This Girl cleared her pregnancy midpoint mark a while back and although they could have found out the gender of the baby some time back they decided that they didn’t want to know.

The Boy likes to explain that they like surprises and since This Girl gets to experience the pregnancy first hand and he’s basically been relegated to “belly rubber” (and yes, he does a great job rubbing anti-stretchmark cream and oil every night) and has to “get lucky” to feel the baby kick. So, really, the gender would be something he actually gets to know before she does.

Its been quite funny all the speculations that has been going on; the parents all think they do know the gender and are being deliberately secretive (which is not true) and friends have come up with their own theories on whether its a baby boy or girl.

The GIRL brigade

Valska who suspected the pregnancy even before This Girl says its a girl because This Girl still looks pretty much like herself as supposed to women pregnant with boys.

Brunei Princess says its a girl cos This Girl wants to perm her hair before delivering.

Hazy Day says its a girl because This Girl looks too slim to be having a boy.

The BOY brigade

The Mother has declared that its a baby boy because she dreamt it.

Autoboy and girl puts their money on a boy because This Girl had nasal congestion in her first trimester.

One of dad’s office staff said they are expecting a boy because her right shoulder dips more than her left when she walks. (Don’t ask…)

A relative says its a boy because her grandson came to rub This Girl’s belly.

Its funny, all this speculation.

Ten glorious days of peace!

The Company held up great without this girl; big kudos to Brunei Princess who had to step in to deal with clients and projects. The Boy managed to NOT open his lappy which he lugged along like a security blanket and only fielded like three work calls all trip choosing to deal with work, clients, colleagues and projects via SMS.

So, after ten glorious days of schedule-less and deadline-less bliss, This Girl and The Boy are ready to return home.

Its been a much needed break and This Girl looks forward to her last training for the year and a much lighter load in the coming 2010 year. Yay!

This girl bought herself a pair of ballet crocs a while back and went a little crazy dressing it up with jibbitz. And so, thinking that Australia- land of the dressing down- would have tons of jibbitz she had big dreams of buying really cool ones to add to her collection.

She’s got a porsche one (for The Boy), many pretty flowers and butterflies (to feed her girliness), a cute little ducky (cos its yellow and cute), ballet shoes (cos she used to dance), a giraffe (for The Prefect), a Huffalump (for The Princess), a tomato (cos she loves them), and a carrot (cos she almost never eats carrots).

Anyway, as it turns out, Australia has very few Crocs stores. The Boy- who thinks all Crocs are ugly- took the chance to convince This Girl to buy new shoes. His actual words were: “You know Crocs are not real shoes right?”

We walked passed a Sketchers store at the new DFO Southwharf and he took the chance to buy her “real shoes” so now she’s been made to retire her not-real-shoes Crocs. But she thinks she likes dressing them shoes up too much to let them go. Heh.

Given they had no real plans in Melbourne they started each day, lazily with a sleep in then a trudge for food. Usually, that meant simply walking around till they felt hungry or something caught their fancy. It was a lovely way to live, really.

As this girl trudges along her getting more pregnant, she’s begun to eat more as well. No less, she wiped out a huge plate of pancakes at Pancake Parlour while The Boy was left contending with his own smaller portion of pancake-fish thing. Of late, yes, This Girl eats ALOT. She’s like a perpetual hunger monster and a one-woman buffet demolition unit.

One of the days, they decided to go check out the Dracula’s Restaurant, a horror-gore comedy cabaret which proved to be a riot. Always full, you get shuffled in batch by batch into a darkened room ala Disney’s haunted mansion where Fang the gatekeeper lays down the house rules and does his best to scare you silly. You exit into the bar- where people generally load up on booze (lemon tea for This Girl) before riding the Ghost Train to the dinner theatre. The Ghost Train, really, was a small b-grade gore-horror ride; safe enough for pregnant women, really seeing as how patrons had to carry their drinks with them on the ride- so how shaky could the ride be eh?

In lieu with their policy, this girl won’t share too much here, except to say, if you have a chance to catch them if you live or are traveling to Australia (they have shows in Queensland and Victoria) you should. Its a great way to spend the evening and the food’s actually half decent!

This Girl is a little over five months pregnant and she’s had what The Mother terms a “neat” pregnancy. From the back, she pretty much looks the same, her arms, face, legs and general overall body size has remained the same. Ok, ok, the boobs are fuller but no one complains about that, really. But the belly is really the only part that you can tell she’s expecting a baby come end March.

