While Erin Sleeps…

Naming our second daughter has not been any easier than naming our first. I remember how hubby and I never quite agreed on a certain name for Erin. Since she came six weeks earlier than expected, Erin did not have a name for the first several hours after her birth. But since she came six weeks earlier and we did not have a name for her yet, hubby gave up and went along with whatever I chose.

Thus, Erin Alessa. It is a name that has her grandparents’ and her parents’ names but I won’t play with that now. Her first name is also a name I read in the dictionary way back in highschool that caught my attention. (Yes, there were times I read the dictionary just for the heck of it.) 

This time, hubby is not giving up easy. He says it is his turn to name our second child. Our friends have teased him, telling him he has no right to name girls and I have seconded that but no, he won’t let me choose any name.  Some of his choices have sounded old fashioned (to me, at least) and ridiculous (to me again). Some are just fine, I just have my stubborn arguments with him.

For a time he stuck with Isabella. I told him that sounds nice but Charity has a daughter already named Isabella. And besides, it doesn’t even start with a C nor an E. Then I had more ammunition when I realized that Isabella is the name for a fictional heroine so popular these days. A majority of moms may be naming their little princesses Isabella. No, no, no.

Then he came up with Stella. He even appeased me by saying we could spell it with an E, as in Estella. I guess he would have stuck with that and I guess I would have even agreed to Stella (without an E) if something had not come up one month ago to make him think of another name.

He decided he liked the name Sophia. I was speechless. I already have a few friends who have named their daughters Sophia. There’s Angela’s Anna Sophia, and Micay’s Evy Sophia. There is another one but I cannot remember who that is. I said NO. But my husband is adamant with this name now. You see there is a funny twist to this name and my husband, ever taking the light and humorous side of life, thinks it is the perfect name.

A month ago (down to this weekend) I was placed on total bedrest. I even had to stay in the hospital for several days. Since then, I have had a hard time finding a comfortable position without being bothered by contractions. There was one night the contractions were coming one after the other I decided it was best to call Labor and Delivery. But when I transferred to the living room couch the contractions slowed down then stopped. It happened two more nights. All the pillows on our bed did not help me but the couch seemed to do the job. Lying on th couch would become uncomfortable for my shoulders, my back, even my head but my belly was relaxed specially if I placed it right along the gaps of the couch. I have been sleeping on the sofa since then.

My doctor says I can start walking again when I reach my thirty-fifth week of pregnancy — which is next Wednesday. I’ll probably deliver this baby as soon as I walk since even sitting down starts the contractions. So if hubby sticks to Sophia until then, and if I cannot do anything else to dissuade him, Sophia shall be her name. You will be in the know and hopefully by the time you meet her, you will have forgotten why… or at least pretend you have.

I have been craving for a lot of food lately: Taho, cinnamon rolls, bilo-bilo, ice cream, etcetera, etcetera. As I am way past my first trimester, I don’t think I can blame my pregnancy anymore. It just might be my normally sweet tooth.

Over the weekend I wanted puto so I made some from flour. It turned out just as good as what I have eaten in countless Pinoy potlucks but that started me on a “puto hunt.” I remember enjoying puto Binan in college, courtesy of an ex-boyfriend’s family. Then I moved on to delight in puto Calasiao, introduced by my husband, then boyfriend.

My mom used to make puto — the old fashioned way. That means she made it from rice that was soaked and then ground. We even had this antique handheld grinder that we used to grind the rice. When that broke, she brought presoaked rice to the city where she would have the rice flour vendors grind it.

Unfortunately, (just as what happened to the other kakanin recipes that she made for us during our childhood) I never got around to ask her how she made it. When I moved to Texas five years ago, I brought with me two Filipino cookbooks knowing that my husband loves nothing else but Filipino food. But I never really got to use them. First, I was too excited savoring American, Mexican, Italian, Chinese dishes and all the food in countless buffets. Second, my husband was looking for a certain taste (his mom’s cooking) in the Filipino food he wanted. It turned out he was the one who could replicate that taste so I stopped entering his field of expertise with regards to Filipino main dishes. And third, we misplaced the cookbooks when we moved to California.

