Suddenly...

Literally

2006-05-03T07:16:00.000-07:00

is I think the most misused and abused word in the English language. Why do people think that in order to achieve full dramatic effect, they have to add 'literally' to whatever mundane thing they did that day, not realizing they're using it wrongly!

Just in the last week, I've heard the following:
"I literally died when he said that!"
"I literally gave him the shirt off my back!" (on TV!)
"She, li-te-ra-lly, was over the moon when she saw me!"

I literally barfed.

Back to Work

2006-03-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

I went back to work this week. It's not as difficult as I thought it would be. Although I miss my son very much, I have been busy catching up with the workload that before I know it, it's lunchtime or the end of the day. I go home during lunch to be with my son and express milk. I didn't want to do the latter here. Even if we have a private room adjoining to the womens' restroom, which I think the building's designers intended to be a nursing moms' room, I find it much of a hassle to bring the pump here and deal with ice packs.

I have been getting a lot of compliments with how I look. I love it because people who I usually don't shoot the breeze with come up to me just to pay me a compliment. The most common one is that I don't even look like I gave birth. One even asked if he was only imagining seeing me pregnant last year. The best compliment I got was that I look even better than before I got pregnant. Thank you boobies!

I must admit I'm also surprised I lost much of the weight really quickly, especially the tummy. Two weeks after giving birth I could already fit in my regular jeans, without doing anything. I now believe that breastfeeding is not only great for the baby, but for the mom as well. I thought that was just a marketing gimmick to get moms to breastfeed, hee hee. I'm sure another huge factor is the sleeplessness. Hey, I'll take raccoon eyes over a big paunch anytime!

Talking Myself Tired

2006-02-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first day I was away from my baby for most of the day. Shhh, I went for a job interview, or should I say, a marathon of interviews! I only found out I was going in for the interview the day before, at 5:00 pm via email! I was surprised to find eleven people on the roster. I was expecting four or five, or maybe go in for two or three days for eleven people. Furthermore, I just got eleven names, without job titles, so I didn't really know how to prepare for each. It wouldn't have mattered, since I didn't have time anyway. I figured I should just relax that night to be all fresh and calm the next day.

Which is easier said than done. Over the last twelve years, I've only gone on one job interview, and that didn't go over well. That plus the lack of time to prepare plus being away from work for six weeks plus having racoon eyes from the lack of sleep didn't give me much confidence. The only thing going for me is that it's my former manager who wanted to get me for this position so I have a major backer within the firm. Even so, the nerves taking over are making me rationalize that that may not be a good thing, since my former manager is relatively new to the company and the others may view this as bringing in a crony. Aaargh! I guess it's good I didn't have much time - less time for nervousness!

One thing I hated about the day was being away from my baby for a long time. Aside from missing him, I know the time away will wreak havoc on my breastfeeding. I wanted to bring a breast pump so I can pump during the lunch break, but I got a call from my former manager that she wanted to have lunch with me, so that's out.

So I went ahead with the interview, and I ended up talking with the following people from the company:
Director of Sales Operations
SVP of Finance
HR Director
CFO
VP of HR
SVP of Market Development
IT Director, Infrastructure
SVP of Customer Support
Director of Customer Support
Finance Controller
SVP of Maintenance Revenue and Sales Operations

Whew. The whole thing started at 9 and ended a little after 5. At the end of the day, I felt pretty good about how I did (and that it was over!) but man were my breasts sore and hurting like !@#$. They were engorged and hard as rocks, and I don't know how I managed to drive home in that condition. I didn't even dwell on the interviews, just literally aching to go home to my baby.

Out of all the interviewers, I'm most concerned with the Director of Customer Support. I don't know why but I was all nerves with this guy. I felt like I babbled unnecessarily and didn't give satisfactory replies. Oh well, if nothing else, at least I had a good albeit fast-track experience with the interview process. I'm sure I'll need it in the future.

Wish me luck!

Meet my Son!

