What to my Wondering Eyes Should Appear?

Can you see that little glint of white in Baby K's mouth? :)



-- A Mobile Post

Praise the Lord!

The baby is still asleep! (and did you see that I'm posting this at 9:18 am?!)





(And in case you're concerned about my child's safety with all those pillows, blankets & such, let me assure you that this is not how she sleeps at home! The pic is from a nap in the hotel during our recent trip to St. Louis & I put her on the bed while I packed us up. At home, she sleeps in a perfectly, appropriately barren crib. It is a cute pic though, right? And I'm sure not going to risk waking her by going in to take her picture!) :)

Home Sweet Home

One year ago today, we moved into our house and started our new life in Kansas.
What a lot has changed since this time last year!

Sizzling Summer!

Good things to do on a day with a heat index of 106: go to the pool, play in sprinklers, stay inside with the AC cranked up, eat watermelon & Popsicles.

Dumb things to do on a day with a heat index of 106: mow the lawn, forget to apply sunscreen.

Can you guess which option I chose?

The lawn does look much better, though. :)

-- A Mobile Post

Sleepy

So, my dear, sweet, precious baby girl has recently made the executive decision that sleep is overrated and, as such, there will be no more "early" bedtimes (like before midnight), there is likely to be middle-of-the-night waking (to give us a chance to cuddle & reminisce about her newborn days), naps are off-limits for everyone except the cats & our days will now start around 5 am. It's been going well. Ahem.

This afternoon, in my sleep-deprivation-induced-delirium, I decided going to the pool would be a good idea. It was only 101 degrees, K had only napped about 15 minutes & I was at the end of my rope (but too tired to think of anything to do with it). All sarcasm aside, we actually had a good time. It always seems to take longer to get ready to go somewhere than we actually spend there, but what can you do? At least I'm prepared.

-- A Mobile Post

Good Morning!

-- A Mobile Post

Weekend Reunion

K & her ninang/godmother, Vicki!

-- A Mobile Post

Happy Trails

Guess Who...

is 8 months old today yesterday!!

The silly girl wouldn't smile before I took the picture. She kept smiling so big as soon as the flash went off. Here's a little video of what our Kumquat is doing at 8 months. Oh, and the background is a bit different because we had to lower her mattress... yes, she pulled herself up. I think these photo shoots are going to be much trickier now that I can't sit her up in the corner of her corral crib!

Catching Up

Even though I managed to cancel all of our travel plans for June, I still feel like I've been running around crazy! It's probably because of the crazy monkey of mine, whom we also call Baby Kumquat. Have I mentioned that she's mobile? And crazy? And fearless? And curious? And crazy? Oh. Right.It's such a cliche, but it's so amazing how fast babies grow! This was K at the end of May, taking her first (of many) rides in a shopping cart like a big girl! (Can you guess where we were?) :)
She did well, but she held on pretty tight. Doesn't she look so little? Moments like that make me happy because then she really still seems like a baby. And now, just about one month later?
Ain't no thang. :) Even the double-wide carts at Sam's are no concern.

She's had some other big firsts lately... some good and some not so good. Here's a combo shot of her first trip to the pool (good) and her first band-aid (not so good). She and the corner of the fireplace had a bit of a run-in. At least we happened to have some cute band-aids from a baby gift basket we received at one of the showers!
Since her trip to the pool (which she LOVED), she has really started to enjoy her bath much more. That's probably also because she's finally out of the baby bathtub & has some room to play with toys and splash around. She would have about 5 baths a day, if she had anything to say about it. How do I know this? Well, she's mobile, you know. Her favorite destination is the bathroom, where she tries to pull herself up to see into the bathtub...

All this made me remember that her Tita Kit got Baby K a precious little robe before K was born. It says size 0-9 mos, but that seemed crazy to me when K was first born. She finally tried it on this week. Sweet Spa Baby, huh?
Those are some of the big baby-related goings-on. What else have we been doing, you ask? Besides our Fabulous Firepit Friday adventures, of course. We went to the Filipino Prom 22nd Annual Grand Ball of the Filipino Association! We got all dressed up, posed for a picture in front of the mantle and everything!
Did you notice what my hubby's wearing? "Cranking the native," as we like to say around our little Kumquat Garden. He purchased his first (I believe) barong! We knew the event was "formal attire" and being the slacker half-Filipino family that we are, it didn't even occur to us that "formal attire" for a Filipino event might indicate Filipino formal attire. For women, it's all basically the same, but the barong is the Filipino tux (or suit, too), so that's what we needed. And where would one find a barong on short notice? Why, Barongs R Us, of course! No, seriously. That's where we got it. And, I must say, the people were VERY helpful. The one Ian bought was not the one he intended to order. After speaking with the very typical Filipino elder friendly lady ("Why do you want white? Are you the groom? If you're not the groom, you don't want white. This is the one you want.") Ian agreed to buy the one you see above... and received lots of compliments!

You might wonder what sort of things go on at a Filipino Prom Ball. I'm happy to report that this ball was beautifully Filipino... there were assigned seats, extensive decorations, an elaborate program involving children demonstrating multiple musical/dancing abilities and the adults performing a traditional Filipino dance AND... The Filipino Jonas Brothers!! That's who we decided they were, anyway. They totally looked like the Jonas Brothers! Well, except for being Filipino and all. They seem to think they're called Primo. And one might wonder what sort of music they perform. Why, Josh Groban's, of course! They are Filipino after all. (Please note that I have nothing against Josh Groban whatsoever. In fact, our wedding song was one of his. Yes, for my half-Filipino wedding.) Ian says they're really more like Il Divo. Interesting, since that's what the internet also says... "They've been dubbed Asia's Il Divo..." :) Here's a little taste of our night...



And yes, we did purchase their album for $10. For K's Lolo, of course. :)