Shifting Life

It’s a

Cute, healthy baby!

Oh, and it’s a BOY!!!

I have so much to say, but right now I am so exhausted.

I will just say I’m excited, and happy, and a little nervous.

And I can’t wait to meet our SON/Willa’s little brother. (OH MY GOD.)

(Also, feel free to make “there’s a penis inside of you” jokes. We sure have.)

Remember me?

Oh, hello!

I did not, in fact, drop off the face of the earth.

It has been a rough few months. Because being pregnant while taking care of a 3 year old and 4 animals who take turns getting sick, and going to school, wasn’t hard enough, I’ve had 24 hour nausea since about week 6.

I’m almost 17 weeks now and it still hasn’t gone away. I’m starting to get worried that it will never go away. And there is no one who hates vomiting more than me. I am a world champion not-vomiter. I can REALLY hold in my vomit. I’m really quite talented. However, even I have not been able to hold it back several times. You’d think that at least if you vomited it would give you some relief, but you would be wrong. Still nauseous. I have not used toothpaste since I was about 6 weeks pregnant. I still brush my teeth about 2-3 times a day with just water, but God forbid I actually touch my tongue with the toothbrush- then it’s all over- literally.

And do I really even need to mention the exhaustion?

The other fun part is that I’m constantly nauseous and starving at the same time. Also, I’m not really craving anything. I mean, I dig apples, and lemonade is refreshing, but there’s nothing that really satisfies me. This is a problem. I had trouble eating enough when I was pregnant with Willa and barely nauseous. Now, I’m nauseous 24 hours a day (have I mentioned I’m nauseous? Because I am.) and vegan, so consuming enough calories has been a real concern.

The human body is amazing though. I have finally gained about 4-5 pounds. By this time when I was pregnant with Willa I had gained about 8lbs, but I will gladly take this 4-5 lbs, even though I’m pretty sure it’s all in my boobs. Seriously. I wish it was socially acceptable to show the internet your boobs without all the crazies crawling out of the woodwork, because they are really quite remarkable. I was a small 36C before I got pregnant, and now I’m about a 38-40DD AND I’M NOT EVEN HALFWAY DONE AND MY MILK HASN’T COME IN YET. I am truly frightened.

We haven’t told Willa yet. She has the patience, well, of a three year old. Plus, we wanted to make sure everything was really OK before we tell her. Kids are so intuitive though, and she has been constantly talking about babies, and has even informed us that we should have a baby, so we’re hoping she handles the news well. I’m starting to show now, so we’ll probably tell her soon.

I’ve been taking belly shots every week just like I did when I was pregnant with Willa. You can follow along here. If you click on each picture, you’ll see that I’ve also posted a shot from each week of the 1st pregnancy, so you can compare.

Tomorrow, we have a big anatomy ultrasound where they’ll probably be able to tell us the baby’s gender. Feel free to wager a guess in the comment section. If you guess right, you win a prize!*

I have a lot more to update you guys on, but right now all I can think about is seeing a healthy baby tomorrow.

*The prize is the satisfaction of being right! Hooray for you!

Quite an exciting week

Well, I did it. I enrolled in school. I’ll be attending The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I couldn’t be more excited. And nervous. And excited.

Today is my first day. After I hit publish on this post, I’m going to go watch my first lecture.

To explain what else happened today, I’m going to have to backtrack a little- (If you follow me on Twitter, you already know about this.)

On the Tuesday before Christmas, I was sitting on our couch complaining to my husband that I was smelling cigarette smoke. He asked me to take a pregnancy test, and voila:

After 3 miscarriages, I’m hesitant to get excited, but today, I had my first sonogram, and we saw the flickering of a tiny heartbeat.

I’m cautiously optimistic. If all goes well, I’m due September 4th. If you’d like to follow along, I’ll be chronicling the pregnancy over on Flickr.

Also this week, we’re headed to San Diego. My husband has a conference there, and we thought it would be good to get out of the cold and make it a little vacation. Any suggestions for fun things to do, or veggie-friendly restaurants would be greatly appreciated.

I really am “Shifting Life”

In the 7 1/2 years I’ve been blogging I have often struggled with whether or not to keep going. I even shut down my old blog and started this new one in hopes that it would inspire me. My 10+ week absence has proved it hasn’t.

I’ve been thinking a lot about why that is- why I used to love blogging so much, and why it has become a chore.

I think the reasons are very complex and long, so I don’t want to bore you, but the general gist is this- My life has changed, I’ve changed (for the better I hope), and I want to feel like I’m contributing something.

I realize that a lot of people who read my old blog will find the new blog boring. They like listening to me rant and complain. I thought that using my blog as a platform to vent would ease some of my stress, but instead it just intensified it. It wasn’t healthy.

