Lucy’s Apple

Neice2 has a birthday this month, and guess what she’s getting!

Om to the Nom!

 

Her very own apple, crocheted by Yours Truly.  I’m guessing by now that my sisters-in-law will have discovered my pattern – their kids are all getting apples from me this year.  Luckily, I started this little guy in plenty of time to counteract the pregnancy-induced finger swelling, carpal tunnel syndrome, and arthritis, so Miss Lucy will have a delightful Granny Smith to open on her Birthday!  Hooray!

 

I heard through the grapevine that Lucy’s having an owl themed party this year, so she’s also getting these, some super adorable hand-made bows constructed by a friend of mine:

And a card I made.

Owl?

 

Husband assures me that this card, which started out as a pile of paper circles and a bottle of glue actually looks like an owl

…but I can’t tell if he’s just humoring me. What do you think?  Is it owl-ish enough to actually look like an owl?  I’m hoping Lucy won’t care much one way or the other.  If she does, I’m hoping her mommy will quickly change the subject and distract Lucy back to her awesome APPLE (which actually looks like an apple)!

I’ve had to take the apple listings off of my Etsy shop for now – what with my decreased motor skills it would take me way longer than I feel comfortable with to get any orders out, but hopefully things’ll be back up and running in the near future.  In the meanwhile, my patterns are still available, so wander on over to a Happy Little Shop & see what you can see!

AND… Happy Birthday, Lucy!  We love you!

I’m Trufflin’

They say pregnant women typically crave foods they don’t eat enough of in their typical diet.  Before this whole pregnancy thing you’d be hard pressed to find me eating sweets.  I’d rather have a sandwich than a cookie.  I’m that girl who scarfs up all the mushrooms from the buffet & leaves the petite fours.  Ice cream? …maybe as a special treat every few months…  Baked goods?  …Only when Husband made them…

Fast forward to NOW, and I’m a sweets-eating machine!  Screw tomatoes (previously my all-time favorite snack) – I WANT BROWNIES, and I WANT THEM NOW!

Needless to say, I’m trying to survive this pregnancy without turning into Melissa the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Mommy, and… my weight gain has been right on track thanks in large part to some awesome recipes from my new favorite blogger, Chocolate Covered Katie!

Katie’s recipes taste delicious but are secretly made with healthy ingredients, and I thought I’d share my experience with this one… a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles.

NOM.

Yeah, that’s right.  Delicious.  Except instead of butter, eggs, & flour, these little beauties are made out of chick peas, peanut butter, & wheat germ!  Instead of 120 calories and 6 grams of fat a piece, they’re only 40 calories and 0.5 grams of fat each!  (In pregnant-speak that means I can safely eat, like, 6 at a time without even beginning to feel guilty about it).

Here’s a link to the recipe, and another link to the nutritional information Katie provided:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles Recipe

Truffles Nutrition

 

Katie’s recipe called for either nut butter or oil, so I used half peanut-butter & half oil, which turned out to be a mistake.  My “dough” was a bit too runny, and I ended up adding a bit of wheat germ to thicken it back up.  Wheat germ is delicious, but it changed the consistency a little — they sort of remind me of the texture of those Girl Scout cookies with the coconut… still uber-delicious, though!

 

Due to my lack of pre-pregnancy sweets-making, I’ll admit my ability to cover things in chocolate leaves something to be desired… you should have seen me and my motor skills trying to dip these little guys into the crock pot full of chocolate goo!  (Most people use chop sticks to cover things in chocolate, right? …right?…)

Not so pretty, but deeeeelicious!

 

Verdict:  DELICIOUS, NUTRITIOUS, and an excellent way to satisfy my craving for sweets.  Thanks, Katie!  You rock!

I Love You, Kid. Now GTFO!

You know how women start doing odd, sometimes inappropriate things near the end of their pregnancies to encourage their wee ones to exit the womb a bit early?

...seems legit...

I can now relate to these women.

Let’s be clear, though – the run down of my pregnancy symptoms hasn’t been THAT awful… there are many, many women who’ve had things much worse.  I’ll freely admit (and I’m sure Husband will whole-heartedly agree) that the third trimester is kicking my ASS, but it really could be worse.  Yes, I’ve had constant heart burn for the past 9 months.  Yes, my fingers are now 2 sizes larger, my feet look like Fred Flintstone’s, and I’ve got to stop half-way between the bedroom and the kitchen to endure some of those delicious “practice” contractions.

I discovered a few months ago that I’m one of the “lucky” women who actually develop ocular migraines during pregnancy (translation: I get headaches so bad I literally can’t see, and since there’s a tiny person in my belly I make do with a bit of chocolate and a boo-boo buddy instead of some hardcore drugs), I spent a most excellent few days in and out of the hospital with a scary infection that made baby’s heart rate bottom out, and I’m pretty sure I’ve had just about every symptom a pregnant gal can get.  Yes, ALL OF THEM.

So then, you’re probably wondering which symptom it is that’s broken me.  The constant mood swings?  Nah.  The stretch marks?  (Nope – I’m stretch mark free as of this moment, KNOCK ON WOOD).  The racing heart beat?  The shortness of breath? The constant trips to the bathroom?  Nope – all tolerable.

IT’S MY MOTOR SKILLS.

 

 

I’m not allowed to bring electronic devices into the kitchen anymore.  There are several perfectly decent (except for being shattered irreparably) water glasses in a landfill because of my pregnancy.  I’m not allowed to slice my own fruit anymore. There are no less than three brand-new-and-completely-waterlogged “How to be a Great Mom” books in the house (no more reading in the bath tub for this woman)! My laundry load has already doubled – not because of baby clothes, but because *this girl* keeps dropping (and spilling, and splashing) EVERYTHING she tries to consume down the front of her shirt.  Husband follows around behind me picking up the random objects I drop – a fork, an envelope, a hat.  There’s been a dish towel on the floor in the hall way for about a week now, and when Husband brings himself home a bottle of scotch at the end of the week, he now also brings home a box of band-aids for his lovely wife.

Just today I dumped most of a 14 pound bag of cat food all over the floor.  Don’t worry – I wasn’t lifting it… Husband put it on the kitchen table for me so that I could transfer it to its more appropriately sized storage containers.  It’s just that, well, I have the motor skills of a three year old, and as soon as I cut the top off the bag (which I was pleased with myself for doing without accidentally slicing any fingers), it toppled over onto its side, covering the kitchen table, two chairs, and most of the dining room carpet with cat food.  We’re talking EXPENSIVE cat food here, too, people – Miss Nina, bless her soul, is allergic to ALL THE THINGS, so we’ve had to upgrade to corn-free infused-with-gold-and-diamonds cat food.

Fraidy Cat thought Christmas had come early…

He gave me a sad, condescending little look, then proceeded to try & nom all the food before I could clean it up.

Nina, on the other hand, just looked sort of worried.

What the? Umm... I'll just wait here until you get that cleaned up, kk?

 

My no-longer-pregnant friends assure me that eventually I’ll be able to walk and chew gum at the same time again, but in the meanwhile I’m eating spicy things, going for long (slow, rambling, senior citizen speed) walks, and doing lots of squats (it’s easy to work them in… someone’s got to pick up all those things I drop when Husband’s not around). And as for Baby Boy, well… he’s officially full-term now, so we’ll be seeing him very, VERY soon (and hopefully sooner rather than later).