Ummm… nesting, anyone?

In the last two days I have:

• Cleaned out the spice cupboard (a lot of dry spices go rancid after a couple months, and I’d been moving some around with me for YEARS!).
• Organized out bulk goods cupboard (this is stuff we brought with us from Canada; canned tuna, Kraft Dinner, granola bars etc.). It’s been a mess for ages and I forgot what was even in there.
• Had seven prints that were lying around the house framed and hung (we’re not allowed to hang things ourselves in our apartment).
• Organized books by category (fiction, non-fiction, spiritual, business, cooking). Gave away ones that we aren’t going to read again.
• Re-arranged all my clothes. Put the stuff that doesn’t fit me anymore into lower drawers, and stuff that fits me (maternity clothes) in top drawers to avoid unnecessary bending. Gave away clothes that I just won’t wear ever again to our maid (she has a daughter about my age).
• Sorted through and filed a mountain of paperwork that was just lying around the house.
• Organized magazines. Recycled the majority. Only kept Real Simple and Bon Appetit since those are the two that I refer to again and again.
• Organized medicine cabinet into categories (pain killers, vitamins, baby).
• Made a huge batch of bolognaise sauce to have in the fridge as easy supper option.
• Made individual chicken pot pies to have in the freezer as easy supper option.
• Made a delicious apple pie just because I wanted to (including home made pastry).
• Knitted a good chunk of my baby blanket.
• Given Puppy a bath (and then realized I can’t physically do that anymore… too much bending gave me pains in the belly).
• Gone grocery shopping and replenished the house with food (this isn’t a simple thing to do in China, takes all day really).
• Organized our external hard drive and fixed our VPN.

Things I still want to do:

• Have some extra furniture taken away to make room for baby stuff in spare bedroom (nice thing about living in a serviced apartment is that furniture removal is just a phone call away). I’ll have this done tomorrow and once it’s done, I can start putting together the change table and crib in the Pickle’s room.
• Go to IKEA. I just need to buy some mundane stuff, but an IKEA trip is a bit of an event here and I want to go with someone.
• Clean out walk-in closet. Hubby said he would do this, but… but… I want it done now and if I wait for him to do it, it may take months.
• Wash all baby clothes we receive so I can put it away, but need to wait for baby-friendly laundry detergent on its way from Canada (the stuff in China is really harsh so I bought some scent-free baby detergent in Canada).
• Get the Pickle’s room painted a pretty yellow instead of the gross oatmeal colour that’s in there. This will make her room the only non-oatmeal one in this whole apartment.

Sleep Talk

Hubby and I are snuggled up in bed, with Puppy curled up at our feet, and he mumbles as he’s falling asleep, "Everything is better now that you’re home."

Yes, it’s good to be back.

Fresh from the oven

I just flew back to Beijing from Canada yesterday after a two-week shopping spree for the Pickle (the baby). Of course, now I have the curse of jetlag and woke up at 5 a.m. starving as of I’d been starved for three days (guess that’s what happens when I can’t eat the airplane food because it’s just too disgusting).

So I get up and waddle over to the kitchen and not surprisingly, there is zero food to eat because Hubby has been living off pizza pockets since I’ve been gone.

I eat a quick tiramisu (I had the forethought to order some last night and had an extra in the fridge) and take a look at what I had on hand and realized I could make muffins. Apple Spice Muffins. Making them would use up the last of a couple things laying around the cupboard and fridge (apple sauce, a little oat bran, a lonely apple) and who doesn’t like hot muffins fresh from the oven in the morning? As soon as I hear Hubby stirring around I’ll just pop them in the oven and voila! He’ll think I’m the BEST WIFE EVER!

Pretty sure that this earns me the title of Most Awesome Domestic Goddess in the Pregnant category.

Apple Spice Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp each cinnamon and nutmeg
1/2 cup oat or wheat bran

Mix above in large bowl.

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (I used plain yogurt because the milk was curdled)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the wet ingredients (above) in a smaller bowl and add to dry ingredients. Mix until just blended and add grated or chopped apple.

Bake in pre-heated 350 F oven for 20-25 minutes. I made cinnamon sugar to use up the last little bit of sugar to sprinkle over the top of the muffins.

21 Weeks

The ultrasound technician said she had very very long legs. Like father, like daughter! (I’m a wee 5′1" and Hubby is 6′4")

I keep looking at her little face and falling more and more in love.

Not ice cream and pickles, but…

My new favourite thing to eat for lunch is fried potatoes (cut up into little squares), covered with a fried egg (with a very runny yellow), and then the egg covered in sour cream.

I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it until I told Hubby about it and he made a face.

I was describing how I break the egg yolk, and mix in the runny yolk with the sour cream and potatoes and it make a creamy, eggy mess that is soooo good and it looked like he was going to vomit.

It’s not THAT gross, is it?

To lighten the mood… BABY NAMES!

Here’s a shortlist of names that Hubby and I like for the wiggly little girl in my belly:

(You should know, if you don’t already, that Hubby and I are French – with a very French last name – so the name must be French but easy for Anglos to read and pronounce.)

Anna (classic and pretty)

Anouk (this is a really Canadian name and I’ve only ever heard it in Quebec, but we think it’s quicky and fun)

Beatrice (really old-fashioned, but I’m drawn to it)

Chloe (love this name but it’s the top 10 for names right now, meaning she’ll be one of five Chloe’s in her class)

Claire (classic)

Elisabeth (classic, can get lots of cute nicknames out of it, like Betsy)

Iris (again, a little odd, but I’m drawn to it)

OPINIONS PLEASE!!!

