New Years Resolutions with a Baby?

I like the idea of New Year's Resolutions. New year, make a fresh start, set some goals. But it's hard to imagine resolving to do one thing or another when I have no idea what this year will look like. Baby Caleb will be here any day to turn our world upside. Our lives run on the academic year, so I never know if we're going to be moving in the summertime. This is to make the point that I'm not sure I can resolve to decorate the apartment or cook through a certain cookbook. But there are a couple things I think I can take on:

2014 New Years Resolutions

1: I want to be an active, fit mom for Caleb and more importantly, for myself. I'm so over being huge and pregnant, I miss the feeling of being fit and being able to jog up a flight of stairs without getting winded. I resolve to go to the gym, the pool or get out for a walk with my family at least 3 times a week. And yes, that includes when it's disgustingly cold out. It does not include immediately after having the baby. I'm not that crazy. 

2: I know I've mentioned (bragged) about this before, but Brian and I have a fantastic marriage. We're crazy in love and I don't want to lose that when our family dynamic changes. My resolution is for one date night a month. 

3: I don't want to completely lose my time in the kitchen. I resolve to try one new baked good recipe once a month. 

Looking at this list, I realize that resolution number one and resolution number three counteract each other, but what would life be without its challenges?

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes for New Year's Eve

Merry & Bright

Winter solstice lights

To church on a snowy morning

Favorite shirt at 38 weeks pregnant

Sunset from the nursery window on Christmas Eve

Cranberry-orange sweet rolls

Baby's first UNC shirt. One of many to come.

Christmas at my parents' house

Lights in the snow

Nesting...

Brian in total Dad mode, putting together our new stroller

With the toddler seat in...

And with just the infant carrier in! He calls this stroller "Transformers for adults."

37 weeks

When I got pregnant in the spring, I had the thought "I can't wait for snow, because that means Caleb will be here soon!" Well, it's been snowing like crazy this year. I don't remember the last time we had a White Thanksgiving as well as a White Christmas. It feels like we're getting fresh snow every other day and the extreme cold (0's and teens) has set in earlier than usual. I've taken to calling my knee-length down coat "The Christmas Miracle Coat" because it still zips up over the bump. When I bought my cute maternity pea coat, I assumed I'd wear that through the rest of the pregnant, because I usually don't need the big coat until January. Well, it was -1 when I woke up this morning and a wool pea coat just doesn't cut it in this weather. Long story short: It's snowing and Caleb will be here soon. I'm officially full term, although a couple more weeks for him to fatten up and get ready, like a little Christmas goose, wouldn't be bad. I'd like to hear a nice healthy wail from his little lungs when he arrives. Then I'd like him to never wail again! How's that for contradictions?

37 weeks is fairly uncomfortable. I don't know if he has "officially" dropped, but he is sitting rather low in my pelvis, which makes rolling over, getting up, getting in and out of cars and walking somewhat uncomfortable. One of my best friends is a runner, and due to the fact that she ran daily for years and years before being pregnant, she ran throughout her entire pregnancy, including the day she went into labor. I guess if I were a natural runner I would be ok, but the idea of walking a couple miles right now, much less running, makes me want to cry. For me, I'm happy sitting on the couch, watching Carolina pummel Kentucky, Chicago trounce Cleveland and making fun of the old Christmas cartoons from the late 1960's.  

36 weeks

Last week I was freaking out and Brian was calm. This week, it's the opposite. We've got our carseat. It's not installed yet, but we've got it! I still need to do laundry, but it'll happen. Eventually. I started my weekly appointments with Dr. K yesterday and the baby is making good process toward delivery in the next few weeks (head down, sitting pretty low). We met with our doula and I'm so happy she's going to be helping us through the birth process. Sure, I still need to deal with Christmas presents and at all, but at 9 months pregnant, you pretty much get a pass on everything. So this is 36 weeks, relaxed and excited, trying to enjoy the last few weeks of pregnancy: feeling Caleb's every movement, cute bump...and that's about it!

