To Boggle or not to Boggle

Today exactly 29 years ago; there was a small gathering of people in a little church somewhere in Switzerland, taking part in my "Taufe" - which I believe translates into something like a Christening. Rather than being a specifically religious event, it is more of a specific Swiss event. That's how I see it; everyone there did/does it, no one I know here did/does it. So there's that.
I was given the name Nicole (picked by my Dad), they sprinkled me with some Holly Water, I slept through the whole thing and all the grown ups got hammered afterwards. So all in all: jolly good times!

Now, exactly 29 years later, in a big three bedroom house somewhere in Stockton, California, I'm sitting here realizing that one month from tomorrow our little girl is scheduled to arrive and we still haven't picked a name! Oh, the pressure! What if we make the wrong choice? What if her name is not unique, special? In a world full of Suris, Shilos and Pilot Inspektors (Google it! I'm not kidding with this one!); who still dares to name their child Melissa, Michelle or James?! Whatever we end up choosing, I feel great responsibility to have some awesomeness of an explanation about why we chose that name. What it means and how it relates to us. Whatever happened to just picking a name simply because you like it and people not expecting some out of this world story about how it all came to be?! Considering she'll be half Swiss, maybe we should just go with Heidi and be done with it.

Maybe we would get away with just Boggle-ing it. Something interesting might come out of it. And then 5 years from now when she asks us: "Where did my name come from?" we can just push the responsibility to Hasbro and say: "Oh, sweetie, we boggled it." Done.
I like to calm myself by thinking it will come to us in due time and just be perfect. It's been hard thinking about it too much with all this other stuff going on in our lives right now.


Baby once again grew since the Baby Shower; from a Jicama to a Pineapple at 33 weeks...

...to a Cantaloupe at 34 weeks...

...which from the outside looks like this...


(man this looks pointy ;-))


...to a Honeydew-Melon at 35 weeks...

...which was last Friday, December 4th.

I feel like I'm growing by the hour; it's getting harder to breathe, my belly feels tight and all stretched out and I need to remember not to sink too deeply into the couch so i don't get stuck;-) I have only ONE day left at work! And it's not even a full day! We're packing, Wednesday I'm going back to the casino for a half shift and then I'm out of there for good! I'm glad, since there are still (or again) a million things on my to-do list I want to get done before Princess' arrival next month. So many things, so little time...

Currently we're in the mode of downsizing and throwing everything out we're not horribly attached to anymore. This weekend we'll be moving from this three bedroom house to a two bedroom little duplex in our new hometown: Livermore! Yeah! We're only Stocktonites for a few more days and then we're officially Livermorons (or how did that go Daisy?).

Since this will be our third move in the past year, we have vowed to be super organized this time as to make sure things go smoothly and our friends won't abandon us and never offer their help again! What would we do without them? We've been begging for boxes at Bed, Bath and Beyond for a month now and have been packing things over time. By this weekend we should be ready to just load it all up and caravan west. One entire bedroom, one of the living rooms and now the entertainment room is nothing but boxes and stacked furniture. Go team go!

I will try to keep up with everything and maybe, just maybe, will even be able to post more as things develop.

Baby Shower!!! - (Saturday November 14th 2009)

It has been a truly exciting and busy time for us. I'm assuming my lack of keeping up with weekly updates speaks for itself.
You have last heard from me (Man Trip pic entry not included) when little princess was just a little butternut squash. In the meantime we've zoomed past green cabbages at week 30...

...oranges at week 31...

...and finally on November 13th we reached the official jicama plateau...

...which also means 32 weeks pregnant exactly.
Which translated means: pretty much to the day 7 Months!!! Wow! 7 Months!! Incredible!

What a perfect time to get as many of our loved ones together as we can (which was hard to do considering most of them live in far, far away places!), and celebrate good times and even better ones to come: BABY SHOWER!!!

The three of us in our party gear, ready to let our hair down.

Our very dear; and close to our hearts; friends Daisy and Dylan opened their beautiful home and hearts to us, drowned us in joy and warm generosity and wrestled and got in line all of the pink ducks they could find, to throw us a better baby shower than we could have dreamed up ourselves! (OK; so maybe there weren't any actual pink ducks; but the rest really DID happen!).

There was a continuous spread of appetizers and snacks, a whole entire bottle of peach "Champagne" just poir moi, a bottle of tequila for the men (complete with attached whistle to gather the gang on board for shot time), batches of brownies, wines, a big pot of chili for late night munchers and probably a whole lot more! It was absolutely perfect! Guests arrived from all over - some as far as San Diego (where apparently the most intense tape in the country is sold - you sure you didn't use glue Brooke?) and we revelled in the joy of having everyone together in one place. There were games, laughs, decorations (thank you Brooke and Daisy), great conversations and a small pack of animals.

