As I mentioned earlier, I'm trying to cut out white sugar and white flour as much as possible while I'm pregnant, which has led me to look for recipes for healthy baked goods that taste reasonably good. Here are two recipes that I've been happy with so far.

Healthy Banana-Date Muffins

This is based very heavily on this recipe, but I made enough tweaks that I thought it would be easier to rewrite the recipe here than to list out my changes. These muffins are nice and moist. I like having one with a glass of milk for a morning snack.

1 1/2 cups (240g) whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (60g) wheat bran
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup (75g) chopped dates
1/2 cup (70g) coarsely chopped toasted walnuts
1/4 cup (60ml) whole milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup (75g) mild molasses
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed (about 3/4 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line two muffin tins with paper liners (recipe makes 16 muffins total; you can do this in two batches if you only have one muffin tin).

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, wheat bran, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in dates and walnuts to coat with flour mixture. Make a well in the middle of the mixture.

3. Microwave the milk and butter on medium power until the butter is melted. Whisk in the buttermilk, molasses, and vanilla extract.

4. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs, then slowly pour in the milk mixture, whisking as you do. Whisk in the mashed bananas. Pour this mixture into the well in the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

5. Scrape the batter into the prepared muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean (mine took 18 minutes). Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool to room temperature on a wire rack.

Makes 16 muffins

Chewy Apricot-Almond Granola Bars

This recipe is based closely on a recipe from Jane Kinderlehrer's Smart Cookies, which has a whole chapter devoted to cookie recipes for pregnant ladies. I've tried a few other recipes from this chapter, but they turned out kind of weirdly textured. But I like these granola bars. They're very hearty, but they taste good (I mean, a brownie would taste better, but I'll take what I can get right now!). I like them crumbled over cottage cheese or milk, to add a little more protein.

1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp + 1 tsp mild molasses
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp peanut butter
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 tbsp dry milk powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dried apricots, slivered
2 tbsp raisins

1. Toast the oats, sunflower seeds, and almonds on a cookie sheet in a 350F oven for 7-10 minutes, until dry and crisp.

2. In a saucepan over low heat, combine the egg, molasses, and peanut butter, and heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. [The original recipe has you heat just until combined, but I cooked the mixture a little longer because I was nervous about the raw egg]

3. Stir together the peanut butter mixture, oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and remaining ingredients.

4. Lightly oil an 8-inch square pan (or line with foil), and press the mixture into the pan. Chill for a couple hours until firm, and then cut into squares/bars. [I stored my bars in the fridge after cutting, but I'm not sure if that's strictly necessary.]

Thanks for your kind words about yesterday's post! Patches is back home, and she seems to be feeling like her normal self again. They still don't know what caused her problems yesterday, but she ate some food this morning and has kept it down, so they let her come home around 2pm. Her tummy is all shaved, so she looks a little scraggly, but she seems fine otherwise and is back to meowing for food and asking to go outside (sorry, kitty, not quite yet!). I'm hoping she just ate something bad yesterday, and now it's out of her system.

We're happy to have her back with us :) Also, pet insurance doesn't seem like such a bad idea anymore. We'll have to look into that...

Our poor kitty is staying overnight at the pet hospital tonight. When we got home from running errands this afternoon, she had thrown up outside, and then she came in and proceeded to throw up four more times in the span of two hours, which is not normal. So we took her to DoveLewis, since her normal vet was closed for the day.

They took x-rays to see if she had anything unusual in her intestines (string, etc.), but those came out inconclusive. So then they did an ultrasound, which showed no blockages. So at least she doesn't need surgery. But we still don't know what's wrong with her. They're keeping her overnight to try to control the vomiting and keep her from becoming dehydrated. They're also going to run some blood tests to try to figure out what's going on.

Poor kitty :( When we said goodnight, she was all doped up and wrapped in a towel. I cried in front of the vet's assistant, which made me feel kind of silly, since she's just going to spend the night there; not have surgery or anything. I just want her to be back to normal.

