~Laura's Baby Shower~

Yesterday, all of my lady friends (and they're hubbies and kiddies) got together to throw Laura (who is smack-dab in the center of this photo) a baby shower. 

For those of you that are new to my blog, a few months ago, Laura, my friend, Leah, and I were all pregnant.  And we all worked at the same unit.  Our bosses--all guys--referred to us as the "maternity ward" because we were always together, waddling around and hanging out and eating/snacking on something (over 95% of the time).  Leah had her baby back in May, I had mine in August, and Laura hits her 36th week today.  She's having a baby boy, so her her son, Joey, is going to be a big brother--and a great one at that!

Laura's just an amazing woman.  She's a phenomenal mom, wife and Army officer who was crazy to even insist that we shouldn't throw her this party.  We couldn't have been happier to do it.  She's such a great friend and she has taken such great care of our little family.  We had such a great time!



Leah (not shown) makes some awesome diaper cakes!



I got Laura this self-inflatable KidCo PeaPod she wanted and I think I'm going to get one for Baby V.  It's nice, light and compact--especially for trips, so you don't have to lug that big pack 'n play everywhere!



Maddie made an amazing soccer ball cake for soon-to-be Jack!  Laura loves soccer!

So, a wonderful time was had by all.  By the way, I made some really good Sweet Potato Spice Cookies and a great Bow-Tie with Ham pasta casserole for the party.

I posted both recipes to my cooking blog, so head on over there to check them out!

Happy Monday you guys!  It's my last week before going back to work...yikes!

Memorial Day Weekend Wrap-Up

All I can say is....what a weekend!  It was a blast and judging by the all-day nap I took today, it wore me out.  But it was all worth it.  My BFFs of over 7 years--Chrissy and Melody--came to visit for a well-deserved girls' weekend and these are highlights from each day that they were here:

~Friday~

Lunch at La Terraza for authentic Mexican food since Mel requested it, having come all the way from Alexandria, VA. 

Pedicures and shopping at the mall.

Late night movie--Robin Hood.  Weren't too thrilled.  It was the longest movie ever!

Late night dinner at IHOP with Joy! (In the picture...Melody, Chrissy, Me and Joy)

~Saturday~

Southwest New Mexico Wine Festival just outside of Las Cruces, NM.  Chrissy and Melody drank; I ate!

My friends, Jennifer and Chrissy, throw me a surprise baby shower at Jennifer's house.  All my lady friends from work were there...it was so much fun! 

Another beautiful lady bug cake!

Thanks to Jennifer for hosting such a wonderful party.  Here I am with Jennifer and her sister, Vanessa.

What was also cool was that Jennifer asked everyone to bring me childrens' books with written dedications to my baby girl in them.  What an awesome idea!  Now Vaiosina's got a little library!

Of course, we ladies are all picture-taking fiends.  These girls are the best!

~Sunday~

The "maternity ward" as we're referred to at work.  Me with Laura and Leah at the baby shower.  Only I put this on Sunday because Leah went into labor early Sunday morning and her baby boy came into the world at around 6:30 p.m. that day.  So happy for Leah and her husband Jay!

As Leah was in labor, Chrissy, Melody and I helped ourselves to a scrumptious breakfast at the Crave Kitchen & Bar.  By far, my favorite breakfast joint in town (and Chrissy's fave too).

Unfortunately, later on that day, Melody's visit came to an end.  This was the final group picture. 

Chrissy and I went to see The Back Up Plan later that afternoon and finished the weekend off with dinner at Olive Garden.  Yum yum!

~Monday~

Chrissy leaves early this morning and I spend all morning into the early afternoon sleeping.  I was knocked out!  All the excitement wore me out.

Went to visit Leah at the hospital.  Didn't get to see the baby, but she is doing extremely well.

Honored our Nation's heroes--past and present--for Memorial Day and thought of my hubby in Iraq.  I love you sweetheart.

Now dreading going back to work.

------------------------

And that's all you guys!  Whew!  That was a lot.  Thanks to all of my friends who made this weekend extra special.  Hope you guys have a blessed and wonderful week!

Leah's Baby Shower & 25th Week Update

If you've been following my blog for a while, you should know that Leah is my assistant from work ("LT" as I call her--for lieutenant). She is pictured here with her husband, Jay. She's also a wonderful friend who is expecting a little baby boy in another month or so. Well, today was her baby shower. A whole bunch of friends, mostly from work, were there and it was a great time. I even won a game and a prize. I have to say, that I barely left the kitchen. I spent the majority, if not all, the time I spent there EATING. Yup...if I remember correctly, the only time I sat down was to help her open her gifts. Every other time, I was shoving food in my mouth. And it was all so yummy!

