Tomorrow is D-day for baby boy Ballast #2!!!  Time went by so quickly; I cannot believe nine months went by like a finger snap.  Tomorrow, May 16, baby boy Ballast #2 will be exactly 38 weeks old in my tummy.

For the most part, this pregnancy has been uneventful except for two things.  The first one was starting on a weekly progesterone shot at 20 weeks and the second one was getting a gestational diabetes diagnoses at 24 weeks.  The progesterone shot was a precautionary measure against pre-term labor.  Believe it or not, when Paul was 33 weeks in-utero and I’ve gone to the doctor for my regular check-up, I was laboring with contractions 3-5 minutes apart but not even feeling any of it.  So the doctor sent me to the hospital where I spent a weekend resting and getting loads of powerful meds to stop the contractions as well as speed up the growth of Paul’s lungs in case my body decided to push through with delivering a baby.  Thankfully, within 24 hours, my contractions were almost gone and I was ordered on bed rest for two weeks after dismissal from the hospital.

This time, my doctor wanted to make baby stays in my womb for as long as he needs to finish growing; hence, the progesterone shots.  I’ll spare you the details but I’ll tell you this much: for one like me who thinks I have such a high pain tolerance level, some of those shots I got were just downright painful!  And it’s largely due to the humongous size of the needle I got poked with – every…single…time.  Not to mention that the medicine itself if as thick as oil, literally sesame oil!  Anyways, I was glad when week 35 came along and I bid adieu to that medicine.

As for my gestational diabetes (GD) diagnoses…well, I did not expect that at all.  I didn’t have it with Paul so it came as a surprise when I failed both my one-hour and two-hour tests.  For a staunch rice-eater, this was not welcome news for me at all!  But on to learning, it is.  I took a GD class where the educators essentially taught us how to monitor our carb intake based on a recommended diet that’s meant to help lower our glucose levels.  I pricked my little fingers four times a day to measure my blood sugar levels, logged every single thing I ate with the exact carb servings, and studied and adjusted food choices for better and lower blood sugar reading results.  It was a daunting task at first but I think that was mostly due to denial on my part that I cannot anymore consume as much rice and bread and pasta as my heart so desired.  Once I got over that mental hurdle, picking foods and limiting my carb servings to the recommended amount was not a big deal anymore.  My after-meal readings were consistently normal but my fasting readings were still 10-20 points higher than normal.  My doctor put me on two medications that helped significantly lower my fasting levels and in a few days.  I am looking forward to retiring the blood sugar monitoring in less than 24 hours!

The good news is that I’ve learned and relearned better and healthier ways of eating just enough carbs that my body needs.  Truth be told, after my first trimester of eating nothing but crackers and broth, I craved and cooked my favorite Filipino snack of all time – guinataan tambo-tambong.  That’s an exotic word for sticky rice balls with tapioca pearls, bananas, jack fruit and four types of root crops – sweet potatoes, purple yams, Japanese sweet potatoes, and taro root – all cooked in sweetened coconut milk.  Right there is carb fest for ya!  And I ate a bowful of that thing for breakfast, morning snack, lunch, and nighttime snack on top of regular meals with rice for the whole month of January!  Okay, that’s an exaggeration but I ate a lot, to be sure!  I don’t think this is why I got GD – but I think my risk factors were pretty high, especially after discovering that it runs in the family.  I now have, under my belt, 12 weeks of healthy eating practice and it’s been quite literally good for me.  My weight gain was kept at only 27 pounds with Baby #2 as opposed to 40 lbs. previously with Paul.  Most of my current weight gain went to the bump and baby and I’m not as bloated rolly-polly all around.  I intend to keep this way of eating post-delivery, though I’ll be first to admit, I want that big bowl of spaghetti with my own Filipino sauce in the freezer already waiting to be thawed and used as soon as I get the go-ahead to eat a full meal.

I’ve heard it said that having GD could be a blessing in disguise in that one can adjust and make lifestyle changes post-pregnancy to keep oneself from the onset of adult Type 2 diabetes, which, apparently is the case with 65% of women diagnosed with GD during pregnancy five to ten years after initial GD diagnoses.  That’s not something I want to have in my future so prevention is what I am aiming for at this point in my life.

