Sunday, March 30, 2008

Weekend Recap

Friday, as I had previously established with Dh, was to be MY day (well, afternoon). He went fishing last Saturday, I'm having a baby soon, so I wanted some "me" time. Naturally he groused almost the entire morning, but that never stops me from having a good time! I went out to lunch with EdgyK and her sister - we randomly tried a bar & grill downtown which thankfully was completely delicious. Then EdgyK and I hit the best thrift store in town, for two hours. We found fabulous deals, but my pelvis was really quite annoyed afterward. When I got home, the house was trashed and Dh was asleep on the sofa. I was more than a little peeved. Of course, now I have the ultimate nail in his coffin if he ever tries the "You could make more money than me - I should be the stay-at-home parent" argument again. Because um yeah, sleeping on the couch while your daughter systematically messes up every room in the house does NOT count as stay-at-home parenting!!!!!

Anyway. Friday evening while thinking about meeting this little baby boy, I felt very strongly that I will be pregnant for at least two more weeks. And I felt totally chill about that. (This will be important later in this post.)

Saturday was nice. In the morning, Dh spread more bark dust on all the bark areas of our lawn and planted tulips in the front yard. We went to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch, where Miss E was really well behaved, though she only ate chips and tortillas. We all took naps in the early afternoon. Then we went to the a local park where the cherry trees are in full blossom and the fountain was just turned on. It was lovely! We went to the library, where Miss E managed to find a Bob the Builder book within ten minutes, and then the grocery store.

At the store, we ran into a friend from church who told us that a lady in our church congregation who was due the same day as me had her baby. Was I mad or annoyed? No. I felt happy for her. Good thing I had that peaceful feeling Friday night or the jealousy from this news might have ruined my evening!

Today was my last day teaching Sunday School to the 15-year-olds. I'm going to miss teaching those kids - this year's group is so much tamer than last year's, and most of them are genuinely nice. I met the replacement teacher, and he seems like a very nice guy himself, so I'm sure they'll all be fine. I'm glad that my church congregation is pretty chill about giving me some "time off" from church duties while my babies are very small. I didn't even take Miss E to church until she was a month old - waaaay too many germs there! - and I plan on doing the same with Baby #2.

At church today, only one old lady made a tactless remark about my belly - wow! It's a new record! Oh wait, I just remembered some guy made a tactless remark about my water breaking. That is the second water-breaking comment I have received from guys in the past two days. Seems weird to me. Are guys strangely fascinated by the whole water breaking concept???

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Hairspray

Dh and I watched this movie last night.* It was so fun! I really enjoyed it a lot. I was dancing around at the end, even though it was 11 pm. When the music moves me, well, what am I supposed to do?

*Shh, don't tell him it's a girl movie. If I can get him to watch the first five minutes, and he laughs more than twice, he will watch a girl movie with me without complaint. And he laughed many times while watching this one! This is in fact how I got him to watch Sydney White with me. Um, that's a secret, so please don't tell him that I told you he watched and enjoyed Sydney White.

Pregnancy Update

  • Almost 37 weeks
  • 29 pounds weight gain
  • 1.5 cm dilated
  • Taking Miss E to the doctor with me wasn't actually that bad. She gets clingy when in unfamiliar surroundings, so I didn't have to worry about her taking off.
  • Made my last two appointments. Hopefully I will need neither one. :)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Easter Weekend, in Pictures

Dh's brother and sister-in-law and Baby J came down for the weekend from Seattle. This was nice because I had yet to meet Baby J, who is adorable. We did the Easter egg hunt Saturday evening, for our convenience. Also it rained Sunday morning. Go Oregon.





Miss E quickly catches on to the idea.




Me cuddling up with Baby J.


Miss E inspects the new kid in town. She didn't act jealous when I held the baby. Let's hope she is as chill when her brother arrives.



Easter cuties in coordinating bunny dresses. Miss E was not very sedate, no good poses with the baby all weekend.


Dh's parents came over for Easter Sunday dinner. Here is the happy grandma with her newest grandchild. And me, hand draped gracefully over what is soon to be the first male grandchild.



Look at that innocent face!


Dh's brother, sister-in-law and Baby J left around 3 so they could get home at a reasonable hour. Miss E proceeded to show off shamelessly for her grandparents. For some reason, she decided wearing Dh's socks would be super cool.


