Cinnamon Rolls for Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!

Before being inverted

We are celebrating with some shapeless but yummy cinnamon rolls.

After being inverted

After being inverted and separated

While these buns are out of the oven, another bun has about 7 more weeks to go.

The New Fashion Trend: Desperation

Right now would be the perfect time for some maternity clothes, but you know I am stubborn.  And I love a challenge.  Between my general dislike of clothes shopping and my aversion to inefficiency of any kind, I just cannot bring myself to buy clothing that I would only need for 2 months.  Instead I pretend that I can be more creative and come up with other options.  I think to outsiders, my "creativity" looks more like desperation. 

32 weeks
Looking fashionable in one of my "t-shirt dresses"
that I wore a lot back in college

For example, a big t-shirt over one of my regular (now way too short) long sleeve shirts works well.  I do fear I am about to outgrow my medium size t-shirts.  I might have to raid Nick's t-shirt drawer.

Someone also gave me the idea of "t-shirt dresses".  So I dug up 2 dresses from our "to be donated" pile, and wore one of them to work--over one of my regular long sleeve shirts of course.  Fortunately, the dresses are so stretchy, that I might be able to wear them through the end of my pregnancy.  Unfortunately, they seem to emphasize the enormous size and disproportion of my body. 

What I Did Last Sunday

Yesterday, my first planned task was to "sandwich" the Marine/Whale quilt I have been working on.  I already had the top and backing made.  All I had to do was to iron the batting, and then layout and pin the three layers together.  Simple enough, right:?

This one task took me almost 6 hours!  And I was exhausted when I was done.

Top, batting and backing are now all pinned together,
and the quilt is ready to be quilted!

It turns out that it is hard work to crawl on the floor on all fours, constantly getting up, and going back down, with all the extra weight mainly concentrated in my abdomen.  I should not have been surprised.

31 Weeks

Last Friday, I tried to casually hop on a counter top (just like a kitchen counter) in conference room in a meeting at work, because all the chairs were taken.  I did not think twice about it, because I have done this many times.  I tried the "hopping" several times, before it dawned on me that given the extra weight and a change in my center of gravity, I am just not going to be able to do it.  Given that I hopped on the same counter only about a week and a half ago, made this failure even more shocking.

Baby Prep: Childbirth Class

On Saturday, Nick and I spent 6 hours learning about childbirth (first of two sessions).  Don't worry -- I have no intention of relating the details.  The class was good and useful, but I would not call it fun, or uplifting.  However, there was one aspect of it, which we both found entertaining (and it will probably come as no surprise to anyone) -- apparently there is a smart phone app out there for just about anything relating childbirth.  In fact there are so many, that the class instructor made recommendations as to which ones were better than others.  

Oh Pregnancy

A wanted pregnancy is a wonderful thing! 

You plan for it, you read about it, you join an online community of other newly pregnant women, and you think you know what to expect...  All of the knowledge acquisition and sharing is great, and it helps.  Still I seem to be unable to avoid dilemmas and or bizarre conversations--not something I expected, though not surprising either.

I obviously knew that when time came to have children, it would be me and not Nick who sends his body in for a hormonal spin and organ shifting.  (I refuse to even think about delivery just yet.) 

As if the physical gender differences were not enough in themselves, they tremendously contribute to the social issues, particularly at work.  Take the act of informing coworkers of the upcoming event, for example.  A male coworker with a pregnant wife has to inform the team of the impending joy just as much as a pregnant female coworker--so what is so unfair about this?  It turns out that the appropriate, or accepted, timeframe for the man is significantly wider than for a woman.  Theoretically (though I would not suggest this) a man can make the announcement as late as a month before the birth.  A woman could never pull that off. 

