sleep

e calls me the sleep nazi. i'm obsessed with my kids' sleep patterns. i worry when they don't sleep enough (which happens too often) and when their normal sleeping schedule is interrupted.

maybe it's just because i'm jealous and secretly wishing someone would impose a strict sleeping schedule on me so i can get 11 hrs overnight and a 1-2 hr nap in during the day.

ahhh sleep

about time! was exhausted after the crazy busy weekend and when i put belly down for her nap, i totally passed out with her. for three hours. it was awesome. remember when you were a kid and napped every day? i had a homemade care bear blanket that my mom sewed, which accompanied me on the cots in kindergarten. i think we need to institute naps for adults!

rainy days and mondays (to the tune of the carpenters)

monday
fml. 2 ipod touches dead in the span of 7 months. both from water damage. apparently, nanny found my touch in the sink today. belly first blamed the nanny then said she did it. but how much do i trust the words of an almost 3 year old?

also, it was raining today. which pretty much guarantees that it's going to be *that kind of day. so i can't really think of much to be thankful for, other than e deciding to work from home today. i told him, even when we're not talking to each other, just sitting in the same room working, or taking a break to have lunch together, or - and especially this - having his help as soon as nanny leaves for the day... it's just the best.

oh, and these beautiful roses (sent from my cousin-slash-ballerina's mom for my birthday) which have finally opened up to excessively large blooms. just gorgeous.

sunday
since we spent the weekend at my parents' house, i got to take a couple naps and catch up on some much needed sleep. plus, as i was laying in bed, got to take some time for myself to catch up on some blogs via my super fun phone, which i'm finally learning to love.

so. tired.

what's this? a post on a consecutive day? WOW!

I discovered a new blog over the weekend: Samster Mommy, written by the wife of the Kaneshow host on Hot 99.5. Read a few posts on mommy clothing and a few recipes and I like it so far!

Last night, we attempted all four of us in the bed. Bulilit woke up around 2am and - completley unlike her - played quietly in the bed. My indecisive child kept going from mommy's belly to daddy's belly, deciding which one was more comfortable to snuggle against. Eventually, daddy got annoyed and took her down to the lovesac. Of course, I ended up awake until 4. So i guess it's not much of a surprise that today was a rough day. On top of the overall tired feeling, belly was extra clingy today and I literally couldn't turn around for most of the day without bumping into her. Maybe it was the gloomy weather (which certainly made me feel all out of sorts and wanting to bury myself in the bed covers). I keep reminding myself that this too shall pass and there will come a day when she wants nothing to do with me. But that seems sooo far away.

Anyway, the gloomy, cold weather (in the middle of May!!! seriously, I had to turn the heat back on because it's so cold) means I'm back in sweatshirts and pajama pants and I think I'm going to go do what I wanted to do earlier... crawl into bed, watch some mindless television and be thankful for passing out before midnight!!

blog fail.

Monday, May 10
Wow. Has it really been a week? Oops. I don't think the frequency will get any better -- in fact, it will likely become worse as summer really kicks off and we have a truckload of different events coming up (you should see our family google calendar).

Anyways... thankful today for drama-free bath time, e coming home early. Also, you know I can never resist sharing a baby story ... tonight, after reading books, belly asks me, 'what do you want for your birthday?' and then when i said all i wanted was a big kiss from her and her sister, she said, 'how about i get you a dora toy?'


Sunday, May 9
Happy Mother's Day!!! Still at the beach, windy and cold today so no sitting on the sand before we leave. Of course, I'm thankful for my mama. Duh. And for waking up to my husband and daughter handing me a card and giving me a kiss. (As I get kicked in the back/ribs/face by younger daughter who takes up the entire bed. Her way of telling me she loves me!)


Saturday, May 8
Drove up to the beach last night to spend the weekend in the sun, sand and surf. Kids woke up early, per usual, and we headed out at 9am. The sun was warm, the water was freezing. But that didn't deter bulilit from walking as fast as her little legs could take her right into said freezing water. belly seemed much more happy sitting (ahem, squatting, ahem) in the sand, building sand castles.

Thankful for my parents taking the kids while we were at the outlets, so that e and i could walk around together in a vain attempt for him to buy me a birthday present. mission=fail. i seem to enjoy buying things for the kids moreso than for myself. (Can you blame me? How much cuter are little girl clothes than clothes in sizes I don't want to admit I wear?!)


