This made me tear up…
I unfortunately do not have any toys I can pass down to my children. I always preferred books over toys and never developed an attachment to any particular item.
There are, however, many many many books that I’d love to read to my children in hopes that they will love and appreciate them as I did.
Do you have any toys, books, or heirlooms you plan on passing down to your children?
Image via haha.nu.
So I’ve had an entire night to sleep on it.
And after thinking about it some more, talking to my mother and some girlfriends about it…
…I’m starting to get excited!
I think one of the reasons I was so shocked at the news is because I had a gut feeling from the beginning of the pregnancy that it was a boy. I was drawn to boy stuff, and really pictured myself raising a firstborn son. (So much for mother’s intuition!)
Now that I’ve accepted the fact that we’re having a girl, I’m starting to think of all the benefits of having a daughter and it’s pretty exhilarating.
We will immerse her in our favorite sports from a young age, and hope that she will participate in many team sports as she grows up.
Even my MIL chimed in with a benefit of having daughters: “Look at J and his younger brother! They never listened to me when they were young, and they still don’t listen. Girls are easier to raise!”
What say you, readers? Can you think of any additional advantages of having a girl?
It’s a GIRL!
After the NT scan, I thought that we had a bold and outgoing child on our hands. But this ultrasound certainly made me change my mind — she was a shy one, constantly covering her face with her hands and keeping her legs tightly crossed. It took quite some pokes from the tech, in addition to my downing an entire bottle of fruit juice and coughing repeatedly, until she uncrossed her legs and let us have a peek at the goods.
The ultrasound place we had chosen offers a complimentary follow-up exam if the baby’s gender can not be revealed at the first visit. Our tech felt so bad that she couldn’t get any clear images of the face (due to the baby’s hands) that she gave us the free exam anyway. We will return in two weeks for a second run at the 3D/4D ultrasound pictures and video.
I would be lying if I said I was completely happy to hear the news. In fact, J took it better than me. I wasn’t disappointed for myself, but for J and his family who had been looking forward to a boy. However, they took the news in stride and for that I am thankful.
My parents were ecstatic to hear the news. I could hear my father excited talking in the background, because he wanted a granddaughter from day one. When I called my sister, she screamed and almost blew my eardrums out. While I am happy that the baby seems happy and healthy, I feel guilty for not having the same reaction at the gender. As such, I have been praying that God fills my heart with joy for our baby girl.
Although we had picked both girl and boy names already, I had been having doubts in the past weeks about our choice of a boy name. As a matter of fact, I was certain that we would probably go with something else — we just couldn’t decide. Maybe this was a sign, because I love the name we have picked for our girl and wouldn’t have it any other way. (We will keep the name a secret until she is born.)
J is already talking about making a trip to Home Depot so that he can build a cage to keep our girl in until she turns 18. He also says he wants to buy a shotgun to scare off all boys. 
I know he’s kidding, but I can’t help but already be worried about boys too. I have a feeling we’re going to be very protective parents…
I recently discovered that a blogger has taken to using the “Geek in Heels” moniker for her own site. (Thank you, Google Alerts, for giving me the heads-up!)
The blog is relatively new and does not seem to have many readers. However, the writer is Asian like myself and our blogging topics are bound to overlap sooner or later.
It is precisely for these reasons that I began to wonder if I should protect the “Geek in Heels” name by grabbing all the popular top-level domains (.com, .net, .org, etc). Currently, I only own geekinheels.com.
I don’t think my site is that popular, but it has been featured on popular sites such as BoingBoing and Neatorama. I hardly ever get many comments, but I do get a decent amount of visitors and have a Google PageRank of 3. I receive at least one email per week regarding advertising and/or promoting products people would like me to write about on this blog.
I don’t know if this site will ever become very popular, or if I’ll make decent money from it. However, I do know that I love the “Geek in Heels” moniker and plan on using it for a long time. I also plan on blogging for as long as possible.