Miss E and Grandma admire the budding trees in our front yard. (I am so glad spring is here!) Easter was marvelous this year. I had a lot of fun, and I think so did everyone else.


*Which was delish by the way - yay me! We had a glazed half ham, asparagus (totally over-steamed but I care not), salad, and crusty French bread. Dessert was New York cheesecake with fresh strawberries, provided by Dh's parents.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

36 Weeks


Less than one month to my due date. I can make it!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Baby E Is Not a Baby

My baby girl is a toddler. With the quickly approaching arrival of her little brother, I have realized I can't call her Baby E here anymore. She is now Miss E. This kid is 21.5 months old, impossibly fun and adorable, and learning new things so quickly it makes my head spin. She knows and says tons of words. Much to my delight, she just added her first verb to her vocabulary this morning - "sing" - a command to me to entertain her with whatever songs I can think of. Most of her words are nouns ("beebee" baby, "kow-kow" color/crayons) or interjectives ("ow," "uh-oh"). She is really increasing in comprehension which is so neat to watch. I do have to be careful and keep my sentences short or she gets lost.


Miss E makes this made-up sign for sleeping when she wants to go down for a nap. Which is cool! She also makes this sign when she is bored, or cranky, or wants to be held, or something isn't going her way. Which is not as cool, but still cute.



Fun poufy dress from my mom. Miss E likes to fluff up the many layers. She also likes that there are flowers ("fow-fow") around the waist. She prefers to be wearing flowers at all times.



Putting her shoes on by herself. On the wrong feet, natch.

(Note flowers on shirt AND pants.)

Miss E goes through weird food phases. In November and December, she practically lived on mandarin oranges. In January and February she was obsessed with cheese (Tillamook only, thank you very much). Now she wants nothing to do with oranges or cheese. She is currently grooving on apples, chicken nuggets (gag), dried cranberries, graham crackers, prunes (I am so not kidding), and Frosted Mini Wheats. I can pretty much only get her to eat vegetables if they are hidden in a casserole or soup.



Coloring the newspaper. And sometimes the table.




Dh bought her this purse - a Hello Kitty purse in a shocking pick color, with pink leopard-print handle. She carries it all over the place. In this picture, she is also wearing my heels. She is shaping up to be a girly girl, and I am thrilled! This morning she refused pants. She wanted to wear a skirt. Yeah, baby!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Tagged by Becca! to Reveal the Secrets of My Fab Marital Union

How long have you and your significant other been together? We started hanging out in June 2001. We have known each other for almost seven years. This seems like a very long time to me.

Who eats more? Definitely Dh. Though when I am pregnant I can almost match him. Not really.

Who said "I love you" first? He did. Well what he actually said was, "I think I'm falling in love with you," and me being a complete chicken responded, "Me too." Then I spent the rest of the week grinning like an idiot.

Who is taller? Dh is: 5'10"; I am 5'4".

Who sings better? Me.

Who is smarter? Me. Dh agrees. Though he will then launch into a pseudo-philosophical monologue about how there are book smarts, and then there are street smarts, and he has the street smarts. Blah blah blah.

Who does the laundry? Mostly me. Dh does occasionally, but I don't count his laundry-doing, because he washes and dries the clothes, then leaves them in baskets all over the place. I think he figures we'll wear it all again eventually so we might as well leave it within easy reach. Or something.

Who does the dishes? Me. I think Dh did the dishes right after I had Baby E. And one time when I was sick.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me.

Who pays the bills? Dh.

Who mows the lawn? Dh.

Who cooks dinner? Almost always me.

Who drives when you are together? It's about half and half.

Who is more stubborn? Tie.

Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? Usually me. Dh takes longer to cool off.

Whose parents do you see the most? Dh's. His parents live 5 hours away by car. My parents live 5 hours away by plane. Though my mom flies out frequently to see her only grandbaby.

Who kissed who first? Dh kissed me.

Who proposed? Dh.

Who is more sensitive? Ha ha Me.

Who has more friends? Me, though Dh has lifelong friends. I moved around too much growing up to have any of those.

Who has more siblings? Tie! (Five.)

Sunday, March 09, 2008

34 Weeks


If you tell me I look like I'm about to pop, I WILL drop kick you.* Six weeks left, people. I'm only going to get bigger.



