Must eat...

Aside from Dole's Orange Peach Mango juice, red grapes, and Eggo waffles - THIS is a must eat in the house lately...

DELISH.  Chandler mentioned wanting key lime pie last weekend, which led me to the jello/cool whip pie... we'd gotten enough cool whip for two pies (I needed a strawberry too!), only after I read the recipe for chocolate pie on the top of the cool whip container, it was all over...

Since you may not have cool whip in the fridge to get the recipe, here's what you'll need:
-2 small boxes of instant chocolate pudding
-1.5 c milk
-1 container cool whip
-graham cracker crust

Mix pudding and milk.  Once well blended, add half container of cool whip until it's all smooth and chocolatey.  Fold into pie crust, top with the remaining half of cool whip - voila!  It's the easiest pie ever and tastes SO good!

TIBS - Week 21

Week 21

Highlights from this week: baby hiccups!  We can now feel and see him moving! 

We had an ultrasound today, but I'm too lazy to scan the pictures tonight.  Bino is still a boy and he weighs 1lbs now!  His heart, brain, liver, stomach, kidneys, and bones all look great!  We were supposed to have two appointments today, one with the ultrasound tech and one with our midwife, but she had two deliveries this morning so we had to reschedule for next Tuesday.  I think I've gained 10lbs since May; I should find out for sure next week.  I still can't believe we have less time to go - four months, that's it.  It's been five and that has gone by SO fast, I just can't believe that there are only four months left.  I ordered some books that had been on my list to read and they should arrive sometime in the next couple of days.  It occurred to me that if I didn't read them NOW, I probably wouldn't have a chance for quite a while!

How would you change?

Bible Study started back last week.  This time we are doing Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed (Prisilla Shirer, Beth Moore, Kay Arthur).  Wow - I'm loving it.  The first week has been okay but today I was listening to the second audio session by Pricilla Shirer and had to share her opening...

She talked about how she was at a fitness boot camp with her friend.  You know the kind with the Army guy who comes and does all the drills and such... so they were doing push-ups or something like that and her friend had her eyes closed and was really struggling and had NO idea that the Army guy in charge was right there standing by them watching and Pricilla said she was trying to give her friend cues so she'd know she needed to perk up and stop the struggle and silent complaining... isn't it funny how different we are when the teacher or trainer is watching RIGHT there?!  So she then says...

How would your day change if you knew GOD was right there?

Um, excuse me while I gather myself... yikes.  How convicting is that?!  Definitely something to think about.  He is there.  He is watching. 

2 Chronicles 16:9
For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

How would your day change?  I know mine would, and will with that verse in mind.  I will be more patient, more aware, more open...

I have a feeling this study is going to be a good one!

FOUR more months?!

Is it horrible that we still have FOUR months to be pregnant and I'm already wanting to snuggle this baby boy?!  I think I'm in for a loooong fall and winter.  We had an exciting weekend of PAINT.  First dilema was getting over the fact that my beloved Ben Moore didn't have a single shade that worked for our room.  Second dilema was learning that blue is likely the most difficult color in which to find the perfect shade.  Originally, we were going to do a tan/shale color and paint the ceiling blue.  Then I decided that he has the rest of his life to have a tan room and I really wanted to play up the 'baby boy' nursery and go all out and babyish.  That's right, there will be no 'little man'ing it around here, he will be ALL baby until he's 2.  Or 18.  I'll work on that...

Where was I... oh!  the paint.  Without totally dragging on and on (and on...) about the day of paint - let the record show that we went to Lowes not twice, or even three times, but FIVE times on Friday.  The first return trip was due to the paint guy's mistake, the other trips were just due to color in general.  So, here's what we ended up choosing from:

The first color was too dark for a baby, the second too lavendar, the third too Carolina (let's not go there), the fourth too bright, the ones that are taped together are from me refusing to go BACK for two more tiny sample jars - despite the one on the top right being very close to what we were going for... 

