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Disclaimer: All graphic images courtesy of the Happy Color game app.
Hello! I’m just popping in to write another check-in post. It’s been hard to squeak out any personal time to write anything since I’ve birthed my very own tiny human. This girl takes up 95% of my time & attention, but I love it & wouldn’t trade it for anything else in the world. The only “free time” I have to myself is that little chunk of time at night between when I put the babe to bed & when I plop my head down on my pillow to sleep. Even then, I get lost in playing my favorite hidden objects game on my tablet or the color-by-numbers app on my smartphone.
So far, I have been spending these first three months sleep training my tiny human, & building a solid routine with Jian. It gets a little difficult when a certain live-in grandparent wants to do whatever they want with the tiny human & all of your best laid plans, rules, habits, & routines go flying out the door. This grandparent has admitted openly (on several, well-witnessed occasions) that they are not confident in taking care of a tiny human in today’s modern world. However, whenever they feel like Jian & I are parenting in a way that they disagree with, they will throw around the fact that they’ve raised THREE humans of their own, & have taken care of multiple grandchildren in the past. It gets frustrating, but we take it one day at a time, & really try to reinforce our status as the parents/guardians/ultimate-and-final-decision-makers.
The holidays have come & gone, & if you’ve been following my blog, you’ll remember my previous declarations of love for Christmas. No, I didn’t get any new tree ornaments (per sé), but I did the cliché thing & ordered family holiday cards with the tiny human’s photo printed on it. So, I dropped a couple of extra bucks & sprang for the fancy cut-out cards that comes with fancy ribbon so you can hang the card like an ornament. I mean, who wants another postcard of someone else’s kid(s) pinned to the refrigerator along with all the other postcards of other people’s kid(s)? At least my cheesy family holiday card can be used as a temporary tree ornament.
All of my siblings came home to celebrate the holidays (& our tiny human’s first Christmas) with us. My oldest brother & his family did not stay for any festivities/food due to the fact that he works in an industry where he has to physically interact with people on a daily basis, & he was trying to be responsible & courteous by social distancing. He dropped off gifts, said his hellos to the family & spent the rest of the holiday at home with his family. My other older brother COVID tested negative before coming home for the holidays, & really got to bond with his new little niece. My unpredictable sister also came home & brought along her entire brood, which means her two kids & her new husband. I was so thrilled to see both my teenage nephew & niece really get along & try to play with my tiny human. Those kids are the best cousins my tiny human could ever have.
Since our tiny human has been born, Jian & I have been more addicted to coffee than ever before. We are coffee lovers by nature, but since coffee has become a vital part of keeping us alive while taking care of our tiny human, we have been investing more time (& money) looking into getting a top-of-the-line drip coffee maker & artisanal coffee beans from our favorite local coffee roasters. Jian used to be a one-cup-&-done kind of coffee drinker, but now I see him going for that second cup in the morning, or having an extra iced coffee in the afternoon, made from the leftover morning coffee. I am usually a two-to-three cuppa kind of gal, but since getting pregnant & then jumping on the breastfeeding wagon, I’ve had to cut back my caffeine intake & only stick to one and a half cups (meaning one full morning cup, plus a top off). Our morning breakfast routine wouldn’t be complete without a steaming hot cuppa Joe.
My plans to teach my tiny human about music have been a success! she absolutely loves listening to music, & we try to play music as often as we can when she is around us. Of course we’re not blasting the music at a high volume, but we’ve been openly introducing our tiny human to all different genres of music. Jian predominantly plays Japanese pop, western hip hop, & alternative music for her, but I’ve been introducing her to all the other genres like: 90s rock, jazz, lo-fi chill beats, 80s new wave, etc..
