virtualberta

Milk drunk

2010-01-29T00:30:00.000+08:00

Now this is what food coma should be like!

A year ago...

2010-01-14T22:20:00.002+08:00

...my little bun was a blastoplast in the oven. Ok, he was probably already an embryo but blastoplast is such a cool word! And now he's a little pre-sitter!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T00:58:00.003+08:00

My parents' visit ends in a few days, and in the 3+ weeks that they've been here little munchkin has grown so much. Today he weighed an unofficial 6.5 kilos on the bathroom scale.Now, he can:"stand" while supportedgrab things and hold them with his handsee across the room, and thus follow people with his eyessee (and stare!) at the TV screen Just this past weekend, it's as if the world just

Bedtime Story #2

2009-12-31T21:37:00.003+08:00

Freshly bathed by Daddy, we settle our little one for bed. He's not quite ready to nurse himself to sleep, so I grab a cloth book to read him a story. For the first time, he is interested in the book and grabs the cloth animals with his fat fists and explores the book, turning it this way and that, putting the edges into his mouth. Eventually he tires and begins to ease into sleep. Not the

Bedtime Story #1

2009-12-26T22:56:00.002+08:00

Holding him in my arms, my cheek pressed against his cheek, all soft baby skin and pillowy baby fat, while bouncing on a yoga ball. He finally falls asleep for (hopefully) the night, nearly three hours after what we had hoped would be his bedtime.But, how many chances will I have again for him to be still and allow me to rest my cheek against that sweet baby cheek?

A silver lining

2009-12-21T22:44:00.002+08:00

My favorite part of night feedings (I know, you must wonder how there could possibly be anything pleasant about those mandatory nightly sleep disruptions) is the expression my little guy makes as I burp him. You see, the little fellow is tired and wants to go back to sleep, but he also knows he's gassy. So as he's sitting on my lap getting burped, he keeps his eyes shut and pouts. It's so

Bedtime

2009-12-12T23:12:00.002+08:00

Every night, my little guy needs me to cuddle him to fall asleep. I used to feel constrained; there are so many things I could get done in the 45-60 minutes it takes for him to go into a deep sleep state so that I can sneak away. But I look at his chubby cheeks and pouty lips, and I feel his tummy rise and fall with each breath as it is pressed up against mine. And I cherish this short time

Adventures in EC

2009-12-10T19:09:00.001+08:00

I caught my first poo yesterday. Actually, it was by accident; I was trying to catch a pee after his nap and he pooped instead. This is a good thing; wiping his butt is much easier when he's pooped in a potty instead of a diaper.Alas, I didn't change his diaper last night in an attempt to get him to sleep longer. While it was luxurious to have 2 (TWO!) 3-hour (THREE vs 1 or 2) sleep sessions

I love my baby's...

2009-12-10T00:07:00.001+08:00

...feet, with toes like Tic Tacs. So yummilicious!

Before I forget...

2009-12-07T15:50:00.002+08:00

In the past couple of weeks, my baby:can lift his head and feet up when on his tummydiscovered his hands and has started sucking on his fistssmiles throughout the day, not just in the morning smiles with delight and turns his head with relish when I read his hungry signals early and offer him a chance to nurseprefers to nurse himself to sleep when tiredAlso a big plus:he's spitting up less and

It's hard to believe...

2009-11-25T20:55:00.002+08:00

..that in just over two months, I went from this:to this:

Caught my first pee

2009-11-12T21:27:00.000+08:00

Context here.

Mommy's sunshine

2009-11-01T21:30:00.000+08:00

The thick fog of fatigue was pierced by a ray of sunshine as I woke up for an early morning feeding to find my son giving his mommy a big smile for the first time.

Preggo Tip #1: Stuff that helped me through pregnancy

2009-09-14T14:59:00.005+08:00

So this is a long overdue post. Since I've found a lot of helpful tips from mommy blogs and online forums, and I know a number of ladies expecting this year, I have long wanted to do a series of posts on stuff I've learned along the way. Here's my must-have list of items to make pregnancy easier, with a focus on money-saving tips since I'm a bargain shopper who loves a good deal:Belly bands - a

36/37 weeks: trapezoidal tummy

2009-09-12T12:29:00.005+08:00

For about the past two weeks, the little guy has taken a liking to morning stretches, usually commencing at 7 a.m. However, this is not so fun for mommy because her tummy ends up being (painfully) stretched into a trapezoid, often a parallelogram.Note that I'm taking the photo straight down. I have a big bump above my left hip and below my belly button, and usually a smaller bump above the belly