For the most part, especially when she dresses in loose clothing or wears a sweater, most people cannot tell that This Girl is even pregnant. She figured that most people simply thinks that she’s a slightly dumpy short Asian girl who’s out of shape. Which is fine and while she whines about her tightening pants (less now that she’s all maternity pants and skirts suited up) she’s not fussed really.

Their OBGYN tells them that This Girl is just one of those “sticks with a bump” and since the baby is growing bang on schedule size wise she’s not fussed that This Girl is not putting on as much weight as the next pregnant lady. In fact, our OBGYN only put on 7kg throughout her whole pregnancy! Anyway, while This Girl has a slightly protruding belly its by no means a “full on pregnant belly.”

Then two days into the trip she made a startling discovery, the baby had a sudden and decisive growth spurt that sent her and The Boy to the maternity store. In fact, This Girl is on the verge of losing her belly button (its disappearing!) and now sports a teddy-bear like line right down her belly. Most women merely contends with the linea nigra (the dark line running from the belly button southwards) but it seems This Girl’s line goes from the top of her stomach very much like a teddy bear’s belly.

Oddly, the teddy-bear-ness threw This Girl off and she had her first bout of “oh my gawd! I look terrible!” which The Boy handled well (gotta give him credit) decidedly calling himself Daddy Bear the whole day and offering to draw a similar line down his belly with This Girl’s nude lipstick.

They didn’t do that of course.

People have asked This Girl and The Boy if they know if they are expecting a girl or a boy. And when they say they have no idea and wish to be surprised at the end of the pregnancy journey people think they’re nuts.

But seriously, there’s a certain fun-ness with not knowing. And, truth is, it saves money.

They have not bought anything baby-related to date and decided they’d make their first purchases Down Under since they have tons of baby and outlet stores with much cuter stuff than back home. Think Baby Bonds, Cotton On Baby and Pumpkin Patch. The Boy wasn’t that keen on the onset, having exclaimed as they walked to the Big W, “How nice can baby clothes be?”

It was simply precious, and hilarious, seeing him then go wide-eyed and a tad crazy picking out “neutral colours.” Neutral colours, in their books then meant: white, greys, blacks, greens. They refused to buy yellow having decided that their chance of a fair child was relatively high and yellow might make the kid look jaundiced. After the first found of stuff, they came to the realization that they simply bought stuff that they’d wear- just in baby size.

Case in point: The Boy’s first purchase was a baby hoodie. Black, no less.

This boy and This girl finally squeezed out a a week to head down under for a much delayed, much needed break. Its really their first break since their honeymoon in Feb (which was really, a mini-moon since they were planning a big Italian getaway year end but had to re-route till after the baby’s born). Australia was an easy choice- they had friends and family there- and given this girl’s pregnant state, they figured some “good, clean air with fresh food” was the way to go.

They left on a thursday night- flew red eye (bad idea) and spent the day scrambling to clear work and reply to their traditional mountain of emails. Flight at 2100hrs, they worked till 1800hrs. This girl reached the work finishing line first- clearing her emails to zero and getting a head start on packing. In fact, seeing as their plan was to bring all of three days of clothes, packing was easy much to the amusement of The Helper who was getting to the ironing This Girl hates doing.

A 6 hour, uneventful flight later (she ate, slept, watched Harry Potter, ate and slept some more), Melbourne was everything they wished for. The hot weather that plagued down under for weeks gave way to beautiful cool perpetual breeze, no-humidity afternoon sun and temperatures hovered in the mid to low twenties.

And on the itinerary? Nothing.

Seeing as they lived in the lovely Jasper Hotel situated right next to Queen Vic Market, a stone’s throw from Lygon and a mere 5 blocks from the city center they decided to WALK EVERYWHERE. Of course, it was ultra convenient that they had a Boost Juice place and many 7/11s all over the place. Oh, and good-always-packed Asian/Malaysian food place round the corner.

The big struggle was to survive sans laptop (and internet). Heh.

An old classmate had one of the most harrowing- and traumatic- pregnancies. Her little girl had organs in the wrong places, liver and lungs had not progressed as per normal and she knew, even in the months and weeks leading up to the birth, she, her little girl, her husband and friends and family were in for a rough time. True to doctor’s prediction, the situation was touch and go; gravely and critically so in the first few days, then a prolonged NICU stay that was distressing to witness, much less endure up close and personal.