2006-01-26T18:56:00.000-08:00

at 2 hours old

sunning at 3 days old to get rid of that dang bilirubin

just chillin' on my boppy

hangin' with a sea otter

:)

2006-01-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

Blue Crab Monday

2005-12-27T23:42:00.000-08:00

Last night I was busy working on my computer when suddenly, I heard my husband yell from the kitchen "Aaaah! Your crab's attacking my crab!". I went to see what the commotion's about and this is what I witness:

This made me laugh and suddenly hungry. I scooped up a big plate of steaming rice, made the sauces (Silver Swan soy sauce and Datu Puti vinegar with lemon for me, garlic butter for hubby) and we started to attack the crabs ourselves. Oh boy, this crab was the fattest and meatiest crab I've ever had in my life. I didn't even finish one, which is very rare for me.

In unrelated news, I'm sad to see Monday Night Football end. I've had a lot of good times watching it with my husband and/or friends, including while eating the crab last night. I have never liked watching ESPN so I'm sure I won't follow it there. It just isn't the same.

"Turn out the lights, the party's over."

Merry Christmas to All!

2005-12-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

Gifts for the Wee One

2005-12-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

As early as three months ago, I have been receiving gifts from friends for my coming baby. These were mostly from former co-workers in the Philippines who sent cute baby stuff to colleagues travelling here.

Twice lately, I have come in to work with a package on my desk. Since it's addressed to me and my husband, not to mention it being wrapped in cute baby wrapper, I can only assume that it's for the baby, so I'll bring it home and open it together with my hubby.

We have purchased most of the basic things that we will need for the baby - crib, dresser, sheets, bassinet, 2 car seats, 2 strollers, swing, high chair, etc. Since my baby shower is coming up, I hurriedly had to put up baby registries. My hubby, who is old-fashioned, doesn't like the idea of signing up for registries. I must admit I felt the same way when I first arrived here in the States, but now I see the practicality of it. When I'm on the other side and the one buying a present, I do like to have a list of things to choose so I'm sure I'm giving something needed and not a duplicate. So, I promised to him that I will pick simple and not extravagant stuff. Pretty soon he was helping me choose items, starting to get excited with all the cuteness.

The day after I put up my baby registry, I was surprised to see that three items have been bought from it already, and the invitations to my baby shower haven't even been sent! I started panicking because I haven't really given it much thought and just picked items that other gift registrants seemed to like. The amount of choices is overwhelming! In any case, it's so heartwarming to think that someone's thinking of my baby without being reminded.

Last night, I received this in the mail from my brother-in-law in Boise:

Again, I was touched with the thought. To friends reading this, please don't take this post as an attempt to solicit a gift :) I would honestly prefer prayers for a healthy baby and safe (and as painless as possible!) delivery of my very own gift.

Next To Go

2005-12-09T13:36:00.000-08:00

We're still trying to get rid of stuff to make room for our new arrival. Here were the next things to go:

These were difficult for me again because these were gifts from an ex. Although I haven't used it in years since I bought a digital piano when I got married, I've had many fond memories with the keyboard. I used to lug that around (hence the hardcase, the stand and the bench) at parties and play for my friends and family. "Name that Tune" was a staple at our family parties!

I remember how my ex hand-carried the keyboard (and the hardcase on another trip) coast to coast because he knew I was getting bored being all alone in my apartment. In a way, these were my last link to him.

Instead of selling these at craigslist, my husband and I decided to donate them to my stepson's school's music department. We believe more people will benefit from them there than anywhere else. The music coordinator was very grateful, and I'm glad I've found a good home for these things I held dearly.

Next up - a Panasonic TV and stand.

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

2005-11-29T16:06:00.000-08:00

Hmm, I think I've used that title before. For those who aren't familiar with the line, it's also a title of a 70's tune made famous by Dionne Warwick.

I'm pretty proud of the city in which I live. It has been voted as the safest big city for the fifth year in a row by Morgan Quitno Press, a Kansas research firm that has been compiling the safest and most dangerous cities lists since 1995. Big is qualified as having a population of 500,000 or more, and with San Jo's 944,522 residents it sure belongs to the list.

