Update now - Pictures later

So it's July 24... wow, time really flew by! I think about 2 posts ago, I was talking about how Bria was sick, and how we had about a thousand things to do in May and June. Well, Bria had other plans for us. We got back from DisneyWorld, thinking that the next big thing for us was to move out of the rental home (we rented a home to get out of our house to push us to keep going with the house renovations... we figured if we stayed at the home, we would give up with this long long long long process. we took a short lease, and now are moved in with mark's parents until it's all done. should be 8 months more... it'll fly by, like these last 8 months). Anyways, as we try to pack up the house, Bria gets sick again. Same as before. This time, I go to the MD on Day 1 of the fever. She doesn't see any signs of infection, but since fever really high, and pending urine lab, she gave an antibiotic anyways. That was on a Friday, so I went to work. Saturday morning, I get home and Mark drops the urine sample we collected to the Quest, and while I was alone with the kids, Bria does her chilling (I might have a seizure thingy), so I freak out as usual and start cooling her off with water and pray Mark comes home fast. As soon as he gets home, I call the MD, and she says since this is the second episode of unexplained fever she was just going to admit us for observation and lab tests. Since it was Saturday, the only way to be admitted was to go through the ER. We get to the ER, and they do their thing. The resident takes a history, and before even looking at Bria (didn't look at her throat, didn't look at her ears, didn't even look at her), he tells me it's a virus. He tells the nurse to give her Motrin/Tylenol and just wait a little. Fever stayed at 102ish the whole time we were there. I told the resident the our MD wanted to admit us for observation and wanted lab tests down on her. He looks at me at says, "Admit into the hospital!?! And what kind of lab tests did she want?". Thinking to myself, "you idiot, first take a look at my child before saying it's viral, and aren't there basic labs... CBC, etc...?" My dad was coming back in town from Miami, and since it was clear the resident didn't want to help us, I frantically called him and my MD to let her know we were at the ER. Thank god Dad arrived at the airport just then, so I told him to go to the ER right away. Before he arrived, it looked like my MD ended up ording the lab tests, chest x-ray, cathether, etc. So those were done, my dad arrived, and we just waited and waited and waited. Then they said, yup it's viral and we were going home. Bria was getting an IV due to dehydration, so they had me sign the discharge papers, they removed her IV, and they said we could leave. Bria still felt warm (which her temp never went down), and I asked the nurse to take her temp before we left since we had a long car ride home, I wanted to know where it was at. What was going through my mind at this time... we were here to be admitted, and they were not, the tylenol/motrin was not controlling her temps, and I was surprised that they would send someone home with a 102-103 fever. When the nurse took the last temp, sure enough 104... ever since my dad got there, the resident became off our case (Thank YOU), and the MD in charge said they wanted to admit her for observation (DUH!). So after like 7-8 hours sitting in a tiny room in the ER, after telling them I was there to admit Bria, they finally said they were going to admit. OMG!!!

Bria gets admitted to the Pediatric wing... as the only patient in the wing! The neonatologist was the admitting MD. Now here comes the REALLY SUCKY PART... they have to put in another IV into Bria since the great ER discharged us and removed it. He couldn't do it, the nurse couldn't do it, so they call a nurse from the neonatal wing who was awesome and did it on the first shot! Bria was really dehydrated which made it really hard.

So we were there Saturday to Tuesday. Didn't expect to stay that long. Each day when they told me we had to stay another day, etc. I was suprised. Considering all I was hearing was it's viral, viral, viral... then why do we have to stay here? At least now everyone was believing me on her chills and really high late night fevers. I began to think nobody was believing me on her high fevers and the bluish skintones when she chilled. But now the nurses were my witnesses. We had such great nurses. She did end up having some unusal lab results, that at first was so high, that nobody believed the result and didn't tell us until they redid that lab. It came back as the same high value. On Sunday morning, we had one resident tells us she had no clue what was going on, kind of a mystery. On Monday morning, we had another resident assure us that this was definitely a virus.

