Tuesday, August 16, 2011

State Fair

Still have so much catching up to do on the blog! We've been so busy, I haven't had time to post all that we've been up to... but I've been so glad to have that problem as we've been doing so many fun things.

Last week we went to the State Fair twice! Erin and I took Drew and Lucy on Wednesday and Ben and I took Lucy on Thursday to celebrate Ben's birthday.

I was thankful Erin agreed to go with me, she's due in about 5 weeks so I can only imagine how uncomfortable she's getting! But she was a trooper and I think we ended up staying about 3 hours. We also got pretty lucky because the heat wave we've been having is finally over and some cool weather came in just in time for the fair!

Checking out the animals...


Lucy loved the animals, she got really excited and would give a fake laugh every time we saw something new. Drew was a pro at petting the animals, but I think Lucy was a little nervous. She would reach out to touch one and then pull her hand back really fast... it was pretty cute...


I had to include this next one because it shows her carrying her blankie around. Normally she is not attached to any object in particular, but lately she's been loving to carry various things around for long periods at a time. On this day it was one of her blankies and unfortunately it was through the animal stalls so that blankie had to go straight to the wash as soon as we got home!


Lunch time! Oh how I love fair food... we got a corn dog and lemon shake up to share... then Lucy ate about half of Erin's french fries...


Finally we stopped by a kiddie area and saw a circus act perform and got to run through a couple stalks of corn... can you spot Lucy?


The next morning was Ben's birthday, I made him breakfast and then he headed off for work (which was actually a day of golf... lucky him!)


Once he got home we headed back to the state fair. Checking out the animals again...


And eating more fair food! While we were eating a parade went by so we had fun watching all the people and tractors pass by...

Friday, August 12, 2011

24 Week Belly - Baby 2

Ok, so I was actually 25 weeks when I took this, but for the sake of comparison, I'm going to call this 24 weeks! Still feeling really great, noticing my belly getting bigger, but not at all uncomfortable yet. I even sometimes sleep on my stomach still - which is amazing, because it's what I miss the most during pregnancy.


And for comparison, here's me at 24 weeks with Lucy... looks about the same!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Girls Trips

We have been so busy traveling the past couple weeks, I haven't had any time to write about all of the fun we've been having! Hopefully I'll get caught up in the next couple days because we're back to traveling next week.

The past two weekends I felt so incredibly blessed! Blessed to have two weekends away with great girl friends, blessed to have a loving husband who supported my decision to get away before baby 2 comes, and blessed to have parents who live close by and could help Ben while he was a single parent. The last weekend in July I went up to Chicago for a "Kappa Reunion". Every year in the past we have had a wedding or baby to celebrate in our group of friends, but this year their was a bit of a lull in the action, so we decided to get together just to catch up! It was a perfect weekend of talking, laughing, and relaxing. We hung out at the beach for a little bit, ate at two cute breakfast places, and went to Second City to see a hilarious comedy show. And fortunately for me, Erin was not feeling up to sleeping on someone's couch since she was 30+ weeks pregnant, so she let me share a hotel room with her and David. We pregnant ladies have to stick together.

A few highlights from the weekend (no great photos of the group, and these are all just from iPhones... but oh well!)


At Adobo Grill before the show...


Second City...


The following weekend I flew out to Washington D.C. to meet Katy. She was there presenting for a conference and was then going to be driving all the way back to West Lafayette (their new home) by herself so I went to explore the city and keep her company on the drive back. I left Indy on Friday morning and it ended up taking me 9+ hours to get to out hotel in D.C. - I flew to Atlanta, then to Baltimore, took a train into downtown D.C., walked to find a bus stop, caught the bus out to Georgetown and finally laid down to relax! Fortunately I caught up on some reading, so the day didn't seem too long.

The long travel day was definitely all worth it though, Katy and I had a great time catching up and exploring the city. I don't think we've had a girls weekend away since before I was pregnant with Lucy and I forgot how nice it is to have an entire weekend just to hang out and have no agenda in mind.

Of course we did do a lot of exploring as well, we were in Washington D.C. after all! Here are a few highlights from our trip - all with my iPhone again.

The first night we ate at a Thai restaurant and then tried to get cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes (from the TLC reality show, DC Cupcakes) on the way home. Unfortunately, they close at 9 and we had showed up at 9:05pm... snagged a quick picture though... and then went to get some delicious frozen yogurt from Ice Berry.


No to fear though, we woke up the next morning, determined to get cupcakes! So we went around 11am and waited in line for about 30 minutes to snag these beautiful masterpieces...

And let me tell you, it was worth the wait! From top to bottom, left to right: Banana Split, Red Velvet (for Ben), Blueberry Cheesecake, Salted Carmel, Peanut Butter Fudge and Vanilla.

After exploring Georgetown, we decided to spend the rest of the day in the city so we took a bus (Katy was my inspiration for all of the public transportation on this trip!) to Dupont Circle to get some burgers and fries from the Shack Shake and then walked over to the White House...


And stopped by the American History Museum because we had heard there was an exhibit featuring the First Ladies' Dresses. Katy with Michelle Obama's Dress


We also checked out Julia Child's Kitchen while we were there...


