26 Week Pregnancy Update (and other happenings)

I'm completely bored with the questionnaire I've been doing thus far! So my update for this last week of my 2nd trimester (woot!) is that it's getting more difficult to move around and I'm crazy out of breath. My stomach muscles are shot so there's a lot of rolling to sit up and get out of bed. :) 

Instead of the questions, I'll include the baby's growth progress courtesy of What To Expect. I actually miss reading these each week religiously! ;)

Your Baby in Week 26 of Pregnancy

He now weighs a full two pounds and measures nine-plus inches. And this week, his eyes, which until now were developing under fused eyelids, start to open. Of course, there's not much to see in there, but if your baby spots a bright light (or hears a loud noise) near your belly, you may notice an increase in fetal activity. What accounts for that response? His brain is more developed and sophisticated.

Feel like you're carrying the Karate Kid with all the kicking going on? Your baby is actually practicing all kinds of movements that will eventually be used in life on the outside — including pedaling against your belly, a sort of prewalking skill. As your baby's nervous system becomes more developed, the movements will become much more coordinated. 

My favorite moment: One morning, Grayson just "got it." He whispered, "Mommy...brothers?" as he put his hand on my belly. Melt my heart! There were definitely tears. I don't have the heart to tell him that "brothers" is only "brother." He probably thinks he's getting a litter ;)

This was when we got home last night from a night out. Still awake but still so sweet!

Maybe he really is paying attention to his new book?! Each page walks Grayson through what he can expect with the new baby. Complete with a picture of Grayson and some other personalized fun! I love having this for him!

At 26 weeks, Baby is the size of a head of lettuce!

Other updates:
I fell! I'm clumsy but not usually a faller. I missed a step, fell on my hip, my stuff went flyng and hurt my ankle. I was worried for the baby for a second but with his crazy-frequent and intense movements (no complaints here!), he has put my mind at ease ever since. :)

Grayson's being sick for a whole week and half completely threw me for a loop! I had no idea how much I had taken for granted having a healthy kid. We went through 3 tough, exhausting phases: cough/congestion, vomit and finally, diarrhea. The second phase resulted in a professional carpet cleaning, the housekeeper doing an extra-thorough job and me doing 10,000 loads of laundry and disinfesting everything a hundred times! All calm is restored in our house - I never want to go through that again! I know I will but I'm a total expert now. Until the next time. 

Grayson's teacher is simply amazing. Seriously. She texted me these 2 pictures of G's classmates to let us know that he was missed!

The board says "We miss you Grayson!"

First day back at school after being sick so we had to get a treat after! He could finally have ice cream again!

What else? Oh, this happened....

100% moved into his big boy room! The sleep transition was the final part and, like his other sleeping milestones, seems to be going just fine. Fingers crossed he keeps it up!

 This also happened....

Who takes a toddler to buy a tuxedo? We do. Thankfully they had basketball. This is the saddest game of 1-man basketball I've ever seen. ;) He's holding his own hoop. Ha. Don't worry, I moved in and held it for him!

Oh, and this happened.....

Yes, REALLY. We were enjoying a lovely dinner around my parents' table Friday night with Andrea and Rogan in town when we heard a loud bang. Sure enough, someone hit my car and didn't stop. I have lots of un-Christian thoughts about this and am still not in a good place with it. Mainly the $500 burden they put on us without any regard or common courtesy. It would just never occur to Beau or me to not stop. This inspires me to make sure our children are taught to do the right thing as well!

And finally....

I made STELLAR chili! I can say that b/c for years you've heard me talk about (seen me write about?) how terrible I am at cooking. I went with my mom's "Amazing Chili" recipe that has about 715 ingredients (including things like molasses and cocoa - whu??) but it was truly amazing. Which is good since I was financially invested in it after that shopping trip - ha! Love you Mama! And yo chili.

We have a new niece! And other not as cool things...

Fall is in the air and things are picking up with our schedules around here! A welcomed shift from the long, hot summer. My friend Alison writes beautifully about this in her blog entry titled, "Doing the Seasons." This term plays in my head a lot and I love it. :)

Most importantly though, we have a new niece!
Edi Jones was born Wednesday night weighing about 8 1/2 pounds, beautiful and healthy. All we can ask for! Beau's sister, Kara and Todd took Edi home on Friday and we went out to visit them on Saturday. She seems to be such an easy baby so far and slept most of the time we were there. :) 

Cousin Payton (Reyn's daughter) holding Edi. Now all 3 Reynolds kids have kids. :) 

The 3 Reynolds grandkids. Payton loved her some Edi. Grayson was more interested in playing with tools and bubbles outside.

Look. How. Cute.

