I'm horrible at this

I know I've promised belly shots on Wednesdays, but I'm not doing a very good job at actually taking them in time to post them Wednesday mornings. I was going to have Aaron take my picture this morning, but due to quite a bit of ice on the roads, he had to leave early to get to work on time, and I was still in my pjs.

Instead, I thought I'd post pictures of the craft from last Friday's "Weekend Crafting" post. Here are the crayon hearts that I've been wanting to make for yeas now. They turned out just as cute as I'd hoped and I have four of them hanging in my windows right now.

I used red, orange, and yellow crayons for the colors.


I used red yarn to hang them and threaded it through holes I made using a standard hole punch.


For a little extra something, I tied the yarn into bows, and I really like the way it looks.


Also, just to be a little bit of a tease, here's a preview of my upcoming "Weekend Baking" post:


(I suck at food staging, but am hoping to get a little better with it.)

Also, just as an update for those of you who read yesterday's post: He touched it! And then freaked out a little bit.

Possibly one of those "you had to be there" moments

...but I'm sharing anyway.

I am rapidly growing a belly, which is making my belly button nearly non-existant. I love my nearly-flat belly button; it is a good gauge of the belly expanding, something I can't see too well since I see it every day. I have also discovered the skin in my belly button is very, very soft.

So soft, that I probably touch it at least once a day.

While this may be kind of weird (although I'm sure I've read other pregnant bloggers who have admitted to the same), the best part about it is that it completely and utterly freaks out Aaron. So, being bored and a bit ornery last night I decided to have a little fun with this fact.

"My belly button is so soft. Touch it!"

"No!", he shrieked and cowered into the corner of the couch.

"Seriously! So soft! Touch it!"

"No!"

Then he started to whimper.

"Come on, just touch it!" (at this point I'm laughing so hard I can barely speak)

So he agreed to touch my belly and I tried to move quickly enough so that he would be touching my belly button by "accident". Apparently I'm not quite fast enough.

So then (sorry if this is TMI or weirds someone out - it was pretty weird) I got the belly right in front of his face and touched the belly button.

He was half laughing/half crying at this point, and I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants.

We laughed for a good ten minutes more after that. Once we calmed down, I looked at him slyly and said, "well, you have to sleep sometime," and we fell into giggles all over again.

This is apparently what passes for good humor in our household.

Still Recovering

I really, incredibly love being pregnant. I love feeling the baby move. I'm in love with my belly, and would spend all day gazing at it in the mirror if allowed. I love reading about baby stuff, picking out baby stuff (even though we're trying hard not to buy too much of it), thinking up names (still no progress on that front), and generally daydreaming about my baby girl.

My baby girl, who is completely fine and healthy, by the way. Just in case you get worried further down in this post.

All that being said, last week was TOUGH.

It started on Tuesday, when I had my latest doctor's appointment. I had an ultrasound and everything looked great (I'll post my favorite ever ultrasound picture in the near future). We were able to see her feet just fine (the reason for the ultrasound), and even though she was completely curled up in a little ball we were able to see everything and she's more adorable than ever (and I can't believe how big she is, too!). The only weird thing was that the ultrasound kind of hurt when she went over the left side of my belly. This is apparently because the baby was a little cramped in there and all balled up on the left side. A nurse told me that once my belly stretches a little more (which has since happened) she would stretch out too (which also seems to have happened).

Then I had the sit down and talk with the doctor part of the appointment, which for some reason always makes me ridiculously nervous. I'm apparently terrified of doctors after some bad doctor visits a few years ago. Anyway, the nurse comes in and gives me all kinds of stuff; glucola for my glucose test in a few weeks, my lab slip, directions, and a pamphlet on being Rh negative. I have to have a Rhogam shot along with my blood draw for my glucose test. And that's when the (completely unnecessary) panicking set in.

The pamphlet she gave me is very informative and gives all possible scenarios. While this didn't bother me too much at first, it apparently set in over night, because I woke up crying on Wednesday morning. I also woke up with a weird line of pain running up the side of my belly, about 2 inches to the right of my belly button. Figuring it would pass, I went through my day ignoring it.

As soon as I got in the car Wednesday evening to head home from work, the crying started up again. I cried over everything - what to have for dinner, all the Heath Ledger talk, worry about the baby, gas pain, being tired, etc.

