He's 1!!!

I had blogger all set up to auto post a WFDW yesterday and a birthday post today at 10:36 when Zeke was born last year. I wrote them both on Tuesday knowing how busy I'd be on Wednesday and Thursday. But alas neither posted.

So I'll just save the WFDW for next week (I will be in Seattle and NOT cooking) and go ahead and post the birthday post now, even though Zeke has been one year old for a good 2 hours already.

The best layed plans...

oh and PS I guess since I'm here I'll go ahead and let everyone know that Blueberry and I's first appointment with our midwife went well. I'm measuring 9 weeks but we still figure I am probably 10 already. My tipped uterus may be hiding a small amount of baby. Cathy was unsure if she'd be able to pick up a heartbeat already so I went ahead and told her I'd just let her look next month. I think looking and not finding would be nerve-wracking, and she says if I get nervous she can stop by around 12 weeks and come listen to it.

Anyways, back to your previously scheduled post...
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Yep, it was 1 year ago that Zeke was born...1 year ago to the minute of this posting in fact. I cant believe it, and I can truly say it was love at first sight.

newborn
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months
5 months
6 Months
7 months
8 months
9 months
10 months
11 months
What a year!

The rest of the house

Yep it took us almost this long to finish the upstairs. We only finally got it done this weekend. But here are the pics, as promised.

Here is the upstairs guest bedroom. At least until Zeke takes it as his, when Blueberry moves first out of my belly and then out of our room. Who knows the time frame on that one but its nice to know Zeke has a room when it DOES happen.
And here is the little bathroom upstairs. It contains the only while walls in the entire house, lol.

And here is the other upstairs room, which we are using as a library/tv room/craft room.

A busy weekend

It was a very busy weekend. Actually it was a very busy Saturday. Our Sunday got cut rather short when our afternoon shopping trip (which in my defense was one of those really really extra big 200 dollar trips) sent me into a fit of alternating throwing up with having contractions. Fun. So after that Josh decided as head of household that I was going to first lay on the couch while he made me lunch, second take a nap with Zeke, and third "blog or something" before we go to a BBQ at a friends house this evening.

I love my husband, and appreciate how much he does for me and our family (especially when I find myself, like now, in a weakened state), but I hate hate HATE being so useless. I love being pregnant... I don't mind the morning sickness, I take all the food limitations with a shrug of the shoulder, and I've never been one to complain much about getting huge...but I'm not very good at slowing down. For some reason its easier for me to tell myself I cant have caffeine because it causes low birth weight and premature labor but absolutely impossible to tell myself I cant volunteer in the children's church, mop the kitchen, go grocery shopping, and weed the lawn all before noon even though getting proper rest is an even bigger deal then caffeine.

But today has made me promise Josh to lay down with Zeke every day and let him handle a little more of the exhausting chores, at least until we are thru the first trimester.

But on to brighter news, here is our Saturday (or at least the parts most important to Zeke) in pictures:

First we decided it was high time for Zeke to get a haircut. While I loved the shaggy Beatles-esque look my son was sporting before, now that its summer it was getting a little sweaty and muddy for my taste. Plus I was afraid I was encouraging certain...ahem...influences around the house.

So here is Zeke before.
And here he is after.
He was pretty sure he was needlessly tortured. After all, the man in the poster right behind him has pretty much the hairdo that he arrived in.

To make up for it we decided to go to Target and buy him his birthday present. And then he was so excited about the picture on the box we decided to go ahead and assemble it too. Zeke crawled into his new wagon right away.
And helped daddy with his tools too. Zeke LOVES daddy's tools.
Then he waited patiently for the last piece...
Or maybe he didnt. (notice Josh's "can you stop laughing and make your son behave" face as Zeke pushes the wagon toward the screen door.)
Then after a couple trips around the yard we all sat back and enjoyed some Crepes for dinner.
We also did quite a bit of unpacking. In fact we finished the rest of the house. Excepting the basement of course. That has been deemed "the laberynth" and is Josh's territory, and as such will probably never be fully unpacked. But we finished enough for me to be able to call it finished. And for me to bake some celebratory cheesecake, which was our prize for finishing unpacking. So pictures of the rest of the house to come at a later date. Right now, I'm off to BBQ.

