Week 27 – Round 3

Size of Baby (per “What To Expect”) – Size of an eggplant. Approximately two and a quarter pounds.

Weight Gain – 18 pounds.  Despite taking several days off of exercise and over indulging at times over vacation, my weight stayed steady.  My guess is that I offset lost muscle volume with weight gain in other areas.  We will see once I start strength work again this week.

Movement – The baby is definitely kicking.  I came back from vacation with a serious sinus infection.  I’m talking severe pain on the left side of my face.  While the pain didn’t seem to affect our vacation, I must have exerted a lot of energy pushing through the discomfort.  I was completely exhausted by the time we pulled into the driveway on Saturday. I slept close to 13 hours that night.  What does this have to do with movement? My low activity level over the weekend allowed me to really feel how much the baby is moving.

Sleep – With the pain on the side of my face, sleeping has been an issue.  Thankfully, it has subsided some at night making sleep a little easier.

What I miss – Not being on medicine?  Not feeling pain in my face?  Completely unrelated to pregnancy.  I have to say it was hard to miss anything this week.  We had such an incredible trip with the family.

Best Moments this Week – As I mentioned above, vacation could not have gone better.  I even told my husband this trip ranked as one of our best ever (maybe even better than some of the individual trips that we have taken alone).  The amount of unconditional love that these kids share for each other and their family is so warming.

We rented a home at Wild Dunes on Isle of Palms in South Carolina for 5 days, 4 nights.  While we knew the home would be somewhat dated, we were unprepared for how outdated it actually ended up being.  Upon pulling up to the house, we found the garage door was so rusted out that you couldn’t even manually open or shut it.  I had my husband do a walkthrough prior to calling the rental office to let them know what damages were already present at the home before we arrived.  We opted to stay at the home either way due to location and the anticipation that the kids had upon pulling up out front.

While the kids loved the “holiday house” (my oldest daughter called it this all week because Peppa Pig calls her vacation, holiday), we vowed to spend as much time outside of the house as we could.  That said, our typical routine was to wake up, hit the beach, eat lunch at the house, finish the afternoon at the pool and head to dinner.

Last year, we had a hard time getting the kids to spend an hour and a half on the beach.  This year, we were able to squeeze in close to three hours before they were ready to call it a morning.  That’s right.  We were on the beach most days by 9 AM and breaking down the tent around noon.  The key to staying busy?  Lots of toys, snacks and a beach tent that they could break in.

The pool was a much easier option to prepare for.  We were within walking distance to the main boardwalk pool.  The girls were even able to walk themselves (swimmies and all).  After about an hour in the pool, both girls picked up on how to use the swimmies to maneuver their way around.

We often caught our youngest (the social butterfly), swimming away from the family to join other groups in the pool.  Absolutely hysterical.

On Friday, we took a break from the beach to head to the Children’s Museum in Downtown Charleston.  This is such a great experience.  The kids have mock playrooms and a ton of hands on activities, including: a pirate ship, water play room and grocery store among many other things.

We parked such that we could take a stroll through the market and pick up a Peace Pie before we got back in the car and headed back over the bridge to Wild Dunes.

Looking forward to – Is it too early to say:  OUR NEXT BEACH TRIP.  November 2017!

Cravings – I’m going to use this section to talk food and restaurants that we visited while on vacation.  NOTE – all of these restaurants are kid friendly to toddlers.  We were able to take both girls to all meals with no technology or toys.  The atmosphere was entertaining and the food came out quick enough that they did not get bored.

• Acme Low Country Kitchen – Located on Isle of Palms, we arrived shortly after 5PM. Getting to dinner early is imperative to avoid long lines and waiting.  My youngest daughter fell asleep at the table while my oldest enjoyed saltines and talking to us about her day.   Hands down the best meal of our trip. I ordered the grouper special, over top mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables.  
• Taco Boy – Again, we arrived shortly after 5PM.  My kids love Mexican food – rice, guacamole and quesadillas.  We also knew we could get something quick that we could enjoy.  This was one of my personal favorite casual restaurants when I worked in Charleston several months of the year. I ordered a veggie rice bowl with a side of grilled chicken.
  

  

  

   

• Morgan Creek Grill – Located a few miles from Wild Dunes, this restaurant sits perfectly on the intercostal waterway and hosts live music every Thursday – Sunday.  We chose to go on a Thursday, again arriving early and when we knew music would be playing.  To avoid overindulging in mercury for the week, I picked a lower mercury seafood for dinner.  Crab cakes with a side of grits and collard greens.  Let me note, my oldest daughter had grits for almost every meal.  Her favorite.

   

   

  We enjoyed music outside following dinner.  While we relaxed, the girls enjoyed dancing and playing in the sand.

• Sea Biscuit Cafe – Breakfast.  Our best breakfast of the week.  I kept it simple with a veggie egg white omelette, some hash browns and a biscuit.  GET THERE EARLY.  While the line moves pretty quick, it gets long FAST.

Symptoms – Feeling like I got punched in the left side of my face.  That’s from the sinus infection though.

Workouts – I started the week strong before taking plenty of rest and relaxation time off the rest of the week.  Granted we were on our feet a decent amount of time while on vacation.

• Monday – I taught my regularly scheduled 6:30 AM class.
• Tuesday – I did a strength workout in the garage before hitting the road for our beach trip.
• Wednesday – Beach day 1 – I did no planned exercise routine.  That said, we walked over 5 miles between moving on the beach and going to the pool.
• Thursday – In an effort to feel like I did something, I spent some time during lunch doing a super low intensity Tracey Anderson Pregnancy DVD in the house.   It was more so stretching than anything.  Done in 30 minutes.
•  Friday – Okay, okay, I can only take off so many days now.  I woke up and went for a 30 minute walk/run on Friday.  I caught the most incredible sunrise. Run 10 minutes, jog 5 minutes.  Repeat.

