Memorial Weekend

It's nice to have a long weekend. James and I originally planned to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park near the border of California and Oregon. But we worried about the traffic jam and crowd and postponed the plan until the end of June.

Saturday, James cooked some pancake and egg over easy for brunch. I enjoyed intermittent kicking by Chubby while reading in the bed and fell in sleep. After a long nap, we went to the library and a nearby farmer's market to get all the ingredients I need for a Russian style beef stew.

Sunday, we woke up pretty late. Had some Korean style pancake as brunch and went to Asian Art Museum. Started from the third floor on south Asian exhibition and moved down to second floor for some Chinese painting and finally ended our visit in Yoshitoshi's strange tales exhibit in the lobby. We really appreciated the detail he had created in the woodblock prints. Interestingly, we got to know that the museum would start a special exhibition of Tezuka Osamu, Japan's iconic godfather of manga and anime, on June 2nd. Oh, my good memory of Astro Boy. After museum, James took me to North Beach and we had a nice dinner in the Stinking Rose (yes, they did serve garlic with food). Then we walked down to Chinatown and got half a dozen custard tart (egg tart) in a famous Chinese bakery: Golden Gate Bakery. Because it was pretty late on a Sunday evening, the line was just 1/5 long as usual.

Monday, I decided to make some traditional Chinese breakfast for us: Chinese donut (You Tiao) and freshly grinded soy milk. Since pregnancy, I had a lot of craving for some Chinese food that fed me up during my childhood. I especially love northern style dim sum: Chinese donut, sesame pancake, soy milk, soft tofu in special sauce, Chinese donut wrapped in thin pancake, red bean bun, congee... Too bad back in China I was as lazy as here, if not lazier. I would rather stay in bed 10 minutes more than getting up for some breakfast. How much mouth-watering food have I missed? :(

It turned out that Monday Monday was not so good to me. Monday Monday was not all I hoped it would be. The Chinese donut was a failure though soy milk was still as good as usual. It's very hard to persuade James to have a glass soy milk. Why? It always took me about an hour to make freshly grinded soy milk from soy beans. And my soy milk was so delicious that James always finished more than 80% before I had a chance to have some. To trick James drinking less, I told him that soy contained a chemical that is like estrogen. If he would drink a lot, he would have boobs. From then on, whenever I made soy milk, I became the only consumer.

At night, I asked James to talk with Chubby and put his hand over my belly to feel Chubby because I felt Chubby could sense the touch and would respond with his movement. Unfortunately, Chubby seemed not want to communicate with Daddy. While I put my hand over my belly, Chubby "kicked" within a minute. James was jealous of the special bonding Chubby and I already formed.

Such a lovely baby. I love you, Chubby.

Fetal Movement, Finally!!!

Maybe it's time. Maybe Chubby can feel my disappointment he will not be a baby girl and wants to bring up my attention. Finally, I felt him. It's a mixed feeling. First, our Chubby is as naughty as a little boy (we thought he could be a quiet baby just like his parents). Second, my belly is not that insensitive. Third, Chubby is growing right.

WE went to my 20 week ultrasound appt yesterday morning. I have been hoping it would be a baby girl. I think a girl could bring you more sweet surprise than a boy and after all, baby girls' cloth is much cuter. Well, within 1 minute that our sonographer started the checking, James said "it's a boy". Later, when our sonographer started "looking", he confirmed James's observation. Even though I have been wanting a girl so much, every time I dreamed of Chubby, a baby boy (sometimes with James's face) always showed up in my dreams. Mom said that I must be carrying a boy because my pregnancy craving for food was exactly like when she was carrying my brother (only fruit and vegetable, no meat, please). I also have the feeling that I am having a boy. But I did want a girl. I know this is not fair to our lovely Chubby. I know I will love Chubby either way equally.

Then here it is. Chubby started his movement during my lunch time. I felt a very light touch near my pelvis. It's not continuous, but intermittent. Through the day, I felt quite a few times, but not in the same spot. Even now, I felt it. I am so excited. Too bad James couldn't share the same excitement now. But maybe later.

Ultrasound Pics

Baby's profile.

Just a leg. Yu thinks it looks really big. You might be looking at the next Pele.

Abstract art. Can you guess what body part you're looking at?

There it is, for all the world to see. Hope our son won't be too embarrassed.

It's a Boy!!!

We'll have the ultrasound pictures up soon, including one with the key gender diagnostic feature.

Recap of the last week or so.

May 14, 2007

ALS documentary night. A powerful night for everyone in the room. I gained an appreciation and empathy for Nick and his father. What a tragic blow to his family. It always amazes me that strong families can stick by each other and fight through anything nature or God or whomever/whatever puts before them. Love can make anything possible. I think the take-home message for the future is never lose respect for your patients. They may have done something wonderful with their lives, or maybe are just about to. It is a night like this that makes me both scared and excited to become a doctor. When it comes out, I encourage people to see this movie, “So Much So Fast.”

May 18, 2007

Friday Night at the De Young to see the Vivienne Westwood fashion exhibit, wine tasting (ugh), and some pacific islander dance and song. All I can remember are the little children who were dancing in the lobby with the new arts and crafts they made. Afterward, we saw Spiderman 3. Wasn’t so great, but maybe that’s because expectations were too high. Too long for an action movie, but I appreciate the effort.

May 19, 2007

A furniture shopping day. We bought a pretty nice cabinet for the bathroom, and additional shelves that go over the trashcan in the kitchen. This is all in preparation for Chubby and Yu’s parents who will most likely stay with us for an extended period. Saw Ying and Dom today and some old faces not seen for awhile, Jennifer and Dryw. Finally met Ying’s parents and they reminded me of my old relatives in Hong Kong – noble and reserved yet relaxed and happy for their daughter.

Earlier in the day, Yu and I played catch in Stern Grove. Hopefully we’ll go there in the future for their summer concerts. A lovely park. We keep finding out more and more things we like about San Francisco. It’s hard to imagine living somewhere else.

May 20, 2007

Got up too late to get Smashing Pumpkins tickets. Damn! The 10 shows were sold out in about 10 minutes and immediately went on Craigslist to be scalped about 10-fold. We moseyed over to Susan Hung’s fundraising brunch where we were entertained by karaoke of Destiny’s Child (Irene), Beatles (Albert), and Vanilla Ice (Alex Fay). We did a duet of Frank Sinatra’s My Way.

Finished another scholarship application, this time for the Delzone Hypertension essay contest. This will be my last application. They are very tiring to fill out, and I don’t have any confidence in winning anything, even though I gave it my best. I’ve done 3 essay contests and four scholarship apps this year alone, nothing to show for it yet.

Patient presentation regarding stroke recovery today. One of the patients had a pseudobulbar affect, which means sometimes he will break out into tears or laughter and continue to talk as if nothing was really happening. As the patient described it, it’s like clouds rolling by, don’t pay it any mind. That’s pretty hard when he’s already talking about an emotional subject like how hard it is to get your life back after a stroke.

Attended a talk on personal finance, wasn’t very informative. I guess it motivated me to work on the budget.

Played basketball, ran 3.5 miles on treadmill, 600+ calories, plus I walked up the hill. Checked the scale: 213.5. Sort of celebrated by going to Krispy Kreme, In-N-Out and playing some ping pong with Yu.

Mother's Day

Today, we went to the De Young museum. Saw a lot of Hudson River School paintings, and some really cool Oceanic works. We hope to go back again very soon to take advantage of BoA's museum promotion.