Jonny's 33rd Birthday Celebrations!

Yesterday, August 26th, was Jonny's 33rd birthday! We are back to being the same age again, yay! :-) To celebrate, we had a surprise party for him on Tuesday night at our home, after he got back from work. It was Nena's idea and she cooked a banquet for him which was a huge blessing! We invited our friends from our neighborhood to join us and Jonny was completely surprised! See the video below of us waiting for him to arrive and then his arrival at home:





One of the highlights of planning this surprise party was that when Daniel found out in the morning that we were going to have a birthday cake, he talked about it ALL day! I had to keep explaining to him over and over again that we would only eat the cake after papai came home from work. It was so cute to see his excitement!

Here are some of the few photos we took that night:

Group photo

Jonny, Nena and Daniel

Daniel finally enjoying the oh-so-awaited-for cake!

Then yesterday, on his actual birthday, we went out for dinner to a really nice Indian restaurant with 3 other couples from our church, who are part of our "care group." We meet with them almost every week to share about our lives and support one another. We are so grateful for these friends who we are getting to know more and more. It is also really cool that they are quite an international bunch!

The four men from left to right: Ken (American), Victor (Indian), Marlon (Guatemalan) and our Jonny (Chinese Malaysian-English)!

Natalya (Russian) and Laura (American who lived many years in Turkey and is fluent in Kurdish!)


Evy (Belgium) and a Brazilian woman you may recognize! :-)

We had fun celebrating Jonny's birthday this year! He's thankful for the love he received from you too, loved ones!

Daniel's First Pre-School Portrait!

Look at the big boy we have! Doesn't he just look so grown up sitting on the pony? The photos are of Daniel's first pre-school portrait, taken this past July. Can you believe we are already getting school portraits? It's still hard for me to believe that's our son! Sitting on the pony was a huge highlight for Daniel, he still talks about it! His teacher said he smiled and laughed a lot as the pony moved and sneezed. His school did a great job getting him ready for this photo - the vest, scarf and hat were all provided for the photo.

Daniel has now been at his pre-school for 9 weeks and is thriving there! It took him some time to adjust, but now it's been 3 weeks that he has not cried when we drop him off in the morning. And the past 2 times when I picked him up, he did not want to come home and actually complained -- he just wanted to keep playing there with his little friends! This makes us very happy and at peace, knowing that he is enjoying his time there. And he has been learning so much, he is talking so much more, singing different songs, dancing more, etc. He does a different craft every time he goes and we now have a collection of all his art-work! Praise God, we are very happy with his school and thankful that it is going so well.

One of his biggest achievements in that he uses the potty at school! His teachers told me he can: pull down his pants and his pull-ups, go pee-pee, flush, put on his pants again, wash his hands, dry them, and throw away the hand towel in the trash. What a big boy! Seeing all the other kids doing this almost every hour of the day has really helped! At home, however, he is not ready to be a big boy just yet and we are not pushing him... It's been such a big adjustment for him and since we will be travelling to Europe for almost a month very soon (we're sooo excited!), we thought we would tackle the potty again at home, once and for all, after we have adjusted to being back. Soon, very soon, he really will be a big boy...

Special Message From Daniel On Video

Daniel was in a great mood this evening after dinner and we filmed him sending a special message to our family abroad - check it out!




Wishing you a wonderful weekend loved ones!

Our 10 Years Wedding Anniversary: Part 2

The Saturday following our wedding anniversary, we had a photo shoot with a young photographer from our church, Megan, in the morning at the National Arboretum (a place we love and go to often). Despite us starting the shoot at 9:00 am, it was already very hot and Daniel wasn't that cooperative, but Megan still did a great job! The aim was to mainly get photos of us as couple but we also took some with Daniel, and of him alone. Nena watched Daniel for us while we had our photos taken. It was a wonderful morning! Megan made us feel very comfortable and we felt like newly weds again, very in love, and thankful for our marriage. Here are some of the highlights, the photos are wonderful and will be treasured forever:

I also made a video of our favorite photos with the song "Dreams" by Gabrielle, the song that was "ours" when we were together in Singapore as teenagers and the one we danced to at our wedding. We still love the beat - enjoy! (Tip: Click on arrows (second icon from the right of the video screen toolbar) to see the photos on full screen.)

If you want to download photos and/or see more of them, click on this link and you will be taken to Picasa.

On the same Saturday evening, we were supposed to go out to dinner to a special restaurant and we even had our friends Laura and Ken come over to babysit Daniel. But Jonny ended up having a really bad migraine that evening and so we decided to just stay home. As Jonny started to feel better, it turned out to be a wonderful evening spent with our friends, so for us, in addition to my speech to Jonny on the actual day of our anniversary, we feel like we had a wonderful time celebrating our 10 years of marriage!

