The Relativity of "Due-ness"

Dear Baby Girl,

You were due to arrive on this grand planet 4 days ago. Where are you? Comfy cozy inside my belly, as my little bud Aiden would say. Comfy cozy.

It's hard to describe the anticipation that comes and goes when thinking about your due date. I tried to be as non-chalant about it's inevitable passing. I started out my day with an intellectually-discussion at the Opera on TAP workshop, went to the Ballet to do some paperwork and a meeting, then off to dinner with some colleagues and one of our major donors, then lastly, the light at the end of my tunnel for July 27th (outside of you potentially arriving)--a pedicure at Salon Booth. It was worth every penny as the massage chair was the best massage chair I have EVER sat in. And my technician, Tom, when I told him I was due that day, said, "Uh uh. Not in my tub honey!" He was delightful to talk with and made my toes as pretty as can be. I'll definitely be going back to him in the future! But at the end of the day, I'm not gonna lie--there were twinges of disappointment.

So that's what I did on the day you were supposed to arrive because, well, you didn't. And so now, four days later, each day drags on a little more. Each pain and contraction I have I wonder "is this it?" And then I try and relax and remember that you'll come whenever you're ready and whenever you feel "due." Due-ness is, after all, quite relative to the wealth of factors that make one ready for labor and delivery.

Yet, as frustrated and impatient as I am to meet you, I really am proud that already you have a mind of your own. But I implore you, Baby Girl--please come sooner rather than later. It is summer after all :-)

Love,
Mama

Busy as a Bee

Been busy as a bee lately!  Growing a baby...

Week 38

Week 39

Making gifts for friends...

Making more things for baby...

• Tag Blankie

•  Pacifier clips

• Swaddling blanket

Modeled by our current baby of the house.

Working out in the garden...

The abundant amount of garlic that Jake dug up...only to have a large portion of it chomped on by Beau! But isn't it pretty?

And starting to get very impatient for Baby Girl to arrive. I'm getting so unbelievably excited to meet her, hold her, and love her at the same time that I'm becoming increasingly uncomfortable amidst the heat and humidity. I know I should take it one day at a time (and I'm trying), but the thought of having to be pregnant for another two weeks is a daunting prospect. So please--help take my mind off it! I know in my head I won't be pregnant forever, but still...the days are really long when the heat index is above 100 degrees!

Oh, and I suppose for those of you have read all the way through, wondering if there would be a clue on the name, all I will say is "High FIVE! We're almost there!"

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Oh finally! Inspiration and the time to write a non-pregnancy blog post! I hope you enjoy as much as we did!

Last night, after hemming and hawing in the car about "Eat out? Ooh, Chinese sounds so gooood! But we shouldn't spend the money. And we're having Asian tomorrow night, etc.," we finally decided to make another grill pizza. We had one on Thursday night, and while it was delicious, I was in the mood for something really savory and salty. I suggested BBQ Chicken Pizza. Jake got giddy with excitement. BBQ Chicken Pizza it was.

When we got home, Jake turned on the grill and I immediately pulled some of our cooked chicken from the freezer. Seriously, preparing meat in advance is the BEST. THING. EVER. Meals come together in no time at all! I cut up some onion, cheese, and pepperoncini fresh from the garden. Jake mixed our leftover pizza sauce with some BBQ sauce, and trust us--it doesn't take much to give it a BBQ flavor. He then mixed a bit of this with the chicken. I was skeptical of this method at first, but it really did help keep the chicken from drying out. I stretched the dough. I didn't do any fancy twirls with the dough, but I think my dad still would have been proud. Then we assembled. Here is the pizza before baking:

 Then we put it on a pizza stone that we use exclusively for the grill. If you try and use one for both your oven and your grill, your house will get smoky very quickly (trust us!). It's best, we've found, to NOT heat the pizza stone up before hand on the grill. Since the heat source is bottom heat, it has a tendency to burn very quickly before the rest of the pizza is done. And about 12-15 minutes later, here's the beauty of a pizza we turned out:

Dad, you taught me well :-)

And because we had some garden greens to use up (beet and kale), I sauteed those up with some onion, garlic, and creole seasoning for what turned out to be a delicious Southern meal--pizza style. Delicious!

All my bags are packed...

All my bags are packed because baby, we are at 37 weeks. Holy moly. Full term peeps. That's what that means. Baby Girl Melbs could arrive at any time and everything would likely be okay. While you can never really know how things will ever go, there's definitely a sense of relief to know we made it this far.

Here's the belly at 25, 33, and 37 weeks in the same outfit for a little comparison:

Whoa. It's amazing what the female body can do!

I keep meaning to blog about something other than pregnancy, but have found my inspiration to be lackluster lately. So, for those tired of hearing about the impending arrival (and it's okay if you are...there are times I'm sick of talking about it, to be quite frank), here's some other things that have been going on in the Melby household:

A delicious, refreshing lunch on my half-day Friday last week. Fresh basil can make any meal go from blah to grand!

Processing the last of the peas from our garden. I think we have about 8 bags of them in the freezer, ready to go for stir frys and the like.

And our puppy. Who is the cutest puppy around :-)