Third Trimester

I am going to bore you with some pregnancy trivia today.

How far along? 27 weeks

How big is baby? Around 2 pounds. She is a cauliflower this week.

Total weight gain/loss:  23 pounds. 

Maternity clothes? I have one pair of shorts that I wear almost every day.  Sometimes I alternate with a dress or a backup pair of shorts. I am able to sleep in a few non-maternity tanks but I can only wear Hunter's t-shirts or my own maternity shirts.

Sleep: I alternate between pregnancy insomnia and sleeping wonderfully for 9 hours straight.

Best moment this week: Aside from ice cream with chocolate syrup, sprinkles, and caramel, we bought a $30 double stroller on Craig's List that I can use to walk around the hood and make it to a dr appointment or two.  This means we can buy that super expensive double jogging stroller when I am ready. 

Movement: She moves when I relax.  We fall asleep to each other's tossing and turning. We wake up to each other's tossing and turning.  She keeps me bumping through my 2 hour straight work stretch in the afternoons.

Food cravings:  I don't really have cravings. I just like food..alot, but that is nothing new.  There was a week or two where all I could think about was meat but that is about it.

Food Aversions: None.  First pregnancy I couldn't stand bell peppers. Nothing on this one.

Gender: It's a girl!!

Labor Signs:  Apparently being with a 2 year old all day is more physically demanding than sitting at a desk.  I have the good ol braxton hicks almost every evening after the dinner, bath, and bedtime bustle.

Pregnancy Symptoms:  Aside from my huge belly, I seem to be not as mentally sharp and I have had a few crying outbursts over silly things. I mean really silly.  So silly I won't even type what they are. I am nawt a crier people.

Belly Button in or out? I have an outie on top and an innie on bottom right now.

What I miss:  Running. My old clothes. Beer.

What I am looking forward to: Is there really any other answer?   Meeting this little girl!

Upcoming appointments/events:  I have to do the 4 hour glucose test this week.  Boo hoo.  I missed passing the 1 hour glucose test by something silly like 3 points.  The lab tech lectured me for not eating enough before the test.  They told me to eat a light lunch so I ate a cheese string and some cashews an hour before.  She told me this is probably why I failed, but I must continue on.  Thursday I will be fasting for about 12 hours and sitting in a dr office for 4 of those.

Milestones:  We picked out a name. We are in the third trimester. I am building to do lists and checking them off. I will sleep better at night once everything is done.


Here are a few maternity photos.  These are hard to share...but here goes.  These are all pinterest copy attempts.

The progress

The silhouette

One, Three, Six!

Wyatt has been soaking up the skills. He can now count to six before sliding down the slides...."one, three, six"!  I am pretty sure he will be able to count to 10 by the end of the week.  Maybe if I make him stop watching Thomas the Train and focus?

He doesn't really drink much milk anymore.  He only drinks "mommy's drink" or "mommy's water".  If I fixed him his own mommy's water that would not be near as fun. 

My potty training book says Wyatt is ready and his personality type benefits from intensive training sessions (I hope I am not reading my personality type into him)!  I am giving it a try for 3 days or so to see if he is REALLY ready.  Wyatt made his toughest decision so far in life...Disney Airplane undies.  He really struggled to pick just one...Thomas, no McQueen, no Elmo...fine Airplanes! The book says to keep them nudie or in their undies except during nap or bed time.  You also are not really allowed to leave the house during this transition time and put a diaper on them.  I might bend the rules a bit because I don't wanna go stir.  Anyways, we are playing mostly on the tile floor and outside.  Wyatt is having the best time ever because he gets constant attention from his mom instead of self development time.  Ha ha! Oh, and lots of juice and mommy's drink.  At the end of day 1, he did run to a potty after peeing on the concrete outside.  I call that some progress but am planning to fail this attempt at training to keep my expectations low. 

The best thing ever happened to us.  Wyatt can fall asleep in a car and I can take him inside and he will lay down in his bed and continue his nap.   In our younger days, a 2 second snooze could ruin a whole day of napping.  I celebrated this by meeting some local moms for lunch in a town about 45 mins away and making it home for a work phone call by 1:30 with a sleeping kid.  FREEEDOM!!

We talk about what Wyatt wants to eat now...or what he wants to do.  Anytime I ask him what he wants to eat, he answers "macawoni".  I tell him he can't have macawoni for breakfast.  Sometimes he tells me he wants to eat lunch.  "If I can't have macawoni for breakfast I will ask for lunch...so I can have macawoni".   When I ask him what he wants to do today, he says go to the bounce house.  I know what his favorite activity is.  Communicating...so wonderful!

Fish Friday people...Shrimp n Grits people...that is if cooking aligns with pottying and airplane undies. 

I just heard a verse of "allll thruuu da town" on the baby monitor so my bus has risen.  Time to go sit on the poddy.  Enjoy your Friday!

Randoms....

Thank you whoever used my Stitch Fix Referral link and gave me another credit.  As soon as my belly goes back to normalish, I am going to place an order!

