It's a Sad Day in Cincinnati

I just received word that the Ben & Jerry's on Calhoun is now closed forever.

I've been planning to leave work early one day in late May to enjoy a scoop of Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz before class, but it looks like that isn't going to happen. How tragic :(

Update from 26 Week Appointment

Total weight gain: 16 pounds

Mostly uneventful, weight gain is right on target, everything looks good, but I'm measuring a little bit small for being 26 weeks so they'll check again next time and if it's still looking behind I'll have another ultrasound. They said not to worry about it because I just had an ultrasound at 23 weeks and everything looked "completely normal." My OB said that I'll just be lucky enough to have a "normal sized" baby, maybe 7-8 pounds. I can live with that.

My appointments shift to every 2 weeks now, starting with the dreaded glucose test at 28 weeks. They gave me the bottle of glucola - mine happens to be lemon-lime flavored and carbonated. Doesn't make me any more excited about it. I'm especially not looking forward to the 3 hour fast that's required for accurate results - they couldn't get me an appointment until 1:45, which means no lunch for me :(

26 Weeks and Mint Chocolate Chunk

26 Week Picture:



Baby Charlie's room is now painted, I'll post pictures later this week. I had a prenatal massage and a pedicure today, both of which were freaking amazing. The woman at the spa was surprised that I was 26 weeks pregnant, she kept going on about how small I look for being that far along. Seriously? I feel like a whale sometimes. I think it all depends on what I'm wearing. The other highlight of my day was finally getting my hands on some Aponte's Pizza from all the way up in Mason. Yes, it took a good 45 minutes to get home from picking up the pizza, but it's the closest thing to Linden Pizza I've found in Ohio. It was definitely worth the drive and I'm sure I'll be visiting again. Beats the crap Ohioans call "pizza" any day of the week.

On to the ice cream. Instead of getting my old favorite Mint Chocolate Cookie, I decided to step outside of the box and get Mint Chocolate Chunk instead.



Mint Ice Cream Made with All Natural Peppermint Extract & Fudge Chunks

I've always liked Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream so I figured I'd give this one a shot. The first thing I noticed upon opening the pint was that the ice cream was white rather than the standard neon green that generally accompanies mint chip varieties. I think that's what I love the most about the Ben & Jerry's brand, that they don't use artificial colors, flavors, or anything else for that matter. Peppermint extract isn't green so they didn't bother to add a coloring agent to their product just to appease the masses. Anyway, maybe it was the fact that it was pretty hot out the night I opened the ice cream, finally feeling like summer, and I was in the mood for a vodka sour but obviously unable to partake, but this flavor was perfectly refreshing. If had to settle for the next best thing to a vodka sour on the porch in the summertime this ice cream would likely be at the top of my list. Did I mention the fudge chunks? No? Well, they were bigger than Hershey Kisses and the Vermont boys don't skimp on the chunks. Definitely a tasty treat, perfect for hot weather enjoyment.

Cat's in the Doghouse

99 days left today, yay for being in double digits!!

So last night I decided to finish the last few spoonfuls of Cinnamon Buns ice cream (I didn't finish it last week, the sweetness started to get to me so I've decided to focus mainly on the chocolate varieties from here on out) after I got home from teaching. There were about 3 tablespoons left, so I ate them slowly and then got up to get a glass of water. What do I see when I turn around to head back to the living room?



Thankfully it was an empty carton. Bad kitty!

Weighty Matters

I've posted various snippets of my thoughts and feelings about weight gain over the last 20 something weeks, but I've never dedicated an entire post to the subject. Anyway, today on the Nest there has been a lot of discussion about weight gain, who's gaining how much, whether people are gaining too much or not enough or who now weighs more than their husband, and on and on and on. I find it so sad that our society places such an emphasis on thinness and equates being rail thin with being beautiful. Women get a raw deal in the size/weight/eating area, if you ask me, throughout pregnancy and life in general. There was a fascinating article on MSNBC last week about how when women eat together it almost becomes a competition to see who can eat the least amount of food. It starts with one, saying that she's only going to have a salad, and then the others follow suit, even if they were really craving french fries or something equally frowned upon by the diet police.

