Christmas Eve was spent relaxing at home this year and it was perfect.  Randy and I had work in the morning (yes, I started work! more on that to come) but luckily we were able to leave early and pick up some fun stuff for dinner.  We decided to go with a fun tapas dinner followed by opening up our stockings.  A perfect Christmas Eve.

But first Adam helped Randy find some fun Christmas music for our Christmas Eve Party

Then it was time for Adam to help daddy make the shrimp.  His new favorite thing to do is bring over his stool and watch Randy cook.   I think Adam is definitely going to be a cook like his dad.

After our yummy dinner it was time to open our stockings!  Adam loved this so much that all this week he keeps looking in his stocking for more presents.

 
First up, a car! Adam has been obsessed with his friend’s Devon ‘beeeg’ car so Adam got a beeeg red car all his own.

 

 

 

Last up, a book from Grandma! and shot of mommy’s ‘beeeeg’ 30 week belly.

 

Lots of love from sunny Manila.  We wish we were all closer and could have a big barbeque together.   Sending lots of love from our family to yours.

 We bought a couple of Christmas movies for Adam and us to get into the Christmas spirit since they don’t play them here. We bought the Grinch (the original), Rudolph (the Claymation) and Frosty and Frosty is BY FAR the favorite around here.  Adam walks around all day singing Frosty the Snowman.  We happened to have a Snowman cookie cutter (no idea where it came from) so we decided to make a couple Frosty cookies and it was a big hit.  We have two left for Santa tonight but the rest were gobbled up.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/4-inch thick and cut 23/4-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With half of the rounds, cut a circle out of the middle with a 1-inch cutter. Place all the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature. Spread raspberry preserves on the flat side of each solid cookie. Dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioners’ sugar and press the flat sides together, with the raspberry preserves in the middle and the confectioners’ sugar on the top.
 

After some negotiations which resulted in a treat for me afterwards I agreed to a compromise.  Mommy would get close to Santa and I would stay with mommy. A win-win.

When Santa asked me what I wanted for Christmas I told him cake.  He wanted me to tell him what else I wanted but all i want is cake.

And what is Christmas without a cupcake. I earned it after all.

I even had time to make some ornaments.

All in all, a much happier Santa picture than last year!

For Adam’s birthday we threw him a circus party and invited 25 of his closest friends.

I figured since this was the last year Adam would be an only child he deserved something a little special.

Being s a circus party and all we needed lots of popcorn, animal crackers, and balloons and candy in all colors.  Luckily I had Randy, Maria and Grandma Yuyu to help me set up. 

 

We had the party downstairs in our buidling (25 kids in our apartment just seemed crazy) and because we’re in the Philippines the nicest guy from housekeeping helped me make a big top out of crepe paper and even seemed to enjoy making it. 

When we brought Adam down he didn’t know what to take in first, the balloon twister who was making balloon animals, the candy jars (he’s had swedish fish exactly once before and recognized them IMMEDIATELY- definitely my child), the popcorn or the balloons.  Then once his friends started arriving he loved every second. We took a couple minutes to take some quick pictures before it got too hectic.  There was no prying that bag of popcorn out of his little paws.

Then Adam went off to play with his friends.  It was like he knew it was his party.  He got right into everything, hugging his frends hello,  coloring, singing and dancing.  We had two ladies from a local daycare come and sing songs and the kids LOVED IT!

But this picture, this has to be my favorite picture of the whole party.  The nannies all asked if they could take a picture with Randy…because he looks like Vin Diesel.  I don’t think Randy realized why this picture was requested until after the fact, but he’s such a good sport he didn’t mind.

After all the excitement wee decided to wait until Monday to open all of Adam’s presents. Adam got some great stuff!  We are so lucky to have such amazin friends and family in our loves who care about Adam so much!

Adam’s actual birthday was a great day.  We woke up and daddy made him some chocolate chip pancakes as an extra special treat. 

How have two years already passed since this day!? Before I know it this little peanut will be off to college (tear).

For the longest time when people ask me how old Adam is I’ve been saying almost two or calculating how many months he is. But now when people ask, the answer is two! I guess the stage where I count how many months Adam is has officially closed (although I guess I could technically say that I am 396 months old and be correct).

I never in a million years could have imagined the amazing beautiful little boy that Adam would grow up to be.  He’s started to put more and more words together, some of his favorite phrases are  ‘me too’ (with a 5 second gap in between the me and too), ‘more cheese please’ and my favorite, ‘ove you mommy’.  Yup, he now calls us mommy and daddy.  Another sign that he is not a baby  He also loves to say ‘c’mon daddy’ to get you to come with him. It’s pretty much the cutest thing in the whole world, especially cause he just assumes you’re coming and takes off without looking back. 

