holiday rush

haven't had the chance to blog since the holiday rush started. rush to do the shopping, rush to take the kids' pictures for christmas cards that were never made, rush to bring micah to the doctor for an asthma exacerbation, rush to wrap the gifts, rush to go to church, rush to relatives' houses, etc. too bad i was never rushing to get into bed for a good night's sleep. but as always, everything just seems to fall into place, we had a wonderful christmas. micah could have cared less about opening presents while lia always seemed to be looking for more. santa gave malia a sharpay doll and a dress up game this year and micah got a leap frog guitar. we gave the kids a train table set, but haven't gotten around to setting it up yet. i give it a few months. so i think i can relax for a bit, until it's time to put away all the decor. surprisingly, all of the ornaments are still on the tree. micah pulled a couple off because he thought they were balls, but wanted to put them back. i really don't want him to grow up!

highlights from our christmas rush time:

jumpitz xmas concert @ horton plaza
jonah giving a high 5

cursillo xmas party, malia played an angel with

her friend ella in the kids nativity scene

OVC xmas concert @ st. rose
brown eyed girl...

christmas eve @ the sousa residence

christmas morning! love the cheeks!
malia showing her outfit from micah

micah trying to taste some candy

christmas lunch @ the bringas residence
christmas dinner @ jonah & joelle's house

cousins pic take 1
cousins pic take 2cousins pic take 3
finally, a decent picture. there's always next year!
happy 1st christmas cousin joelle!

last lunch

while packing malia's lunch this morning, i realized that it was the last lunch i'd be packing for her in 2008. where has the time gone?! she'll have her school christmas party tomorrow and then she's on vacation until 1/5/2009. i could have sworn i was just dancing to prince's song 1999, but here we are 10 years later! anyways, malia will be happy today because i made her a nutella sandwich. it's her favorite sandwich i pack. i only give it to her once in a while. believe it or not it does have iron, calcium, protein, and fiber. (of course i check!) her sandwich is shaped like a christmas tree today. i also put in a banana and some graham crackers to even out the sweet. after i pick her up today, the 3 of us are off to daddy's work to watch his performance with the "think positive" teacher band and with OVC. hopefully micah is doing better with his cold, he would love to dance to all the music. malia will be able to burn off the sugar from the nutella sandwich. oh let's face it, that girl is never out of energy!

she's 31

pounds! at last, malia has reached the 30 pound mark. her annual exam was today. she is 0.2% for her weight and i think 0.4% for her height, which was 39.5 inches. such a petite filipino girl. "little" brother micah has only 8 pounds to gain and 8.5 inches to grow to catch up. i've always said i would have a party when malia reached 30 pounds. so how are we going to party? disneyland, of course!

tantrum tuesday

had another tough tuesday today. it started in the car on the way home when the kids were "sharing" a book in the back seat and one of the pages tore. malia had a raging fit that started as we were halfway home and didn't stop until we were in the house and i taped up the page. i don't know what it is about tuesdays but the kids seem crankier than usual, even when daddy stays home from class. and micah is quite the toddler and not my baby boy anymore, screaming when i take something away he's not supposed to play with. it's not fun when both kids are having tantrums at the same time. hats off to those who run daycares, i really don't know how they do it. sometimes their tantrums make me laugh, but by the 5th one (mostly malia), it's a real challenge on my patience. that's when i force them to go to bed early so i can have some peace and quiet before bed. that's when they look like angels, and i can once again count my blessings. 

no more target

first black friday outing for the kids. we decided to go to the mall so we could hit more than one store. it went well at first, we found parking right away and the kids were fine in the sit-n-stand stroller. but of course after 30 minutes, micah wanted out. then malia started whining. they were fine again after we ate lunch. but then daddy needed to visit another target since the target there sold out of what he was trying to buy. so off to a 2nd target but they had also sold out even though they told him at the 1st target that they still had some. malia was really getting impatient at that point since she really wanted to enjoy her things we had bought at the mall. finally at the 3rd target, daddy was able to get what he wanted. but micah just wanted to run all over the store. didn't want to hold my hand or be carried. and when i picked him up he would scream. so, we were all happy to get home. malia will probably never want to go to target with me again.

thankful for M&M

we had arts & crafts this morning, turning the pumpkin into a turkey. the other turkey was made by malia at school. it's made out of paper plates.

i am a man

malia wrote out that sentence for me today. pretty impressive for a 5 year old, but a funny sentence for a girl. she's also trying to spell words by sounding them out. it's great that she's so interested in learning. micah is busy trying to pull her crayons and pens away. he's learning to scribble on paper and not the walls. before we know it, he'll be writing out the same sentence.

crooked toe

i completely forgot about malia's crooked toe until i saw her walking around with no socks and she stopped to get something. it's hard to notice since she is always running, dancing, changing clothes, and jumping around. it's the fourth toe on her left foot. it's actually kind of cute. i wonder if she'll hate it when she gets older. it's just a reminder that she was another miracle preterm baby who came out just fine.

seaport

of course we love going to parties on weekends to spend time with family and friends, but we really enjoy our free weekends for quality family time. went to seaport village today, micah's first time. he called the pigeons ducks, i mean "guck." i brought some left over bread for malia to feed the ducks, but i think she enjoyed feeding the little birds more. then it was micah's first time on the carousel awake. his actual first ride was at disneyland, but he fell asleep right when we got on. it was a really hot day so it was nice to go there for a little breeze, and some ice cream. and we always leave with cookies in hand, yum!

micah loves fish

goldfish that is, the original flavor. he knows the package and will bring it to us and say "fish." it's cute, but a little frustrating when he wants goldfish instead of a real dinner. at least he eats well at daycare. i'll have to hide the goldfish until after dinner for now.