The Google Baby Fund

Here is the 2nd report on how well Google's Ad Sense program is working. The "Ad Sense" program is contextual advertisement , based on the contents of one's web page. In the case of this baby blog, you might see Ad Sense advertisements for trips to Peru, or information on photo albums, or even full blown graphical ads from Tylenol (my favorite these days now that I am off coffee). When family or friends, or random people searching the Internet coming to the website, visit these ads, Google will charge the advertiser, and then give the baby blog proceeds.

So far, Google has donated this amount to the baby fund: $1.72 !

A few baby photos

For those who might not have seen Kathy and my baby photos, here they are! Maybe this will get the imagination going for what little baby sexton will look like!





Tomorrow begins the 12th week. I decided to give up the coffee, well the caffeinated type. It has been 3-4 days since having a cup of regular coffee, and I've been drinking decaf. I thought I would be lucky to avoid the headaches, but I was wrong! Caffeine intake supplanted by aspirin, what a gambit!

Picaboo: The Best Online Tool for Creating Photo Books

I write this blog entry because I came across our photo album we created for our guest sign-in for our wedding on June 28th. I thought I would share with everybody a link to the website I used to create the photo book, called Picaboo.

During the month's of our wedding preparation, we knew that we wanted our wedding guest book to be customized. We searched for fancy guest books at bridal shops, and they were either $100+ or tacky, or both. We decided to create our own, so the search was on.

On night I came across this website called Picaboo. After stumbling upon this website, about 3 hours vanished immediately while I had so much fun uploading pictures and choosing background image for each page of the book (around 50 pages). I sent the results of what I created to Kathy, and we decided right then and there, that Picaboo was going to be our Wedding Guestbook sign-in.

Here is a a sample of our wedding guestbook. Check it out in case you did not have a chance to view every page during our wedding reception.

Picaboo is amazing. Check it out! Upload your pictures, choose the background graphics, and send a free preview to family & friends. Picaboo has this one template where you can drag and drop about 50 photos on one page, and it looks like a cascade of photos. Very awesome. As you can tell, I am a big fan of Picaboo.

Celebration Party at the Mendozas

Real quick post to say thanks to the Mendozas for throwing a nice ceviche lunch party on Sunday after church! Also thanks for the decorations, especially this highly edited photograph of Kathy & Baby, obviously a visualization technique! I've been wondering ever since Sunday why my name wasn't listed on the photo. :)

Baby Product Reviews

Baby Products

Reviews on various baby products which we have purchased. If you have a suggestion and a comment on a baby product, please reply with a website link of the product and your review!

Where the Wild Things Are: I am remembering this from when I was young, the Sexton family favorite book of all time. I came across this image, and thought of my sister, Mary Lee. Long live Max!



Cotton versus Organic Cotton? I read a few Target baby product reviews and it seems that all the parents are raving about organic cotton products like the Kiddopotamus Swaddle, as being so soft. For some reason I thought it would be more nutritious, but I guess that is a different kind of "organic". Confession: I have no idea what a swaddle is, but it sounds like I better learn how to get my "swaddle on" soon.

Motherhood Maternity Corduroy Khakis. Oh My God, we had so much fun picking out our first pair of maternity pants. We tried on some horrible ones, but these fit perfectly. Kathy is at the stage now, in the 10th week, where a few of her pants will not close! By the way, I picked these out and handed them to Kathy to try on. A winner every time, super shopper daddy.

Irish Wedding Blessing: It's Working!

I spoke to Norm today and told him the news. Unfortunately Diane was out doing her bingo thing :) - making good money I hear too. I asked Norm to deliver the news in grand fashion, hopefully he gave Diane a nice surprise!

I wanted to share with the family a close-up photo of the Irish Wedding Blessing Kathy and I received in the form of cross-stitch from Diane. It is absolutely beautiful and the photo does not do it justice.

We watched the wedding video, and there is a nice part where Diane is with Kathy and I and we are reading the words together. I hope you can read it from photograph.

Thanks a ton Norman and Diane, it is bringing us wonderful blessing already :).

- Ed and Kathy.

"Tuna" Means Prickly Pear in Peruvian!

