Category: Birthdays

Sun., Apr. 12th – Woo, Easter Sunday!

I actually woke up early for once and took a shower right away. Dad visited for a while–a very little while. He got nervous–I guess–when everyone started arriving and was gone after 5 whole minutes of seeing us. Kind of isn’t worth the gas all the way over here if you ask me. Granted, I don’t know how much time he was alone with Mom *cough*.

I sat outside with everyone and let my hair air-dry for a bit and then came in to flat-iron my hair. It was so hot outside it felt as though I hadn’t showered. I’m so not looking forward to summer *cries*. It was so hot that poor Emily had 2 bottles of water and she usually doesn’t like it.

Jose was the bar-b-q cook and Mary, as usual, made all the sides. The food was delicious. Immediately following, we took the little ones inside while some of the adults hid the eggs for the egg hunt. Then they stampeded like a heard of buffalo and looked for eggs. Mary got golden ones and if you found one, you won $5. That was a new addition to the egg hunt this year. Alaethia found one and Jaylen became really upset because he didn’t win a prize during the egg hunt when he has every other year. Eenan was indifferent; he was just having fun. Jaylen felt better when they played the ring toss game and he won some water grenades LOL.

We proceeded to the carport next for the games. The adults played first LOL. We had a Pass the Orange game, where you can only use your neck and chin to pass the orange to the next person. Whoever had the orange when Mary yelled, “Stop!” (she wasn’t watching) was out of the game. It looked hilarious…and quite inappropriate LOL. Andy was the only male who played, and I think he won!

We played the Egg & Spoon race and then the Egg Toss where Mario and Jorge became over confident and were one of the first groups to drop their egg LOL.

Next the kids hit the 4-year-old Spongebob piñata next LOL. Elda had bought that thing 4 years ago for one of Brandon’s birthday parties and they didn’t get to use it. So we finally did.

After that the kids got to open their Easter baskets. Alaethia had a blast opening her stuff with her Nina Noelia and Nino Andy. Andy and Noelia are Emily’s Godparents, too, and I got a few pictures of her with her stuff and in the dress Mary got her. She was naked the rest of the time except for a diaper because it was so hot. The boys got DVDs and lots of cool fun stuff in their baskets so they were thrilled. So was I–I haven’t watched Bolt yet LOL.

The kids (and some adults) cracked eggs and then played with the shit-ton of water guns Jaylen received in his basket from Cat and Annie. Alaethia, Matthew and Belle spent most of their time at the refill bucket playing with the water. Everyone had a blast.

When almost everyone had left we went inside to have dessert at Mary’s. She made her famous Banana Cream Pie. Yum.

Aide, Mom, Sonia and I chilled out inside and then went outside with the few men that were left. And they were drunk LOL. They were sharing stories and being weird. Grandpa was even hitting on Mom. Then he asked to adopt Emily. Mario had to escort him to the car because he didn’t want to leave when Sonia was ready to!

When all the women left and the boys were playing at Mary’s and the girls were asleep I read some of my book, Eclipse. Yes, I’m still on it. When Mario finally came in we watched Bedtime Stories with the kids. We had pickles and popcorn; Alaethia loves movie nights. And the movie was so cute! I love Adam Sandler :).

Mon., Apr. 13th – He boys had another day off of school and Mario was off work. My dad-in-law and Mom stayed with the boys while I caught up on sleep. Emily’s doing much better; although she does wake up every 3 hours on the dot, I’m so glad that she’s stopped having those strange 2-hour spans of awakeness like she used to.

While I was asleep Mario had gone to get his old job back. Everything went smoothly, thank goodness. He tried calling his current boss to let him know but he didn’t get ahold of him.

It was Sally’s birthday so I called her but got her voicemail. I feel so distant now. I know life (work, marriage and kids) is a constant, but I wish we could hang out at least one a month or something. I feel the way I imagine she did when it was the opposite: when I was working at she was at home with Quentin.

John came over and asked if I wanted Kumori for an early b-day lunch. But of course! We waited for Mario to get here, loaded Emily in the car and went. Mom and the in-laws stayed with the other kiddos (nobody else likes sushi LOL). I had my regular Fiesta Roll and an Ebi-shitake thing, which sounded like they were stuffed mushrooms but they ended up being little fried mushroom patties. It was ok, but I probably won’t order it again. I should have just gotten the expensive Maui-wowie roll but I didn’t want John to spend too much. I’d feel guilty.

