Alaska or Bust

So we are finally getting ready to go to Anchorage, Alaska for the Filipino American Historical National Society conference. We are staying with my Auntie Linda and Uncle Jopan. My sister is already there and my mom will meet us there on Wednesday. I'm really excited to go. Why you ask? its Alaska.
When my grandparents immigrated here in the 80's they had a tough time finding a job in Cali. My grandpas brother was working in Anchorage and Kodiak Alaska in the canneries and convinced them to check it out. They migrated north to work there. They lived in a boarding house, worked 6 months out of the year and came down to cali for 6 months to be with their grandchildren. I remember every time they came to visit, they brought big boxes full of dungenous crab, king crab, halibut and salmon. i mean boxes! the fish were 20 lbs each, the crabs were HUGE! i grew up eating all of that!

besides the food, i want to see the place my grandparents lived for so many years. my moms first cousins are there with all their families and i'm excited to meet all of them. i want to see the daylight at midnight. i want to catch fish where my grandpa fished. when i ask my grandpa if he misses anchorage or kodiak. he says, "not really". its too cold, the work is hard. he really loves his retirement in the phils.

a long flight with the baby is making me a little anxious. i know she'll be fussy. because of the extra long flight, i'm bringing the boppy so she can sleep ontop of it after i nurse her. shes getting so big. she'll be celebrating her 5 month birthday on Saturday. yay!
her sleeping patterns have been fucked up the past few weeks. trying to get her back into her 9pm-9am but right now its 12am-7pm then little naps here and there during the day. the meetings and the late nights have messed all of us up. we're extra tired during the day cause she wants to play all day.

oh yeah! she got into SFSU's day care for the fall. MWF from 730-1230. it will give me time to study and do work in the mornings. she gets to play with more babies! whats cool is that there is only 6 infants per room and 3 teachers per room. now we'll be going to school together!

anyway. she just put herself to sleep infront of the TV. gotta put her in the crib.

g diaper update

I love the g diaper. the concept and the look. BUT there are a few things that make me go back to the pampers swaddles.

Pros

• Good for the environment
• G covers are cool

Cons

• Cloggs the toilet
• its messy when there is poop involved. especially trying to teat the diaper apart when there's poop on it.
• washing the liner after poop
• when its on the diaper scrunches in the middle and causes leaks
• Amianan doesn't sleep long when she's in them.
• Amianan gets fussy when she's wearing them
• hard to find at stores
• you can order on line but the delivery charge is $$
• takes forever to put on and take out

i guess i have more cons than pros but i think if i gave it more time i will get used to them and so will amianan. i think i'll do it more consistently when we get back from our trip.

Amianan at 4 months

Amianan just turned 4 months on Thursday . Rod and I have seen some changes in her already since her 3 month milestone. she totally has a different cry. i miss the newborn cry. =( now its this loud piercing cry with all these tears that roll down her face. she likes to play in her baby Einstein play yard, but lately she would roll over to her tummy and throw up. Then she likes to put her face right on her throw up and smother it all over. YUCK.baby throw up is no joke! it smells like some on just had a hang over and yacked. she's a total rock star already. so, after i nurse her i put her in her swing to settle tummy. she hasn't used that thing all month till last week. i was tired of washing her play yard! i would put her on her swing for a while. sometimes she takes her naps there.
her sleeping patterns are getting better too. at 3 months, i would nurse her laying down around 9pm and she would fall asleep. i swaddle her and put her in her crib. she would wake up at 5 or 6am and take a big dump, nurse her for 20 minutes then she would fall asleep again until 9am. she eats atleast 7 times a day. now i noticed that she eats less. i still put her to sleep around 9 and now she just sleeps through her morning feedings and wakes up at 8 or 9 in the morning! rock star! she's getting so big!

last night we had or 5th annual PEP banquet at the Bayanihan Community Center. The set up was nice, the food was GOOD!, the performances were super funny and the teachers, students, board members and families made it even more special. Rod and i were awarded this beautiful clock for our 5 years of service for PEP. i can't believe its been that long! within the 5 years, we graduated with our masters, got engaged, got married, had a baby..damn..hopefully in the next 5 years we would both have our doctorates and another baby! and maybe a 2nd honeymoon! ;)

Amianan was of course overwhelmed. Its hard to balance her feedings when mommy is part of the show. she was passed over to many arms and i think she had enough last night. by the time we got home, we changed her and fed her but she was up way past her bed time. she wouldn't fall asleep nursing. rod hurt his back, i hurt my arm..we're all sorts of fucked up since she has been getting heavier and heavier! 11pm i said fuck it..im going to try the cry out method. so i swaddled her put her in her crib, turned off the lights and said, if she cries for 10 minutes we go in a soothe her and we keep doing that till she falls asleep. for 2 minutes she makes noises and i watch the clock. then next thing you know, she's breathing deep. i check the crib and she's sound asleep. THANK GOD! cause rod and i were so tired from the event we almost knocked out with her in between us. who knows where she would've scooched to if we fell asleep.

