Next month is Cyrus’ two year birthday. My son is growing up so quickly. He’s picking up more words from us, and gaining a new sense of independence (one can also use the word intractability) day by day. And he definitely seems fond of his new baby sister, Claire. I’m sad however that I haven’t been as involved with his development as I would like to be, given that Claire takes up the majority of my time these days. Lately, Claire has been more clingy to me too, and she won’t go down to sleep by herself without a fight. These past few sleepless nights have taken a toll on me, and I’ve been trying to compensate by sleeping during the day time. Today, I didn’t even get out of my pajamas until well after 1 pm. Thank goodness for maternity leave.
Suffice to say, our household has gone through some changes with Claire now in the picture. Our house is a little messier, and Tony and I are both more tired and haggard. I don’t know how long this will last, or if this will become status quo. Maybe things will get better once Claire starts sleeping through the night. Here’s to hoping!

This was the cover art – more or less- for the Autodesk Sketchbook software. I think the robot looks really cute!

This is officially day #2 of maternity leave, and I am loving it! Yesterday I went into the city to have brunch with a friend at Zazie in Cole Valley, and then afterwards I headed over to Pacific Heights to get a facial at International Orange. What a life, eh? It’s definitely nice to be winding down, especially since these past few weeks – even months – of work have been quite busy/stressful. My official due date isn’t until the beginning of May, and I’m hoping that the baby doesn’t come early so that I can at least have this next week and a half to do some further decompressing.

Cyrus is now 20 months, and his personality is showing more and more with each passing day. He still isn’t talking much, preferring to stick with his favorite one to few word phrases: nai (milk), deng (light), “all done”, ba-ba (daddy), “I want this”, no (a favorite of his), and JUICE (he says this last word with such a flourish, puckering his lips out as he finishes…it’s the cutest thing). Naturally, as a mother, I’m concerned about his speaking development, and we already got a recommendation from his pediatrician at his 18-month checkup to go see a speech therapist at the Children’s Hospital in Oakland. We never ended up taking him to this speech therapist because both Tony and myself feel like we should give him some more time to come into his own. From speaking with friends and family who also have sons, the joint consensus is that boys develop slower than girls, and sometimes it just takes longer for them to start speaking. I hope that this is the case with Cyrus. And now that I’m no longer brain-fuddled from work, I’m trying to make a concerted effort each day to really talk and interact with him, both in English and my limited Chinese.

Finally, in unrelated news, Foo Fighter’s lastest album – Wasting Light – came in over the weekend and I am *totally* all over this new album like white on rice. So far, the songs that have been forced on multiple repeat in my car and on my computer have been: Bridge Burning, Rope, White Limo, These Days, and Walk. Hopefully they announce tour dates in the Bay Area soon so that I can get tickets.

Ta ta for now.

That title says it all, doesn’t it? I have another month to go before the baby is due, but I feel as if I’m already at the 9 mo mark, given the size of my tummy. They do say with your 2nd pregnancy, everything expands that much faster, most likely because the skin has already been stretched out so much the first go around.
I still feel sick. I wish this cough would go away.
I’m digging my Mac.
I’m tired and plan on going to bed soon. It is only 10 PM. Last night, I went to sleep at 9 PM. Sleeping early and waking up early is a sign that you’re getting old, I think.

We installed a new heater yesterday and it’s already not working. It decided to call it quits tonight. I hauled out the ceramic portable heater and put it near Cyrus’ room so hopefully at least he’ll stay warm through the night.
Weekends are such a blur now. Parenthood is tough. I can’t believe another one is on the way soon!

So Cyrus’ birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but I figured I’d get a jump start and give a shout out to the little tyke a day early. Happy Birthday baby!

On a completely random note, I wish the following would go away (in no particular order):

- tweets
- Justin Bieber
- Snooki

And finally, I heard in a recent NPR news program that keyboarding is trumping handwriting lessons at some schools now. That seems so sad to me. Both are important skills, and it’s unfortunate that teachers – due to time constraints, budget cuts, etc. – need to choose one over the other.

I was thinking about titling this post “Mercury Rising” initially, but in the end “Hot hot hot” won out because – no offense to Sting – the Cure song just seems catchier to me.
Anyway, the weekend definitely was a warm one. We took Cyrus out to his first picnic on Saturday. It was so fun seeing him interact with all of his cousins. I can’t wait for our little guy to grow up a little more so that he can run around with all of the other kids.
Eunice called me this morning with fantastic news. Congratulations, Ewey! She’s expecting her second kid. If my calculations are correct, her next one will be born sometime in October.

