Salt and Pickles

dear patrick, 

our family will now  have a giant patrick shaped hole in it. You will be deeply missed.

If this baby girl inside me has half of your zest, wit, vibrancy, childlike wonder and humor.. she will be an incredible kid. I wish we cousins had listened to you and tried harder to all get together more often.

I love you,
your oldest cousin - H.

I have to create a link to this cuteness because it’s pretty much my dream baby outfit. (and the pattern in the fabric has an image that is actually the baby’s middle name)

I remember to check grosgrain fabulous a few times a week, but I always feel “This is beyond cute but somebody else will want it more and deserve it more” but this time the lust was too overpowering. ponchos? with orange? and pom poms? and orange? and did i mention the orange? yea. want want want.

My little girl isn’t born yet, but she’ll be here soon and she’d look damn cute in that outfit.

Ok, so for 7 months I pretty much have had no interest in food. I could take it or leave it, and I was not really gaining any weight.  (after losing weight at first)

Now.. I love food! especially farmers market tomatoes, farmers market organic locally made peach sorbet! or the strawberry nectarine sorbet. I’m cooking and eating and eating and eating. I went to a wedding and I was one of the first to go up for seconds at the buffet. food is righteous. 

Also, this kid in my belly is one hell of a mover and a shaker. She is seriously kicking the crap out of my insides 75% of every day. She often does what i call “AWOOOOOOGA” which is when every bit of her moves at once. all her limbs fly akimbo and she does a little hip shake or something. If my belly had eyeballs and ears, the eyeballs would be shooting out of their sockets..the ears would be steaming and the noise would be “awooooooooooga” . yea. she’s crazy in there. I don’t sleep so hot.

Tonight i made the supper tart from Splendid Table. buttery pastry, cheesey goodness with greens & grapes & onions. yummo. followed by peach sorbet . yay food! oh did i say that already?

i have a little over 8 weeks left. If she goes til her due date. yikes.this weekend we buy a new car. Probably a prius. because we’re oh so berkeley.

also, google docs has been a lifesaver for me. That shit is awesome. I mean… I am keeping my life and money organized for the first time in my life practically. it’s great. I’m a grown up. (I’m about to be a parent!) 

ok, it would seem i’m high on sorbet sugar. I’m going to go take a bath and read The Never Ending Story (i dare you to try to get that song out of your head now) 

The little girl (now confirmed) in my belly would seem to be quite the little swimmer swimming around in her mama’s fishbowl belly. She is constantly doing flips and moving so her head is down at one point and then is to the side and she’s laying sideways 10 minutes later.

 This was all confirmed at an appt today where they were monitoring her closely because 2 days ago they did a scan that found i had low amniotic fluid. All is ok though. I drank a lot of water between then and now (i totally own that i suck at drinking enough water) and things looked fine. The tech said “are you a swimmer? you have quite a little swimmer in there” 

she’s named now. But i think maybe i’m too superstitious to put it here yet.

We have a house guest for the long term. although she’s not actually a house guest right now , as i found her house sitting gigs. But she’s over here most days. This is a good thing because she’s like family for me and really needs a safe place to be. Her life being in upheaval. it’s also interesting because i SERRRRRIOUSLY need my space and I am hoping I don’t get irritable and uncharitable before all is said and done. I’ve strained friendships before where somebody had to stay with me for awhile.

I had placenta previa at my 20 week scan, but by now (28 weeks) it had resolved itself, which is a great relief.

I’m in the third trimester. that’s just crazy to me. still so much to do!