Note: Mouse over the pictures for additional captions.

It has certainly been an eventful month leading up to Yaya's half birthday. The big thing is of course Rafe's birth and how that has changed all of our lives. Yaya has been awesome - rolling with the punches and still managing to make the best of everything and having fun. She enjoyed the attention of her cousins and of course Becky while they were here, and now she enjoys playing the role of big sister and interacting with her new little brother:

There are times when Yaya demands more attention or acts up because she feels like Adik is getting unwarranted attention (and diverting it away from herself), but we are working through these issues. When she acts up it tends to be to get rowdy and loud, or to pretend to be a baby to get more attention, like imitating his cries or sitting in his car seat:

But for the most part, Yaya has been an awesome big sister. She helps to get diapers, wipes, and clothes for her brother when we are changing him. She helps to give him sponge baths and to dry him. She also likes to look at pictures of herself as a baby, so we have been reviewing the blog and telling her stories of her own babyhood so she realizes that she also did what her Adik is currently doing, and she did it first. For example, if Rafe is in the bassinet, and she's seen pictures of herself in the bassinet, she says, when she was a baby she laid in the bassinet too! And so on and so forth. She is always hugging and kissing that poor boy. Hopefully she will outgrow this phase before Rafe gets to the "ewwww girls have cooties" phase, although on second thought, it might really be funny to watch him fend off her overly loving attentions when he is at that phase! When she does start to get out of control, she seems to respond to getting attention - we try to make it positive attention - and she can be diverted to helping us rather than spiraling out of control. The exception is of course when she is over-tired, in which case we just separate the two and take one of them upstairs until everyone is calm again. This includes us parents as well.

The trick is to keep her busy and engaged. We are lining up activities for her: swimming at the Y, possibly a spring soccer league, story time at the local public libraries, etc. For the most part, Vin will be the one taking Yaya to these activities while Rafe and I carry on at home, until he is a little bigger and more independent and able to be separated from his "milk bed" (which is what Yaya says I am for Rafe). Ha!

Food status: no change. Still a toastivore. She has an order of eating foods during the day: First Banana. Second Toast. Third Mango. Fourth Toast again. (Toasts being lunch and dinner). She does occasionally divert from this order, but for some strange reason she cannot eat mangos at night. If it is dark she refuses mangos. Weird, right? Oh my child! Even when she was hanging out with Gabby and Grace, she refused to eat what they ate (which is to say normal food), but she claims that she will eat these foods when she is big enough. She's just not big enough yet apparently. She is now feeding herself toast with a fork, rather than forcing us to feed her every meal. Yay to growing up!! We have also made the switch (due to Becky's influence) to organic milk so Yaya chugs at the organic milk all the live-long day! That girl can really put away that milk. She's so funny - she claims that the food and drink go into her leg after she swallows it. Even though I have explained that first it goes in the tummy where the food is digested and gives her whole body energy!

Potty training status: no change! She has not regressed to diapers (a concern due to Adik's arrival). She still wears a diaper for bedtime (but not naptime), but more often than not the diaper is dry in the morning. So, alhamdulillah, Adik's birth has so far (knock wood) not caused Yaya to regress in her potty training.

Nap status: Bedtime has been much later since Adik's birth - 10:30-11:00 (eeek!) but we are all still trying to get into a rhythm. Rafe still has a feeding schedule to maintain his weight, so we try to work everything around that. Admittedly, it can be hard. Luckily Yaya tends to sleep the same number of hours at night - so if she's up till 11:00 she doesn't get up in the morning until after 9 AM. In other words, she still gets her 10.5 hours at night. Which means that she does still need her 1-2 hour afternoon nap daily and she does take one still. She has really taken to having Vin do bedtime with her instead of me, with no complaints. What a trooper! I find that I do miss our time together - bedtime was our thing! - but until I can pick her up again, and Rafe isn't quite so attached to me, I can't manage it yet. For one thing, there's no way I can pick her up to put her in the crib without my stitches being affected at this point. I'm healing, but concessions must still be made until the doctor gives me the all clear.

