brings a whole new meaning...

I never put much thought into it, but having a baby has really made me think about those age-old phrases.

"never wake a sleeping baby"
I have done it.  It's followed by a lot of crying, but you're supposed to feed them every 3 hours in the beginning, so you have to wake the sleeping baby!

"sleeps like a baby"
Newborns only have REM sleep, so you can poke 'em all you like, and you won't wake them!  This is not true once they start developing sleep stages.

"no use crying over spilled milk"
Breastfeeding is HARD WORK, and equally so when you start to pump.  I have spilled milk before, and I want to CRY.  Not only have you negated all your work, but your baby will have that much less to eat the next day.  Was this phrase referring to breast milk?  Because it would certainly apply and urge me to move on from the catastrophe that has happened before my very eyes.

"soft like a baby's behind"
It really is soft. But the whole baby is pretty soft. :)

"bouncing baby boy"
They DO bounce!  They can bounce for 30 minutes straight!

"baby steps"
Each step in baby's physical development seems insignificant but is entirely necessary to getting him to fully stand on his own!  Flipping over frontward and backward is a learned skill, and so is just getting to support the body on the knees.  LO gets stronger with each skill and becomes better balanced, all leading to when he takes his first real baby step!

my puppy-son (PS)

I don't need a change-o machine.

I feel like I'm forever playing catch-up on things.  But with my new, life-changing iPhone (like, upgraded from traditional DUMB PHONE), I'm sometimes able to post some PS outfits.  The large majority of clothes we were able to inherit from a friend, and some were gifts, so it's been fun putting together outfits of different styles. PS gets to have all different looks, not just mine!

He may change, but as of now, he's not promising to be too photogenic.  We'll see.  Hopefully when he smiles more often for a reason (ie, rather than a spastic smile for no reason), he'll get more photogenic.

I'm posting them on Instagram:

Puppy-son

Puppy-son is 2 months old already!

life events

Welcome to the world!

Subway Experiment - Final Results

Of the times when a seat was offered, 86% of the time it was a woman who offered.

Here are the actual numbers:
Unnecessary or impossible to offer a seat - 28 times
Seat not offered - 17 times
Seat offered - 7 times (6 times by women, 1 time by a man - Italian from Italy at that)

I have only commuted 4 times since I've been in San Francisco, but so far, it's 3 for 3 on Muni/BART.  I always get a seat on Caltrain.  Go SF. :)

goin', goin', back, back, to cali, cali

The time has come!  It's been 11 years since I moved away, and I'm excited, nervous, sad, and happy to be leaving NYC and going back home.  The Bay Area will always be home to me though - I've never felt that I've quite fit in to the places I've moved to, Ann Arbor and NYC, though they've given me great friends, wonderful memories, and invaluable, different perspectives on life.  Parting is such sweet sorrow, but I'm looking forward to the future.

The movers came last Saturday, and our things are being trucked over to the Bay Area right now!  Meanwhile, we are sitting on lawn chairs and eating from paper plates and plastic utensils.  And eating all the bagels and Levain cookies that we can.

Subway Experiment: 1-week Results

Since I started to show, I took notice of whether or not New Yorkers are actually good at giving up their seats for pregnant women.  I started to get a terrible impression, estimating in my head that about 60% of the time, people would not give up their seat for me.  Then it increased to 70% after more time passed.  Once, I and another pregnant woman got on, and neither of us were offered a seat.  I was appalled.  It's not that I need one all the time, but it's the right thing to do.  So I decided I should do this scientifically and start taking down data.  Here are the results for the past week.

Note that I don't count the times when the train is just way too crowded for anybody to take notice ("impossible").  I combined this with the "unnecessary" category, which is when there are enough available seats for me to just take one should I want one.

Of the times when there is an opportunity to give up a seat, New Yorkers have offered 17% of the time.  So 83% of the time, they do nothing but stare into their mobile devices or ignore me.  I fault people for being oblivious, so being engrossed in your book or iPhone is no excuse.

Of the one instance when someone offered me a seat, it was a woman.  From my observations before my experiment started, I estimated that 95% of the time, it was women who offered a seat.  Only 2 men have ever offered me a seat.  Shame on you, d-bag New York men.

I'm going to run this experiment through the month, so stay tuned!

Photoshoot with La Leche-Vitrienne: Bonobos pants, 5 ways

Model and stylist: La Leche-Vitrienne
Photography by mayz