We went to Game Stop to get Jaylen’s present from us and his present from mom. He wanted Gears of War from us, which I wouldn’t have allowed him to get at all had I actually researched what it was! Bad parent!

From Mom we got him a Worms game for the PSP, the Sims Kingdom for DS and another game I can’t remember at the moment. He was going to be thrilled.

I received my Hugamonkey sling that afternoon! It worked like a charm! Emily curled right up and slipped into slumber.

We went to Jorge and Maggie’s for a little bit. 3 of 4 kiddos went with us; Eenan, of course, didn’t go. We stopped for food first at Star’s. Maggie and Jorge were cleaning up and boxing up stuff so we felt kind of like we were in the way and Jaylen had to get bathed and in bed for school the next day so we came home. We watched a movie with Jason and Adan and Alaethia couldn’t be more thrilled since she got to eat more popcorn LOL. We went through 4 bags of popcorn and like, 4 huge movie pickles. I came to the realization that one day I will have two huge teenage sons and they will eat me out of house and home.

Tues., Apr. 14th – My birthday!! 27 years old already. I actually don’t feel old, even though I’ve been married 10 years and have 4 kids. I feel really good and I seriously have a feeling this year will bring tons of great things!

I had a good day. Everyone wished me a good day. I didn’t think we were going to do much since we were broke and I was okay with that. Mary called in the afternoon and told me to get ready because she was taking us out to dinner to celebrate. She said I could pick any place, so I picked Cheddar’s because I’d really been craving one of those Maui Margaritas!

Mom, our kids, Mary, Mario, Andy and Noelia were all there to celebrate with me.

I ordered my Maui Margarita and the Beer Battered Shrimp plate. We had some laughs with our waiter, Dwight. He was hilarious and so good with the kids. I was a little upset that the boys were seated at a table that was near but still separate from us because there was no other table that would accommodate all of us. They enjoyed the extra space, though, and I imagine they felt pretty grown up sitting on their own.

Emily was fed and changed right before we arrived so she slept the entire time we were there. Alaethia had fun eating her ketchup (she could eat it all day if we let her) and fries and then, since the kids’ food came first and she finished early, began playing with a little boy who wandered to our table.

Before we left they sang “Happy Birthday” to me and then we had the most sinful chocolate cake. It wasn’t really cake, it was more like fudge smothered in caramel and a glob of vanilla ice cream. It was sooo good. I felt super full afterward.

Andy and Noelia gave me a gift card to Old Navy, yay! And from the boys (or Mary LOL) I got a beautiful silver cross necklace and a gorgeous little silver bracelet that has “Love” engraved all around it. So cute!

Mary, Mom and the boys went home and so did Andy and Noelia after we finished eating. Mario, the girls and I went to Jason and Adan’s to have some drinks. Mirella bought some Parrot Bay rum to drink with pineapple juice and it was really good. I chilled out with Aide and the girls for a little bit but she had to go to sleep to get up early for work the next day. The rest of us watched Beowulf while we had some drinks. Emily slept through the entire movie and Alaethia ended up falling asleep, too. Mario and I got home and put the girls in their beds and had some long-awaited alone time :).

Wed., Apr. 15th – I woke up and made Mario breakfast. I went back to bed when he left to work and had lunch when I woke up. Yup, lunch LOL. John came over and told me about all the things he was going to get me for my birthday but didn’t. Dork LOL. It would have been wonderful LOL.

I picked the boys up from school and, along with Emily, went straight to Eenan’s optometrist appointment. Jaylen did his homework while we waited and Eenan kind of just slothed around, literally. He kept throwing himself on the floor and laying there every time we moved somewhere else. Emily was a doll. Eenan most definitely needed his glasses. I can’t believe how bad his vision is. He’s going to have to wear them all the time.

I expected to spend about $20…but spent $77! Supposedly polycarbonate lenses are mandatory for kids under 18; some kind of law the lady said. That was $60 right there alone.

I was going to go to Old Navy right after the appointment since it’s right across the street and shop with the card Andy and Noelia gave me, but I already felt awful for spending so much money. Emily was also about to wake up at any minute, so I decided to go straight home.

When we got home my dad-in-law helped me get Emily and her car seat off the car and surprised me with $50! I felt bad taking it but he crunched it in my hand and made me keep it LOL. I will save for treadmill, I hope. Or use it wisely for something else should I need to.

