The Baby Blog

Last night we attending the pinning ceremony for Ninong Nightingale, who just completed the ADN program at the college. I cried, watching the graduates being "pinned" by their loved ones. You can sense the accomplishment and relief that this long journey of needed support and sacrifice is over!!!

Tomorrow is the actual graduation. I am actually attending w/ Brahma and boyz! I have several students who are graduating and transferring to their 4-year universities. It was great having students I can call my own w/o being in the classroom. Being in my position, I really learn about their hardships and obstacles that they have overcome or currently facing. They become my inspiration! Being able to see them graduate will be exciting. I will miss them... but that's what we do here... tranfer them out! Congrats to the Comets Class of 2004!!

I will be taking my days off very often between now and July 1st. Apparently I have overreached by day limit for employment and must take days off. However, actually still have to work because my office stuff must be packed by June 25th and we have a golf Tournament to prep for on june 14th!!! But other than that... I've asked Brahma to buy me my season pass to six flags.. and begin my summer w/ the da boyz... I don't know if I can handle 2 of them at the park though!!!

Summer days, if only the weather would act like it!! I am going to start watching more DVD's now that 24 and Smallville have ended their seasons!!! Maybe even try to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy in one day!!! But with my luck, AJ will insist on "Charlies Angels"! Don't ask!!

at work has come and gone...One year of signing students up, tabling and putting up flyers, One year of processing applications, reviewing personal statements, requesting transcripts... one month of planning our recognition ceremony... all over in less than 2 hours!!!

Now after a lot of hustle and bustle, it is quiet at my desk. Faculty are shooting out the door the minute finals are over, but here I am... throughout the summer... without much of student activity. However, we will be moving offices. I'll be saying farewell to my purple wall and hello to my scholarship corner in the hub of student services/traffic.

Baby Update:
My mio is talking a lot more... not crying as much, but still crying. A strange thing happened this morning w/ AJ (remember he is very much a daddy's boy). He woke up early this morning, w/ daddy still next to him, and as I opened the door to wake daddy up.... AJ reached for me and pretty much ignored daddy in bed. This was pretty shocking to me, cuz any other morning I would have spent the rest of my morning calming him down. Apparently he had a bad dream, and in his frightful state, mommy is the one to make it better!!! It's good to feel the love!!!

AJ and I watched Shrek 2. He actually sat through the whole movie with popcorn and soda. Unfortunately, he kept asking about Home on the Range. 'Til now he associates the movie theater w/ Home on the Range...and nothing else. But he followed the movie and laughed along w/ the audience. It was a fun mommy & AJ day. Now it's time for Mommy & Mio day!!!

Okay, to play catch up... May 8th...Brahma and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary!!! Woo Hoo.. Wow, how times fly... As I look back I cannot help but realize that we have been married for only 3 years, but have known each other for about 12 years!!!

Brahma surprised me w/ tickets to the Lion King musical and a stay at the Renaissance Club and Spa Hotel (he has a friend who works at Marriott!) We got my mom to babysit for the night, and we enjoyed our time alone!!
Then we did the Mother's Day thing w/ my mom and grandma, joined by some of our Santos clan. Afterwards we headed to Casa de Sanchez to have bbq steaks, celebrating the fact that there was not softball game (as they usually do, but ended up w/ a bye cuz they won last week's game!)

Finally tired and getting sleepy (from the 1/2 of beer I drank) we headed home! Now that I think of it... Brahma was so busy planning the weekend activities, I didn't even get Mother's Day cards!! that's okay...

Well those are the only things I needed to add to keep you updated...

WAIT: one baby update...

AJ has a new song to list (some Filipino thing, similar to Otso Otso). And Mio is actually starting to "groove" and kembot!! AJ loves to sing along to Outkast, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the usual Wiggles.
We were driving along 80 to go to the City... the whole way there from Berkeley to SF... "Mommy, Yook it... WATER! Mommy, Yook it, Water!! See mommy!" The whole ride over!!! Cute though! Mio was knocked out in the back seat. Then he saw a BART train.. "Mommy, yook it.. chooo chooo train. Mommy, i yike choo choo train... Bye bye chooo chooo train!"

Oh the joys of raising my boys!!!

In any effort of recovering from vacation... (hint: it takes the length of your vacation to recover from it!) AJ got sick. Not just flu sick but, everything that goes in my mouth comes out again sick. For 2 straight days... anything from water to crackers would come back out. Which means laundry every night to avoid everything from smelling!! My first thought, "What did he eat?". Then by Friday morning I show up to work and my first student says, "You don't look so good?!". After we handled her business, and she stepped out the door... there I was running thru the hallway, into the bathroom, and.... BLLLLLAAAAAAAHHHH x 3!! Mind you I haven't had anything to drink or eat yet, either!

