Pregnancy Tips & Facts 3

One thing that a husband is afraid of from his pregnant wife is the mood swing. And trust me, he has every reason to be afraid, because I don't know how to handle it. Even after reading several pregnancy books, the safest reaction to a wife's mood swing is to collapse to the floor from lethal disease. It might be painful and tragic, but it's much less painful than to deal with the monstrous episodes.

The mood swings can come and go just like a storm, except that people can predict when the storm comes whereas no one can tell when the next mood swing will hit. The pregnant wife can look cheerful and happy at one time, and suddenly BAM! she cries her eyes out. It could be caused by a very simple thing like running out of salt or the fact that today is Thursday.

One author of the book that I read suggested that the husband needs to be supportive and he also needs to just be there, listen to her and hug her compassionately. That author should root in hell.

Because most of the time the cause of the mood swing is the husband. So hugging her at that episode would be as risky as playing tag with a bear. But you might want to try being supportive. It might work sometimes. But the main key to this symptom is just to keep your cool. Understand the she is having a mood swing, so be patience and don't escalate the situation by shouting back at her. Then you can collapse.

Pregnancy Tips & Facts 2

Another fact that I want to share is regarding the morning sickness. My wife fortunately did not experience too much of it and only threw up three times. But still, I read a lot of books about it until I myself got my share of the nauseous.

The wife needs to fill her stomach constantly. Never leave the tummy empty as it will trigger the nauseous feeling. So keep a lot of snack within reach, remember to fill yourself from time to time so that your weight will increase tremendously and the nauseous may be subdued. Or may be not.

Sometimes the sickness will still hit you even when you are full. So try can try to eat something with ginger. My wife enjoys hot traditional meal that is called ahboleng in Singapore, or onde in Indonesia. You can also make the soup by boiling water with a lot of ginger and brown sugar. Sleeping pills would be a nice addition to the soup but she cannot take medicine.

You also need to fill your tummy even before you get up from your bed. You can prepare a pack of ginger biscuit near your bed so that when you wake up you can easily reach for it from your bed and find out that you fat husband ate the whole pack last night.

Pregnancy Tips & Facts

One of the facts that I learn about pregnancy is that a pregnant wife needs to avoid sleeping flat on her back. I tried to find the reason from the one source that is dependable, reliable, and always trying to sell me Viagra: the Internet.

I later found out that sleeping flat on her back might hinder the flow of nutrients and blood to the placenta. It’s still okay to lay on her back with several pillow supports, but avoid lying flat.

So what you, the husband, need to do is to tell your wife,”Don’t sleep on your back because it might harm the baby” several times every night until she gets annoyed and hit you with her bedside lamp. So it might not be a good idea.

Another way to do this is to put a pillow behind her when she sleeps on her side. That way the pillow will prevent her from rolling over to her back. You might want to put harder pillow, or if all fails, some durians.

Then if later she still rolls to her back, you need to push her to roll again, which will probably wake her up and throw you out of the bedroom. So you need to discuss first whether it’s okay to wake her up if that happens. She, the happy and loving mother, will surely say it’s okay. But still, move all sharp objects from the bedroom

Pregnancy Help

As there are some blog readers that have no experience in dealing with pregnancy before, or in dealing with being smacked on the head by a pregnant wife before, this blog is trying to give as many tips and facts as possible so that when in the future you are pregnant, you can easily go back to this blog and see that the pregnancy tips and facts that I give are totally useless.

It’s because there are so many thing that we do but we do not understand why. But we still do it anyway, because we are an expecting couple, and thus we have the right to behave irrationally.

We can do tons of stuffs that we don’t understand, just because somewhere there are some other expecting couples who do those things. And we don’t want our child to be lacking behind because she does not have the same crazy treatment experienced by other fetus. So we end up doing a lot of stuff that might sound ridiculous when you first start doing them, but after a while, you will find that those things are actually just plain old stupid.

But that’s what’s done for the baby by us, the parents-to-be. So God help us.

Back To Life, Office Life

I have not talked too much about what happens in my life except for my marriage life and wife’s pregnancy. Part of it because I am a shy and introvert person who does not like people poking around my private life, but mostly it’s because my life is kind of boring.

But something new is happening next week. I am going to start a new job. I have this old job where my income was based mostly on commission and I worked mostly from home. But now that I have a baby coming, I decided that it’s better for me to work at an office all day, than to stay at home and hear the baby cry all day while I work.

