as the poll predicted

as i think everyone knows, it's a girl!

at 20 weeks, i'm halfway through the pregnancy! our dr. appointment yesterday was a little rushed due to some scheduling mishaps between that office and the ultrasound office.  not ideal.  however, new dr. f said my file looks good (recall i graduated from dr. toig).  he then examined me and all is healthy.  i'm taking my iron like a good patient and they'll retest levels next time.

the ultrasound was fun and the technician was a character.  she talked to the 'little baby,' 'babycakes,' 'beautious,' and told us about a recent patient who asked how many aortas her baby had. she was disappointed, "really, just one? cats have six."  aside from the stories, it was amazing what we could see: all four chambers of the heart, filling with blood and pumping back out! 

the doc came in after to confirm everything looked good and tell us she is growing at the 50th percentile.  good job little girl! as for my belly, it is growing, and i will post soon! 

valentine's day crafting/baking

valentine's day fortune cookie packages

this idea was inspired by a pack of greeting cards i bought years ago, a pack of cards which has moved homes with me three times. a pack of greeting cards 'so inspirational' that i forgot to even take a picture of them.  he card itself has a fortune cookie on the front and a chinese character inside that translates to love.  when i bought the cards, i thought i would grab take-out boxes from a local restaurant, fill them with candy and give them with the card for valentines day. 

five years later, i was still toting the greeting cards around, unopened. this was the year to use them: 1) since i never sent christmas cards, and 2) since valentine's day weekend coincided with the chinese new year, so it worked out pretty well.  there weren't as many cards as there were packages i made, so not everyone got the card.  not to mention i didn't finish nearly as many packages as i had originally set out to complete.  i think i sent between 10 and 12 and sent a few to people i don't normally send to.

the revised concept:  i re-worked the idea and decided i wanted to make my own fortune cookies and take out boxes! i will never make fortune cookies again.  but let me walk you through the steps to making your own fortune cookie valentine's day packages. 

click link below to continue!

1. create fortunes i dreamed up this idea where there would be a thread and some beads coming off the fortune, from within the cookie.  i didn't know quite how to accomplish this, so just improvised:

cut strips for fortunes:

punch hole for thread:

(this was a bad one, just a test)

sort through a mess of beads for the colors you want:

cut piece of string, put two beads on.

re-thread second bead from opposite direction:

add remaining beads and tie off:

snip extra thread and place knotted end through punched hole in paper:

loop thread around beaded end and pull taught:

make more!!!

write out your fortunes! the fun part is that they can be as customized or generica as you want. i organized mine by recipient using a muffin pan. as you can see, i originally thought i'd be making three fortune cookies per person - ha!

2. make take-out boxes

cut out take-out food templates.

luckily my friend kate already had a template. otherwise you could trace a real take-out food box.

score and assemble boxes with cute mini-heart shaped brads:
kate also already had these heart-shaped brads on hand. pretty sure i used her paper too, come to think of it.

tip: use a printer to print on your paper before cutting out templates!i ran my templates through my printer before assembling, but after they were cut out. probably should have printed on them BEFORE i cut them out, but it was a last ditch effort. i was going to GOCCO onto the templates, but had run out of gocco lamps and the only art store in chicago that sells them closed, and they cost a fortune on ebay, plus i didn't want to wait for delivery. they came out pretty crooked and a little ug.

3. Bake Cookies: die, little burning cookies!!!

I'm posting the recipe in a separate post.  I ended up baking these in batches of TWO (tried to rotate them into oven on 5 minute shifts).  You have to fold the fortunes into them when they are piping hot, and they cool so fast, that I could only get to two before it was too late. So it ended out being a slow and laborious baking process, even though they only take 15 minutes to cook.

4. place cookies in boxes!!

if you're not mailing them, this is pretty much as far as you need to go!  i put the cookies into little candy bags before placing into boxes, and dangled the beads on the outside.  you might not want to print offensive broken english on the outside of your boxes though.

5. Gather Candy

Since I was packing these up in boxes, I wanted to add a little more to the inside of the box.  So I bought a few bags of red candy and mixed them all together.  Turns out selections of red candy aren't that grea:

6. Pack Boxes

Then I distributed candy and packed up the boxes with a card and a disclaimer for the wacky cookies.  I didn't have a enough take-out boxes for everyone (whoops, the printer might have eaten a few), so I used small candy boxes from the craft store instead. 

hmm, i didn't have chinese address labels to complete the chinese valentine's theme, so i used these japanese-esque-artdeco inspired ones instead. very mixed themes, but all i had!

valentine's day love

By the way: did not mean to imply anything about christine in that last post! i just meant i'm at that doctor a lot more these days ... didn't realize it could sound like anything else! sorry c!!! now back to valentine's day:

[leslie wrapped my tshirt in tissue paper and this love sign!]

click below to continue!
 
