SCRUB!

I went to play tennis with my sister again today and I really got into it. My forehand was buzzing and my backhand was popping. Not bad, considering it's only the second time I've played after a 2 year tennis layoff. My sister was impressed, Peter yelled instructions from the sidelines, my mom, who was pushing Lauren around the park in her stroller, cheered from where she was watching just outside the court.

In the middle of a rally, my sister sliced at the ball, sending it just over the net. I ran towards the net from the baseline with visions of Venus Williams in my head. I reached my racket out and but then my feet wouldn't move!!! Suddenly I was moving in slow motion. I guess my feet got tangled up and I SLOWLY pitched forward, first falling on my knees, and then ON MY FACE with my arms outstretched in front of me.

How embarrassing.

I was in shock and just laid there face down on the court giggling. At first it was just my pride that was wounded but when Peter helped me up he wiped blood of my forehead. BLOOD! I had a cut about an inch from my eye. Upon further inspection I found skinned bleeding knees (despite wearing long pants) and my wrists and knees began to throb. My sister poured ice cold water from her thermos onto my knees and I screamed in pain. Lauren thought I was laughing so she started clapping! Yay Mommy! That was cool! Do it again!

I'm ok. I'm achy but I feel like a boxer with the cool bandage near my right eye. Maybe next time I'll stick to tennis on the Wii.

Wet Cleanup on Aisle 4

You know that person at the grocery store with the uncontrollable screaming baby?

That was me.

You know that kid that reaches out from the shopping cart to grab stuff off of shelves when mom's not looking?

That was Lauren.

You know the annoyed custodian that has to come out to aisle 4 to clean up 3 broken jars of baby food?

That was who I was trying to avoid eye contact with.

I bet my mom won't want to take me to the commissary with her ever again.

It's never too early

We went to play tennis today for the first time in about two years. We brought Lauren along and she got her first lesson today.

Lesson #1: How to walk around the court looking cute (And yes, she's already got her own tennis racket).

Poopy Diaper

Ahhh...the simple joys. Like the word "Poopy"

Eleven Months

(This update is a couple of weeks late...)

Walking here, there, and everywhere.
She ditched her walker at 10 months and hasn't crawled in about a month. She has a confidence and determiantion in her short little steps. When she goes in circles, it's not because she loses direction or orientation, it's because she thinks it's funny and tries to make us laugh. She's THIS CLOSE to running and sometimes trips herself up when her feet can't catch up to her upper body. Her walking has been easier on my back, I don't have to carry her everywhere. I can just walk away and she'll follow me into the next room. There are still times when she doesn't want to walk though. I'll put her down and suddenly her whole body turns to jelly and she collapses in my arms. Walk? Whaddaya mean, Walk? I only know how to be carried!

She gets it! ..er, almost.
When I say "Where's your milk?" she scans the room for her bottle and goes to pick it up. "Get the Ball!" she runs to pick up her beach ball. "Where's your eyes?" and she points to her nose. I said almost.

Brusha Brusha Brusha.
Her two little teeth have pushed up from her gums. SO CUTE. And so far, they haven't bothered me while nursing. Her upper teeth haven't come down. She wakes up screaming in the middle of the night sometimes so I think they're coming soon. Every night I brush her teeth with a figertip toothbrush and a bit of banana-flavored baby toothpaste. She doesn't mind when I shove my finger in her mouth and actually thinks it's pretty funny. Occasionally I go too far into her mouth and she gags. Oops. I'm sure she minds that.

Snacka Snacka Snacka
She loves loves loves Baby Mum mum rice rusks. They're light, crispy, and melt almost instantaneously. She'd actually choose them over Cheerios (gasp!) and her toddler puffs (no way!) She's also into graham crackers. I heard somewhere that babies LOVE rice cakes so I bought a package. WRONG! She spit it out with a look of "What the heck mom...I thought I wasn't supposed to eat cardboard?!"