No sorry, I am joking. Of course I want to stay at home and work next to my baby all day. I will miss her if I go out working. But now I can no longer afford to have up-and-down income from the commission and profit sharing. So I need a steady income to buy the diapers, milk, clothes, strollers, rattlers, soft toys, sleeping pills, etc. I also need to find a new and bigger house to cater the baby and her grandparents who are going to visit the baby a lot.

So luckily, I could find a job relatively quick and will start work next Monday. So I sadly say that I might not be able to blog as often as I do now. But I will try to write it on my way home everyday and upload it often. Might be often as now though. So your understanding and patience and, more importantly, cash donation, are needed.

18 Weeks And Kicking

The baby is entering its 18 weeks now. And as usual, this is what’s happening inside my wife’s tummy:

Your baby is approximately 6 inches/ 14.2 centimeters long from crown to rump and she weighs about 7 ounces/ 190 grams.

Although things may seem calm on the surface, your little one is kicking, flexing, reaching, rolling and even thumb-sucking now

Well, wow, cannot imagine what she is doing now. Can’t wait to see her rolling and sucking her thumb. We are going to have a full scan on the week 20. Maybe by then we can see her in different poses, although all of which might make no different, as they will only look like a milk spills on the screen to me. Must learn how to squint at the screen properly.

Customer's Rights and Thief's Rights

I know some criminals are desperate. But are they also this desperate? Or should they be any IQ test before somebody commits any crime?

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police arrested a woman who stole a pair of Crocs shoes when she returned to the store hours later to exchange them because they did not fit her son, a police spokesman said Friday.

"The store clerk identified her from security camera footage and called us," said Amos Shimoni, police spokesman in the northern town of Safed.

(From Reuters)

Shared Feeling, And Zit

Another fact that you need to know about a pregnant woman is about the glowing skin. Because of the hormone that she releases and the more oil the her skin produces, a pregnant lady can have her skin looks like glowing and more radiant. That just drives us crazy.

It’s because that doesn't apply to all pregnant ladies. Some women might instead have a series of pimples on her face. Sadly, my wife is in this category. So now she has a few small pimples on her face. And that is not the bad news.

What is worse is that I, the innocent husband, also grow pimples. I don't know how and I couldn't find any explanation in the Internet or books, but now I have several pimples on my face.

I understand that a husband needs to be involved and share the beautiful experience, but is it really the way? My tummy grows just as my wife's, I am easily tired just like her, I eat what my wife is craving for, but should I also grow pimples just like her? All these without having the benefit of people offering their seats for me on MRT.

Jokes

The kindergarten class had a homework assignment to find out about something exciting and relate it to the class the next day. When the time came for the little kids to give their reports, the teacher was calling Johnnie.
Little Johnnie walked up to the front of the class, and with a piece of chalk, made a small white dot on the blackboard, then sat back down. Well the teacher couldn't figure out what Johnnie had in mind for his report on something exciting, so she asked him just what that was.
"It's a period" reported Johnnie.
"Well I can see that" she said. "but what is so exciting about a period."
"Damned if I know" said Johnnie, "but this morning my sister said she missed one. Then Daddy had a heart attack, Mommy fainted and the man next door shot himself."

------------------------

The room was full of pregnant women and their partners, and the Lamaze class was in full swing. The instructor was teaching the women how to breathe properly, along with informing the men how to give the necessary assurances at this stage of the plan.

The teacher then announced, "Ladies, exercise is good for you. Walking is especially beneficial. And, gentlemen, it wouldn't hurt you to take the time to go walking with your partner!"

The room really got quiet. Finally, a man in the middle of the group raised his hand.

"Yes?" replied the teacher.

"Is it alright if she carries a golf bag while we walk?"

Concern Unlimited

As a parents-to-be, sometimes we think and imagine how becoming parents is going to be. Sometimes we ended up very happy and excited, and some other times we ended up looking at each other with face expression that says "Gosh, whose idea is it to have a baby?"

We certainly do not know how to take care of a baby. We would not know what we should do if the baby cries. Should we change the diaper? Should we feed her? What if she keeps on crying? Should we feed her more? What food should we give? Pizza usually works for me, but will it work for her? Or does it mean that she wants to play, should we give her Barbie? Would she end up eating the Barbie’s head instead?