Once again, I turned to the trusty internet and googled for puto. It turned out that most recipes use either all purpose flour, cake flour or rice flour. I only found two recipes that actually use ground rice. There was even a question on one of the forums asking if the art of making puto is slowly dying, a secret untold by our Filipino elders and one that goes with them to the grave. One website gave a recipe for puto that includes fermenting the rice but I didn’t want to go there. Although it looked like it’s the authentic puto, it just seemed too tedious.

The recipe I found was fairly easy, and I used a blender to grind the rice. Again, I used the water-bath method to cook the puto in the oven. It didn’t rise as much as I wanted it to, it didn’t have the nice puto cracks and it was a little too sweet for me. Next time I have to remember to decrease the sugar. The puto however was fluffy and moist. My dad, who is a puto lover, (he always asked my mom to make it for him) loved it. Since it’s rather easy I can experiment with it some more until I finally get satisfied. And if there’s anyone who has a puto recipe and wants  to share it, I would appreciate it.

Meanwhile, I am now imagining brownies. I can just smell that chocolatey scent; bite into those chewy, fudgy pieces baking in the oven!

Between bouts of colds and the cold weather last winter and Erin had to stay indoors, I ran out of things for her to do. It was not easy to keep a running, rolling, climbing, tumbling eighteen month old child occupied in less than one thousand square feet of living space. Subtract the space that the furniture and what-may-you-have take and there is even less room to play in. I sighed and pined for the big backyard in Texas that we specifically chose for our children. And then I got busy on the internet researching activities for toddlers.

Through my sister’s recommendations, the first thing I did was to sign up with an Adventist homechoolers’ egroup. The site was wonderful with lots of links to toddler activities. Starfall, Preschool Express, Five in A Row but most activities were geared for older toddlers. The one thing that did come in handy was the toddler calendar from Preschool Express. We did several activities from it; modified a few that I felt were still advanced for Erin.

I decided to have more activities for Erin once she turned two, and I was leaning towards Before Five in A Row until I stumbled on Hubbard’s Cupboard in June. So last month, we started Erin’s “preschool at home.” It’s not much, everything is informal and is based on how long she is interested in the particular activity. Thirty minutes is tops and already awesome for both of us. The activities are mostly joint projects (mommy leading the way and doing most of the work!) but she likes it and now asks to draw everyday. She loves her finger paints and markers and oh how she gets messy! I sincerely thank the inventors of washable everything!

Here is an owl project we did last week, as an accompaniment to the book Owl Babies. She loved spreading the glue on the owl printout. She pasted some of the cut paper until she found something more interesting to do with the paper pieces.

We also grouped daytime and nighttime animals; still in conjunction with the same book.

While we are waiting for books that we have on hold at the library, we started doing activities connected with Good Night Moon this week. We made a manipulative and a little book with the rhyme “The Cow Jumped over the Moon,” one of her favorites since she found it on her stacking blocks.

She wore a bracelet with a memory verse and sang “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” while playing with a paper earth glued to outlines of her small hands.

We hung up a little board for her projects as you can see here.

We also do a bit of Starfall each day which could easily extend to an hour if we don’t tell her she’s had her thirty minutes of computer time and it’s Daddy’s or Mommy’s time to use the computer.

Hopefully all these will not only keep her busy and happy but will also prepare her for school. These days there is too much pressure on our children. Imagine, count to a hundred, add/subtract, read before starting first grade! Whatever happened to Ellen White’s counsel that our children should be freely playing like little lambs until they are around seven years old?!

Oh I feel the pressure too when my coworkers talk about their children, nephews, nieces; grandchildren who can do this and that at this and that age. But I look away and remember that when I started first grade, I didn’t know how to read, let alone add and subtract. I have to admit though that I feel the urge to buy the number flaschards and I will always have a satisfied thrill when I hear Erin say her letters/phonics. Erin is doing that at an age where I was just romping around, getting dirty, dark and sunburned. I guess I wasn’t as advanced as the children now are and yet I turned out pretty okey. So will she, so will she.

I used to love going to a library, walking slowly from shelf to shelf, looking for the books I wanted and finding even some more books that I added to my “to-be-borrowed” list. I don’t have the luxury of doing that anymore.

(Enter interlibrary loans and link+) These two are services of the San Jose Public Library System which I can do online saving me a lot of time. It’s easy and fun to use too. I just have to search their entire catalog (electronic of course), choose my (Erin’s actually) books, choose my library pick-up location and in several days I get a call that my books are ready to be picked up. Voila! I get them from any library in San Jose without actually driving to that particular library. Now if the SJPL does not have the specific book I want, I use Link+ to borrow that book from any participating library in California. I am still chuckling to see that one of the books I borrowed came from San Francisco. Great library networking, I say!

