Maelyne's first 4th of July / mom is back to work!

Yes, I am back to work since 7/6/09. After a 16 week leave, it was difficult to be back to work mode. And the fact that I am leaving my daughter at the baby sitter, it just breaks my heart. The good thing is my sitters are the greatest sitters ever so Henry and I have peace of mind because we know that Maelyne is in great hands. Thank you to these ever patient and loving people (Auntie Fely, Jasmine, Auntie Vangie & Grace,) who are so willing to take care of Maelyne. Grandma and other Aunties are also available for babysitting. Although she only stays with them for 4 hours at the most, she seems to enjoy being with them. And oh did I mention that they are spoiling her, too.

She had her shot for Hep A and the last dose of her polio vaccine on July 9, 2009. This time was a lot easier and she did not really mind the pain. She should now be up to date as far as her immunizations go.

On July 10 marked Maelyne's 17th monthsarry. We brought her to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate. With us were Alexa, Grace and Darren. Maelyne enjoyed the rides but was a little scared of Chuck E.

At 17 months, Maelyne now get up without any help and walks by herself. She can also now make turns unlike before where she only walks forward. She'll probably start running around by next month or even earlier. She is still not able to say complete words but she's getting there.

Maelyne's baptismal celebration....

The party was on Saturday, June 27, 2009 at the Pearl Chinese Cuisine in Rancho Bernardo. About 230 family, relatives, and friends joined us in the celebration. The event

was video recorded by Nick's productions and also provided the music. Brenda Charest (Henry's niece),welcomed all guests and Christine Kuhl (Madelyn's niece), gave us blessings. Both co-emceed the program. We had singers Sonny Bitanga, Cynthia Deynata, and Madelyne's 3 nieces, Danise, Danielle, and Eliza Edra. Thank you so much for your talents. We also shared a video montage of our journey in bringing Maelyne home, which brought tears (of joy) to some of the guests. After the slideshow, some people showed their moves on the dance floor. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the party and had a great time.

It was a special day for us especially for Maelyne. It was really nice to see family, friends and relatives come together all in one roof for one purpose, to share the joy with us. We are so blessed to be surrounded by loving and wonderful people. Maelyne will probably not remember anything that happened in this occassion because of her young mind, but we will share her the story and show her the video later in her life.

Thank you to all who have joined us and to the ones who couldn't for any reason (we have missed you). Special thanks to the wonderful people who have helped in the preparation and made the celebration possible. You guys are awesome!!!

Maelyne's baptism & Henry's first Father's Day!

Maelyne received the Sacrament of Baptism at St. Mark's Catholic Church in San Marcos on June 20, 2009. Deacon Dennis Sullivan officiated the ceremony and it was attended by the godparents and some family members and friends (30 people altogether). It was a special ceremony since Maelyne was the only child who was being baptized that day. She was welcomed to the Christian world! Our family and friends came together in spirit to witness this wonderful event. Thank you to the Godparents who have accepted the responsibility of a new life. Lunch followed at the Alfresco's Italian Buffet in San Marcos as well. Maelyne's homecoming and baptismal celebration is on June 27, 2009 at the Pearl Chinese Cuisine in Rancho Bernardo. See you then...
It is Henry's first father's day (Happy Father's Day honey!), so we started the day out attending mass followed by a family lunch at Applebee's restaurant. The three of us enjoyed the delicious food we have ordered.
In the afternoon, we headed to Mira Mesa at my mom's house then paid a visit at my dad's resting place. It is also his birthday on the 22nd and he should have been 88 years old. Happy father's day and happy birthday dad! We missed you!

Back at the house, Henry and Maelyne had their time playing just the two of them. I could tell they were having so much fun because I heard a lot of laughs. Nice father and daughter quality time.
June 22nd also marks our third month with Maelyne. I could not believe we have been together this long but it seems like it had just happened yesterday. Maelyne is growing fast!
We just hope she's always healthy and become a good daughter to us.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Maelyne turned 16 months old!

