Monday, May 29, 2006


My First Blogger “EB”

I had the pleasure of meeting TinTin (aka Pinayhekmi) this Memorial Day Weekend! It was also Fleet Week here in NYC so it was a great time for her to visit. It was so much fun meeting her and walking around NYC –albeit for a short period of time (I did have rockstar baby in tow and I had to go back home for a BBQ). I met her this past Sunday, along with my friend Girlie, and we had lunch at Cuba, a Cuban restaurant in the heart of the West Village. Poor TinTin got a little lost finding the restaurant, and I felt bad making her walk around and around in circles in 82-degree weather! Eventually, Girlie went to find her and she made it to the restaurant where we ate, chatted, took pictures, ate and chatted some more.

This is my first “EB” (and I didn’t even know EB meant “eyeball” until I asked Toni sometime last year) and it was a fun one at that! After lunch, we walked around the Village to take her to Magnolia Bakery –a small bakeshop popular for its amazingly sweet cupcakes (and made extra-popular by the show Sex and the City). When we got there, there was a massive line and we didn’t have the heart to stand there and wait. So we took pictures instead! We really did want Tin to have a Magnolia Cupcake though, so maybe next time? Then we back-tracked to get to Café Reggio’s (an old haunt of ours). Along the way, we even saw a Filipino Santa Cruzan parade complete with a Reyna Elena! Heck, who knew? In my 10 years of living here, I didn’t even know about this parade! At Café Reggio’s, we met up with Woody (Tin’s hubby) and their friend Scott. Unfortunately, I had to leave early but would’ve loved to spend more time with them.

Meeting and chatting with Tin was like hanging out with a friend I've known for a long time (and it helps that I know so much about her via her blog). She’s such a gorgeous, sweet, and friendly person (and I am a little shy so it was great that she was so open and warm). Do come back next time Tin! We’ll take you to more places to eat and go out dancing!

Tin, Girlie, and Me @ Cuba Restaurant
(again, pardon my goofy smile)
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At Magnolia Bakery - Check out the line in the back!
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POSTED BY KAT AT 5/29/2006 04:52:00 PM | 0 COMMENTS



Tuesday, May 23, 2006


Motherhood and Other Musings Part 3

Rockstar baby is now 3 months old. He’s grown so much in such a short period of time. When we brought him from the hospital, he was like this tiny, tiny, little kitten. Now, he’s a rolly-polly guy who coos, chuckles, and makes a hundred facial expressions! Many friends ask me how motherhood is. It's a great experience so far. The first 6-8 weeks are probably the hardest, especially if you are nursing. There were a couple of weeks when baby was nursing for hours at a time! There was a period of time too when baby woke up every hour during the night!

Now, we have a routine going since we’ve gotten to know each other very well. I even know when to expect his morning poo and afternoon poo! Plus, baby is sleeping for up to 5 hours at a time at night --waking only once during the night, and once in the early morning for a feeding. But of course, the minute you think you know what you’re doing, that’s when other things pop up!

Lately, baby has been on a bottle strike. I’ve been nursing him about 90% of the time but will feed him a bottle if we’re out and about. But for the past week now, he’s refusing to feed from a bottle whether it’s formula or breastmilk. This is a big change. Before, you feed him anything and he’ll eat it. Now, when the hubs and I try to feed him from a bottle, he’ll scream bloody murder and cry and cry and cry. It’s so funny, the minute he sees the bottle in our hands, he will start squirming around, fidgeting, and making sound of protest. The other day, he even knocked the bottle from my hand! The poor hubs is bearing the brunt of this bottle-strike since he has to take care of the baby when I go out at night to practice. I’m also playing 2 shows this week, so I’ll be out at least 3 times this week. The hubs is even hesitant to celebrate our anniversary next week. Hopefully, baby will stop being such a rockstar and drink his bottle by next Thursday!

