Meet Brianna!

Bella 2nd Birthday Party!

So another birthday has past! As Mark mentioned, Bella was sick on her birthday, a little better for her party, but still definitely not in her usual playful mood. We had her party at Pump It Up, mostly Mark's idea so he can play in the moonwalks. It was a fun party. My brother and family flew in from Pennsylvania, and little Andrew and his parents came in from Wisconsin/Minnesota border for the party... thanks guys! Here's the link to the pictures on shutterfly. I still can't believe how fast her birthday snuck up on us. Having a birthday so close to the holidays is a little stressful, you forget lots of things, and then with her being sick it just added more stress since I had to not go to work for several days since she wouldn't sleep with Mark anymore and she wasn't getting adequate rests.
Anyways, now she's better, the party is over, and so are the holidays, now we are on baby watch 2008. The month of February should be a quiet month. We'll just be getting the house ready for the baby, and working on Bella's potty training (which she's pushing us to teach her, since I don't really want her potty trained yet due to my public washroom phobia).

Baaby Looove

So, this has been a pretty busy week. Bella officially entered the Terrible Two Zone on Tuesday. Tracy and I took the day off to spend the day with our little booger. We planned to go to the Children's Museum in Glenview, but Bella woke up with a fever and was coughing non stop. So we called her pediatrician and with her party on Saturday, we wanted her to be 100%, so we brought her in to find out what was up with her. She ended up having an ear infection. Nothing serious.

Friday, January 18 proved to be Bella's first appearance on the evening news. Since we don't know who's in fact reading this blog, if you're interested in seeing Bella on the news, email either myself or Tracy and we'll give you the details.

Too many toys!

Thanks to Grandpa Marvin, Ninong Gil, Mommy Lu, and Daddy for fixing our playroom! Last weekend we finally painted the room. We used chalkboard paint on the bottom half of the wall. Haven't tried to write on it yet, actually don't want to show her her until we fixed up the room completely. Managed to fit most of her toys in there, but not all. TOO MANY TOYS!!! And just when I thought she was done certain toys and ready to pack them up, she shows interests in them so we keep them out.


Uncle Tom and Ninang Maito gave Bella the rose petal cottage for Christmas. Bella loves it!

Mark and I worked on assembling all of Bella's new toys from x-mas and her birthday (we decided to let her open her kitchen early so that we can fill her room up). This is probably the only time Mark will ever do any plumbing work (yes, on Bella's pink kitchen sink).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

So our New Year's Eve started at Mark's parents house for dinner, but we had to leave so I could go to work where Mark and Bella stayed with me all night long! Was an interesting night, Mark was really sleepy, and Bella was really not. She walked around like she owned the place and wanted to touch everything! She made a tower using the pregnany test boxes, she played with the Thomas the Train vitamins by lining them up in a straight line (which totally shows that she's a mini-Little Tom), and my favorite activity of the night was her reading books. She can really say real words. She learned pizza, carrot, bananana (pronounced "nana"), sandwich, etc. Anyways, at least we were together on NYE. Mark's great news is that he finally broke down and bought a PS3 for the New Year. So he's currently playing that.
Anyways, hope everyone has a wonderful year 2008! Lots of new things happening this coming year with Bella moving up a grade in school next week (time for potty training), the birth of Brianna, couple of trips already being planned (2 Las Vegas trips this year maybe-hopefully so I can run the half marathon that KK ran this year- and 1 Hawaii trip), and hopefully me finally deciding if I should go part-time or stay full-time (I can't make up my mind). With each year, it's fun watching the kids grow older. I just realized that I'm addicted to my daughter and all my nieces and my one nephew. Ashley is growing up so fast, with an amazing fashion sense accessorized with her iPhone (WOW!!!), her huge collection of tv shows on her iPod, and her awesome soccer skills. Maxine continues to amaze me with all the skating competitions that she wins, all the performances she sings her heart out at, her awesome piano skills (she can almost play like me... almost :)), and on top of that she manages to keep straight As. Kayley, or shall I say Sr. Kayley, is always dressed so fashionably from head to toe, she definitely knows what she wants and doesn't want, when she says her prayers, she really says ALL of them, she LOVES her baby Bella, and her newly discovered talent is that she's SO CUTE when she ice skates!!! I hope she keeps it up, that's her sport. She performed the other day, and she did all her moves by herself, even with the large audience staring at her and the spotlight on her. She's come a long way!!! And finally my Little Tom. Little Tom is exactly what his name is... a Little Tom (Tom my brother). Looks like him and acts like him. Very focused, and hates when his focus is broken (as little Tom told Bella the other day, "Bella, you have to focus!!!). He builds these towers, and lines up his toys in just the perfect way. With him and Bella only a year and a half apart it'll be a blast watching them grow up together. They have this love/hate relationship that's hilarious. There was one point last week when little Tom was doing his usual, "No Bella, don't play with my toys", and Bella got fed up and snapped right back at him in her alien baby language... but they seem to understand eachother. I can't wait to see more from this little guy. He too also skates very well, especially since he's only 3 years old! And one thing I love about little Tom is that he's Grandpa's boy, what a good boy when Grandpa's around.
Anyways, I can't wait to see what greatness will be brought to these fantastic kids this year. Happy New Year again!!!

Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We've had a busy holiday so far. Unfortunately, I'm back at work this week, even on New Years Eve (so sad!). Our Christmas was so much fun and relaxing! We drove to my brother's place in Pennsylvania to spend a week with them. It was nice seeing them and playing with the kids (however, Little Tom did try and send Bella home a few times in the beginning, but eventually they became best of friends).

Grandpa Tom followed a couple days later, so we were all together Christmas Eve and day. We went and saw Santa, which turned out well since Bella was sleeping so she just laid in Santa's arms.

We went to x-mas eve mass, which is interesting with Bella and Little Tom... surprisingly Little Tom was setting the better example, what a behaved boy when Grandpa is around! Then we went home when Maxine saw that Santa arrived!!! YEAH!!! We dressed the kids in matching pajamas and opened presents!

Bella opened each of her presents and before even knowing what it was she would scream, "Oh WOW!!!" We then ended the night with my first batch of leche flan, turned out ok.




The next day we went to take Bella to her first time on the ice!!! She LOVED IT!!! Thanks to Uncle Tom, the only other adult skater next to me in both of our familes, who took Bella out for her first time since I can't skate in my current condition. When we saw that Bella was tired, we took her off the ice, but she threw a fit and went back onto the ice. So she really LOVES it!!!
Anyways, will add more photos sometime. In the meantime, HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!!! Should be a great 2008! Also, congratulations to all our newly engaged friends: Carmela and Brian, Girlie and Tony, Edwin and Jenny, and Kevin and Monica!!! We're SO excited for you guys! Will be an exciting year for you guys!!!

Maxine's Ice Show

Happy to be home!

So yesterday morning, I woke up with extremely sharp abdominal pains that wouldn't go away. After waiting about an hour and a half, I finally called the doctor who said to go to the hospital to get monitored just to make sure the baby was alright, etc. On the way there, got sicker, and not to mention the pain got worse probably cuz I was scared and Mark looked scared. When I got there, I had all these flashbacks of being pregnant with Bella. From 7 months and on, I had to go get monitored twice a week at the hospital because Bella didn't move. I was hoping this pregnancy would be different since this baby seems to be moving alot. But sure enough, my kids love dragging their mommy to the hospital, and this one seems to want to start earlier at 6 months. Anyways, after getting monitored, ultrasound, blood tests, and 2 bags of IV, turns out that Bella may have spread some G.I. cooties from school to her mommy. Thank goodness, I honestly was worried about pre-term labor, I swear those pains sure felt like I was in labor. Anyways, feeling better now, still weak and tired, and planning to sleep all day. Luckily, Mark's parents took Bella last night so Mark and I could rest, we were exhausted!!! I'm just happy to be home!!!

The Ice Skates have arrived!!!

I'm so excited! Her first pair of ice skates arrived just now! So here are some pictures of the skates. They're double bladed for her to balance... made for babies.

