Bella can write!

So today I was testing Bella. I was asking her about shapes by drawing them on the paper and saying "what shape?". Anyways, she knows her hearts, circle, star, triangle (apparently her favorite shape), and the square (which she still has a little bit of a hard time with). So she took the pen from me, then drew a perfect circle and then looked at me and said, "what shape daddy?" (by the way, this is Tracy writing this entry). What a smart cookie... which is also a circle!
Since Bella has been so motor-focused for most of her life, we are finally getting her non-motor skills. She has this book (kind of like a Where's Waldo) but it's Nemo characters. She's pretty good at locating and matching the items. It's funny, because when you give her instructions, it doesn't seem like she undertands, then she goes and performs what is asked of her.

As for Ms. Brianna, she is growing, growing, growing! Definitely more independent than Bella. She sleeps alone (Bella stopped sleeping with us, but now is back with us) and she sucks her thumb (Bella uses a paci). She does sit ups now, trying to get up into a sitting position. Always smiling and laughing. She's not scared of her Ate Bella anymore, even though Ate Bella still doesn't know her own strength. In fact, Bria seems to enjoy when Ate Bella is near her now.

So that's our updates on the kids for now. Mark and I are just working, sleeping, playing with the kids. I personally had one of the toughest weeks at work this past week and glad it's finally over. Lots of thing to do on our schedule, lots of people to see, and lots of weddings coming up!

Our Future Home... maybe...

Ok, so Mark and I have been talking about renovating or tearing down our current home and building another one on this lot. We've been wanting to do this for awhile, but never sure when it's a good time. Although, we still are looking around at houses around the area, we found a builder that has these model homes, and one in particular that fits our exact lot that we LOVE!
So if we go with this builder, here are the pictures of what our new house could look like...
The house model is named Nichole Christine home, just in case you wondered why the album is named after her.

NEW HOUSE PICTURES!

Brianna's Baptism

I am so behind with my pictures. My annoying computers are getting to slow on me, my patience is running very very very thin. Anyways, Bria was baptized on May 4, 2008. We had a small family and godparents gathering. But of course, since Mark's family is HUGE, small means about 100 guests. Fr. Adam performed the ceremony and the following are Brianna's godparents: Ate Joy, Klodi, Alti, Tom, Jay, and Bernard. Bria was such a good baby and she didn't cry at all! Bella was her usual crazy self. She was wearing her Cinderella underwear and before the ceremony began, she pulls up her dress and points to her Cinderella underwear and say "Look it, Cind-ella! Look it!" I wish I had that moment on video, classic. The dinner was at Buca di Beppo.
So here are all 500 pictures. The pictures come from a bunch of different cameras that's why alot of the pictures look the same.

Baptism Pictures Part 1

Baptism Pictures Part 2

Enjoy!

Growing up too fast!

The following was on a Father's Day Present that Bella had made at school. The present was a frame with her single handprint with the following words:

Everyday I am exploring
Touching everything I’ve found
I leave behind my little marks
And handprints all around

You clean up those handprints
But someday when I’m grown
You’ll wish you had just one
Handprint to keep for your own

I made the handprint for you
So that one day when I am tall
You’ll remember what my hand looked like
Long ago when I was small

Mark wanted me too post this. This is SO true. So far this summer, we're trying to enjoy the outdoors more and do more activities with Bella. I feel like the months I was pregnant, my energy level zoomed way down and so did our activities with Bella. We only hung out at the malls and ran around doing errands and errands and errands. But now that Bria is finally here, and during my off weeks, we are trying to do more family fun things with the 4 of us, and with the grandparents. Bella is growing up so fast, and we blink and miss SO many moments. It makes me sad how fast she's growing up. I just wanna keep her my baby forever, but they gotta grow and do their thing.

Little Tom Hip Hop Dance

Just had to share this video. Isn't LT cute?

CLICK HERE!

May Pictures... again, FINALLY!