Monday night we brought in the infectious disease pediatric specialist (who was my Pediatrician), and she ordered an MRI for Tuesday. We debated transfering her to Children's, but didn't want to start over with admission. We thought she would do better with the sedation for MRI there, than at St. Joe's, but Bria was an MRI pro. She stayed so still, the technician was so impressed. What was supposed to take 2 oral sedations and about 3 hours, Bria did in 1 oral sedation dose and in 45 minutes since she was super still. Mark and I watched her get loaded into the machine, arms tied down by her sides, and when they removed her, she somehow got her thumb in her mouth. MRI ruled out our worst case scenario, which now leading them to think maybe JRA... and that's a BIG maybe. I felt bad for the resident that assured us that it was viral. She looked really sad when Bria was going into the MRI, and I asked her if she was ok, and she said she really felt bad for us. She said that she didn't have those labs in question when she told us it was viral. I really liked her honesty.

Still don't know what's going on. The rheumatologist didn't think it's JRA, but she wanted to see us if it happened again. Wait and see approach.

We debated about going to Cancun, but all the MDs gave us the "why wouldn't you go?" We figured if it was JRA, then if she gets sick again, she was going to get sick. And we had 3 doctors traveling with us. So we went to Cancun, will post on this AMAZING trip later! Definitely the break we needed.

But before we could go to Cancun, we had to move out of our house. With Bria in the hospital, and all the follow up visits, plus a trip to Children's to see the Rheumatology speciailist, we were running out of time. But with the help of family, it was done! I have to say that Mark's mom is a packing machine, and as we all know, Mark's dad is a cleaning machine! Without their help, we would not have finished. Unfortunately, with all that work, we thought we the house was in great condition, but our Dr. Jung Moon, our landlord, thought differently and took a chunk out of our deposit (not including a receipt of what they took out for). When we asked them, all of the things they took off for would not add up to what they took . They even took off for a broken refrigerator we had asked them to fix before that. I really liked living in that house, but when something went wrong, they took FOREVER to fix it. We even had bees inSIDE our house (threatening our lives) and the Moon took weeks to fix. The exterminator found 8 beehives surrounding the house. Ok, needed to vent. The Moons were really nice people, but really shady about not giving us an itemized list of what they took off. Really unprofessional.

Anyways, we get back from Cancun, and Bria a week in a half later, Bria is sick again. Same thing, same labs, but this time a UTI. So we just finished treating her, and waiting for follow up labs to be taken.

From when this all started in May until now, Bria has thankfully gotten stronger, very playful, and very naughty. She's a daredevil. Unfortunately, she used to be very independent, only wanting to sleep by herself, but she is now really needy only wanting to sleep with us, and always having to be in contact with us. It's our fault, she got used to sleeping with us since Mark and I were too scared to leave her alone when she was in danger of seizing.
So that's our update for now.

Disney World 2009

PICTURES from Disney World!

Spent 8 days at Orlando's Disney World last week! Bria's 1st trip and we had a fantabulous time! Although, really really really raining (monsoonish rain), it was still fun and I will always remember walking around in 2 inches of water, while hiding under a poncho and an umbrello. Good thing we just bought the BEST stroller for 2 kids, the Joovy UltraLight Caboose. TOTALLY RECOMMEND!!! We got the rain cover with it, and the kids were super dry the whole trip!
Anyways, we arrived on a Saturday and had dinner at Rain Forest Cafe. The next day we were off to the Magic Kingdom. Bella's favorite ride there was the racecars (Speedway), It's a Small World, and the carousel. The next day was Kayley's birthday, so she did the Bibbidi Boppity Boutique at Downtown Disney. That place is so cute, I wish Bella would do that stuff, but she's scared of nailpolish and makeup. Maybe Bria next time. After that, we were back to Magic Kingdom to try and finish the park up. Unfortunately, this rain was against our mission, but we saw a good amount of it.
The next day we went to Hollywood Studios. I don't think I've been there since it was MGM. We ate dinner with the Playhouse Disney charachters. Bella was a little scared, more of Goliath from Jojo's Circus, but she eventually got used to being in the same room with them. Bria had a blast and especially loved Goliath! Then we were off back into the rain to watch some shows. Bella's favorite was the Playhouse Disney show, which she probably remembered from our trip to Disneyland last summer. My favorite was the Toy Story Ride. That was awesome!!!
The next day, Mark and I snuck out without the kids to ride Soarin at Epcot. This would be our 4th attempt at riding this ride because previous tries the lines were over 2 hours long or the fast passes run out. That was an awesome ride, that a couple days later we rode 2 more times. I think Ashley rode it like 6 or 7 times. When we got back, we ventured back to Magic Kingdom where we got poured on in the rain. Mark and I got separated during that rainstorm, and he carried my wallet and phone. I had Bella and an umbrella, almost stood in the middle of the park and cried, but luckily we found eachother. We left the park to meet the family at the Grand Floridian for Kayley's belated birthday dinner with Cinderella. Even though they weren't in mask like costumes, Bella was still scared and Bria had a blast!
Animal Kingdom was our next day adventure. The best day weatherwise. Not to hot, and it rained in the evening after we left the park. My favorite here was the Lion King show, which surprised me because I'm not a fan. Nemo show was good too, but the Lion King music was so energetic.
Our last park day was at Epcot, where we just hung out at the Land all day at Soarin. We took pictures with the characters, Bella didn't cry... which is an accomplishment for her, and Bria had a blast. We didn't make it around the whole park, but we got to eat at Mexico, which I was craving.
The day we left, we just hung out at Downtown Disney until we left. We were pooped!

