ten things

(inspired by SouleMama)

1. the wonder on hubby's and j's faces when they first felt the baby kick.

2. getting hooked on magkaribal

3. raspberry and lemonade slushie

4. coleslaw and porkchops or slow-cooked adobo or pretty much any pork dish

5. finding the perfect quilt tutorial online

6. shopping for fabric for the perfect quilt

7. making "girls rock!" mosaic with j

8. slowly filling the baby's room with furniture and gear

9. smoothies for breakfast, EVERYday

10. sitting with hubby in the shade of the apple tree in the backyard, full of appreciation for the garden and the wonderful life

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Super Summer

Oh where did summer go? This time around last year we were happily baking in the tropics. It's been hot enough here in Victoria although we've still been working and vacation isn't until end of the month.We originally planned to take a big road trip through the Rockies (every year we plan it and then something comes along), but as it is, my 4-month belly will probably not survive 3 weeks of camping and roughing it out. So we're renting a cottage at the beach close by! So excited about that... 

Lots of things happening around here. Like me starting to feel baby since last week, and this week there's been markedly stronger and more frequent taps under the belly button. Like me turning 31 last week and getting thecoveted iPhone from my dear darling hubby--I suppose I should have posted this from that phone but I still have to get used to the touchscreen keyboard without ending up with a lot of i's when  I wanted o's. Like a shuffle in the office and I'm moving to a different capacity but it's not really a promotion because my paycheque won't even notice the move. Like a deeper bonding with Jaden because I've been trying to get her used to the idea of a sibling and giving lots of love so she doesn't feel threatened, and that she's spent a couple weeks hanging out at my work waiting for her camps to start. Like my baby turning 8 yesterday amid lots of love and spoiling from family! God I feel old. Like me frantically looking for a birthday present for hubby who's turning 34 in a couple of weeks, and I want to get him something that will evoke the same reaction as I had with my iPhone. (Methinks I've found it and I'm crossing my fingers he will like it--I've never been successful with presents -frown-). Like us starting to get the ball rolling for a February visit from Ma & Pa. Like us slowly filling up the baby room--got a diaper change table used from someone, a changing pad, a nursing pillow, some cute clothes, a used musical swing. I love Babies r' Us!

Things to do: clean out the Cabo Market and prep it for Ma & Pa. Prep baby's little corner in the master's bedroom. Sew cute stuff for baby, and some for J too so she wouldn't feel left out. 

Tomorrow I go for my 18-20 week ultrasound and with all the hoopla about gendering, I'm still hoping that at least I would see and be able to tell. Otherwise, shell out the big bucks for the assurance that painting the baby room blue will not be a mistake. Sigh.

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President Wang-Wang

Goodness how time flies—today my baby is 15 weeks in the tummy, and supposedly as big as a navel orange now. Last night Jaden and I watched a 3D animated video of the fetus from 15-20 weeks. Thankfully, she wasn't freaked or grossed out that this alien-looking creature inside Mommy's tummy will be her long-awaited baby brother or sister. I like sharing these little facts with her so the whole pregnancy isn't strange to her, and actually she's been pretty good and matter-of-fact with the whole thing. (Except she's claiming adamantly that she WILL NOT have a baby because it's painful—I've been trying to remember when I let that slip.)

My belly has grown so big so fast, that now people don't even have second thoughts about asking me! That's quite alright, methinks one of the perks of this pregnancy is that I have legitimate reason for the belly fat.

On July 30, Noynoy Aquino was inaugurated as the new President of RP. I watched everything on TV and got quite annoyed of the many song performances of celebrities—surely they can come up with better entertainment choices to make up for the non-Filipino time of Noynoy. Christian Bautista singing half a song. Regine Velazquez flaunting her victorious acquisition of someone else's husband. Mayhap it was just the poor quality of the broadcast; I'm so used to HDNet now. I had mixed feelings about the APO Hiking Society song; I felt it was too pop-py. What about national dances? Or kid's choirs? Why does it have to be an ABS-CBN variety show of some sort? Is it because in this country, there is such a blur between show business and politics? I won't even deign to go into that because it is such a lost cause. But I was kind of hoping that there will be a little sense of dignity and elegance in the ceremony, if only to show the many foreign dignitaries that we can take governance seriously.

Not to be nitpicky or anything, as well, Aquino committed a common mistake in the use of idiomatic expressions. Having ignored the events prior to this inauguration, when Aquino said, "Secretary de Lima, you have your marching orders," I immediately thought, "Wow, he has lots of gumption to fire someone on national TV." To tell someone to march means telling him to leave. I thought I'd heard some scandal about Arroyo's midnight appointments so I assumed Aquino was firing one of these appointees. I research the whole thing the following morning, and I find out that Sec. de Lima is Noynoy's best Cabinet pick and that he was just giving her her first orders, NOT marching orders. Hmm, I wonder who Noynoy's speech writer is.

Now what truly ticked me off were the supporters of the presidential losers. No matter how much they demean Aquino, it doesn't change the fact that Dick Gordon, Gibo and Villar lost, and that by supporting the new government does not mean you personally acquiesce to Aquino but that you want the country to move past the quagmire it's stuck in, regardless of who's at the helm. And trust the Pinoys to latch on to only one thing, the most interesting part of the inaugural speech—the wang-wangs. After all, it's easier to react to the wang-wangs than to economic reforms and corruption mandates. One would need to understand what the economic condition is to appropriately react to Aquino's platforms on it. One only needs to be nosy and watch the roads for the now-illegal wang-wangs unless you're police or ambulance. In true Pinoy style, simula na ang chismisan, oy sino ang me wang-wang at nahuli ng pulis? Full of drama, scandal, and human interest. If Pinoys refuse to see beyond two feet in front of them, P. Noy's call for change is lost in the wind. If Pinoys only hear Aquino's message about wang-wang's and not about the fight on corruption, then it's a longer climb out of the muck. Oh and yeah, to Noynoy, the real solution is infrastructure and stricter laws to manage traffic—it is ridiculous to allot 2-3 hours to get to your destination WITHIN the metro.

