Surprise!!!

My dear friend Yuan, by the way, who just became an aunt (Congrats!), and a colleague of XJ, called me several days ago probing what I’d like to have for a baby gift. I learned from her that XJ’s colleagues were going to buy a baby gift for daddy-to-be XJ. Yuan asked me to keep it a secret from XJ so they can surprise at least one of us. I gave Yuan some nice-to-have options and restrained the urge to tell XJ about the underground going within his team at work.

Yuan called me this Monday asking me to set aside some time Wednesday afternoon as she wanted me to do something for her. I didn’t think much and agreed. She came to pick me up yesterday as planned. As soon as I got into her car, “what are we going to do anyway?” I asked Yuan. “Oh, I need to buy a gift for Toby (her husband) and would like your opinion. But first, I forgot to bring my wallet and I need to go to office first.” She said. And I was like, okay. Yuan seemed a little bit nervous talking to me and she drove super fast to the company (she was literally speeding in my apartment community and the company campus.:)). I sensed something and started to tease her a little bit. (I am quite experienced with this kind of thing because the company I used to work in is women dominated and had participated/organized a lot of surprising parties, not even mention that Yuan asked me about the gift ideas previously.) We got off the car. Yuan walked quickly toward the office building. Obviously she was trying to avoid eye contacts and conversations with me. Usually, we chat a lot as we are walking together. By now I was 100% sure that they were throwing a surprising baby shower for XJ but I kept amusing Yuan. I said: “Yuan, you walk too fast, I can’t keep up with you. And isn’t your office in that building?” We were walking to XJ’s office building. “Oh, I just moved to this building several weeks ago.” Yuan said, without much confidence. Suddenly, I felt I was acting badly. I stopped teasing her. She was so sweet and kind trying to surprise me and she did a wonderful job!

By the time we got to the conference room, of course with cakes, shower gifts, cards, snacks and smiley faces of XJ’s colleagues. And I, obviously was one of the surprises they arranged for XJ. After everything was ready, XJ was brought into the conference room by a colleague who set up a meeting with him days ago, with a pen and meeting notes book in his hand. He had no idea! They totally got him!!! I emerged from the crowed. XJ walked towards me with his mouth to both ears.

The cake was beautiful and yummy with a very cute baby face and a real pacifier. And, it was in Tiffany blue, one of my favorite colors. I put the pacifier in XJ’s mouth and caused a cluster of big laughter. The gift was perfect, a beautiful high chair we were considering to buy. We made wishes, cut the cake, read the cards, shared the only final candidate name of Little XJ&XJ, got positive reviews and recommendations for the name, received blessings and congratulations from all of his colleagues…In a cold, early winter New England afternoon, we had a blast and felt cozily warm in a corner of Apple Hill. Thanks Mathworks folks, and special thanks to Yuan. You guys made our day!

Hey, What’s Up?

It has been such a loooong time since my last entry. Friends who are used to check out my pregnant progress here started to shoot me notes or call me up: “Hey! What is up? How is the baby doing?”

How am I doing? My dear friends, I am doing great. Thanks for asking. Just that the chunkier I get, the lazier I become. Time passes by so quietly and quick without me realizing. Only four weeks remained till the debut of the Little XJ&XJ if he sticks to the schedule! What have I done during the last several months? I don’t remember clearly already! No wonder my mommy friends told me they regretted that they didn’t take some time to keep a diary on those milestones when the baby grew up. Those vivid and precious memories always fade exponentially as time goes by. “Get out of the sofa!” I ordered myself, “If you keep lying there, soon after you will be the one who murmuring what you were doing when the Little XJ&XJ exercise all his Firsts.”

Vermont in Fall

Although it is late, it is not too late. I still vaguely remember the weird feeling of the first butterfly kicks inside my tummy. Coincidentally, the baby kicks became more and more intense with the progress of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games, especially during the feasts of gymnastic finals. I guess it was more of my adrenaline that was working and affected his behavior than he had been enjoying the game himself and can’t help but mimicking; The hide-and-seek game between the daddy and son was really frustrating for XJ for an extended period of time: the baby always stopped moving when old XJ placed his hands on my tummy and started performing as soon as the poor daddy turned his sights away. I also remember the sparkle in his eyes and ecstasy on his face when XJ first felt the movement of the baby, also the urge trying to catch his hands when the baby made waves all the way from one to the other side of the tummy later; And how relieved we were when the ultrasound technician confirmed to us that those cysts in the brain had no longer existed! We cherished that day’s report like a-million-dollar check; We attended the one-day crash course of childbirth for first time parents in spite of all our friends who did it told us it wasn’t necessary. We hunted down our friends first for second hand car seats, strollers, cribs and other baby stuff and then decided to shop brand new gears for him because we think the baby deserves the best we can afford…We just don’t want to miss any step that is on the to-do-list.

As for myself, while I am not totally “wasted” as I became more and more close to an elephant, I did managed to dig into Chinese ancient and modern literature trying to find a perfect name for Little XJ&XJ (we are still deciding among the final candidates); I became addicted to shop baby’s clothes, especially kimono tops and found it extremely rewarding for the first time not shopping for myself around August and September; I spent hours in the fabric store to decide on the color theme and animal character for the nursery: I chose yellow elephant to reflect my nontraditional taste. I dragged my chubby body to burn midnight oil to decorate nursery and woke up XJ to check out my newly crafted crib bumper pad excitedly like a child; I also squeezed some creative juice from my long unused fashion designer brain and made a pregnant cape for myself in order to get that perfect pregnant posing in front of camera…

Wellesley in Fall

It is not all fun stuff though. The third trimester also turned out to be the hardest part of my pregnancy. One pregnant friend who suffered awfully in the first trimester teased me: I am paying back for the comfort I enjoyed during the first trimester. I am afraid I suffered all the symptoms that has been existed: heartburn, super frequent bathroom visits (5 times every night! God knows how many times during the day.), swollen hands and feet, puffy pregnant face (hate it!), short of breath and more heartburn, not even mentioning walking like a duck...

As I wrote along, I suddenly realize expecting is such a comprehensive word and one won’t explore all its meanings until the day she delivers. It is a soul searching process emotionally and a series of marathon events physically. You gotta live through it to fully understand it. I look forward to the big day’s coming, eagerly and anxiously, when I can look back and proudly tell myself I finally get the complete meaning of Expecting.