In all fairness, it is possible that in this case my many superstitions have exacerbated the problem.  I wanted to wait well into the 2nd trimester, before telling anyone about my condition.  When I was finally ready to tell, I could not schedule a proper meeting with my manager for awhile and then was away on vacation.  Growth apparently comes in bursts, and oh boy did I have a burst during our vacation.  Waiting another 5 days till my meeting became a creativity test for wearing loose, shape-concealing clothing (it turns out that I only own one presentable sweatshirt).  As I revealed the truth of my condition to some of my coworkers, I learned they have already been suspicious for some time--someone suggested that it was the shape (as opposed to size?) that gave me away.

Pregnancy seems like a very personal and a relatively private affair.  (I say "relatively" because 1) here I am writing about it in a public blog, and 2) I have reached the point where my body shape broadcasts my condition to any and all innocent bystanders.)  To avoid the communal rejoicing I decided not to announce my pregnancy in any meetings at work, as many people at my workplace do.  As a result, a lot of people I see on a daily basis did not realize I was pregnant until I started showing.  Some people have been interacting with me as if nothing happened, while others ask direct questions.  I am fine with either.  But not everyone falls into one of these groups.   

Last week, I had a conversation with a coworker, that went something like this:

Lady (blocking my way through the kitchen): Are you... ? [LONG pause]

me:  [LONG pause] Yes, I am.

Lady:  I  would never ask, except that with you it could not be anything else...

me:  [smile and nod]

Lady:  Do you know who it is?

me:  It's a boy. [Resisting the urge to say that it is definitely not a puppy]

Lady:  [Finally moving to unblock the kitchen]  I did a lot of nursing.  So if you have any questions about nursing, please come by and ask.

me:  Thank you very much.  I really appreciate it...

15 weeks (October)

24 weeks (December)

29 weeks (now)

Luckily I have been able mostly to avoid random people touching my stomach.  I attribute my luck to the time of the year--I spend a lot of time in my puffy down coat, which so far has been doing a good job of concealing my bulge.  

Recent Quilting Adventures

Back in 2009, I have finished my second ever quilt.  The workmanship of the "elephant quilt" was not too great, but it was my own design, and I was (and am) quite proud of it.

My finished Elephant Quilt (2009)

This past year, almost two years later, I tackled another quilt.  Rather than trying to come up with a design, I decided to follow instructions from  One Block Wonders: One Fabric, One Shape, One-of-a-Kind Quilts book by Maxine Rosenthal.  (Stay tuned for my review of the book.) 

Making the quilt went something like this:

 

I "shredded" 4 yards of fabric into 600+ unilateral triangles (648 triangles, to be precise). 

648 triangles (plus some scrap fabric)

In the course of the next two weeks I sewed the triangles into 100+ hexagons.  (Honestly, they were really half hexagons pinned in the middle.)

Hexagons

The next step was particularly entertaining--deciding how to arrange the hexagons.  This part was so much fun that even Nick got involved, and we spent several evenings arranging and rearranging the hexagons.  (In the end we have decided that the process is pretty much infinite.)

Hexagons

We were taking care of a tiny adorable and most rambunctious dog, Rascal, right when it was time for me to make the quilt "sandwich"--pin the backing, the filling and the top layers all together.  Rascal really wanted to participate.

Rascal is helping me with the quilt
(Don't worry--I washed the quilt when I finished it)

Then I decided that I just have to do "free motion" quilting on this quilt.  So I put together several flannel baby blankets to practice the technique on them.  In the end doing free motion quilting on the quilt turned out a bit easier because it was much stiffer than the baby blankets.

The quilt "stuffed" into my new machine!

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the finished quilt, because I finished it literally hours before gifting it to my friend.

Christmas Eve in Walla Walla

Christie is setting up the table for the Christmas Eve dinner

Parker House Rolls is a serious business out here in Walla Walla
I rolled out a triple batch, and Christie, the chef, provides direction on how to serve them

Sitting down for the Christmas Eve dinner
We did not have any "kid" tables this year,
but one long table set for 20 (counting little Ethan) instead

Little Ethan and Britney do a little after dinner dance

Relaxing after dinner
The measurements should be not in the number of rolls
I had for dinner (1), but in weeks (25 weeks)

Socializing and relaxing after dinner