It's SO HARD to feed her these days. Little Miss Independent wants to feed herself! PLUS she's discovered fun things to do with food in her mouth. Like blowing raspberries into the air or saying "PPVVTFFFTHTHTHTHTH' with a mouthful of rice. Lately she's been blowing bubbles of yogurt or openings her mouth to let stuff ooze and dribble down her chin. FUN! Most nights it's straight from high chair to bath tub. I did discover one thing she loves to eat...vegetable soup. CANNED vegetable soup with the super mushy vegetables that she can pick up and eat. Who knew she would love mushy green beans?

So, her first year is almost over. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I'm excited at her progress, but at the same time saddened at how fast the time has gone. I was at a store yesterday looking through the racks of baby clothes. There were some adorable outfits that only went up to size 9 months. It hit me that, OMG, Lauren's no longer an infant...not even a baby. She's practically a toddler!

I checked the definition of "Toddle" and it's: (verb) to move with short, unsteady steps, as a young child. A toddler! I'm still in denial. I'm not ready to call her a toddler. Please stay small and cuddly for just a little while longer. No need to hurry, baby.

SLOW DOWN!

Don't Eat My Face!

With Lauren's first birthday party coming up, I've been swept up in party planning craziness. I love me a big party! Problem is, I get carried away sometimes and need someone to reel me in.

For example, I've been trying to think of an alternative to the party goody bag. A bag filled with candy and cheap toys that kids are going to play with for 5 minutes and then throw away? There's gotta be something cooler than that.

I thought I'd found the answer. Did you know that you can order M&M's with your face printed on them? How cool is that? I've seen the personalized M&M's you can print names, dates, or sayings on, but this is a whole 'nother level of personalization. I headed to the website this morning to order some. What could be cuter than pink and purple M&M's with Lauren's gummy smiley face on them?

I uploaded the photos, chose the colors, and was about to check out when WHOA! 162$ for a 5 lb box? or 12.99 per itty bitty 7 oz bag? I thought about it for a moment and saved my order for later. I'd have to think about it first.

Later at lunch, I was discussing the M&M's with my coworker and she simply said, "I'd feel weird eating something with someone's face on it. "

'nuff said. No more M&M's. Don't eat my baby!

Grandpa's Girls

Last weekend, we went to visit my Dad's grave at the Golden Gate National Cemetery. It always saddens me to think that Lauren will never know her Grandpa Reyes and what a fun and lovable man he was. I hope he's smiling up in heaven when he sees his beautiful girls.

Feeding Time

Lauren won't let us feed her unless she gets to hold a spoon too. She likes to move the food around on her tray with it. Sometimes she dips the spoon into her food and it goes straight for her hair, her ear, or the mouth of whoever is feeding her...everywhere but her own mouth. At least she likes to share!

It's yummy daddy, try it!

Guitar Hero

I've mentioned the musical genes that run through my family...looks like they're going strong in the next generation. Here's a video of my nephew's band performing Guns n Roses' Sweet Child o' Mine. That's my nephew doing guitar solos. Forgive me for a moment for bragging but I can't help it I'm such a proud auntie.

What makes this so much more impressive is that this is a group of 12 and 13 year olds. Their lead singer has not yet even started 7th grade. Awesome!

Yay, we have another rock star in the family (his dad/my brother was a drummer in a punk band in Manila in the early 80's).

Two Crazy Guys In Makeup

Last weekend was spent with two of my favorite guys in makeup. On saturday night, we watched Eddie Izzard's show in San Francisco where I laughed so hard I cried. My siblings and I (and Peter) went for our annual Family Show. You see, every year my brother buys tickets to a show for all members of the family for our birthdays. It saves him the trouble of shopping and it gives us all a chance to hang out on the town together one night a year. Last year it was Jersey Boys, this year it was Eddie Izzard. He really is brilliant (not in a faux wanna-be-British "Brilliant!" but really...he's so smart and a brilliant genius comedian). If you're into smart comedy, check him out (D.L. Hughley he's not).

While we were in San Francisco, we saw another crazy guy in makeup: the Joker in Batman: the Dark Night (in IMax, too! Woo!). An Excellent movie. I'm glad Maggie Gyllenhal is in it too. And there's not much else to say that hasn't been said about Heath Ledger, one of my favorite actors since Ten Things I Hate About You.

PS. Thanks Mom for watching Lauren while we were out gallavanting around the city!!!

