out and about

Saturday.

I was on a quest looking for some winter walking boots. By walking, I mean boots that you could actually go on a long walk with. I was thinking leather with some low heels. I found a bunch of good ones online but I figured I would look around town first so I don't have to deal with shipping. Alas, after searching through all the local shoe stores, nobody had my size (of course, I wear a 5). So I was thinking that I would just order online when we passed by a one of my favorite women's clothing boutiques. John suggested that I look in, "it'll make you feel like a woman again", he joked. I decided to go in but just to LOOK. I ended up blowing my boot money on a lacy tank and a plum wrap-around shirt. Sigh. The boutique's name in Matisse and I can't just walk in and not buy anything. They're a little pricey but they do tie a little flower or in my case, a tiny little robin, on your shopping bag. Maybe to help with the buyer's remorse after the sale has been rung.

After that, John and I were feeling a little brave so we decided to go eat sushi. Yup, with little baby of course. We've decided that having a nice sit down meal at a restaurant would be the perfect time to feed the now cranky baby. I guess I was too preoccupied with thoughts of mouth-watering sushi rolls and miso soup to realize that chopsticks and breastfedding don't go well together. And to make things more comical, Mayumi decided that this would be a good time to do a little number two (twice!). And of course, hip little japanese restaurants don't have changing tables in the bathroom. I won't get in to more details but needless to say, there were lesssons learned.

Sunday.

John and I finally got to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. The wedding date was actually Sept. 25 but John had to leave town on that date so we moved up the celebration to the following weekend. We decided to throw all caution to the wind and catch a movie. We left the little wailing one with my parents. I was a nervous wreck, I felt guilty about leaving Mayumi and I felt guilty for leaving my parents with a very angry baby.

It was really funny because while I treasured the time alone with John I found myself checking my phone every chance I got to see if my parents had called (I think it was twice before the movie and three times during the movie). We went and saw "Fearless" with Jet Li which was a let-down because I was expecting something more poetic like "Hero". 2 hours of precious quality time with my husband wasted!

After the movie, John had managed to convince to me to take a nice lunch out at a local restaurant. I was reluctatnt at first because I thought Mayumi was going ballistic by now and would forever remember this day as "the day my evil mom abandoned me." I was so impatient with our server and was kind of rushing him through the order and getting the check (I'm so sorry!) By dessert time, my stomach was in knots from all the worrying that I didn't even want to eat any of it. Poor John. I hope I didn't ruin it for him.

When we finally got to my parents house, I rushed through the doors, hoping to rescue my wailing baby and my stressed out mom, only to find grandma and baby comfortably nestled in the rocking chair. Baby was sound asleep and my mom even got her to take the bottle which I have never been able to do. I seriously need to lighten up.

Mental note to self: You owe John a really nice date soon.

And again ...

Before I forget, if you want to see more photos of my lovely little Mayumi, check out this link.

So where were we . . .

Okay, so long time no blog. Where was I you ask? Well, I've been around... staying home mostly... you know, since I just had me baby...

YES! You read it right, we finally had Mayumi!

Last July 16, 2006, at about 1:36 pm, we finally got to meet our daughter, Mayumi Audris. She was a hairy little thing (she had back hair and ear hair), weighing in at 7.2 ounces. Was it kismet? To be perfectly honest, hardly. She was as bewildered as were. She was as wary and cautious of us as we were of her. I don't think babies are born to like their parents immediately. We definitely had to work on getting to know each other better. I was told that there will be 90 days of madness following the birth of your first child. I took faith in that and lo and behold, things do get better. We are almost over the 90 day hump and Mayumi seems more settled wiht her environment.

Was she a cryer? I hate that question. All babies cry. She cried but we worked through it. Does she sleep through the night? Not yet but I have adjusted to her sleeping schedule so I am saner during the day than I was a month ago. Mayumi is almost 3 months old now and and is currently figuring out to use her hands. It's so funny to see her try to guide her hand to her mouth and miss (is that mean?). She looks like she's giving herself a little punch. She is an awesome little person and makes for great entertainement (24 hout baby TV!)

Nothing creative in the works so far. I have been able to finish the back of a sweater that I've been working on. I have learned the amazing skill of knitting while breastfeeding the little one. This is the furthest I've ever come to actually completing a sweater so I have high hopes of having it done before the weather gets cold.

Hopefully, I can blog regularly now. I am trying to master the art of typing with one hand.

Diana

Simple, yummy things.

I've almost forgotten how good simple foods taste. By simple, I mean food that doesn't require one hour of preparation and a dozen ingredients. John grilled me this burger for lunch on the fourth and it's probably the best burger I've ever had. I found it amazing that it didn't have any seasoning in the meat although it did have some curious ingredients like spinach and oats, yet it was still very tasty (very meaty). The best thing about this burger is I didn't feel the heavy, grease induced sleepiness that I usually get after eating pub burgers. I also discovered my new favorite veggie, the sweet potato. John served the burger with a sweet potato "torpedo" which was a microwaved sweet potato topped with pecans and whipped butter. It was deee-lish and it only took 8 minutes!

John said he found the recipe for the meal in Men's Health, the man mag. I think the recipes in magazines geared towards women are a lot more complicated than those found in magazines for men, but I'm sure they are equally good. It's just that I think they want to give men a higher chance at success with simpler recipes.

