I have received three pieces of bad news since the early hours of the morning, one of which involves a death in the family. I have spent the majority of the morning crying or cleaning (my brand of therapy)…luckily, Claire has been in a good mood and has allowed me to leave her alone for longer stretches of time than usual.
I am not sure if these turn of events will result in a blogging break. But just in case you don’t hear from me in a while, know that I am still around.
J passed this along to me and we both had a good laugh. A must-see for any Foursquare users who are also Star Wars fans! (Click to view large)
Via Death Star PR.
This made me laugh so hard I had tears running down my face. Take a look — it’s only 4 seconds long!
The video above is actually a clip from a parody of the “Breaking Dawn” trailer by Jack at jacksfilms. The full movie can be viewed here. 🙂
Via Reddit.
I was never officially diagnosed with SPD (symphysis pubis dysfunction, or excessive and/or painful separation of the two pubic bones at the front of the pelvis) with my last pregnancy, but the pain was bad enough that I could not exercise for all of my third trimester.
This pregnancy is no different. And while I have been taking it easy, I have a 19 lb infant to take care of, which is exercise in itself.
According to this site, “During pregnancy hormones soften and stretch the ligaments
of the body in order to allow the pelvis to open slightly during labour so that the baby
can move easily through….During pregnancy, and after, the Symphysis can gap slightly
and walking, climbing stairs and turning over in bed can be difficult or even impossible.”
The pelvic pains are usually worst in the morning and at nights. One morning a few weeks ago, I literally collapsed onto the floor whilst trying to get out of bed. It was a big scare, to be sure — one that left me with an ugly bruise on my knee — but I brushed it off as a one-time-thing and reminded myself to be more careful whenever I get up from a sitting or lying position.
Well, it happened again, yesterday.
Except I wasn’t alone. I had just gathered Claire in my arms and was about to get up from the couch when I felt the floor drop out from beneath me and I collapsed.
Claire was okay — a bit scared, but physically fine. But I immediately started bawling, because I knew that I could have really hurt my child.
I called J at work, still crying, and explained to him what happened. I then went on to wail: “HOW AM I GOING TO TAKE CARE OF TWO BABIES? AND I KNOW YOUR PARENTS ARE COMING TO HELP, BUT I’M ALSO SCARED THEY’RE GOING TO HOG THE BABIES AND I WON’T BE ABLE TO SEE THEM OR BOND WITH THEM. AND I’M SO TIRED AND EXHAUSTED ALL THE TIME AND I HATE BEING PREGNANT!”
I don’t remember exactly what J said in response, but he managed to calm me down and called our SIL to see if she could come help me out for the day. She came over as soon as she could, listened to me air my fears and frustrations, gave me tons of hugs, then ordered me to bed while she took care of Claire. (Um, yeah. She’s like, the best SIL ever.)
I feel so, incredibly fortunate for our family members who have been donating their precious time and energy in helping me out during this pregnancy. I feel blessed that we are able to afford a part-time nanny. But even with all this help, I am terrified of becoming the mother of a newborn and a 13-month-old in just a couple of months.
And now, after what had happened, I am scared whenever I am alone with Claire. What if my hip gives out again while I am holding her and she gets badly injured? What if it happens when I am alone and I am unable to move or call for help?
The mere thought of this little girl being injured due to her mama’s physical condition
breaks my heart. (Adorable hat crocheted by my SIL — see more of her creations here.)
Luckily, J’s parents will be arriving from Hong Kong in two weeks so they will be able to assist me almost every day for the last month or so of this pregnancy (and help out when the baby arrives).
In the meantime, we have asked our nanny if she could come in for extra hours, but she is unable to due to her own schedule. And as luck would have it, her own mother is ill so she is not able to come at all this week.
We do not want to hire someone else at this point in time, so I will need to stick it out for the next couple of weeks and have family members help out when they can.
The one consolation I can get from suffering SPD is that my delivery of Claire was freakishly easy for a first-time mother. I can only hope and pray for the same with BebeDeux.
My cousin told me that when her daughter first entered preschool, and her teachers were attempting to teach her the concept of “sharing is caring,” she began to use it for her own advantage.
In other words, whenever she saw another child playing with a toy she liked, she would march on over, tell the poor kid, “Sharing is caring!” and take the toy for herself! 🙄
Since Claire and BebeDeux will only be 13 months apart in age, we have been hoping that they will learn to share at an early age without much intervention from us. But recent events are leading me to believe that perhaps Claire is already starting to grasp the idea…
A few days ago, as Claire sat on the couch playing with her toys, she got ahold of a nearby container of puffs and pried it open.
Since a bunch of the puffs spilled onto the couch before I could get to her, I decided that she might as well eat what she had spilled before I attempt to clean the mess.
Now, long time readers will know that one of the reasons we love Comang is due to his lack of interest in human food. Even if we place a plate of ribs in front of him, he will just sniff it and let it be (see the proof here).
This has changed in the recent months, as Claire began solids.
Don’t get me wrong — Comang still leaves J and my food alone. It’s just that he has developed a taste for Claire’s food (perhaps because so much of it ends up on the floor?): congee, Mum-Mums, puffs, and other various snacks. It is not unusual to find him following Claire as she buzzes around in her walker, dropping snacks in her path, or lurking under her high chair waiting for food to rain down from the sky.
(Sometimes, we will even call to him after Claire has finished eating to “vacuum” the mess on the floor. :-P)
My new cell phone will arrive Wednesday. Until then, you will need to
continue to put up with my current one which takes bad photos.
