Frannywanny

Finally, after so long I'm back blogging and I'm ready to share our latest travel adventure with all of you!  You all know how much Paul and I love to travel and it's been a bummer that we've been stuck at home for the past year and a half due to the pandemic so when restrictions finally eased up a bit, we thought long and hard and just decided to go with our gut feel as we took the #AngTwins on their first ever birthday beach trip.  Our destination: Pico de Loro  in Nasugbu, Batangas.  We've been there before, 9 years ago to be exact , but back then, we went without kids and so my perspective and point of view then were totally different. This time, I'm wearing my mommy hat and I'll share with you our experience traveling with toddlers during a pandemic . The first step was choosing our destination. It was quite a challenge to convince Paul as he was very cautious and slightly paranoid (can't blame him) about the virus. More so, when I brought up the i...

I can't believe I have 3 year old twins! It still feels like yesterday when I patiently waited for my scheduled CS day to come and how Paul and I finally welcomed them in this world on that fateful day at 6 in the morning. It's been 3 years of living a purposeful life being called Mama by my intelligent, adorable and very sweet twins J & L.  For someone who loves to plan everything down to the last detail, 2020 really taught us to be flexible, to be resilient, to accept change and to roll with the punches. As they say, when life throws you lemons... you make delicious lemon squares. Haha! Seriously, the year went by so fast and while it wasn't really a smooth sailing one, it's the year where we got to spend the most time with family. Before the pandemic happened, I worry that I might miss out on their developmental years as I have gone back to working full-time and I often wonder if doing so will make me spend less time with them too. I guess, life has its funny way...

Get ready to jump into muddy puddles and celebrate with us! You'll probably be familiar with the phrase "muddy puddles" if you have toddler kids like us. Yes, Peppa Pig is in the house and this was our theme for the second birthday of the twins. After the big party last year, Paul and I decided to keep things simple this year for two reasons: 1) My beloved Angkong just passed away a little more than 100 years ago and.. 2) We just wanted to keep this year's celebration intimate yet fun with family around. I started planning for their birthday as early as March. Yes, not wanting to cram (which I still always end up doing) I started considering various venue options. One, a simple DIY swimming party with cousins where we can prepare fun snacks for kids and a heavy afternoon merienda for our adult guests, another option was to just eat out minus the frills and this, a party that's somewhere in the middle -- that's fun, simple yet memorable. Back in Mar...

Dearest J & L, Where did the days go? Just last year, I remembered throwing your first birthday party together with our family and our closest friends. I can't believe it has been a year since then and you're now blowing out two candles from your cake.  This year, Mommy and Daddy became really busy with work. I still feel bad that I no longer can spend every waking hour with the two of you but someday, I hope you'll understand why Mommy had to go to the office or when Daddy and I had to leave you with Ama and Kongkong to attend meetings. Everything that we do now is for the two of you and as I reach home at night, nothing makes my stress and fatigue go away in a snap than with your warm hugs and never-ending kisses. I love it when you would continue to increase your daily count of saying "Mama" day after day. Mama loves you both super duper duper too. 

"Wait till they start crawling!" I still remember my Mom telling me this when I once told her how excited I am for my twins to grow faster when they were just newborn. I still get scared carrying newborns..most especially tiny babies as I have this great fear that I might accidentally drop them. My Mom and other Mommy friends would tell me to take it slow and savor that moment as a new challenge would arise once my babies would start crawling..or would start walking or worst..running. Well my friends, the time has come when both J and L are now considered crawlers. Actually, they're more like tumbling tots who would go from one corner to another by tumbling all over the place. It's scary though as they have no concept of pausing or slowing down thus my fear of me dropping them has been quickly replaced with the fear of them just falling off the bed one day. For the past months, I've been bugging Paul that it's time for us to scout around for a good playmat...

Do you ever have those moments when you'd wonder where did that time go? I do. Every. Single Day. Since I delivered my twins, I would always have an early start in the morning where I'm awaken by either L or J. It really depends who wakes me up. L would normally wake us up with a sudden high pitch scream followed by minutes of whining. J, on the other hand, is the jollier twin and he would start babbling really loudly. At times, to get my attention, he'll start kicking too knowing that that will really push me to stand up and pick him up. One thing they do in common is as soon as they see my face, they'll give me the cutest, most adorable toothless smile ever. This is followed by changing their diapers, playing with them, feeding them, getting them to nap and the cycle goes around about 3-4 times in the day. Before I know it, it's 6pm and we start their bedtime routine by giving them both warm baths, turning on their sleeping music and putting them to bed. Yes, f...

I know it's kinda late to talk about the New Year as in fact we're just a week away from February. I guess this is what first time parenthood is all about. Your days will just roll by so quickly as you busily deal with endless changes of dirty diapers, frequent cries for milk and basically trying to keep your baby (or in our case, our babies) healthy, happy and simply alive every single day. However, as I watch my twins sleep soundly right now I can't help but feel an immense amount of gratitude and happiness. Just a year ago, I made a wish that hopefully on 2017, we will finally have the answer to our prayers. I prayed that we will be blessed with a baby...regardless if it's a boy or a girl, I promise to be the best Mom that I could possibly be and I'll bring him or her closer to God too. Just three months after, our prayers were answered and shortly after that, we found out that we were expecting not only one but two beautiful babies. More blessings and su...

Dearest L and J,  In exactly a week's time, we will finally meet for the first time. That said, I thought of writing you both the first of the many letters that you will be receiving from me. Our journey together started around early March and it has been filled with a lot of excitement with a mix of paranoia as I simply just wanted to do everything right for the two of you. Your Dad is a tougher cookie but I know how paranoid he gets too as he would check on your heartbeats and patiently monitors your kicks every single night.  Often times, I try to imagine what will be the feeling of seeing you both for the first time. Will I cry? Will I laugh? I'm not really sure as I'll partially be drugged with anesthesia too but one thing is for sure -- my heart is  filled with so much gratitude. It's exactly the feeling of finally getting that one thing that you've been wishing, hoping and praying for the longest time.  We have grown to be so close through all these mon...

24 Weeks. That's how long our little bundles of joy have been living inside my tummy and it also means we're pretty much thisclose to the finish line. I got to admit that it took me a while to really decide to share my story most especially about my pregnancy journey. As chatty I may be when it comes to food, I try to keep my personal life away from the limelight but I realized that I'm not alone in this world and there may be women...or couples out there who are going through what we went through so here I am extending my hand to tell you this early on that you will never be alone. As soon as we got married, Paul and I were told to wait for 2 years before having a baby due to feng shui reasons. We were perfectly fine with this despite the increasing number of questions being thrown our way by relatives and friends on why should we even wait. I was 27 then.. Paul was 28. That seemed like the right age to have a baby, right? Wrong. Looking back, I must say that yes, ...