Just Breathe

I am exhausted. Completely and utterly exhausted. Today was laundry and cleaning day over here and trying to clean house is such a joke when I've got Grace running around undoing everything. I'm learning to just breathe slow and steady when I turn around and see yet another mess to clean up, in an area I've already cleaned, for the 10th time in less than an hour.

Grace is such a copycat and I guess I've been saying her name with such exasperation lately that now when I ask her what her name is, she says, "Grrrraaaaace," all drawn out and said with 'the tone'. Oooops. I guess I need to work better on just breathing slow and steady.

It might be time to convert her crib to a toddler bed because this is how I found her when I opened her bedroom door this morning. And she climbed out after her nap too.

As I was unloading the dryer, she was busy unloading all my purses.

A Great Ending

I wasn't sure how my day was going to go when I woke up to a torrential downpour and a baby who has learned how to climb out of her crib. I was tempted to just skip church this morning, bring Grace into bed with me, snuggle under the covers, and try to go back to sleep for a little while longer.

But once Grace is up, she is ready for the day. We had a quick breakfast and and then tried to ignore the relentless rain as we headed to church, Grace in her raincoat and me with an umbrella. Grace may not have let me sleep in this morning, but she made up for it by giving me a break at church. She was pretty well behaved for a change.

The rain continued on throughout the afternoon and with Mike being on duty again, I thought for sure we would, yet again, miss out on seeing him for dinner. I didn't really plan on taking a nap because there were other more productive things I wanted to get done, but the sound of the strong winds and heavy rains seduced me to sleep and my moment of 'let me just lay here and rest for a second' turned into an hour long snooze.

When I woke up, it was almost dinner time and the gloomy weather was replaced with sunshine, something I haven't seen in days! I was happy to see the sun again but even happier to know that Grace and I could finally visit Mike on the ship.

Dinner was picked up at a fast food drive through, but nobody seemed to mind. Grace enjoyed seeing her daddy. You can tell the girl missed him with all the kisses and hugs she showered on him. Thankfully, this was the last night of the three section duty for Mike so although he'll continue to have duty while on the ship, it won't nearly be as often as it has been for the past couple of weeks.

Tri Delta Tea Party

This afternoon, the Tri Delta held their second meeting to discuss "Someday My Prince Will Come." Liezel was our lovely host and we all had a fun time discussing the British Monarchy and how one goes about trying to marry one- all during a tea party while wearing our tea party hats.


While I was with the girls enjoying my Prince of Wales tea, Mike and Grace were left at home to entertain themselves. Earlier in the day, we had breakfast at Panera's followed by a trip to Toys'r'Us for some educational toys for Grace. There happened to be a 'buy one, get one 50% off' sale on puzzles so we ended up getting her a few.

By the time I got home from my tea party, every single one of those puzzles had been opened. I was hoping to space out the introduction to each new toy, but apparently her daddy had a different idea. At least daddy and daughter enjoyed their afternoon together, and that's the most important thing.

Romantic Date Night

Mike and I finally decided that tonight was going to be date night for the two of us. Considering that our last date night was last year, this night was long overdue. We made reservations at a fancy shmancy restaurant, got all dressed up, and took Grace to the sitters.

When we got to the sitters, I almost thought our date night would get cancelled because of one nervous daddy. He kept asking if I thought she'd be okay and kept wondering aloud if she would cry without us. I kept saying she'd be fine and even if she did cry, I'm positive they'll still take good care of her. It was very sweet to see him all worried like that over his baby girl, but this mama was determined to have an intimate date night with her hubby.

Once we got to the restaurant though, it was just like our pre-baby date nights. Sure, we talked about Grace, but there was also a lot of fun conversation, silly laughter, and some modest PDA. This all happens on our family night outs too, but it was so nice to just concentrate on each other instead of trying to do damage control with a toddler. And we would never ever have been able to eat at the place we ate tonight with Grace. We would have been kicked out for ruining the swanky atmosphere, for sure. This was not a place that caters to kids with crayons and sippy cups.