Even though I think we need to give ourselves a break, especially during pregnancy, I'm just as guilty as the next woman when I get that sinking feeling while watching the numbers on the scale flicker. I'm currently about 3 pounds away from a number that I never would be glad to see, and there's a good chance I'll be hitting another milestone before the next 14 weeks come to an end. Just because you're expecting it to happen doesn't make it any easier when it does. Does this make me a hypocrite because I have a pint of ice cream a week but still fear my weight going over a certain number? Maybe, but I'd like to think not because I'm still well within my normal weight gain range and I'm careful to eat fruits, veggies, and other healthy things throughout the day so I don't have to feel guilty about the 1/4 cup of ice cream I enjoy. It's just sad that we've been socialized to fear the numbers on the scale.

Unmotivated

I'm working full time, teaching a class, and taking a class, and between the beautiful weather we've been having during the week and the excitement of getting ready for Baby Charlie I'm finding it harder and harder to concentrate (or care, for that matter) on anything. Right now I'm supposed to be spending my lunch break reading "Discipline and Punish" by Foucault for tomorrow's class - I need to submit some discussion questions this evening - but I'm so distracted by the baby boards on The Nest and looking at fun websites of all things baby related. I'm still really excited about our diapering plan, more so than anyone reasonably should be about diapers! There were a few vendors selling the BG 3.0s at the Baby Expo this weekend, so I bought 2 blue ones because that color is always sold out online and Charlie would probably take issue with putting his son in a pink diaper. Anyway, they're really cute and tiny and I love playing with them. I also picked up a bottle of Eco-Friendly floor cleaner and a giant thing of detergent that's recommended for cloth diapers and baby stuff in general - it's called "Charlie's Soap." How great is that?!

From the Front Lines of Donut Day

There are both donuts AND bagels in our cafe today. Thank god for competent co-workers.

25 Weeks and Vermonty Python

25 Week Picture:



In terms of progress in Baby Charlie's room, we primed the walls yesterday and Charlie was nice enough to start the edging work while I visited the Baby Expo today. So far so good! Next weekend we'll finish it. The yellow room was the last ugly paint color from the previous owners that we were dying to get rid of. I'm glad we finally have an excuse to do it.

This week's ice cream? Vermonty Python.



Coffee liqueur ice cream with a chocolate cookie crumb swirl & fudge cows

We interrupt ourselves with much hooting through tin horns to bring you this brilliant new ice cream, made from dried shrubbery and old cereal packets. This is a ripping good flavor, really, so buy it quickly and run away, silly person, or we shall taunt you a second time.

I have to say that I was pretty disappointed in this one. I didn't think it was possible to find a Ben & Jerry's flavor that I wouldn't buy again, but it has actually happened. The coffee flavor isn't as intense as I was hoping, especially being a fan of Buzz Buzz Buzz. The fudge cows helped and the cookie crumb swirl added a nice textural contrast, but it really just left me wishing for a DQ ice cream cake without the ice cream - just the layer of fudgy chocolate crunchies that they stick in the middle, between the chocolate and vanilla ice cream.

Vermonty Python sadly does not earn the Original Bean stamp of approval :(

Every Once in a While

I wish I made this an anonymous blog so I could piss and moan about the not-so-niceties that go along with pregnancy. Unfortunately I know who reads this and I know most of you reeeeeeeally don't want to hear about it, but thank god for the Nest.

Another Donut Day Catastrophe

2 days later, but work has picked up quite a bit again and by the time I get home at night I have no desire to look at a computer for even a second longer.

The bagel confusion has happened again. Thankfully, this time it didn't bring me to tears, I was just extremely irritated. I know who it is now and some Nesties suggested that I drop not-so-subtle hints within earshot of this person how silly it is to bring bagels on Donut Tuesday.

It was absolutely gorgeous out yesterday and it's supposed to be nice again today, which gives me very little motivation to sit through my theory class. Luckily Baby Charlie has decided that it's more important to amuse his mother between 5:00 and 7:30 on Wednesdays than to sleep, so at least I have that to distract me from the theoretical drubble that my fellow sociologists discuss. Unfortunately I don't think he's sleeping anywhere even close to the 16 hours that the baby books say that they sleep at this point. I don't think I'm going to see an uninterrupted night of sleep until at least Christmas. That doesn't even take into account my own tossing and turning, there are just no comfortable positions left. It's going to be a looooong 16weeks. (that sounds familiar, I think I said something similar last week - amazing how every day I wake up feeling larger and larger)

I'm beginning to prepare for my prelim exams - PhD-wise, it's the last step before I write my dissertation. I'm petitioning our department head to let me take the new exam, a weekend take-home essay, rather than having to take the old crappy ones, two 8-hour-lock-you-in-an-office-with-no-resources-and-see-how-much-crap-you-can-remember exams. The take-home will be offered in September which means that I'd be able to start my dissertation proposal in October and still have a chance at meeting my self-imposed 2010 deadline of completion. Luckily I've seen enough women come through my program pregnant and with very young children, so I'm not worried about whether or not it can be done.

