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I can't sneeze. The baby won't let me. I can do the AH-, but instead of finishing with -CHOO, I just wince painfully. Even blowing my nose is difficult because of the abdominal muscles required. I've never experienced this before because both Alex and Ana were born in winter. Something to keep in mind for all of you future moms who suffer from spring-summer-fall allergies like I do.

Yesterday while teaching the kids how to baby proof the living room for their soon-to-be-born baby sister, I told Alex how he used to play with the TV set. He couldn't stop laughing through the whole story.

Back when Alex was a baby, we watched two shows a week religiously: Charmed and Gilmore Girls. Eventually we had to stop watching Charmed once Alex got old enough to be scared of the monsters, but at first all he noticed was the bright light coming out of the box... and the row of buttons immediately underneath.

Alex learned quickly that pressing the On/Off button got Mommy and Daddy's attention right away. When he graduated on to the channel buttons, we bought a plastic shield made for babyproofing the TV. It didn't last a week. Alex figured out how to pull it away from the TV and reach behind it with his nimble little fingers. We ended up have to duct-tape over the buttons and use the remote control exclusively.

I have many other Alex babyproofing stories, but I can't recall any for Ana. Aside from perching precariously on the arm of the sofa I don't remember her doing anything else particularly dangerous or naughty. I wonder if it's because she had an older sibling to occupy her attention. Or maybe they just have different personalities.

Daisy's preoccupation with eating plants is bordering on the pathological. Kevin found several gigantic lumps of regurgitated grass in the backyard. But I think I've found a way to keep my plants out of her reach: container gardening. I've transplanted all the small plants into long, rectangular containers and set them on the patio tables and the corn into large pots set on top of the patio chairs. Thank goodness Daisy has short legs.

Labels: allergies, gardening, kids, pets, pregnancy

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Last week, Ana discovered during her nightly peek at the aquarium that the fish had died of a disgusting white fuzz that enveloped their entire bodies. Kevin looked it up and learned that it was a fungal infection that took over the gills, i.e. they had been suffocated to death.

I left the room and asked Kevin to scoop out the bodies because my stomach couldn't handle it. In comparison, the kids handled the deaths of their pet fish just fine, until Alex discovered that there was one last fish still alive. When he was told it probably wouldn't make it, he took it very hard. Poor kid.

The snails are still alive and well though, and Ana still visits them every night. In a couple of weeks, once Kevin has gotten a chance to clean the tank, we'll get some more fish. Or who knows, maybe we'll let ourselves be talked into getting a crab or tortoise.

This weekend we invited some friends over. One is expecting a boy only a few weeks after my due date. She was happy to take our old baby boy clothes off our hands, so I spent some time weeding them to make sure nothing inappropriate got passed along. Like this gem of a vest. I don't know about you, but "star warm" sounds way too hot to me. I don't think any baby needs a vest that will keep them THAT warm.

Today was all about me - and Cesar Chavez, I suppose, but mostly me. Kevin and I both had the day off, and he took me out for brunch and shopping. We stopped at the Kiehl's counter at Nordstrom where I embarassed the saleswoman asking if Kiehl's made nipple cream. (They don't.) Then we went to Macy's because I've been so very depressed about my lack of clothing options. Many of my maternity outfits are 10s on the cutesy scale, which was fine back when I didn't need people to take me seriously. But things are different now. So, despite having only 4 more weeks to go, we got me some new shirts all in the name of workplace effectiveness.

Labels: kids, pets, pregnancy, shopping

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When I started talking about getting a 'sporty' car a few years back, I saw it as the final realization of a dream that started when I was about fifteen. My first two car choices were driven primarily by a severe income shortage. The 70' VW Beetle that was given to me with only 220,000 gentle miles on it and the '93 Civic VX hatchback which was the first car I actually bought.

These days when I think back to '93 it's usually to recall the year in which I met Julie. We got married a year later, started talking about having kids, and rather suddenly I found myself driving an '00 Honda Odyssey. Now there's nothing at all wrong with the Odyssey. I still think it's the greatest minivan on the planet and when I bought it I was very much taken with the idea of carting the family around in a big comfy ~~boat~~ van.

As the kids grew up and started calling it "Daddy's car" to differentiate it from the Prius which was of course "Mommy's car" I started to think that perhaps it would be fun to get something a little smaller and more responsive. I missed driving a manual transmission and feeling a connection with the pavement.

Which takes us back to the quest for a 'sporty' car and several years of trying to reconcile my new, family-oriented life with my nearly twenty year old lust for something fast and entirely irresponsible. I have read reviews, stared at specs, and created massive spreadsheets. It turns out the main problem I had wasn't picking a car, it was picking an acceptable level of practicality. All the cars I wanted in my teens were two-seaters or 2+2 at best. Given the realities of picking up the kids after work every day, these cars would end up sitting in the driveway while I slogged around town in the minivan M-F. Then there were the times I swung the other direction and convinced myself that I really didn't need much 'sport' in my sports car to be happy.

K: Well, I've picked my new car.
J: Again?
K: Yep. Civic Si Sedan.
J: A Civic?
K: No no, it's fine, it's a 5-seater. They're bigger than they used to be.
J: A Civic?
K: It's the Si...
J: Your mid-life crisis car will NOT be a Civic.

Well, I'm definitely too old to be having a quarter-life crisis so lets call this a one-third-life crisis. Whatever. I'm fortunate to have a wife who absolutely refuses to back down when she knows I'm being a stupid-head, so she forcibly kept me away from Honda dealerships until I found something better.

Yesterday she bought it for me.

Seats five. 6-speed manual transmission.
Five doors. 1/4 mile in low 14s @101mph.
Room for groceries. Turbocharged 2.3L DFI.
Nice smooth ride. 18" alloys on multi-link suspension.
Did I mention the five seats? Limited slip differential.
$21,800. 263hp and 280ft*lbs of torque.

When Alex first saw it yesterday he said "Yeah! Daddy got his race car!" and when I picked Ana up from the babysitter today she ran out into the driveway, hugged my car (!) and jumped into her car seat.

Labels: kids, midlife crisis, shopping, toys

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Today I got a call from Alex's school. He had an allergic reaction to freshly mowed grass and was waiting in the nurse's office. When I picked him up, his eyes were still puffy, poor thing. I asked how I would go about keeping a bottle of Children's Benadryl at school in case this happens again, and they gave me a form for his doctor to sign.

Alex inherited allergies from both of us. We react to similar things but to varying degrees. I'm much more allergic to grass than Kevin is, and he is much more allergic to cats than I am. The list goes on. This season has been particularly bad for me. I've been alternating between Sudafed and Benadryl, i.e. whenever the Sudafed starts making my nose bleed, I switch to Benadryl, and whenever the Benadryl makes me too sleepy, I switch back to Sudafed.

