Aidan's 2nd birthday and other adventures!

I still can't believe that it is already 2 years since I gave birth to my big bebe boy. Sometimes, it feels like it was just a couple of months ago since everything about the day of my labor and delivery is still crystal clear to me.  My bebe boy is growing up so fast that sometimes I feel like I can't keep up with it but oh well, I guess I just got to accept that he's never gonna be that little bebe who lays down peacefully on my arms.  I didn't have any post about it but for his first birthday we went to Hong Kong Disneyland and because of that we kind of thought that it will be a good idea to travel again this year.

We decided to go and explore Dallas, TX.  We didn't have much trouble with the bebe while on the road so we really had a good start for this trip.  We had loads of fun and of course we ate tons of delicious food! I can easily say that this is one of the best trips we've ever had.  Aidan had a few meltdowns but it wasn't something that some cold refreshing drinks can't fix.  I think the waterpark is the best part of the trip for him since he never complained or cried while we were out there.  It was really good to be back in the city and also it was good to explore a new area.  I guess this is our major trip for the year (since 2011 we've always had one major trip each year; 2011-Philippines, 2012-Texas, 2013-Hong Kong) but we'll see, we still have 5 more months before the year ends.

In other news, the bebe's hair is finally growing lol! We've never cut his hair and we're planning to grow it until he's 3 (or if you ask Jesse he'll say until the bebe turns 5) so we'll see how long it'll grow by that time.  He LOVES the water, as a matter of fact he'll jump in any puddle of water he sees! He loves cars, trains and anything with wheels.  If he sees a nice car parked outside our apartment he'll make sure to have a CLOSER look at it.  He also loves dandelions! and of course Mickey Mouse. His words are still not understandable most of the time but I think he's able  to understand a little of bit of  French and Tagalog since he can follow most of our commands in those languages.  When he's getting annoyed at something or at me lol he'll say "ano ba!" with a really maldito face , hahaha. Lately, he's been saying "T'aime Mama" ( we use that as a shortcut for Je T'aime) before bedtime. It's really fun and exciting to see him undergo all these changes and developments.

Jesse on the other hand is currently on summer break but he's doing full-time work on campus. This sucks for Aidan and I since were at home or just around our neighborhood the whole day.  I can't wait to have all the confidence I need with my driving skills so the bebe and I can go  and do some great adventures together.

We're going to hit our 1 year mark in this town next month. It is both great and challenging experience for all of us. We have received blessings more than we have imagine,. An example of this is Jesse receiving scholarships for the next semester. This is a huge help for us since tuition fees in here are really sky high; we are really grateful for it. There are also a lot of challenges along the way too but we have learned to deal with it and not run from it. We still have a long way  but we are excited for the coming years and we know that as long as we have each other and we work together everything's gonna be great!

                                                                                                     
   
                                                                                                            

Four Seasons

During our first months here in the middle of nowhere, I was kind of skeptical with the idea of experiencing four seasons.  It was summer when we arrived here and it was REALLY hot, there were days when the temperature will go up to 100 something degrees (Fahrenheit). I grew up in a tropical country and I can easily say that I am use to the heat but here it's different, it's so dry and staying outside feels like the sun is draining your energy (exaggerated but true haha).  Then after weeks of intense heat, fall finally came, the leaves are changing color and it's starting to fall everywhere. Everything looks good even the weather felt perfect, not too hot and not too cold. But it didn't last long for us to enjoy, it all went too fast and the temperature dropped day by day.

I hate the cold but the boys LOVE it. I wore layer upon layer of clothing, I wore a beanie, socks, gloves, and anything that can keep me warm. It was so annoying but fun at the same time since I get to wear clothes that I haven't tried before.  Snow was a first for us three though it wasn't like real snow (it was just an inch and it only lasted about 12 hours each time), we had a good time with it especially the bebe polar bear.  He would want to stay outside for a LOOONG time but I cannot take the cold so I would bring him inside and he would throw a fit and of course most of the time I lose so I would bring him out again.  We learned how to be more creative without our activities/play since obviously the outdoors are not the best place to hang out during this time.  This is one thing I like about the four seasons because we get to experience activities that we haven't tried before and we have to think about what activities would fit with the weather.  In other words, we get to practice planning our activities before actually doing it and not just do things randomly which we have a habit of.  Now that the cold is over I kinda miss it, hahaha but I am not thrilled to have it again.

