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.

Maternity Fashion in Movies 1

When Fashion Meets Movies - 影尚随行: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg《瑟堡的雨伞》

Catherine Deneuve looks fabulously chic in maternity dress in this 60's romance movie despite a bittersweet story. Her tailored maternity dress is cute and sophisticated. The bump is wrapped preciously under dresses and coats:

A Naming Joke

A friend in China forwarded me this list of people's names. It is so hilarious that I want to post it here. As we are trying to find the perfect name for our Little XJ&XJ, these are definitely the pitfalls that we will have to avoid. At the same time, I can't help but wonder the humorous effect Chinese can bring: they are subtle to you at the first sight, then you will laugh your teeth off with some thinking and imagination. There is nothing the American dumb jokes can compare. Without further ado, here it is:

据公安部姓名查询系统,全国最爆笑的人名:
刘产
扬伟
赖月京(还是个男的)
范剑
姬从良
范统
夏建仁
朱逸群
秦寿生(亏他父母想的出)
庞光
杜琦燕
魏生津
矫厚根
沈京兵
排名第一的：史珍香

Pandora Music Box

Expecting Little XJ&XJ ... 期待中！: Mozart or Bach?

Being accused of using shortcut to serve our baby's needs in the previous blog entry, XJ showed his dedication by finding another shortcut. This time he opened a Pandora music box for me: www.pandora.com. Great technology, excellent music. The website tracks your likes and dislikes and plays music to your taste intelligently. I am loving it. It is so good to have a techie at home. My life becomes easier and more fun!

Babymoon (1)

There is honeymoon after saying “I do” in church for newly weds and there is babymoon after surviving the first semester for parents-to-be. It seems that moon is associated with romantic settings regardless of geological and cultural boundaries.

Knowing it is just a made-up concept to draw money from our bank accounts by marketing guys in tourist industry, XJ and I can’t resist the temptation to have a babymoon before the Little XJ&XJ is born. Yeah, why not take the last chance to have some fun in our couplehood? My belly just started to show so I am still physically adroit. Spiritually, pregnancy makes me happier than ever. I guess I have reached the best times of the nine months.

To go or not to go? – This is a non-issue for us. For some reason, we didn’t get chance to have a honeymoon. This would be an excellent opportunity for us to relax and have some fun while we are still a childless couple. There are a lot of places in North America that we haven’t been to. We thought about going to Yellow Stone or Grand Canyon, but it is too late as the parks are already booked out for the summer. Puerto Rico since we live on the east coast? Then we learned not only the temperature is too hot for preggies, but also it is the hurricane season over there during summer time. Don’t even mention the Latin food will be a big challenge for my flimsy stomach. Las Vegas? A friend told me it was a disaster to go to Las Vegas when she was pregnant as so many people smoke and the dryness almost made her dehydrated. Where to go? I started to admire some of my friends’ decisions to travel around before getting pregnant. Shoulda Woulda Coulda…

The babymoon destination is still under discussing. I am sure there will be a Baby Moon 2 coming up soon. However, XJ’s company organized an outing up in New Hampshire last weekend and we had a great time. Before we make our decision, let it be the preface of our babymoon for now.

Mozart or Bach?

Research indicates fetuses’ abilities to hear are well developed by the end of the second trimester. Knowing it is such a cliché for parents wanting the best for their child-even before the child is born, XJ and I still can’t help but start to think about exposing Little XJ&XJ some music. Human nature of wanting the best for the baby aside, we wishfully think you never know if utero concerto is going to do wonders.

XJ loves classic music. His favorite musician is J.S Bach. While I know little about music, I decided to delegate this task to XJ completely. (It is not easy for a hands-on leader like me to make this decision). In order to provide our baby a uterine environment that’s rich enough in music, XJ thinks we should expose him to different classic music instead of Mozart, or Bach, or Beethoven. In another word, we want to give him all. After the short brainstorm session, XJ promised me he will get work on this immediately. Half an hour later, he came to my computer claiming he'd found a perfect solution. That was fast! I was thinking giving him a week time. He opened a website, clicked on the “Listen Alive” button:

“This is where Boston comes to relax. Boston’s classic music station – 99.5, WCRB”, a voice came from the speakers.

Well, this is a man who knows shortcut! It is the classic music station he has been listening to. However, only results matter in my theory. Several days have been past and I am pretty satisfied with the company of all day long programmed live music, never a dull moment…

I am wondering what Little XJ&XJ thinks about our new endeavor. No matter what you think, baby, we are just trying to entertain you, not really trying to push you closer to an Ivy League degree or that sort of thing, well, which would be even nicer if it is the side effect. :)