My favorite memories of this trip:
Mommy Lu saying in tagalog that Bella was such a weird child.
Ashley buying the lighted sword... um, how old are we?
Losing my slipper in the rain as I try to run to catch the bus.
Bella standing uncontrollably as she excitedly watched the Playhouse Disney Show.
Everyone always complementing Bria, as if they've never seen a baby before. She's such a sip-sip.
Having such a wonderful, understanding husband. Mark took Bella to the potty, due to my severe fear of public washrooms. (unfortunately she had diarrhea and was in the potty ALL the time. She did end up wearing a pull up just in case for the diarrhea, but when's Mark's mom tried to put it on her the first time, she said, "No mama, I don't want a diaper. I won't poo. See, I'm not pooing." I thought that was so cute. At least we know she's definitely potty trained even in crazy line situations that Disney World has)

Anyways, enjoy the pictures! Have lots to do before we leave for our next trip to Cancun next month! Packing, moving, parties, work, etc....

Update on Brianna

I think I'll be writing here more often starting now. It's really the best way for me to remember all the going-ons in my daughters lives, facebook was just too easy to post pictures.

Anyways, it's May now. Time just flew by. Bria turned one already, and we had a big party for her at Little Quiapo filipino restaurant. There was a buffet, a bubbleologist, we made a year in review video presentation, Maxine entertained us with her singing (which was so nice that she sang our family's special song, Somewhere Out There), we had a pretty cake (vegan cake), and gave away M&Ms with Bria's face on them.
On her actual birthday, we had taken them to the allergist to get their eczema checked out. Bella was getting tested for food and environmental allergies. She got 40 pricks, and so far we know she's allergic to cats. Bria got tested also, because what we had thought was eczema was actually an allergic reaction to eggs. So she got 8 pricks, and is allergic to eggs, peanuts, and fish. To what degree she is allergic to each, we don't know. We'll find out when she's older.

Bria does walk now, a little wobbly, starting on her 13 month bday. She still does all her tricks, beautiful eyes, flying kiss, close open. She sleeps by herself and sucks her thumb. And she's small, in the 10th percentile... which is really cute. She eats alot though. We did have to bring her back to basic foods to weed out any other allergies. So she's still a little limited on what we give her, but she eats alot of what we do give her.

Anyways, this week was a nightmare. Not sure what it was about my kids and the 13th month. As you can recall, Bella was hospitalized at Makati Med in the Philippines with respiratory problems in 2007, which I thought was a nightmare then.