The afternoon light was terrible, but we ended up going with the color that was originally too Carolina (third in the picture above).  In the end, we decided that the fourth swatch was closer to Carolina blue and so this one was okay to use.  It's still not 100% what I was going for, but it works.  Chandler did a FABULOUS job painting.  Even though we got no VOC paint (as always) the primer had some fumes and the paint still had a light odor and we felt that it was best that Bino not get high for the first time while in utero.

I'm can't even recall what I wrote about prior to knowing Bino was baking.  Aren't these the cutest?!  I just can't say, 'no' to a good deal. A baby sale + a coupon + bonus bucks was just too much to pass up.  

SO snuggly!  I'm loving the zip on these PJs.  I've had a hard time finding soft gowns so the zipper is definitely second best option.  We do have about six gowns so we're certainly not without, but most of the ones I've seen in stores are girly so it's a little harder finding boy or neutral colors.  I've come to the conclusion that it's a really good thing Bino is a boy - looking at his closet I just can't help but think how much MORE would be in there if he was a girl! 

TIBS - Week 20

Week 20

Half way, half baked, half to go!

Genius...

Our first set of diapesr arrived today... upon seeing them out of the box Chandler promptly said, 'What do you think of the diapers?'  Me, 'Nice.  As expected...' He followed up with, 'I like the colorful packaging.'  Me, 'Um, babe, that IS the diaper.'  SO funny! 

Best Children's Christmas Book - EVER

Pax won't be here for Christmas this year, but he will defintely be here for Christmas 2011! For several years I've said that I didn't want to 'do' Santa Claus. I don't like the materialism that Christmas has seemingly become and I don't want Pax to be caught up in the 'want' and the 'stuff.' I'll be the first to admit that Santa Claus still comes to visit me and I would be disappointed to learn that he wasn't coming anymore - childish? Maybe. I like the stuff. It's the way I've been groomed. But I don't want that for my child. I want him to want to give more away than he wants to have for himself.

As mom is a kindergarten teacher and spent more than 30 years involved in early childhood development and education, she's my go-to for books. She's helped grow my library of hardback children's books and she recently went through some books she had and gave us about 40lbs of books. As I was going through her stash, she questioned why I didn't want some of what used to be my favorite Christmas books. I turned them down becaues they focused on Santa. I just don't want that...

When Thomas Nelson listed The King's Christmas List as an available book - I wasted no time. It did not disappoint... it's about a little girl, Emma, who had just gotten a playhouse. She gets a letter from the King who invites her to His birthday party. She goes into her playhouse to bring the cake she and her mother made, grabs her favorite teddy bear, a shawl, and her dog (how much did I love that?!) and off she goes to the party...

Along the way, she meets a woman whose son is cold so Emma gives him her shawl. Later there is a little girl crying because she lost her teddy bear, Emma gives the girl her bear. When she gets to the party, she sees everyone giving gifts to one another and she wonders why no one has given a gift to the King. Shu-Shu (her dog, who talks...) runs up to the King to ask Him why and He explains that Emma is the only one who did give Him a gift...

Matthew 25:40, Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.

LOVE THIS BOOK! It's the most perfect Christmas book. I hope that we can teach Pax what Christmas is truly about and that he will be excited to flip through gift catalogs that provide chickens, goats, etc... to families in need. Or that he would want to do something for our friends in Uganda - David and Linda - and their family and our HAI friends. I hope that he understands that not all children have toys or houses.

My only complaint with this book is that there isn't a boy version.

One of my most favorite books ever is Falling Stars. It's out of print now, but it's roughly the same story minus the Christmas part. It's a beautiful story and The King's Christmas List is a wonderful, wonderful updated version.

Outlive Your Life

I read Crazy Love, The Hole in the Gospel, When Helping Hurts... so I was not planning to request Outlive Your Life - it just seemed redundant. But I am SO glad I did! I got my book late so I didn't get to finish it on the timeline I'd planned, but I LOVED it! It's by Max Lucado and it is awesome. The message is not new - it's about helping others and what we go through to make decisions on when and how we act (and react).

The main message is that ordinary people are the ones who change the world. Ordinary people. God does not call the equipped or qualified, He equips and qualifies the called. Outlive Your Life takes several examples of people who were called years ago, Peter, Jonah, and Moses for example, and compares their fears of following and leading to our fears.