1) les had brought me a vday package when she visited.  inside was a tshirt with a heart on it, but the heart is an ishihara (color blind test) ... so it looks kind of like the circle below, but more pink and with a heart inside.  she wanted to know if patrick would be able to see it.  he says it's just a circle of dots!!

2) dad sent me valentine's day roses at work on friday!! fun to get flowers at work --- they even smelled lovely! how super sweet was that?  it made my day!

(whoops, sitting behind the vase is a package for amanda that i STILL haven't sent)

3) saturday night (valentine's day eve) we went to dinner at a fave place of ours called the bristol. they've been making me 'hand crafted' mocktails since i've been preggers (delicious ingredients: with dinner i had one with huckleberries and before dinner was one with ginger and lime - plus they give them a sophisticated presentation so i don't feel like i'm drinking a shirley temple either!).

dinner included goat, veal, pork, beef, and quail. guess which one i had? guess who had the rest!

i ran into a co-worker there, and tasted her boyfriend's bone marrow. yes that sounds awkward.  anyway ... much more delicate than i would have expected, kind of earthy, and nothing like eating meat at all.

4) the next morning (valentine's day) we were on our way to the airport to drop patrick off and he took a random left turn, which turned out to be not-so-random when we stopped in front of the florist:

6) patrick also gave me the MOST PERFECT VALENTINE'S DAY CARD EVER!!!

and what he wrote completely melted my heart.

good thing he doesn't ever read this blog, because if he weren't already embarassed enough, he might be over the top red-faced by the point where i tell you he bought it at the PAPER SOURCE which he went to ALL BY HIMSELF.  when was the last time you saw a guy go into the paper source alone? i am sure he hated every moment in there. and this is why i love patrick.

it's time to put in your votes! (+ baby larkin updates)

we go to the doctor next friday for the 'big' ultrasound, so put in your girl or boy guesses on the sidebar!

click below for belly pic

my wonderful doctor, dr. toig (i love his resume - top notch in medical profession! surgeon! a professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology at Northwestern University Medical School! well respected in chicago! medical delegate to people's republic of china! professional tennis player! ) has been awesome. 

i've been seeing him for a couple years, and christine also goes to him now.  (c and i have been known to meet up at the BEST italian coffee bar downstairs when our appointments have fallen on the same day...seems like one of us or the other is always at toig's...especially these days). 

how weird i just posted a pic of my doctor

but the doc's role in obstetrics is only consultative; after 20 weeks he introduces me to his team upstairs; one of them will actually deliver the babe!

dr. toig trained/counsels them, but they are not dr. toig!  i can always go to him with questions/concerns, but i am a little nervous about meeting the team -  i should be happy though because since dr. toig specializes in high risk pregnancy, the less i need him, the better!

in other pregnancy news, i started feeling 'little baby larkin kicks' almost two weeks ago (end of week 16)! this was not the 'flutter' or the 'butterfly' (or the 'fish like feeling'????) that the books and other mothers described to me.

it was more like some kind of misguided alien that had landed inside of me, prodding with weirdly thin arms and legs to get it's way back out. i mean, there was no mistaking this - it was like something inside me POKING. then stomping or thumping. this was a big surprise as i wasn't expecting to feel this until a few weeks later down the road.  and you can even see it from the outside if it's a good one.  it really went nuts after i ate pizza last weekend.  i think it was kicking and punching simultaneously because i felt it on the right side then immediately about 5 inches - wham - to the left. baby likes spinach pizza!

if this is how strong the kicks are now, i can't imagine what it will feel like when it gets bigger!!  they're already a huge distraction.

and what? you want a picture, you say?

one that's not dr. randall toig or a strange baby's feet?

that is a baby, not too much spinach pizza!!

fat tuesday

we went to dinner for work last and it was an especially unexpected fun evening!  we went to louisiana inspired 'heaven on seven' and it was decked out for mardi gras!  our table happened to be right under that chandelier thing:

those are hot sauces lining the wall, yes like a library of hot sauce!
including your token 'ass in the bathtub' and 'hot buns on the beach' varieties.
wondering who is giving anything up for lent this year?
(question is unrelated to hot sauce)

working from home

i never get to work from home, so it's a very nice change of pace. and place. our company has the day off, but those of us on the h&r block account are work-work-working!!!  on martin luther king jr day we had to be physically at the office, but on this fine presidents' day, we are working from home. have tons-o-matic to do (long days/late nights), so probably won't be posting 'til later in the week!  on the posts-to-do listt:

• valentine's day
• my [disastrous] valentine's day craft
• baking and baked goods
• updates on the babe

sooooo happy working with all of the muted natural light as the snow floats down outside!

we still have this table assembled (since thanksgiving) and inside our home (as opposed to storage) and like to put it in the weirdest places.  but it works.  it might not win design and decor awards smashed against the red egg-shaped island, but it's functional.

baby brain?!? ha - that's just devon brain!!

