Cravings

Okay, so sometimes I think the whole pregnancy craving thing is overrated. Except then I get a craving for something and really cannot get it off my mind until I eat it.

For example, last week I was making my grocery list and suddenly had this craving for my mom’s homemade mac ‘n cheese dish that’s sort of like a really cheesy casserole, except my mom never made casseroles, so it’s mac ‘n cheese. I haven’t had it in a really long time, and I have wanted to eat it every day since I thought about it. Also, last night I had a dream about bbq chicken and I can’t stop thinking about it. So we are having homemade mac ‘n cheese and bbq chicken for dinner. In my dream I actually made my own bbq sauce from scratch – which I have never done before and will probably never do – and it was amazing.

People ask me all the time if I have cravings for things. The answer? Sometimes. With all three of my pregnancies I could eat pizza every day of the first trimester. Literally, I never got sick of pizza and would want to eat it all the time. I still like pizza, but could care less about it right now. In the beginning of this pregnancy I ate lots of dry cereal, bagels with cream cheese, and really cheese in any form it would come in. Which is maybe why pizza was so awesome, lots of bread and cheese. There was a week that I was so sick that I think those are the only things I ate. And I really like chocolate and ice cream, but I am pretty sure I liked those even when I was not pregnant ;)

One thing, however, that happened to me this pregnancy that I simply don’t understand is that I have started to L-O-V-E grapefruit. The reason why this is so weird is because I once learned that I am a “super taster”, which means that I started out not liking the three most naturally bitter foods: coffee, grapefruit, and beer. I can remember specific instances where I gagged over the taste of coffee and grapefruit when I was younger, and I have never been able to handle more than a sip of beer. Then Starbuck’s arrived on the scene, added loads of sugar to coffee, and I became a coffee drinker. For the first year I could never drink anything but a caramel Frapuccino, which I think is one of the more sugary drinks on the menu, but I slowly acquired a taste for coffee. Still hated grapefruit, still hate beer.

Lo and behold, I ate a grapefruit a few months ago and it was good. It was better than good. It was delicious. It was so good that I immediately went out and bought several more. I can’t seem to get enough of them right now. I could eat one every day. I kind of want to eat one right now. Mmmm. Maybe pregnancy can change your tastebuds? I don’t know. I still can’t even stand the smell of beer, so it didn’t work on that, but grapefruit is a new passion of mine…at least until this pregnancy is over, then we’ll see if I am still obsessed :)

Easter

I have this really great handsome husband. I never post nice pictures of him, I don't know why. Most of the time when I take a picture of him he's doing something really funny or silly...maybe because he's just like that a lot? :) I don't know. Anyway, he looked so darn handsome on Easter morning that I made him hold still long enough for me to snap a picture of him in his "Sunday best".



Yup. So handsome. I picked out his shirt and tie combo, teal and purple? Sure! Why not? It's the first time, and maybe last, I have ever gotten him to wear purple. Pink was completely out of the question. I think he looks fabulous.

The girls and I spent most of Holy Week hanging out, just the three of us, and we still managed to not find time to color eggs until Easter morning.

Which was fine, because in the half hour that Steve was able to be at home with us on Sunday morning we decided to have a conversation with the girls about how the Easter Bunny is not real. I wrote a little bit about this during Christmas, about wether or not we were going to help the belief in Santa or not, but with Easter I decided what's the point? A bunny whose big enough to hop around delivering baskets of candy and hiding eggs? First of all, if I actually saw a bunny that big it would scare the crap out of me. Second, what does a bunny have to do with eggs? Third, and most importantly, Easter is way too important to me to make it into something fictional and all about eggs and rabbits.

Easter, more than Christmas, is the foundation of what I believe. The fact that Jesus died for me is the basis of what the rest of my life means. It effects a lot of the decisions that Steve and I make because it has shaped our lives. So we decided we want our girls to really know what Easter is about, and that we would celebrate by coloring eggs and having baskets with candy - along with many other things, like going to church, talking about what Jesus did for us, etc.

So we still colored eggs and had a little Easter egg hunt outside.


While we were waiting for the eggs to change color Tryn decided to make up songs about Easter, a task which she took very seriously.

And which Berlin seemed to think was pretty funny.

Our beautiful eggs :)


I also got the girls new Easter dresses. I found this adorable dresses on the clearance rack at GAP and they were perfect. Unfortunately, because Minnesota is so awesome and it was only 60-something degrees they had to wear leggings and long sleeved shirts under their dresses. So I didn't take "Easter dress pictures" because they wouldn't have been awesome.

I will take some soon and post them. The best thing about the dresses is they spin in a real serious way - which made Berlin extremely happy. I will have to try and catch them in action...

For now, this cute picture. Of course, I couldn't even get one of both of them looking at me, but it's pretty cute anyway :)

Heartbreaker

Have you heard the country song where the dad tells the boyfriend that he will be up still cleaning his gun when the boyfriend brings the daughter home?

