Cultural Nights with wheels

Since we barely have time to do some research after I gave birth, we picked countries that we were familiar with instead of our usual draw lots.  Also, most of it we had to do at home or with an entourage. For the second half of the year, not only do these dates have third wheel aka baby, Topeng's parents are chaperoning as well.:p

July: Japan! Japan!
We were on a ramen craze. First, Tatay made some beef ramen. Then we went to Ikkyu to try theirs after church but we discovered that they are closed on Sundays so we had to come back another day and settled for Sushi Garden, an eat all you can sushi place in Foothills Mall. All of these on different days of the month of course. Photos in Sushi Garden here.

L: With Tatay's homemade ramen

R: Tonkotsu, Miso Ramen, Shoyu Ramen at Ikkyu

Movie is Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. It was weird or maybe I just don't understand anime. LOL.

August: Hula Hulawaian

Tatay made some Hawaiian Pulled Pork sliders (Pulled pork with pineapple in Hawaiian sweet rolls). The pork was cooked using the beer (Guiness) from my birthday. Oha! Chume-chef mode. He also cooked some spam for one of our breakfasts.

 

Our movie choices were Godzilla, Blue Crush and Soul Surfer. Tatay played the last one and I'm glad he did. Not knowing what the movie was about before hand, I predicted that something bad was going to happen and was afraid of that. In the end, Bethany Hamilton's story is impressive.

September : Cuban

Nanay is back at work so we took advantage of a lunch date near our office. Since, there isn't really a Cuban resto around, we headed for a place with Cuban sandwich instead.The cuban sandwich was good but not the best and pricier than it should be. It was so un-memorable that we had to walk around the area again to remember the name of the place for the purpose of documentation. The name was Saint House and it is now replaced by another business.

The movie is Che. I slept through it because history and war movies are not really my cup of tea so no Che part 2 for me.

October: German

As it is the month of beer (Octoberfest), we celebrated with this and grocery-bought sausage (Aidell's chicken and apple). Since I'm still nursing during this time and to help with my milk production, we bought some non-alcoholic beers (Becks and Erdinger) at BevMo! (No, I'm not shouting. It's just the name of the beverage store.:p)

According to Pop, our movie for that month was The Diary of Anne Frank but for some reason I have a vague recollection of watching it. I guess it was too tragic that I chose to forget. Another case of being afraid to watch what was going to happen I guess. Also, the story was in Holland so I don't know how I came to agree to watch it. Another option was The Pianist but it is not ringing a bell for me either.

November: French

I made some crepes using sariwang lumpia wrapper from scratch, canned fruit, whipped cream, ice cream, chocolate syrup and powdered sugar. Sinful, I know!


Movie is The Hundred Foot Journey. As I am writing this I remember the story line but had to google the title. The keywords I used: movie about a French Michelin star. Good thing I found it but up until now I still don't get why they used that title.

December: Greek

While looking for a place which has a private room to hold Lily's dedication reception, I stumbled upon this Greek place Fronimo's Greek Cafe so decided to give it a try. We then discovered that their food is an acquired taste for us. Everything seems to have a lemon sour taste, evem the rice, and not the good sinigang or hilaw na mangga kind. Therefore, the 'rents did not like it. Frownimos pala. wakoko!

Movie is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The rom-com was a good break from our unintentional non-fictional movie streak.

The fourth trimester

Thank God my pregnancy and the childbirth had no complications as I would have gone crazy when it came to the real challenge: postpartum. I can't say that we have not been warned during the childbirth classes but nothing can prepare anyone for this. The pain and difficulty does not end after childbirth and the reality has sunk in!:)) I thought that since I had a non-surgical delivery, the recovery would be instant but apparently that is not the case. The painful peeing and the dizziness I experienced, though normally expected from an unmedicated (pitocin and IV aside) delivery, was new to me. For someone who has never been sick/hospitalized since five years of age, you can imagine how annoying this is for me.:)) It is indeed true that being a mother is the most difficult job. Aside from trying to recover and dealing with pain, you have to take care of a child! This had not hit me during our hospital stay as the nurses gave constant assistance and from the excitement of finally seeing my child. I even refused oral medication for pain initially as I was not feeling pain yet as I was always in bed. About a week after our discharge, the extreme discomfort from the heavy breasts, aching pelvic area and being unable to sit properly due to the you-know-what has gotten to me and I finally took pain medication. Laughter is the best medicine but not during this time as it hurt down there though it was hard not to with Lily's antics. Thank God our parents are here otherwise the household chores would have amped up the difficulty level. My mom would bring up my meals after those sleepless, painful, tiring breastfeeding nights and she would burp and change Lily's nappies. My DH (dear husband, not domestic helper :p) would carry me up the stairs (as I was ordered to minimize climbing it), help put Lily to sleep and buy items I needed for my recovery and nursing. My parents-in-laws took over the child caring and household chores once my mom left. I couldn't imagine getting through this without any help. After the second week, the pain was manageable and the bleeding was not heavy anymore but I had developed some very itchy rashes. (And I thought I had avoided the stretch mark threat!) It was just in the lower abdomen initially then in the extremeties. I have yet to determine what caused it. The Ibuprofen and hormonal change after pregnancy are a couple of my suspects. I'm afraid to take antihistamine as it might affect my breastmilk so I temporarily resorted to topical creams/lotions/sprays like hydrocortisone, calamine, benadryl, and ice to numb the itchiness. The insurance nurse also recommended a baking soda or oatmeal bath. I wish the itchy rashes would subside soon for the sake of my sanity.

Anyway, enough about me and more of Lily. It seems that she got most (if not all!)of her physical and personality traits from me. Sorry, tatay! I'll let the pictures describe her appearance. Like nanay, she has that sideways look and serious expression going on. Sungit!:)) Like tatay, she farts aloud and motorboatslikes Nanay's boobs. LOL. So far, she is relatively low maintenance as she cries only when hungry (which is all the time though :p) and is not sensitive with using the baby products that we already have borrowed and acquired from the baby showers (e.g.diapers, toiletries, baby furniture). Good girl! Our little drunken master  is sometimes dramatic during her feedings that we can't help but be amused: she shakes like an addict needing her fix when she gets hungry, moans while sucking, violently unlatches and raises her hand like a champion/winner afterwards. Too bad I can't capture it through video as it would be hard to censor a nip slip.:))

Talking video

Kallai, Tatay, gusto kong tinapay

Credits to Lily's personal paparazzi, Lola Emily Francisco, for all the photos in this post.:)