US 2014 (iv): At the Blue House

10 days. That was how long I’ve allocated for my Middletown stay. A weekend was set aside for Flying Pig, its pre-race jitters & carbo-loading and post-race recovery.

I wasn’t really worried about Yaya (e.g. playing with her, be around her, et cetera) because we’ve already bonded a couple of years ago. Now that she’s 5 closing on 6 and is a solid little girl, part of me was hesitant to give her piggy back rides. :D To my surprise, she did not ask for them and for any ‘play pretends’. In fact she was asking me if I could give 'em piggy back rides to Adik. How much she has grown in just 2 years’ time.

On the other hand, I had some reservation when it comes to Adik, because he was zero (according to Yaya) when I came to visit. So I did not know how he would react to having me around for more than a week.

So I went downstairs after waking up after a very long day yesterday (re: the La Guardia incident). Yaya jumped straight into my arms and gave me a big warm hug. Adik was shy and was holding on to his Mama. He was kind of confused, but I’ve seen these so many times, including from my nephews, so I wasn’t expecting much. True to Sila’s words, Adik took a mere 30 seconds to warm up to me. Awesome! When Sila and I exchanged emails before I arrived, I told her that her kids look 'cute and innocent'. She corrected me and gave a third adjective - persistent. Ha ha ha.

See who I found when I came downstairs

They were wearing the Baju Raya sent by their Atuk and Opah (pic courtesy of Sila)

I pretty much played the role of the fun uncle. For sure when it comes to feeding, potty, some disciplining (not much tho) and things like that, there was always Vin and Sila ;) They also helped me with translating what Adik said on several occasions.  

We were kidding around, as usual :) (pic courtesy of Sila)

Eating his goldfish

And Yaya joined in the fun

Doesn't that look comfortable?

The 3 siblings. Hahaha. By my next visit, they'll for sure outgrow me :D (pic courtesy of Sila)

Yaya is a very good artist, so much so they’re running out of space on their walls and their rooms to display/store her drawings, paintings, arts and crafts. (Note to Sila: don’t ever lose the Frog and the Fountain drawing! :D) Adik on the other hand, is obsessed with reading and spelling. I really feel that’s awesome!

Drawing #1 Yaya gave me: Hearts

Painting #2 from Yaya for her uncle Zarin:  The Sun

Painting #3 for uncle Zarin: The Blue House. Sila, the house next to it is on sale right?

Adik was reading the book to me. (pic courtesy of Sila)

[updated: Uh'oh, I left out one more crucial picture. A picture of Yaya with her first pop-up card. All I needed to do was to draw a few lines to cut and provide some supervision. Yaya did the rest, from drawing, coloring and cutting out the sun, flowers and butterflies to gluing]

Yaya's pop up card for her Mama

Apart from the Flying Pig and the trip to Chicago-La Porte-Elkhart, we did manage to do tons of other stuff. The kids tagged along when Sila drove me to downtown Cinci so that I could pick my race kit. Then at Meijer, the grocery store, I was introduced to their favorite Sandy :)

Yaya making faces, while Adik was in his rear facing car seat.  We were on our way to downtown Cinci

Taking a picture in the produce section :)

Adik's riding Sandy.

Yaya's turn on Sandy (pic courtesy of Sila)

We also went to the outlet mall to get new clothes and a pair of shoes for Adik. He is in the 99th percentile in his age group height-wise, so it’s just a matter of time for him to outgrow them. I took the chance to get some stuff for my parents and two younger and still-single siblings. That’s about it. I already got everyone a little something from the 2012 trip :D

Adik with his Frank Sinatra impersonation?

Somehow this cracks me up :)

The kids were keeping themselves occupied while waiting for the food (pic courtesy of Sila)

As a trade for the guys’ evening-out-at-Wrigley, Sila and I went to catch the Amazing Spider-man 2 movie. Putting aside how bad the plot was, we had a fun time. Especially when we realized that the last movie we caught together was in ‘98! Oh, the good old days. There was this Toys R Us located next to the movie theatre in Alewife -- our favorite haunt before or after the movies. One time we set off a whole-shelf of Tickle Me Elmo’s. I’m telling you, the entire shelf was rocking! And... we did it a couple of times. LOL! In one of our silly talks, Sila and I wondered if a whole-shelf of Furby Booms would top that. Something to ponder… :)

Food status, taking a cue from Sila’s blog entries: A-W-E-S-O-M-E!  My only little request to her (since she asked) was “No Malaysian”.  Hehehe. That little daughter of theirs was missing out. Even with some oven hiccups, the bread and baked chicken turned out great.

I was too occupied with the food :) (pic courtesy of Vin)

Adik's first attempt to eat noodles with a fork. (pic courtesy of Sila)

The only thing that we didn’t get to do was to go to Kings Island (or ‘The Fair’ according to Yaya) on the second Saturday because it rained from morning until 5 pm. Yaya was so heartbroken that she had to be consoled by her Mama. She even asked if there was anything she could do to make the rain stop? Kesian (Poor) Yaya.

Sunday came and it was time to go. 10 days. 10 very short days. Man, does this mean I have to take unpaid leaves when I come Stateside again? :)

Thanks Sila, Vin, Yaya and Adik for the upteenth time. I can’t stop singing praises for everything you guys have done to make me feel very welcome.