New Crib Bedding.

I found some really, really cute new crib bedding for 2.0 from Land of Nod and even better--it was on SALE!  I was so excited to open the box when it arrived today:



The colors coordinate really nicely with the colors already in the nursery from Lulu's babyhood, but he doesn't have to get her hand-me-downs and can have something of his own instead.  I thought this was important since he will have so many of her hand-me-downs, especially at first, and because Lulu actually still sleeps with her crib quilt!

Photos from Oma and Opa's visit

Walter's parents came out to visit in between the spring semester ending and my mother's visit.  They haven't visited us in late May before, so we were anxious to show off our new patio furniture and let them see how nice Sacramento can be in late May, weather-wise!



No trip would be complete with wine-tasting in Amador County!



And it was also time for us to pick up our wine shipment at Boeger Winery, too!



More dinner outside.



And we had a belated birthday celebration for Oma while she was here.  I made an almond cake with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.  In hindsight, don't sprinkle sugar on a cake that you're planning on blowing candles out on--it created a sugary poof when Lulu enthusiastically helped blow it out!  Before dessert, Lulu decided the birthday girl needed some flowers in her hair.



And no visit would be complete with an obligatory hiking photo (I didn't go, so Walter took this one).

Fro-Yo.

watermelon, fruity pebbles, sprinkles, and gummi bears

Art Beast Play Date

Lulu's teachers had a "work" day the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.  Yeah, right!  I bet a lot of work was getting done that day...

The upside was that we got to join Auntie Lissa, Baby J and Pat-Pat for a play-date at ArtBeast in midtown Sacramento.  The kids had a great time, running around and playing with each other while Melissa and I had a chance to catch up!  I don't think I've taken Lulu there since she turned 1 and was no longer free??  She's asked to go back a couple of times since our play-date though, so I might need to look into some passes!

By special request....

.....a heart-shaped pizza for Lulu.

20 weeks with 2.0.

I turned 20 weeks pregnant today which is kind of a big deal because it means that I'm halfway there (140 more days left!).  For those who don't know, pregnancy is actually measured in weeks from the date of your last menstrual cycle (since a lot of women don't know when they ovulated, the first day of their last period is the most definite date that they can give at the OB/Gyn's office).  It's a little different for me, this time around...because we know exactly how old 2.0 actually is.  But, the dating system is still the same.

Anyway, here's a diagram of what my insides look like...and this isn't too far off, based upon my profile in the mirror.  The horrifying thing that you may or may not notice is that my stomach is apparently *right* underneath my boobs.  Yeah.  Think on that one for a bit.  As the baby grows, everything else has to shift around to make room.  I took a look at that diagram this morning and my first thought was, "No wonder I have heartburn!"

And boy, do I have heartburn this time around!  With Lulu, I had occasional bouts in my last trimester, but nothing bad enough to make me even take a TUMS.  Not this time!  I constantly carry TUMS in my purse and have the dr-approved antacid in the medicine cabinet for really serious bouts. I found it's worse when I have to eat in a hurry (like Monday when I had exactly 30 minutes in between final exams), so I've been trying to take my time and eat slowly...but that's not necessarily a guarantee either.

I have gained a little less than 10 pounds so far and the baby is supposed to be approximately 6.5 inches from crown to rump, or 10 inches from head to feet, and weigh about 10.5 ounces.  So, we still have some growing to do!  According to the various websites, I should expect to gain about a pound a week from here on out (something I am trying to avoid if I can help it!) and things will continue to get moved around as the baby doubles in length and puts on even more weight.

Our big ultrasound is not actually happening until Week 22 (June 6th) due to the schedule at the maternal/fetal ultrasound place I've been referred to.  Nurse Judy told me that they would contact me to set up an appointment, so I waited a week until I called them and at that point, June 6th was the earliest that they could schedule me.  Should be interesting to see what my OB/Gyn has to say since he was expecting to have our results by the time of our next appointment...which happens earlier the morning of the ultrasound.  And, postponing the doctor's appointment isn't really an option either, given I have jury duty the next week and Walter is out of town for a demography thing in LA.  So, while I'm anxious to make sure that everything is working the way it's supposed to in there, I just have to take it on faith at this point....

The Hunger.

Okay, I have a crap-ton (that's a metric term btw) of updating to do on this blog and I plan to get to it after final exams end this week...and after the in-laws' visit next week.  I plan on going through all the photos taken since March and back-dating all the posts, so be on the look-out and plan to read backwards through time.

But, before I forget, for the benefit of posterity here is a temporary update.  The Hunger has set in.  Not an ordinary hunger, but a maddening, oh-my-god-I-will-kill-anyone-who-stands-between-me-and-food type of hunger.  I remember being pregnant with Lulu and wanting to stop and get a chocolate milkshake on the way home, but Walter insisted that he would make me one once we were home, that we had all the ingredients there.  By the time we got home, I was in tears and screaming at him (no lie) to make the milkshake FASTER GODDAMMIT!

Yeah.  It's not pretty.

And it's back.  I have spent all day (since ~11am) wanting to eat everything I can possibly get my hands on.  I don't care if it's healthy or not, I don't care if I'm trying to watch my weight or not, I just feel like my stomach is a gaping cavernous maw that cannot possibly be filled.

It sucks.  It's like all of my better instincts and attempts to be responsible are being undermined by my basic needs.  So, I'm hoping to go to bed tonight and wake up tomorrow miraculously cured and self-disciplined again because otherwise the news is going to be reporting a food shortage in California and it won't be drought-related.

New slushy maker and Mac-N-Cheese

We bought one of those slushy makers from Williams-Sonoma this past weekend and Lulu and I decided to give it a whirl with some strawberry lemonade.  It was pretty cool!

