Memories: Emerald Cove

During my teenage years, I was completely slightly obsessed with the Mickey Mouse Club, but especially with Emerald Cove, its serial show within a show. I had a few episodes on VHS, but all my VHS players broke over the past couple years, so I have not been able to watch them in forever. And YouTube searches always proved fruitless.

That is, until I noticed the most recent updates of one of the channels I subscribe to, TheMMCchannel.

I'm in heaven.

quiet stillness

worked from home today while the kids were at ami's. aside from my usual work (which has been beyond crazy this week), i had a yummy japanese lunch (chicken teriyaki, california rolls and tempura) and watched young victoria before the kids & e got home. then, after the kids went to bed, e and i caught up on glee (including the britney episode!!). NICE.

daaammmnnnn

has it really been this long? we're into a new month? oops. because i have so much to catch up on, welcome to a stream of consiousness post...

ETA (@11:55pm): i'm updating the blog from bed and belly just rolled over to me and says, "mommy. whaaaatcha doin?" (silence) "oh that's fun" (silence) "what's that?" all with her eyes closed. so she sleepwalks AND talks in her sleep. fabulous.

fun things from labor day weekend:

monday: lunch at jason's deli with my hungry girls, scarfing down their mac n cheese... enjoying the last day at the pool (for 30 minutes)... yummy chinese buffet at blue pearl in springfield...

sunday: clemyjontri park... girls entertaining each other in the car on the way over... girls' laughs=best sound ever... dinner at ruby tuesdays with my hungry girls who dance in the aisles, smile at the wait staff and other diners... bulilit waving bye to everyone when we leave

saturday: shopping at dulles town center... buying girls' new shoes... watching the carousel then giving in when belly asks me non-stop if she can ride... sitting on the too-fast carousel with bulilit and belly... ice cream and cookies for dessert, after the girls inhale a pizza

friday, 9/3: lunch with my hs bestie at noodles & co, catching up, making plans to work/study together now that i have a new nanny situation

wednesday, 9/1: hanging out with kim (ha! it's been forever since we used that nickname!!! and her sister was lea, as in lea salonga, and she was kim because that was lea's name in miss saigon), coming downstairs to the basement to see her and e, with buililt in e's arms, computers back to back battleship style. hilarious.

tuesday, 8/31: smarie and her mom over at the house to color my hair, gossip and catch up. i heart them ...

entire week of 8/30 - 9/3: feeling like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders as punky comes back to watch the kids. e coming home from work saying he likes seeing me happy and that i have so much less apparent stress already. and really appreciating my afternoons with both the kids and my husband when i've been away from them all day.

saturday, 8/27: yo gabba gabba live at nissan pavillion. (whatever, jiffy lube live. you will always be nissan pavillion)... running into a hs friend whose daughter is also super into YGG.

for those of you unfamiliar, allow me to introduce them:


pssst, i'd read down a few blog entries. didn't realize i had more than a few in draft mode so i just published them! :)

fall premieres

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

Saw this today:



can. not. wait.

Circa 1995

So this totally made my day today:


Source

mommy club

bear's mommy is one of my most favorite people in the world. i always thought she was pretty cool, but after we got pregnant around the same time, and especially since the babies have been born, we've gotten a lot closer and i'm totally thankful for our friendship. things are a little nuts right now, so we hung out for a bit (ahem, 5+ hours) tonight. it was nice - e called to say he'd be late coming home so bear's mommy helped with the girls in their bath. she caught up on the vampire diaries while we put the kids to bed, then we chatted some more. i wish only good things for her because she is one of the most good-hearted people i know!

also, i've only ever really been into 2 or so seasons of dancing with the stars. but i totally loved this dance tonight:

tired

quick post because i'm buried in work and mentally exhausted...

monday, april 26
thankful that miami is 6 weeks away. (yay sis2be bachelorette party!) i'm in definite need of a vacation and time away from the kids will be heaven (though i'm sure i'll miss them, and my husband, something fierce.) but sooo looking forward to girl time with people i really like. haha.

