Dani turns 4 today.  Things were going well for Dani's party at her school, with all the decorations, party favors, ice cream and cake.  Then, the daycare called me up and said that Dani woke up from her nap with a high fever (102 degrees F).  So, we had to pick her up and that meant no birthday party at her school. :(  They said they could do it over on Monday, which is okay, but it's not her birthday then.

Because of the little mishap, Lucien and I just decided to have a little quiet birthday at home.  Lucien found a Bounce 'Round but no air pump in a thrift store for 30 dollars the other day. Given the problem of looking for an air pump for the Bounce 'Round, Lucien found a leaf blower for a low price, too, and it worked out pretty well:

We're getting ready for Dani's birthday tomorrow.  We'll have a little party for her pre-school friends and I was arranging some party favors and this was one of them:

I thought it was really cute. :)

She is so fun to take pictures of like her sister.

I really like how Hipstamatic makes everything I take look dramatic.

...and I have gestational diabetes.

Well, the good news is that they just want me to watch my carb-intake and monitor my blood sugar for a month. Oh, joy. I shouldn't complain. I've been given a chance to, hopefully, avoid doing insulin shots.

In other baby news, we just found out we're having another girl, so we're thinking up of names for her. The first name will be Lauren, but still debating on Michelle or Alexis for the second name. Luci is for Michelle, while I'm for Alexis. Maybe I'll make a poll or something for y'all. That'd be fun. Dani's vocabulary is growing, but still not quite comprehensible. She can, however, tell you if she's hungry or she'll understand some of your questions. She hates to brush her teeth, so as soon as she hears "brush", she says "No!" (She's been teething again, lately, so her gums have been really swollen.) We're still trying to get her used to potty training. We'll get there.

That's it for now. I know I have more news, but I'm hungry and I have to eat. Cheers!

Sorry, I forgot to update again. Oops!

So the good news I was talking about from my last entry: I’m having a new baby! I didn’t want to say it before because I wasn’t sure (even though I took 2 pregnancy tests). I wanted the doctor to tell me the “official” word.

Well, last Thursday I didn’t see the doctor but I did see the baby for the first time (sonogram) and heard her/his heartbeat. (So there really was no doubt I’m preggers.) Dani was there with me and she saw and heard the baby, too. She said, “Wow!” Very cute. We also found out that I’m due on November 2nd.

I’ve been slacking on the ‘puter lately. I haven’t even played some of my online games for the past 2 weeks. People might be wondering if I’ve grown tired of it. I just want to assure them that I haven’t. I just didn’t feel like playing lately or be on the computer as much. It’s good to take a break once in a while - I was able to spend more time with my family. Luci was even surprised that I’m not playing as much. But hopefully, my slacking will come to an end soon. We’ll see. Might be the preggers thing, hehehe.

Anyway, that’s all I can think of right now. Toodles!

Yep, still awake. And it's already the start of another day. I discovered/learned some things today, though. Or should I say: Yesterday.

1. TVShack.net - my new favorite resource to find movies and TV shows. You must go! Love.

2. How to hack my PSP. Yes, I know. It's bad. But it's good. I'm still waiting on a game to use it with, though, so I can fully downgrade the version I'm using right now. Yes, I know. But eeeeeeee.

3. Mabinogi. New game coming out in Open Beta. Looks promising. Somewhat casual. Must check out.

4. Some good news. Told my immediate family, but I can't say for sure yet and confirm it. Have to wait till the 20th. You'll love this one.

5. My daughter hates covers like me. I kick my covers off in the middle of the night. She does the same. Luci needs to stop covering us back up. Hehe. Okay. Time to really get a bit of shut-eye. With my luck, Dani will wake me up at noon. Good thing I'm off today.

I was glad to hear that someone is covering for me on the 24th so my family and I can spend Christmas with my family. It’s always been the family tradition to celebrate Christmas during the night of the 24th, but this time it’s going to be during brunch. Living in the U.S. isn’t easy when the half of the population is working on a holiday, especially Christmas. I’m one of them. My job may be nice, but we work 24/7, including every holiday known to man.

Not that I complain about working holidays. I like working the days, because there is hardly anyone here. It’s quiet, I could probably take a nap if I wanted to, play online games (shhh), but only if there isn’t anything going on.

I’m very thankful lately that I have a great family. I know we were all scattered here and there back in the day, where you hardly saw anyone, and you hardly did anything. But it’s just now that I feel that though we have been far apart, we have grown closer. I love my siblings more than ever, and I have more camaraderie with them. Also, it’s just lately I have learned more about them than in my younger years when I was self-absorbed and oblivious. It’s very refreshing to know that I have, at least, connected with them even more.

So what has the past year been like?

Last May, Dani celebrated her first birthday. It wasn’t much, just us 3 but still it has been fun just being together. It made me cringe tho that she used her hands to eat and messed up her birthday suit. Ah, well, all in the occasion, huh? :)

Dani also had her first haircut this year. Her bangs were just getting into her eyes, and we thought it was time. We took her to the hairdresser and it was hard for her to keep still. I had to have her sit on my lap and hold her head while the hairdresser cut the bangs. Dani was kind of scared, but was more scared of the stranger cutting her hair than the actual cutting.

