Old friends

Today I had lunch with my best friend from high school. We were inseparable thru h.s. But kind of lost touch in/post college. Luckily we reconnected and things are pretty much back to normal. I am thankful to have her in my life -- to have someone who knew me when, during the days of awkwardness, braces, those odd preteen years when your body is changing as quickly as your maturity level. So her insights into my life are especially valuable. And while I'm thankful she validated my feelings, I know she wouldn't hold back if she really did think I was wrong. So thank you, G$ (or were you k-funk? I can never remember), for continuing to be there for me. I appreciate it more than you know.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

tears, so many tears

babies are still not doing well with the new nanny, despite their grandparents being there too. this morning, belly looks at me with tears in her eyes and says, 'mommy, you're leaving me?' just about broke. my. heart.

didn't get a chance to post yesterday because work was cuh-razy and then E and i went out to dinner -- just the 2 of us! -- so by the time we got home it was time for bedtime rituals.

i guess you can guess what i was thankful for yesterday then ... time alone with my husband when we could really just focus on each other. so yay. and by extension, thankful for both sets of grandparents who watched the kids while we took an hour to reconnect as a couple.

today, i'm thankful for a flexible schedule at work that allows me to come in late, run some errands during the day, attend ash wednesday service and then make up the time later tonight so i don't get behind on my work.

Monday, Monday

What a fabulous weekend. Not inclined to blog all the details since I'm doing this from my iPod touch, but this weekend made me thankful for family and friends who came near and far, braving the snow and limited parking options to come celebrate bulilit's birthday (finally!!!). Also thankful for my grandma's fruit salad recipe, a successful first try at homemade pulled pork, lumpia and homemade birthday cake with buttercream frosting. Ok I'm hungry again.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

winter wonderland

Meet snowman. The snow has finally stopped and when we looked out the front door yesterday afternoon, we saw our neighbor with her dog, along with other neighbors playing in the snow. Belly said she wanted to go out too, so we took the requisite 10 minutes to get her dressed up in all of her gear -- consisting of snow suit, 2-part jacket, hat, mittens and wellies. We put bulilit in her snowsuit as well (looking like a little bear, by the way) and ventured out in the 3ft snow drifts.

After a bit of playing, belly decided she wanted to build a snowman, so while E and bulilit went inside (bulilit's face was beginning to resemble a tomato), belly and i started working on the snowman.

after building the snowman, belly turns to me and says, "we need eyes and a nose and a scarf." when i asked her what we should use for eyes and nose, she says, "booberries and a carrot." so we had daddy grab the stuff for us (dimes replaced blueberries for eyes) and voila, snowman was born.

belly then claimed, "snowman needs a friend." so we set to work on a friend (after convincing her that we should make another snowMAN versus a snowSNAKE). luckily, the sun was shining down on us so at least we weren't absolutely freezing.

after we were done, we went inside to finish making dinner, then sat down at the table to eat together. after everyone was done, we watched, what else, Yo Gabba Gabba. Over dinner, E and I just smiled at each other.

i'm totally thankful for afternoons/evenings like THAT.

Stream of consciousness

i'm thankful for haagen dazs vanilla bean and dark chocolate ice cream, warm sheets, no more snow (but wait, are we really supposed to get more on monday?), just heard snow falling/sliding off the roof, hmm, wonder if i have to go to the store today to buy more formula for bulilit. even better, wonder if there is anything on the shelves, did the stores have time to restock during this storm? thankful for the sun, which is trying very hard to melt this snow...

missed another day

E comes into the bedroom last night and first thing he says is, 'you didn't post a blog today.' oops.
so in honor of him and the kids, my thing to be thankful for yesterday is family time during yo gabba gabba. after the nanny left, we made dinner for the kids, sat down in the living room and turned on nick jr. within the first few minutes of the show, both belly and bulilit were bouncing, dancing and singing along. mommy and daddy had HUGE smiles on our faces.

(it's funny to me to watch the progression of shows that belly watches... we went from disney channel -- admittedly because E and i LOVE disney -- to PBS sprout, and now we're on Nick Jr. i think i'm kind of fearing when belly tells me she's 'too old' for nick jr and wants to watch something like degrassi. ack.)

(side commentary #2: i also realize, watching these shows, how different they are from the shows i watched when i was young. i mean, sure, i watched mr. rogers and sesame street, on occassion, but i mostly remember heathcliff, rainbow brite, snorks and smurfs. i can pretty much guarantee there was no 'learning' associated with those shows. whereas belly will sing, 'keep trying, keep trying, don't give up, don't give up!' and 'i'm so, i'm so sorry' from YGG episodes.)

i was also thankful last night for catching up with my best friend from high school and my cousin (like i said, it's the little things!). i don't usually answer calls in the evening, but HSBFF called as i was gathering the kids' clothes for bedtime so i had a few minutes to myself and cousin called after belly was asleep. makes me realize how much i miss the outside world. hahaha.