Last Friday, was a regular Friday. I came home from work, and Mark went to work. The night before, Bria felt a little warm, so without taking her temperature we just gave her tylenol. Not knowing that Bria was still sick in the morning (apparently Mark took her temp - 100 and gave her more tylenol), I did more morning routine of trying to sleep. Thankfully I had taped some shows the night before, so I decided to watch that instead of sleep right away. Bria was awake already, so she just played. When Bella woke up, we were all just chilling on the couch. All of a sudden Bria started to shiver. I thought she was cold, so I went upstairs with her to get socks and a sweatshirt. We went back down and I watched her a little bit, but her teether were chattering, she was shivering more. I called Mark, who decided to call our doctor. As we waited for her response, I called my brother and told him about the chills. The first thing he thought of, the last thing I thought of, was is she having seizures. This was definitely not seizures. I ended up swaddling her in a blanket, and we sat and waited. I thought maybe she was hungry, thirsty. Then I thought, maybe she had a fever? So I gave her milk and applesauce and tylenol. Still shivering, and Bella now telling me she wanted to go upstairs to take a nap, I brought the group upstairs. Bria still swaddled, we laid in bed for a second when suddenly she sounded like she was choking, gagging (hard to describe it), then she started to convulse. Thank goodness my brother put seizures in my mind, because I don't think in my panic I would have even thought that. I try to call 911 on my cell phone (which has a password to get in cuz Bella plays with it), but as I hold Bria in one arm and try to dial with my shaky hand, I couldn't figure out how to get passed my password (didn't even think to use the emergency dial feature). Bria still convulsing and making a weird gurgling sound, I run downstairs to get our landline and call 911. She sounded like she was choking on her tongue, so I put my finger in her mouth and she clamped down on my finger with all 4 teeth. (FYI: do not put your hand inside a seizing person's mouth). The guy on the phone calms me down, while Bria seizure slows down. When it was over, she was out of it. Eyes wide open, I directed them to look at me, but she didn't seem like she was there. She was very still, but breathing. Almost like a shock. Then she got very sleepy. The paramedics came and while they took her vital signs, I got Bella ready and all our things to go to the hospital. Got in the ambulance (which Bella calls the firetruck... which she really enjoyed going in), and off to Condell.
At Condell, we took lab test, etc. Everything checked out as fine, with the exception of WBC on the border, my doctor gave her iv cephalosporin, and we were discharge a few hours later. A little troubling at the hospital is that they didn't give my daughter a name wristband, and when they administered the medicine, there was now name check to iv bag. tsk tsk tsk.... quality assurance problems. From the hospital, I called work to get off that night, but nope, I had to go to work... whatever.
So we get home. Mark rushed out of work to get to the hospital, but once he brought us home, he rushed back to work. I figured everything would be ok. The kids were playing and I was lying down on the couch, then I fell asleep... oops! Woke up, I could here Bella, but not Bria. As I groggily got up, I asked Bella, where's Bria? She yells, "UPSTAIRS!" I bolted up and looked at the stairs and there's Bria hanging out on our middle landing. I grab the crazy dare devil and we just hang out in the family room. All of sudden she starts to chill again. I give her motrin, try to cool her off, but the shaking feeling was too familiar. I call Mark and just tell to get home now, and I call the ER to let them what was going on. But they just say the same thing, alternate that tylenol and motrin and put her in a tepid bath. I get off the phone, start wiping her down, and she starts to convulse again. This time I knew what to do. Lay her on her side, which this time she did foam at the mouth, and just wait it out. When it was all done, I called our MD, and I also tried to call the APN at the hospital, but they wouldn't let me talk to her that time. Mark came home, and we were getting ready to go back to the hospital, when our MD called back and said just to stay home and keep the temp down by alternating the meds. The problems is that the temp is down, it spikes up during the chilling - seizure episodes and remains after.
I call my dad to sleepover in case there's a problem. Then I go to work. After midnight, I call home to see what's going on, and she had another seizure. 3 in one day.... totally sucks. Apparently Mark really stepped up during that 3rd seizure. My dad (the doctor) was holding her when she started to seize, then he looks at Mark (the business guy) and asks if they should go to the ER. Mark takes Bria and just starts cooling her off until the seizures stops and fever goes down. When I heard that, I was so proud of Mark. He can remain cool, calm, and collect during high pressure times, especially since I'm totally a wreck. Plus I'm sure for my dad to see his granddaughter going through that is pretty scary.
So many things have happened this weak. We are now at day 7 and she still has a fever. We almost had 2 seizures we were able to stop. She had the chilling thing with lips and fingers turning blue. We've been to her MD, dad called a friend of his for a second opinion (and he was able to actually look at her original labs), and after her last chill episode, I got fed up and just brought her to St. Joe's ER. We've switched her antibiotics once already. Her last chest x-ray may have shown the presence of pneumonia, but her labs were all clear. It seems like she's a pretty health normal baby... with fever spikes out of the blue which may lead to febrile seizures. Mark and I have been on our toes ever since Friday. She goes from absolutely no fever all day to a couple fever spikes at night. We still give her tylenol and motrin q 3 hours, with or without a fever. If we are a late an hour, her fever goes up. Looks like this is all viral, which fevers can present 10-12 days... if she had a low-grade fever for 10-12 days, I would be ok with that. But we are talking, random fever spikes cuzing urgent attention to sponge bathe her down, or she has a higher possibility for febrile seizures.
All I can say is I can't wait until this nightmare is over. I want my baby to be happy again, and selfishly want Mark and I and the rest of the family that we wake up in the middle of the night with phone calls to get some sleep.

