General news

1- Last night we had our last Bradley Birth Class and it suddenly became quite clear that the next time we meet again we will have our babies. This is exciting and frightening at the same time. I can't wait to meet our baby, but are we really going to be parents??

2- I feel like I've been wearing the same clothes for months now...and I have! I miss my jeans that have a zipper & button...and dresses that have to be zipped up. I can't wait to wear my cupcake shirt again.


From this:To this:

3- There isn't much left to do in the house except give it a good scrubbing one more time...and I do have one load of baby laundry still to wash.

4- GMU is back in gear for the Fall semester. This means terrible traffic and awful parking spots. I've switched my hours to 7:30-4p in hopes that I won't have to walk more than half a mile from my parking spot to the office. We'll see!

5- My office threw me a surprise baby shower this afternoon! It was so nice :)

Nursery Pictures!

Time to post some updated pictures of the nursery :) 

Before & After

Welcome Baby Sax!

Well, I gave birth today and for all of you that voted on the sex, the result is in:  It's a Wheaten Terrier!!!  We are so happy :)  

...I can't believe there are 6 people out there that voted for Wheaten Terrier!  I, personally, am still convinced it is a boy.  We shall see in a matter of weeks!

Cookie time!

My nesting has taken the form of crafting, cleaning, and cooking.  This is great news for us- especially financially. Not eating out is a real money saver.  Plus, leftovers are delicious.  

Last night I made homemade low-fat mac & cheese with a baked chicken breast coated in corn flakes.  Very delicious.  Erik loved it :)  and we had it for leftovers tonight as well.   

Yesterday, I also wanted to bring something to our Bradley birth class and decided on cookies.  I found a recipe for the "Best Homemade Cookies in the World".  They were pretty darn tasty and none were left by the end of class.   When we returned home last night we watched the Food Network Channel and Bobby Flay was having a throwdown with Levain's Bakery in NYC.  The challenge was chocolate chip cookies!  How convenient!  Well, I quickly realized that my "best" homemade cookies were not the best and that I needed to find a copycat recipe of Levain's.  Levain's Bakery makes HUGE cookies (6 oz to be exact) and they looked chewy and mouth watering.  

I made my own, smaller (3 oz), version this evening.  Erik proclaimed them better than the cookies last night.   Recipe below (adapted from Judy's Kitchen blog recipe)

Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies 
INGREDIENTS: 

1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
3/4 cup sugar (half brown, half white)I used about 1/3 cup brown and about 2 tsp. Stevia
1 large egg, cold
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, lightly spooned and swept 

3/4 cup wheat flour (this is my addition because I ran out of all purpose, but Judy suggested doing 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour)
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder 
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter and sugars on low speed and mix just till somewhat combined, not creamed, and not fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the egg and flavoring and continue to mix on low for about another minute, till they are incorporated. Fold in the dry ingredients and the nuts which you have first measured and mixed together. Continue mixing on low speed for about 1-2 minutes, or till flour is incorporated. Add chips and mix another 30 seconds. Measure out 2 oz. dough for each cookie (or more if you want them bigger). Bake for 11-13 minutes, or till toothpick inserted near center returns almost clean. Transfer immediately to wire rack to cool. 

Honey-done list!

We have had a very productive weekend. Since our last honey-do list was a bit of a farce, we wanted to share with you some of our progress. 

1- Laundry- done

2- Baby Laundry- in progress

3- Baby clothes- put away

4- Nightstands to Thrift Store- done

5- Nursery- painted

6- Dog- groomed

7- Kitchen- cleaned

8- Star Trek VI- watched

9-  Finishing chest of drawers- in progress

10- Sheila- phoned

Plenty of time for more relaxin tomorrow. 

New hairdo

...just a few shots of my new hairdo & belly at 34 weeks. 

Bigger and bigger...

I thought you all might enjoy a picture of me at 32 weeks.  This Sunday I will be 34 weeks which means in as little as 3 weeks I will technically be "OK" to give birth.  I have a feeling, however, that it will be more like 8 more weeks until I deliver.  First time moms are known to go late.  I hope I don't go 2 weeks past my due date, but I'm not counting it out either!  

This is my coworker Emily and I after lunch at Pan Am Restaurant.  

Her belly is full of chicken parmesan- mine is full of Baby Sax!

Erik and I have gotten a lot done and have even more to do this weekend before baby arrives.  We've stripped the chest of drawers (pictures on Erik's photography blog) and I am recovering the fronts with some gorgeous paper I bought.  I'll have pictures of that by Sunday.  This weekend we are going to pain the chest of drawers white, launder the baby clothes, put the crib bedding on, and sand the stairs. 

Someone has the right idea!

This pregnancy sure seems to make me tired.  Lately I have been having trouble sleeping at night- I'm either being kicked, trying to get comfortable, or getting up a billion times to pee!  This is the first time in my life I would really consider trading places with Charlie.  He never seems to have trouble sleeping and the amount of naps he gets to take!?  I'd love that life!

...so I joined him.

I have a very annoying assistant

As many of you know my latest bout of nesting has resulted in my insatiable need to make crafts. I am happy to oblige my hormonal instincts and have made some pretty cute stuff.  Today I even had my first sale in my etsy shop!  Exciting!    I do love making things, but find that I am being hindered by a small little creature.  This particular "assistant" is ALWAYS underfoot and needs to lay right by my side.  I know, I know...how can you be mad at this face?

"Whatcha doing?  Can I help? I could lick that for you!"

In other news I finally had a few Braxton Hicks contractions!  That is really exciting as I know my body is getting ready for the big day.  We can't wait to meet our new family member and see what he or she looks like and what personality will develop.  

Also, I wanted to share something VERY sad with my friends.  For the past two weeks I have noticed that eating even a small piece of chocolate gives me terrible heartburn.  Tonight I cleaned the kitchen and made Erik peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  I could not even enjoy one without heartburn.  What a sad sad occurrence. 

  

32 weeks!

Only 8 weeks until I am considered "due".  Here is the most recent update on what is happening in utero:

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb.

New posts!

Erik has posted some new entries and photos up on his darkroom blog.  Link is on the side for future reference, but here it is again:  darkroom-photos.blogspot.com  Erik wants me to point out there is a riddle within is most recent post. 

I've also started a crafting blog! yay!  But I'll post almost everything here too.  Anyway it is:  craftsbyclaire.blogspot.com

My friend Ellie is coming to visit today and we are hoping to see "Funny People" this evening.  Have a great Saturday!