Year in Review

I've seen this meme on a few other blogs, and really liked it. I cheated a little bit though, some of my first sentences were lame, so I went with the second instead.

January: Last night we were quite boring, and went over to some friends' house to play pinochle (It's a rough game!). So instead I'll tell you about my favorite New Year's Eve celebrations.

February: Not much news on the Phred front - although I did have my first OB appointment last week.

March: Had my 14 week appointment today (14w4d).

April: We had our "big" ultrasound today, and found out we're having a ..... baby!

May: One of the things that I did know might happen was the separation of my abdominal muscles.

June: I'm still contracting like it's going out of style (this is one uterus that damn well better be able to handle labor, with all the practice it's getting!)

July: My contractions have calmed down quite a bit - every now and again I'll get a bout of them, but they're never closer together than 10 minutes anymore, and for the most part they're an hour + apart.

August: As I mentioned, since reading "Natural birth the bradley way", I've also read a couple of other books on the topic of delivery, and more specifically, the things that your doctors don't necessarily tell you ("The thinking woman's guide to a better birth", and "The silent knife" about C-sections and VBAC.

September: I can't tell you all how much your support has meant to me - your good wishes and thoughts leading up to my c-section, and congratulations on Ant's birth have been so appreciated, even though I haven't been able to tell you so individually.

October: Here's [redacted] another pic of my babe, wearing a Polo outfit someone gave us.

November: I played in my first ice hockey game today.

December: I am in a pissy mood.

I hope that 2007 brings only good things to each and every one of you!

Virtual Cookie Exchange!

Thanks to Jenn for organizing this virtual cookie exchange. Fabulous idea!

Here is my absolute favorite cookie recipe. Apricot Spirals. What I love about them are the contrast in textures - the cookie itself is really soft and crumbles in your mouth; that is set off really well by the chewiness of the apricots. YUM! (Note, the original recipe was in cups, I translated into ounces and grams as that's how I prefer measuring ingredients)

Apricot Spirals

2/3c finely chopped dried apricots
1/2c water (4 oz, 125mL)
1/3c brown sugar (3 oz, 80g)

3/4c butter, softened (6 oz, 170g)
1c sugar (7 oz, 200g)
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 1/4c flour (9.5 oz, 275g)

Simmer apricots in water for 15 min then add brown sugar and lightly mash.  Put in the freezer to cool while you prepare the dough.

Beat butter for 30 seconds (use either hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment).  Add sugar and baking powder, beat until combined. Beat in egg.  Beat in flour.

Roll dough between two sheets of plastic wrap (it is very sticky, this is the only way to roll it) to a 16x12 rectangle.  Remove top layer of plastic wrap and spread cooled apricot filling almost all the way to the edges.  Roll from the long side, using the bottom piece of plastic wrap to form a tight roll.  Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until dough is hard.  Cut into 1/4in slices.  Bake for 9-11 min at 375.

All I want for Christmas...

It looks like Ant will have his two front teeth for Christmas! Poor little guy is not doing well with the whole teething thing. He barely slept at all yesterday, I was wondering what the heck was going on until I met up with my sis, and she pointed out "tooth bumps"! Tylenol last night got him to sleep (he was so exhausted he went down for the night at 5:30, 4-6 hours earlier than normal), but I don't want to give him too much of it. Although it's definitely worth doing at bedtime!

Any idea how long it will take to get from the "tooth bump" stage to them actually breaking through?

Pissy

I am in a pissy mood today. It started at around 1am when M came upstairs to get ready for bed, and turned on the monitor in our bedroom where I was sleeping. Rather than taking it with him (which is what I always do) he left it there, and I got woken up from a deep, sound sleep by Ant being fussy. Strike one.

Strike two - Work was annoying because I tried to change my network password in the middle of the day when I was prompted to upon logging in, and I've been having problems accessing the damn thing ever since. I was trying to do some work after I got home while the kid is sleeping, and I can't access anything. Grrrr.

Strike three: I called my FIL who was taking care of Ant today to let him know that I'd be home at around 3:30. Wouldn't you know, I arrive, and he had *just* started a bottle. I would SO much rather have fed him myself - instead I had to pump again. I said I would have liked him to hold off for a few minutes, FIL said he tried his best, and I could have been late. Yeah, well fucking call me and find out where I am!!!!!

Strike four (aren't we out by now??) - I left specific instructions with M this morning on the order in which the milk in the fridge was to be used, and they were totally ignored. So now we have to bottle feed Ant at least one more time today, or throw away 6 ounces of milk. Is it REALLY that difficult to use the bottles on the top first, then the milk in the bag, THEN the bottles on the bottom??? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Honestly I'm annoyed with myself too because I thought this morning that I should perhaps put numbers on the milk in the fridge to indicate the order in which it should be used, but decided not to because I was running a little late.

Hopefully the rest of the day will not add to my pissiness!!!