I cleaned while Mario watched Emmy. When all the kiddos were asleep I spent some time with Mario :). That’s what I like about not working: I don’t have to be on a time limit all the time like I used to be. I can spend time with Mario whenever I want instead of going to sleep at 10pm like I used to in order to be up on time for work the next morning.

Thurs., Apr. 16th – I had Emily in her sling most of the morning. She cooed and smiled the whole time before she took her noon nap. I passed her on to Mom so I could clean what I couldn’t while I was lugging her around. I got ready to go to town again. I picked up the boys and took Mom to the pharmacy. First stop was paying John’s car and then visited Gramma.

I get to the parking lot and Mom goes off on her merry way and leaves me with all the kids to herd together. I’m usually ok, but when I have to get the stroller down like I did that day, it makes me nervous because Alaethia tries to run off after her.

Gramma’s doing pretty good. We sat with her and we talked about the kids and just chit-chatted.

We went to Walmart afterward and it wasn’t as bad a trip and I thought it would be. It was a little confusing since they’re remodeling or something and it was a little difficult finding a few things because they were moving sections of the store around. The whole store has a less crowded feel but I guess that could be attributed to them removing the fabric section from the crafts department. Darn. And I never bought the Strawberry Shortcake fabric for the girls, nor did I buy any extra Transformers fabric for the boys :(.

We did find little square pieces of fabric for Eenan’s Castle in the Attic project. We’d use the fabric as wallpaper for inside the castle. We were going to construct it out of cardboard and hot glue. Let’s see how it goes.

We got home and I put Emily in her sling. Mario was already here. I got to make dinner with her in her sling and washed dishes. I ate and then cleaned. I gave her to Mom for a bit so I could finish cleaning. I tackled the pile of junk on my desk. I didn’t get it all done, but I threw out tons of stuff. I felt quite accomplished.

I put her to sleep in her sling again once I got her back from Mom and began uploading pics to Flickr. I wanted to have the blog updated by that night, but alas, it didn’t happen. As I was sitting at the kitchen table with Emily on my lap and typing away on the laptop, Alaethia walks up to me and asks for her “Toshieh” which means “slippers” in Chinese, or Mandarin actually. She’s too darn smart! I love those Ni-Hao Kai-Lan cartoons! She’s learned so much from them. She even knows Yeh-Yeh means “Grandpa” in Mandarin and calls her Bimpa that sometimes :D.

Fri., Apr. 17th – I had an early appointment but it was fast, thank goodness. I was really tired from only sleeping for about 4 1/2 hours of broken sleep. I got the mail and to my horror realized Mario and I both went over our texting limit–$100 extra on the bill! Just wonderful!

I spent the free time I had that day sorting through my external hard drive that has all my music on it and deleted tons of stuff that didn’t even belong to me. When I used to upload for everyone for their MP3 players or iPods their music would somehow end up in my folder.

I got a call right after I’d picked the boys up from school that his glasses had come in and were ready for pick up. I took the opportunity to pick out my frames so I wouldn’t have to make another trip all the way over there. It was nice spending some time with just Eenan. He’s such a hilarious kid! Takes after his father.

We went to Old Navy this time since I didn’t have Emily with me and Eenan walked around with me while I tried finding some nice blouses. I still have some pounds to lose so I was being really picky. Eenan was being really helpful, even giving me some fashion advice like not picking out this one blouse because it looked too “old lady” LOL. He’s so cute.

I ended up with two blouses (exactly the same but one in plum and one in teal), black flip-flops, white flip-flops and I only had to pay $5 extra after using my gift card. Too awesome!

I got home and Mom, Mary, Elda and the little ones were chilling out on the deck. Big Mario had been working on leveling the cement for when the floors would go in and Mario was helping him out. We had a bar-b-q and just chilled out talking and eating outside. Elda gave me a really cute Fossil wallet for my birthday :). It’s such pretty colors.

Eventually everyone went in and it was just Elda, Mom, Jose, Mario, me and the girls. We talked about a lot of stuff, including the incident with Adan, Buddy’s passing, and other stuff. Adan joined us later and Jose lectured him LOL.

Sat., Apr. 18th – It was Jaylen’s 7th birthday!! Mario had to work for half the day. We spent all afternoon getting ready for Jaylen’s celebration (does every other Mom with 1+ daughters take 2-3 hours getting ready, or is it just me?). I made sure I had all the essentials (packed diaper bags, camera) and we were off.