I cried all night Wednesday night, into Thursday morning. I managed to clean myself up for the all day meeting I had on Thursday, but the pain continued and I started to get worried. Add this to the fact that she hadn't kicked much since the previous Sunday, and I was starting to freak the heck out.

I cried from the time I left my meeting Thursday until Friday morning. I cleaned myself up and went into the office. Then I called my OB's office to talk to the nurse about the weird pain. She said it was probably nothing (especially since the ultrasound, barely 3 days before was textbook perfect) and asked if I'd like to come in to hear the baby's heartbeat just for reassurance.

I started crying and said yes. So, I left the office, cried all the way to the OB's office, cried at the OB's office (while hearing her heartbeat at a steady 152), had to sit through a counseling session with a med student who kind of smelled like he had gas (lovely), a talk with one of the OBs from the practice who wanted to put me on medication for my depression (it had only been 3 days of weepiness and I'm pregnant for cripes sake! - this part pissed me off royally) and send me to a psychiatrist.

Then I went home and napped, and haven't cried since.

Aaron pointed out that I was completely fine until the nurse handed me the info about being Rh negative, and that was probably the big part of what I was worried about. He's right, and even though I know everything will most likely be fine, it was freaking me out.

We had a lovely, quiet weekend and I'm doing much better. I'm sure all these pregnancy hormones don't help at all, and I'm kind of a crier and a worrywart anyway. The baby kicking like it was her job all weekend was the kind of reassurance I needed, too.

Monday Meal Planning 2.3

Noodle-y Edition

When I was a little girl, I was an incredibly picky eater. Like, I only ate macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, and cereal from ages 1 to 3. I'm thinking that I totally deserve a picky child after all of that, but I'm hoping she takes after her dad instead. Lately my once diverse tastes have narrowed again, and I am a little annoyed with myself for how picky I've gotten. Noodles are once again my mainstay (I know, not the best choice of foods, but at least I can stomach them), and this week's menu reflects that.

Monday: Healthier Meat Lasagna, salad, and garlic bread.

My mom and I made this when she was in town early last week. It was quite tasty fresh, but Aaron said he didn't really care for the leftovers (and ate them anyway). I didn't make any changes to the recipe, and it was good as-is. If Aaron didn't object, I'd definitely make it again. I really like the fact that there's not too much meat and there are vegetables in there. My mom liked that it didn't have an overwhelming amount of sauce. Aaron liked that someone other than him made dinner for a change (pregnancy has made me fairly lazy, I will freely admit).

Tuesday: Chicken and Crispy Noodle Salad

Can I just say YUM to this salad? Because YUM! I would eat this any time, anywhere. We just cut chicken breasts into cubes, salted and peppered them, and sauteed them with a small amount of canola oil, and then served the chicken on top of the salad. For the salad, I (who am once again fired from grocery shopping because I forgot to get any food from the frozen food section except for ice cream) used green beans instead of sugar snap peas, used a little less oil (because a cup sounded excessive to me), and used only 1/2 a red pepper (because peppers are not my favorite food). Aaron and I both loved this dish.

Wednesday: Burritos with Mexican Rice

A stand-by in our household, and a concession to Aaron who begged for, "anything that's not pasta, please!"

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Macaroni and Cheese with salad

Here's my easy, creamy, delicious recipe for quick macaroni and cheese:

1 lb. macaroni
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
1 cup milk (any fat percentage will work; we use 1%)
2 cups shredded cheese (your choice; I use sharp cheddar, but am thinking that some gouda would also be tasty)
Franks Red Hot or Tobasco
Salt and Pepper to taste

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook macaroni according to box directions. Drain and reserve.

In a medium-sized sauce pan melt the butter over medium heat. When butter is melted, sprinkle in the flour and stir with a whisk until a paste forms and then cook a little more to burn off the floury taste. Slowly add in the milk, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a bubble and thickens. Add the cheese and whisk to combine. Add hot sauce, salt, and pepper to taste. Stir in macaroni noodles to coat and serve!