After being a “resident” of several libraries in the Philippines, the libraries here are a welcome change. They are not the antiquated buildings (hmmmm, Detwiler isn’t antiquated) where you speak in hushed voices and walk on tippety-toes. The new libraries have lots of glass windows, a kids area where the little imps can talk in their naturally loud voices, and even a cafe! Of course there is still a glass-enclosed quiet area way at the back/side where all the excitement shalt not enter.

The library is also a great source of videos. We have long since cancelled our Hollywood Video account and borrowed videos from the library. Although the collection is mainly made up of old movies and some that we have seen, we still have found movies to are liking. (Yesterday I borrowed The Boy in Striped Pajamas) Otherwise, Redbox is a cheap alternative for new movies. Honestly, we haven’t tried that yet.

My reading habits have waxed and waned through the years. My interests have varied from destiny books to biographies to fiction. Once, over a bonus item on an exam, I argued with my English teacher that the story’s ending was different than the one he was saying because I was sure I read that story before. I did not stop bothering him until he read the story again and I got my score changed. That teacher was also the school librarian and from then on he always teased me that I had read all the books in our library.

I hope the love of the library/books is now starting to grow in Erin. She is always excited with the books we borrow and she even plays favorites with them (thankfully we can keep the books she really likes for nine weeks). She can be high-tech savvy  as much as she wants to be in the future. Right now it just makes me happy to hear her say, “Let’s go to library, borrow books!” and hear her shout “Library!” every time we pass by our local one.

There is so much the library has to offer. I hope the influx of technology doesn’t kill it. But for all the books I have borrowed since we came to San Jose, I do not have a library card. I have had a library card in all the other places where I have lived except here in San Jose, California, USA. But that is another blog for another day.

Hubby and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary last Saturday and we spent the weekend on the coast of California; at Mendocino. The coastal towns are very idyllic and if you envision glitzy Vegas for a getaway, the locale is probably not for you. We, on the other hand, loved strolling along the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, relaxing on one of the many benches that dot the cliffs, getting lost in the ferocious drumbeat of the waves that crashed the rocky shore. We could even have tried picking wild berries if not for the thorns that could have easily pricked Erin. I teased the hubby that if we knew each other and were here seven or eight years ago, and he invited me for a weekend on the coast, I would most have probably said yes.

The drive coming to and from Mendocino are mean ones though. Each route includes narrow and winding roads. We took the scenic Highway 1 going there; I was half amazed with the spectacular scenery, half dazed with motion sickness. Erin had some Benadryl which helped her sleep through the most winding way and Bong took Dramamine. With our slow course and stops, it took us seven hours to reach Mendocino. In fact, we only reached Anchor Bay by six thirty pm on Friday. Going back home through Highway 101 was faster and better but we had to pass a highway from Fort Bragg to Willits that was dizzying as well.

I had held off on hotel reservations until last Tuesday after my 24th week prenatal check-up and by then, almost all of the decently prized hotels were booked. The “better” hotels had exorbitantly high prices so we ended up in a motel on Saturday night. On Friday night, we set camp on a peaceful little cove at Anchor Bay where Erin had fun at the beach. She doesn’t get tired of the beach, ever.

We visited the Mendocino Botanical Gardens where unfortunately only the dahlias and heather were in bloom. I pity this garden because it’s the first garden we visited after being held in awe at Butchart last year and Butchart Gardens is, well, a pretty tough act to follow. I loved the heather though.

The Glass Beach is losing its glass, how sad. There was one Filipino there who said that about six years ago, they could find all kinds of colored glass even real gold at the beach. What do you expect when visitors come each day and gather glass pieces by the bucket even if collecting is now prohibited? I’ll leave some room for doubt though and say maybe if it wasn’t high tide when we visited the beach, we would have seen more sparkling glass.