During this time, said friend would post status updates, prayer requests and the little miracles that surrounded that tough time. It seemed like months but her little girl was finally given a clean bill of health and allowed to go home to grateful- and faithful- parents.

Recently, said friend shared that she was expecting her second child. The pregnancy seemed to be progressing well, she kept her fingers crossed and all the bystanders around- this girl included- wished her nothing but the best in this exciting journey.

Few days back she reveled that she had sudden heavy bleeding and needed to be warded and ordered to take complete bed rest. In fact, by the time her update came, she had decidedly checked herself out of the hospital. Her last post was to agonize that she really couldn’t deal with another NICU baby and to request that people kept her in their thoughts and prayers.

It was heartbreaking. It was humbling. And, even while This Girl has had a blessed pregnancy so far; it struck too close to home.

This girl and Valska were talking about it earlier today- for Valska also knew the girl- and they pondered God’s sometimes murky and often confusing plan. Its been an oddly perplexing and unsettling thought baggage this girl is carrying with her, and she’s sure, with Valska (a mother of a young child herself).

As always, with precision and timing only God can muster and deliver, she is humbly reminded that God “goes before, shielding the way, (His) hand upholds…”

When this girl was in college/university, she double majored in Political Science and Psychology; her honours thesis was an amalgamation of both schools (political psychology) where she studied the impact of foreign policy on domestic opinion and elections. She keeps a pulse- as far as she can, anyway- on this world is racked with such political miasma. A world where money, power and personal/MNC interest so often take second place to genuine need; to say the least, public opinion play second fiddle to personal power play.

While reading the news today, she came across an article from Fox News, written by a pastor that resonated with her. See below.

One of this girl’s favourite sites is Mental Floss (see here). Mainly, she loves their tag line that suggests that its there that knowledge junkies get their fix.

The other day, she was reading an article on stories about messages in a bottle which made her smile at God’s sense of timing- and humour. In particular, she loved a “sorta message in a bottle story” about two girls named Laura Buxton:

(Technically this isn’t a “message in a bottle” story, but it’s the same concept—and the story is simply too good not to mention it.)

In June 2001, Laura Buxton (almost 10) released a red balloon into the air over her hometown of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. On one side of the balloon, she had written “Please return to Laura Buxton,” and on the other side, her home address. A few weeks later, a man 140 miles away in Milton Lilbourne found the balloon stuck in the hedge that separated his farm from the next-door neighbors. He noticed Laura Buxton’s name and address and immediately took the balloon to the neighbors’ house, showing it to the 10-year-old girl who lived there…whose name was also Laura Buxton.

Laura Buxton from Milton Lilbourne wrote Laura Buxton from Stoke-on-Trent to let her know that she had found the balloon. Thinking this coincidence was simply too amazing to be true, they decided they had to meet in person. And that’s when things got really weird.

On the day of the meeting, the two girls wore the same outfit – a pink sweater and jeans. The girls were the same height, which was unusual because they were both tall for their age. They both had brown hair and wore it in the same style. They both had three-year old black Labrador Retrievers at home, as well as gray pet rabbits. They both brought their guinea pigs, which were the same color and even had the same orange markings on their hindquarters. It was almost as though these two Laura Buxtons were the same person.

The strange events surrounding their meeting have helped the girls form a strong bond, and they remain friends eight years later. Both feel the circumstances that brought them together are too significant to be written off as mere coincidence.

Given that this girl is relatively petite, she’s gotten away with keeping most of her usual wardrobe, sans the tight fitted dresses and pants. She’s had to pack up her pants, skirts and shorts since most of them were bought to fit her then 24″ waist. So, a while back, she traded her low slung jeans for a maternity wear; mainly: 2 pairs of jeans, 2 skirts and 1 work pants. She wears them in rotation along with dresses and have survived so far.

Thing is this, at Week 18 (actually, moving into 19 tomorrow) she’s suddenly put on some inches- baby’s getting bigger, sure, but also, she’s gotten her appetite back and is putting on some weight on her otherwise 45kg frame. At the end of her first trimester, she had put on a grand total of 200g (she threw up a fair bit) and at 16 weeks 1.2 kg (she was beginning to keep more food in). That was then. She’s not weighed herself since but she’s sure she’s moving along the weight scale, no less, having already added 9″ to her waistline (oh! Thank God for elastic waist banded pants!).