What strikes me more in this study is that there are three Texas cities on the 10 safest (El Paso - 2nd, Austin - 5th, San Antonio - 8th and Fort Worth - 9th) and two among the most dangerous (Dallas - 5th, Houston - 9th). I guess everything's really big in Texas.

On the same week, San Jose was also voted as the second (or third, I'm not sure because I just heard it on Good Morning America) healthiest city for women by Self Magazine. Amazingly, San Francisco with all its health nuts only came in ninth in this particular study.

Ironically, I've been sick as a dog the past two weeks. I was so upset because I've finally taken steps to become healthier on my third trimester - walking with hubby in the morning and spending 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer at night. I think there was no escaping this sickness because a slew of people were sick at our work the prior weeks. I wish people would stay home when they're sick. Despite my attempts to take precautions - inducing gallons of OJ and other fluids, washing my hands all the time and staying away from sick people, the bug caught me good. After two weeks of coughing, my rib cage felt like I fell down a flight of stairs, or got beaten up by two men. The slightest movement hurt, and subsequent coughs or sneezes brought me pain. The baby's been a trooper through all this. I feel guilty about taking medication, even if they're deemed safe for pregnancy, but I also felt that not easing the coughing will be harder on him.

Further, I haven't had a chance to visit my newest niece (or cousin once-removed for folks here in the States) - Keira Christina. I have been looking forward to her birth and now I must patiently wait and ensure I'm fully well before I see her. Too bad I couldn't resist reading about the pain of childbirth in my cousin's blog. Oh well, after the pain of the last two weeks, all I can say is bring it on!

SOX Sux!

2005-11-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

I have been sick the past week, coughing and hacking away at everything and everyone. At first I was really worried for the baby, I think I was getting more stressed over what I'm doing to him rather than how I felt. For the first four days, I tried my best not to take any medication, toughing it out with gallons of OJ and water. After that, I couldn't take it anymore, and was getting worried about the effect of my all-night coughing to the baby that I took the over-the-counter medications that were considered safe: Tylenol Cough and Sore Throat and Robitussin DM (not together).

Due to this, I missed two days of work last week. This Thanksgiving week, our company is supposed to be shut down for the whole week, but some people in our department were "asked" to come in to finish our Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) internal audits. Is anybody else going through the pain of SOX? This has got to be the most useless, time-wasting ~~crap~~ process ever brought about by man. A friend of mine who has recently attended a graduation where the guest speaker was Senator Oxley said that in his speech, Sen. Oxley admitted that they realize this law ~~wastes~~ takes a lot of time and money and has caused some smaller companies to go bankrupt. One thing's for sure, neither Sarbanes nor Oxley would win any popularity award anytime soon.

So here I am, still coughing continuously, performing inane tests and audits for processes I have no involvement with. I just look at the bright side that I'm saving my vacation days, which will be especially useful when I go on maternity leave.

Speaking of bright sides, one external auditor I just met this week started to visit my office regularly. In the beginning he was asking for legitimate requirements but by the end of the first day he was teasing me a lot by asking for impossible things, getting my business card for every visit and chatting about movies and TV, while he's curt and strictly professional with others. Even my co-worker asked me pointblank "Why is the auditor flirting with you?" I said I don't know, maybe he likes pregnant women. My co-worker then peered at me and then said "Wait, he doesn't know you're pregnant!" I said that was silly for I look and feel like a whale. The next time he visited, I got out of my chair and faced him with my belly. Sure enough, he had this shocked expression on his face - he didn't know! I told my co-worker later on and we had a good laugh over this.

