Life and Death

Earlier this year, a colleague friend passed away unexpectedly. I was still in an email exchange with him before his death,  but I was in the dark of  his passing until an office email reached me and an newspaper obituary was found more than a month later.

A heart-shaken news that rendered me speechless in shock.

T's Reading Log II

ぞうくんのさんぽ
The Promenade of an Elephant

Animals

Let's Go to See the World

T's Reading Log I

We started reading with T a couple of weeks ago, and last week, he got his own library card in a local library. How blessed he is to have his own pass to a trove of fun and knowledge since so little!

I found the search for suitable books for 0-year-old baby quite interesting, as there are so many factors to consider since they literally cannot 'read' at all. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to keep a log of the reading he does with us from now on.

A 40-week +2d Project: X

I had thought that the previous entry in this category will be the last one, but the little boy inside me has insisted on staying on for a little while.

The baby has been overdue for 2 days now, but he is still active and seems just reluctant to see the world outside. Or, does he know that we haven't named him yet, or that we haven't built his cot so that he has assumed that he still has some more time to sleep in?

Yesterday, we went to the gynaecologist for the first thing in the morning. The progress was still slow, almost invisible despite all the efforts I have put into workout. And another shocking (?) news is that the boy is either much weightier or bigger than average, a fact that certainly limits the choices of birth plan.

There is no use of panicking, I understand, although I went a bit emotional on the due date as everybody was asking. I think I am more on the sober side on which what worries me is the following schedule of new life and new semester and some medical concerns for the child's health. I am a bit impatient, rather.

Ever since the doctor's caution was issued 2 weeks ago regarding my physical condition, which hadn't showed any sigh of labor, taking exercise has become central to my everyday life. Taking long walks to stations is no longer a tough task, as the distance between the house and the two nearby stations seems to be far more manageable than the distance between this body with a belly and that body without a baby. Though seemingly strenuous at first, these walks are merely a piece of cake.

To add on to the menu of exercise programme, I also purchased a gym ball and started practicing pregnancy pilates. I had been meaning to get enrolled into classes of maternity yoga earlier in the past 10 months but had then missed the timing in the end. Now in the final stretch of the journey, the need for physical fitness has become emergent.

Compared with other videos of pregnancy pilates, this instructor's (Alice) pace and easy-going-ness are close to my heart and ability. I simply have difficulties following those clips which are tempered by loud shouts of beats of instructors (with their bellies!), and by a briskly-paced music. With Alice, I have learned to relax and breath well, and have fallen in love with my gym ball.

Pregnancy Pilates 

A 40-week Project: IX

Unbelievably I have already entered the last week of the 10-month stretch of pregnancy. In another 7 days, both the baby and I will reach at the supposed due date, although my doctor said that my body hadn't given any biological sigh of labor yet, and some more exercises from now on will be desperately needed. 

A 40-week Project: III

I have heard a lot about how pregnant women would suffer from digestion problems, such as constipation. It is really something that I am worried most before I even thought of getting a child. Since little, the issue of digestion has troubled me all the way up to now due to, probably, my tense nerves and inability to relax.

A 40-week Project: VIII

 Baby's laundry makes a sunny day's poetry.