After our lovely dinner for two, we still had an hour and half left before we were set to pick up Grace from the sitters. Mike suggested a romantic little walk in the drizzly, moonlit night. We huddled under an umbrella that he held over us. Eventually though, our conversation turned to Grace and all of her hilarious antics and we started missing our girl. That pretty much put an end to our hot date night because we were both eager to pick up our baby after that.

Still, it was a perfect date night filled with enough sweet romantic moments for this super romantic girl. And truth be told- a man who misses his baby so much that he's willing to pick her up early is pretty darn romantic to me.

We celebrated his promotion in style tonight. Instead of Dairy Queen blizzards, we had steak and lobster!

Can't have a blog without a picture of Grace! The grandparents would not be pleased. So here we are during our morning time at the pool. Trust me, she had a blast, despite what it looks like in this picture.

A Little Jealousy

I was starting to think Grace didn't have a jealous bone in her body. I was afraid that when Mike got back from deployment, she wouldn't let us be all lovey-dovey in front of her. Thankfully, I was wrong. She actually encourages us to hug ('huck') and kiss (said with a Filipino accent- 'kiiiisss'). It's the funniest thing. She'll even push us together while saying hug and kiss.

But let me hold an adorable little baby and the jealous streak finally came out. We met some friends at the library for story time this morning and I was lucky enough to hold precious Trenton for a while. Grace was okay with it at first. Then after a few minutes, she noticed I was still holding sweet Trenton and she decided she wanted to sit on my lap. So I shifted the baby and made some room for her, but that wasn't good enough. She proceeded to throw a little crying fit right in the middle of story time. I had no choice but to surrender Trenton to his mama before we got kicked out for being too disruptive.

Later in the afternoon, we had a long overdue visit with Nellie and the Baggett boys. I got to hold sweet and cuddly Baby Deacon all afternoon and Grace couldn't have cared less. I think that's only because Grace absolutely adores Nellie (Grace used to also call her 'mama') and by my holding Deacon, she got all of Nellie's attention.

It was interesting to see Grace react to the babies since she's not around them all that much. It gives me a teeny glimpse of what it might be like with a sibling. Usually, she's the 'baby'. And it was nice to get my baby fixes by getting to hold sweet newborns for a while.

All in all, a fantastic day. It would've been perfect if we had been able to see Mike tonight. He has duty. Again. But because there was yet another evening thunderstorm, we couldn't come out to the ship to see him. Again. We do have a hot date night planned for tomorrow night so hopefully that will make up for not seeing him today.

Ty and Grace watching musical story time. They even had two ladies playing the flute today. It held Grace's interest for all of 3 minutes before she was up and trying to dig into my purse for crackers.

Grace, Ty, and Sarah after some lunch at Chick-fil-a. No nasty pushing incident today, thank goodness!

Ice Cream Celebration

I love ice cream. Always have, always will. It doesn't take much for us to use any excuse to celebrate with a little ice cream. But tonight's ice cream celebration was actually legit. After dinner, we went out in search of a *Dairy Queen to celebrate Mike's selection for promotion to Lieutenant Commander.

Congratulations, Babe! It is well deserved and we are all so proud of you!

* I know Dairy Queen doesn't seem like an appropriate place to celebrate such a great accomplishment, but after Grace's monkey behavior at last night's pizza outing, we thought we'd play it safe.

My little fashionista dug this toilet paper roll out of the trash can and decided it would make a lovely bangle.


She has become quite adept at digging through my dresser drawers and this is what she pulled out today.

Pizza Night

It was pizza night for dinner so we headed to Mellow Mushroom this evening. Grace was a handful with a capital 'H'. We probably would've been better off having pizza delivered, but I wanted to take advantage of the fact that we were a matchy-matchy family in yellow today.

