

Kimi was 13 month old when the Child Health Nurse in Sydney noticed his testicles were not in the scrotum or somehow difficult to locate. It was not a problem when he was born or even during his previous required check-up at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months so we were really surprised. I remembered we took effort in "heating" Kimi's testicles when he was a newborn until he reached 3 months. I did that during the regular morning massage by rubbing my palms with baby oil and placing my palms on Kimi's testicles to transfer the heat that helps develop the testicles.

Upon learning about the possibility of undescended testicles, the worried mom in me researched about it in the internet. Undescended testicle occurs when the testicle or both testicle are absent in the scrotum and are lodged instead in the groin or in the lower abdomen. The testicles may be undescended at birth especially for premature babies or those with low birth weight. But, they may eventually descend at 6 months. If that doesn't happen, a surgical procedure may be needed to correct it to allow full development of the testicles and prevent associated health problems like hernia, testicular cancer, trauma, infertility, and poor self-image. Reading about that made me more fidgety.

On the other end, hubby and MIL (mother-in-law) requested a referral from the GP and booked an appointment with a Paediatrician. I couldn't believe it takes 3 weeks wait to see a Paedia in Australia even with a private doctor. I reckon this doesn't happen in Manila under the same circumstances. And mind you the doctor's fee was really at the roof. We paid $160 for a less than 10 minute check and only recovered about $66 from Medicare. The good thing, though, is that Kimi doesn't have an undescended testicles but retractile testicles. In this case, the testicles are in the scrotum but they are hiding somewhere especially when it's cold. It doesn't require corrective surgery but should be regularly checked and monitored. What a relief!

Since then hubby checks them on a regular basis especially after a bath. However, few weeks ago, he was a bit concerned as he can only locate one of the testicles. So even without the need to have an 18 month check with the GP, I booked one with the GP who checked him at 6 weeks to appease us once again. I would have sent him to a Paediatrician again if it was not expensive.

During the appointment, GP emphasised that she doesn't do 18 month check. I told her I knew about it and I've booked with the Maternal and Child Health Nurse (MCHN) for next month. I expressed our concern with Kimi's testicles and two other things (that need a separate article). She checked them and in less than 30 seconds, showed us both testicles at the same time. She advised there is nothing to worry about and she thinks Kimi is progressing well.

Parents always want to be assured that their baby is doing great and developing well. If you come across with the same dilemma, don't hesitate to have your baby checked by the doctor. Afterall, it is best to know from the expert.

Laughing Tigger

While I was reading a Winnie the Pooh and Tigger book (from Ninang Tiff) to Kimi the other night, I thought out of the blue to dress him up in his Tigger costume. It was his Trick or Treat attire last year so we might as well use it to entertain ourselves...


His excitement and smile were priceless, jumping and giggling in elation. He even kissed his image on the mirror. Loved it! Is it a sign of narcism? I don't think so. I reckon it is just a stage that he appreciates himself as he discovers more.

Watch out our for more dress up days. Or, should I say nights?

My Shoes Please

As I have mentioned before, Kimi finds it difficult to speak yet. He is still babbling words we can't figure out and is using actions, gestures and all body language he could think of for us to understand him. He understands us pretty much though and follows our instructions, in both English and Filipino, most of the time especially when it favours him.

This is very evident a few days ago. When I came home, I found Kimi looking and waiting at the screen door while hubby is fixing something outside. He could not get out of the house and run after his Tatay (means father) since the screen door is locked. Had it not been locked with a key, he could easily open it by tip-toeing and slowly turning the door handle. I was really amazed when I first saw him do it a week ago. I was both proud and worried, though. Proud because he uses strategies to get what he is after and he doesn’t stop practising until he gets things right. Worried because he can easily get out of the house.

To continue, he was all smiles seeing me approaching. He probably knew that he could persuade me with his big hugs and masarap na kiss (sweet kiss) to carry him outside and see what Tatay was doing. He reached out his hand as if asking me to carry him. I did not. Instead, I stoop down and opened my arms wide. He showered me with big hugs and his masarap na kiss. After a few minutes, he was tugging me towards the screen door – a strong indication that he really wanted to get out. I still did not carry him.

I noticed that he was wearing only one of the pair of his squeaking sandals. So, I gave him instructions to get the right shoe and give it to me. I said the instructions a couple of times in both English and Filipino to make sure he grasps both language. As usual, he quickly followed. I motioned him to stand still while I was telling him that he should wear the other pair. I knelt down, put the other shoe near his right foot, opened the strap and asked him to put his foot inside the shoe. With not much thinking, he eagerly followed and lifted his right foot while trying to balance himself. He could not lift it too far though. After trying a couple of times to no avail, he suddenly just sat flat on the floor without looking what his bum might hit. It happened so quick that it made me have a good laugh while putting on his shoe. He was really in a hurry to go out.

I walked him to the door and watched him while he happily inspected Tatay’s work. The less than 10 minutes hullabaloo made me realise something. (1) Kids are really funny. And the more important, (2)Kids even without speaking are great negotiators. They can get things their way if you let them.

Oooopss... I must be warned!