And how about Paul’s reaction to all these changes ahead?  To say that he is excited to be a big brother is an understatement!!!  He CANNOT wait to meet his little brother!  Everyday, without fail, he sings to baby, talks to him, and he rubs my belly every five minutes.  For the last three weeks he’s been saying, “I wish baby is here already!”  I’ve loved watching him love on his little brother and affectionately say, “I love you, baby” to my tummy, to which he, assuming baby’s voice, responds by saying, “I love you too, Kuya (Filipino word for big brother)!”

We’ve had some very interesting conversations about how baby came to be in my tummy.  At the beginning of the pregnancy, this exchange happened quite often:

P: Mommy, how did baby get in your tummy?
Me: Well, we prayed to God and asked that He give us another baby, if He wanted that to happen for us. And he did.
P: But how did baby get in your tummy?
Me:  Baby started as a teeny tiny speck in my belly and then he grew and grew and grew.
P: Ya, but how did that little dot get in your tummy?

Yada…yada…yada…

Recently, our conversation went like this:

P: Mommy, do boys have babies too?
Me: Nope, just the girls. 
P: Oh, just girls like you?
Me: Yes.  Mommy is a girl and I married Daddy, who is a boy.  Mommy and Daddy love each other and we asked God to give us a baby and He did.
P: Oh, I get it!  Here’s how it happens.  When a boy and a girl get married, God put a baby in the girl’s mouth and then it grows into a baby in the girl’s belly!

Yada…yada…yada…

We have brought Paul to at least three of the ultrasound appointments for baby and he has seen baby do his thing in my belly through the tv screen.  He still talks about how baby winked at him one time.  Baby really was opening and closing his eyes – a fascinating thing to witness even for both Hubby and me.  Then he remembers baby giving big brother a flying kiss – baby has, in fact, puckered his lips while his one hand was moving quick from one end of the screen to the other in front of his face.  Paul never fails to mention those two images when folks ask him about his baby brother.

As for the baby’s name…well, tomorrow you will know.  I tell you, though, choosing a name this time around was not easy.  We knew right away with Paul that we wanted him called that name but with Baby #2, we couldn’t decide for two to three months if the name we picked was “it.”  But we do now have one picked; we’re just not telling yet.  We even let Paul in on the secret just three weeks ago but we told him it’s our little family secret for now.  I feel bad putting that burden on a four-year-old but to our surprise, he has shown quite the maturity to keeping a secret.  There were at least three instances with me present when folks asked about baby’s name and Paul was quick to say, “We can’t tell because it’s a surprise!”  He mentioned once that one of his teachers had asked about baby’s name but he didn’t tell his teacher because “it’s a surprise!”

I asked him yesterday morning what he is most excited about when baby comes out in just two more days and he said, “seeing him!”  I asked him this morning if he’s excited to meet baby tomorrow and he said, “I am VERY excited!”

Well, like Paul, I can’t wait to meet our new little man in a couple more hours!!  Do pray for a safe c-section delivery tomorrow and for enough strength and health for the whole family!

Nature, once more, has proven its unpredictability.  This past Wintet felt like a very long Spring with intermittent periods of cold spell but nothing like the past Winters in East Tennessee in the last three years.  By January, there were a few low lying bushes of forsythia showing off their sunshiny yellow blooms.  January, when the rest of the country were pummeled with some dangerous ice storms and 12″ snow storms.  Yeah…we certainly have it good here in East TN!

March came rolling in with near-80-degree temperatures.  The home gardeners are itching to dig into the dirt.  Luckily for them, the garden centers are still sparse on plants or they’d have bought many a plant to set out in the garden too soon.  The last frost date for East TN isn’t until April 15, which could mean damage to plants that cannot survive frost.  

And here we are, one week past last frost date.  There is a forecast of near freezing temperatures.  Today was certainly cooler than most days we had in February.  At least for me in the gardening department, there is nothing there yet to worry about.  I restrained my excitement to plant warm weather veggies too soon.  

Speaking of warm weather veggies…here is a post I started writing in the Fall but never got around to finishing.  Thought I’d post it here now since one, it is a warm weather vegetable, and two, it is related to gardening.  Who doesn’t want to talk about gardening in the Spring – fair weather or not?  Here goes the originally titled post, “Saving Seeds – Yard Long Bean Edition.”