There are so many things to worry about when we are thinking about the baby, although the many happy things are also come to mind. So, maybe we should read books about pregnancy less and read more about baby care. We should think more about how to raise the baby. We have had several discussions about this though, and so far, we have come up with some solutions, the best of which of course the simplest, which is to let our parents take care of the baby. Yay

Ouch

For all the men in the world, I say, "OOUUUWWW!"

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said Wednesday.

Asked if the man would make a full recovery, a police spokeswoman said it was "difficult to predict."

The attack climaxed three years of acrimonious enforced co-habitation. The couple divorced three years ago but continued to share a small flat, something common in Russia where property costs are very high.

"It was monstrously painful," the wounded ex-husband told Tvoi Den newspaper. "I was burning like a torch. I don't know what I did to deserve this."

17 Weeks And Beating

My baby-to-be is entering her 17th week yesterday. And this is what's happening according to Babycenter.com:

Your baby is now nearly 5.5 inches/ 13 centimeters long from crown to rump and weighs approximately 5 ounces/ 140 grams... With the help of a special stethoscope, you can now hear your baby's heartbeat.

I actually forgot to tell you that yes, we heard the baby's heartbeat. The Gynae put a strange-looking mic on my wife's tummy and suddenly we could hear...... nothing.
It's because he still needed to find where the heart was. So after he tried several times, we finally could hear it.

Remember the time when you tried to hear your heart beat for the first time and you were amazed that your heart could produce a hard bee-dub, bee-dub sound? Well, it was totally not like that.
What we heard instead was a fast swooshing sound. The baby's heart beats almost twice as fast as the mommy's, so the sound that we heard was not as we expected. But it was amazing anyway. It's great to know that the heart was working and it was amazing to feel and hear the life inside.

Discount? Yeah... Right

A few months back a cinema chain in Singapore just celebrated its birthday. So it ran a win & scratch promo so that, after years of enjoying the loyalty of its customers, it can reap more money from them.

I, the naive customers, was interested in this promo and got several $2 vouchers for movie tickets.

Unfortunately, the voucher could not be used on the peak hour, which I found out the hard way, in front of ticket counter when I was about to buy tickets for Harry Potter two weeks ago. So today I was planning to use the voucher to watch The Bourne Ultimatum, on weekdays, at 1 pm. I was sure that I would be able to use the voucher at that hour, which proved that I had a peanut for a brain.

Of course I still could not use it. To my surprise, when I was near the counter, I saw an A4-size sign that said the voucher could only be used for 4 films only, and surprisingly, 3 of them were no longer played or shown there (really). And I pointed that out to the staff, so later when I walked pass the counter, the sign was no longer there (again, really).

The staff said that the voucher could only be used to watch old movie. So at the end I still ended up paying the full price at this cinema, which for courtesy reason, I won't mention in this blog, except that its initial is GV and it’s name sounds like Volden Gillage.

Well maybe it's my fault, thinking that this promo was for the benefit of the customers, whereas I should have known better that it's for making money. But unfortunately I could not do anything about it. As a wise and mature adult, I could not scream there and make demand. No, so I will just avoid this cinema from now on. And maybe pee on its seats.

Baby Scan

As promised in my blog yesterday, these are the pictures of the baby scan.

These two pictures were taken on 30 July. There were 6 more pictures like this.
As you can see, the pictures look nicer because it used more sophisticated (and darn expensive) machine. So, as a result, the pictures show more details.
You could more or less see the shape of the head, with the mouth and the nose, the tummy, and, if you cross your eyes, the map of California.



And the picture below is the scan taken on 18 August. It used different machine so it's more blurred. But as you can see, the baby's growing, especially the body.
Some said you could see the little fingers, near the head, whichever one the head is. My wife told me that the head was the round shape on the right side of the screen. But I am still figuring out whether the machine did not accidentally capture the picture of my wife's shirts buttons instead.

Nice Nice Baby

Remember the last time we went to the gynae we found out that the baby was very nice to us, helping in the examination by positioning herself accordingly? Well, of course from there we thought that the baby was obedient, nice, smart and sweet. But some of you might think that it’s only a coincidence, you party poopers!

But when on Saturday we went to see the gynae again, it happened again. The gynae told us that he wanted to scan my wife’s tummy to check the sex of the baby. In order to do that, the baby must be open her legs wide in a certain position, such as the baby sitting and pointing its finger at its groin, because that’s the only way I could figure out something from the screen full of dots.