Right now we are experiencing the Spring season and this is without a doubt my favorite season.  It was so surreal to see everything come to life. This is the first time I saw nature go on a full cycle and everything looks magical (like seriously). Flowers are blooming everywhere, trees that were barren are now all green.  It's so amazing to see how nature works and how beautiful God's creation really is.  Sometimes with all the things that we need/want to do we tend to forget to appreciate the beauty of the world that we are living in.  It is really amazing how everything in this world is put together, this reminds me that there is somebody up there who is responsible for all of these and who is watching over us.  These things in nature doesn't happen randomly, they happen for a purpose and I feel blessed to experience it.

Summer 2013

Fall 2013

Winter

Spring

 

CHANGE

I have been seeing a lot of those posts on Thought Catalog, Buzzfeed, etc about a list of things you ought to do in life to make this or that better, a list of things people have learned about life through the years and a whole bunch of other lists. The past few days have brought a whirlwind of emotions for me and as cliche it may sound, I came up with a list of the things I have learned from it (hahaha!).


1. Be spontaneous.

Sometimes you really just have to forget about planning. When something comes up and your gut tells you that its's the right thing to do, then there's a high probability that it really is the right thing to do at that moment. If in the end it turns out the other way, believe me it is easier to cry it out than live your life regretting about not doing it. Okay, let me be clear I am not saying just go ahead and do crazy things without thinking about it or just go ahead live your life without goals or plans but I am pretty sure that there is a part of us that tells us when it is a good thing to be spontaneous or not. A shallow but fulfilling example for this (well at least for me) happened just this morning (I happen to start writing this post 2 weeks ago and it's just now that I am finishing it, haha). I have been wanting to trim my bangs for a LOOONG time now but I didn't want to go to the salon because it's too expensive just to have my bangs trimmed since I want to grow my hair. I have always wanted to try to trim it on my own, I watched videos on how to do it and stuff but I am scared that it may not turn out the way I want it to be. Then I remembered what I just have experienced and learned about spontaneity this past week so I decided to just give it a try. If it turns out bad I can always put a hair clip on it and then let it grow again. So I did trimmed it by myself and I have to say I am actually pretty happy about it, hahaha!Now I want to put a sign on our door saying "We trim bangs/fringes here!" bwahahaha!

2. Stop caring about what others say.

Sometimes we tell ourselves that we are the "masters of ourselves", that we should not let other people belittle us, blah blah blah but the truth is there are really moments that we let them take the best of us. No matter how strong we are there will come a point that we will eventually breakdown and those people who are pinning us down will somehow win. I can say that I am a REEAALLY sensitive person but the past years I have tried to tone it down, I tried and is still trying to live the idea of "nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent". Well like everybody else sometimes I can't help but get affected about what others think or say about me and it really drags me down. But then now I think I have enough of those kind of drama. Of course it's not going to be easy to just ignore it but I know I can do it, I just need to focus myself on things that matters the most.

3. It is okay to burn some bridges

I am saying this in terms of friendships. Growing up I was never the type of person who can befriend a lot of people.  I have always been reserved and I have always treasured the set of friends that I have. But now that I have my own family I guess it is time to burn some bridges with some friends that doesn't really contribute to my well being and those that drag my character down. Now that I have my own family all my attention is directed to them, I cannot afford to have petty relationships with friends like I was in high school or in college. With this I mean the constant little arguments you have with your friends that "builds" your friendship stronger. I have come to realize that as you grow older the number of your "true" friends will gradually decrease. Those that will be left are the ones you will treasure for the rest of your life.

4.  People still thinks that fulltime moms do nothing everyday

I often receive comments from people saying that being a fulltime mom is an easy task (believe me this is real and these comments were actually directed to me). People think that we just go to tralalaland all day everyday since fulltime moms are just at home having all the time in the world in their hands. Like everybody else we have our own responsibilities to fulfill and we too are trying hard to be the best on what we do. When you're a mother you are always on the run. You have to run before your son spills his juice on the carpet, before he decides to tear the pages of his dad's accounting books (which by the way costs a fortune), before he spills the milk chocolate on his white shirt, before he knocks down the TV, so on and so forth. Now that I have my own family and now that I am a mom I have to do everything at home, clean up, laundry, cooking, etc etc. It is physically and emotionally draining but then I am blessed to have my husband by my side. He too is trying his best to support me with my responsibilities despite the fact that he is a fulltime student (a straight A student if I my brag), he has two part-time jobs and one volunteer position. I hope "normal" people will realize that we fulltime moms are just like everybody else we have our own daily struggles, and just like them we are also on the clock except that we are on duty 24/7, no sick leaves etc.

