Author: Amy

Paleo Progress

Posted on by Amy
We have been doing pretty well with our attempts to shift our eating habits to the Paleo diet.  Dinner has been easy.  We’ve eaten a Paleo friendly dinner every night for the past few weeks.  As I predicted, breakfast and lunch have been a bit more of a challenge.  In an attempt to get my girls to eat more Paleo friendly breakfasts and not spend a ton of time cooking in the mornings, I made these cheesy egg muffins using a recipe I found on a website my brother sent me.  Here’s the link to the recipe.  

I actually messed up the recipe because I doubled it, but forgot to double the amounts of any of the ingredients other than the eggs.  Duh.  They were still pretty good, but a bit dry for my taste.  I also used the same recipe (again, doubling only the eggs) to make another dozen egg muffins, but this time I used blueberries (I smashed them up a little bit when stirring them in) instead of cheese.  I thought my girls would be more likely to enjoy these, and I was right.  They were pretty good, though again, a touch dry for me.  I think next time I’ll skip the coconut flour, yogurt, and baking powder and make these more like mini frittata muffins, with just eggs, a little coconut milk, and whatever other ingredients I decide to add.

The girls did eat up the muffins, and they also enjoyed to smoothies I made to go with them.

My favorite smoothie recipe:

2 bananas
2 handfuls of blueberries
8-9 frozen peach slices
Approximately a cup of unsweetened coconut milk (I like So Delicious brand, it comes in a carton like milk, rather than in a can)
Blend.
Drink.
I half this recipe for a 3-year-old-sized smoothie.

So, we’ve had some success with breakfasts.  I also made these pancakes last weekend.  The girls loved them.  There were enough leftover for a quick breakfast on a school morning, but I think next time I’ll at least double the recipe and then have some to refrigerate and freeze.

Unfortunately, though I had plans for sausage, hard-boiled eggs and fruit, and a few other good breakfasts, Miss has been asking every morning since the pancakes have been gone for oatmeal.  I guess I just have to let the oatmeal run out and then get back into the good stuff.

Lunch has been similar.  We’ve had good days (chicken and corn today, ham and fruit the other day, etc) and not so good (PB&J, mac and cheese for a play date).  Surprisingly, I have learned that Miss really likes to eat “sandwiches” wrapped in lettuce.

This from the girl who really won’t eat a sandwich otherwise, unless the bread is stuck together by it’s contents (PB&J, grilled cheese).  If it’s not, she just takes it apart and eats each component separately, so we don’t do ham or turkey sandwiches here.  Unless they are wrapped in lettuce now.  I guess her lack of interest in bread sandwiches has turned out to be a good thing, since I don’t have to try to get her out of the habit of eating bread so much.

We’ve done well with snacks, mostly eating different types of fresh and dried fruit, and Miss has discovered a love for cashews.  We have only resorted to bunny crackers once or twice when at the store during snack time.
I even developed my own yummy recipe for Paleo friendly hash, which we had for dinner last night.
I had some huge daikon radishes that I thought would substitute nicely for the potatoes in a hash, so I chopped one of them up into pretty small cubes (about a quarter inch to half inch square), browned it up with some onion and combined it with some browned ground venison. 

And it worked!  The hash was very yummy.  My husband even said it reminded him of the yummy greasy corned beef hash breakfast he used to get at the hospital where he used to work and has craved since.  I’ll take that as a compliment, since the result of my efforts was actually not greasy at all.

Here’s the “recipe,” though I’ll warn you in advance it’s not terribly precise with measurements.
Paleo Daikon Radish Hash
One huge daikon radish, chopped into 1/4 to 1/2-inch cubes (it probably ended up being about 3-4 cups once chopped, if you’re using several smaller radishes. I included the photos above, so you could kind of see how much).
One pound ground venison or beef
One medium yellow onion, chopped
Low sodium chicken broth (about 1 cup)
2 Tbsp butter
S&P to taste
Brown your meat.  Remove it to a bowl but leave the fat behind.  The venison had very little fat, so if you are using beef you might need to drain some of this off.  I probably had about 2 Tbsp of fat left in the pan.  Add the radish and onion, along with about 1/2 tsp kosher salt.  Stir to coat with fat, add the butter, then cover and let soften.  After a bit I thought it started to look a bit dry, so I added about 1/2 cup of low-sodium chicken broth.  When the veggies start to soften, take the cover off and stir frequently until they begin to brown (you should have the pan on medium high or hotter).  It took about 20-30 minutes for things to get softened up enough and begin to brown (this might go faster if the lid of your pan has a good seal to keep in the steam, mine doesn’t).  Add the meat back into the pan along with another 1/2 cup or so of chicken broth.  Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the radish and onion are soft and nicely browned.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

It was a great warm comfort-food dinner on a super cold night.

