Week 21

So, I'm sure some may be wondering why all of a sudden these posts are coming rapid fire on the same day, after not posting in almost a week.

Well...

I got a job.

What's that? A job? But aren't you leaving Calgary in like, two weeks?

Yes, that's correct.

After job searching throughout September and October, it has to be mid-November when something finally works out. I can admit that I maybe didn't hit the pavement as intensely as I should have earlier on, but let's be serious. November? Really??

Since I really couldn't turn down an offer, I started work last Thursday, and will be giving my notice at the end of this week. Quite the pickle, huh? On top of it all, I also had to go out and try to update my wardrobe to comply with the "formal black and white" dress code. Wonderful. Let's buy some fancy-pants clothes to last me 3 weeks. Oh, and make them maternity please!

Anyways, enough about that. I'm not going to complain about this less-than-ideal situation, as I'm glad to have found something even for a little while. It's just been a bit complicated, and I feel really bad knowing full well that I'm leaving soon. Also, I'm on my feet for some 8 hour days, and let me tell you, flats and pregnancy do not mix. I'm SO looking forward to yoga today to stretch my spine, which feels like it has been sawed in half.

Thus ends the story of why I've been neglecting this blog, and I just hope to make it through the next 2 weeks.

OK!

So 21 weeks! I had an appointment yesterday for a quick checkup and all is well. I was really interested to see if I had gained any weight since my last appointment there, and turns out, I'm right on track. I was up 5 lbs in 5 weeks, which is exactly what to hope for, as they say a pound a week is average and expected. My belly is also right on track, measuring 21 cm at 21 weeks, which is bang on where it's supposed to be. And little pea's heartbeat? Totally average as well. My, aren't we boring. I'll take boring any day if it means we're both healthy and everything is progressing as it should.

Here we are at 21 weeks! Eric's iPhone app says that this week, baby is the size of a spaghetti squash, which I think is way more accurate than a pomegranate. But pomegranate is more fun to document with chalk, so Pom it is!

Food for the Belly: Dinner

Pizza night! We make pizza quite often actually. At home, I'll buy the ball of whole wheat pizza dough from the deli, and attempt to stretch it out as thin as possible over our pizza stone. In Calgary, I haven't been able to find good looking dough at our grocery store, so I resorted to buying a pre-cooked pizza crust. Which I must say, tasted amazing. Ended up super thin and delicately crispy, and only takes 10 minutes in the oven!

Today's pizza incorporated our usual staple toppings: pesto, mushrooms, artichokes, sundried tomatos, roasted red pepper, prosciutto, and cheeeeese.

This time, we splurged on some arugula, tossed it with olive oil and lemon juice and garnished our pizza. Dip in Frank's hot sauce and you've got yourself a gooooood pizza!

Craving Cavings

So far, I haven't really experienced what I would call a true pregnancy "craving". Sure, there have been times when I've come across a mouth-watering restaurant menu or recipe on Pintrest and thought, "I want to have that NOW", or be itching for a bit of post-dinner chocolate, or just simply "feel like" something specific for dinner. But rarely have I caved to a big treat. This did happen once, which was not documented with a photo. And it was bad. Because it was chips and dip. Now, I'm a sweet tooth through and through. Chips, I can usually take it or leave it. Not a huge salt person, and as I try to be healthy as much as possible, we never have chips in the house, aside from the occasional bag of Tostitos for nachos. But I saw someone blog about chips and dip and I couldn't stop thinking about it for THREE DAYS. So, finally one day, after a particularly long day of running errands...I caved. And bought a personal sized bag of sour cream and onion chips, came home, dipped them in the tzatziki we had for Greek pitas, and polished them off. Was it worth it? Probably not. But dang did it taste GOOD.

Anyways, there's this burger place, Black Betty's. Which we pass almost every time we go downtown. And the menu looked AMAZING. And they have live jazz, cheap wine and $3 sliders on Wednesdays. I've been dying to get there on a Wednesday since September. So finally, we went! The slider deal was over, but we were looking for a real dinner anyway. I got their signature burger, and Eric got the lamb burger, which I must say, was better than mine. Herbed ricotta and cranberry mint yogurt? Please. I think we'll definitely be back to try one of their amazing sounding grilled cheeses. Mmmm.

