Chasing Dreams

15/52: Real Life Baby Dolls

May 4, 2014July 21, 2020 Rhiza6 Comments

Photographs of my daughters, once a week, every week, this 2014. Week 15. (Are you ready for this? Cuteness overload up ahead. Don’t say you weren’t warned!)

Dawn & Rain: Home from church, all dolled up in their Sunday best.

Dawn: It’s sort of her new thing, wrinkling her nose up to a silly smile like that. I mean, come on, who teaches her these things? Not us! So. Adorable.

Rain: Has always been the twin who loves dolls and stuffed toys. That stuffed bunny she’s holding? That’s our first Christmas gift to them. #brbcrying

At this point, I probably shouldn’t apologize anymore for the redundant shots, as with most of the posts in this project. It’s so hard to pick the best photos, and it’s so hard also to get them to smile at the same time.

Except for this one with their Daddy, which was picture perfect:

My. Heart.

And then we traded places, him holding the camera and me posing with the twins. And bear with me, for looking all too smitten, like a little girl who’s having so much fun with her dolls.

My 7-year old self would be thrilled to know that having baby girls is so much more fun than dressing up dolls. <3

More about Project 52 here. View all posts in this blog series here.

An afternoon at UP Diliman, and thoughts about “being all there”

April 29, 2014July 1, 2017 Rhiza4 Comments

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but I guess I’ve proven enough in my life that the unplanned trips are the ones that actually push through. So my husband and I took an afternoon trip, on a whim, to my alma mater, and it was gooood.

He did a nice job documenting our afternoon in a post on his Facebook wall, and I thought I’d keep a record of our afternoon date in this blog too. Late lunch at Rodics, Mang Larry’s isaw (craving satisfied!), a walk around the acad oval and sunken garden, a quick stop at the university avenue to take pictures of the sunflowers (because they’re so popular lately—this and this), and a final stop at Razons for some halo-halo (his craving satisfied!) before heading home.

It was an added treat that the College of Engineering was having their graduation ceremony while we were there. It reminded me of my own graduation day, and gave D a little glimpse of how a UP graduation looks like. He was thrilled to see Oblation wearing a sablay, and couldn’t get over why it’s called “sablay” when it symbolizes success, quite the opposite of what the word means in Tagalog. (I couldn’t give an answer.)

It’s not the first time I took him there, but something about this particular afternoon that was a little extra special. Maybe because I left a pile of work at home and it felt so liberating to ditch a few tasks and do something on a whim. Or maybe because I’m a little bit older now, and having my husband with me in places like this makes me look back on years past, and how far God has brought me, us.

Being in UP Diliman always brings me this feeling of nostalgia, good memories, and maybe a little tinge of regret. I wish I made the most of that place. I wish I studied better, appreciated being there more. All those days I spent in the UP campus, dragging my feet to my next class, wishing I was somewhere else, and sometimes, wanting to get college over and done with already. If only I knew that college was going to be so quick, I would have slowed down a little and made the most out of my time there.

Not that I didn’t enjoy my college life, I did. I just sometimes wish I practiced a little “being all there” more. There goes my lesson for the day.

The babies were just waking up from their afternoon nap when we got home, it didn’t feel like we were away at all. Recharged, I went back to my desk, checked my email inbox and went over my never-ending list of tasks to see what else I can tick off for the day.

I’m glad we went to UP. I needed a breather, and to be reminded of things that matter. Besides, it was about time I satisfied my isaw craving.

14/52: Just Another One of Those Days

April 27, 2014July 21, 2020 Rhiza1 Comment

Photographs of my daughters, once a week, every week, this 2014. Week 14.

Just another one of those afternoons where the girls are out to play with their Daddy.

..while I capture as many photographs as I can, laughing with them, smiling from the other side of the camera, and trying to keep my heart from bursting.

Hayyy. These girls. See those funny-slash-poker faces Dawn makes? (She does that a lot!) And how Rain smiles at her Daddy? (She adores him! And vice versa.)

Oh. my. heart.

I have no further words.

Xoxo,
This lovestruck Mommy

More about Project 52 here. View all posts in this blog series here.

13/52: Flower Girls

April 19, 2014July 21, 2020 Rhiza1 Comment

Photographs of my daughters, once a week, every week, this 2014. Week 13.