He is obsessed with blowing out candles and insists we light candles for dinner every night so he can blow them out after we eat.  His favorite foods are ‘ocolate cake’ (rare in our house but after his birthday now much requested), ina (farina), zucchini cake as we call it which is really zucchini bread, roni (macaroni), corn, fruit of any shape and form and grated cheese, which he would eat by the spoonful if allowed.

Adam loves cars and trucks and will always have one in each hand wherever he goes.  He loves going in the car and will drive anywhere with me.  He was afraid of the doctor but after reading Robert the Rose Horse alot he’s gotten better at saying Ahhh when the doctor wants to look in his mouth.  His best friends are Arlo, Devon, Bibing (Victoria’s nickname) and Lulu.  He loves school and his teacher, Tiffany.  He loves Ia and Ell (Maria and Michelle, our nanny and helper).

At two he already has tons of confidence and is pretty sure that his way is always the right way.  He is a master negotiator and already can outsmart both of his parents (just don’t tell him that).  He amazes us every day with his ability to learn and connect concepts and thoughts.  His new favorite thing to do is when we’re reading a book, he’ll recognize an animal or object from another book, go and retrieve the second book and compare the- platypuses, flashlights, giraffes and get so excited that he pieced together that both books have the same thing in them.  I showed him which stockings were whose one time (our names are on them) and since then every time you ask him he correctly shows you which stocking belongs to daddy, mommy and Adam.  His memory is amazing.  He’ll remember the exact spot he heard a siren the day before, and he knows when we’re on the way to his friend Abbys house (which also happens to be where the doctor is and sometimes causes some unhappinesss when its finally understood who we’re going to visit).

He also has a sweetness to him that is so special.  With so much energy in that little two year old body, it means so much more when he lays with me and cuddles and sings with me or gives the baby in my belly kisses or shares things with us or the baby.  He loves putting cream on the my belly for the baby and yesterday he tried to give a rattle to my belly for the baby. He’s just started giving kisses by puckering up and making a big smooch sound.

I love this boy so much and I know he is going to be an amazing big brother and son and person when he grows up.  The older he gets the more I realize he’s a person that I would love to get to know and spend time with and have in my life even if he wasn’t my son.

Happy birthday Adam!  I love you!

We miss you over here Simone (and Carrie and Frederick of course)!  We can’t wait to see you again, in Manila or in DC or somewhere in between!

 

These two geniuses, we wanted to get a picture of them together in front of the tree but they refused to put their books down.  Perhaps they’ll reunite in Harvard.  Simone studying to be a part time princess and Adam studying to be an alligator tamer, both worthwhile professions!

Since we left Puerto Galera early we decided to pick up our Christmas tree on Saturday evening.  We put it up Saturday night so when Adam woke up the next morning he got to see it! He was so excited he kept saying big and lights. 

Sunday morning we woke up and had some pancakes and got to work decorating the tree. Adam loved the lights and the ornaments!

Adam got to hang the first ornament!

After the tree was done, Randy made us a yummy dinner and we got to sit and look at our tree while we ate.

We decided to go away the weekend after Thanksgiving and take Grandma Yuyu to Puerto Galera.  We had been there a couple months ago and thought it was worth another visit.  It’s easy to get to, an hour and a half drive and then an hour ferry ride.  We got a great deal on a hotel there, but it wasn’t until after we booked that we learned this was a ‘natural hotel’ meaning no air conditioning and no hot water.  This is great for many people but not for the Alis.  Especially for the littlest Ali who likes his warm baths.  But we decided to give it a try.

We took the boat over early Friday morning.

At 27 weeks pregnant my lap is getting smaller and smaller for Adam!

The weather was a little gloomy unfortunately.  Adam convinced Randy to take him in the pool Friday afternoon, but after fifteen minutes we had to convince a shaking Adam that pool time was over.  This was only accomplished by convincing him to go play in the sand on the beach.  The real problem came when we went back to the room to get ready for dinner and we had to try to rinse a sandy, chlorine filled toddler in an ice cold shower.  Big fail!  Second big fail was when Adam woke up at 2am ready to play in our bed instead of his travel crib.  When we woke up and saw that we were in for another gloomy rainy day we decided to head back to Manila and hang out there instead.

We took a choppy boat ride back, which at least resulted in this.

Adam was great the whole trip and even the whole car ride home after a short 45 minute long boat nap was a delight and sang songs.  Miracles among miracles we didn’t even have to break out the Ipad! And we got to pick up our tree on the way home!