Afterwards, we headed to Target to look for some puzzles/educational toys for Grace because she's really into puzzles right now. Couldn't find anything good there, but Grace fell in love with a horse figurine. I tried to do the bait and switch by hiding the horse and handing her a box of Q-tips to hold instead.

The girl is only 18 months old, but it's hard to get things past her. She immediately dropped the Q-tips and started searching for the horse.

She called out, "Where are you? I see you! Where are you?" as she looked on the shelves for the missing figurine. She thought the horsie was just playing hide and seek with her. Mike, the big softy, couldn't take it and said that he'd just buy it for her. Goodness, she's only 18 months and he already can't say no to her. What more when she's 18 YEARS old?



This is what it looks like when daddy tries to put the bow back in her hair.

A rainbow after dinner!

Daddy can't seem to say no to whatever this girl asks for.

Microwavable Mac'n'Cheese

Mike has duty every three days which basically means that Grace and I don't get to see him every three days because he has to spend the night on the ship. When he told me about this schedule, it didn't seem so bad because I thought we'd be able to see him for dinner on those nights he couldn't come home. But various work issues and random thunderstorms have prevented us girls from visiting our guy during the past two duty nights. It also means we can't bring him food so he has to resort to eating microwavable mac'n'cheese in styrofoam cups. Poor guy.

This morning Grace and I hit up the library for some DVD's and books and then went to Chick-fil-a for lunch. All was going well until my baby girl got shoved hard by this bully of a boy who kept exclaiming, "Ugh, there's a baby in here! Get out of the way!" (Picture a smiling Grace just minding her own business getting a two handed shove from behind causing her to stumble hard on the ground). I could feel the mama bear coming out in me and it took all I had not to discipline that boy myself. Especially since his grandpa didn't feel the need to say anything at all about the situation. He was too busy fiddling with his Blackberry.

Thankfully my tough girl just laughed it off. But I was fuming and in my passive-agressive way loudly told Grace it was time to go because it was obvious there were kids in the play area that didn't know how to play nicely. No reaction from grandpa. Still entranced with the Blackberry.

The rest of the day was nice and low key. When an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in, Grace and I went out on the balcony to enjoy it. She loves watching the rain come down and isn't afraid of the sound of rolling thunder.

After watching the thunderstorm, it was time for dinner. We had microwavable mac'n'cheese in a styrofoam cup. I did, however, steam some fresh broccoli to go with it and made a fruit salad for dessert to make me feel less guilty about feeding my child microwavable mac'n'cheese from a styrofoam cup.

FABE 4 Reunion

Leaving Japan was bittersweet for us. On the one hand, we were happy to be heading back stateside. On the other hand, we were leaving behind some pretty fabulous friends, most especially the Francisicos, the Blews, and the Estoestas. We dubbed ourselves the FABE 4 and knew that even though we were parting ways, it wouldn't be forever. We were the kind of friends that would see each other again someday.

That someday was today. The stars aligned and we were able to have a mini reunion. Sadly, we were missing the awesome Blews, but they were there with us in spirit. Almost as sad is that we only had a few short hours together, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to see such wonderful friends.

We missed you so much, Julie! We stuck you in the sugar container because you are so sweet, and you were there in the midst of us the whole time.

We got to meet precious Mia today! Just holding this sweet angel brought on the baby cravings full force!



Grace's first friend, Jasmine. They were just itty-bitty newborns when they first met.

The boys- James, Al, and Mike.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

We celebrated Mike's birthday today, a day late, with some pool time, nap time, a dinner out, butter pecan birthday cake, and a movie night in.

According to the birthday boy, every year just keeps getting better and better. That may very well be true, but next year, I think I'll just buy him a birthday cake. The butter pecan cake I attempted to make came out dry and overly sweet. Mike tried to tell me otherwise, but I think I saw a smile of relief when I threw the rest of it out. I didn't want him to force himself to eat more of the stuff just to spare my feelings. It is his birthday, after all.

