Counting my blessings and being thankful for them -- HAPPY NEW YEAR Everyone!

I stumbled upon this simple but heartwarming poem at Blue Mountain. Since I cannot post the e-card here, I thought of posting it as part of this blog instead.

Despite a very bumpy ride this year, I am reminded of how blessed I am to have a very supportive and loving family, thoughtful friends, a home we can call our own, a job that I love & loves me back and most especially - for the most wonderful gift of all -- our Maia.

Happy New Year Everyone!

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What amazing gifts the New Year brings!
An entire year's worth of wonderful opportunities, given to us one sunrise at a time.
Many of the moments ahead will be marvelously disguised as ordinary days, but each one of us has the chance to make somethings extraordinary out of them.

Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life.
The secret of success is turning that diary into the best story you possibly can.
Have your pages on understanding and tales of overcoming hardships.
Fill your story with enthusiasm, adventure, learning and laughter.
And make each chapter reflect time doing these things.

Follow your dreams.
Work hard.
Be kind. Do what you can to make the door open on a day that is filled with inspiration in some special way. Remember: Goodness will be rewarded. Smiles will pay you back.

Have fun.
Find strength.
Be truthful.
Have faith.

Don't focus on anything you lack. Realize that people are the treasures in life, happiness is the real wealth.

Have a diary that describes how you're doing your best, and the rest will take care of itself.

-- Douglas Pagels

***reposting from a Blue Mountain e-card

Struggling to stay awake and sucking at it

Three days before Christmas and I am working my ass off at 530 in the morning. Due to the long break this holiday season, we are doing closing activities before Christmas and thus the early work hours so we could catch our counterparts in the US to resolve issues immediately.

 

Since I gave birth to Maia, my previous 8-hour snooze time was broken into 2-hour naps. But being your child’s slave will never equate to being somebody else’s slave. Now, I am struggling very hard to keep myself awake. I really feel like giving in to the Sandman's call right now. So to thwart temptation I resorted to composing this short blog (hahaha…)

Coffee used to be my rousing tonic. But since I am still breastfeeding, I can only take minimal doses of caffeine.

 

 

That leaves me with one alternative wake up remedy -- slapping myself.  It's not even an interesting choice.

 

I wish I’d win the lottery today so I can devote the whole day exclusively for Maia. But then, I never tried joining the lottery so I guess this one will remain a wish until I decide to do something with it. (another hahahhaa…)

 

Whew. My only motivation right now is the thought that by 3pm I’ll be playing with my little girl again. Which brings me back to –

 

-- the reality that I should be cleaning up my mailbox by now and doing what I am paid to do for the next 8 hours.

Three Girls and Two Babies - Finally reunited!

For most Luzon 'immigrants' like me, Christmases and long weekends always translate to plane ticket expenses because these are the only occasions when we get to spend time with our families.

An officemate once asked me - "Am I still able to save up even if expenses like this eat up most of my bonuses?", well the answer is a definite NO. For 8 years now, while others get to spend their bonuses for shopping I have been splurging them on plane tickets and gifts (read: Pasalubong) for my family and close friends back home. But that's alright with me. I'd trade shopping for quality time with my family anytime.

Since T and I became a couple, the plane trips have become more exciting because I get to share a plane seat with somebody I chose to share it with. Not somebody randomly chosen by the airline's check in officer. During the four years that we've together, we enjoyed this routine - Christmas or New Year at our place. T has always welcomed the idea of having to breathe fresher air, eating fresh seafood, my Mom's cooking (well, he used to abhor it since it's never like the Kapampangan cuisine he's always been used to...but now he's learned to love it), and just having one lazy week all to ourselves.

But since we now have a baby, plane ticket expenses now equate to vaccination bills and baby supplies. We can't afford trips to Antique anymore. It's a sad reality that I have to face. I have no choice but to give up this annual routine that I have been enjoying for the past 8 years. It was depressing for a while but I eventually accepted the fact that I now have a family here in Cavite. And that this is what I call home now.