Baby Caleb is the size of a honeydew melon, according to my email, and feels like it too!

Dinner Wins this Week

This week was a winning streak as far as dinner is concerned. I made three meals that ended up being the perfect size to take us through the week for dinners and lunches. Here's the rundown:

A large pot of veggie soup, made up on the spot. Sauteed carrots and onions, a large can of diced tomatoes with their juices, a small can of chickpeas, a couple cups chicken stock and a bag of frozen vegetables. I seasoned with salt and pepper, a little ketchup (a trick I learned from my mother-in-law!) and Worcestershire sauce. This is definitely a "season to taste" recipe. For individual servings, I made up some some small shell pasta. It was almost minestrone-like, but certainly bastardized.

A large pot of chili. My favorite, super-easy, comes together so fast you won't believe it, is Martha Stewart's "Lighter Beef Chili." It's a knockout for an after work dinner, especially when your husband offers to make cornbread! I didn't have tomato paste in the house, but didn't find too much lacking in the taste department. If anything, without the extra tomato flavor, the meat really stands out. Topped with cheese and sour cream, this is a winner. On Martha's site, this recipe has a publication date of 2008, from Everyday Food. I can actually remember the tiny Everyday Food I used to pick up at the grocery store, so this means this is one of the first recipes I learned when I started to teach myself to cook after college. That's pretty awesome.

Finally, I tried a new recipe, one for Skillet Chicken Fajitas from Serious Eats. I followed this recipe pretty closely, leaving out the jalapenos and green onions. I did add a bag of the new Frontera "skillet sauce" - not my usual cooking style but I'll admit they are attractively packaged, which is what made me pick it off the shelf. It was a Chipotle sauce, labeled "medium" hot, which translated into = not hot. If I tasted it still on the stove, I would have added some of my dried chipotle pepper, but either way the fajitas were delicious. We ate them with plenty of avocado and they might be making a repeat appearance this week.

Thankfully I made these meals early in the week, before a head cold knocked me on my butt for a couple days. I was grateful to have meals in the fridge for both Brian and I as we continue with our busy, busy pre-baby schedule. I'm sure I'll look back at this and laugh, but honestly, I can't wait for Caleb to come and make me leave work, clear my calendar and just focus on him for a few weeks.

35 Weeks, 35 Days

Yesterday my update email from TheBump kindly let me know that I'm 35 weeks pregnant, Caleb is probably over 5lbs now, as long as he's going to get in utero (and somehow the size of a coconut??) and that 35 weeks = 35 days left. 35 DAYS LEFT?? I don't know how that's possible and it feels like the to-do list tripled over the weekend. I need to get on Christmas gifts and more prepping for Caleb and bringing meals to people and baking for the church party and remembering to ENJOY this last holiday season of just me and my husband. Oh, and work is insane. So there's that.

35 weeks along

In our defense, we did get a lot done over the weekend. We ordered our car seat and more cloth diapers, put up more decorations in Caleb's room, decorated for Christmas, and generally cleaned the apartment. It looks incredibly livable again. I've taken to a stricter dishes policy, telling myself that as the Mom, I really need to have a clean kitchen at the end of the night (seeing as how Brian does most of the dishes, this isn't that hard). We'll see how long it lasts.

The new decorations. The cute animal hooks are from Pikes Place Market in Seattle. The changing station is just about ready! 

I don't mean to complain, but that 35 day timeline till my due date sufficiently freaked me out. I know that everything will get done and I'm incredibly grateful that I'm feeling great- I have energy in the evenings after work and I'm still sleeping in 4-5 hour stretches. Let's hope that lasts as long as possible.

The baby blanket is a gift from my Aunt J, and the Carolina Panthers onesies are a gift from Baby Caleb's Aunt Maria and Uncle Joe. We love them!

