Tour the Canada Days

My parents bought a house in Markham, Ontario, Canada. So to celebrate for a new home, off we flew to Canada for our very first White Christmas!

After Christmas, we then went to tour Canada.

Our first stop was Ottawa. That's where the Parliament of Canada is. It was very very cold. The Parliament was closed for the holidays so we just had some picture taking outside.

We spent the night at Montreal - where the night life is. Luckily for the boys - all shops are closed for the holidays so the girls can't go shopping. Luckily for the girls - all bars are closed so no night out for the boys. How cold was it at Montreal? We left our bottled water at the van, went up to our hotel room to sleep. The following day, our bottled water turned to ice.

From Montreal, we went to Quebec to see Canada's Little Europe. The place is so cute, so old, and everything in ice, even the river.

We went to visit the Cathedral of St. Anne, which is a must-see for it is the patron saint of the Church where our parents grew up from.

We loved taking photos of the fresh Christmas trees with Christmas lights on.

We haven't seen the most of Canada. We still have Vancouver to visit soon! Canadian Rockies!!!

First Day of School

Summer was invited by her 2nd cousin, Henry, son of my cousin Harry and Chiquita, to attend his school at Ontario Homes.

So all bundled up, we went to her day school. We registered with our home address in Canada. She met a lot of kids - surprisingly Asian, she sang and danced with the teacher. You can really see her big eyes focused on the teacher. She was attentive and was following the dance instruction of the teacher. She shared toys with other children too.

Summer went home with lots of books, VHS and casette tape of musical songs for kids, and lots of reading materials for mothers on raising babies and toddlers.

Christmas Day

Dec. 25, 2005 - It was our first Christmas with Summer. We had a White Christmas, we witnessed our first fleurice on Christmas night. We were all excited as we went out of our cousin's house taking photos in the snow without any jackets on. So much excitement, we did not feel the cold air.

We spent it at Toronto, Canada. We had our picture taking with our family at our house in Markham, then we went to hear the Christmas Mass. We went to Tita Turing's house for dinner - where Summer changed to her Santa outfit surprising everyone. We then went to my other Tita's house at Mississauga. It was past midnight when we got home already and everybody's energy were still up to open everybody's gifts. It was Summer's first time to receive so much gifts, she was more excited with all the wrappers around than with the gift itself. She'd rather play with her cousin's gifts over her toys. At night, we went to Ate Heidi's house to plan our trip to Quebec and that was when we saw our first snow fall.

Summer spent her first Winter Christmas at Canada.

NYer Day

A day after travelling a thousand miles from home to Canada, off we went to Buffalo,NY to see the Festival of Lights at Our Lady of Fatima. We went there in the afternoon so we could see the lights. It was so cold, my baby was bundled in a blanket aside from her jacket, bonnet, scarf, and gloves. We didn't get to stay long looking at the lights since it was so cold.



We went to the factory outlet to do some shopping since tax is lesser in NY than in Canada.

And above all, with 3months US Visa, we got stamped for 6months!


From NY, we dropped by the Niagara Falls to see the fireworks.


Fireworks are not enough to warm the freezing misty air of Niagara.

A Day to Fly

It was Summer's first time to fly on Dec. 22, 2005 via Cathay Pacific on our way to Toronto, Canada.


Summer met a lot of korean honeymooners who shot photos of her calling her 'big eyes'.


Summer slept well onboard, waking up to take her milk and play with the toys I brought for her.
We were met at the airport by my brother and Summer played well with her cousins as if she did not travel a thousand miles and more - so full of energy.

She was a good traveller and I was so happy with it - we can travel some more! =)

Christmas Day with the Reantasos

Summer will be flying out Manila for her first christmas. So before leaving for Manila, we celebrated our Christmas in advance with the Reantaso's.


Though it may be advance, the Christmas spirit was everywhere - lavish food, gift giving and lots of picture taking.

Here are some of our first Christmas photos:

Interview Day

We were scheduled for our US Visa interview on Dec. 5, 2005. It was my first time to go for an interview at the US embassy since I always go through the drop box everytime I renew my US visa. But since, drop box is no longer possible, we have to go through the interview for Omar's and Summer's US visa.

We were scheduled for 1pm, arrived at the embassy at 12noon, finished at 4pm.

We brought Summer with us for luck and lucky she was! Omar and Summer got their first US visa.

They were issued visa for 3months.

New York, here we come!

Papa's Day

Omar's birthday was celebrated at Big Bowl at Jupiter St. Makati City on Nov. 21, 2005.

It was his first celebration with Summer.

Here are our photos:

Happy birthday Omar!

Bath time!

Summer loves to take a bath.

Since she is a baby no more, oh no!, I don't use her bath tub anymore. I use an ordinary pail instead and just hold on to her tight. I forgot to mention that when she was born, my father in law personally made a 'papag', where I only put her used lampin, and that's where I give her a bath. So safe for baby.

I dip her in her left over water for a very quick dip. Even if I am not a stay at home mom, I see to it that I bathe my baby personally everyday at least until she turns 1.

A Day to eat

At six months, Summer can now eat solids.

I started with a Cerelac. She still doesn't know how to chew and it was pretty hard getting the food inside her little mouth. The food just keep on oozing out. But she loves to eat.

I sit her in her high chair every meal time.

Chichay!

See how my baby do her Chichay!

Ang asim!

Baby standing up!

At five months, my baby loves to stand inside her crib.

Cold Days of Baguio

Summer was 6months old when she first went to Baguio, where his cousin Ryan will celebrate his 7th birthday.
She loves the climate. She loves the crowd. She loves sleeping with the cold weather.

