Da baby room

Finally, the baby room is unofficially finished! Last night, Trung and I put up the wallpaper border and now the room is good to go! By the way, I can now see why couples consider divorce when they remodel their homes; it's crazy! Okay, so all I am waiting for are the glider & ottoman, a Paloma Boppy pillow cover I'm bidding on on ebay.com, and two Paloma basket liners. Interesting story about those basket liners...they only fit the Kidsline brand baskets, which only comes in a package of three, and there was only one basket liner left that matched the Paloma (purple butterfly) collection in the baby room. I couldn't leave the other two baskets all bare and naked, so last week I called the Babies "R" Us Guest Services (GS) toll-free number and they informed me that the liners were no longer in stock in Austin and all of Houston. Okay, that's fine, so maybe I'll just return the one basket liner I had. Oh, but...but just knowing that I had gotten the last one and the fact that it matched the baby room theme, I couldn't bare to part with it. Well, Tiff convinced me that I could use the extra baskets for a care package or a gift basket or whatever, so I decided to just buy the baskets and keep the one liner.

So, as I was looking at the completed baby room last night, I was really feeling the need to find those basket liners. So, today I called GS again with about fifteen different store locations (two of them were NY locations since I'll be there this weekend) to see if any had the liners in stock. The Babies "R" Us in Addition, TX had two left, but the GS guy said that the stores normally don't ship out of town. But hey, it was worth a try to just call and find out, right? Fortunately, a very sweet lady named Gurdie picked up and said that if the store had those liners, that since Paloma was discontinued on-line, she would ship them to me. Well, they still had them and she promised to ship them today or tomorrow. :) Okay, so TA-DA!

Here's Sasha! She just loves the baby room!

Well, I've got less than one month left of work and, boy, have I been counting the days. Every once in awhile I'll debate whether or not to just keep working until I go into labor, but let's just say, it's just a passing thought. I'm ready for a break even though I've only been working since September 2002, but it seems like forever. I've already set up a couple "Meet the Pediatrician" times, so that we can officially choose a Pediatrician. I have a family friend who is a Pediatrician in Austin and who I was basically going to go with, but Laurie was raving how great her Pediatrician was, so I thought I'd at least meet hers. Who will have the privilege to doctor my baby Lydia?

Tiff & Christian Weekend

Be forwarned, this is a pretty lengthy post...we did a lot this weekend! :) My good friend and matron-of-honor Tiffany came up from Houston to visit me for the weekend with her two-year-old son Christian. They arrived Friday night around 5:45 PM and chilled with Trung for a little while until I got home from work. We relaxed that evening and hit the ground running the next day. Saturday, after a breakfast of champions (buttermilk Belgian waffles, plantains, and eggs), we went to Target and then met up with Wendy (another bridesmaid of mine) and Maggie (my brother-in-law's girlfriend) for Taiwanese breakfast. Then off to do more "baby" shopping! First stop, Babies "R" Us, where I bought the rest of my registry items and reduced my gift card by a few hundred bucks. Oh, I saw Joel, the miracle worker, and shot him a warm smile and exchanged a few kind words.

Next mission...officially deciding on a diaper bag. As mentioned in an earlier post, I had not actually seen the Amy Michelle diaper bag in Lilac yet. After calling a few places, I found a place in Austin who had it in stock, so I figured I would at least check it out before I got the Ju Ju Be bag, which had been my latest "official" decision. Well, when Tiff saw the Ju Ju Be bag, she thought it was just "okay", so we went to look at the Amy Michelle bag. After texting pictures of the bag, of me holding the bag, and of another cute diaper bag Oi Oi to Trung (who was at yet another LAN party and was very excited about seeing the bag, let me tell ya...hee hee) AND debating for a good ten minutes, we finally decided on the Amy Michelle. YEAH! It also helped that I got a 20% discount since there was a little tape mark on it, which should easily come out with mild soap and a good scrub. :) Well, if not, I can return it for store credit and get the Oi Oi bag instead. Here are the bags again: (Amy Michelle, Oi Oi, Ju Ju Be)

So now, my life can go on. Okay, so we then headed to Barton Creek Mall, shopped a bit, and had dinner at the Bistro in Nordstroms. I know it's silly, but I went ahead and bought some clothes for Lydia for 12-18 months that matched my maternity clothes because that's when I expect to be pregnant with baby No. 2. We'll be so cute in our matching outfits :) And even if I'm not pregnant, I'll still wear the maternity clothes; they were just too super cute that I couldn't resist!