One genre of music our tiny human really enjoys is bossa nova. No, not Frank Sinatra, but artists like: Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, & Joao Gilberto (along with his wife & daughter, Astrud & Bebel). I have always been fascinated with bossa nova music ever since I first heard them in the movies from the 50s & 60s. It takes me back to those golden days of those movie stars jet setting to Rio de Janeiro to vacation at some posh beachside resort while drinking a tall gin & tonic. I’ve been playing this type of music for my little one ever since she’s been in my womb, & she’s been enjoying it so far. Her favorite song recently has been (So Nice) Summer Samba by Walter Wanderly featuring Astrud Gilberto. She’ll kick her feet and smile every time I put this song on.
I don’t know how I was able to amass a small stationery haul during this time of nesting with my tiny human, but I did it somehow. I got a couple of extra stationery supplies that I use frequently to write thank you cards to all of the people who were gracious & thoughtful enough to send a little something our way for this tiny human. Here’s a photo rundown of all the things I got recently…
Aside from this small haul of goodies, I was still able to get my yearly batch of calendars from my favorite store in Japan, Tokyu Hands. I usually get 3 calendars to put around my house: one in the kitchen, one in my bedroom, & one in the room that has now become Jian’s home office. This year, I got a mouse themed desk calendar illustrated by Leo Lionni, a Japanese illustration wall calendar (that is waaay too huge, & I accidentally bought the wrong size), & a cow themed mini desk calendar by orientalberry Inc.. Sorry for the lack of calendar photos. First off, I forgot to take any pictures of them when they I got them. Second, I am too lazy now to take any pictures of them. They’re already being used anyway.
Every year I also get an extra large desk pad calendar from Paper Source that I always put on my dad’s home ofice desk. Yes, we still keep my dad’s corner home office setup in the exact same place it has always been, & now it has unofficially become my mom’s home office desk which I will semi-often use as well. The large desk pad calendar is easy for my mom to read & write down all of her appointments & notes. Jian calls me the calendar queen of the house. Every year he likes to see which new designs I will choose.
Well, that’s about all I can write for now. I don’t have much more to update you on. Plus, the tiny human has woken up from her nap & is demanding my attention at the moment. I must attend to the queen or else. Until next time, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
The year 2020 has been hectic for everyone. I consider myself to be one of the extremely few ‘lucky’ ones who hasn’t been greatly impacted by the pandemic & all of our world’s troubles. However, I do feel guilty that I am in a better place than most.
You see, before this global pandemic reached…well, global proportions…I was able to complete my 4th and final round of the In-Vitro Fertilization procedure. (Yes folks, it took me FOUR TRIES to finally get the right combination.) Before all of the hospitals & clinics scaled back a good portion of their operations in order to deal with Madame ‘Rona, I completed my final round of IVF, and it was a success. Yes, that means what you think it means, which means that Jian & I have procreated & spawned a new life form. (It’s going to be a girl, by the way.)
In the beginning of this whole chapter of my life, I couldn’t quite process what I was feeling. I felt a little worried, a little anxious, somewhat excited, but leaning more toward indifferent. I didn’t really have any positive or negative feelings during the whole process. I guess I was saving up all of my emotions until I found out definitively in the end whether the process was a success or not. Once I found out that my 4th & final embryo transfer procedure was a success, I was stunned…but in a good way. It finally happened. I got pregnant. I am now going to be somebody’s mother & not just the ‘fun aunt’ anymore.
I realize it’s taken me several months to write up a post on this blog, & it’s not for lack of inspiration or writing creativity. It has mostly been because I have been taking the time since my positive discovery & throughout this pandemic lockdown, to hunker down & nest with my unborn child. No, I haven’t been reading up on all the popular mommy books or blogs, but I have been reading one parenting book written by a woman from her own motherly perspective. It’s called “Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting”. This is not your typical “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” over-psychoanalyzing parenting book. This one’s a real page-turner. I have even gone so far as to highlight my favorite quotes & paragraphs from the book that I plan to implement in my own parenting philosophy. This is a highly recommended read.
I have also been taking plenty of naps & snacking away to my heart’s content, which brings me to another topic, one that I am reluctant to talk about because I have very little knowledge on the subject except for what I am currently going through.
