So true. (via Reddit) On a related note, I have trouble pooping when I am away from home. Seriously. For example, I pooped once during our 10-day honeymoon. I thought I was going to die. Does anyone else have this problem? Also, I believe that having two full bathrooms is a HUGE contributing factor to my happy marriage. :-)...
Continue reading
I wish this post could consist of more than three crappy cell phone pictures, but I have yet to get a new laptop and trying to process pictures from an actual camera is too much work. :-P Today started with my sitting on a salon chair, getting a haircut (it is now just below my shoulders) and a dye job: Remember when I had contemplated getting an ombre dye job after my preggo chop? Well, I've done it. And I love it! One of the main reasons I had stopped dyeing my hair is because of the roots that grow out — and an ombre color takes care of just that. Another big plus is that with the ombre technique, the hair dye never...
Continue reading
Thank you all very much for your kind comments regarding my father. I received word that he was discharged from the hospital about an hour ago, and is well on his way to recovery. I wanted so badly to be see him again today, but I could not as I had Claire to take care of and the hospital, like most, does not allow babies to visit. But I'm sure that my own anguish was nothing compared to my mother's, who had her own store to watch and could not be by his side even when she first received word of the incident yesterday. Luckily, my sister was able to cancel her plans to stay with my father yesterday and today. I think...
Continue reading
This week has been one of the longest of my life. I know that an appendectomy — a laparoscopic appendectomy, no less — is considered a fairly common and simple procedure in modern medicine. But with the pregnancy having slowed my healing time in addition to lowering my threshold for pain (both very common pregnancy symptoms), I am still in quite a bit of discomfort. Perhaps the biggest complication that the pregnancy brought to the procedure was that due to my enlarged uterus, the incisions had to be made a lot further away from each other. So for the first few days after surgery, I could feel — by way of pain — the path where the laparoscope (the camera) had made its...
Continue reading
J and I grew up in a culture and generation that was all for physical discipline. In fact, it was rare to find a household that did not spank/cane their children. Our homes were not the only places for punishments either — I still remember how, having attending up to the 2nd grade in Korea, all the teachers kept a separate cane for punishments (the unspoken rules stated that we would "only" get hit on the palms of our hands or our calves)...
Continue reading
J is finally back from his business trip, and I couldn't be happier. :mrgreen: This was the first time in years that we had spent a night apart, so being away from each other for three nights was plain torture. We had promised each other that we would video chat every night via Skype, but you know what happened to my computer. :cry: I really wanted to cry when I first saw him this morning, and I'm not just saying this because I know he will read this. And to show my appreciation for him, J returned home to a...
Continue reading
Lately I have been losing my patience with Comang. So much so, that the thought of giving him away has entered my mind on more than a few occasions. :-( Our beloved shih-tzu has a classic case of first child syndrome. He is insanely jealous of the attention that Claire receives and is adding undue stress to my life. Please don't get me wrong — he has never acted out against Claire and I am certain that he won't. Instead, he acts out toward me, his mommy and his favorite person in the world. Whenever I am sitting anywhere with Claire, he will try to squeeze himself between us. When I am doing something with Claire that requires most of my attention, such...
Continue reading
Earlier today, I read about Egalia, a Swedish preschool that aims to break down gender stereotypes. At this taxpayer-funded preschool located in the liberal Sodermalm district of Stockholm, staff avoid using pronouns such as "him" or "her" and address the 33 children as "friends" rather than boys and girls. Every little detail — from the color and placement of toys to the selection of literature (which mostly consists of books dealing with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children) — has been carefully planned to ensure that the children do not fall into gender stereotypes from a young age. I couldn't help but be reminded of the Canadian parents who are hiding the gender of their baby. Upon reading that article, I remember asking...
Continue reading
It is no secret that my father loves his two daughters and openly tells people over and over again how having two girls has taught him to be more sensitive, more responsible, and a better man in general. And as it was with Claire, it was he who was the happiest to hear the news that we are expecting another girl. However, I know that this was not always the case. I know that having lived most of his life in Korea — formerly a strongly patriarchal society — he must have had bouts of disappointment at not having sired a boy. (Surveys now show that for the first time in Korean society, parents prefer to have girls over boys. This is a...
Continue reading
Over the weekend, the NYTimes ran an article titled "Baby Makes Four, and Complications" which tells the story of a woman, her son, her sperm donor and his lover, citing them as an example of the changing face of the American family. This was no big news to me. After all, the idea of the traditional nuclear family is being questioned every day, and for the first time ever, the percentage of households headed by married couples has dropped below 50 percent (according to 2010 U.S. Census figures). What particularly caught my eye about the article was its accompanying interactive webpage, "How Many Households Are Like Yours?" Upon entering the page, the visitor is prompted to choose the primary residents of his/her household, to...
Continue reading