Yard Long Beans has many names – Asparagus Beans, Chinese Long Beans, Sitaw (Filipino name), Snake Beans, etc.  Regardless of the name, the one true thing about these beans is that they are long, literally.

The variety grown in my garden last summer is called “Chinese Red Noodle Beans” and though they weren’t measured with a yard stick, the longest one harvested, in my best guesstimation, is about 1-1/2 feet.  These are of the pole bean variety, too, not bush type. They were trellised on a frame eight feet long  by seven feet high but they easily could have grown up to 15 feet given enough vertical support.  With a gardener of 4’11” stature, harvesting at 15 feet would have been challenging and funny!  Already at 7-feet, I was on my tippy toes on a step stool, arms as stretched as it can get, using the extra length of the shears to get to the beans.  Thankfully, there were no falling accidents this year.

Growing beans is considered easy, right along with growing squashes.  However, my experience has been dotted with frustration on various issues.  My first year of growing pole ‘Kentucky Wonder’ beans, the total harvest was only about a handful of thin tasteless beans.  I swore off growing pole beans from that experience.  Enter bush beans, particularly the ‘royal burgundy’ variety.  The sowing, growing, and harvesting was better than the pole beans, much to my delight, and the flavor was slightly sweet when freshly picked.  That same year, my second year into backyard gardening, I also sowed green asparagus beans bought at the garden center.  Unfortunately, I went over zealous sowing them in the ground, putting up to nine seeds around one bamboo pole.  The leaves prolifically grew; the trellis looked like a jungle yard!  Then the waiting began for the flowers to show and eventually yield fruit.  It took a little while but they came out and I was ready to sing praises.  However, due to the overcrowding at sowing and a short 6-foot trellis, the vines ended up all knotted that there were but very few pods that survived.  Then there’s the fact that the sowing was done quite late in July that the beginning of harvest was at the end of September.  By the time the jungle yard of long beans was at its peak of yielding fruit, the first frost has set in.  Heartbroken, I vowed to come back the next year with a better trellis, better control at seed sowing, and a better plan for an early sowing.  And I am happy to report that this year was, by far, my most successful year of growing and harvesting long beans.  There were meals aplenty from our harvest and there were more that we shared with friends.  Thing is, I’ve used up the whole packet of seeds at sowing and I was bummed that I won’t have anymore to use.  They sure weren’t cheap.

Enter seed saving – really not a new concept but one I have yet to do.  The practice of saving seeds is perhaps as ancient as the practice of growing plants.  I don’t know that for a fact but it certainly makes sense to me.  Not only does it provide seeds for sowing the next season, it also allows for the opportunity to share with other people the variety of seed that’s proven to have flourished in one’s lot of land.  My Grandmother saved a lot of seeds from her harvests of corn and beans – that I observed growing up.  I chuckle at the thought now that the practice of gardening, growing plants from seed, saving seeds, and getting much delight doing so are so much a part of who I am becoming when growing up, I was not much of a garden growing type.  My friends and family will attest to that.  Having said that, I am grateful for my Grandmother showing me, in her own patient and quiet way, the value of growing your own food with your own hands.

So here’s a brief primer on how to save the seeds of yard long beans:

1. When your harvest is getting to a close (usually end of Summer, closer to Fall), select pods that are healthy with no apparent pest or bug infliction.  Do not harvest them, rather let the pods grow to maturity.  Leave them on the vines until they are dry.
   
2. Snap off the dried pods from the vines.  Because the pods are dry, they are easy to split off.  Harvest the dried seeds and leave them in a container in open air for a week or so before storing in a tight container or sealed envelope.
   

If your area is expecting frost before the pods have fully dried on the vine, you may harvest them to dry near a window that gets plenty of sunlight. 

This was my process and I expect to plant the saved seeds this coming Summer.  I’ll be sure to report on the performance of my second generation yard long beans at the end of harvest this year.

Happy gardening!!

Almost four weeks of roller coaster fun…and you’re in for the ride now. Brace yourself for this one’s a long one.