Anyway, after much consideration, I have to decided to try to blog about what I am currently passionate about- holistic health, wellness, and nutrition. It’s been a “hobby” of mine for a long time, but recently I’ve become so serious about it, that I’m looking into getting a degree in holistic nutrition. My husband and I are even considering starting a holistic/wellness consulting business. I get really excited when I learn new things. Health does not come easily for me. It’s a daily struggle. So when I find out a new fact, or read a great article, or find a natural treatment for an ailment, I want to share it with the world.

I know some of you are not interested in that, and I understand if you won’t be reading this blog anymore. It’s ok, really.

I’ll still be sharing pictures, and stuff about Willa, and other random things, but the primary focus of this blog, at least starting in the new year, will be holistic health and wellness.

I hope some of you stick around- I’ve got some great info to share.

Leaving on a jet plane

I was really close to crossing another item off my Life List- Seeing Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me being filmed live, but apparently the universe has other plans. The weird thing is, a few weeks ago, I told the husband that I wanted to ad that to my Life List, and the NEXT DAY my oldest friend called and said that tickets were going on sale in 15 minutes, and did we want to go. Um, YES. So she bought the tickets, and I began to figure out who would babysit Willa. Well, we have exhausted every (and I mean every) possibility, and we can’t find a babysitter. I’m super bummed, but maybe it’s for the best that we don’t go into the city for a show the night before we have to leave for the airport at 6am.

(*If you know anyone in the NYC area who might want to go- tonight, Friday, October 8th, 7:30pm at Carnegie Hall, email me- our tickets are still available.)

But, I’m focusing on happy things, like, my husband bought me Alexander Technique sessions as a gift. I’ve had my first two sessions, and I LOVE it. I have hope that it’s going to give me some relief from my chronic pain. I already liked my instructor, but then Krissa told me that she has a friend who uses the same instructor, and she has changed her life, so now I’m filled with hope.

AND

Tomorrow we leave for vacation, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Our first stop is Portland, Oregon. I’ve always wanted to go to Portland- in fact it’s #12 on my Life List. The fact that it’s North America’s #1 most veggie friendly city makes it even more awesome. We plan on eating our way through the city. We are staying with friends who have a little girl who is 2 days older than Willa, and we’ll get to see a couple of other friends.

Then, we head to Houston, to see my best buddy Tracy marry the man of her dreams.

10 whole days with my husband and my kid. Heaven.

First Day of School

Somebody was super excited about their first day of school.

A quick update

A lot has been going on around these parts, so I thought maybe I should fill you in.

I had whooping cough for 6 weeks, and about 5 weeks in, Willa broke her ankle. Not the most fun I’ve ever had.

She just got her cast off a week ago, which was perfect timing since preschool, ballet, and swim were all starting. She’s still not 100%, but she’ll get there. It’s amazing how fast kids heal. I broke my foot at the beginning of April, and I’m still struggling with pain occasionally.

Speaking of struggling, I’ve been eating well, exercising, and now that the weather has cooled down, taking lots of nice, long walks. The one benefit to Willa having a broken ankle, was that she was willing to ride in the stroller, so I could walk fast and actually get some exercise. Usually when we take a walk, we have to go at Willa’s speed, AKA SLOW. I’ve been feeling better, and even weigh about 5 pounds less than I did when I got pregnant with Willa. (Although it’s distributed completely differently.) Dexter has also lost some weight.

I feel like things are on the upswing. We saw one of our best friends get married a couple of weeks ago, and that same weekend, another one of our best friends got engaged to someone we really like. Isn’t it nice when someone you care about ends up with someone you like?

I also started a new job as a reviewer for the recently launched Cool Mom Tech (an offshoot of Cool Mom Picks), and one of my pictures was chosen to be a part of a campaign for Nikon (this will be my 3rd campaign with them).

Now if I could just figure out how to sleep better, and not feel exhausted all the time.

Traditional Indian Wedding

I went to my first traditional Indian wedding a couple of weeks ago. We had such an amazing time. The groom is my husband’s oldest friend (they’ve know each other since they were 5). It was so colorful, and joyous, and welcoming. I wanted our friend’s family to adopt me. And all of the food was vegetarian!

Here are some shots from the ceremony:

I’d show you shots from the reception the next day, but I was too busy dancing my ass off to take many photos. I did however, shoot this video with my IPhone:

SO MUCH FUN!

The best ice cream EVER! *And it’s VEGAN!

Before I went from vegetarian to vegan, I still wasn’t eating ice cream because dairy products did not *ahem* agree with me.

I had tried some coconut milk ice cream, and had really liked it, but I wanted to try making my own.

As usual, I read a bunch of recipes, and came up with my own. When I tell you this was THE BEST ice cream I’ve ever had, I’m not kidding.