Thanksgiving 2013 Game Plan

I've realized more and more that I come from a family of cooks. My mom has always been a from-scratch cook, like her mom and her grandmother who lived on a farm in Napa Valley. My dad has been the big surprise- during his working years (aka, all the years until last summer) his extent of cooking was...eggs? Campbell's soup? Grilled cheese, definitely. Manning the grill in the summertime off and on. And taking us out to dinner was his specialty! But since retirement he has caught the cooking bug, so to speak, and whips up gourmet meals (think grilled watermelon salad with feta and arugula) all the time. This is all to say, Thanksgiving is serious at our house and serious in a different way than with Brian's family. They are big on tradition- sage stuffing, cranberry "salad," home canned green beans, mac and cheese, etc. You do not mess with the meal at their house. We like to try new things and Mom has been cataloging our Thanksgiving and Christmas meals in a notebook for a few years now, taking note of what we liked and what didn't work. This year we've split the menu pretty evenly and here's what we're making:

Mom:
2 Turkey Breasts
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potato Souffle
Green Salad
Cranberry sauce (canned and fresh. I have a die hard love for the canned cranberry sauce, I don't care what anyone says about it).
Coconut-Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Me:
Garlic-Rosemary Rolls
Brussels Sprouts
Wild Mushroom and Bacon Stuffing
Salted Caramel Chocolate Pecan Pie

I'm spreading out the work over the week- pie crust and fresh bread for the stuffing were made on Sunday. Tomorrow I'll make the dough for the rolls, (it's a breadmaker recipe so don't be too impressed), the stuffing and the chocolate base for the pie, and probably prep the Brussels Sprouts. Then on Thursday I'll let the rolls rise and bake, cook up the sprouts (probably with bacon) and top the pie with pecans and fresh caramel.

To be clear, this meal is for my parents, Brian and I. We're having a very small Thanksgiving this year and planning on lots of leftovers!

34 Weeks: Thanksgiving!

34 weeks pregnant and it's Thanksgiving. I can't believe I'm truly in the home stretch of pregnancy. In those early, early days when Caleb was the size of a pea the idea of the holidays and being this far along seemed so very far away. In truth, it was- he and I have come a long, long way in the past 8 months.

Remember when there was no bump at all?? Like, in July?

Now the bump is unmistakable, even under my super-cute maternity coat. I'm so attuned to Caleb's patterns- he likes to be awake when I'm at work, mostly because I sit and eat candy all day. He gets extra sleep on the weekends, when I'm up and around more. He gets the hiccups a lot now and his little head bumps against the inside of my pelvis. (I'm pretty sure he's been head down for weeks now.) It's the weirdest feeling. I asked Dr. K today why babies get hiccups in the womb and she said they don't know!! Of all the random medical things that haven't been figured out, baby womb hiccups is one of them. He likes to stretch out his legs when I'm lying on my side, which means his little butt stretches one way and his feet go the other way across my belly. Stretch, hold and relax, stretch, hold and relax, a few times in a row. Because he's an unmistakable teeny person in there, I never feel alone anymore, I'm always aware of the fact that I'm carrying around our baby with me. As in, this weekend Caleb and I went to yoga, met a new friend, watched a lot of HGTV, prepped for Thanksgiving and made 60+ potstickers. And speaking of Thanksgiving, coming up tomorrow, the 2013 Distel-Sigmon Thanksgiving game plan! 

Taking it easy in the kitchen: Steak Frites

Over the weekend I told Brian dinners were going to come down a notch. The extra weight of carrying this baby around all the time is starting to get to me, and long stretches in the kitchen belly up to the counter (literally) just aren't comfortable. I'm to the point where I look at my not pregnant friends and wonder if I will ever be that free and easy in my movement again. But that's not the point here. The point here is, I told Brian I was going to be taking it easy for meals, but then I went ahead and made steak frites with salad and homemade ice cream last night. And thank God I did, because that was one of the best home cooked meals we've had in a while, probably since I made mussels frites.

Here's the trick. I've figured it out. Cook from the cookbooks you love and trust. I love my food blogs and Pinterest and get tons of inspiration from them, but I would have to say my favorite cookbooks are Smitten Kitchen, by Deb Perelman and Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, by Martha Hall Foose. Our dinner lives improve dramatically when I cook from these books. I keep telling Brian I'm going to try to cook my way through these two, his response being "you should, I'd love that!"

