Laffffalot's Xanga

Welcome to the world Baby Sophia!

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:21:33 GMT

Sophia Hu was born on February 6, 2008 at 6:29am weighing 7 pounds, 3.4 ounces!!

Taking votes. Who does she look like more?

I started a new blog for our baby, where I'll update pictures and thoughts about this whole being a mommy thing. http://babyhu.blogspot.com/

I decided not to publish the birth story on the web because we ended up (unexpectedly) having her in our home instead of a hospital, which is sort of a controversial thing, so if you're curious, give me a call or email me. I'd love to share the story, and I think I'm just about fully recovered and ready to be sociable again!

Random Stuff

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:14:44 GMT

Jensen and I watched Eat Drink Man Women this weekend (highly recommended film!), and it left me desperately craving some real Chinese food. The only Chinese food we've found in the area since we've moved here was Americanized Chinese takeout. Ick. I was even willing to eat P.F. Chang's this weekend! Fortunately, we asked a guy at the church we've been going to if he knew of any good Chinese places and he pointed us to a Chinese noodle house called A&J. Hooray! We ordered spicy beef noodle soup, green onion pancake, wonton soup, shao-long bao, and some small cold appetizer dishes. It made me very happy. The cafe was also adjacent to a small Chinese supermarket that sold boa-zhi and tzong-zhi, and a Chinese bakery that had my favorite -- egg custard bread with red bean paste! woohoo!

My food tastes seem to be going back to normal now. Since I have been pregnant, I have had aversions to broccoli and any kind of curry, but the other day, we were at the Asian supermarket, and they were giving out samples of golden curry, and for the first time in a while, it smelled good to me! I made a big pot of it for the week, and ate it with some steamed broccoli.

Today I filled out an absentee ballot application for the primary elections on Feb. 12 for the state of Virginia. The reason I wrote on the form was "Disability or illness - Pregnant, due Feb. 7. May be recovering or possibly in labor." This will be my first time voting in the primaries. I never really followed them before, but it's such an exciting election year! I wish that VA would let you vote in both Democratic and Republican primaries, but they make you choose just one.

I'm 37 and a half weeks pregnant now, which means the baby could pretty much come at any moment now. I haven't had any signs that she'll be early, but who knows. I'm scheduled to work for two more weeks, and I told Jensen we should drive to work from now on....just in case. The thought of having contractions on the metro doesn't sound so fun. Plus, it sure is getting cold up here. We were in the teens this weekend. brrr..

Expectancy

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 15:12:59 GMT

Another thing I'm enjoying about pregnancy is that I find that I really love what I call "periods of expectancy" -- those stages between major life events where you prepare your heart and your mind for the promises ahead. There is a mixture of anxiousness and excitement, of wonderment and fear, an openness and teachability that I think is unlike the "steady" periods of one's life.

I liken pregnancy to our period of engagement. I think there are many reasons why we have in our tradition an engagement period, and it isn't merely to have time to plan a wedding. I loved that time of mediating on God's gift and plan for marriage, of learning what it means to be a wife and a married couple, the weightiness of the calling and responsibility, looking back at what had brought us to that point, remembering that the Lord had done great things for us and expecting the same for the future. I'd encourage any engaged folks (and I know there are a ton out there) to really enjoy that time for what it is and not let the planning of the wedding event take over. It is a sweet period of one's life.

In the same way, I think it is no accident that we have 40 weeks to prepare for the actual arrival of our newborns. It is too a precious time of excitement and mystery and transformation. In the way that we often get caught up with wedding planning during our engagement periods so much that we forget to focus on preparing our hearts for marriage, I have found that I have been caught up with planning and preparing for the birth event, but neglecting to prepare my heart in becoming a mother. Of course, wedding planning and birth planning are things that need to be done, but it is also a bit of short-sightedness to focus on those things alone. After all, those things are over in a day (hopefully...in regards to labor ) but you have a whole lifetime of marriage and parenthood ahead of you!

35 week mark

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:14:47 GMT

Now people are going to think I'm a total weirdo. First I say I'm actually looking forward to labor, and now I say I think I actually am going to miss bring pregnant. Sure, there is some discomfort. I waddle around like a little duckling, and my pelvis aches from all the weight bearing down on it. My legs get numb if I sit still for too long, and I get short of breath after just one flight of stairs. And there are all sorts of other mysterious and weird things that happen.

But feeling a little person moving around inside of you is such an amazing experience. I honestly sometimes think my husband is envious that I'm the one that gets to bear children (or really the special mother-baby bond that results from it). It really is quite a privelage. I'm not sure why some women get bitter at their husbands that they don't have to go through it. Now really, what is the point of that?