Just Stuff

2005-11-11T12:05:00.000-08:00

This past week, to make room for the baby, we've had to get rid of this:

and this:

Although they are just "stuff", I am saddened by this. I used to run on that treadmill for an hour four times a week. It was the one thing I can count on when I feel I have to lose a few pounds. I loved my early morning run while watching Good Morning America on mute and listening to the headphones of the tiny radio strapped on my arm. That was my "me" time, when my family knows that I cannot be bothered and I won't stop for anything - not visitors, not phone calls. I remember the only time I cut my run short was on the morning of September 11, 2001, when I saw that plane hit the second World Trade Center tower, and my feet just instinctively jumped at the sides of the treadmill, while I was riveted at the news and found myself just watching the TV for the rest of the morning.

The foosball table was my Christmas gift to my sson a few years back. I remember how much fun my hubby and I had assembling it (no kidding), and how we futilely tried to wrap it, putting a big golden bow on top. And I'll never forget my sson's face as he saw the big blob of a Christmas wrapper, probably not knowing what's in it but his eyes widened just the same as he figured something that big must be good!

They both went fast at craigslist. We had a phone call 20 minutes after my husband listed the treadmill, and the foosball was picked up the day after it listed. I jokingly asked my husband - what else can we sell around the house?

Actually, this would be next:

I'm still using it for now as I've finally started exercising on my third trimester, and since it's the only type of exercise (aside from walking) I can handle.

So it's time to say goodbye to stuff, to be replaced with new stuff, to welcome the most important thing that will keep me occupied for a long, long time.

Happy Halloween!

2005-10-31T12:06:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, our company celebrated Halloween with a BBQ feast, costume contest and pumpkin-carving contest.

I didn't dress up this time, because I didn't feel like it. My husband suggested I come as a nun (we have matching priest and nun outfits), which would actually be cute because of my pregnant self, but I was afraid to raise some eyebrows. I just partook in the tri-tip, lots of yummy salads and treats during lunch. I also posed with the General Manager of our Philippine plant who was visiting and my boss (who'll be leaving in a week, sob):

That's me looking all puffy at 27 weeks, with two of my mentors.

This was my favorite pumpkin, although it didn't win (we suspect the judging was fixed):

Kattie who did this kitty took five hours to carve this work of art.

Too bad my stepson got braces this year and cannot have candy, and is therefore not going trick or treating tonight. I always benefit from his loot :)

Happy halloween everyone! May you get all the candy you like! (I'll have to make do with any leftovers we get from the candy we're giving out tonight)

I Usually Don't Like Eagles, Especially the Blue Kind

2005-10-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, my hubby and I saw the Eagles in concert - their California Tour. This was my Father's Day present to my husband last June because I know he loves the Eagles. Although I'm familiar with them, walking into the arena I wasn't expecting to be totally blown away, as I was three and a half hours later walking out.

I am a big fan of Don Henley, so I thought I would at least enjoy his bits. To my amazement, I knew almost every song they sang, including some that made me go "Oh, I didn't know that's theirs!" like I Can't Tell You Why and Love Will Keep Us Alive. The whole night was chock-ful of hits, including Don Henley's, Glenn Frey's and Joe Walsh's hits as solo artists so the night had a lot of added bonus.

My only disappointment was that they didn't sing Heart of the Matter, my all-time favorite Don Henley song. Nonetheless, I enjoyed myself fully, singing along with the songs. All in all they played 29 songs, with Hotel California, Rocky Mountain High, All She Wants to do is Dance, Already Gone and my husband's personal favorite, Desperado as their encores. Glancing at my husband all throughout the show, I can tell he's having a great time too.

Later on, he said that they sound exactly the same as they did thirty years ago. I'm pretty sure that's a good thing, because they sure gained a new fan out of me!

For the First Time in My Life

2005-10-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

1. I have super-layered hair.
2. I'm fat and ugly, and I don't care.
3. I've nixed coffee and soda from my diet.
4. I love waking up every morning.
5. I have big boobs.
6. I'm extremely careful when driving.
7. I'm drinking milk everyday.
8. Did I tell you I have big boobs?
9. I'm seriously thinking of a career change.
10. I'm looking forward to December not just because it's Christmastime.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

2005-10-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

The Good

Two weeks ago, the support groups in our company (Finance, IT, HR and Purchasing) had a Cape Cod Lobster Boil at our Finance Controller's backyard. A lobster boil is basically a huge pot where you drop in lobsters, crabs, shrimp, sausages, potatoes, corn and all kinds of seasonings. The house was beautiful, the company great, the food scrumptious! Here are some pictures.

