Scottish Things

Earlier this month, my sister returned from a year long adventure in Scotland. Dad managed to escape from the bakery and join her for the last week she was there. When they returned, there were some cute Scottish presents for Papillon (I also got a pretty present, but i haven't taken a picture of it yet).

We helped Papillon open the present:

Voila! A Scottish hat of adorableness!

Isn't it cute?

And there were two of them! One is going to be Baby #2s when Baby #2 arrives. But for now, Papillon gets to wear both!

Little Brother had also recently made a trip to Scotland and returned with his own Scottish garb. (plaid hat and tie). Isn't he handsome?

10 Weeks

Baby #2 is already 10 weeks along. 10 weeks, 4 days, officially.
Time to start the belly-photos.

Note Papillon in the bottom left of this picture. She really wanted to get in on this belly-shot action.

Officially I don't think I have gained as much weight so far as I did by 10 weeks with Papillon. But, I didn't quite make it back to my pre-pregnancy weight from last time (just shy by like 2 lbs!) so between starting a smidgen higher, and this being baby #2 and my body being more than willing to make space for the baby immediately, I think I am "showing" a little more this time than last time.

That said, I can totally still wear my normal clothes. And as long as nothing is super-fitted, I don't think I am officially "showing" at all yet. Which is fine, on the one hand, I am super excited to "look pregnant" cause I really do enjoy that. But on the other hand, I am aiming to gain less weight this time than last time. 43lbs with Papillon was fine...but I really don't think more than that is necessary.

Unfortunately, as with last time, the first thing that goes out the window when I am pregnant is my self control. I do truly enjoy food, and with a baby on the way, its really hard to say no to food....ever. Hopefully we can keep the excessive snacking under control this time.

While we are here, some other pregnancy notes and thoughts.

I have been significantly more sick this time than last. Still nothing super terrible. But its not really morning-sickness. It's more like whenever-I-try-and-sleep sickness. We could be laying in bed watching TV before bed, and I feel fine; but as soon as we turn off the lights to actually sleep it hits like a ton of bricks. This makes sleeping tricky. Most of the rest of the time though, I feel totally fine, so I really can't complain.

People told me when I was pregnant with Papillon and very excited to be pregnant, that 2nd pregnancies were very different. That one often even forgets one is pregnant with baby #2. I didn't believe them. But it has proven true. I don't feel like its cause of being extra busy (though I am busier now than I was pre-Papillon). I think it more has to do with contentment. I was incredibly restless pre-Papillon. I was ready for a new phase of life - ideally a non-working, baby-loving phase. I am blessed to have that now; but also I think recently I have learned a lot about contentment. Being content with today. Being content with life as it is. I am very blessed, and I don't doubt that God has even more awesome blessings planned for us later in life. But I am happy with what I have now. Not perfectly, mind you; I am still a work in progress. But much more so than during my first pregnancy. So I am not as anxiously, desperately, waiting for this baby's arrival and so from time to time I forget he/she is there. And it is not that I am not excited, on the contrary, when I think that he/she really truly is there and really truly will join the family in March I feel as though I am more blessed than I can handle. Even just waking up every morning is more blessing than I deserve, but a second baby, now that is a crazy amount of blessing.

There are a number of things that I am hoping go a little differently this pregnancy than last. A less crisis-labor would be good, a better experience breast feeding would be good, etc. But one of the main things that I am hoping for is more movement! Papillon was not a mover. I was first confident I felt something at 20 weeks, but it was sporadic and not consistently every day until 30+ weeks, and even then it was infrequent enough that I would stop what I was doing to enjoy the few moments of movement that she gave me. Movement is so wonderful and reassuring to me, that even though people tell me I may regret wishing for it when my ribs are bruised from kicks from the inside, I say, bring on the movement! I want a wiggler this time.

There are more thoughts I could share, but I will refrain for now. Belly shots will likely not be as frequent as they were with Papillon, but I promise there will be some. For now, here is my little 10 week belly:

Nicer Weather

We are braced for some crazy weather around here today. But prior to this, we have had some very lovely weather days that have prompted some very fun outdoor adventures.

