Welcome to the World, Matilda Mae!

Last Sunday, Nate and I were blessed to welcome a healthy baby girl into this world. She was certainly worth the wait, and melted our hearts right away.

Meet the newest member of our nest:

Matilda Mae Hanson

Born June 19th, 2011 at 9:51 PM

7 pounds, 5 oz

21 inches

Right now we are busy adjusting to life as a family of 3, and are figuring our parenthood with a newborn. Nate is absolutely smitten with his baby girl, and is an amazing Dad already. She is going to be trouble for him, I can just feel it!

We will share more details soon, just wanted to get the initial details up for everyone.

Thanks to all for thoughts and well wishes throughout the last 9 months and since Matilda's arrival.

What's in a Date?

Sell-by dates. Expiration Dates. Best if Used by dates. Due Dates. What do they all have in common?

They are all crap-shoots. You can pick up a cup of yogurt that doesn't expire for 3 days and it is rancid. Similarly, we have been eating out of a tub of Costco cottage cheese that is well past it's best if used by date and it is still completely delicious.

And perhaps in recent relevance, I am learning that a due date does not equal a delivery date. Baby H has clearly has no desire to leave the womb. I've made it all too comfortable. Or Nate and I have already sufficiently scared it and it refuses to come out if we are going to be its parents. Or maybe it's showing us who is boss from a VERY early age.

Either way, at 40 weeks instead of holding a baby..this is the situation:

And thanks to some very good friends who have been keeping me sane by going shopping with me, getting pedicures, going to lunch, and in general saying the right things at the right times, I am in a very good spot for being over-due.

I've got no complaints besides the fact that every single person I talk to now says "you're still here" or "you're still pregnant"....or something Captain Obvious like that.

Nate and I have a whole weekend of activities planned to keep us busy. Luckily it is the St. Louis Park "townie festival' this weekend called Parktacular, and we started out the weekend right with some serious BINGO--of which I won $18. I was pretty excited (clearly not excited enough to send me into labor).

So today, we will check out another library book sale (because I need more books like I need a hole in my head), and partake in the Parktacular Parade where I will enthusiastically sprint into the street for candy. And by sprint, I mean point to the candy and hope Nate picks it up. :)

So that's the update on the due date. It has come and gone. And Baby H is still waiting to makes its grand entrance into this world. We will keep you posted!

Magazine Cuisine: Episode 13

What do you do when you are waiting for a baby to arrive? You bake. Well, that an organize stuff. Drawers. Closets. Shelves.

But you also bake. Which is why this recipe from Food Magazine for Salted Nut Bars was perfect. Why was it perfect?

1) I didn't have to turn the oven on and get the house warm. Yes, I realize this isn't technically baking then but I'm fine with it.

2) It had the perfect blend of salty and sweet. I am pretty indecisive these days on which of those flavor profiles I am wanting. Viola! A treat that delivers both.

3) This literally is like 3 ingrediants and took 10 minutes.

4) It reminded me of my Grandma Sherry who always had Pearson Salted Nut Rolls.

Overall, it was good. Pretty chewy. Would not recommend to someone who suffers from lockjaw or has a loose tooth. But other than that. This was a winner for me!

Hooligans

As Nate and I were nearing home this morning after our "seriously-Baby H-come-out-now" walk, one of our neighbors was fiercely inspecting his car and was very eager to share that his car had been (and I quote): Hit by Tweens.

Apparently, in the wee hours of the morning a bunch of tween girls thought it would be funny to put ketchup, mustard, syrup, etc on car handles and windsheilds of cars parked on the street. Apparently they didn't realize  that while 5AM is "totally late" for them, adults are actually up at this time.

I had a flash back of my Dad dealing with infamous egging incidents at our house growing up, as this neighbor of mine was saying how he is pressing charges and calling the cops. As we walked away, the cops were bringing these girls to the cars where they had to wash everything off and our neighbor yells at them (in front of the cop): "You can start with this one because my wife needs to get to work"

Nate and I laughed about this incident but both said if our kids ever did something like this shit would 'hit the fan.' But what does that even mean? Nate's approach is shame and embarassment (which should lead to many interesting discipline stories in our future--stay tuned) and all I could picture is me literally blowing steam out of my ears and being paralyzed with anger.