We had a great time feasting, chatting and laughing. I had a waldorf salad, lobster, half of a crab and a corn on the cob. After lunch we played bocce ball. Our team lost, but for consolation prizes for everyone, we got to bring home a scarecrow.

The Bad

The following day, Saturday, I woke up to a nasty stomach pain. I realized I had diarrhea, but a couple of trips to the bathroom the pain was still there. I'm pretty sure I got a case of food poisoning. Aside from feeling crappy (pardon the pun), I was so bummed out because it rendered most of my weekend useless. I missed my stepson's soccer game, a friend's birthday lunch, and some pre-scheduled shopping trips.

Of course I kicked myself about this. I knew I wasn't supposed to eat anything raw, which I didn't but I didn't think seafood won't hurt me. I enjoyed the lobster so much I even partook of the head and all the juice!

The Ugly

Waking up on Sunday with the pain still there, albeit less pronounced, I started to worry about my baby. What if I'm passing on the bad stuff to him? I start to panic and cry and decide to go to the emergency room, but my husband reassures me that the baby is not being harmed. I'm only passing good nutrients to him. I try to stay positive and was additionally reassured of his continuous kicking, but I can't help but worry. I don't think I've been this sick from food this long in the past.

The Beautiful

In my delirious stupor of combined worry, pain and angst, I suddenly thought of the song "I'd Give My Life For You" from the musical Miss Saigon. I used to love to sing that all the time (more than "Sun and Moon"). This time however, the song took on an entirely different meaning for me. I found myself praying to God that if anything happens, to spare my boy and take me instead. This might be overly dramatic, but, this was such a revelation to me! I have never been this unselfish in my life and I haven't even met this boy. At that point, though, I swore with all certainty that I'd give my life for him.

You will be who you want to be
You, can choose whatever heaven grants
As long as you can have your chance
I swear i'll give my life for you

Gone to the Bright Side

2005-09-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

I finally did it! The last straw was this stupid WinFixer spyware that infested my home PC. I usually ignore crawlers and popups and my anti-virus normally catches these buggers, but this dang WinFixer is persistent and incredibly annoying! So I did it.

I switched to Mozilla Firefox.

Unfortunately, we have a lot of applications at work that only work on IE. So I'm in mixed mode at work, but careful to set my default browser to Firefox so I can't get anything unwelcome from external sources.

My only problem with Firefox is that sometimes, I want to print out only a part of the content in the browser. I did this in IE a lot - select the text I want to print, right-click, then print just the selection. I can't figure out how to do this with Firefox. Does anybody know? Appreciate your help!

I haven't explored all the Mozilla plug-ins and I'm excited to. I also found out that my site looks bad in Firefox (sorry!). I'm not going to fix this now since I'm planning to convert to WordPress, hopefully really soon (please bear with me).

Reconcile This

2005-09-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

Twice a month, I serve as a lector at our church. A lector is the person who reads the first and second readings, as well as joins the priest and altar servers in the opening procession. Last Sunday, however, I was assigned as a commentator. Due to the hurricane Katrina tragedy, there was an unusually long list of petitions, plus an equally long list of announcements at the end of the mass. I didn't mind this at all. In fact, I like the practice, to get me more and more comfortable speaking in front of a large audience.

At the end of the mass, I asked my husband how I did. He said very well, I enunciated clearly, paused at the right times, made eye-contact with the audience. Everything was great except for one thing...

"What?" I asked.

"Well, there's this word you mispronounced, and unfortunately, it was in almost every line of the petitions."

Of course this bothered me, and I asked him what word it was.