52 Weeks Photo Challenge

Every year we see a lot of these photo challenges all around social media websites and it is only this year that we decided to do one. Early on our relationship, we made it a goal to give an extra effort to take pictures of our everyday life. Pictures are worth a thousand words and I think people's love for photos will never get old or fade away. For this photo challenge we decided to take two themes, one focuses on our bebe and the other one of us as a family.

We love taking pictures while one of us is sleeping. If you browse through our mobile phones you'll see how fond we are on doing this. So for the photo challenge on Aidan we decided to do 52 weeks of him sleeping, hahaha!t56jmum (that's the bebe's two cents on this blog post, lol). We are still co-sleeping (it has its own cons but we love it!) with him and so it's easier to take a picture of him while he's on tralaland. So here's what we have so far on him.

Disclaimer: I don't know anything about photography (lighting, angles, etc) so the quality of these photos are far from the others who are doing this Photo 52 challenge.

WEEK 1

 WEEK 2

WEEK 3

WEEK 4 (I'd rather not share it lol)

WEEK 5

Hopefully we'll be able to keep up with this!

"I Write to Give Myself Strength"-Joss Whedon

Sometimes I can't help but ask myself why do I really blog. It's not like I have a big audience that I need to "satisfy" or entertain. As a matter of fact, I think most people don't even care about what I write. Well as a matter of fact, I don't really care about what those other people think or say too. They may say I am just showing off or that I am a wanna-be writer or that I am exposing my family in this cyber world, I really do not care, in fact I have my own opinions about those other people too and whether they care or not about what I think about them I still don't care.

Anyway, back to the question why do I write or blog. Yesterday as I was spending my precious time daydreaming about life I came to realize that  the reason I blog was primarily for myself. Of course, I do this for our close friends and family who live FAR from us. Some of our family members especially on my husband's side haven't had the chance to meet Aidan so this is our way of helping them get to know Aidan as he is growing up. But then sometimes there are really just some days that I just need to write.

We live in a town which is literally located in the middle of nowhere, we don't have any family members to visit and we know a very few people. It's not like when we were in Hawaii or in the Philippines where our days are pretty much occupied. In Hawaii, we go to school, work and the beach is always there. In the Philippines, I have my family, malls everywhere, spots to visit and the pool in our condominium. In here, there's not much to do add to that is the fact that I barely just started learning how to drive and I still have to wait for a month before I can hopefully get a license. So you see I'm pretty much stuck at home, whining about this dreary winter weather. Writing is what keeps my sanity. I know it's not like I write good or I write cohesively. As a matter of fact most of the time my thoughts on my blog entries are all over the place. But then writing entertains me, it gives me something to look forward to, it gives me a huge break after chasing and trying to entertain my SUPER active 18 months old bebe. This may sound weird but like reading, writing for a short time pulls me away from my reality which is the reality of a messy house full of dirty clothes, dishes and baby bum. When things seems to be too overwhelming, writing becomes my escape. Then after that short time I feel refreshed, ready to face the needs and MOSTLY the wants of my little family of giants.

Another reason why I blog is that it helps me keep track on the things that happen to our little family. It provides a way for me to document those simple things in our life that we will forever cherish. As our son is growing up we came to realize (and is still trying to embrace) how fast time flies. It literally just slips on our hands, we still can't believe how in 18 months our little fragile baby have transformed into this wrecking machine haha, just kidding but you know what I mean. 

Writing keeps what the mind fails to keep and life is too wonderful to be forgotten.  While we're young we think that our memory will always be in perfect shape, but it's not and it will never be. Personally, writing helps me to relive the sweet memories of the past and when things seems to be falling apart what I have written serves as my teacher.  I love this quote by Anaïs Nin  “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” Writing is really a treasure especially in this world where some people enjoy having a 140 character limit in their thoughts.   

"Babies Destroy Dreams"

I know all of us have times in our life when we feel like doing NOTHING. Well we say we do not want to do anything but the truth is we just want to do certain things that are completely useless. With that I mean like reading random posts on your Facebook feed for hours minutes and then reloading it so you'll see "What's New" and read whatever pleases or intrigues you. This happens to me a lot of times especially when the bebe is napping and the husband is either at school, at work or just across me playing FIFA14. One day I came across a post, I cannot remember what it is about or who's Facebook page it was but there was a comment made for that post that caught my attention. Part of the comment says "babies destroy dreams".

It has been months now since I came across that Facebook post but I cannot wash it off my mind. So here I am writing about it hoping that this post will in one way or another reach that person who have said that statement. I want him/her to know that I do agree with what he/she have said; babies do destroy dreams. On the other hand I also want him to know that I believe that things get destroyed to pave the way to the creation of something new, something bigger or smaller but definitely BETTER. 