Some variations we like: Aaron likes to add in some sriracha sauce, for some added flavor and spice. Stirring in some chopped, steamed broccoli is also tasty. Aaron would love for me to add in some pancetta, but I'm still eating meat only to appease him and get in some protein for the baby.

Saturday and Sunday: We ate out all weekend because we were out and about whenever I got hungry. Don't ask what I ate out, though. It's slightly embarrassing.

Weekend Crafting 1.1

First Edition

Just to be upfront, I have not yet made the craft I am suggesting today, but it's been on my "to-make" list for years, but it seems like it is the perfect time to break out the instructions again and actually make it this time.

I love holidays, and typically do quite a bit of decorating for each one. I like to make as many of my decorations as I can that way they're just the way I want them. Valentines day is one of my favorites, despite the fact that we don't really celebrate this particular holiday (never have because it's my brother's birthday and my parents didn't want him to lose his special day like the rest of us had).

The craft for this weekend is from the Queen of Crafting-and-everything-else, Martha Stewart. It seems like it might be fun to do with kids, too, and can be changed to fit any occasion, not just Valentine's day. So here are the instructions for Crayon Hearts. There are probably a few things to buy to make these, but nothing that will break the bank. I'm thinking that dollar store crayons might be the way I go, as they're a little more transparent in general and will therefore be better to hang in the window and let some light through to really glow. If you do make them, let me know, and I'd love to see pictures! I'll try to make them this weekend too and post pictures when I do.

Weekend Baking 1.2

Yummy, yummy, S'mores in my tummy Edition

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing through the Food Network site, when I stumbled on a recipe for S'more Brownies.

Can I say YUM? Because seriously. Yum.

Admittedly, they're best when still warm, and they're very sweet. I added an extra 2 tablespoons of butter to the crust to help it stick together a little better. I also used a lot fewer marshmellows than the recipe called for; I used mini marshmallows and covered the top which amounted to a little over a cup.

Anyway, bake these brownies and grab yourself a giant glass of milk, then be prepared to feel some bliss.

24 weeks down, 16 to go

The fact that there's less than 20 weeks left is amazing to me. It's flying by incredibly fast!


Please ignore the wrinkled pants and general lack of enthusiasm. It's been one of those days.

Monday Meal Planning 2.2

BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE EDITION

Last night I was pretty bummed out that the weekend was almost over and there was still so much I wanted to do. Then my mom called and reminded me she is coming down to visit me today because I have the day off (which I had forgotten about). I can't wait! I have no idea what we're going to do, but I'm sure it will be fun, and will probably involve hitting up the local Italian grocery/bakery, a yarn shop or two I've been wanting to visit, and maybe another craft store. In addition, we're making dinner and bugging Aaron as much as possible, which is always fun. Now if I can just manage to do all this without freezing to death, as high temps are barely getting into the teens here today. Brrrr!

But before I get to all that, I thought I'd share the weekly meal plan, so here it is!

Monday: Mushroom Cheddar Frittata (recipe is the last one listed at the link) and crusty whole grain bread

This was pretty good. Aaron loved it and was excited that I would only eat the one serving, as I'm still having a pretty big egg aversion. Still, even with the whole egg issue, I liked this and will make it again. Aaron liked that it was baked like a quiche, but without a crust. He doesn't like when a pie crust gets soggy, which it tends to do in quiches I make. For the bread, just buy a small loaf from the store the day you make the frittata.

Tuesday: Tangy Three-Bean Soup, crackers

I made this last night and loved it. It was fairly quick so it makes for a pretty good weeknight meal. It's like a 3-bean salad in soup form (do people eat that outside of Michigan? I've never seen it anywhere else). Very tasty!

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner! Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce and Sausage Patties

These pancakes were awesome! Also, not much more work than normal pancakes and just one extra bowl to throw in the dishwasher. I served them with the following sauce instead of the apples listed in the recipe.

For the blueberry sauce: I combined 1 cup of frozen blueberries, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp. cornstarch, and the juice of 1/2 a lemon in a pan, and heated it up over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes or until there's quite a bit of juice that has been released by the berries. Spoon it over the pancakes and then sprinkle them with a little powdered sugar.

