First Belly Photo

I'll start my 13th week tomorrow, and my belly is growing fast! Here's a photo Max and I took this morning...

 Max is trying to hear the baby's heartbeat!

The kids and their "new" bikes

Our neighbor brought Claire a new bike! His kids are grown and didn't need it anymore.  After a new tube and a few adjustments, it was ready for Claire!  It has 15 speeds and hand brakes- both new things for Claire. I didn't have a bike this big until I was 10 years old!  As you can see, she does very well with it.

 Since Claire got a new bike, Max got her old one!  He adjusted to it very quickly. 

 Claire looks so grown up on a big bike!
 



off he goes!

Famous American Presentation

Yesterday was 'Famous American Day" at Claire's school. Every child in the first grade (all seven classes) came on stage one at a time to say one sentence about their specific famous american.  It took a while to get through them all, but it was very cute and entertaining.  Here is Claire during her turn:

"My name is Sacagawea and I am a famous American because I helped Lewis
and Clark on their Expedition."



Close up of Sacagawea after her presentation

When all the children had finished, each class posed for a photo:

Claire's class with their teacher, Mrs. Wald

Here's the program:

The cover

The inside



The back. If you look closely at the listing for Mrs. Wald's class, you will find Claire's name.



11 weeks and a heartbeat

We heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time last night! It was so exciting! The pregnancy really starts to seem real after that big milestone. We had a meeting with a potential midwife, and she had brought her little ultrasound machine with her. We really liked her and decided she was the one after our meeting. I am so excited to have a midwife for this baby! And she is going to come to my house for prenatal visits! To see what the baby looks like right now, click here.

Relish Muffins

I had just finished mixing up some muffin batter and was putting it into the cups when Max said to Claire: "We're having relish muffins! Yum!" 

He had just walked into the kitchen a few minutes earlier and had seen me adding something greenish and finely chopped to the muffin batter. Since he loves relish, I guess he was pretty excited about it!

I looked around at them. "Relish muffins?" 

"Yeah," said Max, "I saw you putting relish in them!" 

At this point, Claire was thoroughly disgusted.  "Yuck!" 

I laughed. "Those were chopped dried figs, not relish!"  We have two fig trees- one with purple fruit and one with greenish yellow fruit.  I guess when they are finely chopped, they must resemble relish?  What do you think? 

Here are some of the finished muffins:

If you'd like to make some "relish" muffins, here's the recipe:

I doubled this recipe and it made 2 dozen standard sized muffins plus 1 dozen mini muffins. The recipe as written is supposed to make one dozen standard sized muffins. It is adapted from the Whole Wheat Muffins recipe in The Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Grease muffin pans or line with papers

Whisk together in a large bowl:
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Beat in a separate bowl:
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons melted butter
Add to the dry ingredients with a few swift strokes.

Fold in, before the dry ingredients are entirely moist:
1/2 cup chopped dried figs

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Claire's family drawing

Claire made an especially nice drawing the other day!  The whole family. Not sure why Joey only has one arm...

Claire's Puzzle

Claire with her new fairy puzzle.  She had a lot of fun with it!