This amazing 5-star hotel will be opening just before my birthday. I hope I can treat myself to a spa experience since this is to be the largest spa between San Jose & San Francisco. The Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel & Spa is run by the Rosewood Resorts that also includes the Carlyle in New York. I'll probably be using my hard earned gains from last year to fund this rare outing.
I'm enjoying this site where mommy bloggers share their thoughts on various topics that definitely hit home for me. I hope you get something out of it too.
Lisa: let's get a snack
Jeff: ok
Lisa: i'll stand in line, you go ck out what's good
Jeff: (standing next to me behind an old lady in line) Everything is junk food!
Old lady:(turns around to us and gives us a look)
Lisa: well let's go look somewhere else
While as a SAHM I've made the decision to give my full time to B. There are of course compromises. For instance, we really need to be more mindful of our budget. I've had to let go of a housekeeper and J brings lunch to work most days(it's actually better since his options for buying lunch are really slim). However reading this article about sharing responsibilities at home and the kids made me realize how lucky I am that J really does help me out. He gives me an extra hour or 2 in the morning and gets home most days in time to help get B ready for bed. It's been almost a year since B entered our lives and it's been quite an adventure for both us.
LaborKit contains many of the suggested items for packing in your suitcase for the hospital. They come in various price points and list the items.
I reviewed them and was quite impressed on what was included. I know for sure some hospitals already provide many of the items but not of the same quality. So check over the list and here's what I put on my checklist.(Download file)
Some changes to the list. Since I had a c-section I ended up at the hospital for 4 days. I stayed in the hospital gown since I had many things attached to me and it was easier to feed not having to deal with night gown etc. I ended up not using the boppy since I was propped up with many pillows to feed. We kept B in the kimono shirts the hospital had and used the diapers they had in the bassinet. The things that came in handy were the following: DVDs during recovery, magazines to keep me from getting bored after I ran out of DVDs, and take-out food. I hated the food at the hospital and was craving for all the stuff I couldn't have while pregnant. J forgot to bring a shaver so was quite scruffy after a few days. He ended up going home to freshen up. Also since we were washing our hands often, having some nice lotion would have been nice.
Of course for family and friends, you either read about B at Facebook, her website or some sprinklings here at mywhine. For some photos be sure to hook up at flickr.
Shortly I'll be writing strictly on information architecture and information management at mywhine. I'll be moving all family related blogging to B's website. More reviews type material will be at Little Brown Hat.
Yup I know they are a bit pricey and you're probably better off using melamine or some other reuseable product such as bamboo, but I think it's important to know the options available.
I just downloaded Hard Candy deluxe version on iTunes and I've been enjoying it alot. Great dance mixes and featuring some special guests. I'm so amazed at how Madonna has continued to make herself relevant to the present generation. The whole CD is pretty consistent with her disco/dance/pop with a splash of Madonna's city go-go style.
Was strollying Salon and found this Q/A with the author of Parenting, Inc. It gave me and J a chance to really talk through how we spend our $ on things baby/parenting related. I think after 5 months of parenthood, we've seen ourselves consciously resisting the urge to sign up for many workshops that don't seem essential and resisting the marketing out there to "buy" what's necessary for our child to get ahead. It's all about coming back to the basics I guess. It's an exercise in discipline and because of our small home, not getting anything unless it's absolutely necessary or can fit into limited storage space.
I love the useful organizers and storage bins. Oh and the file folders and bulletin boards just get me oh so excited. I'm such a school/office supply geek.
Skin Deep lists products according to how safe or not they are for you. With the recent news regarding lead in lipsticks this is a great website to check what kinds of chemicals many body products contain including baby care as well.
In honor of Blog Action Day, I wanted to review some of the ways we've become better citizens for the environment. Since returning from HK a few years ago I've been already economizing at home and in some way writing about what we've done is really just an extension of values we were already living. So as a way to make a difference in the environment we've doing a bunch of lifestyle changes. Some really simple as changing your shopping habits, and some even just changing your attitude.
1. Replaced 90% of the house light bulbs to CF. There have been many giveaways recently through some cities and Safeway even had a special club savings for a big pack of CF for only $0.99 that are originally $19.
2. Recycle: clothes, plastics, paper, glass, batteries, garden waste.
3. Buy used/sell/give away stuff on Craigslist/Goodwill.
4. Telecommute.
5. Keep old cars well-maintained.
6. Repair before replacing any household electronics or appliances.
7. Wear extra layers instead of turning on the heater; keep water heater thermostat lower.
8. Switch household cleaning products to earth friendly products.
9. Stop using inorganic products for weeds/pests in garden.
10. Use canvas bags/totes/coolers for shopping(grocery & other shopping).
- I've used MyOwnBag for non-grocery shopping bags
- I use old conference canvas bags for groceries(easy to wash) however just found Envirosax that are pretty cool looking.
Some things I'd like to do in the near future
1. Learn how to compost
2. Learn how to sew and repair clothing.
3. After getting used to diapering the baby with disposibles, will consider cloth diapers.
Yup we don't have the fancy cars or clothes, or the latest gadgets but we're trying really hard to reduce our imprint on the world and remove the clutter from our lives. It's a real challenge living in Silicon Valley but it's better than not doing anything. Also there are times when we splurge but we're always seeking out stuff to recycle or give away.
