Taking G out solo

First of all, I have to give myself props for venturing outside w/ G by myself, yay to me! Also have to be proud that I can blog 3 days in a row! Yeah, see how long that lasts!

So, about this solo trip. A friend has repeatedly invited me to join a mom's ministry from her church. I had been neutral about it every time, but as I was looking at the most recent email from her and the ministry's website, E happened to sit next to me and saw the site too, commenting, hey, that's really close to us, and there's a meeting tomorrow! He encouraged me to go check it out, with the added bonus that he would even make me breakfast that morning! Whoa, can't pass that up! So I packed G up into the car (yes, it was close, but we still drove, maybe later I'll consider walking), and we met my friend there. We went to different classes, as her child is older than G. The class I went to was more like a "Mommy & Me" class, teaching songs and baby signs, different themes each week. I think G is a little young for it right now, we won a little prize for G being the youngest child there (she's 5.5 weeks, and I still haven't even had my post-partum check-up). Anyways, most of the other babies in my class (for new moms) were like 4-11 months. We'll see if I keep going.

The funny thing about the outing was how everyone kept commenting on how good I looked for G being so young and also how alert G was, making her seem older than she was. I get the G being alert and therefore seemingly older, I guess most babies sleep, which G does a lot of at home, but she definitely is interested in looking around when she's awake, especially when in a new place or w/ new people. The finny comments were about how I looked (remember, these were people who didn't know me and had never seen me before). I asked my friend about it later, what was I supposed to look like? Tired & haggard, like I haven't slept or showered in days? If I was that tired, I just wouldn't go out and would stay at home. However, the hygeine part may be semi-accurate, but I won't give out any details. All I'll say is that I did in fact brush my teeth today, thank you very much.

Now for a tiny nap for me before G wakes up...

Finally Alone!

Today marks the first day we finally have the house all to ourselves... Grandparents left Tuesday, Uncle (mostly) finished the remodel construction yesterday. It is so nice to have the whole house to ourselves, I could watch TV and use the computer in the living room while nursing G (it's so nice to be able to nurse G somewhere OTHER than my bed!), leave the bedroom shade open, and finally vacuum & swiffer the floor to get it somewhat clean. Every day or so, my mom or I (ok, mostly my mom) would clean the floor, only to have it continuously get dirty.

This weekend is big garbage pick up in our area, so we are very committed to unpacking the rest of our stuff so we can dump all the extra stuff. Yay to almost having a usable garage! We were considering going up to Tahoe for some spring snowboarding this weekend but after finding out about the big garbage wkend, we decided that was probably more important. Sigh. Guess S will have to wait until next season to get her snow fix.

Delayed 1 Month Update & New Discoveries

So, I had intended to post something on G's first month, but that was last week and this is the first chance I've had to get online to post. That's what parenthood is about, everything takes WAYYYY longer. Had a family get-together for her one month "Man Yue" thing. According to my grandmother, because G was born at 11:30 at night, it counts as the next day, and in addition to the Chinese tradition of starting out life at one year old at birth, that means technically we celebrated her "thirteenth month plus one day"...

Oh, also in her first month, I got to discover the wonderful world of plugged ducts, we took G on her first trip to SF (for her friend's Red Egg party), met all her grandparents.

G also graduated to the next diaper size, maybe a week or more ago. We are using 7th Gen diapers and when E was sent on his first trip to buy diapers a few weeks ago, he called from the store wanting to buy Size 1 diapers instead of the newborn ones because you get like 12 or 16 more diapers for the same price. Uhh, she's not that big yet so stick w/ the newborn size. However, she is now on the Size 1 diapers, yay! We've got "new parents" written all over our foreheads, I took pictures of her in her Size 1 diaper... like I'm going to have time to scrapbook all of this! We'll see, I still have high hopes.

On a more recent note, today G discovered her fingers/thumb. This morning as E was changing her diaper, she was unusually quiet, and E noticed that she was sucking a finger. Of course we had to stop everything to take a picture because it was oh so cute! Then, later when she woke up from only sleeping an hour, I was doing everything I could to get her back to sleep. I put her in the sling, trying it left-handed for the first time which totally threw her off because she kept turning her head into the sling instead of outwards (way to freak out new mom smothering her baby in the sling). Anyways, we finally figured it out, and she was still crying and seemed to want to nurse, but I had started heating up some chicken & rice soup my mom had made because I was hungry so I wanted to eat first before feeding G (yeah, that didn't happen...) So, I was walking around with G in the sling, and she would quiet down and nod off in between crying and one of the times she nodded off, I noticed her thumb in her mouth, fingers up along her nose towards her eyes... so cute! Of course, tried to get a picture of it, but have you ever tried to take a picture of a baby while wearing her in a sling? Very difficult. I'll have to get E to upload the pics from my camera...