It is hard to believe Maelyne is now 16 months old. She is a big girl now. And it has been a month since our last post. She has really kept us busy that I have not much time to log into her blog and post updates. Anyway, for her 16th monthsarry (June 10, 2009), I got her a white cupcake and let her blow her candle. When asked to blow the candle, she tries to blow through her nose (she's taught to blow her nose when she has a cold). I thought it was funny. I'm sure though she'll get it right someday.
Maelyne had her second doctor's visit on June 9th. She now weighs 20 lbs, 29.5 inches in lenght, and with a head circumference of 17.5 inches. During this visit, she got her second shot for polio, and PCV, HIB and DTaP combined. A nurse visit is scheduled in 4 weeks to get her third and last shot for polio, and will be given Hep A vaccine. As expected, she had a slight fever after her shots but she is doing just fine with some infant tylenol drops.
Some developmental milestones:
* she can now walk by herself up to 25 steps
* she brushes her teeth with assistance
* uses her potty trainer
* says some new words like daddy, hug, bird, amma (grandma), sounds like mommy, ba-bye and imitates animal sounds
* she's into books now specially with colors and pictures
* she likes to pretend plays and more...
We are very pleased of Maelyne's progress so far. Although she's been a handfull little girl and it's becoming a challenge, we are here to protect her, guide her, discipline her and teach her the right things. This is what parents do anyway and we love, love, love being parents to her.

Our social worker, Darcy Kennedy, had her first post-adoption visit on May 30. Three post-adoption visits are required by CCAA, one at 3 months, one at six months and at 1 year. This is the first time she met Maelyne. During the visit, Darcy went over the questionares she had e-mailed us weeks before she came to our house. The questions were basically how Maelyne is adjusting to her new environment, bonding with family, her developmental milestones, etc. Glad Maelyne was in good spirits that morning and Darcy saw how happy she was and how she gets excited, etc. She was able to hold her, too and played with a ball a little. We were also required to give 5 photos of Maelyne with at least one photo with both the parents. Darcy was pleased to know that our family is doing great with our new addition.

Few photos to share...

With her niece Kaelyn

With Ate Sheryl the night she left for the Philippines

Maelyne turns 16 months old...

Happy Mother's Day!!!

We celebrated my first official Mother's Day today! This Mother's Day is extra special because we finally have Maelyne home with us after a very long wait! Since it is a Sunday, we attended church as we usually do and had family lunch at the Alfresco's Italian Restaurant. It is also Maelyne's 15th monthsarry so we had a double celebration. Maelyne was napping when we got to the restaurant and we're glad she woke up before we were done so she got to taste some Italian food. Everything we had was delicious! I had spa pedicure the day before and the massage gift card my hubby got for me, I will have to make an appointment later. My flowers were beautiful! To also make this day memorable, we upgraded our cellphones so we can download a bunch of pictures of our daughter Maelyne!

Before we went home, we went to Walmart and bought 2 geranium flowers to plant in the backyard. One plant to honor and remember Maelyne's birthmother and the other for her late grandma Marina (Henry's mom). Hopefully both plants will blossom this summertime and live for a long time. For my mom, we visited her yesterday and took her out to dinner. I also had her hair permed so she looks gorgeous and gave her pink roses and a picture of Maelyne with a card for her grandma.

Last Saturday we attended Kaelyn Cherie's (Maelyne's niece on the Eguilos side) baptism in Long beach. She met the rest of her cousins and Aunts and Uncles there. As usual she thinks they are strangers but after a while she became comfortable with them. She was up until about 11:00 pm socializing. We can tell she enjoyed being with them.

Henry went back to his job on May 4th. I thought we would not survive without him but we did fine. I admit it is a lot easier when the two of us are here but we have to do the best we can to take care of our daughter. Maelyne will have some tantrums but they were manageable. We started going out just the two of us. I try to avoid the long trips (30 minutes the longest so far) because she sits in the back of the car by herself. For the last 5 weeks she always had someone right next to her everytime she rides in the car. I also left her one time with her Aunt Vangie for a couple of hours to test how she does without both her mom and dad. I could not help but think about her though so I hurried back to Vangie's house just to find out she did really good and was not even looking for me. But I did miss her.