Filipino cuisine, which I was raised on, involved so much prep time. The foods almost always has a sauce or soup base and that took a lot of time and ingredients. I mean it's delicious but I really don't want to be spending 2 hours in the kitchen simmering in the heat of the stove and the weather, for all three meals of the day. John and I had this interesting conversation about what the best thing America has ever come up with. He says it's Superman, my first thought was grilled hamburgers (It's not my definitive answer but it was the first thing I thought of).

I'm looking forward to a lot of meals like this especially since the little one is well on her way (about 2 weeks left) and we wouldn't have much time for elaborate dinners or dining in and taking out. Also, John gets 3 weeks off and he is the appointed cook for that time. Maybe we start with the meals but I think simplification will be a theme we will be exploring frequently in all aspects of home life, especially with a new "housemate" on the way.

Diana

XS. Before ending this post, I was handed a popsicle that appears to be a frozen banana, dipped in chocolate and rolled in nuts. Yum-O!

Pain Management

So half of this week was spent dealing with pain. Since I am prego at the moment, any sort of pain medication was out of the question. I found out that the best I could do was Tylenol at this point, which I didn't find out that I could take till after 2 days of excruciating toothache. Yup, me not going to the dentist "because I'm pregnant" is total bull and is biting me in the ass.

Toothache was one thing, then there was the heat. It was about a hundred degrees in the beginning of the week and I felt like a steamy dimsum bun. My legs and hands started to swell (so no knitting or crochet done during this week) and when I say swell, I mean, there's my leg then there's my feet, no ankles.

I had to be creative with dealing with the pain because of the lack of meds. It was pretty interesting because I learned all this "pain management" techniques at my childbirth classes so I decided to try those out with my toothache pains. I tried breathing deeply and relaxing more when the pain got more intense. I turned off all music and laid down quietly trying to "visualize" a happy memory (this was from the class). So did it work? Yeeeaah.... but after a good hour and a half and it only worked because I was so exhausted from trying to manage my pain that I went down for a nap. I know that I must sound like a complete wuss because this is just toothache we're talking about and I'm going to have to deal with something the size of a watermelon, pushing itself out of my body. Toothache, childbirth... yup not in the same pain category. But my friends, this tooth pain was somethin' else. I will give the dentist a call (!).

There was pretty much nothing I could do for my feet or hands. They are just going to puff whenever they want to. I was told to soak my feet in cold water when it swells and so I am doing that. It's nice actually because it keeps me cool too.

Anyway, I have a lot of work to catch up on. The little girl in the pic needs some clothes and I have other creatures that needs photographed. Off I go.

Diana

Because John is the man!

I know that it's a little late to be blogging about father's day but I will anyway. John and I are going to be new parents soon and I thought he deserved a little shout out on father's day too. He is going to be a great dad. Why? Because of the SUMO doll! The little drawing above is a sketch he did for me because I wanted to crochet little sumo wrestlers. They turned out great and are selling really well on my etsy shop.




Mayumi is going to have lots of crazy dolls designed by her dad to be. If you know John, he just loves to do things like this. He's got tons of energy for anything creative and is the most fun person I know, hands down. I married him just so I don't have to watch TV. Very supportive too. I've done so many crazy (not in a good way) things with my career but he's always been encouraging. Can you imagine him coming home from a 16 hour work day and me saying, "Hey, I think I want to sell crocheted creatures online to make money?". I mean you have to have a pretty good sense of humor to take that in stride. Instead of lecturing me on how we need to find a more stable, steady source of income to pay mortgage, bills and baby expenses, he starts to draw things for me to make. I am truly lucky and I know Mayumi is too.

So John, have a chocodile (or two)!



Yup, that's what I got John for father's day. Chocodiles. It's been on his wish list for awhile. I guess you can't find it here in Portland. If anybody knows of a local store that carries them, let me know. It would make my hubby so happy.

Anyhow, for a fun link, try the search engine gizoogle. It'll bring the gangsta out of everybody. Try searching for a website that you already go to on a regular basis and see what happens to the site description. Check it! It's fo' real.

Peace out!

Diana

Mr.H and other things.

So today, I've decided to do something other than crocheting. I think me and my cats need a break from each other. I was having some wrist pains yesterday on my right wrist and it scared me a little since that is also where my mouse clicking hand is located. I wish I was ambidextrous.

A little while back, I bought some old sweaters from goodwill to felt (thanks, betz, for the wonderful tutorial) and John has been having fun with them lately. The photo above is Mr. H, the second doll from John's new felted collection. He is made from scraps of felt made from the sweaters. I love the colors on him and the big hole in the middle for his mouth. I think I want to keep this one for myself but will ask John if he wants it up on etsy. I love being married to an artsy, craftsy guy.

I organized my button collection last night. That was fun. I am an organizing freak! It's funny though because I'm so into every little minutia of everything that it makes it so difficult to categorize. I end up with a bigger mess than when I started. I have to remember to generalize and then go from there. I've decided to go by color first since that is the first thing I think about when designing things. It'll do for now.

Finally got started on a knitting project! I miss knitting. I've decided to try and write a simple wrap sweater pattern for myself. No fancy stitches, I'm just gonna try and focus on construction first. Here are some pics of my progress with sketches and the yarn I'm planning to use. Will keep everybody posted on the progress but be warned, I've been known to take half a year finishing some projects. Wish me luck!



Before I go, does anybody know of a good cooking blog?

Late,
Diana