A Day in the Life of....

...38 weeks pregnant.

written yesterday evening and then forgot to hit publish


1. Seed milk time!  Every 5 days or so I whip up some seed milk for little Chuckles.  In addition to our normal seeds and dates, the one this morning had a splash of vanilla, some unsweetened coconut and a little bit of chia.  Fun times.

2.  Green smoothie time!  One of the few pictures Charlie actually posed willingly for - with a smile - and for more than nano second.  We love our green smoothies and love starting out our days with a healthy dose of greens, fruit and seeds.

3.  Yesterday I was 38 weeks on the dot.  But we frequently forget to take my weekly pictures on the real day, and actually, due to a melt down during breakfast and Daddy rushing out the door to work, we forgot it yet again today.  So I snapped this quick, just to make sure we have something for this week, should I continue to forget to take it.  I feel so. big.  And so. ready.  And this baby is so. low. I can barely bend over anymore.  Any day now little dude.

4. I think I should get props for trying out a new hairstyle at 38 weeks.  I haven't tried a new hairstyle in months!!  What possessed me I'm not sure.  I've been wanting to try it for a while, and maybe I was secretly hoping it would be easy enough to do that, when labor threatened, I could quickly do my hair and might have shot at a better "first picture with baby after birth" picture.  You should see my first picture with Charlie.  It's awful.  But I'm glad I have it nonetheless.  It's all about memories peeps, not beauty.  But if I can get a labor friendly hairstyle in, I'm not complaining. ;-)

 5.  My sister and I are gung-ho hard lotion bars right now.  In fact we are in experimental mode.  The bar on the left is one that I've had for a while and love.  The middle is one I just received from Made On, and the one on the right is a homemade one that Carrie made.  We are trying to get the consistency just how we like it so that we can successfully make homemade bars for ourselves.  SOO much cheaper.  But if you you have really dry hands and don't have a hankering to try making yourself, I seriously recommend purchasing a bar to try - especially a Made On bar.  My hands are in love.

6.  I have discovered a love for crowder peas.  My husband has always loved them, but just this summer I've hopped on the band wagon and joined in his enthusiasm.  I managed to make it to Farmer's Market this morning and bought a 1/2 bushel of crowder peas to freeze for later use.  I actually weighed it out and finally figured out that a 1/2 bushel of peas is roughly 12 cups or 4lbs.  A far cry from a 1/2 bushel of apples which is about 20lbs.  Dinner later?  Yum!

7.  My mom, dad, sister and niece came over today to help me do some last minute cleaning before baby.  So, So, SO appreciated!  DJ actually had to finish her school while she was here and then set about creating a nice train track set up for Charlie for when he gets home from Grammy's.

8.  Some cleaning supplies hanging about.  We (and by that I mean mostly my family) managed to get most surfaces dusted, some windows vacuumed out, carpets vacuumed, my car cleaned out, some clutter picked up and floors cleaned.  My bathroom floor is so clean and slick now thanks to Cathy, and my kitchen floor is Ah-Mazing!  Thanks to mom for bringing her crazy floor scrubbing machine pictured below and taking care of all that built up grime on my kitchen floor that my regular mop wouldn't get up.

9.  If it weren't amazing enough to have family come and help you clean your house, having a friend then come and bring you dinner so you don't have to worry about feeding yourself after a long afternoon of work just tops it off tremendously.  My good friend Karoline popped over to drop off some very delicious kale and white bean soup, sweet potato and apple casserole and blueberry oat muffins.  I had to snap the picture very quickly because I was so hungry I immediately dug in.  So good.  Luckily she gave me a large pot of the soup, so I have leftovers for tomorrow. :-)

10.  Poor Lully got peed on this morning, so he finally made it into the wash this evening.   I am making a rather insane attempt at [at least] potty awareness if not an attempt at potty training.  Yes I know I'm 38 weeks.  It just sort of happened.  And he seems much less reluctant this time.  So it may fizzle out into nothingness again like our other attempts, or maybe this time we'll be blessed to have a mostly potty trained kid by the time baby brother shows up.  Either way, at least this time has been much less mentally tedious on me (in spite of being in pain and barely able to move), and shown me that potty training might not always have to be the bane of my existence.