And speaking of super cold, I have not really been all that interested in taking the girls out for the past few days because it has just been so cold here.  Today it snowed as well, so we had a stay-in-the-house-and-in-our-jammies day.  It was nice, though I did start to feel a little bit cooped up after two days of not going anywhere.  I felt the need to spice things up a bit, so I brought out the play-dough.

I’ll be honest and just say that I really hate play-dough.  It’s just messy and I find it annoying.  What can I say?  It’s not the most frequent activity in our house.  Okay, it’s a very, very infrequent activity in our house.  But, that makes my girls love it all the more!!

 This was her very special creation – A fish!  She said she made it for Grandma.

And I’ll be honest, now that we have this little plastic picnic table that I can easily bring into the kitchen for them to play on, the play-dough really wasn’t that bad.  In fact, I could see us doing it a bit more often.  Maybe.  The girls loved it, so that made it worth it.

The girls also got creative with their dry erase crayons.  These things are awesome, BTW.  A friend of mine found these for her kids and got some for us too when she learned of my lack of enthusiasm for dry erase markers with a 17-month-old.  These are so easy to wipe off most surfaces and they don’t rub off nearly as easily as markers, so if you brush against the board you don’t wind up with crayon all over yourself.  But, they do clean up relatively easily with a wet cloth.

Miss kept asking me what I wanted her to draw with her blue (her favorite color).

This is the look she gave me when I asked her to draw a square.  She said, “I already drawed a square Mama.”

Well then.

It’s supposed to warm up a bit this weekend so we’ll be venturing out some.  Stay warm!

$1

Posted on by Amy
$1 can buy some great stuff.  A friend of mine told me about these little drums that hang around kids’ necks in the $1 section at Target.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love the $1 section at Target?  Well, I love it.  A lot.  Today I had to pick up a few things at this wonderful store, so I checked the $1 section for drums on strings.  My friend said her kids loved them.  Lo and behold.

These simple little drums led to hours of fun today.  They prompted a pre-nap jam session/dance party, where both of my girls played their drums, Miss sang (her version of the Snow White song, “I’m wishing, I’m wishing, today, today.”) and we all danced.

I also bought $1 star-shaped tambourines and $1 maracas for each of the girls, but the drums were by far the favorite.

After dinner the girls showed off their drumming talents to their Daddy.  Miss in particular was really enjoying keeping the beat.  She got very excited that we could all play music together, and repeatedly asked, “Should we all play music together?”  Daddy played his guitar, I played a tambourine, Miss played her drum.  Lass lost interest in her drum after a little while and instead just danced along, wearing a tutu and sunglasses of course.  We played fast.  We played slow.  Miss practiced keeping the beat.  We sang.  We laughed.  These little $1 drums brought so much joy today.  And I’m not even talking about my girls’ enjoyment of them, which was substantial (before bed Miss asked if she could play with her drum again when she wakes up). I’m talking about me.  I had so many moments of, “Wow, look at how awesome these girls are” and “I’m having such a blast” and “I will never forget this” as a result of buying these $1 drums.  Who knew?  Talk about a cure for cabin fever.  These $1 drums, and the fun they brought to our house today, are priceless.

For the Love of Books

Posted on by Amy

 I am an avid reader.  This is not news to anyone who has read this blog regularly.  I love to read.  I read to my girls a lot.  And I really love this:

Ever since we watched the movie Snow White at my parents’ house last month, Miss has really been into reading her Snow White Little Golden Book.  I have read it to her so many times she knows it by heart.  Literally.  She knows every word of the story.  She says words like “envious” and “penalty” and uses adorable inflection to make the voices of Grumpy and the wicked queen.  She reads the book to her Oopsy Bear.  She reads it to her sister.  Okay, she tries to read it to her sister.  Little sister usually doesn’t listen all the way through.  She likes to do her own thing.  Miss isn’t the only one who likes to read.