Other than the bottle issue though, taking care of rockstar baby is the best. I love playing with him and reading him stories, and I love it when he babbles back! He also enjoys taking baths, getting his hair blow-dried (since he has a lot of it, the hubs and I blow-dry it a bit for a couple of minutes), playing in his bouncer and swing, and loves eating his hand. I am already dreading putting him into daycare come September!

Other News: I'm back to playing with my band Plastiq Passion, and we're playing 2 shows this week! I haven't even practiced that much since I don't have the time during the day or night, so I hope I don't mess up! The first time I practiced, I couldn't remember my parts --and this was for a song that I wrote! Wish me luck!
POSTED BY KAT AT 5/23/2006 11:13:00 AM | 0 COMMENTS



Monday, May 15, 2006


Mother’s Day and Other Reunions

Belated Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I didn’t get a chance to greet a lot of women since I had a very busy weekend. This past Saturday, we had a mini-reunion with some of my titas and cousins I haven’t seen in a long time. My tita and cousins from Kentucky were in town for a wedding and we gathered for an early brunch in Chinatown. My other tita from NJ was also there, along with my cousin Mao who just arrived from the Philippines. It's always a fun and boisterous event whenever my mom and her sisters get together. We cousins always get a kick poking fun at our titas because they are such crazy characters! Wish all our other cousins could've been there!


Cousins Unite!
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Girl Cousins Unite!
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Then on Sunday, we hosted a small party at our house for my very first Mother’s Day. We invited both families over and spent the whole day eating, chatting, playing Texas Hold ‘Em, and watching basketball. We gave our moms photo albums of rockstar baby’s first three months and they loved it.


Me and My Momma
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Me, the Hubs, and Rockstar Baby
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Rockstar baby gave me a sweet card that read:

Dear Mommy,
Thank you for being patient with me,
taking care of me, teaching me, and cleaning me up after I poo.
I'm very lucky to have you as my mom.
Happy Mommy's Day!
Your favorite son, Jakey

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The hubs gave me a great gift: JBL speakers for my iPod! And a whole slew of thoughtful friends sent texts wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day. Thanks to my friends: Alina, Trish, Girlie, Jill, Sol, Jesica, Priya, Gail, and Dearly for the greetings! Thanks to Christina for sending me a card, Renee for a fabulous e-card, and Jaz, Analyse, Bugsy, and Evi for their greetings! (Thank you and sorry if I missed anyone!)
POSTED BY KAT AT 5/15/2006 01:10:00 PM | 0 COMMENTS



Wednesday, May 10, 2006


Mom, I’m Sorry: True Stories from My Wonder Years

Growing up the eldest of three kids, I certainly bore the brunt of my parents’ strictness. First of all, I am female. Secondly, we moved to the U.S. during my adolescent years, so my parents were doubly strict: because a) I’m a girl and b) I’m a girl growing up in this whole new environment. I matured with a quickness since I had to help out with our new life here. This meant that I couldn’t go get pizza with my friends after school, but I could take public transportation by myself to pick up my little brother from the babysitter. This meant that I could not go the mall with my friends without one of my parents with me, but I could go the laundromat by myself and do the laundry for the family. So of course, growing up, I had to rebel in my own “still-obedient-to-my-parents-way” with a side of up yours!