And we finished up the evening with Lulu finally eating macaroni-and-cheese for the first time ever.  And I only had to put cauliflower, broccoli, bacon, and chicken in it to make her try it??  Crazy kid!

Gold Rush or Bust was definitely a BUST.

Lulu was asked to participate in the Thomas Edison show choir this year for their spring musical, Gold Rush or Bust (about the California Gold Rush).  There were ten songs in the musical and I can't tell you the number of times I heard them in the car, in the house, in the yard, etc.  Lulu was really excited about participating in the show and attending all the rehearsals.



For her costume, she had to wear jeans and western wear...and those of you who know her, know what a challenge it was going to be to even get her INTO a pair of jeans!  But, the promise of participating in the show was sufficient enticement to get her into a pair of jeans even.  I was astonished!



Then, on the day of the show...?  Ugh.  Disaster struck.  The cast had a pizza/movie party that afternoon after school let out (Thursday is early out day at 1pm) and I brought her jeans and cowboy hat (leftover from her 4th birthday "pony" party) to the cast party and hung out to be an adult chaperone, since I figured the show choir director might need a little help keeping 30 excited kids in line.  So far, so good...until it was time to get them into their costumes.  Lulu didn't understand why she had to change OUT of her dress and into jeans when the older girls who were serving as narrators for the story got to wear dresses.  I tried to point out that their dresses were their costumes, but she was having none of it.  None.  Even better, the cowboy shirt she was assigned to wear was a little too big, so after I wrangled her into it, I tied it around her waist and rolled up the sleeves.



Um, no.  Apparently that was IT.  After we got through with our mother-daughter tug-of-war over the shirt, jeans, and costuming, I said, "Fine!  I'll untie the shirt."  But, I had tied it tight enough that I couldn't get it untied and the show was about to start.



So, Lulu decided to sulk the ENTIRE show.  You will notice her clutching her abdomen like she has dysentery.  Yeah.  That's because of the shirt and she was determined to try to punish me by pouting.  What I don't think she realized was that this was the ONLY performance of the show and her ONLY opportunity to sing the songs in front of an audience because she was really upset when she learned that that was it, the show was over.

This look pretty well sums up our evening.

We had planned on taking her out to dinner to a nice restaurant (like Roxy steakhouse) to celebrate her performance, but after the show, Walter and I just loaded her up and went home to eat jarred tomato sauce and pasta from the pantry.



Nobody won that evening.

Daft Punk Dancing.

Bear with me--this is a mash-up of three separate videos of Lulu dancing in her underwear to Daft Punk's latest CD.  I think the first one is the best in capturing the moment, but unfortunately it's not the greatest quality.  :(

She does a pretty good imitation of The Robot and I have NO idea where she learned that one!

Mother's Day

Lulu is old enough that she's really starting to get into Mother's Day and I have to say, I totally dig it. She insisted I have breakfast in bed and wanted me to eat dinner in bed, too!  (I think watching me eat dinner in bed back in April of 2013 after I got back from the ER with a kidney stone really made an impression because now she thinks that's like a really special event??).

So, I enjoyed a tasty breakfast, compliments of my loving husband who was woken up early to make my breakfast.

But, I can't say that I enjoyed the kitchen afterwards...?

And my family got me a beautiful necklace that I adore and wear often!



And later that afternoon, when Gropius took Lulu with him to work/play outside and I had some quiet time to myself (the best present of all!), I made myself a tasty almond cake.





Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Front Garten Work

While Daddy tackled dry rot in the exposed beams, Lulu and I tackled dead-heading the front flower bed.  It was a gorgeous day and I took advantage of the beautiful weather to take some pictures of my beautiful girl!

I can't tell if that's a Schwarm or Grandpa Chalmers face she's modeling for me there!

Reading with Daddy.

One of the best things we bought from our German trip two years ago was the TipToi pen from Ravensburger.  There are coordinating books, games, and puzzles that are all in German.  It's awesome and Lulu loves it.

Now that her reading in English and Spanish is really picking up steam, we have been able to start working with her on her German reading skills, too.  I snapped a few pictures of Lulu "reading" with her TipToi to Daddy this afternoon.

And here's a little video of her "teaching" us how to read in German, too.

Sac State Visit

The kindergarten class at Thomas Edison visited Sac State today and I re-arranged my office hours so that I could join them for the morning (unfortunately, I couldn't re-arrange my teaching schedule!).  Lulu was so excited that she and her class were visiting Mommy's school.  They packed sack lunches and rode the school bus from the elementary school over to campus and I met up with them near the admissions office on the other side of campus where they were taking group photos.

Then, a student from the Admissions office led them on a tour of the campus.  I'm glad that I was there because Lulu's teacher couldn't speak English in front of the kids and the student tour guide clearly had no idea how to relate to a bunch of 5 year olds!  For example, he was talking about how Tom Hanks had been a student at Sac State and was trying to list some of his movies...like Captain Phillips??  Um, why not Polar Express or Toy Story, dude??  C'mon!

After the tour, the kids went back to the Admissions office and watched a couple of videos about Sac State before eating their sack lunches on the lawn.  That's when I had to say good-bye and go teach my racism and public finance classes.

Side note:  I'm not sure how many of the other parents actually realize that I have my PhD?  When I said something about needing to go because I had to teach, one of them replied, "Oh, yeah, I was a tutor once before I had children."  Um, no.  I'm not a tutor.  But, I also realized that correcting her error would've just embarrassed her and wouldn't have accomplished anything.  I just took it as affirmation that I can relate to people from all walks of life, no matter what their educational backgrounds happen to be!