Jacob Adrian Uy Tan has arrived!

Ben's newest cousin has arrived! Jacob Adrian Uy Tan was born a bit past midday on October 10, 2002 in California. He joins big bro John Marvin (Jovin), Janina Andrea (Janina), and Josella Marie (Siobe). He he he, since Jovin and Siobe's initials match, then Janina and Jacob's initials match also. Here are some pics, courtesy of Jovin.






I can't wait to meet him in person, but Jovin said they might not be coming back until December. That's a couple of months away still, but Jacob is worth the wait.

Welcome to the family, Andrew Diego Redman Romulo

Ben has a new cousin. Andrew Diego Redman Romulo was born in the evening of September 26, 2007, just 2 days before his mom's birthday. What a very nice birthday present for Sharon (also a late birthday present for his dad, Kuya Edmund). It's so nice to have a new member in the family. Just fitting, we heard that's some reddish hair he's got on his cute head. Here are some pics:













Isn't he just so cute???

To top things off, Ben has got another new cousin coming on October 10. He's Kuya Boy's and Ate Nini's 4th child. Can't wait to see what he looks like and of course, I'll post his pictures too.

A fiesta and the big 4-0

This year, I turned 40. Getting older and hopefully getting better and wiser, but I'm not so sure.

We spent the weekend in Baler, which celebrated its town fiesta on the same day. Patron saint is San Luis Obispo, thus the name Luisa (tempered by the Maria in front). For a while I thought we wouldn't be able to go home, no thanks to supertyphoon Egay. Surprisingly though, the weekend was relatively calm, and Ben and I were able to watch the parade on Sunday (19th) morning. It was a bit of a disappointment. I thought there were going to be street dancing and stuff, but it was mostly just people parading with a few floats of Little Miss Baler runners-up and winner and bands from the different school. Still I think Ben enjoyed it. After the parade, we passed the day basically doing nothing, just relaxing, then we had spaghetti in the evening for long life. It was nothing major, but I felt that I really had a great birthday celebration.

Like I always say, it's always good to go home to Baler, and this trip, the roads notwithstanding, was worth it. I would've wanted to stay longer, but work and school called us back to Manila. Here are some photos to share:

Ben with Abraham and Gabriel, two of his friends in Baler

One of the bands...

And Ben looks on...

I have no idea...

Kids in costume...

Ben and his Lolo Emon doing one of their favorite pastimes

That's me with Papa and Ben

Ben and me under the lateris tree

Gaming on the computer

Ben with his Ate Jackie and Ate Roxanne

Family Day

Last July 28 was Family Day at Claret's Child Study Center. It was a half day of program and games for Ben, so Auntie Iring and I went with him. Their class sang one song, and then all the CSC children sang another song together. I tried to videotape it but my videocamera was running out of battery, and the video taken with the cellphone is too small (I need a new digital camera with a video taking function to it). Besides, Ben, being one of the taller kids, was relegated to the back again so it was difficult to get to him with the camera. Still I did take some pictures which I'm sharing below.

The children also made little paper necklaces for their parents with a heart pendant and one of the pictures show me (looking horrible as usual--why oh why oh why!) with Ben after he put the necklace on me. It's really sweet and touching to see him running towards me to give me his little gift. Last year, it was a card. Anyway, here are some pics:

Ben with his Teacher Caei and classmate Yvonne

That's Ben in the last row, almost center

That's me and Ben after he gave me the necklace

That's him in the last row, 2nd from the left after they finished singing "I Won't Last A Day Without You."

And here's the video from the cellphone of them singing I Won't Last A Day Without You. It's not complete, because my knees started to hurt from kneeling and it's quite blurry, but I thought I'd upload it anyway. Again, Ben is the second kid from the left on the last row.

Ben and Bailey

This video clip is a few weeks old. I think this was taken when during my cousin Tricia's birthday celebration. Anyway, Ben is holding on to her puppy, Bailey. I'm seriously thinking of getting Ben a dog in the near future.

