Ginny is Famous!

Word has gotten out about Ginny-and she is getting the props and rewards that she deserves! Check out this exclusive news story:

(once it loads, click on the play button)

2 Months Old!

Ginny is 2 months old today. To celebrate (and in keeping with the season), she got her very first Christmas tree. She even put up the very first ornament! This weekend, she met Dr. Peter and Shirley and our neighbors, Lolly and Gary. She also went to Horton Plaza with Mommy and Aunt Sarah, and went to her first December Nights and her second museum (San Diego Museum of Art) with Mommy, Daddy, Aunt Sarah and Aunt Emilee!

Miss Virginia

It has been two weeks since I've last posted, and what an exciting two weeks it has been! Ginny had more visitors (Jon and Sheona), went to the Wild Animal Park again (this time, she got to see the elephants), went to Sea World for the first time, went to Dad's work and met the people there (except Ana), went to Mom's work and met the people there and went out to lunch with them, mastered rolling over, had two Thanksgivings, met Jeff and his brother Sean, went to the mall for the first time with us, went to the first restaurant with just the 3 of us, and she and I also went to the outlet mall by ourselves (very exciting/scary-I had no backup if she got fussy in a store).

Ginny is now a pro at rolling over-last Tuesday (as in two days before Thanksgiving), she rolled over NINE times by herself. We even managed to catch a couple on video (although the computer is not seeing my video camera, so I can't upload the video yet). Since then, she has been off and rolling (when she feels like it). Now that she has a taste of rolling over, when she is done with her tummy time and wants to roll over, she can! (Except sometimes she can't get her arm in the correct position, which gets her frustrated and starts to cry-then she gets an assisted roll over).

We started playing a new game (to further strengthen her neck muscles), where I pull her into a sitting position on my ankle (i.e., she uses my ankle as a seat)-she loves it! She loves being able to look around the room from her sitting position. Yesterday, while her hands were holding onto my thumbs as I pulled her into the sitting position, she continued to pull herself up into a standing position! It was so cool!

I think we also found a daycare provider for Ginny. We met her yesterday and like her and the environment. So, unless we win the lottery in the very near future, it looks like this person will be taking care of Ginny come January :(

That's how V rolls!

Last weekend, we started working with Ginny on rolling over (from her belly to her back). She has been trying to do it on her own, but needs some help stretching her arm straight to roll over (otherwise, her arm is in the way). She kicks/pushes up by herself, so we started helping her hold her arm straight so she could make it the rest of the way. She rolled over two or three times (with our assistance over the weekend). On Monday, after Darwin came home from work, we were working on it again, to no avail. Darwin and I were watching Dancing with the Stars and looked down and she was half-way there on her own! (Neither of us were touching her). We got really excited and then she finished the roll with no assistance!!!

Of course, the video camera was upstairs, so Darwin ran up to grab it and filmed her for another half an hour, but, alas, Ginny is apparently camera shy. She has yet to repeat the performance, but the video camera is now nearby, and we are bound to catch her in action sooner or later.

More new things to see!

Ginny had an exciting fifth week of life. We went on a walk with the doggies one morning, but it was really cold outside, so her Mom had to bundle her up (check out the pic in the slideshow below...looks like we live in the midwest!) Her cousin Elliott (and Jessica and Gail) came by for lunch on Tuesday and Elliott decided he likes his cousin Ginny and showed her with loving kisses. One day during the week, Ginny even giggled in her sleep. TOO CUTE!!!!!

Then, Ginny hung out with Lola, Lolo, cousin Elliott and Unkie Dex on Saturday with a trip to Balboa Park and the Zoo! She ended the weekend with a trip to Grannie and Pappy's house (and Mickey and Mulan got to come too to visit their doggy cousins). There, she started working on rolling over and even rolled over once on her own! (Okay, her Dad was holding her hand so her arm would be straight, but all of the momentum and rolling over came from Ginny).

The week was capped off with some excitement-her first earthquake. We had a 4.1 earthquake in North County last night. I leaped out of bed and grabbed Ginny and headed for the door jam. Although it was a fairly sizable jolt, it was probably over before I even grabbed Ginny, but that wouldn't have stopped me anyway (you never know if they are going to keep going). Besides, Darwin and the doggies were right behind me. Interestingly, our house guest (auntie Emie) didn't even get out of bed and declared it a "little one" when we asked if she was okay. Ginny probably would have slept through it; I think I probably woke her up when I gingerly (but quickly) grabbed her. Darwin even accused me of having earthquake drills when I'm home alone with Ginny. I deny all such accusations.