And when the gynae started scanning, we could see that the baby had opened its legs wide. When I said “we”, I meant the gynae and my wife. I was still figuring out which part of the screen that I should look into.

“Oh look the baby shows me”, the gynae said, when he saw the baby just sat there opening her legs right away.

Then he moved the mouse pointer to an area on the screen. “See anything sticking out?” he asked. My wife was so excited to see the image, and said, ”No”. “Me neither”, said the gynae, ”Then it’s probably a girl”. And my wife smiled.

And I also smiled, although I was still trying to figure out which parts of that image were the legs. I only saw a figure like a “C” on the screen, which my wife later told me were the image of the legs, taken from the bottom. That still confused me.

Then the gynae, as usual, took my baby’s measurement and scan its head and body, which I will post later. But for now, I am just so glad that the baby was so nice, putting herself in the right position for the scan, and that she was fine. Thank God.

Hope she continues to be nice and fine, and next time she could point her finger at the point that I should look into on the screen, and hold a sign “This is my leg”.

100 Children

Birth control kit must be very expensive there.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A one-legged Emirati father of 78 is lining up his next two wives in a bid to reach his target of 100 children by 2015, Emirates Today reported on Monday.

Daad Mohammed Murad Abdul Rahman, 60, has already had 15 brides although he has to divorce them as he goes along to remain within the legal limit of four wives at a time.

"In 2015 I will be 68 years old and will have 100 children," the local tabloid quoted Abdul Rahman as saying. "After that I will stop marrying. I have to have at least three more marriages to hit the century."

Abdul Rahman said his large family lived in 15 houses. He supports them with his military pension and the help of the government of Ajman, one of seven emirates that comprise the UAE.

(from Reuters)

Gynae Trip, The Third

We finally went to see the gynecologist again on Saturday. This was the third gynae visit for me and so I thought I was getting good at this and had known the drill, since what I did were basically standing around and looking for free stuff.

So my wife was the one who did most of the job. She again went through some tests. Urine test, blood pressure test etc, while I, the supporting husband, caringly and considerately guarded her seats, because the waiting room was so crowded. So I just sat there and buried my head into a women’s magazine to avoid people staring at me for taking two spaces. But finally, after I read one or two tricks about mascara from the magazine, the nurse called us and brought us to see the Doctor.

We were only inside for about ten minutes, but we found out that the baby was fine and growing, which basically just made our day.

We were so happy that we did not even care that it was raining outside. We just walked around the building happily enjoying our time. Plus we got a chicken puff on our hands, so everything was nice and we were happy the whole day J

More on the doctor’s scan result later.

Independence Day

Today is Indonesian’s Independence Day. The day when the Indonesians commemorate the struggle and spirits of our national heroes by pretending to be sick to avoid standing under the sun during the flag ceremony.

Today is surely a big event in Indonesia, where there are a lot of celebrations, festivities, games held in many areas. But what about the Indonesians who live abroad? What does 17 August mean to them. Well, some might say not much. There is no flag ceremony here, except in the Embassy, and there is no festivities happening. Some even forget that today is the Independence Day.

But there are still many Indonesians who show a heartfelt reaction toward their Independence Day, mostly in the form of,” Gosh, how come we do not get a day off today!” (as today is a public holiday back home).

Some Indonesians actually did go to the Embassy to participate in the flag ceremony, and some Indonesian’s religious groups had a get together to pray for the country. So, it’s a relieve to know that the Indonesians here still remember where they are from.

And me? I am of course working. Gosh, how come we do not get a day off today?

Electrified

Electricity in India. I am selling candles.

Med Exam Shame

I went through a medical examination yesterday. It’s a routine check that many people have gone through many many times. But still, any trip to a clinic always scares me, as I am afraid that for whatever reason, the doctor might pull a syringe and give a shot.
“Now, you need to fill this registration form, but first, we need to give you a jab to ensure you don’t get plastmizteryxmezia from the pen. Give me your hands.”

Fortunately no injection took place, because I don’t remember passing out from the fear of needle. But I wish I had, because what happened was more humiliating.
The clinic that I went to was a small clinic with limited facilities. Sure it had X-ray machines, weight scale and eye test equipments, and my examination went fine. But it lacked one important facility that must be had by all clinics. A toilet.