Luckily too, Yaya has been sleeping through any night-time crying on Rafe's part. Whew! So far we can all still sleep in one bedroom, but we are almost ready to move Yaya to her room (she now calls it her room instead of the green room). We will get there eventually. We just don't want her to think that she has to move out because of Rafe. We want her to sleep in her own bed because she is already as long as her crib! Wish us luck getting there!

Yaya is very into her iPod and iPad educational "games". I must say I am surprised that I like many of these apps and have paid money to download some of them. Yaya is so good at jigsaw puzzles now, tackling some hard ones on the iPad that I think even older kids might have trouble with. She is also doing shapes puzzles (and even learning Mandarin through it), word puzzles, number puzzles (basic arithmetic) and spelling. She even read the title of a book I was reading earlier this month (Flower Net by Lisa See). She also has Spanish apps and flashcards in Malay, although I really wish there were more and better apps for Bahasa Malaysia. Can anyone recommend a good one for BM? I just can't seem to find any really worth while ones at the App Store. Bah, humbug! She does ask for help when she needs it though:

On the whole, I think she is not just surviving but thriving as a big sister. Yaya is always eloquent, always seeing the positive side of things, always making us laugh. This is an exciting new chapter of her life, and she has closed the book on being an only child rather well. It is now Vin's and my responsibility to ensure that she continues down this good path and keeps on being a good girl and a good big sister. I may be a little post-partum, and cry when I feel she is being given the short shrift due to the fact that Vin's and my attention is no longer entirely on her, but it will be good for her in the long run. She shares all her toys with Adik, and keeps giving him Kiki the Koala to hold ("Kiki is Adik's favorite stuffed animal" she declared). We have to keep an eye on her to make sure that Adik isn't going to be eating toast or whole milk before he's old enough . We don't want to curb her sharing and caring urges, so we are trying to balance it out with what is appropriate for Rafe at this point in his young life.

Here are a couple more pictures that I loved that were taken this past month:

Happy birthday baby girl! You are the best little girl ever! We love you, our firstborn child!

Y'all come back and see how she's doing next month, ok?

Rhittach: The Beginning

This short story tells the rise of Rhittach, the Payan warrior featured in the novel The Adepts Book 1: Furato, which was previously shown in this blog post.

Four Of A Kind

This is a sequel to Iqliptiq Books' short story Three's Company, also featured here previously in this blog post.

Both books were written by science fiction author David Leyman.

Note: Mouse over the pictures for captions

Yaya had tons of fun with her cousins! When Gabby and Grace arrived, Yaya immediately roped them into playing with her. She even allowed them to do her hair (she hates when we try to do her hair):

I think they managed to use every single hair thing that we had available in the girl's hair . While we cooked dinner, the girls made cookies together:

While the cookies are baking and dinner is being made (it was fun to have Becky and Mary in the kitchen, all of us working noisily together), the girls find other activities to do including artwork and music.

After dinner it is time to decorate and eat cookies!

Yaya of course decorates a cookie only to give it to Papa to consume. She did not actually eat any of the cookies herself. Why should she when she has toast! She wasn't even tempted watching her cousins eat the cookies. Maybe some day. The next day, we spend most of it at the hospital welcoming Adik into our lives. Yaya got to spend more time with her cousins until they leave the day after that. As mentioned before, Becky stayed on longer to help us get situated with Adik. She may have only stayed a few days but she's like a hurricane! The house has never been more organized or more clean! Becky organized an art section for Yaya as well as lots of activities with her, and also whipped the house into shape. She even broke out the shark steamer and steam cleaned our floors! She's unstoppable! I'll group the photos according to category. First category, activities with Yaya:

Becky introduced Yaya to the safety scissors (for children) and the glue stick, and helped her create a life-szed cutout of herself:

A wall is designated for our favorite Yaya works of art:

Becky also creates a stash of papers / color pencils / crayons / cuttings / glue sticks / etc. for Yaya to readily create her works. It even allows Vin to make Yaya a Wonder Pets cape while Rafe and I were at the hospital, taking care of the bilirubin issue:

Sadly I didn't take as many pictures of Becky with Rafe as I should have. Too many things to do (too many lovely painkillers to dull my wits as well as the pain). But of course, Becky also spent time with us and Rafe (even though Yaya did try to monopolize her time!).