One Month Old!!!

Ginny turned one month old on Saturday. This past month has flown by! Ginny had her one month check up this morning and weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces and was 22 inches long, so our girl is growing nicely. She also got a shot today (which is the band-aid on her leg in the last picture). Other recent items of note (since the last post): Ginny celebrated her first Halloween when her Lola and Lolo came over, she went with me to her first trip to Costco (Dad had to work that Saturday), our old neighbor Kathryn and her parents came down from Northern California to meet Ginny, she developed newborn acne (which should go away on its own in the next few weeks), she participated in the political process by joining me in voting last Tuesday, and she and I went on our first trip to the grocery store! Oh, and how could I forget? She drank her first bottle this week! I have been pumping a bottle for her every other day or so, and, fortunately, she eats from the bottle easily-her Dad has been able to feed her two of her meals now (yea! That gives me a little break).

To celebrate her one month birthday, we went on our first major outing-to the Wild Animal Park! There, Ginny got to cruise around in her new stroller for the first time. She also went to her first fast food restaurant (Wendy's) and first sit-down restaurant (Old Spaghetti Factory) where she slept peacefully so her Mom and Dad could enjoy eating a meal out (my first in weeks!).

We are also now working on trying to sleep through the night-on Saturday night, she didn't eat all night (although she woke up a few times babbling and needed the pacifier once). It's been such an exciting month-we can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Here are some pics from the last week and a half.

3 Week Update

Ginny turned 3 weeks old today. She attended her first (Halloween) party, had her first non-sponge bath, went on her first road trip to her Granny and Pappy's house, etc., etc.! She is normally sleeping at least one 5 hour block during the night, which helps me out a lot. She's not napping as much during the day, though.

Her little personality shines through more and more every day, and we feel so blessed to have this bundle of joy in our lives!

Birth Story

Our birth story starts back on Saturday, October4, 2008. Our doctor had been sending me to do non-stress tests twice a week since I was past my due date. Until then, all of the tests had gone well, but that day, the nurse had to measure our amniotic fluid level twice because it was so low. Fortunately, it was only in the "borderline" level, so they did not have to admit me to the hospital, but the level had fallen by almost half in only 3 days. Two days later, on Monday, October 6, we went to the doctor and th level had dropped even more and there was only 1 pocket of amniotic fluid left. The doctor insisted she induce us the next day. We were afraid that would happen and had discussed it prior to seeing the doctor, and requested she try induction by breaking my water instead of the routine administration of Pitocin. She agreed. As upset as I was that I had to be induced (and frustrated with my body for not going into labor on its own), we took solace in the fact that induction was necessary for the health and safety of our baby.

The next day, after checking in and getting settled at the hospital (no, I did not go into labor on my own), my water was broken at 2:45 p.m. Contractions started pretty shortly thereafter and by about 4-5 p.m.ish, I was having some pretty serious contractions about 4-5 minutes apart and lasting about a minute each. The nurse checked me around 5 and said I was 3 cm. dilated, which was great news to us because we were afraid that I wouldn't dilate once induced (which is what happened to my mom, who, as a result, had to have a c-section). My contractions got very intense after that and were 2-3 minutes apart and lasting well over a minute. When they put me on the fetal monitor, the intensity of my contractions were peaking off the scale, which just reinforced the pain I was feeling. My body also went back and forth between violent shaking chills and hot sweats in the matter of a split second. By the time Darwin would put a blanket on me for the chills, I was sweating again and telling him "hot!" (No full sentences at that point).

The most comfortable position for me was actually sitting on the toilet-the only problem was that the time in between the contractions was pretty uncomfortable/borderline painful, so I didn't feel like I was resting in between the contractions. To rest, I would lie on the bed for a little bit, but the lying on my side made the contractions more intense. The contractions felt like they were coming right on top of each other and I could barely get one word answers out to Darwin-I seriously thought I was in transition, but the nurses didn't want to check me for dilation too often since my water was already broken (due to the risk of infection). At around 7:30-I told Darwin I couldn't do it anymore and I needed some drugs to deal with the pain. Darwin's training kicked in and he implemented the 30 minute rule-we used the bathroom, and changed positions. Thirty minutes later, I felt the same, and although he tried to talk me out of it, I insisted that we discuss pain medication options.