*After I have the baby. Balance not so great right now.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Tiring Child

Today Baby E:
  • Hit me so hard in the forehead with her Bob the Builder phone that I started crying. It freaking hurt!
  • Went to time-out twice, back to back, for hitting (separate incident from above). During which I had to hold her in the chair, because she thought it was funny to get out of time-out. She didn't think it was funny though, when I wouldn't look at her while holding her in the chair.
  • Had a complete meltdown just before dinner because I wouldn't let her snack on plain tuna. Which seems completely gross to me.
  • Asked for cheese 1,072 times.
  • Tried to color on her pants, her hand, and the carpet. Thank goodness for Color Wonder markers.
  • Gave me a few unsolicited hugs. Baby E is not usually very affectionate.
  • Rubbed macaroni and cheese in her eyes at lunch. Rubbed tuna pasta in her eyes at dinner.
  • Used her stool to get up to counter level in the bathroom, where her little arm reached for everything I had out.
  • Used her stool to get up to counter level in the kitchen, where her little arm reached for all the ingredients of tuna pasta.
I am exhausted.

This evening I put her to bed (she goes back and forth on whether she wants me or Dh to sing to her). I laid her down, tucked her two white teddy bears in her arms, covered her with her purple blanket, then her green blanket. "Good night, Baby E. I love you." From the crib, a little voice, "Bye-bye." I turned into a quivering lump of love.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Whatever, Internet

I am so sorry to hear that all of you have such crappy taste in food and never make Indian food and therefore never have coconut milk in your pantry. Deena totally won the basil vs. coconut milk contest. Fine.

Sometimes, and maybe this is just me, I stand in the Asian aisle at Winco and just look at the marvelous array of products. It is so inspiring. It makes me want to whip up spring rolls with a hoisin dipping sauce and make samosas from scratch. Luckily reason always prevails and I just reach for the stir-fry sauce like always. Because 1) I am not really a spring rolls kind of girl and 2) I read samosas take hours to make from scratch. Real Simple just had a Fake It, Don't Make It samosa recipe in either the February or March 08 issue, I ripped it out to try later.

And does anyone else do that, rip out recipes to try later? A couple months ago I organized all those ripped-out recipes into a 1" binder, with dividers and everything. Unfortunately that thing is now full and I am sticking new recipes I find into a folder tucked next to the binder. I can't stop ripping out delicious-sounding recipes from any magazine I see. What's funny is that any time I make a new recipe that doesn't pan out, Dh whines, "Why don't you make all the old recipes you used to make that I like?" He doesn't understand that the Turkish Shepherd's Pie he is so very, very fond of takes two bloody hours to make and I can't stand for that long, much less entertain Baby E while standing for that long. So it's OUT. Indefinitely.

Tonight I had a craving for fried chicken. So I got some from KFC. You know what? That was a craving I should have just ignored. The chicken was kind of crappy. I think it's been about a year since I had KFC and it was not as good as I remembered. Plus by the time I was done I had ingested approximately 3,245 calories.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

As If There Was Any Doubt...


Christy over at Cakerwakers gave me this award! Isn't that awesome?? It's my very first. I was so thrilled when I found out. I excitedly told Dh, explaining the whole blog awards thing, and he pretended to care for like five seconds. Then...I forgot. So it's official, I'm a complete schmuck. (See title of post.)

Well Christy is awesome because she can put a funny spin on the most atrocious experience. Of which she has more than her fair share. So I'm hoping, Christy dear, that you will ignore my general schmuckiness and forgive me for spacing. Thanks for the award!

I would like to pass this award along to:

Nurturing Narcissism. She knows what a blog should really be: posting hot pictures of yourself and talking about your own general fabulousness.

White Skinned Goddess
. This chick, who just happens to be my old roommate, has a great sense of style and is super in love with her cute husband. So her blog is fun to read!

Hola, Isabel. Who, upon reading her blog, doesn't heart Isabel? Her son has better hair than Baby E, and she is hilarious. Reasons enough to check her out. Erm, check her blog out.

Foodies

Deena, EdgyK and I were sitting around the other night discussing food. Because we all like food. Deena told us this marvelous-sounding dish that she had made up (she is creative like that). When she got to the part where she chopped up some fresh basil, EdgyK and I both made faces. "What?" she asked innocently. "Oh, I never have fresh basil. Or any fresh herbs for that matter," said EdgyK. "Me neither," I chimed in. Deena looked vaguely appalled.