We stopped by Game Stop to get a Castlevania game we saw cheap for Eenan, just so he wouldn’t feel left out. Then we all met at Cracker Barrel, where Jaylen chose to celebrate. He especially wanted to go because you can play checkers while you wait LOL. The food and conversations was great, and it was just really nice to spend time with the family. It never gets old.

We ate and then sang Happy Birthday and had some yummy ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, courtesy of Mom. Our waitress was really nice and helped us out a lot. We stayed a really long time, just chatting, playing checkers and talking. Annie gave me a cute planner when we were leaving and Mom got me a huge box of chocolates from the shop for my birthday. We walked around the shop and I saw so many cute things I wanted! I’m hoping to go back for this frame that inspired me to paint the bathroom baby blue. But that’ll be another project to do after the living room’s complete.

I’m not sure what we did afterwards…we might have gone to Jorge and Maggie’s but I’m not sure. I’ve gotta ask Mario about that one. My brain’s turning to mush now that it’s 1:33am (on May 6th now). One day I’ll be able to catch up with all these entries!!

Thurs., Mar. 5th – Mario didn’t officially apologize at all that morning. It was one of those mornings when the alarm went off, I turned it off and woke him up and went back to sleep before Emily or Alaethia woke up. He texted me at noon to ask how Emily’s belly button was doing—to break the ice, I suppose. I said it was fine and that I had already paid all the bills we’d planned on paying with the income tax refund. After a few exchanges about that he said he loved me and “I’m sorry”–3 times. My hormones were haywire again and I took a few deep breaths to keep from tearing up. I can’t be mad at that man for long these days.
Mary picked up some necessities for me, like pads. That’s what I hate about not being able to drive: I can’t go anywhere and do things for myself *sigh*.

Mario texted me after work that Jorge and Adan were coming over since Maggie left Jorge behind LOL. Our new modem came in and Adan installed it for us. The guys chilled out inside a while and then of course went outside to drink. If I remember correctly, Maggie came over later on to chill out for a bit and pick up Jorge.

Fri., Mar. 6th – I actually slept semi-well and felt much more alert than I had all week.

I spent most of the day with Emily and when I wasn’t with her I was pumping away in the bathroom while Mom watched the girls. I couldn’t stand the pain in my back from being so full of milk that day. It wasn’t as bad as the first days, when my back and chest felt like an elephant had stepped on me and I couldn’t breathe, but it was still really painful. I still couldn’t understand how I was so full if I was still only pumping out 1 ounce from each boob. I felt like I was carrying around a bra-full of bricks, literally. My right breast was especially lumpy and in pain.

I tried tidying up a bit and Mario called to tell me he was on his way and if I wanted him to pick anything up for dinner. The boys wanted Burger King, of course, but I wanted shrimp so I asked him to get me a shrimp plate from Starlight. I always want shrimp and complain that there’re only burger places here, but hello? Starlight’s been here for years! I just recently remembered. Still, we really have to stop doing that, ordering take-out! But it’s so hard to cook these days. Usually Emily only wants to be with me and its tough getting things done.

We planned on going to Jorge and Maggie’s, because we didn’t want to spend another boring Friday at home. So we ate quickly and went over there with Emily and Jaylen. Eenan never wants to go and Mom offered to watch Alaethia, and I was glad because I was afraid she’d act up like the last time.

We got there and said hello to Nani, Tony Sr., and Dinah was visiting from Austin. We sat with her inside a while and laughed at Jorge and Boys’ arguments. It was their boss’ wife’s birthday. They were having a get-together and we were invited. Mario really didn’t want to go, mainly because the last time they went to one of their bar-b-q’s Mario and Adan were politely kicked out (long story having nothing to do with them). I really didn’t want to go because my boobs felt awful. I’d never felt such pain in my breasts with any of the other babies. That, and I was not dressed for a party at all. I was in shorts, flip flops, and a peasant top that I was trying to hide my enormous boobs in. I had nothing nice to wear even if I could fully fit into my old clothes. Eventually, Jorge managed to convince us so we dropped off Jaylen with Mom since he’d fallen asleep about 10 seconds after we got to Jorge’s house. We only took Emily with us.

We had a pretty good time, even though I did feel awkward and underdressed at first. The food they were bar-b-q’ing was great and Emily was a doll and slept most of the time we were there. I even attended my first Adult Novelty party! I didn’t know what to expect, but it was actually really interesting. I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, and we had a few laughs.