A couple of good news we heard this week: Maelyne's cousin, Christine is having a baby boy and she's due the last week of September. On the Eguilos side, cousin Stephen's girlfriend is also having a baby sometime in October this year. So, Maelyne will again become an aunt! Both sides of the family are just getting bigger and bigger.

Mom and Maelyne...

Maelyne feeding mom...

Flower planted in honor of Maelyne's birthmother...

For the late grandma Marina...

With Grandma Cadia the day before Mother's Day...

With cousins, aunts & uncles on the Eguilos side...

With cousins on the Edra side...

I think Maelyne will be a pianist...

Maelyne trying to stand up...

Trip to Palm Springs...

Maelyne had her first out of town trip to Palm Springs on 4/29/09 to 5/1/09. Grandma came along with us since she has not visited this place yet. It was nice to have her with us. It was an almost 2 hour ride by car and so far this is the longest Maelyne has ever sat in her carseat. We can tell she hated being strapped that long so we had to stop after an hour drive so she can get off the carseat. She was still uneasy but we made it to the resort just fine. We checked-in at the Palm Springs Resort and Spa in a 2-bedroom villa at about 4:00 pm. Luckily we had the view of the swimming pool and the water slide. At night, Maelyne had a little bit of a problem sleeping probably because she was in a different bedroom but after a lot of turning from side to side she finally went to sleep. In the morning we had some shopping at the Cabazon Outlet. The weather was in the mid 70's so it was very comfortable. During lunch at the foodcourt, I saw a group of women with familiar faces, they were former Hybritech employees where I used to work. They told me there's about 25 of them just having a girl's weekend getaway in Palm Springs. Nice! I introduced Maelyne to them and they were pleased to meet her.
On our way back to the resort, we dropped off grandma at the Morongo Casino where she played the slot machines for a while and luck was in her favor. She left the casino with extra cash in her wallet. Good job grandma! Aren't you glad we brought you there. he! he!
Back at the resort, we put on the bathing suit we just bought for Maelyne and we headed to the swimming pool (at the 1 1/2 feet deep, of course). Remember when we were in China, she hated to bathe but now she loves the water. We played in the water with the ball for a while and she had fun! It was time to go back to our room and have dinner with grandma.
We checked out around 9:00 am on Friday and had breakfast at the IHOP restaurant. Maelyne enjoyed her pancakes and some scrambled eggs.

Having a fun time with grandma...

Maelyne loves the pool...

First monthsarry of "Gotcha Day"

Cannot believe Maelyne has been with us for a month. Seems like only yesterday when we first held her in our arms. Time really flies. To celebrate, we brought her at Seaworld for the first time, tickets compliment of my dear nephew Sherwin Paul (thank you so much!). We saw the Dolphin Show at 11:00 am and she seemed to have enjoyed watching the dolphins. It was still early for the first Shamu Show at 12:30 pm so we stopped at Mama Stella's to have lunch. Maelyne liked the pasta marinara and some oranges we brought for her. It was time for the Shamu Show so we sitted ourselves towards the upper middle of the stadium. Did not dare sit in the soak zone because we did not want to get wet. I think Maelyne was more interested though with the background music than the whales. I'm sure when she's bigger and understands what's going on, she will enjoy the show more.
She was tired so she napped for an hour before we went to the Sesame Street Bay of Play. We did not do the rides because she is still too small for them so, we just hung out there. She picked a puppet dolphin from the gift shop and then we took off. Our tickets are good for another day so we will go back in the summertime.
We stopped by the El Camino Memorial Park to visit her grandpa (my dad) for the first time. Although she did not have the opportunity to meet him in person, we told Maelyne her grandpa is a good man and he is now resting peacefully in heaven and he loves her.
We had dinner at Auntie Fely's house. She grilled fish and veggies, baked chicken and made pansit malabon. Maelyne enjoyed the noodles, and the "maja blanca" we brought. All the food prepared were delicious! We had some take home, too. Maelyne had a fun time with Jasmine and Auntie Fely and we can see she is now well adjusted with them.
Thank you for all the blessings we received the past few days and especially today.

