“When I get agrivated enough that the day is slipping away from me, then I’ll go outside and lay under the lawn.”

(WHAT!?!?!?)

Bless all you sweet ladies whose hands have instinctivly shot out to touch my stomach but which have landed a quick squeeze on my shoulder instead!

“The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth.”

(Apparently we’ve forgotten this…how many students per classroom next year?)

I have never liked sugar cookies.  I grew up making lemon spritz cookies at Christmas time with a cookie gun.  Recently, I discovered the wonderful versatility of the spritz cookie.  This cookie can replace nasty sugar cookies as one to use cookie cutters with and have fun decorating with frosting and sprinkles!  The only catch is that it is a bit more difficult to roll out.  It’s worth it, though, I promise!  The animal cookies pictured were left white and I only dyed the frosting.  With the watermelon shaped cookies, I dyed the dough green and cut into circles.  After cooking, I dyed the frosting pink and topped with chocolate sprinkles.  (See Recipe: Best Frosting Ever)

Ingredients:

• 1 C Margarine
• 2 3/4 C Flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 t lemon peel
• 3 oz cream cheese
• 1 C sugar

Cream butter with cream cheese (should be like whipped butter).  Gradually add sugar.  Beat in egg yolks, lemon peel, flour, and salt.  Mix thouroughly.  Color with food coloring as desired.  Chill for 1 hr.  Shape using cookie press or rolling out between two sheets of wax paper and using cookie cutters.  Bake at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes.

Here it is, as promised:

Ingridients:

• 1 C Shortening
• 1 1/2 t Vanilla
• 1/2 t Almond Extract
• 4 1/2 C Powdered Sugar
• 3-4 Tb Milk

Beat shortening, vamilla, and almond extract with electric mixer.  Slowly add 1/2 powdered sugar and 2 Tb Milk.  Mix in remaining powdered sugar and enough milk to make spreadable.  Separate and dye according to desire.

Last week, Matt and I brainstormed about something really fun to do in this georgeous weather we’ve been having.  Where better to enjoy it, we finally decided, than in the company of wild animals?  I researched about pricing and we felt like the zoo membership was a really good deal because we can go to all the concerts this summer for free, go to zoo lights in December, plus, go to the zoo as many times as we want to over the next 12 months (an exciting prospect with baby Samudra, the elephant).  After we bought it, we discovered that the membership is tax deductible, whereas, just buying tickets would not have been.

We got there around 10, ate our sack lunch in courses while sitting on benches thoughout the day, and left around 3:30.  It was such a blast!  We really enjoyed the lorakeets.  I, of course, liked the elephants the best (they are my favorite animal).  Although it would have been nice if it weren’t so crowded (Samudra is really a draw).  I think about a third of our pictures are of the elephants!  Matt really seemed to like the Stellar Cove Exhibit.  It is one of those exhibits where you can see above the water and then walk a little ways and be in a tunnel seeing under the water.  These type of exhibits are terrifying for me.  It used to be that the polar bears were the scariest part of the zoo, but now I am not so sure!

After lunch, the zoo started to get really crowded, so we decided to head home.  After all, we can go back any time we want!  We drove home and ended up going to a BBQ thrown by some of our friends.  What a great day!

Good, because I was beginning to worry about some watermelon seeds I swallowed. Just Kidding! I had my twenty week ultrasound yesterday. It was very exciting. First, we had to look and make sure all the bones, brain parts, and heart parts were present and accounted for (they were). It was interesting to see the “kicks” that I have been feeling. Turns out, they are more like head-butts where the baby scrunches up and then arches the spine and slams the head into my stomach.

Now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for–we found out the gender and it’s a…GIRL! She was very modest. She made it as difficult as she could for us but eventually moved into the right position and the technician proclaimed her a girl. She held the scanner in that area a while longer but saw that “there’s nothing dangling.” I asked the technician about her accuracy rate and all she would say was, “When you’re wrong, you’re 100% wrong.” But our wonderful doctor said that technicians have to say that and our baby is a girl. Yea! Frilly socks and pink dresses here we come!

Here are a few of my favorite ultrasound shots:

Here you can see her profile on the left (face up) and buddha-belly. Just above the belly is a cross-section of the umbilical cord and her little arm is stretching over her head.

This is a slightly more detailed picture of the little angel-face. See if you can pick out the forehead, nose, upper lip, and chin on the profile. If you look closely, you can even pick out an eye just above the nose.

Baby has flipped over in this picture and you get a nice view of the spine.

My baby has such an adorable little foot!

Thumbs up

High Five!

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

Those of you who know me as an educator know that I have a tendency to make up lyrics to known melodies to teach various concepts. What you may not know is that I also make us lyrics to known melodies in everyday life. Have you heard of “WeeSing Silly Songs”? Perhaps, if my life were a musical, the name of the play would be “ISing Silly Songs.” Here are two of my latest:

I’m Brushin’ My Teeth
(To the Tune of “Henry the Eighth”)
I’m Brushin’ My Teeth, I am
Brushin’ My Teeth, I am, I am
You can smell my breath from the house next door
I’ve brushed my teeth seven times before
First, I tried to use an emery
But I had to use a pickaxe for the plaque
It my eighth time brushin’ in memory
I’m brushin’ my teeth I am.

The Shower Song
(Sung to “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”)
Heat up, heat up, heat up hot water for me, for me
Heat up, heat up, heat up hot water for me.
I wanted a nice, long hot shower
But someone had taken one before
And someone had taken one before that
So now the hot water’s no more.
Heat up, heat up, heat up hot water for me, for me
Heat up, heat up, heat up hot water for me.

Hope that someone (in addition to myself) is entertained by my silly songs!

Perhaps we should change the name of our blog to “The Pregnancy Adventures…” as that is all I’ve been posting about recently. I am here today to tell you that a pregnant woman’s belly is not public property. I have not talked to a single pregnant lady who wants her tummy touched. It doesn’t just make me uncomfortable when strangers and near strangers (and close family members) touch my stomach, I find it demeaning–I’m not an incubator people! Dogs like to have their bellies rubbed, not people!
Just as I was starting to have a few uncomfortable incidents with ‘belly rubs’, I came across a letter to an advice columnist (I tried to find it online with no success) where a pregnant woman asked how she could get people to stop rubbing her belly. Amy or Carolyn or whoever it was suggested patting the person’s stomach in return, along with a few other ideas.
Since then, I have put that advice to use. Just yesterday, I went to a bridal shower, where my Aunt reached out, patted my stomach and asked how I was feeling. I patted her stomach right back and said, “Just fine. And how are you?”
Her hand flew to her chest as she exclaimed, “I am so embarrassed! I hated it when people did that to me when I was pregnant and here I am doing it to you. I’m turning into my mother!”
There is a lesson we can all learn from this, tummy touchers–most pregnant ladies don’t want ‘belly rubs.’ It’s not okay, even if you ask first. The best way to find out if someone wants you to touch their stomach is to wait for an invitation. Some women might feel a kick and be want to share it with you. But until then, don’t hold your breath. I promise you will never get that invitation from me!