The nurse checked me for dilation and I was only 4 cm! At that point, I did not think I could handle 6 more cm. of that type of intensity (had I actually been in transition, I would have waited it out), so I (rather, Darwin, since I couldn't spit out coherent sentences), asked the nurse for our pain medication options. She gave us two options-a narcotic through an IV drip which was supposed to lessen the intensity of the contractions and reduce the pain in between the contractions so I could rest. The other was an epidural. We elected to try the IV drip. She hooked up the IV and administered the medication. She said I should start feeling relief in 10-15 minutes. A half an hour later, my contractions were still as intense as before (and still felt like they were right on top of each other), so I again asked the nurse for my options. She said that if it hadn't given me relief yet, another dose wouldn' t be any different, so my only other option wad the epidural. As much as I was trying to avoid the epidural, I was not handling the pain. So, I asked for the epidural (Darwin tried to talk me out of it, but there was no stopping me at that point). Ironically, because I refused an IV when I was first admitted to the hospital, I had to wait for an entire bag of IV to be dripped into my veins before the anesthesiologist could administer the epidural, so I had to wait even longer! I finally received the epidural around 10 p.m. and had been in active labor for about six hours at that point.

The epidural took effect within 10 minutes, and although I could still feel the pressure of the contractions, I could not feel the pain. This allowed me (and Darwin) to rest for a while. At around 12:30 a.m., I was fully dilated and the baby had dropped. The nurse told us we were ready to push. Darwin looked at me and said, "this is it; let's bring our baby into the world."

For some reason, at that point, I could not feel the pressure of the contractions, so we had to rely on the fetal monitor for pushing. We pushed for about an hour, and then the nurse called the doctor. I was making progress, but not as much as they had hoped; so the doctor asked the anesthesiologist to come back to lower the epidural dosage. After he did so, the pushing went so fast! Before we knew it, the doctor was being called again, but this time, to come in to deliver the baby! Darwin was able to help the doctor catch the baby. I'll never forget when the doctor held her up and announced that it was a girl (We did not know what we were having) and when she was placed in my arms for the first time and we made eye contact.

Virginia was born pretty clean and was a nice pink crying baby. Despite the drugs, she got an APGAR score of 8 at 1 minute and 9 at 5 minutes. She was born at 2:44 a.m. on October 8, 2008. She weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. In total, we pushed for about 2 hours and the entire labor (from when they broke my water until Virginia was born) was exactly 12 hours.

Amazingly, I, who cries at everything, did not cry at the second major event in my life (I also did not cry at our wedding). For those of you who are curious, Darwin did not cry either (although I would have bet money that he would).

2 Week Update

Ginny turned 2 weeks old yesterday. Her second week of life included more visitors, Daddy going back to work (and hence leaving me and Ginny on our own during the day) and a 2 week checkup with the doctor. Ginny and I are adapting pretty well to our daytime alone-although on the first day, we had changed outfits 3 times before lunch (out of necessity, not because I was being obsessive about her outfits).

Ginny has also been eating well-at her checkup yesterday, she weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces! She has gained back her birth weight and put on an additional 9 ounces! The doctor once again declared her to be perfect...we couldn't agree more. Here are some pics from the last week.
Ginny's first dress-her daddy bought this for her.



































Unkie Dex, Auntie Jess and Cousin Elliott came to meet Ginny!











Uncle Phil and Aunt Bonnie came too (but at her request, we have intentionally omitted any photos of Aunt Bonnie).










Ginny got decked out in her first Halloween outfit.


















We love pink!












Tummy time!












She loves her fists.

So You Want to Learn How to Swaddle a Baby.

Whenever Ginny gets fussy part of our relaxation routine is to try swaddling her and using our 5 "S'es". For your reference Mickey, Mulan and I have posted below our own pictorial for those looking to swaddle a baby, dog.

Remember the 5 "S'es": Dodge, Dive, Dip, Duck, Dodge. Oops, wrong instructional blog, here are the right ones: Swaddle, place the baby on her Side, Shake (but gently), Shush, and Suckle.