• Saturday – I tried to survive the significant pain that I was experiencing in my face.  Hence, I did not workout.
• Sunday – I rode my bike around the block twice.  Once with each girl.  I sat on the couch ALOT.

Griswold Christmas Memories Turned Magical

I had no expectations of how the Christmas holiday would go with our fourteen month old this year.  Last year, my daughter was only two months old when we celebrated the special holiday.  Her Christmas consisted of lots of naps, breast milk and excitement over the large crowd that congregated at our recently renovated house. Our refrigerator died two days before the holiday.  I scrambled to find a repairman/replacement by Christmas Eve, but I ended up with a mini fridge from Costco in my living room.  We managed to fit most of the food for our family celebration in the mini fridge, but we did end up also filling a cooler on our back porch of what was left.  The temperature allowed us to keep it there for almost three days following.  To top all of that off, we found ourselves in the attic swapping buckets out from a leaking roof while our daughter slept gently in a pack n play in our room. A good old fashioned Griswold Christmas. We made it through.  Surely this year would be better?  Surely.

While we don’t go to church as much as we should, we got dressed up to make the trek out on Christmas Eve for the 4:00PM service at St. Gabes.  Talk about romper room.  We didn’t get there until 3:45.  Our mistake.  We ended up parking a quarter mile away before finding a small, steaming hot area in the back of the church to stand in.  Yep.  No seats left.  We found ourselves in the midst of several other desperate families with children coloring, crying and running all over.  There was no way that I was going to make it.  Pregnant.  In heels.  Toddler in my arms.  We did our best switching back and forth and “taking her for a walk”.  By the gospel we had given up.  We will reassess our plan next year (especially since we will have a nine month old in tow).

From church, we headed to my parents house to have a Christmas Eve celebration.  My daughter did great opening gifts.  Her big gift from my parents was a wheelie suitcase.  Something I had never thought about getting her but something she will use right away.   She considered the bag a toy.  I smiled as I imagined having my entire suitcase back when we go on trips.  My daughter has her own space to put her things now!  Great gift grandma.

I have to say, one of her favorite parts of Christmas was finding excitement in popping the bubble wrap.  Why does it always seem like she likes the things that hardly cost anything the most?

After dinner, we snapped a quick family picture.  It was great to have my parents and sister in town to start the Christmas celebration.

We headed home to get my daughter ready for bed before Santa came.  This is a special holiday for my husband.  His mom has been coined “Mrs. Claus”.  His house in New York is a winter wonderland during the month of December.  It is almost impossible to recreate. That’s it below.

I did my best this year.  Santa sure did come.  As my husband and I did one last pass of the living room before getting my daughter out of her bed, we glanced at the clock on the oven and noticed it was pitch black.  At some point during the night the oven and microwave blew out.  Of course.  I had fifteen people coming over Christmas dinner.  I had worried all night about how I would get all of the cooking done on time.  All for nothing.   Well, what do you do?  It’s Christmas.  Nothing will change.  Two years ago, I would have had a meltdown.  This year, I made up a new plan.  Before we set that plan in motion, we had to get my daughter out of bed to see what her reaction would be.

Santa packs my daughter’s presents in her own sack.  Pretty fancy huh?  He did it last year, and he did it again this year. Hopefully he can find another sack for baby number two next year!

Our most successful gifts of the season for our fourteen month old:

• A children’s size broom (we are mimicking everything mom does right now) – Very cheap
• A toddler size baby stroller/baby/baby bottle – hopefully this is an indication that she will be mommy’s little helper soon.
• Books with Flaps – Anything that she can touch on the book to engage herself.
• Last but not least – A kitchen.  Don’t skimp here.  It is worth the cost and labor to see how happy it will make your child.  He or she will likely spend hours playing with this toy.

With gifts out of the way, I was left with figuring out how we would eat the rest of the day.  Thankfully, my parents live close.  I packed up a pork roast and some stuffing and headed there.  In three hours we would have the pork done.  Just a tip – if you do not have another oven close by, you could always cook a roast on the grill or in a crock pot.

Dad of the year whipped up some pancakes and bacon on the griddle.  This could also be done on the stove (which is not connected to the oven).  Here is where I spill the big beans.  After our situation last year and the fact that I have been completely worn down this pregnancy, I decided to outsource the sides.  I spent hours cooking and cleaning last year.  So many hours that I hardly had time to relax.  This year, I preordered almost all of my sides from Reid’s.  The kicker is that it wasn’t much more expensive (and it was delicious).  We used our toaster over and stove to reheat everything (without a microwave or oven).  For less than $80, we picked up:

• Baked macaroni and cheese for 12-15 people
• Garlic green beans for 12-15 people
• Bourbon glazed carrots for 12-15 people

My daughter and her cousin sat at the kid’s table and enjoyed their dinner.  I will do it again.  As much as I love cooking during the holidays, I love spending time with the people I care about more. To be honest, most people appreciate the effort just the same whether you outsource or do it yourself.  Do yourself a favor.

As we enjoyed dinner, we forgot about the minor kitchen disaster.  In two years, we have had almost every major kitchen appliance die on us on Christmas Day.  Both years we have managed without letting it ruin the day. My daughter loved opening gifts, although she still doesn’t understand why she got them.  She worked hard to carry as many of them around as she could (in fear that we might take them from her).  She still wakes up in the morning and walks to the tree looking for more presents.  Over the next year, she will figure it out.  In the meantime, I’m going to work on developing mommy’s little helper with our new baby doll addition!