Home Sweet Home!!!

Hello again everyone! This is our first post since we came home on 4/3/09. We survived the almost 13 hours flight from Guangzhou, China and the 2 hour ride from LAX to home. Yes, it's been two weeks today and you can probably guess why it took us too long to update our blog. As you all know we brought home a now 14 month old baby girl from China we named Maelyne and she has been the main reason our life has changed completely. Not to mention some "jet lag" and nursing a cold and cough (both mom and Maelyne). She keeps us busy everyday attending to her needs and making sure she is safe and learning different things and at the same time having fun and enjoying her. We have seen a lot of progress the last two weeks she had come home with us. She seems to be adjusting well to her new home and everything around her. She is also bonding well with us and also family members especially her younger cousins. She plays with them with a lot of smiles and laughs. She has met most of her aunts/uncles and cousins and even nephews and nieces, (funny, she is an instant aunt) from my side and a few from Henry's side, which she will meet the rest in early May.
She is very curious about everything and she's learning quicker than we expected. She seems to love electronic things and not much on dolls and stuff animals. Although she cannot say real words yet, she likes to talk. The second day we had her in China, she was copying us say mamamama and babababa... (mama is mom in Chinese and baba is dad in Chinese). Now she says dadadada... She likes to sing and dance, too. Hummm...Wonder what she's going to become when she grows up? Next time you see her, just say "Give me five and high five" or "Flying Kiss", or say "bye" and she'll respond to you. Her smile is contagious, she also laughs loud and she cracks us up a lot. She's adorable and loveable. Maelyne is such a blessing from above and we are very thankful that she came to our life! She is our little princess!!!
Just to summarize briefly what had happened the last two weeks:
Fri, 4/3/09 around 10:00 pm - Home Sweet Home!
Thank you Uncle Carding and Auntie Vangie for picking us up in LAX. Also thank you to Uncle Danny, Auntie Mercy, Christopher and Jon for greeting us at the airport. At home, we were happy to see Grace, Janice, Jasmine, Elizabeth and Darren waiting for us and then Alexa and Auntie Elsa who came a little later. Alexa since then spent the week with us since she is on spring break which was nice because I needed her assistance.
Sat, 4/4/09 2:00 pm - welcome party for Maelyne at Uncle Henry and Auntie Florence's residence, attended by family and friends. (we did not arrive at the party until around 4:30 pm, sorry!). It was very kind of you all to throw us a nice party to welcome us. The food was delicious! There was so much love around us. Thank you very much for the warm welcome!
Sun, 4/5/09 - We brought Maelyne to St. Mark's Church for the first time. It was Palm Sunday so the church was packed. We were in the kids section of the church and being a little late, we were sitted in the very last pew except for Henry who stood up through the mass. It worked out just fine because Maelyne did not really want to sit down anyway. I think she did pretty good on her first visit to church.
Matt, Gina, Lily and Karlyn came to visit us in the afternoon. After they left, Rey, Kaye and the children came to join us for dinner.
Mon, 4/6/09 - 11:45 am - her first Doctor's appointment with her pediatrician, Dr. Ou at Sharp's Rees Stealy in Rancho Bernardo. At this time, Maelyne and I are already starting with a cold and cough so I thought it was good timing to see the doctor so she can prescribe her something for cold but due to her age, it is not recommended to prescribe her any medication. So, we'll have to rely on home remedies like humidifier, rubbing her chest with infant's vicks vaporub and tender loving care. During this visit, she was given 4 immunizations (MMR and chicken pox) plus a TB skin test. Holy molly, my poor baby, she screamed at the top of her lungs for the injections and I could not help but cry for her. Uhg... enough already! At night she had a slight fever but we were told it is expected so we monitored her fever but the highest reading we observed was only 100.8 F. We gave her a drop of infant's tylenol as needed and she seemed to have responded well to the medicine. This was a sleepless night. Whew!
After the visit to the doctor, we went to Uncle Carte and Auntie Irene and Grandma's house for the first time. Some cousins like Danise, Danielle, Eliza and Alexa, and Uncle Dario were there, too. It was also Maelyne's first visit at Auntie Vangie and Uncle Carding's house where we had dinner that night. They ordered some Chinese food. Maelyne also got to play with Grace and their dogs Miki and Daisy. Our last stop was at Alexa's house to pick up some clean clothes. We did not stay long as it was already getting late.
Tue, 4/7/09 - we stayed home to nurse our cold and rest.
Wed, 4/8/09 - we had to go back to SRS in RB to have Maelyne's TB skin test read and it was negative. She also needed some blood test which will require some blood drawing. Unfortunately, the phelobotomist could not find her vein in both arms so she has to call the doctor to have the drawing done at a different place. Until further instructions, the blood drawing is on hold. Since it was still early to meet Auntie Fely at her house, we went to the North County Fair Mall for lunch and Alexa wants to go to Forever 21 clothing store. This is Maelyne's first trip to the mall. As always, she enjoyed her stroller ride and curious looking at many things. We left the mall and drove to Auntie Fely and Jasmine's house in Mira Mesa. She had seen them a few days before but she thinks they were strangers. They were able to hold and play with her after a while. We all enjoyed the food Auntie Fely prepared for dinner.
