This time last year, we were wondering whether Obama or Hilary will be the democratic nominee and I was busy studying for the CFA.

This year, I am Kelly Chan, CFA, Obama is president and I’m feeling my baby kick in my belly.

Next year, I’ll be up to my neck in diapers and probably be perma glazed-eye from the lack of sleep (hey, I’m hoping for the best and preparing for the worst! I’m so not going into parenthood thinking it’s gonna be rainbows, fairies and stardust).

28 is gonna be freeeakin’ amazing!

I have never been one to coo over baby clothes. I have a suitcase full of hand-me-down baby clothes, which I totally appreciate having, but they do nothing for me in the gooogly-eyed department.

But Pat brought these booties home from Guatemala, and they made me MELT. I think it’s mainly cos it came from Papa Patty. The one other time a baby item made me melt was when he gave me a wrap carrier thing for the baby last Christmas. The booties look more like toddler-sized ones, but Pat’s mom thinks she’s gonna have Daddy’s feet (Papa Patty’s a size 12).

Baby Chansidine’s gonna walk all over Graciela, I know it already.

Your pregnancy: 23 weeks

How your baby’s growing:
Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she’s more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby’s increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won’t faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

How your life’s changing:
You may notice that your ankles and feet start to swell a bit in the coming weeks or months, especially at the end of the day or during the heat of summer. Sluggish circulation in your legs — coupled with changes in your blood chemistry that may cause some water retention — may result in swelling, also known as edema.

Baby Chansidine feels exactly like how she’s supposed to look in that picture…she’s stretching out her legs alright, and kicking up a storm! Only using the word “kick” may be a little too much right now…I have a vision of a Disney cartoon, where the scene zooms up on a flea trying to punch a human nose very hard, and it zooms out to the human only feeling a little itch. Maybe I’ll call it tapping. But I better not speak too soon…Baby Chansidine may take revenge later and start really kicking with all her might.

Ever since I felt Baby Chansidine high-five me last week, I’ve been dying for Papa Patty to feel it too. But there’s an element of luck involved at this stage cos I don’t know when or where she’d tap my belly next. But this morning, as we were doing our daily lay-and-hold-the-belly, I felt her tap a few times on the lower right side of the belly and quickly placed Papa Patty’s hand there. And sure enough, we both felt the taps about 3 times after! What a treat! It’s good to be a baby…it takes so little to impress!

No swelling outside the torso yet. No stretch marks (fingers still crossed). All in all, I feel great, although the extra weight is really starting to feel it. These past couple of weeks, I’ve had more comments than ever that I grow bigger by the day, when it used to be “gee, you are really small for a pregnant lady”. And more seats being given up for me on the subway (score!). It is commensurate with the fact that I have been eating more heartily than I have ever been since this pregnancy began. Food. Is. Gooooood. I’ve gained 16 pounds (124lbs now…HELLO!) from the pre-pregnancy weight, which is in line with how much I’m supposed to gain, but kinda scary given that I actually lost some weight in the first trimester, which means that most of the weight gain was pretty recent. My only hope is that I know plenty of ladies who stay slim after pregnancy who had gained up to 50 pounds during pregnancy and lost it all. Yes sirreee….saving grace…*gulp*!

Me and my ginormous BUMP:

Some of the questions in the application form:

Do you intend to engage in the United States in:
a. Espionage?
b. Any activity a purpose of which is opposition to, or the control or overthrow of, the Government of the United States, by force, violence, or other lawful means?

Did you, during the period from Mar 23, 1933 to May 8, 1945, in association with either the Nazi Government of Germany….ever order, incite, assist, or otherwise participate in the persecution of any person because of race, religion, national origin or political opinion?”

Have you ever engaged in genocide?

Do you plan to practice polygamy in the United States?

I totally felt Baby Chansidine kick from outside my belly for the first time last night! I’ve been feeling her move inside, but not when my hand is on my belly. I was laying down last night and felt 3 thumps on my palm. She was totally high fiving me. What a riot! I was all, well, hey! What up? Hello! How’s it going in there? Totally bizarre, and totally WOWOWOWOWOOWOWOWOWOWOW!

I’m taking a deep breath and am about to plunge into the murky pool of administrative mud.

What I want to do is to (a) change my last name to Pat’s (haven’t done it legally yet; in case you are wondering, while Pat and I thought it’d be great to have Chansidine as our legal last names (in Pat’s point of view, why should we always take on the male’s last name? We are a new unit now, we should be Chansidine! I can be King Chansidine the First!), both our fathers were against the idea, and we respect that. Pat’s last name legally, Chansidines 4ever!) across 2 countries – Singapore and U.S.A; and (b) apply for a green card.

