I'm a SlimPerfect BlogHer Model!

Gawwwwd.. That's just not right. We can't allow her to go prancing around on Thursday night with thaaat on display. They might close BlogHer down for inappropriate display or something. Poor girl. She'll be known as the One Who Shut Down BlogHer. *Shudder*... yah, we'd better give her the dress.



That's probably what Carole, Debba and Casey were thinking when they saw my video entry to the Little Black Dress BlogHer Model search. Or maybe it was the gazillion and one Tweets I pestered them with, begging them to choose me. Or maybe it was my solemn promise to ROCK THAT DRESS and be a totally badass bongga mutha while partying in it.

Whatever the case, they did choose me to be one of their 4 Slimperfect BlogHer models, and now I'm so excited I could burst. But of course I won't burst, because I'll be wearing the Slimperfect Little Black Dress, which is going to hold all of me in. I'm so honored to be in the company of some awesome women: Lisa, Krystle, Courtney, and Jerri-Ann, who's so beloved in the blogosphere that she won a category all her own, People's Choice. Seriously, these women are so inspiring with their weight loss efforts and achievements, they make me feel as small as the Peanut Butter Cookie Bombs I recently stuffed into my mouth. I look forward to meeting you all at BlogHer and partying in our Little Black Dresses!

The joys of reading on your own

The boys are really making great strides towards reading on their own, thanks to Alfie's dedicated bedtime BOB-book reading and their love for Bakugan (all the more to bribe them with). They're not quite at the stage where they can read whole books on their own (except the very simple BOB books), but they can certainly read their Leapfrog Tag storybooks:



But what's really important is that they're realizing that if they can read by themselves, they don't need to wait for mama or daddy to read to them. No more having to agree on a single book with two other kids. And no more having to wait patiently beside the computer desk as mama feverishly types and mutters, "Yes, honey, I'm juuuust finishing up this blog post, then we'll go and read...." -- for ten minutes.

Garbage

My dad still has memories of being able to swim (swim!!) in Manila's Pasig river. But even when I was growing up in the 70's, it was already so polluted that I wouldn't even want to ride a boat on that river. Sadly, things haven't changed: many residents still throw their garbage into the canals and rivers, resulting in dirty, polluted water. This is such a normal scene in Manila that I wouldn't normally take a photo of it, but Alfie was so apalled that he had to take this photo. Maybe we should all be as apalled as Alfie; then maybe we'd be more proactive in getting people to stop.

By the way, that red wall you see on one side of the river? There's a restaurant on the other side of it.

For more garbage, click here.

Me Love Cooooookie!

I can't think of a name more perfect for these babies than Peanut Butter Cookie Bombs. They are explosive, deadly to your waistline and any diet you happen to be on. The recipe is in Gina Von Esmarch's cookbook, Taste This!, which I reviewed a while ago, but keep coming back to because the recipes are so great.

Gina is like this evil culinary genius -- how else can you explain how she got the idea of planting a Reese's peanut butter cup in the middle of a peanut butter cookie? And the recipe is waaaay too easy. If it had 50 ingredients and required sifting, food processing and all the nitpicky preparation I hate, I could at least say, Nah, it's too difficult to make. Really, there's nothing standing in the way of me and these cookies except my willpower. Much to Alfie's dismay, this is one love affair I can't seem to end.

Find more things people love at this week's Love Thursday post.

The evolution of a BlogHer card

One thing that veteran BlogHers like to tell BlogHer newbies is, Pass Out Business Cards. So when I attended my first BlogHer last year, I followed their advice.. This is what they looked like:

Cute, huh? See the beautiful black-and-white photos of my gorgeous kids, artistically laid out on the chic, lime-and-brown background? Unfortunately, once I received it, I realized it's the sort of card you'd hand out to your mommy friends, not to fellow bloggers. This is a card that says "If you want to schedule a playdate with child A, B or C, then contact me at the email address below" rather than "Remember me? Come visit my blog!". Not surprising, considering I had it made at http://www.themommycard.com/.