Thursday: Que Pasta Mac 'n' Cheese

This was pretty good too. Again, Aaron liked this more than I did. Here are the changes I'd make: cut the number of peppers in half, as this was pretty spicy (which the baby apparently didn't like because she kicked me quite a bit for the following few hours). Add another 1/2 to 1 cup of cheese, to add a little more flavor. Other than that I'd leave it as is, and I liked the fact that there were lots of veggies mixed in with one of my favorite dishes.

Friday: Leftovers

There are plenty. Trust me.

So, yeah. There are only four recipes to share this week because there were enough leftovers and a night out that we still have leftovers today and we're trying to waste less food (one of our New Year's resolutions).

Happy eating!!!

Weekend Baking 1.1

Premier Edition

For weeks now Aaron has been bugging me for peanut butter cookies. Apparently someone at the movie we went to a few weeks back had smuggled some in, and they looked mighty tasty to him.

I've made peanut butter cookies many times in the past and they've been met with approval, but not of the enthusiastic variety. They weren't like the ones he used to make with his mom, he said. Growing up with a dad that loves peanut butter cookies above all others (even though he doesn't eat peanut butter in any other fashion) I thought I'd be good at baking them. My dad had never complained.

Apparently I was wrong.

So I put in some research time and came up with what I thought would be the perfect recipe. And it sat on our counter for a week before Aaron decided it was high time he got to baking (and stopped depending on his lazy wife to do all the baked goods making in the house).

Lo and behold, these are some freakily delicious cookies. I like to enjoy them with an ice cold glass of milk (and use it as a way to get in my daily dairy requirements). Aaron likes them fine anyway they come as long as there are plenty left over.

With this recipe there are; it made nearly 4 dozen large cookies. So go ahead and bake some Old Fashioned Peanut Butter cookies this weekend. I really don't think you'll regret it.

A couple of notes:

Apparently Aaron read somewhere that Skippy is the best brand to use in peanut butter cookies, so that's what we used.

This recipe yields a crispy cookie, which is quite yummy dipped in milk. If you'd prefer a softer cookies, there are suggestions in the comments left with the recipe.

Next week I bring you something that brings together a few of my favorite things, namely s'mores and brownies. I can hardly wait!

As promised

The Belly at 23 Weeks

(Baby gear accumulated thus far in background.)

I know, I know...

I promised a belly picture today. Then I took some and absolutely hated them, so I have to wait for Aaron to take my picture tonight. In the future I will have him take the picture on Tuesday nights. I would have had him do this last night, but I was unshowered and looking rather disheveled and I'm not willing to share that look with anyone but him. (Isn't he a lucky guy?)

Anyway, here's a conundrum which we're currently pondering:

Early August: "Hey! Let's buy tickets to see Avenue Q! The last week in April"

Late August: "Hey! We're pregnant! Finally! Yay!"

A few weeks later: "Hey! That play is only two weeks before my due date! Hope I don't go into labor early! Also, if not, I'll be hugely pregnant! Won't that be fun?"

So yes. We have tickets to a play that occurs two weeks before I'm due to deliver our baby girl. I'll be that kind of pregnant that causes strangers to look at you with fear, the fear that you're going to drop the baby on their feet or something because you're just that pregnant. Also, our seats? Middle of the damn row in the middle of the damn auditorium.

Here are the questions:

Should we even attempt to go? Or should we sell/give away our tickets? (Or should I send Aaron with my sister or something?)

If we do go, should we try to trade seats with someone on the aisle? I pee about every 45 minutes, so I'm sure I'd bug the heck out of anyone sitting closer to the row than I.

Also, aren't we smart? Buying tickets when we knew there was a possibility this would happen?

Monday Meal Planning 2.1

So I said I was going to do this yesterday, but then I had to go see my sister for her birthday and it took hours longer than expected. Then I got home and curled up with season 3 of Grey's Anatomy on DVD and fell asleep during the last episode I was planning to watch, so I didn't get any blogging done.

I also finished my first ever hand-knitted sock! Now I just have one more to go to finish the pattern. It was just as much fun as I had hoped.

Anyway, on to the recipes. You can tell we got a new Everyday Food magazine right before we started planning this meal, because those recipes are heavily represented this week. But they were all delicious, promise. (I decided to give you our meal plan a week behind when we make it so that I've tested the recipes I'm recommending. I have no idea why I didn't do this in the first place.)

