Little J's 2nd Birthday

My little boy just turned 2 years old last July 6 and he is at the prime of his toddler stage.

Javie is our greatest joy and the best blessing in our life as a family. He makes us (hubby and i) more complete than ever!

Never mind his little tantrums and his fuzzy moments. Everyone goes through that anyway! I learned from Irene, my former boss, that it's best to focus on what our toddler can do and NOT on what he/she cannot do. Focus on your kid's positive side! With that, she erased the "terrible toddler" mentality and she called her toddler her Terrific Two! Please allow me to apply that with my own :-)

For my terrific two's birthday, our family had a get together last Sunday (as an advanced celebration). Then come his birthday, on Monday noon, we had a feast at Pepper Lunch at the Shang. Our boy liked the croutons from his dad's Caesar salad, slurped on his own order of miso soup and shared the Double Beef Pepper Rice with mom.

He likes playing with the chopsticks and he thinks they are drum sticks. He says "drums! drums!" acting like a little drummer boy!

Didn't end there. He had dessert of course! So we headed right up to the ice cream stall. He can't stop eating the rocky road. He wants to steal my pistachio and coffee crumble ice cream by the way. (He says: Ice shweee!!! Ice shweee!!! )

Look at that funny little mess!

In the afternoon, we brought pancit palabok for merienda to my in-laws' and headed home to get ready for dinner. His Ninong AG and Ninang Rica (aka Ninang Ganda) came to visit after work to spend some time with their chung chung. Thanks Ninong and Ninang! ( chung chung is a term of endearment that they call little J)

As a pinoy family tradition, I have to prepare something for long life. Hubby likes Spaghetti Bolognese. I have seen a lot of great recipes but I chose this one because of its simplicity as well as most of its ingredients are readily available at home. :-)

As much as I wanted it to be really authentic, I couldn't. Fresh parmesan cheese is expensive. Grabe. It's only as small as a 1/4 size of intermediate pad paper and only about 1/4 inch thick or less and with that you will say good bye to 139 pesos.

OK. We're good for now with Kraft's Parmesan and Romano Cheese! Not bad at all!

I have been wanting to make my own version of Green Tomato's Chicken, Pesto and Garlic Pizza for quite a long time now. It was my superfriend Owen who introduced me to it a couple of years back. It's one of my favorite pizzas aside from H-h-h-Hey Jude!'s Margherita Pizza!

It was a lovely match for the pasta...for a change. Instead of the usual garlic bread.

For the Chicken, Pesto and Garlic Pizza:

Pre baked Pizza Crust
about 2 cups of Chicken breast cut into small chunks
a combo of about 1/4 cup of Eden Melt Sarap and 2 tbsp of mozarella
2 tbsps minced garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Basil Pesto

marinate the chicken in a few tbsps of pesto then set aside.
drizzle the pizza crust with olive oil, put pesto on top
followed by the marinated chicken, cheese and minced garlic.
use some more garlic if you want.
bake for about 10 minutes at 230C or until crust is lightly toasted.


For the pesto, either you use the bottled pesto from the grocery
or you can make your own pesto pinoy style:

Fresh basil leaves (I used 2 packs from Rustan's Supermarket)
about 1 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
about 1 tsp of minced garlic (add more if you want it to be garlicky)
a few pinches of salt and pepper to taste
about 2 tsps of parmesan cheese
about 1/2 cup of cashew nuts

mix all ingredients together in your food processor or blender until smooth.

if you have some more money to spend, use pine nuts! There are actually a lot of options. I believe you can use any kind of nut. whatever nut you like.

this recipe makes about 4 pizzas

Over dinner, the little birthday boy joined us and got his shares of pasta and pizza, drank soda, then ran to his dance floor (our living room) and made his dance moves: a combo of feet stomps and clapping hands and another funny step that only he can do. I could not put it into words.

We like the way he says "Dance! Dance!". He says it like a brit says it. Promise!

Then he invited his ates to dance with him, as well as his Ninong AG, went back to the dining area, had his bites and soda, and went back to his dance floor. This went on for about an hour or more. He slept at half past 10. Went really low batt! ;-)

So that was how we spent our terrific two's birthday last Monday. I can say he enjoyed his day a lot as much as we did! Wonder what we will be up to next year!??!

He is growing up so fast and I wish I can hold on to his childhood, stop the clock and savor the moments as much as I can! (Ok, I'm getting cheesier than my pizza)

Happy birthday Javie! No matter how old you are, you will always be mommy's and daddy's baby dudels. (dudels - another term of endearment)

Kahit trenta ka na tabi parin tayo matulog. JOKE!!!


P.S. What did Lady Gaga do to my son? Just Dance and Poker Face are his favorite songs now! Where did Incy Wincy Spider go??? :-) Anyway, happy weekend!!!

Another P.S. Coming very soon: The belated and imperfect square chocolate birthday cake!