Remember how I told you guys that there a three of us preggies at work? Well, here we all are! That's Laura on the far left (she's about 13 weeks), Leah in the middle (she's about 8 months) and then me. Everyone at work says there must be something in the water over there because we all work within 25 feet of each other. But these two girls are the greatest!

While we're on the subject of babies, I thought I'd catch you all up to speed on the pregnancy! Me and my lil' bug just finished up our 25th week! Time is really flying by....and here we are.

My tummy seems to be growing by the day. According to http://www.babycenter.com/, the baby should weigh about a pound and a half by now. No wonder why I have to waddle to carry her around! She sure is gettin' heavy! Now, I haven't seen actual foot or hand prints popping up around my belly, but she sure is active in there. And it's the best feeling in the world.

I really, really, really can't wait to see the baby. Apparently, she's looking more and more like a newborn with fat beginning to develop around her body and her hair growing like crazy. As a matter of fact, my hair is growing like crazy too (unfortunately, not fast enough! I want to put my hair all up in a pony tail, but I can't just yet). But my hair is the shiniest and the thickest it's ever been in years! It's so great.

Each week, I seem to get fixated on one or two foods that I just have to have. In previous weeks, these have been Krispy Kreme donuts, rice crispies treats, nutella crepes. Some foods, I make long drives across town just to get. Like the peanut butter and jelly cream bagels (it's PB&J with cream cheese) from Kinley's Coffee House downtown. After the second trip across town (and it's about 15 miles), I decided to just get all the ingredients and make them myself in the mornings. I've had them every day this past week. Another craving during our 25th week has been pancakes. On the healthier side, I still like fruits. The fruit of this week has been mangoes. I bought four for the week and they're all gone!

The most memorable part of the 25th week....having my best friend Chrissy here from Fort Hood to help us get the nursery started. I haven't done anything to it since, but I can't believe we actually own baby furniture, a car seat, a stroller and all kinds of other stuff.

I've always been so shy to bare my stomach to everyone, but what the heck. I did it! Malu told me this past week that I make being pregnant look like so much fun. He also asked if I could stay pregnant forever.

Malu also said that he got his package, although I'm not sure he had a chance to watch the baby shower DVD yet. However, I stuck the "Future Dad" pin in his package and when he got it, he called me and told me that he was wearing it; and that he was going to wear it until someone were to tell him it's out of regulation and to remove it. How cute is that? I love him.

Finally, in one of the million updates I get from http://www.babycenter.com/, one article asked if I had narrowed down baby names. I'd told you guys that we had decided to change the baby's name from Salamasina Rose to Vaiosina Rose. Now, I'm not going to go into full details why...but apparently, picking a royal Samoan name (especially when your husband's grandma actually has ties to the Samoan royal family) is not as simple as picking a baby name out of a book as we do here in the States. Lucky for us, Malu's grandma, Lema, had another name for us. And VAIOSINA is the name of another influential female figure in their family. I don't know specific details. I guess I'll have to get with Grandma Lema for that, but it's an equally beautiful name that I like because it almost matches Malu's full name, Vaimalu. But you pronounce it VIE-OH (like the Sony Vaio computer line)-SEE-NAH. And her middle name will still be Rose, after my sister.

I think from this point on, I'm just going to do baby updates every two weeks. But thanks for sticking with me through this long post and through this magnificent journey through pregnancy. Hope you all are having a good weekend!

~23 Weeks~ & Biggest Baby Shower Ever

My lil' bug,

Since we're about half way through our 24th week, I suppose I should wrap up the events that took place during our 23rd week. And judging from the way you're kicking me right now, I'm guessing that you wholeheartedly agree. So here goes.

I guess I should tell you that the most memorable part of this particular week was that we traveled all the way to Colorado Springs to celebrate your arrival--your baby shower! When I arrived, your Grandma Ruby was so shocked to see how big I'd (we'd) gotten. After all, she had just visited us in El Paso the week before and all of a sudden, mommy's tummy had blown up out of nowhere! And it's no wonder. http://www.babycenter.com/ said that last week, you were about 11 inches long and weight about a pound! Additionally, your sense of movement is now so well developed, that you can feel all of mommy's moves--and you got a lot of that during that week! And girl, last week was your feistiest yet. You were moving so much that I could truly see you squirming beneath my clothes. It was frightening at first, but now I find myself grabbing or staring at my tummy forever just so I don't miss a move. It's so fun.