This was actually a perfect way for me to start my first official day past my due date. Because quite honestly teenagers are scary. Because they do stupid stuff like mustard people's door handles. And all of the sudden Baby H's rib-kicking violations don't seem so bad.
And the sooner Baby H comes out, the sooner it is likely to turn into a hooligan.

Tri Season

Triathlon season officially started this weekend, with Nate's first big race of the season.

I didn't spectate the whole thing as sitting in a car/park bench for 5 hours seemed like not the brightest idea to Nate and I, but surprised Nate at the finish line (huge thanks to Sina for letting me borrow her wheels to get there).

He looked super strong as he crossed the finish line, and beat his personal best by 18 minutes!!

No matter how many races you do, it is still a huge accomplishment, and I think Tri's take the cake. When you are willing to plunge yourself into a cold lake on a cooler day in MN, then get on your bike, and after that decide to throw down a few miles on the pavement, you have some serious motivation within you. Nate has more races planned this year, so hopefully at the next one I will be able to be the supportive wife WITH a baby cheering Nate on.

I am also relieved we got through the tri without having to put our crazy "what if Greta goes into labor while Nate is racing" plan. It was in place, but it would have been a little chaotic. And Nate was even nice enough to still go on my daily labor-inducing walk with me that night. What a guy!

Magazine Cuisine: Episode 12

This week brought record highs to Minneapolis: 103 degrees without humidity! What better way to beat the heat than to enjoy my favorite summer treat, watermelon.

I am the only consumer of watermelon in this household as Nate dramatically tries it once every year, and then dramatically gags and has his moment to remind me how he thinks it is so disgusting.

I came across a recipe for Watermelon Granita in the Whole Living magazine this past month which was relatively easy to make, and gave me another way to enjoy this summery treat.

Think of it as a cross between a popsicle and a snow-cone. It was good, but in general my take on it was that even thought it was easy to make it still probably wasn't worth the effort to make just for me. Maybe for a party or something where more people could enjoy it.

It doesn't matter now as it is 55 degrees and I may as well be baking banana bread as we have literally progressed from spring to summer and are already in fall weather all in the course of 3 days. Here's hoping it doesn't snow tomorrow.

Things Keeping Me Up at Night

1) My ridiculous bladder. It has gotten be unacceptable really. The amount of times I go to the bathroom every night is making me question if Baby H has identified the location of the bladder, understands its functionality, and is already starting to mess with me.

2) My inability to breathe out of my nose. I have been graced with an extremely smooth pregnancy. From a preggo-induced complaint stand-point I have none. BUT, I am on the third sinus infection of this pregnancy and I am over it. Nothing like having the air on to keep out the humidity but then having a humidifier going in the bedroom in an effort to be able to breathe. I just hope I can lick this before the HEAVY breathing of labor begins.

3) Late Night Hunger Attack. Oh yes. If I don't eat enough for dinner the night before, Baby H decides to sound the alarms at about 3AM. I've enjoyed many late night snacks from a bowl of cereal, to nectarines, to popsicles (which I discovered was a really dumb idea since Baby H then starts to do some serious dancing).

4) Weird Dreams. There are many, and they are way too messed up to even try to share. But let's just say one of them involved my ability to be able to peer into my belly because it was like a kangaroo pouch and I had a whole litter of multi-ethnic babies.

5) No Apparent Reason. Yup, if the above four don't keep me up, some internal alarm clock that tells me I've had enough sleep at 4AM does. It's happened a few times and it is the most frustrating thing. To not feel tired at all at 4AM, with your husband snoring next to you, knowing you have to work the next day and try to function like a human being. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know all you mother's are going to say "welcome to motherhood", or "just wait until you have a kid". I realize this is my future life. But the kid isn't here yet, which is why I should be SLEEPING--storing up my reserves! :)

Last Chance Weekend

Just like the people on Biggest Loser have "last chance work-outs", Nate and I decided that this weekend would be our 'last chance date' weekend before the baby comes. Although I think we both are hoping that the dates aren't over forever, just in the short-term while we acclamate to a family of three.