It's Saturday morning in the "Little Baby Sexton to Be" household, and it's my turn to prepare breakfast. Here is a photo of a typical breakfast, let me point out the funny red and green stuff on the right-side. This is called Tuna, but it is not a fish. Its the fruit part of a cactus, which Americans refer to as Prickly Pear! Caution must be used when peeling the tuna, sometimes there are tiny needles which are impossible to get out of your fingers. It is fun peeling them though. They also have these quite strange seeds! There are two types of prickly pear, red and green. the red are by far the best!


Along with the prickly pear offering, we have oranges, scrambled eggs, a cup of coffee, strawberry yogurt, Nesquik chocolate milk, wheat toast and strawberry jam, and cocoa puffs! The cocoa puffs went into the yogurt. A little bit of everything.

sdfsf

Going to San Francisco for an Appointment!

Here's my girl. It's Thursday. We're driving into SF for an appointment. eBay's moving 150TB of data to their new data warehouse - and I have my cell phone turned off. I guess my priorities have changed a little bit!

An Old Picture of Ed

A friend of mine from high school, Fred Pienkos, sent me an 18 year old photo.



I was at Nazareth Academy, in my junior or senior year of high school.

I think this is the time when my sister Mary Lee took me to Glacier National Park for a month long camping trip!

Receiving the photo helps me more easily quantify the passage of practically 20 years of my life. I guess I'm not a kid anymore!

Sold it on eBay! A book for $50!

Wow. I've worked at eBay for 2.5 years, and I've never sold anything on eBay all that time. I just got back from training, and read the course manual already, realizing that I no longer need it I decided to experiment with selling it on eBay. Tadah! In under 24 hours, the used, but in mint condition, book sold on eBay for $50!

Straight into the 529 College Savings fund for Little Baby Sexton.

Telling the Family!!!

We've told the family!

First Trip for Maternal Clothing: Super Sale at Macy's!

Being in the 9th week and all, a few of Kathy's jeans are fitting a little more snug than before. Also, we're expecting some growth to happen in the next 1-2 months, so we decided to stock up on loose fitting clothes. It turned out to be a Macy's Shopping Extravaganza, I'll let the picture tell the real story!


We also are purchasing a few gifts for Kathy's family and friends for when we visit Peru. We had a wonderful time shopping and picking out beautiful tops but with a secondary function of being very mommy-esque.

Macy's never saw it coming! As with every other weekend of the year, they had a 15% super secret Friday/Saturday sale ending promptly at 1pm. By the time we were done, from 12:00 to 4:00), we received the discount anyway. That is why we are avid Macy's shoppers. Macy's has our trust! We broke a very nice serving platter from our Macy's 45 piece Wedding China, and they replaced it sight unseen, on our word. They did not want us to package up all of the pieces for a full set return. They just gave us the serving platter off their display case. Now that is service! Our wedding china was a spectacular gift from Patty Boettcher and family. We use the china each and every day and it brings us so much happiness and delight. Thank you so much Patty!

Abstract Food Art: Fun with Dinners!

Perspective changes on so many things, I a few days ago I was creating a very fun dinner for Kathy and I. Kathy gave told me about the Mendoza family favorite called "Huevos y Fideos" - a peruvian cuisine delicacy! Here is a picture, to the left. Pinto beans and a nice cucumber, tomoato, romain lettuce salad are accompanying the spaghetti omlette.


After the main course, dessert of peach jello and blueberries was served. I am trying to work in the blueberry superfood into the diet. When assembling the dessert, it reminded me of something, some theme common to the early days of pregnancy. Can you see what I am referring to?!? We had a good laugh about it!

1st Baby Ultrasound at 8 weeks!

We had our 2nd OBGYN appointment to interview a new doctor (actually a team of doctors). We were thrilled to meet them and they are such wonderfully competent and sincerely nice people.

During this 'get to know you' interview, I inquired about how long an ultrasound might take and to receive the results. The Dr. Chandler was nice enough to offer to do it right then and there, and we decided to do it. We had some fears caused by the previous horrible Dr. Shakira Karipenini doctor and in the back of our minds we were thinking we might be having twins due to our grand-parents history.

Kathy was so brave and within moments we saw our baby! The doctor had me turn off the lights, and lo and behold, we saw our baby. Dr. Chandler really liked what she saw, a firm connection to the uterus. The baby is 16mm, about the size of a gummy-bear! We saw the fluttering heart, beating so fast, about 150 beats/minute. The baby is producing its own blood and at this stage there isn't any exchange of blood.



All of our fears melted away - truly a monumental day!