So many of your loved ones were there...almost 130 people! Can you believe it? Lucky for you, mommy was able to capture it all on film and made a pretty neat slide show to share with her friends.

There was food for days and your Auntie Roz and cousins made everything so much fun by playing all kinds of games. However, I think people had more fun trying to feel you through mommy's tummy. I got all kinds of belly rubs that day. And your presents! Oh my gosh...it took mommy almost 2 hours to open all of them. When we were packing the truck to leave, we almost had to leave your fur-sister, Lucy, with Grandma and Grandpa because she could barely fit. In the end, we had to leave some of your gifts in Colorado for Grandma to mail to us. You are one lucky girl. Clothes to last the next 2 years. And your mommy and daddy are so thankful to have such wonderful and supportive family and friends.

We didn't want to come back to El Paso so soon, but made it back safe and sound. Since then, you've brought mommy a new wave of fatigue and she wants to nap about every ten minutes. Work has been rough and mommy barely had time or the energy to blog this week. But we can also attribute that to the fact that our computer had been malfunctioning. Now we're up and running again! It's nice to be back.

Anyway, I hope that you are looking forward to hearing what the rest of this week will bring. I have the feeling that you are dying to meet all of us and to be honest, mommy is dying to meet you too. Your daddy sends his love all the way from Iraq. He was sorry to miss your baby shower, but asked me to give you little rubs from my tummy here and there and to play you his songs when we go to sleep. Now that you are starting to recognize our voices, I hope you love daddy's voice as much as mommy does.
I love you my baby girl. Now, it's off to bed!
P.S. I'm sorry I keep feeding you tons of sugary goodies as of late, but you seem to keep wanting mommy to have them. A half a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts? No problem. A pack of hostess cupcakes? No problem either. And for some reason, your Grandpa kept feeding you buttered up Einstein Bagels every morning we were in Colorado. You seemed to love those too (and mommy was never a real big fan previously). But no worries, mommy balances all out with some healthy foods too. You still love carrots and fruits!

Thursday Five

Well, Keely over at http://www.mannland5.com/ has come up with yet another great blog idea called Thursday Five and today is the first edition! You can go over to her blog and get linked up with all kinds of other bloggers, but the idea is to blog about five things throughout the week that has made you HAPPY, GRATEFUL, JOYFUL, ELATED, APPRECIATIVE OR ALL OF THE ABOVE.

Coincidentally, all of my five things happened just today. I mean, I had some great things happen all week, but today is fresh in my mind, so here goes:

1. Our brigade's Family Readiness Group Assistant, and my good friend, Melissa Hermosillo, totally made our day by bringing all of the command group (which is where I work) breakfast this morning. We had a 0600 calendar scrub with the Brigade Commander this morning (at which the post commander--a 2-star general--just happened to drop in on). And 0600 is a crazy time for me to even set foot in the office. I mean, I have to crawl out of bed at 0445 just to get there on time. It sucks. Anyway, Melissa is so well-connected in the Fort Bliss/El Paso community and somehow she and these "connections" got us some coffee and tons of pastries from Starbucks and cinnamon rolls and chicken sandwiches from Chick-Fil-A. Yum! ! I always wonder if she's just saying that she has these connections and is actually forking over the dough to get all of this stuff. I mean, she does it a lot! Bottom line...she's a sweetheart and a gem. I love her!

2. Tomorrow is my LT's birthday, so all my girlie friends from work got together for our usual weekly lunch today just to celebrate her birthday (since we have a 4-day Easter holiday weekend). We went to Carlos & Mickey's Mexican Restaurant (one of the best in town!) and had a great time chit-chatting over cheesy dip, tortillas, and taco salads. Yummy!

3. Being offered a job in.....GERMANY...for next year. Apparently, it's in Stuttgart, Germany, which is smack dab in the middle of the country and according to the guy who called me today, accessible to all the main European capitals. Heck yeah...but I need to talk to Malu about it. That's not stopping me from thinking about all the travel and shopping opportunities though ;)

4. On the way home from work, amidst a severe wind/sand storm, I listened to the Delilah Show on the radio...you know the lady that plays all the love songs at night? I love to listen to her because she plays songs that I can actually sing along to, and I think the baby likes it. Anyway, I heard the song, "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" song by Rod Stewart for the first time in, like, forever and immediately thought of Malu. I wish he would call so that I can tell him I love him. It's been three days. I do love you darling.