Rain: Loved walking back and forth the aisle before the ceremony started.
Dawn: Loved twirling in her pretty flower girl dress. Ahh, so adorable!
Dawn & Rain: Ended up not wanting to walk down the aisle on their own, we had to walk down with them. Parents have to experience escorting their babies down the aisle at some point, right?

It was their first time to be flower girls, and in typical stage mother fashion, I.. was more excited than they were. In fact, I think I was more excited about the twins being flower girls than the bride and groom themselves.

That said, you can never take enough photographs of your daughters’ first flower girl gig. Bunch of first timers here. ;) Here’s more from my Instagram:

I don’t think I ever stopped swooning the whole night, glancing at my husband through lit candles, watching the girls twirl and marvel at the world around them, and feeling the love that filled the place.

Times like this you realize that there’s so much to be grateful for, not just on special days like this one, but even in ordinary days when you’re given the opportunity to breathe, to live, to love. Hope you spent the Holy Week thanking the Lord for every good and perfect gift too, as we did. :)

More about Project 52 here. View all posts in this blog series here.

12/52: First Time to Swim

April 18, 2014December 23, 2021 RhizaLeave a comment

Photographs of my daughters, once a week, every week, this 2014. Week 12.

12/52: We managed to get Dawn inside her floater, but Rain wouldn’t take her arms (and legs!) off her Daddy. Haha. We should try again next time.

It was their first time to swim, and they didn’t like it. We think it must be because they’ve gotten so used to taking a bath in warm water or hot shower, that it caught them off guard when we dipped them in a pool that had colder temperature. Which explains their unhappy faces.

Needless to say, there weren’t a lot of photographs taken because we took them out of the pool after about 15 minutes of cryfest. Still adorable, these two. And they sure loved wearing their swim suits!

Their Daddy currently has the top picture as his FB cover photo, and he captioned it with this:

17th month: First time swimming in an actual pool. Took the whole gang, your ninongs and ninangs, to calm you down because you’re not used to bathing in cold water. It was a funny and touching scene. This is just the first. I’m thinking that next time, we’ll be the ones who will have a hard time pulling you out of the water.

On a sidenote, D changes his cover photo on the 24th of each month. He captions each photograph with his love letter for the twins, and I love just how consistent he’s been doing this for the past 17 months! I should compile his love letters no? I think I will. So proud of this guy, for the man that he is, and now, for the Daddy that he’s become. <3

(Photo credit: Last 3 photos grabbed from one of their Ninong’s FB page.)

More about Project 52 here. View all posts in this blog series here.

11/52: Full Circle

April 11, 2014July 21, 2020 RhizaLeave a comment

Photographs of our daughters, once a week, every week, in 2014. Week 11.

11/52: The four of us, back in the place where this whole journey began.

One Saturday afternoon in March, my husband and I took the twins with us to a wedding at Fernbrook Gardens in Alabang. The wedding was beautiful, and my husband was reunited with some of his friends from New York who were here for the wedding too. What can I say, it’s always good to reunite with old friends and to revisit old places.

Meanwhile, the girls totally loved running around the place! There was so much space for them to explore, new things to see. And in typical mommy-and-daddy-of-twins fashion, we followed them around (often in opposite directions), pulled them here, carried them there, wiped their dirty hands and knees while the ceremony was happening. Anything, as long as you’re happy, darlings.

A nice cool breeze accompanied the golden hour; making it the perfect time to take photographs and to just.. bask in the love and the memories of that place. I longed to tell Dawn & Rain stories of that day, except of course they wouldn’t understand or remember a thing. At least not yet.

It was the same venue of our wedding, almost 3 years ago, and for the first time since then, we’re back.

We’ve come full circle. Wow.

How do you handle days like this? It’s one of those days you wish you could just step back and watch your life from afar, rewind and replay over and over again. I was just getting married here! How did it all go so fast?

Fernbrook Gardens to me will always be a place where dreams happen. Once we were just standing there, committing our lives to each other before God and our loved ones. And suddenly we’re back with these two little girls who happen to be the greatest validation of the decision we made 3 years ago. What a milestone! I’m glad I took lots of photographs. This one’s definitely for keeps.

More about Project 52 here. View all posts in this blog series here.