sunday, april 25
since we spent the day at home -- something we haven't done in too long -- i was very domestic. i had forgotten how much i actually like some household chores (my favorites being laundry and cleaning kitchen countertops/stoves, i know, weird). i think it's that feeling of accomplishment once the job is done. none of this lingering uncertainty -- with chores, there's a finality to it. a moment when you can say, 'there. it's done.' and be pleased with your work. like planning an event and seeing it come to fruition. and unlike parenting. haha.

also, i had forgotten how much i love my guilty pleasure... high school musical 3. i sat in my dark bedroom at 11pm watching, smiling and singing along in my head.



p.s. it also reminded me of when belly was a baby and - no lie - loved the whole hsm franchise so much that we actually took her to the theatre during hsm3's opening weekend. and, the first time she watched the dvd of hsm3, she started dancing around my parents' living room, insisting that her nanny spin her around just like gabriella.

saturday, april 24
went to confession and there was no line! our parish priest was hanging out, waiting for someone to come in. so i was in and out in literally 3 minutes.

after mass, we had dinner at jason's deli. it was the first time e and i felt like we had dinner reasonably under control. bulilit was flirting with the 2 little boys at the table next to us, both kids ate their body weight in food and e and i looked at each other in amazement, acknowledging the general feeling that, now that the kids are getting older, eating out may not be as painful as it used to be. that it could actually be fun.

Four posts in one!

Friday, April 16

It's Friday, so you know I'm thankful for ballet for belly and her cousin, ballerina. :) (am i allowed to repeat the exact same thing every friday?)

on the way to ballet though, i had my first official soccer mom feeling. so, thankfully i am not in a minivan (because let's get serious, i will never be a minivan mom so help me God) but i had belly in her carseat, we were listening to her kids songs CD, we were on our way to pick up ballerina and we were on our way to ballet. i'm so suburbia, i can't stand it. (but you all know secretly i love it.)

Thursday, April 15
I watched the two most recent Vampire Diaries episodes (Let the Right One In and Under Control) after putting belly to bed. oh-em-effing-gee. seriously? seriously, kevin williamson? these last two epis have blown. me. away. e comes up while i'm watching and is silently laughing at my jaw, which was hanging open for about 40 minutes straight. and then he commented that elena is hot. (well duh, i don't watch this show only for the storylines. it helps that the boys are yummy.)

ANYWAYS... we had a good dose of laughter at dinner. bulilit was eating a mango which i cut up for her (and, ahem, one tiny piece may have slid right down her throat without being chewed). i decided to give her the pit and let her bite around the flesh that was left on it (you know us filipinos) ... well let's just say that a slippery mango + baby who is still learning fine motor skills = a hilarious scene. the mango pit literally flew out of her hands as she tried to grab it. it was awesome; wish i had thought to video record it.

then, when i was putting belly to bed in the quiet stillness of the room as she's staring up at the ceiling, she says to me in all seriousness, "mommy, i'm still hungry... " i'm about to ask her what she wants to eat (she didn't eat *that much dinner) when she turns to me and says, "i think i'm going to eat mommy. nom nom nom."

Love. It.

Wednesday, April 14

confessions of a bad mommy ... bear and his mommy came over to play with his cousins and while we were waiting for him, belly, bulilit and i were playing outside, blowing bubbles, drawing and riding tricycles. once they got here, we headed out to the playground so belly could ride the big swings. i was pushing her and she turned around to tell me to push harder - just as i pushed her again - and ZOOM. off belly fell, into the mulch, straight on her back. uncontrollable crying ensues.

after the playground, we head back out to her front stoop and the kids are drawing on the sidewalk, bulilit pushing her sister's tricycle to practice her walking. i really should be paying better attention because next thing i know, i see (unfolding in slow motion of course) bulilit stumble, grab at the tricycle, which proceeds to fall on her - and THWACK. head on sidewalk. seriously, i think i need to put a permanent helmet on that girl based on the sheer number of times she's fallen on/hit her head.

today, i'm seriously thankful that kids are so resilient.