Monday: The Pioneer Woman Cooks Steak Sandwiches with steak fries and cucumber-tomato salad.

These are absolutely delicious. Aaron said he would eat this sandwich every day if he could, and he got his wish because he had the leftovers almost every day last week. The first night he ate it with some cheese melted on top, but then found the next day that it was much better without the cheese.

For the cucumber-tomato salad, slice up a peeled cucumber and a Roma tomato into thin slices. Put into a bowl and top with about a tablespoon of sugar, drizzle with olive oil and cider vinegar, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix it all up and let it sit in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Stir again before serving.

Tuesday: Baked Ziti with salad and garlic bread.

You can make the salad and garlic bread according to the recipes included with the Baked Ziti, but since we already had the salad fixings and some frozen garlic bread, we used those up instead.

Wednesday: Chicken with Avocado Salsa with Lemony Orzo

Since Aaron had plenty of leftovers for lunch, he hoovered this chicken recipe like it was his job, leaving no leftovers. I liked it just fine, and thought the orzo was delicious. Very quick, easy, and tasty.

Thursday: Chopped Salad with Buttermilk Dressing

Again, we loved this recipe. Very light, a little spicy, and quite tasty.

Friday: Lighter Chili with cornbread muffins

This was quite different from our normal chili recipe, but still delicious. We have leftovers for lunch today, and I'm looking forward to it. I made the cornbread muffins according to the recipe on the back of the cornmeal container.

Some edits we made to the recipe (because my brain is gone and I'm fired from grocery shopping in the near future): instead of tomato paste we used ketchup (I bought tomato paste with tomato pesto which was just not going to work), we only used 1/2 pound of ground sirloin and that was plenty of meat (this one's just a preference thing), and one of the cans of diced tomatoes we used had green chilis in it as well (again, fired from grocery shopping). The chili was excellent even with the changes.

Saturday: Asian Beef Skewers with steamed and salted edamame.

This one is a favorite of ours and we make it at least once a month. Very flavorful. We do substitute stew meat for the sirloin because it's more affordable.

Sunday: Leftovers.

Even with eating leftovers for lunch, we still had enough that we didn't need to make dinner last night. Always a plus!

Somewhat Newness

Lately I've been fairly uninspired about what to write on this here blog. It could be my fairly three-track mind lately (baby, food, crafting), because anything outside of those areas is largely ignored or forgotten about (poor Aaron!).

Anyway, there have been some things I've been wanting to do for a while now, and since I need blogging material in the worst way, I'm going to do some features (at least until the baby gets here; then all bets are off for a while).

First things first, I'm bringing back Meal Planning Monday, except it's going to happen usually on Sunday. Why Sunday? Because it may give other people a little more time to plan if they want to use any of the recipes. Also because those posts take a lot of time to write and if I do it before work then I get to work late. Plus, I have a lot of new meetings on Mondays so no time to do it during work. So Sundays it is!

Second, on Fridays I'm going to do Weekend Projects so I can share some of the many craft ideas I have done or want to try. I love crafting because it usually gets done pretty quickly and therefore it's an almost instant sense of accomplishment. I do crafts of all sorts, so there's sure to be something to please everyone eventually! I may also do a Weekend Baking post on Fridays, because I usually bake our sweet for the week on Saturdays, and why not share the fun?

Finally, there will be baby belly photos every Wednesday. I've been really bad at remembering to take pictures (so far there has only been the one I shared about 4 weeks ago), so maybe this will give me the kick in the pants I need to remember to take the pictures in the first place.

Hopefully this will make me actually think of content instead of just throwing up whatever I can find after hours of mind-wracking for a blogging topic.

My Brain is Broken

It turns out that all that convincing Aaron to go to the rally this Sunday was for naught - I completely forgot that we would be celebrating my baby sister's 21st birthday this weekend. I thought the celebration might happen on Saturday, but she has decided on Sunday night dinner instead.

Aaron sounds less than pleased about having to leave town on a Sunday evening, but there's no way I'm going by myself especially since the trip back from her birthday celebration two years ago started a stream of panic attacks that lasted for many months. I don't do that drive, especially not at night, by myself. I may be a wuss, but I'm embracing my wussiness.

