Random Conversations

We finally got a break from the heat wave today, so I took advantage of the comfortable breezy weather and went out for a walk this morning.

As I walked by his booth, the neighborhood patrol guy said loudly and confidently, "It's a boy, isn't it?!"
I didn't respond right away 'cause I wasn't sure if we'd told him before. "Yes, it is." I smiled.
"I knew it," he looked all proud of himself for being correct. "I have 3 children, so I can tell, just by looking at a pregnant woman, if she's expecting a boy or a girl."
I found it cute that he took so much pride in his special power as a baby gender predictor. I walked toward him. "Tell me how you know I'm having a boy." I teased.
"First, your belly bulges forward, not sideways." The neighborhood patrol got all serious all of a sudden. "Second, um.... I remember... when you first moved in, I thought, 'wow! she's beautiful!'... um..." The volume of his voice dropped significantly and he lowered his head. "...but when a woman is expecting a boy, her face changes...." I could hardly hear the end of the sentence.
"YOU'RE SAYING I'M UGLY NOW?!?!" I pretended to be mad.
"No no no! Not ugly.... still beautiful... just not as beautiful," the poor guy bought it and panicked. "I'm sure you'll be the most beautiful mom after the baby's born."
I laughed. "I'm going to remember what you just said, and you'd better tell me how beautiful I am every day after the baby's born."
"No problem!" he straightened his spine and smacked one hand on his chest, "and I'll tell all the other patrol guys to do the same as well."

I was the only person on the playground. It's the summer vacation here, but the kids were all in air-conditioned classrooms having Math or English classes in preparation for next semester while their parents were at work.
I was on the swing talking to Peanut when I heard a woman's voice. "I'm so glad to see that you're pregnant."
What a strange ice breaker. "Pardon?" I had to be sure.
"People don't want kids anymore," the middle-aged woman stood in front of me but wasn't looking at me. "People your age only care about their own enjoyment and pleasure. They want luxury items, cars, and lots of money..."
"Well... it's not that bad. I mean, I've seen lots of pregnant women around. People are still having children nowadays." I didn't understand why I was trying to make her feel better, but I was.
"Anyway," she started walking away, "I'm glad to see that you're pregnant."

"Huan Ying Guang Ling (Welcome)!!" the guys at 7-11 shouted in unison.
I wanted some chilled sweet red bean soup. I seem to remember that red beans are believed to be a good natural iron supplement in Chinese medicine. As I looked for one on the shelves of the fridge, I suddenly noticed how tired I was from the walk.
"Just got back from a walk?" one of the 7-11 guys was next to me doing inventory.
"Yeah... just went to the Park. Now I'm tired." I chuckled.
"It must be tough being pregnant in this weather. Today's not as bad, but yesterday was 35 degrees Celsius! You must make sure that you stay cool and drink lots of water." That was very sweet of him. I also noticed his eyes stayed on me the whole time he was talking. That's rare in Taiwan.
"Thank you. As uncomfortable as I am in this heat, at least it's just me, you know? I can't imagine what we'd do if he were born now." Really! It's a good thing that Peanut's due in September, when the weather starts to get comfortable (for about a month) in Taiwan.
"Then you'd keep the AC on at 27 degrees all day long. That's what we did when my son was born. You'll get a huge electricity bill, but.... what else can you do?!" I gave him an empathetic smile.
"Anyway, what are you looking for?" he changed the subject and helped me look for what I wanted. Unfortunately, all the sweet red bean soup in the store also had barley in it, and barley is believed to cause uterine contraction.
"That's too bad," I said, "I was really hoping to find some..."
"Wait here!" the 7-11 guy speed-walked to the other fridge near the door and came back with a red bean ice Popsicle. "It's almost the same thing..."

As usual, the nurse had to weigh all of us and record our blood pressure before the yoga class began.
"You've lost weight," she informed me.
"Yeah... I had a couple of unpleasant episodes of violent vomiting last week... you know, like from the movie ''The Exorcist' where everything just went blehhhh....." I stuck out my tongue and used my hands to motion waves of content coming out as I got off the scale. By the time both of my feet were on the ground, I realized I had just terrified/disgusted/worried all my classmates with that little (what I thought was fun) performance there. All eyes were on me. You could hear a pin drop... in a room full of pregnant women!
"But it wasn't anything bad," I tried to recover. "The baby was fine, and I'm fine now."
Obviously my attempt to reassure my classmates didn't work. My punishment was to sit in the corner alone facing the wall with one arm secured in the automatic blood pressure machine while that poor nurse answered all the questions from a dozen of paranoid preggos.

After yoga, I went to IKEA to look for some waterproof mattress protectors for the crib. The lady at the check-out counter was a large woman with a big voice.
"Are you expecting.... a girl?" she said enthusiastically as I was taking things out of the yellow shopping bag.
"No. It's a boy." I put the last item on the counter and passed her the empty yellow bag.
"Really? But your belly's so big! Usually a big belly means a girl. When I was pregnant with my son, my belly was very small. But then again, my son was a very small baby too. He weighed only 2,800 grams when he was born and had to stay in the incubator for a while. How far along are you?" I noticed she had finished scanning all the items.
"I'm... in my 30th week..., so about 7 months?!" I tried to answer while fishing for my wallet in my gigantic should bag.
"Hey, xxx, come over here and take a look! What do you think? Is she expecting a boy or a girl?" The lady behind the counter called out to another lady who was putting the shopping carts away. I stood there, trying to process what was going on, with my wallet in one hand.
The second lady didn't say a word. She came over, stood behind me, and started feeling my waist with both hands.
"This is awkward," I thought as other shoppers looked on grinning.
"It's a boy!" the second lady said it in a "no doubt about it" tone of voice.
"What~?" the lady behind the counter protested.
The second lady explained, "When it's a girl, the mother's waistline disappears. However..." the second lady moved her hands up and down my waist again, "you can still feel her waistline going in, so it's a boy."
"But her belly's so big..." the large lady came out from behind the counter and started feeling the sides of my torso. "You're right! She does have a waist."
"Told ya. It's a boy." the second lady said triumphantly.

Ah~ you gotta love the people in Taiwan sometimes.