Food for the Belly: Brunch

Yes, it happened. Brunch again! This past weekend was our last "free" weekend in Calgary, meaning sticking around the condo without any pressing plans. We ran errands and went to church but otherwise were able to relax a bit before the chaos of December hits.

So I made brunch! Sleeping in is awesome. BUT, being lazy, waking up late, then lounging around in bed reading is usually interrupted by stomach growling and desperation for food. And then you get so hungry you want to eat everything in sight. So, you make a feast!

I have to say, our condo here has been pretty awesome, but our kitchen pans SUCK. Talk about the most NOT non-stick pans in the world. So making pancakes gets interesting, especially in your starvation panic, where all you want to do is get the food cooked and on your plate. 4 small pancakes turned out great. Then there were the last two. Which totally ran together, were half-pan shaped, and I still had a tiny dribble of batter left. What to do?! MAKE A GIANT PAN SIZED PANCAKE, that's what you do. Hence, this glorious breakfast creation. I dumped the bacon right on the pancake for effect, but subsequently decided to be a bit more classy, and put the bacon on a separate plate with some scrambled eggs. But we doused that giant pancake in syrup and went to town. It was delish.

Food for the Belly: Dinner

In my opinion, there's nothing like a good lasagna. Lasagna is probably one of my favourite things to make. Even though it takes a while to put everything together, and I have yet to find non-boil noodles to skip that step, it's so nice to have everything in one pan, bubbling away for an hour before coming out golden brown and bubbling.

I also like the freedom of playing around with the recipe. I've probably never made the same lasagna twice. I usually keep the same basics, which for us is noodles, Classico tomato sauce (nothing but!), ground turkey, mushrooms, zucchini, and of course, mozzarella or Italian blend shredded cheese. This time, I had some fresh basil leaves, some spinach and a bit of  pesto that also went into the mix. Sometimes I'll throw in cottage cheese, and I bought ricotta to use once, but found it wasn't really worth it. Eric called this guy "one of your best"!

In terms of a "recipe", here's the basics. Boil noodles. Brown turkey. Slice mushrooms and zucchini (not too thin on the zuke or it will get mushy) and saute in olive oil or balsamic vinaigrette. Mix together turkey, veggies, sauce and a bit of cheese. Put a bit of sauce on the bottom of the pan, then layer 3 noodles, filling, 3 noodles, filling. I usually use 12 noodles, so it's a 4 layer lasagna. Cover with cheese, cover with foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour, uncovering it for the last 10 mins or so or turn the oven to broil to brown the cheese. Yum!

Week 20

Week 20...halfway there. Time has seemed to go fairly slowly so far, so it's hard to believe that we're at the halfway point! I have a feeling the second half will be even more fun, exciting and potentially uncomfortable than the first. Baby seemed to kick things into high gear as soon as we reached the 20 week mark on the weekend. All of a sudden, little pea is kicking up a storm in there! The best part was when finally, Eric was able to feel a bit of movement too, one particular late afternoon when it was definite kicks, not just random movement. Such a special moment, even though I know there will be way more kicking to come!

Also, I now look pregnant. Not that I didn't before, but sometimes in the morning or depending what I was wearing, it could be debatable, sort of that "too much at the buffet" look. Now with this little banana baby, there's definitely a bump there. And I love it!

To preface this, I HATE BANANAS. Always have, likely always will. I do, however, like banana bread/muffins, provided there are no huge naner chunks hiding in there. But otherwise, keep bananas far away from me. I can tell if banana is hiding in something too. Give me one whiff of those great fruit/veggie drinks or smoothies. If there's a hint of banana in there, I'LL KNOW. And I'll stay far away. I think Daddy will have to do the banana feeding with little pea. Unless they take after their mama and won't put up with that crap.

Week 18

Can I not even count?? With all the excitement of the 18 week ultrasound, I just realized I totally forgot to post my 18 week photo!!!

Apologies.