Foxie Hears The Beat

Spring so far

We've been having a busy and eventful spring this year, what with the addition of Kindergarten and a new dog in our lives. Not to mention the fact that the kids seem to get bigger and more independent every day. It's an ongoing challenge that is fulfilling, rewarding, and yet flat-out EXHAUSTING. I swear I am sooooo jealous of my peeps back in the Philippines and Indonesia who have all sorts of household help in completing the barrage of daily tasks. But in the good ol' U.S. of A., we do it all ourselves. With the help of a daycare and the grandparents, of course, but most of it is all us. Given how tough it can be sometimes, I am grateful for some very key things in our lives, including:

• Good health, for the most part - and health insurance for when it isn't good
• Fantastic weather
• Proximity to generous grandparents
• Generous grandparents in general
• Great school that we fortunately got in through a public lottery
• A sturdy house
• Our jobs
• A marriage that is as solid as rock

So, given all those things, all the tough crazy stuff is basically manageable. Even at it's most un-manageable-ness.

It helps also that the kids are so flippin' cute. And I mean flippin' crazy wicked-cute. I mean, take a look at them.

Fox finding an Easter egg

Boba with her stash

Playing with cousin Alejandro

Dancing cousins!

Sharing the floor with Sadie

Our springtime beauty

Daddy's new car!

Hanging out at a Padres game with Daddy - and not so sure how fun it is

Wake-up stories with Dad!

Our handsome little guy

And our proud moment with our Kindergartner....when she received the "Stellar Citizen Award" at her school in March. She is such a brilliant little girl!

Life is good over here. Chaotic, messy, and disheveled...but good. As it should be.

A New Sister!!

Time has passed. But we have news! Boba and Fox have a new sibling. Five-month old Sadie just joined the family. We're all learning each other, but early indications are that she's a pretty darn amazing dog! She's cuddly, loves giving and receiving kisses and came to us well on her way to being trained and housebroken. Enjoy the pix!

Sisters!

Sadie - cute and knows it

Daddy and his two daughters

Birthdays!

Yes, it's been a long, long time. Life with two is much more "filled", and Mommy and Daddy have also been enjoying many late nights in the back yard under the stars, leaving less computer time (which is probably the right balance in the long run).

That said, I'm sure you are all dying for some pix of the kids. We will try to catch up with some stories later, but here are some shots of the last few months, including some birthday pix as Boba turned 5 (last week) and Fox turned 2 (today!).

Guess who's 2? And 5? (And yes, that is Schoolhouse Rock

in her hands!)

Cooking!

Cousins!

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

Disney friends

Beach day, complete with sand angels!

More Disney, more friends!

Flower girl Boba

Wake up stories!

Dress up!

Easter!

Fun videos of the kids!

Sibs

We're now entering the stage where Fox and Boba are starting to.....discover their sibling relationship.

And sometimes the adorableness of it all is just overwhelming.

There are moments, however, when Fox is not sure what to make of his sister's affection.

And I don't have the photos where he slaps her when she goes for a hug, but that's because I'm usually lunging for his fists before he gets really mean. He loves his "Ina," for sure, but he's just not into all that smoochy-huggy stuff.

I'll tell ya, though. The two of them sure are cute together.

Something to think about.

Totally off-topic....I had an interesting conversation with a friend who lives in the area of San Diego that has been plagued with fires the last few years, and I asked her about what lessons she learned from having to evacuate her home several times. I was expecting her to say something like, "Material possessions truly have no value," or something to that effect. Instead, however, she was very practical.

"Make a list," she said. "Prioritize which items are most important, and then go down from there."

I told her that as long as I had my kids, I wasn't worried about the rest of it, actually.

"Then think about what you need to make your kids' lives good," she said.

She then said that in her and her husband's case, photographs were on top of the list. I mentioned the blog, and said that these days, most photos are digital and can be saved on a hard drive, or even on a remote photo-sharing site like Flickr. She took a second to reply, and she said, "Boy, it's changed from when I had children." (We're from different generations.)

We continued talking, and it was a really great conversation to have. It put a lot of things in perspective for me, and I continue to consider things in terms of that adjustment she made in my "list": What do I need to keep to make life good for my kids??

And it got me thinking about this blog. I have scores and scores of photo albums of my childhood, evidence of the wonderful (and some not-so-wonderful) years spent growing up abroad and in the U.S. My kids will have the benefit of some photo albums - maybe - but ultimately their lives (and let's face it - more Boba's life than Fox's) have been recorded in this blog.

So I should really do something about that.

I guess that's my roundabout way of saying....this blog isn't just for me. Or even for my family. It's for the kids. So, if something should happen and there is no other record of the great memories we've built until now, they have this.

In light of that, here's a few wonderful photos of my wonderful little family.