Beware of the Scrabble Master

Robby and I have played Scrabble for the last two nights, and I have had my ego crushed by the Scrabble Master. In each game, he was able to put down all seven letters to gain 50 points on top of his own score. His seven-letter words were "DOUBTER" & "ARRANGE". Plus, in the second game he used "BLITZ" as the first word on the board, which earned him 52 points. His scores: 326 & 385. Mine: 256 & 297. GEEZ.

Afterward, he insisted that we play Boggle because I always win at Boggle & he wanted to make me feel better, but I was so thoroughly decimated by those brutal games that I whimpered back to my computer and busied myself until bedtime!

Who knew that "un" was a word? It means "one" in the Scrabble dictionary. In Spanish?! How could it count on the Scrabble board?! & "ed" is a word in the Scrabble dictionary too. It means "education", but it's an abbreviation! Just a few sly ways that Robby was able to add long words onto mine.

Nesting Phase

Robby & I was in the nesting phase a few weeks ago. I took down the curtains from our bedroom, then washed and ironed them. I have never ironed curtains before. Robby cleaned out our electronics drawer, and we both cleaned out our closets. I took a 40+ year old Sears dresser from my old room in the O.C. & lined it with pretty green shelf paper. If you've ever seen Freaks & Geeks, it's the same dresser as Lindsay's in her bedroom. A classic, elegant white dress with gold trim that once belonged to my eldest sister. We dropped off 5 bags of belongings to the Goodwill. Robby even wiped the bathroom mini-blinds, the most difficult task in the whole apartment. Now, my closet is filled with boxes labeled "3-6 months" & "6-12 months." Our receiving blankets & diaper cloths are folded. Our changing pad is covered with a waterproof sheet. & I've started packing a labor & postpartum bag.



I've often wished futilely that I could get through this rite of passage (figuratively & literally) without actually experiencing it, that the baby would magically appear in the bassinet & I could forgo the birthing experience, but life just doesn't happen that way.

Holidays are Over, Preparing for Baby

Robby and I spent three weeks in the Bay Area with my siblings & their daughters. I helped out with the daily activities of my nieces (taking them to school, picking them up, Chinese school, etc.). We had two baby showers - one organized by my former English-teaching colleagues at Paly & the other by my sister. We received lots of useful & cute baby gifts.

Robby left for New Jersey for a week to help his dad & stepmom pack for their move to Connecticut. He predicted that he trip would be a nostalgic and sentimental trip down memory lane, but after a few days of steadily packing up his room, he was hardly emotionally struck by the emptiness of it. The next time we go to the East Coast, we will be heading to Connecticut, unfamiliar territory to me and Robby's new home away from home.

Robby watched Avatar three times & was so inspired by the film that he wrote an article that related it to his dissertation topic. You can find it on his blog. I wasn't so impressed by the movie. If James Cameron spent so many years coming up with the story, couldn't it have been a bit more original? It hardly strayed from the basic imperialist story. I give it an F for storyline, though the immersive 3D quality was very impressive.

We returned to Los Angeles on January 10th and loaded our living room with baby gifts. At this moment, Robby became stunned by the reality of the near future...We're having a baby! & babies come with lots of stuff! We've tried to minimize our baby needs; we simply don't have room for it in our modest one-bedroom apartment. When people pose the commonly asked question, "What gender is your baby?", we say, "We don't know. We're going to wait." Then they ask, "Well, how will you decorate the baby's room?" We say flatly, "The baby is going in the living room." The entitled right that a tiny, little baby needs its own room totally baffles me. Anyway, we are suspicious of the trappings of the ever-growing BABY INDUSTRY, much as we were when we encountered the WEDDING INDUSTRY.

A few days ago, we took an informative, day-long birthing class at Cedar-Sinai Hospital. The instructor demonstrated the baby's pathway through the pelvic bones, explained the different stages of labor, and taught us a few breathing exercises & labor positions. Interesting facts: 37% of the births at Cedar-Sinai are C-sections (wow, so high!) and 95% of the vaginal births involve the epidural. We ended the class by watching a short, graphic video of a woman in labor who undergoes an epidural. The actual birthing was first repulsive then heartwarming to me. I will be relieved once this little sucker is out of my body and breathing & feeding on its own, no longer restlessly kicking all the other organs in the shared space that is my abdomen.

That's all on the baby front.

Happy birthday to our mothers! This month, my mom turned a young 68 & Robby's mom turned a mature 49. The age difference of our family members still seem puzzling to us sometimes. Robby's stepmom is celebrating her birthday too this month. Happy birthday, everyone!