Back to the story.
As soon as Claire began to eat the puffs on the couch, Comang walked on over and sat next to her, giving her his “please feed me” look.
And to my amazement, as Claire picked up the next puff, she handed it over to him!
Comang is still a bit scared of Claire, so he wouldn’t take it directly from her hand. Instead, he would wait until she dropped it in front of him, then gobbled it up.
Claire and Comang continued this routine — one puff for her, one puff for him — until all the puffs on the couch were gone.
Then can you guess what happened?
Comang, who was clearly not satisfied, gave Claire a “I want more” look.
Claire then grabbed her pacifier and tried to give that to him!
I could not stop laughing. At Comang’s reaction (which was a look that plainly stated, “What the heck is that? I don’t want that crap!”) or at Claire’s obvious confusion at his refusal of the pacifier.
As I’ve stated before, this tenth month of Claire’s life has definitely been the most fun. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us next. 🙂
Today I stumbled upon a neat Tunblr blog called Harry Potter Facts and spent a good portion of the morning reading through all its archives. Here are some of my favorites (most have to do with what happens to Harry and the gang after book 7):
I’m not sure if there will be another book series in my lifetime that will be as loved as much as Harry Potter. I can’t wait until my children are old enough to start enjoying J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world! J’s friend tells us that his kids shout things like “Crucio!” and “Impedimenta!” to each other when they fight. And while I can’t say that the use of an Unforgivable Curse on your sibling is good behavior, you can’t deny that it’s stinkingly cute. 🙂
P.S. — Hurricane Irene (downgraded to Tropical Storm Irene by the time it hit us) has passed by without inconveniencing us with even a blackout. J even went out for lunch today and tells me that the roads in our neighborhood aren’t flooded at all. However, I know that others were not so lucky. My parents tell me that a large tree fell in their back yard, but that it fell away from the house so there was no damage done aside from a few flattened bushes. As far as I know, all my friends and family who were in the hurricane’s path is safe, and for that I am thankful.
I had written the post before this one — The Art of Clean Up — yesterday and scheduled it to post today because I was afraid that we would be suffering a blackout…but obviously I had nothing to worry about!
I hope that none of my readers was hit too hard by Irene, and that you all remain dry and safe!
The following images are from Swiss artist and comedian Ursus Wehrli‘s new book, The Art of Clean Up, due out next month, where the compulsively tidy designer takes everyday objects and situations and organizes them in the most…amazing (well, at least to this neat freak) ways possible.
Be sure to also check out Wehrli’s Tidying Up Art books, where famous masterpieces of beloved painters are “tidied” up by carefully organizing them into component pieces, or by creating clever infographic-like variations. For example, Seurat’s pointillism gets reduced to a bag of candy while a Jackson Pollock is returned to all its original paint cans. 😀
Via Colossal.
I really need to brush up on my Star Wars trivia, because I couldn’t get everything! *hangs head in shame*
I will post the answers in the comments section right after publishing this, so fret not!
Via Neatorama.
P.S. — According to Gamma Squad, the creator of the game, the chart was made “liberally using titles, first and last names and the occasional starfighter” so I don’t feel too bad about not being able to get everything. 😛
A snippet of the conversation I had with my mother yesterday —
Me: The governor has declared a state of emergency and we’re in a potential flood zone. But don’t worry, we’re stocking up on bottled water, food, and batteries.
My Mother: (horrified) Does that mean I can’t see Claire this weekend?
Geez, thanks for being concerned for our safety, mom. 🙄
J and I aren’t too concerned about Hurricane Irene. We feel that the media is probably blowing it out of proportion, and we’re hoping that the damage it leaves in its wake will not be too severe.
If it weren’t for Claire, we would probably have just gotten a couple of gallons of bottled water and called it a day. But as parents, we decided that it’s better to be safer than sorry…
All the stores in our area have been sold out of bottled water and batteries since the middle of the week. Luckily, J arrived at our local grocery store right after it received an extra shipment of bottled water:
I THINK we’ll be safe on the water front.
Our neighbors have been complaining that they could not find batteries anywhere, but with an infant in the house — one whose toys and equipment require tons of batteries — we always have a crapload of batteries on hand and so we didn’t need to worry about that.
We were also relieved to remember that we have a portable stove with extra cans of butane (thanks to our love for hotpot), as well as a portable generator we purchased last year when our car battery died. (It can be charged via an electric plug, and has other emergency features like a floodlight, emergency siren, and even an USB adapter!)
Additionally, we are currently doing laundry, charging all electronics that can be charged, and will be filling the bathtubs and sinks with water before we go to bed.
And for once we are happy for our condo’s lack of a view — no trees, just the adjacent apartment building that is less than 20 feet away — because we will not need to board/tape up our windows.
I am not too worried about flooding either, since our building is well above sea level. Once again, we feel very fortunate, because practically the entire city of Hoboken, which is literally just 5 minutes away, is in danger of severe flooding.
So I think we’re in pretty good shape…at least for now.
Are you, or will you be affected by Irene? If so, how are you preparing for the hurricane?
(And isn’t it crazy how the northeastern U.S. is getting an earthquake and a hurricane within just days of each other?)
I like books, gadgets, spicy food, and art. I dislike shopping, hot weather, and the laws of entropy. Although I am a self-proclaimed computer nerd, I still have a love for handbags and makeup... and I am always teetering on high heels. To learn more about me, visit the "About" page.
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