Lass has her own favorite books that she looks through or requests to have (insists on having) read to her over and over and over.  When the book it done she’ll flip it back to the beginning and say “bee-ee,” which is her way of saying “please.”

Both girls ask to have various books read to them frequently throughout the day.  I spend a lot of time reading to them, and it makes me incredibly happy that they love books so much.  I think they get sick of hearing my voice reading the books though.  If I’m reading a book to her when her Daddy gets home, as was the case tonight, Lass promptly grabs the book and takes it to him to read to her.  I could say this hurts my feelings, but after reading the same book five times in a row, it really doesn’t.

Last week we went to a play date.  Miss spent most of the time “reading” the books of our little hostess.  She grabbed one of the girl’s stuffed animals, sat it on her lap, and proceeded to tell the stories in the books she found as she saw them based on the pictures.

She has typically had a little village of stuffed “friends” in her bed when she goes to sleep.  However, recently it has been more important to her to have her books in bed with her.  Yesterday I asked her if we could clear out some of the many stuffed toys in her bed.  She said, “sure.”  The only things she insisted on keeping were her Care Bears and her books.  She has at least 10 books in her bed right now.  As I’ve been typing this post, I’ve been listening to her “read” these books to her bears.  It makes me smile.  She does this every night and at nap time (if she’s not reading she’s singing loudly).  When she’s ready to sleep, she will lay down the book she’s reading, saving her place by keeping it open but face down, and do just that.

I don’t know how much of my girls’ love of books is hereditary and how much of it is just the result of my frequent reading to them.  I guess I don’t really care.  It just warms my heart to see how they enjoy hearing stories or learning from books.  When we read we use funny voices or make funny faces.  We do lots of question and answer with the picture books and other more educational ones.  We comment on, ask questions about or laugh about what characters are doing or thinking or feeling.  It is amazing to me to watch their little minds grow and imaginations stretch through reading books.  I have so many wonderful books I’m eager to share with them when they get a little older.  The Little House on the Prairie series.  The Anne of Green Gables series.  Little Women.  And so on. I hope my girls never lose their love of books and passion for learning.

Cozy

Posted on by Amy
We’re being home bodies this weekend.

I love the weekends when we are all home together.  We did get snow the other day, so we’re feeling extra warm and cozy, mostly just staying in and having fun.

Daddy is making fire and sharing milk-froth-topped tea, dancing and tickling, playing monster and reading books.

Speaking of reading books, I have two book clubs this week and just started reading the first (600+ page) book on Wednesday.  I managed to finish it tonight, and have one more book to get through by Thursday.  So I’m making this a quickie tonight.  Happy weekend!

Winter Finally?

Posted on by Amy
We have had the most wonderful weather so far this winter.  So far the temps have been mild.  In the past week most days have been at least in the 40s.  Today was around 50 degrees!  So far we have had very little snow.  Not even enough to cover the grass yet.  
Naturally with such beautiful weather, we pushed nap time back today and played outside after lunch.

Who would miss out on this for nap time?

We can sleep plenty tomorrow.  Notice I stressed above that the weather has been great so far?  Well, it’s supposed to get cold tonight and start to snow.  I think we’re predicted to get 3-5 inches tomorrow.  Honestly, around here in January, that’s not really that much.  But we probably won’t be doing this for a little while:

I’m sure the girls will also enjoy finally getting to play in some snow.  But they’ll be so bundled, the crazy carefree running and playing of today might be slightly less unencumbered.

This will probably especially be the case for Lass, whose little body will be back in “I-can’t-move-my-arms!”status with her snow pants and heavier coat.  The girls are quite interested in the snow though, so I’m sure they’ll enjoy it when it comes.  Somehow we still have a few small patches of the white stuff  that have survived the warm weather.  Of course the girls went right to them.

“It’s cold!”

We’ll still try to get out and have lots of fun in the snow when it comes.  I’m kind of looking forward to snow angels and snow men and Daddy pulling the girls around on their little sled.  Kind of.  I’m stocked up on hot chocolate and soup, and The Daddy has been building some fabulous fires in our fireplace on the weekends.  So bring on the snow.  It can be winter finally.  We’re ready.