11.  Things I wish I'd remembered to snap pics of?

A before and after of my kitchen floor - Dude!  Some in action shots of the cleaning going on - peeps were busy.  Dad snoozing in the living room chair during cleaning breaks - :-).  Charlie picking out his cucumber at Farmer's Market - love!  And Charlie Lego-ing it up at Grammy's house with Uncle David.  (Charlie's not obsessed with Legos....or Uncle David....riiiight.... )

So that was my day at 38 weeks and a day.  More varied and unusual than my normal days these days.

Good times. :)

Come any day baby bro!

Are you for SERIOUS?!?

I don't even really know what to write.  I spent large chunks of yesterday being seriously weepy if not down right sobbing.  I blame a large chunk of it on pregnancy hormones, but I know I would have cried even if I wasn't pregnant.  So maybe having an easy out was good. :)

We spent our last official therapy session at CPD yesterday.  We took Lisa and Shirley some pictures we colored, we chewed lots of food mommy managed to bring in, Lisa gave us special papers, and mommy started crying.  For real, serious, crying.  Cried in the office.  Cried on the car ride home.  And cried at home.  Charlie sat in the back of the car bewildered and kept asking "what you worrying about Mommy?"  I couldn't even blubber out that I wasn't worrying, just this strange mix of relief/excitement/apprehension/pride/grief/tiredness.  He wouldn't have gotten it anyways, so it's a good thing he eventually gave up and just said "it's okay!  you saw a paramedic truck!".  

I did choke out some giggles.  What a relief he knows just what to say.

For three years we have have trekked to CPD on a weekly or biweekly basis.  I have made pureed foods so much longer than I anticipated.  (Till Charlie was 2 1/2 years old.)  The only peaceful meals I've had are ones where he was napping or at someone else's house (which was rare since monitoring Charlie's eating was more involved and I didn't want most people to have to mess with it).  I have chewed so much food with my mouth open, chanted innumerable times "chew, chew, keep chewing!"  "use your big boy teeth."  "make your tongue move it to the side."  "don't swallow until you've chewed it.", tried so many mouth exercises, nearly broke down multiple times over trying to do nursing, pumping, bottle feeding and bottle exercises all at the same time.  Oh wait, there were definitely break downs.  And we have been through 4 therapists.

Lisa has been our most recent and last therapist.  I forget when we started with her, but I think it's been at least 14 months or so.  She's been patient, encouraging, supportive, understanding, excited for our new addition coming up, and really encouraging through all the tired, sick pregnancy weeks where I knew I wasn't as on top of Charlie's work as I should have been.  She's been great.  We'll be sad not to see her on a regular basis now.  We'll be sad not to see everyone at CPD actually.  When you spend 3 years walking into the same office on a near weekly basis, you do become attached.

So today, we were given the golden piece of information that we are done with active therapy.  I've been dying to hear that nearly the whole time we've been going, yet I'm so apprehensive about being on our own.  Truthfully, we will most likely go back in a couple times after we get settled in with the new baby, for sporadic check ups to make sure things are still looking good.  This isn't goodbye forever.  Actually, I'd still take the baby back in to show him off, and to visit with everyone even if it was goodbye forever, because we WILL miss them.  But along with my shear joy of being released from active therapy, really does come a great deal of apprehension.  Charlie has made tons of big strides in the last 8 months.  He really has grown up and improved and overcome lots of eating issues.  But I know we aren't perfect.  I know there are textures he still struggles with.  I know this won't be the end of my chanting "chew, chew, more chewing".  And I know every meal won't be easy breezy from here on out.

But for now.  We. Are. Done.  :-D

And I couldn't be more grateful.    Thank you Lord for seeing us through.