Cyrus took a pretty nasty spill yesterday, leaving a one inch gash right above his left eye. The gash was pretty deep, so Tony and I rushed him to the ER to have things checked out. Poor kid – he ended up having to get four stitches to the head. I was pretty shaken from the whole event. Thank goodness it wasn’t anything worse. The doctor on call who sutured Cyrus’ laceration was a parent himself. He reassured us that these sorts of things happen to the best of parents, and that we shouldn’t beat ourselves up about it. Before Cyrus received his stitches, the doctor and his assistant had to swaddle Cyrus and then wrap him up in a papoose board to prevent him from struggling during the operation. I actually had to step out of the room because I couldn’t bear to see my boy in pain. Sigh. My poor baby. He’s a trooper though. It’s been a full day since the operation, and I think he’s back to his normal self. Granted, he looks like a mini-Frankenstein now, but he’s still adorable to me.

Cyrus will be 9 months in a little more than a week. He’s crawling all over the place now, and he likes pulling himself up and standing upright for short periods of time. He keeps me busy. Any time I put him down in one place just to take care of something where both hands are required (like washing dishes), my little bugger is off and crawling to another place.
Today Tony treated me out to brunch at Amber Bistro, a restaurant in Danville. Prices were a little steep, but the food was nice. Cyrus was doing really well throughout the meal. Unfortunately, we had a little episode (i.e. explosive diaper) at the tail end of our outing, which sent Tony and me flying into the men’s bathroom to strip off Cyrus’ clothing and wipe the shit off that had crawled up onto his backside. And right when we thought we were done cleaning up the mess, Cyrus – in all of his naked glory – takes a piss in the middle of the bathroom floor. At that point, I started laughing. Man, what a great way to cap off Mother’s Day!
Finally – what seems to be a common theme for families with young children – all three of us are under the weather again (this is probably the fifth one for the year). Tony and Cyrus have it worse off compared to me. Being sick has become status quo for us. But if I had to look at this from a glass-half-full approach, I’m thankful for the fact that each time we do get sick, it’s either Tony or myself that’s worse off than the other, leaving the healthier parent better equipped to handle the kid.
So I’ve got to say – 2010 has not gone off to a good start in terms of our general health. Like I was saying earlier, I feel like this is the fifth illness for the year. It’s barely May, and I’ve…
…so I just returned from changing Cyrus’ diaper for the third time in 3 hours. Darn it – I think he may have diarrhea…poor guy. So anyway, like I was saying, 2010 really hasn’t been good for us, health-wise. I’ve gotten pink eye – twice, was coughing for the entire month of March, and developed a fever a couple of times already this year. And now Tony’s pretty sick with a fever and cough.
Hope the last half of the year looks up!

This is the fourth post that I started without finishing and publishing. I feel that I have developed an acute case of ADD ever since becoming a new mom. As I write this, I am thinking to myself, “Exactly how long will Cyrus stay down for his morning nap? How *does* a convertible seat attach? I hope that spit-up comes off of my Ella Moss shirt. Note to self: Remind Tony to drop off Ella Moss shirt and other clothing at dry cleaners tomorrow.” My thoughts are in shambles.
Yesterday afternoon, Tony, myself, and Cyrus got gussied up for our friends’ wedding in the City. Their wedding took place at the Bently Reserve. The location was gorgeous. Cyrus behaved very well, but towards the end of the evening he was getting a little fussy because he was tired and wanted to sleep but couldn’t because of the ambient noise. Poor kid. That’s probably why he’s taking an extra long nap this morning.
This post feels unfinished to me, but I’m going to publish anyway instead of having it languish away in WordPress Draft land like the rest of my unfinished thoughts.

I think my baby is pretty darn cute. Sure I’m a biased mother, but don’t you think this picture screams out cute?

Anyway, Cyrus has become much more vocal in the past few weeks. He definitely seems like a happier baby. The Infant Tylenol that we introduced a few weeks ago might have something to do with it as well. Yay drugs.

I’m getting old. I pulled out six white hairs in the course of the past four days. I’m not the young whipper snapper that I used to be. I’m in my thirties, I start yawning after 9 pm (in fact, I really should be in bed right now), and my idea of fun nowadays is going to Target with Tony and Cyrus on a Friday night to browse the DVD and music section. But the real indication that I’m getting past my prime is the fact that I willingly passed up the opportunity to go up to Tahoe this month to go snowboarding. Willingly. Wowsa. Somebody put me in a retirement center already.

My poor baby has had a stuffy nose for the past few days. I think he got it over the weekend. It was rainy and kind of cold, we were walking outside for a good part of the day, and I think I just didn’t dress him warmly enough. The guilt! So the past few nights, he’s been waking up often because he – we think – has trouble breathing. All this makes for two very sleep deprived parents. He’s been teething as well, so perhaps that has also been a factor in his sleeplessness.
Cyrus starts daycare next Monday. As a corollary, Tony is *extremely* happy to be ending his 2 month paternity leave and returning to work on Monday. In any case, we did a trial run on Monday and Tuesday this week and things went pretty smoothly. There was no meltdown, tantrums or tears so I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that he’ll behave just as well next week.

