20 weeks (ish)

Here's the bump at 20 weeks (& 6 days!)... so far this baby is a bit different from Leo but not too much! I didn't really have any cravings with Leo, but I did have a huge aversion to swiss chard and salmon. I don't seem to have those this time around. I do have a somewhat bigger than normal sweet tooth right now. I could eat a chocolate chip cookie every day I think....

I'm also feeling more in shape than I was last time thanks to the Belly Bootcamp I've been attending since I was pregnant with Leo (I can still do at least one push up from my toes!) & BodyFlow at GoodLife, although things are stretching and tweaking a bit more because you know as my midwife says: "the apartment has been lived in before..."

Right now I'm LOVING my Old Navy maternity skinny jeans (why they don't have maternity in Canada is beyond me!). I basically wear them everyday if I'm not wearing my black leggings. When the weather gets a bit warmer (it's pretty warm now, but I live at the lake so it's cooler down here than the rest of the city!) I have some dresses I picked up at Target on my trip to Florida that I'll likely live in.

Still working on the names list! I know we have some time, but I just want my hubby to agree with at least one name I come up with! I've started just sending him names randomly to try to get him used to the ones I like... We'll see!

Oh ya and I chopped my hair off - I think there was about 5 inches on the floor by the end. I love chopping it in the spring!

Happy Friday!

new dining chairs

Mark and I have been looking for new dining chairs for eons and we finally found some a West Elm a few weeks ago. The Porter Leather Dining Chair was perfect for us because it was practical for kids (easy to wipe down) and simple in style. The quality is pretty good too (...and there was a sale! Ok a small one but better than nothing!).

We both liked the ivory colour because it brightened the room but now that they're all in here I keep thinking they're competing too much with the light above which is too bad because I really like the light! I'll have to live with it for a bit and in the meantime keep my eye open for light fixtures.

What do you think? Too much ivory/white???

Yes I know the tags are still on the chairs - we just need to make sure we are going to keep them! ;)

Playing with trucks

Leo's new favourite words are 'Whassaaat' and 'truck!'. He certainly loves his trucks!

Just HAD to share this

I think this is my most favourite video of ALL TIME. Joanna Goddard created as part of a contest for mOmma and I'm in love with it. I love giggling and laughing kiddies - who doesn't???

4 Foolproof Ways to Make a Baby Laugh from Son of Shark Pig on Vimeo.

omg I just love it.

thinking about the next nursery

SO.

Big news.

This week we found out we're having a girl! How exciting. Of course they said it's not 100% but hopefully they've got it right because I really want to start thinking about the nursery.

I started a new baby's room board on Pinterest to get me started. Here are my inspirations so far (I only have three pics!):

All the pics I have relate to the colours I'd like to use in the room. I just love this teal colour and see it being one of the main colours with the pops of yellow and orange.

Source: Uploaded by user via Stephanie on Pinterest

Here are some of the colours again:

Source: delightedmomma.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

And I just love these curtains. Originally I liked these colours for the room, but ended up keeping this pic because I'd love to have some fun with the curtains in this striped format. So pretty.

Source: luxuryd3sign.tumblr.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

As you can see, my inspiration pics don't really fall into the typical girly pink options which I don't want, but I can see adding some hot pink in with the blue, yellow, orange and teal.

Can't wait to get started! Only five months to go! :)

Testing and vegging

Just sitting here veggin' on a Friday night testing out my new iphone blogger app.

What a week it has been! Everyone in my house has been sick! I think I had norwalk yesterday yikes! It wasn't pretty.

Anyway, the day before that was super nice and I got to spend some time with Leo at the park. Those few minutes with him there made this week bearable.

Hope you had a great week and have a great weekend! We're hosting a brunch tomorrow for some friends and five million kids. Should be a blast.

healthy spelt banana nut muffins

I've been on a bit of a baking kick over the past two weeks, likely for two reasons: 1. I'm pregnant and want baked goods 2. My past is coming back to me (I was once told by a psychic that I was a baker in a former life, so this reason is making total sense to me!).

Anyway, I had some gross looking black bananas in the freezer, so I put them to good use in some banana muffins.

I like pretty healthy baked goods, so I typed "healthy banana muffins" into Google and this is what I found: Healthy Banana Muffins by DDHMAMA on Spark Recipes. I changed it up a bit. Here's what I did:

Minutes to Prepare: about 15
Minutes to Cook: 20 (my oven is a bit cooler than most)
Number of Servings: I got 12 out of this but DDHMAMA got 20 somehow

Ingredients:
- 2 cups spelt flour
- about 1/8 a cup of agave nectar (I basically squiggled it around the bowl)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- dash or two of pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 cup ground flax seed
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup almond milk
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup mashed bananas (2-3 bananas)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 400

Directions:
- Combine all dry ingredients in one bowl: spelt flour, baking soda and powder, salt, nuts, spices, ground flax
- Beat the egg in a separate bowl. Whisk in milk, applesauce, agave nectar, and vanilla to the eggs.
- Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Fold bananas in.
- Divide the batter among a greased or paper-lined muffin tin. I used a flowery, silicone Pampered Chef pan which I have to say I really love.
- Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Yield:
- Makes 12 muffins

Review
I could have added more agave nectar (these turned out a bit on the slightly blandish side which is fine by me because I can sweeten them up with some apple butter ;)) and the recipe called for molasses which I totally forgot to add. I also think I could have added one more mushy banana. Overall, they're good for me, pretty healthy and I don't feel bad about giving them to the little one.

Happy Monday!

There are a few people in this house that are feeling a bit off. I'm not too bad, but not 100%. I think part of it though is that I'm a bit of a hypochondriac and my husband just came home sick (something he NEVER does, so it must be bad) and now I think I'm getting what he has even though it's likely not the case.

Oh dear.

I'm sure my muffin with apple butter will help everything go away.

Have a great Monday!