As I have written in a previous post, before going to college I pretty much have a step by step list on how I will live my life. To make it short it was COLLEGE --> INTERNSHIP --> "DREAM JOB". There never was marriage and kids on the list and that is why when I announced my decision of getting married there have been a lot of people who has been really skeptical about it. The reactions intensified when months later I announced I was pregnant. At first I did not mind them it was my life and I should not let anybody shape it for me but then as things got more real for me (like my belly getting big, it felt like I was carrying a watermelon all the time) I felt like maybe people were right and I really made the wrong decision.

Things got worst after I gave pregnant, at one point I felt like giving up but there is no way for me to do that. There is no customer service area where I can simply say I am returning the baby because I do not want it anymore or say "I thought I needed it but actually I don't". It was not until I first saw the smile on my baby's face that I realized that I was doing the right thing and that there is no place I'd rather be than his side.  It was during these times when I picked myself up, held my head high and ready to conquer the world with my new family. It still wasn't easy of course, there was a lot of dirty diapers, sleepless nights, messy hair, stretched marks, spilled milk/juice on the carpet that was involved but despite all of this knowing that I have this family for all time and eternity made everything seem so perfect.

As you see babies do destroy dreams but they become your reason to create another dream, something BIGGER and BETTER than before. Babies give you another reason to wake every morning (or at times every 30 minutes or if you're lucky every hour). They give you a new sense of life; with them you always want to be the best that you can be. They give a huge responsibility in your hands; just think about this "who your baby will become depends on the foundations you will create for them". They will sure annoy and disturb you more than anybody else but still you love them more than anybody. They will drain every bit of your energy but it is also them who energizes you to do everything in your power so you can give them the best of everything. I love my son and my husband and I made a promise that no matter what happens we will do everything to help be who he would want to be and also to give him the best that he can have.

Photo by Melinda Pike Photograhy

Love this little monster to pieces. 

Cultural Symbols: Tifaifai

Our holiday vacation is over and I am back to my "normal" life. With "normal" I mean staying at home with the bebe pretending to be busy while the hubby is at school or work. Sometimes I feel like I have so much time on my hands because of our current living situation but the truth is time is going by so fast it gets harder each day to catch up with it. Anyway, since we got back from our Holiday vacation with my sister in Tennessee I have been doing a lot of clean up and organizing in our house and today I happen to stumble upon the tifaifai that was given to us by my husband's grandma for our wedding.

As much as I would love to explain what a tifaifai is in my own word I cannot find the exact words to say so I went to my friend google and here is what I found from www.tnt.pa-tahiti-tourplan.com

"Literally meaning “applique”, the Tifaifai is part of the Polynesian family life. Defined as patchwork bed covers or quilts made out of a sheet of fabric on which have been sown one or several patchworks, or assembled several pieces of fabrics, the Tifaifai is truly precious in Polynesia.They are invaluable gifts from grandmothers or great-grandmothers. Symbols of affection and love, respect and consideration, they are given to a wedding etc"

I have never met my husband's grandmother but with the stories that I have heard and with all the blankets and pillow covers that she gave to us I can say that she sews REALLY REALLY good. And they all last for a long time, my husband's blanket which she gave to him before his mission is still with us, still looking really good despite all the years that it is has been used. 

My husband considers all of her grandmother's work valuable especially the tifaifai that she gave for our wedding. That one has a sentimental value for the both of us not only because my husband' grandma made it but because it is one of our marriage symbols. Like our wedding bands our tifaifai symbolizes our union, the two of us becoming one. I love the fact that even if I am not Tahitian and we were not married in Tahiti we were still able to keep this cultural tradition for our wedding. This tifaifai is really valuable to our family and we are planning to pass it to Aidan when he gets married in the (far, far, far, far) future.

I have a high regard for cultural symbols, for me these symbols define our values and who we truly are on the inside. Being in an intercultural marriage is both exciting and challenging, it is hard to live having to live with both cultures but I always try my best to uphold and respect both my husband's culture and that of my own in our home. I know every marriage is "intercultural" since both parties whether they are of the same race or not have lived their own cultures before they have met their partners but just a note that in this post whenever I use the term culture I am referring to the values, traditions or practices that we share with the people similar to our race. Like Tahitian culture, Filipino culture, and the list goes on and on.

Let me share with you the beauty of the tifaifai that my husband's grandmother made for our wedding. I am sorry for the low quality photo but I just need to post brag about this.