She moves in mysterious ways....

It is a bouncing pig it is. I had heard and read that baby would snooze during the day and then start dancing about at night when mom is trying to sleep. Well Pig dances all day long. Starting to wonder when she does manage to sleep. Worried that K and I will have a super fussy, high maintenance Pig on our hands. But then I'm really grateful for the constant reminder that she's there and kicking. Every morning when I wake up, my little roommate wakes up too and demands that we start moving. I love that I'm never alone while she's with me.

Her movements:

1) The twirl - most common move, very picky this little girl. She hates bad posture so whenever I start to hunch over my keyboard at work, she spins about indignantly until I straighten up.
2) The jab - second most common, usually in response to K's nightly poking and proding.
3) The slither - this one is pretty creepy, when I stretch out onto our bed, I can feel the lump that is Pig move from one side to another. It feels like a snake slithering around.
4) The stretch - I kinda like this one even though it hurts a bit. Occasionally, I look down and see a piece of Pig pushed up against the wall of my belly. I like to pat the little body part, who knows what it is, it feels kinda rounded mostly so maybe she's doing alot of headbutting.
5) The hiccup - this one is not very strong but rhythmic so I'm assuming that they're hiccups.

Insomnia

At 3 am I toddled sleepily over to the bathroom and then got back to bed and realized that I couldn't fall back asleep. So there I lay, staring at the back of K's tousled head, thinking...thinking...thinking. Best way to fold laundry, how I can use up the creme fraiche I had in the fridge, whether lying at a 45 degree angle with my right side propped up by a pillow counted as lying on my left side because damn, it was comfy....and so on and so forth.

Until, I started thinking about Bugs Bunny in What's Opera Doc?, I've been obsessed since seeing Bugs Bunny on Broadway. As K snored I began to hum quietly to myself "Kill the Wabbit, Kill the Wabbit..." So of course K was puzzled when later that morning as he was getting ready to take a shower, I stood outside the bathroom door asking him to reenact a scene with me.

Me: Brunhilde you're so WUV-VWY!

K: ????

Me: That's your cue! You have to sing, "Yes, I know it, I can't heellpp it!"

K: No, I'm not doing that.

Me: Yes, c'mon and...Brunhilde you're so WUV-VWY!

K: (mumbling) yeah I can't help it....

Hmm, maybe next time I should let him be Siegfried...

Optimash Prime

Just wanted to say how much I love this spud and want to get him for me, er, Pig.

Saturday K and I drove to Wolftrap to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform Bugs Bunny on Broadway. Outdoor venue so it was pretty scorching even at 8:30 pm when the performance began and while we waited, K and I marveled at the number of picnickers braving the heat out on the lawn..with little kids. Well, ok I stared at the food too. I started to think hey that'll be us soon, sitting with our shorts and colorful crocs on, Pig in K's lap, Pig's brother in mine. K and Pig would feed each other Cheez-its while Pig's brother and I would munch/gum pieces of grapes and cheese. By that time, everyone would be into kim-bap (hey I can dream) so I'd have several lunch boxes of them open. We would sit happily enough until a few minutes into the performance when Pig would announce she needed to go pee and Pig's brother would just go ahead and relieve himself in his diaper. After several bathroom breaks, Pig and brother would fall asleep and K and I would hold hands and listen to the music and just think how only a few years ago, life was simpler but not as fulfilling.

and the Pig goes....

Last Christmas when my parents, K, my sister H soon to be Emo, and I were in Seoul, we checked out the Year of the Pig exhibit at the National Folk Museum. Swine galore, from fierce looking bronze boars in armor to colorful arrangements of plastic pigs. The most entertaining by far was the list of pig noises by language, e.g. English "oink-oink." In Korean it's "kkool-kkool" and in Chinese it's "hung-hung".... wait a minute, hung-hung? What the heck is that? When does the pig go "hung-hung?" Please, my Chinese homies, explain this hung-hung business, is this for real?

Name Game

Pig will have two first names. First, her official "English" one, which will be imprinted on her social security card and will be what she uses in school, taxes etc... and the second will be her Korean name which my parents are hopefully working on.

I was born with one name and then when we immigrated to the States, took on another. My dad felt it would be easier for my sister and I to have "American" names...I think perhaps he was right everytime I hear a telemarketer butcher my parents names. Names sonorous back in Korea and fraught with meaning and good intentions here become the butt of jokes. Perhaps that is why I'm so delighted with my new married surname. Difficult to pronounce, gorgeous combinations of rarely used consonants...it's like handing someone a Rubik's Cube and asking them to solve it in 2 seconds. Telemarketers who call the house must first pass the name test. They'll get a little leeway unless they want to conduct a "short" survey, then it must be perfect and I want enunciation, you're not getting away with any mumbling with me.

I digress, point is, I've always wondered what my official name is. Is it the one my parents gave me at birth or is it the one I use more? My parents use my name interchangeably. Since I married K, I've noticed that they use my "American" one more. But, I respond to both. Until a few weeks after our wedding, my Korean name served as my middle, now replaced by my maiden name. My Korean name was selected after much thought by my parents, the other was kinda spur of the moment, provided by the principal of the preschool I attended. But this was the name that K used when we exchanged wedding vows. My sister never uses my Korean name. It's kinda sad to think that when my parents are gone, no one will ever call me by Korean name.

But I wouldn't have wanted it otherwise. It's pretty cool to have two names. Oddly when I was growing up kids in school thought it was pretty interesting too, I did get some teasing but nothing too bad. So I'd like Pig to have the ability to tell two stories as well.

Sleepy, Bluesy Monday

K, Pig and I are back from our relaxing, refreshing trip to Keuka Lake to visit assorted relatives and engage in numerous water activities. Well K engaged, I tried kayaking but couldn't maneuver without knocking the bump so promptly got out and resumed resting like a plump slab of ahi tuna in a nice patch of shade. I did go for several rides in UK's and AK's boat and greedily sucked in plenty of good, fresh air. All that was lacking was a large cool glass of [insert alcoholic beverage].

But now we're back in muggy, stifling, scorching DC and I'm battling major fatigue. But, we did get to see Transformers yesterday! Wheee! K and I were like little kids, clutching at each others hands, exchanging huge toothy grins, vibrating with glee and then chattering like monkeys afterwards about the best parts. We thought of two new possible Halloween costumes for Anoki and Kirb. We could stick racing stripes on Kirb and he could go as Bumblebee the Camaro. Anoki, could go as he is and be Megatron. Pig could be the All Spark cube, K could be Starscream (his favorite) and I'm not sure what I'd go as, I'm too small to be Optimus Prime even though he's my hero. Maybe I can dress up as the big All Spark cube and Pig could go as the little one. It'll be unbelievably geeky.

Other big news, my sister is officially engaged! So wedding planning is now in full swing. Now, I just have to resist the urge to take over.