Dinner with the Duongs

Philip and I went to my family's house yesterday evening for dinner. Although we are both still under the weather, it was nice seeing Winston and Brandon play with "Baby Philip" and they always get really excited when he's there. Although Philip can't quite run around with them yet, he enjoyed showing them his funny crawling abilities and cruised with them along the couches. It'll be fun watching them grow up together and I really hope Philip gets to be as big as they are, or else he'll have to learn how to run really fast!! hehe.

Check Out My New Wheels

I love getting Philip new gadgets and toys and my latest acquisition is a Little Tikes Push & Ride Racer. For such a simple little car with no bells or whistles, I like that it doubles as a car with a slot where you can put a stuffed animal and a walker too. (I seem to really fall for the multi-function toys these days!) Philip loves to hop on and go for a spin all over the house. We even grabbed Baby Tad and took him for a ride too! It's Philip's favourite toy right now (every new toy seems to be the favourite, for him and for me... haha) and pretty soon he'll be racing himself all over the house! Watch out poor Patchie! hehe.

Nine Months Old

Philip is nine months old today. He is getting taller but unfortunately hasn't gained any weight at all. This is due in part to his great metabolism, but also because he got hit with his first big nasty bug. We are all for exposing our son to germs, but a stomach virus proved too much for our little guy to take. After a few hours in the hospital and lots of Tempra and Enfalyte, Philip is now on an all-breastmilk diet and hopefully he'll be able to eat solids again soon to gain the much-needed weight back. Luckily for us, Philip is happy even when he is sick! He barely cried being poked and prodded by the nurses and had fun playing with his toys the whole time at the hospital. We really do have an easy-going baby! His accomplishments this past month are: he has six teeth (four upper, two lower), he can crawl but only in a "Commando" style way (see video below), he can stand up from a sitting position in his crib, he can walk with assistance, he is learning to cruise, he loves to mimick what we say, especially "a-ba-ba-ba", he likes to suck in his lower lip, he still loves those two middle fingers, and he is the most ticklish baby ever! Happy nine months, Philip, and hopefully it'll be a lot healthier from here on in!

Alexander's 2nd Birthday

Eileen, Jouky and Alexander came to town this past weekend to celebrate Alexander's 2nd birthday with us! We love having all the cousins play together and our house became one massive play centre for them. Jouky also got to see the Leaf game on Saturday night so the family wore their blue and white jerseys (of course Paul had to ruin it by wearing his Bruins jersey!). Oh well, like the Bruins, the Leafs sucked anyway and got clobbered 6-1 by Vancouver... boohoo! Happy 2nd birthday Alexander and we'll see you again on Chinese New Year! :)

Dinner with the Duguays

On Sunday, we headed over to Paul (aka "Big Paul") and Rosemarie's house where Philip got to meet Paul's Aunt Mary for the first time. We enjoyed the great ham dinner and Philip loved all the extra attention as usual. Thanks for the fantastic feast, Rosemarie! I'm sure Paul and I have gained more than a few extra pounds after all these holiday dinners and now it's time to exercise it all off... ya... right... haha.

New Year's Day Dinner

These photos are a little late, but on New Year's Day we went to our Aunt Deborah's house for dinner. It's always great getting family together for the holidays and this was no exception. They cooked up a storm for us as usual and I especially enjoyed all the lovely desserts! Philip was even gracious enough to help them take down some of their Christmas cards! Now if I could only get him to help me take down my decorations as well we'd all be set! How long is too long to have your tree up anyway?? Hmmm... hehe.

Sayonara Damian!

We decided to have one last get-together with Damian yesterday before he leaves for Japan on Monday. We went to "The Real Jerk" in East York for dinner where the wait time for the food was indeed a real jerk! From someone who's used to the ridiculously fast service at Chinese restaurants, my growling stomach wasn't too happy! At least the food was pretty good, albeit too spicy for Paul, and the three Entertainment book coupons we used didn't hurt either. After dinner, we headed over to the Ramlogans' house for some delicious homemade tiramisu and marble cake. Yen Vi, you rock! Once again we wish Damian a safe and happy trip back "home" and we'll see you again in, say, 9 or 10 months? Ki o tsukete! :)

Peek-a-blocks Central

Philip loves his peek-a-blocks collection, or, more accurately, his mom really loves the peek-a-blocks collection. Ever since I picked up a few peek-a-blocks on sale at Toys'R'Us, I have become obsessed with getting all things peek-a-block! Philip and I play with his blocks on a daily basis and he seems to really enjoy his new toys (and I do too, I must admit... hehe). His favourite one so far is his circus train because he knows exactly how to start it and get the music going. His incrediblock is pretty cool too and he is now starting to warm up to his gobble and go hippo. He can't quite move it yet, but he likes sitting on it and bouncing up and down, and it doubles as a walker for him as well. The toys they have these days are truly amazing and I really love shopping at toy stores now. I wish I had these toys as a kid, but hey, I can more than make up for it by playing with them with Philip now!

Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve a day early with our neXus friends since some of them had other plans on Sunday night. It was nice having Damian hang out with our crew again as we all chatted away until the wee hours of the morning. We'll definitely miss him when he heads back to Japan in a few days! :(

For New Year's Eve, Paul and I slept in most of the day and then spent some cozy time together watching the countdown on TV while Philip was sound asleep. He missed his first New Year's celebration, but I'm sure he'll more than make up for it when he gets older! On New Year's Day, we went over to our Aunt Deborah's house for a nice dinner (again, I forgot my camera... d'oh! Pics coming soon!). Now it's back to some quiet time since Paul has to go back to work tomorrow, but the holidays were really fun spending it with our little guy and all our family and friends. Happy New Year everyone!