So my 38th week of pregnancy started...with the belly getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

After meeting Nate downtown for happy hour on Friday, we headed to Uptown for a quiet dinner and got outfitted with new running shoes so that I can hit the pavement as soon as possible.

We headed to the Minneapolis Farmers Market bright and early on Saturday, and I got some seriously delicious Strawberry Ice that was made with Coconut milk, fresh strawberries, agave nectar and lime. It was heavenly.

And of course Nate had to show-off his camera skills

Once we started actually thinking about what we couldn't do with a brand newborn, we came to the conclusion that both of us running errands efficiently was probably going to be the biggest change. So that is what we did. Costco. Home Depot. Crate and Barrel. Creative Kidstuff. Target. Byerlys. All of them. As quick as possible. It was great. And yes I realize this doesn't sound as much fun as it probably was for us.

And there was napping.

There was also a double-date that included 18 holes of mini-golf and a dinner that Nate has been dying to eat for the past 2 years---5 Guys.

Now, I would like to say the golfing was close--but in reality Ryan schooled us. He gave us lots of useful tips like "never let your ball stop short" and "visualize your ball where you want it to go"....as you can tell from my score it was very helpful. Although I think I should get a pregnancy handicap :)

And today there were lots of labor inducing activities: eating pineapple, sitting in the heat, household cleaning, spicy foods and walking...none of which are working as of right now.

We did head to the SLP Aquatic Center and relaxed poolside for awhile. It was nice to be under an umbrella, enjoying the weather, dipping my legs into the water--all while looking like a beached whale and being okay with it!

And we ended our weekend with a movie and a delicious dinner. And of course since we treated this like our last 'baby-less' weekend, I am sure we will have about 3 more, which I am trying to mentally prepare for.

Either way, each day that goes by we get a little more prepared, a lot more excited and a little less scared.

Magazine Cuisine: Episode 11

When you buy bulk avocado's at Costco, sometimes it can be hard to actually use them all up before they go bad. I have gotten in to the habit to take one to work with some tomatoes and make myself a little salad for lunch, but that tends to get old after a while.

So, with almost a full package of avocados that were all ripe at the same time, it was the perfect time to try out a recipe I had been holding onto for a while: Strawberry Avocado Salsa.

For the recipe: click here.

I was surprised at how well the flavors went together and it was a really nice take on the typical guacamole. I wouldn't recommend it without in-season berries as the ripeness and freshness of the berries played a big role in this being so delicous (in my opinion).

Definitely worth trying for any of you avocado lovers out there!

It's Official: Even MN hates MN

I had the pleasure of driving to WI via the interstate 3 weekends in a row over the last month or so, and every time I make the trek I returned more and more irate.

Not because WI let me down. No way.
But because all 3 times, the evidence that MN driver really do just. suck. continued to pile up.

Literally, you cross the WI/MN border over the St. Croix bridge and its like something magically awful happens where all of the sudden you have slow drivers in the left lane, fast drivers in the right lane, people braking un-necessarily because there is maybe a car 400 yards ahead, and ridiculously epically bad merging.

OH. The. Merging.

A constant source of swear words in my car, and the number one reason (maybe second to the Vikings) that Nate and I just HATE the fact that we have a MN driver's lisence.

Now, MN drivers would say they are just all so 'nice' and that is why they decided to line up 3 miles for a lane that ends instead of using all of the lanes available. And it is their 'niceness' that causes both the merging car, and the car that has the right away to play the game "No, after you...no, after you" for about 60 seconds before the car actually decides to merge.

So I find it absolutely hilarious, that the MNDOT had to release this PSA (and I have confirmation there was a late night infomercial-esque PSA on as well) to basically school drivers in this fine state on the art of merging.

See here:
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/zippermerge/

That's right people. There are MULTIPLE lanes for a reason. So check it. Next time I am in the left lane passing all of your slow asses, it's not because I am rude or feel entitled to get there quicker.

It's because I actually know how to drive, and am actually helping all the dumb-ass people who line up for miles get there quicker--see articles point on the zipper merge creating less traffic delay. So take your big truck that you are using to block people out of the 'extra' lane because it isn't in-fact 'extra'. It's a lane that is meant to be used.

And if you feel too 'nice' to use it that isn't my problem.