Friday, May 7
On the way to ballet this morning, this is what I heard.
Conversations between 2 years olds, part 1
Ballerina (b2): What's that, Belly?
Belly (b1): A book.
b2: where'd you get it?
b1: from ami. from ami's house. i will get you one too.
b2: no, you're a silly bird.

Conversations between 2 years olds, part 2
b2: hey! belly has sunglasses! i don't have sunglasses.
me: maybe you can ask your mommy to get you some for your birthday.
b1: i will get you sunglasses, ballerina.

Conversations between 2 years olds, part 3
me: belly, share your snack with ballerina
b1: here, ballerina.
b2: thanks, belly.
b1: sure.
b2: belly, can i have some more?
b1: sure. (hands ballerina the cup of froot loops.) can i have it back please?
(Quiet, chewing)
b1: oh no! there are no more blues!!
b2: i see one!
b1: where?
b2: there!
b1: where?!
b2: there!!
b1: where? i don't see it!
b2: on the side? THERE!
b1: oh.

Thursday, May 6
Yay! Laptop is fixed!

Today, I was thankful for dinner at red robin - courtesy of my parents who are back from vacation - and the start of all the free food that comes along with my birthday and being part of a million mailing lists. looking forward to maggie moos next!


Wednesday, May 5
Happy cinco de mayo! too bad i don't celebrate. I'm writing this post like 5 days later so...
Thankful for a short nap and sunshine. Not thankful for the virus that I somehow got on my laptop.


Tuesday, May 4
peace and quiet. there.

lions and tigers and bears, oh my! oh, and pigs too

monday, may 3
belly and i read books almost every night - usually some rotation of goodnight moon, my world, yo gabba gabba books, sandra boynton books and olivia. then i read about We Give Books, a charitable organization set up by Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation that encourages childhood reading by offering electronic books to read on the computer. every time you read a book, they will donate a book to a cause of your choice, like books across america and volunteer usa. best part is, it's totally free. so a few nights last week, and tonight, belly and i read llama llama red pajama, a couple spot books and a max & ruby book. and we ended up donating a few books to books for asia. love it.


sunday, may 2
after a very tiring day yesterday, e and i were looking forward to a lazy sunday at home before running to the grocery store and a birthday dinner for lola. belly, bulilit and i picked up some dunkin donuts for breakfast then we sat around and played inside for a few hours. i got to take a 20 minute nap while belly and bulilit were sleeping -- felt so good! after the grocery store, we went out to mark's duck house to enjoy a very yummy chinese dinner for e's mom.

saturday, may 1
bear's mommy and i had been planning for-e-ver to take the kids to the zoo. we figured they are finally at an age where they would appreciate it, and bulilit could just come along for the ride. ;-) so with the promise of a warm and sunny day, we packed up extra clothes, cameras and snacks and headed downtown. we braved the metro with our fancy BOB revolution duallie (double stroller) and a beco - belly and bulilit's first time on the 'choo choo train' - and then walked from cleveland park to the national zoo. (we'll just pretend that we didn't start walking in the wrong direction because i thought i knew where i was going and e finally stopped some random person to ask which way the zoo was. oops.)

anyway, almost 2 hours after we left our house, we were finally at the zoo. we slathered on the sunscreen (because, gosh darn it, my kids are ALREADY darker than i am) and ate a quick lunch before making our way to the zebra. there wasn't much action in the front of the park so we went by the panda and got to see her (him?) inside, where she (he?) was eating. i told e, see, it's too hot for even the ANIMALS to be outside. belly told me that she saw the panda dancing (e said it was shaking its shoulders).

from there, we went in search of "raffes" and elephants. we found 3 elephants but apparently there are no giraffes at the national zoo. what?? we did see a beautiful toucan, an owl and a whole flock of flamingos in the bird house, before we headed to the ape house. bulilit had fallen asleep in the beco, and as soon as we walked in the ape house, the smell was overwhelming. so i took bulilit outside to buy lemonades for the group, while belly and bear looked at the gorillas, monkeys and whatever else was inside the house. (e told me later there was a baby monkey? that was clinging to its mommy while she swung around. kinda sad i missed that, but totally not worth walking around the musty ape house. i know, i'm a wimp.) there were some outdoor monkeys that we watched for a bit too - orangutans i think - and i heard that bear and belly were like, 'spider monkey!' (to which my fellow twi-mom, aka bear's mommy and i laughed out loud.)