(Incidentally, I was really happy with the efficiency and friendliness of everybody at DoveLewis. I think Patches is in good hands)

Twenty-six weeks! Assuming all is going according to plan in there, the baby weighs about 2 pounds, and he can open his eyes. Good job, baby!

Hypnobirthing classes continue to go well. We've been practicing every day. I think it is getting easier for me to go into a relaxed state, though I tend to get a little too relaxed and drift off into sleep if I practice right after lunch. It's easier for me to stay awake when Patrick's reading to me, versus when I'm listening to the relaxation CD. We spent most of our class last night learning about comfort measures (like massage and relaxation cues) that Patrick can use to make labor and birth more comfortable for me. I'm all for that! Patrick liked it because there were very specific examples of small things he can do to keep me relaxed (as opposed to reading me the whole relaxation script). I'm so grateful that he has been open to trying hypnobirthing. I think it will make a big difference to have his full support when I'm in labor (and afterwards, of course!).

We also had our monthly checkup yesterday. Everything looked fine (yay!), though I have an ultrasound scheduled for 32 weeks to see if my placenta is still low. I'm trying not to worry about that, since there's nothing I can do about it. I've got some routine blood tests coming up in two weeks, including the glucose screening test. I was hoping I'd have the option of eating jelly beans for it, but it looks like we're going with Glucola. When I mentioned to my doctor how sugar has affected me recently, she said it sounds more like hypoglycemia than gestational diabetes. It'll be interesting to see what the test shows. In the meantime, I'm doing my best to avoid white sugar.

In crafty baby news, I've been putting off doing the more practical craft projects on my list (like sewing blinds for the nursery). Instead, I made baby legwarmers out of my much-loved Sock It To Me knee socks! They all developed holes in the toe area around the same time last month (after a year and a half of wear; not too bad!), and I was glad to be able to turn them into something useful.

I made the first pair (in pink) by following the linked tutorial exactly, and the cuffs seemed a little big for baby ankles. So I turned that pair into mitts for me using the information in Lee's tutorial about cutting a thumb slit and zig-zagging around it. Easy! I was kind of tempted to make the rest of the socks into mitts for me too, but I stuck with the original plan...

For the subsequent pairs of baby legwarmers, I made the cuff circumference a little bit smaller (by half an inch to an inch). For the argyle pair, I went even further and tapered part of the sock body and the cuff, like in this tutorial. So we have a range of legwarmer styles and sizes to choose from. Now we wait until we have a baby who's big enough to wear them! If they don't fit, it's no big loss, since I've certainly gotten my money's worth out of the socks already.

While doing meal planning this week, I tried to incorporate lots of whole grains and protein. First up, we had oven-roasted salmon with tangerine and ginger relish, brown rice, and peas. It was a fine meal, not super exciting.

Next up, we had breakfast for dinner: Swiss chard and ricotta salata egg bake (using overwintered chard from our garden and buttermilk instead of cream) and whole wheat yogurt waffles with blueberries (from Whole Grains Every Day Every Way). The egg dish was tasty, but the ricotta salata made it a bit too salty and rich for me. I had trouble eating a whole serving (so much protein!). The waffles were nice, especially considering that they were made with whole wheat flour and minimal sweeteners.

For my lunches this week, I made a batch of barley, beef, and mushroom soup (also from Whole Grains) and ate it with grilled cheese and salad. I'm not really a fan of beef and barley soup, but this seemed like a good way to make sure I was getting enough protein and iron. Not bad, and the grilled cheese sandwiches made me happy :)

Twenty-five weeks! Okay, twenty-five and a half--we've been having so much fun this weekend enjoying the beautiful early spring weather in Portland that this post got a little delayed. I'd forgotten how nice the sun is!

We had our second hypnobirthing class on Thursday. We spent a while talking about good nutrition--all pretty standard stuff (eating whole grains, vegetables, and lots of protein). One of the things the teacher emphasized was cutting out white sugar/flour as much as possible (including white rice, pasta, and potatoes), so I'm going to try doing that. I guess that means I won't be baking as much for the next few months. We'll see how long I can hold out...

