I saw my OBGYN today. She said that although I am not yet dilated, my cervix is thin enough that she can stretch me out a little. She thinks that Master Blaster will arrive this weekend! Yikes!

I had T take belly pics. The ones on the left are from last week and the ones on the right were taken a few minutes ago.

He just needs to stay put for a few more days. Thursday is moving day!

I’m still pregnant. This pic was taken on July 20. I love the shirt that T picked out for me. I accidentally ordered a large… should have stuck to a small. The shirt is very long and stretchy. I’ll keep wearing it anyway coz its cute.

Went to the doctor yesterday for my weekly check-up. I gained 2 lbs since the 7/11, which made my doc happy. Blood pressure was okay and the baby’s heart rate was on the 140s. She said the baby is in position, but I haven’t had any contractions so if he doesn’t come out this week, I see my doctor again next Tuesday.

He still does not have a name.  I had some names picked out, but they just don’t sound right.  Naming boys is hard!  Boy names are so boring.

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We have evidence of the sippy cup use!

She has even deemed the red and blue sippy cups worthy of being used!  :)  That’s a very good thing since Walgreens was out of the pink and lavender cups.  LOL.

Grandma is here and Ayame has her wrapped around her finger, and she knows it.  She is now doing the “I’m going to cry and cry because I know Grandma will come get me if I keep crying” routine.

Not to long ago, we decided to try Bagels by Us in Arlington.  YUMMY!  I love, love, love their bacon, egg and cheese bagel sandwiches.  The eggs are cooked right and the bacon is always crispy.  Their signs say, “featuring H&H Bagels” so I asked the lady at the take out counter if they use the H& H recipe.  She said that the bagels are boiled in NYC and delivered daily to them.  They just bake and serve.  These bagels are to die for.

I’m so glad to have access to H&H Bagels again.  When I was still working in the upper west side, I was a block away from work and I would grab a bagel with butter there and my coffee from another place (I am picky about my coffee).

Anyway, try them out if you’re in the area.  They are open everyday until 2 pm.  They are at the corner of Mass Ave and Mill St.

Ayame is now drinking out of her sippy cup with less fuss! She even lets us watch her drink now. Yay big girl! The only issue is she will only drink out of the pink Nuby cup. She doesn’t like any of the other cups I got. Anyway, I was at Walgreens early today to pick up some iron supplements when I saw a pack of 1 pink and 1 lavender Nuby cup look-a-like (brand is Wagi) for $3.00! What a deal! I bought a pack and immediately washed the pink one as soon as I got home. Guess what? Baby now drinks from the pink Wagi cup. Yay! So I’m thinking the Nuby cup will be for milk, the pink Wagi cup will be for juice and the lavender one will be for water. She has a blue cup and a red cup that look similar to the Nuby, but she won’t even go near those. Baby just likes pink.

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I will see my doctor on Tuesday instead of today. Its tough having just one car. T has to be at work today, but he will be working from home on Tuesday. Good thing the doctor was flexible and understood. She did tell me that my bloodwork came back and I am slightly anemic. I have to take iron supplements and eat more red meat. Its time for some steak!

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My mom will arrive on Monday morning.  So I just need to stay pregnant until Tuesday, the 22nd and everything will be fine.  Please, please MB, don’t try to come out until Grandma gets here.

I’m getting another chocolate cake craving.  I’m also craving salty things.  All I want to eat are chips and cherry Coke.  I’m sure that’s healthy!  ;)  The hip pains are still there when I try to get out of bed, but they are not bad.  I definitely do not miss the regular Charlie Horse I used to get when I was pregnant with Ayame.  Those were horrible.  I guess the only thing that’s really bothering me with this pregnancy is the memory loss.  It is just beyond ridiculous now.  I forget things I shouldn’t forget.  I’m forgetting so much I’m starting to annoy myself.  I hope all brain functions return to normal as soon as I give birth.

I got to see Master Blaster this morning.  :)  The ultrasound went really well.  He was calm all morning and decided to show off for the tech.  My belly was completely still, he was all calm, then he decides to push on the thingy the tech was holding!  LOL.  It was so weird.  I saw his fist move in the monitor, then I felt my belly move, then the tech gasped.  He took her by surprise that she almost dropped the thingy (I have no idea what its called).  After that, he just kept moving and moving.  She said I had lots of fluid, which was good, but MB kept moving that she couldn’t get a clear shot of the “pockets” so that they can measure how much fluid I had.  He finally sat still for a moment and the tech got the measurements.  She also said that MB was approximately 6 lbs 8 oz and that he can potentially gain up to half a pound per week.  Yikes!

Anyway, here’s my little guy’s lovely face:  You can click on the thumbnail to see a bigger pic.

Ayame drank her bed time milk OUT OF HER SIPPY CUP!!!  I am such a proud mommy right now.  She finally drank out of her Nuby sippy cup which I got at Stop N Shop.  The logical thing to do would be to go and buy more, right?  Right.  Except, the closest Stop N Shop is of course closed for renovations.  Perfect timing.

Oh well.  Who cares?  I’ll just keep washing the cup! 

Tomorrow I get to see Master Blaster.  :)  Happy day.  I’m so excited.  I hope I get to have pictures.  I didn’t get any pictures last time.  I’m really curious to see how big he’s gotten.   Ayame was 6 lbs 2 oz when she was born, so I hope he’s around that size.

The hormones were in full swing over the weekend.  Translation, I was super bitch.  :(  I was fortunate enough not to go through PPD after I had Ayame.  I really do not want to go through that.  Today seems a lot better though I’m not sure how that’s possible.  I feel so tired and I barely slept.  I kept waking up to pee and then Ayame woke up several times as well because she has two bottom teeth coming out.  Poor baby.  Poor Mommy.  At least I got to nap.