While I never felt a strong NEED to change my last name legally, mainly cos I was lazy with the hassle involved, I’ve always thought it’d be nice to. And now that we are going to have a baby, I’ve been feeling more strongly towards the tradition. We are going to be a family after all. And it would kinda irk me a little if everyone in the family had the same name and I didn’t. It irks me especially when we are filling out customs forms at immigrations, for some reason. It has totally no rational basis other than the fact that I think it’d be nice to have one family name when we travel together and do forms together. Sometimes, I’m traditional like that. I’ll still keep my maiden name as my middle name though.

I decided to chronicle my journey of doing (a) and (b) here, in hope that this could help someone out there decipher through all this bureaucratic mud as well.

I had my first taste of this-is-gonna-be-more-complicated-than-it-seems this morning. My U.S. drivers license (from California) expires on my birthday next Wed (22 April, y’all!!). So I figured that I should just change my last name now that I need to apply for a new card anyway. But alas, I needed my social security card first. Which I have lost. I got it when I first moved to Berkeley in 2000 and have no clue where it is now. So I called Social Security and told them everything, that I was a foreigner, here on a work visa, etc. And I was told I can just go down to the office with my passport/visa and marriage certificate and they’d change my last name there. I mentioned again that my passport and work visa had my maiden name and was told that was okay cos I’d have my marriage certificate.

Great. So I went down this morning. But was then told that I needed to go to the INS to get my work visa name changed first. Apparently, the operator (surprise surprise) was wrong. Social Security lady told me since I’m a foreigner, my immigration data was my main source of information. She gave me the INS address to go to.

Ok. So of course I call the INS first to check with them. First lady I spoke to was completely clueless. She could only read from the standard answers from her computer and did not seem to understand what I needed. Then I decided to call again. Just cos I’ve been burnt so many times by operator people telling me the wrong thing. And the next guy I spoke to was awesome. First, he told me that the INS doesn’t do my visa, it was the Department of State (hello, multiple bureaucratic organizations). I had 2 choices. One, to leave the country and apply for a new visa in a US embassy. Not gonna happen. The 2nd option is detailed below, which sounds more like it. Just in case, because I’m kiasu, I called for the 3rd time, to double check that what the 2nd operator told me was true. I ran through it once more and confirmed that I should do the following:

If I want to change my last name to my husband’s, I should apply with the husband’s as my family (last) name in all my green card application forms. They confirmed that even if all my other documents (Singapore passport, US driver’s license, social security, etc) shows my maiden name, that’s okay because I will be submitting my marriage document and they’ll be doing all sorts of interviews and stuff to verify our marriage is valid (I feel like I should direct them to my blog…I have 6 years of documenting my relationship with Pat. ha!).

In 90 days, I should expect to get my work authorization card. Which will allow me to work in the U.S. legally while the green card application is pending (which takes on average 7.3 months, according to him). The work authorization card will show the new last name and with that, I can take it to social security, DMV (for the driver’s license), banks, etc, to change my last name. My current work visa, the L1 visa will henceforth be replaced by this work authorization. And I need to inform my employer of the change.

Apparently, once I do that, I need to go to my embassy and get my passport name changed. He told me it is not advisable to leave the country while my green card application is pending (I can, just adds trouble) because they may call up for interviews etc. Which is perfect cos I don’t intend to leave the country till Baby Chansidine is born, and then some. He mentioned that I should get my passport name changed at my embassy before I leave the country, otherwise it would be a pain to get back. I definitely need to double check on the rules in Singapore about that*.

So these are the forms that I need to submit for a green card application. I want to list them here because I have found scant resources online that’d tell me succinctly what I need to do; most of the google hits are dominated by lawyers or sites that want to see you application packages. The INS site is fine, but still kind of confusing. There is no single checklist to tell you what exactly you need. You need to go through all the instructions and footnotes first.

I was under the impression that I needed to submit the petition first, get a visa number, then submit the rest. But apparently, I need to submit these 7 forms all at one go and 2 checks – one for US$355 and another for US$1,010. Note that for the costs, some of the forms have a filing fee stated in the site, but I was told that because I’m filing these altogether, some of the fees are waived:
1. I-130 Petition – US$355
2. I-864 Affidavit of Support – $-
3. I-485 Application – US$1,010 (!)
4. G-325 Biographic Data – $- (3 sets: 2 for me, 1 for the husband)
5. I-693 Medical Exam – $-
6. I-765 Employment Authorization – $-
7. I-131 Application for Travel Document – $- (even though I don’t intend to travel, might as well, just in case)

So there it is. I’m going to try to do this sans lawyer to save me a lot of $$$. If all goes well, then you can use this as your guide too.

