melted smoosh

bump watch: i have to say i greatly enjoy watching people subtly try to figure out if i'm pregnant or just fat. you can just see the wheels turning. my favourite of all was a patient who just could not look away from my belly. i was about to jump in and put her silent question to rest when she said, "you look like you're glowing!" how clever was that? still, it's mostly the 90-year-old ladies who beam up at me and ask if i'm "expecting" without a qualm. it won't be so great when i'm rocking the postpartum belly, but for now, i'm loving it. sweet pea:  is a rocking, rolling, jiving dance maniac! part of my childbirth class weekly assignment is to do daily kick counts (you mark off a box corresponding to the time it took to feel 10 kicks -- normal is up to 2 hours). without fail, sweetpea gets those kicks in within 20 minutes -- sometimes 5 minutes if he or she really gets going! at 17 inches long and 2.9 pounds, there's not quite

   bump watch: helloooooooo, belly! it is large and in charge for sure. and my belly button is such a weird shape. it looks kind of like a big grin. no stretch marks yet (all that protein is good for something!). sweet pea: is as long as a cucumber at 15 inches from head to foot, and weighs 2 lbs 4 ounces. baby is continuing to kick and flip, and this week's new trick is hiccups! the first time i felt them, i thought it was a series of kicks at first, but quickly realized they were too regular and all in the same place to be anything but a hiccup. (does it make me a bad mother that my first thought was "go home, baby, you're drunk"?)  image credit from  What to Expect When You're Expecting best moment: definitely, without question, the surprise baby shower that my amazing friends and family threw on Saturday! it was so great to share that afternoon with family from out of town. and Sweetpea got some pretty sweet swag :) it was also w

can i just explain how dearly, dearly i love surprises? from my perfectly pulchritudinous purple 18th birthday party, to Nick visiting me in Ireland over Thanksgiving break of sophomore year, to Nick's amazing proposal, to my bachelorette party, it seems that almost every special occasion in my life has been preceded by several weeks of intense planning on the part of my friends, and somewhat embarrassing cluelessness on the part of yours truly. the past month has been no exception. and truthfully? i don't want to start snooping around or suspecting that when people invite me to estate sales   or take my picture next to a statue in the park, they have ulterior motives.  long-haired Nick with pajama-clad me, in Galway circa 2005! short-haired Nick with a very shocked me, in New Orleans circa 2009! Gordon Ramsay's gun show with a horrifyingly-pleased me, in Shadyside circa 2012! bottom line, there is just nothing quite like a well-planned surprise

if you haven't yet had the immense pleasure of watching a KitchenAid pasta extruder attachment in action, let me tell you -- it's surpassed only by the gustatory delight of eating the homemade pasta that results. in this case, bucatini tossed with a plethora of sauteed vegetables and coated in a homemade cream sauce. and what better to serve as a palate cleanser than homemade lemon basil sorbet? nothing. that's what.  bucatini with vegetables and cream sauce made up by our very own selves! 12 oz bucatini, cooked and drained 1/2  of a large  onion , chopped 8 oz sliced mushrooms 1 cup cooked corn, cut from cob 1 cup green beans, trimmed 1 bell pepper, sliced 3 shallots, minced 1 TBSP minced garlic 1/2 TBSP crushed red pepper flakes 3 TBSP butter 3 TBSP flour 2 cups milk, room temperature 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt 1/2 TBSP salt 1/2 TBSP pepper Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium skillet. Saute onion, garlic and shallots for 5 minutes, or u

i can not believe we are already into August! this summer feels like it's just barely begun. and this weekend promises to be chock full of adventure with Mom, Dad & Kira in town, so i'm sure it will fly by all too quickly. some highlights of the last few weeks: --this honest reflection on family trips from one of my favourite bloggers .  everything she writes resonates with me. i love imagining the vacations we'll take in the future, everything from staying in the cabins at Lake Raystown to a beach vacay or two to going back to Germany as often as we can. -- fluffernutter chip ice cream . yes. this may even overshadow my recent obsession with salted caramel.  photo from Jessica at How Sweet Eats -- yet another glimpse into the future. if our future includes lots of babies, which i hope it will.  -- will i ever tire of permutations on the buffalo chicken motif? i think not. thank you to Mountain Mama Cooks for this incredible recipe for buffalo chicken

   bump watch: i still feel like this varies by the day (and the clothes!). there's no doubt that something is going on in the belly region, but sometimes it can be hard to tell if it's a food baby or an actual baby. all the women in my hypnobabies class are between 1-3 weeks ahead of me and they all have the cutest, round bumps! all in good time i suppose! sweet pea:  according to What to Expect, baby is still  the size of an eggplant, just a bigger one at two pounds and over 9 inches long from crown-to-rump (aka head-to-butt). this week's big accomplishment is opening those eyes! i think the bebe in the illustration below looks like he's plotting some mischief, perhaps a harbinger of things to come. baby's brain is also developed enough to respond to sounds with increased activity and pulse.  image credit from  What to Expect When You're Expecting best moment:  my first Hypnobabies class last week! i absolutely loved the inst

   bump watch:  there's no hiding it now! we're flying through the second trimester and the bump seems to be growing by the day.  sweet pea: is the size of an eggplant, weighing in at 1 1/2 pounds and 9 inches long! the craziest thing about the past week has been feeling arms and legs going at the same time -- a veritable dance party! sweetpea's nostrils are starting to open, and the lungs are starting to produce surfactant (the key to reducing surface tension on the alveoli so the lungs can properly expand). annnnnnd all of this means that baby has now reached The Age of Viability -- the point at which a baby has at least a 50% chance of surviving when born. i'd like to wait for much better odds, thank you very much!  image credit from  What to Expect When You're Expecting best moment: getting our third (and probably final!) look at Sweetpea via ultrasound last week! this was a follow-up ultrasound to our anatomy scan, where they w