And now it's off to another baby doctor appt! :-D

Aaaaaand it happened

Disaster struck today.  Not in the form of house burning, broken legs, credit card fraud, or early labor.

No friends, it was in the form of this....

Can't tell what's going on?  Look closer...

Notice how the finger is actually inside the elephant?  

Yeaaaaa.....  We came out to the car from his therapy today and found that Lully had magically developed a nice rip in his back.  I say magically because that was the first I saw of it.  I would assume that just sitting in the car didn't make his back magically burst open, but since Charlie seemed just a dreadfully shocked and upset as I was (just kidding...about me, not him), I assume he was at least unaware of when he aided and abetted this rip happening.  Or, you know, it happened magically.

Oh. My. Word.  The car ride home was painful with lots of weeping and wailing over Lully's sad state. Of course half way home when I asked to look at him again, (to examine him for repairs), the rip had of course become bigger due to someone picking at it, and by the time we made it home, Charlie was pulling what can only be considered the pitiful last remains of Lully's stuffing, out of the now even larger hole.  And yet while aiding and abetting Lully's growing wound, Charlie still was just as distressed and upset that Lully had a hole in him.  In fact, in the brief intervals between moaning and crying on the way home, I heard Charlie in a quiet voice, comforting his beloved saying, "Iss okay Lully.  Isss okay."

Be still, my melting heart.

So Lully is in for repairs tomorrow morning.  Why not this afternoon you ask, since this is after all the beloved lovey?  Because this is the perfect opportunity to finish gutting the darn thing, remove the rock hard broken music box that no longer works and has even given a black eye when Daddy accidentally threw Lully at an unprepared Charlie, and restuff him with fiberfill.  And I don't have fiberfill.  But my mother does.  So tomorrow morning, I will go and restuff this grubby little elephant and we will see how much more life he actually has in him.

Oh yea, the fiberfill?  He once had a belly full of fiberfill and the working music box.  Overtime it seemed to unexplainably disappear as well, till it seemed that only the hard music box was left.  Well, now I know why all we could feel was the music box.

We'll continue along in the magic vein and say that either the fiberfill managed to magically disappear out of Lully's belly, or somehow all that fluff managed to magically compact into the nothingness you see above.  (Courtesy of Charlie very distressedly pulling all the stuffing out today in the car.)

So there is today's disaster.  I knew it would happen eventually.  

Also I feel like you should know that my son came up to me this morning with something in hand and said to me "you get this at Bah-fee-ahn?"  And it took me a good couple minutes of staring and thinking and asking again before I figured out that he was saying "Bed Bath & Beyond".

Who knew the kid even remembered the store name?  So there you go.  "Bah-fee-ahn" is the new code name for BB&B.  Pass it on kids.

24-26 weeks!

Let's see....these were back in June.  

24 Weeks!

25 Weeks!
(Ooops!  So far the only week I've forgotten to take a picture.)

26 weeks!

Totally didn't realize that I was going to end up with back to back pictures in the same shirt.  To be fair,  week 25 was a couple days before we headed to the beach for the weekend and I just plain forgot until we got back on Monday - the day before the next week picture....so there was no point in taking it.

17 weeks!

So I realized I haven't talked about food cravings or aversions yet.  I ought to given my how I've lived the last 2 years of my life dietary wise.

So my first pregnancy I gagged probably about 5 times and that was the extent of my pregnancy woes (other than the typical being tired).  This pregnancy I've had a lot more subtle food aversions.  I say subtle in that I probably could suffer through and eat most things I'm averse to without throwing up, but it would be a great trial and very unpleasant experience with much gagging.  I even had one day where a green smoothie - green smoothie of all things - ended up being disgusting by the time I was done drinking it.  I gave up on smoothies for several days since then and have just been eating veggies separately and blending up spinach juice for an iron punch!