Yes, this clinic did not have a toilet. So when the clerk there asked me to fill up a cup, I did not where to do it. I could do it right there, but it would not be a fun experience, especially when I need to wait for court’s sentence after that. So I went to the toilet at the MRT station, a place where even a cockroach refused to visit because it’s too nasty.
So I needed to fill a cup but the toilets were awful. So I used the urinal instead, which made other people in that toilet stared at me strangely, as I would if I saw a man contain his urine in a cup. So I just held my head low and walked away as fast as I could, carrying a cup of my urine. It was probably one of the strangest moments of my life.

16th Week

Our baby-to-be is entering its 16th week today. And this is how it develops this week, from babycenter uk.

Your baby is now about the size of an avocado. In or out of the womb, babies are playful creatures. Yours may already have discovered his first toy -- the umbilical cord -- which he'll enjoy pulling and grabbing.

The baby clearly does not do very much week after week. But still, any changes that happen to her just make my wife goes, “Sooooooo cute!”
..Well, okay, I also went like that sometimes, but very rarely. ... Okay, okay, not rarely, it happened sometimes. ....mmm, quite often in fact..... okay, darn it! My wife and I said together,”Sooo cute!” Happy now?

I am losing my masculine gene (which was not that many to start with) every time I read about the baby. I should go and do more masculine thing after that, like watching Monster Truck show while scratching myself and burping.

Last Wed Help For The Year

Have you ever experienced the great feeling of starting your week on Monday morning? Feeling energized instead of lazy? Ready to tackle the workload at the office instead of missing the pillow on your bed? Have you ever experienced that great thrill to welcome your week?

Yeap, me neither.

I woke up sleepy, groggy and with muscle ache all over my body because I worked them hard last Saturday when I helping my friend’s church wedding.

Yes I was involved in another wedding. But this one is kind of special because:
1. This is the last wedding that I would be involved in for this year.
2. A lot of people helped willingly
3. The wedding venue looked like it’s just been hit by a meteor

The church was under renovation and there were a lot of spots that needed to be touched up. So the committee started early to apply some decorations to the church. We decided to sweep and mop the floor first because of the dust from the construction. Of course by “we” I meant the women. The guys just looked right and left and asked,” What dust?” But we then mopped the floor anyway, because we wanted the wedding to go as beautifully as it could. Plus the women had scissors in their hands when they told us to mop.

Then we needed to cover some spoilt tiles and walls, moved a lot of tables and chairs, prepared sound system, oversaw decorations and caterers, placed logistic items, and other things that I might have missed because I think I passed out several times.
No, sorry, I was fine. Tired but fine and had fun. And it was not that bad at the end, because all the committee worked wonders. Nobody was waiting for instructions and they just moved when they saw something to take care of. So everything went smoothly and well.

And congratulations to B & Y, enjoy your blissful new life. May your marriage blessed with happiness, laughter and many many children .

Girls Girls Girls

When I told people about the sex of my baby, they usually reply by asking me another question,”How come your tummy is now bigger than your wife’s?”

No, sorry, not that. Although it happened a few times. The next thing that people usually ask me is which that I prefer, a baby girl or a baby boy. I usually answer it does not matter. I am totally okay with both, because no matter what the sex is, it’s still going to cry at night, have its diapers changed, and try to put its feet to its mouth all the time. So it rea;;y does not make so much of a difference to me.

But once I answered that, people usually asked me again as if they were not sure that I was happy with the sex. Well, it might be because the way I answered it nonchalantly, or might be because a baby boy was usually more preferable among the Chinese. But not for me actually. I am really really okay with having a baby girl, or a boy (since the result was not 100% sure).
And in this modern world, having a baby girl is also fine as now females are getting more and more dominant (If you don’t believe that, you should see my wife in the kitchen). So you can ask people who only have baby girls whether they are happy with that.
They will say that they are.
Really? … Are they sure? … With baby girl?

Sick Sick Sick

I could not write my blog yesterday and most of the day today, because I am sick. I have a flu.
It was not a very bad one. I still can do my work and stuff, but I just cannot think straight and write. So please forgive me if my blog suddenly babbling about irrelevant things, like about the revolving stationery on my work desk that somehow keep turning so that the back of it always facing...err, never mind, just the babble I was talking about.