Based on this information, do you think I should invest the money in buying new domain names with different top-level domains? What about variations of geekinheels, such as geek-in-heels.com?
The Geocities-izer.
Its tagline says it all: Make Any Webpage Look Like It Was Made By A 13 Year-Old in 1996. Complete with a MIDI file playing in the background, animated GIFs, and glaring color schemes.
Oh, the horror!
Via Neatorama.
Sometimes, when Comang is lying on his back, I like to grab him and hold him in my arms like he’s a baby.
When Comang is tired he lets us do whatever we want to him, so he can lie in this position quite comfortably for a while. Just before J snapped this photo, he was snoring away in my arms!
People often ask me if I’m scared to have a baby; after all, I still act like a kid myself. My looks seem to betray me too, as I’m consistently mistaken for being about 5 years younger (and I can see how when I am sans makeup, hair messy and just chillaxin’ at home like in the photo above).
The truth is, I’m not scared at all. I’m not even scared of labor (but ask me again in 4 months!). I have had plenty of experience taking care of my younger cousins while growing up, and just recently I was a part-time nanny to an infant.
I know it is different helping take care of someone else’s baby vs actually having the full responsibility of your own child in your hands. However, I feel like I’ve seen enough to be pretty prepared. Crying for hours on end. Diarrhea. Projectile vomiting. Peeing on furniture. Temper tantrums. Sleep-training. The list goes on and on.
I’m not scared. I’m looking forward to it, as a matter of fact. Even the bad.
I spent last week at my parents’ house where my mother proceeded to spoil me rotten with homecooked Korean food and whatever else I was craving.
“Don’t ever ignore your cravings or your baby will come out with crooked eyes!” she repeatedly told me. (Now that’s one old wives’ tale I can get behind!)
I was sure that I would return at least 5 lbs heavier, but I was dumbfounded to find that I had lost a few pounds. Huh. Take a look at last week’s and today’s belly shots side-by-side:
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As you can see I certainly don’t look any thinner; if anything, I look bigger!
Nonetheless, I’m happy to report that what I had been predicting seems to be coming true: I’m just one of the few women who gain a lot in the beginning and plateau.
People have been telling me that I already seem to be carrying a bit high. I call bullshit on this because I know the real reason my belly is already bloated on top — it’s because of my small stature. As the baby grows and my uterus expands, it pushes the rest of my organs up. And because I’m so short to begin with, my organs have already been pushed pretty far up in relation to the rest of my body.
I know that being short already has given me some disadvantages with pregnancy. For example, it’s getting harder to do the dishes because my arms are so short. My short stumpy arms will also force me to stop driving in the third trimester, because I already drive so close to the steering wheel (and there isn’t much room left). Lastly, I need to be extra-careful in the later months because short women are more prone to falling when they are heavily pregnant.
But I don’t care. I’m just happy to be carrying a healthy child.
On to the update!
Dear Baby,
You are now about the size of a large onion or a turnip, and since you’ve consistently been measuring a bit large, I’m going to go ahead and guess that you’re about 5.5-6″ long (with legs it’s probably closer to 10″!) and weigh about 6-7 ounces.
Your skeleton is transforming from cartilage to bone, and you are finally starting to accumulate fat to keep yourself warm and healthy. Your daddy wants a big fat baby with Michelin Man-like arms and legs, so I have to keep reminding him that developing a overweight child in the womb can’t be good for you or for me.
Your ears are not yet structurally complete or fully functional, but they’re getting there — because you’re already starting to react to outside noises and sounds! Can you hear me now baby?
In just two days your father and I hope to find out your gender. We can’t be more excited for this event! Even your father has begun to admit that he doesn’t care what the sex is; he is just excited for you to be here and be healthy.
The biggest development for your mother has to be the allergy-like symptoms that are constantly plaguing me. I know that the increased blood flow is good for you but it’s given me a constantly stuffy/runny nose and rheumy eyes. The increase in snot also creates repeated sneezing which makes your father paranoid that I’m catching a cold. I have never had allergies before but I can now sympathize.
