I'm HUGE

I'll preface this with...I know this is totally normal.
I am really getting a pregnant belly! I'm 11 weeks, 12 on Thursday. My regular jeans are really uncomfortably tight. I think I have to turn them in. I was looking at pictures of myself pregnant with Lilia. We took pictures every 2 weeks starting at 17 weeks. At this point, I look like I did with Lilia at 20 weeks!!! Dave confirmed it. Like I said I know it's normal, but it's still crazy.
Last week I was at the playground with Lilia. An older woman was there and she spoke some English. She asked which was my child because there was another foreign baby there. I told her just Lilia and one on the way. When she saw my stomach and found out how far along I was she said, "Wow you're big! Maybe you're having twins."
(The picture is of Lilia, day 2.)

His First American Meal

Tonight we hosted an Asian friend Dave made on campus for dinner. I wasn't nervous because Dave only informed me that he was coming this afternoon so I already had something planned! (By the way, this is very unlike my husband.) So I made potato soup, garlic green beans and we had a french baguette from a French bakery nearby.
This was Dave's friend's first time having butter. He put butter on one piece of bread, but didn't care to butter the rest of his slices. He loved the soup and had two bowls! I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't know how it would go over.
I put out chopsticks to eat the green beans. Not unusual for here. Asians don't like to have their fingers touch food. So our friend would pick up the bread with his chopsticks and put it right in his mouth!
Overall it went well!

Funny English

Something that Asia is known for is hilarious English translations of things. This morning I was laying in bed eating toast so I wouldn't get sick, didn't work mind you, when I read the tissue box on the bed-side table. Picture on the box, green branches with white jasmine flowers and a yellow butterfly. Here's what the box said:
"This beauty in full bloom scents the air and deserves lots of praise for its sweet and white."

I was there!

Last night kt and i watched "Marley and Me". It is the true story of a disobedient dog starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston. They filmed part of it in West Chester when we were living there, Gay and Church Street to be precise. We knew we were going to see some sights that we recognized, but when our home town appeared in the first minute we froze.

The past few weeks kt's pregnancy craving (read: obsession) has been soft pretzels. When the Soft Pretzel Factory on N Church Street made a cameo, we burst out laughing. Also note there are no soft pretzels to be found in Asia!

The challenges of Pregnancy

We live in a tall apartment building with neighbors on 2 sides and people above and below us. Every day at lunch time and dinner time I walk into my kitchen and can smell what my neighbors are cooking. Most Asians don't use an oven, they only use a wok and possibly pots. I can always tell when a neighbor is having fish that day. So I was just in the kitchen taking the last bite of my banana and throwing away the peel when I starting gagging due to the smell. I'm looking forward to when we're back in the states and the only thing I smell in my kitchen are the smells that me and my family are creating!!

Successfully putting on mommy's slipper socks

Smile!