In related news, we've been trying to hire a gardener for a year now. The latest attempt occurred this past weekend. The fellow had left an ad on our doorstep, but when I called and asked him to come give us a quote, he didn't show. I guess business has been too good.

Labels: allergies, gardening, kids, meds

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Monday morning, while I was still struggling to get out of bed, Kevin went to the kids' room. By the time I finally got up, they were already out of pajamas and in their school clothes. Kevin pointed out that he had dressed them both in green.

"That's nice," I said absent-mindedly. Meanwhile I dressed myself in blue. It wasn't until I got to work that I realized it was St. Patrick's Day. Duh.

I'm in the 34th week now. For some reason my weight hasn't changed. I'm still at +20, but it feels like +100. My backaches come and go with no apparent cause other than the fact that I'm in the 3rd trimester. When I sit too close to or on the ground, it takes me a long time to get up on my feet. And forget about climbing stairs. You might as well be suggesting I climb Mt. Everest.

The baby's movements have been intense. Sometimes she'll jab or kick so hard that you can actually see her fist or foot against my skin, stretching it several inches out. Kevin has been taking video. I'm too self conscious to share them at this moment. Maybe I'll change my mind later.

We've had American Idol Encore for 5 days now and we're still singing our hearts out. Alex has almost mastered "Black Hole Sun" and "Rio," and tonight he started learning "I Just Died in Your Arms." Kevin's been getting great scores on pretty much every song he tries, even ones with female vocals, like Madonna's "Holiday" and Fergie's "Glamorous." My (now not so) secret ambition is to get 100% on "Midnight Train to Georgia." You can stop laughing now...

Labels: kids, music, pregnancy, toys

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Busy Saturday. Enjoyed dim sum with my parents and sister's family, then ran a ton of errands, including a stop at Petsmart, where the kids bought some snails and fish. Meanwhile, I picked up literature on Petsmart's doggy day camp. Daisy is a friendly enough dog, but she doesn't socialize with other dogs much. Even though we count several dog owners among our friends, we rarely see each other while with our dogs. Maybe it would be worth 20 bucks to let Daisy enjoy a day among other dogs.

Saturday evening was spent singing ourselves hoarse playing our newest Wii game, American Idol Encore. From left to right, these avatars represent Kevin, Alex, and me. I know the butterfly wings look silly, but the kids like them, so they're staying put for now. I don't think we'll be getting Guitar Hero III or Rock Band anytime soon. I'll concede that the Rock Band drum set holds some merit because it actually teaches kids how to play a real life musical instrument, but the fake guitars just seem silly, especially since we have two real electric guitars. If Alex ever wants to play, we'll sign him up for lessons. Or he can just go over to his friend J's house because J's older brothers have Guitar Hero III.

This afternoon J invited him over to play. He lives in the same tract we do, a stone's throw away. A couple of years ago, when Kevin was over there during J's birthday party, a fellow parent commented on the very bling bling car in the driveway next door, and J's dad said his neighbor was a member of an extremely well-known hip hop group.

This is not the only person we know of in the entertainment industry that lives in suburbia. There's the movie producer that lives up the hill on a horse property, the drummer we met at a friend's dinner party who still calls the suburbs of San Diego home despite using L.A. as his official address, and the notorious rapper who lives about a mile from our babysitter's house in the next city over.

Not too long ago, the rapper came up in conversation with a friend of ours, who refused to believe that a guy with such an urban musical persona could possibly live in the suburbs. Her doubt was so contagious that we ended up fact-checking ourselves. Since then Kevin has confirmed that not only did this guy coach his son's football team, he even started his own league. (Plus the police recently came to his house... but we really don't need to go there.)

Today it occurred to me that perhaps the suburbs might be the best place for famous people to ~~hide~~ live. The public expects celebrities to live in places like the Hollywood Hills or Malibu, and they even take tour buses that drive them around so they can ogle these houses, but I doubt they would make the 40 minute trek out to Walnut to stare at nondescript tract homes, where the only way you could possibly stand out is if you didn't maintain your front yard according to city code.

As for the neighbors of famous people, what's their incentive for guarding these celebs' privacy? Well, I for one wouldn't want tour buses unloading camera-wielding groupies on to my lawn. I think that's incentive enough :)

Labels: famous people, kids, pets

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Yesterday morning, on the drive to daycare...

Ana: Mommy, can you still call me Ana when I'm big?

Me: Of course, sweetie.

Ana: Can I still play Littlest Pet Shop when I'm big?

Me: You can play with Littlest Pet Shop for as long as you like.

Ana: *beams*

When I got to work, I had to write a report on what I've been doing for the past 2 months at the request of a higher up, with time estimates for each project. (It wasn't targeted at me; all of my coworkers had to do it.)

I have mixed feelings about this kind of thing. Sure, it felt good to see how much I've accomplished, but I already spend 2 hours a month writing reports with similar content, and this report just added 2 more hours to that time. I could have spent those 2 hours doing something more productive.

Today was a good day. I stayed home, supposedly to sleep in (2.5 hours), eat all day (20 min) and do nothing (0 min), but I ended up cleaning the kitchen (1.5 hours), filing paperwork (1 hour), stopping by the post office (10 min), going to the credit union (1 hour), and writing a letter to the editor (2 hours) in which I referenced Jay-Z AND Neal Stephenson. Kevin was so highly amused by the letter he ALMOST forgot to remind me about how I should have been taking it easy.

Labels: famous people, kids, toys, work

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Friday I took the kids to the doctor for their annual checkup. Alex was lucky because he didn't have to get any shots, but Ana had to get a TB test in order to register for preschool in the fall. The doctor also offered to give her the three boosters that she'll need for kindergarten, but seeing as she was already starting to look agitated during the vision test, I figured I'd do all of us a favor and skip those shots until next year. When the nurse came in with the TB test in a gigantic syringe, Ana started crying, and having to hold her down while the nurse pricked her arm broke my heart.

Saturday passed in a haze as I worked from home. Still, it beat having to travel. Even though I was completely occupied all day, I was grateful to be able to hear the kids playing in the other room and kiss them good night.

Today, after Alex got a much needed haircut and we got some groceries, we took the kids to the store to let them pick out toys using the gift cards they got for their birthdays. While Kevin and Alex headed over to the video game section, I accompanied Ana to the toy section. I was curious to see what her interests were these days. As the younger sibling, so often she ends up playing whatever her big brother wants to play. I was very hands-off as she wandered through the aisles aimlessly, stopping once in a while to point out a toy she already had or examine one she didn't have. Finally she picked 3 toys.