My whole pregnancy up until now has been all rainbows & sunshine (despite the global pandemic disaster all around us). Jian has been working from home ever since our entire state has been in an on-again-off-again lockdown status. This has worked out well in my favor because he is able to drive me to all of my in-person clinic visits, & join me on all of my doctor-to-patient video chats & classes. It’s just a little disappointing that he can’t physically go into the clinic with me when I have to see the midwives.
It was also a bummer when I had to go to the clinic to get a bunch of blood tests & genetic screenings done & ultimately found out that I had gestational diabetes. Now I have to watch what I eat & count carbs, & oh…I also have to prick my finger & test my blood sugar levels FOUR TIMES a day. It sucks that I have to go through this when I’ve been careful about what I’ve been eating throughout my whole pregnancy thus far, & I have been regularly exercising. However, I learned that a lot of this diagnosis has to do with my genetics, my placenta, & my overall body make. At least this is controllable if I follow all of the doctor’s orders, & I will be rid of this in no time.
On a lighter note, as I have said before, I have never wanted this blog to become another mommy blog, so I haven’t really documented my pregnancy journey (except for the meticulous notes I keep when I meet with the midwives). As of right now, I am not planning on sharing a whole lot about my life with my future child, which I have nicknamed “little bean”. First of all, I am waaay too lazy to start a ‘mommy & me’ journal. Second, I don’t want to put my kid on social media or the internet straight away. So, this post is probably the most amount of details & information you’ll get out of me regarding this matter.
I am nearly at the home stretch of my pregnancy. Yes ladies & gentlemen, I am already three-quarters through my pregnancy. Jian & I have pretty much got everything covered regarding setting up the nursery & gathering all of the necessary supplies before the blessed child is born (except we haven’t stocked up on diapers just yet). We are in the process of taking all of the suggested-yet-politely-required parenting classes offered by our hospital’s Labor & Delivery department. We have even already purchased our stroller & car seat, & have tested it out multiple times just to make sure we got the hang of using it before the child arrives.
I am currently sitting in Jian’s dark home office, during our state’s unbearable summer heat wave, sweating my ass off while writing this blog post. I don’t have much else important to say on this topic. Right now I feel like the female equivalent of a male penguin sitting on its egg waiting for the damn thing to hatch. So far, I’ve been trying to teach my little bean all about music. We’ve been listening to all kinds of music from jazz, to the 1960s British invasion, to1980s new wave, to whatever’s popular on the radio today. I’ve been trying to teach my little bean about band like The Clash, The Smiths, Weezer, & even Wham!. Hey, I want my kid to know all of the good stuff, not just 30-second snippets of catchy/dance-y rap songs off of TikTok.
So finally, it’s time for my daily nap. Plus it’s just to freaking hot to write any more in this post. I am going to bid you ‘aurevoir’ for now, & get back to eating my low carb, low sugar yogurt. Cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Well, a lot has happened in the past couple of months that I haven’t had the time to talk about in this blog. It has taken me nearly three months to finally pull myself together & sit down to write. I have quite a few things to tell you all. I don’t even know where to begin, & I don’t want to ramble on & on. So here I go.
I guess I will start at the top of my list of topics, which will be last year’s Christmas holiday. It was a very jam-packed holiday break, most likely the busiest Christmas break I have ever experienced. My grand-uncle (grandmother’s youngest brother) celebrated his 90th birthday with a grand banquet celebration. Nearly every single family member from my mom’s side of my family all descended upon the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time in decades. Being surrounded by all of my relatives, & especially my first cousins whom I’m becoming even closer to, was a blast. It was just a shame that my niece & nephew couldn’t be there & get to know their own cousins from their generation.
Christmas itself was pretty much the same as every other year, with the exception of my niece & nephew (yet again). Things between this side of the family & their side of the family have become extremely tense in the recent months. It’s not something I want to open up about at this time, but I will say that that particular situation is what caused me to make a firm New Year’s resolution about being mindful, patient, & careful of what comes out of my mouth.