I am now also regularly feeling twinges in my lower abdomen. I’m still not 100% sure, but I think it’s you, baby! I think I’m feeling you swimming around inside of me until you get bigger and stronger and start to really punch and kick.
Please continue to stay healthy in there and I can’t wait to see you on Wednesday!
Earlier this week I was helping out at my mother’s dry cleaning store when a woman threw a hissy fit at me.
She had brought in some slacks and a women’s shirt. As I entered these items into the computer, she held up the shirt and said, “I would like this to be charged the same as a men’s shirt.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. This is clearly a women’s shirt…”
“I know, but you always charge more for ladies’ shirts and that’s not fair.”
“The reason we do this is due to the pressing methods. Men’s shirts can be fully pressed in a matter of minutes because most of them are cut the same way and so they fit on the same pressing machine. We don’t have pressing machines for women’s shirts because each are cut so differently — all women’s shirts need to be hand-ironed which takes a considerably longer time.”
A typical shirt pressing machine.
“Well why don’t you buy pressing machines for women’s shirts?”
“As far as I know, no such thing exists.” (This is true — I peruse the myriad of dry cleaning catalogs and magazines my parents receive whenever I’m bored at the store.) “Even if they did, it just wouldn’t make sense economically to buy shirt-pressing machines in various sizes because each one costs thousands of dollars…not to mention the space they would take up.”
By this point, the woman was visibly upset.
“You know, not all men’s shirts are cut the same way!”
“We are fully aware of that fact. That’s why we charge more for men’s shirts that are cut drastically different from other men’s shirts, or for extra small or extra large items that will not fit on the pressing machine.”
“That’s just discrimination! You are discriminating against women, not to mention men with smaller or bigger frames!”
“I’m sorry…that’s just the way we do business. If you are not satisfied…”
“I’m fully prepared to write to my Congressman and demand a law to end price discrimination of this sort!”
I was starting to get pretty annoyed at this woman. “Why don’t you go ahead and do that.”
“And I’ll take my business elsewhere!” She then hurried out in a huff.
* * *
The prices that my parents charge at the dry cleaner aren’t out of the ordinary. It is a well-known fact that many times, women’s clothes cost more to dry clean than men’s.
For a price reference, my parents charge $1.75 for a men’s shirt and $5.25 for a women’s shirt. Seeing as how a women’s shirt usually takes 5 times longer to press, I don’t think the price is unreasonable.
As I relayed the story to my parents, they informed me that this isn’t the first time this has happened. They have gotten more than a few complaints about the price discrepancy between women’s and men’s items over the years…however, they feel that it is only fair to charge more for items that take longer to clean and press, and this is how the majority of dry cleaners price their services.
What do you think? Is this discrimination?
I then began to wonder how we would be able to appease this woman, as well as the others who may feel that this is gender discrimination. The only possible solution I can think of is to charge the same for both men and women’s clothes, but raise prices across the board. However, I can’t imagine that all of our customers would be happy with the idea…
Can you think of another possible solution to the problem?
Today was to be the due date of our lost baby.
I will never forget you and will always hold you close to my heart. I look forward to the day when I can meet you in heaven, when I can finally hold you in my arms and tell you face to face that I love you.
Dear Lord,
I would have loved to hold my baby in my lap and tell her all about you…but since I didn’t get a chance, would you please hold her in your lap and tell her about me?
Have I mentioned that I’ve been very self-conscious about my looks these past few months?
Only about a dozen or so times!
Along with the almost-20 lbs I’ve stacked on, pregnancy has also changed my body chemistry so much to a point where my old tried-and-true beauty products just have not been cutting it.
My regular facewash has become too drying. My moisturizer seems too light. I have even (embarrassingly) developed a case of bacne.