War and Poop

Every half an hour (okay maybe not that often) the eternal battle for the supremacy of a poop free diaper rages between Ginny and me. Here is a photo documentary of one of our epic struggles......

More Ginny Pix!

Here are a few more snap shots of Virginia.

Muchos Kudos to the Winners of Our Baby Gender & More Pool!

A week ago today numerous questions were answered about Virginia. We posed a number of these questions to our friends and family by way of a gender guessing game. You might recall that we asked you to guess the birth weight of the baby, the time and date of the birth, and whether our baby was a boy or a girl. Here are our winners (best guessers) and some honorable mentions!

Virginia's actual weight was 7 pounds 5 ounces:
7 lbs 5 oz by Gayle M. Gayle is our winner in this category!!!

7 lbs 4 oz by (tie) Heidi H., Melissa C. and Phil H.
7 lbs 6 oz by (tie) Lauren W. and Sharon G.

Virginia was born on October 8th, we had another spot on winner here:
Oct. 8 - by Lolly J. She wasn't fooled by our estimated due dates.

Oct. 6 - by Sharon G.
Oct. 4 - by (tie) Lindsay B. and Mike T.

Virginia was born at 2:44 a.m., the closest guesses were:
3 a.m. by Gayle M.
2 a.m. by Olivia G.
3:41 a.m. by Melissa C.
1:43 a.m. by Adrienne C.

Gender (50/50 shot here):
And, as you were told before or as you ascertained from this blog Virginia is our beautiful girl and many of you were able to use empirical prescience to predict that fact. So more kudos, which is basically our "thank you for participating" kudos, go out to: Unkie Dex, Pappy Ken, Granni Laura, Sharon G. Sheona B., Mike & Brandi M., Andria A., Carol P., Shirley U., Vangie T., Alan C., Auntie Jess, Ana N., Heidi H., Lolly J., Dani T., Grammie Joyce, Bonnie H., Lauren W., and Christy M.

To everyone else who provided guesses but didn't get any kudos, better luck next time! And no we don't have a time table for when we'll host this game again. ;)

Virginia's First Week!

As promised here are more pictures of Ginny! Virginia's first week has gone very well. She has had two doctor's appointments where she was declared by the doc to be "perfect" (we knew that already but its good to get another doctor's opinion). She dropped a few ounces after the birth but has quickly began to get it back. Her mommy is doing great and so am I. We'll be sure to post more pictures soon.

Virginia Rylee!!!

Here are a few pictures of our new baby girl Virginia. Ginny was born on October 8, 2008, at 2:44 in the morning. She weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces, and measured 20.5 inches at birth.
We'll post more pix soon!

Still Pregnant...

OP still has not made his/her debut. Funny story, though...turns out our due date was last week. When we went to the doctor last week, she said we were past our due date, and we said no, we're not. Apparently, when they changed the due date after the first trimester ultrasounds, they wrote down the due date as the 24th, but told us the 28th! In either case, both due dates have come and gone with no OP, but the doctor was wrong on all sides.

Anyway, OP should (hopefully) be born sometime this week. Stay tuned...

Still Waiting...

OP has not made it's debut yet, but we're still waiting (and the due date is still 5 days away, so OP could show up any time in the next 2 1/2 weeks). We've (okay, I've) been having some contractions, but nothing consistent. I wish I could tell you that the baby has dropped, but I really cannot tell-some days I think yes and some days I think no (and I've received many opinions both ways as well, so at least it's not me!).

On the bright side, we finally got the glider and some finishing touches for the nursery this past weekend, so we're ready for OP now.

Stay tuned...

Belly Pics

We're getting down to it now...2 weeks away from the estimated due date, so we are officially in the 4 week birthing window (2 weeks before and 2 weeks after the due date). I thought I would share some pictures of my growing belly-it looks and feels the same to me, but everyone has told me it has really grown in the last month and a half. You be the judge.

OK, you actually can't see my belly in this one...


















I'm at the zoo with Darwin, Jessica (taking the pic), Dex and Elliott. This is about a week or two after the July shower.










This is about two weeks later, on August 23, at a family party (for Joshua & Zoey's birthdays). I am, of course, hogging the rocking chair...hehehe...









This is the following weekend (August 30) at a bridal shower for my friend Lindsay.

















This is the following day at California Adventure-outside the Monster's Inc. ride.