I really thought this would be overkill, but I found myself underlining sentences and tagging pages... Such a great book! I also like that Max Lucado is donating profits of this book to World Vision.

Half Baked Baby

That's right, a new HAI shirt - 'limited edition,' but I could get a price if you were dying to have one :) I think it's the best yet, it's super soft and best of all, I can wear it!

Not an official weekly update, but we realized that today marked our half way week and I decided that called for a fun post! 20 WEEKS! Hard to believe. We spent the first few months waiting for Bino to look human and suddenly he not only looks like a little person, he is starting to hear, has hair, is moving around, and can suck his thumb. AND we know he's a HE!

Still hard to believe he's a boy, but I'm over that! I realized while reading a pregnant people message board... several people mentioned that they were told one sex early on (15-17 weeks) and then found out it was actually the opposite sex when they had the anatomy scan weeks later. My first thought was, 'Oh it could still be a girl!' Immediately after that, I realized that I would mourn the little boy I thought I was having - at that moment, I realized how excited I was to have a sweet baby boy! And since I always thought I'd have girls (for some reason having a boy was never an option, ha!), it's fun having a boy because it really is something new and surprising. Not that being pregnant isn't new, but ... well, nevermind ... no one ever gets my thinking! ha!

What's new now that we're HALF WAY into the baby growing process... ???

For starters, I'm a MEDIUM now. Before you say it, DON'T. Being a medium is FINE, it's just that when you're used to wearing a size 5 shoe and suddenly need a size 7, it's weird, right? So same thing with always being a small. Behold the truth:

SMALL shirt! Yeah, it's small alright!

Another thing I've noticed is I catch myself waddling slightly. I thought it was weird since I'm so small still and tried to correct my walking, but I just end up walking funny again. Last night as we were walking around the neighborhood I realized that it was my hips. Duh, right? I could feel them moving differently - so that was a relief. All this time I thought I was just weird, but good to know it's legit. My belly button has just started to change. It's not as deep and my belly has gotten much harder. Pax no longer resides on my right side and has taken to kicking either on my left or in the middle. Chandler felt him move for the first time on Sister's birthday, Sept. 10th.

Most days I still don't 'feel' pregnant. It's still very surreal to me. My belly is small and his movement isn't yet strong enough to hurt, so every now and again I find myself wondering why we have so many baby things in the house. I started measuring my belly a week ago and I've not grown since then so I expect to have a growth spurt soon! Baby usually moves early in the morning and late at night, but sometimes I'll have something really sweet and then lie on the couch just for fun! I wonder if I do that enough in a couple months that he'll be too tired to move around all night and will actually sleep when I sleep... Hmm... Sounds too easy.

All in all, now that the all day sick is gone, things have been smooth sailing. Let's hope the second half is the same!

TIBS - Week 19

Week 19

Pax is sure to be a black belt at birth - he moves frequently now and has no problem alerting me to the fact that he is indeed awake. I'm not sure I fully embrace the 'amazing' part of him moving. It still freaks me out that I have no control of the size of my ever growing belly and the little creature inside. I marvel at the miracle of creating life, but feeling him move? Not there yet. I've gained 7lbs to date so if I gain 1lb/week until he's born, I'll still be in the 'safe' zone.

One more week and we're half way - the first three months seemed to go by sooo slow, but the last month has really flown by. I was looking back in one of my pregnancy books at how big Bino was at 6, 7, 8, and 9 weeks gestation and remembering how exciting it was that he was starting to look human. Now that he's looked like a human baby for a number of weeks, I've found that I read the books less and less, and since I'm not focused on his daily growth, the days and weeks go by quickly.

We've picked out the nursery furniture, the bedding has arrived, the chair has been picked - now the attention is on his coming home outfit. I am 98% sure of what it will be, but I'm still looking 'just in case,' although I'll be making the final decision next week to ensure we get it before someone else does! I really love it and have some exciting, craftyish plans for it as soon as he's home and re-dressed in a cozy gown. Stay tuned!

Rollin' in my 5.0...