So this past May was super busy. We started with Bria's baptism, where Tom and family came into town for it. Every weekend in May had some kind of event, from first communion parties, wedding showers, birthday parties (both Grandpas, Kayley, and Talia), Mother's Day, and we took Bria for her first of a million road trips to Pennsylvania (so that means tax-free shopping at the outlet store!). And finally after 9 weeks off from work, I had to go back. So sad. I think I cried the whole week before. It's SO hard to leave the girls, even if it's only at night.
Bella updates: She's still a fantastic and loving BIG sister! Loves Bria so so so much, always kissing and hugging her (to the point that irritates Bria). Potty training is on temporary hold (still don't really want to do it, but Bella does keep taking off her diaper so we really should work more consistently on it). Toddler bed is a success! I bought a Cinderella bed (which she LOVES, even though she's never seen the movie). So she does sleep there through the night by herself, but of course we are still in the same room (I'd miss her too much).
Bria updates: She's cooing and laughing now! Just had her 2 month check-up and she is now 11 lbs 15 ounces. She sleeps through the night (we were lucky with both girls sleeping through the night early on in their lives). It's fun watching how much Bria changes day to day. She definitely is starting to develop more unique features and is no longer looking so much like her Ate Bella.
Anyways, here are all my May pictures. They come in 2 parts. ENjoy!

May Pictures Part 1
May Pictures Part 2

Getting organized... FINALLY!

So I've been trying to catch up on the girls picture albums and scrapbooks and stuff. Hopefully will get a chance to make my wedding scrapbook before I go back to work, but unlikely. I've decided to move to photobooks instead of the photo albums I've always used. They take up less space and make it more fun to look at. So the past few days I've been organizing my shutterfly albums, pretty much putting the pictures in order, etc.
I'm not even sure if I've posted these pictures already, but I'm way to lazy to check. So here a few links so far:
PICTURES from Bella 2nd Bday Party
PICTURES from Brianna Rose's Arrival and First Week
PICTURES from January-February-March 2008
Pictures from April 2008

Still to come are Baptism pictures, but probably won't be for awhile because still gathering from everyone's cameras. If you have any baptism pictures you'd like to share, please e-mail or download on shutterfly and send me a link. Thanks everyone!

Growing So Fast!

We had Bria's one month check-up this past Saturday. She gained 3 lbs the first month! She is now 10 lbs and 6 ounces!!! WHOA!!!

So here is a current picture, I'll update more after this weekend. The gang from Pennsylvania is coming in for Bria's baptism. So getting everything ready. Lots to do!

Our Silly Girls

Our Little Girls

Mellow Yellow

Click here for pictures!
So, everything went pretty well at the hospital with one little set back on the day we were gonna be discharged. Brianna bilirubin levels were not where they should be at so we had to leave her there. Boy, we were SO SO SO SO sad. Anyways, we left the hospital on Sunday night, tried to stay as long as possible. They drew another blood level Monday morning and by 7AM we were given the ok to take her home! We go to the hospital by around 7:30am and fed her and took her home! YEAH!!!

First day home together went really well. Grandma stayed with us all day and Grandma/pa slept over should we have any problems. Mark and Bella and Bria went into the house and as I was walking in I just hear Bella laughing, then I see her hovering over the car seat on the ground and playing with Bria. Silly girl! She always wants to hold Bria by herself (a little scary), she's tried to feed her potato chips already, and she's even tried to breast feed Bria (she lifts up her own shirt and tried to move baby toward her chest). Here's a picture of my little tanner:

Brianna's Arrival - A Father's Point of View

I think I've contributed about less than a half percent of all the posts on this blog, but I wanted to share with everyone the arrival of my second daughter from my point of view.

