Tag Archive for 'scary'

A Nice Day To Be Home Alone… NOT!

Today is Presidents Day, so no school or work for me. Although it rained last night & it’s supposed to rain again later today, it’s sunny outside & it’s 62 degrees! Unfortunately, there’re too many projects that I have to work on, so I have to stay home pretty much all day. Mel wanted to go shopping, so she & Kaitlyn went to her parents’ house last night & she’s going to go out with them today.

I really don’t mind staying home alone working on projects, since I usually get more things done without the distractions. It’s hard to resist playing with Kaitlyn. Trust me. Besides, I love how our apartment has big tall windows & a high ceiling. They just make the place brighter & look bigger, so it’s very pleasant to be inside. The location & rent are the other obvious things that we love about this place. You can’t beat this anywhere else.

Sadly though, because the building itself is really old (probably over 60 years old?) & the last time that this place got a total facelift was probably 30 years ago, there’re all these gaps/cracks/holes in the house. I try to patch up as many as I can & we keep this place pretty clean, so we have no problem with ants & roaches. In fact, I haven’t seen one since I moved in here almost 3 years ago.

BUT, for some reasons, mice get in somehow. I am seriously a musophobe. I can tolerate any bugs: cockroaches, spiders, caterpillars, whatever. You can put them on my face, if you want. I won’t flinch. But when it comes to rodents, regardless of size, I can’t bare even looking at a photo of it. For real!

Since they are doing major renovation/construction just two houses down the block, we’ve caught almost 10 mice in the past month alone! We live in attached houses, so the construction makes the rodents move to other houses. Although we put all the food that mice would eat in containers, they have been biting on bags & plastic containers in the kitchen, trying to get to the food. Our two electric mouse traps have been doing a great job catching them most of the time.

Still, there’re more coming!

Every time I’m alone in the living room at night, even with all the lights & the TV on, a mouse has to run into the room!

And a stupid mouse ran in on me again last night! What’s there to eat in the living room?! I mopped twice yesterday! Or do I smell like food to them or something??!

WHYYYYYYYYYY???!!

I swear the first thing I’ll do, when I get a full time job after graduating this May, is to find a rodent-proof place to live in!

Anyway, enough bad news. Here’s a video Melanie took of Kaitlyn falling asleep after eating. It’s about two minutes but it’s pretty funny. It was the morning my mom & sister arrived, so you can see my mom napping in the background, too.

The escape artist

One day last week, it took Kaitlyn 2 hours to finally take her afternoon nap. I put her in her crib, hoping that she would eventually get tired and fall asleep. Nope.. she was definitely not tired. So I laid down on my bed, watching some tv while she was playing with her stuffed animals in her crib. I eventually fell asleep for a couple of minutes when all of a sudden I hear a sound of something falling down on the floor. I turned to look and Kaitlyn had climbed out of her crib and was standing on my night-table reaching for stuff & dropped some things on the floor as she was doing it. I was scared half to death because she had never done that before! I was thanking God that she didn’t fall onto the floor and hurt herself.

Anyway, here are a few pictures that we took of her as a re-enactment of what happened. Please excuse the mess that I have on my night-table. I will eventually clean that up. haha. =D

Kaitlyn standing in her cribKaitlyn standing by the side of her cribKaitlyn standing on the corner of my night-table reaching for somethingKaitlyn again standing on the corner of my night-table reaching for somethingJust a cute pic of KaitlynA cute picture of my 2 babies!

So we discovered that our child is pretty adventurous and likes to take risks, which is why she is already walking pretty well at 11 months. My how fast she has grown.

By the way, did you notice something funny about the first picture? Yup, she flipped the bird! =D

Lead in Toys

recalled toyWith all the recent toy recalls due to unsafe level of lead, I’ve to admit that whenever I see Kaitlyn put something into her mouth it gets me thinking twice. It turns out that the Consumer Product Safety Commission only has 15 full-time field inspectors inspecting products that enter the country through its 300+ ports of entry. That means most of the contaminated & unsafe imports get into the country anyway.

So I was happy to hear an NPR’s “Your Health” podcast yesterday about lead test kits currently available on the market. In contrary to what the Consumer Product Safety Commission says, Consumer Reports concluded that the kits are reliable. The reason the commission disagree is because the kits point out toys with any amount of lead, while the toys can still meet the current (but outdated) law & regulations. However, experts & health professionals agree that any traces of lead is still unsafe for kids when ingested.