He answered. "Reconciliation. You kept saying reCONciliation, when it should be REconciliation. The first time's okay, but after the seventh time, I started to cringe."

I was so embarrassed. I did say 'reconciliation' many times, because the petitions were all about it. I just hope 'hippopotamus' will never be in the readings in the future.

On a brighter note, last Friday was my brother's birthday. Yesterday, I asked him to pick up a package for our mom which I sent through a colleague of mine who went home to the Philippines. He goes to our Philippine plant, meet my colleague, who hands him this:

On his way to work, he calls me up, and says "I got the package. Is this really for Mama?"

I just say "Happy birthday!"

He loves it! He said he was just drooling over one at a mall during the weekend. I'm so happy he's happy!

There Should Be a Seminar on Seminars

2005-09-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I attended a Coaching and Teambuilding for Managers seminar conducted by Skillpath with a colleague from work.

I must be getting jaded from all these seminars but I found this particular one to be a big waste of time. It was actually a never-ending sales pitch for their books and CD-roms camouflaged in a lot of hooey talk about leadership and silly pointless exercises. Since my company paid good money for it, I still wholeheartedly participated and contributed to the discussions. I was even a sucker since I ended up buying one of the books, The Leadership Challenge, but only because it was written by Barry Posner, the Dean of the Leavey School of Business in Santa Clara University where I got my MBA. Barry is the type of dean who was friends with everyone, engaging in chit-chat down the corridors and even having lunch with students every now and then. I was curious to see his writing style, which I haven't been an audience to beyond his newletters.

There is this one seminar (actually a six-month or year-long series of seminars) that I truly learned a lot from and has definitely influenced me. It's the Women Unlimited, a truly unique program that molds and mentors women managers into confident, self-assured and mature executives. If your company supports these types of programs I highly encourage you to pursue this opportunity, it will be a very positive experience in both your professional and personal life. A plus is the vast network of women I gained from the experience, whom I am still in touch with to this day.

In any case, I will avoid any seminar from Skillpath from now on. The one cool thing about yesterday - the hotel had a whiz-bang vending machine that had all kinds of cool stuff - including an iPod! So I purchased a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies with my credit card, fervently hoping that the electronic arm will mistakenly grab the iPod instead.

It's pretty sad when the highlight of your seminar is the venue's vending machine.

Innocence Lost

2005-09-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

When I logged into Gmail today, one of my new emails is a reply to an entry of mine in 43things. Although I've been neglecting it lately (like this blog), I love that site and welcome all the emails I receive from it. Usually it's a request to send a Gmail invite, which I would gladly grant, but sometimes it's a comment or reply to an entry of mine which I always looked forward to.

With a smile I open the email and see that someone replied to my entry on my goal of watching a Raiders game live. I quickly read his reply:

Have sex with vangie
--------------------
i would like to meetup with her and have sex alnite.

Great. Why does a creep with too much time on his hands have to ruin an otherwise wonderful site like 43things? I know most popular sites will eventually fall victim to spammers and weirdos, and I've been seeing some adult content on 43things, but I was kinda hoping 43things will remain the encouraging, inspiring and innocent site that it was when I first signed up you know?

What's disturbing is when I clicked on this guy's account, he only has 1 thing he likes to do:

have sex with vangie that posted here 24 weeks ago

Sorry dude. Go get your kicks somewhere else.

Gimmicks

2005-08-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

In the Philippines, we call an excursion, a night-out, or any outing that has the promise of a fun time ahead a "gimmick". Well, at least we did so a decade ago. Since the Filipino slang evolves faster than you can say "jolog", I'm not so sure if that word is still used in that manner.

For the past weeks, I have had an excuse to embark on several gimmicks because we have guests from our Philippine plant. Due to the major reorganization going on in our company, they have been sending engineers and technicians to get trained here in headquarters. We have three visitors who are all here in the United States for the first time, so I thought I'd show them some of the sights. Here are some of the places we went to, in pictures!