  • When I was 12, I *trimmed* my little brother Eric’s eyelashes. He was 4 years old at the time. It was in part because I was sick of having to take care of him all the time, and partly because I was jealous that his eyelashes were way prettier than mine (and they still are, dammit!). They are thicker and curlier than ever. Serves me right.
  • When I was 13 and in the 7th grade, I ditched school for a day through an elaborate plan of mine, just so I could spend the day with this guy who was not quite my boyfriend, but someone who I really liked at the time (but of course, turned out to be a loser). Yes, I got caught after the fact and my mom did not speak to me for several months. She didn’t even let me go to school for a week. (Later that year, I finally did meet a boy worthy of becoming my boyfriend.)
  • When I was 15, I started my “Goth” phase and wore black all the time and listened mostly to “Gothic” music. (Aside: “Gothic” is in parentheses because the music I listened to shouldn’t really be confined to that one genre!) I dyed my hair every color of the rainbow and constantly got detention at my private school for breaking the dress code. I was sullen, mostly “depressed” because I couldn’t spend time with the boyfriend (or other friends for that matter), and loathed my parents for their strictness. Oddly enough though, my parents did like this boy and knew how much he meant to me (even though they were in denial about the relationship). A couple of years ago, my mom even asked how he was.
  • When I was 16, I pretended that I had school (even though we were off for a special teacher’s meeting day) and instead, spend the whole day with the boyfriend roaming the streets of Los Angeles. What a great day that was.
  • When I was 19 and in college, I started to “experiment.” I started to smoke cigarettes, drink a lot, and experiment with let’s say… some “organic” products. Funny enough, I was quite a late bloomer in comparison to my peers. Heck, I got buzzed off one Midori sour the first night I tried my hand at social drinking! Two years later, my mom found out about the cigarette-smoking when she caught me smoking a butt out in our backyard. So much for the breathmints and air freshener technique! But then she couldn’t get that mad since she was a smoker herself for several years before quitting, and I only smoked for a couple of years and quit.
  • When I was 20, I went away for a holiday with my then-boyfriend (let’s call him ‘The Loser’) and told my mom I went with some girlfriends instead.
  • When I was 22, I went away for a holiday with my then-husband-to-be and told my mom I went with a group of girlfriends.

As you can see, most of my shenanigans involved boys (but just to clarify, I only had 3 boyfriends in my life (the third is now my hubs). My mom doesn’t see “dating” as a proper thing for people to do (but if it involves people other than her own children, she’s so quick to be a matchmaker).

Of course in retrospect, I know it was wrong to lie to my parents. Now, my mom and I are close in our own way. It took us a while to get to where we are now, but at this point, yes I can finally turn to her and confide things regarding love and relationships. It started when I realized she needed to know how I felt about my then hubs-to-be. Now, we’re a little more open with each other. Growing up though, it was very hard.

I can only hope that I can be a kind of mother than my children can confide things to –even when it’s a touchy subject. My mom and dad did an excellent job in raising me. I know I am morally responsible because of them, and I can only hope to instill good morals in my children as they have done. I know they were strict because they wanted to protect me and I understand that. To a certain extent though, kids will one way or another get into a little bit of 'trouble' --it's a part of growing up and that is something all parents will experience.

Sorry for all the shenanigans mom! I swear, I won’t do it again!

POSTED BY KAT AT 5/10/2006 06:58:00 PM | 0 COMMENTS



Tuesday, May 2, 2006


My Fridge

This pic is for Toni. She took a photo of her own fridge and invited others to do the same --thus starting the Ref Door Project! My fridge door, unfortunately, isn't as organized as hers, but it will be once I do a thorough cleaning on the kitchen (whenever that is! =).

My fridge has magnets that I acquired as souvenirs during my travels. There's not a lot since I only recently started collecting the magnets. Prior to that, I collected shot glasses from my trips (and I have more than 50 of those before I realized I didn't have that much space for them!) My fridge magnets hold up pictures and cards from our friends and family (as well as assorted coupons, receipts, etc). I also have random magnets from businesses, and a "vaci-wheel" that helps us remember when rockstar baby should get his vaccinations. I actually have more magnets somewhere, but can you believe I still haven't unearthed them from when we moved to our house in August 2003?!



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POSTED BY KAT AT 5/02/2006 09:22:00 AM | 0 COMMENTS






who is kat?

a wanna-be rockstar with mediocre guitar skills | mom to rockstar baby | guitarist in a band | 30 but not grown-up | this is all about my musings. music. motherhood. and mayhem.

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