The steak last night was a big 1.25lb porterhouse (on sale at the grocery store, no less!) topped with a blue cheese compound butter. If you've got SD&ST, it's called the Blue Cheese Porterhouse. Steak is something I'm wary of cooking at home, I'll admit. Even on sale, it's $8 a pound or so, and for $8 a pound I really don't want to eat tough steak. But I trusted Foose and followed her timing to the letter and ended up with a perfectly medium, tender steak, from my home oven no less! When your steak tastes like it came from a fantastic restaurant, all of sudden $8 a pound seems like a bargain. I only made one change: she calls for you to cook the steak on a broiler pan. If I have a broiler pan, I don't know where or what it is, so I used a cast iron skillet. It held up just fine under the broiler for 10 minutes. I can't rave about this recipe enough, I was so sad that a: I didn't have more steak and b: I've had this cookbook for FIVE years and this is first time I've tried this.

The frites I've already discussed here. They're from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook and the absolute easiest homemade fries. The ice cream is a buttermilk peach ice cream, also from Screen Doors and Sweet Tea. The salad was a usual in our house: baby greens topped with a fruit, a cheese and nuts- last night it was apples, blue cheese and walnuts.

I didn't take any photos because it's pitch black when we eat and nothing looks good in our dining room light, but I assure you, photographic evidence or not, the meal happened.

Maternity Wardrobe Essentials

Every pregnant lady writes this post, right? Here's a few things that I could not have done without so far in the pregnancy:


Garnier BB Cream. I used to be the best sleeper. I slept from 10:30 to 6:30 every single night, without fail. I never woke up in the middle of the night, not to roll over, not to use the bathroom, nothing. Now that I'm sleeping in, at best, 4 hour stretches, I decided an addition to my morning routine might be helpful to combat the zombie face effect. This is when you're grateful for a sister who's a make-up artist. She recommended Garnier's BB Cream especially since I don't wear make-up on a daily basis. Just this, and maybe a swipe of mascara, makes all the difference.


A great maternity coat. I'm pregnant for a good 3 months of winter, and that doesn't include post-postpartum time, so we decided that a maternity coat was a wise investment. Mine, shown above, is super cute, with a punch of color and the belt emphasizing the bump. I feel put together, even when only a handful of items fit.


Speaking of things not fitting, thank goodness for black flats. Back in September I bought two pairs from Kohl's and wear them daily. My Ugg boots still fit, so I'm currently running around in Uggs for outdoors, with a pair of flats in my bag.

Black Leggings. I have two pairs that I switch out under my dresses. They're not maternity leggings, I just wear them under my bump and I'm good to go. This is necessary as it gets colder and as my dresses get slightly shorter by the week!!

I'm also wearing cute earrings, other accessories and my hair down more, in an effort to distract from the insane bump that is Caleb growing by the week. We're now at the point where people say "Are you having that baby this month??" I'm sure they mean well...

32 Weeks: Our cup overfloweth

Our cup, our dining room, our living room, everything. Everything overfloweth.

A family at church with three little boys passed down bins of their clothing. We went through it on Saturday morning.

My favorite, anything with a cowboy on it!

Brian says "He doesn't need more than 3 or 4 pairs of shoes, right?" Me: "I have no idea. You choose."

More cowboy!

Brian's favorite, obviously.

This is what we think we're keeping. Not shown: 6 grocery bags full to go to friends and UMC Family Services. Also not shown: the swag received at my baby shower yesterday. OMG. As Brian keeps saying, "Why does such a small baby need so much stuff??"

Me, 32 weeks pregnant. Our bedroom is still a clean, sane place, unlike our living room and dining room.