Or wait, that was Vanilla Ice....

Finding the right stroller proved to be one of the biggest challenges for baby gear yet. Who'd of thought?! I mentioned a while back that I'd share our final decision - so...

We wanted a stoller that was easy to fold, could be indoor or outdoor, would lie flat to support an infant without a seat, had sufficient padding, was reversible, and one that was less than 20lbs.

After looking at dozens of strollers, we realized that there was no one perfect stroller. We were almost sold on the Britax B-Ready. We loved that there was a second seat option and it folded nicely, but the wheels lost us - plastic.

We reazlied we'd have to give up something - our stroller did not exist! We decided to give up the reversible part. That means that for baby to face us, we'll have to use an infant seat. Not the end of the world and while we'll spend more in the long hall by having to buy two seats instead of one, as planned, at least we can get a stroller that is perfect for us. What stroller was that again?

Mom and I went to Baby Brewster's shower a few weeks ago and per some good advice we checked out the uber cool and highly popular City Mini. It was love. I kid you not. BUT - it still lacked the right tires, so.... Enter City Elite!

It is literally - PERFECT. Quick fold (ridiculously quick fold), less than 20lbs, great tires (foam filled forever tires that won't chip away like plastic or go flat), basically, you name it - it's got it. We LOOOOOVE it! Well, we don't exactly have it yet, but it's the one. The ultiamte holy grail of strollers for us - and we are SO excited - definitely more than typical over a stroller. Did you see that sun shade?! It's killer. Or anti-killer, however you choose to see sun exposure ;)

Everyone should have an umbrella stroller for running around, right? So we found the City Micro for super cheap thanks to the fact that it's being discontinued (all parts are compatible with the Elite!) and an Amazon.com gift card from Blue Cross Blue Shield and my old employer (thank you PCHD!). It's basically a super scaled down version of our main stroller. The wheels are plastic, the base is narrow, the seat isn't as padded, and the sun shade barely exists. BUT - it's perfect for quick trips to the mall, Target, B&N, and all other indoor places where we will need the narrow wheel base for manuvering between isles and the sun won't be a problem. AND it's really a spending control measure since there's not much space for storage underneath! :) Sneaky huh?!

All in all, we're pretty pumped about our stroller choices. The Micro arrived several weeks ago and if you haven't checked out the video on Baby Jogger's website - do it! You will so fall in love with this thing. Really any of the strollers in City's line. They all have the same fold mechanism and it's genius. Seriously.

Gilga...whaaa??

As much as I have loved the messages, phone calls, and overheard stories about the name Gilgamesh Methuselah... I've decided it's time to come clean. I thoroughly enjoyed the game though as most people know me well enough to know that it could have been a possibility (!!!)... well, Gilgamesh maybe, but Methuselah (?!) - all the work of my friend Jill (who has some GREAT posts up about her recent trip to Peru w/ Compassion)!

Choosing names was actually easy for us and at only six weeks along, we were done. Chandler was surprisingly difficult and this was the only boy named we agreed on -

Baby boy's REAL name is:

Paxton

TIBS - Week 18

Week 18

...and Bino's sling... the one I ordered before we knew if we were having a boy or girl. I thought it was boyish enough just in case and still girly at the same time for a girl. Good thing I didn't go for the pink/chocolate pattern!
Super cute, no?! - and perfect for next summer. Bino will be SO cute in this with his tiny, pink baby toes - I think the entire outfit was less than $7 on sale at Gymboree.

(TIBS - 'The Infamous Belly Shot')

One Hand, Two Hands

Is it too obvious that I've stopped reading adult books? Kidding... I've been accumulating children's books for years - every Christmas and Easter mom gives me hardback children's books. Back when I used to nanny, I had a family that had three children and they LOVED to read. Every night they were each allowed to choose one book. Well, before there were three they picked two each but when #3 came along it was just one. They would try to sneak more books though and I loved how much they enjoyed reading. It's always been a goal of mine for my children to be as excited about reading. As books are so expensive, I figured that I better start working on a collection early, so... when Thomas Nelson offered children's books, I decided I better jump on it!