Ben turns 5, and Auntie Delan celebrates 80

This past weekend, there were back-to-back celebrations in our family. The first was Ben's merienda birthday celebration on Saturday (his birthday was actually last Friday), and the following day, the Tan family got together for Auntie Delan's (Papa's eldest sister) 80th birthday (which actually was on Monday, July 9).

Ben's really grown. He's quite big for his age, and although he isn't the biggest kid in his class, he's one of the bigger ones. He's now 117 cm and weighs a little over 24 kg. I just feel that time is passing by so fast. I really try to hold on because I know time will come soon enough when he'd like to do things on his own. For now, while he still asks for me to keep with him, I do. Here's a picture of him taken on his birthday, just before he went to school (he's in kindergarten now, I think I mentioned that in an earlier post).

Funny expression, I know. Unlike before when I could get him to smile naturally when I take his pictures, these days, he likes to make funny faces.

On his birthday, he also took part in a contest in school. He was one of the finalists. The winner would represent Claret School CSC in a quiz show in one of the local cable channels. He had a good chance of winning, but he didn't because he wasn't paying real attention to the quiz master. Still he managed to come in third (which means after he was eliminated there were only two contestants left). Anyway, we didn't have a birthday celebration in school because I think Claret actually discourages school parties. So rather than celebrate in school, we decided to have a merienda celebration the following day. I tried to work out a dinosaur theme into the "party" because Ben has morphed into a dinosaur addict over the last few months. Since our house is quite small, it was kind of cramped what with about 30 people together at once, but it was fun. I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures because I was busy trying to get things to work right.

In line with his current dinosaur fetish, I tried a dinosaur-themed merienda party.

Blowing the candles took a bit of an effort. A couple of stubborn candles took some time to blow out, thus the laughter.

All in all, it was a good celebration. Ben was quite happy with it, more so with the gifts he received.

Then the following day, it was off to Club Filipino for lunch to celebrate Auntie Delan's 80th birthday. Quite a milestone, and it's nice to see her looking quite well. Here's hoping we'll be sharing and celebrating quite a few more birthdays with her. Here are the pics from that get-together. I need to have these pictures printed for her too.

The birthday celebrant...

...and her cake!!!

Miguel, Daniel, Jovin, Ben, Josella, and Janina

With Kuya Tony this time

Ben and Jaden

Janina, Ben, Jaden, and Josella

Janna, Janina, Josella, Ben, Jovin, Jaden, Daniel, and Miguel

Ben and Jaden playing jack-en-poy

Daniel and Ben doing their WWE imitation

Piggy back ride with Jovin

A kiss for the celebrant

Papa, Auntie Tik, Auntie Jovit, Auntie Delan and Auntie Iring

With the "apos"

With kids and other relatives

With more "apos"

With kids, nieces and nephew, and an apo, I believe

It's nice to see that Auntie Delan enjoys these get-togethers, and I think they give actually give her a boost. I should add that I enjoy these too. It's nice to get the family together, although somehow we never really manage to get everyone in most of these gatherings. Still, it was a fun time and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Up on High Street

Recently, we went to The Fort to check out High Street and of course, Fully Booked, which I read had opened. It's our second visit there, and Ben likes the place because of the several fountains they have. He is particularly fond of the big boulder fountain. Anyway, I'm posting here some pictures that were taken during our first visit sometime in May (I've posted some photos earlier) and the ones from our last visit a couple of weeks ago. The pictures were taken using phone cameras so they may be a bit blurry, especially the ones from the first visit.

May visit:

By one of the fountains at Serendra

Strongman Ben

From recent visit:

With Lola Iring at his favorite fountain in High Street

Ah, LeBron

I really like Bonifacio High Street, not just because of its huge Fully Booked branch, but because it's a nice place to just have Ben run around. You can really tell that Ben lives in a cramped place because once you get him into an open space like that in High Street, he's off and running around. And very difficult to catch. Maybe we'll visit again soon.