Bling bling

Oh yes. A new set of bling bling for a little princess.

Anna's been asking me for weeks to get Happy a new set of earrings in time after the second set of shots and right before christening. And today's the big day. After the long search for the right person to do the piercing, who would've thought we'd find that it can be done at the mall... inside the kiosk!



If you know my wife, you know she'll brave pretty much anything... look down while hanging from a gazillion feet above sea level. Honk on a four-way stop. Sprint to tackle me. Do CPR on her dad. Anything. But when it was time to hold Happy for the pierce? Chicken of all sorts came out. Oh and throw in some butterflies in her stomach, too. Seeing her getting pale and begging me to step inside the kiosk to do the job, I was pretty much left with no choice but to be brave myself.



We videotaped everything but we're not supposed to. Here's to hoping they won't find this blog.

Wrap Up

It was same as usual. Crowded, full of excitement, heroes frantically going around hogging all the paparazzi, adults acting like kids. Yeah, these are the happenings every year here at the con.


Me and Anna

There were four of us, me, Anna, mommy and Happy. I had to put a mattress at the back of our minivan since I know for sure that they'd end up spending most of the day in the van instead of a sweaty, head dazing, unfriendly environment (volunteer guards) and really expensive snack kiosk/foodcourt.


One of the reasons why the Con is so crowded

I had to do everything double time since I only have a day to spend. The long lines in most booths were gone. I know I missed most of the good stuff, but there's still plenty of photo ops. And besides, the place is crawling with cosplayers. There's plenty of that to go around.


The Super Friends are here to save the day

Good thing was I'm not into programs. Exhibits were still impressive but trying to take photos of everything is near to impossible. I had blast, but it would have been nice if Happy's big enough to be with me. I'd love to put her in a costume and have her walk around to take photos with a bunch of costumed peeps.


The crowd

There we're rumors of moving the convention to either Vegas or Anaheim in 2012 since SD convention center cannot accommodate the ever growing crowd. We'll find out by the end of the year. This would be a great loss in revenue for the city of San Diego since the geeks generate millions of $$$ in mere 4 days. And bad news for me, since I don't have the extra moolah.


Yotsuba @ The Con

We left early since I already had my fill for the day. And I hate not being with my honey and baby. I'm crossing my fingers that everything would turn out great next year as I try to find a costume for Happy.

The night before the Con

It's Saturday 3:35am. Few more hours and we'll be in toy heaven. Yes, it's that time of the year again, where Anna complains of spending our wedding anniversary in a convention center crowded with a mountainful of "guests" channeling 100% geekiness.



I was working Wednesday and Thursday night and was complaining of back pains. Had I been able to buy that 4-day pass earlier, I wouldn't have had gone to work and through that torture. Until now, there's still that "tolerable" pain, and Anna kept teasing me not to go and rest instead. Is she kidding me? I'm about to get the best pain killer *cough* *cough* "Hasbro-spirin".

Everything is all set up. Just need to take a shower and off we go. Yes, we're leaving really early. Downtown is just 15 minutes away from our house and they don't open till 8:30. "The sacrifices I had to make", that's Anna speaking from her sleep.

A hell of a week

Quick getaway in Disneyland

My dad pays us a visit twice a year. He's always here every thanksgiving and around February. But this time, it was unplanned. He wanted to see Happy so he came in summer.


Breakfast @ Denny's

We tried to convince him to stay for at least 2 weeks, but he insisted that he can only be here for 8 days. Ok eight days, i guess that's enough. We went shopping, spent a day in Downtown Disney, went to Happy's first swimming lessons. We bonded in 8 days.



We had to maximize every single trip and place that we had to go to. My dad hardly rested after he arrived. But we all had fun.


Happy's first day in swimming class


She's getting the hang of it already

And to finish off my dad's stay, we then bought "Pipay" (Happy's ride). We've been planning to buy a new family car for months, but we wanted to wait for my dad to get sound advice on which one to get. We we're out browsing and we did intend to buy an SUV but ended with a minivan which we thought is more practical.


Trying out some bouncers @ Babies R Us

And so we came home with this...


"Hapitot", Happy's new ride

Just perfect for a starting family like ours.

Perya

I grew up in a country with only two seasons-- sunny and rainy...on second note, at the rate mother earth is going, that can now be made to four seasons considering very, very sunny and very very rainy. The sun's behind you for ten months, while December, January and February are the coolest with a temperature dropping to 28oC. Thinking of it just make me sweat all over again. Having said that, moving to San Diego ended up to be quite an adjustment. Now I have real four seasons to contend with. I'm loving the cold days or sometimes windy, where I just want to stay in bed and snuggle with my two girls.



And then comes summer. "Hoorahhhh!!!" (yeah right). I've lived here in SD for almost three years now, but summer still doesn't appeal to me. San Diegans go gaga and the only thing that gets me going would be the bustling activities happening from left to right.



One of these special events would be the annual Del Mar Fair (DMF). I remember as a kid growing, we had the same kind back in PI. I enjoyed going to these and one such memorable place would be is Big Bang in Alabang. That feeling of nostalgia and the fond moments growing up that gave me and my cousins endless joy.



I then felt a bit of sadness because when Happy grows up to that certain age, she won't have that same moments I had. She may have her friends, but family is different. I guess the only solution I can think of right now would be...... more kids? Ok, that's a bit drastic and quite too soon.







The array of food scattered among the fair grounds is huge. From the ordinary kettle popcorn to the not so ordinary fried zuchiwinnie (yes there is such) and the totally outrageous chocolate covered deep fried bacon (WTF right?). It was a feast. We had the cheeseburger and fries, fish and chips, beef tacos, soda's with souvenir cups (that can be refilled for $2.50)and two chocolate dipped frozen banana's with almonds.





It was good, but it also burned a hole in my pocket. And this is not your ordinary pocket hole. We're talking $60++ worth of a hole! And there were several potholes along the way. We did splurge on the food. Forget those games. An average of $5 a game and little stuff animal if you win. Jeez, I may be cheap, but I'd rather buy a decent stuffed animal at Target.



It was a nice get away even for a day. We left at around 10pm, stuffed and happy. I guess you can equate these fairs to day trips for outrageous, out of this world, coronary blocking food adventure.

5th month

We were looking at Happy's pictures that I took a few months back and just realized how time flies. I still remember carrying her with just one hand while she sleeps.



It's just unfair that everything about her goes by really fast. Cant' she just stay like this for a while??