There is one more problem with going to the big celebration: I have no idea what to get her. Seeing as my brain has been on the fritz lately (see: "pregnesia") this is a difficult task. I've been thinking about it on and off for about a month now and despite many proddings to see what it is she may want (me: Just tell me what you want. her: I don't know. Something I'll use.) I have come up empty.

So, I'm asking all of you for help. Say you're a 21-year-old girl who attends a small private college in middle-of-nowhere Michigan, who doesn't really drink much, and only wants something you'll use. What is that think you'll use? Help! Please!

Let's Get Political

First things first (since I'm trying to journal some things about being pregnant here), the baby seems to like to play games. She wasn't moving much yesterday which always makes me anxious and hormonal. So I was sitting on the couch, rubbing my belly (Aaron calls me Buddha, I give him a hand signal in return), and giving her a pep talk about how it's alright to kick me as much as she wants. Momma really doesn't mind.

So I'd rub my belly for a few seconds, remove my hands, and she'd kick once. She did this about six times over ten minutes. It was really quite fun. She still won't kick while Aaron's trying to feel the kicks, but I hear that's common. He's dying to feel her kick though.

She also decided that four in the morning was a good time to kick. A lot. So I've been up since then. She's lucky she's got me wrapped around her little finger currently, otherwise she'd be so grounded!

************************************************************************************

So, yeah. There's this election thing going on that I keep reading and hearing about. I'm not really going to state my opinion on the candidates one way or another, because my opinion isn't that important right now (and because I'm still pretty undecided), but Aaron has a definite favorite and that favorite is going to be in town on Sunday. I can tell he wants to go, but he also doesn't want to go alone/without me and is worried about me standing around waiting to get in to the "Town Hall Meeting" since I'm pregnant. I told him that I think I might survive, and that going to see candidates is a lot of fun. I've seen a few in my day, including when my high school band played for Bob Dole (I wasn't pleased at the time because I was pretty anti-Dole), and when Al Gore had a rally literally outside the back door of the house I lived in during college (and Jon Bon Jovi opened for him, so that was a lot of fun).

I've been disappointed to miss some of my favorites, and so that's why I'm pushing him to go. Once, in college, I skipped a Bill Clinton (one of my favorite politicians) speech because it was the first day of classes, and I had previous experience with this professor getting angry at people skipping the first day of class (he gives a quiz the second day of class). So I begrudgingly walked to class, only to arrive to find a note on the door saying that class was cancelled due to Bill Clinton giving a speech on campus (it was a poli-sci class so this makes sense, but still)! Man, was I peeved, and I let the professor know it. Those of us that missed the speech got some extra credit because we all let him know it.

Before I met Aaron he didn't vote. To a politically active, political science major this was tantamount to blasphemy and I told him so. He's voted ever since, and even though I usually don't agree with the person he chooses, I'm happy he's doing his civic duty.

Well, at least we know I'm not an elephant, I guess

One thing I really didn't expect, or at least to this magnitude, about being pregnant is how incredibly brain-dead I'd become. It's ridiculous! I'd heard of "preg-nesia" and how women supposedly lose half of their brain to each child they have, but for some reason I really didn't think it would happen to me.

Ha! I think I'd literally forget my head if it wasn't screwed on (that's a saying, right? I'm not just pulling it out of my butt like I seem to do lately, right?).

I forget words all the time. It took me two minutes today to think of the word, "proposal", which was the thing I was working on at the time. I write a lot for work which makes this word-forgetting nonsense incredibly annoying since I can't remember the word I'm looking for almost every time I start typing. Also, I can't remember the point of my sentence once I'm halfway through it.

I also keep making up sayings/words, etc. It's amusing Aaron and annoying me all at once. Amusing him because of the complete nonsense that is spewing forth from my lips, and annoying me because he corrects me all the time. I swear that I exasperatedly exclaim, "You knew what I meant! Did you have to correct me?", on a daily basis.

I also forget things at home. Like today, I forgot my gym bag and half my lunch. I've never had so many extremely overdue books from the library as I've had in the past few months (thank goodness they don't charge fines for books). I've also missed about 75% of my holds at the library because I forget to pick them up.