First Haircut

If most of you remember, Lauren was born with a full head of hair and after 11 months it's grown long in the funniest places. She has uneven long bangs and sideburns, but the back of her head is still short with a couple of long pieces at the nape of her neck. Hair was getting in her eyes and she had a perpetual case of bedhead. Most attempts to put her hair up in clips were unsuccessful because she ended up pulling them off and sticking them in her mouth. I was planning to wait until her first birthday but ended up cutting it sooner. We were going to take her to a kiddie salon where they give a commemorative certificate complete with holder for that first snipped lock of hair, but we ended up taking her to grandma's. My mom has a little bit of hair-cutting experience but she said no amount of experience will help if you've got a squirmy baby....so we waited til Lauren was asleep. A couple of snip-snips later, and her haircut was done. Easy!

Hush, little baby don't say a word, if you move an inch you might get your eye poked out...

I'm not sure if I like it...my eyebrows feel weird...

Hmmm...I guess it's ok.

Man, I look like a boy now!!! Gimme something pink to wear!

A Good Day

I had a very good day yesterday. I didn't have to work. I didn't have to unpack. I didn't have to run errands. Wait, that's not right. It's not that I didn't HAVE TO do those things...rather, I just DIDN'T DO those things.

Lauren and I slept in, we stayed in our pajamas all day, took two (yes, TWO) naps and I didn't think about the garage full of boxes to unpack or the 273 items on my to-do list. I didn't even bother combing our hair. Peter came home from work to find his two sweetsies sprawled together on the bed in practically the same positions that he left us in the morning.

Yes, it was a very good day.

Who's got your number?

Have you ever had your credit information stolen? It just happened to me! I received a call regarding unauthorized charges on my Corporate Card--somebody was trying to use it in Korea! Obviously, I wasn't in Korea so the bank rejected the charges worth thousands of dollars even though 1 charge of $540 went through (I won't be liable for it though, they're going to credit it back to me). Scary, isn't it?

Thankfully, this card was the credit card issued by the University and I'm only supposed to use it for work related expenses. The last time I used it was in May for my training class in Santa Clara. My coworker also attended that class and paid for registration with her own personal credit card. Now get this: HER credit card info was ALSO stolen! Somebody tried to makes charges on her account in Detroit!

We've already contacted the company where we took the class from (it's a pretty big company, a division of Hewlett Packard) and somewhere down the line, somebody stole our info from them because it's the only time that we used our cards at the same place. Kinda makes you think who's got your number? Do you use your credit card alot for online shopping? For gas? At restaurants? Can you really trust that cashier at the McDonald's Drive-thru? Makes me want to pay cash for EVERYTHING, nevermind the convenience of check cards or credit cards.

Now to explain the $540 for "breakfast" in Korea that just showed up on my University Expense Report...

Breaking in our kitchen

It's been a busy couple of weeks. So busy, that most of our meals have been leftovers from our moms, or takeout. Oh, and I am SICK of PB&J for breakfast. Last Friday we finally had our first meal in our new kitchen and sadly, it consisted of: Spam and Rice. I broke in that new stove and gave it a couple of greasy spam splatters for good measure. I didn't even bother to get creative and Peter didn't even bother with rice. He just grabbed a couple slices and slapped it between two slices of bread. Oh well. Tomorrow's my day off so maybe I'll surprise Peter and actually cook. Real Food.

Telemarketer's Suck!

We didn't have our new phone number for more than 3 hours when the phone rang. When I checked the caller ID it was an 800 number. Sheesh! Nobody but me, the phone guy, and the phone company had the number and ALREADY we had a telemarketer calling.

Erg!

Note to anyone trying to reach us: It's best to use our cell/mobile. The only people who call us on the landline are our moms...and sometimes we avoid those..hehe. Especially when they call early in the morning. Sorry moms! No calls before 7 am! haha.

We're IN!

Yay! We're finally moved in...and we have our internet/cable/phone connected. The new place is pre-wired with a fiber optic network which I don't really know much about except that now our internet connection is SUPER fast!

