Playdates for us, Game Jam for Daddy

On Sunday, Jean-Louis had his game jam hackathon so I made plans for Tristan and I. We had a playdate in the morning with a friend I met on Twitter. She's actually my very first real-life friend encounter from online. We saw each other a couple of other times but we actually got to sit and chit chat this time. She has a daughter who is a few months older than Tristan. They didn't play with each other until 30 minutes after. It was a short play date but like always it was nice to have company over. My friend also brought over homemade Tiramisu and I had tons of sugar cookies. Unfortunately, she was still fasting for Lent and couldn't have any cookies :( Her daughter had some though and so did Tristan. I decorated the elephant cookies just for the little people!

In the afternoon after Tristan's nap, we went over to my sister's place and Tristan played with his two cousins, a 6 year old and a 3 year old. A couple of hours later we were home and Jean-Louis was on his way back too. Luckily with all the company, the day kind of flew by. The past four days with Tristan seemed like a long time. It reminded me of the first year, before daycare when I stayed home a lot with Tristan. I'm pretty sure I was sort of insane back then.

Jean-Louis had a nice day with his Tweeple at the game jam. They had coffee, cookies, lunch and got to leave early. Sounds like the perfect work day to me! He showed me the game he created in the 8 hours he was there and it was cool. It was very basic but it was functioning :) Because of last minute cancellations, there were only three Developers there, including him. Obviously, I shouldn't have made the second batch of cookies. Not only that, but one of the guys was allergic to wheat and couldn't eat any. Basically, I made over 50 cookies for just one new person to eat. Well, two, if you count my friend's daughter. *Big sigh*

Daddy wants "me time" to do a hackathon

Tristan is in daycare three days a week so I get plenty of me time since I don't work on UI stuff or do housework for a full three days. Jean-Louis doesn't get that as much since he has a full time day job. We both have time after 9:30PM when Tristan goes to sleep to do whatever we want as well. He usually codes and I usually read news or work on videos.

Okay so without making it seem like we're both confined to always being together and not being able to do anything alone, Jean-Louis likes to take me time away from the family to do something fun other than his day job. He feels like he has given up a lot of favorite pastimes already and he needs to be able to do fun things like tweet-ups without us tagging along. Last year, he went on long bike rides by himself. Sure, I get that. I don't really like that he misses a day away from Tristan on the weekend but alright. He spends a lot of time with Tristan at night already but I know Tristan is always asking for his daddy when he is not around. And of course, I wouldn't mind the help either :)

Tomorrow, Jean-Louis is going to get his me time alone by going to a hackathon for iPhone game development. He is meeting up with a few of his Tweeple and they will code from 9-5. He has been organizing it for a couple of weeks now. They found some office space to hold the meetup and he asked me to make him cookies for the event. Now, how can I turn down a chance to make more sugar cookies? In fact, we haven't had any since Valentines!

After some planning and slaving in the kitchen, the geek cookies turned out just like how I had pictured it. Now that I think about it, they are nothing special and they were all rather simple designs but how often do you get to draw game graphics on a cookie? :)

With 8 hours of development time ahead of them, I think they could use some of these to munch on, don't you?

Wordless Wednesday: Computer Babe!

Been meaning to post these shots from my father-in-law's office in Toulon :)

Contraction Tracker USA is the result of patent infringement

As some of you may know, my husband and I build iPhone apps. Our first app in the iTunes store was the Contraction Tracker. Its one year anniversary in iTunes is actually coming up :) Recently, we released a version of the Contraction Tracker for the USA that is exactly the same as the original version, minus one feature. What I'm about to talk about is actually a common problem. If you are an iPhone Developer or any software Developer, you may benefit from hearing about our experience.

In the Fall of last year, we were contacted by someone who owned a patent for an alert system to be used in timing labor contractions. We have been discussing his patent and how it relates to our Contraction Tracker for something like 7 months. When he was finally clear at what exactly our application was infringing on, we decided to remove it so that we could both move on. This is the first time we have ever been in this position. We had no idea we would run into patent issues building something so simple such as a contraction timing application.

A guy that I contract for is recently applying for a US patent so I have been talking with him about some of these matters. Apparently, lawyers tell companies never to do patent searches. The reason is if you find a patent that you cannot avoid with technical workarounds, then you are stuck. You can't go ahead because that would then be willful infringement, which carries even more damages. You also can't license the patent for a reasonable price, because the other party knows they have you over a barrel. The very fact that you bothered to ask for a license gives away the fact that you do not have a technical workaround for the patent. If you never do a patent search, then by definition any infringement is not willful, so you are not liable to treble damages. These were his words and I am still very new at all this. The problem seems to be the patent system.