Baby (baby) bump

Here are the long-ago promised pictures of Zeke in his new pool. He thinks its pretty special...and daddy likes to stick his feet in too.

And before it becomes too late to take a picture of my pre-baby (or at least pre-THIS baby) tummy I quick took one this morning. I'm a tad over 9 weeks (we think) and haven't gained any weight yet (and happy day I haven't lost any either!).

I WOULD like to say that the tiny little bump visible down there is me starting to grow from Blueberry already, but let's all just be honest and admit that it's actually the muffin top left-over from Zeke's pregnancy. I'm actually very proud of my post-baby body, muffin top or not. And I hate women that constantly make excuses about their weight/shape. Especially when they are women like me and have nothing to complain about.

Yes, my stomach has a little pooch that will never ever go away and was never there before. It's called extra skin and it happens. And yes, I have more stretch marks then unaffected skin from my pelvis bone to about an inch above my belly button. And even yes, my breasts were a perky double D back before Zeke sucked all the life out of them and now they are a sad and droopy C cup.

But I still say I look damned good. After all, it was only a year ago that I looked like this:And not even a year from now I'll be that size again. So I don't think it will be long before I'm remembering my current muffin top VERY fondly.

A brithday is coming up!

I realized today in a moment of panic that Zeke turns 1 in....1 week!!! 7 days is all I have left! I was totally shocked and then dismayed when I realized that means I only have 9 days until his first birthday party, which I have barely thought about, let alone planned.

And since my morning sickness (which has been very on and off) decided to make this an OFF day, I decided to use my ability to move around wisely and get some planning and shopping done.

Since Zeke has never watched TV and therefor has no loyalty to any cartoon I decided a while ago to play it simple and just make his party theme COLOR. As in lots of different ones. I actually was first inspired when I saw THIS cake, which I am totally planning on making. You know, unless I feel sick/overwhelmed/tired the day before....then I think a box mix of Funfetti might be just as appropriate. Its always nice to have a back-up plan after all.

So the cake is done (or at least planned). And along with my whole idea of making the party as simple as possible we are serving hamburgers and veggie/fruit trays. So food is planned as well. And to make things even SIMPLER we don't plan on any actual activities other than letting the 7 or so invited children run around like hooligans in the yard and if its warm enough set up a few borrowed kiddie pools, you know, so they can run around like WET hooligans. Ahh the joys of childhood.

So today's planning was mostly just going to some stores (including the dollar store, gotta love 'em) and picking up colorful baloons, streamers, plasticware, and fun party favors. Because I'm slightly OCD (and majorly OCD when pregnant) it also inlvolved a graph and drawing to make sure I covered all colors equally but hey...give me a break.

WFDW- grillin' time

Yep, after a short hiatus its finally that time again....Whats For Dinner Wednesday Time that is!

And coincidentally its also grillin' time again. Yes, that wonderful season where I dont have to cook a few nights a week.

The pluses of barbecuing are numerous. Husbands can do it. Its healthy. It's delicious. It doesnt add any heat to your already warm home. And if you happen to be pregnant and smell-sensitive, it doesnt stink up the house either!

So yeah...we grill a lot around here. And today I'll show you an easy way to grill some fish and zucchini.

Lay your fish fillet (salmon is nice) on some tin foil and rub with olive oil, lemon juice, and dill. Wrap it up.


Cut your zucchini in half longways and brush with olive oil, lemon, garlic salt, and oregano. (Ive heard of brushing it with bottled italian dressing but I tend to make my own dressing so Ive never tries this.)

Place your fish packet and zucchini (cut side down) on the grill until the fish is flakey and the zucchini starting to char a bit.

Its wonderful served with rice!