Her first pick was a gorgeous wooden box with 9 games that included chess, checkers, Chinese checkers, etc. I think this toy reflects Alex's influence. He's taken chess lessons for the past 3 years and talks about them all the time. She's probably curious to see what the fuss is about.

Her second pick was a medic kit with a stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, syringe, and bandage. I guess Friday's trip to the doctor's office was still on her mind. When we got home she had me play doctor for all of her stuffed animals. Most of them were healthy, but whenever one was sick and had to get a shot, she gave it lots of comforting.

Her third pick was a Mr. Potato Head set with three characters. It reminded her of a similar toy at daycare. She still has a ton of gift cards left, so Kevin will be taking her back to the store again in a couple of months when I'm home with the baby. I'm curious to see what she will choose then.

Labels: kids, parenting, toys, work

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Last night was Alex's last piano lesson. During the last 15 minutes he and his classmates performed a mini recital for the parents. It was adorable. I asked Alex if he wanted to sign up for another round of classes, and he said sure.

That picture up there is among the first I've taken since Ana's birthday party. I haven't been in a picture taking mood lately. In fact, I haven't been in a mood to do much of anything lately. The third trimester is taking its toll on me. I'm at +20 lbs but it feels like +50 lbs. For the last week and a half I've been coming home from work exhausted every evening with my back feeling wretched. The only recent day when I've felt good was during my last checkup, when my doctor expressed shock at how well I was doing. As he put it, this is usually when pregnant women feel the most miserable. Ah, the irony!

Meanwhile, the only thing that's been cheering me up is watching Youtube videos. Check out this hilarious interview with Daniel Radcliffe on the Ellen Degeneres Show. Hee! This interview with Emma Watson and Rupert Grint on French TV is pretty cool too (:

Labels: famous people, harry potter, kids, music

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Like many kids, Alex used to assume that a baby comes out of a mother's belly button. Why kids think that, I don't know, but everytime he's brought it up, we've corrected him. "No, the baby comes out of the birth canal."

A couple of days ago the topic came up again. So I showed Alex a cross-section of a baby being pushed out of the birth canal in the book, What to Expect When You're Expecting. Then he asked something like, "But where does this happen???" That's when it finally dawned on me that Alex had no idea where the mysterious birth canal was located on the human body. So, I drew a picture.

First, I drew two buttocks as viewed from the side, one for the boy, and the other for the girl. This elicited some giggles, but it served a purpose: everybody knows where the buttocks are. Then on each figure I drew the stomach and thigh. Again, for triangulation purposes.

The next part was tricky. As I drew a p*nis on the boy, I did so as matter-of-factly as possible. Ana continued giggling, but Alex just grinned a little with no other reaction, so I continued. I drew a dot to show where the uretha was on the girl to show that hey, look! They both have the parts for peeing and pooing!

And then, on the girl I drew a small line between the urethra and the buttocks. I pointed to the line and explained, that's where the birth canal is. As I watched him furrow his brow in concentration, I said, only girls have this part, that's why boys can't have babies.

I went on talking about what's going to happen in a month and a half when baby#3 comes. I described what contractions felt like, and when Alex expressed concern over my welfare, I assured him that the doctor will give me medicine so I don't hurt too much. I also described the process of pushing the baby out as being similar to having a bowel movement, which made him guffaw, and the need for the mother to rest lots so she'll have enough energy to push, because otherwise the doctor will have to do surgery to get the baby out. This last statement made him nod solemnly.

At that point, it looked like the conversation was coming to an end, so I asked Alex if he had any other questions. He looked down at my diagram once again and said, "The boy's butt is bigger than the girl's butt."

While Ana laughed uproariously at her brother's outburst, I erased the girl's butt and made it a little bigger. Then Ana took the picture and started drawing little lumps of poo beside each figure. Meanwhile, Alex left the room to start up a video game.

I think it went well...

Labels: kids, parenting, pregnancy

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At age 4 Ana is all but completely potty trained. She wears her big girl underwear proudly and goes to the bathroom without prompting. Most mornings her Pull-Ups are completely dry, but she needs a little extra encouragement to get to 100 percent, so we're introducing a game we first created back when Alex was her age.

Here are the rules: every morning Ana wakes up, if her Pull-Ups are dry, she can put a sticker on her calendar for that day. Every time she reaches 5 stickers, we draw a circle around the 5th sticker, and she can pick a prize out of a bucket of wrapped toys.

Over the weekend Kevin and Alex went shopping for toys to be prizes. I wrapped them all individually and printed blank calendar pages, which were then pinned to the wall in the kids' room. When we explained the game to Ana, she was so excited she could hardly contain herself. She already has 2 stickers because her Pull-Ups were dry both yesterday and today. Now all she needs to do is stay dry for 3 more days and she gets to pick a prize.

The other things I'm hoping to teach her with this game are to be more self aware ("If I want to be dry in the morning, I'd better go pee before bed."), to motivate herself ("Look! I only have one more sticker to go before I get another prize!"), and to get her into the habit of looking at a calendar regularly.

That last goal sounds almost silly compared to the other two, but frankly I think it's just as important in the long run. Calendaring is the first step to learning how to manage one's time, and to be totally honest, it's something neither Kevin nor I learned until college. I figure I'm giving my kids a huge advantage in life by having them start doing this at age 4.

Curiously, Ana asked if Alex would get to play the game too. I explained that he played this game when he was 4 (it's the reason he's got so many Thomas the Tank Engine train cars) and now he's moved on to the allowance game. It's similar to the potty training game in that there's a certain number of days involved, and if he's a good kid for that number of days, he gets his allowance. We started him on this game at age 5, right after he graduated from the potty training game. If all goes well, Ana will start the allowance game at 5 as well.

Labels: kids, parenting

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Even though Alex gets his school picture taken in October and we receive his portraits only a couple of months later, every year it takes forever for the class portrait to get delivered. This year we finally got it on Friday. I've been pondering it curiously ever since. There are 17 kids shown. Alex says there are actually 19 kids in his class, one having enrolled later in the year, so I think the last one must have missed picture day.

The racial breakdown of the class is hard to miss. Kevin chuckled over the fact that there's only one obviously white kid in Alex's entire class. Counting Alex and a few other mixed kids, I guess you can say there are 3.0 white kids in the class. The rest are about 1/3 Hispanic and 2/3 Asian or Pacific Islander. This year there are no black kids in his class.

