Book 'Im, Danno. He's 181 Days Old!

This is my nephew River (and Tsaggui! - who is not my nephew at all). The little bean was a few weeks old when this picture was taken in mid January.


As you can see he was adorable, tiny (though not for his age) and had a head full of fluffy hair.


As of today he's SIX MONTHS old!


So, what's different about being 6 months? Well, if you look closely at this picture you'll see that he's taller than his dad now. He's still got that same head of hair though it's thicker and fluffier. Oh yeah....he's also got more rolls than a bakery. That's a good thing at this age though.

I wish I could be there in person to give him a giant birthday pinch (followed by a birthday hug and birthday kiss), but I can't.

Instead I wore the "World's Best Aunt" shirt that I got from River as a gift. All day, when people have read it, I've taken the opportunity to tell them how awesome he is and that it's his half birthday.

I think I'll eat a slice of cake tonight in his honor.

The Most Wonderful Dad in the World

Over the weekend I had two separate people tell me that I should keep my blog more up to date so that they would know what's going on in my life. I'm assuming they think that there is more going on in my life than just eating cereal for breakfast, putting in 8-9 hours of work, eating cereal/pasta/chicken/etc for dinner, sleeping and running (not at the same time). I suppose they'd be right because I am also learning to play the piano and I watch Josh practice Kendo 2-3 times each week. That pretty much sums up my current (not-so-interesting) existence. Unfortunately for me, someone's big sister happens to update her blog regularly, so, it's making me look bad.

So, to avoid looking bad, to post something timely and also to avoid boring you with details of my life, I present to you a post about my dad, Hal (don't call me Harry) Fields a.k.a. The Most Wonderful Dad in the World.

* He's put in over 20 years with the same company to put food on his family's table as well as to demonstrate to his kids that work isn't always glamorous, but, it's a lot more fulfilling than mooching off of other people.

* He used to run really slowly so a very tiny girl could go jogging with her dad. 20 years later, he again ran really slowly so that a somewhat less tiny girl could run a marathon with her dad.

* He spent hours refreshing his knowledge of Chemistry, Algebra, Calculus and other subjects so that he would be able to help his kids learn the things that they weren't quite understanding in school.

* He looked the other way as various stray animals and people were brought into the home over the years which made for a much more interesting and fulfilling childhood.

* He mastered the art of making pancakes and tuna boats so there would always be something tasty to eat on the rare occasions that mom was out of town.

* He fixed cars, tvs, washers, dryers and other mechanical items around the house even though it was fairly obvious that he didn't exactly enjoy spending time on repairs.

* He flew ~2000 miles, TWICE, to give away 2 different daughters in marriage. In spite of the long journies to get there and the fact that he doesn't like dancing, he danced at both weddings (including a lively jig to Cotton-eyed Joe).

He is, The Most Wonderful Dad in the World.

Happy 10 Week Birthday, Bean!

I know it's not official until tomorrow, but, the little Bean is finally 10 weeks old.

That means she's 25% of the way through her development!

In the past 7 days, she's increased in length 50% - growing from 1" long to 1.5" long.

Lil, you should be excited....I hear the mood swings start kicking in this week. ;)

Babies on the Mind

So, there is a slight chance that I'm more obsessed with babies and pregnancy now than my sister who's actually pregnant.

Now, I'm guessing that's not actually the case, seeing as Lil and Bear have been trying to get pregnant for about 2 years (I'm under the impression 'trying' involves frequent trips to cabbage patches to see if they could find a baby....). Still, it's been on my mind a lot. I keep going to websites to see how far along in development the baby is and to calculate the baby's/babies' due date.

Firstly, pregnancy junk is very confusing because different people are using different scales. Apparently, the most common "how far along are you' calculations start 2 weeks after your last period. In other words, on day one, the first day you're actually pregnant, you are technically 2 weeks into your 40 week pregnancy. Does that make sense to you? Doesn't this mean that someone like me who is not pregnant at all is, by this scale, pregnant 2 weeks out of every month? I know that's being a little facetious, but, it's annoying to put in a conception date of April 9th and have it tell you that your sister is 5 weeks pregnant when you can clearly count 26 days from April 9th - and, unless they changed the definition of a week, 26 days does not 5 weeks make.

Anyhow, I finally figured out that the pregnancy calculators add in that 2 weeks at the beginning but the 'how far along is your baby' information counts from the day of conception. At least, I think that's how it works.

Then, I found a nifty widget to go on my blog that handles all the thinking for me. The downside is that it says "We're having a baby". My options were "We're" or "I'm". Neither one of those is great, but, I figure it would be very 'hand that rocks the cradle-ish" if I went around saying I'm having a baby, so, "we're" it is. If it gave me the option, it would have said, "Lil and Bear are Having a Baby" as that's the truth of the matter, but, that wasn't an option and my attempts to edit the code on the HTML level were not successful.

