Welcome back to the Philippines!

Yesterday evening, I, together with my husband and daughter, went to my former home in Quezon City for a sudden visit of my parents, and my auntie who is here for a vacation from Chicago. My other auntie - the youngest sister of my mom, with her whole family, will be following this coming August, also from Chicago. As usual, my parents were glad to see their granddaughter and immediately took her into their arms. My mom then told me to go upstairs and see my auntie.
The first thing my auntie asked was if Elhaym still drinks milk from her bottle. I said yes. She said that in the States, babies a year old were weaned from their bottles and were starting to drink from sippy cups. As she was saying this, she whisked out a pair of brightly colored sippy cups and handed it to Elhaym. She's suggesting that I start my daughter on sippy cups. That was the first of the 'pasalubongs'* that she brought. Other presents include (some are hand-me-downs from my cousin and were fairly new):

• backpack with a doll design
• party dresses
• hats (one of them has a Minnie Mouse 3D design - cute!)
• bibs
• pairs of socks
• a pair of red shoes
• a jacket
• a cardigan
• a Chinese style vest of silk
• a bag for me but it could be used as my daughter's bottle bag (I don't know!)
• Dora ABC book with a magnetic writing slate
• my mom bought a blouse for me

Then we all went down because it's time for my parents and my auntie to catch a Taiwanese soap opera. Elhaym was showing off her walking skills, then she saw the staircase and decided to climb up, then down, then up again, and down again, until both of us were sweating!

Rix decided it was time for us to go home, so off we went! I guess Elhaym was pooped out because she was becoming sleepy in the vehicle. Upon arriving, we gave her her bottle of milk. And after rolling about in the playpen and looking at her pair of sippy cups, she snoozed off to dreamland.

*pasalubong - pasal´ubong n. a present (usually given by one arriving from a trip)