Maternity Leave: California benefits

This article on "Maternity Leave in California, Understanding the Money Part" is a very helpful article about how much the state pays during maternity, State Disability Insurance (SDI), and Paid Family Leave (PFL). This article was also very helpful.

Lima, Peru & Machu Picchu Here We Come!

On Sunday, I bought two tickets from Taca Airlines for Lima Peru! The tickets were only $1200 each, for a grand total of $2400 dollars! Two tickets for three passengers!

We will be in Peru from Dec 23rd until January 18th! Kathy hasn't been back since the year 2000. This will be an amazing homecoming for Kathy.

$0.01 From Baby Blog Ads!

An article which I quoted earlier tells a story about a father who created a blog for his newborn baby to chronicle the development and exciting moments. He realized that by simply activating Google's AdSense (contextual ad placements on partner websites - Google owns this Blogger website), a small but steady source of incoming can be made. He makes $200/month in AdSense advertising, which is quite amazing. He did this so he can start saving for the college fund.

Well, let me share some progress with you :) - since 9/28, this little baby blog website has earned $0.01 cent!

I hope the family members and friends who read this blog don't mind the side excursions from the real baby stories!

$0.60 cents the Easy Way

Filled up the tank. 16.5 gallons. $60.00 dollars roughly. Used the uPromise credit card. Banked a whopping $0.60 cents. A song comes to mind:

"Just what makes that little ol' ant
Think he'll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant, can't
Move a rubber tree plant

But he's got high hopes... he's got high hopes
He's got high apple pie in the sky hopes
So any time you're getting low
'Stead of letting go,

Just remember that ant.
Oops there goes another rubber tree
Oops there goes another rubber tree
Oops there goes another rubber tree plant."

Big Daddy's got some high hopes! 20 years until college, * 365 days a year, * $0.60 cents a day (Sally Struthers watch me now) = $4380! If we take in consideration interest, this will grow to $17,503. We know how much that will be worth in 20 years!

Wedding Video Has Arrived!

9th Week: A little tummy showing: lots of nausea

Wow, the wedding video is amazing. We love the special messages our family and friends left for us. Read on why it is important to mention the wedding video in the Baby Blog context.

Kathy was sick on a number of occasions today. We have found the pattern of: no appetite in the morning except for fruit, milk and drinkable yogurt (strawberry yum!), normal appetite for lunch, and approaching the evening: nausea and no desire to eat.

Today eBay announced their worst ever layoff in their history, 10% of the employees, around 1,500+ people. The dust hasn't settled yet, but those standing are safe. eBay projects saving around 100 million dollars in the reduction, but yet they followed up layoffs with a few strategic acquisitions, namely "Bill Me Later", for $820 million. I mention this because all day today I had to entertain the possibility of being one in the 10%, and having to return back to the nest and tell the "family" that I lost my job. Luckily I did not have to go down that road today.

We've scheduled viewing the wedding video for this Friday, 10/10. Following the wedding video, we'll be telling our families that we're expecting baby! It seems so perfect to celebrate the video, and then share the news! We're going to order some Peruvian chicken a la brasa (grilled chicken) and celebrate. We can't wait to see our parents expressions and our siblings too.

We have a second OBGYN appointment scheduled for this Wednesday, 10/8. It is with Dr. Sheri Task. She has wonderful reviews on www.healthgrades.com, www.wellness.com, and www.vimo.com.

It's late, time to crash. Kathy's tummy is showing more now. It is the 9th week!

1st Measurement of the Waist

I measured Kathy's waist, and it is 81.5 centimeters. There is only a small little shape showing. We had pizza and beer for lunch today! We'll one of us had a non-alcoholic beer, and our pizza was a hawaiian one. We ate at such a wonderful place called Mission Pizza. They have over 20 different kind of beer on tap. We worked up an appetite from our first ever exercise outing, we walked around Lake Victoria in Fremont.

1st OBGYN Visit: Bad experience with Dr. Shakira Karipineni

Kathy and I went to our 1st OBGYN appointment. A PAP smear test was done. We picked a doctor from the Bay Valley Medical Group and we probably received the worst doctor possible. Her name is Dr. Shakira Karipineni. After the exam and upon paying the co-pay, I asked for a form to transfer the medical records. The front office was surprised and said "You've just completed new patient paperwork". We're switching doctors. I should have done my homework, if so I could have found this awful review of Dr. Shakira Karipineni.