Plus, it's kind of nice not having to deal with the monthly period, having free license to eat like a black hole and having my husband forbid me from cleaning the bathroom cause he doesn't want me inhaling any chemicals (even though we use Seventh Generation cleansers, which I don't think are so bad).

Lastly, I think being pregnant makes me feel beautiful. Whenever I saw pregnant women before, I always thought they looked so cute and lovely. It's not just the hormones or the "glow" that people talk about. I actually think it looks more proportional...hahaha. There is just something "right" about the way the butt and the belly offset one another...it forms a nice counter-balance. (This is of course assuming a fairly healthy pregnancy weight gain.)

Of course, none of this is to say that I'd rather stay pregnant than give birth. It's just some funny thoughts I was having last night.

32 weeks and counting

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:45:40 GMT

We're now at 32 weeks, which means the expected due date is just about 2 months away!!! Here I am carrying 30 extra pounds. I'm definitely starting to feel it. Today, everytime I got up from sitting, even from just a short car ride, my legs would feel slightly numb because of the lack of blood circulation.

The baby has been kicking a lot, and thankfully, I feel all her kicking above my belly button. Good sign. That means her legs are up and her head is down, which is much safer for birthing. They don't even want to try to vaginally birth a breech (feet down, head up) baby over in the D.C. area...it's almost as if it is a lost art and no one wants to take the risk, which is just one reason why the c-section rate in this area is over 40%!!! (National average is closer to 25%. Optimal rate according to the World Health Organization is about 10%) So anyways, we're praying that she stays head down.

I'm getting really excited about the birth, not only finally getting to hold my baby and see what she looks like, but I'm actually really looking forward to experiencing labor. Think that's weird? Well, for one thing, I think it's all a part of being a woman, and I think that's a blessed thing. I feel a lot of confidence that I can do it, that I'll be able to cope with the pain, that God has created my body to do it and has given me all that I need to get through it, and that Jensen will be amazing at supporting me, as he has been amazing so far.

It's kind of like when you're preparing for a marathon or some other physical feat. You train and train, all to culminate on the day when you put your body to the test, and find that, yes, you can do it! And if any unexpected complication happens, at least I will know that we did what we could to prepare and we can be at peace about it.

Snow Day Pictures!

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 19:42:33 GMT

The view from my office. It was snowing all day and I couldn't concentrate on work, I just wanted to stare out the window the whole time.

Our apartment complex at night.

The next morning. View from our porch.

Right outside our apartment

It's snowing!!!

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:36:44 GMT

Our first snow of the winter! Woohoo!!!

My co-workers think I'm goofy for being so excited about snow. I'll post pictures when I'm on my home computer!

Friday, November 30, 2007

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:00:34 GMT

Yesterday, Jensen and I went to a restaurant over here called Austin Grill. It's owned by native Austonians and kind of copies the menu and atmosphere of Kerbey Lane and Chuy's. I was so excited when we stumbled across it! They had the same brightly painted walls, the same red baskets for the chips, the same round aluminum to-go boxes that Kerbey Lane uses, and of course, the signature giant plastic water cups that you only really see in Texas. Some of the wait staff even wear the Keep Austin Weird t-shirts!

Sigh..it brought back all these feelings of nostalgia for me. I hadn't eaten chips and salsa in so long, and the last tex-mex dining experience we had was On the Border, which was just nasty. Austin Grill was better, but still sub par in my opinion. That's ok. Just being there made me reminiscent of our Austin days. Here were some noticeable differences:

1. They didn't automatically fill up the chips and salsa. You had to ask for it!

2. The portions were definitely not Texas-sized portions. I didn't have anything left to take to-go! Then again, that could be the pregnancy appetite.

3. I like the chicken in my chicken enchiladas shredded, not in chunks. Both On the Border and Austin Grill cut their chicken instead of shredding it.

4. The prices were probably 50% more than Austin prices, yet still considered cheap for the area!

Sigh, but it will have to do for now until we can make it back to Austin for a visit.

We have however found a BBQ place that Jensen is pretty happy with. It's nothing like good 'ole Rudy's with it's parchment paper, picnic tables and laid back atmosphere. It's more of an upscale place in a hip part of town, but the ribs are fall off the bone, and that keeps him happy.

Holiday Traditions

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:02:38 GMT

This Friday-after-Thanksgiving, Jensen and I went to a Christmas tree farm to pick out our very first live Christmas tree! We were both super excited about this because we have always grown up with plastic trees in our homes, and obviously, there aren't really Christmas tree farms in Texas (just live Christmas trees sold in parking lots or at Home Depot I think)

Here's Jensen cutting down the tree we picked.

