I don't know what's so funny

Beware! Hana's got teeth!

Hana loves Kiki the Monkey

Thank you aunt Esther! I love, love Kiki (I called him so) the monkey!

It's been a long time....

Baby Hana is 5 month old....

Good old days....

I'm just sayin'.....


















I love you, Hana.

If you are wondering....

Hana is now 2 months old. Here is a little baby porn....Grrrrr....

She weighs 12 lb. 11 oz. Can you imagine your weight doubles in 2 months? And everyone applause for it?

You get applause when you burp and poop. Good life, baby.


Now she can grab a toy!














My friend Ayako the sports writer who recently interviewed Usain Bolt in Jamaica took this photo. I love it.


















I know, she is cute. C'mon, she is my daughter!

Crying baby is One Month Old

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. Well, indeed, Hana the baby is the cutest in the world! Heheheh.

That doesn't mean I've been all happy. My mom who had helped me a lot by cooking great Japanese meals, teaching me how to organize the rooms and taking care of Hana for a month, went back to Japan today. She has magic hands to let Hana sleep. I already miss her a lot. After taking her to the airport, I came back home. It took forever to let Hana sleep. When I started sobbing, Hana finally fell asleep. Then my husband came home...making big noise. Yeah, it woke her up. Sigh.

And I can't have martini. It sucks.

Thank you uncle Steven!

Hana is wearing a hat (100% Alpaca wool) made by Uncle Steven.

"Me love it!"

Hana the newborn baby

As you may already know, Hana the fetus is now a newborn baby. She was born on January the 23rd at 10:50am at Sibley Memorial Hospital. It was 10 days before the due date (due was February the 2nd), but she waited until her mom had finished covering the inauguration and doing an important interview, and her dad had completed infant car seat installation class. She is such a good girl!

OMG, the labor was sooooooo painful. I can't believe women go without epidural in Japan. I just screamed "GIVE ME EPIDURAL NOW!"

Hana sleeps, sucks my boobs, drinks some formula, pees, cries and sleeps. That's all she does everyday. Good life, baby.

They are cheaper than child day care monthly fee

From Manolo Blahnik spring collection. Aren't they beautiful?

Baby Hana, mommy needs a new pair of shoes for spring....can I return your crib? ....I didn't think so.

Happy New Year!

Ouch, I haven't updated my blog for almost a month...and it's already a new year!

I have been taking a vacation since Christmas Day. I had so many vacation days left for last year and could carry over only 5 days to this year. So I just decided to stop working for a while. I didn't have any plan for the vacation and actually I did absolutely nothing special. It's been so good.

What did I do? Hmmm.... I went to Buybuy Baby with my husband to pick up a crib and put it together. We also bought a car seat for baby Hana. I had a brunch with my co-worker from NYC bureau and her boyfriend. She gave me a Christmas present....a Prada dress! Now I have a clear goal to lose baby weight after the birth. Thanks, Maho!

I finished reading Crónica de una muerte anunciada by Gabriel José García Márquez...in Japanese translation. I have been reading a memoir of a Japanese journalist who passed away a few years ago.

I saw two movies. "Frost/Nixon" and "Milk." Both were good. Maybe I liked Frost/Nixon better. I also saw "Trade" on Netflix instant viewing.

I bought a new vacuum cleaner and vacuumed....once. I should vacuum again tomorrow.

I and my husband went to have a lunch with his brother at his mother's house. His brother, Ph.D candidate, was staying there only a day on the way from Buenos Aires where he had been doing research for his dissertation to Mexico City to meet up with his girlfriend. He and his girlfriend broke up a year ago, but it seems that they are trying to be together again.

I did some shopping at a Japanese grocery store for New Year. I bought a Kagami Mochi and some other stuff.

Kagami mochi (鏡餅, Kagami mochi^?), literally mirror rice cake, is a traditional Japanese New Year decoration. It usually consists of two^[1][2][3][4] round mochi (rice cakes), the smaller placed atop the larger, and a daidai (a Japanese bitter orange) with an attached leaf on top. In addition, it may have a sheet of konbu and a skewer of dried persimmons under the mochi. (from Wikipedia)

I also dropped by a thrift shop and bought a dress ($2!) and a leather jacket ($10). I love thrift shop. I made some Kinton, a traditional Japanese sweet for New Year made from either sweet potatoes or chest nuts.

I, Steven, our friend Eric from Baltimore and Peter went to Nellie's for Happy Hour. Ray, our friend, joined us. There was a college basket ball game was going on, and some sports fans were shouting so loud. It was a little annoying. Plus, while Happy Hour vodka drinks were $2, my tonic water was $3. It's unfair. Next time, maybe I should order vodka tonic without vodka. On the way home, we dropped by Austin Grill to eat. Fun times.

On New Year's Eve, I went to Steven's Champagne tasting party (I spelled Champagne correctly without looking at a dictionary for the first time! Woo Hoo!). Although I couldn't taste any of the bubbles, I had a very good time. Next morning, my next door neighbor Peter invited us and other neighbors to a New Year brunch. Great neighbors, fun times. At night, my mother-in-law came over and we had a dinner together.

Today, I and my husband had a dinner at Mama Lucia, a Italian restaurant near Silver Spring station. Great pizza and pasta. Plus, because the waiter messed up a little bit with our order and the pizza came a little late, he gave us a free tiramisu. Yum.

Tomorrow, I'm planning to bring my car to the emission inspection in the morning and have lunch with Steven. I need to go to buy a birthday present for my husband at some point....

Ahhhhhh....I have to go back to work on Monday! I want to be a housewife of a millionaire. Seriously.