One night we met Mon Amour at a local park for a picnic dinner. It was a beautiful evening!

The Break In

Now that there is a fair amount of time between us and the break in, my perspective has completely changed. For the couple days following the break in, I was very fearful, very tense, quite a bit angry, and generally very frustrated. Frustrated with the police, with the burglar, with myself for being to cheap to get a security system before this happened.

I meant to write out my thoughts on the break in while they were still fresh in my mind, but I didn't, and perhaps its for the best. Now, I just think about how much we were blessed despite the break in.

First, no one was hurt. We were all away from home, even Marge.
About a week after the break in, I discovered that the burglars grabbed a knife from my kitchen knife block. I own cheap knives, so I can only imagine they grabbed it in case they encountered someone in the house. Praise the Lord, no one was home.

While the house was a mess, it was oddly easy to clean up. And I was blessed with awesome help. Between my family, and friends from our church, the house was back in order very quickly.

My least favorite part of the mess was in my bedroom. I hated to think that someone had been in there rummaging through my stuff. But, they left Papillon's room almost completely untouched, for which I am hugely grateful. Someone making a mess of my little girl's things would have been much worse than the mess in my room.

They only stole 3 things: a knife from the kitchen, my work laptop, an expired credit card, and milkways from the fridge. The knife was unnerving, but the laptop had literally nothing saved on it since it is only for work and I just connect to a remote server, and it was a dinosaur of a machine - really no loss there. The credit card company is taking care of the couple fraudulent charges so no problems there. The milkways were the biggest tragedy (you don't steal chocolate from a pregnant woman!!), but I am also grateful that that was the worst of it. They left behind: another laptop that is also a dinosaur, but has personal pictures on it, a set of antique silverware that belonged to Mon Amour's Grandmother and a Rolex that belonged to Mon Amour's Grandfather. All of these things were amongst the mess that the burglars had created, but obviously something (or Someone) kept them from seeing them.

They took meat out of my freezer (I guess to see if it really was meat, and not solid gold nuggets or something) and chocolate out of my fridge, but they closed both before they left, so nothing else was ruined. The loss of a freezer full of food would have been hard to take.

I kept finding glass pieces from the broken window for well over a week (including two big chunks waaaay out in the back yard...don't know how that happened) but the only person who has cut themselves so far was the guy who came to give us a quote for replacing the window. You would think he would be better at handling glass since that is what he does for a living....oh well. He had a bandaid with him.

The break in has prompted us to get a home security system, which in the long run, is probably a very wise decision. A minor break-in, that prompts us to prevent a more serious one is a good thing.

As a result of all the commotion at our house, I have gotten to know our neighbors much better. I am not very good at having or being neighbors, or at asking for help. The break in has forced me to be better at both.

In summary, our house was broken in to and we are incredibly blessed.

Souvenirs

Mon Amour's trips are, among other things, an excellent opportunity to do some Christmas shopping. Even hard to shop for people will appreciate something random from the other side of the world!

Obviously I can't show you pictures of the things that are presents for other people (can't spoil the surprise!). But, Mon Amour does bring home a few things just for Papillon and myself that I can show you now!

Here is....
...one decorative felt wall hanging from Kyrgyzstan (felt is a big deal in Kyrgyz Culture)
...one felt ladybug purse for Papillon
....one Kyrgyz and one Chinese outfit for Papillon
...and one beautiful purple scarf from Kyrgyzstan for me.

Papillon can add these to her Indian outfit, in her growing foreign-clothes wardrobe. Mon Amour was thinking he would keep growing this collection with his future travels, but someone recently suggested doing dolls from each country instead since you would outgrow them less. So that is the new plan.

But, if Baby #2 is a boy, I am not sure what Mon Amour will get for him...dolls would probably not mean as much to a boy..... any suggestions?