As for cravings, I've noticed my desire for carbs/grains go up, which is funny because I'm actually not all that into grains usually.  I mean, by the time you take out yummy (unhealthy) white breads and pastas (which I wasn't really eating for the last 2 years anyways), all the cooked grains and healthy breads left, I don't really enjoy all that much.  Give me beans and greens, baby.  And really, I generally (pre-pregnancy) don't mind too much avoiding the pasta, white bread, chips, and other refined grains.  But I've noticed crazy insane cravings for all the grains/carbs that I'd pretty much given up for the last 2 years - and don't even get me started on chips and dip.  Eeesh, have I got to get back to eating veggies and bean dip again, and not chips and bean dip.  But oh man, those chips taste amazing like I've never tasted them before.  But seriously, I recognize the unhealthy chip thing I have going on and need to nip it in the bud.

I think later on I'll do a post more about eating and weight gain, but that's for another day.

*-/

17 Weeks!

I had my second prenatal appointment today and was so glad to hear little Nubbin's heart beat again.  I'm grateful for the 6 weeks spacing due to the 45 minute drive, but I miss hearing the little heart beat more often.  But everything looked good today!  :-)

Love you baby.

16 weeks!

16 weeks saw the return of more energy and God's abundant grace.  (Not that God's grace was lacking before, but it was very clear this past week.) We've been doing a lot of "home improvement" things in the house now that William is home in the evenings, we have a paycheck again, and it's long overdue stuff that desperately needs to be done before the baby comes. And amazingly enough, I keep plugging away at it day after day and I haven't crashed yet. Even with some heavier lifting that truthfully my midwife would probably scowl at, I've managed to avoid a bad, exhausted, lay on the couch kind of day.  Which is really cool given my week 15 saw 2 of those days.  Today was the exception I mentioned in my last post about waking up great, and wanting to go to bed by 10am.

I've given up trying to decide if I actually look bigger each week.  Some days I feel huge and some days not.  Some days I look big and some days not.  (Big being relative at this point people.)  And some weeks I swear I look smaller than weeks before, but who really knows....

I keep waiting and hoping to feel the baby move soon, but no such luck.  Of course maybe that's cause I actually forget to pay attention at night when it's likely to happen, and at this stage, I think you still have to pay close attention to feel any movements.  So far any movement is just me gurgling around in there. :-P

Mama loves you baby.  :-)

15 weeks!

So week 15 was a continuum of the good days and bad days.  I had several good days (probably too good where I pushed too much) and then collapsed on the couch for nearly two days and could do nothing.  <sigh>  You never know what to expect when you wake up in the morning.  Like today when I woke up (week 16) I felt fine and almost bounded out of bed, and then by 10am I was ready to go to bed for the day.  

That shirt is a non-maternity shirt, which still fits just fine, but I could see a bit of stretch in the belly when I took the shirt off that evening.  Since I actually bought new clothes when I lost all the weight, I am paranoid about stretching anything out, so all non-maternity clothes cared about have been officially retired.  Which is a shame cause I'm sadly lacking in some warm weather maternity items still.  I wish I knew how long I could wear an item without permanently stretching it any.  Most of my non-maternity clothes easily still fit, but have been retired because they are a bit stretched at the end of the day.  Thank goodness for some freecycle maternity clothes, even if there were no summer shorts. :-)

14 Weeks!

So I seem to be good at posting pictures about two weeks late.

I can't remember much about week 14 at this point now since I'm two weeks late posting.  But I do remember having several good days in a row, and then being completely thrown off by another bad day or two appearing.  The ringing in the ears was gone, but the bad days did have fatigue and a little bit of nausea in the morning.  Oh well.  Growing a person.  What can I say.

Oh oh!  I did manage to get 2 bodyrock workouts in this week which was awesome and made me feel great.  (See me in my workout clothes.)  Hey....maybe that's why the tiredness returned...  :-/

13 weeks!

