happy birthday sissy!!

happy birthday to my sissy!!

good weekend

all in all, it was a really good weekend. on friday night, we stayed over at my parents so e and i could have a modified date night. we rented hot tub time machine and ate bad-for-you food from 7-11 (mmm, slurpees and white cheddar popcorn). ami was in the kitchen baking biscotti and the kids were sleeping in their beds (belly upstairs, bulilit in the basement). i later hear that ami was pulling the biscotti out of her oven when she looks over and sees belly standing in the kitchen. she rushes over, asks her why she's up, picks her up and carries her back to bed. belly immediately falls back asleep. yeah. she totally sleep walks. and apparently well enough not to fall down the staircase in a dark hallway. weird.

at church this morning, to keep bulilit busy, i handed her some crayons and a notebook. i now have a steno pad full of blue and yellow lines on every. single. page. and no worries, a few of the chairs, one of the kneelers and a bit of the floor of the cry room at church is decorated the same way. i'm sure they'll appreciate that.

tonight, as we were getting the kids ready to go home, we saw the neighbors out playing in the cul de sac. these are the kids who, when belly saw them biking one afternoon, asked me if she could go with them. anyways, e and i got to talking with the mom, as belly played with the almost 5 year old girl and bulilit chased after the 2 year old boy. fun times. it's so suburbia, but definitely one of the things i'm looking forward to when we eventually move to my parents' house.

fun times in charm city

today we went to the baltimore aquarium with all the kids. the mommies had been talking about it for a little bit and we decided the kids were old enough to appreciate it. so bright and early saturday morning, we packed up belly and bulilit to head to bmore and meet up with ballerina and her family as well as bear and his mommy.

all week, belly was excited about seeing the dolphins. practically the minute we walked in, she was chanting, 'dolphins, i want to see dolphins!' it was fun, though ... we got to see almost everything -- turtles, sting rays, sharks, puffins, jellyfish and yes, the dolphins. it was adorable seeing all 6 kids oohing and ahhing over things.

after we got back to my parents' house, the girls and i played rock band on the wii and then played outside. it was so nice sitting on the porch in the warm afternoon sun, feeling the slight breeze on my skin.

good day.

i fully admit i'm a sap

so last night, i was totally supposed to be getting a head start on some work so i could take off a couple hours early today but after putting belly down to bed, i ended up on the phone my with brother for at least an hour.

it was nice though ... ever since we grew out of the "you're my sibling and i don't like you" teenage phase, we've been able to talk and hang out. and now that he and his (new!) wife (yay sissy!) are all the way out on the west coast, it's even nicer to have conversations with him.

so i'm thankful for my brother and on wednesday night, i was SUPER thankful for my husband.

i had had enough of the kids and was literally at the edge of my sanity when e came home. he took one look at me and before he even had a chance to put his laptop bag down, i told him i needed to get out. he, of course, pushed me out the door and told me to take my time. after the usual drama and tears from belly -- and the complete opposite, aka nonchalance of bulilit -- i finally had some time to myself to get a couple errands done plus treat myself to a pedi. heavenly. :)

fall premieres

Hmm, another tv-related post. Oh well...

Saw this today:



can. not. wait.

food the kids like

it's always a struggle to find something the kids will eat willingly. most nights, it's a battle of wills, to see who breaks first ... most nights, the kids win and i end up eating their leftovers (which is why i don't even make a plate for myself anymore; i just wait to see what's left of the kids' plates).

so when i find something that they eat and finish, i know it's a keeper. here's my recipe for chicken paprika, a staple in our house growing up. i've modified it a bit from how i remember my mom cooking it. serve it over warm rice ... mmm.

Chicken Paprika
4-5 chicken thighs, cut up
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 small bell pepper, chopped
1/2 c soy sauce
1/4 c water
2-3 Tbsp paprika
pepper

Saute onions in oil until translucent. Add garlic and stir until fragrant. Add chicken; brown on both sides. Once browned, add soy sauce and water. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, mixing occasionally. Add paprika and pepper to taste, incorporate into sauce. Serve immediately.

currently on repeat

First time I heard this, I cried. (Yeah, I know I'm a sap.)

love, Love, LOVE this song!

Circa 1995

So this totally made my day today:


Source

birthday bear

another day, another birthday.

headed to build-a-bear to celebrate cousin coco's 2nd birthday.


at the party, the BBW party leader asked each kid his or her name and if he/she knew how to spell it.