this morning, i was thankful that the kids -- and ergo, mommy -- slept in until 8:30! (was also AWESOME that mommy fell asleep at 10, and bulilit had very few middle-of-the-night wakings!)

they say it's your birthday

well, this post will be kind of obvious.

yesterday, 2/7, i was thankful to be celebrating buliilt's first year of her life. we had all sorts of food, plus belly helped me bake vanilla cupcakes with whipped frosting for her sister. i realized as i was baking the cupcakes that for belly's past 2 birthdays, she always had a muffin/cupcake on her actual birthday, then the bigger birthday cake at her party. so i figured i'd turn it into a tradition... except belly had even yummier coldstone creamery cupcakes on her (june) birthday. oh well, maybe next year, bulilit. (or not, considering we had 28" of SNOW on her birthday. i guess i could've made some birthday halo-halo.)

today, i'm thankful for chocolate. and that's about it. :p

it's the little things...

i'm tellin ya...

• warm showers
• scrabble and internet on my ipod touch
• finally getting youtube to work on my new htc phone

But most of all, i'm thankful to be celebrating my second daughter's first birthday tomorrow, with both sets of grandparents with belly, E and me. (only wish both godfathers and sister/sis2be were celebrating with us too. stupid snowstorm.)

oh, and a funny story of being snowed in at my parents' house... i was in my old room, doing some work, unaware of where my children were, when my phone rings. i look at the screen and wonder if my mom realizes she is calling me. i pick up and hear a tiny, quiet, "hello?" it's belly, calling me to ask where i am. she hands the phone to her sister and says, "it's mommy, bulilit." so i'm talking to them as i walk to my parents' room, and as i open the door, she stares at me with a look of utter disbelief, looks at the phone, then looks to me again. clearly, she is confused. my mom and i find this hilarious. :)

la la la la

i am thankful for music. i am so behind the curve that i've only recently discovered pandora, last.fm and playlist.com. and between these three sites, i'm discovering a lot of new music, in genres i never thought i'd be into. and who knew taylor swift had so. many. songs. (i had to delete her as one of the artists in my pandora playlist, under my 'teen pop' label, because i felt like every other song was hers. when i only really like you belong with me. and yes, i do have a 'teen pop' label on pandora. what can i say, i will forever be a bubblegum pop fan...)

anyways, my current faves on repeat at the moment include

• holly brook, what i wouldn't give
• sara bareilles, gravity
• bright eyes, first day of my life
• britney, 3
• ne-yo, never knew i needed
• kelly clarkson, empty handed
• kris allen, falling slowly
• lykke li, possibility
• the entire glee soundtrack(s). haha

told you it was random!

sisters

i am thankful that belly is such a good big sister. kids are really hating on their new nanny, and bulilit is screaming her head off, worse every day. but i hear belly telling her, 'it's ok bulilit, i'm here.' she also told me this morning, 'mommy, you listen to me,' complete with a finger pointing to her ear, when she wanted me to do something i didn't want to do (namely, change her diaper. i told her that her nanny could do it but she wouldn't relent). such a strong will for such a small child. ahh, she makes me smile.

(i can also hear her correcting the nanny and telling her how to properly pronounce things. haaaa)

yesterday, E worked from home with me because of the snow, and got to hear how bad things are during the day. i'm thankful he was here to help calm down the babies, and that he worked with me in our office. not that i need the reminder, but i love spending time with him (even if it's mutually complaining/commiserating over the state of childcare in our house).

i was also thankful yesterday for my cousin, who came over to play in the snow with belly and bulilit. so much fun throwing snowballs at each other and catching up.

another day, another snowstorm

it's snowing in northern VA. again. i don't remember getting this much snow since january of '95 when my high school cancelled midterms because we were out of school so much. in another life, i would have been thankful for snow, but now that i actually have to shovel it and make sure my kids don't slip and break their neck on it, i'm not so thankful.

had to take bulilit to the doctor yesterday. finally caved since she's been sick for 2 weeks, with eye gunk for a week. but of course, once we got there, none of the symptoms showed up and i'm sure my pediatrician looked at me like i was crazy. then proceeded to spend more time talking about georgetown (i was wearing a hoyas sweatshirt) and visitation (my h.s.) than we spent talking about bulilit. oh well.

so for monday, i was thankful for my mom, who drove out of her sanded-but-not-plowed neighborhood in a (gasp!) rear wheel drive car to come pick us up and take us to the pediatrician since E (my husband) took our SUV to work, leaving us car-less (other car still at my parents' house, stranded there because of the snow last weekend). aside from the driving, i'm also thankful she spent some time with her granddaughters, who are having a very hard time getting used to our new nanny.

today, i'm thankful for little things:

• kids sleeping in until past 8, so we could cuddle a little longer
• a smart, quick-learning toddler who was reading parts of My World back to me before bed
• a sweet, malambing almost one-year-old who likes to say 'mama'
• E coming home by 5:30!
• cookies and milk before bed.