Going Primal

Posted on by Amy
I have set a goal for myself and my family for the next few months.  In that time, I plan to transition our food consumption nearly entirely to a paleo style of eating.  All that means is that we will be eating the types of things that could have been available to our long-ago hunter-gatherer ancestors.  Meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts and things made form these (i.e. coconut oil, almond flour, etc.).  No processed stuff.  We had gotten pretty good at eating only “real food” a few years ago after I read Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food.”  But over time, some old habits have returned and the desire for convenience has led me to rely on some easy foods that don’t quite fit into the “real food” ideal, and certainly not into the paleo plan.  In general, we do eat pretty well and stick mostly to relatively unprocessed foods.  But I have gotten back into eating pasta and bread and cereal, when once I had stopped buying and using these foods.  It has been easier to make quick cereal or oatmeal for my hungry girls in the morning, rather than cooking eggs and/or bacon or something similar.  My girls do love their breakfast “O’s.”

And for a long time I was pretty good about making lunches of various types of meat, cheese, and fruit or veggie.  But my kids started to get sick of lunch meat and chicken, and rather than spend the time getting more creative, I have begun to rely on PB&J or mac and cheese a few times a week.  These girls will chow some mac and cheese.

Snacks are usually fruit or yogurt, though when we run out or if I’m out somewhere with the girls, I usually rely on the always-loved bunny crackers.

Though it takes some planning and a few changes to some of the ways we have been eating lately, doing dinner in the primal way is pretty easy.  Meat and vegetables.  Done.  Cut out bread, legumes, cheese.  I can do that (cheese is hard, but manageable).  The hardest part, and what I really need to put some effort into will be breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  Bottom line is, I need to get more ideas and start using them.  I can make scrambled eggs in the morning, and Lass ate them up this morning along with some fruit, but Miss isn’t a huge egg eater and I know they will get sick of scrambled eggs and hard-boiled eggs.  I have come across some recipes for paleo-friendly pancakes (Oh how I love thee Pinterest), using almond flour or butternut squash.  So I’ll definitely try those too.  I have some plans for lunches and snacks as well.

Today I grocery shopped and almost everything I bought was a vegetable or fruit.  I got some meat (though not a lot as we have a freezer full of venison), some nuts and a few spices, etc.  I did buy some non-paleo friendly items, like a couple of boxes of mac and cheese and some peanut butter and jelly (in case of a melting-down-at-lunch-time emergency!).  I feel good about trying to feed my family in a more healthy way.  That has always been my goal, and even now I think I do a pretty good job of it.  I just want to challenge myself to do better.  The past week we have eaten only paleo-friendly dinners, at least, so I’m making progress.

Eating a paleo diet seems to have lots of benefits.  I’ve read about it, but have also seen it at work in my brother.  If you want more information about what a “paleo” diet really consists of or why it is a good thing, you can check out the website of Robb Wolf, who seems to be the paleo guru, or that of Sara Fragoso, who has lots of recipes on her blog and whose cookbook “Everyday Paleo” is great.  I’ve also found lots of good recipes by searching “paleo food” or “paleo recipes” on Pinterest (which is my newly-found crazy addiction, by the way!!).  This way of eating just makes sense to me, so we’re going for it.  Though I’m not giving up milk.  That’s just asking too much.
 

Membership Has its Privileges

Posted on by Amy
For months now, I have been saying that I want to rejoin the YMCA.  My husband and I were members when we first moved here, because we lived in a rental house and didn’t have a good place to exercise at home.  When we bought our current house, we set up a nice garage gym area and let our Y membership lapse.  Miss was too tiny to do any activities there and we could exercise at home, so we let it go. BUT, now Miss is bigger.  She’s old enough to start getting into some of the little classes they have at the Y and I really need to keep up with swimming lessons for both of the girls. There are so many good activities for families at the Y.  Plus, there isn’t a whole lot else to do indoors in our town during the winter.  So, this week I finally got myself in gear and went to the Y to renew our family membership.  We started taking advantage of it yesterday by going to “Wiggles and Giggles.”  Our Y has an indoor soccer field, and they open it up twice a week in the mornings for little ones to come and play.  They pull out ride-on toys, balls, big mats, and various other things for the kids to enjoy.  Not to mention there’s lots of room to run.  The girls had a blast.
 (Quick snack break)
 
I’m so glad we joined.  The girls ran and danced and got to blow off some steam.  And we met some other moms and kids there, so I got to visit with some grown ups.
And speaking of visiting with grown ups, my husband and I had a great date night last night.  We went to a new sushi place, and it was pretty good.  Of course the best part was just being able to hang out and chat with my hubby.  Before dinner we went to Miss’s school and met with her teachers for our little parent-teacher conference.

