The Other Side

Poor Lolo got cut off in this photo!

Some non-related readers (hm, do I have any of those?) must think Cham & Tee only have one set of relatives based on posts in this blog. Actually, they have a whole other set of cousins, uncles, aunts, etc. on their daddy's side, too! Daddy's family got together for a big weekend celebrating Uncle Rey and Auntie Vickie's wedding in Newport Beach. Although it's huge, daddy's family still isn't quite as big as mommy's-- but then again, whose is? And what they don't have in numbers, they more than make up for in noise and craziness so everything balances out in the end.

The bride & groom with his parents

The day after the wedding, we chilled out in Huntington Beach for a little while. Most of Egger's relatives come from the Midwest, so it's always nice to show them the reason SoCal has such ridiculous home prices.

Contemplation

Sunday was more hanging out, this time in Riverside...

Newly-minted husbands

Lolo & his karaoke girls

A favorite pastime-- it's all in the family!

Brothers & Sisters

The next day was Vegas for the majority of the vacationers. Unfortunately, we couldn't join them, so this was our last big party. It's always great to get everyone together! Huge "Thank you's" to the D0rmit0ri0s, Esten0rs, T0rre0ns, Williams, Manzan0s and Tierneys for making it an awesome weekend!

Jam

We had a blast at Jam's baptism/birthday party a couple of Sundays ago! Melon's got a great wrap-up of it on her blog, so I'll just furnish more photos...

The birthday/baptism baby

Auntie Jean to Auntie Tess: "Ok, you distract her, I'm taking him to the car..."

Krista and Bri, aka li'l Jeremy

Waiting to pounce on the yummy cake

Chillin' with Uncle Manny


The requisite "prinings in the pool" shot

The dalagas

And as promised (to Melon), a picture of the cake!

We had a terrific time! I love summers, when the parties just never seem to end...

Peace

I feel like I never get a chance to post exclusively about my littlest love, so this is a bit of a wonderful moment for me. Tee had his binyagan about two weekends ago, and it was the quintessential summer family gathering. We had it at our clubhouse with the pool close by, lots of Filipino food, and just a fun, positive vibe all over. The party pretty much mirrored the celebrant himself, who, if you've met him already (and you have, because all 4 of my readers are related to me!) is mellow-ness personified. He's been such a blessing in our lives-- I sometimes wonder whether we would've had a second one sooner if he had come first (not that I'd exchange my saucy little mamma for anything, mind you).

Tee has a very cool demeanor that makes everyone around him relax almost immediately. It calms this entire family down (especially his big sister and his dog, since they're amped up almost all the time). He's the only one of my children Rollo will actually approach and want to be with, and when Chamina starts whining we turn her attention to her baby brother and like magic, she's well again. He seems to charm everyone he meets... his smile just flashes out of nowhere most of the time, and it brightens my day to no end whenever I see it. Even when he didn't sleep through the night yet, it wasn't too difficult to stay up with him because he'd entertain himself the entire time, and fall asleep (with very little help from me) whenever he was ready.

He'll most likely go through plenty of phases like any other baby. He's already experimenting with his arms and legs, rolling this way and that, scooting all around when he's especially active. He's also experimenting with his voice, trying out coos of varying tones and short bursts of yells when he gets mad (not often, but effective). Throughout it all, this special calmness has prevailed, which makes me hope that it is, indeed, an unwavering personality trait. He gives me so much to be grateful for, not the least of which is peace.

Vacation Part II

More photos of our fun week in San Diego:

The new Children's Museum in downtown

Seaport Village, our favorite spot

Man, our kids like to eat! (So awesome...)

best buds

Vacation

We were in SD 3 days for a conference Egger had to attend at the Hyatt in downtown last week. I was free as a bird, so the kiddies and I spent lots of quality time together. By lucky coincidence, Joj & Gabs were also in San Diego on holiday with Bun & Fli-- yippee! As I mentioned in earlier posts, Cham loooves her Gonzalez-Montelibano cousins, so we were with them every spare moment of the day (poor guys!). Cham also got to see Katrina for a little while at Poppa & Doe's house, and she ran around with Mini-Peaves at Seaport Village one morning. Busy days! I'll let photos do the talking for now:

The view from our hotel room

One very happy little girl

Creating stuffed animals at Build-A-Bear

Racing at the park near Doe's house

Taking a TV break with their cuddly pals

Lola Tess (aka "Doe")

Poppy, Cham & Daffodil

Tee enjoys the sunshine

Big sis Mina teaches MP how to play tag

That's all for now. I'll have pictures of Seaport Village and the Children's Museum on another post!

Dinner Out

We visited the spot where it all began 5 years ago, and had a splendiferous dinner to celebrate. Our nice waiter brought this out afterwards:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Oh wow, it's much easier to upload videos to the blog now. Uh-oh....



PART I

Here's an example of storytime with the kiddies. I took this a couple of months ago, when that pajama-onesie still fit Tee. (It's a bit snug nowadays!)




PART II