Dinner at Bahama Breeze.

Ready to head to the pool.

"Look what I found, Mama!"

Dance Party

Because of this girl...

*I burned the pecans I was toasting for Mike's butter pecan birthday cake and had to painstakingly pick out the charred pieces in order to salvage the most important ingredient of the cake.

*I was constantly mopping the floor of milk splatters because now that she's discovered she can leak the milk out of these supposedly 'leak proof' cups, that's all she wants to do.

*I had to refold the laundry countless times because even though she thinks she's helping, sweet girl is actually doing the opposite.

BUT all the extra work I had to do was rewarded with an impromptu Friday night dance party for two. I was running out of things to do before her bedtime and I did not feel like watching Dora, Barney, or Little Bear.

Grace solved my dilemma when she requested some music so she could 'Shake, shake, shake booty'. And she's picky about the songs she'll shake her booty to. If she didn't approve of my DJ skills, she'd stop dancing, say 'No!' and that would be my cue to move on to the next song.

The night would've been perfect if only Mike were home for his birthday. But, alas, the birthday boy had duty and so we'll have to celebrate his special day tomorrow.

Good Time Thursday

As Grace and I were out running errands this afternoon, I heard a bunch of giggling coming from the backseat. When I finally got the chance to turn around and see what was so funny, this is what I saw. Apparently, sprinkling milk all over herself and the car from her 'leak proof' sippy cup is hilarious.


Some quiet fun time with daddy before bed.

Hey, Babe!

I will never forget the moment Grace first called me 'Mama'. It took her a long time so when she finally said it, I was ecstatic. Every once in a while, she'll call me 'mommy' after hearing other kids, but for the most part, it's still 'mama'.

Then Mike came home. Now she is starting to refer to me as 'Hey, Babe' after hearing her daddy call for me that way. I remember thinking it was odd that all my Filipino friends' parents called each other mom or dad instead of their name or a term of endearment. I thought it was just one of those Filipino traditions that I didn't know about. But now I understand why. They didn't want their child growing up calling them by their first name. Or referring to them as 'Babe'.

Another thing that has happened, which I was completely prepared for, is the fact that Mike is having a hard time saying no to his baby girl. I woke up from a nap the other day to find that he had given her not one, but two chocolate lollipops. I asked him why would he give her two lollipops in a row like that. His answer? "Because she asked for it and I couldn't say no to her."

I told my mom this story this morning when we were catching up on the phone and she didn't understand what the big deal was. "I would've given her three if she wanted it," Lola said.

Fabulous. I guess that leaves me to be the disciplinarian when it comes Grace. And seeing how difficult I find it to say no to that sweet face, I think we are in for a bit of trouble....

Daddy's Dinner

Today was Mike's first day back at work and he also had duty, meaning he has to stay on the ship overnight. After being together constantly for the past two weeks, it's back to reality for all of us. To alleviate any withdrawal symptoms that we may suffer from, Grace and I brought Mike food and joined him for dinner on the ship.

There was a time when bringing Mike food at work was a common thing. In Japan, we were a newlywed couple and I was fully embracing my new role as a doting wife and homemaker. I would make everything from scratch and packed all the necessary plates, bowls, cups, and napkins for an enjoyable meal. And cloth napkins too, thank you very much! I would make sure to wear a cute little outfit, complete with high heels, with my hair all done and face made up, so he would know what he was coming home to at the end of his work day.

I know it sounds very 1950's of me to have done all that, but I actually enjoyed it. It was like pretending to play house when I was a little girl, except I was doing it for real as a grown woman!

Tonight, I picked up his meal from the McDonald's drive through window. I was wearing the same outfit I wore all day while running errands, my hair pulled up in a bun, and any makeup I applied early in the day was long gone by the time I saw him this evening.

Oh, how times have changed.