Please forgive me for my excessive amount of type-os in these past few posts.  Apparently my brain is not performing quite as well as it could be.  I was even posting about July meal planning and calling it June???? You have to tell me these things people.  I might walk around thinking its June forrreeeevvveeerrr.

We drove through a Wells Fargo this week so my sister could use the ATM.  As we were pulling away, Wyatt asked for a french fry.  Pleaded for a french fry.  I could not figure out why he was talking about french fries.  Light bulb....usually when we drive through somewhere it is a place like McDonalds and there may be french fries.  Ha ha.

I am 26 weeks along in this pregnancy.  Baby girl is the size of an English hothouse cucumber.  Now doesn't that help to give you a good mental image?  I am feeling great right now.  We are making slow progress on our nursery nook. I will post some pics once we get farther along. 

Have you ever tried making skillet pizza?  You should.  It cooks for 3 minutes.  I followed this one by Bev Cooks.   Muy bueno.

My gym trail membership is over and I decided not to renew.  We have been walking in the evenings before bed time. Time to use the resistance bands at home. 

The rain is making me feel all nappy and my kid is all napping so this random post must end.

Eat Gulf Seafood

Hunter and other fisher people probably already know what fish is in season in our area, but I don't really have a clue and have mostly bought frozen seafood in my lifetime.  When I went into the fish market the other week I just looked around and picked the big pretty snapper ($$$). 

I found some good resources for seafood in the Gulf of Mexico at http://www.eatgulfseafood.com/.   They site has a month by month calendar for all of the states on the gulf, but I prefer the big PDF file that contains all of the information found here. 

For Texas in the month of July, the following are at peak season:

• Flounder
• King Mackerel
• Brown Shrimp
• Pink Shrimp
• White Shrimp

These are considered to be in season:

• Black Drum
• Blue Crab
• Oysters
• Snapper

I guess this means I need to try some flounder stuffed with blue crab.  I heart flounder...this I know.  Maybe we can get crazy this weekend and go crabbing?

Potty Training Personality

I started reading Stress Free Potty Training by Sara Au and Peter Stavinoha.  I am a big dorkus who loves to read things like this. I haven't made it through the "is my kid ready for potty training" chapter yet, but I really enjoyed chapter 1.  The first chapter has a set of statements you evaluate to determine the type of personality your kiddo has specifically related to potty training.

The 5 personalities are:

• Sensory-Oriented Child
• Internalizing Child
• Goal-Directed Child
• Strong-Willed Child
• Impulsive Child

Wyatt falls into the goal directed child category.  Some of the key points are:

• Logical, reasonable, and willing to follow directions.  (This may change as we get closer to age 2..ha ha)
• Curious and seek knowledge
• Go with the flow but persistent when they set their own goal
• Enjoy accomplishment
• Mild to moderate in terms of activity level
• In new situations, balance between curious and cautious. 
• Recover quickly from being upset
• Don't often display tantrums (yes, I realize this may change soon too).  

Based on your child's personality, the book may recommend different ways to achieve potty training success.  This just helped me to see some things about Wyatt.  He is not always high energy.  He is not always getting into things.  I never really thought about that. He plays by himself inside alot allowing me to work at home.  On the other hand, he loves to try new things after watching for a few minutes.  I am a lucky work from home mama right not, but I just have a feeling that this baby girl might not be quite so accommodating. I think this means we will have an easier time potty training....theoretically....according to the book...if the stars align??

I will have to update you once I get through the book and determine when Wyatt is ready to start the potty training, but so far I really like chapter 1 and 2. 

July Meal Planning - Week 2

Week 1 Down.  Week 2 here we go.  We kicked off July meal planning with some gooood stuff.  Here are last week's eats.

Meatless Monday - Refrigerated cheese ravioli and clean out your fridge / freezer of veggies.  This included artichokes, olives, squash, and frozen peas.  Pour on some jar s'getti sauce and serve with a side salad.  
Fat Tuesday - Renamed to travel Tuesday.  I had to celebrate my nephew's 4th birthday party.
Slow Cooker Wednesday - This became fat Wednesday.  Thin, bone in pork chops with a mustard gravy sauce (you gotta try coarse grain mustard in your gravy - PW idea), rice, and some mixed veggies. 
Taco Thursday - Homesick Texan's Picadillo with homemade gorditas.  The gorditas took around 30 minutes to make but were really easy.  I will repeat the picadillo recipe.  One of the better flavored ground beef recipes I have had.
Fish Friday - Snapper purchased from the local market served with grilled corn, grilled tomatoes, and a salad.  The fish was good but not great and I paid a pretty penny.  I do feel oh so culinary as I have homemade fish stock in my freezer AND I made fish cakes with the leftovers.  Must peruse my John Besh cookbook for things to use fish stock for.  Maybe next fish friday??