We removed the alert feature from our original Contraction Tracker and released the app as a separate new app just for the US store. We did this because there was no simple way of updating the app for one country. By releasing a new app, everyone who had already purchased the app in the US would not be affected. We also get to continue selling the original app everywhere else in the world. The alert feature is a minor feature but a nice one to have. It is actually disabled by default and from what I hear, a lot of people may not even know about it. It definitely does not define our app and removing this feature from all future sales in the US store should not affect things so much. Or will it?



Contraction Tracker USA has been out for a week and sales have dropped dramatically. The main reason we think is because we lost all of our previous ratings and reviews. We have a note saying that this is not a new app and if users click through to our website, they will be able to see a screenshot of the ratings and reviews before we submitted the US version. Again, this is the same app, minus a minor feature. What do we do now? Well, we just have to wait until more people purchase our app and submit new ratings and reviews.

Baby's 1st year iPhoto books

I love taking pictures. I always have. Now, that I have a baby, I take a lot of pictures. I was actually taking pictures daily until the baby was about 10 months old. Since then, I take pictures about every week. When it came time to putting together a baby book, it was a huge task. I only wanted to do the baby's first year book but I had 1603 good pictures flagged for that. It turns out that iPhoto books can only include 100 pages max so we were in a bit of trouble. It took me hours at night over days and weeks to put Tristan's first year photo book together. I ended up trimming it down to three books: Volume 1, 2, and 3. That's 300 pages and exactly 960 pictures inside. Phew!

When it came time to order them, I was a bit hesitant. I wanted to get two of each, one copy for us and one for my parents-in-law. Then I realized how much they would cost. Each book would cost over $100 so 6 books would be something like $650 with the taxes and shipping costs. I looked into other options such as shutterfly.com and artscow.com but they are expensive too and I trust the quality of iPhoto since we have ordered from them in the past. I just wished Apple would have more printing specials :( So since we were not in a hurry to get our copy, we decided to just order one of each. If we ordered them together we would only save around $18 worth of shipping but considering how much we were already paying, we weren't interested in the savings. By ordering just a copy of each, we were actually able to translate the books into French so that was nice. The three books, 11x8.5 inches hardcover came to a whopping $351.54. Yikes!

A week after ordering, the books all arrived today at the same time in separate packing. Apple really should get a cart system working so that we can include multiple print purchases in the same shipment. It would avoid the separate shipping costs too. Come on Apple!



The books are nice. I wouldn't have expected anything less. Some of the pictures look a bit dim but I suppose it's not fair to compare them to what I see on my bright iMac. I think my parents-in-law are going to love them! Now, that the first year book is done, I have to do the "after" first year books. Oh boy! Time to procrastinate again :)

Contraction Tracker app for your labor contractions

When I was near the end of my pregnancy with Tristan, I had the idea of creating an app for us to use to time and record my contractions for when labor strikes. Jean-Louis wanted to get into the iPhone development business so I suggested that we make something we could use right away. Timing contractions is fairly simple and it was the perfect entry app for us. It actually turned out to be not that simple. After a lot of brainstorming, research, UI design, development, and testing, our Contraction Tracker app is finally in the iTunes app store.

What does it do? Well, it is more than just a contraction timer. It times, records, and plots your labor contractions. It also tells you whether you are in pre-labor, early, active, or transition labor and it alerts you at the recommended time you are supposed to head to the hospital. There are other small features too and you can change your settings at any time.

So far, we are pleased with how it is doing in the app store. We have been selling several apps every day. This is such a niche market so it's great.

For more details, check out the Contraction Tracker on our website.

1st iPhone app party

It was not the best weekend to host the party since most of our friends could not make it but we still had a blast. We had our first BBQ of the summer in our newly cleaned patio. The patio could still be cleaner but at least we can see the dirt now :) For the barbecue, we made hamburgers, based off a meatball recipe from our Greek cookbook. We also had hot dogs, beef and lamb skewers, and smoked zucchini and bacon. That was all we had on the grill - honest! On top of that we had nachos with cheese dip, potato chips, vegetable pasta salad, and cake. We had a herb salad too but I forgot to prep it. Anyway, with such few guests, we now have food for the week. That's great for us!

It didn't rain and it turned out to be a beautiful day. Jean-Louis started out cooking but then the hamburgers started to fall apart since he was pressing on them too much. After that, I had to take over. Unfortunately, all the hamburger pieces at the bottom of the grill created a lot of smoke and then came the fire. It was hard to control. It was definitely a good thing I took over! Barbecuing is just not Jean-Louis' thing. Actually, cooking is just not Jean-Louis' thing :)

For Tristan, he got to smell the great BBQ food and he got to socialize. We fed him milk and mashed pears. One day, he will get to enjoy all of the great BBQs I will make for us. Until then, he'll have to eat all the boring baby food I make.