17 Mile Drive in Monterey

Harbor boats in Santa Cruz

By the pool in Pebble Beach Golf Club

By the Lone Cypress, the logo of Pebble Beach

Still by the Lone Cypress with hubby

Rommel at the Bird Rock, one of the stops at the 17-mile drive

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Some pretty fish

By one of the many aquariums

The penguins that were not marching

One of the many birds, yes birds, at the aquarium

Lizeth behind the fish tank

Having dinner at the end of Fisherman's Wharf

My Birthday Dimsum Lunch

That's hubby on my right

Some guys from Product Engineering

Manuel, Lizeth, Nomie and Rommel

Chen, the one standing, organized this lunch. Norm, our Senior VP (2nd guy from right), paid for all of it. Thanks guys!

San Jose Giants Game

The pitchers...

The batters...

At the stands (Dante, Rommel and Lizeth)

Enjoying cheesesteaks and tri-tips while watching the game

4

2005-08-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

Four has always been my favorite number. I like its evenness, which feels more stable than two.

Anyway, I'm four months along in my pregnancy. The other day, I went for my amniocentesis. This is the exam where they find out if the baby has any chromosomal defects such as Down's syndrome. For the exam, I had to undergo an ultrasound first to determine the best area in my tummy to draw the amniotic fluid from.

Prior to the ultrasound, the technician, Buffy, warned us that, although early, the gender of the baby might show in the ultrasound. Thus she wanted to know if we would like to find that out or not. Is she kidding? I've been dying to know! I emphatically nodded yes and she started the procedure.

Because my belly has not been growing these past months, I have been worrying a lot lately. Add to that the absence of usual pregnancy symptoms such as morning sickness and cravings, and the well-meaning concern from friends if I'm eating enough or taking good care of myself. However, the first sight of the baby inside me melted all those worries away:

The baby had the back of its hand on its forehead, as if saying "Oh! Why are you guys poking me? I just want to be left alone!" Buffy, my husband and I laughed at this. Then Buffy said "We'll just pretend that it's waving hello to us."

Buffy then had to look at all angles - the top of the head, the side, the back, etc. When she turned to the bottom of the baby, we saw its legs in a U position, and then she smiled.

"Uh-oh, he's not very modest. He's proudly showing himself to us!"

I focused on the screen on sure enough, I saw a tiny triangle in between the legs. At this point, I couldn't help but cry. I know millions of mothers have gone through this, but it just made it so real for me.

I hope he doesn't get mad at me later on for showing his privates to the world

She typed "BOY" on the screen, and I asked "Are you sure?" She goes, "We're not supposed to say we're 100% certain, but yeah, that sure looks like a he."

My husband and I were laughing (and yeah, I was still crying) at this point. Buffy scanned more angles and took measurements of the baby's head and his arm to determine his age. Then she took more snapshots, including that of his toes - his beautiful toes!

After the ultrasound the doctor came in for the amniocentesis proper. Dr. Crites did some more ultrasounds on me to make sure that they find the optimal spot. Then she, assisted by Buffy and two other aides, quickly poked me with the needle on the left side of my belly, as far away from the baby as possible. The doctor was so good in explaining to me what was going to happen or what is happening, and she was surprised that I wasn't bothered by the needle at all. What she didn't know was I grew up with asthma and had to have weekly shots for years to get rid of my allergies causing it. In any case, since the baby was cooperating (while he was constantly moving around during the ultrasound, he stayed away from the needle during the amnio) and I was doing a god job of relaxing while they were drawing the fluid, the process took half the time she said it would.

After she took the needle out, they perform another ultrasound and he looks fine, with the back of his hand on his forehead again as if saying "There, you got what you want, now leave me alone!"

I'm beyond excited! Even though we won't find out the results of the amniocentesis until two weeks from now, I'm so happy to see my baby again, and he looks great! I don't worry about my small tummy or lack of symptoms any longer, I just touch my belly and I know my son's right there, hand on forehead or not.

The Pieces of My Puzzle

2005-08-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

I wasn't planning on writing a birthday post, but...

