pieces of yesterday

Our ultrasound yesterday was excellent! With Benjamin, we were in a cramped room with a monitor that I could barely see if I was craning my neck sideways. They had told me to drink a least 40 oz of water an hour before the appointment, and it wasn't a very comfortable experience! This time, we were able to see the technician that works at our doctor's office, and it was such a different appointment. They told me not to worry about having a full bladder (although, by the end of it I was still pretty uncomfortable. Go figure.) and they had a big screen set against the wall in front of us so that we could see everything clearly. The tech was super nice and explained everything she was doing/looking for, and let us have some time to just watch our baby move. One thing I had planned on doing was drinking some juice beforehand so that the baby would be active, but after feeding Benjamin and dropping him at a friend's house I didn't have time to stop and get any. Thus, little Rutabaga was happy to sleep through most of the procedure, with an occasional leg stretch/twitch and moving of arms/hands. It was still great to watch though!


As you might imagine (due to lack of fanfare!) we did not find out the sex. The tech had us look away while she measured the leg bones, just in case we would be able to see anything, but in reality Rutabaga was on Daddy's side the whole time -- it kept those legs tucked nice and tight against it's body! Once the appointment ended and the temptation to find out was no longer in reach, I had to admit that I'm glad we're waiting again ;-)


To end an already exciting day, we had my cousin Sarah come over and watch Benjamin last night so that we could have a date. We grabbed a quick bite at Whole Foods and then headed over to watch the new Indiana Jones movie (which I've heard mixed things about, but we really liked! You just have to remind yourself that the first three are pretty ridiculous themselves, despite being cult classics). We had free movie tickets and got a coupon for free popcorn once we were there, so our entire date of dinner and a movie (with popcorn for me and a drink for Corey) cost us a whopping $11. Yeah!

Lastly, just for my dad, it looks like you were right after all:


We have some pretty unusual birds in our backyard, but who knew we were running our own wildlife preserve ;-)

question of the day

Midnight updates here and here. (I hate class nights.)

We have a doctor's appointment and the "big" ultrasound today (they spend about 45-60 minutes with us, checking out all of the organs and whatnot... especially THE organ that most people care about...) Corey and I are usually big on the "waiting it out" method, and Corey's still not wanting to know, but I have to admit that I'm pretty curious. Something about wanting to be more prepared :-) He's said, "You know I want to wait, but if you really want to know then I'll leave it up to you..." Talk about pressure!

So, what do you think? You have until 2 to convince me one way or the other!

whew!

(Updates here and here.)

where have I been hiding?? I could tell you, but that would take a lot of space and probably wouldn't be extremely interesting. Instead, let's do a quick recap of my May so far:

I spent a weekend in WA for a bridal shower and to visit with Amanda (and family). It was a half-rainy half-beautiful weekend, and I was able to enjoy it Benjamin-free! Don't get me wrong, it's really really fun to drive 4 hours in a car with an almost-toddler, and then to keep him up way past bedtimes and completely disrupt his routine. Also, I love introducing him to new people and watching what breakable objects he can find in their houses. Still, it was nice to be able to leave him with Corey and spend the time with 85% of my thoughts for myself.

beautiful flowers at her dad's house

people always ask if we're sisters. NO idea where that comes from. ;-)

scratching.

The following week was birthday-week for Benjamin and the start of summer classes for me. I like that summer session only lasts 8 weeks, and I like that I'm completely free for July and August, but two 5-10pm classes on subsequent nights is killing me. Especially since I generally fall asleep by 9:30 (after collapsing into bed by 8:30) and thus require caffeine to stay awake and alert until 10 -- which usually means I'm up past midnight on class-nights, reorganizing my spices and trying to burn off my energy. It's OK, we're 2 weeks in and I only have a month and a half to go!