1st Roller Skates

So with Bella's first pair of ice skates arriving soon, I thought it would be a good idea to practice on carpet first. Mark and I bought her her first pair of roller skates!

She did pretty well walking around with them, she lost her balance a couple times and one time she fell and Mark and I just wanted to see if she could figure out how to get up on her own. She tried a couple of times, but decided to just take a little nap instead. As shown in this picture:

Grandpa came over later on that day and Bella showed off her skills. We put on her helmet, because she was trying to venture off into the kitchen where if she fell would not be as nice a landing as the carpet.

I think we'll have a little Michelle Kwan pretty soon. The skating skill definitely runs on both sides of the family with Maxine winning 6 gold medals in her most recent competition a few weeks ago, and Ashley winning her first gold medal over Thanksgiving during her very first competition... go girls!!!

Bella's First Haircut... FINALLY!!!

So our little baldy finally grew hair... after almost 2 years!!!

It was definitely time for a haircut. I think I had a hard time parting with her first head of hair, and finally after cancelling a couple of appointments we finally got her haircut this past Friday!!! My biggest concern was that she would try and move around and get out the chair, but to our surprise, what a behaved kid! Olivia cut her hair, she actually cuts Mark hair every 2 weeks, and mine maybe a couple times a year. So luckily Bella was pretty comfortable with her and the salon. Just like a haircut pro, Bella grabbed a magazine, sat down in the chair, and just read while she got her haircut. Of course I was taking a million pictures, Mark and Grandma both had their video cameras, and Grandpa Marvin made sure Bella didn't fall out her seat. And yes, I did save the first snip of hair, just like I saved the cord, and her first nail cut.

And here's the final product!!!

Bella's current vocabulary

Bella has been talking alot lately. She's putting more sentences together, and definitely understanding and following our instructions. So here's a list of some of her words and their meaning:
- Mama : does not mean mommy, but anything she doesn't know how to pronouce but wants
- Mommy: yes that's me!!!
- Daddy: pronounced with a lazy "y"
- Sami: our dog
- Sami go: for Sami to go away, and she points to a direction for Sami to follow
- Grandpa: means both my dad and Mark's dad
- Ashley: sounds like "shly", means Ashley or Kayley
- Einstein: to watch her favorite cartoon Little Einstein
- Please: lately sounding more like cheese, but she does sign language for please
- Thank you: so polite!
- More: she wants more, and she does this in sign language also
- Bye Bye: especially when she see me put my work coat on, she knows already
- Bless you: after someone sneezes or coughs
- Milk: emphasizing the "k" sound
- Book: her favorite books are Wiggles and the alphabet books from Ninang Maito
- Book please: when Mark and I are too tired to read, but she tries to wake us up
- Nose, Ears, Eyes, Toes: she also can point to her head, shoulder, knees, and belly when asked
- Apples: when she wants grapes
- Baby: also knows in sign lanuage, and also kisses my stomach when I ask her to kiss the baby.
- Mine, no mine: the beginning of the terrible two phase
- There's a bunch more, but this is enough to share.

Snow, snow, go away!

At least until Thursday morning when I'm finished with my week on work. I feel WAY TOO PREGNANT to deal with snow. I don't mind snow this weekend, where Mark, Bella, and I can just cuddle and do absolutely nothing! Plus I'd like to break-in Bella's new snowsuit and the sled I didn't use that we bought last year!

I wish I was back in Bora Bora, Tahiti...



a girl can dream...

Our family trip to Hawaii BETTER work out!!!

Thanksgiving and Las Vegas

So here are our pictures so far. I'll just post them for now. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving pictures

Las Vegas Pictures updated

Smarty Pants!

So all this craziness we've been going through at home is paying off. Mark got an A in his first class! YEAH!!! We're still waiting for one more grade. He's off to a great start and his four girls (yes, includes Sami) are very VERY VERY proud of him.