And here I am on Main Street, U.S.A.! (Same day).


















This is me last weekend at the September baby shower (which will get its own post shortly).

How Rude!

Last weekend, Darwin, Emilee and I went to Knott's Soak City, San Diego (okay, it's really in Chula Vista, but if Knott's admitted it, no one would go) so I could lounge in the lazy river for the afternoon. (Sorry, no pictures-didn't want to ruin the camera with the water, but take my word for it-I looked very cute in my maternity swimsuit). Towards the end of the day, I was lazy rivered out, but forced Darwin and Emilee to go on one more water slide before we called it a day.

The water slide emptied into a pool and there were a few rows of lounge chairs in front of that pool, so I figured I would find an empty chair and hang until they made it through the line and splashed down into the pool. After quickly persuing a store, I made my way to the rows of lounge chairs. Although the park had been packed that day, I saw approximately 4 or 5 empty lounge chairs open in the second row. I started to make my way over the the chairs. Another guy, coming to my left, saw this 8-month pregnant lady trying to get to a chair-and he sped up to take a bunch of the chairs! Seriously-I only need one chair, but he made a beeline and took all of them but one (maybe he needed that one, I don't know-I sat down on it anyway).

Now, these are the plastic white lounge chairs that sit very low to the ground, so needless to say, it takes me a minute to get down that far and into the chair. As I am watching all sorts of people come down the water slide and into the pool (none of them Darwin or Emilee at this point), the people to my right get up to leave (not the rude guy), so there are now approximately 4 empty chairs to my right between me and a fully-clothed mom. After a few minutes, a couple of teenagers come over and ask the woman if the seats were taken. She told them they were open, so they proceed to claim the chairs between us. Apparently, they wanted one more lounge chair as they dragged one over from the next row and tried to shove it in between me and the chair next to me. Not being able to get the chair to fit, the girl turns to me and has the nerve to ask me to get up and move my chair over so they can fit the other lounge chair in between the two!

Now, remember how hard it was for me to get into the chair to begin with? Well, I glared at the girl through my sunglasses, did not say a word, but proceeded to gingerly get out of my chair and stand to the side while they slid the other chair in between the two. Now, there was no room on either side of my chair for me to get back onto it-my only choice? I had to climb onto the chair from the foot end (and in case you have never done this before, if you put all of the weight on the foot of the chair, it flips up). So, I had to quickly climb over the foot end of the chair to get to the center before the chair flipped. Needless to say, this was not only awkward but very painful.

To top it all off, no one even sat in the chair they put next to me! I was out of breath and had a sore belly for nothing. Some people have no respect for the pregnant ladies!

News Flash! Elliott Endorses McCain

Some wonderful people got my bro a very meaningful birthday card signed by none other than John McCain! Wouldn't you know it? Elliott loved the card and happily waived it around. Shout out to Jon for catching this special moment on camera.

Baby Shower Fun!

Lolo and Lola hosted a baby-shower for OP. They made sure to get a lot of Mexican, Filipino and Chinese food for Baby OP to eat. Lola and Auntie Jess put on some great games. One of them had everyone guessing what baby related item she put in a small little gift bag that began with the letter "Y". Pappy-Ken had a very good guess- "Yak (stuffed)". Unfortunately his guess was wrong, the right answer was Yogurt Bite snacks.

Here's Alan and Melissa eating some Mexican food and Filipino food- a classic culinary combination that I'm sure baby OP will love!

I teamed up with Jeff in the baby food eating competition. We didn't win even though we probably had the least gross baby food- peaches and bananas. That's ok cuz, Unkie Kuya and Lolo didn't win either.

Missi and I loved all the presents we received. We can't wait till we are able to use them all. Well... I guess using the diapers we got isn't really an activity I'll love but I guess its better than not having them.

As you could probably guess before hand- the theme of the shower was Disney. Lola went all out by getting us some great Disney themed everything! Check out the cakes!

Thank you to everyone who came!

Mickey Got a Boo-Boo!

Mickey somehow got his little pinky-toe-nail broke in half. I swear I didn't do it! Mom and Dad made a fancy sock bandage for him. He 's so spoiled!Not to worry they took him to the vet (the same one who helped me get my nosey fixed) and they got a nice blue bandage for him (cuz he's a boy).
Now Mickey's all better, and Mom and Dad can pay attention to me again!