And here it is set up in our home! We don't have any ornaments yet, so it looks kind of plain, but after having a real tree, we're not sure we can ever go back to plastic. Now when I see plastic trees, they just don't look quite as pretty to me, and it's so nice having the piney smell in the home. We look forward to taking our kids to the Christmas tree farm to find that perfect tree, and making it a family tradition.

This will be my first Christmas away from home. I have sort of mixed feelings about it. I'm excited about starting new family traditions with Jensen, and enjoying a lot of the holiday festivities they have in this area, but it is sad to be far from our families. In some ways, it's easier this year that I can't travel during the holiday season due to the pregnancy because we didn't have to make those tough decisions that newlyweds have to make about whose parents to spend the holidays. We'll just have to see about that next year.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:00:35 GMT

Something sort of random

Crate and Barrel sent us a $25 gift certificate for DonorsChoose.org, a charitable website where teachers submit needs they have for their classrooms, and people can choose to donate to projects that appeal to them. I'm not sure why they sent this to us...maybe because we registered there for our wedding so they have our contact info, but I like it. I much prefer it to getting a 10% off coupon or something since I really don't need anything else from there. But it does make me like the company more, aside from their pretty designs.

It's kind of crazy searching through some of the requests teaches have. It makes me realize how much abundance my schools had when I was growing up and what a big gap there really is between a high-income school and a lower-income school. Not that that's all news to me, but some teachers are just asking for the most basic things like chairs for their classroom! It's also fun to read the teachers' project proposals because they get pretty creative, and you can really hear the passion in their tone and that they genuinely want to provide their students with the best learning opportunities they can.

Job Update

In other news, the job here is going really well. I find that it is just the perfect balance between challenging and mentally stimulating and a relaxed, low pressure environment. I know the job can get high pressure at some point, and some people are already feeling it, but I think God has really blessed me with a really great trainer and a really great boss. My boss is the one who assigns all my work to me, and he's been really nice about giving the new hires easier cases to start out with. Not every boss takes the extra effort to ensure the new hires are successful and building confidence (other people are getting really painful and complicated cases), but mine does.

My trainer is also super nice, and I have a lot of respect for him. He's one of those jolly optimistic grandpas that loves to encourage people. I think some people find it annoying because he gets to be very repetitive, but I know he's totally genuine and I like it about him. I think he creates a positive atmosphere, which is certainly a welcome change from my last job, where all the senior folks just loved to complain and talk badly about other people. I think the fact that our environment is noncompetitive makes a world of difference. Your ratings and promotions are only based on your production levels (kind of like a quota system), so you're not compared against other people, and there isn't any subjectivity built into your ratings. This is what I was looking for! Competition really makes some ugly people. You get lots of people who have been around a long time thinking that nothing was fair and they get bitter thinking that they didn't get promoted when so-and-so did, etc. etc. The frequency of layoffs certainly doesn't help either. I'm glad I won't have to go through another one of those again if I were to stay at this job long term. All this to say, if you have a science or engineering degree, consider a job at the Patent Office and move out here with us!

Baby Update

Yesterday, the baby was kicking so hard that I actually saw the surface of my belly raise up. Craziness. I've seen pictures where you can even see the outline of a foot! Very weird.

I'm starting to feel a bit more discomfort now. Sigh..the golden second trimester is over. I was getting some leg cramps the other night, and then the following day, I was reading a lamaze book which said that some women get leg cramps during pregnancy and that it's a sign of calcium deficiency. I wasn't even looking for that information, so I felt very thankful for books. The calcium deficiency makes sense, as I haven't been getting my four daily doses of dairy. I can also feel some weakness in my ankles, which I suspect could be related as well.

The latest hippie parenting thing that I'm learning about is infant potty training. For those of us from Asian backgrounds, it really isn't that odd to have a child potty trained even before their first birthday (do you have faint memories of your mommy whistling?), but for the U.S., where children on average aren't potty trained until the age of 3, it's pretty countercultural and labeled as sort of weird and crunchy. That's ok with me. I'm still going to give it a shot. In the U.S., the general belief is that babies aren't ready to control their bodily functions until the age of 2, but it is sort of odd that we potty train a puppy immediately and don't have them walking around in diapers. Why would human babies not be able to learn early on as well? All in all, it sounds great to have diapering over as soon as possible. It's better for the baby (no diaper rash), better for parents (who wants to change diapers for two years?!) and better for the wallet. The only tough spot is that it's so rare in our culture that you'd be hard pressed to find babysitters, day cares, or other care takers who know how to do it.