35 weeks: top of Taipei 101

2009-08-29T14:45:00.004+08:00

Even though Taipei 101 was completed in 2004, I've yet to go to the observatory at the top. Well, on Tuesday, I went up to the top.Thankfully, the wind damper is much larger than the bump. Last Saturday, we went to the pool and the beach (I got plenty of Vitamin D for the little guy) and on Sunday, Jen organized a baby shower for us.We had a great time catching up with friends - thanks for

33/34 weeks: busy busy bee

2009-08-21T13:34:00.003+08:00

Been busy running about town, taking care of errands, and catching up with old friends. Last week I finally set up my iSight (it was really very easy; I don't know why I took so long to get around to it) and caught up with friends far and wide - some remotely via Skype, some over the phone, and the old-fashioned way: in person. Angela was visiting from Singapore, so there was dinner with her

32 weeks: Typhoon Morakot brings cooler weather

2009-08-09T15:38:00.005+08:00

Typhoon Morakot has come and gone, leaving behind cooler weather. Thank goodness! The time before a typhoon comes is always hot and muggy, and there's nothing like swampy steamy weather to make one feel particularly pregnant. Thankfully we suffered no damage, although I saw on the TV news today that a hotel (mostly due to shoddy construction) in the Jhihben (知本) Hot Springs area of Taitung County

Blog recommendation: Rural Doctoring

2009-08-07T23:07:00.003+08:00

It's a typhoon day today, and for the past couple of days I've been utterly hooked into reading Rural Doctoring, a great blog about a family physician working in rural Northern California. She is a great writer, and although I was initially drawn in by her birth stories series, her other stories about practicing medicine are equally thoughtful and thought-provoking about the decision-making

31 weeks: simple acts of kindness

2009-08-03T21:14:00.004+08:00

Friday was my last day of work—one of my co-workers at the parent company waited for me to finish packing up my stuff and kindly helped me carry it to my car. Now we've exchanged pleasantries by the water cooler, but I don't know her well so I was really touched by her kindness. It's acts of kindness like this that makes up for others' passive-aggressive immaturity (I know, almost every workplace

30 weeks: simple summer salads

2009-07-29T22:21:00.008+08:00

Actually a few days late, as I'm not at 31 weeks, but this photo was taken at 30 weeks.The bump has definitely gotten bigger. These past couple of weeks we've been making lots of summer salads. Two weekends ago we went to Camp Taiwan, courtesy of our friend Jenn, who is a counselor there. While there, the hubs and I made a broccoli slaw that was really well-received: lightly steamed broccoli and

28 weeks: swelling

2009-07-13T01:01:00.003+08:00

The biggest change this week was swelling. I first noticed my swollen feet last Saturday night but chalked it up to sitting and eating for several hours at my cousin's wedding dinner. After we went back to our hotel room, I put my feet up and the hubs rubbed my feet and it was a lot better. The swelling came back a little the next day, but I attributed that to flying back to Taipei.The, Monday

Cultural differences

2009-07-07T00:39:00.003+08:00

I bumped into my saleslady tonight at the gym. She congratulated me in my obviously pregnant state and reminded me to make an appointment with her soon to put my membership on hold since I wouldn't want to be working out late in my pregnancy.Actually, I told her, in my current swollen state and facing an already sweltering Taiwan summer with my own personal heater residing in my bump, the thought

27 weeks: fun & sun on the Great Barrier Reef

2009-06-30T20:37:00.003+08:00

Sunday we left Melbourne for Hamilton Island, part of the Whitsunday Islands near the Great Barrier Reef. Hamilton Island is probably best known as the islands featured in Tourism Queensland's Best Job in the World campaign.(on Catseye Beach on Hamilton Island)Alas, we're not being paid $110,000 to explore the islands, swim, and snorkel. Nevertheless, we did manage to enjoy our trip to Whitehaven

26 weeks: bump on a log, bump on me

2009-06-26T22:27:00.002+08:00

We're in Oz now for a wedding. Thursday we went on the Great Ocean Road for some sightseeing and what sights did we see! We saw koalas (furry grey balls), parrots, cockatoos, and magpies. We also did some short walks around the Erskine Falls and Aireys Inlet Lighthouse.