This feels like the right time to give out my thanks to Mr. Littles, for tolerating all of this craziness in his home and for letting me chuckle at him whenever i saw his face that day. He was undoubtedly the most unimpressed, utterly pissed off and most fluffy-cute guest that day! :-)

I've learned that day that a diaper with a piece of chocolate in it, forgotten in the microwave, only takes a couple of seconds to turn into a steaming, burned pile of.......poo (?)........(plastic?). And when said diaper is thrown out on to the front lawn in a hasty attempt to rid the kitchen of smoke; it makes for a rather interesting piece of decoration that just screams at your neighbors: "Baby Shower this way!". Not nearly as pretty a decoration as white balloons and pink ribbons - but a hell of a lot funnier! Thank you Brooke - again ;-).

It was a truly special day for us and we want to thank everyone for having been part of that experience. Like all good things, it had to come to an end and I will leave you all with some snapshots of the day. Enjoy...

The hostess and her second in command decorator:



Game I: Guess that Poop!
















After much sniffing, looking and some touching (I saw it!) this is the day's most awesome answer.Submitted by Grandpa to be:





Game II: What is Nicole wearing today (I left the room and everyone had to describe me to see who paid attention, I guess).
This answer got submitted by one of the Grandmas to be; after several glasses of wine, she was at a loss of words:-) but it most accurately describes my outfit I think:



Dear Dan also seemed at a loss for words...or perhaps today's Fashionista Vocab just isn't his thing...

(p.s. i was wearing black boots;-))



And the winner, with an impressive detailed description, is Zoe:






Baby Niyo's soon to be BFF Kyva, eagerly awaiting the day...



Present time: is Daddy slumping lower and lower as we go on...?
















Everyone together! Thanks guys! It was a blast!

Halloween Man Trip

Not so much a blog as just a quick post of some pics from a trip Daddy and Dylan went on.
It was Halloween weekend, I was off to work and it was the last weekend we hadn't scheduled with anything yet before Baby's arrival.
So it seemed like perfect timing for me to let the Dad to be, be whisked away by his very good friend Dylan, who came up with the idea of having a "Last Man Trip" before the imminent duty of diaper changing and having to be in close proximity of both girls in his life, would become reality. (At this point please imagine a scary Halloween knife stabbing sound bit; you know; that one.)
They packed all the man essentials: Meat (check), Beer (check).
It also included a Truck; which at the beginning of said trip DID have a license plate that could be read; loaded down with two dirt bikes and some camping equipment. They took off to Diamond Mountain in the Plumas National Forrest and left me home alone with a puppy and a Stockton neighborhood full of little goblins, witches and drunk-shopping cart pushing-recycling stealing-bums (yup, welcome to Stockton!),ringing our doorbell ALL evening long.
I had finally hoisted myself into the bathtub (quite a risky adventure for being home alone and 6 1/2 mts. pregnant) when I started hearing the constant yells of: "Trick or Treat" accompanied by the doorbell ringing and then the puppy going crazy and barking for the next 2.3 minutes! I had turned off all porch and living room lights pretending no one was home (or worse that I was a registered sex offender and was just abiding the rules by staying in the dark that night) but I guess that doesn't deter a Stockton crowd.


Sigh....


....but this post is supposed to be about the boys, not me.








So here is what they did:








The Long Way Down II

Captain Dirt Bike...

...and his toys.

Ahhhhh; the good old times!

Down Dog at Cosmic Dog

I can't believe just how fast time has been going by! Didn't all of this just happen yesterday? And already I'm only a month and a half away from my last day at work and from starting my maternity leave! And now with so little time left; I finally am starting to get my work schedule changed from horribly late night hours to more reasonable day hours. Thanks! Better now then never I suppose. It sure has been a drag working until 2am!



I'm exactly 29 weeks pregnant (sorry; 6mts. and about 10 days) and little princess weighs as much as one of these puppies:

Last Tuesday "we" took our first yoga class together at the "Cosmic Dog Yoga Studio" up in Livermore. I think this will be a good addition to my pretty much non-existing exercise regime. I met a couple of nice ladies; both of which are pregnant of course; and it feels nice to start to get a foot in the door of new social circles in our hopefully soon to be new neighborhood. Speaking of networking/socializing: at Wednesday night's class Inyo was able to hand out a stack of his new business cards to Tracy (the teacher) who had inquired about them saying she would hand them out to her girlfriends in town. The previously cranky, rude couple seemed to have gotten some sleep and was in a much better mood this week! Things are starting to move into a more positive direction.

