Happy Easter

At times, I feel like a terrible mom. Daniel and I have never been really into doing a lot on any holiday. We are not against it, its just that neither of us find the fun we have doing things off sets the clean up or the planning that goes into it. I am sure as JoAnn gets older that will change, but she is still young and has no idea that Easter is different from any other day. However, I do feel a little guilty every time I read about or see pictures of what others are doing on Easter. I think next year I will put a little more effort into celebrating it. Nevertheless, this year we didn't have Easter baskets, colored eggs, or an egg hunt. I barely even thought about getting JoAnn into an Easter dress. In fact, I didn't think about it until Sunday morning, but I still managed to find a dress she hasn't worn yet that looked sort of spring-ish (even though it is considered summer here right now).

She looks real happy about being in a dress doesn't she. She actually really liked it (especially the shoes she picked out to go with it), she is just upset that she had to stand still for me to get a picture. Anyway, when we got to church I was pretty happy that I didn't go all out on her dress since I think out of everyone at church she was one of two people who had on a skirt/dress. It always amazes me here how Easter seems to not be anywhere close to as big of a deal as Holy Week. I have always found it ironic that nothing is open on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Black Saturday but everything is open on Easter. I am not exagurating either. Daniel and I tried to go out for a little bit on Thursday and it took us 9 malls to finally get to one that had something other than a restaurant here or there that was open. The good thing was that since nothing was open and no one was working there was no traffic. It took us about 20 minutes to go where it usually takes more like an hour to get to. That part is great. Anyway, here are a few more pictures from Easter. Instead of doing anything big we just went out to eat at Outback for lunch after church. It was a fun treat for Daniel and I that we don't do more than a couple times a year.


When I asked Daniel if we could get a family picture since it was Easter this was his first attempt...not quite what I was thinking.

Keeping Busy

I would say we have been busy for the last few days, but truthfully I don't really know with what. That actually seems to happen a lot to me since I have had JoAnn. Well, here are some of the highlights that I do remember...

From last Friday until Wednesday, Daniel is coaching basketball at the Nike Elite Basketball Camp for the 4th year in a row. It is supposed to be for the best players in the country, so it is pretty neat for Daniel to develop relationships with some of the future college/pro stars in the Philippines. It isn't a Christian camp, but the people who organize it are Christians and encourage all of their coaches to share their faith with the players, so I always enjoy hearing how Daniel was able to share with the boys.

As far as JoAnn, she has picked up a new talent lately. She has figured out how to turn on the DVD player and put in her favorite cartoons. The other day we had a babysitter and Daniel said when we got home JoAnn was watching the Backyardigains. The babysitter told Daniel she had no idea how to put in a DVD and JoAnn was the one who turned it on. I actually completely believe her and am not surprised at all since JoAnn has done it many times while I have been busy cooking or something where I wouldn't be able to pay full attention to her. Its actually quite impressive how she picked it up without us ever trying to show her what to do. I guess she just got tired of waiting for us sometimes. This is her trying to turn it on before I saw her since I had told no.

Other than that this week is actually a fairly interesting week in the Philippines. With Easter in one week, this week will be full of the Catholic traditions that so many participate in. Most of the people I have talked to about the traditions don't really know why they are doing them other than it is something they have done since they were kids. This kind of stuff always fascinates me, so I am looking forward to this week. It is a great chance to explain some of the differences we have with the Catholic church.

I love spending time with my family

This past week hasn't been too eventful, which I am actually really thankful for. Last week was spring break for Faith Academy, which means two things. One, I haven't had soccer for 13 days and two, with so many people in our condo building connected to Faith it has been fairly quiet around the condos. That has left Daniel and I plenty of time to hang out with JoAnn and to watch basketball. (Okay, Daniel really is the one watching most of the basketball, but I have been paying attention to the scores since I filled out a couple brackets this year.) It also has left me plenty of time to go to Starbucks. I am not really a big coffee drinker, but I love to go, sit and talk. Plus when my favorite drink only costs about $3 for the largest size, it makes for a pretty cheap time out. I think I ended up going 4 times in 5 days. Anyway, this is my couch potatoe Daniel watching some basketball. Apparently waking up early to watch the NCAA tournament every morning wasn't enough basketball for him this weekend, so he caught quite a few NBA and PBA games on TV too.