We had our Saturday night anniversary dinner in the intimate confines of The Restaurant. Bong had the pacific rockfish in olive oil and garlic and another entree (the waitress exclaimed: you’re going to have two dinners?!), I had filet mignon and Erin had some bland pasta. I liked my choice, it was perfectly medium done, juicy and just right for my palate. As for hubby, well, he ate all of his two dinners. The owner/chef came by our table and asked us how our meal was and then gave Erin some free ice cream for dessert. Erin politely said, “Thank you for the ice cream.” My dessert choice was an almond tart with fresh nectarines and whipped cream. It wasn’t free but it was scrumptious!

What we were not able to do though was to visit the Pygmy Forest and visit the Drive-through Tree in Leggett. Maybe some far off day in the future we will go back to do that but right now, I’m setting my sights on a winter weekend at the Ahwahnee or a Smores package at the Ritz in Halfmoon Bay. Oh well, a trip to Disneyland will do. We’ve visited all the states in the West/Southwest; seen most of the sights each state has to offer but would you believe it, we’ve never been to Disneyland!!!

Erin’s prayers are spontaneous, unscripted, somehow fitting for the day she has had. This was her prayer last night and that’s how I learned what she ate at Costco.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for the night,

Thank you for the moon,

Thank you for the sleep,

Thank you for the wood,

Thank you for the hotdog,

Thank you for the ice cream,

Thank you for the swimming pool,

Bless other people in the hospital.

Amen.

Yes Lord, thank you for everything, even the simplest things like a chldish prayer lisped by innocent little lips.

“Update your FB, ” Auntie Donna teased me at church yesterday.

“I feel so lazy,” I countered.

But maybe my energy is coming back. After a first trimester of headache, fatigue, nausea ( I only vomited once) and only a one pound gain, I think I’m on the rebound now. Last Friday’s “weigh-in” at the doctor’s office showed I already gained three more pounds. I still feel nauseated though, whenever I think of Farm Town. So I’m still stuck at Level 18.

While Bong and I feel so blessed to always have the baby (this pregnancy is just the second) on a single try, I am more cautious this time. Both my mom’s and sister’s second pregnancy ended as a miscarriage. I am thankful I am now 16 weeks pregnant, and the baby is doing well; so active infact that my doctor had a hard time following the heartbeat around my belly with the doppler scan. (I miss the monthly prenatal ultrasound checks with Dr. Monti!)

While my mom and sister had miscarriages, I had a preterm delivery. Erin was born at 34 weeks but again, we thank God that she was born healthy. Because of my “unexplained preterm delivery” history, I started weekly progesterone shots last Friday. I will have them until the 34th week, in the hope of keeping the baby up to 40 weeks. But I’d rather give birth on the 38th or 39th week (some time in November), so in accordance to California education laws, our second child’s schooling will not be delayed. With Erin, I wanted her born before September 1st because Texas law requires that the child has to turn 7 before September 1st to be accepted in school.

It feels wonderful to have a wonderful partner in bringing a child into the world and raising up that child. Bong and I are practically raising Erin ourselves. We have not had the luxury of having relatives to help us, except the first six weeks that Erin and I were here in San Jose and Bong had to stay behind in Dallas. We wonder sometimes, what a big difference it would make if we had a Lola here with us. Day care has never been an option, what with too many horror stories buzzing around.

Since I am writing this entry on the day fathers are celebrated worldwide, let me greet my own beloved man. To the One who has given up so much of himself to raise up our daughter and the coming baby: thank you, I love you and Happy Father’s Day!

April 24th is a highlighted date on my calendar, a milestone entry in the journal that I (try my best to) write for Erin. It was the day that we started to wean Erin.

It was a Friday and I was still having mixed feelings about weaning Erin. I wanted to breastfeed up to July but I was feeling so sore and tender that I finally asked Bong to buy ampalaya leaves from the Filipino store. I was also having doubts about how the ampalaya leaves would work after Joma (hi, Joms!) encountered challenges a few weeks back.

The first time we tried the crushed leaves and Erin started sucking, she drew her head back and had such a puzzled look on her face it was so hard to keep from laughing. Then she started to drool that in such a way that made me want to cry in pity. But I just said, “Mommy’s dede are awee na that’s why it tastes different.” She tried again that night with the same results, but with less puzzlement on her face. Then she stated pointedly, ” Mommy’s dede awee.” That was her last breastfeeding — done in two attempts.

It took one more week for her to end all requests to be breastfed. Our answer seemed to satisfy her and she would softly repeat, “Mommy’s dede awee.” Now, she requests warm (soy) milk first thing in the morning. We oblige.