So even before BlogHer '08 began, I realized I needed to ditch the kids' photos and add the other sites that I blog for. But there wasn't time to order more online. Unfortunately, instead of doing a rush order at Kinko's, I cheaped out and modified some generic name cards that I already had:



I know, I know, it's awful. Not only do the colors CLASH, I didn't even put the sticker on straight. At least the first one had cute photos to look at. In retrospect, this was just a waste of time. I can imagine what the people at BlogHer '08 thought when I handed it to them: Gawd. How lame. Twenty bazillion bloggers are handing me their cards and she expects me to keep that? Visit her blog? Hah. I shall surreptitiously drop this card into the trash once she turns around. Actually, I won't even bother with the surreptitious part.

Fellow BlogHers, I humbly apologize for insulting your visual senses and for using up precious resources and adding to the landfills with that card.

This year, I took the whole name card thing much more seriously. I don't have money to splurge on a graphic designer, but I wanted a card that said something about me, a card that gave people a way to connect the card to the person who handed them the card. I won a gift certificate to http://www.photoworks.com/ from my blogging friend Kim in February, and it took me all the way until June to think of a design I liked. (I probably would have spent a couple more months agonizing about it if the certificate hadn't been set to expire in June). And here's the result:

The other side of the card has my photo on it and a list of the five sites I blog at. Much better, I think (I hope). It gives something unique for people to associate with me, gives a little taste of what my writing style is like, and gives a way for people to connect with me online. I don't think I'll be cringing with shame when I pass these out at BlogHer '09.

Independence Day

First of all, my apologies for putting this post up a day late. You know how it is with all the 4th of July celebrations; by the end of the fireworks display, it's so late that all you want to do is get everyone, including yourself, to bed. Yup, we did all the typical Independence Day activities: the barbecue, the flag decorations, the red-white-and-blue outfits, the fireworks.


But early in the morning we got to have a small, special celebration of our own, one that I thought exemplified the spirit of the holiday more than any other thing we did that day. On the 4th of July we let loose the painted lady butterflies that we had been raising from caterpillars.

At first, the kids were quite resistant to the idea; after all, they had only emerged from their chrysallids a couple of days earlier, and they wanted to keep them a bit longer. The kids had named all five of them (Flo, Jo, Mo, Ho and Po) and had gotten quite attached to them, so there were lots of tears and protests involved ("But they like being with us!" "Who's going to take care of them?").

But Alfie pointed out (and this is why I love the man) that painted lady butterflies can travel thousands of miles in their 2-week lifespan -- and they had already been in our butterfly habitat for several days, so they had a lot of catching up to do. We asked the kids, how would you feel if we kept you in your room forever and all you wanted to do was run around the grass and play?

More crying ensued, but with the tears came understanding: if we love them, we have to let them go. So on July 4th, we gave these amazing creatures back their independence.


Two of the butterflies left as soon as we unzipped the door. Three stayed a bit longer. They were still there about fifteen minutes later, when we left for all the 4th of July celebrations. By the time we returned home after the fireworks, the habitat was empty. But this morning, we discovered that one of the butterflies had returned to the habitat! Now the kids think that the butterflies like to go off during the day to play and find food, then return to the habitat at night. Whether that's true or not, now we're all happy that the butterflies are free at last.

A Boy and His Tati -- an Update

For this week's Photo Hunt -- pink -- I couldn't resist recycling a photo I featured a couple of years ago, which accompanied an essay about a 3-year old boy and his blankie (named "Tati"). In it, I made a prediction:

Someday, the boy will enter kindergarten, and on his first day, Tati will be with him. As he enters the door to his classroom, he will see his mama behind him, with her lower lip quivering and tears in her eyes. He will run back to her, give her a hug and hand her the Tati, saying, "Here mama, you need Tati more than I do."

And now that the boy is about to enter kindergarten, what of Tati? Well, two years later Tati is a bit shabbier and more threadbare. But it's still pink. And still loved. Tati no longer follows the boy everywhere, but he still keeps Tati on his bed. For when the boy needs it. Like when he got stung by bees, or ran a fever, or split his forehead open.

It doesn't look like the boy is going to need Tati with him on his first day of school. He's going to climb mountains and run races and build bridges all by himself. But when the day is done, he'll crawl into bed and have his Tati beside him, the last thing he cuddles before he falls asleep and the first thing he reaches for when he wakes up. Still giving him courage, reassurance, love and strength.

