You know Asian woman + white guy has gone mainstream, when _____

_______such couple with their baby appear on the front page for Amazon Mom!_____

K and I have known this for some time, especially living here in Boston. Our kind of combination was not and is definitely not that unique, for the better of course!

S*HIT Emil says

Emil:"I want more blueberries."
Me: "But you already had two cups, you want more??"
Emil: "Yeah, I'm a monster!"

Me: "Emil, you wanna go take a bath?"
Emil: "No, I'm too busy!"

While playing jumping on the mattress nonstop for 30 min
Emil: "This is wild! We are having fun!"

While eating dinner at the table
Me to husband: "Now we've got 2 kids, Emil being a big brother and Oskar being a little brother maybe it's enough kids?"
Husband: "Yeah, maybe."
Emil: "What are you talking about, Mommy?"

TBD ;)

Milk Experiment

My last 10oz of pumped stash is finally gone! The 2 bags of breast milk came out of the freezer this morning. I didn't know what I'd do with them then. I wasn't prepared to just dump all of it into the drain. Looking at them brought back memories of those tightly scheduled 3x a day pumping sessions, the fluorescent lit pumping room at SLF and all the washing I had to do daily with all the breast pump parts. Those were some busy times and I'm glad it was only for 5 months. Many mothers have had to do it MUCH longer.

So after coming home from dinner this evening, I thought to have Emil try the milk out before his bedtime. After all, I pumped those for him right before I quit my job. They were prepared to him anyway. Sure, it was in the freezer for 11 months, definitely not the freshest. But it wasn't unsafe.

The milk tasted okay to me. Although much different from cow milk, sweeter and milkier (not sure how to describe the taste). I warmed the milk, gave the cup to him, awaiting a reaction. He took a sip, then another small sip, did a double look at the cup then put it down. Without saying anything! I suppose he honestly prefers cow's milk now, which is a good thing! He drank the replacement cup of warm cow milk in one take, so clearly he didn't like the breast milk that much.

Even though I had weaned Emil back in December, getting rid of the last bit of the stash was the ultimate end to our breastfeeding relationship. We had a great run, my little man!

The Blue Curtain of Cringe

I've been back on FaceBook for almost a year now, and my feeds are pretty full on most days. With many friends from college, grad school and work having kids, I get a fairly good amount of birth news.

Usually it's stuff like "First Name Last Name, xx lbs xx oz, xx inches long, born at xxx hospital at xxx time this morning!" It's very cool to see new babies being acknowledged in the cyber space in almost real time. Not to mention sometimes I haven't been in touch with the parents for a long time and it's nice to share a part of their lives.

Along with the newborn stats, there are often birth photos. You probably have guessed it by the title of this post, some those photos contain the Blue Curtain that I often dread seeing. It's the surgical blue curtain drawn above the mother's chest from a caesarean birth. Mother is smiling in her surgical cap, while the father dressed in a blue surgical gown, holding the baby to her face.

Yeah, so I'm seeing more of those photos than I would like. There are situations where a c-section is necessary to save lives, like breech births and other complications. In the US today, that's probably not the reason why most c-sections are carried out. I won't get into the specifics of the debate because you can read it on your own or just watch The Business of Being Born. I mainly just feel sad seeing those photos because the mothers are my friends. They are all college educated, professional women who are generally healthy and below the age of 35. I just don't understand why this is happening to them so often. More over, I just wish something could be done so this wouldn't happen to another woman I know.

You can't really walk into a baby shower and tell the expectant mom "hey, do you know the c-section rate in this country? Before you open up another wrapped onesie gift, please switch from your OB to a midwife and write up a birth plan!" That just won't work well. Expectant moms want and should hear the warm and fuzzy. With friends that I know well and really care about, I suppose I wouldn't shy away from giving such advice if I think they haven't heard it already.

Earthquake, Libya, global warming, the US budget, too many things to fix in this world, ain't it. But I wouldn't mind if the Blue Curtain of Cringe is eliminated though. Seems like it'd be more easily done than the other things aforementioned.

Bye Bye Diapers!