Silhouette
My mom and I took Grayson to a silhouette artist at The Posh Petunia yesterday. This guy is incredible! Armed with just a black piece of paper and some really sharp scissors, he cuts these from scratch with absolutely no sketching or drawing and is finished in under 5 minutes. It's really cool to watch him work! He's from California and his work is offered in Restoration Hardware - Baby & Child (umm, for $160 and it's not even your kid! Shaa right, we paid $25 :) ). But cool nonetheless since I originally got the idea to do this from the Resto catalog in the first place! Total coincidence that it was the same guy. I really look forward to having the new baby's profile done since my vision is to have them hanging on each child's bedroom door facing each other :) Possibly the only perk to having their bedrooms so close to each other :)  

Eyelashes!

Week 3 of school
What a weight off my shoulders that this transition back to school has been so easy. Grayson kisses me goodbye and walks right into Ms. Jenny and the other kids, sits at the table and begins the morning's project. He seems so grown up to me when this happens. I'm still expecting last year's tears! Gosh that was hard. Also, the Director of the school greeted Grayson by name this morning. She's either really good at what she does or he has given her reason to know his name! Time will tell...

Lunching 
I feel really fortunate that I'm free to coffee and lunch with friends and fellow-organization members (more on that below.) Here are some recent favorites that I recommend: Butternut squash ravioli - It's like dessert! And only at Maggiano's for a limited time. Oh, and Lori and I split the huge chocolate cake. Pregnant girl heaven for both of us! Also, the sweet potato fries at both Breadwinners and Mooyah are awesome! Not sure why I had been doing regular fries all along. New places you should try: Chocolate Angel for lunching in Plano - but make a reso - amazing place! And for lighter/healthier, Cedars Wood Fire Grill in Frisco.  Last, I know everyone raves about the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbuck's but it's too perfumey-tasting to me! I ask for 1 or 1 1/2 less pumps than usual and it brings it down to manageable. I'm sure I'm the last to know but thought I'd share.

Hope Park
I have officially joined the team of volunteers for Hope Park, a first-of-its-kind development for children with special needs right here in Frisco. The kids have had a hand in designing it and there will be features that just don't exist in our parks thus far. It will be 100% funded by donations and sponsors so we have a big mountain to climb to reach the projected $750,000 it will take to build in early 2013. I'm helping with the marketing side of things (duh) and submitted my ideas for our next event last week. They were really well-received and I'm feeling so proud and happy to be a part of it all! More to come on that event, Pairing for the Park, a wine pairing in October!

Play dates and birthdays
Beau and our neighbor Scooter were rather spontaneous last Sunday and decided at 4:30pm that we should do margaritas and dinner at our house. I swear they weren't this fun when I wasn't pregnant and would have loved a margarita! The Asels emptied their pantry in about 15 minutes and we actually pulled off a really good meal! And Beau loves to get the outdoor speakers cranked up with a good game of corn hole so there's that. Overe all, a lot of fun.

How do you feed 8 people in a pinch? A grill, a boxed cake and A LOT of mac and cheese and beans!

Brayden turned 2 this past weekend and Martha and John had his party at one of our favorites, My Gym! We hadn't been back since our membership expired so it was fun to see Grayson go back. 

Brayden is far right in the plaid shorts. Happy Birthday, buddy!

Grayson (center) put his hands to his mouth when he was in suspense - thought that was pretty precious :)

MOPS
These girls are always doing something! Several times a week in addition to the regular meetings. I enjoyed a MNO with them last night and last Thursday. They also do a dinner during the week for those of us with traveling or coaching husbands. I do that with my play group too so it's nice to fill up those week nights with other activities besides showing up on my parents' doorstep - ha! :) 

What Grayson's been up to...

He's a creative scavenger!

Why are the turtles on top of each other? Uhhh, they're playing leap frog. Moving on....[I have got to become more knowledgable on random stuff]

Oral hygiene, y'all!

My Latest Trials in the Kitchen

Beau and I have made a couple of good meals recently and I thought I'd share. If you think for a second that I'm trying to have a foodie blog here, I will laugh at you laughing at me. :) I just love to know what my friends make on an average day so I thought I'd share some of ours...


We have done this first one many times and I finally took pictures. On my IPHONE. Nothing says "appetizing, bulbous raw pork" like iPhone pictures. But you get the drift....this one is on Beau's diet and pretty guilt free. Not to mention, delicious.


Mediterranean Stuffed Pork Loin
Courtesy of The Slow-Carb Cookbook (page 28)


INGREDIENTS: 
1–2 lbs pork tenderloin 
1 red pepper, finely chopped 
1–2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 
6 oz spinach 
1/4 cup chopped almonds 
Pitted kalamata olives (neither of likes olives so we don't use these)
Olive oil or butter for sautéing 
Optional: 1/4 cup crumbled Feta cheese (optional? Cheese is not optional)


ACTIVE COOKING TIME: 15-20 minutes
TOTAL TIME (START TO FINISH): 1 to 1 1/2 hours 
SERVINGS: 3-6
DIRECTIONS: 
1. Drizzle some olive oil or butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add red peppers 
and garlic to the pan. After a few minutes add the spinach and cook until it wilts. 
Remove from heat.
2. Butterfly cut the pork tenderloin (cut vertically down the middle until almost 
through, but not quite through the pork). Place saran-wrap over the butterflied 
pork and pound it as flat as you can without breaking through the pork (use a meat 
tenderizing hammer for best results). 
3. Once the pork is thin, add the ingredients from the pan on top of the pork, spreading 
it all over. Add the almonds, and optional feta cheese and olives.
4. Gently roll the pork into a tube/roll. If you are using a smaller pork loin, or were not 
able to pound it very thinly, you may just be folding the loin over rather than rolling it. 
In this case, securing the loin with toothpicks or kitchen twine will be necessary.
5. Drizzle the pork with olive oil and butter and bake at 375°F for about 40–60 minutes 
(depending on the size of the pork roll). When the pork is cooked to your liking, let it 
cool slightly and then slice.

