24/26 weeks

I haven't done a very good job of keeping you, like, REALLY up to date on my pregnancy. Lots of you do these cute, informative posts about how you're feeling every month, what your cravings are, how much weight you've gained ... I think I've managed to give you one post with several pictures of me as I've, um, expanded.

And for the record, at my 24-week visit, I was measuring 28 weeks. Which may account for part of the reason you haven't seen me touting my cute little figure around here regularly. But here's what I was looking like two weeks ago, at 24 weeks, and I suppose I haven't changed much in the last two:

I'm still working on the lake pictures from the weekend ... just trying to get them down to a manageable number. I should have that post ready for tomorrow. But in the meantime, I just wanted to link those of you with strong stomachs and a high Gross Tolerance over to an oldie-but-goodie by Heather.

I started reading Dooce when I was expecting Nicholas back in early 2004. I can't believe it's been that long, but it has. I didn't take Zofran during that pregnancy, so I was sicker than I was with Jake or Unnamed Baby Girl, but the lack of Zofran also meant that I was spared the awful, all-encompassing constipation that comes with Zofran.

TMI WARNING: The reason this old post of Heather's resonated with me so much is that I, too, passed out on the toilet at work, for the same reason her cousin did. It was simultaneously one of the most scary, horrifying and embarrassing moments of my life. But now I can laugh about it. And BOY can I laugh about it happening to someone else.

ENJOY.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

We went to the lake over the weekend and had a great time.

Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, I only got seven hours of sleep spread out over three nights, so I'm completely worthless at the moment.

More to come as soon as I can form coherent thoughts.

My own personal DYAC -- I narrowly escaped

In case you missed it, last Sunday night I Tweeted:

"Grayson made a delicious pork tenderloin for supper. Now we're relaxing before the kids' bedtimes. #sundayeveningsftw!"

It was my next Tweet that explained what COULD have been:

"My phone tried to autocorrect 'bedtimes' to 'beatings' in my last Tweet. THAT would have been one for the ages."

In other words, my phone tried to correct my original Tweet to:

Grayson made a delicious pork tenderloin for supper. Now we're relaxing before the kids' beatings. #sundayeveningsftw!

When I told Grayson about it, he died laughing ... he wished I would've gone ahead and let auto-correct do its thing!

I'm still convinced that 95 percent of the auto-corrections we see on websites like DamnYouAutoCorrect MUST be legitimate, because now that I have an iPhone, I've personally seen what not paying attention can do to you.

Checkerboard floors update

Some of you who've been around for ages might remember that a couple of years ago, we helped our friend John and Leslie do some work in their kitchen.

We painted their kitchen cabinets ...

And we taped off and painted a checkerboard pattern on their hardwood floors.

They were REALLY pleased with the look, but the paint (which we sealed with wax, not with poly), didn't hold up to high traffic (and four energetic kids in a home-schooling household) as well as Leslie had hoped. She thought it would age more naturally than it did ... in reality, it got gouged and flaked pretty quickly.

So late last month, she and John repainted the squares and applied a satin-finish poly that they're hoping will prove more durable:

Since the original post generated a lot of interest, I wanted to give you the update in case you were considering something similar for your home!

It's snack time!

The other day Meg asked her readers what they feed their kids for snacks.

Our older boys prefer cheese sticks and yogurt to most other things, but if we'd let them dig into bags of Fritos or packages of Pop-Tarts, I'm sure they'd inhale those instead.

Jake's preferences run almost exclusively to a jar of mixed nuts, peanuts or cinnamon pecans, but his true go-to snack is the big bag of dried fruit from Costco.

I'm not saying dried fruit is that healthy for you, but I'm relatively sure it's better for you than Pop-Tarts. So, I don't complain.

I'm going to wade my way through Meg's more than 240 comments so see what gems I find in there, but I wanted to ask you -- MY PEEPS, who are less judgey on average than the rest of the Internet seems to be -- what do YOU feed your kids or grandkids for snacks?

Quite frankly, there's a time and a place for a sweet, less-healthy snack, so if you have something to share along those lines, please don't let me stop you. We'll be driving about 12 hours to the beach and back in just a couple of weeks, and we like to pack our own snacks instead of relying on convenience stores ... so some of your advice might get used immediately!

Another Alabama Bloggers luncheon is coming up!

For those of you who live in Alabama, reasonably close to Birmingham, the June Alabama Bloggers Luncheon is going to be Wednesday, June 29 at 11:30 a.m. at Jim 'n' Nick's on Southside!