Time to catch up!

No pictures this time, but going to try and recall everything we've been up to...

Bria is now on the verge of walking. So since the last time we were on this blog, she started sitting up on her own around Thanksgiving, and then get in crawling position and think she's moving around December, and then the first week of January she just started crawling fast and pulling herself up into standing position, and within that week she was walking from furniture to furniture. Before she stood, she used to pull her crib bumper down so she could peek and see what we were up too, and then when she started to stand, she just stares at us while we try and sleep (her crib is in our bedroom). This makes it harder, because our general rule for Bria is that she can't see us while she's trying to sleep, or she won't sleep. Yesterday we started her at the Little Gym. Little Tom had his bday party there a couple years back, so we thought it would be good for her to socialize there with other kids her age. She was so CUTE!!! She played with the other kids, chasing them down the mats, and she even played with all the parents.

Bella is doing great! She just turned 3 and we had her bday party at an indoor water resort called Keylime Cove. She had a blast! We have decreased her days at school to 2 days a week, and will actually be pulling her out of school soon so she can spend more time with mommy and Bria before starting school next year. She is signed up for her 3 yo program at mommy's old school! We are so excited!!! Bella's new hobby is playing on the desktop computer. She's on nickjr.com, pbskids.org, or disney websites, plus she has a lot of games too. She can actually sit in front of the computer for hours! Mark taught her how to print, so now she selects the picture she wants, maximizes the screen, selects print, selects the printer to print on, and prints away! These kids are too tech savy!!! Other new things for Bella is that we signed her up for little gym, ice skating, and ballet. So she'll be a busy bee, just like Ate Max. Maybe she'll be a triple threat just like Ate Max!!!

Other than that, we've been busy with work, school, holidays, vacations. We had a quiet Thanksgiving since I had to work that night, and everyone was pretty much in the Philippines. We had lunch/dinner at our house. Oh, and we're at a new house too! Finally fixing up the old house, we rented near my work to lessen my commute. Anyways, after Thanksgiving we went to Vegas for the weekend. Then it was time to prepare for x-mas. Shopping and wrapping and unfortunately I worked X-mas too! BOO!!! On x-mas eve, we ate dinner at Uncle Gil's house and did a gift exchange. Then I went to work. In the morning, the grandpeople came over to watch the girls open their presents from Santa! Then we were off to Mark's aunts/uncles parties. We did a gift exchange at one, which our present was pretty funny. We took a silly picture of Mark and iron-on it to a pillow case. Will definitely post pictures of this later. Anyways, after x-mas, Tom and family came in for over a week! We did EVERYTHING!!! Navy Pier winter wonderland, American Girl, and all their usual filipino store errands.... etc. We all went to Keylime to ring in the New Year which was so much fun! Then the next day we celebrated Bella's bday, just so Tom and fam wouldn't have to drive up at a later date. After all that... phew... I'm tired! Bella's actual bday was at home. It was SO COLD that night, we just ordered in. She blew out her candles this year!!! Yeah!!! She had 2 Dora cakes, and Dora cupcakes from Ate Joy!