Becky reorganized the pantry (it's so beautiful now!!!). Not so sadly, I don't have a before picture for comparison, since it was really messy and not something I wanted documented but you can see how nice it looks after Becky got through with it:

Also, remember the nursery? We worked on getting it ready for Yaya three and a half years ago, but after Yaya was born we never went back to it despite our best intentions. Becky fixed it up so that it is almost ready for Yaya to occupy as a child (and not as a baby, since that ship has sailed!).

There is stlil work to be done (covering up of ladder to the top bunk, railings for the bed, something to dull the sharp corners in the room) but this is small compared to what Becky got done. It is really quite amazing. If she had stayed two weeks, I think the whole house would be completely reorganized and redone!

We can't express how thankful we are to you, Becky! Thanks to you and your family for being here to share with us the joy of Rafe's birth, and thank you for staying with us and making sure we were all settled in while completing a makeover for our house, you crazy multi-tasker you! We can't wait to see you again soon, I hope. Love you and miss you all!

That afternoon we got a call from Rafe's regular pediatrician, telling us that his bilirubin levels were too high (21.2) and he was jaundiced and needed to be taken to the main Dayton Children's Hospital in Dayton and that she would call ahead so they would be expecting us.

So it began. I took Rafe in while Vin and Yaya stayed in the car. I would keep Vin updated via cell phone. It seemed unnecessary to bring Yaya into the ER and get everyone exposed to who knows what in there. First Rafe had his foot poked again for another blood sample for the bilirubin test. Then he gets strapped into this contraption:

Note: Mouse over the pictures for captions

I got to nurse him and hold him a little but mostly he was either on that light tray or the ER staff were examining him.

Finally when the results of his bilirubin test came in (again at 21.2) the ER doctors decide that he should be admitted. We had to go through some stuff to get him ready for admission. Getting the IV in him was heartbreaking - his little veins kept collapsing on them. He was poked on both wrists, both ankles, his arms, etc. Everywhere they could find a vein I guess. Finally they had to get a NICU nurse to help get the IV in. I was a blubbering fool during this time. It was quite stressful to watch and not be able to do anything. I tell Vin that we're going to be admitted - and we decide that he and Yaya should go home and I would stay with Rafe. Vin did have to make a painkiller run for me later as I had not brought any of my lovely pain meds with me (and I was definitely in need of them by then).

In the NICU, a routine is established. Rafe would be under the lamps at all times except I would get to nurse him for 30 minutes every 3 hours. After my allotted 30 minutes, I would pump milk for 20 minutes, and Rafe would be supplemented with this and enough formula to make 60 ccs. He was weighed before and after every nursing to estimate how much milk he drank straight from me, which would determine how much he would receive in supplements. It really was a very strict routine. We had a rather interrupted night. At around 10 PM that night they took another blood sample to determine how he was reacting to the lights, and he was down by 1 point (20.2). The nurses warned me that there was a chance that the doctor might require a second night's stay, depending on his 6 AM bilirubin test. Did I mention stressful?

So both Rafe and I were woken up every 3 hours to go through the feeding cycle, throughout the night. I was at the lactation room pumping away when they took another blood sample at 6 AM. Results came back - his bilirubin levels were down to 15.8 which was much better! However the doctor felt that he should stay under the lights for a whole other night in order to ensure that everything was fine. They also had concerns - apparently he didn't have enough wet diapers. So we kept up this 3-hour feeding cycle for the next 24 hours. Zombie time! It was so bizarre.