What I noticed though was the gender breakdown. It's about 50/50 male-female, and as I learned back in January, if you invite all your 2nd grade classmates to your birthday party, you can safely assume no one of the opposite sex will show up. Even though Alex sometimes mentions the girls in his class when he recounts his day, for the most part he plays only with the boys. At age 7 or 8 these kids are already self segregating by gender.

The reason this is on my mind is because they're only 6 months away from becoming 3rd graders. That was the age I found out many of my classmates already knew about the birds and the bees. Here's how it happened: I asked my mom for a box to take to school to turn into a mailbox for my Valentine's Day cards, and when I took the empty tampon box she gave me, several of the kids laughed and made interesting gestures. Despite both knowing very little English and nothing about sex until that point, I quickly figured out what they were talking about.

Kevin thinks there must have been an extraordinarily large number of younger siblings in my 3rd grade class as the only reason he first heard about sex at about the same time was because of his same-aged cousin who had an 11-year-old brother. Either way, time is of the essence. We've got an 8-year-old son whose closest friends all have older siblings, and we want to take advantage of the fact that he's still willing to talk to us about anything, including stories about stuff the girls at school keep doing that have way more subtext than he realizes.

Back when I was a kid I would have loved a book about sex, love, and relationships as I knew no adult was going to tell me anything worth knowing, and fortunately there are plenty of kid-friendly books on these topics now. But frankly, now that I'm a parent, I think it's going to take more than a book to do this right.

For starters, Kevin is wondering whether he should stop skipping over certain parts of the Piers Anthony book he's been reading to Alex at bedtime, stuff like his eyes lingered on her alluring curves -- excuse me while I giggle madly... okay, I'm done -- because including them might draw out questions from Alex. Hmmm.

In other news, I discovered to my great annoyance that someone has stolen our code and posted it on this website: http://senibudaya.blogspot.com. From clues in the source code I'm guessing it's a guy, and he seems to have done it sometime ago as the stolen code resembles Juvin.com circa 2005. So I sent the following message to Blogger, hoping they would contact the user:

Subj: Blogspot user stole our content

The blogger at http://senibudaya.blogspot.com/ is hosting our content on his site without our permission. This includes the Flickr badge as well as other files referenced in his source code.

We have always had a clear copyright notice posted on our site http://juvin.com, i.e. (copyright symbol) 1998-2008. We have allowed individuals to republish our content twice in the past. This was not one of them.

We request that our content be taken off this site immediately.

Blogger replied with a very long and tedious message that began with

Hi there,

Thank you for your note. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office website: http://lcWeb.loc.gov/copyright/ ) and other applicable intellectual property laws, which may include removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity.

To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail, not by email) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that pursuant to that Act, you may be liable to the alleged infringer for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that you own an item when you in fact do not. Indeed, in a recent case (please see
http://www.onlinepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/ for more information), a company that sent an infringement notification seeking removal of online materials that were protected by the fair use doctrine was ordered to pay such costs and attorneys fees. The company agreed to pay over $100,000. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether material available online infringes your copyright, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.

So the burden of proof is on us, and if we can't adequately prove it, we might have to pay the loser attorney fees??? What the hell?!

Incidentally, the two people that I had allowed to use content off our website were both authors. One wrote a book on fortune cookies and cited my fortune cookies page (it's no longer up), and another was writing a college textbook about the Internet with a chapter about blogs. They even showed me how they were going to use the content so that I knew they were going to present it in a professional way.

I guess what bothers me other than the fact that this loser didn't bother asking for permission is that he's totally mangling our content by presenting it on that hideous page. It's as if he was trying to learn HTML and failing very badly. Someone get this guy an HTML for Dummies book, please!

Labels: books, kids, lusers, parenting

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This weekend was Ana's birthday party. Friday night when we went to Costco to pick up her birthday cake, we stopped at a Taiwanese cafe called 三年２班 (Class 302) in Rowland Heights for dinner. It's an adorable little place decorated with school paraphernalia, down to the desks and chairs. One of the dishes we ordered even came in a stackable tin lunch box that I recognized from having spent some of my elementary school years in Taiwan. The food, though not the cheapest, was pretty good, but I didn't like sitting in those awkward wooden chairs. Maybe we can go back when I'm not so uncomfortably pregnant.

This year we rented facilities for both of the kids' birthdays because I got tired of worrying about it raining on their winter parties and because I'm too big and tired to host them at home. There are some downsides: the limited menus, the strict time limits, the restrictions on the number of guests, and related to that, the uncertainty over whether the people we do invite will come. I was utterly thrilled about the turnout at Ana's party though, especially when Peg brought Ashlyn and Summer!!! It's been ages since we've hung out with them, and I really appreciated them making the drive up from the OC.

Now we can relax until next year. With baby number 3 slated to show in late April, I wonder if we should have a joint birthday party at home for all three of them next spring, when the chance of rain is next to nil here in So Cal. We'll see...

Here's a picture of Kevin giving Daisy a bath. Being a straight haired dog, Daisy always looks pretty good even when she hasn't had a bath in *mumble mumble* months. What most people don't realize is how much basset hounds shed. Back in the day I used to be the main producer of the hairy tumbleweeds that we find around the house, but ever since Daisy joined the family, she's got me beat. We'd been wondering if she's been shedding even more due to lack of baths, but she proved that theory wrong. Immediately after her bath she shed enough hair to fill a Swiffer Cloth just by doing a few laps around the dining table.

So I'm now 31 weeks pregnant and +18 lbs. Only 9 weeks left, but it feels like an eternity. The bad: I've been sleeping very, very poorly. It's supposed to be normal during the 3rd trimester, but the last two times it didn't start this early. I'm also constantly congested, and my taste buds seem to have a mind of their own. Everything tastes off. The good: I've been keeping the horrid leg cramps at bay just by standing up regularly. Also, at my checkup last week I learned that my 3-hour glucose tolerance test came back negative. Hooray, I'm not diabetic!

Labels: chinese, food, kids, parenting, pets, pregnancy

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This weekend we reached an important milestone in our financial life: we stuck to our credit card budget two statements in a roll! I haven't been this excited since we paid off all our student loans. Back then it was me wielding the whip that got us there, but I haven't shown much financial restraint since. Sure, I've gone through all the motions of making a budget, but it was just this number in an Excel spreadsheet. Every month I'd pay all the bills and tell Kevin, oh well, we've gone over again.

Finally Kevin got tired of hearing that we weren't putting as much into savings as I'd hoped, so he made it his personal challenge for 2008 to stick to the plan. He started logging into our accounts every week and coloring in a thermometer representing our budget, and during the final week of each billing cycle we've been finding ourselves going to extremes to keep from bursting the thermometer. Not that there's any real consequence to bursting the thermometer. It's just a fun game.