5. Picking up the mums that Jennifer made for my baby shower! They are so darling. Pretty much everything I'm bringing home, as far as decorations go, was made by her and I am forever indebted. I had to beg her to take a picture with them so I could put a face to the talent...and she obliged. Her 4 year old son, Dominic, took the picture of me. Not bad, huh? She made these for my mom, sister and I. As you can see on mine, it says Future Mom! Thanks Jenn!

This was fun. Can't wait to do it again. Right now, I'm at Auntie Daisy's. She is driving part of the way to Colorado tomorrow and I figured I might as well spend the night here at her place so I don't have to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn to pick her up and leave tomorrow. Wish us a safe trip! I can't wait for the baby shower and to tell you guys all about it afterwards!

Ten on Tuesday

Better late than never! It sucks because during the week I always have to wait until I get out of work to come home and get on my blog. Only when I have quick breaks at work do I actually get on blogger, but when I do, I'm checking out everyone else's blogs and leaving comments! It's one of my secret work indulgences. Well, it used to be secret. I hope none of my co-workers are reading this! Anyway, by the time I get home and get settled down, it's just about this late--around 9:45. But I'm trying to do this on a daily basis! So here goes.

1. I just got back from Jennifer's house. After I got off from work, I went to her house to work on the centerpieces for the baby shower. Remember that lady bug pot I made at Michaels a few weekends ago? Well, we painted and dotted about 20 flower pots tonight. What a great help Jennifer is. And I pay for her labor in food. We had chinese take out for dinner. I had beef with broccoli and shrimp fried rice. Yum-o! Thanks Jenn for always being great company and a great help!

2. I can't believe the baby shower is this weekend. I pretty much told my shop at work that I'm in weekend mode and my great mood cannot be spoiled this week! I'm so excited for this baby shower, but I'm also trying not to get so stressed out about it. My family back home is doing most of the leg work, but I wanted to do all the decorations and even that is tiring me out. I wanted to do so much more originally, but really, it's just me and I really don't want to kill myself trying to do that much. So I've narrowed the decorations down to a few things. I'll definitely take pictures for you guys.

3. Also on the baby shower...there will still be tons of people attending. My mom has chosen to break tradition and invite whole families (guys, gals and kids) to this shin dig. Whatever. Sometimes I just have to let my mom go and do her thing. It makes her happy. But really? Should baby showers have a dee-jay and music? Oh, mine sure will. Filipinos. Gotta love 'em. Speaking of DJ's, some hot stud used to do it for the Filipino American community when we were stationed in Colorado. My mom pretty much made him do it. But he loved it and he got paid! It didn't take much coercion on mom's part.

4. It was soooooo hot today. Must have been in the high 70s, low 80s. I'm usually out and about around our work area, but today, I stayed in most of the time and when I did venture out, I broke out in a sweat every time. Gross. Heck, even Chester refused to go outside today even for a short walk and stayed sprawled out on the Colonel's office floor. Smart doggie.

5. I tried a cool recipe that Malu's Auntie Jewel sent me months ago for a Minute Chocolate Mug Cake. Now you can have chocolate cake at your disposal within minutes and with just a few items that you most likely have in your pantry/fridge already. It's so easy and ready in a jiffy. It was delicious. Especially when topped with vanilla ice cream. Oh yeah!

I got the idea of collecting the Starbucks City Mugs from a close family friend and I've really gotten some cool ones like this one from Beijing. My sister in law, Lulu, got it for me when she went to the Beijing Olympics last year. And when I say she was at the Olympics, I mean she actually competed. In Judo. Yeah, I'll have to save that for another post too. But here is the recipe:

4 Tbsp Flour

4 Tbsp Sugar

2 Tbsp Cocoa

1 egg

3 Tbsp milk

3 Tbsp oil

3 Tbsp chocolate chips (optional)

Small splash of vanilla

1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla extract and mix again. Put the mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed. Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT!

With the cravings I've been having lately, this recipe will prove to be DANGEROUS!!!

6. Although I'm excited about going home this weekend, I am NOT looking forward to the drive. Auntie Daisy will be doing most of the driving but 9 hours is a long time!

7. Who knew that picking a baby name would prove to be so difficult? It turns out that Malu and I have decided to change our lil' bug's name. I'm still kind of butt hurt about it, but we have been offered a reasonable alternative, and I have to wait until Malu talks to his mom about it. I'll be posting about that story soon too.

