Dresser finally complete!

For the past 3 1/2 months, this is what little Graham's dresser looked like - with a missing left front drawer.
And since April 1st, I had sent an email to Delta Enterprises, the manufacturer of the dresser - asking for the part. Finally,... 3 months and three other incorrect part deliveries AND 20 emails later (out of which 12 were mine!), the dresser is finally complete! The stain color of the new drawer front is a bit darker than the rest but at this point, I think I'm quite satisfied. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so nice and patient in my emails. Maybe if I sounded more "bitchy" they would have gotten it right the first time and sent the part a lot sooner!

First outing to the Golf Club

Bobby and I decided it was time to take little Graham to the golf club! So last Sunday on July 4th, we packed him up and headed out. It was a rather warm day so we were planning on hitting balls in the indoor shed. When we arrived at the club and drove our golf cart to the shed, it was locked! We figured it was cool enough under a tree, so we parked the cart with Graham's carseat on it and started hitting balls on the grass section of the driving range instead.
After about 5 shots, I decided to check on Graham. Just as I was approaching the golf cart, he starting crying! So I picked him up and that was almost the end of it. Thankfully, after a few minutes, one of the bag boys showed up on the driving range. We asked him to head back to the pro-shop to pick up the key to unlock the shed. For some reason, I thought the shed would have an air conditioner, but I was wrong. There was this dinky fan on the side... guess it's better than nothing! Little Graham finally calmed down a little, but then after awhile he started crying again! So while Bobby was trying to calm him down, I would hit balls off the indoor mat. Needless to say, that didn't last very long (as I was feeling so out of shape too!). We finally figured out that he had a poopy diaper and he also stained his onesie! But even after a clean diaper, the crying continued. Then we figured out he was hungry. So after feeding him in the shed, Graham finally decided he was tired and went to sleep.
By now, a couple hours had already gone by and it was pretty much time to go. We wanted to get to a restaurant for dinner before the crowd. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed, so we ended up going to a Vietnamese restaurant close by instead. That was probably a better idea because the restaurant was really quiet and Graham started to fuss again! I ended up holding him in one hand and trying to eat my noodles with the other! Let's just say by the end of it all, we were all pretty beat by the time we got home! Of course, little Graham got a head start - he was out by the time he got back into his carseat in the car! Little stinker!

Mom's 60th birthday

Today would have been mom's 60th birthday. I cut some lilies from the backyard that I had planted earlier in the spring this year. The dining room smells wonderful! It's a good thing I had cut them earlier during the week because I was out in the yard today and someone/thing had been chomping on the other flowers!

My smiling/crying little Monster!

Little Graham is starting to learn how to smile at 5 weeks. He's so cute when he does smile! But then of course, the crying comes REAL easy and naturally!!! Just like what his little onesie says... I'm a Little Monster! :-)

Another successful outing!

My sister is in town right now and we decided to go to Panda Express for a quick meal earlier this evening. We took little Graham with us and he was asleep all throughout our meal, even with additional time to chat a bit! I'm so glad we didn't have to chow down our food and rush out because of a crying baby. Phew!
We then went to the local supermarket and again, a quiet sleepy baby! He did cry a little at the end... but I think it's because he had to poop - his face was all red! :-)

Our first family outing

Last Friday, Bob and I finally figured we were ready to take little Graham out. So, off we went - grocery shopping at Walmart! Just as we walked in, a lady commented on how "dandy" little Graham was :-)
Bobby was a proud papa - pushing Graham around on the cart. Graham did really well in his carseat... sleeping pretty much all throughout our shopping! Bobby had to be constantl on the move though. Seemed like Graham would fuss when we were stagnant. I wonder how we're going to eat at a restaurant if this is the case!
Graham did let out a little cry right when we were about to check out. Thankfully the store is so huge that his cry only sounded like a whimper. However, it was just a little cry... I'm sure it would have been more audible if it was a meltdown! Guess it's only a matter of time when that happens!

Happy Father's Day!