This one is SO sweet! It's very similar to the last one, The Boy Who Changed the World, but it's geared more for pre-school aged children. It starts out with a little anatomy lesson on hands and how hands work and then goes into how little hands can help others. I'm really excited to read this one to Bino as it's one that I won't have to wait for him to grasp since it's so simple. And who knows, maybe he'll be write his own books about helping and giving one day! ;)

...and his name shall be...

This has been quite a tough decision for us... we've bounced around lots of names. There has always been a reason not to like most... but ultimately, we really, REALLY love what we've finally decided to call baby Bino...

Gilgamesh Methuselah

We'll call him Gil for short.

We just felt that Gilgamesh was such a solid name and Methuselah was both Biblical and had a sense of longevity attached - what better name could there possibly be?!

The Boy Who Changed the World

Thomas Nelson sent this book a few weeks ago and it's such a sweet story! It's about a little boy who learns how to help others. The author expands on that to show the ultimate effect of the little boy's kindness. It gets a little confusing as the story goes on because the characters are connected to one another so the first time I read it I was lost! That said, I doubt it really matters too much as most children won't really pay as much attention to that part. The story itself is beautiful and I love that I'll be able to read this to our sweet little boy next year!

ECU's Hail Mary

BEST. PLAY. EVER.



Direct link.

I think it's going to be a good year!

(and for the record, even if you're not into football (I'm not really!) - this is a GREAT video!!!)

TIBS - Week 17

The Infamous Belly Shot - gone RETRO! I've had fun with the belly pants lately... see exhibit A:

Week 17
...and since I'm SO slow in posting week 17, below is 17.5 weeks :)

Growing daily... so much so that I think I'm going to start measuring - no joke! I swear there was one day last week that I grew DURING the day. I've had some fun conversations lately, the first was two weeks ago at a cafeteria in the mall, a random person asked when I was due - it was the first time a stranger had openly acknowledged that I was knocked up. Second convo was at work last week. The guy who runs an office supply store that our clinic orders from came by to go over some things and as I was talking to him he asked if there was anything new. I said something like no, not really, just busy working on some grants and committee reports... a few minutes later I walked over to another person's office where he was and he asked again, 'really, nothing new?' I just looked at him funny and said again, noooo not really - but my co-worker said, 'oh well she just found out she's having a baby boy.' He immediately threw his hands up and said, 'I KNEW it - I knew you were pregnant!' LOL It was funny... 'err, sorry?' He explained that his wife was pregnant (they're due late Oct.) and he's learned to tread very lightly... as I laughed and walked away he said, 'well had I seen you from the side I would have known...' Nice.

This past weekend we went home for the football game - it was the BEST game ever. (Yes, totally EVER! We were losing by ONE touchdown and it was one of those 'going to take a miracle' type games... well our guy CAUGHT the BALL during the LAST second of the game and we won - it was amazing... I'll have to post the clip from YouTube later...) Mom and sister and I went to the outlets and I had high hopes for Gymboree and Carters... Gymboree was a total let down, but Carters had some good sales. There was also a Motherhood there so I popped in to get jeans - and actually FOUND some! I went up to a medium so the belly part would fit. The smalls fit perfect but I could tell the belly would be tight next month when I really needed to wear them so medium it was.

As I was checking out I said something about fitting into them and the girl said something about how great it was that I finally didn't feel fat. Um, excuse me? I did not say anything about feeling fat. Ever. Nor have I felt fat. NEVER EVER during this entire experience have I had the 'fat' feeling. Sure my belly may have just looked like a beer gut, but did that mean I felt like it was? Absolutely NOT! I was so irritated and as a woman I couldn't believe that she would assume such. I have LOVED my body during pregnancy. Naturally I hated feeling sick but I have loved my physical body every single step of the way. Even when my waist disappeared (for the most part), I still love my body. Sigh.

I am SO looking forward to getting a bigger belly so when people ask when I'm due I can look at them with a straight face and say, 'I'm not pregnant!' Just to have some fun!!! I highly doubt I can keep it going without telling them our due date and laughing but I'm ready to have some fun with this!!! :)