Showers of Love

On March 6, 2010, a few amazing women (Sara, Louise, and Katie) put on a shower for us and a bunch of wonderful friends and family gathered to help us celebrate the coming of Baby Tiger.

Thank You Everyone!
Especially SARA, LOUISE, AND KATIE!
And thank you to all who made the delicious food! When I recover from my soon-to-be sleep-deprived state, I'll be asking for cooking lessons!

Those of you who know me well know that I have a strong aversion to all things sentimental. But...maybe I'm growing soft because I'm sure this shower will become one of my fondest memories. Oh treacle! ;p

Below are some pics.

Lee and Jayde with red velvet cupcakes. The candles read "Baby O" because Lee wanted a O age candle.

Thanks Louise for making the cupcakes!

(L TO R) Kuei-Hsien, Katie, Charles and Jane Keyes, Louise

(L to R) Steve, Allison, Catherine

Jack (Baby Tiger's older cousin) and his dad, Brian

Bob reading his wish for us (part of Baby Tiger's quilt project)

(L to R) Charlie, Steve, Verda

(L to R) Larry, Jayde, Chiaki, Emma

(L to R) Katie, Kuei-Hsien, Shu-Mei, Jiawen

Sammy, the young man who won the "baby" game. Check out all of the baby pins on him! And...Jayde, the pregnant lady.

Lee (the future dad) with Chris, Gwynn, and their daughter Anna

Ardha Baddha Chandrasana - Bound Half Moon Pose

Learning New Things During Pregnancy

So, I'm taking yoga classes with an amazing lady who is an OB/GYN by day and a yoga teacher by night. How does she manage this? Who knows. The staff at the UW Medical Center seems to think that yoga enables this multi-tasking doctor to be a super and a super calm woman. Very impressive and inspiring.

Although I've danced since the age of 4 and have practiced Ashtanga yoga on and off for several years, I am encountering new postures in my current class. It is not a class designed for pregnancy but as my teacher is an OB/GYN, I figure she wouldn't let me do anything dangerous.

Here I am in a bound half moon pose. To be honest, I surprised myself when I got into the posture. Who knew one could wrap one's arm around one leg and bind the two arms together behind one's back and then raise the other leg up into the air?! Crazy!

I was certain I wouldn't be able to keep it up as my tummy got bigger but somehow, I managed today. So, you never know what a pregnant lady can do at 32 weeks and 4 days.

I doubt I can keep this up for long but whatever strength I build will certainly help me on the day of Baby Tiger's arrival. No?!

And...if you are interested in yoga, check out Two Dog Yoga in Lake City. I'm very happy to have been directed to this studio during my pregnancy. The super OB/GYN yoga teacher is there on Mondays and Thursdays.

Scrambling in the Womb

No. This is not Baby Tiger. Obviously.

I wanted to have some kind of image in this posting so I found this online. It sort of captures the feeling I hope to convey.

2 or 3 nights ago when I turned over in my sleep, Baby Tiger did the most amazing scrambling to right himself. Apparently, he was in the perfect position and I disturbed him by moving from my right to my left side. It felt like frantic dog paddling with his little arms against the left side of his uterine home. It made me laugh because he apparently couldn't get any kind of hold or footing so had to scramble for quite a while. If I could act it out for you, you'd laugh too. It was very funny. Really!

Babies before baby

Jayde and I scanned some of our baby photos for a baby shower (thanks Katie and Louise for printing and framing them!) - Here are a few of them...

This is Jayde in her special Japanese outfit from her grandfather, who was fluent in Japanese and taught us both a lot about eating sushi.

Jayde liked to drive around in her pedal car - the first of its kind in the neighborhood. Just to rub it in, Jayde wanted all the other kids to know she was happier than they were, too.

Jayde is very very very happy about her new hat.

This is Jayde and her brother Peter playing around outside the family home/business. That's an oil drum - one of many from the family oil distribution business. This is the kind of place kids love to play.

This is Jayde and her mom. This is what everyone else but the kids wants the outside to look like.

This is Jayde and her grandmother. And believe it or not, Jayde's hair naturally stood up straight like a mohawk. That's just what happens with Chinese baby hair. Maybe it will happen for Baby Tiger, too.

This is still my favorite kind of outfit for formal photographs. Ask me some time and I'll show you my overall shorts/nothing else photos from last year. Smokin.

This is me and my dad. I can't wait to take a photo like this with my son.

In this photo, I appear to be chewing on my mom's shoulder after having a bath. From my mom's calm expression, this must have been taken before I had any teeth.

Wow. This picture tells a thousand words about the times in which I grew up. This is still my favorite car in the whole world. And its a great bumper sticker, too.

This is the closest my sister Allison got to smiling for the photographer - most of the photos from this session feature Allie in increasing states of obvious displeasure, and me with an increasingly forced smile.

Why don't I wear purple pants any more? I'm already planning my next formal portrait - purple overall shorts with the pattern of this shirt. And nothing else. Hott!