Week 32

 

We are in full nesting mode here at home trying to prepare for your arrival.  Your clothes are washed and neatly stacked in the dresser.  Your crib is covered in the perfect chevron sheet that Mama carefully chosen.  There is a perfect vintage airplane mobile hanging above your crib for your stimulation.  We have loosely chosen an airplane theme for your room, which ties well into the shared home office that hold Daddy's most prized military possession.  I think you will really like it.

One of the biggest change we are making in anticipation of your arrival is sleep training your sister to sleep on her own in her own room.  To date, she has had our company in her bed every night but knowing how demanding a new born sleep schedule will be forces us to do one of the hardest thing we had ever had to do as a parents.  We are also at the end of the dreadful potty training process, which doesn't prove to be that dreadful at all.  So soon enough, we will have one kid out of diaper just to start all over again at newborn size. 

Some quick stats on Mama's pregnancy at 32 weeks:
-Weight gain: 14 pounds
-Weight to date: 145 pounds
-Waist size: 39.5 inches
-Cravings: watermelon and nectarines
-Most discomfort: extreme pain in the hip and groin when I am at rest, particularly when I sleep.  It is a condition known as symphysis pubis dysfunction, which will hopefully go away after birth.  But for now, it is here to stay, and make for one very uncomfortable Mama.

Week 98: A car is a depreciating asset.

It should not be used as an investment vehicle (no pun intended), and especially be wise in what you invest into it.

Week 97: Buy a refrigerator with the capability to make crushed ice.

Because everything taste better with crushed ice, especially ice tea.

black out curtains

We are preparing for our little guy's arrival, in 8 short weeks (hopefully just a tad shorter).  So, in the process of turning one room upside down to make room for him, it causes a shift in another.  So, while we are mostly concentrating on our boy's room, our girl's room is also changing.  I shall show the whole room soon, but for now, I want to show the newest and baddest addition into the room, the blackout curtains.

I want to preface it by noting that my mother is a talented seamstress, who can pretty much sew anything so long as I describe my desires.  So, the curtains in our house are either Ikea curtains that I got for cheap (I'm talking $9.99 for two panels modified to fit the room), or are sewn by my mother.  Throughout the years, I have changed curtains multiple times, taking them out of one room and into another.  However, this was our (and I mostly mean my mother, I just purchase the fabric of choice) first experiment with blackout curtains.  The idea stemmed from the fact that my girl has a harder time sleeping in during these long summer days when the morning lights begin to stream into her room at 5am.  So in order to help extend her sleep a little longer, I contemplated blackout curtains and so began the process of finding the right ones for the right price.  The search was all for naught, except for the fact that it led me to Pottery Barn Kids, where I fell in loved the lined black out curtains that was unfortunately more than $100 over my budget.  So, the idea came to me to put my mother's talent to good use, begun searching for the right fabric along with the decent blackout fabric to line it with.  So, for less than $15 (thanks to a $50 credit at fabric.com I got from historical wronged shipments), I got beautifully lined, thick, heavy and quality blackout shades for my girl's room that also fit perfectly with my taste.

As for how she sew it, she just took one of my Ikea panels and replicated and the seams along with the hanging hooks in the back, but instead of just the curtains, she sew it with the lined blackout fabric.  I'm sure I'm making it sound much more simple than it is, but the result is stunning and perfect, and I couldn't ask for better outcome. 

 

 Still in love with those handmade paper hot air balloons after all this time.  One of my best creations yet.

We have lived with it for about a week now, and I have to admit it makes a world of difference.  Even in the midst of day, there is not a light in sight with these bad boys drawn.  Another unintended consequence is that it also helps keep the room cool during these hot summer days.  Now I am seriously contemplating blackout curtains for all bedrooms.

Week 96: Every single night that passes is the last night your little child will be that small.

I don't think I have ever appreciate the concept of time, and how quickly it passes, until I became a mother.  Every single night when I kiss you goodnight, I appreciate the last smallness and innocence of you for when tomorrow comes, it will all have passed.  In that realization alone, I have learn to truly appreciate you.   

the spirit of my girl

There are moments in motherhood where I am stopped at my track, where an image frozen in time sears into my memory, and all I could do is to stoop down to my little toddler's level and hugged her until she wiggles free from my tight embrace.  I am surprised by how often this happens, and more so surprised at how I am haunted by these memories days and weeks and months down the road, whenever I try to remember back to the child I created and how far and fast she's grown. 

Last night, I was having a very hard time with my toddler who is overactive and can no longer be entertained with Dora, and a husband who is missing when I needed him most because it was his usual night to be at the gym.  So, I did the fool-proof thing that always guarantees me a few minutes to myself, I open the back door and let her loose.  My girl is one who loves to be outdoor, to get down to the bugs levels and have a good time all by herself.  I sat there a few feet away observing her observing the world around her, all contained in our little outdoor space of no more than 150 square feet.

Having a moment to myself really shifted my perspective back to where it should be.  So, when the moments I captured with my iPhone no longer suffice, I ran into the house to get my good camera because I didn't want to miss any of it.  The moment she saw me with my camera in hand is the moment when she did something that totally stopped me at my track.  Similar to just seconds prior when I told her I would be right back, she repeated the same sentence to me.  When after two minutes of her not returning, I went into the house to check on her fully expecting that she was distracted by a "Go, Diego Go!" scene playing on TV, instead I found her near the Expedit cubes going through all the buckets that contain her toys.  When she saw me, she looked up with a confused and kind of worried look on her face and whispered, "where's camera like Mama?"  I'd about fallen over and died right there on floor.  I didn't know what came over me, but I felt this need to hug her, and I did.  Then I found her camera for her and we went back outside to play.  But the image of that scene is forever seared into my mind.  I don't know if it is the way she said "like Mama" or the fact that she was trying to find a toy to be like Mama, but these moments, these memories had stacked up in my brain these past two years that became the building block of who my girl is exactly to me: curious, independent, observant, and everything in between.  I am grateful for all that she is, rambunctiousness and overactive at times and all.

 

Yes, that is a booger on my kid's nose.  

 

And her dad came home just as the last of the good lights is left, and we greeted him in the front yard, where he was able to grab the camera out of my hands as my girl tried to take my weekly maternity pictures. 

Week 31

 

It certainly feels like you wanted out of there little kiddo; you are kicking and squirming hard!  These last few weeks will be quite hard on Mama, both physically and mentally, as we make our way to the home stretch.  Every single day gets us closer to 37 weeks, which is the day you are considered full term, and definitely something I have my eyes on.  The thing about pregnancy is that, while miraculous, it is also extremely chancy and could very easily go wrong (maybe that's why it is so miraculous). Every additional day you have in the womb ensures greater chance of survivor for you, so I'm doing everything I can to keep you safe until 37 weeks arrives.  After that, feel free to make your appearance any time.

Week 30

 

The discomfort had finally arrived in all of its glory and your poor father has to put up with my constant complaints, nagging and orders because I simply cannot get off the couch to grab the toy for your sister 3 feet away.  I can no longer wear jeans (even maternity ones) because the constriction does not make you happy and you make sure Mama knows you are not happy.  I can no longer eat a full meal and feel well afterwards, so I'm forced to eat small snacks throughout the day.  It's a good thing all I ever want to eat are fruits, particularly nectarines and watermelons.  It's even better that they are in season at this time.  I have retired all shoes with any sort of height and resorted to flats.  It is extremely hard these days to dress well so I can feel good because I am limited to 5 articles of clothing.  But for every complaint that I voice about this pregnancy, I also whisper a million thankful thoughts into the heaven in the same breath.

Week 29

 

Oh kiddo, you are an active one.  I almost always know when you are awake.  Daddy no longer has to place his hands on my belly to feel your movement, he can see you move inside my belly from across the room.  Your sister also gets a kick (pun intended) out of feeling you move.  One time she was watching Dora with her face on my belly and you gave her a big kick that she jolted, her face a mixture of curiosity and fear was priceless.  I'm not certain if she understand exactly what is going on biologically, but she sure does love lying down with Mama and rub my tummy while you rub back from the inside.  It really has became one of Mama's favorite times of the day. 

Preparing

With only about 10 more weeks to go with this pregnancy, I have been fully in the nesting mode trying to prepare his room for his arrival.  I found myself almost in a panic when third trimester arrived and I realized I haven't done one thing to prepare other than attending that baby shower my mother in law graciously threw for us.  For some reason, I got it in my head that this is our second baby so we don't need a lot of things because we 1) we have experience that taught us that we don't need about 90% of what new parents actually purchase and 2) we already have the remaining 10%.  So, there really was no urgency to get started, except I woke up one day and realize that we are having a boy after all, and despite our best effort to purchase the large items gender neutral with our baby girl, we do in fact need some necessary items for this little boy, the largest being the infant car seat because with Lia, we were gifted a girly stroller system that cannot be used for him.  So armed with a bunch of gift cards from the shower, Joe and I decided to finally hit the stores to get these stuff.

We first went to Buy Buy Baby with the intention of just window shopping because we don't have any gift card from there (and we were on a strict gift card budget), but it has a large selection of strollers.  We are unsure if we would ever need a double stroller, but wanted to do our research just in case we do need it down the road when baby boy make his presence and find ourselves juggling two separate strollers.  We walked out of there empty-handed, but at least armed with exactly the double stroller we would purchase when and if the time comes.

We drove down the road to Babies 'R Us, where upon entering spotted the one and only black Britax infant car seat sitting in the middle of the room with a red sale sign.  We rushed over immediately because that was actually how we scored our girl's Britax Boulevard convertible car seat for more than half price off only a year ago.  You have never seen a pregnant woman move as fast as I did at that moment.  We browsed around the store some more looking for just the essential and grabbed what we needed before heading to the check out line, where we were surprised the second time around with a generous sales associate who applied the 20% discount on the car seat even though it is already on sale, and the discount specifically excluded Britax products.  So, for an infant car seat, a Boppy cover and two miracle blankets, they set me back $3.49 out of pocket.

 

Admittedly, Joe and I debated to forgo purchasing a new infant car seat for the boy, reasoning that the old car seat will do just fine, albeit a bit feminine, but he'll grow out of it so quickly.   But for just a bit over $100, we couldn't have found a better deal.

My next focus is on the nursery, where I face the challenge of creating a baby space within the existing office.  The room is certainly large enough to do so, but I am unsure of the feel I want to create.   Thankfully, the existing space already has a masculine feel when we decide to paint it grey, so it should fit in nicely.  But shared or not, I want to create a nook that has a feeling of its own for our boy.  The more I get into preparation mode, the more visions I have of the tiny little person that would occupy the space, and the more excited I get to finally meet him in the flesh.  I have to remind myself that it will happen all soon enough...

Week 28

 

We have officially arrived at the third trimester.  I am both excited and anxious to be here, because it means the honeymoon period of this pregnancy has officially ended but I'm certain the best is yet to come, including one big bundle of joy making his appearance in the near future.

Fortunately, I have pass what I would consider the biggest hurdle of pregnancies with flying colors, the glucose test.  That means, I have no gestational diabetes and no daily needle picks for me.  I think it is in these milestones that really make me appreciate the capabilities of my physical body at carrying babies.  And despite the minimal discomfort I feel, I cannot help but feel very blessed at the very notion that it could be so much worse.

For now, hello third trimester, you never look so good.

My girl had really taken a liking to mimicking me these days, and it's no different at these photoshoot.  So, when she sees me put my hands on my belly, she does the same.  It's so cute that we had to include her in the pictures sometimes.

June mini bucket list: finances

A few days ago on the first of June, I took the opportunity of a new month to start anew and made a mini bucket list with items of things that I will accomplish during the month of June. This month I concentrate on concrete actions that will better our family finances.

This is not something new that's on my mind, in fact, something had been in the works for the last three months.  See, on March 1, I made our family switch to over to a cash system for the day to day expenses.  The process is very simple, on the first of every month take out in one lump sum the amount of cash we need for that month (based on an allocated budget for each expense: i.e. lunch, groceries, eating out, entertainment, etc).  After three months, I was able to track and analyze our spending patterns and the results was astounding.  Here are a few things that stood out the most:

-We couldn't completely be on a cash system, but it is actually much easier than it seems to stick to it.
-Taking a large amount of money out on the first of the month is gut-wrenching but the amount of money left over at the end of the month is always a welcome surprise that rolls over to the following month.
-Our biggest pitfall in our expense resides in four areas: eating out, shopping, Target and gas.
-The rest of the budget is surprisingly manageable. 


So, in an effort to combat the pitfalls, I have identified 5 actions that we will take as a family to better our finances.  They are spontaneous and quick scribbles on a post-it notes that turn out to define our very existence this month.

They stayed tacked to the side of my work office, as a constant reminder to me to not fall short on them.  I will be back on the 30th of the month to report how it all went down.

Week 95: Shoot the parents with the screaming infants on the plane smiles instead of looks of resentments.

After all, as soon as the plane ride is over, you can at least ditch the kids.  They, however, cannot.

Week 94: choose wisely the man you would sacrifice your body for to carry his baby.

The ability to carry and birth a child to life is a beautiful thing, but it also undoubtedly takes a toll on your physical body in a way that you can never imagine.  Be wise in your choice of man you would make the sacrifice for. 

Week 93: Don't show off. Impress.

I'm not sure when the shift started to happen, but I notice lately in pop culture that there are a lot of self-proclaimed fame and talent, particularly in music.  I am still very old school in the belief that your talents should speak for itself.

quick weekend getaway

For the fourth weekend in a row, we spent the weekend out of town about a hundred miles north at a friend's house who was having a BBQ slash housewarming.  We always say yes to opportunities to spend quality times with friends and other loved ones, and as exhausting as they can be, the memories and connectedness that comes out of it is always worth the trip.

Thankfully, the weekend was low key, with very little activities planned, which helped saying yes to it all a bit easier.  So, I didn't take one single picture with my good camera. In fact, there was very little pictures taken, at least by my standard.

Their new house is backed into a little trail that leads to a beautiful lake, so we made 5 minutes trek on foot to explore the body of water where my girl had a lot of fun playing with rocks and the adults had a good time partaking in a little competition of rock skipping.  I failed miserably and wasted many a wonderful rocks that had so much potential to skip far.

After we dined on smoked BBQ goodness, we headed to a nearby lake to take a little dip to cool down from the mid 80 degree weather that felt like it was 105.  Needless to say, the cool water was a very welcome distractions for kids and adults.

The next day before we made the trip back home, my friends rose early to make the 10 or so guests that occupied for carpeted floors like sardines just hours earlier with a heavenly breakfast consisting of poached eggs and mimosas.  A virgin was made especially for me but tastes just as good.

We left there on a full stomach and a face sore from laughter.  One of the blessings in life is to have friends who are willing to throw a good slumber party, but it's an even greater blessings to have friends to say yes to those opportunities, despite how hard it could be with a pregnant belly and a toddler in tow.  But they sure make great memories.

Week 92: The definition of being rich is the freedom to purchase any book you want without having to look at the price tag.

Don't measure how rich you are based on how many homes you own, or how much money you have in the bank.  If one day you find yourself at the bookstore and reaching the point of having the freedom and ability to just grab the book off the shelf and purchase it without ever looking at the price tag, then you are rich.  Of course, you would have to set foot in a bookstore first.

kicking off summer

I look forward to Memorial Day weekend all year long, because it kick starts summer where the days are long, the sun sets late, and the water becomes tolerably warm for an impromptu trip to the ocean or simply a front  yard car wash.  So, we vow to only spend one of the weekend days braving the crowds, line and heat at Disneyland, the rest of the days will be spent relaxing my inevitable sore body at the beach.  So, we spent Sunday at Venice Beach and Manhattan Beach, from morning to dusk, and in between we dined.

We returned home to our normal schedule on Monday, recovering from yet another weekend away from home and bed.  But the weather at home proved to be unbearably warm, so on Thursday after work, Joe and I looked at each other, and then at our girl and decided to suit her up in her bathing suit and have an impromptu car wash on our truck that needed a wash badly.  This kind of entertainment for our toddler girl was exactly what she needed to calm down from being all wound up during the day.  And we as her parents really did enjoy ourselves too, sitting back sometimes and just witnessing the ways she entertained herself without our help.