It's nice during pregnancy to have moments where you feel like you are rockin' the cute vibes.  I know those moments get fewer and farther between the bigger you get, so I'm enjoying them while they last.  And I do feel cute in this picture.  The pigtails really throw it over the edge.  Promise I'm not doing that on purpose.  My hair is just at a really weird length where the only way it looks good is pulled back and away and out of site.  And pigtails are easier than a ponytail.  So there.

13 Weeks!

Week 13 has been treating me much nicer than previous weeks.  I'm feeling good and trying to savor these early pregnancy moments before things get uncomfortable.  I'm also enjoying the fact that while I don't love running around right now and chasing my son, I can still totally do it.  One day he'll take off, and I'm just not sure how fast Mama will be able to follow.

Also with the dizziness almost entirely gone, I feel better about getting back into my exercising.  Between sickness and pregnancy, my entire workout routine got thrown to the wind.  But I'm slowly getting back into the groove.

I'm also feeling the urgency to get stuff done in the house.  With Hubby finally finishing up his PhD and getting a job, we have a list of things we'd like to do/overhaul/get rid of/organize in the house before baby comes, and I ALREADY feel the days ticking by way too fast.  Someone slow them down and let me get my house in order!!

Love you, baby.  (Whom Daddy is already convinced is a little girl, but Mama is not so sure about.)

12 weeks!

So I realize the first post I did was lies, all lies.  I was not 10 weeks.  I was 11.  You'd think I'd have that straight, but it's amazing what you do (or don't do...or remember) the second time around.  So this was supposed to have been posted last Tuesday (as in a week and a half ago).  I'm late.  But better late than never is my motto, since I didn't even have a camera during half of my first pregnancy due to an unfortunately windy day at the beach.  Sand, wind, you do the math.

Week 12

Week 12 is not my favorite picture, but that's okay because week 11 was awesome and I'm rockin' some cute pig tails in week 13, which will be posted shortly as well.

Weeks 10-12 have been really bizarre, including extreme fatigue, dizziness, weird tummy aches, light headedness and bizarre hearing issues.  But thankfully week 13 has perked up and is doing much better.  Snacking on plenty of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, spinach and lentils to make sure my iron levels stay okay.  They were a smidge low when I was feeling so badly.  But with the increased iron rich foods, I seem to be feeling much better.

First LTEV recipe review!

A while ago, amidst my pregnancy tiredness and sickness, I received this in the mail.

Oh yea baby, yours truly received a copy of the amazing Dreena Burton's latest cook book Let Them Eat Vegan to review. I already own a copy of her Eat, Drink and Be Vegan and Vive le Vegan! and love them both.  So I was very excited to check out this new one.  And it was mine all mine to cook up tasty vegan treats from and review.  That was a good day.  However that good day has been surrounded by lots of bad, sick, tired pregnancy days.  And so the little book has sat on the shelf while PB&Js, green smoothies and oatmeal were dished out.  Lame-O. 

Finally tonight I had the chance to make my first (of many) recipes.  And...drum roll please...I chose the French Lentil Soup with Smoked Paprika.  

Why did I choose that on a warmish night?  A.  It looked super simple.  B. I had all the ingredients on hand.  C. It uses two of my favorite things, smoked paprika and lentils (french no less!).  D. I'm notorious for fixing soups on warm nights anyways.  Yes is makes things doubly warm, but I'll be danged if soups aren't one of the the EASIEST things to throw together when you don't have time.  Chop, toss, and simmer.   And this soup was no different.  So.  Easy. 

So the soup got made.  The picture was forgotten until hubby came home later and was eating his bowl.  Thus the terrible picture of the soup.  But it was the best I could get, and it is perked up dramatically by my two men smiling. :-)

The soup itself is SUPER yummy, although I knew it would be as soon as I read 'smoked paprika' in the title. I'm not a smoked paprika addict or anything.  The smokiness from the paprika, the earthiness from the thyme and lentils really give this soup an inviting flavor.  Paired with a crusty whole wheat bread or some croutons and you'd really be dining in fine style.  Lentil soups are so hearty and filling and this one is no different.  Not to mention chock full of protein, fiber, folate, iron and a whole HOST of other vitamins and nutrients.  Note the iron and the folate mention, since I'm preggo and my midwife has been emphasizing them to me. 

