Hosive

this is my other wife. sorta.

you probably only know theresa as the tom boy, dress like a boy, frumpy grump. that’s the side she wants to project to you. that’s her clark kent.

but this is the girl i get to see at home! rarely do you see this in the outside world. you get a glimpse of  this in zoe’s. look at those angelina jolie lips! perfect smooth creamy skin. and a girl hairstyle!

what makes her really super is how she cares for zoe…..nursing, changing, clothing, calming, putting zoe down for naps and now making baby food; sample menu for zoe: mango rice with chicken and carrots.

my baby takes the morning train. she works from 9 to 5 and then takes it home again. to find us waiting for her.

except when i take zoe to go see her.

the office seems to get excited when zoe visits even if she merely poops or sleeps.

in theory, theresa could work this way….if they let her.

its been a long twelve month journey….about this time last year, we got the inkling that theresa was carrying…so things got put on hold…travel, diet, sleep, movement, maryland, crabs, anything with alcohol, too many things..

then we went through the really tough days…the first few months of baby life…repetitive feedings, changing, rocking, nursing, pumping…and i use the term “we” lightly, of course.

but after 12 weeks of life, we brought zoe to theresa’s home in maryland where we feasted with family…and theresa was free to down her beloved hometown goodness with old bay steaming and seasoning.

surrounded by family members, it was a great weekend for theresa. a release, a relief, a payoff.

sweet, sweet days.

here’s my sweet t looking majestic.

i don’t know how she does it all…she works 8-10 hours a day and then comes home to relieve grandma. she returned to the office a month ago…a mere 6 weeks after delivering. she also pumps enough milk to almost feed two babies. and she still looks dynamic and fierce.

i recommend the korean brand to all my guy friends.

bonus pic!: of my korean princess next to the korean queen. she looks like she’ll be pretty fierce too.

so my girl jess soo asks me…you getting theresa a push gift?

i ask my girl jess soo….what’s a push gift?

you know, because she’s gonna push your baby out.

i gotta get her a gift for that????

no….but it would be nice.

every year, we say no gifts to birthday, anniversary, christmas, valentines and other dates that seem to request a gift….but what we mean is no extravagant gifts…gifts that show winks of affection are alright. this year is of course, vastly different.

there’s no way around it…this was an extravagant gift. the most deluxe lego set in the universe. i wanted to shower my sweet t with a gift thanking her for giving us zoe, for being married to me for 6 years now(no easy task as a minister’s wife where most of our lives satellite around what i do with the church) and to celebrate turning 30.

in comparison, the gift really wasn’t too bad when you consider that some girls like diamonds….some like handbags….some like high fashion and the like. my girl likes none of that. she likes legos.

she was beaming.

super glad to report that mom has been resting really well these past five weeks allowing her body to heal. after the third week, she went out for the first time for a short walk. then in between the fourth and fifth weeks she went out for longer trips. this past week, the doctor declared her healing great! another week or so and she’ll venture back to work.

but for now….more mirrored napping.

arms up……..

….arms up!

arm across the body, both arms in the same direction…..

….arm across the body, both arms in the same direction!

a little mirror image but common formations on the same nights/early morns.

yup….she’s her baby.

strangely, though we say that giving gifts is not a primary love language for either of us….and we say we don’t want to receive gifts and promise not to give gifts for holidays and anniversaries or birthdays, we almost always give each other something. maybe its more that we don’t want the other person to get us monumental expensive gifts. little gifts….small winks and reminder type gifts seem to be our style.

technically, theresa did not get her first mother’s day since zoe was not born yet. but i got her something anyway. something mama related and something she would enjoy playing…the new entry in the nintendo mama gaming empire. she loves her ds…the best gift i’ve ever gotten for her, years ago.

she got me a literal token gift…..token cuff links. we don’t use the metal coins anymore in the city with our metrocard system in place so these are prety nostalgic for me from when i used them as a kid.

as promised…not an overwhelming amount of pictures…maybe just one(or two)pics a week of zoe pax per post with updates on baby, baby momma and poppa tsang.

theresa’s story so far: contractions started friday as theresa was in the middle of a day at work. worried about having her water break at work or on the subway, she cabs it back to the apt. contractions are all over the place and are pretty irregular. they become more so at 6pm-ish and we were off to the hospital at 7:30. the waiting game started.

by then, theresa is a mean sob. the nurses grin as she lets me have it. theresa will later claim that she has no recollection of the episode. against procedure, they give her the epidural and she’s in heaven. normally, they wait until we get into the delivery room but its a packed house tonite and we have to wait a few hours….theresa was already homicidal.

we got our luxurious delivery room at 9ish and the family von tsang slept til 6a saturday. after 2 hours of pushing, zoe pax arrived into the world at 8:10a. theresa was a stud.  within the hour, she was back on her crackberry sending out emails and updates. godmother steph got us some sandwiches and we celebrated the moment. you could not tell theresa had just given birth.

later that evening, theresa’s family arrived from maryland and they gushed. above is four generations: baby, mom, grandma and great grandma. a glorious day.

theresa is doing well except for the expected pain. pray for healing.

when our daughter is born, i promise not to go nuts on pics…..maybe one update a week on baby….with one for mommy and(maybe)one on daddy…..so this week, we did another test run of this.

and now the update that you’re actually interested in……how’s mommy doing?

theresa is still chugging along….doing all the things she did before she got pregnant. she’s like a machine….a cylon? working, co-leading women’s group, treking to maryland to visit family and friends and cooking up food. this week included cheezy chicken pot pie and arugula salad.

its like the only thing that’s different is her belly that causes her to waddle….other than that, there also has not been much weight gain. strange!