The conversation continued and EdgyK mentioned that she hasn't made the Chicken Curry with Cream recipe I gave her because she never remembers to buy cream. I offered up the following: "You can use coconut milk in place of cream."

Deena busted up laughing. "You have coconut milk laying around your house, but you don't have fresh basil?"

"Erm, I make a lot of Indian food."

So tell me, blog darlings, which are you more likely to have in your kitchen?

OR

or none of the above?


Image credits: dkimages and cookalicious

Sunday, March 02, 2008

A Big Welcome Home

Dh, 5:43 pm: We'll be home in ten minutes! Baby E's cranky, but I just want to get home! Put the pizza in the oven!

Dh, 5:50 pm: Baby E just puked all over herself. Can you get towels, warm water and disinfectant ready?

Gross.

Is it unrighteous of me to be glad I am 7 1/2 months pregnant and therefore "unable" to do most of the cleanup? My dear husband didn't even ask me, he just started cleaning. I was on Baby E duty. We're pretty sure she was just carsick. And fortunately the puke didn't smell too pukey, mostly like taco meat.

Temporarily Alone

I realized after we returned from Christmas with my in-laws and my hips and back were mad, that I wouldn't be able to handle another 5-hour drive to Dh's parents' house. So on Thursday Dh and Baby E left for his hometown. His brother Magical got married on Friday (yes, Leap Year Day), and our new little niece Baby J is getting blessed tomorrow at church. I have been completely free and independent for three days now! It has been the best of times and the worst of times.

Best:
  • I leave my house whenever I want. Even during nap time.
  • I sleep in.
  • I eat what I want.
  • I go shopping for as long as my back will allow.
Worst:
  • I miss my baby. Waaah.
  • I miss my husband.
  • I missed Magical's wedding.
  • I will miss Baby J's blessing.
  • I haven't even seen Baby J in real life yet. She is already a month old!
Today was a perfect day. So self-indulgent it felt positively wicked. I slept in until 9:30, made myself a pomegranate smoothie* for breakfast, wasted time on the Internet, ate lunch, took a shower (in the middle of the day!). And then? Well it was nap time, of course! Then I finally roused myself and put a little makeup on. Finally got dressed around 3. Had a snack and then headed to the library. I did run one errand, then I met up with EdgyK at Target, where we wandered around looking at clearance clothing. Once home, I said goodnight to my baby on the phone then chatted with Dh for a while about the reception, which was tonight. Then I headed to EdgyK's house. I checked out a couple of Cosmo's from the library. That magazine is even trashier than I remembered. It's been a while since I cracked one open. We read them, reading particularly stupid bits out loud, while her husband watched Season 1 of The Office for the 9,563rd time. Now I'm about to crawl into bed after a wonderfully relaxing day!

That said, I am sooooo happy my husband and daughter will be home tomorrow evening! When Baby E gets on the phone and says, "Mama!" in her adorable little voice, I can barely handle it. I want to hug her and snuggle her until she protests and pulls away.

Yesterday I went shopping and found some fabulous stuff at Gap and Banana. Including a pair of maternity jeans that actually make me feel attractive. Worth every penny! I also bought a few (non-maternity) tops for spring. I am excited for it to not be winter anymore and me to not be pregnant anymore.

* * *

Back at Thanksgiving, while wandering a mall with Dh's brother Longroper, we found a rack of pajamas on sale at The Children's Place. We had the brilliant idea to get one each in Baby E's size, and for future Baby J (who was born at the end of January). Babies E & J met for the first time this weekend, so Dh and Longroper arranged the photo shoot. Knowing my need for a Baby E fix, they emailed me a couple of pictures:



J makes E look so big!

Hopefully Baby E will be this gentle with her baby brother.



Baby E: I'm not too sure about this little person!

Baby J: Wow! The world is so cool!


*Sorry I can't find the recipe online. Maybe it's too new to be up on the website. It came from either the February or March 2008 Everyday Food magazine. Sooooo yummy. 1/3 C tofu, 1/2 C pomegranate juice, 1 C frozen berries, 2 tsp honey, and a couple of ice cubes in your blender.