Willa Approves!

Now, I made ours banana-chocolate, but first I’m going to give you the basic vanilla recipe, and then I’ll explain how to flavor it.

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream

3 cups (A little less than 2 cans- I’m using the leftover bit to make curry sauce.) full fat coconut milk. (I haven’t tried using the reduced fat variety yet. Once I experiment I’ll post my results.)

3/4 cup of sugar (You could probably only use 1/2 a cup, especially if you’re putting something else sweet into it, like banana.)

1/2 a vanilla bean

Run a sharp knife down the center of the vanilla bean. Put the vanilla bean, coconut milk, and sugar in a sauce pan (I used a 2 qt. sauce pan), and whisk occasionally until it is hot, but doesn’t boil. Pull out vanilla bean, and run your fingers along it to get out all the particles of vanilla bean. Drop it into the pot and give it a final whisk to make sure it’s mixed in. Transfer into a heat safe container (preferably glass), and put in the fridge to cool down for about an hour. I stir it occasionally so it cools down evenly. Pour into ice cream mixer and follow your individual ice cream maker’s instructions. (I have this ice cream maker and it takes about 20-30 minutes.) The ice cream is amazing right out of the machine- it has an amazing creamy soft-serve-like texture, and it hardens up and becomes scoop-able when you put it in the freezer.

*After the ice cream is done in the machine, you can stir in anything yummy that you like. Some suggestions- candied nuts, crumbled cookies, chocolate chips, etc.

Banana Ice Cream

3/4 cup of sugar (You could probably only use 1/2 a cup, especially if you’re putting something else sweet into it, like banana.)

1/2 a vanilla bean

2 small, or 1 large ripe banana

Run a sharp knife down the center of the vanilla bean. Put the vanilla bean, 2 cups of coconut milk, and sugar in a sauce pan (I used a 2 qt. sauce pan), and whisk occasionally until it is hot, but doesn’t boil. Pull out vanilla bean, and run your fingers along it to get out all the particles of vanilla bean. Drop it into the pot and give it a final whisk to make sure it’s mixed in. Put banana in the bottom of a blender and pour in remaining 1 cup of coconut milk. Blend for a few minutes until smooth. With the blender on low, and the top off, pour in the coconut milk mixture from the sauce pan and blend until combined and smooth. Put blender with mixture in the fridge to cool down for about an hour. I stir it occasionally so it cools down evenly. Pour into ice cream maker and follow your individual ice cream maker’s instructions. (I have this ice cream maker and it takes about 20-30 minutes.) The ice cream is amazing right out of the machine- it has an amazing creamy soft-serve-like texture, and it hardens up and becomes scoop-able when you put it in the freezer.

*After the ice cream is done in the machine, you can stir in anything yummy that you like. Some suggestions- candied nuts, crumbled cookies, chocolate chips, etc.

Banana-Chocolate Ice Cream

3/4 cup of sugar (You could probably only use 1/2 a cup, especially if you’re putting something else sweet into it, like banana.)

1/2 a vanilla bean

2 small, or 1 large ripe banana

About 1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Run a sharp knife down the center of the vanilla bean. Put the vanilla bean, 2 cups of coconut milk, the chocolate chips, and sugar in a sauce pan (I used a 2 qt. sauce pan), and whisk occasionally until it is hot, but doesn’t boil. Pull out vanilla bean, and run your fingers along it to get out all the particles of vanilla bean. Drop it into the pot and give it a final whisk to make sure it’s mixed in. Put banana in the bottom of a blender and pour in remaining 1 cup of coconut milk. Blend for a few minutes until smooth. With the blender on low, and the top off, pour in the coconut milk mixture from the sauce pan and blend until combined and smooth. Put blender with mixture in the fridge to cool down for about an hour. I stir it occasionally so it cools down evenly. Pour into ice cream maker and follow your individual ice cream maker’s instructions. (I have this ice cream maker and it takes about 20-30 minutes.) The ice cream is amazing right out of the machine- it has an amazing creamy soft-serve-like texture, and it hardens up and becomes scoop-able when you put it in the freezer.

*After the ice cream is done in the machine, you can stir in anything yummy that you like. Some suggestions- candied nuts, crumbled cookies, chocolate chips, etc.

Please let me know if you try one of the recipes or if you have any questions. Enjoy!

Christmas in August

Willa and I were invited to attend a private party at Radio City Music Hall to kick off this season of The Christmas Spectacular staring the Rockettes.

We had so much fun. There’s something almost magical about the Rockettes, and Willa is mesmerized by them.

Willa was not shy about showing the Rockettes her moves, and I’m so thankful that this event was the day before Willa broke her ankle. (That’s a long story. Maybe I’ll write a post about it.)