Amyblog var sc_project=1172607; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_partition=10; var sc_security="e8e56473"; Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Back to main weblog Archive 2010 January 2009 December November October September August July June May April March February January 2008 December November October September August July June May April March February January 2007 December November October September August July June May April March February January 2006 December November October September August July June May April March February January 2005 December November Amy's Brain is 47% Female, 53% Male Amy's brain is a healthy mix of male and female You are both sensitive and savvy. Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed. But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve. What Gender Is Your Brain? Feel free to email me your comments, suggestions, and/or random thoughts. February 2010 Comments (1) I love the Olympics. I usually watch gymnastics, swimming, and diving during the Summer Games and figure skating, downhills, and speed skating during the Winter Games. I also like to just leave the TV on the games and just watch whatever competition happens to be on during the two weeks of the games. But my favorite part of the Olympics is the opening and closing ceremonies. This year's opening ceremony at Vancouver was no exception. I really like the opening ceremony Vancouver did. Though it was not as grand as China's (but will there be anything grander?) they didn't try to be as grand, it was very clever. I love the clever way they represented various natural wonders using simple cloth and projector! My favorite was the portrayal of the aurora and the snowy peaks. I remember years ago, I had a friendly argument with my grad school friend about how many people in Los Angeles knows what the aurora is. My believe was that since LA is too low in latitude to ever see the aurora, very few people actually knows what it is. He thought I was crazy. He was from Seattle and didn't believe that there are people who don't know what the aurora is. So my officemate Brian suggested that we do an inpromptu survey, by standing in the middle of UCLA and asking random people if they knew what the aurora or northern lights are. Sure enough, after an hour of questioning students and non-students, only one man knew what it was and he was not from LA. Funny enough, there is a cafe on campus called Northern Lights so students would tell us that northern lights is a cafe but they have no idea that it was named after the aurora! If you missed the Vancouver opening ceremony, here are two of my favorite scenes. Oh, the 3D whales were pretty cool too! ........................................................................................................................................................ Happy Chinese New Year!! This is the year of the Tiger. This Chinese New Year happens to coincide with Valentine's Day, so Happy V-day to everyone too. This is Baby Sean's first Chinese New Year so I'm very excited. Thankfully, he's 6 weeks old so I feel comfortable enough to bring him out and enjoy a family meal with my parents. Chinese New Year to my mother is like Christmas to my In-Laws. It is the one time per year that my mother have to have the entire family together for a big celebration dinner. Since Baby Sean is half Chinese, I want to expose him to the Chinese culture. His middle name is Chinese, I named him after an ancient Chinese philosopher. I will also speak Mandarine to him so that he will at least be able to understand Chinese. I know it will be difficult but I would also like to teach baby how to read and write Chinese. I found this website that carries Chinese children books. They carry tons of books ranging from basic nursery to advanced novels. I haven't ordered anything from them yet so I don't know how good the retailer is. But I think I'll order a few baby books to start. The picture shown here is a mythology from one of the Chinese fairy tale books. I leave you with a couple of pictures of Sean taming a tiger...ok it's our Golden Retriever Toby, but he's almost like a tiger. :-) ........................................................................................................................................................ Baby Sean loves to move his arms. Even when he was in my womb I could constantly feel him stretching his arms and wiggling around. When baby wakes up, he likes to raise both arms and stretch like a big boy. Baby is such a funny little guy! ........................................................................................................................................................ I had my first cup of coffee in over a year! It was devine...I was picking up a quick lunch at McDonalds and decided to try their iced mocha. It was so yummy, topped with whipped cream and chocolate drizzle. I quit caffeine late 2008 to prepare for pregnancy. I kept myself off of caffeine until now. Since I'm nursing I was a little worried about how the caffeine will affect baby. But baby doesn't seem to be bothered by my cup of coffee. His sleep pattern appears to be normal for him. Over Christmas, I received several Starbucks giftcards. I think people know how much I've been looking forward to my first cup of coffee after delivery. Even though my first cup of coffee was not from Starbucks, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. All Summer long last year, McDonalds have been advertising their iced coffees, tempting me with beautiful pictures as I drive by. I finally got to try one and I must say, it's not bad. I still prefer Starbucks coffee but for half the price, it's not bad. McDonald's coffee is definitely not as strong as Starbucks. So it's a good way to ease myself back to drinking coffee. With the lack of sleep these days, mild coffee didn't do much for me. I was falling asleep on the couch an hour after having the McDonalds coffee. Can't wait to get my first cup of Starbucks coffee soon... ........................................................................................................................................................ Fashion tip number two: get a real brooch! Since having baby, I've felt like a full fledge mom...especially with the constant lack of sleep. However, I think today, I realize that I look like one too. I found myself wearing baby's pacifier. Hopefully I won't forget to take it off when I go out. But maybe if I do accidently wear it out, it would catch on as a new fashion statement...Not! Besides my new fashion statement, I've also gotten a haircut...finally. My 1st haircut since November 2008! I cut off about 5 inches of my hair! This picture shows my pre-cut hair. Baby likes to sleep with his head on my shoulder and the long hair was just getting too much in the way. Other than the hair, I am also carrying a bigger bag these days, to hold a diaper pouch. But I'm not using a diaper bag, it's just a larger purse that I was using for work. Since I'm still nursing, we don't have to worry about carrying baby bottles yet. I guess the bag does qualify as mommy bag. But don't worry, no matter how bad things get, I will never wear mom jeans. ........................................................................................................................................................ First fashion tip of 2010: One can only wear a blue cardigan with waist-high red pants and white tube sock if one is over 80 or under 2, or live in a Florida Leisure World home. So I guess Baby Sean didn't break any fashion rules here. Since coming home from the hospital, baby has only been out for a car ride twice in his first month of life. He's been in this outfit for both of his outings. I bought him the blue cardigan before baby was born. The red pants were a recent gift from our friends in NY. On his second outing, I took baby with me to the hospital for my postpartum checkup. It was my very first time driving with baby by myself. It was a very smooth trip, baby fell asleep in his car seat as we got half a block down the street. He then slept through the entire trip until we got home, just in time for his next feeding. I don't mean to brag about my own baby but what happened at the doctor's office was so cute I have to share it with you. Eventhough baby slept through my doctor's appointment, he still managed to make an impact. The attending nurse took one look at him sleeping in his car seat and fell head over heels for him. She couldn't get over his little outfit. She told me that he didn't look like a newborn, more like a little big baby. She even brought over another doctor to look at him because she thought he was just adorable. The two of them gush at him for 5 minutes, all the while baby was snoozing away. As I left the office, the nurse told me to bring him back on my next appointment two weeks later. I went home beaming with pride. :-) F