My Theme Song

Thanks Vicki for the link to this quiz. I think it TOTALLY fits. In fact, I used to blast this song in my car first thing on my way to work. EVERY MORNING. It helped me get through my trafficky commute and put me in a good mood for the day. Sickeningly optimistic, aren't I? hahaha...

Your Theme Song is Beautiful Day by U2

"Sky falls, you feel like It's a beautiful day Don't let it get away" You see the beauty in life, especially in ordinary everyday moments. And if you're feeling down, even that seems a little beautiful too.

What's Your Theme Song?

Nursery Re-do

When we moved into the new house we decided to redo Lauren's room. She's a Big Girl now so we thought her room should reflect that. Here's what her room looked like at the old house.

Until she gets her Big Girl Bed (maybe next year?) her room is more of a changing room and a playroom. We moved her crib in our room. I always ended up bringing her into bed with us during her night wakings anyway so it was much more convenient to have her close by. We tried to stay away from the licensed characters and the girly-girl decor so we came up with a Childrens Books theme.

Actual pages from a collection of Beatrix Potter books that I found at a used book store.
It goes along with this keepsake cup/saucer/bowl set that Lauren received as a gift when she was born.

Winnie the Pooh (not the Disney-fied version, I found this vintage (1970) set of Winnie the Pooh books at an antique shop). The stuffed Winnie is a gift from one of my baby showers.

I made a mobile out of Good Night Moon using a photo mobile with alligator clips at the ends which are supposed to attach photos or postcards. The hospital gave us this copy of Goodnight Moon when she was born.

I cut up the book jacket to create this grouping from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. (Thanks to Uncle Ed..she LOVES this book!)


This was one of my favorite series of books when I was a kid. I hope Lauren likes it too.


I got these cool decals from Target. I placed them halfway up the wall along all four walls of her room. I liked them because the colors weren't too girly and not too bright either...sort of muted primary colors.

I got this artwork from Etsy (a great website were people sell their handcrafted items) This series of prints features mommy and baby animals.

This cubbyhole shelf used to hold shoes! I cleaned it well and re-purposed it to hold her friends.



Here's the little miss enjoying her room. This furniture came FREE! Thanks to my boss whose little girl was also getting a room makeover. I put her books on the bottom shelf so she can have easy access. That boombox has her favorite CD in it: Jack Johnson's Curious George soundtrack.

I'm still on the lookout for other books and will keep adding to it as she gets older. Peter wanted to put up Lord of the Ring's stuff ("it's for kids, there was a cartoon!")...I'll have to think about that. What I love about this room that it was done on the cheap! Most of it was created out of her actual books or used books. Also, the furniture was free and the rest were gifts. The only thing that I bought new were the decals and the artwork.

Happy and Sad Tag

I got this from Vicki

Here are the Rules:

1. List the things that make you Happy and those that make you Sad.

2. Add your Blog to the list. Feel free to add all your other Blogs.

3. Tag other online friends you know.Toni’s Attachments, Cecile2’s-Small and Simple Things, Lara’s Pinay dot US, Lara’s My Blog Entry, Lara’s Byaheng Pinay, Living A’ La Mode, Bits and Pieces, My Life in this Wonderful World, My Online World, Ozzy’s Mom, Me,Myself+2, Kidd Designs, Fun|Fierce|Fabulous, Eds Mommy Life, Just Me.. Eds, My Precious Niche, I Am Mommy, All About The Memories, Enchanted Play, Just My Scrap, My life is Peachy , Celebrating life , belly, baby and beyond, All Things Me, Feels Like Home, A Day of Play, Because Life is Fun, Tints of My Heart, My BIG Picture, Tailgater Network, Merger Guru, Beauty and Madness Wordpress, Beauty and Madness, Feeding my Baby, A Taste of Married Life, Random Rants of a Starter Mom, SliceofPizzaPie

What Makes Me Happy?

~My baby girl. Just thinking about her makes me happy.

~ My husband.

~ Faith.

~ My Family and knowing they are always there for me and I can count on them for anything

~ When I come home from work and Lauren is so happy to see me that she starts sqealing or running towards me.

~Gene Kelly Movies

~Sleep (Extra happy when sleeping in on a rainy day)

~ A good bowl of soup

~ Chips and salsa

~ Getting out of work 20 minutes early

~ Buying new school supplies (even though I'm no longer in school)

~ Finding cute shoes that fit my big feet (can you believe Size 11 after pregnancy?!?!)

~ Having a laugh with friends.

~ Slobbery baby kisses.

~ Chicken Adobo with a fried egg on top.

~ The 1st of every month (aka Payday)

What Makes Me Sad?

~When I have to work instead of hanging out with my baby.

~Feeling helpless when others are suffering, especially sick babies and children.

~Thinking about how much I miss my dad.

~Bad spelling (It doesn't make me sad...but it sure irritates the heck outta me)

~ When bad things happen to good people

~ When people don't get what they deserve (When they deserve something good, that is)

~ Wastefulness

~ Indifference

~ The 15th of every month (when most bills are due)

~Filling up my gas tank.

I tag: Moosh, Shazbomb

Post-Dated Posts

I've been so busy that I've fallen behind on my posts. Peter tried to convince me not to blog and to watch Olympics with him instead. I told him that I needed to write stuff down before I forgot all about the exciting things that happened for her birthday since this blog also serves as my own personal scrapbook and the closest thing I have to a baby book for Lauren.

I've posting blogs from the last week and half and forgive me for cheating on the dates...I've really only written them the last 2 nights.

On an Olympic note: Have you guys ever watched speed walking? I think it looks SOOO silly. I couldn't help laughing..their legs look rubber and their hips swing unnaturally from side to side. What's even sillier is watching MEN'S speed walking.