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom (and other tidbits!)

So, we've been absolutely terrible bloggers. We've been meaning to put up some new posts for weeks now, but had been putting it off because we wanted to put up some pics with our posts. I have given up (for now) and will just give you the text update.



If you haven't guessed from the title, we traded in the life of the convertible (i.e. the Camaro) and are now the proud owners of a Mazda CX-9. It's a real beauty if I do say so myself. It drives fabulous, has all sorts of cool gadgets, and is overall, pretty darn cool. Since I don't have any pictures, I will tell you that it is black with a tan interior (with black highlights). For those of you not familiar with the CX-9, it is a 7 passenger cross-over SUV. The back row (and the 2nd for that matter) fold flat for additional cargo room. This came in very handy when we had to pick up the baby furniture.



Speaking of which, we bought and picked up the furniture for OP's room last weekend. Our cross-over isn't as big as we thought it would be, so it took 3 trips (crib, dresser & combo dresser) to pick up all of the pieces, but we made it fit. I am really happy with our furniture-looks really good in the room and its pretty modern looking for baby furniture (did you expect anything less from us?) If you want to see what it looks like, you can look at our Babies R Us Registry (it's at the bottom of the list under purchased items). I'll try to put some pictures up of it eventually.



As for other hodgepodge, Mulan's nose is doing much better. The top is almost completely grown back in, although the inside of her nostrils is still pink. To try to follow doctor's orders and keep her out of the sun, we bought a canopied gazebo earlier this month, which provides shade to about half of our patio (now, the only problem is to make sure she stays in the shade between 10 and 3 every day). She also has access inside the house while we are gone, but who knows where she really spends her time during the day. The belly (mine, that is) keeps growing, and we're less than 10 weeks away from our due date! Yikes! So much to do, so little time. We still haven't even picked out a first name yet (for either sex) let alone a last name, birth plan, etc.! We start childbirth classes in 2 weeks and are now going to the doctor every 2 weeks. Speaking of which, I better go or I'll be late for my doctor's appointment!

Random Family Photo Fun!

Here's Ken making sure the sign is pointed in the right direction.


Mickey and Mulan got a new doggy-bed. Its been almost two weeks since we got it and it hasn't been eaten yet! Alright!


In this pic Mickey's wondering what his pal Pluto is looking at.


Mulan fought hard to keep control of her Mickey voodoo doll.

Con-grad-ulations Emie!!

Another title for this post could be: "Emie: College Grad, Lotto Participant"

Emie failed to execute my five year plan that I created for myself- which was to win the lotto during school and never have to work. She's executing a different plan for herself, soon enough she's going to be returning to work as an auditor! What-what! She's been known to storm into a client's office and shout "You best get yo finansheezats in order!"

Anyhoo, here are some photos of her and the fam at the graduation. You'll notice that none of them were taken from the general seating area. That's cuz it was crazy hot and we gave up our seats. Though, I'm happy to report that the announcers pronounced her name right and that no one blew an air horn over the reading of her name. Yay!



Congrats to Emie!

Mickey-en-salada!

One of our loyal readers John just sent us a great hidden Mickey picture. Here's a description of how he found it:

"John found a Mickey to add to your collection. We were eating salad at my grandma's house, when John got a big smile on his face, pointed to the bowl and said "Mickey Mouse!" We weren't quite sure what he was talking about at first, but lo and behold, it was Mickey! Luckily I had my camera on hand to take a picture for you :) Enjoy!!"

My Poor Nose

For those of you who haven't heard, I've been having problems with my nose. In late April, the skin inside the nostrils started turning pink and the top of my nose started peeling off. Don't worry-it doesn't hurt me at all, but my Mom and Dad were really worried about me, so they took me to the vet. The vet tried to put me on medication called anti-bi"ark"tics to make it better, but it didn't work. So, one day, Mom took me back to the vet and they cut me! Don't get me wrong-they took really good care of me at the vet, but I was pretty mad at Mom when she came back to pick me up.
Anyhoo, the vet took little bits of my nose to test the skin to figure out what was wrong. It turns out that I have discoid lupus. It sounds scary, but they tell me I'm going to be all better soon. I have to take a bunch of pills 2-3 times every day (fortunately, I love to eat anything that remotely resembles food), have some gel medication put on my nose (which I hate), wear sunscreen on my nose (which I also hate), and try to stay out of the sun! Bummer! I love to sun bathe on the back patio during the day. The doctor said my nose should start turning back to its normal black, and the skin on the top should grow back. Then, I will only have to take a few pills every day.

