March festivities

March is always a festive month in our family because our two babies celebrate their birthdays in March.  This time, it's even more special because Dana is graduating from Kindergarten and she's the Top 3 in her class.

Here are pictures of her with her medal and toga :)


It's rather funny because we never expected her to get any honors.  We know she's always fourth in class but we never pressured her to be number one.  For us, just let her learn at her own pace and let her enjoy the activities in school.  We want her to look back at her first stab at school and remember it with excitement and enjoyment.

She made a lot of friends, she participated in a lot of school activities, improved well with her penmanship and math skills.  There's so much that she did!  Oh and don't forget the Educational Field Trip, the Christmas Presentation and the Family Day activities.

On the other hand, Dylan didn't have much to be happy about because about a week after his birthday, he slipped on the stairs and cracked his head open.  It needed about 4 stitches to close.  It was frightening to see so much blood but that's to be expected from a head wound.  It was harder to watch him getting stitched up because you know he's in pain and you want to take away the pain but you can't.  What's funny is, after getting all stitched up and he's done crying his lungs out, it was like nothing happened!  He was smiling at the nurses and chatting with the doctor like there's no bandage on his head! hahahah  It took about a week to heal, with much cleaning and re-dressing going on.  Actually, he was in pain not from the stitches but from the hair getting stuck on the bandages LOL

To cap off March's festivities, we all went to Subic for some family bonding time.  

Hectic February

It's been a couple of weeks since Dylan started his speech therapy sessions.  We are all adjusting with the new schedule but so far we're doing okay.

One highlight this February is our trip to Subic in celebration of Patrick's birthday and of course, Valentine's Day.  We spent  three days and 2 nights at the Bayfront Hotel.  Naturally, you can't have a trip without doing some educational and fun activity for the kids.  It's not just about relaxing but also learning something and remembering places that have enriched you.  So, we took the kids to the Ocean Adventure Park which is roughly an hour's drive from Subic Central.  Here, they came face to face with dolphins, seals and other wildlife. The kids really had a great time and so did we.  Even at our age we're learning something new too :)

 In school, Dana had her first Family Day activity and as a Kindergarten student she and her family were required to wear yellow shirts to better represent the grade level :)  She had so much fun participating in the games.  She volunteered for the sack race but halfway through the course she got her feet tangled up and skidded on the ground.  There were a lot of food kiosks as well so she and Dylan had fun trying out the different offerings :)

Another important event in February was our friends' Star Wars Wedding.  Patrick and I met Oneal and Rej through the Star Wars Philippines group and share with them our love of Star Wars.  Oneal is in fact Dana's godfather :)  We were really excited to attend their wedding because it's Star Wars inspired (of course!) and it's a privilege to be invited to take part in their union :)  Unfortunately, we didn't make it till the end because Dana became sick while at the reception (probably from fatigue) and we had to leave early.

Happy New Year kids!!

It's the New Year now - 2010... sounds like something from a science fiction movie, huh?  Well, the kids are doing okay, except that both kids got sick LOL Dylan with an ear infection and Dana with the usual cough associated with the stink of fireworks hehehehe

Dylan is starting his speech therapy this year to keep him up to speed with his speech.  If you didn't know, at almost 4 years old, Dylan still has yet to complete 4-5 word sentences.  For now, he is still stuck on 2-3 words and his articulation isn't that great.  This is not surprising since Patrick's brother, Stevie and my sister Sharon also had trouble with their speech when they were kids.  If I'm not mistaken they both only started speaking at age 5.  Now, there's speech therapy for kids like Dylan but oh it's so expensive.  Each session lasts an hour and costs P500.  Dylan has to have two sessions a week.  But we can see some improvement already which is good.  It's also to prepare him for preschool.

Another milestone in Dylan's life is his sleeping on his new bed by himself.  Before he shared the bed with me and Patrick.  Now, he's in the same bedroom with his Ate Den and Ate Dana but they each have their own beds.  It's such a relief to be able to sleep peacefully now hahaha  Also, he has started undressing and dressing by himself!  He's really on a roll now! :D

Dana is still doing good in school.  She has also stopped wetting her bed (at last!).  And to celebrate we bought her a cake hahahaha  Oh and when we went on that trip to Clark, she also taught herself to swim! LOL Imagine that! hahahaha

I'm sure there's more to come and more in store for them in the coming months.. so stay tuned! :D