And so I waddle my way into my second trimester, proud to still be wearing my pre-pregnancy clothes (so there was a reason why I had invested in empire shirts, ruched shirts, and banded shirts). But this weekend we are waddling to Vancouver to raid Old Navy for cheap maternity clothes. I hope they have winter stuff because I would be my biggest in the winter and there is practically nothing in Victoria for mums-to-be like me! (Sorry Thyme, you are way too expensive for six more months of belly.)

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Happy 100th, Navy!

My sunburn is really itchy. I can't remember the last time I got burned—I mean, I have brown skin for goodness' sake, and we never get burned! Last Saturday, we joined throngs of people at the Esquimalt Lagoon to watch the festivities marking the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy. It was a lovely day for a picnic, complete with hotdogs, fruits and a cheesecake dip (yum!), ginger ale, cheezees and ripple chips, all courtesy of my wonderful in-laws. Jaden had a huge tub of beach toys and proceeded to dig her way to China while getting her bum wet. There was a breeze and the air was still damp—it hasn't been a warm spring and it's still taking a little longer to warm up for summer which is 4 days away—so I kept my hoodie on. The slight chill fooled me into thinking there would be no need for any of the 4 bottles of different sunscreens I'd packed. Well, I did slather some on my face, I'm vain enough for that. At some point, I looked at my hubby and by golly, his face was so red that I immediately scrambled for the bottle and put some screen on my legs. Too late. The top of my knee where my Capri’s ended, down my legs and the top of my feet were red and stinging. And even my face didn't escape the wrath of the sun (how can it burn skin but fail to warm me up?!?!?!). When we got home and I had showered off the lotion—dancing in the shower because the water stung on my poor, burned legs—I looked in the mirror and a raccoon face looked back at me. The days after were spent 'gently' scratching the healing burns with the fleshy fingertips—no fingernails please! At least the angry red is gone now, replaced by dark patches. No Capri's and shorts for a while.

The lagoon was like a scene from war movies where waters just off a beach are littered with hulking warships. The local paper described it as a scene from the game Battle of the Ships. There were naval ships from Japan, New Zealand, USA, Australia and France. It was so neat to see the USS Ronald Reagan with 3 (hubby says 4) choppers on its runway. We were treated to cool parachute tricks from the Canadian Forces' Skyhawks, who dropped out of the sky in Canada flag chutes and did twists and turns while trailing red smoke.  Then came choppers and planes in a Search and Rescue demo, followed by a lone F-18 that heralded the arrival of he popular Snowbirds. Even Jaden came up from digging to watch the 'birds, and as always, they put on an amazing and thunderous show. I think it takes so much great skill to fly 9 planes in perfect formation and execute thrilling loop-the-loops and weave-around-each-other moves, safely.

Here are photos:

All in all, a wonderful experience that sent us all to napland (or at least, early bedtimes) at the end of the day. Thank God the burns are healing and someone invented Eucerin calming lotion.

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Making My Day

Some people measure success by how busy they are. I measure mine by how happy and content I am—I have an easygoing 9-5 job and that I can leave behind at the end of the day so I can go home and spend happy time with family. The only stress I have is the last 2 minutes before my bus comes in the morning and I'm almost always never ready, and  then it's a leisurely ride with perfect views of Haro Strait, sunrise over Michell's Farm, and the breathtaking Olympic Mountains. This is the way I start and make my stress-free day.

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Keeping Friends

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-- June 30, 2011

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How A Liter Can Hurt

For my ultrasound scan, I got an official notification of my schedule, with the ominous note to drink 32 oz of water an hour before, and "please to refrain from voiding," otherwise the scan will be rescheduled. 

Do you know how awful it is to force a liter of water down your throat? And do you know how long you can last with this liter in your bladder before you absolutely have to go? But I waited two weeks to get my scan scheduled, so I wasn't about to jeopardize this one by chickening out. My scan was at 9am, so I drank the 4 cups from 7:30 to 8, and managed not to puke. By 8:40 I was ready to go, and the bathroom by the waiting room was like heaven in my eyes. By 9 I was in doubled over in pain, crying and clutching my hubby's hand--the perfect rehearsal for labor.There was only one technician working, and I could hear her with a patient in the room. My only thought then was damn, her perfect bedside manners are grating on my nerves. Could she please just get on with it and do me ASAP because I swear, I was going to flood the waiting room. Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore, and surely they didn't mean for an ultrasound scan to be THIS painful. I let some out and hoped to the high heavens that whatever's left in my bladder would not send me out to wait another 2 weeks for a reschedule. 

When it was my turn, Leslie the tech (whose perfect manners I absolutely treasured afterwards) actually said my bladder was too full and was squishing everything inside. She made me go and dump two cups! So much for that liter--she told me for next time I just had to make sure my bladder felt full, not bursting. (With an aside as to how I had probably already stretched it to twice its normal size.) 

Pain and grossness aside, it was a real joy to see our baby and the prints Leslie gave us are priceless. It's going up on the wall in the baby room.

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