Alex makes an awesome new pattern in Animal Crossing

Speaking of games, Alex drew this impressively accurate representation of Pacman using the pattern editor in Animal Crossing. He has never played Pacman before. When we asked him where he'd seen it before, he said he noticed it on somebody's T-shirt. If the kid does not have a photographic memory, I'd say he has something close to it.

Over the 3-day weekend we had a Harry Potter movie marathon at home. By Monday night we'd watched all five movies, and when I went back to work today I was experiencing serious Harry Potter withdrawal. I don't know how I'm going to make it 'til November when the Half-Blood Prince finally comes out.

One thing I noticed was that Alex watched both Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets with rapt attention but barely paid attention to Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and Order of the Phoenix. Kevin thought it was just short attention span, but I have a different theory. As a kid I never paid much attention to movies or TV shows unless they had at least one character who was my age, and I think that's what happening here. In movies 1 and 2, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were ages 11 and 12, older than Alex but still young enough for him to feel like they're not much older. By the 3rd movie, the characters are 13 years old and full of teenage sturm und drang, and I don't think Alex can relate to that just yet.

With all the lazing around this weekend I experienced the worst leg cramp ever Monday night. My first thought was blood clot (panic!!!) but Kevin assures me I had it this bad the last two pregnancies and rubbed my leg until the pain went away. Also I'm pretty sure my cold is gone and that my runny nose is just due to rhinitis of pregnancy, yet something else I'd experienced the last two times. And finally, I'm back up to +17 pounds, thanks to a huge batch of oatmeal cookies I baked and subsequently ate. (Hey, at least they were made of oatmeal.)

Labels: harry potter, kids, pregnancy, shopping, toys

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A lot of people at work brought up Valentine's Day this week. When they asked what I was planning I told them that we already had our Valentine's Day outing last Sunday. Some people seemed to think that celebrating V-day at the opera was a perfectly appropriate thing, but others didn't seem to get the concept. I know art in general and opera specifically is not for everyone but how could lovers not be touched by great singers, a fabulous orchestra, and luscious set-design telling a timeless story of tragic love? On top of all that, the audience was much younger than I expected. There were loads of twenty-something college students and hipster couples in attendance challenging any assumptions about the appeal of opera to the younger generation.

When I was getting blank stares at this point I segued briefly into the more material gifts like the lovely Merkur double-edge safety razor, badger hair brush and shave soap Julie got me.

It's hard to believe that from roughly the turn of the century until 1971 everyone used these razors and now there's not a single US manufacturer. It's too bad, because all the marketing and downstream revenue lock-in is costing everyone the chance to enjoy a closer, more comfortable, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly shave.

Today Alex came home with a Valentine's Day magnetic dart set given by a classmate to each of the kids in his second-grade class. We were *greatly* amused to see that it had items such as "clean the kitchen" and "breakfast in bed" printed in the various sections. Amused doesn't even begin to describe the reaction he got from us when he told us that two of the other items were "shave" and "wear a dress."

Labels: art, kids, toys

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Those of you who've only been reading this page are missing out. Over on our 365 page we've been blogging everyday. Admittedly it's more record-keeping for the 365 project than anything else, but it does push us to find something to say every single day.

The sandwich shop around the corner has a condiments counter with free pickles, and I run the risk of embarassing myself everytime I go there because I always take so many. Finally I decided it would be less embarassing if I just bought myself some from the store, but when we asked the employees what brand it was, they had no idea because it gets delivered to the store in a big unlabeled jar. So Kevin's been on a quest to find me pickles that taste exactly the same. He hit pay dirt on his third try. These Bubbies kosher dills are awesome!

It's been a big week for Ana. She had her first dental checkup. The appointment went very well, and her teeth looked great. We ran into a minor problem with the fluoride treatment, which caused her to gag and throw up afterwards in the car. I'll have to mention it next time and ask if there are any alternatives.

We also celebrated Ana's 4th birthday. That morning we removed her old car seat and installed Alex's old booster seat in its place. She was excited, and so was I! Her party will be later this month. Look in the mail for your invitation :)

In other news, the battery in the minivan died, so we have to go get a replacement at some point this weekend, except Kevin is sick with a really bad cold. I've already harangued him multiple times for not wearing a jacket on the day he came down with symptoms, and Ana's been doing the same, haha.

I'd better get back to work. I brought my work laptop home this weekend and will probably clock 50+ hours this week. Sigh. At least this kind of week is becoming less frequent.

Labels: food, kids, work

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I'm now 26 weeks, +13 pounds, 2 pounds less than a few days ago. Not sure what happened, maybe I'm retaining less water? Anyway, I've got about 13 weeks left. I can't wait. I'm tired of people looking at my belly instead of my face while talking to me.

We had a busy weekend. Went shopping for a few things Friday night for Alex's birthday party on Saturday, which went better than I had expected. I'd rent a party facility again, even if I weren't pregnant and my back weren't killing me.

In fact, I'm already planning something similar for Ana's party next month. I'll be a month closer to my due date and all the happier for not having to deal with all that cooking and cleaning.

Sunday we went to a lovely baby shower for friends who are having a girl. Most of the women I know who are pregnant are also having girls. Fortunately I do have one friend who is definitely having a boy. Yay, someone to take all of Alex's old baby clothes off my hands!

Yesterday I woke up with a horrendous pain in my abdomen. Baby girl had turned during the night, and she proceeded to take all morning to wiggle into a different position. Meanwhile I gritted my teeth in pain as she shoved either her feet or her head against my stomach.

Unfortunately, all this took place during my glucose tolerance test. The drink was as disgusting as I remembered. Hopefully my blood test comes back okay and I won't have to go through the three hour test like I did with both Alex and Ana. Just thinking about the needles fills me with dread.

After the glucose test we looked at couches in preparation for turning our study into a coffee house. We didn't buy one, but we saw several that would work.

Then I got a hair cut. Alex wondered why. He liked my hair the way it was. (Long.) I thought that was very sweet of him to say.

Then we went home and I helped Ana walk on Kevin's back. She's the perfect weight for working out the kinks, as long as she doesn't jump.

I had other things to say but I can't remember what. Blame it on my pregnant brain.

Labels: kids, pregnancy, shopping

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My HMO has a wellness program that pays members a lot of money for participating. When I first heard about it last year, I didn't bother signing up, thinking the time commitment would be prohibitive. But yesterday I changed my mind. The requirements turned out to be simpler than I thought. All I had to do was fill out a health assessment (already done!) and then participate in three different health education programs via their website.