Cool Shades

Papillon got some cool sunglasses for her birthday.

She doesn't like to keep them on for very long.

But she does find them super-fun to take on and off.

So cute!

Pigtails

Papillon's hair is growing like a weed. Recently it became long enough to do pigtails with and this has led to some super-cute hair days.

I can't wait until it is long enough to braid too! Until then, it's pigtails all the way!

Bakery Adventures

While Mon Amour was away and I was staying with my parents for a bit, I decided it was finally time to experience the early morning shift at the bakery. I work for my parents' bakery in a marketing capacity from my computer at home, but everyone else in the family, at one point or another, has worked in the store, and most, have done the early shift. So it was high time I gave it a try.

And when I say "early shift" I mean...super early...

Though this is a normal-day early-shift. Holiday early shifts start even earlier. Yikes!

The bakery is very peaceful at 2:30am.

When we arrive, most of our recipes are "prepped"; measured our the day before so that they are ready to go! Large sour cream containers filled with chocolate chips, tubs of butter that has come to the necessary room temperature, etc.

First order of business: grab a large bowl and start mixing up some tasty sweets!

Once your first batch is mixed up, start weighing it out

Then, using our handy dandy dough-press, divide them evenly into cookie-sized balls. Which you will then smash onto a cookie sheet!

While all this is going on, it's important to be mixing up the next batch of dough, and also keep up with the dishes.

Dad is a furious multi-tasker in the morning. I consider myself pretty stellar at multi-tasking but my head was spinning. I was still smashing out the oatmeal cookies when he comes out with another batch of dough that I didn't even know he had started!

Once you have a bunch of dough all measure out into the appropriate baking dish....

...it's time to fire up the oven. Which is when the real multi-tasking begins!

This rather benign looking timer is what keeps everything running (combined with dad's brain of course). The oven has a bunch of large trays that rotate around like a rotisserie; each tray gets its own kind of tasty-ness, the bake time for which is then marked on this dial with a numbered and color coded marker. When a marker gets to the top, the buzzer goes off - you consult the marker to see which tray needs checking. It sounds simple, but whoa! It's a science.

Once things are rolling along inside the bakery, it's time for a quick break. Sitting outside the bakery in the black darkness of the early morning (I think it's like 3:30am at this point) may be the best part of the shift. The calm before the day begins is kind of inspiring.

But, there is no time for sitting around too long, it's back to work! Slicing up some cheese for the top of some scones!

Time to through another ball into the air in the juggling act we call baking! The 4 O'clocks are ready to go in!

But watch out, just like that, the scones are ready to come out!

Oh what beautiful, beautiful scones.

Now that the sweets are well underway, it's back to the kitchen for me to learn about mixing up sponge and dough! I also got a tutorial in how to use the industrial sized mixer. This is no ordinary mixer - with its start, stop, varying speeds, clutch, etc. controlling this thing is a skill.

Essential to all (ok...not all...just most) tasty baked goods, is butter! The real stuff, of course. You really can never have too much.

Many things get mixed on the deluxe mixer, but some things must be mixed the old fashioned way...with a very large spoon, or paddle rather.

At this point, it is still early....

...but this sun is starting to come up....

...and it's time to take the temperature of the bread to see if it has "proofed" (risen) correctly.

It's ready, and so is our bread-prep crew! The batch of bread is dumped on the "bread board" and shaped into the necessary forms. We started with Challah dough which meant rolling it out...

And braiding it!

Some got filled with delicious fillings and made into other challah variations...

and still more became delicious coffee cakes!

By then, it was time for me to call it quits. I had been plagued by morning sickness and needed sleep. I left at about 7:30am and felt liked I had worked a full day. Dad stayed for another couple hours like he normally does....I don't know he does it.

All in all, it was a fabulous morning! (that for most people had just begun when mine ended!) And I totally want to do it again some time...not every day, and not when suffering from morning sickness....but I definitely enjoyed the experience and have a much greater appreciate for what goes on behind the scenes at the bakery!