For more pink things, click here.

Of Fish and Faces

Over the weekend, we were reviewing the Rules of Go Fish! before starting to play a hand:

Pea: So first, you ask everyone if they have the card that you want, like you say, Does anyone have a 5, and if they have it, they have to give it to you.

Me: And if no-one has the card you asked for, you have to Go Fish, right?

Jammy: And you say, Go Fish!

Pea: That's right. And then you have to pick a card from the pile in the middle. And what is it you have to say once you have four cards of the same kind and lay them down in front of you?

3Po: You say, In Your Face, Baby!

Wassup for Fall -- A Disney Electronics Sneak Peek

As a blogger, I've been invited by various PR firms to various events, and to tell you the truth, it would be difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes one event memorable and another event forgettable. Sometimes it's the chance to meet some heroes, both real and fantasy. Sometimes it's the awesome food. Or Swag-to-Die-For. And sometimes, all it takes is the chance to say I Saw It First.

Last week I was invited by Disney Consumer Products to get a sneak peek at their lineup of kid tech products coming out in the fall. I joined fellow SV Moms Linsey, Jessica and Nicole for our own private product demo by Thom Richmond, Disney's Director of Consumer Products.

All the toys and gadgets Thom showed us would easily make it on any kid's 2009 holiday wish list, like Mix Lights MP3 player that lights up to the beat of the music, or the Disney Pix Twist, a kid-friendly digital camera with a viewfinder that they can twist around to take pictures of themselves. And it's quite possible that the Ultimate Buzz Lightyear Robot -- with programmable actions, voice recognition, interactive game play, and the coolest animatronic moving mouth ever -- might be the Tickle Me Elmo of 2009.


But the crown jewel of Thom's demo was the Disney Netpal, a full-functioning, Windows-based netbook made exclusively for Disney and marketed to 6-12 year olds. Disney's Consumer Products has really leveraged Disney's knowledge of what kids enjoy, and added in some cool parental controls to make it fun, safe, and easy to use. In fact, the Netpal is loaded with so many features that it deserves a post of its own (so watch out for a separate review sometime this summer on Bonggamom Finds).

The event was simple and low key, but it was so exciting to be shown products that aren't even on the shelves yet. Even occasional glitches during the product demo didn't detract from my positive impression of the products because they just added to the sense that we were true Disney Insiders ("Sorry, that doesn't work quite well yet, it's still in beta but we'll fix that for the final version"). Yes, probably with the other bajillion or so reporters they've given sneak peeks to at trade shows and other demos like this one, but it was a nice feeling anyway. And it sure doesn't hurt with the "Moms Know Everything" mystique -- because now I know what my kids are going to whine for even before they do.

Temptation

It all happened because I wanted.

For months we had flirted. At first was lighthearted, fun, mischievous. We were both in other relationships anyway. Along the way we became friends, and I discovered the perfect companion, debating partner, kindred soul. And I discovered he was single. But he was all wrong for me. And I had a boyfriend.

One night I finally agreed to have dinner with him. No big deal, we're just getting something to eat after work. It's just a dinner between two work colleagues, I told myself. Then he reached over the Chicken Masala and held my hand. Electric sparks shot through me. I didn't admit it to myself, but deep down inside, I wanted. We paid our separate checks and went our separate ways.

I was lonely and I wanted.

No, that's not true. I wasn't lonely. But still I wanted.

Another night we stayed in the office, working late. We ended up talking about this and that until everyone else had gone. It was just him, me and the janitor. Over the hum of the vacuum cleaner, he said, I'd really like to kiss you right now. This time, I admitted it. I wanted. I told him, so would I. But we didn't.

It was obscene, that wanting.

Then we walked out into the parking lot. We went to our separate cars. We looked at each other from across the parking lot. And he walked back to me. I just stood and stared. Again, the electricity. It was as though we were already kissing.

Until we actually did start kissing -- and then the sparks really flew. It was one of the best kisses of my life. I broke up with my boyfriend the next day, and the rest is history.


Italicized text was taken from Anita Shreve's novel, Testimony -- which chronicles one character's moment of temptation, one with much more tragic results than my own. Click here to see what other members of the Silicon Valley Moms Book Club have been inspired to write after reading the novel.