Btw, I have a ton of books to get rid of again...mainly business and IA books. We're still trying to make more storage space as the baby stuff starts moving my professional stuff to garage.
Interesting student project at KSU. It made me think about what kind of schools Jeli will have to consider when she starts thinking about college in 18 or so years.
If you're in need of a wedding florist or special event floral arrangements, check out my friend, Susan's floral design pieces at In Full Bloom. Her portfolio is truly amazing and she has done many weddings on the peninsula.
Strangely enough I've learned so much about the medical view of the labor & delivery process during my childbirth class than the several books I have on my coffee table. If I were to do this all again before I got pregnant, I would take a childbirth preparation class. By the time most take these classes you're already into your third trimester and you're pretty much stuck with your OB or hospital choice. I was able to make some changes at 32 weeks however many may not be so excited about changing at that point. The reason I'm mentioning this is many questions you may want to ask doctors about your care may not come up until after the classes or after you've read enough on your own. Perhaps you're not as conservative as your doctor or you end up not wanting any medical intervention. This gives you enough time to prepare your mentally and physically for the whole journey.
I recommend to my friends and family who are trying to have a baby to really start reading up on the different childbirth medical interventions and the whole process including what is a doula and how they can help because know if you're more conservative or more liberal or "granola" about your expectations can really effect your decision on the doctor, medical group, and hospital choices.
I have a friend who works for the government. I won't say what department or where but she mentioned that one part of her work is to test drug bust money for drugs. She mentioned that all money in circulation has some kind of trace of drugs on them. What triggered this old conversation this morning is that J has been buying and selling guitars online in search of the perfect fit and sound.
I jokingly mentioned that because of the typical characters he has to transact with for the guitar he should definitely clean the guitar really well or be faced with traces of drugs on the guitar. I know it's a really bad stereotype but I get all my facts from Rolling Stone. Also previous experience with some shady musician teacher type people kind of leaves a bad memory of what level of trust you could have. And we also have friends who are/were hardcore musicians and they've mentioned that its all part of the scene.
So with used guitars all over the house and me with my squeeky clean image, OCD tendencies and nesting in full swing...I want to go through the house and just swab it all down with cleansers.
Hundreds if not thousands of librarians from around the world will participate in answering questions at various online question sites. Please take a moment to participate and demonstrate your value as a research expert online.
I went away to a retreat at Asilomar with my church. I was definitely blessed with having a roomate from Kenya. We shared so many things in our history and we had many stories to share about serving our world and those nearest to us. I told her about giving goats for Christmas and she shared a very moving story with me. S. told me a story about how a family she knew did get a goat. Similar to the ones that you can donate through various organizations. How the goat produced milk for that gave the family money to send the kids to school. Eventually one of those kids got into Harvard on full scholarship. The kid could have stayed in the US and taken a posh job. However the kid decides to give back to her village and try to make a difference. She brought in new programs, new ideas for the economy, and social services to meet the needs of the neediest of the village. She came back to put her education to use. All of this could only have happened because of a goat that was given as a donation to her family.
I'm wondering if this could have brought about mediocrity in the next generation. I remember growing up comeptition was fierce to work hard and finish school and do well in the world. There was hardly any praise, only you have to do better next time even if I did really well in the assignment or test. At some point I didn't even share because I would still be reprimanded to do better...there's no such thing as A++ ;) But I guess I just trudged along my classmates and just "worked harder." I don't even remember anyone telling me I was smart growing up.
Wanted to share with friends and family a great resource here in the Palo Alto/Peninsula area for expectant mothers. They offer a wide variety of referrals, yoga for pregnant mothers, birthing classes, etc.
It's my new volunteer gig as we try we begin a reorganization of their resource library of books, videos, and other resources both physical and digital. I'm looking forward to applying my organizing, library science, and web skills for a really great non-profit organization. I'm doing similar work to what I've done for Family Connections the past year so I'm really excited to start sharing those experiences.
If you have any slightly used fertility, pregnancy, post-partum books and maybe even some hand me down toddler books, feel free to contact me since the resource library is looking to expand!
Well just found out another of J's cousin is getting married in May. We're pretty excited. And we were supposed to be at a baby shower but the baby showed up 5 weeks early. S. was born earlier this week at 4.5lbs. So much happening in one week for J's maternal side of the family.
1. One cousin having first baby sometime in March.
2. One cousin turning 40 in Hawaii with most of the G-Clan in April.
3. One cousin having first baby sometime in May.
4. One cousin getting married in July.
5. One cousin getting married in the fall(HK or NY?)
6. One cousin getting married in December.
Ok, can someone out there help me shop for these folks ;) No news on our front except that J is busy right now churning out essays for GSB by Wednesday. Oh and a panel I was invited to be on will be presenting in Vegas at the end of March. I'm pretty excited since it's been a while since I've been to the IA Summit.
Recently I was having brunch with some out of town guests, we were having a great time talking about growing up in CA. One woman grew up in LA, and started to talk about a neighborhood park that was demolished to make room for the 405. It was quite interesting to hear how the kids tried to improvise their idea of play. They took their bikes on the recently constructed 405 Freeway where the park used to be. I'm imagining 10 year old girls & boys on bikes riding on the shoulder of the 405. I guess these days the kids would be faster on their bikes than they would be trying to drive on it. Amazing, I actually know someone who is older than the 405.