after monkeys, we went to see the lions and tigers. the tiger was passed out in the shade but the lions were a lot more active. we ended up spending the most time watching the lions, whom we called mustafa and nala. because seriously, there was a male lion just laying there, watching all the people with no interest, and the female lioness, who kept growling at the zookeeper's door. she definitely seemed more aggressive than the male! after watching the lions for a while, both bear and belly were 'rawr' -ing, imitating the lions. it was absolutely adorable.

definitely a fun trip, despite the amount of time it took to get there and get home, and the 90 degree heat. we'll have to go again when the weather's not as sweltering, but we're driving next time.

friday, april 30
bulilit made a rare appearance at her sister's ballet class today. after class, all 3 of us joined my aunt, ballerina and her sister for brunch at ihop. when the hostess asked how many i said, "Six. Four high chairs and 2 regular chairs please." a little scary when you're totally outnumbered by little people under 3. the girls all did well, relatively speaking, and i certainly enjoyed getting out for a bit.

groundhog day

yes, i realize it's april 12 and not february 2. but lately, it's felt like every day is just a repeat of the last. i joked once with my cousin that my life wasn't very exciting -- rather mundane and routine actually -- and said my motto was "lather, rinse, repeat." oh, how i'm longing for the days of normalcy and uneventfulness.

To recap the last week and half, i've made 3 trips to the doctor for 2 different kids within the span of 1 week. let's not forget that because i'm so attached to the pediatric practice i grew up with, i decided to bring my kids there, despite the fact it is 16 miles away and 25 minutes on a good day (and let's be serious, when does going east along 66 ever go as fast as it should??).

but belly and bulilit do make it interesting so i gotta give credit where it's due. the two of them will vacillate between making each other laugh hysterically by blowing raspberries to yelling at each other ("mommy, bulilit just pinched me!" "Agh!" "mommy, bulilit won't hold my hand!" "Agh!" "mommy, bulilit is spilling her juice on her car seat!" "Agh! Agh! Agh!")

The last trip to the doctor, on Friday, yielded this conversation on the way home:

Belly: Mommy, I'm hungry for dinner. (Right, because it's now 6:30 and in the rush to get to the dr's office, mommy didn't pack any snacks for the car even though it was prime dinner time.)

Me: I know you are Belly. I'm trying to get home as soon as possible but there are all these cars on the road. (You guessed right, I was on 66 West, battling it out with the regular commuters.)

Belly: But I'm hungry now.

Me: Yes, and as soon as we get home, I'll make you some chicken and rice (note: we had chicken and rice for lunch since it was freshly cooked at that point and I had made enough to last for dinner as well.)

Belly: Chicken and rice AGAIN? (yes, you are are your father's daughter. have i mentioned that i'm probably the only one in the house who eats leftovers?)

When we get home, I fix up two bowls of chicken and rice. Bulilit comes at me with her mouth open wide, like I can't shovel the food in her mouth fast enough (compare to the previous night, trying to feed her wild rice and her mouth stays clamped shut while the head shakes furiously).

Belly, after eating about 3/4 of her bowl tells me she's done. So I say, ok, how about one more big bite? And she says, no, how about 4 more? I think I like negotiating with toddlers!

Anyway, what a long-winded intro into my thankful list. Thanks for sticking with me (if you've made it this far!):

Friday: Isn't it obvious? Conversations with toddlers and interactions among sisters. Oh also, spring session for ballet has started and the girls got to dress up as fairy princesses this week.

Saturday: After putting the girls to bed, E and I went to Fridays and I had a real drink (wine and sangria don't count). Too bad I'm alcohol illiterate and didn't realize what I ordered until it arrived to the table. What can I say, I saw "tropical mojito" and even if it came in a pitcher I still would've ordered it. But really, I was thankful for alone time (finally!) with my husband, laughing and being stupid and remembering what it was like to be out on a saturday night!

Sunday: Spending time with my sis2be, who flew in the previous night. (Yes, cheesy!) And naps. Lots of them while cuddling with a sick baby.