Fall 2013 Hits and Misses

One of the reasons I started keeping a blog was to have a place to journal my favorite recipes, so I'd be able to come back to them. I still check my old blog for recipes that would otherwise be long gone. In that spirit, I thought I'd share some recent recipes that I'd like to be able to find again someday:

Hits:

The Pioneer Woman's Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. These were a huge hit with Brian and a couple other families I gifted. The dough is beautiful- I let it rest at least as long she recommended, which resulted in a shiny, malleable dough that had no problems rolling out or rising. I found, with a lot of icing, these were way too sweet for me. I'd cut the amount of icing in half, or maybe skip it altogether next time. That "one" recipe made three 9x9 pans of rolls, so this is great for gifting.

The Kitchn's Orzo with Carmelized Fall Vegetables. I made this for dinner last night. The flavors are so great. I could always come up with sauteing veggies with pasta, but adding in fresh ginger took it to whole other level. Two mistakes that I'd right next time: follow the instructions and cook the orzo first. Prep the veggies before you start. I thought I could chop as I went but it caught up to me and then I got behind.

A Couple Cooks' Cinnamon Ice Cream. This is a really easy recipe that I managed to screw up. Here's the golden rule of ice cream that you do not, do not, do not break: You must freeze your KitchenAid ice cream bowl overnight. 7 or 8 hours in the fridge will not do it. Trust the Rule. I made the mistake of churning the ice cream on Sunday afternoon, only to have it not come together. I dumped the ice cream base back into my mixing bowl and threw it in the fridge, washed out the KitchenAid ice cream bowl and put it in the freezer. OVERNIGHT. Then I tried again yesterday evening- success! The ice cream took about half an hour to come together.

Serious Eats' Baba Ghanoush: I made this sometime over the summer for one of our potluck dinners with friends and it was a hit. Our non-dairy, gluten-free friends could eat it. Our friend who doesn't eat vegetables was incredibly intrigued by everyone's rave reviews, but upon hearing it was eggplant, wouldn't even try it. Their loss, our gain.

Misses:

A slow cooker red beans & rice. I won't even post the recipe, because that's not nice, the recipe is probably fine. But it made WAY too much for 2 people. Here's the deal on red beans and rice, especially when you live in Wisconsin: Zatarain's is delicious. You need a quick meal? Use the box. Add some sausage. The end.

Week 31: So Pregnant, So Busy

I didn't post at all last week, and there's a reason for that: I am entirely too busy. It's true. I was too busy to remember to take a photo last week, too busy to think about writing a post. I'm packed at work and I'm jam-packed outside of work. I have to start saying no, because Brian and I don't do well when both of us are crazy busy. It's especially difficult to say no to things that, in general, make me incredibly happy: leading a book study for a group at church, participating in bible study and prayer weekly with my girlfriends, but there are only so many hours in a week. Caleb is coming, the stuff is piling up, things have to start getting washed, the holidays are soon to be here. Plus, there's usual: dinner, dishes, laundry, keeping the house fairly picked up and clean. I'm in no way saying these are all my responsibilities: they're shared between Brian and I, always have been, but they have to happen.

This weekend we took it easy: we said no to a party on Saturday night, choosing to stay in, walk to Culver's for dinner and watch a movie. We chose running our errands in a leisurely fashion, finishing up Caleb's dresser, putting up artwork around the apartment that's been sitting on the floor. We asked to push an appointment back half an hour yesterday so that we could eat lunch without rushing. I took an hour half an hour in the kitchen to make the first batch of holiday cookies, Brian's favorite, my Chocolate-Gingerbread cookies. We reconnected and recharged, ready to push forward into this week.

The dresser is finally done! We picked up hardware at Home Depot and Brian promptly attached drawer pulls to finish this project.

We also pulled out the bedding and made the crib look super pretty.

So pregnant. Shortness of breath has definitely kicked in.

Week 29

7 months pregnant. This week involved a trip to North Carolina (4 flights, total and now I'm done flying while being pregnant thank goodness) and work intensifying yet again. Caleb kicks like nobody's business. I'm still sleeping in 3-4 hour stretches, praise God. My hips hurt a lot of the time and I'm noticing that bending over is increasingly difficult. The fatigue of the first trimester is starting to creep back in- I'm exhausted at the end of day and I can feel the ache in my belly of Caleb putting on weight. He'll double, more likely triple his weight before he's born. 