Thu, 4/9/09 - we went to Costco in the afternoon to stock up some groceries since we are expecting guests from Vallejo on Friday the 10th. It was Maelyne's first trip to Costco. She sat with both hands holding on to the cart and seemed to have enjoyed the ride. She also tasted some of the food samples.
Fri, 4/10/09 - it's been a week since we were home. It's rainy and cold this day. It was Maelyne's 14 monthsarry. I bought a mango cake and ube cake and we sang her happy birthday. Elsa came in the afternoon and brought a musical toy for Maelyne. She loves the toy and until now she still plays with it. Maelyne met Grandpa Teo (Henry's dad) and Uncle Tino, Auntie Ruth and TJ. They arrived from Vallejo around 6:30 pm. They are here for the weekend to visit. At first, she did not like them but she was smiling at them after a while.
Sat, 4/11/09 - Maelyne had her first Easter Egg Hunting here at the community's playground. I signed her up before we left for China. Matt, Gina and Lily who had attended before forwarded us the invite. Gina was very nice to provide Maelyne 12 easter eggs (required per child). Thank you! Uncle Danny, Auntie Mercy, Christopher and Jon arrived from LA. I bought 12 easter eggs so Jon can also participate in the egg hunting. Just when the egg hunting began, it started drizzling. Henry was carrying Maelyne and the basket, Alexa was holding the umbrella, and I was taking pictures. As soon as she picked 12 eggs, we went back under the tent. We had some breakfast and we took off. I did not want my cold and Maelyne's cold to get worst. Danny and his family except Christopher left after lunch.
For dinner, we decided we went to Chuck E. Cheese. It was Maelyne's first time there. She enjoyed the kiddos rides.
Sun, 4/12/09 - our guests left including Alexa who was picked up by her mom the day before. This is the first time we are by ourselves. It is Easter Sunday so the 3 of us went to church. We were able to sit down this time. Maelyne fell asleep just before the mass ended but woke up as we were about to leave church.
We headed to Mira Mesa in the afternoon to visit Grandma again and then to Auntie Vangie's house. We stayed at her house for a while and then went to Allan's house for dinner. Auntie Mely and Uncle Art and some of Maelyne's cousins, nephews and nieces were there. We were surprised Maelyne liked everyone there especially the kids. She was playing, and smiling and laughing with them like she's known them for a long time. She loved them and she had a great time that night.
Mon, 4/13/09 - Dr. Ou called to go and see Gloria at the SRS in Genesse for Maelyne's blood draw and so I called Gloria and we told her we were going to see her on Tuesday.
We had dinner again at Auntie Fely's house. This time Maelyne was more comfortable with Auntie Fely and Jasmine and with Rachel. She was also playing with Alexa and Auntie Elsa who dropped by the house in the evening.
Tue, 4/14/09 - we went to SRS in Genesee to meet with Gloria. Henry waited outside the laboratory and I went in with Maelyne. She could sense that it is not going to be fun as soon as we were called in. She cried the moment the nurse took her arms to check on her veins. Thank God Gloria was an expert, she said she could not see but could feel the vein so she did her best. My poor baby she had to cry out loud but I was relieved and I'm sure Maelyne was, too. Gloria only did one shot and was able to get what was required (6 or 7 tubes, i think). The three of us went out to lunch at Yoshinoya, her first time to eat there. She loved the chicken and veggies soup with rice. She also had custard for dessert.
We stopped by the bank in Scripps Poway after lunch and then we met my hairdresser Kim. She was excited to see her (I have told her about my adoption before). Someday, she will cut and style Maelyne's hair.
We then went to pick up Grandma to spend the night at our house.
Wed, 4/15/09 - we hung out with Grandma at our house then we dropped her home in the afternoon after we had dinner at the Pho Hoa Cali Restaurant. We picked up Alexa to join us. It was Maelyne's first time to eat there and also the first time she had ever held a balloon, which she was excited about.
Thu, 4/16/09 - we had dinner at Auntie Florence's house. Roanne and her family came later in the evening. Uncle Henry came home around 8:30 pm and there was an instant connection with him. Maelyne was smiling and became comfortable with everyone especially with Auntie Florence and Uncle Henry. She really had a good time.
Fri, 4/17/09 - today marks our 2 weeks since we arrived from China. Maelyne had her ears pierced. Another poking she survived on! She looks more beautiful and girlie with those earrings. Cannot wait for her hair to grow longer so I can put a ribbon or clip on her hair.
We went to Grandmas house to meet Manong Sherwin Paul there. Maelyne has not met him in person before. She did not want to go with him this time but I am sure she will when she is used to seeing him. Her girl cousins came, too who were picked up by Uncle Carte from school, so they all hung out and played together.
Time to go and do some shopping at Costco. We decided to have dinner at the Panera Bread in Carmel Mountain right after.
Maelyne has been really good to us. We have not seen her with really bad tantrum (knock on wood) and we hope she continues to stay this way.

