Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Recap since the baby
Emil is 7 weeks old tomorrow, yeah! He's going for 15 lbs right now, giant, I know.
To recap since my rant about motherhood, the following has become true, oh my goodness.
1. I've been to a Babies R Us store. Although to my defense, I went there because it was a gift. My thoughtful coworkers decided I must need a gift card from there, instead of, say stores like amazon.com or Costco where prices and selection are both better! So if you are gifting to someone expecting or new parents and reading this, remember that any giftcards will do but amazon.com, paypal or even grocery store cards are much better than a specialty chain like Babies R Us! Parents will still need to eat and they can't have stuffed animals for lunch no matter how cute they are!
2. I have a diaper organizer. My neighbor actually gave it to me. It's not a full blown diaper bag, more like a toiletry bag. When you are breastfeeding, there really isn't much you need to lug around in a big diaper bag. The most important is probably a few diapers and some wipes, which can fit into most purses. Anyway, we do bring the organizer with us when we go on walks but we only had to use it once to change Emil. It was at a friend's backyard BBQ.
Everything else has gone as planned, including a drug-free natural birth, no blog or facebook page devoted to my son, no nursery or baby decoration in the house.
I have been fanatic about uploading photos to Flickr, but that's mostly because both Kristian's and my parents live far away and want to see their grandson grow.
To recap since my rant about motherhood, the following has become true, oh my goodness.
1. I've been to a Babies R Us store. Although to my defense, I went there because it was a gift. My thoughtful coworkers decided I must need a gift card from there, instead of, say stores like amazon.com or Costco where prices and selection are both better! So if you are gifting to someone expecting or new parents and reading this, remember that any giftcards will do but amazon.com, paypal or even grocery store cards are much better than a specialty chain like Babies R Us! Parents will still need to eat and they can't have stuffed animals for lunch no matter how cute they are!
2. I have a diaper organizer. My neighbor actually gave it to me. It's not a full blown diaper bag, more like a toiletry bag. When you are breastfeeding, there really isn't much you need to lug around in a big diaper bag. The most important is probably a few diapers and some wipes, which can fit into most purses. Anyway, we do bring the organizer with us when we go on walks but we only had to use it once to change Emil. It was at a friend's backyard BBQ.
Everything else has gone as planned, including a drug-free natural birth, no blog or facebook page devoted to my son, no nursery or baby decoration in the house.
I have been fanatic about uploading photos to Flickr, but that's mostly because both Kristian's and my parents live far away and want to see their grandson grow.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
HypnoBirthing class crowd
Thursday night was our HypnoBirthing class at Mt. Auburn Hospital. HypnoBirthing is one of the natural birth methods taught to expecting parents these days. Not to spend too much time discussing the merits of HypnoBirthing, it’s mostly about using hypnosis relaxation techniques to let your body accomplish a natural, comfortable birthing.
After everyone sat down in a circle, the instructor, Meghan, asked each of us tell the group what jobs we had, what we did do for fun, etc. About half way into the icebreaker, before my turn, I was having such a hard time holding back laughs that Kristian was giving me a face. I had realized this was absolutely the highest concentration of "white people" I'd been with in recent times. White people as in stuffwhitepeoplelike, not in the sense of the race itself.
Granted, we do live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the north-eastern capital of liberal, highly educated, and high income hipsters. Our city may be smaller than Seattle or Portland, it contributes quite significantly to “white culture”. An abundance of intellectuals, high-tech companies, universities, proximity to the ocean and maybe just the fact that it's New England, makes Cambridge a hot bed for hipster living.
Here are the highlights about some of the expecting parents:
Dad #1: Just started his solar energy company. Attire: Patagonia fleece jacket and Chaco sandals.
Mom #1: A librarian.
Dad #2: A PhD candidate in engineering at MIT. A mountaineer who is "always looking to climb some snow covered peak". He's about to go away for a month long research trip overseas.
Dad #3: A freelance film producer. Attire: beret hat and a scarf, while sipping from his SIGG bottle.
Mom #3: Owns her own organic foods restaurant in town. She said they "love hiking, backpacking in the mountains and traveling."
Dad #4: An engineer. Loves hiking, backpacking and mountain biking. Wife and him are on ultimate frisbee teams.
Mom #4: A research assistant at Lincoln labs. She is outdoors, sports nut as well. She didn’t stop playing ice hockey until she was 13 weeks pregnant.
Mom #5a: A social worker for troubled youths in Boston.