This little girl is going to cause Steve lots of problems in about 10 years:

Steve will be writing country songs about cleaning his gun and dumb teenage boys. Heck, he might even buy a gun, just to scare the crap out of some poor high school boy. I feel sorry for whoever decides he wants to take Tryn on her first date.

I mean, she does have a little ways to go:

But look at those eyes!!!

My Little Peanuts

Berlin has had a growth spurt over the past couple of months, if you can believe it. When I had her measured and weighed at the doctor's office last week I found out she was only 29 lbs and 37 inches tall. That's not a large 3 year old for sure. However, I can tell that she has definitely gotten taller over the past few months because she has finally outgrown all of her 2T pants.

I just had her step on our home scale to see how accurate it was, it said she was 29 lbs. Although, it says something different for me when I step on our home scale compared to the scale at the doctor's office - like it's at least 5 lbs off, and let's just say that I favor my scale reading compared to the doctors :) Anyway, I am not totally sure it's accurate, but if it is...Tryn only weighs 5 lbs more than Berlin does. It says she weighs 34 lbs. Now THAT is small for an almost 5 year old.

The fact that Berlin has had a huge growth spurt combined with the fact that Tryn is still wearing the same size shoes as she was last summer, still fits quite comfortably into 4T clothing, and is only 5ish lbs more than her just under two years younger little sister means that these girls are closer to being the same size than they ever have been.

In fact, several times in the past few weeks, I would say almost every time I bring them to a store, someone asks me if they are twins. Yesterday when I was walking out of Cub Foods a guy said to me, "Awesome! You have twins!" and just kept walking. I always explain that I don't have twins, but I am starting to think that I should maybe play it up while I can. I mean, don't you think that people who have twins are like, so cool because they are still sane when their kids reach toddler age? And that must mean that they are super heros or something? If people want to think that of me, I might as well let them ;)

In this picture Tryn definitely looks much bigger than Berlin, but her bike is also much bigger...maybe this means that Berlin is ready for a two-wheeler? Considering how accident prone Berlin is, I don't think I can handle that stress right now. I think we'll wait :)

30 Weeks

So, for the 30 week picture it was a little bright outside.


And I couldn't really look at Steve while he was taking a picture of me.


But, we remembered to take a picture, and that's all that matters :)

I am starting to feel very pregnant. It's hard to move around, I can't walk very fast, and it's especially hard to get up if I decide I want to sit on the ground. But I only have 10 weeks left. And when I say I only have 10 weeks left, then I start to freak out that I only have 10 weeks left. Ten weeks does not sound like very many to me. So, although I am getting more uncomfortable every day and it's hard to sit at all because it feels like something is being shoved into my diaphragm and ribs - which makes it hard to breathe - I am not so uncomfortable yet that I am ready for him to come any day. He can wait...a few more weeks. That would be just fine by me.

Belly Laughs

I get a weekly update email letting me know how my baby is growing and what is happening in baby and pregnancy world. And sometimes they have this little section called "Belly Laughs". Here was the one that I read today:

If only you'd known you were going to trade...
• Monthly PMS for nine months of weeping
• Lacy thongs for cotton tents
• Sex for gas
• Zinfandel for Ovaltine
• Birth control for laxatives
• Going to the gym for getting up to pee
• Your waist for a hot-air balloon
• Kickboxing for kick counts
• Your innie for an outie – a way-outie
• Sleeping for groaning
• Freedom for the most intense love you've ever known

2:00am

I am not good at 2:00am. All my good friends know this. I am the lame one who has to go to bed early, I always get tired first, I have never been an allnighterstayupreallylate type of person - even in college. 2:00am especially doesn't look great to me if I have already been asleep for a few hours.

Also, sidenote, last week when Steve was sick I started sleeping with earplugs (for no certain reason, ahem) and discovered that I sleep very soundly when I have the earplugs in all night.

Since I was super tired yesterday I decided to put the earplugs in - the only reason I don't wear them every night now is because they're just not all that comfortable. Anyway, I was sleeping super soundly at 2:00am.

Berlin, apparently, came into our room, she had a low grade fever yesterday. The problem/wonder of the ear plugs is that I did not hear her come into our room. I had no idea she was there until Steve plopped her between us and she put her hand on my face. I was aware enough to realize why she was there, that she was probably not feeling well, so I reached out to the figure sitting next to me in the dark and put my hand on her face. After I found her face I closed my eyes, they did not want to be open at 2:00am, and felt her forehead. It didn't feel that warm. Hm. So I moved my expert mother fever gauge down to her cheek. It didn't feel that warm either. In fact, it felt like there were lots of goosebumps all over her little cheek...which was weird.

Then Steve said to me, "Babe, what are you doing?"

And I opened my eyes and realized my hand was on his stubbly cheek, not Berlin's. Her little face was quite warm, 102.7 warm. I couldn't go back to sleep because I just kept giggling to myself in the dark.

2:00am and I do not get along very well.