I've been studying up on all the supposed essential baby gear I'm expected to have BEFORE January. I thought picking out the right crib was a challenge; until I started to realize the absolute insane assortment of diapers there are!!! Speaking of diapers: according to "Baby Bargains" I'm supposed to stock up on 600 (yup, that's two zeros!) of those suckers just to get us through the first month 1/2 or so! Since that seems a bit retarded I'll take my chances and just get one box for now. Oh the pressure of choosing the "right" gear and gadgets; it's never ending!

I'm also realizing that I missed my window of starting to take weekly belly pictures of myself; instead of monthly. I've realized a bit far into this journey that it would have been fun to take one each week wearing the same exact outfit so I can really tell my progress.

I'll try to start now; I guess...cuz man! I'm growing as I'm typing...

Cabbages and Basketballs

This will just be a short one; but seeing that yesterday marked the exact 28 weeks spot; I wanted to say: Hello third trimester and welcome homestretch!

We've now grown into quite a baby and supposedly weigh as much as a Chinese Cabbage; very well, since we all are very much familiar with the proportions and weights of Chinese vegetables ?!

But apparently it looks something like this:

I'm now also consistently being told that I look as if I had swallowed a basketball; which reminds me to soon take another outside belly shot to keep up with the visual progress.

Had our 28weeks check up at the doctor's and like always everything just seems A OK. Blood pressure awesome, weight is now at a whopping 145lbs. I'm not 100% on that since we don't own a scale but I think I started out somewhere around 128-130.

Which reminds me, I haven't had a muffing yet today...

Kicking and Yawning

Wow! How time flies! Last time I was sitting here updating our blog; I told myself I would post just a little something once a week.........yeah, well, that was 5 weeks ago! Disgruntled followers from around the globe made sure to let me know that I've been once again slacking.

So here are some updates:

Exactly three days ago was our 6month anniversary! Welcome third trimester. So we're definitely nearing the home stretch now and it's become very visible as well. I shockingly read in my last post that I had to put my first pair of slacks onto my CTNLF-pile. Well, make that about 9 pairs of slacks; all but two pairs of jeans, and what seems like a 4 foot tall pile of blouses, sweaters and other tops. In just the last month and a half or so; I've had to give up close to my entire wardrobe. Sigh. One afternoon I went through all of my clothes, made piles, packed them into my many spacebags, and stored them away. On the bright side it's super easy to see what I've got in my closet and it makes the decision of "What do I wear today" a lot simpler.


It's slowly getting more uncomfortable sleeping at night and I'm now up to 4 pillows; from two. I have a feeling this isn't the end of my pillow hording either.

We had another "photo shoot" two days ago, at the lovely waterfall decorated Clinic in Tracy. Here are our newest snapshots:



Kicking her way into the world; not quiet yet, but practicing anyways.

"Hi Mom and Dad! See me waving?"



Head/Face: two black spots in the middle are the eyes, upper right forehead, middle mouth and nose. Yes? No? Anyone?

She looks like she's being smushed up against an aquarium glass wall. Angelina Jolie anyone?

"All this growing and being poked by the nurse makes me tired! YAAAWWWN! Watch out MGM tiger, here I come!"


It was the funniest thing yet, to see her open her little mouth as wide as she could, letting out a big yawn. It happened 3 times in a row too! Unfortunately there's no video for us to take home; just this still; but it reminds us of the good laugh we all had.

Last night we went to our first "Bradley" class in Livermore. It will be a weekly thing all the way up until she's born. Hopefully we can fit in all the classes, there are 12 of them and the last one is scheduled just a couple of days before our due date. So we'll see...

We really like our instructor and the whole thing seems like it will unfold to be quiet educational and inspiring. Except for the other two couples that are participating, or shall i say are showing up. Man, talk about a snooze fest! One of those couples might turn out to be OK, but the third one was like a big, black, stink pot poo poo cloud of negative energy entering the room! Woo! I'm pretty sure from what I understand that these classes are completely optional and voluntary, but these two act like they've been court ordered to attend, as part of their community service or something. It is their 4th baby (or at least HER fourth baby; not sure what the deal is) and she seems rather annoyed and over the whole thing about "Life's such a miracle blablabla".

