Week 9 - The (stuffed?) Green Olive

It seems on every baby-centric website pregnancy and baby-growth are displayed as fruits and vegetables. Edible objects? Is that wise? This week we have a green olive.

Nutrition: Baby likes Peanut Butter Crunch, right?

Emotions: AH! YAY! AH! WHOA! Repeat.

General Feeling: Not bad. Very tired. I tend to fall asleep on the couch around 730-8pm. Dustin will find me and make sure I get tucked in with Zero. Still no morning sickness, although I feel queasy often. Peppermints help. I've moved to a few small meals throughout the day. I haven't told most of my office. There have been a few comments on how my usually healthy snacks have been replaced with Goldfish.

No major changes in me this week. And still no pictures. Nothing to show but bloaty-bloat-bloat.

Go to Coco Ichibanya

While in Sapporo we tried the local specialty - curry soup. It was a fantastic turn on one of our favorite Japanese dishes. On a recent outing to Coco's we discovered they are running a limited-time version of soup curry filled with fresh eggplant, okra, carrots, potatoes, and lotus roots. YUM! It's like finding biscuits and gravy above the Mason-Dixon line. Go to Coco Ichibanya before this special leaves!

Grand Chief Burgers

On the way home from Hiroshima a few weeks ago I saw this huge tepee lit up on the side of the road. What is that? It hadn't been there before on any of our journeys north, at least I hope my powers of observation have not been lacking. Yes, a tepee. And next to it was an Airstream with deck. Oh yum, this is going to be good.

We've had hamburgers in Japan a few times. Like McDonald's or MosBurger, but most of time "hamburger" means a ground beef steak similar to what we tried at Joyfull. I'm not very picky when it comes to food and this tepee/Airstream intrigued me. So I pulled Dustin away from school and we grabbed lunch one afternoon. The pictures were quite a fluke because this place was BUSY! They do to-go orders, another rarity in Japan, so many were choosing that route. I wanted to explore the tepee so we ate on site.

Inside the surprisingly spacious tepee, we snagged a small table. After a few minutes we grabbed our food and began noshing on the best Japanese-American burger I have had to date. Yum! I love Japanese food, but every now and then I just want a plain cheeseburger with onions and ketchup. No popular Japanese additions: no ginger, no egg, no bacon, no horseradish, no no no. Just a plain ol' hamburger. Ahem, cheeseburger.

And this is what I got. Highly, highly recommend this little place if you're looking for a delicious, American-style hamburger. And if you still want some of those Japanese additions, they have that as well. Dustin got the ginger burger that had a subtle hint of ginger couple with a fried egg and spicy mayonnaise. Grand Chief Burger = Yum!

Week 8 - Walking, No Hugs, and a Raspberry

I promise this blog will not turn into a "Mommy blog". Not that there is anything wrong with them (trust me, I've been scouring them like crazy these last few weeks), but it's just not me. I like writing about adventures and while this is definitely a new (and probably the biggest) experience, I know this welcome addition to our family will not stop our other adventures. There just may be a bit of a delay as I work through super-exhaustion and the ever present feeling that shouting groceries is in my future.

I have stopped running. Okay, not completely stopped, but a major milage change has occured. I think of all the crazy changes going on with me that has had the biggest impact on my day-to-day. I miss that time, but also cannot fathom adding training to this rollercoaster. So walking is now my daily activity. Recently I started following one of my favorite running routes that takes me through the lotus fields and along the seawall. This is a bad idea as it is planting season. Planting = miles of manure. Blech.

Dustin and I revealed our little raspberry this week to family, friends, and Facebook. To answer the number one question that all have asked: I feel fine. Okay, that's a total lie. But telling you about weird poop and swollen boobs isn't generally acceptable. So yes, I'm peachy. All normal pains and gains. My only loud complaint is the metallic taste in my mouth. I feel like I'm sucking on pennies. Again, blech.

Yes, we are super excited, but please don't hug me. It hurts (see above). I'm totally down with fist bumps (with explosions, of course).

No pictures this week because all I've got to show is bloat. I started this journey curvy (although a healthy, normal weight) so I doubt there will be much to see for a bit. I'll never been one of those ladies that "are all bump". That's okay though.

Baby Tice is due October 2014.

Wordless Wednesday