Sunday started off a bit slow. We had brunch at La Madeline, bought a few groceries at HEB, and then met up Sing (my brother-in-law) and Maggie at a Vietnamese restaurant for a quick, late lunch. Trung then took Christian back home while Tiff and I went to watch "The Devil Wears Prada". I found it cute and entertaining; Meryl Streep is quite the actress! After dropping by Wal-mart, we got home just in time for Trung and I to attend our final La Maze class. We learned about post-delivery, saw an Oprah special about babies, and received our graduation certificates. Now we are totally ready to have a baby...um, yeah, sure. :\ We've got a breastfeeding class next month that Trung is looking forward to attending. hee hee. So, we get home and Wendy and Nick (her fiancee) were still visiting with Tiff, so we invite them to join us for dinner. My cousin Grace and her husband, Edward, dropped by a few hours later to pick up some of the maternity clothes that I can no longer wear; she is expecting January 1st. It's kinda funny how the last few babies I've known have been born on holidays...Christian on Valentine's Day, my nephew Jason on Christmas Day, and now...my due date on Labor Day, and my cousin's due date on New Year's Day. Hmmm...

Tiff and Christian headed back home Monday late morning. It was great having them in town for the weekend. Come back and see us (and Lydia) soon!

Baby Shower (Take 2)

Friday afternoon, my work buddies Laurie (right) and Anna (left) threw me a fab baby shower. The theme: Asian, of course! :P All the other co-workers brought Chinese food and the breakroom was decorated with little lanterns. The centerpieces were red Chinese take-out boxes, complete with two butterfly candles, chopsticks, some pretty floral thing, and a little dragon. Oh, and the cake...LOVED IT! White cake with strawberry filling...simply delish! Though I did not get barely anything off of my registries, I got tons of clothes and little nick-nacks; one can never have enough of those. Thanks, ladies, me love you long time!

The Grace Lee Project

So yesterday, after yet another exciting day of "work", I headed home a little early to meet my friend, Wendy, and Trung to go watch the documentary. Good thing we left when we did or else we would have been late; traffic on I-35 was crazy! Well, then again, I've never been on that highway on a weekday before, so realistically, it probably wasn't that bad. Anyhow, when we got to the Alamo Drafthouse, I showed the "box office", um, more like "box person" my old debit card with a picture ID to get my discount. (I had called beforehand to confirm that any person with the name Grace Lee would be given a discount for The Grace Lee Project). Okay, so she looks at it, and was all like "oh, cool, you're the first Grace Lee I've seen come to this movie" and showed it to her co-worker/friend. Then she attempted to charge the tickets to the card when I informed her that it was no longer valid because my name changed. So I gave her a valid credit card and she charged the full price for the tickets. Um, ding-dong, the only reason I even acknowledged that I was a Grace Lee was to get the discount! Anyhow, she was all like "oops" and got a manager to fix the situation; the dude was kind enough to give me my ticket free of charge. :) Thanks, ding-dong, for the free ticket.

So, the documentary was pretty interesting. It was not necessarily about the Grace Lee's of the world, but more about the stereotype of Asian women: soft-spoken, petite, and smart. Needless to say, we Asian women (and Grace Lee's) are not all like that. Oh, and during the middle of the film was a scene with a list of Grace Lee's and their occupations AND it just so happened that my "Grace Shih-en Lee-------Loan Processor" was on there! I was a part of the documentary after all! :) Wendy and I also knew another "Grace Lee" from Houston who was actually in the film; she's the last one on the right on the banner. Okay, so afterwards as we were leaving, I saw a poster advertising the film and asked a worker if I could have it since it was the last day for the showing. He said "yes"...and now I have something to frame about moi! Um, I'll just add it to all the other things that have yet to be framed (diploma, wedding certificate, etc...)

Three days in a row!

Yes, I have yet another post. Not that I really have anything to write about, but because I am sooooo bored at work and blogging is the only thing left to do after surfing the web for the first half of the day. Hmmm, actually, I do have something interesting to mention. I received an e-mail yesterday about a screening for the documentary The Grace Lee Project. I had first come across the "project" a few years ago when Trung was looking into a domain name for me when I still had my maiden name. The film was mentioned again a few weeks ago when my friend Sarah came across it and suggested that I get involved in it. Well, I did fill out my general information on the website, but never did send in a tape of myself or anything. Now that I am no longer a "Lee", it almost seems pointless. Anyhow, it is a pretty interesting concept...basically there are so many Grace Lee's out there, that the documentary, as the website quotes, "puts a hilarious spin on the eternal question, "What's in a name?"." AND it so happens that the documentary is playing at the Alamo Drafthouse in Downtown Austin, so of course, Trung and I will be watching it; Thursday night at 7:00 PM to be exact. Feel free to come with! :) I have never been to that theatre either, so that should be cool ordering and eating my meal as I'm watching the film. Oh, I also get a discount if I show some ID with the name "Grace Lee" on it. Um, I'm sure I can come up with something to save a few buckaroos.