We've been trying to get the house "Bria-ready" for the past month now and that meant getting some odds and ends things done at the house, such as seeing which of Bella's clothes we can reuse, getting the car seat ready for Bria, and doing things like installing (with the help of Mr. Handyman, aka my dad) the kids' new closet and hanging picture frames that we've accumulated over the years). So fast forward to Wednesday, March 19. I had a final at 6 PM so we're looking at less than 14 hours away from our scheduled delivery. We were scheduled to go in at 730 am on March 20, which meant checking in by 530 am to get the prep work done. Once the final was over and that stress complete, I head home around 9 PM to get ready for the home stretch. I come home and hear an emphatic "Daddy!!!" Instantly, Bella runs to me and gives her daddy a big hug and kiss. Since we had to get to the hospital by 530 am, we had to leave by the latest 430. We ended up not sleeping till about 1230 am because there was some last minute loads of laundry for the baby that we needed to get done.

So we drop off Bella at my parents will take Bella to the hospital to experience the arrival of being a big sister. Then we head to the hospital for the surgery. This was obviously different from Bella's birth. Bella was born via C-section as well, but that happened so fast - from the 31 hour labor by Tracy to the quick decision to go C-section. I was basically going from the delivery room to a pair of scrubs to the operating room in a short amount of time. This time, with everything scheduled, I had the mindset of what to expect and was able to mentally prepare for what was going to happen. I admit I was a little concerned of the possibilites of what could happen during surgery. Will Tracy and Bria be ok? So we check in around 545 am and Tracy gets monitored and prepped for the process. By about 645 am, Tracy's dad arrives with camera in hand and ready to preserve memories of the actual delivery. As we're waiting for the surgery, I can tell that Tracy was nervous and rightfully so. I tried cracking some jokes but they only seemed to crack a small chuckle out of her and nothing else. So around 715 am, my parents arrive with the little rascal Bella anticipating the arrival of the newest addition to the world.

So I get some scrubs to put on and get ready for the surgery. Tracy goes in ahead to get the anesthesia and the doctors also prepare for the surgery. I'm waiting with Tracy's dad and you can tell that we both were anxious, nervous, and excited. Then, we get the nod to go in. So, I enter the operating room and it's a fairly large room, well-lit, and I take a seat right next to Tracy's head, holding her hand, and trying to reassure her that everything will be ok. With my video camera around my neck and camera in hand, I felt like I was walking around Epcot in Disney World. 802 am was the official beginning of the surgery and 15 minutes later at 817 am, Brianna Rose Malvar Licudine introduced herself to the world with a loud cry. The nurses weighed her in at 7 lbs. 10 oz and at 19.5 inches. After I cut the cord and after they cleaned her up, the nurses showed Bria to her wonderful, happy mother. Once Bria heard Tracy's voice, she opened her little bitty eyes as if to say, "Thank you, Mommy. I love you."

I went with the nurses to take Bria to the nursery where they pretty much performed all the necessary tests. Let me tell you, I was there for about half an hour and she cried for at least half the time. I then held my new bundle of joy and rocked her back and forth and started telling her about her family, about her proud parents, her mischievous big sister, her ready to spoil grandparents, her happy aunts, proud uncles and her excited cousins. I then checked in on Tracy and noticed that she was in a lot better shape than the first delivery. She was enjoying the delicious tastes of ice chips and asked me how Bria was doing. I showed her the pictures I've had taken so far and we both agreed that the little bandit Bria looks like the litte rascal Bella - though a lot louder.

I went outside to the waiting area to greet the newest big sister, Bella and my parents. We then went in and dropped our things off in room 424 and then proceeded to Tracy where Bria was. The first encounter between Bella and Bria - OK at best. Bella looked hesitant and cautious probably becuase Tracy was hooked up on wires or the fact that she was holding ANOTHER baby!! About fifteen minutes and a few ice chips (Bella has a thing for ice), Bella warmed up and even kissed Bria's head a couple of times and saying, "Breea" and sang a wonderful rendition of "Appy Birfday" to her little sister.

Needless to say, this process has gone really well. Bria is eating really well and Tracy's able to breastfeed and walk aroudn. Bella has all the signs of being a wonderful big sister. We want to thank everyone for all the well wishes and for visiting us in the hospital. It really means a lot to us. Here are a few pics so far:

Meet our newest baby girl, Brianna Rose!

Meet Brianna:
Born March 20 at 8:17am
7 lbs and 10 oz.
19.5 inches

Details to come, too tired to type!