Anyways, now things are quieting down. Just working on the house, getting into more a routine with the girls and their activities, and my goal this year is to catch up with all my albums and stuff. So I think I covered a quick review of the big things we were doing. Lots to look forward to this year... but most importantly Mark and I are working at getting healthier this year since I'm pregnant-free.

Will post pictures soon...

Didier Farm 2008

Here are some pictures of my 'lil pumpkins! I will update more soon, still getting settled in this new house, etc... Lots of pictures to post!

PICTURES OF THE PUMPKIN FARM

Talking Bella

1. It's 2am - mommy is at work and daddy is sleeping...

Bella: Daddy, I want cheese.
Daddy: You want cheese?
Bella: Yeah!!! Cheese!!! (as she nods her head thinking it's a sure thing she's getting the cheese)

2. Anytime of the day...

Bella: Mommy, I want that.
Mommy: What's that?
Bella: That.
Mommy: That?
Bella: Yeah!!! That!!!
(mommy just walks away still wondering what "that" is)

3. When Bria is crying...
Bella: (quietly to Bria) Bria.
Bria: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAAAAAAAAAAAAWHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Bella: (shouting at Bria) BRRRRIIIIIIAAAAAAA!$#$!$@#

California Day Deux

We woke up around 10 am and the first thing that we wanted to do - is get some In N Out. So, I take Bella with me...actually Bella AND her backpack. She's wheeling that backpack all the way to the car and it's nice because at least she doesn't need to be carried. We're walking toward the car and Bella goes, "Daddy, where's our car?" As I say that, I unlock the car and she sees the lights flashing and she goes, "Oh, there it is." So we already mapquested directions to the nearest In N Out which was about 8 minutes. Of course, I took a little detour since my middle name is NOT Rand McNally. After getting the food, I look back and Bella is sound asleep. That makes sense since her naptime is around that time. We get back to the hotel and Bria's asleep as well, and like I like to joke around with - "A sleeping baby is the best baby." So we ate in peace and quiet.


We pretty much chilled the rest of the day, until about 330 where we decided to make a trip to Universal Studios to try and catch a glimpse of Bella's best friend Dora (Bella's pronunciation - Due Ra). However, we've heard the horror stories of LA traffic, but we said what the heck - we can always turn back if the traffic gets too bad. The traffic wasn't bad - it's supposed to take us an hour w/o traffic and we got there in less than an hour. As we're driving down the 101, I see a sign that reads "Old Filipinotown." We decided to drive by it on the way back from Universal. We get to Universal and we've been to the Citywalk before when we were here for work. We pull up to Universal Studios and all the ticket counters are closed except for one near guest services. "It's about 615 now and the park closes at 8," but we figure there's not much at Universal to warrant a whole day. We grab a map and sure enough we were right. It's more for the avid movie goers. We weren't about to take the girls on a tour where Jaws or King Kong rocks the tour bus. However, there was one thing that could possibly benefit one of us in the party and that's Bella. They have a life size character of her best friend that walks around periodically throughout the day. Now, Bella wasn't a fan of those at Disney a while back and I doubt that she's changed her colors. Unfortunately, Dora was already sleeping for the night and was nowhere to be found. We go to a gift shop and buy Bella two Dora shirts and one Dora cup and Bria a Curious George onesie. That's about it, we walked around and took some pictures and we were pretty much done with the park at 745. We're kind of hungry. We go to this great Japanese place called Wasabi that has a great Shrimp Tempura roll (Crunchy Roll on the menu). Then we walk around to buy Bria her first Laker T-Shirt and Bella a Laker thermal hat and gloves. I wondered why a place would sell hat and gloves but it does get cold at night.

We drive back to the hotel with one stop to Old Filipinotown, and after about 2 miles thought we were in Manila - hard to explain, but you'll know it when you see it. We then look forward to a good night’s sleep until 3 AM, when jetlagged Bella decides to wake up?!?! Next up - Day 3 @ Disneyland.

California or Bust...

