The Nose Knows

Pregnancy does strange things - for the woman. There's the cravings. And the mood swings. And who can forget the pukings. But there's an even scarier phenomenon that takes place - the heightened sense of smell! These days, Mae can smell anything. The prawn cracker I ate an hour ago. The neighbour frying fish a few floors down. The little itty bit of garlic in her food. The strawberry sweet I have in my pocket! It's damn freaky!


This gives rise to my theory on why some men cheat on their wives during her pregnancy. Here's the scenario. Man comes home after a "late night at the office". She smells perfume. And just like that, he gets caught with his pants down.


Some people think that men cheat on their pregnant wives because they're not getting sex at home. But I think these guys have been at it all the while, not just when the wife is pregnant. After all, most men who are likely to cheat will cheat at any occasion, indescriminately. So, it's probably not true that men mostly have affairs when their wives are pregnant - they just happen to get caught when the wife is preggers. Thanks to her heightened, Daredevil-like sense of smell.


So a word of advice. If she can smell anything, she can smell a rat.

Fetus

We're in our nine weeks now. I went and registered us at BabyCenter.com, this really cool site that keeps us updated on the progress of both mother and baby. And today we have our first update.


Today, Baby has officially become a fetus. The word "fetus" means "little one". And technically, it means she's a tiny, little human now. As opposed, I suppose to the little worm that she was just a couple of weeks back! At this stage, she's already got her hands and legs complete with fingers and toes. She got eyelids too, though these will be fused shut for a few weeks. And finally, she's got... drumroll... developing genitalia!!!


However at this stage, ultrasound is not gonna be able to distinguish if Baby's a boy or girl, so looks like we're just gonna have to wait. Man oh man! Time is moving in slow-motion these days.


Meantime, Mae is still feeling the effects of pregnancy. The puking seems to have let up a bit but the nausea is still there. Read somewhere that some expectant fathers get symptoms too. Now THAT, I'm not looking forward to.

Man Can Cook?

tastes as good as she looks!


At this stage of her pregnancy, there is a lot that Mae cannot eat stand! Just about anything makes her puke! Oily and deep fried foods. Anything with pepper or garlic. Mushrooms. In fact, just the mere thought of these stuff is enough to send her hurling buckets into the john. So, since it's the long holiday, we decided to cook at home. "We" is of course, figurative, since she can't stand the smell of the kitchen too! So instead, she entrusts her life and that of our baby into my cookery skills (or lack of)! Being the wonderful (ahem) husband that I am, I try and make her experience of dining at home as pleasant as I possibly can.


Tuesday night, we had a steamed fillet of Dory (yes, she of the Finding Nemo fame!) with a side of mash potatoes and steamed veggies. That came with a nice tangy sauce which she enjoyed. For lunch the next day, we had chinese fried rice which I made too damn soggy. For the reunion dinner, we had fried Loh Shee Fun.


On Thursday, since she was craving for popiah, we had a little popiah party, just the two of us. It was okay, except for the skin. I had intended to buy fresh popiah skin at the market but I coundn't find any. So I settled for the ones in the supermarket. I know I shouldn't have but I was desparate. In my desperation, I brought shame to my hometown of Taiping - the world capital of Popiah!


To redeem myself, for dinner I made Kaisee Mein (Chicken Strip Noodle) which was also a Taiping favourite. This was my first solo attempt since the only times I've ever tried it was when mom did most of the work. Anyway, my Kaisee Mein woulda made mom proud! :) Somewhere in between, I also tried a Cantonese Fried Hor Fun of which, the less said the better. For anyone of you out there who decides to try this, one word of advice: when it comes to putting the egg in the broth, less is more!!!


Anyway, I've run out of ideas. Yesterday, she had fillet of Dory again. Thankfully, she really like the stuff. Thanks also to my mom-in-law who buys this excellent fish at a fantastic price. Three pieces of the Dory would cost you anything from RM 13 to RM 15 in Giant. Mae's mom gets it directly from Oz at about RM 8. Clever woman.


Anyway, the wonderful wife that she is - she tells me that she loves my food. But this morning for breakfast she decides that we should go to McD. Hahaha!!!! If I confront her, she'll probably say that Baby wants a McEgg Muffin!

Close To You

On Friday, while I was in the office doing a little overtime putting up a blog (ahem) my wife, Mae was at home nursing a bleeding heart puking stomach. While she was sleeping, a silly bird flew into our window and didn't know how to get back outside.


Naturally, Mae is freaked out cos she thinks the bird might just attack her. Instead, she scares the shit out of the bird, literally. So the critter poops one on our bed. Having unloaded its burden upon us, the bird suddenly gets an inspiration (I can relate to this since I get most of my inspiration in the toilet too!) and manages to find its way out.


By the time I get home, Mae is about to let me have it for not being with her in her time of danger. She starts going on about the bird and how it was gonna peck her eyes out, and suddenly a flash of brilliance comes to me and I break into song:


Why do birds suddenly appear,

Everytime you are near,

Just like me, they long to be,

Close to you....


And just like that, the hero gets the girl. Thanks to the Carpenters and my quick thinking.


I am both clever and poetic in times of calamity. :)

Hello World!

there's a new kid on the blog

Today is an auspicious day. For one, I finally got on the bandwagon of blogging. More importantly, today we got a glimpse of our baby. We had found out about her two weeks ago. As of now, she's 7 weeks and 6 days old. That's about all we know now. We don't know much more except she's doing well so far. We don't know if she's a boy or a girl, so we're just calling her Baby now. If you're wondering why I'm refering to the baby as a "she", well, let's just call that wishful thinking.

Baby's due out on 27 August 2004. And I can't wait. Today, when I saw her tiny little heart beat on the sonogram, I was completely overwhelmed. That's my little girl beating away!!! 55 days old and already making her daddy proud! :) And like every proud daddy, I'm showing her off to the world. The picture you see is the womb. That big black spot towards the right is the fluid that's surrounding Baby. And at the bottom of that black spot there, that's Baby!

She's a miracle of God. This blog is dedicated to that miracle.