8. I just found out today that Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, has written another book that is somewhat of a complement to the Eclipse book. I think it's going to be out in June. I'm definitely getting it.

9. On my way to work this morning, I'd heard on the radio that over 60% of married men and women share this. The answer? Hobbies. At first, I thought, hmmm...I don't think Malu and I have any hobbies in common. But after a few minutes I was like, oh yeah! We both like to sing, sing well, and sing well together. Especially when we sing to him playing the guitar. Malu also taught me how to fish (one of his hobbies) and I absolutely love it. We've had so many great times on fishing trips. This is a picture of my first catch. It was taken at Fort Rucker, AL in 2007. Malu was stationed there at the time. I wasn't too successful learning one of Malu's other hobbies--golfing. Yeah, let's not go there.

What hobbies do you share with your spouse or significant other?

10. I was able to talk to Malu yesterday so that was two days in a row. He tried calling me today, but I'd missed the call and instead got a voicemail. It really has been a good week so far!

And there you have it! I liked doing this one. It allowed me to stroll down memory lane for a little while. Good night all!

Family and Friends

My mom, dad, and sister left early this morning and let me tell you, I was sad to see them go. The only thing that I could find solace in was knowing that I'll be seeing them again next weekend for the baby shower. What I feel bad about is the fact that I spent most of the week they were here at work. Stupid work. Looking back, I should have asked for some leave, but they honestly had a great time. Auntie Daisy was able to take the ladies shopping (A LOT) and dad, well, he just wanted to stay home with the doggies. They were all such a good help too. Most of the boxes in the house were unpacked (my bedroom is now box free--all clothes unpacked) thanks to Mom and dad had gotten rid of all the tumbleweed in the backyard, broken down all the empty boxes and had everything picked up by the trash and recycling guys. And my sister? Well, Roz is always wonderful to have around. She has such a young spirit and a kind heart. She bought me new movies to watch--New Moon (which I am watching now) and Princess and the Frog. I can't tell you how much my family means to me. I would be nothing without their love and support. I hate how fast visits go.

We spent Thursday evening out at one of the best places to eat here in El Paso--Cattleman's Steakhouse. I'd gotten off from work early and it was going to be our last big dinner here in town. Not only that, that morning I found out that I made the selection list for promotion to Major! So it ended up being somewhat of a celebration dinner as well. Before we left, we thought we'd take some pictures.

Mom, Dad and his signature 'Hang Loose' pose

Mom and her Girls

Wow! That restaurant never disappoints! We all had our fill of steaks (the best in town!) and all the trimmings including pineapple laced coleslaw, beans, baked potatoes, herbed butter--DEEE-LICIOUS! We even had apple pie a la mode. I had to be rolled out of there.

Mom, Jack, Auntie Helen & Roz (before dinner)

They ended up leaving at midnight (last night) so that they could get back in time for a friend's baby shower. And they did make it! Lucy and I are already missing the extra company. My mom slept with me the entire time. She made sure to give me some back and belly rubs. So spoiled! Definitely missing those right now.

But I wasn't lonely for too long. I spent most of today with Jennifer's family. Her son, Dominic, had his 4th birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza. I love that place. Coincidentally, working at Peter Piper was my first job and as soon as I walked inside, the smell brought me back 13 years. Yes, it's been that long! And I love their pizza. So did this little guy. This is her younger son, Ryan.

Isn't this face to die for?

Dominic had a Toy Story party and Jennifer had the COOLEST cake made for him. Like the "Ace of Cakes" kind of cake. He was soooooo excited about it and he'd come back every so often after playing on the rides and with the games just to visit with it and play with the toys. I always wondered whether extraordinary looking cakes like that taste as good as they look and this cake was fabulous. It was so moist and not too sweet. I loved it. I had two pieces.

Dominic adoring his cake

And I couldn't eat this cake alone, now, could I? No way! I also had my fair share of ice cream!

We all scream for ice cream!

I've become extremly close to all of Jennifer's family and we enjoyed acting like little kids at this place while Jennifer played hostess. We took a couple of really cool and funny pictures, but this one I liked the most. Here I am with Jennifer's sisters, Vanessa and Lexi, and Lexi's boyfriend, Mikey (who had just won a gold medal at his track meet earlier that day).

Vanessa, Lexi, Me, & Mikey

And that pretty much wrapped up my day. I was so tired after the party that I came home and crashed until past 6:00 p.m. I probably could have slept into tomorrow, but Lucy had to be walked. After we walked, she and I drove to Hobby Lobby to get some supplies to make decorations for my baby shower. I can't believe that it'll be here next weekend. And I'll be in Colorado! I can't wait.