One Month

Apparently I logged on to blogger to post about her one month and it saved my blank post so here it is...

Quick 3 week recap

Week 1: Welcome to the world, G! She's 6 lb, 13 oz and 19 inches at birth (Feb 25, 2 wks early). Had lots of visitors at hospital on Day 1. Checked out from hospital evening of Day 2, had a two nite sleepover at friend R's house (R is 6 wks older than G, thankfully, her parents were gracious to let our new family stay over while we were homeless). Grandma (S's mom) arrives on the scene Day 4 and family moves to another friend's place that is currently empty. Nursing is painful, nights are getting more managable, going thru lots of diapers, especially trying to wake G up for her every 2-3 hr feedings. S is learning how to multi-task nursing and being on the computer (typing w/ one hand).

Week 2: Still not moved into our house yet, thanks F for letting us stay at your place, it's so nice! Nursing is getting better now that we went to a lactation consultant (now S just has to heal!). At G's two week checkup, she's past her birthweight (7lb, 5oz) and we get the go ahead to feed on demand now instead of having to wake her up.

Week 3: G has her first outing that's not a doctor's visit! Grandma's birthday is Monday, so E & S take her to Korea House. G slepted thru the whole thing, lucky for us! However, the next day lunch at Todai (Great-Grandparents finally meet G, Uncle J & Aunt A come too) was not as good, had to keep pushing G around the buffet to keep her sleeping, and was 30 min late to lunch b/c of changing diapers and feeding her. Finally move into our house, it's a mess, boxes everywhere, minor construction still going on. G's slowly getting used to her new home, but she tends to stay in Mom & Dad's bedroom b/c that's where her bed is, along with the air purifier and portable heater. Grandma is staying in G's room, which still has no crib or anything. Oh well.

The last few days, G's been in a bit of a growth spurt, lots of cluster feedings and shorter naps. We are also discovering she can sleep an hour or two longer if someone is holding her. And we had our first (tho, sadly not last) explosive "up the back" poopy diaper... sigh. Another chance to practice bathing her, I guess! I'll have E come back to post pics (yes, I took one of above mentioned diaper too).

New Title & Format

As you can see from our new format and title, much has changed in our lives. As E posted last, we are trying to move into a new house that we purchased back in December... it's been a long journey, but we should be moving in this weekend. But the bigger news is that our newest edition finally arrived!! G was born 2 weeks early, arriving Feb 25, just two days after her baby shower. It's been almost 3 weeks now, and such a whirlwind. Every day seems like a totally different schedule with a totally different baby. I'll leave it to E to post pics, but for now, this is the update.

Our new blog will be more about G, for all her friends and family, far and near, to keep in touch with her latest goings on! But we will still try to post about food and other things when we can...

Happy New 2008!

So, S and I bought a house in the south bay, so our adventures in SF will be drawing to a close. Reflecting on this period, I don't think I've ever seen so many blonde people before in my life. Actually it's the fact that there are almost no Asians/blacks/Latinos/minorities, and everyone else is white. That was until a friend corrected me: "No, everyone there is blonde." And then I looked around and realized that he was right.

Among the places we like are the small, intimate restaurant-bars with tons of atmosphere. We went to Brazen Head tonight - you could drive by Greenwich a thousand times and not notice it -- a total hidden gem with awesome pepper steak, seafood chowder, french onion soup. I realized it was good when I dipped into the cheesy top of the french onion soup, went deeper, and it got better and better. You know food where the first bite is the best? Doesn't leave you wanting more does it? I believe the best food experiences get better and better, bite after bite, from the time the dish or dessert first arrives, leaving you with a sweet aftertaste that leaves you smiling. Nothing less will do. I was happy to find the steak the same way.

Another happy find recently is the Elite Cafe - it's a Southern brunch place on Fillmore (ok not quite our district, but we've been exploring), with biscuits with strawberry butter to die for, beignets, and more intimate high-back booths with slow fans in the ceiling.

We've been quite lucky to live in this beautiful area for 8 months, watching the Golden Gate bridge in all of its glory through the seasons, being able to walk to the marina, and more, and we'll be treasuring the experience for a long time.

- "Mr. Calamari"