It was great to hear all about what she has been doing in school and to see how thorough they are in their assessments of her.  And it was pretty cool to hear someone else describe her spot-on and know how much time and attention she must get there for them to be able to really “get” her so well.  I loved when they told me how much she likes to sing at the top of her lungs and to shake it when they dance.

No one needs to tell me how much my girls love to dance and that they’ve got some moves.

Miss got new ballet shoes yesterday.  The ones I got her for her Halloween costume had cut into her little heels and one shoe had totally split on the side from being worn so much, so I told her she couldn’t wear those anymore.  She was so upset and asked repeatedly for them for several days.  When I pulled out the new shoes yesterday, I was relieved to find that she loves these just as much even though they’re a different style.  She immediately asked, “Momma, can you play some music so I can ballet dance?” So I did. The Cure.

I got a question in a comment about organizing photos, related to my last post about taking at least one photo a day.  Unfortunately, I’m not really great about organizing my photos.  Mostly I just dump them into iPhoto.  I do “flag” my favorites when I’m going through and editing them, which is how I select the pics I’m going to upload to a blog post or use for something else.  Just in the past few days with the start of this new project I have begun putting photos into folders by month, so I will have a little bit better organization of them that way.  I also have set a goal to start deleting photos a little bit more so I won’t have such an overwhelming mass of pictures.  And few years ago I set a goal to make photo books for each of my girls for each year of their lives.  Unfortunately, I’ve only completed Miss’s first year book.  So making the rest of the books needs to become a priority, and I’m hoping to get my photos more organized that way too.  I will make folders for each girl, each year in my iPhoto in addition to making the books.  That’s it.  I don’t have a great system yet.  Anyone else have a good way of organizing digital photos?

The 365-Photo Project

Posted on by Amy
I like to read a blog called I Heart Faces.  It’s a photography blog, and often they have very cool tips or ideas.  One thing I read about on Sunday was the 365-Photo Project.  The (fairly obvious from the title) “project” is to set a goal to take at least one photo every day for a year.  I love this idea, and decided I am going to do it this year, and every year from now on.  What a great way to document all the moments, big and small, of my girls’ lives. 
So far, I’ve gotten some very fun photos.  Sunday morning, Lass woke up really early.  We got to spend a little time playing, just the two of us.  And I got to kick off my new project with these super cute photos of her in her sister’s new play apron, “cooking.”

As a side note, Lass has recently started wanting to take her jammies or clothes off all the time.  So, there may be a lot of pics in the near future of her in just a onesie.  Or more likely, a onesie with some sort of dress up apparel over it.

Yesterday, I got this photo of the girls as they were playing and waiting for some friends to come over for a play date.

And today, my big girl was happy to ham it up for me when I asked her to show off her “Go Blue” shirt after school (big bowl game tonight, after all).

I love this face.

She really wanted a photo in this pose.

And of course, my other beautiful one, crazy hair and all (she pulled out her spout pony this morning).

Here’s to a year of great photos of my girls.

Like It’s 1999

Posted on by Amy
Yes, we do love to party around here.  The girls have been really rocking the dress up and dancing lately.

So today, we got dressed up (even Daddy!) and had our special New Year’s Eve party.

The girls got a few minutes to practice with our noise makers.

Then we did our countdown, yelled “Happy New Year!!” and went to town with the noise makers.

Who cares that it was only 7 pm?

They sure didn’t.

We even finished off the party having a “toast” with our special “party drink” in fancy glasses.

The drink was sparkling cranberry juice.  The girls weren’t really sure if they liked it.  Miss kept taking little sips and smiling, but then saying, “It’s too spicy!”  I think they mostly liked the fancy glasses and having something different.

They thought it was all a pretty big deal.  Happy New Year!  I’m looking forward to all that 2012 has in store for us.