But that sounds alright to me, maybe because I've been mixing my medication. I have a box full of over-the-counter medicine that I brought from Indonesia. And since I want to recover as soon as possible, I tried several Chinese and modern medicine, which I believe work fine, except that I can no longer speak a full sentence.
No, just kidding. It’s getting better a little bit actually. I just now feel bloated and a little dizzy. But I am sure I would be fine tomorrow as I am going to sleep early tonight on my bed and bed sheet, which has a strange pattern that if I look at it slowly it might turns... wait, sorry, the medication just takes effect.

My Son, Superman

Boy, I cannot believe the high school years that this boy is going to have.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand couple is looking to call their newborn son Superman -- but only because their chosen name of 4Real has been rejected by the government registry.
Pat and Sheena Wheaton say they will get around the decision by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages by officially naming their son Superman but referring to him as 4Real, the New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported.
The Wheatons decided on the name after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realising their baby was "for real".
They decided 4Real was the best way to write it, but the name was rejected because the registrar said a name had to be a sequence of characters.
Pat Wheaton said he was considering appealing against the decision through the courts, but whatever happens he won't be budged on his choice.
"No matter what its going to stay 4Real," Wheaton told the Herald, "I'm certainly not a quitter".
A spokesman for the Department of Internal Affairs, which operates the registry told the Herald discussions with the Wheatons about their son's name were continuing.
(For Reuters & Yahoo News)

15 And Counting

Our baby just reached its 15th week today, or sort of. Some sources say that it should be 14th week. But it does not matter, as long as it’s growing.
So I want to share with you the development of the baby that we take from babycentre:

You may not know it when it happens, but your tiny baby frequently gets the hiccups, which babies master before breathing.... What you may first think is a rumbling stomach may be your baby doing some back flips.

At 15th week she learnt how to do back flips and master hiccups? Even I don’t do that. What will she learn after this? Riding a jet?
So fun. :)

Birthday Surprise.. Sort Of

Today is a very special day for us. Today is the first birthday in our marriage life. My wife’s birthday.
So I planned to surprise her. But of course you might have known when a guy, or me, prepare a surprise, it would only materialize in the form of either:
- Beer and chips, or
- Another Chernobyl disaster
Well, ok, it was not that bad actually. But it was a disaster indeed.

Ok, my plan was to surprise her in the morning with a big cake that I bought yesterday, complete with small candles etc. I planned to wake up earlier, sneaked to the kitchen and brought the cake to the bedroom and woke her.
But then she woke up at midnight, and I needed to say happy birthday to her. Then I rushed to the fridge to get the cake, with my eyes half-closed and my mind in screensaver mode.
And when I opened the box, she suddenly appeared from the bedroom. “Cakeee!” she said, surprising me.

Of course she was happy with the cake, especially when I told her to be ready to blow up the candles. But then of course I was not that lucky. I couldn’t find a lighter. I don’t think we have one in my place. So the candles just sat there without any flame. On second thought, maybe it was better to surprise her in the morning, at least I could try to light the candles using magnifying glass facing the sun. Yes, we have magnifying glass in our house but no lighter. Don’t ask me how.
So no surprise, no blowing the candle. But we did eat a small piece of cake, a nice one.
Happy Birthday My Love!!!

Blind Man Driving

No information given on whether his friend was also blind, or drunk, or just incredibly stupid.

TALLINN (Reuters) - Police in the Baltic state of Estonia stopped a man who was driving erratically at the weekend, only to find he was blind.
The 20-year-old was driving in the southern city of Tartu early Sunday -- helped by instructions from his 16-year-old passenger.
"At first they thought he was just drunk, but the man kept missing the tube for the breath test, then they realized he was blind" and arrested him, Tartu Police spokeswoman Marge Kohtla said Monday.

It's A Bird. It's A Plane, .. It's A....??

Ok as there are a lot of our friends who asked us about the sex of the baby, I will put it in this blog so that everybody in this world, except the 6 billion something people who do not read this blog, can know about the baby.
And I have to say that Yes, you guessed it correctly, it was ... (drum roll) ... too early to determine. We could only get more confirmed information in about two weeks. That’s what the gynae told us.
But when my wife had her tummy scanned, we asked the nurse to see whether there was a sign about it’s sex. And she informed us that it was probably, perhaps, possibly, most likely, might be A GIRL..... Although she’s not 100% sure yet.