Look Who Can Ride His Tricycle!

Two days ago we inherited a tricycle from Daniel's friend Enya, just in time for "bike day" at school today. Yesterday evening before dinner, Jonny took Daniel out for about half an hour to teach him how to pedal. He started to do so a little, but needed quite a bit of help. This morning when I went to drop Daniel off at school, I told the teacher that he would need help riding his tricycle. But this afternoon, when I went to pick him up, she said: "your son can ride his bike all on his own!" I hadn't seen him do it yet, so this evening we went out again and it was just as she said!

I filmed him riding his tricycle so you could see this big milestone too! Wow, it was so emotional for me to see my baby so grown up! As you will see, he was even able to ride Enya's bicycle! We don't think his tricycle will last him much longer now...the hunt for a second-hand bicycle will soon begin.

Special Times in July 2010

July is already almost ending and it has been a very full month, with lots of memories! I've already blogged about Daniel starting pre-school this month and our 10 year anniversary (more on that to come soon). But there have also been other special times I would like to remember:


1. Heather's Baby Shower

It was really fun to co-host Heather's baby shower at the beginning of the month! It was great to meet her mother and other friends and celebrate the arrival of her baby girl. (Special news: Precious Maya was born this past Monday, July 26th! I'll be meeting her Saturday, can't wait!)

2. Playdate with Katie and Sophia

My English friend Katie (who I've now known for 12 years!) and her adorable daughter Sophia (2o months old) met us for a very fun and spontaneous playdate. We discovered a great water fountain that the kids enjoyed playing in a little (it was so hot that day it was a great way for them to cool down) then spent some time in the children's section of a library which the kids loved. We then enjoyed a nice lunch together. I didn't get many photos but check out the 2 that I did and the cute video of the kids being silly/hyper together! So cute!!!

3. Girl Time Over Tea

In anticipation of the arrival of two baby girls, I enjoyed having some girl time with 3 friends at a cute English-style tea house. We got to eat scones and little sandwiches! It was a lovely atmosphere and the day was overcast with a little rain - just perfect for the occasion, it really made us feel like we were in England! :-) We enjoyed talking mostly about labor and babies... Fun!

4. Gravia Family Visit

My uncle was visiting my cousins from Brazil and we had the family over for dinner. It was so nice to get together and Daniel had a blast playing with the girls and being tickled!

As in June, there were other nice times in July that were special but I don't have photos of:

5. Fourth of July cook-out with friends from our church

6. Dinner with Laura and Ken (more about that on Part 2 of the anniversary blog coming soon)

7. Special meeting with my dear friend Delia

8. Dinner with Jeanne and Tommy - an older couple from our church we are getting to know who are very special!

It's been good to do this... it's been good to review the past two months and remember all the special times we enjoyed. I find it's so easy to quickly forget these moments. I'm so thankful that this blog helps me keep these memories alive!

Special Times in June 2010

We had some special moments this past June that we would like to remember, even though I didn't have the time to blog about them before.

1. Celebration of the ending of Nena's treatment

Nena's friend Mariluce hosted a party for many of Nena's friends to celebrate the end of her chemotherapy. She is doing very well and enjoyed the party!

We all watched together one of the first World Cup matches at the party: England vs. USA. Jonny was the only one there going for England! Thankfully, it was at least a tie.

Daniel enjoyed Mariluce's pool - it was so hot that day!

2. Justyna took care of Daniel for 3 days, the week before he started pre-school

After coming back from Florida, we had to wait one week for Daniel to start school but we didn't have anyone to watch him the 3 days I had to work. Thank God, Justyna our neighbor and friend, was able to watch him for me. He did great with her and loved playing with Enya. They have been friends since he was 2 months old! Thank you Justyna, I will never forget how you helped us out when we needed most!

(The following photos were taken by Justyna while I worked!)

3. My 33rd birthday on June 22nd

I had not planned to do anything special on my birthday, but it turned out to be a wonderful day, full of special, spontaneous moments! Nena treated Daniel and I to a very special seafood lunch; Corinne hung out with me in the afternoon; Justyna then showed up with a surprise cake she baked and decorated for me (and wrote "Congratulations to you" in Portuguese) and finally, Jonny and Daniel took me out for a nice dinner in the evening! And of course, lots of phone calls, emails and text messages from around the world made it all extra special! Thank you all for your love!

4. Devesh's 3rd birthday party

We had fun celebrating Devesh's 3rd birthday - another special friend who lives on our street! Daniel loved his first full cupcake and the swimming - it was another hot day!

There were some other special moments in June that we didn't take pictures of including:

5. Father's day

and

6. My dear friend Corinne's baby shower - so excited to meet her second little girl to be born, God willing, on August 4th!

We are grateful for all these moments! Stay tuned for special moments in July coming soon!