Tuesday, April 13

E's parents are in town, so I get a much needed break from the kids. I run out to my favorite store to do a few returns and pick up a few things and as I'm walking back to my car, i notice a familiar look car. turns out my aunt is in target too, so i head back in and we end up chatting for 45 minutes. what i love most about her is that she's one of the few people who will tell me straight up her thoughts and opinions on things and i know she's only telling me for my own good. even though it's hard to hear. but i love her for that.

i then went to meet up with bear's mommy for dinner and a catch up session with her. it's so easy to talk to her and we had a nice evening of chit chat and lots of laughs, per the usual. and mmm, chipotle for dinner.

so, thankful for good people in my life who are always willing to listen. because sometimes that's all i need.

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!

it's been awhile

oops. guess i haven't updated in more than a few days. i have an excuse though, and this one is legitimate, and not just some rationalization. bulilit has been sick. and i mean, really sick. poor baby spiked a fever of 104.3 last sunday night, seemingly out of nowhere.

we had a rough week, starting with a doctors appointment (note to readers: if you have to get a urine sample from an infant/toddler, be prepared to wait a few hours. infants do not like to pee on demand) that netted nothing since the tests all came back negative; vomiting monday night; fever breaking for about 12 hours on tuesday and then suddenly reappearing at 3 in the morning... cue sleep-deprived haze here.

so i guess i need to list out, hmm, 10 things? that i am thankful for... wow that's a lot, haha. And since I'm operating in that not-quite-totally-here daze from the craziness that was last week I don't think I can list one thing from each day that I'm thankful for. So here's a random assortment which I'm sure maps back to those days, but I'm not sure how.

1. toddler speak/toddlerisms. Belly's saying of the week, "Mommy, don't see me. I'm going to do something bad." Also, whenever we read her Yo Gabba Gabba book, she looks at the title page and says, "That's a big Muno. That's kinda scary."


2. Other blogs, like Rants from Mommyland , the Meanest Mom, Beltway Babywearers and The Plan. The Plan linked to this article from Cooking Light about common kitchen mistakes. Bookmarking for future reference! (Full disclosure, one of my good friends from work co-authors The Plan.)

3. Super thankful for Bulilit finally feeling better with no more fever and no more vomiting. But we still don't know what caused the fever.

4. Skype and Tokbox. Belly and bulilit got to talk to the grandparents and their godfather-slash-uncle who are all on the left coast.

5. Sounds like my previous entry, but thankful for having lunch with a former boss. i don't think i ever really appreciated how important it is to maintain relationships even after you're no longer working together.

6. A throwback to my high school days... General Hospital. Don't get to watch as much as I used to (which was RELIGIOUSLY in high school, for the Robin/Stone storyline) but I'll catch them every once in while on YouTube. And omg, Friday's episode had Robin talking about Stone again. *heart flutters* Seriously, it's the silliest thing, but that ep hasn't been deleted from the DVR. Totally plan on watching it again.

7. Speaking of things still on my DVR, i heart vampire diaries. totally my guilty pleasure. fun storylines (after a verrry slow start) and eye candy, what more could you ask for?

8. Girl scout cookies. 'Nuff said.


9. This one is actually tied to a specific day, Saturday the 27th. I'm thankful for friendly people. While at the mall, we were booking it from Children's Place to Auntie Anne's to get a drink before heading to church. Once we got to Auntie Anne's, realized that bulilit was no longer wearing a sock or shoe on her left foot. So I retrace our footsteps and there's a pink sock not 500 feet from us. I keep walking, thinking, man, the grandparents are going to be upset, we lost an expensive Janie & Jack shoe!, when a nice man taps me on the arm and says, it's right outside Aldo. i must've had the harried, worried expression on my face that only another a parent would recognize. As I get closer to Aldo, a mom says to me, we just passed it, it's right there by the shoe store. How ironic, I think to myself. And there it is, a fuzzy pink boot just waiting for me to find it. And I laugh to myself thinking, well bulilit has just put a new spin on an old story my parents liked to tell about me when I was little. Apparently, with the windows down, riding in the car, I decided to throw my shoe out the window of a moving car. Which made me really earn the nickname I'd had from near birth -- cinderella. So now the tradition lives on with bulilit!

10. Another one tied to the actual day.. Sunday, 2/28, another day, another mall. Thankful that E took both kids to the play area so I could have 30 minutes of kid-free shopping and personal grooming. :) I'd kind of forgotten how nice quiet shopping could be!