On Being Pregnant

Posted on by Amy
Being pregnant is really an awesome experience.  There’s no real way to explain how cool it is when you feel a little baby kicking in your belly and then get to see pictures of her like this:

Awesome is really the best word to describe it.

Little Sis seems to be growing well so far.  She’s breech for now, just like her big sister Lass was, but I’m hoping she’ll get herself facing the right way more quickly and easily than Lass did.  We’ve entered the third trimester and all is going well.  I’m fairly enormous, but that’s okay.

I’m used to being enormous.  That’s just how I carry a pregnancy I guess.  All way out in front.  It’s not uncommon for me to look more pregnant at 6 months than many other people do when they deliver.  It’s no biggie.  It’s just the way I work.  It is funny though, as wonderful as pregnancy is, it also is an odd experience in terms of how it changes the way people treat you.  Of course there are always the ubiquitous “How have you been feeling?” “How far along are you?” and “Everything is going well, I hope?” questions and comments from friends and strangers alike.  People tend to be concerned with and interested in pregnant women, and this interest is very well-meaning, kind, and harmless.

However, there are times when I swear I must be wearing a sign on my forehead that says, “Hi, I’m Amy.  I’m pregnant.  Feel free to ask me very personal questions about my personal choices and bodily functions, tell me your worst labor and delivery horror stories, comment on how huge or small you think my belly is according to your idea of what size I should be, and/or give me unsolicited advice.  And sure, go ahead and rub my belly while you’re at it.”  Seriously.  Anyone with me here?  Here is just a small sample of some of the things that have been said to me or to others I know:

“Geez!  Did you mean to have them that close together???” – Said to me in a somewhat snide tone by a nurse practitioner after she asked me about my children’s ages during an office visit.

“Oh my gosh!  You gained 10 pounds in a month?!?!  Wow, that’s a lot.” – Said to me by a medical assistant after taking my weight during a routine doctor’s appointment when I was pregnant with Miss (I then heard her whispering to my doctor outside the door about how terrible my weight gain was.  To her credit, my doc never said a word to me about it).

“Wow, my daughter-in-law is at the hospital today delivering twins, and you’re as big as she is!!!” – Said to a friend of mine when she was about 6-7 months pregnant.

“You still have three months to go??  Wow, you look like you’re ready to pop now!” – Said to me this past weekend.

“Are you sure you don’t have gestational diabetes?  I had that, and you look like you do.” – Said to a friend of mine.

“You’d better be planning to breastfeed that baby.” – Said to me by a total stranger in the grocery store when I was pregnant with Miss.

And my personal favorite:
“One on board and another in the oven???  Um, you do know how that happens, right?” – Said to me by a total stranger when I was pregnant with Lass and carrying Miss in a sling above my belly.  I have to say though, this wasn’t as bad as my friend who heard, “You do know how that happens, right?” from an OB/GYN resident doctor while she was in labor with her third child.

And then there’s the belly rubbing.  I hardly ever get belly rubs from people I am close to, but those belly rubs don’t bother me anyway.  It’s the people who are strangers or acquaintances who don’t just rub or pat the belly but kind of, well stroke it, for lack of a better description.  I mean, that’s weird, right?  Fortunately this has only happened to me twice.  Once by a friend of a friend, who started rubbing my belly right after she was introduced to me.  And then another time by an acquaintance who noticed I was pregnant very early on with Sis and started rubbing my relatively small belly as she commented about how exciting it was that I’m pregnant again.  This is not only weird, but risky too, don’t you think?  We hadn’t really announced that we were expecting, and I wasn’t that big yet.  What if I was just gaining weight?  Very risky.  And weird.

Now, I know that for the most part the people who make odd and sometimes inappropriate comments to pregnant women are probably not trying to be offensive.  And usually I’m not even really offended by the comments (except the weight one, that one had me in tears).  I just think they’re kind of funny and like a little puzzling social phenomenon – The “say anything” and “touch freely” policies that often seem to surround a pregnant woman.  I’m not the only person who has experienced this, and I’ve had many laughs with friends about the crazy things people will say to a pregnant woman.  I think people mostly are just interested in pregnancy and want to or feel like they should say something to a pregnant lady to show their interest.  Maybe.  It truly doesn’t matter much anyway, as it’s such a tiny part of the nine-month wonder of pregnancy.  But it does make me chuckle a little.  I love being pregnant.