On May 14th, we bought a simple, white potty chair. I had no intentions of training Erin to use it; I really didn’t observe any  potty training readiness except a few months back when she would say “pee-pee, ” and hold her diaper area but that was just a few times in between. We just bought the potty chair because she has this “big word book” and she recognizes the potty in the book. We decided it wouldn’t hurt to buy one. So while I was thinking that her potty training will be accomplished next year, Erin was thinking of surprising us.

From the time we placed the white potty chair on the floor (we had Erin sit on several potty chairs), she would not get up. She sat on it on the shoopping cart, on the car (she would have sat there too on the way home if she had her way), and when we got home the first thing she said was, “alis diaper, potty.” The potty chair was still in our small living room but I thought, she’s not going to go. Then and there Erin surprised us by indeed, going.

Up to now I have no plans for “formal potty training.” Erin uses it whenever she remembers — which is pretty much often. And then she simply refuses to leave the bathroom. After she wipes herself and puts her potty contents into Daddy’s and Mommy’s big potty, she sits on her little potty again, declaring, “meron pa.”

That puts me in such a bind because forcing her to get up might give her the idea that using the potty isn’t important. Case in point: One time, she said she wanted to use the potty but just kept getting up and sitting down again. I told her she had five minutes to use the potty and after that she had to wash her hands and try again later. Nothing came out after five minutes but while I was washing her hands, she went on to have Number 2 ( that was supposed to be her first on the potty) which made a mess on the floor. She has not used the potty for “poo” since then.

She’s running in and out of the bathroom now, announcing, “go potty,” declaring, “ooh, sarap” whenever she goes. Some days it’s cute, some days it gets to be a little too tedious but still I am not going to do what I have read in “How to Potty Train in Three Days” (or was that a week). I think Erin has already taught us that she’ll let us find out when she’s ready for the next step.

Finally, a single track trail!

Bong and I have have been continually announcing (to ourselves) that hiking in the Philippines is so much better than hiking here. Hiking here usually involves day hikes. What we do in the Philippines is actually called wilderness backpacking over here. That sounds more adventurous right? And then there are the trails that remind us of the Tapulao and Ambangeg trails (DENR - Ranger Station) which are teasingly called: highways!!! Finally Bong cannot trade the muddy trails for rocky ones! 

Well last week we went hiking at Uvas Canyon and fell in love with the trail. It was a trail so much like in the Philippines, the one that gets muddy during the rainy season and covered with dry leaves. The trees shade the trail as it goes up and down the canyon, criss-crossing streams and following waterfalls.

I said it reminded me of the trail at Pulag - right where you have your first glimpse of the peak at the Ambangeg Trail. It also reminded me of Cristobal where the trail is carved into the mountain side and drops into a deep ravine the other side. Bong said the trail reminded him of Halcon, minus the slugs. We both agreed it was a good trail to cure Doc Gulfan’s fear of heights. And what about Erin? I think she agreed the falls where nice to watch, the streams nice to play at, and the leaves and soil really neat to crunch between her tiny hands.

The difficult part was to hike with a one and one-half year old on a single trail with a precarious drop on one side, without a child carrier. She did not enjoy that part of the hike because we had to carry her and she repeatedly shrilled, “baba, baba, baba!!!” I told Bong we should get a carrier so we could hike on these trails some more and Erin would cry less. :)

So far nobody is exhibiting symptoms of Lyme Disease. But I promise that the next time we go hiking, I will never, ever forget to do a tick check!

It’s fifteen till eleven o’clock, every one in the family has a cold, I called in sick, the baby is asleep and Bong and I suddenly want Vietnamese noodle soup.

Now there are several Vietnamese restaurants along Capitol Expressway that serve the noodle soup but Bong’s favorite is from Pho Tau Bay,  a cash-only business, and (lucky us) it is open until midnight. This sends us scouring our wallets and pockets for cash and loose change. We have a laugh over how we count the one dollar bills and quarters — we are legitimate members of the cashless society.

He’s back after fifteen minutes and does this bowl of noodle soup look good!

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Ooops… The little girl cried so I had to go and stay with her for a few minutes. By the time I got back, the picture I intended to take was no longer picture-perfect. So I’m wrapping this up and I will enjoy my bowl of Pho Ga!