In addition, Brian and I are feeling the pressure of a seriously tight schedule. Dinnertime is a joke this entire week and I realize how much I hate being tethered to the slow cooker. I find myself nostalgic for my first studio apartment in Chicago, the one with the orange wall, where I first started to read food blogs, start my own and spend hours in the kitchen by myself cooking and baking. I kept Prosecco in the fridge and vodka in the freezer and shopped in the tiny, expensive European-esque market on Diversey. Sometimes I could try out meals with lots of ingredients and sometimes I made this pasta because all you needed was onions, butter and white wine, which was all I had in the house. I wouldn't trade my life now for my life then, not for a million dollars. I wouldn't trade my lovely apartment for an expensive fourth-floor walk-up studio. I wouldn't trade my husband for the loneliness that accompanied that apartment and I wouldn't give up the son we're already so in love with. But sometimes, I just miss the quiet of lazily making dinner. 

Perfectly Parisian

Last night I declared it "happy cooking night." Remember a few posts back, when I said my wheelhouse for cooking involved a drink and taking my time? Well, Mondays are still pretty open, so minus the drink, it was happy cooking time. And mussels - moules frites, to be exact - were on the menu. Seafood seems to be my latest pregnancy craving so thankfully I can eat most seafood- fried oysters, lobster, mussels, fish tacos, etc.

I've tried making mussels at home once before, a couple years ago. I remember it didn't go so well- the mussels didn't open up like at restaurants, so I left them in the pot too long and then they were rubbery. It was for Brian and a friend, who said they were good, but I was highly disappointed. When I told Brian I was considering trying mussels again he cheered me on, saying "I'll bet you're ready to tackle them again - go for it!"

This was halfway through.

Two things happened differently this time:

1. I bought the mussels at the best public fish market in town, St. Paul's Fish Market, in the Third Ward. I thought they would be really pricy, but was surprised to pick up a 2lb bag for under $8. They are flown in 4 times a week, so I'm willing to bet they're very fresh.

2. I used the mussels frites recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. There are couple mussels recipes on her website, this recipe and this recipe are very close, so if you don't have the cookbook, I'd start there. However, if you do have the cookbook, do not wait almost a year to make these!! The mussels opened up beautifully and tasted like wine, butter and the sea. I'd also say that the fries were the best I have ever made at home, hands down.

Fancy Salad

I threw together a quick french inspired salad, with pears, fennel, walnuts and a Dijon vinaigrette and threw a baguette on the table. I meant to toast slices of the baguette, but let me tell you, once those mussels are in the pot, you had better be ready to sit down and eat! They take 3-6 minutes and you don't want to be tearing lettuce at that time.

Bowl of shells after we had finished.

After this success, I told Brian I can't wait to try mussels steamed open in beer, curry spiked sauce, etc. A new seafood has officially made it to our table!

28 weeks

The weekend going into 28 weeks (the last week of month SEVEN. I am SEVEN months pregnant. That's amazing- or, as Brian put it this morning, that's TOO MANY MONTHS.) involved a swanky hotel, breakfast in bed, a lot of football and church. Also, my first official crazy pregnancy dream. I have crazy dreams all the time but this one was definitely pregnancy related.

Swanky Hotel on Friday night.

Swanky Hotel breakfast on Saturday morning. I let Friday night Amy, full of seafood and creme brulee, talk Saturday morning Amy into yogurt. Brian was smarter.

I'm laughing here because Caleb is kicking me as I'm taking the picture.

We're off to North Carolina later this week for family, a baby shower, Southern food and all kinds of fun! 

27 Weeks; Third Trimester Style

The websites and books differ on the "official" third trimester start date, but I'd say we're there. The start of the third trimester includes:

Cravings for Kraft Mac & Cheese. 

Cutting back on my church obligations.

Eating two honeycrisp apples a day. They're in season and my favorite. 

Starting to slightly freak out about prepping my replacement for maternity leave. 