There you have it. Of course we would get more confirmation in a few weeks (our next appointment is on the 18th Aug), but I am quite certain with the nurse’s prediction, because she showed it to us. She pointed to the screen during the scan and showed us that it was a girl, although as usual I was not clear what she was pointing at.
So the sex of the baby is revealed now. Yay.

Settling

Now my wife's pregnancy has entered its second trimester, which means now her initial symptoms of pregnancy have reduced substantially. She no longer feels nauseous, she does not throw up anymore, she's more energetic, and the most important thing, now she eats.

Now she is able to gobble down a lot of food, even the ones that a month ago tasted like floor disinfectant to her. She starts eating meats again without having her face turns purple, although she still has a little bit of problems with chicken. But KFC seems fine for her.
That's a good thing since now the baby needs more nutrients such as calcium and protein. So having my wife eat more food works just fine for the growing baby. And for her growing tummy as well.
I can now happily see the development from the outside. Seeing the tummy growing just makes me sure that the baby is growing, although I still don't know what's growing inside my tummy since mine's growing faster than hers.

BTW, I read in the books that at this week the baby can already suck its thumb and make facial expression. If only we could see it. Looking forward to frown at each other :).

Allow My Allowance Mom!

Everything looks like a normal family dispute, until you look at their ages.

ROME (Reuters) - A Sicilian mother took away her 61-year-old son's house keys, cut off his allowance and hauled him to the police station because he stayed out late.
Tired of her son's misbehavior, the retiree in the central Sicilian city of Caltagirone turned to the police to "convince this blockhead" to behave properly, La Sicilia, one of Sicily's leading newspapers, reported on Thursday.
The son responded by saying his mother did not give him a big enough weekly allowance and did not know how to cook.
"My son does not respect me, he doesn't tell me where he's going in the evenings and returns home late," the woman was quoted as saying. "He is never happy with the food I make and always complains. This can't go on."
Police helped the squabbling duo make up and the two returned home together, with the son's house keys and daily allowance restored.
(From Reuters)

Kidnapping For Dummies

Thinking of a new easy-money career.

Colombia, long one of the world's kidnapping capitals, has seen a rash of cases in which mobile phone customers receive messages telling them to turn off their handsets for two hours because their telephones have been cloned, police say.

The criminals then contact family members of the phone user to say that he or she has been taken hostage. Families who have no way of contacting their relative are directed where to drop off ransom money before the two hours are up.
(from Reuters)

Bad Minton

I played badminton last night. I have not been playing for a long time. So you might guess that I played worse than usual.
Well, you guessed wrong. Saying that now I played worse means that I once played a better game in the first place. But since I always play in the worst form known to ever exist, there is simply no way for me to go worse.
But I kept playing anyway, since I don't know any other way to reduce my tummy size. Sure everybody says take a diet, but the only diet that works for me is the eat-less diet, which I cannot do since, well, I love eating. So I exercise more (the word “more” should be interpreted very loosely)

So I kept playing badminton, which for me was divided into three parts, get ready on the courts, pretending to hit the shuttlecock, and waiting for the next game. Unfortunately those three parts basically consist of the same thing, standing around doing nothing.
But luckily I played double, so once a while my partner hectically ran to get the ball and we sometimes won, after which I continue standing outside the courts and do nothing.

Eat less now sounds better.

Contactable Again

I finally get my hand phone number back. I went to the customer service center and the staff there just simply gave me a new SIM card for my phone at no charge at all, because they believed customer service was the key of their business. And they also believed that without my SiIM card I wouldn't be able to use their services and give them money.

I can now sms and call my friends anytime. Just imagine how it felt a few days back when I didn't have my number with me. My friends couldn't contact me, my colleagues couldn't inform me about what happened in the office, and I couldn't sms my wife where I was. Can you imagine how it felt?
Yes, it felt great!

Everything was so calm. My partner couldn't bug me with office problems and my friends couldn't sms me and asked for my help. That's one period of peace that had.
But of course I couldn't stand it for too long. After a while I missed sms-ing my wife and got worried if there's something urgent that I needed to tackle. At that time, I couldn't imagine and remember how I could survive ten years ago.
I vaguely remembered that there was pager and payphone, but I couldn't recall how we lived without a mobile phone, uncontactable the whole time. Spending a lot of time waiting and waiting without knowing what happened to the people that we supposed to meet. Such a waste of time.
How if our wives wanted to tell us to go home early? How if our boss wanted to inform us there's urgent thing at the office. Hmmm, well, imagine that.