and off he walked

Waiting for exactly 10 days after he turned 1, Liam walked on his own and he didn't stop for at least half hour! He was excited to realize that he could really walk by himself after all. He probably could have tried earlier but we think that it's his personality to wait until it's the right time for him.

Video of the first 5 minutes of his walking milestone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwQCCtYi3tY

And just when we thought the rest of his teeth won't cut through until who knows when, his 4 upper teeth appeared. Hurrah! He is so cute with his 6-teeth smile. He calls us Mama and Papa. :-D

After a year

A year into parenthood and it has been amazing. I still look back to the events last year and how quickly time went by. It's a little weird that I now have a 1 year old boy. We're now counting years, not months!

A few good things have happened since my last post. Too good that I didn't bother sharing :-P don't take it personal :)

First off, we got ourselves a house. We now live in Titahi Bay, which is roughly 20 km north of Wellington City. It's still in the Wellington region but it has its own city center, Porirua. It wasn't a quick decision choosing to live that far from the capital. Jon and I have lived in big cities and 20 km is nothing, but after having lived in tiny Wellington City our mindsets have adjusted to very quick and short access to everything. Wgtn (short of Wellington) is a very hilly place and the capital is starting to feel limited. We particularly didn't like living up in the hills where slips (landslides) are bound to occur. We wanted a backyard that's large enough to chill in and a good romping ground for Samson. We wanted sun constantly. We wanted a house that we can customize to our own liking and style. Of course that's the house we found and now lived in but it only came to us, after going to open homes and searching property sites gajillion of times, after we made the decision to live outside of Wgtn. We called it "opening our minds", if you will. And the result is: we love it. It's like going home everyday and feeling like we're on holiday because of the all-day sun we get, the views of Porirua harbor to the left, hills to the right, and a spacious backyard. Our house used to be a state house. More history on that here... The house is outdated interior-wise. Jon and I keep ourselves busy planning for improvements.

Here's Jon and Samson out front.

The backyard

As per my previous post, we were on holiday for 4 awesome weeks in Manila and almost a week in Hong Kong. Travelling with Liam was unbelievably good. He was not fussy at all, slept through most of the flights and got us through queues faster. The check-in queue at HKIA was horrible but because of Liam we got checked-in at the First Class counter. How awesome is that?

It was weird for a few days when we got back. Jon and I went through life as we should but each of us had some sort of weirdness about flying back to NZ. I felt weird about the reality that what used to be my home is now a holiday destination, while Jon felt isolated living down under. We're just that far from everybody and it gets magnified when we travel out of the country. Oz is even 3+ hours away by plane and that's to the closest Oz destination like Sydney or Melbourne.

Then I got myself hooked reading the Twilight saga, which I promised myself I would get into upon return. All 4 books took me less than 2 weeks to finish and now I'm wondering what book obsession I should get into next. I'm actually planning on borrowing a book on sewing next week. I want to learn how to be crafty!

Liam turned 1 of course and we celebrated it on V day with friends. We had barbeque in our yard to celebrate a long overdue housewarming as well. It was a great day and food was delicious. A friend's husband brought crayfish and did all the bbq-ing. I got Liam a customized cake for his 1st through someone who only charged for ingredients as she's building a portfolio of cake work.

Jon's dad is here for a 2-week holiday. It's going well and he loves NZ. He says it's so green everywhere :)

Til next. x

Welcome 2009!

I drafted this entry and forgot to post it! This is from 5th Jan.

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It has been a very long time since I posted. Our happy little bunny is going on 11 months in a week. Many developments have happened in his tiny little self. He now waves hello and goodbye, is very talkative, very mobile, and very heavy!

He was baptized yesterday. Jon was a sport all through out - going to the pre-baptismal seminar, the baptism itself, and having great fun at the party afterwards. Needless to say he got a little too tipsy. :-P

We are in the 2nd week of our 4-week stay in Manila. It's starting to feel weird leaving soon. At first my parents' house felt a little new to me and I had to find my way around and at the same it felt familiar in many ways. There are many babysitters always willing to look after our cute one. We're having fun hanging out with my siblings who I hadn't seen in 2 years. My sister Van and beau Kim made their way back here again all the way from Copenhagen to spend the holidays with us. My parents are very cool as well. They are more comfortable now with the expanding family.

It has really been a holiday for Jon and I. With basically no house work done by us and plenty of willing people to look after our son, we're enjoying ourselves tremendously. I have missed the life here very much. It makes us all the more happy about our family life in general. We're in pretty good shape. Life's very good for us.

A day at the beach

We are now going on 8 months of Liam-ness, who now can sit unsupported and is very mobile. He crawls backwards and the forward direction is still a work in progress. He's teething and shows a little bit more attitude now than ever before.

Don't you just love toothless smiles?

He can stand unsupported for limited periods of time and experiments more lately with his buddies Aidan and Dylan at daycare!

Now that spring is here showing more signs of warmer weather, going to the beach is going to be lots more fun. He seems to love sitting on his dad's shoulder and sometimes indulges on his oily hair. Eeewww!

He also likes the sound of Sam skittering on the wooden floors. He shrieks when Sam runs or is playful. Quite cute I think!

baby food and party hats

My boys are now well, especially the little man who caught up on his appetite and now has some chubby cute cheeks. He eats solids regularly now and I've just started making them myself. I know! I introduced him to Wattie's baby food first. One good thing about the brands here is that they are only good for 48 hours after opening and don't have any unnecessary ingredients. I was not confident to make his food before but now that I've committed to it I can't stop!

I tried using our blender but it was more work than it was worth so I got me a hand blender and it was pretty easy from then. I didn't know carrots were sweet until I mashed them! Its sweetness doesn't come out when chewed.

Last weekend we took Liam to his first party! A highschool classmate and I found ourselves neighbors here in Wellington. Her son Zach turned 3 last weekend. I was more excited than anybody else on the planet about my baby going to a partay! Of course, he was the youngest and was the only young guest who brought his own drink and had it while the others feasted on party food. How rude! :)

At least the coke cups had orange juice in them!

My boys

He looks like me no?

Liam's becoming more and more active. He is looking more like me with a hint of Jon-ness. He smiles a lot and isn't choosy with people around him. That would be more Jon than me socially. He and Sam are now starting to have play time although the dog tends to run away from him when he starts to pull his hair.

He can sit now with hardly any support

On the topic of parties, I'm already starting to organize Liam's christening. I also decided to hold a pre-birthday kids party because I want him to celebrate that joyous event with the kids in my family and of my friends and ex-coworkers. Fun, fun fun! I'm planning to hold that in Gymboree.

Tonight our dear friends Nathalie, Jon, and son Olivier are baby-sitting for us. Jon's taking me to a show at Circa called Mammals and I'll take him to dinner prior cuz I received a free-dinner letter from work for the job done well in my last project. Sweet as!