And news about our other student, yes that's Bella! Yesterday we had a parent-teacher conference with her teacher Vicky. Bella is doing very well in school. She's up to level verbally and advanced motor-wise, and is a VERY HAPPY KID (which we all know :)) She shows empathy towards her peers (she even helps tuck all the babies into their cots during nap time!). She will be transitioning up another class in January, which will begin potty training (which I am not excited about since I don't want to bring her into public washrooms eventually). Her teacher made her a litle scrapbook of their summer activities, so cute! I wish I could be that creative, but scrapbooking is way too expensive and there's not enough time. Anyways, Mark and I are thrilled with Bella's review.

At least now we can relax a little. We have a couple of trips coming up, Thanksgiving tomorrow (although I am working the night) but hopefully I can wake up and make some kind of Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow, but we'll see. SO SLEEPY since it's my week on work. We have started x-mas shopping already. I'm thrilled to say that we've finished shopping at ToysRuUs for the holiday, so we don't have to go into that store anymore, what a headache! I'm really looking forward to X-mas. We're buying Bella baby ice skates (they have 2 blades so she can balance). Hopefully, Uncle Tom will be able to take Bella onto the ice with Kuya Little Tom. Unfortunately, I can't take her out because of the pregnancy, and Mark can barely hold himself up on the ice. We did buy her snowsuit and boots, so we're ready for the snow! This should be a really fun winter!

Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Update pictures

Ok, so I've been behind with my pictures. Now I'm happy to say that all my photo albums are now up to date, and I'm finally finding time to download to shutterfly. So here's the first set of pictures. These are from labor day weekend when our friends from Wisconsin visited with their son Andrew. Stela came over to play with Bella and Andrew. We ate at Wildfire for dinner, went to the Kohls's Children Museum, get the three kids to take a picture together at the studio (I'll try to post that one day, I need to scan it), then had the kids just play and hang out at home. After they left, we went to Arlington and Mark won his first bet!
PICTURES FROM LABOR DAY WEEKEND.
Here are the pictures from October. We visited Tom and family and then there was Halloween.
I know, my pictures are blurry, I still haven't figured out how to take pictures in low light and with a speedy little girl. My pictures will get better, I promise.

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Yesterday we found out that Bella is going to have a little sister!!! We were going to name her Charlotte Rose, but Mark wants to change it. So our new name for the baby will be... drum roll please............... Brianna Rose! Her nickname will be Bria. So I think it flows nicely with Bella, becuase when I scold them when they are old, I can say... "Bella and Bria, you behave!", flows nicely, right?

My husband is so smart!

So did I mention that our family is super stressed lately? Lots of new things going on. Mark started his part-time MBA program at DePaul this fall, along with working full time. I still work full time, along with waiting for the new baby to arrive, too many things to prepare!!! And then our dear Bella is WILD woman! Well this morning, Mark got his grade for his first assignment in one of his classes which is worth 20% of his grade. He got an A+!!! My husband is so smart! I'm so proud of him, it makes all this stress that we've been feeling pay off!!!

PS... we are going to find out the sex of the baby on saturday... shhhh...

Didier Farm 2007

So as I mentioned earlier, we went to Didier Farm for Miko's birthday party. Here are the PICTURES.

Bears Game

So a couple of weekends ago, we went to the Bears Game. Bella's first game! We had awesome seats, 3 rows behind the Bears. Bella was so good during the game. She cheered (even the for the other team) and she was yelling, "GO GO GO!!!". She also sat down by herself in her own seat at times. She's such a trooper, Bella stayed awake the whole game!
Chilling with Grandpa and a nice cold bottle of milk! What a life!


So here are the pictures:
Pictures from Bears Game


This past weekend we celebrated Ashley's cousin's birthday at Didier Farm. Bella rode a train for the first time! I was worried she would try and stand up and jump out since she can't sit still normally, but Ate Kayley had a good grip on her. We did the hayride to the pumpkin patch and got to pick our pumpkin. Then we took pictures everywhere.
Other than that, I am past the first trimester now! This pregnancy is definitely different than the last one. I feel more tired and nauseous with this one, but not as bad as other women have it. My body is always sore, especially when it's my week to work. It's definitely getting harder to work overnight by myself running around from the in-window to the drive-thru. I've had lots of crazy cravings, the grossest but yummiest for me was dipping my apples in fish sauce! Yummy :)
Anyways, will post the Didier pictures soon!