This week, per the class schedule, Patrick has started reading the hypnobirthing relaxation script to me, in lieu of my listening to the relaxation CD. The teacher warned us that pets like to get in on the relaxation action, and she was right--as soon as we turn on the relaxing music and Patrick starts reading, Patches runs up, jumps on my lap, sniffs my face, and then settles in for some relaxation. It's kind of distracting, but nice. She seems to really enjoy it. I guess she likes Brian Eno.

I finished my first crafty baby project--sewing fitted crib sheets. I used this tutorial, but I made a 3/8-inch channel around the bottom and ran 1/4-inch elastic all the way around, as she suggests at the end of the tutorial. Despite my best measuring and cutting efforts, the sheets all fit on the mattress a little differently, but they should do the job. It's a forgiving project :) I made three flannel sheets and three in lightweight cotton, so we should be all set.

Not a lot to document on the dinner front this week. I made a swiss cheese and mushroom quiche (from the Moosewood cookbook), which was fine, but not very photogenic. This pasta with mascarpone, spinach, lemon, and pine nuts was more attractive. It was easy to make and tasted pretty good. I bet it would be good with spring peas.

For lunches this week, I once again made falafel and tabouleh (both from the Moosewood cookbook) and piled them on top of pita bread and salad greens. For the tabouleh, I used sundried tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes, and I added some toasted pine nuts. Tasty!

Although it still seems early to me, it appears that spring it on its way. We've got daffodils opening in the garden, and trees in our neighborhood are starting to bloom. Yay!

Patrick has been getting our garden ready for spring by harvesting our meager winter crop, which we're hoping to use in dinners this week. The only things left standing right now are our overwintered leeks, garlic, and onions. I'm not sure if we mounded enough dirt around the leeks to get usable stalks, but we'll find out soon enough!

In addition to enjoying nature, we've been exposing the baby to some cultural enrichment in utero. On Friday, we saw Das Rheingold, performed Baywatch style, at the Clinton Street Theater. You can read more about it here. It was pretty great :) We came early to play leitmotif bingo, and Patrick won a heart antenna headband, which I'm sure will come in handy in future costumed sporting events around town. Oh, and unlike the last time we saw Das Rheingold, we didn't fall asleep. This performance was a bit more engaging :)

Yesterday, we went with Star to see the Harlem Globetrotters at the Rose Garden. Patrick had seen them a couple times before when he was younger, but this was the first time for me and Star. They did some cool tricks, and it was fun seeing how excited all the kids in the audience were (there was a young man right behind us who was particularly enthusiastic, though he kept declaring loudly that he could do all those tricks too). But I was kind of surprised at how mean-spirited the Globetrotter ringleader was--he kept picking on a short guy on the other team--asking where his mama was and calling him a baby, and pulling down his pants. I wouldn't want my kid to see that and think it's cool to bully people who are different from them! What would have been better is if there was a short guy on the Globetrotters, and somebody on the opposing team was making fun of him, and then the short guy did some awesome basketball trick and put him in his place. But perhaps I'm overanalyzing things...

This morning was awesome. We took a nice long walk to Wild Abandon for brunch (excellent huevos rancheros!) and then returned home, enjoying our neighborhood along the way. So nice! I'm looking forward to taking many more springtime walks with Patrick in the coming months. It's such a nice way to pass the time.

Patrick had the foresight to bring along the camera. Here are a few of his pictures: (1) Wild crocuses, (2) chickens at Urban Farm Store, (3) me admiring spring blooms.

Twenty-four weeks! Can there really be only a few more weeks left in the second trimester? I'll be sad to see it go--it has been so fun! Increased energy and appetite, and tangible proof that there's really a baby in there. So cool. I love being pregnant :)

Baby-related items:

• We've been to two baby-related classes this week. On Tuesday, we went to a 2-hour infant CPR class at Milagros. I hope I'll never have to use the skills we learned, but it's good to have a basic idea of what to do. And then on Thursday, we walked down to Zenana for our first of five hypnobirthing classes.