BBW party leader: what's your name?
belly: "b-e-l-l-y, belly"
BBW party leader: wow, spelling bee style!

bulilit, being herself, decided she didn't like her name tag sticker, tore it off and stuck it to me. when i put it back on her, she did it again. so i put it on her back.

the girls had so much fun, they were PASSED OUT in the car. thank you, and happy birthday coco!!

angels

celebrated all the august fam birthdays today, at my grandparents' old apartment. whenever we're there, i always feel like my grandma is with us in spirit, partying it up with us. today, i really felt like she was watching over us, and i'm thankful for that.

original story

belly wrote a book today. i folded a piece of paper for her and she scribbled on it for awhile, then announced she was going to read it to me.

the story goes...

"i love you mama forever. i love you daddy forever. i love you bulilit forever. i love you ami and grandpa forever. i love you nini and veh forever. i love you lolo and lola forever. the end." and then she says to me, "wasn't that a good story mommy?"

how could i say no. <3

sisters

so we were at dinner tonight celebrating my grandfather's 81st birthday. we were going to let the girls have a turn at blowing out the candle. bulilit was sitting nicely (for once!) on my mom's lap, and belly was sitting next to them, not paying attention. we finished singing "happy birthday" and told bulilit to blow ... and she reaches over to her sister, calls her name, puts her arm around and her and pulls them both in toward the candle to blow. adorable!

learning to potty

fair warning: this post may be TMI!!

bellys wearing big girl underwear!

sure, it was only for three mornings last week and she ran to the potty every 5 minutes because she thought she had to go, but she wore big girl underwear!! it was super cute watching her and bulilit switch back and forth on the potty. (because yes, bulilit is about 80% trained.)

however... since last week, no more underwear. a lot of it was me because we had places to go to where it was not convenient to run to the potty every 5 minutes. but it's belly too, going back to "i want to wear diapers!" so i try to get her on the potty whenever i think she's about to go, and it's worked two or three times (mostly before bed, go figure) but nothing consistent. it's utterly frustrating.

awful mommy confession time: even though i know it's necessary, i'm getting really sick of sitting with belly in the bathroom for 45+ minutes waiting for her to do something, anything on the potty. it invariably starts as, mommy my tummy hurts, i have to go! and i rush her to the potty and then ... nothing. we sit there. we read books. we play with the mirror. we look through the prize bag.

in fairness to belly, she does try. but she's so scared of going in her underwear that she'd rather sit on the potty for-e-ver than play in her underwear. and sometimes she actually DOES go, and we celebrate. and each time we go, i hope it's one of those times where she actually does go.

e is sooooo much more patient with the potty training than i am. he's on top of bulilit, watching for her signs and gets her to the potty as soon as she indicates she has to. he doesn't mind sitting with belly and encouraging her to try (maybe he does mind, but he never lets me know). maybe i should just leave the potty training to him.

shots!shots!shots!shots!shots!shots!

thank you, e.

ain't no party like a fam party

so august is the big birthday month in our family (though there are definitely other months gaining on that status as our extended family gets bigger!). which means parties galore. we were at a fam party on saturday night and -- i say it all the time -- i love fam parties. for the simple fact that i don't have to watch my kids at a fam party. there is a plethora of other, eager relatives who would much rather play with/feed my kids than do anything else (btw, thanks for that fam!). which also means that e and i actually get to enjoy a meal without chasing after toddlers and we get to have conversations with other people. novel, i tell ya.

when we got home after the party -- way past bedtime but i'm learning to control my sleep nazi ways -- i was putting belly to bed and the girl would not. shut. up. about the party.

"mommy, i had fun at smarie's house. i was sitting with smarie and she uppied me so i could see the cake and, and, and, bear was with mita, cuz mita uppied bear so he could blow the cake, and then i was playing with daddy and ballerina and then bear and i were running around and then smarie gave me her silly bandz, look! i have dinosaurs! and i gave my silly bands to smarie, a octopus and a fishy, and then i ate with punky, and i looooovvvvveeee smarie." (names have been changed to protect the innocent. or rather, nicknames have been used, as per usual.)

LOVE IT.

Craft projects

I'm totally working on the following crafts. When I find some spare time. (Spare time? What's that?!)