That afternoon, Vin and Yaya came to visit us. Yaya discovered that Dayton Children's had a bunch of fun stations of indoor play, as well as an awesome outdoor playground! The weather was gorgeous - sunny and in the 50s (about 10 C) which is quite atypical for January. But what a blessing for us! Here is Yaya enjoying herself at the hospital play areas:

I had a late lunch with Vin and Yaya, and hung out while Yaya played, until it was time to begin the feeding cycle again. I then went back up to the NICU and Vin and Yaya would continue to play and come up in about an hour to give Rafe and me time to do our thing.

When they were leaving, Yaya asked if I was going to come with her in the car to go to the blue house. It really broke my heart to say no to her. How do kids know exactly what to say to bring on the waterworks? So Rafe and I settled in for another night of lights and feeding cycle.

The next morning's bilirubin test: 10.4! I witnessed the doctor doing rounds with his students (I guess it is a teaching hospital) and we got the happy news that we would be discharged later that afternoon! Hurray!!!! (Or as Yaya would say "Purrayy!!!") Vin and Yaya would come in the mid-afternoon and hang out until we were discharged (lots of paperwork etc. so the nurses said we wouldn't leave until mid or late afternoon at the earliest). Yaya did not complain as this meant more play time at the hospital for her!

After the doctors made their rounds and Rafe was cleared, he got to come out of the lights and get dressed. He still had monitors on him and they left the IV in just in case:

Eventually he was allowed to have the IV removed. He was given a bath and a change of clothes. I admired his newly-regained pinkness.

Meanwhile, Yaya and Papa are having fun at the playground.

A nurse helps us load up the wagon (they had cute red wagons everywhere, so Yaya got to ride in the wagon that Papa had corralled to take our stuff down). We left with quite a bit of stuff, including a rented hospital-grade breast pump (woohoo!). The nurse made sure that the car seat was installed properly, and off we went! Home again, home again, jiggety jig! When Yaya asked if I was coming home to the blue house that day, happily I was able to say Yes, I am!!! (Purray!!!!!)

And p.s., his gunky eye had also cleared up by this time! Purrayyy!!!

Seriously, quite a trying 48-hour period for us all. Luckily Papa and Yaya were fine at home together, the weather cooperated, and Rafe did well at the hospital with me. This was the first time any of us had ever seen the inside of a real NICU and I have to say that the nurses at the NICU are the best ones ever! A huge thank you to all of you (Kerri, Runella, Melanie, et al)!! We couldn't have done it without you! Thank you also to the lactation consultants and everyone at the hospital and the ER who were ever so kind to a stressed out mom.

Adik had a follow-up checkup with his regular pediatrician the next morning, and is doing well. Thank you also to all friends and family who gave their (virtual) support while we went through this. Thank god for the iPad so I did not feel cut off from the world and was able to email/chat/facebook with Vin, as well as everyone else. Again, thanks for all your support - we truly appreciate all your encouraging words.

Note: Mouse over pictures for captions

Let's start with the professionally taken photos. Here's a subset of them. The company is called Bella Baby and we thought they did an awesome job!

Rafe is such a good baby, much more mellow than his high maintenance sister had been. (When you're old enough to read, understand and resent this comment, don't be mad at me Yaya. I am only speaking the truth.) For the first 2-3 months of Yaya's life, she cried inconsolably for no apparent reason every night, ate in snack-sized portions, and kept us up every night to nurse every hour. Yes every hour. Rafe seems to nurse normally and sleeps in increments greater than 45 minutes (which translates to me sleeping in over 40-minute increments as well). He does get clingy at night, needing to nurse a lot and preferring to sleep in my arms than on his bed, but he's a baby. This kind of behaviour is expected.

He makes the funniest noises, grunting and sighing, and makes all kinds of faces which makes us all laugh. He is a cuddle bug and a sweetie pie! Like the rest of us, Yaya is adjusting to is presence in our lives, and she will be a great big sister, inshallah!