Amanda came down to visit with us in the latter half of birthday-week, and we spent some time relaxing, visiting, and generally decompressing. She was the second visitor to Benjamin's swim class, and he was a perfect little champ. Yay! On Benjamin's birthday weekend, I had a one-time two-day ALL-day meeting for one of my classes, and that pretty much sucked. I really enjoy the subject, and it's with one of my favorite professors, but 4:30-9:30 Friday followed by 8-6 Saturday is just cruel. (Thankfully he let us out early on Saturday!)

We celebrated Benjamin's birthday on Saturday, with a casual barbecue and general meet-up of friends. Naturally, the sun went away for the entire event, but we had a great time cramming into the house and generally creating organized chaos. Feel free to read all about it!

Mother's day was lovely and deserves it's own recognition, so I'll work on that later ;-)


This past weekend my parents came up to visit, and even though we had 3 full days with them it was too short of a trip. We had hot hot hot weather and were able to go swimming a few times, plus we visited the zoo and managed to watch the new Narnia movie (so fun!)

Umm... I think that's my May so far. This week I'm working on a few projects for my classes (the other drawback to truncated terms -- everything is due quickly!) and trying to recover before June, which promises to be crazy as well (due less to visitors and more to classes ending/a bachelorette party/a bridal shower/a wedding/etc)

My thoughts exactly, buddy.

best banana bread EVER

Not that I'm lacking things to talk about, but every time I get 5 minutes to sit and compose my thoughts, they seem to go away. Thus, rather than bore you with what's currently on my mind (group therapy techniques and behavioral disorders), I thought I'd share one of my all time favorite ways to use bananas. I've ended up making this twice in the past 3 weeks because, apparently, my son isn't a huge fan of banana and my husband isn't in the mood for it. You'd think I'd stop buying, but for some reason it feels wrong to not have banana in the house just in case.
Anyway, I got this recipe when I was in college, visiting a doctor for one of the many mono relapses and trying to figure out why my platelet count was ridiculously low (never found an answer to that, in case you're curious. I just have unusually low platelet counts since having mono. Bet you didn't know that about me, eh? ;-) ) I wish I could give credit to the magazine that published the recipe, but I was furiously copying it into a day planner and didn't stop to cite.

Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread

Need:
2 c. flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter, soft
1 1/2 c. mashed ripe bananas (basically 3 bananas)
1/2 c. egg substitute (or 2 egg whites)
1/3 c. plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan (I use an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2, I think). Stir together your flour, baking soda, and salt with a whisk; set aside. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl, stir 1 min. on medium. Add the banana, egg whites, and yogurt to the butter/sugar mixture. Stir until blended. Add the flour mixture slowly, stirring until just moist.
Microwave the chocolate chips on high for 1 minute; stir until smooth.
Add 1 cup of the batter to the chocolate.
Pour the batters alternately (plain, chocolate, plain) into your greased pan. Swirl with a knife.
Bake for 1 hour, 15 minutes. Once removed from oven, cool for 10 minutes in pan and then remove to a cooling rack.
Mmmm. You don't need to top it with anything, but lately we've been spreading Nutella on ours. Plain is great though! Let me know if you try it out ;-)

M.I.A.

...that is, the Mother's Inactive Association. I'm the president.

Firstly, there are new posts here and a few updates here.

Secondly, before I forget again, we went down to CA 3 weeks ago for a surprise birthday party -- GrammaZah turned 50! We saw a bunch of friends and familiar faces from my past, including the family that used to babysit me after kindergarten and my bestest friend from Moreno Valley/elementary school (who I probably hadn't seen since I was like 9). In case you attended and/or are interested, there are pictures from the event here.


Thirdly, while we were in CA we "lent" Benjamin to my parents for the night and slipped away to get some time by ourselves. This was officially an extension of Corey's birthday and unofficially a really nice chance to relax. I highly recommend it ;-) Mostly, I wanted to share our view:


Lastly, also while in CA, we checked in with friends of ours who are expecting their first baby (a boy!) in June. I wanted to share the diaper cake I made (and assembled in our hotel room, hence the background of the picture being our hotel room):




That's all for now! I'm off to class and the joy of summer school!