Solids for Jelly Bean

Our little Jelly Bean is over six months old and has been enjoying more and more solid foods. We started slowly with actual baby food. For a few weeks it went well.

Jelly Bean's first bite ever.

She was open to the experience.

She LOVED the experience.

But then something happened. Maybe she noticed that we were eating different things or maybe PJ told her our food tastes better or maybe ... who knows! Suddenly baby food was not acceptable. So we turned to Baby Led Weaning again.

Since then she's enjoyed cucumbers, carrots, bretzels, lettuce potatoes, bread, and a lot more. Like:

Strawberries!

Sushi!

Start 'em early, right?


XO

The Halfway Mark

My pregnancy with our little jelly bean is half-way through. Today I’ve hit 20 weeks (the 21^st week for you Germans out there).  Half-way through. Wow.

 

This pregnancy has been different from my pregnancy with PJ. The first trimester was ugly: I missed nine weeks of work (!!) due to recurring strep throat, followed by too much weight loss, irregular blood pressure, some not-too-serious heart issues (mine), significant vomiting, and almost constant nausea.

Thankfully my mom was here for part of the time and the Mr. is patient. Because I am not an easy sick person; I am, however, an excellent complainer about being sick. Right, mom?

The second trimester has been going much better – because really, Einstein hit the nail on the head, everything is relative – but it still isn’t what I would call “easy”.  Last time I flew to Ireland, Russia, and the US during the second trimester. This time I’m not permitted to fly and my doctor encouraged me to stay relatively close (think: Germany, northern Italy, eastern France and the like). Thankfully the vomiting has stopped but I’m still dealing with irregular and short waves of nausea, flat out exhaustion, unpleasant stomach issues, continued blood pressure stuff, and now daily shooting pain in my back and left leg.

 

Pregnancy, how glamorous.

We’ve managed some of the symptoms by permitting me to be lazy (with a limited bad conscious). That means while I'm laid up on the couch, PJ is goofing around and often a movie is running. He can call out some of the lines in Monsters Inc; has shown a real liking to Ratatouille; and can sing and dance along to a German early morning cartoon called Kika. He even has a movie-watching chair. I'm not sure that is something to be proud of but we're getting on together.

 

Those problems also mean that a number of those garden projects that need to get done this spring have been one-man jobs. Let  it be known that the Mr. does NOT enjoy garden projects and suffers from some pretty nasty allergies. So it is impressive that he is doing the garden work on his own - sneezing the entire time - while I take pictures and try to keep my “suggestions” of how he could (read: should) be doing the work to myself. Very impressive.

One of the garden projects that the Mr. has done alone, before...

 

 

...and after.

And lastly, all these negative symptoms led to a larger tweak in our diet for the last two weeks. I have a tough time absorbing fructose, like that found in High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), household sugar, and fruit. Most of the time I can remain in my 'okay' range by balancing the amount fructose in my diet through avoiding HFCS almost completely and thoughtful choosing my other foods. Other time, like during periods of stress (like this pregnancy), I can't and I need to be strict and go almost fructose-free to flush out my system, meaning: nothing packaged (not hard for us), nothing homemade with household sugar (a little harder but I can replace the sugar with glucose), no fresh or dried fruit, honey, or juice, (hard), and no garlic or onions (the hardest part).

Since we eat as a family, that means that the Mr. has also been going without his garlic and onions at dinner. Bless him.

But what it also means is unlimited fresh sushi!! Yeah!!

Lots of vegetarian, pregnant-lady-friendly options.

 

See, it isn’t all bad.

 

I do, also, have that lovely glowing skin and my hair shines like I’ve gotten prepped for a Pantene commercial.  And I can feel the baby moving and stretching in there. And the Mr. can occassionally feel the jelly bean poking around too. And we got to see his/her face on a 3D scan (those are so cool). And PJ runs up to pat my “baby belly” and sometimes he insists that he has to kiss it too.