  Each class is 2.5 hours long, and there are four other couples in the class. I like it so far! The teacher started out by summarizing some of the earlier chapters in the Hypnobirthing book (the history of hypnobirthing and the birth industry in the US, and a little information on what hypnosis can and can't do). Then we did a little practice hypnosis session, since nobody in class had done hypnosis before (I've actually done it once before--one day in my high school history class, the teacher held an optional hypnosis session to relax us in preparation for our big final tests). And finally, we watched two quick videos of hypnobirths. I think this might have been my first time seeing a video of a real birth (though the birth scene in Knocked Up almost counts, right?). My main takeaway from the videos (apart from seeing that women are able to give birth without any screaming and pushing) was that I shouldn't wear cute socks while giving birth, because they will definitely get exposed to some fluids.

  Another cool thing I found out is that there is a birthing center tucked away in a house at SE 16th and Ankeny, staffed by midwives (Alma Midwifery). Two of the couples in our class are planning on having their babies there. It's right along one of our preferred bike routes, but we'd never noticed it before. Patrick and I joked about biking over there when I'm in labor :) Anyway, I think I'll stick with the hospital for this little guy, but if things go smoothly and we end up having another baby, I'd consider going to Alma. It sounds like a nice environment to give birth in.

  My homework for the class is to listen to a relaxation CD daily. It contains half an hour of affirmations and half an hour of guided relaxation/hypnosis practice. I think the purpose of the affirmations is to get positive thoughts stuck in my head (like listening to the same song over and over), and then when I'm in labor, I'll be more likely to have one of those good thoughts pop into my head than think negative thoughts. Most of the affirmations are pretty general ("I am focused on a smooth, easy birth," "I feel confident, I feel safe, I feel secure"), but there are a few that make me smile every time I hear them because they're so anatomically specific (my favorite is "My baby emerges, and my blood vessels close to the appropriate degree"). I like the affirmations--they're pleasant.

  The half hour of guided relaxation involves getting comfortable (but not too comfortable--you don't want to fall asleep), closing your eyes, and taking deep breaths. The recording guides you through a series of visualizations related to the colors of the rainbow. The idea behind the guided relaxation is that if I practice it often enough, I'll be able to switch into a relaxed state at will. I did my first round of relaxation practice yesterday at lunchtime, and I was definitely nice and relaxed (and ready for a nap!) at the end of it, but still aware of what was going on around me the whole time. I had some trouble turning off my conscious thoughts, but the instructor said that this was a pretty normal problem at first, and it gets easier with practice. It would definitely be a great trick to be able to turn on that relaxed feeling during labor. We'll see if it really works!

• We've been checking out a bunch of baby-related books from the library. Patrick's recent choice was Parenting, Inc., which is about all of the things that parents spend money on these day that weren't in existence a generation ago. Like Patrick said, it makes me wants to go live in the woods, away from consumer culture. Anyway, it provides a good counterpoint to the other baby books and websites I'm reading, and it's a good reminder that babies don't need that much stuff.

• We're making some progress on the name front. We went to lunch at Chaos Cafe last weekend and took our top 10 lists with us (okay, mine was a top 15 list; I had trouble narrowing it down) and, over the course of the meal, we whittled them down to 10 names, about half from my list and half from his. We seem to have slightly different (but not irreconcilable) taste in names--Patrick gravitated toward names with a literary bent, many of them evoking distinguished old men in elbow-patch jackets, while I seem to prefer shorter, cuter old-timey names. We were hoping for some overlap between our lists, and there was one name that was on both of them, but we're not ready to rule out our other favorites. I think we can come to an agreement--our tastes aren't too different. If one of us was pushing for American-Gladiator-style names, things would be harder.

• I've started working on one of my crafty projects for the nursery--sewing crib sheets. It's a really easy project. I'm hoping to finish them up this weekend.