Moving was a pain...especially in this heat (110 today!..oh..mah...gah). I finally got the old house all clean today with the help of a cleaning service. I was planning on cleaning the place myself but we got thrown off schedule when the movers cancelled on us this weekend. They had to reschedule at the last minute (literally, just 10 minutes before they were scheduled to show up) They didn't show up until Monday and they gave us a discount for their scheduling snafu. I was still going to try to clean the place up myself but Peter had the sense to hire someone to help me out and I'm glad he did. The last of our things will be outta there by tomorrow..we have about one box full of doo dads and random things found in drawers, closets, and cabinets (I finally found all of Lauren's hair clips)

I've been off from work for almost a week but I feel like I haven't been spending enough time with Lauren with all the packing, unpacking, cleaning, and emergency trips to Target. I have one more day off tomorrow and I'm going to spend it at home with the baby and I'm going to relax for the first time in about a month. I'll tackle that garage full of boxes next week.

Happy 4th!

We spent most of the 4th of July moving. We took a break for an impromptu barbecue (on the Foreman Grill) and invited my mom and sister for some burgers and dogs. Oh, and as the governator requested, we refrained from setting off fireworks and settled for a tame box of sparklers for Lauren's first Independence Day.

Uncle Chris didn't want to help us move either....

Home

We've officially moved into the new house. It's official because we slept here last night. Our bed is still at the old place so we laid down layers of comforters to sleep on. Lauren didn't seem to mind and she slept through most of the night. We've been staying downstairs and I occasionally forget that there is an upstairs. I have to get used to the unfamiliar sound of Peter stomping up the stairs and tramping around the tiled master bathroom, who knew he had such heavy feet? I didn't sleep too well last night, I just couldn't get comfortable. I asked Peter, when and how exactly does a house become a home?

Our house is big. Maybe I should rephrase that. Our house is big, compared to our old place. We have an extra 1516 square feet to fill. Friends and family congratulate us and say how nice it must be to be in a big house, how exciting to decorate, how much fun Lauren will have running around in it, etc. etc.


Truthfully, I'm a bit terrified. Until now, we have been living in our cozy little 2 bedroom "apartment." We had rose bushes out front and a concrete patio out back. We bought the house because it required as little maintenance as possible. We didn't have a dining room, just a little nook with an old dinette table paired with chairs purchased from Target. We didn't own any REAL furniture, the whole place was filled with hand me downs and loaners. It was our first home..Lauren's first home. Where she first crawled then walked up and down our lone hallway. Where she maneuvered skillfully around the bed/desk/tv in our tiny master bedroom. When she giggled or cried in the nursery, I could hear her in the living room. If Peter farted in the kitchen, I could smell it in the bedroom. It was a small place. And we were happy.

Now, we are in this big empty new house. When I'm in the kitchen, Lauren could be exploring the kitchen cabinets at my feet one moment, and around the corner out of sight the next, most likely heading up the stairs--we had to install a baby gate for her protection. When I'm in the family room I can barely hear her cry when she wakes up from her naps. How much time and effort is it going to take to clean this place? Sometimes I stare out the vast expanse of space and worry that we won't be able to afford to furnish it. One of our favorite things to do is entertain our friends and family. How can we have people over if there's nowhere to sit?

I'm not at ease in the new kitchen with its hard, polished granite and the shiny, fingerprint-free stainless steel appliances. It's beautiful, but I'm afraid to mess it up. Will I be able to enjoy cooking and baking or will I constantly be fretting about scratching the stove top? I think I just need to get that first spill, the first stain, the first scratch out of the way. Once that's done I can relax. Then I can fling a knife into the stainless steel sink with abandon without worrying about ruining the finish.

I'm already missing our old home.


Oh, shut up, you say? What am I complaining about? I should be grateful! I am, believe me, extremely. I'm thankful that we have a beautiful house to live in. Thankful that our parents helped us out so that we can afford a place like this. I'm just saying that I could live without it. That all this is great, but I was just as happy in our tiny little home with the rose bushes.

This afternoon, I had to find a quiet place to nurse. I settled into the corner of the bedroom and sat cross-legged on the floor with Lauren cradled in my arms. My voice echoed in the empty room as I sang her favorite songs. She eventually fell asleep while nursing; rubbing the soft material of my t shirt between her thumb and index finger. And you know what? For the first time, it felt like Home.