The soup looks very thick in the photo, and that's because I used a little less water than what was called for (hey we like our soups thick), and I tossed in a cubed potato so that it would be seasoned nicely and Charlie could practice chewing a new texture for therapy.  Worked out great.   Oh, I also didn't have any straight french lentils on hand, so I threw in a lentil blend mixture that I had.  While I love the firmer texture of the French Lentils, the mix of varieties worked just fine too since it contained French and Beluga, which are a bit firmer, and then varieties like red and ivory which almost melt into nothingness.  It was all good.

So back to the cook book, which I'll hopefully talk a little bit more about later... you want to know some of the recipes catching my eye? ;-)

Proper Healthy Granola Bars

Cocoa Cookie Dough Balls

Smoky Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad

Creamy Curried Almond Dressing

Smoky Spiked Tahini Sauce

Chipotle Avocado Cream

Truffled Cashew Cheese

Mac-oh-geez!

That's just a sampling of the goodness I want to try.  And I won't even go into the list of desserts that I want to make.  We'll see how much this baby cooperates and how much energy I get back in my second trimester. Fingers crossed folks - almost there.  

In the mean time.  It was a awesome soup.  Dreena strikes again with her delicious eats.  :-D

Tabouli

Yay!  Finally another recipe posted!  

This is one of our favorites.  Well, it didn't used to be my favorite.  Growing up my mother made this, and I would cringe anytime I was forced into a bite.  Amazing how our tastes change, isn't it?

I really couldn't even tell you what prompted me to make this when we were first married, or when I discovered that my hatred of it turned to love.  But to love it did turn, and for a large chunk of our pre-child life, I would make this every Saturday for lunch.  Oh.  Good.

Tabouli or Tabbouleh is an Arabic salad, which apparently has some variation to it, depending on whose hands it ends up in.  Lebanese go heavier on the parsley than the bulgar, and this version is generally more parsley heavy than most versions I see of it in stores or restaurants, so I'm gonna go with this is a Lebanese version of tabouli.

Once you get the parsley washed and picked, this salad is also painfully easy to make.  Actually depending on your parsley pick method, it can still be painfully easy including the parsley.  Pre-children I meticulously picked each leaf from the stems.  Post-children I am not so careful. :-)

Lebanese Tabouli Salad

2 bunches Italian flat leaf parsley

2 large tomatoes (or 3 medium ones)

2-3 green onions (I almost never do more than 2)

pinch of salt

3/4c bulgar wheat

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

1/4-1/2c lemon juice

water if needed

Night before (or at least 3 hours before) soak your bulgar in the lemon juice, olive oil and water mixture.  Really I don't even measure the liquids anymore, I just make sure it sufficiently covers the bulgar plus a little more.  The bulgar will soak up the liquid and then no cooking is needed.  When soaking, store in fridge.

Wash parsley and pick leaves from stems.  Depending on how much stem you like or can tolerate in your salad, you would either carefully pick the leaves from the stems, or do a general ripping of the leaves from the whole bunch, getting both stem and leafy bits.  Up to you.

Finely chop parsley and dump into bowl.  Dice tomato and dump into bowl.  Chop onions and dump into bowl.  Add soaked bulgar mixture and stir.  Season with a little salt.  Bam!  Easy peasy.

Truthfully this is best served with chips.  Best tasting that is.  If you are being good and healthy and smart (sometimes I am....and sometimes I'm just not) you eat it by the spoonful and it's still absolutely delicious.  If you are throwing caution to the wind, it is amazing on chips.  :-)

Aside from being seriously high in Vit. A, C and K, when you are talking about a cups worth of parsley (which you are if you are eating tabouli), it actually has a nice chunk of folate and iron.  Bonus!

