Who’s crafty

I really wish that I was crafty. I can’t sew, draw, or crochet. I can knit, but not very well.

My mom is pretty crafty and made Matilda lots of cute hats, scarves etc.. My friend Angela also crocheted stuff for Matilda like toys, pillows, sweaters etc..

Maybe I have a crafty friend out there who wants to make Matilda and Mateo stuff like this!

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/07/led_firefly_booties_tutorial.html

14 kids

Did you hear about that woman who just had 8 kids? Well, it turns out that she already has 6 kids at home and that she is a single mother who lives with her parents in a three bedroom house?

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=6767745&page=1

The eight babies were delivered by a team of 46 doctors, nurses and assistants in the space of five minutes. They were only expecting to deliver seven babies and when they started, then discovered and eighth once they got started. This story me cringe. I think its how men reflexively groan when they hear about someone having their testicles injured. In the same way, I feel physical pain thinking about 8 babies kicking me from the inside.

IMHO, whoever implanted 8 babies in this woman should lose their medical license. How do you even afford invitro if you live with your parents and have 6 kids? Furthermore, why would you pursue fertility treatments if you already have 6 kids???

Social Networking — gnashing of teeth

Our company, Hanee Designs, is all about usability. We try really hard to put ourselves in the shoes of a website visitor to create an easy to use, deceptively simple interface for all websites, small and large. Usually, our vision is modified by the client which can compromise usability.. but I like to think that the overall product is still usable as well as good looking!

When I crawl the web, I can instantly tell which sites are designed with the end-user in mind.. and which are not. And then there are sites just just don’t seem to have any quality assurance. They seem to be deployed without testing — and clearly, the staff are not using the site and finding/fixing bugs. The worst offenders seem to be some of the most popular sites on the internet? My most hated example? Facebook. I despise Facebook. First, I don’t even understand what it is for. If I am connected to a friend via e-mail, instant messenger, phone, SMS.. then why do I need to send them messages via Facebook? Secondly, If I haven’t communicated with you since we were 12 years old, then are we really “friends”? Sometimes is cool to reconnect with someone from your past, but it creeps me out how people who HATED me in high school now want to friend me on Facebook. Seriously, go away. And last, but not least, who programmed this piece of crap? Half them time I click on something, I get an error message. And the user-designed/programmed apps only make the problem worse. I literally feel like pulling my hair out everytime I try to do something on Facebook. WHY do people like this? Honestly, let me know!

Next on my hitlist — Linked in. I feel transported back to 1999 when I use this site. It seems like I am on a 56k modem again. I understand if they are behind in updating their networks to provide a faster site, but the programing and design doesn’t help. Have these people heard of AJAX? Or checkboxes? It shouldn’t take so many clicks to find and add a contact. In my opinion, Linked in shouldn’t be a time suck like Facebook, MySpace etc. The site could really be streamlined to help busy professionals keep up to date with contacts. Anyway, I am on LinkedIn and am hoping to utilize it more in 2009. So if you are on LinkedIn, please add me. Thank you!

I heart Obama

He overturned the global gag rule which is a policy that denies funding to any organization that performs or counsels women about abortion — even if that money was used for other procedures such as HIV prevention or contraception. More info about that on http://www.choicematters.org.

And he is closing Gitmo. Yay!

Moro reflex

I just learned something cool from Jocelyn’s blog. Babies have something called a Moro reflex. When a baby feel startles or like it is falling, it will fling out its arms and legs and make grasping motions with its hands. It turns out that the Moro reflex is a vestigial trait that we have from when primate infants of our ancestors clung to their mother’s fur soon after birth allowing the mother to move through trees etc.. This trait is present in many other types of primates as well.

Twitter?

Who twitters? I just signed up https://twitter.com/haneedesigns.

Barack Obama

Woo hoo! Barack Obama was just sworn in as president of the United States! It was a great speech!

Photo Comparison

Maybe its because I spend more time looking at them than others.. but I think Mateo and Matilda look totally different! What do you think?

Here is a pic of Matilda at 20 days.

And here is Mateo at 14 days.

Inauguration

As much as I love our new house, I miss the city so much. One of the strongest pangs of longing for the city hit me on election night. I wished so much that we could have run into the streets to celebrate with our neighbors when Barack Obama was declared the winner.

I don’t want to miss out on inauguration festivities. If I was younger and didn’t have kids, I would totally be heading to Washington D.C. But alas, I have responsiblities. What’s everyone doing for the inauguration?

My breasts hurt

I am having a much easier time breastfeeding Mateo than I did Matilda, but its still just awful. It takes forever, and it still hurts. I guess its better than pumping, which makes me feel like a cow.

I will try to give Mateo breastmilk for 100 days (as I did with Matilda) and then I think I will happily resort to formula. I know, it sounds awful. Breastmilk is supposed to be the best thing for your baby, but its just horribly inconvenient for a woman who works. Also, I want my body back!