I filed a complaint against Dr. Shakira Karipineni with Bay Valley Medical group. Once the medical records are transferred, I will be filing a complaint with her office, and fowarding the above review website.

Dr. Shakira Karipineni ruined what should have been a most beautiful experience.

Don't worry, we're over it! I told Kathy, we have to learn from these experiences, these bad experiences will make us stronger parents.

Funny Realization: Coke, Coffee, etc...

Kathy and I Skype back and forth through the day. Skype is an instant messaging client which has a great video setup and voice quality.

Kathy sent me this message today:

[4:12:12 PM] ...Kathy Sexton: I will try to reach Natalie baby....and get a coke -- oh! I can't drink coke hmmmm?
[4:12:43 PM] ...Kathy Sexton: no coke, no coffee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why Am I at Panera????????????????????

This is really the $1 million dollar question!

uPromise: $13.67!

Just noticed today that we received our credit for the baby magazines we purchased through uPromise. Our account is now up to $13.67!

Every little bit helps. One person who created a baby blog gave me the idea to list advertisements on the "Baby Blog". I thought friends and family would not be too annoyed with ads, since they might see this as yet another possible revenue stream for Little Baby Sexton. The advertisements hopefully will be not too intrusive, and maybe even relevant. It is possible that the Baby Blog will be viewed by other people, and perhaps they will consume the advertisements as well (hint, hint).

! Kathy... Estas Mas Panzona !

Kathy and I are having so much fun seeing who might be the first to notice Kathy's symptoms. Today Natali said to Kathy, "Kathy, estas mas panzona!" - which translates to "Kathy, you stomach is getting bigger!". Earlier that morning, Crusty (Mr. Mendoza), kept offering Kathy some coffee, but Kathy told her dad that she drank coffee with me during our morning breakfast. Crusty replied, "Yeah, Ed coffee really strong!". So far so good.

One thought about breakfast time, Kathy and I have had weekday morning breakfast every morning with the exception of one or two days. We're trying to maintain our schedule of morning time, where we talk and pray and eat together. This always results in great communication but also results in me being late to work pretty much every morning! We are still working out the morning schedule, but so far it is our favorite part of the day. We read from either a daily Bible companion-ish kind of book or a book on buddhist short little readings - some of it goes way over my head, so in that case we'll read a different one! About being late to work, don't worry, I am usually the first or second person to arrive into my workplace in my group. Most of the people work from home, and even then, most people start their days at around 10am.

The baby books came today, the one's from Amazon. My uPromise account is now up to $5.00 - I followed a tylenol promotion when opening up the account. The uPromise credit card was approved which I will receive in about a week, at the very least I'll get 1% cash back. Time to repoint the mortgage payment to that account. This will deposit around $40 a month just from mortgage payments alone.

It is very hard not to tell parents, especially the Moms (Sonia, Colleen, and Rhunette). We know how much joy it will bring them. We also know that if Crusty gets wind of the news, of course he also will be equally happy, but the whole world will receive the news as fast as his little fingers can dial the phone. Well with the exception of one special little finger which 'got broke' early in his life, and does not close properly. When he did his dumbell curls during his Mr. Peru Olympia days, people in the gym thought he was giving them the finger!

Kathy has her first OBGYN appointment this Friday. We're shopping at Trader Joe's trying to find a more healthy selection, and we were successful this evening - found nice organic blueberries, and champagne grapes (the closest we'll come to champagne!) and some natural no salt free range chickens who never smoked a day in their lives and were told jokes constantly to help foster positive emotions, or something like that. The drumsticks were also $1.55 a pound, that is nice too.

I am finding various things to remedy Kathy's morning sickness, found some real ginger soft candy chews at Trader Joes, found little 6 oz. cans of Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and we have plenty of lemons and limes in the house. You'd think we were a fruit stand. I think I am going overboard with 'borrowing' fruit from work, last I counted, in a day I somehow amassed 14 fruit like objects in the form of oranges and pears and red apples.

Time to go, we are eating 'Arroz Tapado', which means Covered Rice. It contains grean peas, fried potatoes, onion, tomato, and hard-boiled eggs. We have a side salad of sliced cabbage with an ample squirt of lime juice. Dinner time, Kathy is caaaaallllllling :)

Thanks for reading.