First Party Day

Summer was invited to her first birthday party. The celebrant was Omar's niece from his cousin, Monica who is turning 7years old. Her theme was fairy. So my baby, at 3months old, dressed like a fairy attended the ball.

Crawling and hair falling

My baby is starting to discover the joy of crawling. She loves playing with her rubber ducky.

But her hair is thinning out! Oh no!

Beach Day

It was our company outing at Zambales on June 8, 2005 and it was Summer's first time to go out of town. Omar cannot join us since he has to go to work. We stayed the whole time inside our room since it was storming. We just went out to eat and have our picture taking by the shore - a perfect time to show off Summer's first bikini.

Here are Summer's first FHM photo shoot:

Streeeeettttccccchhhh!

See my baby stretch! She can already lift her head on her first month! She loves to stretch.

She looks like a turtle hehehe.

Baptismal Day

If I could have her baptized before I first bring her to our home, I would definitely have it. But chances are, it's not that easy.


April 10, 2004 - Summer was baptized. She had her baptism at the historical church of Barasoain, lead by no other than Mons Flint. She wore the same dress her cousin, Jenjen, wore on her baptismal.



Her godparents are: Ninong Dojoe, Ninong Olejoe, Ninong Orland, Ninong Jerry, Ninong Nato, and Ninong Terence; Ninang Jenny, Ninang Onnie, Ninang Anna, Ninang Kathy, Ninang Lenlen, and Ninang Adrienne.

The baptismal reception was held at the roof deck of DJ Paradise Hotel. My mom, who celebrated her birthday 2 days before Summer's baptismal, provided the sumptuous lunch. We had lechon baka and Orland prepared Paella. Tito Boy provided the entertainment by doing close-up magic to our adult guests. Ninang Jenny provided Summer's first AVP.



She slept the entire time - from baptismal to the reception. She woke up when we were about to go down the elevator after the reception to go home.

Welcome to the Christian world, Sophia Jade S. Reantaso!

First Days of Summer

On Summer's third day, we went home to Bulacan on a motorcade. Well, not really but more of like it. Almost all of my in-laws went to the hospital to bring home my baby. We were 3 cars convoy from the hospital to our home in Bulacan. We had our fist family photo from the hospital.
At home, we were welcomed warmly. My sister prepared a welcome banner for my baby and we had lots of photo session once again.





Summer's first Sunday was an Easter Sunday. We were supposed to ask the priest to bless her after the mass, to our surprise, they always give blessings during the Easter mass so Summer got her first blessing.

And since she had her blessing already, Summer toured the town. She was barely 1week old when she first went to Rockwell to visit Omar's aunt at her condo who was bound to go back to Chicago. She was 1week old when she had her first dinner at Paseo Uno to celebrate my Dad's birthday. Summer was 2weeks old when she had her next tour of the hotel at Makati Shangri-la for a birthday dinner for my mom at Circles.

Barely a month old but been to many places. Watch out where she's been before she turned 1.

Birth Day

It's so much easier to give birth than to be pregnant.


I was trying to give birth on March 28, my Dad's birthday, so I could get the cash prize of Php 100,000.00. But my baby was so excited to go out.

It was my birthmonth already and yet I still do not know the feeling of contractions.


Saturday evening, I noticed a very slight light pink spot from my undies. I texted my ob and was instructed to go to the delivery room if I had contractions in 10minute intervals.


Monday morning, I was not asked to report for work anymore. I can already feel some tingling pain at my lower back so I called my OB. I was given the same instruction.


Omar and I went to bed at 9:46pm. Yes, I can still remember since that was when I started looking at the time. I had a very light sleep. I woke up every 7minutes since I can feel the pain from my lower back, not thinking that I am undergoing labor already, since I'm expecting something from my tummy and not from my back. At 2am, I started praying for the sign. 2:30am, I went to the bathroom to pee, and there was the sign! I had spots already so I took a bath (I told my husband weeks ago that if I took a bath in the middle of the night, IT's time already). So when I went out of the bathroom, he asked me if it's time already since I took a bath. I told him to go back to sleep and I was trying to feel if it's time already. I woke him up at 3am and left for the hospital. I even asked him not to call anyone yet and not to get mad at me if it's false alarm.


We were driving at 80kph at 3am in the morning, we were so relaxed. We arrived at St. Lukes at 3:30am. I waited for Omar at the lobby while he went to park the car. We walked our way to the second floor to the delivery room. I was IEd then - wala ka bang nararamdaman? 6cm ka na ha! - ngee so that was contraction! Now I know hehehhe!! I did not see my husband anymore and he was alone to process my admission and to inform his' and my family. I was asked a lot of questions about my medical history. They were surprised to see me still smiling at them while answering my questions.


They injected something really thick at my dextrose and I fell groggy, slightly sleepy. I can even remember smiling to my ob when I saw her come in. Then I felt like going to the restroom so I asked the nurse to bring me to the restroom, they said that was it! They instructed me to push, so I pushed! They told me to push without sound, so I pushed without sound! Then I felt asleep.



I woke up when they were trying to transfer me to a different bed. I thought that they were finally going to bring me to the delivery room. I was surprised when I saw them wheeling me along the hallway with another small crib being wheeled at the same time beside me. I was a mother already.


Sophia Jade Santiago Reantaso was born at 6:47am on March 22, 2005 weighing 7.7lbs 47cm at St. Lukes Medical Center.


http://new.photos.yahoo.com/jrs404 and view Summer's album for more photos.