Bobby got to celebrate his first Father's Day this past Sunday! We really didn't do too much. We were going to take little Graham out for the first time today - to Home Depot to run some errands, but figured it was too hot outside. There has been (and still actually is) a heat advisory in Tulsa for the next couple of days!
We did, however go for our first family walk around the neighborhood! Now that Graham is a month old - which is a big milestone in the Chinese culture and I'm out of my one-month confinement (minus all the ginger I was suppose to eat!), we packed little Graham in his stroller and went for our walk at 9pm. Yup... 9pm and it was still 88F outside! And for the first time this season, I got bitten by the biggest mosquito ever!!!
Well, the night did not end until Bobby was presented with his Father's Day gifts. He was obviously emotional about it, as you can tell in the pic. Before little Graham was born, he had mentioned that all he wanted was Old Spice and a tie - sort of a first Father's Day gag gift. And... that's exactly what he got! The tie is a collage of Graham making the funny :-o face and I had his mom buy a bottle of Old Spice aftershave while she was here a couple of weeks ago. It had been hidden under the dresser in our bedroom all this time! :-)
Happy Daddy's day... We love daddy! :-x

Remembering Mom

It was 3 years ago on June 19th when Mom moved on to a better world. I was going through some old pics and have always like this one. Check out those boots! I believe this was taken when she was at university, in New Zealand.
As with the previous years, I have started the tradition of buying her flowers and lighting a candle for her on her anniversary. We bought yellow roses this time and they smell wonderful in the dining room!

And right about this time last year - June 16th to be exact, I had buzzed 18" of my hair for charity (Pantene Beautiful Lengths campaign). Here's a pic of me and my sis at the golf tournament site in Mason, Ohio - where the tournament organizers were kind enough to help out with the special "hair donation" occasion (that's the Malaysian flag, by the way). I was able to get 3 other Futures Tour players and 3 volunteers from the Mason, Ohio area to donate their hair as well for the good cause - where Pantene Beautiful Lengths makes wigs for women with cancer.
I can recall how hot my head got when I was out in the sun! I remembered having to spray sunscreen all over on my head before heading out to play my rounds of golf. So no, it was not cooler with less hair!
And here's a pic of me now - a year later... with a baby!!! My hair has grown just over 8" long and little Graham is a month old! It's amazing what can happen in one year. :-)

Happy Birthday... to me!

Yup... another year older! Wait... I mean, 24 years old all over again! :-) Didn't really do too much for my birthday. I did get to sleep in the day after, which was really nice as Bobby was able to look after Graham on Sunday.
For my birthday, I was presented with a really nice card from Bobby (I always seem to cry when I read cards from Bobby these days), a super-loaded ham sandwich with chips, a yummy cheesecake, and the Avatar DVD. I really wondered about the choice of the DVD. Bobby later mentioned that it was between Avatar or the series of Tom and Jerry cartoon. So, guess what... I got my Tom & Jerry DVD! And Bobby got his Avatar DVD. Haha! And of course, we can't forget those cupcakes for Graham's 3-week old birthday! As you can see, he is out like a drunken sailor on the nursing pillow :-) He loves sleeping on that pillow. Hope it won't do too much damage to his posture as he looks so scrunched up! But at this point... whatever that will keep him sleeping so I can catch some zzzzzz's too!
Little Graham also received his first letter in the mail this past week! It was his social security card... which means we can put him to work right away! ;-)
Another first this week was Graham's first bath! And he did really well! When I was pregnant, I told Bobby that little Graham was going to be a swimmer because he was constantly squirming in my belly during my showers. Guess I wasn't too far from the truth!
By the way, my sunflower in the yard finally bloomed!
The plant itself is over 5 feet tall. Unfortunately, the ants are having a jolly good time eating up the seeds of the flower! Oh well... guess I'll just have to enjoy them while they are in bloom.

More cupcakes!

To celebrate little Graham's 2-week old birthday last Saturday, Bobby bought some more cupcakes (as per my request of course :-)! But instead of just regular store-bought ones, he stopped by a specialty cupcake store and got some fancy ones! And they were yummy!!! Looks like he has just up-ed the stakes for Graham's 3-week old birthday this Saturday! :-)

By the way, here's the cake from the baby shower that was thrown by Bobby's coworkers on April 30. I swear that cake was responsible for little Graham's weight of over 9lbs!

Little Graham continues to just get heavier each day. He did lose some weight after his discharge from the hospital, but he was back up to 8 lbs 10 oz after our doctor's appointment Tuesday of last week. I am already suffering from aches and pain along my left shoulder and arm and neck area - having to feed him all the time and also trying to hold him in one arm and performing errands with the other (which includes learning to type with one hand!). And I haven't even started practicing/playing golf yet! But how can you be mad at a little guy that has the cutest smile!
Of course, mommies are allowed to be bias in their opinions ;-)

Thank you Grandma & Pop-pop!

Bobby's mom and her husband just left on their 2-day drive back to New Jersey from Tulsa. They were here since Day 1 when little Graham arrived home about a week and a half ago. Grandma and Pop-pop was of great help while I continue to recover and with Bobby going back to work earlier this week. Bobby and I were able to take naps during the day while Grandma and Pop-pop supervised and fed little Graham. We would take the night shift while Grandma and Pop-pop got their sleep. It worked out great!

Pop-pop was also nice enough to keep everything watered in the yard, especially with the temperature rising. I finally had my first blueberry! It was really tiny though but tasted pretty good. I can't wait for the blueberry plant to bloom some more in the summer! Hopefully the birds and deers won't get to it. The deers did get to the Asian lilies as well as my rose plant. Bad, bad deers!!!

Speaking of Asian lilies... I was rather emotional when I saw these finally blooming in the backyard when we returned home with little Graham from the hospital. I had bought some Asian lilies for my mom last summer, as she always loved them and we would always bring some when visiting her grave-site back in Malaysia. Anyhow, the deers had gotten to them last year when the flowers were blooming, so all that was left were just the leaves of the lilies. Thinking it was a weed, Bobby had pulled them out while clearing the area!
Well,... while I was preparing to mulch the deck area this year, I saw a plant growing and wasn't sure what it was - weed or a flowering plant. Well, I'm glad I decided to keep it because when it finally bloomed, I realized it was the same Asian lily that I had bought for my mom last summer! What makes this so special is that the lily flowers probably bloomed when Graham was born, as the plant itself was in full bloom when we returned with little Graham from the hospital. So glad that Bobby isn't very good at weed-pulling! :-)

Happy Birthday Bobby!

It's amazing how a baby changes your life! Bobby's birthday was about a week ago and with all the commotion going on, I'm finally able to take a few moments to update my blog. Although, I can just hear my mom-in-law saying... "When baby sleep, you sleep!" I am known to dilly-dally around the house when it's my naptime :-)
Anyhow, it was Bobby's BIG birthday on May 30th. Yup... the BIG 40! His mom and her husband bought some "Just for Men" hair coloring product. Bobby seems to be getting more gray each year (and nope, I have nothing to do with it!)
I didn't get a chance to buy Bobby a birthday gift. I was going to wrap up little Graham with some ribbon but decided to make a little card instead. Bobby took the card into his office before I had a chance to take a picture of it. I basically traced out my left hand on the front of the card and on the inside, I traced out little Graham's hands. It was a little bit more difficult as I expected as Graham did not want to spread out his fingers, so his left hand looked a little bit awkward. Haha!

Bobby was a busy-bee on his birthday. With the help of her mom's husband, they dug up a trench by the garage where water is always prone to accumulating after the rain. He then put the borders around it and lined the bottom of it with some weed fabric. And then, topped it off with some river rocks. He still has to top it off with more rocks but overall, I think it looks great! And the best thing is, it works!!! We had some heavy rain earlier this week and the driveway was nice and puddle-free!
The dog pen has also been removed and the area cleaned up. We will need to start thinking about putting a shed there so we will have more room in our garage. Unfortunately, we can't just go out and buy a pre-assembled shed. The Home Owner's Association here requires that sheds are built in the same design as the house!
Well, the hard work paid off. Bobby was rewarded with his favorite - peanut butter pie - courtesy of his mom, of course!

Graham Lee-Wen Pridgen is here!!!

Our baby finally arrived just over a week ago. Everything has been so hectic that I haven't been able to update my blog. Any extra time we have has gone to taking naps! Bobby and I did not sleep very much earlier in the week once we returned from the 2-night stay at the hospital, but thankfully we are slowly but surely getting the hang of feeding time and sleep time for our little Graham.