The problems above didn’t bother me too much. I am supposed to be on the hunt for a new facewash anyway because the line has been discontinued. I can always try another moisturizer from Clarins (my go-to skincare company) once my current bottle of lotion runs out. I have been diligently using Neutrogena body wash and taking care to keep my shoulders and upper back blemish-free.
Then the unthinkable happened.
My HG (that’s “holy grail” in makeup junkie talk) foundation stopped working for me.
The same one that I had been using for two straight years without a problem.
It sat on top of my skin instead of being absorbed. It slid around throughout the day. It also broke me out. Badly.
I pleaded with it. I tried using less, then more to see if that helped. I tried various acne products. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
So I set out to Sephora one dreary morning to find a replacement foundation.
I think I spent about an hour and a half just trying out various foundations. I was almost set on purchasing the popular DiorSkin Forever…then my eyes landed on the TEMPTU display case.
I had been intrigued by TEMPTU ever since Sephora announced that it will begin carrying the line earlier this year. I was tempted to try it, but brushed off the idea because I already had a foundation that I loved.
But this time, I had a good excuse.
Plus, I had gotten a taste of airbrush foundation at my wedding and loved that it lasts all day.
I flagged down a salesperson who gave me a rundown of the system. She explained how to set up the airbrush foundation machine, and demonstrated the application process.
I loved it.
The only thing that put me off was the price — at $225 for the machine and $55 for two AIR pod™ Foundation cartridges, it certainly isn’t cheap.
However, J knew how down I had been feeling about my looks so he encouraged me to buy it. He offered it as an early anniversary present.
So I purchased the TEMPTU AIRbrush Makeup System, the AIR pod™ Foundation in Natural (I later ended up exchanging it for Sand which was a much better shade for me), and the AIR pod™ Blush in Soft Peach.
I have been using the Temptu Airbrush Makeup for almost a month now. I purposely waited this long to write this review because I wanted to make sure that the sparkling new feeling had worn off.
The verdict: It is SO worth it!
I love that the airbrush system allows me buildable coverage via two ways: (1) the dial setting on the machine itself; and (2) how long you apply.
Both the foundation and blush leave a silky, dewy finish. You can also choose to purchase the AIR pod™ Highlighter, but I opted out because I usually have very oily skin by the end of the day.
The makeup literally lasts all day. It has the best lasting power of any foundation I’ve ever used (and believe me — this product junkie has tried many over the years), even as I go on my sweaty 1½-hour walks with Comang. Does my skin look greasy by the end of the day? A bit, yes. But I just blot with a piece of tissue and then I’m good as new again!
And just because I love my readers so much, here are some “before” and “after” photos I took this morning:
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| Click on the pictures to see larger versions. | |
(Please excuse the messy background and the poor quality of the pictures. I am currently staying at my parents’ and took the pictures in my sister’s room — which has the best lighting — with one arm extended. I also did not have my DSLR on me.)
I admit that I applied the foundation with a heavier hand today because I was afraid that the difference wouldn’t be noticeable in pictures…but as you can see I was wrong! Usually I prefer a lighter coverage.
The best part? No more breakouts! The pimples that had surfaced from my old foundation are gone, and I have not gotten any bad reactions from the TEMPTU makeup at all. I also love that the airbrush system is so much more sanitary than using your fingers, a brush, or a sponge to apply makeup.
The only “con” I can list about the system is that the machine seems a bit cheaply-made in person. However, it seems durable enough, as I’ve already traveled with the system a few times with no problems.
I highly recommend to all my readers that you stop by your nearest Sephora and try out the TEMPTU AIRbrush system for yourself! And if you have any questions about TEMPTU, leave a comment and I’ll try my best to answer them!
I like books, gadgets, spicy food, and art. I dislike shopping, hot weather, and the laws of entropy. Although I am a self-proclaimed computer nerd, I still have a love for handbags and makeup... and I am always teetering on high heels. To learn more about me, visit the "About" page.
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