Flour and Sugar
Here’s the rundown: 12 cheesecakes, more than 32 dozen cookies, 2 chocolate cakes, 4 dozen chocolate cupcakes, and 2 trays of cinnamon buns in two weeks.  My Cuisinart hand mixer was a workhorse; it puts those fancy mixers to shame.  Never mind that it almost burned up from working a very sticky, heavy, and enormous cookie dough.  I am thankful for a little piece of advice, albeit the only useful information I got, from a fairly big cookbook I borrowed at the library this Summer – that the best way to ensure a smooth cooking endeavor is to start with a big sink full of hot sudsy water.  And to this I add my eureka moment a few months ago – that a dishwasher is not just for washing dishes at the push of a button but that it can also be utilized as a dish drainer when clean and not in use.  Wash, rinse, and dry as you go and any gargantuan sized baking or cooking endeavor can be finished in no time…with clear and clean counters to boot!  It’s been a very fun Christmas baking experience for me…I hope to do more of it in the months to come.

Lost In Translation
One of my ten list of things to do in 2011 included “wedding singing gigs.”  That chance came on the eve of the 2012, fashionably late I say but still within 2011.  It truly was a thrill for me to have scratched that off my list.  Anyway, one of the requested songs for the wedding was “The Prayer” made famous by the Andrea Bocelli – Celine Dion duet.  The song is clunky to sing as a solo, at least in my opinion.  And then there’s the full Italian bridge part.  Granted, some English version was written out for that part and I understood it as just an interpretation, just a bit short of keeping the essence of its Italian meaning.  So, with a week to go before the wedding day, I resolved to learn just that part of the song in Italian.  I had fun and I think I did okay for those with untrained ears.  *Grin*

911
For the first time in my near ten years of living here in the US, I called 911.  Thankfully, no one was hurt after all was said and done.  Suffice it to say that this two-hour episode involved someone in trouble, 911, cops, and a peaceful resolution.  It was like watching an episode of the TV show, “Cops,” only this one was happening in real life right before my eyes.  Shook me up a good bit.  An overactive imagination didn’t help my fears be kept at bay for the first few days post-incident but that’s been a few weeks away now.  I think I’m breathing easier.

New Baby
Gotcha!!!  This is not of the cute, gurgling, squirming tiny baby kind.  Nope…it’s a Kitchenaid!  And a handsome looking one too.  After my December flirting with what could be the beginnings of a home-based baking business, my husband took it upon himself to ease my laborious baking process with a trusty Kitchenaid mixer.  Now off to some self-learning on how to make this venture help bring in some dough!

Spring Flirting
This Winter season has been very mild compared to the first two Winters we had since moving south from Chicago.  But, it’s been the most interesting.  There were variations of unseasonably warm weather with gorgeous sunshine and clear blue skies, freezing day to overnight temperatures, thunderstorms, and twice only disappointing dusting of snow – all occurring within a week.  A bit confusing, I say, and more so with the plants.  Just down our street, there are yellow forsythia flowers ablooming and everywhere I look, tiny buds are attempting to show but seem frozen and browning from the frigid temperatures that certainly are expected this time of year.  There has been a lot of rainfall and I’m grateful for what that means to the land.  And of course, there has been many days of sunshine too.  One would think East Tennessee has just hit early Spring; however it is only January and there are sure to be many more frosty days and nights come February.  This really was just a ramble to say that I cannot wait for the weather to make up its mind and be more consistently warm so that diggers like me can get on with gardening to our hearts’ content!

50
That’s a milestone number.  My Daddy was born in December 12, 1962 and he would have turned 50 on December 12, 2012.  He is physically not with us anymore but he is constantly in my thoughts.  I miss him ever so dearly.

Nerf Wars
Oh yes!  Having a boy certainly has its perks.  There is now a standing evening nerf war exercises at the Ballast household where my two boys team up to beat the bad guy!  That would be me.  Oh the fun!!!!  Perhaps it’s just an excuse to launch a nerf attack on my wonderful husband but really, he doesn’t mind.  Besides, my marks are 99% of the time just zinging past him or hitting their forts.  Our three-year-old has this thing he calls “Ammo Hunt” (it sounds more like “Elmo Hunt” when he says it) where he runs out to my side of the living room to collect ammo, all while doing his signature jiggy dance.  Who knew having a boy would be this much fun?!!

Welcome 2012!!

