oh my oh my oh dinosaurs

A few candid shots from playing dinosaurs this morning. It's just too bad you can't capture Natalie's "rawrs" on a still picture.

 

THE pregnancy craving

I remember this distinctly last time I was pregnant: I was super excited for Thanksgiving. Like I kept thinking about turkey, gravy, stuffing, rolls, potatoes, etc for a couple of weeks before hand. Then there was a year where Natalie was a baby, and although I was excited for Thanksgiving, I didn't find myself so incredibly super duper stoked for it. Then this year rolls around. For 2-3 weeks beforehand I was craving all the Thanksgiving fixings.

This time though, the craving didn't stop after the Thanksgiving meal was finished. In fact, although we had somewhere between 2-3 Thanksgiving type meals during that weekend, I was still craving turkey. and gravy. and potatoes. and rolls. and sweet potato casserole. and stuffing. Oh the stuffing. If I had to pick a favorite Thanksgiving food, it would probably be homemade stuffing.

So the Sunday following Thanksgiving we pulled out of the freezer the turkey we had bought earlier that week and originally had been planning to save for a while. The following Saturday (this past Saturday if anyone is keeping track) we cooked up that hunk of meat. And then we really went all out. First we ate half of one turkey breast that afternoon. Then we made turkey soup. Then we made all the fixings that we love and adore: the gravy, the potatoes, the stuffing, the sweet potatoes, and we have been eating leftovers of it all since then.

Here's the problem though. We are almost out of turkey, but I am not anywhere close from being sick of this meal. Matthew suggested that we should buy another turkey and cook it up and just keep going... and you know what, I think that is a fantastic idea.

Maybe by January I will have gotten my fill of turkey??? Hopefully at the very latest by the time baby girl decides to show her face. Oh have you all heard? We are having a girl!

life as it is

Before we say anything else, I have a belly. And a picture:

Please forgive the quality of the picture. And my hair. Something weird is definitely going on up top there. Anyway I am very excited to finally start showing. It makes me feel like I am for reals pregnant. It just seems like it takes many weeks and many pounds before anything starts happening in the rotundness department so I'm pretty excited about what I've got going on. I'm 17 weeks and 5 days today, but who's counting?

Besides the belly, pregnancy is fine. I am still pretty tired (lame) and I've definitely had a voracious appetite. It is interesting comparing this pregnancy with the last one. I feel hungrier now, and more needing to fulfill random cravings immediately. I've also had more aches and pains and dizziness earlier. However, one HUGE HUGE HUGE awesome difference this time compared to last time is that I have not yet had to deal with a lot of insulin resistance. Last time I feel like it started right around 14 weeks, and here I am at almost 18 with basically no difference in insulin needs and resistance. That is amazing and makes everything feel so much easier.  I was concerned for a little while that maybe that meant something wasn't going right with the baby, but everything looked fine at the last appt and the doctor isn't worried, so I am just going to take it and enjoy it while it lasts.

As far as life goes, Natalie still only says "no" without prompting and we're still trying to get her to expand her vocabulary. Matthew still enjoys teaching high school physics, although I don't understand how anyone could enjoy teaching high school. And I'm still doing my internship. So, not a lot new. I did recently finish my entire clinical rotation, so that's pretty awesome. I'm now doing community at WIC which is fun too. And I'm just about halfway done with the entire internship. Sweet!

a week off

I have finished two whole rotations of my internship--one at a hospital, and one at an outpatient diabetes clinic-- and now I have one whole glorious week off. I am SO excited. I'm going to sleep in, take a nap with Natalie every day, and spend lots of time playing with my baby and reminding her that her mommy in fact does exist.

When I'm not doing that, I'm going to pick up with doing everything that has gotten pushed to the wayside in the hectic-ness of everything now. All I'm saying is, working 8 hours a day (plus the 2+ hours driving time per day for my diabetes rotation), working on homework and projects at night, and then add in always feeling tired and exhausted from being pregnant... well... let's just say that things like picking up after myself, or cleaning, or making dinner, or doing just about anything else that doesn't involve a nap or sitting like a blob on the couch has been pushed to the wayside.

Despite all that, I have loved doing this internship. It really has been very enjoyable. It's nice to know that after years of school you really do like what you have chosen to do. And after this last rotation at the diabetes clinic, I am thinking seriously that being a diabetes educator is what I would like to do. We'll see though.

A few more details about pregnancy. I'm just about 14 weeks along, and so I'm starting the second trimester. I'm hoping to start feeling more "normal" soon. So far this pregnancy has been a little different from the last one. I haven't been as nausous, in fact, I haven't really had any nausea to speak of, which is a huge blessing. I have been a lot more emotional, though. And I have had a lot more cravings. I'm due April 22nd. My last day of the internship is April 4th. Considering that with Natalie they induced me at 37 weeks, and knowing that there is no way they will let me go beyond 39 weeks, it is very likely I will have the baby within a week of finishing. Yipes!