Along the topic of school and UC, this article was in the newspaper this morning:



The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden announced on Wednesday, April 16, that a 3-month-old binturong (bearcat) has returned for the first time since 2004. The bearcat has yet to be named.

"The University of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden have a long and rich history of collaboration," said UC President Nancy Zimpher. "Our relationship goes beyond just that of being neighbors."

"Alice," the former Zoo bearcat, regularly attended UC home football and basketball games for almost 13 years. Similar plans are anticipated for the new bearcat. The name is set to be announced on May 9.


Just thought I'd share for the other Bearcat fans out there! Can't wait to meet our little BearKitten!

Crib and Dresser

The crib and dresser were delivered on Saturday and after we did away with the freaking mountain of packing material they used to box them up we decided to put the crib together. I told Charlie we should have taken a picture of the packing material - it was truly a crime how much cardboard and styrofoam they used - we had 3 trash bags FULL of styrofoam and our garage is now full of cardboard to be recycled. Anyway, here they are:





We had another set picked out initially and the Saturday we went to BRU we were going to order it because another store in the same mall carried it. This was the shining moment in the trip through hell that was our visit to BRU. We happened to be there while they were setting up this display for the new crib they just started carrying and we decided that we liked it better than the original one we had picked out. Lucky enough, it was also cheaper :)

They're just hanging out in the middle of the room for now since we haven't painted the walls yet. They won't be that hideous yellow color for much longer, we settled on a nice light shade of blue. Hopefully we'll get that done this weekend, find a chair I like for the corner, and figure out where everything is going to go. Whee!

24 Weeks and Cinnamon Buns

24 Week Picture:



My belly button is much shallower at this point but because I'm a procrastinator I still haven't replaced my navel ring. Maybe next week. We did manage to get the guest bathroom painted and bought the primer and paint for Baby Charlie's room. Our crib and dresser were delivered yesterday so we cleaned out some more of the junk being stored in the Yellow Room and put the crib together. I really love the one we ended up buying, I'll add pictures later this week. The office is pretty much finished now, with the exception of my Joltin' Joe poster that's awaiting its frame. I've decided that my other two Yankees pictures will look just perfect in Baby Charlie's room :)

On to the ice cream of the week - this week it's Cinnamon Buns. My old buddy Alexis commented back on the first ice cream post ever (7 weeks ago, wow!) about this being her favorite flavor and since I've never tried it I thought I'd check it out for myself. Here's the description - "Caramel Ice Cream with Cinnamon Bun Dough & a Caramel Cinnamon Struesel Swirl."



I've decided that I really enjoy ice cream with dough chunks of all kinds; Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal, and now Cinnamon Buns. This one is interesting, the caramel ice cream works better that I think vanilla would. It's a very pretty swirl effect with the struesel in there, very shiny and colorful. It tastes exactly like what you would get if you made Cinnamon Toast (a favorite childhood snack of mine) into an ice cream. Should be a good week!

Literacy Training

We've begun a ritual of reading to Baby Charlie every Wednesday and Sunday evening. Charlie does the reading, I work on gestating.

So far we've made it through the following books:

Harold & The Purple Crayon
The Color Kittens
Guess How Much I Love You
Where the Wild Things Are
Oh Baby, The Places You'll Go
Marvin K Mooney

We still have One Fish Two Fish and Where the Sidewalk Ends, then we have to head to Half Price Books and get a few more of the classics. Based on his activity level during each reading it appears that Where the Wild Things Are is his current favorite. (That's just an observation, no statistical significance associated with it.) Hope that isn't a sign of things to come!

Floors and a Foot

As promised, here's a picture of our awesome new office floors. About time!




We still need to do some more organizing, then I'll post pictures of our IKEA treasures.

We had another ultrasound today because the little bugger slept through the big one a few weeks back and they didn't get enough pictures of his spinal cord. Baby Charlie is still a boy, everything still looks healthy and normal, and I got this cute picture of his little foot and toes. Can you see it? Probably not, but I'm not offended. The toes are on the left side. Does that help?