  Oh, and two days ago, we had a free nursery color consultation from YOLO Colorhouse. What a cool company--they saw my post about paint colors, and they emailed me to let me know that they offered free color consultations. So I figured why not take them up on it! One of their color consultants, Puji, stopped by our house and took a look at the fabrics we'd chosen for crib sheets and blinds, plus our art and the general scale of the room. Her assessment was that since much of the fabric we've chosen has a lot of green in it, it might be good to choose a wall color that isn't green. She suggested a light aqua (water.01), white trim (air.01), and then a nice neutral green on the ceiling (leaf.04). I like it! The next step is to go to Ecohaus and pick up poster-sized swatches of the colors (plus maybe thrive.02, since we like that one as well), hang them in the room, and look at them at different times of day.

Our noteworthy food accomplishment of the week was making ricotta calzones with sausage and broccoli rabe, served with that yummy butter and onion tomato sauce. They turned out really well. The sausage was my least favorite part--next time I'd like to try them filled with greens (sauteed nettles, perhaps?) and roasted garlic. Yum!

Recently, I've noticed that my body is responding differently to sugar than it did pre-pregnancy. I'll eat a square of chocolate or a bowl of ice cream and will feel totally crappy afterwards. Bummer, but not unexpected--I've had previously pregnant friends tell me the same thing happened to them. So, I guess that means no pearl milk tea until after the baby is born (probably a good choice anyway). I've been making an effort to get protein into every meal and snack, both so I don't feel crappy and because I need to get 71 grams a day! That means lots of cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, and glasses of milk at snack time. And I've been having eggs for lunch this week. Marion Cunningham's knothole eggs (an egg dish of many names) are my current favorite, though I know I'm breaking the rules by eating runny yolks. The eggs are from a local farm, so I feel pretty safe eating them a little undercooked.

I've also been enjoying Dorset fruit, nut, and fiber cereal. Such a simple combination of ingredients, but they're so tasty! The raisins are the best raisins I've ever had--they taste like they're dipped in honey or something. Yum! It's pretty pricey, but at least it's packed with good-for-me ingredients. I would try to make it myself for cheaper, but I don't know where to get awesome raisins or malted wheat flakes. Hmmm...

I've also been making a variety of grilled sandwiches on Dave's Killer Bread (Good Seed has 6 grams of protein per slice, and it's so yummy!). Inspired by a recent visit to the Grilled Cheese Grill, I made my own version of their Jaime sandwich--banana slices, Nutella, and mascarpone. Mmm, so good! It almost went over the too-much-sugar line, but I added a glass of milk and felt fine afterwards. Also yummy: grilled banana, peanut butter, and mascarpone.

Patrick has been spending time doing some garden planning, which is great! I think we're going to keep our garden pretty simple this year, since we probably won't have much time/energy to tend it this summer. We're going to stick with the same things we planted last year, but this year we're going to try growing San Marzano tomatoes for sauce.

Patrick spent an afternoon last weekend cutting down the big butterfly bush near our garage (visible on the right side of this picture). In its place, he planted a baby lilac bush, courtesy of local artist Amy Ruppel, who was on his Friends of Trees tree-planting crew a few weeks ago (such a cool coincidence!). She had an extra volunteer lilac from her garden, and we had been wanting to plant a lilac, so it worked out really well. I was actually going to plant a lilac for Patrick as our anniversary present back in October (flowers are one of the traditional gifts), but I kept putting it off because of morning sickness and then baby preoccupation. So he ended up doing all the work for me. Thanks, Patrick :)

I'm so looking forward to having our own little lilac flowers in the spring. Right now the lilac bush just looks like a few sticks--I hope it blooms!

So, like I said, I was in California for work last week, so I had to find a substitute mirror for my weekly photo. Luckily, there's one in the womens locker room at work that did the job just fine.

We've been checking out a bunch of baby-related books from the library recently. This past week, I read The Diaper-Free Baby, which is about elimination communication. The basic premise is that babies are born with an awareness of their need to pee/poop, and an ability to communicate that need to parents (albeit subtly at first). Typically, we train them to go in a diaper, and then a few years later, we have to retrain them not to go in their diaper. Theoretically, if you follow the EC approach, they will communicate with you when they need to go, so you can have them use a potty from the start instead of using diapers.