The only “drawback” is these kits only test for lead on product surfaces. But for concerned parents, that’s all you need know.

Two of the lead test kits mentioned on NPR were the Lead Inspector (8 tests for $12.99) & the Lead Check (8 for $18.45).

You can also read & listen to the stories on NPR here:
Testing Toys for Lead
Do Home Lead-Testing Kits Work?

Consumer Reports’ result: Lead Test Kits

If you are looking for some practical stocking stuffers for people with infants & toddlers, you certainly may want to consider one of these.

10 month update

So Kaitlyn is 10 months old now. She has 2 teeth on the bottom. She can stand on her own for up to half a minute, or forever if she has something to hold on to. She can take a couple of steps but then gives up and sits down. She can clap her hands. She laughs when I say “NO! NO!” to her, but when Ether says it to her, she gives him the “puppy eyes” & fake cries. We just can’t believe how fast time flies. She’ll be turning 1 very soon. She’ll probably be running around by then. Yikes!!

Look at my 2 teeth!All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth..Kaitlyn standing on her ownI can clap, especially when I’m happy..

The signature smile/laugh when mommy says “no-no!”
My naughty smileHahaha don’t be ridiculous!

Where did her eyes go???

Glad We weren’t Home

Fortunately, we were on our way to Melanie’s cousin’s wedding in Virginia, instead of being 150 feet from a tornado early Wednesday morning!

We stayed over at Mel’s parents’ place Tuesday night & left for the wedding at around 4:30 a.m. The forecast called for heavy rain & thunderstorms for the region that morning. So, by the time we got to New Jersey, it was pouring really hard already. Although it was also really windy, the possibility of tornados just never came across our minds.

My Mom in Utah actually called me twice Wednesday night, when we were still on our way back to New York. She & my sister knew that we live in one of the areas that the news had mentioned, & they also saw a video clip on the news that showed a backyard that looked very familiar. So my sister insisted on calling us.

It turns out that the last place the tornado touched down was the block (58th Street) across from where we live (59th Street). If you don’t know Brooklyn/New York streets, that’s only like 150 feet from our front door!

58th Street is still closed for the clean up. However, on our block, all the down branches & debris have pretty much been cleaned up. Some homes’ awnings are gone; our next door neighbor’s window was shattered; & the glass front door of the house across the street was broken. But other than that, there seems to be no major damages on our block.

Down Trees in the Backyard
Down Trees in the Backyard

Now we’ll see what happens tonight, as heavy rain & thunderstorm are going to hit this area one more time. But I highly doubt that tornados will hit Brooklyn twice in a week, since they say the last tornado hit Brooklyn was back in 1889.

More on the Brooklyn tornado

New York Post:
- BROOKLYN CYCLONE

New York Times video:
- It showed our backyard. Fortunately, it was nothing compared to other neighbors’.

More photos on Flickr:
- Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, & Brooklyn in general

Life is tough..

Being a new mom is great, but it’s so hard. Something new has developed – I suddenly broke into rashes all over. The doctors aren’t really sure what it is exactly or what caused it. The meds that have been prescribed have not seemed to take any effect yet. The rash actually got worse overnight. The itchiness is really getting to me. I just want to scratch it all the time. Also, I can’t breastfeed Kaitlyn because of the meds. I’ve been pumping and then throwing it out. It’s such a waste. I’m starting to feel kinda depressed. It’s even harder when you have an inconsolable newborn at times and when she doesn’t sleep, you can’t sleep either. Honestly I’m horrified. My mom has been such a great help here – helping me feed & change Kaitlyn, cooking for me, washing dishes and bottles, etc. BUT she’ll only be here for the rest of this week and then I’ll sorta be on my own. I’m hoping that the rash will go away before then so that I could be in a much better mood and have enough energy to take care of my baby.

Please pray for me that I’ll make it through this tough time.

*UPDATE* my doctor has seen my rash and said that I have a severe allergic reaction to something. She told me not to eat any exotic foods and to stop eating ginger. (practically every single meal I’ve had so far since I’ve been back from the hospital has contained ginger in it.) It could have been caused by the Chinese chicken wine that I was forced to eat/drink. Anyway, she just prescribed me a shot called Depo-Medrol and I guess the rash should go away within days. I’m praying that this will really work. It costs about $50. It sucks to not be able to really enjoy this special time in my life and be positive. I’m tired, itchy and irritable. This is not the way I want to be around my baby. So please pray for me that it will quickly go away. Also, I read about PUPPP (also known as pregnancy rash) and it sounds like what I have, except I developed this rash AFTER pregnancy and I don’t have any yellow pus oozing out. So I don’t know.