Here's one of his face, straight on.



We also got a better picture of the "boy parts" but I still can't figure out what's what so I won't bore you with a blob of nothingness. The u/s tech kept pointing things out and I just kept nodding my head and smiling. That's the bladder? Sure it is. Oh, those are kidneys? Whatever you say. He's over a pound now and definitely getting stronger by the day. While I'll never tire of him playing around in my uterus all day the cute little jabs have gotten much harder lately. Practicing for UFC training?

I also discovered this nifty little tool yesterday on the Ben & Jerry's website - a Flavor Locator. Looking for that hard to find flavor you've been craving? Simply select the desired flavor from the drop down menu, enter your zip code, and it will tell you exactly where to find it. I received some bad news when I went looking for my Dave Matthews Magic Brownie. I can drive 2 hours north to get a pint but that's as good as it gets. Thankfully it's all over the place in North Jersey, so I've added it to my list of Things I NEED To Do while I'm out there. (it's right under eating a piece of Linden Pizza)

23 Weeks and Phish Food

23 Week Picture:



Another busy weekend in our house, and another weekend where we didn't get any painting done but got a whole heck of a lot of other things done.

Baby Charlie went to his first baseball game on Saturday. The Cincinnati Reds beat the Phillies in dramatic ninth inning fashion. It was exciting, but it's really hard for me to care when it's not the Yankees. National League baseball is overrated.

We had the floors in our office installed last week, almost 2 years after the bathroom wall flooded. They look amazing and I'll post pictures tomorrow. I'm glad to be moving back in but the best part was getting about 90% of the crap out of Baby Charlie's room. We also got to take another trip to IKEA and that's always fun! Our crib and dresser should be delivered soon too, so things are moving right along.

Moving on to the ice cream. Kroger has suddenly stopped carrying a number of Ben & Jerry's flavors so I didn't have much to choose from. Guess it's time to switch stores. Anyway, I considered a few different flavors and decided on Phish Food.



"Chocolate Ice Cream with Gooey Marshmallow, a Caramel Swirl & Fudge Fish"

“Ben was our neighbor through the woods & we’re fond of ice cream. So we teamed up to create Phish Food®. Our share of proceeds from this pint sale goes toward environmental efforts in Vermont’s Lake Champlain Watershed. Enjoy!” — PHISH

There is definitely plenty of marshmallow in the pint I brought home, which is generally a great thing, but in this case the caramel seems overshadowed. I didn't really get any caramel flavor. The fudge fish also seem like they would be a nice touch, but they taste like they're made with bittersweet chocolate rather than semi-sweet and it gives it an odd flavor and aftertaste. That isn't to say that this is a bad flavor, just that there are better ones out there. I will probably buy this one again at some point, it would work to satisfy a specific chocolate craving. The one downside? I've been singing Farmhouse in my head all evening and it's definitely an earbug.

Never ever saw the northern lights
I never really heard of cluster-flies
I never ever saw the stars so bright
In the farmhouse things will be all right

I Made an Error

Of course the Yankees didn't play the Toledo Blue Jays. Must have had the T-Town Nesties on the brain :)

Thanks for astutely pointing that out, Angi-of-Toledo.

Baby Charlie Meets Mo

Baby Charlie enjoyed watching his first Yankee game on ESPN!



This was during the highlights of the opening day game that they actually won, shown right before last night's game that we lost in an awful fashion. You're killing us Moose!

Last night I also learned that Baby Charlie takes after his mother in one very important way - he is thoroughly bored by Sociological Theory. I started my last PhD course last night, the one I'd been dreading for years - Contemporary Sociological Theory. The period from 6-8 in the evening is one of his awake times, but he certainly slept through the entire class. Lucky him!

Update from 22 Week Appointment

Total weight gain: 11 pounds

Not bad at all. Since Baby Charlie was being lazy at our big 19 week ultrasound we have to go back next week to get more pictures of his spinal cord. They said that everything's fine, my AFP bloodwork came back normal, they just want more pictures for their records (and, I guess, as a CYA maneuver). At least we'll get to see him an extra time and get a few extra snapshots for the baby book. Hopefully he'll be awake for this one, it's a little earlier in the day. If not, I'll just have to make a quick stop at Dunkin for a large iced caramel latte so he won't have a choice in the matter. Any other suggestions?