She is such a big girl now!
We landed at LAX yesterday around 10 am. After checking that it will take Uber 1 hour to get to our Airbnb, we took a taxi and after 30 mins, we were at the “Abbey Apartments building”. We were all tired from the early trip and looked forward to relaxing in our Airbnb home for 3 days.
Myka fell asleep in the taxi. She did so well in her first flight.
We went to the lobby of the building and introduced ourselves to the guard. Bryan, our host, already informed us beforehand that since we’re arriving on a Sunday, he won’t be able to greet us and left the key with the guard. It took a while for the guard to figure out where the unit was – not sure if it’s because he was new or because the unit itself was new.
The guard finally escorted us out of the building and to our unit, which was actually at the side of the building. It had its own entrance, which I thought was cool.
Everything in the unit was new, we were the first guests!
Myka and D liked it too!
What I liked most about it is that it is close to almost every place I wanted to go to – the Philippine consulate of course, and then Hollywood and downtown LA. The host, Bryan, was also very responsive. He forgot to install the shower head before we arrived and when I informed him, minutes later, he was at the unit with the shower head. 🙂
She has 2 lower and upper teeth now. She can sit up on her own and can stand for a long time with support. However, she refuses to crawl.
She mumbles and seems to respond to conversations.
She loves to pick food with her hands and shove them into her mouth. She can now move her food from one hand to another so she can eat the remaining food that she clasps in her tiny hand.
She has separation anxiety with me whenever I leave or whenever her dad takes her away from me so I could work.
She can’t quite say Daddy or Mommy yet but she mumbles the word dada.
I had a very restful night because my baby slept from 9pm to 12mn (I slept from 10:30 to 4am. Yay!) and D arrived and put her back to sleep. So I just went back to sleep until 4am when she woke up again. I was able to go back to sleep from 5am to 7am when MJ barked because the baby sitter arrived. I forgot to tell her that I took the day off to “relax” on my birthday.
I was delighted to see my husband’s little surprise for me downstairs.
I did the laundry, took care of Myka in the morning and had a chat with Bernie, who brought me a pot of beautiful yellow tulips.
D took me to the semi-empty parking lot at Cabela’s to let me drive the truck. It was very different from driving the car.
After that we went to Chili’s to have a very early dinner and some alone time. We often joke that we’re very old people, eating dinner at 4pm! 😀
I still haven’t responded to messages on Facebook, I just couldn’t find time. But it’s ok, I’m sure people will understand.
I wanted to do my yearly reflections and vision board but I am too busy today. Maybe I can do it for 15 minutes a day. One of the things I want to do regularly from now on is to do a max of 30-min blog/reflection.
Sleep – 8! 🙂
Baby – ~7
D – ~3
Laundry – 2
Friend – ~2
Goals for this week:
Yay! My mom got her tourist visa! She’s set to visit us here next year, January 15, 2017. I’m excited and at the same time worried. It will be her very first time to travel alone. And she’s not very good with texting and updating me whenever she travels. It’s always my sister or father – whoever she’s traveling with who updates me wherever she is. Well, I know everything will be fine. And I really hope she’ll enjoy her time with us here. She truly deserves this vacation. 🙂
My parents are on their way to Davao right now. Their flight to Manila is at 10:00PM. I’m kinda worried that they might not know their way or they might get lost. It’s their first time to go around Manila on their own. I have booked a hotel for them already, I am just worried that taxi drivers might trick them – and know that they don’t have any idea how to go from one place to another.
My mom will be going to the US Embassy at Manila for her tourist visa interview. I hope she gets it so that she can travel to US next year. I have planned for her to travel on January 15, 2017 so that she can help me look after my baby when I start going back to work. It is also my gift to her for her retirement. She has worked so hard so that we can finish college so I want to reward her for that.
Although I feel bad for my Papa, I just can’t afford to have both of them travel next year. And besides, I’m scared my father won’t be able to endure the 22-hour flight.
I hope and pray that the Consul gives my Mama a tourist visa…
Things in a mind of a 33 year old
I turned 33 yesterday, April 10. I didn’t celebrate it… I mean, I’m too tired and not wanting to socialize so I just went to church (D- took and picked me up to/from church). After church we just went to Wendy’s to get a 4 for $4 meal plus extra fries and a chocolate Frosty for me. It was good.. 🙂 Better than the fancy meal we had last Saturday at BJ’s. Well, we call it fancy because we’re very frugal and a $50 meal is already fancy for us. I was looking forward to enjoying my Grilled Chicken Alfredo but I didn’t really like it and ended up only eating a tenth of it. 😦
Anyway, so we enjoyed our Wendy’s meal and went to Walmart to get some bananas, and Honeycrisp apples. We’ve been eating more fruits than meat lately. And it’s very surprising especially for my meat-eating husband.
I enjoyed just lying on the couch and relaxing. We watched Star Wars for the 3rd time while I responded to Facebook greetings and messages.
Update on my pregnancy: I’m already on my 13th week! We had an ultrasound for baby on April 7 – so the doctors can check if the baby is growing at a normal rate and they measured the fluid that was on the baby’s neck to find out if he/she has Down Syndrome. Doctor said that babies who have Down Syndrome have 3 or more measures (forgot the measurement) while normal babies should have less than 3. Our baby had 1.67, which is good! Yay! 🙂 So we finally announced the pregnancy on Facebook and a lot of people left messages of support, which warmed my heart.
What I’m worried about: I have been stressing about my project and work in general. Recently there’s been  a lot of pressure at work. And I’m overwhelmed. I need to handle it better.
– What can I do?
– manage my time better
– organize my work better
– ask help
– delegate
– Work SMARTER!
I’m going back to blogging regularly because this helps me de-stress and unwind
My husband and I adopted her from Austin Pets Alive. She’s a black Lab mix, our little bundle of black fur. She was 2 months old and was a tiny little pup but now she has grown double her size.
Sometimes a pain in the ass but most of the time just a sweet, charming and playful puppy.
Almost my entire life, I have struggled to give a better life to my family. I have always dreamt for my parents to live in a nice house, be debt-free, and just be comfortable. I also wanted my brothers and sister to finish school, get a job, and be independent. As an eldest child, I have always felt responsible for my family’s welfare.
But no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I support them financially and emotionally, I realized that I don’t really hold their future. I don’t make decisions for them and what they do with their lives is beyond my control. But sad to say, I am still affected by the consequences of their choices and actions.
When I learned that my sister got pregnant again for the 2nd time, not even a year after she gave birth to her eldest, I felt really disappointed and upset. She’s only 17 for crying out loud! I’m really mad and I can’t do anything about it.
Maybe it’s just because I have my period right now, that is why I feel so mad and have a hard time of letting it go. Argh. So disappointing.
My Lane 