Mom #5b: A librarian.
Dad #6: A psychology PhD, fellow at a hospital and waiting to get his state license to practice.
Mom #6: Cultural anthropologist, teaching at Northeastern University. Got her degree from Columbia. Both said they love skiing and snowboarding up in NH and VT.
Dad #7: IT Consultant. They are "very big into white water rafting".
Mom #7: Teacher. Loves traveling.
Dad #8: Conducts orchestra at Ithaca, NY. (I’m guessing Cornell related)
Except for two couples, one was Kristian and I, everyone confidently stated their passion for the outdoors. It was either hiking, backpacking, mountain climbing, rock climbing, white water rafting or something else. The class instructor is a married lesbian with 4 kids. There's another lesbian couple students.
In 15 minutes, I’ve accomplished the feat of witnessing first hand the following white people behavior:
* Organic Food
* Traveling
* Snowboarding
* Outdoor Performance Clothes
* Having Gay Friends
* Frisbee Sports
* The Ivy League
* Graduate School
* Bottles of Water
* Non-Profit Organizations
* Scarves
* Making you feel bad about not going outside
What can I say, it really was like playing stuffwhitepeoplelike bingo!!! Me and the orchestra conductor couple were Asian, everyone else was white. Speaking from a white culture perspective though, Asians are pretty white already. Oh, and since I'm an Asian girl married to a white dude, #11 Asian Girls should be on the above hit list as well. :)
After everyone sat down in a circle, the instructor, Meghan, asked each of us tell the group what jobs we had, what we did do for fun, etc. About half way into the icebreaker, before my turn, I was having such a hard time holding back laughs that Kristian was giving me a face. I had realized this was absolutely the highest concentration of "white people" I'd been with in recent times. White people as in stuffwhitepeoplelike, not in the sense of the race itself.
Granted, we do live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the north-eastern capital of liberal, highly educated, and high income hipsters. Our city may be smaller than Seattle or Portland, it contributes quite significantly to “white culture”. An abundance of intellectuals, high-tech companies, universities, proximity to the ocean and maybe just the fact that it's New England, makes Cambridge a hot bed for hipster living.
Here are the highlights about some of the expecting parents:
Dad #1: Just started his solar energy company. Attire: Patagonia fleece jacket and Chaco sandals.
Mom #1: A librarian.
Dad #2: A PhD candidate in engineering at MIT. A mountaineer who is "always looking to climb some snow covered peak". He's about to go away for a month long research trip overseas.
Dad #3: A freelance film producer. Attire: beret hat and a scarf, while sipping from his SIGG bottle.
Mom #3: Owns her own organic foods restaurant in town. She said they "love hiking, backpacking in the mountains and traveling."
Dad #4: An engineer. Loves hiking, backpacking and mountain biking. Wife and him are on ultimate frisbee teams.
Mom #4: A research assistant at Lincoln labs. She is outdoors, sports nut as well. She didn’t stop playing ice hockey until she was 13 weeks pregnant.
Mom #5a: A social worker for troubled youths in Boston.
Mom #5b: A librarian.
Dad #6: A psychology PhD, fellow at a hospital and waiting to get his state license to practice.
Mom #6: Cultural anthropologist, teaching at Northeastern University. Got her degree from Columbia. Both said they love skiing and snowboarding up in NH and VT.
Dad #7: IT Consultant. They are "very big into white water rafting".
Mom #7: Teacher. Loves traveling.
Dad #8: Conducts orchestra at Ithaca, NY. (I’m guessing Cornell related)
Except for two couples, one was Kristian and I, everyone confidently stated their passion for the outdoors. It was either hiking, backpacking, mountain climbing, rock climbing, white water rafting or something else. The class instructor is a married lesbian with 4 kids. There's another lesbian couple students.
In 15 minutes, I’ve accomplished the feat of witnessing first hand the following white people behavior:
* Organic Food
* Traveling
* Snowboarding
* Outdoor Performance Clothes
* Having Gay Friends
* Frisbee Sports
* The Ivy League
* Graduate School
* Bottles of Water
* Non-Profit Organizations
* Scarves
* Making you feel bad about not going outside
What can I say, it really was like playing stuffwhitepeoplelike bingo!!! Me and the orchestra conductor couple were Asian, everyone else was white. Speaking from a white culture perspective though, Asians are pretty white already. Oh, and since I'm an Asian girl married to a white dude, #11 Asian Girls should be on the above hit list as well. :)
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