My health assessment is a boring read, no surprise there, seeing as I've been on my best behavior due to being pregnant. Thanks to my walking buddy I've even been getting plenty of exercise. The only criticism the website had for me was that I didn't eat enough fruits and vegetables, but that's mainly because I haven't been eating much, period. I can't eat as much per meal as I used to because of the baby butting up against my stomach, so ideally I should be eating 6 small meals a day, but seriously, who has the time to eat that often?

I shrugged. Oh well, I'm just doing this for the financial incentive anyway, I thought. But today at lunch I avoided the burger and fries and picked up a tuna sandwich and orange juice instead. Go Hawthorne effect :P

Tonight, while watching Kevin play Animal Crossing...

Alex: Wanna know what would make this game more exciting?

Kevin: What?

Alex: Earthquakes and fires.

Labels: kids, pregnancy, toys

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Last night I finished reading Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, a chronological series of essays on consumer culture, globalization, and their environmental costs, coupled with the author's personal challenge of not buying anything beyond the necessities for an entire year. I didn't necessarily agree with everything she said in her analyses, but I found her personal journey inspirational. While archiving our blog entries from last year, I came across an entry in which I asked whether it was possible to live within a culture without totally buying into it. I feel like this book is helping me answer that question, at least for myself.

Monday I attended the first awards assembly of the year at Alex's school. This one was just for the Kindergarteners, 1st graders, and 2nd graders. Each teacher picked a handful of students from his/her class, and as the child went up, the teacher would explain which one of three reasons they were receiving the award: high academic achievement, most improvement, or good citizenship.

When Alex went up, his teacher said that she chose him for his award not only because he's a good student, but also because he's always helping classmates when they're working in the computer lab. I was really proud of him. (But I didn't cry!!!)

The assembly also included a presentation about the philanthropic project everyone at Alex's school is undertaking for the next few months -- collecting pennies to help a tiny school in Kenya build a library. I've always wondered about the six degrees aspects of these projects, and this time I wasn't left hanging. Apparently, the son of the school's founder works for our school district!

I appreciate these projects because while I agree parents should have primary responsibility for teaching their kids about morality, kids do spend an awful lot of time at school, and I like the tone they set for how the kids should behave towards each other. I also like the emphasis on pennies vs. checks with lots of zeros because it makes kids feel like no good deed is too small.

That night, Ana took on the herculean task of picking all of the pennies out of Kevin's change bucket. She managed to fill up that entire pickle jar with pennies! But I doubt that would be enough to buy a single book for this library, let alone dry wall and roofing material. I think we'll have to supplement with nickels.

Labels: books, kids, parenting

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I'm having a rough week. Somehow I managed to mess up my back. Yesterday I was in so much pain I had to take the afternoon off. After an hour of sitting on the massage chair and a good night's sleep, I've almost recovered, but there's still a huge tender spot on my back. Kevin thinks it's a pulled muscle.

Tuesday was Alex's 8th birthday. The party with family and friends isn't for another week, but we did have a cake for him to make a wish on and a present for him to open. I had to work late, so I didn't get to have dinner with the birthday boy, but I did get home in time to hear all about his day, eat cake with him, and watch his eyes light up when he opened the present.

Wednesday was Alex's first piano lesson. Kevin reported that there are four other kids in his group lessons. Also, the teacher seems to be really good at keeping the kids interested.

I'm thrilled. Music isn't supposed to be punishment, and if Alex told me tomorrow that he'd really rather not take piano lessons, I'd say fine, let's stop and find something better to do. But so far he likes it.

I asked if he'd want to play a band instrument when he hits 4th grade, and he said yes, he'd like to play the drums. (Yay for my wallet! Drumsticks and drum pads are cheap, haha!)

In other news, I'm a Second Life tard. A couple of friends and I got interviewed for an article about SL for a campus magazine, and the photographer wanted to take a picture of us with our avatars. Before we could get shooting, someone asked why my avatar had sticks for arms. I swear, I have no idea how they got that skinny. After much effort I found the setting for fattening up my arms, and in the process I managed to enlarge my hands until they looked like "man hands." By then we had to get going, so I ended up taking pictures with my avatar as is. I must be the only person in SL with an avatar that's uglier than I am in real life. How brilliant is that?

Labels: kids, music, parenting, work

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Julie sent me an excerpt from today's Unshelved blog discussing a problem we've been banging our heads against for a while now. I'll quote the pertinent section:

Our old family office had stations for me, my wife Sara, my housemate ... Jana, and our kids. But while I work in the office 8 or more hours a day, everyone else just drops in for a half hour now and again. So now in addition to my permanent station the new office ... has a nice old round wood table ... two chairs, and a power strip (the printers and server went into a closet). Jana and Sara drift in, plug in their laptops, do some work, and drift out. The table is perfect for meetings (family and otherwise), paying bills, and the occasional need to spread out.

When we furnished our home office five years ago, Alex was two and Ana was still over a year off. The boy already had his own computer (for educational games) and we were planning on having another child so we decided to cram four desks into the smallest room of our house. The logic was that naturally everyone would need their own computer and that putting them all in the same room would give us the opportunity to keep an eye on the kids' web browsing habits. We also felt strongly that each of the kids would need their own horizontal space for doing homework.

Well, five years went by and over time it has become pretty obvious that nobody goes into the study unless they absolutely must. The furniture is nice, the task lighting is adequate, and there's a small window for natural light and fresh air. The problem is, when you put the necessary paperwork and office supply storage for running a family into the same small room as four desks it just becomes an unpleasant environment. As soon as Julie and I each had laptops, the study became storage rather than workspace. The allure of the cozy wingback chairs and sofa in the living room combined with the house-blanketing wifi was too great to resist. You get more work done (and have more fun doing it) when you're in the most comfortable space. This is also the case for homework of course. Alex does his in the same place I did as a kid - at the dining room table while dinner is being prepared. We're right there to help him through any problems and he has a vast, well-lit table to spread out on and be more productive.

In the ensuing conversation we hammered out the details of our new workspace. It ended with Julie proclaiming her undying love for sofas and both of us anxious to clean off and disassemble two desks so there's room for a sofa and a nice coffee table in their place. Eventually we'll replace the two remaining desks with one big desk and lots of shelves/cubbies over it to hold the necessary stuff. The big desk will be for paying the bills, doing taxes, or anything else that requires having lots of paper out at once. The sofa and coffee table will be the perfect place (when combined with the existing lighting) for reading, blogging, uploading photos from our cameras, doing homework, etc. We've already replaced the home server with an NSLU2 and two Passports so our file server now requires about a quarter of a square foot of shelf space. The printers can go on an end table next to the sofa with USB cables an easy reach for nearby laptops. As a final touch, we'll remove the (previously closed and blocked by a desk) door between the study and living room and close the one leading to the hallway instead. It will end up being a semi-secluded extension of the living room rather than a room in its own right.

