Tough Juice

Photo from The Mothering Hut

took bulilit to the doctor today for her 2 year check up. everything looks good, and the girl is in the 100th percentile for height, at an impressive 38" and weighing in at 25lbs. we talked to her doctor about her skin issues and decided an allergy test was in order. so not only was she getting one vaccination shot, she also had to undergo a blood draw.

we already kind of knew that she was more like e than me, but today totally proved it. when the nurse gave her the vaccination, bulilit looks up at her and goes, "ow! itchy!!" no tears.

then, we head down to the lab, and the phlebotomist checks her veins. (because they need so much blood for the allergy test, they needed to take it from the vein on the inside of her elbow. ouch!) phlebotomist says both veins seem pretty deep, so she sets us up with warmers to "draw out the veins." so i'm sitting there with bulilit, trying to distract her, keep her busy. when the phlebotomist comes back in (with an assistant to help her hold down bulilit -- her words, not mine), she rolls up her sleeve, i turn on yo gabba gabba on my phone and pray that buililt does not look at what they are doing to her.

go figure, the phlebotomists manage to fill 2 large test tubes with blood without even a peep, much less a flinch from bulilit. tough juice, i tell ya.

thankful for my health

so i had to have a minor procedure done at the hospital yesterday. it was the first time i was ever put under with general anesthesia so i was very anxious about the whole experience since we first decided to proceed about 7 weeks ago. e was great at reassuring me, held my hand when i almost passed out from the IV insertion and did everything he could to make me comfortable and take care of me.

all in all, the whole hospital experience went well -- i really love fair oaks hospital -- and i remember absolutely nothing between when they wheeled me into the operation room and transferred me to the operating table until i woke up in the OR after the whole thing was over. i don't even remember them wheeling me from the OR to the recovery area. my parents had joked prior that it would be the best sleep i ever had, and, man, were they right. e joked that he should pay the hospital just to let him experience the best sleep ever, since he hasn't had a straight good night's sleep since bulilit was about a year old.

the best part of recovery was having the girls fawn all over me, giving me a "bath" with towels while i lay on the couch, feeding me pretend food and singing me to sleep. it was definitely the best.

Snow White party crafts

i've already mentioned how snow white is belly's favorite princess. (even before she had watched the actual movie. and despite my hatred dislike for that particular "princess." e thinks it's because she's the one who most looks like belly so she identifies with her? who knows.)


so when i saw these craft ideas in the Disney Family Fun email (yes, i subscribe to that email. yes, i read every issue. yes, i'm fully a disney mom), i knew i had to save them to do at some point. (though snow white has been replaced by dora almost completely!)

Magic Mirror Invitations

Snow White Craft Fringed Feather Duster

Fruit Flower Bouquet

mommy guilt. constant.

the past few weeks months have been a bit nuts at work, and the guilt levels have risen considerably. so it was kind of nice to see this (a bit tongue-in-cheek) list of 20 things moms should never feel guilty about. thanks parenting.com and cnn.

what i did last weekend

last sunday, pookie, smee and i took the girls to watch disney on ice. i figured the girls were old enough to appreciate it, since they did so well at disneyland last year. i'm SO GLAD we took them.

the girls LOVED it. before the show, there was a costume display of the princesses' dresses, so of course we took a bunch of pictures. belly loves snow white, bulilit loves ariel, so pictures with those costumes were a must. mommy's favorite is of course,

my favorite random memories from the show:
walking around the concourse of the verizon center, seeing all the merchandise stands (me and smee's favorite things :) ), and belly saying, "look mommy! more!" as she spies yet another merchandise stand.

bulilit, sitting on my lap, watching intently. all of a sudden, she looks up at me and gives me a kiss.

in the car on the way to verizon, sitting in traffic and belly constantly saying, "mama this is taking forever!!" ... but then not one peep during the show which took significantly longer. ;-)

all in all, a great afternoon. thanks pookie and smee for convincing me to go and take the girls!

mmm food

i don't remember when i started liking taho. i do remember watching my mom eat it, tasting it and thinking it was kind of gross.

but over the years i guess my palette must have changed, and now i love the stuff. and because it's kind of hard to find/get, i decided i'd try to recreate at home. i tweaked a few of the recipes i found online, and came up with a delicious version that hits the spot when i'm craving taho.

2/3 c brown sugar
1 1/3 c water
1 package lite silken tofu

Make a simple syrup with brown sugar and water, heating it over low heat. Scoop about 4 Tbsp of silken tofu into a bowl and microwave for 45-60 seconds (depending on your microwave's power). Spoon syrup onto tofu, to your liking.

Should serve about 6.

today i'm thankful for...

dancing on my knees with my sweet faced bulilit
dancing on the wii with my competitive husband
smiles on the faces of my babygirls
my husband's laughter
feeling blessed.

thankful for good memories

had to run home last night and when we got back to my parents' house around 11pm, i could hear teenagers chatting in the cold night air. i could picture my neighbors sitting around the back deck, talking and laughing with friends and remembered when that was me... hanging out in the backyard with friends, making plans and reliving moments.