When I first heard about EC a few years ago, I thought it sounded pretty crazy (and stressful--like do you have to spend all your time watching the baby, always poised to rush them to a toilet?), but after reading the book, I think it seems pretty reasonable. The nice thing is that there's no need to go cold turkey; you can just go diaper-free a few hours a week if you want. If it means fewer diapers to clean up, it seems worth a try. Of course, I say that now, before the baby's born. Trying EC might fall by the wayside when we're actually in the midst of figuring out how to care for a baby. But the nice thing is that you can start at any point, so we don't have to worry about it right away if it seems overwhelming.

In other news, I bought this cute giraffe, made by local crafter ScissorStitch, at Union Rose. This is the kind of thing that I would normally see and say "I can make that!" and not buy it, and also never end up making it. But this was reasonably priced, and I figured I have enough crafting projects to do, so I just bought it. It makes me happy :)

Since I was traveling last week, I don't have much in the way of food pictures to share, but we did get in a couple of meals before I left.

1. Tomato sauce with butter and onions. This was easy and tasty, as promised. I definitely plan on making it again.

2. Vegetarian baked beans (from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook) and golden northern cornbread. The beans turned out really good, probably because of all the yummy butter and sugar that went into them. The only downside was that for the first 8 or so hours of cooking, the house smelled like cooking beans, which is not the most pleasant aroma. But the end product was worth it.

3. I had some heavy cream left over from various meals, so I used it to make hot fudge sauce (recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking). It hardens when you put it on ice cream, which is my favorite part about hot fudge sauce. Yum!

In other food news, I'm a little worried about the Little Blue Waffle Wagon. They've disappeared from their spot on Division Street! I know they had cut back their hours for winter, but this seems a little extreme. Are they gone for good? I hope not! In the meantime, I'm comforting myself with waffles from the nearby Waffle Window. Not a bad alternative!

Since I'm in California for work, Patrick was nice enough to pose for the belly picture this week.

He makes me laugh :) Real post and picture to come in a few days when I'm back home...

I played around with Photoshop today, trying to find some good paint colors for the nursery. I think I'd like to get paint from Yolo Colorhouse (they're local! And environmentally friendly, but of course), if they have a color that works for us. Luckily their website lists hex codes approximating each of their colors, so it was easy to plug each color into Photoshop and change the background of the photo I posted yesterday.

The bigger paint companies have all sorts of fun online tools for choosing paint colors, but I'm having enough trouble choosing between Yolo's 85 colors--I don't need hundreds more to choose from! Although Sherwin-Williams' iPhone app does sound cool.

My top five Yolo colors in no particular order:

Nourish 01:

Aspire 03:

Thrive 02:

Water 02:

Dream 04:

Yolo's website recommends blues, greens, and neutrals for bedrooms, and there is the anecdote about the color yellow making babies cry, so maybe we'll just stick with yellow accents instead of painting the walls yellow. I think that could be nice!

Week 22! All is well.

• The baby book says the baby can hear at this point, and to celebrate, we took him to a Builders and the Butchers show at The Woods. Okay, so the timing was just a coincidence. He could definitely feel and/or hear the music--he moved around a lot more than usual. I hope it was because he was enjoying the music and not because it was too loud.

  The book also says the baby can sense light, and if we shine a flashlight on my belly, the baby might move to get away from the light. That seems kind of mean, but I'm tempted to try it anyway. Maybe if we get really bored this weekend...

• I had my first charlie horse of the pregnancy yesterday morning. Woo! Apart from that, I'm still sleeping pretty well. Thank you, Snoogle!

• This morning we went in for the monthly checkup and for a quick ultrasound redo, to try and get some better pictures of the baby's heart, since it was hard to see two weeks ago. Unfortunately, the little goober was in the exact same position that he was in at the last ultrasound (sideways), so the ultrasound tech didn't have much luck getting better pictures (also, no cute profile pictures to be had, though we did get to see the baby yawning, which was fun). She assured us that the heart looks fine; she just needed better pictures to send for routine analysis. It's not clear if we'll need to come in again.