Tonight Alex learned how to Google by watching me locate his favorite flash games. Julie wandered into the study this evening and found him on YouTube watching nintendo character related fan animation. After getting over the initial shock (and concern) we laughed about the coincidental timing. It's going to be fun converting our old-school office into the home productivity equivalent of the corner coffee house. A place we can all hang out, get things done, and have fun together.

Labels: home improvement, kids, toys

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During our week-long winter holiday we originally had several day trips planned, but the kids got sick, so we took it easy. Aside from shopping and seeing family, we didn't do anything until New Year's Eve, when both kids felt healthy. That's when we all hopped on the train and rode it downtown.

The greater Los Angeles area has some nice public transit systems, but neither Kevin nor I have ever ridden a bus, and I'm the only one who's ever used the Metrolink train system (once). The reason is entrenched in LA's history. This place didn't had the geographic limitations that caused many cities to grow upward, so it grew outward. For instance, the city of Angels is 1.5 times the size of New York City but has less than half the number of inhabitants.

To get on the train here in east Los Angeles County, we couldn't even use the station closest to us because it only runs during commuter hours, i.e. early morning and late afternoon. A few years ago it stopped running midday because it had so few riders during those hours. We caught the 11:30 out of a station that was not only farther away but on a different route. And it wasn't cheap. Total cost of round trip tickets for two adults and two kids was around $30. But our train was impressively full for midday, and the ride was very pleasant. It took us 45 minutes to arrive at Union Station.

From Union Station we walked to Olvera Street. Next to the gazebo at the entrance we saw a Mexican TV station setting up to film the NYE celebration. We also watched three performers in Native American garb doing traditional dances. We strolled down its entire cobblestoned length, then headed over to Chinatown.

In Chinatown we enjoyed a lunch of fried rice and dumplings, then had fun window shopping on Broadway. I was pleased that neither of the kids whined for any of the toys that caught their eye, so the only things we were taking back from this trip were memories and full tummies. We headed back to Union Station via Olvera Street, where we listened to church bells ringing out holiday tunes and ate snow cones for dessert.

Alex's favorite part of the trip? Playing navigator using one of the two new compasses he got for Christmas!

Ana's favorite part of the trip? Snow cones!

Tomorrow I'll post about good intentions - I mean new year's resolutions! :)

Labels: kids, los angeles

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Hope you all enjoyed the holidays! This year we went over to my cousin Lynn and her hubby's house for Christmas potluck. I made green bean casserole and freshly baked rolls, Kevin made bow tie pasta with sausage, and the kids made chocolate cupcakes with green frosting and red/green sprinkles.

Here they are on Christmas Eve, each sampling a cupcake to make sure it tasted all right before taking them to the potluck the next day.

limited edition gold "Legend of Zelda" Nintendo DS

On Christmas morning we opened presents at home first. Kevin won Dad of the Year award with this gift for Alex, a Legend of Zelda edition gold Nintendo DS. Alex is being super careful with it and will be buying a protective case with his allowance soon.

Then we went over to Lynn's house. During Christmas dinner, Lynn offered me a beer. Kevin and I both gaped at her for a beat before she realized what she'd done.

"I totally forgot!" she laughed. "You're so small you don't even look pregnant."

Other than Kevin's daily reassurances, that was the nicest thing anyone has said to me since the start of this pregnancy. At the time I was 22 weeks and +9 lbs. I don't even want to know how much I weigh now.

The day after Christmas we hit a few after-Christmas sales. Got some cards, wrapping paper, and lights. We also stopped at Beard Papa's to enjoy their delicious cream puffs. Kevin had the chocolate, and I had the vanilla. Mmmm, good.

I was so inspired that a couple of days later I tried making cream puffs from scratch. Opened up Joy of Cooking and was delighted to find a recipe that didn't look too hard. The result was ugly but *dangerously* tasty. Kevin and I ended up devouring two whole batches by ourselves.

For some reason this didn't sell well ;)

Let's see, other things we've been doing... Cleaned the house a bit. Donated several bags of clothes to get in the last tax deduction of the year. Most of the clothes were mine. I've held on to all of Alex and Ana's old baby clothes for obvious reasons. Now that I know we're having a girl, I'm waiting to see if my sister is having a boy before giving all of Alex's old clothes to my friend T, who's having a baby boy a few weeks after me. (Can you tell I can't wait to give them away? The amount of baby clothes clogging up our garage is just overwhelming.)

ADDED 01/02/08: Check out this NYT article, Tackling Clutter to Improve Your Health!

I'll blog about our day trip to Olvera Street/Chinatown and our new year's resolutions later.

* FYI, #2 comes on February 7th this year. It's going to be the Year of the Rat!

Labels: chinese, food, kids, pregnancy, toys

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We finished putting together the last of our Christmas cards today. The one advantage in waiting so long is that we were able to include a family portrait taken in front of our own tree. Ana and I had sent Kevin and Alex off to Home Depot to get "the biggest, prettiest tree they've got," and they chose this gorgeous, 7 foot tall Noble fir. It makes the house smell nice.

Today, while the kids were playing in the living room, we took all the presents into our bedroom and wrapped them there, leaving a few unlabeled, from "Santa." Believing in the chubby bearded guy was Kevin's tradition growing up, not mine, but the kids hear about Santa from school, daycare, and pop culture, and I don't see any harm in it, so we're preserving the tradition as long as the kids keep believing.

So all the prep work is done. The ingredients for our holiday meal are in the kitchen, waiting to be cooked. What's left to do but to start planning for Alex and Ana's birthday parties in January and February? Today I called up a party place and made a reservation for Alex's party. Apparently everybody else too busy with Christmas to think about January birthday parties, because I got my number one choice of date and time, yay!

Tomorrow's our last day at work before a week-long holiday. If you don't hear from us, it's because we'll be eating lots, sleeping late, hanging out with the kids, working just a teensy bit from home, and buying up all the good deals at the after-Christmas sales. See you in the new year!

Labels: kids, parenting, shopping

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On top of my usual vitamins, I'm taking antibiotics for the sinus thing, acidophilus to offset the side effects of the antibiotic thing, and Tums and enzymes to deal with the indigestion resulting from the antibiotic thing colliding with the pregnancy thing. But I'm feeling positively grand compared to last week.

Not bothering to step on the scale has also kept my spirits up. I can already tell the baby weight is not going to come off easily this time. It's karmic, really. First time I got back to pre-baby weight in a week. (A week!!!) Second time it took 6 weeks. This time I'll be lucky to get my body back within the year.