Trung's HD camcorder came in this morning! No, we surely did not purchase it for the listed price, but it was up there. We are hoping that it was worth every penny though; we shall see soon enough. Once we mess around with it a bit, maybe we'll try to download a video of the baby kicking in my belly or something. We might get lucky and catch an elbow moving across my side. Oh oh, or something like this pic would be really neat! We may not get any good action until just a few weeks before my due date because the baby will be more developed and will run out of room in my uterus, thus more visible limbs can be seen. Well, at least that's what I've been told. My belly kinda looks like the one in the picture too, though my belly button has not completely popped and the line under the belly button is darker, um, like you really wanted to know. :P

Joel and New York

So, apparently the Babies "R" Us guy I talked to Saturday night was right about Joel, he does work wonders. Well, either that or he actually knows what he's doing. I was able to order the glider and ottoman in my first choice, natural finish with plum gingham dots. (the plum looks more like a lilac/lavender as shown on the right, which will totally match the baby room). YEAH!!! Joel said that realistically, the furniture will not arrive for a good 14-16 weeks, which I guess is worth it for a special order. After the baby is born, I plan on spending about a month in Houston to let my Mom take care of me :), so the furniture should arrive soon after I return back to Austin. Don't worry, I'll post pics of the baby room before that...give me until the wallpaper border comes in sometime this week so that we can put it up, k?

This morning I had a doctor's appointment and found out that my doctor is 21 weeks pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl. Nice! Talk about knocking out two birds with one stone...getting one of each gender with one pregnancy. So, this puts her at around 29 weeks when I deliver, so there's a good chance that even though she may be available, someone else will be delivering me. It won't matter when the time comes, but at least it's good to know. And she said that everyone in her practice uses C-section as a last resort...whew! My brother-in-law is getting married in NYC on the 23rd, and even though we had already purchased plane tickets, we were never really sure if I would be okay to travel. Well, it seems that we are good to go! :) New York, here we come!

Oh, for those who were wondering what that big ole bandage was for on my right elbow from my baby shower pics...well, you get a bit clumsy when you're pregnant, not to mention absent-minded. I was putting brownies in a hot oven when I dropped the pan and burned my arm on the oven door. So, I put Neosporin and a bandage on the wound, but apparently the bandage was a bit too small cause when I pulled it off, some skin came off with it. Ouch, right? Yeah, so I've been patiently waiting for it to heal though I don't think swimming helps speed up the process very much. Well, at least my brownies came out yummy.

Weekend wonders

As mentioned in the previous post, this weekend really was pretty uneventful. Friday night I put the changing table together, all by myself. My back was a little bit sore afterwards, but I done good. :) Saturday morning we hung up the valence and shelves, that I had bought on ebay, in the baby room. I'll have pics of the baby room posted once I get my glider and ottoman ordered and shipped. Oh, so speaking of which, Saturday afternoon, after watching Pirates of the Carribean 2 (which was pretty good, so go watch it!) we went to Babies "R" Us to update my registry and order the glider and ottoman. Unfortunately, every fabric and color (pinks and purples) we picked out for our custom order was discontinued. Argh! Update your fabric book then, silly people! So we left the store with a name, Joel, and a hope that he would be able to work wonders for us because after all, everything has to match! :) I went on line to the ottoman's website and they had the color I wanted, so maybe Babies "R" Us' stuff is just outdated; we'll see.

On Sunday, we mowed, edged, and weeded the front lawn; watched the World Cup; and went to La Maze class. First off, the lawn has these terrible weeds that we cannot seem to get rid of. Supposedly, once the lawn gets stronger, they will disappear, but it sucks having them there in the meantime. Second, the World Cup...I honestly believe that Zidane of France being kicked out lost the game for the French. Not only did him leaving discourage the players a bit, but his penalty kick would surely have gone in. Okay, so this is coming from someone who watched only the final game...but to each his own. And finally, La Maze, where we thought we would be learning a bunch of breathing techniques, but did not really. We learned, instead, yesterday about Cesarian Sections and yeah, I'm trying to avoid that at all costs. I'll lunge, squat, do whatever I can to have that baby naturally. Ain't nobody going to be cutting me open. :P

Another Week

*sigh* Another week come and gone. It was nice having a holiday mid-week though; it made the week seem to go by faster. Last night I finally picked up my co-worker's changing table. It would not fit into my Maxima, so her husband had to disassemble the whole thing, which did not take long, though I was just standing there in the heat. The table is pretty nice; it's sturdy and matchs the dresser and crib pretty well. We did not get a chance to assemble it back together last night because it was already time to sleep after swimming and cooking dinner. It's all good, we've got all weekend for that.