You all crack me up!  The Brenda/Valerie confusion has absolutely nothing to do with being pregnant and absolutely everything to do with being devon!! It doesn’t help that I was never that into 90210 and that I don’t know if I ever watched an episode once they got to college (basically I didn’t watch TV for about 13 years there, so no 90210, Friends, Melrose Place, that hospital show ER), but you’d think I’d recognize that Val was not the same actor as Bren.

ok, photo time

approximately weeks: 9, 11, 13 and 15.
i got smart and decided to stand in front of the chalkboard so i can write the week number. hello, smart!

and realized my posture is terribly inconsistent.

---
click below for unrelated ramblings!

watched several consecutive episodes of 90210 today on soapnet while i was tooling around the house. they were in college, you know at california university.  well, i was very confused that brenda and david seemed to be an item and that donna didn't care.  more confused that a manipulative character from brenda's past was calling bren by the name valerie.  then even more confused that everyone was calling brenda 'valerie' as well.  what did i miss???  did brandon and brenda have a secret triplet?  oh, wait. then i figured it all out by about an episode and a half later:  it wasn't brenda at all!  it was kelly kapowski from saved by the bell (or in other words, not shannen doherty, but tiffani-amber thiessen)!! wow, i was very confused.

tiff-amb, you're not brenda afterall!

---

saw a commercial on tv today that made me laugh in the way that i wanted someone else to be laughing with me. here's a snippet about the ad:

http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2010/02/give-your-dog-dentastix-instead-of-dentures.html

will somebody please 'denture their dog' for me???
---
and has anyone ever watched toddlers and tiaras? (ok so by now it's pretty evident i watched tv today; a lot of it.  i was relaxing and getting over being sick.  it felt good.)  sometimes the little girls wear something they call a flipper, which is essentially a set of fake teeth that go over real teeth to hide imperfections (like when little 6 year olds loose their first tooth - so pesky). the girls i saw tonight kind of reminded me of the pug.

i just mean i'm sure the little girl's natural teeth are beautiful, not that she looks like a dog.
although, little girl, i do see dogs that wear jeweled collars. so you might want to talk to your stage mom about that.

i think my computer called me fat

and i think it knows i'm pregnant

sweet little things

here's an overdue post ... the sweet little things that have been sent our way over the past several weeks!

fortune tshirt (like a fortune cookie, but a tshirt. and for babies)
this one came from patrick's aunt judy at christmas.  it felt WAY too early to be getting gifts for the baby, but, well, what can you do at that point?  well i got the biggest kick out of this little novelty! so basically, the next person who gets preggers is getting one of these from me!

mysterio predicts your baby's future!

why wait to find out what your child will become?

it's sewn shut at both ends, so you have to cut it open ...

baby's gonna be a big tipper!

i yipped, "yay our baby is going to be rich!" and patrick's sister said, "or be a server in a restaurant."  hmm. well if so, i hope it's at a good restaurant. but we'll love baby no matter what. but a good restaurant would really be better. maybe baby will work at scott and holly's future restaurant.

judy also gave us a cute little baby book

mama package

from the best package creator ever!  leslie, of course!

i know i posted about the cake book leslie sent me --  i have already made banana cake with chocolate frosting to follow the surf and turf dinner patrick, ryan and wendy cooked (crab legs were on sale at whole foods!) maybe all chocolate would have gone with the meal better?  but it got rave reviews nonetheless -- but i never mentioned the card that came with it:

how sweet is this little card???

the package was described over on leslie's blog as:

for an old co-worker who just found out she's pregnant!

uhhh, technically we did work together.

1) a nighttime memory book for all of the crazy preggo dreaming to come.

2) and a cake cookbook to make yummy treats...eating for TWO.

there was also a copy of Goodnight Moon - yes, i adored that book as a child.  some slippers.  the best homemade caramal ever (ok, maybe it ties with Pa's, holly!) and lots of little notes inside the package that made it so much to open that i couldn't stop to take pics.  lots of little notes made the package an exciting series of twists and turns, for example, the candy was hidden in my slipper and i didn't find it for a week!

baby package
from an experienced mother of two, and always the most thoughtful package maker, lauren! this package had it all!  books, music, toys, teething rings, bib, onesies!  she made the onesies with little organic images - too cute! 

 ready for a baby now! well, maybe not quite ... but definitely closer after this bundle arrived!

homemade

kate sewed these sweet little baby blocks.  one even rattles!  do we think she has a future on etsy??

celebratory!!

holly sent this my way - MARTINELLI'S!!!  i think we'll save it to celebrate when we find out if it's a girl or boy -- just a few more weeks.  the best part was that it cost her $17 to send a bottle that probably cost $3.79 to buy.  thank you holly!!

the angle makes the box of tea look bigger than the bottle of martinelli's!

but let me tell you i am addicted to that tea and it is almost gone.  they have yogi tea at our little market, but not women's mother to be, so i guess i better find a new market!

--thank you so much everyone for such sweet little things --

it meant so much to open these surprises and feel the excitement of preparing for a new familhy member...now i just have to figure out where in this tiny place to start keeping things for a baby!