Poor teacher, tried to lighten things up by cracking a few jokes at which no one but the two of us laughed. The woman just said something funny! And all they did was stare! She told everyone to bring two pillows and something to write with; should have added "bring a pulse and a sense of humor"! Oh, well, we tried our best to still have a good time, laughed at her jokes, made a few of our own and pretty much decided that yes, we are THAT couple.




Other than that, we've been scoping out a couple of houses in Livermore as potential buys. We've put in an offer for one of them and have been holding our breathes ever since last Tuesday to hear the verdict. If all goes according to plan (and it just HAS to since there is no plan B), we could be moving soon and finally settle in to the next chapter of our lives: House, Dog, Baby, in a nice neighborhood in the wine country!

Moving to The Beat

This weeks Highlights:
This weeks size: Spaghetti Squash
Question of the week: Isn't even a question!
Something new I learned this week: people can get stretch marks in weird places...



This past Friday was our 22 week anniversary. The little princess has stretched out to a full length spaghetti squash and has been busy dancing her tiny heart out.

Prego bikini shot?! What won't I do for a cookie these days...?

Got a little captain in me...?

Her movements are becoming more regular and she seems to be figuring out a schedule of her own. That same day, this past Friday, we were all hanging out by the pool - Mommy, daddy, doggy and grandparents - I was sitting on the edge of the pool with my feet dangling in the cool water when.......poke.....kick.....I saw for the first time how my belly twitched! So far I had only been able to feel her exercising; but now I saw it!! She's getting stronger every day - see! And they tell you chocolate is bad for you; jealous liars!!!

We had our anatomy photo shoot last week at Sutter Tracy Community Hospital where an ultrasound technician and her intern took about 20-30 pictures of all parts of the dancing queen. There was a brain - check - four chambers of the heart - check - kneecaps - check - and down the list they went. We even saw her doing the cannonball; pretty funny stuff.

We got to keep these two as a souvenir:
The head is to the left (sideways) and the bottom one has her shins on the right...

Oh; note to people who decorate waiting rooms at Sutter Tracy Community Hospital, please write this down: When you ask a pregnant woman to consume at least three large glasses of water, half an hour before her appointment; then forbid her to use the restroom and maker her wait - even though she's got an appointment! - it is NOT a good idea to decorate the walls of the waiting room with pictures and paintings of lakes, streams and waterfalls!!! NOT helping!!! Are you for real??!!! That's the sort of genius stuff my hard earned tax dollars go to?! Jeeeez...

One more thing while I'm all fired up: this goes to all strangers who always think they know what's best for everyone else (stop reading self-help books!); especially if you've never even been pregnant (!): According to what scale to you judge the size of my belly? I don't mind comments here and there but do NOT roll your eyes, give me that look and say: "4 1/2 months?! You are too tiny!" or "4 1/2 months?! You are this big already?!" The fact that those comments are about half-half proves that they are completely worthless. On a more positive note: glad to see they have all moved on from the never ending "is it a boy or a girl?".

The other night at work Mama-Taxi a.k.a. Master Splinter (sounds odd, pretty normal stuff in my job though) shuffled up to me, squinted at my belly over the rim of her little-old-woman-glasses, then pushed my arm out of the way and asked with her Vietnamese accent: "You , baby?". I say yes. "Oooooh", she said while her wrinkly little forehead flattened in amazement. She then forcefully spun me towards her, patted my belly in a few spots with the palm of her hand and firmly stated: "Boy, huh...?". I smiled and tried to correct her: "No, Mamie, it's a girl." Her wrinkles came back just as fast as they had disappeared a moment earlier, then she took a tiny wobbly step backwards, gave me a slightly evil look that seemed to say: I didn't ASK you, I'm TELLING you!, then poked my belly one more time and said in a Cesar "tssst" kind of way; "NO! boy!". I just smiled at her and asked: "You sure...?" That seemed to satisfy her, she got a content look and softly and slowly said: "Yeah.....". And that was that. Why do I pay for health insurance every month if I could just conduct polls at work? We sure got plenty of little old Asian women with strong believes and ancient techniques.

Although I would have loved to be right (with my boy dream from a couple of months ago), simply for the fact of being right; I hope Dr. Nguyen is right and it's a girl. Awwww, pink and butt-ruffles!!!

So while our baby has been busy kicking & throwing punches, and strangers have been handing out opinions about the inappropriate size of my belly; I have added the first pair of slacks to my CTNLF-pile (=clothes that no longer fit), watched my inny grow to a flatty (yup they exist) and scratched my head over the fact that one can get stretch marks on the inside of one's knee.......now that's a Snapple fact for ya!