The widget is cool. It has a countdown to the due date (which is neat, of course). Even cooler is the fact that it has a 3-d image of the baby at it's current stage of development. If you click on the image, it takes you to a page with more detailed information. Apparently, right now, the baby/babies are about the size of a poppy seed. Think about that when you're munching on your poppy seed bagel tomorrow morning!

Sometime this week, little tiny baby ears & eyes will begin to form. So, if you have any cussing you need to get out of your system, do it now. After this week, 'they' will be listening to everything you do and say. Don't F-it up!

Aunt Jessica

I found out yesterday that I'm going to be an aunt.

After two years of trying (and, no, I don't want to know what that entails), my sister Lil and her husband Bear are going to be having a baby.

I've been trying to figure out how old the little bean is, but I'm not entirely sure how this works. I found the following information:

• Day 1 - conception takes place.
• 7 days - tiny human implants in mother’s uterus.
• 10 days - mother’s menses stop.
• 18 days - heart begins to beat.
• 21 days - pumps own blood through separate closed circulatory system with own blood type.

If you take the pregnancy test because you missed your period, that would mean that the baby is at least 10 days old, right? It could also mean that the baby is a bit older than that too...I think.

In any case, sometime in the next two weeks, my very first niece or nephew (or nieces or nephews or niece and nephew) will experience the very first beats of his/her/their tiny little hearts.

Then they're going to grow some feet and start kicking to enact the revenge their grandmom has long hope for!

Crash! Boom! Kapow!

Last December (December 6, my parents' 34th anniversary, in fact) Josh and I were in an accident on the 405.

We were on our way home after going to his parents' house to watch the USC/UCLA football game. We were in the far left 'fast' lane going about 60 when the car in front of us dove into the right lane. The reason? An old woman's tire had gone flat and she had stopped her car in the fast lane and not put on any emergency lights (or even her brake lights) to warn people. We couldn't swerve to the right because there was another car there, but Josh was able to get the car stopped since he always leaves plenty of space between our car and the car in front of us.

There were, what seemed like 2-3 seconds but were most likely a few milliseconds, where I remember hearing the squeal of brakes, looking into the mirror on the passenger's side at quickly approaching headlights and chanting, "Please don't hit us from behind...please don't hit us from behind."

I'm always nervous when we have to stop quickly in traffic (which is much more often than you might think on CA freeways). Josh gets frustrated because he thinks I'm worried he'll hit the car in front of us. In fact, my fear was always that someone else that was following a little more closely than he does, driving a little more quickly than he does, or paying a little less attention than he does would not react in time. For a good five years, we were lucky.

Not this time.

We were rear ended by a large SUV that had managed to slow down to about 45 mph by the time they slammed into us. Josh saw it coming and started pumping the brakes to get the car stopped again which was no small effort as our little Saturn was now stopping itself, the large SUV, the Nissan sedan that rear ended the SUV and the mid-sized car that rear ended the Nissan. He was still able to stop the whole pile of twisted metal before we hit the old lady's car which was great as she was out of car, standing between our car and hers, looking at her flat tire.

The Saturn was a little trooper and crushed up nicely around us but left both of us without a scratch. It's a bit surreal to stand on the shoulder of the freeway and listen to two highway patrolmen discussing how it's a miracle that there were no major injuries or fatalities while they look at the wreckage of the car you were just in.

Anyhow, I was finally able to snap a picture of it before the charity came to pick it up and I thought I'd post it here.



Farewell, little buddy. You did a great job taking us camping, taking us to the beach, and, most importantly, keeping us safe.

Welcome to the Blog

I've been reading my sister's blog for a little over a year now and have been impressed with (and jealous of) her ability to write meaningful posts on a regular basis.

I have no delusions that I will be able to keep pace with that on my own blog.

Still, it seems like a nice way to let people know what's been going on in your life and post things that have been on your (my?) mind - so, why not. After all, starting a blog is completely free...that's why all the great blog names were scooped up years ago and consist of one (and only one) post that simply says, "Testing". Luckily, Lil is awesome at naming things so she was able to find a cool name that hadn't been taken yet. Well, it's been claimed now, so, for all those that come after me looking for their cool blog name, "Nyahhhh nyahhhh nyahhh".

Now's as good a time as any to mention 'the rules'. At times, I might post an opinion that you disagree with, (whether it be something silly like the best flavor of ice cream - ROCKY ROAD - or something of a political/philosophical nature - the heavy stuff). Feel free to point out where you think I'm wrong. I'm more than happy to look at the other side of things (or the other sides....don't want to be accused of any false bifurcations here); however, I'd appreciate it if you did it in a rational manner. There's no need to 'scream' at me and tell me I'm an idiot. Even if we ignore that it's an ad hominem and adds nothing to the conversation, the fact is that I don't deal well with angry, unreasonable people (I'm also not great with angry, reasonable people, but they're a bit better). I'd love to have an intelligent discussion on anything posted here but am not looking to get preached at or beaten over the head with anything.

On the other hand, if you agree with me, you should feel free to tell me how awesomely smart I am. (Kidding! Of course).

That's pretty much it for the rules.

I look forward to seeing you around!