14 Weeks and Vacation

How far along? 14 weeks

How big is baby? About 3 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 ounces.  This week's fruit is a lemon!
Weight gain? I think I'm up around 6 lbs
Maternity clothes? Bella band, pants.  I can still wear my post-pregnancy pants and larger sized jeans.
Stretchmarks? nope
Sleep? Not needing to nap the entire time Everett does.  Getting some energy back!
Best moment this week? Got to hear the heartbeat!  130 bpm and everything else is perfectly boring.
Movement? Should be able to feel it sooner than with Ev (which was at 18 1/2 weeks)
Food cravings? Reading a girly novel, the character ate some salt and vinegar chips.  Needless to say, there is now a bag of sea salt and vinegar kettle chips in my kitchen.  :)
Bellybutton? Blech.  Flat.
Labor signs? No
What I miss? hot water.  need to turn that darn water heater back up.
What I am looking forward to? continuation of this amazingly easy pregnancy!

In other news, last Thursday, Ev and I went down to join my parents and siblings at a cabin (actually 2) they had rented for the week.  Brian joined us on Friday afternoon.  Here are some resulting pictures:

Just being a cutie

 Hanging out with aunts and uncle

 Swinging with uncle Sam

 Going down the slide!

  Daddy took Ev for an early morning row on our last day

 And I just had to get some pictures of this.  Whenever we mow the lawn, Everett absolutely NEEDS to have his "popper" to help out.  Same thing when we're vacuuming.  It's a multi-purpose popper.

Two guys working hard

Making sure that grass gets cut

"What?  I'm being helpful!"

13 weeks

I saw this on some other blogs and keep thinking I should do it, so I guess I might as well start.

How far along? 13 weeks

How big is baby? Up to about 3 inches long, weighing nearly an ounce.  This week's fruit is a peach!

Weight gain? Somewhere around 4 lbs

Maternity clothes? Bella band for sure and some pants

Stretchmarks? nope

Sleep? niiiice.  Not needing quite as many naps as before.

Best moment this week? Having aunties and cousins around to play with Everett

Movement? Should be starting to move, obviously not feeling it

Food cravings? Pickles.  A for serious craving this pregnancy.  So I made some.

Bellybutton? Getting ugly again.

Labor signs? No way

What I miss? My jeans

What I am looking forward to? should be able to hear heartbeat next Monday!

Right, I fail.

Brian informed me this evening, in quite the accusatory tone, that I haven't blogged since "the kale quiche" blog.  Oops.  I've been sleepy!  On the days I am home with Ev, I nap the entire 2-3 hours that he naps.  On days I work, I come home exhausted (from all the tiring sitting at a desk) and don't really want to do anything other than peruse facebook and thebump.  Let me see if I can come up with some updates here. 
I ordered Everett a bike a while back and it's here.  It's a wooden balance bike to teach him the proper skills to keep a bicycle upright and push along with his feet.  One problem.  My super tall boy isn't quite tall (or confident) enough to push himself along yet.  But he does love sitting on it and having daddy push him all around the main floor.


Ev has a minor obsession with Thomas the tank engine lately and we were fortunate enough to go to a garage sale where we scored a thomas backpack (with wheels), two books, and a handful of little trains and freight cars that stick together with a magnet.  Very cool.  Especially since I paid 50 cents a piece for them and they retail for about ten times that.

Everett's two fish and Daddy's one are all doing very well and Ev enjoys feeding them each morning, especially the algae pellet for his "sucka" fish. 

Ev's learning new words every day and tries to repeat whatever you say.  He also gets this adorable little look of concentration on his face when he's trying to see how you say a word and copy it.  He calls the cats Mabba (Mabel) and ditty (Olivia.  Not sure why he just calls her kitty, but oh well!).  He loves "joooce!," "muck" (milk), "bayow-wees" (berries), "cacka" (crackers), and "nandy!" and "cookiecookiecookie!" (candy and cookies.  not that he gets much of them, but he knows he loves them.)

Now I'm off to find a snack because my dinner consisted of a bowl of instant mashed potatoes.  I blame the in utero one.

Boy eating kale quiche

Well, I think I can safely say that I made up the recipe.  That's right, I looked off so many recipes and made so many changes that I am saying this is my very own, very first, recipe!  And for once this week of the missing daddy, I finally feel like I did not fail my child nutritionally.  The boy ate two pieces of kale quiche.  What's that?  You want proof?  Here you go then:


Okay, now that that's done, is he not the cutest thing learning to talk?  I do think so.  Nevermind the whole fiasco that occurred while I was making this lovely meal.....

So without further ado, my first recipe!  (and I am realizing that I'm turning into my gramma with the whole accurate measurement thing....)

Kale Quiche
Ingredients:

• pastry crust - I did 1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour, 1/3 c. chilled shortening, 1/2 t. sea salt, and 1/4 c. ice water.  Look up your own instructions.  ;) 
• 3 slices turkey bacon
• olive oil 
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• bunch of kale (or spinach, or collard greens, you know, something nutritious and green), washed, de-stemmed, cut into small-ish strips
• salt & pepper
• 1/2-3/4 c. shredded cheese (I didn't really measure....and I just used the shredded fiesta blend in my fridge)
• 6 eggs
• 1 c. milk (the fatter the better!  I used 2%)
• dash of nutmeg

Instructions:
Make your pastry crust.  Like I said, I don't feel like detailing this part.  Put the crust into a nice pie plate.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook up that turkey bacon until nice and crisp.  While that is cooking, saute the onion in a bit of olive oil until tender and somewhat clear.  Add the kale strips and continue sauteing over medium heat until slightly wilted.

Pour the onion and kale right onto your pastry crust.  Crumble your cooled turkey bacon into little bits and add that to the kale/onion in the crust.  Salt and pepper a little bit for some flavor.  Add cheese to the mix and stir up a little bit (without destroying your crust, of course).

In a bowl, whip up your eggs and milk until frothy.  Add just a dash of nutmeg.  Pour the mixture on top of the kale/onion/bacon in the crust.

Gently pop the whole thing into the preheated oven and cook for 45 minutes.  Once it looks firm (doesn't jiggle) and slightly brown on top, remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.

Slice up like a pie and enjoy!


Oh, and one more thing, not recipe related.  Is this my boy or what?

Day 4 of 13

We're still alive!  Monday, we had a bike ride/picnic at the park and that was a nice way to get out of the house.  That night, I got to hang out with my mommy friends for dinner/dessert and had an excellent chocolate lava cake.  Tuesday, Julie and Tim watched Ev AND cleaned and vacuumed the living room!  It was fantastic.  Wednesday, Ever ended up with nana, so on my lunch break, I scarfed some leftovers and took a half hour nap.  Today was drizzly but we still managed to play outside a little bit, had a giant pillow jumping/snuggle time, watched a whole lot of "choo choos" (thomas the tank engine) and went to wal-mart after our three hour nap.  Ever actually was quite well behaved.  No major tantrums, he helped push the cart, only ran off once, and played on the firetruck in the kids area (within my view) while I paid for the groceries.  I've managed to feed us decently nutritious meals, but have still disappointed myself with some of the junk we've had.  I'm still making sure we get our veggies!  Now Ev's in bed, I'm watching an old episode of Glee and will be heading to bed myself in an hour or so.  It's hard having Everett awake at the same time Brian calls home so Ev hasn't talked to daddy in a while, but it's somewhat easier because then he doesn't accidentally hang up and whine about daddy.  We've also managed to keep the garden, cats, and fish alive.....so far.  :)
We miss you daddy!