Feeling the blog guilt...

It has been a good two and a half weeks since I blogged last. Which isn't too terrible, but I am really trying to update this blog regularly, as an exercise in consistency if nothing else! :)

I'll start with Stellb. She seems to be less active so far than Stella was, so I am hoping that she will be more mellow than monster #1. I'm also hoping this translates to more sleep in the last month or so of pregnancy. We shall see. It's interesting to compare this pregnancy to Stella's - in a lot of ways it seems so much easier, because I didn't get as sick and have been feeling pretty well over all, but it's also harder because I have Stella to chase around. The girl is an endless pile of energy. But more on her in a minute, this is the Stellb portion of the post! I am just entering week 26, and have a distinct baby belly at this point. Our midwife is a woman from our church who is just wonderful (she's delivered half the babies in the church, I think!), and at our last appointment Stella got to be involved. She got up on the table with me and had her belly measured, and after we heard the baby's heartbeat the midwife checked Stella's heartbeat too. As you can imagine, Stella loved it. In fact, about a week after that, Stella found her baby monitor in her closet (we haven't used it in a long time), brought it over to me, and told me she was going to check the baby. She pulled up my shirt and put the monitor on my belly, and held the other end up to her ear. She said the baby is fine. Does it get any cuter??

So, I keep drifting over to Stella, so I'll go on about her some more. :) She is incredibly grown up, speaking very well, very energetic, and pretty affectionate (when she's not using me as a jungle gym, she gives me hugs and kisses). She is really independent and is often frustrated when she tries to do something her motor skills (or height!) aren't quite up to yet (usually signaled by a loud scream). She "helps" me in the kitchen a lot, which I try to be patient with. She really enjoys being given a task, like "put your dishes in the dishwasher", "put your dirty clothes in your hamper", "go in my room and get my shoes by my bed". Those kinds of things can be pretty useful, and can help keep her busy if she wants to help with something I really don't want to deal with. :) She loves water like her mama and is always asking to "stick my toes in a warm summer day" which means stick her toes in the water at a beach. :) I absolutely love the endless places to do that here!! We can go to a lovely sandy beach, a rocky beach with crabs, a lake, or a wading pool. Yesterday we were on a loooong walk with some friends, and we passed a little lake tucked away with a couple of kids swimming in it. We took the kids out of their buggies and we all put our feet in, and it was lovely! It wasn't too cold and it was fairly shallow where we were, and it was just so refreshing. That's when I think, I love Seattle!!

I've also been getting a bit obsessed with food. I am hungry all the time, but I'm also just surfing recipe sites and things like that! I really want to try all of these new recipes. Tonight it's Greek Tabbouleh for me and Stella (Grandpa is out late and poor Daddy has to make his own diet-friendly meal!). I picked up some bulgur on Saturday at this AWESOME place which has buckets and buckets (literal buckets!!) of bulk spices, beans, rice, lentils, etc. Not to mention imported European non-perishables, and a huge deli case of meats and cheeses. I got all sorts of good stuff, including quinoa (which I can't believe I haven't tried yet!) and steel-cut oats. All this to say, the bulgur goes into the tabbouleh tonight. Tasty and good for you! One of the food blogs I've discovered is A Year of CrockPotting - yes, a crockpot recipe every single day of the year! I thought some of you lovely readers (like Mom!) would enjoy it.

And now, I must attend to my tabbouleh. Adieu!

**Edited to addd: Tabbouleh picture! YUM!!!