the universe has conspired to give me a free ticket to manila this year so we went in april. =)
yes, the plane ride was a looong one especially because it was just me and amori on the 13 hour trip... thank God it was an 11pm flight, and amori was asleep for at least 3 hours out of the 13 - that's better than nothing! and it helped too that the flight wasn't too full so we got a whole row to ourselves.
we stayed for 2 weeks, and my top priority was to bring amori to a proper beach where the water is warm (in vancouver, there are beaches but the water is always too cold, and the sand too black). i would have loved to bring her to boracay, but maybe next time.
we went to caylabne and she loved the water, playing in the sand, and being with lolo, lola, and ninang!
she also had a meet-n-greet party (saves me ten trips to see ten people) and met her cousins, lolos, titos, and new friends.
our old couple-friends are now parents too
with tita sheng and cousin sachiĀ
amori even had a chance to go to a small preschool for a day. it was her very first time to be in a school setting and i was in awe - she followed the teacher, tried to play with her little classmates even if she couldn't understand what they were saying! (one kid said "hindi ko makita, alis dyan"... and amori just stared at her, not knowing what she was talking about. LOL)
encountering sand for the very first time
before we knew it, it was time to go home. another 13 hours in a packed plane was not very fun but the sacrifice was worth it. amori now says "sarap!" and "naku!"... it's so cute!
i bumped into an old friend who was in business class while amori and i were in economy, sharing a seat. talk about reality check. LOL.