Pluto Travel pillow:

Wildcats pennant:

Music canvas bag:

Recycled t-shirt pillow

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my friday night

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A good night with my husband after the kids went to bed!!

a different kind of list

and now a break from your regularly scheduled programming... as well-intentioned as this blog may be, i don't want to pretend that it's all sunshine and roses in my life. oh no, there is a TON that annoys me/frustrates me/upsets me (and in all honesty, it usually goes in my other, private blog). so just to break up the monotony of the uplifting/hilarious/thoughtful posts, here are the top ten things that ruffle my feathers (in no particular order):

-making kids evil in films/tv. kids are supposed to be innocent!

-heading out on an errand, starting the car and finding the gas light on.

-when the dvr cuts the last 5 minutes of a show.

-people who make accusations without any basis.

-chewing with your mouth open.

-people who take up 2 parking spaces.

-drivers who don't turn right on red.

-when people confuse you're and your.

-fingernails across a chalkboard.

-not realizing there's no more toilet paper until it's too late.

now that i've gotten that off my chest, back to the program!

the curse of the ipod touch

so smarie once told me she had a theory that ipod touches are cursed. apparently everyone she knows who has a touch has either had it stolen or lost it. and that's definitely been true for us. i've killed two touches already and e can't find his.

UPDATE! i found e's touch in my work backpack. still trying to figure out how it got there. AND, i'm planning to get the new iPod touch (4th gen?) using some bonus points i got from work. hope this one doesn't meet the same fate as my last two!!

history repeating

i'm doing to belly exactly what i hated my mom doing to me when i was growing up... asking her to look out for her sister, help me keep bulilit busy while i'm busy doing something else, get something for bulilit because i'm in the middle of something and can't get to it right then. the list goes on.

when i was a kid, when all the cousins would hang out, my mom would make me the responsible one. "watch out for the others!" she would say. and i always blamed that as the reason i "drifted further" earlier than the rest of them (nevermind that i was between 3-5 years older so it probably made sense that i would have different interests before they would). looking back, i don't resent it now as much as i thought i did back then.

but now i catch myself doing exactly the same thing to belly. i guess it's a hazard of being a first-born (girl, especially), since i can't do everything myself and when it's just the 3 of us here at home, i need an extra pair of hands and belly's always been the first to volunteer to help. yes, even at the age of 2 and 3! maybe it's just in her personality... i always say that my two kids are like night and day when it comes to how they are! clean/messy, emotional/lets things roll off her back, cautious/adventurous.

so today, i'm thankful for belly and her big sister attitude--willing to always help me out with her sister! also thankful that bulilit was not a handful today and they both played very well together with very few fights and tears! definitely made the day a lot easier for mommy.

oh no she didn't

we've been staying at moms a lot the past week. i took the kids here twice last week so e could get some sleep and try to recover from the awful virus we both had. then we spent most of the weekend here, just because. as much as i miss my own bed, i like staying here because it means i get to sleep next to my husband and cuddle with bulilit. as much as i love sleeping with belly, i miss my baby, and most of all, i miss my husband.

bulilit and i got into it today. first, after fighting with her for half an hour while i tried to put her down for a nap, i finally just laid her on the bed and gave her milk. she turned her back to me and drank her bottle. when she was done, she stuck it up in the air without turning around. not even 5 minutes after taking the bottle from her, she was fast asleep without one more glance in my direction. take that, mommy.

after her nap, she wasn't listening to her ami about putting her shorts on so she could play outside, so i started scolding her, complete with pointed finger and everything. she plops down on the floor, looks up and me, points her finger and "scolds" me back, in her gibberish. my mom, my aunt and i all tried desperately to hide our laughter (i had to pull my shirt over my head so buililit wouldn't see me laughing my ass off). i managed to compose myself and walked her right into the corner.

mmm puto

my ninang is visiting from the philippines. as always, she asks us for our "orders" months in advance. i never really know what to ask for, since it's been so long since i've been to manila (6 years and counting!). so i usually end up trolling the internet for things to ask for that's distinctly filipino. and this year, i came upon this:


michelle's homemade puto. ninang got me the ube/pandan box and it's so freaking yummy. i can't decide which one i like better. a few seconds in the microwave to make them all warm, soft and steamy .... mmmmm. i think i finished off the whole box in 2 days. highly, highly recommended.