This picture is from lunch today. She was eating and all of the sudden looked at me and put her arms in the air like this. I couldn't figure out what she was doing or why until all of the sudden it hit me that I had music playing and the song "Your Love is Strong" came on. I think Daniel must flex when he dances to this song with her. I'm not really sure, but she kept doing it whenever the song said "strong". It was pretty cute.


Okay, this story is a little longer. I just think this is a funny picture to have taken in the Philippines, as if it ever gets cold enough here to wrap up in a blanket. Really, I decided to take my almost two weeks off from soccer and try to potty train Jo. I know it seems really early, but she goes crazy every time I try to change her diaper and I got tired of her screaming no matter what I did. (And tired of paying for the diapers that I was forcing her to wear). So, I let her run around the house without a diaper and encouraged her to use the potty instead. Really, I didn't expect her to catch on too quick since she is still pretty young, but she actually does pretty well now. I definitely would not say that she is potty trained by any means, but she knows what to do. It's more of a question of wether she is willing to do it. Anyway, back to the picture. Since she figured out that she can run around without a diaper if she goes to the potty, she loves to not just go around without a diaper, but without any clothes. I really wouldn't care except our entire back wall in our appartment is made completely of windows and at night anyone can look in and that just sort of seems creepy to me to have anyone be able to see my daughter running around naked. So the other night she absolutely refused to put any clothes on, but would watch her cartoon with the blanket wrapped around her. Go figure.

Dancing Queen

Sometimes it's funny what kids pick up on. When we moved into our apartment it came furnished and the couch that we got with this place was probably the most uncomfortable couch I have ever sat on. So at some point we ended up starting this thing where at night when we wanted to watch TV we would bring a spare mattress in and lay it on the floor. We recently bought a new couch, but have continued to lay on the mattress at night. Probably more out of habit than anything else. Now the first thing JoAnn does when she sees one of us grab the mattress is run to our bedroom and bring a pillow off our bed to the mattress. Then she usually lays down on the pillow before anyone else has a chance to. It is so cute to see her coming around the corner with a pillow that is larger than she is in one hand and her bottle in the other. This picture is from a couple nights ago after she got the pillow for us.


Notice the crutches is the background of the picture? What happened? I tried to run. Evidently that wasn't such a good idea. With soccer season in full swing, I have been trying to get out on the field and do some of the stuff with the girls and it usually takes about one long sprint before I feel like I am about to fall over. So I decided to try to run before practices in order to try to get in better shape. Like maybe I could do two sprints instead of one. Anyway, I got to the end of the first mile I was trying to run and I realized two things. One, my lungs felt really good as if I could run forever. Then the second thing hit me...I could barely move my leg without extreme pain. Somewhere along the way I had pulled a ligament in my hip. So now I have been stuck with those crutches for the last week. The crutches themselves aren't really that bad. A week or two doesn't seem so awful after the 6 weeks I spent on them in college after I broke my leg. It's the part where I can't pick JoAnn up and walk with her that makes things a little difficult. Luckily, I have a great husband that has been so wonderful in helping me do so much. Seriously, sometimes I think he has more patience than any person I have ever met.

On a different note this video is one of my favorite videos of JoAnn. She has been really into dancing lately and has come up with a new move that Daniel has referred to as the "rooster dance." I think it is pretty cute.

