birthday celebrations

a few days ago, Ben got a care package full of good things:) -- these are pictures of him, going through the box. every night he reads a story from one of the books!

since i was out of town on ben's actual birthday, we delayed the celebrations to today: the both of us spent the evening at one of Chicago's finest, Fogo de Chao.
lots and lots and LOTS of perfectly prepared meat, and an outstanding salad bar. mmmmm!
i think i'm going to be in a food coma for hours. which is probably good, if it gets me to me sleep all night long!

more things are growing...

you may remember that the orchid we got last spring, at the orchid show at the botanical gardens, didn't last very long. i was doing something wrong... overwatering, underwatering, shocking the plant by attempting to re-pot it, maybe just the chicago humidity (or lack there of), who knows.
the internet said all sorts of different things, and consulting with the orchid expert at gesthemane added more information. nevertheless, the orchid lost its flowers one by one in a few weeks.
the internet also said to cut the stems and keep caring for the plant, and that it may sprout a new branch next year.
so that's what i did! kept watering and feeding. over the summer it "worked" on a new leaf, and about 3 weeks ago it started growing a new branch!
and finally, i can see a little bud of flower starting to grow. it makes me happy :)

27 weeks

imaginary chat

an imaginary conversation i had with the baby last night (probably prompted by gray scrooge taking more than his share of the bed at night):

her: ima, can i sleep in your bed?
me: no, we each have our own bed to sleep in.
her: so why do you let scrooge?
me: scrooge is a cat.
her: can i be a cat?
me: maybe on Halloween
her: and then can i sleep in your bed?

back at home

it's good to be home! i had a lot of fun in pasadena (and the weather was nice too!) but i missed ben a lot. so it's good to be home, even though it's cold out, and gray scrooge was so needy i had to pet him all night, and black scrooge was so needy i had to pet him all morning (black scrooge, between you and my belly, there's not a lot of room for a laptop on my lap! how am i going to read the news in the morning?)

anyway, we're planning on going to this restaurant for ben's birthday. yummmmm.

visiting pasadena

i'm thawing in warm California this week, visiting my friends Eran and Orly and their amazing daughter Liat. She's very fascinated with my computer, especially because it shows her pictures of herself and family (from their own online photo album). she sees my computer and starts demanding "baby" and "ati" (Liati) and "tata" (safta), and wouldn't stop until i open it and show her those pictures.
i can only hope that our little one will be as smart!



(i'll clean all the tiny little finger prints off my screen later)

Bend it like Beckham

I don't know if she's gonna be a soccer player, but she sure can kick.
at about week 21 or 22, i started feeling her punching me. i might have felt something before, but couldn't really say that it's it very definitely. now it's obvious. it's so obvious, that when i look at my tummy when she's active i can see it move. then i laugh, and it moves a lot more, but still :)

it's usually nice, we're starting to have a relationship. she sometimes wakes up to "tell" me that she liked what we ate for lunch, or that the seminar/meeting i'm sitting in is boring. sometimes she kicks me so hard that it wakes me up. she particularly likes to punch me when i rest on my back. i'm not sure why - does she like the extra room she gets when i stretch out? or maybe she doesn't like me laying on my back and wants me to change positions? i'll ask her when she comes out.

sometimes i can tell where she is by the shape of my tummy (e.g., one side is sticking out farther) or by how tough different parts of it feel.

...and sometimes, it's not pleasant at all the way she kicks my gut.

winter rant

it's so cold!

i froze my poor knees on the way to work from the car, and i still can't feel my cheeks. brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

just for the record, the high today is -1F. this is about -19C. without counting in the wind-chill.

little sweater

last 2 years i was all about hats. everybody got a hat for winter (if you didn't let me know i'll correct that). i figure that with my tendency to leave projects unfinished (the fall-colored blanket i started 2 falls ago is still not finished... it's really large, but it never got done), it's jsut the right size of project -- by the time you're tired of knitting more of the same, it's time to start reducing the size and shaping the top.

i don't think i would ever knit a full grownup sweater, i'll just end up quitting halfway through.
but a baby size sweater... that's just the right size project!
here is one i finished this weekend:

the pattern is based on this one, modified to fit the yarn and needles i had.

the next one is going to be 2 shades of blue. i had to start it over a couple of times because my gauging wasn't right. must be temporary stupidity ;)

update: here it is..

Woo-Hoo!!!

we got an awesome care-package today!! among other great things, a pile of bamba, a mountain of books, and the best granola you ever had in your entire life!
THANK YOU!!

"Does this baby make me look fat?"

this post is long over due!

as everybody around us knows, we're expecting a little baby girl this spring.

yayy!!

we found out that i'm knocked up this summer (and this was no surprise), and were relieved to realize that it wasn't that hard -- i guess birth control works, when you use it! ;)
who could imagine that these two blue lines on a plastic stick would make people so happy?! the same day we had a bunch of friends for dinner, and it was really challenging not to drink wine and eat all the yummy sushi that i made... (actually, i did the home pregnancy test that morning mainly to check whether or not i can eat everything that evening...)



we waited for the doctor's confirmation before spreading the news, and of course everybody were very excited. i think my mom couldn't compose a coherent sentence for the entire duration of our phone call :) she had to save all her questions to the next day, after she calmed down a bit.
not telling our close friends was tricky, especially since they can easily notice that i'm suddenly the designated driver every single time we go anywhere ;)

the first few weeks were very tiring. i would crash and fall asleep at 9 or 10 in the evening, and had to be dragged out of bed in the morning. and 30 minutes after lunch, i was hungry again. i don't remember ever being as hungry as i was these first few weeks. it was indeed confusing... at a few weeks "old", the little baby is as big as a bean, but needs (and takes!) so much of my energy! at first i couldn't understand why, she's so tiny, but then we realized that i'm (or my body is) busy building a home. and that's a lot of work :)

luckily, i didn't suffer from morning sickness at all. i was a little nauseous if my stomach was empty, but that went away quickly when i learned to "listen to my body" and figured out when and how much to eat. (you could set a clock to my 4PM tummy need for an afternoon snack :)) i don't remember having any cravings (ben still didn't have to drive out in the storm at 3am to look for pickles, ice cream or Matsa)


our health insurance turned out to be surprisingly good, they cover pretty much everything. every time we go to the doctor (once a month), they take a bunch of my body fluids for tests. i understand that tests during pregnancies aren't as elaborate in the US as they are in Israel, but we ended up doing everything i read about in the book: genetic screening, nucal transparency, 1st and 2nd trimester screening, and an expanded ultrasound. maybe we just happen to be going to a good clinic (thanks O'brienim for the referral!).
we were advised by our doctor not to go through invasive tests, since the screening "score" put us in a very low risk for any genetic defects.

Now, after going through all the "interesting" doctor visits, all we have to do is wait a few more months and keep growing.

i took some pictures of me. some of them are trapped in my camera that was left in Cadillac this xmas, so there's a little gap in the timeline... sorry for that. and of course, some pictures of the little one :)

growing

Cake

trying this recipe today (sorry for those who can't read it...)

Orange cake