Swollen feet. 

Maternity yoga.

Sleeping with five pillows. FIVE. 

Caleb getting stronger by the day- now sometimes if he kicks hard enough I can see my skin jump. 

Steel-cut oats for breakfast, with 100 toppings. 

The question "Where are you due?" with the response "Wow, not until January?!" The bump's not that big, folks...

Third Trimester style involves a lot of black and grey:

And finally, the thought "I have to be pregnant for so much longer!" It's not too bad yet, really. It's just...not the easiest part. Especially for someone who had an easy first trimester and breezy second trimester. Only 13 more weeks until I'm due! 

Week 26

Officially less than 100 days until my due date. I'm well aware that a "due date" is a 5 week window (full term is 37-42 weeks), but getting under than 100 day mark feels like a huge milestone. This past weekend was focused on Brian and I hanging out, getting ready for the baby, and of course, church. Brian was at the church for 8 hours on Sunday so I'm always glad when we take time for ourselves on Friday and Saturday.

Friday night was supposed to be our night in- ordering pizza, watching a movie, reconnecting on the couch. I had marked on the calendar for a couple of weeks and we even turned down an evening with friends, which we never do. However, when your husband comes home and says "do you want go out for tacos?" the right answer is yes! At the end of dinner it was still before 7 and I said "it would be awesome to go to some dive bar and play pool right now." So we ended up a bar with a bunch of college students (but not many, seeing as how it was only 7) where the bartender happily served me water, complimented us on the pregnancy and we played two rounds of pool. We finished up the night walking to Whole Foods for cannoli and gelato. Brian and I see a lot of each other still, and baby Caleb isn't here yet, so I don't think of us as needing "date nights" but that night out was a great reminder of how much fun I have with my husband, even when I lose both games of pool.

We went to a "Bringing Baby Home" class at our hospital- it was nice, but also kinda of...useless? I mean, you get to practice putting on a diaper and "bathing" a baby doll, which is huge and not moving. Babies are teensy, squirming, crying and surprisingly strong for their size. So while it was nice, I'm not sure it had a lot of information I couldn't have gotten from a "First Year" book, my mom or the internet. I was surprised by how much emphasis they place on germs: Don't let sniffly people come over! Wash your hands every time you're going to touch the baby! Don't take babies to places with lots of people! (Like starbucks? Or church? Or the mall, if it's 15 degrees out but I cannot stay in the house another minute?) From what it sounds like, the medical community would prefer if you could sanitize your entire house, administer flu shots to everybody as they enter and never leave. EVER. Its viral season, are you crazy, what are you thinking?? Frankly, I think kids who are exposed to germs are stronger for it. I have every intention of handing off Caleb the minute I get to church for Wednesday dinners, so I can eat dinner, hello and there's no way I'll be interrogating everybody on their handwashing/cold/flu shot status.

There was also painting of Caleb's dresser- sneak peek before, final pictures forthcoming!

Sneak...

Peek...

It's amazing and depressing that I'm going to get so.much.bigger. I feel like I'm passing the point of "cute little bump."

This isn't nearly as exciting as...

Kale! I was really worried it was getting too cold to germinate, but we're off and running. It'll be nice this week, but the temps drop by about 10 degrees this weekend, so we'll have the garden covered by then.

Week 25

We built Caleb a dresser!

A multitude of IKEA hardware, plus bump.

Finished! Now it just needs to be painted.

Went to the local fall festival. We saw super giant pumpkins being weighed!

It took a good 10 minutes to get this pumpkin off the platform.

This one was more than 1,000 lbs and it wasn't even the winner y'all.

I feel like about 1,000 lbs right now...

Finally, a let up in the rain made for garden progress. I pulled out the dead cucumbers and the dying peppers. The extra stakes are for plastic sheeting to create a hoophouse for the fall kale plants.

We took down the side support system, tying up the tomato to its stake.

Behind this tomato is four rows of kale, direct seeded. I'm hoping an Indian Summer results in yummy, yummy kale.