Emil achieved a major milestone last week, he's potty trained! The little man learned it in a week or so, and has now moved onto regular underwear. Let me know tell you, a 21 months old toddler in tightee whitees is just too cute! Size 2T/3T is the smallest most brands make for boys' underwear, thankfully Emil is a big boy for his age.

Not having to change diapers is a fantastic gain for me and Kristian. It wasn't too bad when it was just breastmilk poop. But once he started eating the same food as us, the gross factor went straight up.

Before I started this, I had heard mostly about 3 year olds resisting potty training. I'm glad I did it now because power struggles with a 3 year old Emil would not have been fun.

I tried when Emil was 13 months and he was already holding pee for 3 hours at a time. Cognitively he wasn't ready for potty though, so I quit and waited until he was 18 months old. If you have a child in diapers, don't wait too long to potty train! Readiness for most kids is on either side of turning 2, and once you miss that, you may end up with a 4 year old in diapers.

Working Families

There is a lot of discussion about extending GWBush's tax cuts in Congress. I often hear news people and politicians using the word "working families". Mostly they say "working families" need money in their pockets to feed their kids, pay mortgage and buy clothes, etc. Therefore, as the logic goes, we should extend the cuts for the "working families" but not the "rich". The rich here is families making more than $250k a year.

Here's my question. Are rich families not working? Do they just get money somehow but not via our standard definition of work? If they do in fact have to work to get the $250k, then why aren't they considered "working families" and get the tax cuts too?

Remembering Kathy

My college friend Kathy Chavez past away on Wednesday. She had fought cancer courageously for 13 years and the latest round of tumors took the last bit of energy in her. She was an inspirational figure to many and made each of us's life a little brighter. I'm grateful for her friendship in the last 7 years. Below is the eulogy I wrote for her funeral.

Kathy, I'm sorry I can't come to say goodbye in person tomorrow. Rest in peace.

"The doctors and nurses say I'm a living miracle!" Kathy told me on the other end of the phone when asked about her latest bout of cancer treatment. She sounded proud, not a bit of fear. Indeed, Kathy lived her life to create a miracle; a miracle for her family, for her friends and most of all for living a full, informative and positive life in this world.

Kathy's positive personality was a highlight in McClelland Hall long before I befriended her. She was one of the oldest students in the classroom and yet she never shied away from asking thoughtful questions to the professors and helping her classmates. I got to know Kathy better when she returned to school after taking a semester off to undergo further cancer treatment. For the first few weeks of our friendship Kathy didn't tell me she had cancer. Of course, she also never mentioned she had maintained straight A's every semester.

"You can do it!" She would tell me when I dreaded the next day's economics exam. Learning to her was an opportunity not to be had again and she seized every moment of it. There was something sacred in education and she treated it with uttermost respect and seriousness. She made it look easy for the rest of us twenty something college students. To us, it was the hang-over from Friday night's party that made studying seem so impossibly hard. For Kathy, being a wife, a mother, a daughter as well as a cancer patient were not that hard, she could always find time to study.

Even though there were 20 years of age difference between us, Kathy was someone I could always talk to about my private struggles. She was not one to start giving advice just because she was older. She listened, with a kind heart and forgiveness. She never assumed anything, never jumped to conclusions. I can't help but wonder if she ever thought my struggles were trivial compared to what she had to contend with, but she never made me feel that way. To her, everyone regardless of their background, age, motivation deserves to be heard and everyone's struggles are equally important.

When her treatment was taking away her memory, her ability to drive and check email, she said with some sarcasm "I really should do better at staying in touch, you know I've just been so busy living my life!" I didn't need to tell her to not apologize, I knew she wanted to make me laugh.

Kathy, I'm going to miss your cheerful Hello on the phone. I will remember the wonderful trip Naomi, you and I took to San Francisco. The wine tasting we enjoyed and the slight buzz we felt afterwards. I will remember the short chats we'd have right before the 8AM ECON class. I will remember the delicious meals we made together in your kitchen. Most of all, I will remember how miraculously you lived your life and tell your miracle to my son, Emil.

Your friend,

Cecily