So, home I go, calling Brahma in case I needed some assistance. My 20 minute commute seemed to last forever, driving at speed limit, too! Got home, jumped into comfortable clothes and hopped into bed! As a mommy, being sick is hard. Not only are you unable to care for your little ones, but it's hard to just rest. As sick as I was, my energy only came around to get me to the bathroom!!!

Finally I told Brahma to call my mom over to help out. And sure enough her solution was to go to ER. After dry heaving twice in one night, I said Okay!! we arrive at 11pm and leave at 4:30am!! They kept me there cuz they suspected a kidney infection or kidney stones! not cute! But the best thing was getting hydrated through an IV, and getting drugged to ease the nausea. Scary part was going through a CT scan. Those big machines can be very intimidating, but sure enough the technician on duty saw my last name, and BAM... he used to work with my mother-in-law. (it never fails... any time I am at Kaiser... someone either knew my mother-in-law (she was nurse there for many years) or my husband who practically grew up at the hospital, or he went to school w/ them (or dated their daughter, hehehhee... just kidding!)

Anyhoo, everything turned out okay... apparently what AJ and I had was some stomach virus.. I was okay by Monday! But when I got to work, I found out that a co-worker upstairs was suffering the same symptoms!!!

Now, it's back to the same routine... except a lot busier. Softball season started, so Brahma is off playing on wednesday nights (only 5 min away from home) and Sunday nights in Daly City. But it works out cuz I have practice in the city every Sunday from 1-5pm, then into my softball wife/mom mode I go! It's hectic, but it's our life! At least Brahma and I each have 1 thing we held onto to keep us sane! As I would recommend to all the moms and dads... do something to be selfish... It's not bad... but time to yourself just works... it doesn't have to be big... heck... I enjoy my time in the shower, and use my time in the bathroom to read magazines/books (okay maybe too much info for you, but those free minutes are sometimes all I get!!) You get the jist, right?!

Alright, I have a scholarship ceremony to plan... gotta get back to work!

Yes, we went to the Magic Kingdom... our family vacation to LA LA Land. I drove w/ my mom and stepdad Friday night after the Wiggles Conert (which I'll talk about later) with the kids. We attended a wedding for my uncle which brought a lot of relatives together in one spot... on a yacht! That was fun. We stayed at my sister's new house and most importantly... stayed at the Disneyland Hotel for the first time using my Castmember discount! Now, that was cool, being able to show my castmember card and get 20% off food and souvenirs anywhere at Disneyland, California Adventure, Downtown Disney and the hotel!! Now, I know why I work there!

Mio was scared of all the characters. Everytime one came by at Goofy's Kitchen he would tense up and hold onto you for dear life. He practically spent that whole morning watching out for characters, as if they were going to sneak up him from behind!! AJ was little more open to characters, especially the princesses (Mulan and Snow White!!) The best part, I got a great picture with Goofy!!! hehehehee [can you guess who the Disney fan is?]

Our first stop after Goofy's Kitchen was California Adventure... not best place to spend your day. But it had its moments... The kids loved the Playhouse Disney Show with Bear in the Big Blue House, Rollie Polie Ollie, Winnie the Pooh, and Stanley!! AJ in fact was up in front dancing and following along. I actually caught daddy singing along as well!!! Then it was off to Bug's Land. where AJ rode Heimlich's (the catepillar in the movie) Sweet Train over and over and over again.!!! After he soaked himself in the water area.

It was definitely a different experience taking kids to the park... but we actually arranged for my mom to meet us and watch them at the hotel so we could ride the roller coasters. California Screamin' was the best... it was a never-ending ride of drops dips from the take-off!! They did a really good job in making it look like Santa Cruz beach boardwalk!

The next day our original plan was to go to Universal Studios, but realized that there wasn't much we could do with our little ones with us! Ninong UPS even offered to pay for an additional night at the hotel for us!!! I knew he was with us for a reason! So, we decided to go to Disneyland! Yipppeeee! We took advantage of the rider switch passes for the bigger rides, and got to ride the Monorail between the hotel/downtown disney and the park.

We watched the Snow White and 7 Dwarves on stage, Buzz Lightyear Show, and rode the Disneyland Express, Jungle Cruise, and of course our big kid roller coasters! Even for off season, mid-week, Fantasyland was still crowded!! After the day and vacation was over, all AJ can talk about is Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and wanting to go back to Disneyland! I must admit. I wouldn't mind going one more time this summer, or even wait until winter time rolls around and visit when the have the holiday decor and events up! I still didn't get to see the Magical Light Parade!! But my day will soon come.

It took about another week to recover... and then came our stomach virus!!! UGGGHHH, I think I'll write about that next time!