After the museum I needed to rest (I did pretty well for being 24 weeks pregnant, but I do have my limits!) so we sat at a cafe and got some water... only to get caught in a rain storm! We waited the rain out and then walked by the Washington Memorial and got pretty close to the Lincoln Memorial, but got too tired and too hungry to walk all the way there. We took the subway to Adams Morgan to get dinner at a place called The Diner. Then took a bus, walked and another bus to finally get home! I was exhausted! But so glad we saw everything we did in the short amount of time we had.

The next morning we got in the car and headed home. We had planned to stop at an outlet mall, but after 3 stops to pee and eat, we ran out of time to get to the outlet mall before it closed... oh well! We spent about 6 hours of the drive talking so it seemed to fly by!

After two weekends away I was so excited to see Ben and Lucy and am looking forward to spending most of this upcoming weekend with just them, I missed our family a lot! Not that I don't love spending every day with Lucy, but distance really does make the heart grow fonder, and two weekends away was just what I needed to get re energized to care for Lucy, Ben and our home. My spirit is so lifted!

Oh and for those of you worried about Ben, he's had his time "off" too! Earlier this summer he went to visit his friend Sean in California. I asked for some pictures from him, but when I flipped through the camera I realized there was not one picture that included Sean or Ben - they were all just of the scenery and stuff Ben saw while he was there! So here's a picture from Ben's trip...

Weird... I know... that's why I hadn't originally posted any pictures in the first place :) By the way, this is from Ripley's Believe or Not Museum... so I guess it's not that weird! He also spent a Saturday at Kings Island with his brothers and another Saturday golfing in Northern Indiana with some friends. We both have had some great weekends away from Lucy together and by ourselves, and I think our marriage is so much stronger and we are such better parents because of it!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Recipes - Week of August 1

Lots of travel, so this was a short week... but managed to make a couple meals!

Tuesday: Spaghetti and Meatballs, Asparagus and Garlic Bread.
Meatballs - http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/easy-meatballs/2959910f-1b27-438a-9085-d40b1950db20. Meatballs were super easy to make, I'd definitely do them again... spaghetti was simple, just sauce from a jar!

Wednesday: Chicken Stir Fry and Brown Rice. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-stir-fry/detail.aspx - this was a pretty easy and delicious recipe, I added soy sauce to the vegetable mix for more seasoning.

Thursday: Mexican Chicken and Rice Bake. Very delicious and easy, although I would add more sour cream and some salsa/more tomatoes to the mix. Also, made this with brown rice.

Dessert: Banana Nut Oatmeal cookies. http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/chewy-low-fat-banana-nut-oatmeal.html#more - these were good, but tasted too healthy to really be called a "cookie", tasted much more like fancy banana bread.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

23.5 Week Survey - Baby 2

Ok, so I am actually almost 24 weeks, but I did this survey when I was 23.5 weeks with Lucy, so I wanted the titles to match!

Week and day: 23 weeks and 6 days

Belly Button in or out: almost fully out, well as much as it probably is going to be, I don't think my belly button goes as far out as others, but I definitely noticed it popping out early this time.

Wedding rings on or off: On, so far, but they are pretty uncomfortable during these hot summer days. Plus I don't think my fingers every went back to their original size... wondering if I'll need to get the rings re-sized.

Food cravings: Salty stuff, but also I've noticed a strong desire for chocolate/peanut butter foods... even if that means taking a piece of baking chocolate and dipping it in a jar of peanut butter... whatever works!

Food aversions: none

Nausea: none - I really feel like my normal self, besides a little extra around my belly

Energy level: energy level is great! although I do find myself tiring easier than normal, i.e. today I took a quick nap while Lucy was sleeping and I find myself doing that about once a week or so. Most days I'm full of energy, but some days I'm just dragging...

Weight gain: About 20 pounds, I have been watching this very, very closely and I think I'm doing pretty good. Last time I seemed to have gained the same amount of weight that I was in weeks (i.e. at 32 weeks I had gained 32 pounds), I'm tracking a little under that this time, so yay!!

Mood: I definitely am more aware of my temper this time around - last time I think I didn't realize how moody the pregnancy had made me, I just thought that was my normal... now I realize that Jess off of pregnancy hormones is a different person than Jess on pregnancy hormones... things seem to make me angrier quicker and/or I get sad about things quicker... funny, this time around instead of it all being directed at Ben, I have found myself getting angry/sad about friend and family stuff more often... lucky Ben!

Maternity clothes: shoot, I think I broke these out around 8 weeks!

Size of baby: Almost an ear of corn! A foot long and just over a pound. (just left this from last time... I'm assuming it's the same!)

Changes of baby: Brain and taste buds developing, lungs develop respiratory "branches"

Next appointment: Today, got a little teddy bear with baby boy's heart beat to bring home - cool! but Lucy doesn't like it :)

Other: Last time I mentioned how strangers congratulate me on the pregnancy - this actually doesn't happen often, maybe people see me with a kid and just assume I still have a little left over from the first baby! I feel like I had so many other things to say here that I wanted to remember about carrying baby boy, but I forget now... ahh pregnancy brain! 24 week pictures to come soon!