* Added: So I called the Singapore Consulate. I was told that (a) our marriage certificate from Singapore is automatically valid in the U.S. for my green card application (I wasn’t sure); and (b) I can change my last name by applying for a new passport via the Consulate in NYC. In addition to the standard application, I need to give them a certified copy of my marriage certificate, as well as a cover letter stating my request to change my last name. I can get it changed now, concurrently with my green card application. I feel like I should ensure I get a work visa with the new last name first before I get my passport changed though. Just to ensure my work visa and my passport show the exact same name. Sigh. What a pain!

Love it!

An eyewitness to one of their performances tells us, “The funniest thing is what the Cookie Monster does when they aren’t playing. I got on the train, and as the doors were closing, he runs up and is rubbing his mouth all over the doors screaming ‘Cooookies!’”
-Gothamist

Kellybelly at Week 22:

Holy Moly! I am officially a ball on a stick. Or a snake that just ate a deer. A deer shaped like a ball. My legs remain skinny and my boobs and belly are just ridiculous. I look at this and it’s no wonder I feel wobbly while walking and have fallen off chairs twice already. Seriously. First time was at home at the computer where I was sitting on the edge of the chair as I sometimes do for some reason. The chair flipped out from under me and I ended up in a tangle on the ground with the chair on my back yelling for the husband to pick me up. The other time was at Shane/Taided’s place where I was sitting on one of these wicker basket thingys that they had on the ground. Taided was sitting it it looking so comfortable and getting in and out of it gracefully. So I later sat on it and when I tried to get up from a somewhat squating position, I tipped the whole thing over and knocked a fan next to it to the ground. The equilibrium of the body is just not where it used to be.

And I swear on my life I will never complain about feeling fat or bloated ever again. Because nothing, nothing will ever beat this. I have 18 more weeks to go and it’s kinda freaky how much bigger I’m gonna get. Yikes! From what I’ve read, the water retention will start to sink into the legs and puff them out. In a way, that could be a good thing cos I don’t know if my skinny ass legs as it is could support a bigger ball. Beware SPGs, this is what you get for getting knocked up by a tall ang moh.

Andre, the Pirate, crashed over at our pad last night and took me out to dinner. Baby Chansidine was asking for some red meat, specifically, a beef burger, with cheese. And fries. Based on this review, we headed to Stone Park Cafe on 5th Ave and 3rd St.

The $14 burger was phenomenal. I never had a juicier burger that was perfectly charred on the outside. Unfortunately, the fries were probably made from frozen fries (just doesn’t taste the same as fresh). But, WOW! Food orgasm. Baby Chansidine likey.

Glambert For The Win!!! Woohoo!! He brings out the fag hag in me! It’s weird how I used to hate those high notes of his and now I just love love love them. He’s got amazing control of his voice. WIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLDDD!!!!!!!

I thought tonight’s were Anoop and Matt’s best performances yet. Anoop was really bringing it. Matt got kinda off at the bridge, but I thought he sang it well. Kris was alright. I’m not familiar with the song and I have a feeling I’d have liked his performance more if I knew the song. Danny put me to sleep. I don’t know why Danny is still considered a front runner because he is even more boring that Archuleta last year, and that’s saying a lot. Something about him creeps me out, I can’t quite put my finger to it. Lil Rounds, oh Lil Rounds. I do NOT get Lil Rounds. She was really pitchy and she just has zero sass. I do love her look though. I do not get Allison either. I thought her performance was horrible. Her breathing was kinda odd. Totally pitchy and amateur karaoke. I don’t see what Saula saw in her (thanks, Mich, for introducing me to the world of Saula…there were sweet moments tonight!). And seriously too fresh from last season when David Cook NAILED it (did the band just play the same version too?) and made me love a song that I used to detest. Oh David Cook, how I miss your fuck-me eyes (no sexual innuendos needed, this comment on youtube simply says “I want to fuck him so badly”)…totally watching that old video over and over…seriously, how dreamy is that look at 1:30??? sheesh, the husband is not here and I have raging pregnant hormones. Cold shower!

Oh btw, I thought Quentin Tarantino was an awesome mentor. Comparable to Andrew Lloyd Webber last year as the most value-adding, animated mentor.