So here he is!
Little Graham was born on May 22, 2010 at 5:50pm. He measured at 21" long and weighed in at 9 lbs 2 oz. So yeah, perhaps not so little! We knew he was going to be a big boy since the last ultrasound estimated Graham at 9 lbs 4 oz (95th percentile), so I'm glad we opted for the epidural.
My water broke at 6:30am that Saturday and we checked into the hospital by 9am, since my contractions were about 5 minutes apart and were about 30-45 seconds long. I was about 4cm dilated starting out and by about 3pm-ish, I was dilated to 9cm and that's when the nurse decided that we start pushing. We pushed for over 2 hours and since baby Graham's head just did not want to progress very much, the nurse called for the doctor. And with the help of forceps and a few good pushes, he was out! What a feeling that was!
Recovery has been slow but despite the pain and discomfort, looking at our little angel has been so worth it. Bobby and I still can't believe we have a baby in the house!
And he makes the funniest faces! This one is my favorite (for now :-)
We are so glad and thankful that Bobby's mom and Bob are here to help us out. Grandma has been really good at putting little Graham to sleep - almost too good that Bobby and I struggle to do the same thing in the middle of the night! We have also been taking advantage of Bob's presence here to help out with some yard work!

We celebrated Graham's one-week birthday yesterday with some cupcakes. Yes, Graham loves cake (if you can recall the leftover cake from the baby shower thrown by Bobby's office)!

So within this past week, I've witness the "pee projectile", been peed on twice - the first when we were giving Graham a wipe-down and the second during a feeding session when Daddy didn't put on his diaper properly! I guess I should be lucky it was just pee and not poop!
Parenthood definitely has its challenges but I think we are doing a little bit better as each day progresses. The consultation with the lactation nurse during Graham's first visit to the pediatrician last Wednesday was a god-send. The feeding sessions are so much better and manageable.
Ahhh... the joys of being a mom. I still can't believe I'm a mom!

Our first tornado warning!

Last night, there were a line of storms coming through. And just as I put dinner on the table around 7:30pm or so, the sirens came on! I had sent a text message to our neighbor earlier yesterday saying that if the sirens do come on, Bobby and I would be over in a jiffy. They have some crawling space beneath the foundation of their house. They did find a tiny snake in there the first time they discovered the space - but snake vs. tornado, I guess I'd go with the snake too! :-)
So anyhow, I quickly woofed down my chicken dinner and of course, Bobby is struggling with his because it's one of the only times I decided to braise chicken thighs (i.e. BONES!!!!). I head up stairs to quickly change and just as we were about leave, the sirens stopped. Bobby looks out the front door and there are a bunch of the neighborhood kids wandering out front at the other neighbor's house, taking pictures! Mom/Barbara... if you're reading this - no, there weren't taking pictures of the tornado touching down. There were just really dark clouds :-)
After chatting with this other neighbor for a bit, we went back into the house as it started to drizzle. We continued to watch the radar on the local tv station. At about 8:30pm, just as I was about to scoop out some ice-cream (and you wonder why the baby is over 9lbs!), the sirens went off again! Arghh! By this time, the rain is coming down really hard outside and Bobby is convinced that we can just stay put. Thankfully the sirens were only on for a brief moment.
While watching the 10 o'clock news, the question came up about putting the kids to bed despite the continued tornado warning. And the answer was yes, go ahead,... the worse is over. So with that, we decided to call it a night as well. But phew! What a night! I'm glad our lil' Graham didn't decide to come out last night!

Pregnancy update - 39 1/2 weeks!!!

This is the home stretch! Had our doctor's appointment today and he said that 9 lbs 4 oz puts our little Graham in the 95th percentile! Must have been all that sugar craving that I've been having these past couple of weeks! YIKES! Guess it doesn't help either when Bobby is constantly asking me "What's for dessert???"
Well... hopefully our baby won't get too much bigger. His head is just under 10cm... so there is still hope for a vaginal birth. Guess we're playing it by ear. The game plan is if there's difficulty pushing him out, we will opt for a C-section.
In the meantime, it's just a waiting game right now. We have scheduled our next doctor's appointment for the following Monday. If lil' Graham is not out by then, we will most probably have him induced. In any case, I'm just happy that our doctor will be on-call this weekend.