Becky stayed to help us out for a few days, and we couldn't be more grateful (more on this later). Thanks for sharing this whole experience with us, Becky! I know my parents are glad that you are here to help us when they cannot be here this time.

And to close, one of my favorite pictures:

Note the color of Adik's skin in the above. Much less pink compared to his hospital shots. More on this later too.

Here are some pictures of Rafe's (a.k.a Adik) birth.

Note: Mouse over the pictures for captions

Like Yaya, Adik would be a caesarean-section, so we arrived at the hospital at 1:30 PM for the pre-op stuff. Yaya would stay with Becky and a whole bunch of Yaya's Indiana cousins while Vin would stay with me and be there for the birth. We were all ready (including our OBGYN and her surgical team). However there was a delay due to the fact that there was a busy surgical schedule (not baby-related, just in general) and we waited over an hour for an anaesthetist to be available. During this time, the gang were allowed to visit me in the pre-op room in twos and threes.

Yaya was obsessed with trying to fix my boo-boos (the IV) with more tape.

Finally we get an anaesthetist, and he does the spinal and away we go!

Adik was so far up in my ribs that the doctor had to suction him down while the nurses pushed down at the top of my belly to get him out. It was a strange and uncomfortable sensation. But it did the trick. I guess the boy was not ready to come out and face the world yet?

Then Rafe and Papa go to the nursery where Rafe will go through the APGAR and get weighed while the surgical team finish closing me up. The welcoming committee is on the other side of the nursery glass, waiting for Rafe's first appearance.

Becky wrote down some of the things Yaya said when she first saw him through the glass, including "I really really want that brother!" and "Please can I have that brother!!!" Breaks the heart, no?

After Adik was put through the tests and footprints taken, etc, they brought him back to me in the post-op recovery room.

As in pre-op, visitors were allowed in twos and threes.

It was getting late by then so Vin and the gang went to dinner and after dinner, Yaya hung out with her cousins while Vin came back to hang out with Rafe and me. The next morning, we had the gang over in the morning. Mary, Gabby, Grace and Phil would leave for Indiana that afternoon, but Becky and Aunt Mary would stay to help us for the next few days.

Welcome to the world baby boy! We're so glad you're here and can't wait to see how our lives will change with you in it! We love you, Adik! Welcome to the family!

Click here to check out the video.

Redcap

Springheeled Jack

Download the zine from DrivethruRPG to read about them, complete with OpenD6 stats!

However, what if you need to play Savage Star Wars? I know there are a number of fanmade (unofficial) documents designed for you to play a Star Wars RPG using Savage Worlds.

So, I fired up Inkscape and created this custom character sheet. If you're using Savage Worlds to run Star Wars, go ahead and download this pdf file.

Zipped PDF file (221kb)

Click here to download the Savage Worlds test drive rules version 6.0 PDF at the Pinnacle Entertainment Group downloads page!

D6 Magazine - the online fanzine for Open D6 roleplaying game material - has released issue #3!

The horror issue has a variety of articles and scenarios, including vampires, a hell hound, a redcap goblin and Spring-heeled Jack. There's also a simple Sanity System for running D6 horror adventures.

The eerie, underwater Cinema6 adventure "Down Below" written by J. Elliot Streeter brings the zine to a close. You might remember my artwork created for the adventure in this previous blog entry.

But it also has a bonus four-page interview with me by Peter Robbins, interrogating me about my past, present and future in artwork and illustrations, as well as role-playing games!

Here's an excerpt:

Q: When did you decide, "Hey, I could make money doing this? Sure, let's roll in that dough!" And what were your emotions when this decision came into fruition in your life?

A: When I ran out of kidneys to sell on eBay. 

Dowload the PDF now which is free at DriveThruRPG here.

