Dear Bean #5: Preparations

23 July 2012

Dear Bean,

I have been spending time online window shopping for your things and taking note of things I believe you will need. We have to prioritize things so we don't get multiples of things and end up not using them.

It is my opinion that things seem far more simple back in the day. There is a wide variety of choices now that it's though to gauge which things to get and I have to go back on forth between and among different brands and models. Your crib alone is something of a challenge to decide on!

Diapers are another matter. I want you in cloth diapers and I'm eyeing a new (to me) type of nappy that will not only prevent me from sticking pins in your bum but also reduce the number of knick-knacks in your diaper bag. It's admittedly more expensive than the run-of-the-mill cloth diaper but the reduction of knick-knacks and that it ought to fit you until you're a toddler should justify the cost.

I thought I felt your first kicks already. They're unremarkable honestly, but I am convinced it's you. It's not yet a consistent thing but I look forward to it and I think Papa will look forward to feeling you move too.

For now a lot of the things I'm looking at are for myself but soon, we'll likely get things for you already in preparation for your arrival. It is a strange and exciting new journey we'll be taking once you are here.

Love,

Mama

Daily Photo Post

Haneul

A month for a month

The ratio being a reference to a full month of cleaning to which my system responded with a full month of resting.

Very reasonable and not bad for a woman in her second trimester, right?

I have been accused of being on a perpetual quest to clean and organise my things and this is, sadly, not very far from the truth. I am a pack rat. Nothing to be proud of, but I'm not about to lie about or hide it either. You've seen me have my moments but believe me when I say that those moments come at the expense of at least two to three days worth of work that are easily undone in just as long a time.

Where did it go?

This is just another one of those things that make me laugh.

I've shared profile shots of myself in all my preggy belly goodness but I'd never shared frontal shots mainly because I didn't think there was much of a difference.

Daily Photo Post

Mao Tien Lien

Hurdle to prepare for 1.0: Breastfeeding

If I'm to be honest, and here on my blog I always am, what I truly find the most daunting is the idea of being a self-sufficient milk factory.

Okay, that doesn't sound quite as good, accurate, or beautiful as the act actually is.

Daily Photo Challenge

I just dead stopped myself in the middle of my daily photos when I realised it's already October and I hadn't changed topics! Kudos, massive, massive kudos to Fat Mum Slim for really being prepared with topics for her photo challenge, hahaha!

So starting tomorrow, I'm taking daily portraits of my pets. Yeah, I know it's kind of a cop out since I'd been posting some pet photos anyway but the challenge here is for me to not take photos of the same subject on consecutive days.

Now, if you have pets with different temperaments, you can see what a huge challenge this is!

Truth be told, some days I barely even see some of our cats. By "barely" I mean there are days when I see a cat just once the entire day, and this is considering all our cats are either spayed or neutered, and never stray too far from home. Most commonly I'd have portraits of the cats who own me--out of nine, two of them do--and perhaps those whose allegiance is mine--out of the remaining seven, that's five.

The dogs, obviously, I see all the time since they can't leave the property at all. ^_~

So there we go. I think I might try taking daily portraits by age but that simply adds too much of a headache to the challenge so we'll see.

For today, and I don't consider this part of the challenge, I want to share these two photos of our first shelter adoptee, Scotch.

How time flies and how he's changed! I didn't even really notice until I looked back through all the photos on my hard drive.

Left Behind #3: Eyes, Lips, and Cheeks

Note: This is an old entry reposted from my old blog called Boudoir Angel on Tumblr. I'm reposting all of these old entries because I plan to delete my old blog and consolidate everything to this one. Some posts may have its text updated and/or reformatted slightly according to the platform change.

When I was six I used to go through my mum's and aunt's drawers without their knowing it--so I believed though I still don't know if they ever figured it out--and I would play with their make-up. Naturally it was the eye shadows that I played with most and eventually it was my grandmother's stash that I was openly allowed to muck around with, exploring all sorts of combinations.

Dear Bean #4: Family Extensions

20 July 2012

Dear Bean,

I slept most of the day today but didn't quite eat as well as I should, I'm sorry.

The summer weather is finally over...I hope. It has been very uncomfortable for me since our return from Ireland and knowing now that you have been with us since explains to me why it was so easy for me to overheat despite the unusually cold spring weather, and even more when we returned to the heat of the local summer.

Tonight we were at your Tito Luigi's house having some down time with Papa's friends. Looking around, I kind of have the feeling you will grow up like I did, in a way. My extended family by blood is quite limited, but the extended family cultivated through friendships is comparatively vast. In your case, both types of extended family are equally vast as both your father and I keep several very small circles of friends here and, as in my case, abroad. It may be overwhelming to think of at first, but I think you might grow fond of having such a large group of people to call family.

It is driving me crazy not to be able to tell of you're okay. I can't feel your movements yet so I'm constantly wondering if you're fine. I think I'd rather lose sleep over your constant movement rather than worry as I do now.

I don't know how many ultrasounds I'm to have but I look forward to our next "meeting." I can't wait to see how you've grown!

Love,

Mama

Daily Photo Post

I get a lot of joy from watching my pets so here: two photo posts that are pet related.

The first one is Yuki from yesterday morning as I sat in bed reading Elle Decor.

Second is Kuro, owning the laundry.