Had another family reunion in July and it was fun. We also had the chance to see my stepmother, Auntie Gigi perform on stage during the reunion. Luci, Dani and I drove all the way to Chicago and had a blast doing it. Also the most memorable of all, having my family sing together in my aunt’s church. Just being together like that gave me goose bumps.

My first trip to Singapore happened in November. I was also able to get my eldest sister to join us during our trip there. It was fun seeing her again and having to spend time with. She and her hubby were also able to see Dani for the first time. Dani seemed to know they were family since she took to them right away. I was going to arrange to go back to the Philippines for a couple of days as well, but that plan didn’t work so well. Maybe one of these years, Luci, Dani and I will plan to go home again for Christmas and New Year.

So, yeah, I’ve been pretty thankful this past year. Where in that certain day of time we look back and think of the bad things, all I can think of right now are the good things. God has blessed us and I am happy.

So what’s in store for the next year? Right now, I’m praying for another child. Why not join me? :)

Sheesh, I haven’t wrote on this blog in so long. I just don’t have anything much to update. I’m a really boring person. I just work, sleep, play games online, read, and the cycle goes on. Okay. Pity party over. Hehehe.

Behold, now comes the different thought processes that Leiza has going on in her brain.

There’s this little newspaper I always pick up just when I get in to work. The little box where you pull this lever and you get this little tabloid-size paper-ma-jiggie. Oh, that reminds me of that CSI episode where they found a head in there. Now, I gotta take care not to take any of those newspapers in that box. Good thing there’s this girl that hands them out to people. Because it’s nearby the train station. I really love the proximity of the train to work. I should use the train again. I haven’t ridden one since 2004 — I remember the year because I still have the card with the 2004 sticker on it. Maybe because I usually get ready late, even though I get to work early. I parked my car at the dock earlier so I could get my gear upstairs and then get the key card to get to another parking area that has badge-access only. But someone wanted me out of the spot I parked at, because he had to pick something up or drop something off at the docks. Blah, I lost like 4 minutes there trying to get out and back in another spot. 4 minutes late when I clocked in. (Blank look on my face while I try to get my thought processes running again.) Oh man, is that the time? 5:43pm. But it’s like 2 minutes late. I gotta adjust it soon. Looking at some pictures again. Oh, the world’s largest picture mosaic! I forgot I took a picture of that. I wonder what was in those pictures on the picture mosaic? It’s too high to really see the individual pictures. I really gotta get back on the galaxyzoo.com site. Those are some pretty amazing galaxies out there. Makes me feel smaller than I really am. Gotta lose weight. But I’m so lazy. Oh, that Zantrax 3 didn’t work out too well for me. It made me dizzy all day. I think it fought with BP pill and the other pill. Leiza didn’t win in the fight. She was on the bed, trying to get through the day. Good thing I tried it when I was off-work. I told Lucien to try it, though. He might get something out of it all, though he did feel the same queasiness like I did. But it’s been 3 days now, so it should be good. Oh, Lucien should be seeing that contractor now. We’re thinking of adding some rooms on the second floor. Gotta get ready when Janna and Jonelle come here. But when are they coming? The adoption thing is taking too long. It’s been 2 years already. Lucien’s impatient, always ragging me and asking me what the status was. How can I tell him when I don’t know anything? I keep telling him that but still blahbitty-blah-blah. Dani is really growing. She’s so cute and sweet most of the time. She’s doing her little tantrums here and there, but sometimes I’m the cause of it. She fell off the bed last night, and was crying a lot, I felt so bad that I had to hug her for a long time. But I know she’ll never learn her lesson, because she’s going to end up doing it again. But that’s how children discover their boundaries. She even tried to see how far she could go using this little step ladder we had. I gave her a warning tone, but she just looked at me and propped her foot on the first step. I even glared at her and kept talking in a stern tone, but no dice. She looked, “Let’s see how far I can pull this off”. Finally, I went over and put her foot down on the floor where it was more stable. She cried. I guess I kinda scared her? Dunno. Her hair is growing so much. I wonder if I should try to cut her bangs. But her hair is so nice and soft, I’m afraid to even touch it. I’m starting to brush her teeth. She kinda likes the feeling of the brush against her teeth, but then it’s hard to keep her mouth open enough to brush them. She keeps biting down. So I have to make her smile by smiling at her showing my teeth. She does a lot of imitations here and there. Like earlier this morning, I was wiggling my fingers to her, and she imitated it. She’s so cute! I just want to hug her. Oh, I think I made her irritated in trying to pull her thumb away from her. We gotta try to stop her thumb-sucking soon. It’s not good for her teeth. But she cried and cried, and it hurt me. I have to look up what’s a better way to do this.

Okay, I’m drained. There’s still a lot of the stuff in there, I just can’t catch up. But funny about what you’re thinking and just typing it out like a boss dictating notes to his assistant. It’s fun to do that sometimes. :)