The weekend came and went so quickly. On Saturday, I went up to Napa Valley for a friend’s bachelorette party. The weather was gorgeous, and were it not for the hospital-grade breast pump that I had to lug up with me on the trip, I *almost* forgot about being a mommy for the day.

While in Napa, we took a boat tour of the Napa River and afterwards headed over to the Oxbow Public Market to have lunch. This was my first time at Oxbow, and it reminded me somewhat of the Ferry Building Marketplace in SF (okay, I just googled Oxbow Public Market and it turns out that it was the brainchild of the same guy who supervised the development of the SF Ferry Building – so the similarities makes sense). We ate lunch at the Oxbow Wine Merchant & Wine Bar. The Artisanal Cheese Board that we had as a starter was fantastic, and my main dish – a smoked salmon BLT – was not too shabby either.

It’s been a month since I’ve returned to work after having been off on maternity leave for five months. Juggling work and mommy responsibilities has been difficult, to say the least. Every morning, I wake up tired and every night, I go to sleep tired. Some days I think I’m just operating in a daze. I’m hoping this general feeling of malaise will end soon.

Anyway, I have to end this post with a picture of my little bugger. Here he is, sitting happy in his Bumbo!

I called in sick today from work. Yesterday was spent all day in bed recovering from a fever and some strange food poisoning that left me praying to the porcelain gods. Tony’s symptoms were not as severe, but he was feeling queasy for the better part of the day. Thankfully, it looks like Cyrus is doing okay.

Speaking of the kiddie, he’s become much more vocal in the past few days. His baby talk consists of a lot of “Da, Da, Da” (I’m convinced the first intelligible word out of his mouth will be Daddy) followed by high-pitched squealing. It’s adorable, personally speaking.

Nothing much to say, I guess. Six more days until Cyrus turns 5 months. I think he may be teething. This past weekend went by too quickly. Here’s a picture of my smiling cutie pie.

Quite a bit has happened in the five or so months since I lasted posted an entry here. My son Cyrus was born August 17th at 12:17 am and it’s been a roller coaster of a ride ever since. I love this kid so much – every day brings new things, as cliche as that may sound. Anyway, I’ve decided that it’s high time that I start chronicling Cyrus milestones – big and small – for posterity’s sake. He’s already accomplished so much since the day he was born (at least I think he has!). Rather than try and go back in time and highlight his achievements from day 1, I’ll just start with today’s: my son has started sucking his thumb. What a genius!

Last Monday was my first day back at work after having been off on maternity leave since the middle of July. Going back was hard, needless to say. I was definitely sad leaving Cyrus that Monday morning, and I gave him extra hugs and kisses before I took off. On the plus side, Tony is off for the next two months on paternity leave to take care of Cyrus, so we won’t have to deal with day care until March.

In other news, we’re planning on installing french doors in our family room. We went to Lowe’s yesterday to have a contract formally drafted up. It’ll be nice when the doors are installed, especially come Spring time when we’ll be able to open both doors out to our backyard to let in the sunshine and cool air.

I’ll end this entry with a pic of Cyrus in his Nature’s Touch Papasan:

Toodles for now!

I’ve been taking advantage of my leave to finish – as well as start up – some sewing projects.

The below pictures are of the purse that I finally finished up two days ago. It’s the Sophia Carry-All Bag from Amy Butler.

I also found a cute wallet pattern online a few months ago and I started sewing the wallet last night (I modified the instructions somewhat – instead of a Velcro fastening, I used a magnetic snap). I finished the wallet up today. Below are the results:

I’ve been putting in some late hours at work these past two weeks so as a treat, our team was given the day off today. Hopefully I’ll be able to get all that I need to do today done. One of the to-do items on my list is getting a haircut. I’ve already booked a last minute appointment at a hair salon that I’m trying out for the first time. I feel slightly guilty for cheating on my regular hair stylist, Wendy, but I desperately need a haircut because my hair is getting uncontrollably shaggy. Plus, the last haircut I had with Wendy was just okay (maybe I was just having an off day with her – the haircuts that I’ve had with Wendy in the past have been spot on).
This coming Monday is my one year anniversary with Tony. To celebrate, Tony is treating me out to dinner tomorrow night in the city. This past year of married life has flown by in a glorious flash.
I’m going to the Weezer concert in October. I’m looking forward to it because I really like the band’s most recent Red Album.

Stay (Faraway so Close) – u2
Lightning Crashes – Live
Just Heaven – Cure
Come Alive – Foo Fighters
Come Undone – Duran Duran
Read My Mind – The Killers
Dogs of L.A. – Liz Phair
Open Your Heart – Madonna
Given To Fly – Pearl Jam
Head Like a Hole – NIN