thats another thing.she's creepin.. its funny how she uses her legs to move. she doesnt know how to use her arms at the same time but when she's on her tummy puts her hear on the mat, sticks her butt up and uses her knees to move forward! its soo cute!

in a few weeks, we'll be heading off to Alaska for FAHNS! this child will be well traveled by the time she's 5. She's already flown to LA twice, Alaska next! she's been to laker games and giants games, hella meetings, community orgs, parties.. we already want to take her to the phils next year and hawaii too..

today we're going to the FCC Filipino Fiesta. I better get ready while she's asleep then i gotta give her a sponge bath before we head out. This will be my first time taking her out by myself cause poppa already left to set up.

Mommy Day

today was Mommy Day. Rod watched Amianan so mommy can get her hair cut and her nails done. I've been really lazy about my hair lately and that's totally not like me. I think before i was pregnant, I was at the salon all the time. Different colors, different cuts, bangs, no bangs, peekaboos, chunks. I was all about it. But when i got pregnant, i went with what ever was low maintenance. i dyed my hair one color and got a cut. then i decided that i wanted to grow it out until amianan was 1. but when she was born, i was feeling all sorts of tore back. my self esteem and body image issues were at a all time low. its like i spend all my time going to the gym, running marathons, eating organic..then you blow up like a blimp and your body changes before your eyes! don't get me wrong, what came out of me was someone that i will truly love for the rest of my life, but the body i got stuck with is what i'll have to live with. yeah right..

so i forgot about the promise of growing my hair for a year and decided to get a hair cut at serramonte mall. out of all places. i chose it out of convenience cause it was down the street, baby was only a month old and i wanted it fast. So i chose regis hair salon..damn..why i got the old russian lady that gave me a jennifer aniston 1994 hair cut? rod was clownin..and i took that shit to heart. i was all fucked up as it was. i even gave her a picture and shit looked nothing like it. so i wore those damn clips to pull my bangs back cause she fucked them up with a razor. no volume, just BLAH! look at the picture below. yeah.. right?














so a few months roll by and i had to consult with my sis michelle f cause she be keeping up with her do. she referred me to Janene from On Mars! www.onmarssalon.com, she was awesome! she totally took the picture and made it happen. very easy to talk to, she wont talk you out of what you want. she totally takes her time. after she styled my hair, she still looked to see if we can add more umph to the cut. i love it! i feel liberated! i finally found someone i can be loyal to. i hate jumpin from one person to the next. i need a relationship with my stylist for sure.


mind you, im posting after puttin the the baby to sleep. i'll post a pic of the new do when i get all dressed up for banquet tomorrow..hahaha ;)
but yeah if you want a new place to get a cool hair cut or color-- go to on mars in corner of Fillmore and Waller. Tell jenene that Arlene sent you!

later on in the day..angelica swooped me up and we went to Da-Vi at Tanforan to get our nails did. it was dope but some folks there are hella sadot when they clean you nails..i came home smelling like that salon. everyone was getting their nails done there. why the girl sitting across from me at the nail dryer look like a filipino heidi montag. she even sounded like her. anyway, i got home, gave baby girl a bath, fed her and she knocked out.
*oh rod said she did a semi crawl? isn't that too early. but she can get on her fours a little and use her knee to move forward. she's getting so big soo fast..

"g" diapers

Rod is trying to graduate Amianan to stage 2 diapers and they are super big! after going through what seems to be a million diapers, i've decided to try g.diapers. www.gdiapers.com their not cloth or plastic disposables, they're flushables! i've always wanted to go cloth, but i hated the fact that i had to carry those suckers around all soiled with poop/pee until the diaper service comes to pick it up. i rather throw it away and be done with them. i'm a clean freak as it is, i don't know what i would do if i had those cloth diapers. but i found g diapers through my cousin in law. after reading the website, i'm sold! i bought a starter kit to see what its like. trying to be more earth friendly.

today is also the first time i caught a cold in a long time. i think the last time was when i was pregnant. i blame it on stress and all the sugar from those darn tea cakes and macaroons michelle p gave us last week. damn those tea cakes for being so succulent!
i bet amianan loved it in her breast milk..she's asleep right now in her swing that her auntie narah bought for her. she's been really fussy lately. maybe she's teething? she's growing so fast, i miss my little newborn! but i love how chubby she is and rolls around and laughs at us!

Newborn

I just realized that I needed to start a blog, journal, or something to document this journey as a mother. I wanted to start one when I was pregnant, then I said that I would start one once Amianan was born. But after 15 1/2 weeks of being a mom and Amianan now exiting newborn status, I finally gave in.
This year has been a beautiful struggle. From giving birth through surgery, being a mom and watching Rod become such a wonderful father, celebrating my 30th birthday, and getting in to grad school. This is just the beginning.