Ok, so I know I said sayonara to Friendster last month because I was switching to wordpress.  But then, Friendster blogs finally updated and became wordpress.  So, guess what?  I’m switching back to Friendster, okeikei?!

This will be my last post with Friendster.  Friendster won’t allow me to post any more pictures on my blog.  Apparently I posted too many pictures .. whatever.  How can I NOT resist putting any pictures of my beautiful family?  I have thought about deleting this blog for good, but after realizing that I have been writing on this thing since June 2005, (yes, that’s 3 years of pure bliss memories) I exported everything to wordpress.  The link will be on my Friendster Profile, but for the rest of you who want the link, just come hit me up.

My third labor. Yes, it still hurts and the pain is something I will never get used to.

Although, I must admit that I had gotten stronger.  I came into the hospital almost too late.  I was already 7 mm dilated.  Too late for what?  The epidural and I refuse to give birth without it.  I think the staff, the doctor especially, didn’t think the epidural was possible to administer since my contractions were so close apart, almost five minutes apart.  But you bet I begged.  I thought I was dying.  The pain was unbearable!  It turned out that the baby was facing the wrong way.  Whatever.  They ended up giving me the epidural.  Thank God.  Then out came perfection.

I was relieved .. a healthy, bouncy, baby boy!!

Welcome to earth, JESSE!

Meet your sisters.

Meet your grandparents.

I am sooooooo happy!!

Sometimes when Carleto comes home from work, I expect to have a break to have a little time for myself.  I know I stay home all day, but I get tired too you know.  After all, I spend the whole day taking care of the kids!  And let’s not forget that I’m also pregnant.

But for the same reason, Carleto expects to have a break as well when he comes home from work.  Sometimes he’ll go straight to the gym or run on the trail.  I understand that and that is perfectly fine with me, except that he gets to have a break all the time and he gets to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. By contrast, I struggle for time all the time when I try to take care of even the most basic things.

When I ask him for a favor, like to just watch the kids for a minute, I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal for him. Am I asking for too much? He complains and gets whiny.  Is he forgetting that fatherhood is his responsibility too?  He complains that the children cry every time they’re with him, which is sadly true because his idea of parenting is to just sit in front of the tv and bore them to death; or he just let them sit on his lap while he uses the internet and again bore them to death.

But when it’s a “must” for me to leave the kids with him, he still follows me wherever I go. I don’t have privacy, even as basic as taking a shower has to be a family event.

I encourage him to play with them or do an activity of some sort. Keeping them busy always works, but he always has to make it hard, like he’s being forced to do it.

Sometimes I think about going back to work.  But I know it’s impossible right now and I’m not ready to leave my children. I just need TIME, maybe a vacation.

These pictures were taken by him on our balcony.  He had no choice but to watch the children, I was cooking.

These festivals are getting to be costly for us, but what the heck?! They support the community, and they give us reasons to celebrate.

As long as my kids are still young, we might as well take advantage of these great moments before my kids get a little old and start thinking that these festivals are borrringggg!

Now, what in the world is Carleto doing on the slide?!! I guess we are here so HE could have all the fun!

It is May, the month I am giving birth. It will be any day now and I am getting anxious. I’ve said before that I “wanted” four kids, but now I laugh at such thought. I can’t ever think of being pregnant again. Inside me, the baby kicks and I pause in pain. When I walk, I feel my back is about to break. Maybe I’m getting older, and my body can’t handle being pregnant anymore. Maybe three is enough.

My family is planning to have Caitlyn baptized before the arrival of the new baby. I ponder, though, that the baby will arrive before Caitlyn’s christening, but I keep my mouth shut. Right now, I can’t take anyone’s disapproval as I am emotional at the slightest thing. Besides, Caitlyn is almost two years old, and she’s already too old to be even baptized. We might as well have it!

The kids are having a blast outdoors. They can’t wait for Papa to come home from work so he can take us out. I don’t let the kids run around outside of our apartment. The neighbors refuse to clean up after their dogs, and I hate stepping on poop. On this day, we visited beautiful Yorktown.

You say good-bye:

I say hello, hello, HELLO!

In preparation of our third baby, Carleto convinced me to trade in our Mazda for the new Honda Odyssey. Our new ride is truly family friendly. It boasts a long list of features, but what I love about it is that it has 8 seats which means that we still have plenty of room despite the three car seats we already have. The cargo space remains huge next to the kids’ double stroller.  And since my kids cry after an hour of driving, our new DVD player will surely keep them entertained.

Starting last year, it had been somewhat of our tradition to attend fairs and festivals for the kids to enjoy. One of my favorites is the International Children’s Festival held in Hampton each year. Over 25 countries are represented and I am delighted for my children to experience diversity all in one park. It was nice to visit the Philippine booth as they were handing out tiny flags of the Philippines:

Jamie and Caitlyn are too young to really participate in arts and crafts, which are indeed the showcase of these booths; so, they were really happy to find these djembe drums from West Africa:

Perhaps the best part is the entertainment. The people were decked out in traditional outfits and, of course, performed their traditional music and dance:

But these kids surely can’t contain in their seats:

The cold weather is finally gone! This Easter holiday was literally the first weekend of the year for WARMTH outdoors. I couldn’t be more excited, I was so sick of the nippy weather. Anyways, I took my family to the Easter egg hunt in Yorktown. This was the first egg hunt for all of us, and I thought it would be a nice, leisurely stroll as you hunt for the Easter eggs behind the bushes and trees. But boy, I never realized how crazy it would be. It turned out that the eggs were scattered on the field and the people were in the opposite side on the street. At the sound of the horn, everyone raced to the field in pursuit of the Easter eggs.

It was so crowded. I had to held on to my kids for dear life. Everyone, including me, was in riot trying to hunt for those eggs. I was seven months pregnant, and I even tripped and fell on my knees. My kids were confused and had no idea what the point was until they learned that the eggs had goodies in them.

They were more excited to see the clown and watch him/her make balloon animals.

Have a belated happy Easter everyone!

The town heavily promoted the Daffodil Festival at Gloucester.  So, I am very curious to go and see what Gloucester is like.

As the name of the festival suggest, the little downtown of Gloucester is beautifully decorated by daffodils and other flowers.

And as usual, this little girl is happy to see the pony.  Her little sister, however, is too young to ride on it.