Talking up a storm

Lately JoAnn has been talking a ton and picking up new words just about everyday. Since we live so far away from family, every few days I try to go through pictures of everyone and have her point out different people. So far the only ones she has consistently been able to point out every time are my parents and Daniel's parents and recently she has been repeating me when I say "Grandma" and "Grandpa" and "Lola" (tagalog for grandma). I have been meaning to get a video of it for a while now, but soccer started and I have been coaching for the last couple weeks so my to do list is getting a little long. Anyway, I finally got it on video this morning so here it is...




************************************************************************************
In addition here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks...

I am not sure why she did this, but she was playing in her room the other day and came out with this on her head. It is a piece of the giant puzzle floor mat we have in her room.


This is from last week when we went out to eat with Mylene, her daughter Yannah, and her mother Tita. Mylene was one of the first Filipina women I met. She worked for us for a couple years and unfortunately now that she doesn't work for us, I don't see her as much as I would like. So in an attempt to spend some more time together we took them out to eat the other night. We went to a Chinese restaurant and when we asked them if they like Chinese food, they all said they had never tried it before. I don't know why, but that seemed really strange to me. Maybe it is because there are so many "Filipino" foods that I would actually consider Chinese. Anyway, they loved it and we had a good time catching up with them.

Cartoons and Dancing

While we were in the US, Daniel's nieces introduced JoAnn and me to their favorite cartoon..."The Backyardigans." For those of you without children or who have never seen it, it has quickly become one of my all time favorite cartoons. It has five characters that play in their backyards and have all kinds of "adventures" and JoAnn's favorite part is they sing all the time. It is just a really cute cartoon that is well done. So, when we got back to the Philippines and I found out that it isn't on Nick Jr. here (or maybe I just can't figure out when it is on), I went to a store and grabbed a couple VCD's with a few episodes. They have quickly become a favorite in our house. A favorite for JoAnn because she loves all the bright colors and catchy songs they sing. A favorite for Daniel and I because they actually hold her attention for a short while. They have helped me get her to settle down enough to be able to change her diaper (which had been becoming a huge battle lately) and drink her milk in the mornings and at night when before all she wanted to do was play. So, last night I popped a VCD in while I was trying to get her ready for bed since Daniel was at bible study and I got a short video of her dancing to the song. I thought I would share it with you because at one point she did a move that just made me laugh so hard. While we were in the US JoAnn would sit and watch her Aunt Katy do "Turbo Jam" and she must have picked up a few of the moves from it. If you don't know what I am talking about sorry, but it is still a cute video of her dancing.

2nd Anniversary and Swimming

So I can't believe it but today we celebrated the 2nd anniversary at the Arthur Center. Our church finally has an official name and is registered as Christ Believer's Fellowship. To celebrate we had church outside in order to hold the larger crowd and had lunch and games following the service. It was wonderful to see not just some people who had come for the first time but to see how the core people in the church had stepped up to help with crowd control, making food and serving the food. I would be lying if I didn't say it still seemed like a huge chaotic crowd to me, but I am starting to get used to larger crowds being fairly unorganized by now. It seems like anytime we have a large gathering there are always kids and people all over the place and at first you would think no one is listening to the message until you see most of the crowd turning to read whatever passage the pastor is reading. I guess the chaos is just normal to them and not quite distracting like it is to me.

In other news, I have taken JoAnn swimming a few times this past week since the sun was shining and making the temperatures start to rise. I was a little shocked to see that she had gotten so much taller since we left that she could touch in the shallow end of the kiddie pool. Officially she has grown to 34 inches and 21 pounds since we last saw the doctor in November. I guess she is slowing down...growing only 1 inch in 3 months compared to 3 inches in about 4 months. Here is a picture of her standing in the pool. She was a little scared that she was away from the handrail, so she would not let go of my hand, but I promise she is standing all on her own.

I have to say sometimes I feel a little spoiled when I think about the fact that I live in a place where I can any day of the year walk out my back door and have two swimming pools lined with beautiful palm trees and other tropical plants. This isn't the best picture of the trees and plants but I think JoAnn looks so cute in her swimsuit and hat and you can definitely tell the sun is shining.