Sooner than we thought…

My doctor told me today that I may have the baby next week! The baby’s head is down and sitting on my bladder. So she’s gone down already. But I’m not dialated. I will have to be induced unfortunately, due to my Protein-S Deficiency condition. So the doc told me that she’ll check me again next week to see if she’s ready to come out and I’ll pick a day to go to the hospital. It might be next Thursday (Feb 1) since Ether is off from school on Thursdays. So we’ll see! She told me to do lots of squats. We’re a little nervous. It’s so soon! I guess she won’t come out as a piggy.

Dog or Piggy?

As the days go on, I keep wondering whether the baby will come early, late or on time. If she’s early or on time, she will still be born in the year of the dog. If she’s late, past Feb 18, then she’ll be a pig. The Chinese people say that pigs are good. However, lugging this watermelon in my belly for another week is going to be difficult!

So I think one of my good buddies has told me some good exciting news, but I’m not sure yet! My baby might have another friend around the end of the year! So we’ll see!

Last night, Ether and I watched a birthing video. It was really scary and disturbing. I don’t know how women can give birth without an epidural. IT’S CRAZY!

Doc’s Appt

So I had my doctor’s appointment at another clinic yesterday to check the growth of the baby. First they put me on a monitor (they wrapped it around my belly) and we listened to the baby’s heartbeat for 10 minutes and they told me to press a button everytime I felt the baby move. Her heart beat around 140 bpm and she moved a lot. =D Then this lady did another sonogram, measuring the head and other body parts. There was a screen in front of me so I could see what she was doing. She didn’t say a word the whole time and then she was done within like 5 minutes, and told me I could get up. She didn’t give me any pictures. I had to wipe all the jelly off my belly with the cloth she put on protecting my pants. She didn’t even give me more napkins and she sat back down in front of the computer. So I sat there for like a minute (after wiping) and then she was like “we’re done, you can go”. This office was a little strange. But whatever.

She did tell me though that the baby weighs 5 lb 2 oz already and she is within normal limits. (YAY!) I wonder how much she will weigh when she’s born. I’ve got a little over 5 weeks left. It’s kinda scary. I’m not sure that I’m ready yet. We still have lots to buy. My co-workers told me that they’re throwing me a shower on Tuesday. They figured they couldn’t surprise me, so they told me. They’re so sweet.. and funny.. =D So I’ll post up pix of that next.

Update

Brace yourself, this update is long, but in order to understand it you’ll have to really read the whole thing.

So I did my second glucose test last Saturday. I got my results on Sunday. It turned out kind of abnormal. They drew 1 tube of blood per hour (4 altogether). The result for my first & fasting tube of blood came out low. Then after I drank that SUPER sweet drink, the next two blood results came out normal. BUT THEN the last blood result came out super high. (which means that the numbers went down and then suddenly up again.) I didn’t eat anything between those 4 hours, so it’s impossible for the last result to suddenly elevate that high. I was told that the lab probably mixed up the blood tubes, which didn’t really help because then I don’t know my TRUE results if that’s the case. I definitely don’t want to have to do the test all over again & thank goodness I wasn’t asked to. I already felt like I was hurting the baby by drinking such a sweet drink.

I was also told that I don’t have diabetes but I should still eat healthier just because diabetes runs in my family, so I need to be more careful. So I’ve been on this strict diet for the last week. No candy, cookies, cakes, sweets. I haven’t really eaten much carbs lately either. I’ve had a tiny little bit of rice here and there but not even equivalent to half a cup. Last night, I had a dinner party w/ my friends and I could barely eat much. They wouldn’t let me eat the carbs or the yummy dessert that Amy made. =( I know they’re doing it for my own good, but it was kinda torturous.

Anyway, more “exciting” news is that I also found out that I have a Protein-S deficiency, which is also what my sister has. (so it’s genetic) I honestly don’t know what it means, but all i know is that it is associated with blood clots, which will be super dangerous for me & the baby during delivery. I will have to start putting injections in my lower abdomen EVERYDAY to thin my blood. Definitely not fun for a person who doesn’t like needles & shots. Sucks that I have to do it myself too. My sis had to do it too and she said she got used to it after a while. She had bruises all over her belly. I’m freaking out. I’m going to go downstairs later to ask my doctor to teach me how to do it. Wish me luck. =)

That’s my long update.