Then right after Christmas, Jian & I celebrated the new year together. We got tickets to see Portugal. The Man in concert on New Year’s Eve, & we had the best time celebrating together even though we both were recovering from severe colds. Oh man, it was a real huge bummer when everybody in our household got a cold right before the new year. We were all sniffling, sneezing, & trying to relieve our runny, drippy noses as well as fighting off a nasty coughing spell.
Nevertheless, Jian & I had a great time at the concert. We were super excited to finally be able to watch Portugal. The Man live in concert for the first time, & were even more excited that another one of the bands we liked, Chicano Batman, was going to be the opening act that night. Though we were bummed that Chicano Batman didn’t end up performing our favorite song & their most popular song on the radio “Friendship Is A Small Boat In The Storm“.
When P.TM came on stage to perform, we were already in the dancing mood. We were each wearing our free paper party hats (courtesy of the venue) & getting super pumped up to sing along to our favorite songs. We loved that this band invited a local American First Nations tribe to perform a ceremonial chant before their set performance (as they do before every one of their concerts). However, we did not love the smoke machine they used on stage. That smoke machine was incredibly annoying, & whoever decided to place the smoke machine directly in front of the lead singer(s) wasn’t thinking practically, or even thinking at all! That stupid smoke machine created so much smoke that it completely engulfed the main band members at the front of the stage & you could hardly see anything happening on the stage because of that stupid machine. It was both annoying & distracting. In between songs, when the smoke machine was turned off, that’s about the only time you could actually see the lead singer John Gourley.
It was weird that the smoke machine was only directed towards the front corner of the stage where the main microphones were staged. The smoke did not even reach the rest of the stage, so the smoke was very concentrated to only one side of the stage. The funny thing that happened at the concert though, was when it came time to count down to the new year & the venue was preparing to drop a ton of balloons from the ceiling. Because the band had this crazy laser light show background, the laser lights would pop the balloons as they fell from the ceiling, making an extremely loud popping noise. People were also purposely throwing balloons into the laser lights just to pop the other balloons. By the time the concert was over, the 300+ balloons were whittled down to approximately 10 or so.
There was one couple sitting next to us where the wife slept through the entire concert. As soon as she sat down in her seat, she made herself comfortable & proceeded to take a nap. The husband went out to get drinks, which the woman never touched, & sat in his seat the entire time just bobbing his head once in a while. Then right before the countdown to the new year, the husband woke the wife up & they both walked out of the venue. Neither of them seemed happy, nor happy to be there. We still had a memorable concert experience that night.
Shortly after ringing in the new year, one of my cousins hosted her 21st birthday party in Las Vegas. All of the aunts, uncles, & cousins gathered to celebrate our cousin’s milestone birthday, & boy was it a memorable weekend celebration! We all had such a blast spending time together as one big happy family, & I was especially happy to spend time with a cousin I consider to be like my little sister. Oh, I think now would be a good time to let you in on a little secret about my extended family. They love going to Las Vegas, & they love to gamble…but mostly they love to eat, drink & be merry. My relatives go to Las Vegas at least 4 or 5 times a year, & they really know how to show you a good time when you visit there.
Here comes the final part of this post. This is the real reason why I have been M.I.A. from this blog for the past couple of months. I have been seeing a fertility doctor for a majority of the past two months. I’ve been going through a complicated medication routine/schedule, getting blood tests nearly every other day, getting exams from my doctor. It’s been a very busy time for me personally. All of this back-&-forth to & from the doctor’s clinic has been wearing me out, & on top of that, I recently had to be put on another strict medication regimen where I have to get a long needle shot in my butt. Yes, I said butt! But this is all worth it because I just found out some exciting & positive news that I have successfully procreated (with the help of medical science). I don’t want to talk about it too much in this blog post, but let’s just say that I am both elated & scared shitless (which is totally normal), & that’s all I’m going to say on this subject. I do not want to turn this site into another mommy blog.
I hope all of this reading hasn’t worn you out. Until next time, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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