We're in! Our 1st iPhone app is now available

The iPhone app we started to build back in October (?) has finally been released in the iTunes Store. With the arrival of Tristan, we thought we would never finish the thing but we did it! Check out the Contraction Tracker in the iTunes Store near you :)

I will have to blog more about it later. We found out about its release early in the week and have been scrambling to update the website and fix things online. I'm still having problems switching servers with our hosting company. We're slowly working on promoting the app as well since this is really our window of opportunity. We've already buzzed about it on Twitter and now it's my turn to blog a bit about it :) Without much promotion, we have already sold quite a few units. We are surprised but maybe it's not too surprising since it's considered high season right now for having babies, no? I'm so glad to see that so many people have chosen our app over the 10 or so others that do a similar thing in the app store. I'm really looking forward to reading some reviews.

I'm also planning a celebration party for our 1st app. It's taking place tomorrow. The cake was ordered early in the week and we're likely going to have a barbecue. I have to finalize the menu today and then grocery shop this evening. So much to do today but it's okay because for the first time in days, we actually had a good night sleep. So glad the heat wave is gone!

Mother's Day is to blame for doing too much this weekend

Today is chore and recovery day. Both Tristan and I got off our routine this weekend and we need to get back on. This weekend was the first time we went out for like 5 days. Instead of taking it easy with just one outing and some small activities, we went out a lot and we're pooped.

On Saturday, we went walking for like 3 hours and we were sweating bullets since we overdressed. Then, I spent too much time cooking so we could have a nice meal. Tristan is not used to being at places that are too noisy or that have too many people. He doesn't know where to look and is easily over stimulated. He fussed so much we had to use the pacifier many times! When we go outside of the mall, he calms down but when he fusses again, it's because he's tired. He didn't nap much this weekend at all and didn't sleep much at night so he's been rather cranky. In fact, he's having a hard time napping right now. Again, too much going on and he's not used to it. Neither am I. I'm so glad to be staying home today.

We did have a nice meal on the weekend. We had lots of junk food and sweets but I also made us some fresh food. I made spanakopita for appetizers and mushroom and white truffle fettucine. It was a vegetarian weekend. So vegetarian that I had to sneak in a few breaded chicken strips just to have a bit of meat. I grew up eating lots and lots of meat, what can I say?

On Sunday, I got to sleep in - that's a good enough Mother's Day gift for me! However, I woke up to Tristan crying in his crib and Daddy telling me that our iPhone app got rejected. Great. It turned out there was a minor issue and we fixed it right away and resubmitted it. Unfortunately, we will probably have to wait another week before we hear back. That's how it goes apparently. Not a big deal for us since our contract is still in review. The app could be approved and ready for sale but it won't be in the store since our contract is not in effect yet. We should have started this long ago, I know. I will need to blog about that later so that others don't do the same.

We took lots of pictures this weekend. I wanted to dress Tristan up before he grows out of his nice French clothes. We also needed more pictures outside of the house, for a change of scenery. We got some great shots for our May gallery. You would think that since Tristan is almost 6 months old now, we ought to be taking fewer pictures but we haven't slowed down one bit. I think he's cuter now than when he first arrived. He won't look like this again. It's fun. I love taking pictures. Organizing and playing with the pictures isn't top priority right now though.

Hope you all had a nice Mother's Day. Mine was hectic but good. It was my first Mother's Day and I initially wanted a party but then, that would have just made it more hectic :)

Another productive weekend - can this keep up?

Tristan did not sleep well last night. His ability to sleep better at night is deteriorating or something. When he first goes down to sleep, he usually sleeps around 3-4 hours straight before waking up. Then he'll sleep maybe another hour and then we have to rock him or give him the pacifier. This repeats another 4-5 times before we actually get up. It seems to be his typical routine now but I'm not used to it. I wake up every morning feeling super sleepy and kind of jet lagged. Last night he woke up so frequently, we were both basically up since 4 AM. I think I may have had a 20 minute snooze somewhere in there. The entire time, I was trying to rock and hold him. Bringing him to bed with me did not work this time. I'm wondering when most babies start to sleep well at night? At this point, I'm starting to consider the crying it out method, at least some version of it. He'll be 6 months old later this month so he'll be more ready for it.

This past weekend was one of the most productive ones I've had. Saturday, I had a research meeting, then we submitted our iPhone app and then that night I got enough of our website done to make it live. On Sunday, I finished another page of the website, then we went shopping in Coquitlam. We finally bought our high chair for Tristan and some feeding tools. Every time we go to Baby's World, we always spend a ton of money. We also shopped at Babys R Us and Ikea. iKea just ended up being a food stop since the line up was too long. We didn't go grocery shopping really this weekend so we stopped by the Langley Farm Market on the way back and quickly grabbed a few fruits and vegetables (and a mango crumble pie!). When we are so busy, we don't eat well. We've been dining on frozen food and can food the past 3 days. On top of that, we have been snacking on junk food and sweets. I know it's terrible. I will make sure I cook something today.