Completely Buggin' Out!

I think everyone pretty much knows that the theme for our baby shower is going to be lady bugs, as is the nursery for our lil' bug. As such, I am going completely bonkers collecting every little lady bug item, not just for the baby shower, but for our little girl as well. I guess you can say that I am a bit obsessed. But why wouldn't I be? Aren't lady bugs cute anyway? You just wouldn't believe the things I've done or found. It might make you want to start collecting lady bug knick knacks too.

So, I've been trying to find some ideas for baby shower centerpieces. My friend, Jennifer, told me that Michael's was holding a craft class on how to make flower pot critters. And they just happened to be making the lady bug pots this weekend. So yesterday afternoon, I spent a good half hour in the Michael's store and made one of these cute lady bug pots. Aren't they darling? I had the teacher take a picture of me to show Malu. I'm going to take these, fill them with rice to weigh them down a little bit more and then I'll use them to anchor the red, white and yellow balloons that I plan to order for the party. I figure I'll put that on each table along with some confetti and possibly some printed paper or doilies. What do you think?

Jennifer also happened to take her little boys to the outlet mall on Friday and while shopping at the Converse store, she stumbled upon these. I told her to stop buying me more baby stuff, but I could not hassle her when she said that she couldn't help herself. When she gave them to me, I just about cried. They are sooooooooo cute.

So then I went to the outlet myself the next day and stumbled upon this matching outfit at Gymboree. They happened to be on sale and will fit my lil' bug next winter. See the little antennae on the hat? Too cute.

Jennifer (man, isn't she just great?) is also helping me make decorations for the baby shower. But she also thought to make these cool mums for me, my mom, grandma, and sister to wear that day. I thought that these things were an El Paso thing, but it turns out that these mums, are actually a whole-state-of-Texas kind of thing. Originally called homecoming mums, they were made popular in Texas (and also in Oklahoma) in the 1920s and were made of real flowers. It wasn't until the 1960s that silk flowers were used and additional items were used to symbolize what activities the students were involved in. Girls wear them and recently, more guys have come to wear a smaller version, gartered on their arms. Nowadays, they're not just used at homecoming, but for all kinds of occasions--including baby showers. How convenient! So, Jennifer and I went and bought all the materials and she came up with this one for me. The yellow ribbon has lady bugs on it. It's going to match perfectly with the black and white polka dot dress I'm going to be wearing.

And last, because I'm not trying to give away all the details of the baby shower to some nosy family members...I ordered about 100 of these charming lady bug soaps to give away as parting gifts for all my attendees, since there will be tons of them. I had them personalized and everything. I found them on http://www.babyshowerstuff.com/.

So yeah, I'm totally buggin' out and loving it. The baby shower is a little over two weeks away. The only reason I'm having it early is because my parents, being the crazy socialites that they are, are way too busy in the months of May and June to hold a baby shower. Nor will I be up to traveling during those months. I plan on having someone videotape the whole thing so that Malu doesn't miss out entirely. And guess what? Malu called me today during lunch. What a great surprise! He had received his Easter package, but hadn't opened it yet. I can't wait to hear how he liked it. Anyway, I digress.

Hope everyone's week got off to a great start!

Baby Shower News!

Well, what my mom is calling the "Baby Shower of the Year" is well under way. She called me in the middle of my work day to let me know that she was locking in the reservation at the Armed Forces YMCA in Colorado Springs. Why the YMCA, you ask? Because we can't fit over 100 people into her house, that's why. No kidding, people. She's going all out and it's going to be a gigundo bash! You see, my mom is the President of the Filipino-American Community of Southern Colorado and she knows EVERYBODY! I'm not just talking about Filipinos either. I mean, she knows everyone in Colorado Springs, it seems. But everyone in the community is practically family and it is so nice to have that kind of support.

Anyway, she's telling me that I might have to rent a small U-Haul to bring all of my gifts home. How crazy is that? But it should be tons of fun because this a great group of people and they love to have fun. I can't wait. It's scheduled for April 3rd. I haven't sent invitations yet because I'm waiting on the sex of the baby so that I can establish some sort of theme for my family, since they're all putting it together for me.

I have a question though...I was told that typically, people only have baby showers for their first child. Is this true? Is this just an American custom? I only ask because it's not atypical for people in my culture--both Samoan and Filipino--to have baby showers for all their children. I was just wondering.