I've been meaning to share more of Alex's artwork. He drew the one on the left recently. It really puts me in the spirit of the holidays. The one on the right he drew several months ago, back in 1st grade. Yes, that's the Statue of Liberty. Click to enlarge and read the fabulous story.

Over the weekend Kevin and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary by taking in some good old fashioned big band music, "The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands" at the Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills. It was a fun show. Kevin and I both thought the Dean Martin impersonator was the most entertaining of the three. The theater was beautiful too. The only thing missing was a dance floor.

We also attended a birthday party. If it's possible I think Kevin had more fun than the kids!

To our dear friends D and J: we've got our fingers crossed for you!

Labels: kids, meds, music, pregnancy

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You know that moment in a sci-fi/fantasy movie when the hero/ine grabs their head, crashes to their knees, and experiences a cgi-induced vision that implies they are either 1) psychic, 2) being controlled by unseen forces, or 3) more powerful than they could ever imagine? I had one of those visions on Thursday, except all it told me was that I was 4) suffering from a bad sinus infection. I immediately popped an extra-strength Tylenol, then picked up the phone and scheduled a doctor's appointment for early this morning.

I took Ana along to my appointment because I didn't have time to drop her off at daycare beforehand. In the middle of my appointment, while I was discussing with the PA which antibiotic would best take care of my little problem, Ana calmly informed me that she needed to go to the bathroom. If you know kids, you know that meant I had about 10 seconds to get her on a toilet or else suffer the consequences. As I picked Ana up and ran for the nearest bathroom, the PA called after me and said she would send a prescription for my antibiotic of choice to my pharmacy. I yelled thanks back over my shoulder.

These days Ana's favorite toy is a magnifying glass. She likes to use it to look up my nose. I'm just glad she doesn't use it to torture ants.

Tonight, while Kevin and I discussed our evil plans to take over the world, aka the finances, I told him that on Monday, as I got on the plane for my meeting in San Jose, I suddenly remembered that we still hadn't signed me up for life insurance.

Where's the form? I asked, you were supposed to help me get that done.

It's somewhere around here, he motioned vaguely. Then he told the kids to get ready for their bedtime story.

Months and months of forced conversations, changes in topic, and now missing forms. It was just as hard when we signed him up for life insurance. Neither of us wants to think about the possibility, but I'm not going to be able to avoid plane rides for the rest of my life.

Labels: kids, meds, parenting, pregnancy, toys

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I'm still sick, hence the grumpiness. I can't believe I'm still sick. Why the heck am I still sick???

Saturday I took Kevin to see Wicked. It was good. So good, in fact, that I felt compelled to buy my very first Broadway musical shirt, a green thermal with the words, "Green for Good" emblazoned across my ample pregnant chest. I felt slightly less grumpy.

We also celebrated Kevin's birthday with my family. My mom prepared a delicious hot pot, which didn't quite clear my sinuses. Over dinner, I grumped that my colds often turned into sinus infections, and my sis the doctor advised me to get a sinus cleansing kit. Apparently everybody else in the universe has already been told about this product by their doctors, because when we stopped at the drugstore on the way home, that section of the store was cleaned out.

Sunday Ana helped me baked birthday cookies for Kevin. Afterwards I collapsed on the couch from exhaustion, but I was slightly less grumpy.

Monday morning, after a bad night's sleep, I had to wake up at an ungodly hour to drive myself to the airport for a meeting in San Jose. During the flights there and back my ears hurt even more than usual from being sick. Also, it was REALLY COLD in San Jose. I had the foresight to wear a knit cap, gloves, and ski jacket, but my jeans didn't provide much protection. I was extra grumpy.

Tuesday I took the day off to recover from Monday, and I kept Ana home from daycare to cheer myself up. My grumpiness petered off into a mostly manageable lethargy.

Today I went back to work. I answered a bunch of emails, attended some meetings, and blew my nose a LOT. I'm grumpy again.

Now I'm going to go cleanse my sinuses. Have you ever cleansed your sinuses? It's not an attractive procedure. So unattractive, in fact, that I feel more sorry for the model in the instruction booklet that came with my sinus cleansing kit than I do for myself, because modeling the right way to cleanse one's sinuses is right up there with modeling support hose and nursing bras.

Labels: food, kids, meds, music, shopping, work

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So, what I was saying is this. Any third world mutt given a dinner of leftover chicken meat (sans bones even!) to complement some boring dry dog food would be totally happy, not to mention healthy. What does our purebred first world dog go and do? Have another heaving attack of diarrhea, all over the dining room.

Here's where I share my trick for deoderizing a room: microwave popcorn. The stuff is amazing, better than Lysol. Just pop a bag and wave it around. It will mask the foulest odors.

(Eating the popcorn after using it for this purpose is totally optional. I know I couldn't bring myself to do it.)

In other potty news, Ana is done using her little potty chair, yay! Now we can pack it away in the garage until number three is ready to use it.

And speaking of number three, I'm now at week 19. Within the last two weeks I gained a disconcerting 4 pounds for a total weight gain of 5 pounds. While putting on a sweater with a geometric design, I had a full on panic attack, complete with a self diagnosis of gestational diabetes.

"I look like a FAT ABSTRACT PAINTING!!!" I wailed.

Then Kevin reminded me that I went through similar growth spurts when I was pregnant with Ana. He wondered if it had something to do with the girly hormones, because my weight gain with Alex had been much more steady. I'm just glad that one of us remembers stuff like this. Hopefully my glucose test next month confirms it.

My belly is huge now. Not wearing a maternity belt is no longer an option. For weeks I tried and failed to find my old belt, and I was despairing at the thought of having to brave holiday crowds at the mall just to get a replacement when I finally found it in the last box of baby stuff, huzzah!

I've also started wearing nursing bras. Yeah, real sexy :P but none of my normal bras fit anymore, and I'm too cheap to buy new bras in a bigger cup size only to have to give them away in five months.

Here I've recruited Alex and Ana to my cause of cultivating plants that Mommy isn't allergic to. Costco apples come in these plastic packages perfect for sprouting seeds, sunflower seeds in this case. The kids are spooning potting soil on top of the seeds. Now the trays will sit in the garden window in my kitchen, where it's all snug and warm, until the seedlings get a few inches tall, and then we'll plant them in the back yard.

Recently Kevin wore a dark red sweater over a button down shirt.

Ana: Daddy, you look funny!

Me: Ana, that's not a nice thing to say!

Ana: (in a stage whisper) But mommy, he looks like a TEACHER.

Labels: allergies, food, gardening, kids, pets

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