Then there are other symptoms, like that day last week when I went around for a few hours with my pants on backwards. I'm neglectful, forgetful, and annoyed about it all.

I've also heard it doesn't go away once the baby is born. Aaron teases me about forgetting the baby somewhere, at this point I don't think it's nearly as funny as he does.

Too fast and not fast enough

Aaron and I were sitting on our couch this weekend when it simultaneously hit both of us: we only have about four months before the baby gets here! It freaked us out a little bit, but also gave us the push we needed to get some things done. Things like signing up for child birth classes, a breast feeding class, discussing our registry, cleaning up the spare room a little more, and doing research on baby items. It was a crazy but fun weekend.

I also realized that time is slipping by too quickly and I haven't recorded so many things about being pregnant. Like the first time I felt her move (December 1st during the Central Park scene in "Enchanted"), some things that happened during the ultrasound (I had tears streaming down my face even though I wasn't really crying, and I've never seen Aaron nearly as excited and wowed as he was when we watched her kicking and moving around on that little screen), and we definitely haven't taken nearly enough belly shots. One of my coworkers was gone for two weeks and she was wowed by how much bigger my belly has gotten in that time period. There's just so much happening so fast. I really need to do a better job of recording it all.

One other thing that happened this weekend that was completely awesome was that the baby was pushing out on the left side of my belly, and Aaron could feel her. It was like that part of my belly was harder and sticking out more than the rest of it. He's been anxiously waiting to feel her kick; he says he wishes he felt as connected to her as I do. That even though he loves her so incredibly much, he's jealous that I pretty much get her all to myself these days. Although, he also said that the kicking thing, while cool, freaks him out and he's glad that it's happening to me and not him because it would just be too weird. (It is too weird, and also too amazing.)

And as fast as it's all moving, and as scared as we are about all these changes, we're really excited for the day that she emerges and we get to meet her properly for the first time.

I'm also thinking about breakfast

It's about quarter to eight in the morning and I've already been up for nearly two hours. The awake thing happened because I needed to go to the bathroom, then the baby started moving, which meant I needed to go to the bathroom NOW, because it's not easy holding it when someone is dancing on your bladder.

So I'm up and I have been knitting, reading about knitting, and now blogging. I have way too many craft projects in progress right now, but I'm loving it. I'm really getting the hang of knitting, after spending the previous year getting the hang of crocheting. Now if only my husband can get over the yarn expenses that have popped up recently, we'll be good.

Currently I'm working on a pair of these socks (my first ever attempt at socks and I'm loving it so far, but I haven't gotten to turning the heel yet), a few of these crocheted roses
(which keep getting better with each one, instead of me having a set of very similar looking roses, which is what I wanted), and finally getting closer to being done with this baby sweater, which I started in June (and which was supposed to be for my niece, but she's 8 months old now and therefore too big for it, so baby is getting a sweater). Plus, there are about 30 more patterns just waiting to be started, most for the baby who looks like she will have a wardrobe heavily represented by crocheted pieces (like this one - couldn't you just melt?!? I must buy this pattern).

It's gotten so bad that I even dreamed about knitting last night. I seem to have a nearly one-track mind which is weird to me since I'm usually one of those people who can't sit still for more than five minutes at a time. However, I couldn't be happier than sitting here, knitting, and feeling the baby do gymnastics.

This makes me sad

The Iowa Caucuses were last night and there were some semi-surprising and interesting results, yet Britney Spears Goes to the Hospital is the #1 read news story on CNN.com.

I Request a Do-Over

Today is not working for me, and I either want to skip it or get a do-over. Case in point: I just went for my first bathroom break of the day. When I sat down I noticed pockets on my pants. "I don't remember these pants having pockets on the front," I thought to myself.

That's because they don't. My pants were on backwards. I'm a moron.

I've also been in tears most of the morning. Why? Oh, because my pants were taking too long to de-lint. And I caught my brush on a tangle in my hair and it hurt. Then I scratched my face with my thumb nail, and that hurt. I also then slipped a little on ice (they need to use salt in our parking lots and not just the sidewalks. Parking lots get icy too, and I can't afford to fall this winter), and someone was going the wrong way in our parking lot (which is a regular, annoying occurance).

I've managed to hold it together since then, but just barely. This is going to be a long day.