Sorry no pictures right now, really just writing here so I can remember our vacation details myself. Anyways, here I am sitting in our Anaheim hotel room with Bria, waiting for Mark and Bella to bring back some In-N-Out burgers! Yummy!!!

So, this past week was challenging. Bella went to the ER to remove a foreign object from her nose (a piece of cardboard) that was lodged up there for well over a week. We only noticed it because of this foul smell coming from her (as her MD describes... like someone died in there) and green slimey mucus (I like to describe that as Heman slime... remember with Skeletor?). Anyways, other than that, that foreign body didn't bother Bella's functioning at all. So it's a good thing that our bodies are designed to tell us something is wrong. Anyways, that let to an ear infection (temp of 101 that wouldn't go away), which led to my sickness, and now sadly Bria's first fever (which Grandma caught just as we were leaving the house for the airport).

Get to the airport and we have a lot of bags. This is our first airplane trip with both girls (Bria's first flight!). I had made Bella a special surprise to give her at the airport... it was a Cinderella roll-on backpack filled with all her favorite types of toys... books, coloring books, toy cars, flashcards, play magnets, and her best friend Dora. So I didn't plan to give it to her until we past the x-ray, but since we had way too many bags than hands, she accidentally saw the bag and wanted to hold it already... which meant, she wanted out of the stroller (Ugh!) So we check in, check in our bags, and head of to the x-ray machines. So I ask Bella to take off her shoes, and that was a no, until she saw me take mine off. I put our shoes through, then my purse, then our liquid/creams/rx and computers, then the strollers, and then it was time.... to put through Bella's special Cinderella bag and best friend Dora. What a nightmare!!! I totally understand that it must be traumatizing for a kid to see her best friend go through a machine, but wow... in just that instant we became... THAT FAMILY... you know, the one with THOSE KIDS... The whole area stopped to see us, the lady checking our x-ray quickly pulled Bella's doll and backpack out of the machine and gave it to Bella before any of our other bags went through (THANK GOODNESS!!!).
So after that, we gather our things, put our shoes on, and unfornately Bella still doesn't want to sit in stroller... so I walk ahead with Bria and Bella walks behind me and Mark behind her. I flight was a little delayed, Bella was just noisy and loud at the airport, but that's ok better there than on the plane. We finally get on the plane (and by the way, some of those AA stewardess are no help at all), thankfully Bella sat in her carseat which kept her in her seat the whole ride (in the past she would stand most of the flight because she had all that extra room to move). The kids were surprisingly good the whole way, just a little tears from Bria which was probably due to ear pain from flight (we never had this problem with Bella because she was always sucking on her paci, but Bria doesn't like her paci too much, so with no suck mechanism, her ears have a greater chance to do that popping thing). The big problem on the plane were the amount of people that failed to shower that day... the smell was AWFUL!!!
So we arrive at LAX, figure out a great way to move around with the kids, strollers, and all our bags, and head off to Alamo Rental (the only 24 hour rental place... how stupid is that?). We get there, have to wait in line to get one more carseat (line was like an hour... felt longer because the girls were reaching that point, esp due to time change and all). Once we checked in, got carseat, then we went outside for another hour long since that only had one driver delivering the car... (again, how stupid is that?) Finally we get our car, and load it up and off to Anaheim we go!
But first, stop at Walgreens to get some things (which I hate going to work on vacation), then we check in at our hotel (which we requesting a non-smoking room with a fridge ... not to complicated, right? WRONG!!!) Get to our room on a smoking floor, smells awful. Bella immediately begins to scratch more than she already scratches, we go back down, and try to get another room. Of course we hear the oh we are fully booked, there won't be fridge (which we absolutey need to store Bria's breastmilk), but maybe we can put you in this room, and then you move tomorrow... blah blah blah.... So the guy asks what we want... to stay in our smoking room with a fridge, or move to a non-smoking room without a fridge and we can store some of our things in his mini-fridge in their office... so I tell him, we'll take the non-smoking room (Bella's allergies would go crazy if we didn't), and I'll store my "BREASTMILK" in his fridge... but wait, what's that... it's 3am and someone didn't show and there room is on a non-smoking floor with a fridge? Sure enough, it's ours now!!! hahahaha....

More on our trip later...

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: