Put into Perspective

Ten things I miss about my old self...

As I wait for the new baby to arrive, I am spending lots and lots of time with her big brother.  Jonathan had a nasty stomach flu (again!) this week, and there was a lot of throwing up and "my tummy hurts" the past three days.  Poor kiddo woke up on Tuesday morning complaining of a tummy ache and now three days and half a dozen vomiting episodes later, here we are. I am glad that I have had the chance to be here for him as he has been sick.  We had to move him to the old crib room to make room for his Grandparents who arrived yesterday and took over his bed.  So he is on the air mattress with all of his cars and toys. 

 I was thinking last night about my old self and what I look like now -- almost 40 lbs and another pregnancy later.  I do miss my old self sometimes.  As much as we want another baby, sometimes I dream of what life was like (and hopefully will be like soon).  So in tribute, here is what I miss about not being pregnant.

1. Sleeping on my stomach - I hate sleeping on my side since my whole side often goes numb.  I miss just lying on my stomach with my face in my pillow. That is one of the first things I plan to do after baby arrives.  And every day afterwards!  I want to just not have to stay to one side anymore!
   
2. Getting out of bed or from the floor without a sharp pain going down my hips/legs - I can barely get out of bed anymore without leaping towards the dresser to hold me up.  I can barely walk for about 10 to 15 minutes after getting up.
3. Eating sushi - Yummy!  I love sushi.  My doctor is Japanese, so he said "safe" fish is okay in moderation since it is very common in Japan to have sushi throughout the pregnancy.  But just to be safe, I limit my intake a lot.  I do not drink alcohol or smoke or do anything else I cannot do during pregnancy, but sushi... ahhh!
   
4. Holding Jonathan - I have had to explain to him that his Mommy can only hold him for short periods of time.  Most of the time he understands, but when he is upset, he no longer comes to me for holding comfort since he knows I cannot pick him up for long.  He still likes to try to sit in my lap, but he knows his little sister is taking up most of the space so there is very little space for him anymore.
5. Feeling energetic - I am so tired all the time that I can sleep all day.  I guess I am saving up for having a newborn.  I sleep for 2 to 3 hours, go to pee, come back, sleep more.  Off and on all night.  Then I nap off and on all day.
6. Tying my shoes - I just slip my shoes on now.  It is too hard to put on my shoes with laces anymore.  I can barely even see my feet. The tough part is still putting on J's shoes for going out.  He will bring them to me, but I have to set him on a box or shelf so I can put them on.  Otherwise, I have to get on the floor and risk #2 above.
7. Wearing my skinny jeans - I miss my Lee jeans.  I love them, but around 7 months, I had to give up for maternity jeans.  I cannot wait to get back in them again. 
8. Not carrying around an extra 38 lbs - It will be nice to get back to my old weight.  I gained about 42 lbs with J and it took me about 3 to 4 months old to go back.  So I am getting close to the same weight as I was at the end of the last pregnancy.  I hope I can lose the weight just as easily this time.
9. Hugging my hubby - Face to face hugging is out of the question at this point.  I miss just a quick hug after we get home from work.  It will be nice to get a nice tight hug again.
10. Dancing with Jonathan - I miss just turning on some music and dancing with my little boy.  He loves to dance and he is always asking me to dance with him, but it has been awhile. 

At the end of the day, I am so happy about the little baby coming this week, but I also have something to look forward to - being my old self again! 

Countdown...

T minus 8 days until the due date.  It has been such a blessing for me to have had the past week to spend with J.  The two of us have been enjoying a lot of time together, and I have been spending time baking up a storm with him.  He is Mommy's little helper.  He loves to help out stirring and mixing and generally making a mess of the whole kitchen. But he loves it. 

In particular, he loves to make fruit cakes and breads since he likes to sneak fruit from the pile and into his little mouth as we go along.  We made Banana Bread on Wednesday and Pear Bread yesterday.  Two tips if you make these breads.  Make the bread with applesauce in place of oil.  It makes the bread a little more sweet (you can cut the sugar by about 10 to 20%), but much healthier.  And use nuts.  Not sure why, but walnuts in bread is much better than without. 

I have also made J's favorite foods including Chinese tofu soup with Korean noodles and grilled salmon.  J is still a big Chinese food fan.  He loves plain white rice, tofu, chicken congee, thousand year old eggs (they use this in shows like Survivor and Fear Factor because Americans find it so weird), fish, shrimp, eggs poached in tofu soup, and stuff like that.  I am not sure he knows how to eat an hamburger, though he has NO problems with french fries.  We only let him eat that a few times a year when we are traveling.  His Grandparents are coming to visit soon, so more yummy Chinese food to come! 

Hope everyone is enjoying CHA Winter.  The gals promised to send lots of photos and even possibly a video tour of the booth.  I cannot wait! 

Any day now...

If you have not checked out the new releases for CHA Winter, please stop by the Maya Road Compny Blog and the full catalog!  There are some really cool projects made with the new line.  This entire line was designed while I was pregnant with our little girl between the naps and being sick, so let me know what you guys think!   I am always anxious to hear feedback. Usually my favorite feedback comes from the booth at the show, but this year given I am due any day now, I will miss out. 

I went to the doctor yesterday, and he said I was pretty much ready to go.  So now I am working on some final touches for the new release and website while also trying to get a lot more done like packing up a bag, getting the car seat in, and prepping the crib.  But alas, my whole little family is sick with a nasty cold, so things are slow going.  Back to making soup for the kiddo.  Be back later. 

I am 2.5 years old!

I cannot believe how time flies.  One day, I am in the hospital being born and *poof* 2.5 years have passed and I am a big boy now!  Mommy has been so tired with little is that she has not taken the time to help me write recently. I hope this does not mean that I will no longer update you.  I have so many fun things to share. 

1. I am really bad at sitting still.  I like to run around and be rambunctious.  I used to be so shy and scared I could not even get off the couch, and now I like to lie down on the top part of the sofa and climb onto the window ledge.  And I take things to make steps to reach high shelves. 
   
2. The other day, I was in the bathroom playing with toothpaste and making a mess.  My auntie comes in and says "Who made this mess?" and I answered "No-ah!"  And this morning, I was going to school with Mommy and she said "What is your name?" and I said "No-ah! No-ah! Haha!"  I like that name more than mine.  Grandma says it is easier to say.  
3. I was jumping on Mommy and Daddy's bed, and Daddy said "No jumping on the bed!"  So I started to stomp one foot at a time and said "Stomp your feet!"  I am nothing if not clever. 
4. I love to drink milk.  I can just drink moo moo milk all day.  Milk milk milk!  But I cannot drink it from a cup.  I drink water and juice from a cup.  But I ONLY drink milk from my Thermos Bottle.  Mommy has now taken to removing the top and just making me drink from the metal part so it is like a big cup.  But I always ask for the cover and straw.
5. I go up to Mommy and sometimes lift up her shirt to point to my little sister.  I say "See? There is moi moi!" Mommy is sort of embarrassed by this.  Luckily I only do this at home. I also like to kiss my little sister when Mommy gets home from work.
   
6. My favorite books are Counting Kisses, What's Wrong, Little Pookie?, and My New Baby.  The first two, Mommy reads to be before I go to sleep and the last one I got at moi moi's baby shower from one of my friends.  I love seeing the pictures of my little sister doing fun things.  I have all of these books memorized and now I pretty much recite them in Chinese.
7. I like to make pie with my Daddy.  I like to stir stuff and steal apples and pears from Daddy's pies.  And when I see pictures of cooking Daddies, I think they are making pies since that is the main thing Daddy likes to make.
8. I was really bad at the Christmas pageant at school.  I ran up to Mommy and Daddy right from the start, getting out of line.  I said, "Hi, Mommy and Daddy!" And Daddy was video taping and laughing like a loon.  And then I walked around and stood at the microphones.  It was so embarrassing for everyone.  (see photo and notice I am standing right by the audience and not near any of the other kiddos).
9. I like to sing and sing and sing.  I sing to myself all day and night.  It is fun.  I have three CDs I have memorized.  One is a Mandarin children's CD from my Grandmother, one is a Chinese/English children's church songs, and one is a Hong Kong kid's CD Mommy bought for me.  I can tell you what the next song is and start to sing it even before it begins.
10. I sleep with tons of stuffed animals.  Of course, I have my Pooh bear, my light up constellation turtle, my Nemo from Auntie C, and sometimes my wolf. It is getting crowded in the bed.  Recently, I have taken to taking little sis's Baby Einstein Aquarium to sleep.  Mommy and Daddy will not take it out of the box for me, so I only get to play with the sample mode which lasts 5 seconds.  But I love it!  
11. I have transitioned to a Big Kid bed. I get to choose between the "be-be bed" and "big kiddo bed".  Sometimes when Mommy and Daddy ask me which I want to sleep in, I say "Mommy and Daddy's bed."  To change it up, sometimes I say "Sofa!" like Daddy.
12. I think all sonograms are my little sister.  When I see a photo of a baby, I say "Moi moi! (little sister)"  I still do not understand what it means, but I know something is happening. 
13. I am done with traveling for awhile.  This past year, I went to Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Raleigh, and Hong Kong.  Every time I get on the plane, I think I am going to Chicago.  Not sure why.  I love airplanes.  When we went to Hong Kong, they closed the door after the flight attendants went onboard, and I thought we could not get on.  And went crazy! 
14. I love crayons, but Mommy does not.  She thinks they are messy since I like to rip off all of the paper and drop them all over the place.  She is trying to teach me to clean up after myself, but I am a bit slow to learn. 
15. I have learned to pretty much reach everything in the house.  I take a chair, move it to where I want, and then stand on it.  I play with lights, shelves, the sink, pens, the fax machine and much more!  I am making a mess in the kitchen. 

Well, that is it for this time.  Mommy could go into labor any day now.  I hope she waits a bit so she can spend a little more quality time with me before Moi Moi comes.  And then we will see how things go...

Pregnancy is not for wimps

As I head into week 36, I have to say that pregnancy is not for wimps.  I am not sure what it is like for others, but this pregnancy will likely be my last not because I do not love children or am positive 2 is enough, but pregnancy just does not agree with me.  I think it is hard for Dads to understand the level of suffering that is involved with bearing children even if they are pretty empathetic like my DH is. :)  It is funny. DH was moving out an old desk to donate to the Salvation Army, and he strained his back.  And for the next 24 hours, he complained and complained.  I just smiled since I have been in terrible pain for nearly 4 months.  I said, "Imagine that feeling for months and months.  Not able to sleep, sit comfortably or even get up out of a seated position."  He looked at me and said "I understand."  Um right... 

I wanted to share a photo above with you.  It totally shows how we were in deep denial.  J's hair used fall along his head after it got longer, so we decided to let it grow out.  But this time, for some reason, his hair grew so that it stands straight out.  And he started looking like the Thing 1 from Dr. Seuss.  We were at the airport on the way home from North Carolina and we were stopped at least 4x with people making comments about it.  I was a bit puzzled at the time. But now that I downloaded the photos, I can totally see Mr. Furry Head.  Haha!  Now we need to be much more diligent in cutting his hair even though he absolutely hates it.  But I want to prevent this crazy dandelion seed head.  I think he takes after me since I have really coarse hair and perhaps if mine were 1 or 2" long, it would look like this too!  Someday he will look back on this and laugh.  Maybe at his wedding slideshow... :) Would make a cute scrapbook page.