Noreen - I’m due on Aug 5th.

I saw my doctor today.  I only gained half a pound since I last saw her.  She wasn’t thrilled, but she understood that I’m small and I’m carrying small.  She wants me to go for an ultrasound next week so they can check on the baby’s size.  She says my cervix is still posterior (translation: I’m not giving birth in the immediate future).  Everything else seems to be okay.  She just warned me to avoid heavy lifting and try to stay as relaxed as possible.

I will be seeing her once a week now.  Meh.  At least its just a short drive (15 min) and there’s an elevator in the building.

I’m having a lot of hip pain, but only when I’m in bed.  Turning from one side to the other is incredibly uncomfortable, sometimes painful.  And getting out of bed sometimes feels like my hips are going to break in half.  Doc says this is all normal.  I have no core muscles and tiny hips, so its going to be uncomfortable.  More meh to that.

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Noreen - I am so jealous of you!!!  I would kill for Red Ribbon Palabok and Coffee Crunch cake or even Chocolate Mousse.  Yummm.  I have a lvl 59 Belf Mage on Frostmane and a lvl 53 Troll Rogue on Garithos.  I recently had to re-spec my rogue as I was playing her all wrong!  Now its like learning to play all over again.  Such a bad nooby.

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Thanks everyone who left a comment on my latest finish.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it yet.  Maybe a wall hanging or an embellished bag?  I’m not sure.  It will involve an accent fabric though.  And until I find the perfect accent fabric, it will go with all the other HDs in the bin.

This is turning out to be the year of VC Silks.  I finished this project on Thursday night.  It has been my “stitch while watching TV” and “stitch while flying in WoW” project.  It stitched up really quick.  The design can be found here.  Instead of backstitching some of the letters as charted, I decided to cross stitch them all.  This design was stitched on 30 count Moss Green Murano using Vikki Clayton’s Cotton Candy, stitching 2 over 2.  I didn’t have enough silk to stitch the zigzag border, but I did have enough to stitch a bottom band to match the one on top.  I was very, very frugal with my floss and I ended up using every last bit.

Please click on the thumbnail to view the full pic.

Remember the craving I had for amazing chocolate cake?  Well it was finally satisfied last week.  Why did I wait so long to blog about it?  Because I was busy eating yummy cake.  Duh!

T finally got tired of me talking about cake so he asked the peeps at work where to get really good cake.  They recommended Rosie’s.  I had a hard time picking out which cake to get.  I finally decided on the Texas Ruby Red.  It cost $32 and T had to drive through freaking Cambridge to get it, so I had very high expectations.

The cake was soooo good.  The best part was the frosting.  It was thick and fudgy.  It was sweet, but not too sweet and was oh so chocolatey!  The cake itself was really moist and stayed moist even 5 days after T bought it.

More Yummy Goodness: I recently tried Trader Joe’s Hawaiian Style potato chips BBQ flavor.  I normally like my potato chips with ridges, but these ARE SO FREAKING GOOD!  The flavor is amazing and they’re super crunchy.  I also recently tried their guacamole.  I like that 1 pack has 2 small containers so the leftovers don’t go gray on you.

I’ve posted about Blue Ribbon BBQ before, but I’m posting again because I just discovered the best dish in their menu: the open face brisket sandwich.  OMG!  This is to die for!  Instead of having bbq sauce, this is served with gravy.  It is soooo good.  The brisket practically melts in your mouth and it goes so well with the mashed potatoes (which are lumpy, like any good mashed potato should be).

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Thank you to everybody who left a comment on the Portal Companion Cube post.  I had lots of fun making that.  I’ll have to make my way to Joanns soon so I can make the Weighted Storage Cube.

Melisa, to stitch the cube together, I did a backstitch 1 square away from the widest part of the design.  I did this for all 6 sides.  After that, I lined up 2 pieces together, as shown here:

To sew it shut, I used a simple Whip Stitch.  Instead of running your needle and thread through the fabric, you run it under the backstitches.  The two sides you are stitching have to match, so its always good to start at a corner.  After stitching 2 pieces together, just attach another piece using the same method until you have all but one side sewn shut.  Fill your cube and then sew it shut.

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Christine - Kanji are the characters used for Japanese writing.  Ayame is Japanese for Iris. 

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In stitching news:  I’m still working on my model.  Its coming along so well.  I’m also doing another simple side project, which is almost done.  I am really enjoying working on my simple projects.  I get to play around with my silks, and it breaks up working with the greens and browns on the model.  PLUS, they’re simple enough that I can stitch them while watching TV at night with T. 

I started this little project on Tuesday night and finished it Thursday night. DH had the idea of stitching the Kanji for Ayame and I thought that would be a cool thing to do. So I found this image:

Then I cleaned it up in PhotoShop. After that, I imported it to PC Stitch. I laid out all my Vikki Clayton Silks and whatever fabric I had unpacked and let DH match up fabric and floss. We both picked this one for the design although the Paua Abalone with a mystery gray/green fabric was a close second.

I thought of maybe stitching a border around it, or maybe stitching her name and birthday on the bottom, but that would defeat the effect I was trying to achieve. It’s supposed to be stark and simple and very zen. I hope to find a nice frame for it.

The project was stitched on 28 count Spun Silver linen using Vikki Clayton Premium Silk in Velvet Midnight 2159. I love the color combination, but the weave of the fabric was way too loose for my liking.