Mario watched Emily towards the end of the party when she woke up for a feeding and I took her with me afterward. The girls were all swooning over her. I didn’t have to carry her the remainder of the time we were there; she was being passed around!

We came home shortly after that. I was desperate for sleep but I had a lot to do, like ready Emily’s bottles, redress my incision, and pump myself because I felt like crap. I felt so awful I had to sleep with cold packs in my sports bra. If I didn’t know any better I’d say I developed Mastitis, except that I was already on antibiotics so I wasn’t getting the fevers. I didn’t know how much longer I could take it.

My days were a blur of pumping (and reading) in the bathroom and trying to sneak in naps (not always voluntarily; I was passing out everywhere) whenever Emily slept. She was great during the day; it was during the night that she had her moments where she was up 2 hours straight at no particular time.

We were still having a bit of trouble with Alaethia at night. We’d have to wait for her to fall asleep in our bed, and then Mario would have to transfer her over to her crib in her bedroom. When Mario wasn’t around (usually outside drinking with the guys) I’d have to sleep with her (and Emily) in my bed.

I woke up around 10-ish that morning. Mom watched Alaethia (somewhat) so I got to sleep a bit more on the sofa, which is really one of the comfiest places to sleep. Emily cried from 11am-2:45pm straight. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her for the life of me. She’s always such a happy baby, really only crying when she’s hungry or while she’s having her diaper changed (not when she’s soiled, she rather likes the warm feeling, methinks).

She drank 4 ounces in one hour, which is crazy because she’s only 1 ½ weeks old and drinks 2 ounces in 2-3 hours. When I changed her diaper right after her bottle, I noticed that her umbilical cord stump had pulled and was bleeding a little. It looked “gray” and slimy where it’d pulled, like a fresh umbilical cord. I was worried. Nothing like that had ever happened with the other three. I called everyone I could think of that could possibly drive us to the doctor. I didn’t want to have to call and bother Sonia again. We couldn’t find anyone, so Mario eventually came home and we took her to the doctor.

She’d finally calmed down by the time we got her to the doctor’s office. She was so exhausted she slept quite peacefully. Mario and I joked around and laughed to pass the time. When we were called in she was weighed. She weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz, an ounce more than Monday’s appointment. Elizabeth was the one checking her and she said not to worry, that she probably wasn’t crying because it hurt. She didn’t know why she’d been crying because she seemed fine now, but she was going to try and cut the part that had come loose with these weird scissors. My heart sank when I saw them. She said she didn’t have the heart to do it; that was Dr. C.’s job but he wasn’t there LOL. So she carefully rubbed the edge of the stump with alcohol swabs hoping it would fall off on its own, but it didn’t. She said to keep doing it at home and if it seemed infected to take her back in. If it didn’t fall off by Friday then I should take her in to get it removed.

We got home and got the rest of the kids ready to go to El Patio for Cat’s birthday. Mario had already known about it and was trying to get out of it. I didn’t know why, he just kept saying he didn’t want to go. I was a little upset because it was my first time out since I’d had Emily and would have liked for him to be a little enthusiastic about it. I didn’t let it bother me. I was in a good mood, especially since I’d dressed the girls up in their matching dresses.

The girls both needed diaper changes at the same time. I took Emily and Mary took Alaethia. As I was pulling Emily’s dress over her tummy I heard something fall. Her umbilical cord stump had fallen off! Now all she had left was a tiny piece that needed to dry up.

When I went back to the table with the girls, Mario was nowhere in sight. And he’d conveniently left his phone behind. I figured he was out in the truck, sleeping. I had when he does that because it’s embarrassing when everyone’s asking me what happened and I have no idea!

I tried not to let it bother me and had a good time with the whole family, passing Emily around and talking. We sang “Happy Birthday” and had cake and then we packed up and got into our vehicles. Mario most definitely had been sleeping. I tried keeping my mouth shut, but I couldn’t hold in the verbal vomit when he got a call from Chris and he said sure, he’d pick up some beers and go over. I hate when he does that! How can he be so bothered to go out to eat with his family, but they bring up chilling out and beers and he’s all for it? I had an “oh hell no” moment and told him off. Of course he was going to turn around and leave once we got home, but I was too exhausted to care. My biggest concern was trying to get some sleep. I was so peeved inside though that I couldn’t sleep, even after the girls fell asleep. I read a little bit of Eclipse and finally found sleep.