Hana the fetus is growing

She is now 4 lb. 1 oz.
I have stuffy nose, short of breath, bloating and need to go to pee three times at night. She kicks my bloated stomach and bladder. I'm sure she is having fun by annoying me.
Well, she is my baby, after all.

McDonald's Apple Pie

My new food craving....apple pies. I baked some last weekend, but now they are gone. And this afternoon, after the flu shot (my ob doctor recommended it. I had a mercury-free one, just in case), I suddenly wanted to eat McDonald's deep fried apple pies. I ran to the nearest McDonald's and found out that their apple pies were now....baked.

I googled, and it seems that McDonald's has replaced their deep fried apple pies with baked ones since 1992. I also googled in Japanese, and found out that they are still selling deep-fried version in Japan (at least until last year). Hmmm...interesting. Well, baked one wasn't bad. 2 for $1! Of course I ate both.

FYI, according to the StephenKing.com, Checker's sells deep fried apple pies.

Another hair cut in two days

After all, I didn't like the cut I had at a Japanese hair salon in Georgetown. The stylist cut the end of my hair straight and didn't make layers. As a result, it looked very heavy and old-fashioned. The last time I had a hair cut there, the younger stylist did my hair and I really liked it. But this time only the older one was available. And she didn't seem to be giving lots of efforts to make a good cut...she wanted to go home soon or something. She wasn't even there to greet me when I left.


So, I went to a Taiwanese hair salon "Beautiful Life Hair Salon" in Rockville for a quick fix. I could have asked the Japanese salon to fix it, but it was not open today and I couldn't wait. I think my hair looks much much better now. The young Taiwanese stylist, Wei Wei, did a quick and great job. And it cost only a half of the price I paid for the Japanese salon! I'm sooo going back there.

Hair cut

I wanted to perm my hair. I have naturally frizzy rebellious uncontrollable hair, and I'm sure I won't have enough time to style my hair when Hana is here. My previous hair style, which was wavy, was very easy to manage. Basically I didn't have to do anything. So I went to a Japanese hair salon. Unfortunately I was told that since I had Japanese straight perm before, perming may not work. So I just had a hair cut.

I may make it shorter sometime....maybe very-short like Posh. But I didn't have courage to do it today. What do ya think?

Baby Shower! Very belated posting...

First of all, this is THE cake!

Isn't it amazing? Mike is genius. Plus, it was delicious!

Baby shower was on November 15th. I am still working on Thank-you notes...I know I'm bad.

The shower was lots of fun. Thank you, Steven and Mike!


When we cut the cake, everyone screamed "Ahhhhhhhhhh!"















































Gifts opening....













Food was delicous, too...Steven prepared chilled berry soup...yum. Mike made quiche, lazagna and hash brown casserole. Everyone enjoyed Mimosas while I was sipping orange juice. Um, yes, I had just a sip of Mimosa. I'm sure it made Hana the fetus genius.




It was great to see some old friends.....Jeremy and Nida. Nida came down from NYC!

Contrex

It seems that all Japanese pregnant women are drinking this French water "Contrex." It has 11% Calcium and is said to ease constipation. I read recommendations on Japanese magazines and books and one comment actually said it's "must have" for a pregnant woman. I tried to find it like at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's but they don't have it. Maybe this water works only for French and Japanese pregnant women. I checked Contrex website and found out it was available at Wegmans in Virginia. Maybe this water works only for French, Japanese and Virginian pregnant women. Last Friday, I was going to pick up VUBOQ's friend from NYC at Dulles Airport (I had no idea why he picked Dulles to fly in to DC...he said just because the ticket came up first on the discount ticket website) so I decided to drop by one of the Wegmans near the airport. Of course I got lost (I don't go to Virginia, you know) and it took an hour and half to find the store. I bought 6 bottles of Contrex. Yay.


I can see this gorgeous golden tree from my sofa...the photo does not catch the whole beauty of the tree....

Hana the fetus with ADD

Yes, I had too much beer.
Hana the fetus is kicking me around from inside and turning around. I'm afraid she has ADD.

The other day in the metro, a young woman was sitting at the window side and had her messenger bag (with "Obama 08" badge") on the seat next to her. All other seats were occupied. I was standing in front of her. She glanced at my big belly and my face, and kept reading. Of course I could ask her to move her messenger bag, but..... I mean, even if I don't see anyone pregnant or elderly, when the train is crowded, I do move my bag on my lap. This is not the change we need, Obama girl!

I will be traveling to Reno, NV next week for a report on battleground states. Hana the fetus has already traveled to Denver and St. Paul. She is a jet-setter.

It's not from B-rated horror movie

It's my baby in 3D sonogram!

....and this is something I hate about pregnancy.

Weekend in Pembroke Retreat in Virginia

Since I canceled my trip to Argentina in August due to the first trimester worries, I decided to take a mini-vacation. I had been interested in this place, Pembroke Retreat, which has Japanese style hot tub (ofuro). A couple runs the B&B, the wife is a Japanese and husband is an American. It was great. You can choose Japanese or American breakfast. I ordered Japanese one, which included rice, grilled fish, vegetables, raw eggs (they are from the owner's chicken pen, so fresh you can eat raw. We eat them mixed in rice with a little soy sauce in Japan) and miso soup. My husband ordered American breakfast, which includes homemade banana bread, waffles, whole wheat bread, honey (the owner has just started bee-keeping as well) , berry jelly made from berries the wife picked in the nearby mountain and fresh fruits including figs the wife just picked from a tree near B&B.

We just relaxed, relaxed....read, took bath, went for a walk....it was great.

I couldn't sleep well at the first night....because it was too quiet! I needed those noises of bus, people yelling, fire siren....