After a full and tiring day on Monterey's 17-Mile Drive and the Monterery Bay Aquarium, hubby and I dropped my friends from the Philippines at their hotel and got home at around ten and I crashed on the couch.

I woke up at 12:30 am, half an hour into my birthday, to the smell of my favorite brownies baking (my hubby's first birthday treat for me), and saw this:

It's my husband and mom working on this:

This is what they're trying to achieve:

And they have this much to go:

I don't know why but I was flooded with happiness at this sight. I am so happy and grateful to be with the two people I love most in this world on my birthday.

No, I didn't join and help them on the puzzle (it's a very difficult puzzle), I just grabbed a brownie and milk and gave them moral support.

Overwhelmed

2005-08-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

With work. With laziness. With tiredness.

I'm sorry I've been neglecting this blog lately. I have been meaning to post about many things - trip to LA, trip to Tahoe, progress on the baby front, etc. but just can't get myself to start. I don't know why but when I get home from work, all I want to do is crash on the couch, intending to go online later, and before I know it, my husband's waking me up to retreat upstairs to go to sleep.

Well, I partly know why. A lot of people are telling me it's a pregnancy symptom. I guess I should be grateful because this is the only symptom I do feel (I don't even feel pregnant - my belly's still flat). But as I've been telling friends, I'd rather be sick (only once in a while) and I do want to have food cravings, instead of feeling tired and lazy. I hate it when I've wasted the night away!

Anyhoo, I just wanted to apologize for the "absence". Not only have I been neglecting this, I've been missing my favorite blogs! I still haven't found a rhythm in regularly writing and catching up on reading. I think I'm getting tired of my template. Yes, I've been meaning to switch to WordPress (for about 6 months now) but I can't decide on what domain name to get. Any suggestions?

I have also replied to your comments (I truly, truly appreciate them!). Since I have a freebie system, I don't get notified of new comments so I hope I haven't missed any new ones you've written in some old posts.

Something more substantial here soon, I promise.

Spa Day Fun Day

2005-08-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I joined my cousins and their cousins for a girl's day/night out. They do this regularly and this is my first time to join them. We started the outing with various treatments at the Burke Williams spa in Santana Row. I had a milk bath and an 80-minute pregnancy massage. The milk bath was nothing special but the massage was wonderful. I was falling asleep when suddenly I hear the chimes signalling the end of the session. Darn.

At around 1 pm everyone has finished their treatments, showered and primped, and we took this picture at the lounge area of the spa:

Do we look refreshed?

Next we had lunch at The Village Cafe, where everyone tried to eat healthy (I had a calamari salad) but cannot resist the garlic fries. Since all the other girls were either new moms, pregnant or both, I had a great time hearing stories and tips on what to expect from pregnancy and babies! Before we knew it it was almost 3 pm and we had dinner reservations at 6!

We strolled for a bit, checked out a couple of shops and then settled into their room at Hotel Valencia, still in Santana Row (four of the girls were spending the night there). We talked about everything - babies (of course!), in-laws, blogs, TomKat, Brangelina, Aerobeds and more. I love catching up with their respective families since I don't always see them. Pretty soon it was time to go to our dinner so we headed out.

Dinner was at a Vietnamese restaurant called Tamarine in Palo Alto. I realized why the girls have been so excited for it - the food was excellent! (If you visit me here I will take you there!) We ordered just about all of their small plates, and spent the next couple of hours savoring the tasty and lavishly-prepared food. Although it seemed that we ordered too much, we practically finished most of the plates. Afterwards we ordered all of their desserts, most of which were so exotic and I haven't seen before. After tasting everything, we picked our favorites and were amused at how the pregnant ladies opted for the same thing which the others didn't really care for.

Outside the restaurant we took more shots:

And the pregnant ladies:

That was an awesome day! Too bad I wouldn't be able to join them at the hotel (I promised my hubby I'd be home), for I'm sure there was more fun and laughter in store. I'm looking forward to the next girl's day out!