Some pictures to share...

At the check-in counter at the Guangzhou airport with Elsie, our guide, 4/3/09.

Just before we boarded China Southern.

On the plane while Maelyne is listening to music.

At LAX airport greeted by family. Maelyne is now a U.S. citizen, 4/3/09.

In Maelyne's room with cousins who patiently waited at home.

Welcome Home party at the Diaz's, 4/4/09.

Maelyne's first visit at St. Mark's Catholic Church on Palm Sunday, 4/5/09.

Maelyne's first doctor's appointment, 4/6/09.

Showing her TB Skin Test.

First visit at Grandma's, 4/6/09.

First visit at Uncle Carding and Auntie Vangie's, 4/6/09.

First visit at Alexa's, 4/6/09.

Maelyne's first time at the NCF mall, 4/8/09. (She was born to shop!)

First visit at Auntie Fely's, 4/8/09.

First trip to Costo, 4/9/09.

Maelyne is 14 months old today, 4/10/09.First Easter Egg hunting, Belleza playground, 4/11/09.

First visit at Chuck E. Cheese, 4/11/09.

With cousin Christopher from L. A.

With cousin TJ from Vallejo.

With Uncle Tino and Auntie Ruth from Vallejo.

With Grandpa Teo visiting from Vallejo, 4/12/09. (Easter Sunday)