Yup, it’s not all bad. In fact, it’s pretty great. I’m growing a human and no matter how I look at that, all I see is a miracle.

 

XO

 

Three Months and What a Day!

PJ is three calendar months today! He has been growing and growing the past few days and we have had to sort out even more clothes. We estimate he's grown about an inch and gained almost half a kilo in the past week alone. Thankfully we still have some outfits to dress him up in, including the most adorable outside outfit EVER:

 

  (one picture just wasn't enough cuteness)

Today we finally made good on the planned sushi outing, meaning PJ got to cuddle and flirt with some very hot ladies while mommy enjoyed sushi! Yummy, yummy sushi; how I missed thee.

 

  

Then Little One (also referred to as Super Sister), PJ, and I walked through a gentle fall rain in the center of Heidelberg checking out shops.

To wrap up a wonderful day, PJ added his own touch by pooping all the way up his back and into the folds of his neck - Folds. Of. His. Neck. - and then splashing around in a very, very necessary bath.

Post bath (check out the adorable little fatty winkles!):

All around, a wonderful way to celebrate little PJ's entrance into the world three whole months ago.



xo

Know What Would Be Awesome?

If this was my last vegetarian sushi platter for a while.

Happy Father's Day!


xo

Goodbye 2010 - You Were Good to Us

2010 is coming to an end and I, for one, cannot believe that it has already been one complete year since we celebrated the beginning of 2010. So much happened this year, most of it really good and some of it, eh, well, not so good. But like all good personal historians and people who chose to remain sane, I find myself concentrating on the positive.

The Steinbach Clan celebrated our first year of happy matrimony as well as many small moments of shared happiness like this one, this one, and this one. The Mr. also finally revealed to the world his dance moves.

2010 brought some pretty significant changes to how I view myself:

• I started responding to “Frau Steinbach” with the understanding that its me.
• I finally got unlimited German visa, more than seven years into this adventure.
• I started writing again – even trying some new stuff like fiction and attending two excellent workshops one in Scotland with Joanna Paterson and one in Ireland with Irene Graham
• I started growing towards the role of mother.

2010 did include a few sad moments. I lost a dear friend and faithful writing fan. The Mr. and I also said goodbye to our little Peewee. Happily, I reached 30 and finally broke the curse of crappy even birthdays. Thanks again to everyone who helped celebrate my new decade!

But we sure did travel a heck of a lot this year:

• Ireland
• Italy (where we came home with a little bun in the oven)
• Vancouver and unlimited Sushi (yes, it turns out this was my highlight looking back)
• Our honeymoon in New Zealand – there are so many blogs, but I chose the one that remained in my heart at the highlight
• London
• Scotland

xo

Introducing the Style Queen

An excellent friend celebrated her special day this past week. As always, she did everything with Style, and, yes, with a capital S. First, she looked stunning as always.

Second, she invited us to sushi. As in all-you-can-eat(-so-starve-yourself-all-day) invited us and 18 other good people. If that’s Style, I just really don’t know what is.

Third, her theme was “accessories me”. Throughout dinner we, the guests, grabbed sushi plates from the conveyor belt and added our gift to the belt for her to open one by one. Naturally the Style Queen has friends with style and it was a lot of fun to watch her open each well considered and lovingly wrapped gift.

Happy birthday Style Queen!



xo

Sushi = Squealing Glee

Sushi just makes me happy. The idea, the view, the taste, the after taste, just about everything about sushi makes me happy; happy in the way that expresses itself through delightful squeals and general excitement. Truly.

If you don’t believe me, I think you should invite me out for sushi and watch the entertainment start.

So imagine the little dance I did when I ordered this for take-out while in Vancouver (ignore the Styrofoam, that sorta killed the absolute buzz):

Or when I was handed this menu on my last night out in Vancouver – notice the all important “All You Can Eat” note at the bottom:

Yeah, that gets a total thumbs up:

xo