Seriously yum folks.  I kind of wish I had it on my menu for tomorrow now.  

Blast!

Gratituesday: Little Nubbin

At least that's what Daddy calls it.  I thought given my propensity towards the legume family we'd call this one 'Bean'.  But Daddy stubbornly sticks with 'Nubbin' and so maybe the next one will be 'Bean'.  

We both agree I don't actually even show that much yet, so I must be subconsciously doing that pregnant stick out my belly thing. 

We're all super happy!  And super grateful for the little heartbeat we heard today.  :-)

1950s style

All growing up I never once attended a themed costume party....in costume that is.  We never went out and paid money for a store bought costume that was just right.  We never had the right stuff at home to fit whatever the theme was.  And I was usually too school for cool...er..cool for school to be caught dead in something that sort of made a lame attempt at fitting the theme, but didn't quite hit the mark.

As a result, I was the equally lame kid who showed up in jeans and a t-shirt who stood around too cool for costumes that weren't quite right, and yet desperate to fit in just once for a themed party.

NOT SO THIS TIME!!!

We got an invitation to William's cousin's birthday party - 1950s themed - and William's all like "let's do this baby, we're doing it!!"

There were usual groans and moans on my part as I tried not to dredge up the bad costume party memories from my childhood, but I told him I'd do my best.

Thankfully I didn't have to rely fully on my best or I still would have been in trouble.  I had two friends ready to help out who let me look through their stuff and loaned me almost the entirety of my wardrobe.  By the end, I felt ready to rock the 1950s and any party that came with it.  

And so, because this might in fact be the only time in my life that I actually attend a themed costume party, IN COSTUME, and look really fabulous doing so, I will now shamelessly post far too many pictures of us in our get up.  I admit to feeling awesomely beautiful that night. :-)  Thanks girls. :-)

Someone asked if I was Jackie O.

Someone said a brunette Marilyn.

Someone said Black Dahlia.  (I had to look that one up.)

I just felt awesome and incognito.

Pretty Lady and Nerdy Scientist.

Nerdy Scientist and his 1950s radio.  (from my Grandmother's shed)

Slide Rule anyone?

He's not overly excited.....

Makes you kind of nervous doesn't he?

Okay, perhaps Mad Scientist is better.

How did the nerd ever get the babe?

Can't forget the scarf and gloves.

Red lipstick and shades.

And the coat and bag.  :)

So there you go.  Our totally awesome 1950s birthday party get up.  Happy Birthday to Nicole and thanks for having a costume party so that I could for once in my life, go in costume and rock it out!  This crunchy mama enjoyed her night of glam!  :-)

Do you have a mustard pusher in your house?

Found this post in my drafts folder, sadly tucked away and somehow unpublished.  Since mustard pushing was so important in our lives for so many weeks, I decided I'd go ahead and share it, even if this was back in October. :-P

Charlie has long been obsessed with all the mustard bottles in our house.  It doesn't so much have to do with eating the mustard on every food item on his plate (in fact that phase is almost completely gone).  It has to do with him obsessing over having to have all 4 bottles out on the table when we eat, and him having to be the one to pull all 4 bottles out of the fridge, by himself, at the same time.  Which almost never works and then never fails to result in frustration and tears.  It has to do with his desire to pull the mustard bottles out at random times and tote them around the house on his little push cart.  

He is my little Mustard Pusher.  Whatever that is, he's that.

The hummus got lucky and got to go along for the ride this time too.

Mustard pushing can be very intense.  He (ahem) WE take it very seriously.

Lean into it son - mustard pushing can be hard work sometimes.

So hard sometimes you just have to pull it instead.

There he goes around the corner.

We love mustard pushing!

But sometimes mustard pushers get distracted...

...by staring at their own awesome reflection.

Organizational strategy is also key.  See, we DO take mustard pushing seriously in this house.

I'm bracing myself for the day when I find a moldy mustard bottle under the living room chair that's long been forgotten from one of the mustard pushing escapades.