Love, actually

With all the planning and stress of Christmas, I never got around to watching my favorite holiday movie. Truth be told, I probably didn't watch it last Christmas either (or even the Christmas before that) but it's seriously one of my favorite movies. I just don't watch movies often.

Anyways, after getting the girls to sleep, e and i settled down to watch Love Actually, bathed in the lights from the Christmas tree. i think i had some sort of grin/smirk/sad smile on my face the entire time. i seriously adore this movie.

skating babies

nini decided to take belly ice skating, after she told him a few weeks ago she wanted to go because she watched mickey's twice upon a christmas, oh, 241 times in a span of 2 weeks.

they made plans before nini even got back here from cali, and every time she talked to him, she reminded him that they were going to go.

so maybe 13 hours after they landed in DC, off we went to reston town center so belly could have her first ice skating experience. of course, when we got there and bulilit saw her sister with skates (because, let's be honest, i wasn't going to NOT bring bulilit, kawawa naman!), well of course bulilit wanted to skate too. so the 4 of us ventured out onto the ice.

(btw, did you know there are two blades on children's skates? wish they made those in adult sizes!)

ooookkkkayyy... so, it was all smiles and laughter for the first few minutes. nini had belly and i had bulilit and we're holding them up but they don't really know what they're doing. bulilit's legs make a figure eight in the ice, but not in a beautiful, ice skater way, more like, legs spread far apart and then turn back in and come together as mommy adjusts, then there they go again, until she's practically doing splits on the ice.

belly seems happy finally "skating" (aka gliding along as nini pulls her) until i skate up to her and try to hold her but she falls. then it's tears and crying.

so my brother and i take turns carrying the girls as we skate around the rink (me, tentatively because i'm not that good a skater and trying to carry an extra 25-35 lbs on you while you're trying to do that is probably not the best idea in the world). the girls decide it's infinitely better to be held and skated around the rink than it is to actually skate themselves.

so maybe 45 minutes after we get there, we're back in the rental room unlacing skates. and when we go to return the skates at the desk, the clerk looks at us and says, "already?"

and i think, "yes. it's time go."

HOT

thanks, e, for a super fun night out... dinner at fuddruckers before the DC stop of the OMG tour.

Featuring...

(hmm, that picture is tiny.)

and


We missed Miguel but damn, Trey Songz def knew how to work the women in attendance into a frenzy. I swear I heard panties dropping left and right. But no hate from me, boy is fine. :)

I was joking with e that both Trey Songz and Usher stole his "signature move" with the wife beater... inside joke.

I tweeted from the concert that watching Usher brings me back to early '98 watching the Puff Daddy & The Family World Tour at Madison Square Garden. Ahhh memories.

Disney memories

missing disney land today, so was looking through our pictures. which then made me remember my favorite attractions at disneyworld, which i haven't been to since 2005. here's one of my absolute favorite attractions at the magic kingdom:

Interesting (work-related) reading

Yay Filipino pride. ha.

How the Philippines Overtook India in Call Centres

i know what you're thinking...

i thought this blog was dead!

good intentions only go so far. but i will be back, with lots of blog entries from the past month and a half.

in the meantime...

christmas through children's eyes

celebrated immaculate conception today with mass in the morning... marian holidays are my favorite because i love the songs. :)

eric and i had gotten the tree up and ready to be decorated, so when they got home tonight, i had all the ornaments out for the girls to hang. as we were decorating, i noticed ella was really getting into it... so adorable!! even after we had finished putting on all the ornaments, she wanted to find more things to hang, she wanted to decorate more. can't wait for next christmas!

thanksgiving

thanksgiving dinner with the leftover fam ... only 14 or so of us since the rest of family were in different parts of the country. thankful that we had somewhere to go to celebrate with people we love.

the spread:


our contribution: double layer pumpkin cheesecake

blown.

got unbelievably good news today. i'm very blessed.

superfail

ha. i haven't opened blogger in at least a week. have notes on my phone for a few posts i want to write up, but haven't gotten around to it. and no notes for nov 1-5. what can i say, it's been nuts. updates soon, hopefully in two weeks. hint below.



p.s. how have i not had a reason to create a "travel" tag in 10 months?!?

family time

thankful for spending quality time with my family, enjoying my kids and having fun. LOVE.

can i go back to high school?

we spent the morning at my old high school today, for the annual esprit de noel holiday event. i seriously love that campus, and really really hope we somehow manage a way to have the girls attend in 10 years.

we met up with one of my old high school friends and her daughter. our kids had a blast on the moon bounce (as usual!) and i picked up some more visi gear, just like i do every year. it was freezing cold, but we still had a good time!