Use a crab cake recipe and substitute fishy fish. :)

 
For today's meatless Monday, I plan to try to recreate my MIL's eggplant and stewed tomato pasta dish.  Eggplant plus garlic equals wonderful.  This is also one of those meals you can cook all day on your stove with minimal effort and have dinner ready without having to cook with a baby-toddler on your hip. 

My Google Reader Replacement Solution - The Old Reader and FeeddlerRSS

I used google reader when on a real deal computer and FeeddlerRSS on the iPhone to keep up with the blogs and various other items I follow.  I have been trying to force myself to use Feedly since I heard Google Reader was going away but I don't dig it.

I am now using The Old Reader in the browser and FeeddlerRSS is able to pull my data from The Old Reader.  Want to do the same?  Here are my steps.

1. Export your Google Reader subscription data.  Go to https://www.google.com/takeout/#custom:reader , click Create Archive, click Download, save the zip file, and go find your subscriptions.xml file. 

2. Create an account with The Old Reader and import your subscriptions.xml file from Google Reader

3. Open feeddlerRSS on your phone and go to the main menu to import from a new account (The Old Reader)

Magic!  Like nothing has changed for me.  Down with Feedly and its fru fru ness.  Tis too hard to mark items as read. 

July Meal Planning Adventure - Please Join!

Would you like to join me for a meal planning adventure this month?  We will be celebrating....

Meatless Monday - A vegetarian meal obviously.

Fat Tuesday - Serve up your unhealthiest mostest deliciousest meal on Tuesday.  This is when you want your chicken fried steak, your enchiladas, your chicken pot pie. 

Slow Cooker Wednesday - Wednesdays are tough.  Simplify your life and turn on that crock pot. 

Taco Thursday - You don't have to do tacos, but taco thursday flowed much better than mexican thursday.   You know I will be celebrating with Mexican food as frequently as possible. 

Fish Friday - I want to make use of the local seafood markets and cook more fish. Or make Hunter go fishing more. Maybe I can get more adventurous with my seafood cooking?  Maybe?  Can I?

Please join!  Share your recipes with me on the blog, through email, or instagram.  I guess you can tell me in person too.  Happy cooking!

Vacation Recovery

How we have recovered from our 1 week beach vacation so far....

Beach John Deere

We ate chicken noodle soup for dinner in hopes that it cures Hunter's sickies

We pulled out every single toy in the living room and didn't put them up before bed....I think Wyatt missed them

We went to bed early and slept late (even Hunter, oops)

We managed to find some yogurt and cereal to eat for breakfast

We sat happily in our high chair and ate instead of fighting with Mama and Daddy every meal

We put on our rain boots before we brushed our teeth and got dressed

We watched the really lame Monster Truck movie on Netflix Instant Play for 5 minutes

We logged into work and searched for motivation

We plan to go to Target for a few grocery staples, some more curtains for our nursery nook, and a fun  birthday present for my nephew who turns 4 tomorrow!

It's 7:45 AM.  Bed time will be here after we know it. 

June Product Favorites - Mom and Toddler

Mama Favorites:

Generic Brand Hand Wipes - I keep a big ol container of store brand hand / face / booties wipes such as these in my truck.  I don't buy the anti bacterial ones because germs are my friends ;)  These wipes can be used after your kid plays at the gym child care room. They can wipe off goldfish cracker paste.  They can even be used as a bootie wipe if you accidentally gave your kid flax seed in their smoothie. 

iPlay Swim Diaper - This swim diaper is washable and reusable and actually absorbs some pee unlike the disposable swim diapers.  I always buy a few sizes too big and then use for a whole swim season.  I think we will make it through Wyatt's whole diaper life with a size Medium and a size X-Large. 

Vaseline Spray and Go Lotion - So I try to put lotion all over my belly after each shower, but it gets to be a pain.  I saw this spray aerosol style lotion and decided to try it.  I am a big fan!  The pump doesn't get clogged like standard spray lotion.   Super fast.  Super easy.  I bought the cocoa butter one for stretch mark fighting.  I am not sure how long the product is going to last but we are going for a month now and I still have some left.   

Avon's Mark - Whipped Body Butter in Lemon Sugar - My sweet sister in law gave me this and it smells so good I could eat it.  I love lemony citrus smells.  I want to get the shower gel next.  Pretty lame of me to post 2 lotion faves this month, but this is my exciting life. 

Toddler Favorites:

HEB Chocolate Granola - I am sorry if you don't live near an HEB grocery store because you are missing out on some of the best pre seasoned fajitas in the world, but if you are lucky enough to live next to one, check out their store brand chocolate granola.  Wyatt loves it.  We put it on his yogurt for special occasion breakfasts.  I might put some on mine too. 

Indoor Play Tents - We are borrowing a play tent from my sister.  Wyatt loves it.  He brings his toys in there.  He asks for mommy and daddy to come sit with him.  He is happy just being in there.  You could use a regular tent, but these indoor play tents fold up and fit behind a book case so are easy to hide.  You need one!  Attach a play tunnel to it for extra fun.