Food status: she has proclaimed mangos to be back as part of her accepted diet. But it has to be "crunchy" - meaning pureed, frozen, and slightly thawed. She still doesn't like normal mangos - she did surprise me by trying a little piece of it, and even dipping her finger in the puree and tasting it (prior to being frozen). We hope this means she will be open to mango popsicles and perhaps other fruit puree popsicles in the near future. Also she now says that she will eat chicken, rice, noodles, etc "when I'm grown up" which is a step in the right direction. Otherwise, still a toastivore. New favorite: artisan bread toasted with butter (aka "bread toast"), although circle toast is still a big part of her repertoire.

Potty-training status: all good. Diapers only at night, and many mornings we find her with a dry diaper and asking to go potty. She has been showing a preference to use the "grown up potty" as opposed to her "froggy potty" (potty chair), without the potty insert even. She's getting to be such a big girl! All going well so far! Hopefully no regressions when Adik arrives.

Nap status: back to daily naps. If she does skip a nap, she's not completely horrible in the evenings too.

Big sister transition: Going well! She is enjoying getting big sister presents that have come with presents for Adik. Thanks to Mandy, Lorna, Amy & Jef, the guys from work, and everyone who gave presents not only to Adik, but also to Yaya. She is excited to be a big sister!

We have to get her room ready for occupancy and start getting her used to the idea of sleeping in her own bed as opposed to a crib that she is fast outgrowing. We need to do some things to get her room ready though. I am not sure when that will happen but we'll get it done some day!

Yaya loves both the iPod and the iPad now. I'm finding all kinds of educational apps (spelling, reading, multi-lingual stuff, puzzles, etc) and Yaya loves it. She also keeps physically active, running around playing ball with Papa, jumping, hopping, running, tumbling. Doing all the things that a normal almost 3-and-a-half year old does. She is getting to be quite the able speller (Vin and I will have to learn a new language that we do not teach her!) and recognizes words in books and in other media. She knows letter sounds and gets very confused that "kucing" does not start with "c" even though it's the same consonant sound as "cat". But she is open to all differences. While the family is home, we will be signing her up for swimming classes, hopefully spring soccer league, etc. Have a normal life

She has also been taking photos with the camera, iPod and iPad. She's pretty good at getting the subject in the frame, and not too bad at focusing it either. It's amazing to see how much she can do now! Quick note on growth: we measured her height at one of my (many) OBGYN appointments this month and seriously, she seems to be about 42 inches tall now. That's a 1.5 inch growth since August. She's getting tall!

One more week left as an only child, inshallah. And then we will see how Kak Yaya deals with being a big sister. I know it's the hormones talking, but I find myself tearing up at what she is losing (only child status and level of attention), but also tearing up at what she will be gaining (a little brother to boss around, a playmate, hopefully a built in best friend). Pregnancy, what can I say. The hormones made me do it.

I know I said that I wouldn't have so many pictures but I just couldn't narrow it down. Here are some of the pictures taken this month that I loved:

Happy birthday baby girl! You are the best daughter that anyone could wish for. We love you! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year y'alls! Y'all come back next month, hear?

David Bain's The Cowboys of Cthulhu was the first novelette I bought and read on the Calibre ebook reader.

It's a great mashup of weird western and the Cthulhu mythos.

Weird West is a genre of western, where its tales of cowboys and injuns and heading out west is infused with heavy doses of horro and the occult. Other examples of Weird Westerns is the Deadlands RPG and DC Comics' Jonah Hex.

The Cowboys of Cthulhu tells the tale of Gentleman John Brodie the Demon Duelist, Doctor Darius Darke and a host of multi-cultural and strange characters in the guise of a travelling carnival gets embroiled in a hunt for three creatures that kill and eat human brains. However, they discover that they might have bitten off more than they could chew in a box canyon where geometry seems to be non-Eucleidian and darker, more evil creatures may be waiting for them.

The tale is short but solid, and left me wanting more adventures with our heroes. I can see Mr. Bain writing more stories with the characters in a prequel or a sequel story, taking into account the ending of this novelette, and I hope that he does!