We're officially scheduled!!!

I don't remember if I already mentioned this, but we found out last week that my doctor already scheduled my c-section for March 20, 2008 (Holy Thursday). So unless baby decides to come early (which I have been feeling a LOT of contractions lately), March 20 will be her birthday since the surgery should take less than an hour. I know I posted the date on Facebook, but then I realize the people who probably read this are not on facebook. We're all definitely exhausted, running around to work, up to 3 doctor appointments a week, and whatever else there is to do. Plus I haven't been driving anymore, so my poor husband and my dad have been working extra hard driving me here and there (so thank goodness I moved to a store closer to home!). And with all the doctor appointments and other things, Bella has been spending a lot of time with Grandma/pa and Ninong Gil and family. So thanks to everyone for all the support! I think if Mark and I are able to go for a third kid one day, I'll definitely have to stop working toward the end. Working a 10 hour shift, and driving out to the city for all my appointments right after the shift, is not healthy. I probably get MAYBE 2 to 4 hours of sleep on those days. Anyways, so all this craziness if almost done, then we'll move to the next phase of craziness.... raising 2 kids!!! Yikes!!! It's funny, when people ask me if I know what I'm having, I always respond, "Another girl!" and if Mark is around, he always chuckles unknowingly out loud. It's kind of funny. Anyways, so our house is almost put together. It definitely needs a cleaning, so I'm excited to say the maids and the carpet cleaners will finally be here this weekend!!! YEAH!!! And Sami gets to visit Igor, her hairstylist... finally, stinky dog be gone!!!
Exciting highlights this week:
So Happy Birthday to my brother and to Ashley! March 9 and 10! My dad went to visit them in PA, and I was so jealous because I wanted to go too. So sad. I miss Max and LT. But they'll be here in a couple of weeks for the baby. We went out to dinner at Red Robin for Ashley's bday and her party will be this Saturday at the bowling lanes. I can't believe she's 10 years old!!!

Anyways, keep you all posted... 8 more days! Can you believe I'm still going to go to work next week? I actually debated going to work the night before the c-section, but my shift ends at 7am and I have to check in at the hospital at 5:30am. That's dedication!

Wicked & Monarch Ball 2008

We had a busy busy weekend... On top of all the cleaning and organizing we've been doing at home in preparation for Brianna, we squeezed in Wicked on Friday night and my dad took us to the Monarch Ball at Hilton Towers on Saturday night, and to top it off, on Sunday Grandpa Marvin helped us install the girls awesome new closet that Grandpa Tom bought from the Container store!
So on Friday, Wicked was pretty good. Mark got me the tickets for Valentine's Day. We had tickets before, but that was around the time Bella was just born and I wasn't ready to leave her yet. So we decided to sneak it in before Brianna arrived or we would never be able to see the show. The only thing is I should not have read the book because the book and musical are TOTALLY different and that kinda made it frustrating to watch. But overall the muscial was really good. My favorite character was not Elphaba though, it definitely was Glinda, she was hysterical!
On Saturday, we had a bunch of errands to run in the morning, and also had to stop by the hospital for baby monitoring, so Uncle Gil and family watched Bella for the 3rd time of her life (I think it's 3). Thanks guys!!! Then Mark and I headed off to the hotel to change in dad's room and head off to cocktails.

My very sensitive husband called me a blimp!

The live fountain! Yup, that's a real person!

She had water coming out of her finger tips and sometimes out of her head! So cool!



John Lithgow was the entertainment for the night!

Lots of food and dancing, although we danced a slow dance and then I was tired... give me a break, I'm 9 months pregnant! After, we went back to Mark's parents house to pick up our darling Bella. Everyone was tired, but our little one kept on going going going!!! I think she tired everyone out!!! hahahaha!!!
The next day we put together the closet, I'll take a picture and show you how awesome this thing is! I increased my hanging space from 9ft to 17 ft!!! It's called the Elfa system from the container store. Definitely important when 2 little girls share a closet!
Post those later!

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!!!