Tristan sat in the high chair last night with us when we had dinner. The chair can do many things, which I like, but it's quite bulky too. Most of them are I suppose. We just have space issues at our place and there seems to be more baby things in the living room now than furniture for us. I will write a review for the high chair once we use it a bit more. Tristan is just sitting in it and playing for now. We're starting him on solid food in a couple of weeks.

First iPhone app just got submitted to Apple

Woohoo! We finally did it. The day has come. The iPhone app we started back in October has now been released and we are just waiting for its approval to the App Store. We're very excited!

Today, has been a crazy day. I had a research meeting this morning for almost 3 hours and then we did our submission online and then I worked quickly on our website to make it live as soon as possible. Still got one more major page to complete but it's basically ready. Phew! What a journey this has been. Will talk about it more soon since Tristan is starting to fuss in between my arms here. To be continued...

@mommyingaround is on Twitter

That's right. I officially joined so that I can post real time updates to my blog. If you look to the right side, you will now find a block called "Twitter Updates." This is the Twitter badge I've added to the blog so those that read my blog regularly can find updates of what I'm doing right there. For those that don't read my blog and simply want to follow me, I'm @mommyingaround on Twitter. Now, I promise not to tweet much about poos, pees, spitting up milk etc., especially since @CocoaGeek objects. But please, this is a mommy blog so I can mention these things once in awhile. What do you think happens everyday to a stay-at-home mom anyways? The question of "what am I doing right now" is often answered with feeding, diaper changing, poopy accidents etc. But yes, I understand Twitter and I will tweet about things that are interesting and ask good questions. Don't worry Daddy!

With this new addition, the right side of the blog is beginning to look a bit cluttered. I've decided to remove the poll I posted a long time ago of "WHO DOES TRISTAN LOOK MORE LIKE?" Nine people voted and the results were the following:

• Mommy, Susan: 5 (55%)
• Daddy, Jean-Louis: 3 (33%)
• Neither (Whose kid is this?): 1 (11%)

A couple of people did mention that the photo of Tristan I posted was not a fair one so I did change it a couple of times. I tried my best to pick one that had a neutral expression. Anyway, the general consensus is that Tristan has my eyes and the rest is Jean-Louis. I think Tristan has my cauliflower ears too (unfortunately). I don't have any baby pictures of myself to do a comparison but when we look at Jean-Louis' baby pictures, Tristan does look a lot like him. They have the exact same hair and Daddy sort of had beady eyes as a baby too :)

Now our iPhone app is also waiting for the labour

Some of you may have recalled me talking about a geeky project I was involved with Jean-Louis in my first blog post.  Well, our nice expectant-baby has given us enough time to finish a working version of the app so that we can use it for when I go into labour.  Congratulations to Jean-Louis for he was accepted into the iPhone Developer Program this week (finally!).  That allowed him to install our app on the iTouch yesterday!

This app is going to work marvelously for what we were looking for!  Once we sat down to discuss about all the ideas and started implementing it, we found out that there are many other apps and programs already out there which do similar things - go figure!  That's okay, ours is original since we were not influenced by any of these when we first came up with our plan :)  Why the heck are we doing this?  Well, it's practical and why not?  I'm a UI Designer, specialized in Human-Computer Interaction, and Jean-Louis is a Software Engineer, with previous experience working with Symbian and handheld devices,  so this is the sort of thing we enjoy doing ;)  Okay, we're geeks but he's 10 times more geeky than I am!

I'm excited to be the first one to user test it for us!  Afterwards, we will refine it and then I will continue to research a bit more so we can further improve it for an initial release.  It will still be awhile before we will make it available through the App Store.  We would like to test it more with actual users first.

Milestone Day: 37 Weeks Gestation

Happy Halloween Everyone!  I have an announcement to make.  We have finally reached our full term!  37 weeks is a long, long time.

For the first time in many years, I will not be carving a pumpkin :(  Carving is hard work and a bit too physical for me right now in my state.  This Halloween is going to slip by without notice here.  We don't even have candy but no one comes around anyway.  To make it worst for kids this year, it's been raining all day.  But it's beautiful outside with all the autumn leaves falling on the ground though.  This used to be my favorite season every time someone asked me.  That kind of makes it appropriate to be having a baby soon.

How am I feeling?  The same and ready.  Well, sort of ready.  I could use a couple more days.  Jean-Louis needs those few extra days to build me our app on his iTouch.  I actually look forward to testing this geeky project of ours :)  So yeah, maybe after this weekend, we'll be "ready."