 

My little one turned three today.  Three years.  Wow!  That really did go by fast.  But it’s been fun so far and we’re just savoring each time we get to spend together.  Maybe I’m still high on the after-birth oxytocin three years later that I can’t seem to remember much of the bad toddler parts…or my brain is just slowly going.  No, truly honestly though, I know that our son is not in any way the most behaved, obedient, obliging little guy but let’s just say, all things considered, he’s been a good boy who is learning his way in this world through his expressions of language and action, some manifested in joyful obedience and some in stubborn self-will.  I love this boy to bits and I know his Daddy does too.  We’re grateful for the privilege of being parents and we’re grateful for out boy!

Happy three-years-old birthday, sweet pea!  I’m tickled that you thought your store-bought chocolate birthday cake “is the bestest birthday cake ever!”  YOU are the sweetest and bestest little boy I know…ever!  Mommy and Daddy love you very very much!

Today is my third day of trying to turn around a nasty cold.  It’s an unpleasant feeling – this stuffy plugged up nose, half-deaf hearing from all the sniffing and nose blowing, and cough attacks.  Thankfully, the body aches are long past but still…

This week happens to be a very big week for Hubby.  Lots of rehearsals for this weekend’s Christmas event.  My little one, who turns three exactly six days from today, has been a very good boy through this sickness, keeping me company and being really obedient and pleasant all around.  I asked him today to come closer so I can give him a hug (just because I love giving him a hug and it felt so long since the last time I did so) and before he came he looked at me and said,

“You’re my best friend Mommy!”

To which I replied, “Aw!  You’re my best friend, too!  And you know what?  Mommy loves you forever and forever.  You know what forever means?”

“What?”

“Forever means a very very long time.”

“But I love you now too.”

“Yes, and I love you forever too.”

Then he said, “I will never leave you alone, Mommy!”

Nothing…I mean nothing can ever replace that moment he said that to me with such sincerity in his voice and that look of care in his eyes.

Thankful for beautiful interludes on sick days…already makes me feel better!

As this thread is coming to a close, I am reminded of this truth: that thanksgiving is not be contained to a season or a just a day of celebration; it’s to be exercised as a part of everyday life, like eating or breathing or walking or running.  For there are many things in my everyday that are cause for thanksgiving, only I somehow neglect to acknowledge them.  For in them comes an outpouring of joy.  Oh, how often I go looking for joy!  It’s right here…in the now.  Open up my eyes that I may see, my heart that I may know – for in You, are all things new.  Thank you – for love undeserved!

 

There are moments in the day when I look at our little boy and just be overcome with awe!  I love this little boy to bits.  And when he says, in his sweetest way of doing so, “I love you, Mommy!” – I just melt!  Like today…he was waking up from his nap and as soon as he opened his eyes and saw me, his first words were, “I love you Mommy!”  Nothing in the world can even match the value of that in my heart.  It’s priceless.  Just priceless.  And I am thankful for these beautiful moments captured each day.  They’re like a super strong shot of joy espresso to me.  It makes me deliriously happy!

Rainy day today.  Our little guy said while looking out the window, “The rain waters the plants so the plants don’t get too thirsty.”  There was a time when he was so scared of the rain, he’d freak out at the sight or feel of raindrops.  We couldn’t figure out why he was so scared of it but we suspect his fears came out of a recent storm breakout in late Spring when we I overreacted while watching the fierce wind knock around the trees out the backside of our house as the raindrops slowly picked up speed.  The little guy was right beside me, hearing my anxious, high-pitched voice jabbing about how that tree is going to fall onto our deck and possibly cause damages, etc.  He ran in to our bedroom, got under the covers and said, “I scared of the rain.”

Happy to see him overcome that fear of rain now.  We pretty much had to reassure him that the rain is good for us, for the plants, and the grass because it brings much-needed drink for their parched roots to help them grow.  And yes, he now uses that line whenever he sees the rain.  Except, these days, he’s also prone to singing, in his cute way, the line, “raindrops keep falling on your (his version) head.”

Thankful for the rain and the watering it brings.

Christmas decorations are up.  Thankful for another season of celebrating the coming of our baby Jesus.

 

Beautiful day today.  Day 4 of Hubby’a 4-1/2 staycation.  Ahh…I could so easily get used to this.  It’s wonderful having him around.  The house just has a different energy when the whole family  is in one place.  Thankful for rare but much-needed and refreshing staycation with Hubby and our little guy.