This girl and The Boy were invited to a Art Opening thing recently and this girl proudly declared that she could still fit into a dress she bought while they were in Thailand- fitted and all. That was BEFORE she helped herself to the food at the finger-food line. She had to rush The Boy home cos she needed to get out of her dress NOW NOW NOW given that “fitted” is not really a term you place on clothes on a pregnant woman’s body.

She has been meaning to get some new clothes- maybe just in M size should be ok right?- but has been too busy and lazy to make the trip. Truth is, there are still dresses in her stash that she can wear, but as last night’s dinner do showed, she’s got maybe another month more before she’s got to go in search of roomier wear. Yes, she’s cutting it close, but ah well…

Brunei Princess and one of their interns showed this girl this video clip; its not new, really, its been blogged about, shared on facebook and received its fair amount of due press from the general online community.

This girl spent pretty much the last 15 years working with youths. First, while as a youth herself; then later in a more instructive role, then a more mentorship one. She’s worked with youths here in Singapore, in most parts of Southeast Asia, in Europe, in the States and has seen how similar- and yet dissimilar- they all are. There’s always the group that falls by the wayside, the group that remains a child always, the group that is forced to grow up a little faster than they should, the group that takes center-stage, the group that stands in the shadows… And each, tries to find their place in this world, their little corner of the sky.

And this girl is left to wonder if there’s enough of those that bother to truly make a difference. There’s a secondary movement- if one can even call it that- that was birth in the States in the lead up of the seminal 2008 elections. They are called Generation We. Generation We is more than the birth of a new generation, its a movement from the single most powerful voting bloc. And if the rest of the world just stops to think about it, it is the emergence of what could potentially be- politically, economically, socially- the most powerful force that needs to- but has yet to be- harnessed.

November’s Playboy features Marge Simpson. It made this girl- for some reason- laugh hysterically at that. She saw this video on the Simpsons and laughed even more.

This girl has been kinda busy, and it was good to laugh at frivolity.

Its been a crazy day and the people this girl has had to meet with today really tested her patience. Like REALLY. R.E.A.L.L.Y. tested her patience. Even The Boy who’s got infinitely more patience than she does, especially lately with her pregnant brain and moods, found himself so annoyed his ears began to heat up. Ipud, who was sitting in, also almost wanted to stab himself with his MacDonald’s straw.

And sitting at her lappy feeling her body want to fall apart, in between meetings, today’s QT reminds her:

A Blessing from the Cross

Ponder the price God has paid to purchase you. Be aware of the blood that was shed to make you holy and righteous. Know the peace that only he can give and the grace that only he canoffer. Reflect that love in every step you take today.

“You do not belong to yourselves, because you were bought by God for a price. So honor God with your bodies.” —1 Corinthians 6:19-20

This girl thinks maybe she should learn to pace, calm down and do all the “emotional management” things she sometimes gives talks on. Its trying and difficult. Its a little out of her reach sometimes- especially these days. But, its a clear enough “admonishment” that our bodies are on “loan” and we, easy as we seem to forget, need to take care of it.

One good thing: this girl and The Boy finally booked their much needed holiday. Tickets bought, hotels booked, visas sorted: They are ready to abandon ship for 10 days come end November. God knows they need it.

The Boy has been pretty much gone this past fortnight: first he was away for an in camp training (ICT) drivers course then he flew off to Bangkok for a work conference. With him away, this girl had to pull double duty, run their collective errands, manage both sets of parents and juggle back to back meetings (for both companies) and keep all her other appointments which are stacked deep.

So, its been a lil crazy, its been exhausting and this girl needs some quiet, alone, no fuss time. Not that this girl is ever really alone these days- her back aches enough to constantly remind her- but she really needs some “external” solitude.

Its not going to happen, really, since the in-laws need them to run errands and check on stuff at their house (their place got struck by lightning quite badly) and keep trying to engage this girl in discussions about their moving in together at some point (their 10 year plan became 5, then 3…). While this girl usually holds together quite well, given the two weeks she’s had, she really isn’t up for chats like that.

So, to cut the long story short, this girl needs her holiday (and soon, she’s beginning to think she’s not going to hold up till end Nov) and for people to leave her well alone.