Step 3 - We actually used too much stuffing this go round and the meat almost didn't meet back up. You can't have a stuffed anything if the sides don't meet! So, beware of your stuffing amounts.

Please refer to the "bulbous raw pork" comment above. Eww.

I think my favorite flavoring are the almonds and feta. Shocking, I know!

Next up, my first recipe from Crockin' Girls. You remember, these 3 girls from Texas had the digital world buzzing when their Facebook page for crock pot recipes (you know, the things that have been around pretty much since electricity) racked up over 1 million followers in like 3 days. Brands like Geico, American Airlines and Lexus don't even have that many "likes"! But I digress. So, I skimmed their recipes and the one titled "My Husband's Favorite" jumped out. Done! The comments were very favorable as well. And you have SIX very full, very satisfied Thumbs Up from the Reynolds! 


My Husband's Favorite
1 can golden mushroom soup
1/2 cup white cooking wine
1/4 cup butter
1 pkg of cream cheese
4 chicken breast
Cook on low for 5 hours.
Pour sauce over angel hair pasta

SO easy and SO good! But you really can't go wrong with butter and cream cheese! I served it with asparagus and garlic bread. Delish.

Side bar: I guess I should add this part since I opened my big mouth about their Facebook numbers. If you follow that link, you will see there are only TWO girls and now only 500K fans. One girl bailed early on and then they had to start over with a new page when Crock Pot threatened legal action against them for using their name on the original page. And FB doesn't allow a company to simply switch names with that kind of following. Probably a HUGE miss on Crock Pot's part since women haven't been this excited about crock pots since our moms were barefoot and 9 months pregnant with us but whatev. Oh, the DRAMA! You bet I was interested in all that! ;)


Fun Food for Kids
I got this idea off Pinterest since I have no desire to invent anything on my own with the internet at my fingertips. I tried to name it but YOU try coming up with a name with the words "weenie" and "noodle" and still sound kid-friendly. Go on, I dare you.

Thin pasta strung through turkey dogs. This part was a breeze and took only a few minutes.

I added cheese. Only b/c I add cheese to everything. Oh, and salt.

Success! But only in the beginning. It quickly became the world's most fun food. He started lasso-ing them over his head and never ate another bite. We will not be doing this one again until he's older. :)

Send me your recipes if they a) are easy and b) make me look like a hero in the kitchen! :)

Easy Breezy Chicken Finger Recipe

I cringe every time I pull out the frozen chicken tenders for Grayson's lunch. It isn't every day but about once a week I succumb to my laziness and heat up those little bad boys. 50 seconds - done. But I have no excuses for serving quick, easy "crap" to my child. I am fortunate to have the time to plan healthy meals and then to follow through and actually make them. But I just haven't been taking the time. I've been doing better with our family dinners on the weekends but not so much for Grayson's lunches throughout the week.


Parents Magazine posted an easy, breezy recipe for homemade chicken tenders and I had to give it a try. It's the most basic of recipes and you probably already make this at home but I had to share. They are tasty enough for adults as well, take just minutes to prepare and have to be better for you than frozen anything, right?

Chicken Fingers

Ingredients

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup Italian bread crumbs

1 egg

Olive oil (enough to keep chicken from burning)

Directions

Cut chicken breasts into strips and set aside. Beat egg in a large bowl. Place bread crumbs on flat plate. Coat chicken with egg and then transfer to bread crumbs. Heat olive oil in large skillet. Make sure oil is very hot. Slowly place the coated strips in oil until brown, turn over, brown other side. Remove from pan and lay chicken strips on paper towel to soak up any excess oil. Serve immediately.

Delicious, I tell you! :)

Green Monster

I recently learned about these Green Monster smoothies from my moms group. I think the creator of this site initially started it for her own energy boost but the smoothies quickly caught on with moms who are desperate to work veggies into their kids' diets. Since Grayson is no different and has zero interest in anything green (or orange or yellow),  I thought I'd try this route. I made our first smoothie this morning and Grayson seems to really like it! I probably need to start drinking them myself since I too have no interest in vegetables. And let's face it, I can use any energy boost I can get. 


I love that there are so many creative recipes! I tried the Banana-Blueberry recipe....you can't even taste the spinach :) 

Kids like the color :)

Oh, and masking it in a fun sippy cup doesn't hurt either.