This past weekend, we did finally install the baby carseat. We used a seat-saver for the bottom of the carseat but it was still a bit wobbly, so we opted for a towel and non-slip shelf liner, which did work a little bit better. However, I did exchange the seat-saver for another one, so perhaps that might work even better. We'll see! So complicated! What happened to the good ol' days when kids sat up front and didn't even have to buckle up! Haha!

Baby estimated at 9 lbs 4 oz ??!!?!

My jaw dropped when the ultrasound technician told me little Graham's estimated weight. YIKES!!! How on earth did he get so big! Must have been all that leftover cake from the baby shower that was thrown by Bobby's department/office a couple of weeks ago. I had a piece of cake almost every day for a week! What can I say,... there was a lot of cake left... and little Graham LOVES cake! ;-)
Well, I must have over-reacted when the technician said 9 lbs 4 oz because she was quick to say that the estimate is +/- 10%. She tried to clarify that when the baby is born, he could only weigh in at 8 1/2 lbs. Still a big baby if you ask me! It will be interesting to hear what our doctor will say at our next appointment in regards to our birthing plan.
We couldn't get a lot of good pictures, but here's one of little Graham's fist.
We took a couple of pics of his feet too, but it didn't come out very well. Little Graham had his one little foot propped up against my belly (as usual) with the other foot rubbing beneath it. I guess he's so comfortable in my belly that he doesn't want to come out! Only 6 more days to the baby's due date. It could be any day now when my water breaks. The wait continues...!

More updates on Pregnancy!

38-weeks 5 days and counting...! We had another doctor's appointment yesterday (Monday) and the doc said that I'm doing really well. He is still amazed at how much my cervix has thinned out and at now 2cm dilated, I really should be in labor! It's a typical scenario of someone who is in labor, but somehow, I'm not... so the wait continues. Must be some crazy Asian genes!
Since little Graham was in the 80th percentile the last time we checked, we have scheduled for another ultrasound this Thursday to see how much more he has grown. That will help us determine/confirm our birthing plan. Doc said that if we continue with vaginal birth, it should be a quicker than normal one since all conditions are in our favor. I hope he is right! :-) In any case, only 9 more days until the baby's due date of May 20th! YIKES!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

I guess it counts as a Mother-to-be to celebrate "Mother's Day"... although it did seem a little weird since there is no baby yet. Nonetheless, I did get a nice card from Bobby and his mom. Bobby got me some chocolates too - dark chocolate of course! YUM!
We really didn't do too much on Sunday. We went to the local fair called "Rooster Day". It was rather small and there weren't that many people. Perhaps it was the last day of the fair and the weather was not very nice. And we missed the Arts and Craft section. We only saw the sign on a building while we were driving away! Oh well... probably best as I probably would have convinced Bobby to buy me something that I really didn't need :-)
We went to the golf course from there. It was windy and cold and I was under-dressed! So instead of playing, I just drove Bobby around in the cart. Thankfully we had a blanket in the car so I was able to bundle myself up like a "mummy" all throughout the 18 holes! Now that's a Mother's Day to remember! Ha ha!

Driver's license expired!

I've been so busy being pregnant that I didn't even realized that my driver's license had expired! It expired back in March! YIKES!!! I only realized it yesterday when I had to show the receptionist at the hospital my license for pre-admin labor & delivery paperwork.
Well, my license is all renewed now. Thankfully the DMV here is never really quite busy so it didn't take too long (unlike Houston, which took forever!). And with my new license, it's nice not having the big red word "TEMPORARY" straight across my driver's license! That was necessary the last time because I was still under a visa vs. having my greencard now. Also, the pic is much better! No spikey hair since my hair buzz last June! :-)
And look! My little car is now over 214K miles! Bobby is trying to convince me to get rid of it. We did see a car that I really liked the other day - the VW station wagon in Diesel. We'll see what happens after the baby is born!

Pregnancy update - 37 1/2 weeks

Just had another doctor's appointment yesterday and all is well! My cervix is about 90% thinned out and only about 1cm dilated. The doc is still amazed at how low the baby's head is sitting! He said that this doesn't normally occur for women who are having their first-born. Guess I'm just lucky! Although, I did have to assure Bobby that I didn't have another child somewhere else in this world. Haha!
And yes, looking at the sign on that door - the toilet is now fixed! :-)

We have this little thing on the fridge where we write little messages. Here was Bobby's message this past week. I thought it was really cute!