What's up Doc, 1 year appt.

I swear this girl has a good memory! As soon as we walked into the exam room started crying. That place does not carry good memories for her. They are mostly of her being poked, weighed, stripped nekkid, and almost always ended with shots or a prick on the finger.

Her poor doc could not console her and she clung to me the whole time. She screamed while being weighed and screamed louder after getting her shots. Her doc says she's progressing along her curve...but the curve at the 25th percentile. He says she looks great, just on the small side. He suggested giving her Pediasure to supplement and give her extra calories. He wants to keep an eye on her legs though because I have a history of having leg and foot problems (I was severely pigeon-toed as a child and had to have my legs in casts and slept in a leg brace until I was 3 or 4). So far she's not exhibiting any signs and he says her walking/running looks normal. Also, the synnovial cyst on her wrist is gone..or at least it is a lot smaller.

Her stats:
Weight: 18 lbs
Head Circumference: 43.5
Length: 26 inches
Vaccinations: HIB, Chicken Pox, TB

I carried her while he gave her shots so after a couple of screams she was quiet again and sniffling in my arms. She was fine the rest of the day and showed no signs of fever or irritability.

Oh, and I can feed her regular milk now...no more 25$ per can formula! She only wants to nurse once a day, right before bed or if she wakes up in the middle of the night so formula has gotten to be a big chunk of our grocery budget.

No more shots for another 3 months!

Birthday Cakes

I thought her Birthday Cakes deserved their own post...

I had so much fun making them...I went through a cake decorating phase in college and even though I haven't done much of it since I had all the tools. When we started planning Lauren's party I knew I wanted to make her cake...but what to do?

I wasn't very good at decorating in the first place..it was a short lived phase and I never got past making iced roses..and those looked more like tulips than roses. I just didn't have the time or patience to hone my skills. So when deciding on a design, I knew it had to be simple.

My original thought was to make a cupcake using a pan from Williams-Sonoma that is actually shaped like a cupcake. The pan has two sides; the bottom of the cupcake, or the stump and then the top swirly frosting part. After baking all you have to do was pop out the two halves and frost the top swirly part. My plan was to order a regular sheet cake and then put the cupcake on top of it (using dowels for support because it was actually pretty heavy).

I made a first attempt a week prior to her birthday just to try it out since I had to bring a dessert to the church potluck. Unfortunately, I didn't have the right proportions of batter in the mix and the stump ended up being too short. So the whole thing ended up looking like a turd.

Turd Cake

(I joked that I should frost it with chocolate frosting and sprinkle it with kernels of corn.)

A few days before her bday, I came upon an adorable but more complicated design. It was a layered tower of cakes assembled to look like one huge birthday candle. It was perfect for her first birthday! The original had six 6" round layers and each layer was covered in fondant of a different color (pastels). I changed the design a bit and instead of using fondant I used regular white whipped frosting and multi colored large confetti sprinkles. I made the cakes 2 days ahead and kept them in the fridge and assembled/frosted/decorated them on the morning of the party. It was a little scary transferring it onto her sheet cake but it was stable enough with the dowels and the supports that I inserted. It wasn't perfect and I really need to learn how to make the frosting smoother..oh, and it was leaning a little too. All in all, though I think it turned out pretty cute.

The candle-cake is Funfetti (white cake with sprinkles) and whipped vanilla frosting. The sheet cake was chocolate with chocolate mousse filling and buttercream frosting.

I still made the original cupcake idea I had as a backup plan in case the candle cake didn't work out. It actually turned out really cute and I'll probably make it again for another party...it was soo easy..especially since I used cake mix.

Funfetti cake with strawberry frosting.

This whole experience has whetted my appetite for cake decorating again. I've got all the tools, I might as well. I think I'll sign up for a class.

Big Birthday Bash

Peter and I threw our first kids' party...and we survived! Barely.

Lauren had her first birthday last Saturday, the 16th and besides being her first birthday, we celebrated her Dedication and also it was a house-warming of sorts. It wasn't an official housewarming as we didn't want people to feel pressured to bring a housewarming gift, but it was the debut of our new place to most of our family and friends. So, aside from getting all the birthday stuff ready, we wanted to make sure the house looked great.

We don't have much furniture yet so we ended up renting some tables and chairs to seat the 50+ guests. It all worked out great. I decorated the tables with white tablecloths and bright colored flowers. I also created a centerpiece of framed pictures of Lauren taken monthly throught the year starting with her 1 day old portrait . Everyone loved seeing the changes as she grew from month to month.

The kids had fun decorating pencil boxes, party hats, crowns, and silly sunglasses while the adults mingled and ate. They also enjoyed face painting and balloon animals thanks to my talented niece and sister. The kids even braved the 100 degree heat to jump around in the bouncy house in the backyard.

Oh, and the FOOD! There was Hawaiian BBQ chicken, Korean-style short ribs, Paella, mini-quiches and the Filipino standards pancit, Kare Kare, Pancit Palabok, Lumpia, and my mom's specialty Chicken Relleno. For dessert we had Cake and a variety of yummy Filipino sweets: Cuchinta, Puto, Cassava, Buko Pandan Salad. Everything was delicious and I can't believe we had enough food to feed what ended up being 71 guests! I don't know how it is in other cultures, but a Filipino kids' party, is never JUST a kids' party. EVERYONE'S invited, especially for the first birthday. There were kids...about 18 of them, but there were 53 adults too. Not all at one time, though since "Filipino Time" was in effect and even though the party started at 2, guests were expected to arrive until 8 p.m.

Lauren had a blast and looked adorable in her party dress. Thanks to everyone who helped out prepping for the party. A special thanks to my niece Tobey for helping with the kids' activities and helping the littler ones with their crafts.