I am "hosting" this month, which simply means that I chose the time and place and reserved the room. Also, I have to show up.

Sooooooooo, I would love for you to come if you can! So that we can get an accurate headcount, if you plan to attend, please RSVP on this post over at Alabama Bloggers.

Hope to see you on the 29th!

Uncomfortable truths, vol. 15

1.  Three days ago, a girl with long brown hair driving a blue Jeep Liberty failed to use her blinker when approaching a right turn, causing me to miss the last-second left turn onto the Interstate on my way to work. I had to wait an extra two minutes at the light because of her. I’m not over it. Clearly. Not by a long shot.

2. Between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. one day last week, I left myself six voice messages at work reminding me to do things (text William about mowing the lawn, check on my FMLA paperwork status, refill a prescription, write a thank-you note, etc.) When I arrived at work the next morning, I only remembered one of the things I’d left myself a message about. (I know I’ve written about this before. I just feel that you need to know that it’s literally an everyday uncomfortable truth.)

3. Last Tuesday night Jake was eating mixed nuts in the den. He tipped the can over and all of its contents spilled straight onto the carpet. After he "cleaned it up," it looked like this:

Guess what. It looked exactly like that until Saturday morning, when I finally took the time to clean the rest of it up. (My very VERY neat-and-clean friend Lisa just departed from my life, leaving only a puff of smoke where she once stood.)

4. When I am pregnant, I will wait until I am in agonizing pain before I will get up to pee. I have to go so often that I put it off as long as I can between trips to the bathroom. But still. To wait until I have to hobble to the toilet, knees pressed together, feeling like I'm going to pass out? If someone can explain to me why I do this, I'd be eternally grateful. (Mom, there is no reason to e-mail me and tell me I'm going to give myself a UTI. Thanks!)

5. Standing at the stove the other night, I was shifting the broccoli in the steamer when a piece fell on the floor. I threw it away. The following night, I was standing at the island eating some Pringles when one fell on the floor. I picked it up and ate it. Apparently I have some kind of No Pringle Left Behind Law that does not extend to vegetables.

Painted faces rule. According to them.

When we went to Disney World last year, one of the boys' favorite things was getting their faces painted. We haven't done it since then, simply because we don't have many opportunities for it at home; sometimes they settle for the occasional temporary tattoo on their hand or cheek.

But last Friday, a face painter visited their daycare center, and they came home with very colorful faces!

Nathaniel was a basilisk, which is from Harry Potter, I think. Some kind of reptile that's supposed to be king of the serpents.

GREAT! LOVE for my kid to be dressed up like a king of serpents! He refused to smile because, as he informed me very seriously, basilisks don't smile. Duh.

Nicholas chose some sort of green snake. I'm sure there's a technical name for it, but it escapes me at the moment.

He said the whatever-it-is doesn't open its eyes very often, but I cajoled him until he opened his eyes and gave me a smile.

I'm glad our daycare center isn't stodgy and boring, and that it presents opportunities like this for our kids. As much as I hate washing things like this off of them ("OUCH! You're HURTING me! STOP IT!"), I love how happy it makes them for a while.

And no post would be complete without a glimpse of this face, painted or not. He felt a little left out, but no paint could make this little toot any cuter, in my opinion!

A labor of love

Our sweet friend and babysitter-for-years, Anna, is an accomplished crochet-er. What's the noun for someone who crochets? Crochet-ist? I have no idea. But she's REALLY good at it.

She gave us several adorable pieces when Jake was born, and every year for Christmas she's given us beautiful handmade ornaments or accessories for our home that are truly one-of-a-kind.

Yesterday she surprised us by dropping by our pool and bringing a basket full of handmade goodies for our baby girl!

Everything was packaged in this custom wicker basket, which will be a great additional storage piece in the nursery.

Inside the basket, I found so many cute things! A pink-and-chocolate jacket, hat and booties:

(Sorry the color's terrible; I took these at night.) A matching receiving blanket:

And you can't really see it very well, but it has the cutest looped edging around all four sides:

An adorable little owl hat:

And a ladybug set, complete with antennae on the hat!

We feel so blessed to have such a generous friend who loves our kids as much as anyone outside our family possibly could. To our friend and faithful blog reader, Anna, THANK YOU!

Chocolate chip peanut butter pound cake

Not to be a bad influence or anything ...

But when I saw Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Pound Cake over at Recipe Girl, I knew I had to share it with you.

I haven't made it yet.

I'm not sure when I will. OH BUT I WILL.

If you want to make it today, click here for the recipe.