Monday: A beautiful spring day and Orange Milano cookies with milk.

my house smells like tocino

cooked brinner tonight (a/k/a breakfast for dinner). tocino, eggs and rice. tocilog, without the sinaangag. (sp?) and smelling the house makes me nostalgic and reminds me of growing up. it's funny how certain smells remind you of different times of your life (like how cool water and hugo boss will forever remind me of senior year high school and fresh cut grass reminds me of grade school, in the spring, when we'd have to shut the windows at the first sniff of cut grass due to one classmate's debilitating allergies. random, huh?).

didn't get to post last night because i was smack in the middle of two kids, passed out on our bed. e went to a hockey game with coworkers so i had to attempt to put both girls down for bed. luckily, it went easier than i expected (e feared he'd come home at 11 to all 3 of us, still awake). thank goodness for fios on demand and for 'hush little baby' for helping get the girls to sleep.

between when they fell asleep and when e got home, i caught up on some tv, including dancing with the stars, general hospital and last week's vampire diaries. oh. em. gee. for reals. so many bombs dropped and tiny secrets revealed here and there... seriously, my guilty pleasure that is SO GOOD.

anyways, we didn't have the heart to move them once they were passed out, so all 4 of us slept in the bed and, after bulilit's usual midnight waking, all of us slept through the night! girls didn't wake each other or us up until 7:30.

today, i'm thankful for the 30 minutes of peace and quiet i had (plus 15 min driving each way). happy almost easter!

proud mommy

i am so proud of my babies! i've refrained from talking about it the past few days, and i know i'm jinxing myself by talking about it now, but both girls are working on new milestones this week! now that bulilit is over a year, e and i have decided that we need to wean from the night nursing. so to avoid belly waking up whenever bulilit does, we started belly in her own bed in her room. six nights in a row and she's stayed in her own room!! and bulilit is doing better with the no-sleeping-next-to-mommy-and-using-her-as-a-human-pacifier. though daddy isn't getting much sleep. hoping that by next week, everyone will be settled into the new routine and mommy can go back to her own bed versus the very hard floor of belly & bulilit's room.

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!)

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.

days 3 - 6

see? while i had all intentions of posting DAILY on this blog, real life reared its ugly head and got in the way. thanks to a combination of prepping for a baby shower i was hosting (which subsequently got postponed), taking care of a (still) sick baby, carting another one to ballet, figuring out what to do with my kids now that my nanny was put on bedrest for the duration of her pregnancy and driving all of us over to my parents' house since said nanny has my only set of house keys... YEAH. it's been that kind of week.

ANYWAYS... needless to say, the baby shower i was planning for our nanny is now postponed, bulilit (baby#2) is still sick and i swear she's got a faucet full of mucus constantly running (sorry, TMI) and we got a lovely 8" of snow this weekend. am i living in the NE? Oh no, it's northern VA. My bad.

so despite all of that, you'd think that I have nothing to be thankful for... but no no no! i promised myself i would find something -- any little, tiny thing -- to be thankful for EACH DAY and i am committed. so, without further delay, here are days 3-6 worth of thanks....

thursday, jan 28: went to the office today and am thankful for starbucks, and especially for trying something new (caramel macchiato with 1 splenda... yes, i know that drink is VERY OLD but i haven't had one since they first started making it)

friday, jan 29: took belly (baby#1) to a different ballet class, in hopes she would like this one better than our last class, and SUCCESS! the teacher is so much nicer, really relates to the kids and the movements they do is more like real ballet. also helps that she uses a lot of the same movements/tools that belly used in her very first ballet class last summer. so i'm thankful for miss leslie and her use of lily pads, baby barres, balance beams and trampolines!

saturday, jan 30: today, i'm thankful for the pilot, because without it, mom, belly and i wouldn't have been able to go to the mall and take advantage of old navy's 30% off the entire store sale. and belly is the proud owner of a new pair of wellies!

i'm also thankful for red velvet cheesecake from the cheesecake factory, a present from my sweet husband. he finally got to use his gift certificate for a massage today (present from belly and bulilit for father's day) and to thank us, he bought us cheesecake. MMMMM, nom nom nom.

sunday, jan 31: bulilit slept (almost) straight all night! yes, she still used me as her human pacifier, but there was no extended waking and mommy got to sleep for practically 9 hours. Interrupted sleep, per usual, but soooo much better than the past 2 weeks. here's to hoping it continues! (maybe the faucet is a good thing, if it means she'll sleep better at night!)