No big plans for the weekend, just maybe watching "Pirates of the Carribean" (2) cause Orlando Bloom is a hottie and fixing up the baby room a bit. I'll probably also drop by Babies "R" Us to update my registry in preparation for the baby shower next Friday. Um, that's about it. Oh, oh, I read on-line that at 30 weeks pregnant, the baby is about 16 inches long and weighs about 3 pounds, cool, huh? :P

Born on the Fourth of July

I got a birthday postcard from Petsmart Monday night, a coupon actually, for a free toy for Sasha. I had gotten her August 15th, 2001 and the lady said she was 6 weeks old, so I gave her the birthdate of July 4th. So, happy 5th birthday, smeow meow! :) You're the best kitty in the whole wide world!

Yesterday, Trung and I headed out to San Marcos outlet mall to check out diaper bags, bedside lamps, and just to hang out. We stopped by USA baby on the way to examine the Amy Michelle bag that I had bidded on on ebay. The store only had the bag in olive, and it was bigger than I thought it would be. Trung personally liked a Ju Ju Be diaper bag, but I can't get over the "boyish" colors. It was less expensive than the Amy Michelle bag and just as useful, but we're having a girl, ya know? Anyhow, we still had the outlet to find a diaper bag, right?. Um, not so much...we went to Coach and Kate Spade and either they were sold out of the bag we were interested in or one of us did not like the design. Okay, so this is what (I think) I have decided to do...I am going to purchase the Amy Michelle bag on ebags.com (who uped the price another $10) and if we don't like the color or what not, the return fee is only $4.99 and I'll get the Ju Ju Be one instead. 'nuff said.

We also had no real luck with finding a pair of bedside lamps. Too big, too small, too tall, too short...whatever, the outlet was not good to us. Trung ended up buying some socks at GAP and I bought a slip for the pink dress I am wearing to brother-in-law Tai's wedding in a few weeks. We headed back home to rest up a bit before going to Pottery Barn in the Arborteum to give lamp searching one last go for the day. We actually did find some that we liked, and for a reasonable price. YEAH!! Afterwards, we went to my co-worker Laurie's house for some BBQ. They had burgers, brisket, and turkey legs...yum yum. We headed off around dusk, bought some groceries at HEB, and headed home, but not before seeing some fireworks go off on the way. We set up our lamps and called it a night. Nothing eventful, just another day in the life of Trung and Grace.

And work is not any better. It is sooooo slooooow. We had a new girl start today, the daughter of the VP of our Countrywide branch, and it doesn't look that good that we're just surfing the web. Oh wells, I've only got another six weeks and I'm outtie. Plus, she seems cool enough that she won't tattle to Daddy. It's all good.

One baby shower down, one more to go

So Saturday I had my first baby shower at Todai restaurant in Houston, hosted by my sister-in-law and brother. I HAD to get a pedicure because my toes needed it desperately and because I had planned on getting one and didn't bring any nail polish. So...I was a bit late getting to the restaurant, but everyone was happy to see me when I arrived. I'd like to say I was "fashionably late". :) After a few "hello's" and hugs, my Dad said a prayer and then everyone was off for some grub. They have changed the set-up of the restaurant since I was last there, and the selection seemed a bit limited, but the food was still yummy. I could not bare walking by the sushi section since I have not had it in months and have been craving it...I feared that I might start drooling on the food or something. That's okay though cause I made Trung promise to take me out to a nice Japanese restaurant on our one year anniversary.

While we ate, Cora had some games prepared...first, everyone cut a strand of ribbon based on how big they thought I was (around the biggest part of the belly); second, six volunteers tasted unlabeled baby food and had to guess what was in it; and third, six volunteers had to finish the water from their baby bottle as pictured below.They were all very fun and entertaining games...good job, Cora! After lunch, Trung and I opened all of "our" gifts, though I already knew what most of them were going to be since I check my registry everyday. What? I can't help that I'm bored at work and need something to do. :P Yeah! The shower was fun, let's doing it again!

Sunday was what Trung called "the boringest day ever". After sitting through my Dad's sermon in Chinese, which he doesn't understand, he drove two and a half hours back to Austin, and then spent another two and a half hours in La Maze class. Aw, poor Trung...look on the bright side, at least that day is over. AND there are only two classes left. *muah* :)