white apples . a blog

Top Banana and Scary Chicken

I wanted to dress Juni up as food for Halloween.  I am thoroughly amused by the notion of dressing my child in food-themed apparel.  And isn't that what kids are for?  Amusing us?  No?  Anyway, Charlie won the Halloween debate and we went with that oh-too-adorable bee costume.  Which left only one defenseless member of the family who could be food for my enjoyment.  So Sydney was a banana.  She loved wearing the banana.  And unlike a certain hat-averse bumble bee, had no problem with the banana peels of her costume flapping in her face.  She was also, by far, the loudest banana possible, barking hysterically at every child that approached the house.

On a roll or A burgeoning friendship

I guess it was only a matter of time.  The kid is mobile.  Turn your back for two seconds and you will find her on the other side of room, grabbing at something breakable or drooling on something delicate.  Yes, she has mastered the art of rolling across the floor in the blink of an eye, taking out anything in her way - a chubby little steamroller.  That is, until she happens to encounter a large roadblock - for instance, in the form of sleeping dog.  She tries for minutes to roll up onto poor Sydney, knocking into her over and over again like some defective wind-up toy.  Finally, frustrated and exhausted, she gives up and moves onto tugging and squeezing big chunks of puppy fur/fat rolls.  Get used to this, Syd.  She's here to stay.

Syd the Bumbly Bee

This year The Syd was a bumble bee for Halloween.  Unfortunately, the largest doggie costume that Target sells is a "Large", which is still a little too snug for stuffing all of Sydney's bulk in there.  That's why she looks like she is strapped into a straitjacket. 

29 weeks, butternut squash, and puppy kisses

Here's The Syd, hanging out with the 29-week belly.  According to Babycenter, our little bug is about the size of a butternut squash right now.  I love butternut squash.  In fact, I had plans to make this Winter Squash Soup with Gruyere Croutons a few days ago (with leftover gruyere from the pie crust... how thrifty am I?).  However, while I may have six pounds of Ghirardelli chocolate chips, eight Scharffen Berger chocolate bars, seven Dagoba chocolate bars, twelve cups of Valrhona cocoa, five pounds of sugar, and a box of exquisite raw chocolate cacao nibs in my pantry right now, I have no chicken broth.  So no soup. 

Trimesters one and two were pretty easy and uneventful - the occasional teensy bout of nausea, a strange and distressing aversion to pizza, a previously-unheard-of dependence on Tums.  Now that I am firmly ensconced in the Third Trimester, various new and sneaky pregnancy ailments are creeping up on me.  It seems that a full eight+ hours of endless project meetings and sundry lab experiments/mini-science-disasters leaves me a bit ouchy at the end of the work day - lower back pains, achiness around the hip areas, assorted muscle soreness.  Waddling to and from the kitchen for ice cream feels like a marathon endeavor (though worth it... definitely worth it).  Oh yes, and the feet swell to (even more) gargantuan proportions.  This last development is truly appalling.  Truly.  But despite creaking around like a large, roly-poly wimp for most of the day, I'm feeling healthy and peaceful and centered and excited to meet our little baby girl in eleven-ish weeks.

Here is Sydney giving belly kisses, completely unaware of how much worrying she will face once the baby arrives... she thinks worrying about us and the kitties is an exhausting job...