In the meantime, Mom, Dad and Mickey are taking really good care of me. They even opened up our doggie corral so that I can go upstairs during the day when Mom and Dad are at work. So far, I've been good with the change; I don't want to lose my upstairs privileges. :)~

Hopefully, the next time you see me, I will have a beautiful black nose again!

More Birthdays!!!

Hey all!

It's your favorite black doggy that weighs more than 55 pounds that doesn't have a white tuft of hair at the end of her tail (i.e. (that's right I use "i.e.") not Boo or Rogue)- Me! Mulan!!!.

So, mommy and daddy showed me some pix from Auntie Sarah and 'cuzzin to Auntie Sarah' Julianne's birthday party. Auntie Gary hosted the party at her house. She's the one who is dutifully grooming Amber in the photo below. So loving! I groom Mickey like that sometimes.
Here's Julianne about to blow out her candles.
Auntie Sarah blew out her candles quick, and got to opening presents. She gets crazy for presents like I do!
The present opening fever was contagious! Even Noah and Auntie Em got a little crazy!
Here' my daddy-pie. I think he was using the helmet to explain what "OP" stands for. My dad's more than meets the eye, he tells me that himself.
Here's mommy-pie... I think seeing dad wear the Optimus Prime helmet makes her a little skeptical.
Anyhoo, after they came home they treated Mickey and me to a nice spatula licking session. That's right, I'm using this post to call my parents out, they use US to clean their dishes!!! Everyone wins, with our green way of living.
Happy Birthday Auntie Sarah!

Questions for a Pregnant Lady

As I become more noticeably pregnant, I have noticed that I have been bombarded with a swarm of questions about me and my baby. Some of the more common questions I am asked:

How are you feeling? Are you still sick?

I am actually feeling pretty well right now. I haven't had morning (ahem, all day) sickness since March, although I am starting to get the back pains, leg cramps, etc., but I've started prenatal yoga classes to help with the pain.

How far along are you?

23 weeks, or for you lay people, 5 full months, in the beginning on my 6th month.

Wow! You're hardly showing! (okay, I know that's not a question)

Gee, thanks. I am actually very proud of my little belly. Even though I'm "hardly showing", I can't seem to fit into any regular clothes, so I'm stuck in the maternity clothes that are made for women who are 9 months pregnant, some of which fit me as well as a burlap sack, which is probably why you think I'm hardly showing. Give me time.

When are you due again?

September 28.

Where is the baby going to be born?

Palomar Hospital in Escondido.

Are you going to take time off of work after the baby is born?

Of course!

Are you going back to work after the baby is born?

Yes (after my scheduled maternity leave) and so is Darwin.

Have you felt the baby kick yet?

Yes, and it's a wonderful thing! I love feeling my baby kick-I could just sit all day long and feel it kick. We have a routine developed, so there are certain times of day when I know its awake and eagerly await to feel the kicks.

What do the kicks feel like?

Quite honestly, they feel like little bubbles popping in my belly. Not painful at all. It's very reassuring to feel it because then I know the baby is alright.

And, the most frequently asked question:

Do you know what you're having?

Why, yes, yes we do! We weren't sure about finding out at first, but we just decided to find out this week. We went to the doctor yesterday and she confirmed it with an ultrasound-it's a baby! Whew! We are so excited! A baby Bustarde! (Thank God it's not an elephant!) I'm so glad we decided to find out!

English Muffin Mickey!!

At first I was surprised at seeing my likeness in Mom and Dad's english muffin this morning.








Of course, Mom and Mulan were equally impressed.


Actually, I think Mulan just wanted to eat it. Look at her, trying to resist snatching it out of Dad's hand.


I got very excited when Mom and Dad started talking about a new blog about Mickey sightings around the world. Wow! I guess that means I get to travel around the world! As if Dad doesn't take enough pictures of me already!

Then, Dad tried to pass this off as a "natural" Mickey sighting. I guess he's going crazy with all of the watermelon he has had to cut up for Mom lately.









Me and the English Muffin will go down in history. Think I'll make the local 6 o'clock news?