When Expiration Dates Sneak Up On You

 So don't you just hate it when things expire before you use them.  Sometimes I wish things would just wait in stasis until you were ready for them. For instance, probably our biggest food waste is vegetables, fruit, and leftovers going bad before we use them. That, or the amount of food Natalie throws on the floor. :) We actually try really hard to not let produce spoil, but it seems like some of it always hides in the corner of the crisper, or you just can't use those last couple green onions, or eat the last few grapes before they get squishy. Gross.

I think the stuff on the left used to be parsley?

Then there is the problem of coupons. I have a love/hate relationship with coupons. I love it when they get me free things or good prices on things I want (like 60 cents off the gallons of ice cream at Smith's). But then I feel that there are just as many times that they are for things that I probably wouldn't buy but then I feel that I need to because they're cheaper. Matthew is more susceptible to those than me; in fact, he's the only one who is susceptible. I just toss those ones and I have to try and convince Matthew to, too. Still, when there are good ones it's sad when they go bad because you forgot about them. For instance, recently we had a coupon for an oil change discount and Matthew noticed that it expired on 9/25, you guessed it, that day. So, we didn't have time to go do it. It's so much better when coupons don't expire. Matthew recently turned in a coupon for Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios from the 90's. More coupons should be like that!

  If things are going to expire, it's nice if they tell you in advance. That way you have some time to get used to the idea and make plans. Natalie was kind enough to help us out with this, which is good because this is something else that seems like it is expiring faster than I would have expected:

She has the "coy" look down pat.

P.S. We're in the market for boy names (just in case). Feel free to make suggestions, just know it will likely be rejected. :)

the best birthday present of all

Several of weeks ago it was my birthday. I got one of the best birthday presents ever--Matthew was able to suddenly start working full time. The school where he had gotten a job teaching physics one hour a day (so a very part-time job with a very part-time salary) suddenly offered him a job teaching physics full time between two schools. So instead of hourly wages he is a salaried teacher, with benefits... really great benefits, actually.

This really felt like such an amazing blessing. Instead of barely making things meet with his hourly wage plus like 4 other part time jobs between the two of us, now we actually are spending less than we are making. So we can save money. What a novel idea.

A teacher's salary is actually really amazingly low, but right now, to us, it feels like we are on top of the world. The only downside is that now instead of Matthew taking care of Natalie during the day, we had to find child care for her. But we feel like we have a good situation going for her--Matthew's cousin is watching her, and Natalie seems to have a great time at their house.

Last but not least, I want to talk about my birthday cake. I just think it is fun to make over the top decadent cakes. This one, entitled "Seven Sins Chocolate Cake" did not disappoint:

 

You can find the recipe for it here.

Cute baby girl

Natalie is almost 18 months, but she still hasn't really said any words. Just in the last month, however, she has started to get really into books. She loves them! And it is pretty funny, because in most of them she has a favorite page that she flips through the book to get to quickly. For instance, in the Very Hungry Caterpillar book, it is the page where the caterpillar eats "one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of swiss cheese.." etc.

Thanks to her different books about animals, she has started to make animals noises. She can ruff like a dog, and go "huh huh huh" like a gorilla. So I think we are going to count animals noises as her first words. haha.

She is also quite the diva, and loves to get her picture taken. She will grab our phones and open them up, and then turn them around so it is facing the correct way for us to take pictures of her. Or, she will grab the regular camera and do the same thing. She thinks it is so fun, and it really is pretty funny.

A few pictures from my phone (I don't have a fancy smartphone, so they aren't that great)

we're real adults now?

Matthew is officially done with school, which I guess means that we are real adults now, if you don't count that he doesn't have a full time job (he does have a part time job though) and that I am technically a student now in the internship. But whatever. We're totally grown ups.

And, just in case you were wondering, the first week at the hospital went really well.

a pleasant surprise

Natalie is a pretty lucky baby toddler. She has a ton of aunts and uncles and especially cousins (43!) that love to play with her. It has been so fun for her to practically live with 10 of those cousins. She has several teenage girl cousins who are super good with her, but what has been pleasantly surprising to me is how good the teenage boy cousins are with her. There are around four or five 13-14 year old boys (including one of my brothers) that she sees a lot and have  been so good to her, playing with her, taking her to see the kitty, taking care of her, etc etc etc. Seriously I have been impressed. I would have thought that 13-14 year old boys would be totally into...I dunno... nerf guns and computer games (okay they are into those things), but they are also totally into playing with the 16 month old little girl. It's sweet.

Although, how could you not love this cutie pie??

i want that

A quickly snapped series of pictures of Natalie and Nathan. Totally cracks me up.