(I had lots of others on the list, like my ALL TIME FAVOURITE NAME EVER – Flora – but Hubby vetoed them. These are the names we both agree we like.)

Am I Being a Crazy Pants?

So last night we went out with a bunch of Hubby’s work people for a little drink to celebrate the end of internship season (they had a really great bunch of interns this year so everyone wanted to wish them well with their next projects). It was really nice to see everyone after being away for so long and I was having a great time catching up with people.

And then… well, and then Hubby got very drunk, very quickly. The interns had paid for there to be an open bar and Hubby was downing the wine like it was juice (on an empty stomach) and he just started acting like a high school bully to everyone. I wanted to go eat hot pot (it was 8 p.m. and I was STARVING and the hot pot place is on the way home), but not everyone likes hot pot so most of the group wanted to go somewhere else. Hubby basically started calling everyone a pussy who didn’t want to come eat hot pot with us. I was like, "Really? Are you being serious?"

Anyway, eventually (at 10 p.m.) the group decides to go to hot pot (maybe because they were sick of Hubby badgering them), and we go. Except that now we’re 14 people, and it’s going to be a nightmare to get a table. We get to the restaurant and guess what, it’s a nightmare to get a table with so many people.

By this point I’m pretty irritated. I mean, I’m pregnant, starving, and everyone around me is getting wasted. It is NOT FUN for me to be in those situations.

At midnight we get the bill and Hubby becomes all pouty because he wants to go to the bar with the interns, even though he has to get up at 8 a.m. for his MBA class the next morning. He makes a big show of saying, "See baby, I came home with you instead of going out!" like he wants a medal or something.

This morning I’ve decided that I don’t want to be around drunk Hubby anymore. Maybe it’s the pregnancy that’s making me more sensitive to my pre-existing apprehension of drunk people, but whatever. So I sit Hubby down (because we have another party to go to tonight), and I say that would appreciate that when we go out as a couple, that he not get stinking drunk because it makes me uncomfortable and it’s not fun to be the only sober person surrounded by drunks and I would like a little support and understanding from him. I say that because I know he wants to cut loose a little tonight, that I’ll probably leave the party at around 10, but that after that he can do whatever and get however drunk he wants. But that when I’m there, I would like him to stay relatively sober with me.

Well, he went berserk. He basically called me a controlling bitch and said, "You’re changing the rules! You’re not the same person I married."

I said that we’re starting a family and that family should come first.

He stormed out.

I just don’t know what to do. I’m starting to hate him when he drinks (he becomes this other person, not the sweet sci-fi nerd he is with me when he’s not drinking), and I’m trying to find a solution that works for both of us since he obviously needs to have this social outlet with the stress of work, and his MBA, and this baby…

Am I crazy? Was it too much for me to ask that he not drink so much when I’m around? Am I just trying to control him?

Well, right now I’m crying over my tea and toast and not really sure what to think.

The Pregnancy Card

What more can I say about Australia? It was warm and the people were really friendly. When people found out we were Canadian, they would say something like, "Oh, you must have a hard time with the heat here!" I don’t think Australians realize it gets hot in Canada too! In fact, a hot summer in Ottawa is far hotter than what I experienced in Queensland.

The biggest highlight for me was when the baby started to kick (at a Thai restaurant in Surfer’s Paradise). Since then, she’s been pretty active in my belly and it’s pretty much the best thing ever.

The worst thing was getting bitten by sand fleas in Airlie Beach (well, not actually at Airlie Beach, but Dingo Beach, which is nearby). They took forever to go away and were SOOO itchy! Hubby and I looked pretty gross, all covered in red welts, and no one seemed to know what the bites were so we were actually making them worse for a while by rubbing antiseptic cream on them. Finally we ran into a nurse who helped us out and after a couple days of being covered in calamine lotion, they went away.

There were definitely times when I felt like drinking, and so I did! Not much, mind you. But a glass of wine here and there, and some beer watered down with sprite. My doctor said it was okay, and there’s just something nice about a cold beer on a hot day. The Aussies seemed to be pretty relaxed about it. I’m pretty sure if I had done that in Canada I would have gotten an ear-full from someone about giving my baby fetal alcohol syndrome or something.

Also, my belly really popped while away. I suppose it’s about time, being 21-weeks along. I still haven’t gained any weight, but the belly is really out there.

After almost three weeks of being away, we both were looking forward to coming home and seeing Puppy and sleeping in our own bed again. When we got to the airport in Beijing (late, because of a snow storm), there were about 300 people waiting for taxis and only about two taxis coming every 10 minutes. People were so tired and frustrated that there was no line and it was total chaos. We waited for about an hour, but then we got frustrated and Hubby told me to stock my belly out and he went to the guard and basically said, "My wife is pregnant, and we’re not waiting in line anymore. We’re getting into the next taxi." I don’t know if it’s because we’re white, or because I’m pregnant, but the guard let us through and we finally made it home at around 3 a.m.

I would never have used my pregnancy as a ‘get out of line’ card, but it sure worked!!

And so, back to the routine for a couple weeks before I head home to Canada to do some baby shopping. Not really looking forward to the long flight because flying back from Australia was pretty uncomfortable for me, but really looking forward to catching up with friends and family.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Back from Oz

I’m just going to say one thing right now about Australia (besides having great beaches and really nice people):

FRIES DO NOT NEED TO BE BATTERED AND THEN DEEP-FRIED.

In my (very humble) opinion, this is a bit excessive.

More posting later, but right now am just exhausted and a bit shell-shocked from going to sunny Australia to -20 celcius and snow in Beijing.

Leaving on a jet plane.

Hubby and I are off to Australia for three weeks of sand and sun. I may post, I may not, but Merry Christmas to everyone!