Hello everyone,

We are very happy to announce that Adam and I are expecting our first baby due on the 28th of December. This is indeed a great 10 year anniversary present for us. It is still at the early stage but so far so good. I had a scan yesterday and saw our baby’s heart beat - it is all very exciting for us. We are just hoping and praying that everything goes well.

Bing, Jason, Mama and Amielia were planning to go to Philippines this September but due to family commitments here (weddings etc) they had planned to postponed their trip until the end of December. However, with the news that I will be due on the 28th of December, they are now in limbo if they should wait until next year (say March/April) so we can all travel together or go before September this year. Anyway, I’m sure Bing will let you know as soon as possible. By the way, when is Tatay’s 90th Birthday?

We have some bad news. Mama is back in hospital. She fell over a couple of nights ago and fractured her right knee (tibia bone). It is a bad break so there is a very high chance that she will need to have an operation early next week. I will or Bing will post a message to keep you up to date.

On a happy note, Amielia is growing to be a beautiful little girl. She is so happy and just full of character. She makes us laugh everyday. She is talking a lot now. She knows the sounds of animals and their actions (dog, cat, lion, bear, tiger, dolphin, kangaroo, monkey, gorrilla etc), she can count to 10 (but misses a number or two which is still not bad) and she has now learnt 3 colours (Red, Blue and Pink). When she falls over or someone else is hurt or crying, she says Yayay with a very sad look in her face, then she follows this with the word sore then ouch. When we speak to her in Cebuano she normally understands it but answers in English. She is a very quick learner and very observant and you can already tell she has compasion for other people - we just hope she doesn’t loose this character. I’ve attached a photo of Amielia at 18 months.

That’s all the news we have so far. Aylwin, I agree we all have been very quite with posting our updates and messages. Peter, thanks for sharing your photos and experience Re: Prague. It brought back memories - during our visit, it was freezing. We did a coach tour Prague/Budapest/Vienna. It was a coach tour with the majority of the group above 60 years old. I’m sure Adam and I were the only two under the age of 30 at that time.

Love
Aileen