But I guess, emotions defy distance. Plus the fact that I've always been close to my family (especially to my Mom and my sisters), they sensed that spending a lonely Christmas here in Cavite is not really my idea of a cheerful holiday. So guess what?! -- the girls in my family decided to come over instead. They even brought along my cute and really adorable nephew - Gogol! This weekend became a mini-reunion of sorts for us. We just enjoyed 2 days of movie marathons, Mommy's buco salad and watching Gogol play big brother to Maia. It may have been crampy (how do you fit 6 adults and 2 babies in a 33 sq m house????), but we managed (and are still managing) somehow. Having my sisters and my mom over for the holidays is the best Christmas gift for me and Maia. I hope this becomes a tradition (**wink**wink) -- next year with Daddy and my bro joining us hopefully??? Hmmm...maybe I should put that down on my 2009 wish list already.

"Have Free Hands...Will Pull...

...my hair" - This is my daughter's latest obsession.

The mommy was in panic mode again yesterday. Just when you think the only terrible tricks infants can do are to cry their hearts out anytime they feel like it and enslave you to death, another one surfaces. I thought I was going to die of heart attack yesterday.



Me and the baby were alone yesterday afternoon as our helper left to visit some relatives. I was pretty sure I was in control of the situation so I let her go. I was leaning on the fact that I have been a hands on mom for 7 weeks now, I am very confident I know how to handle SNAFU's with grace already. What else could happen for the next few hours that I am not familiar with yet?

But then again, (I should always remember this one) as my wise Tita Ninang would say -- "do not underestimate these babies" Tsk tsk...

Around 4pm, I put her down to take a leak. Before doing so, I made sure she was secured and has no way of falling down our bed. I made sure of that because she was in a playful mood and by playful I mean - super likot mode.

But then just as I entered the bathroom, she gave out a terrible, frantic cry. At this point, I am confident I could readily interpret what each of her cry means. And this one I only heard once before. That was the time when I nipped off a part of the skin on her thumbnail when we  were clipping her nails the first time. Like that one, this was also a real cry of pain. And that instance I felt my heart go up to my head. I ran back to our room to check. My heart was raising fast by then. But guess why my baby was yelling in pain...she caught a handful of her hair and started pulling really hard. I heaved a sigh of relief seeing that. I almost felt like laughing only that I cannot muster one hearing her cry like that. So I went to pry off the hands. But even that was difficult since she has super strength when she's crying. Haaay...this is what one gets for having a 7-week old baby that had so much hair on her.

I chided myself after that. See, I felt like it was my fault. A week ago we finally freed her hands from the restricting 'muffins' (term her Daddy uses to refer to the mittens). We felt she's ready since we've already trimmed her nails. And indeed she was. Once freed, she liked feeling Mommy's face. She liked putting her fist into her mouth and trying desperate hard to fit all of it in. She would laugh while doing all these. It did not cross my mind that one thing she might have fun doing too was to pull her hair.

Well, that was another lesson learned for me. I'm just thankful nothing as bad as I had imagined happened. But then again, just to be sure, should I cut off her hair already? Hmmmmm....   

Everyday is a new discovery!

I finally decided to take off Maia's mittens after six weeks. 

Maia's favorite lullaby

Two of Us

Two of us riding nowhere
Spending someone's
Hard earned pay
Two of us Sunday driving
Not arriving
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home

Two of us sending postcards
Writing letters
On my wall
You and me burning matches
Lifting latches
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home

You and I have memories
Longer than the road that stretches out ahead

Two of us wearing raincoats
Standing solo
In the sun
You and me chasing paper
Getting nowhere
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home

You and I have memories
Longer than the road that stretches out ahead

Two of us wearing raincoats
Standing solo
In the sun
You and me chasing paper
Getting nowhere
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home

We're going home
Better believe it