  Also, I forgot to mention that at the ultrasound two weeks ago, the tech noted that my placenta was low (placenta previa). I didn't think much of it at the time because she mentioned it so casually, but she commented on it again this time, as did my doctor. It looked like the placenta had moved up and off of the cervix a little, compared to two weeks ago, so it will probably resolve itself, but I may need to go in for another ultrasound at 32 weeks just to check on its location. I figure it's not worth worrying about at this point, since there's nothing I can do to change it. I haven't had any bleeding, so that's good.

• Last weekend, Patrick checked out the used crib a little more closely, and some of the slats on the drop side were loose, which made us nervous. He used wood glue to make everything tight again, but we were feeling generally uneasy about the used crib issue, so we decided just to give in and buy a new crib after all. (Not sure what to do with the used crib--it's hard to find anyplace that will take crib donations, because of liability issues. I was thinking I could make some sort of crib slat art with it, or use the sides to display quilts or something)

  We narrowed our options down to three cribs: the Pacific Rim Arts and Crafts crib, the Ikea Gulliver, and the Land of Nod Straight-Up crib. We liked the Pacific Rim and Land of Nod cribs because they're made in the US out of solid wood. Taking shipping into account, they're approximately the same price. On the other side of the price spectrum, the Gulliver is also mostly wood and has gotten pretty good reviews in Baby Bargains.

  We made a trip out to Beaverton to see the Pacific Rim crib on display at Segal's, and we both liked how sturdy it was. I like the color and style of the Land of Nod crib better, but we decided to go with the Pacific Rim crib because it's made in Eugene from local maple, using non-toxic finishes, etc. It just seemed like if we're going to use the resources to generate a new crib, we might as well support local craftspeople while we're at it. Plus it seems sturdy enough to last through multiple kids (assuming we have more). We ended up ordering the fixed-side version from Go Natural Baby, since they have free shipping. Now we just wait 6-8 weeks for it to arrive!

  I hope the baby likes his crib! The funny thing is that the plan right now is to have him co-sleep in our room (in an Arm's Reach bassinet or similar) for the first 6 months and then transition to the crib, so he might not actually spend much time in the crib for a while. But I have no idea how things will actually work out, and it seems like he'll end up in the crib sooner or later. Who knows...

• We've been thinking about nursery decoration (okay, that's mostly my department--Patrick is busy making sure all of our pressing home repairs are done in a timely manner). I think I want to go with yellow, brown, and gray, inspired by these two photos by Elizabeth Soule.

  

  I think the general feeling I'm gravitating toward is cozy forest--woodland creatures, wool blankets, etc. Pretty stereotypically Portland, I suppose :) The picture below has a collection of some of the things that will be in the nursery. I think the Pendleton blanket at the top of the picture fits pretty well. We bought the brown tulip print fabric in the middle to make into a Roman shade for the nursery window, and the four fabrics at the bottom are for crib sheets. I mostly picked them because I liked the fabric, not because they fit in with the grand plan. The three on the left are flannel for winter; I need to pick out a few more fun cotton prints for summertime.

  

  We decided to forego an expensive rocker/glider, since we're getting an expensive crib. Instead, we'll try using our existing Poang and ottoman in the nursery (I've seen quite a few people online recommend the Poang for nursing, though I'm worried I won't be able to heave myself out of it while holding a baby). I'm thinking of re-covering the Poang, but I haven't found the right fabric yet. It's possible I'm overcommitting myself with all of these sewing projects...

  Our goal is to choose the paint color for the nursery walls this weekend. I'm thinking light yellow, but I'm not sold on that. Any suggestions?

Foodwise, none of our meals has really impressed me this week. At least the desserts were good!

1. Pasta with walnuts, caramelized onions, and ricotta salata - This was okay, but I probably wouldn't make it again. Maybe it would have been better with the recommended whole grain penne (we used fresh pasta from our farmers' market instead). It seemed a little cheese-heavy, and not saucy enough.

2. Artichoke, leek, and fontina frittata with whole grain sourdough waffles (from Dorie Greenspan's Waffles) - The frittata was pretty good (it probably would have been just as good without the bacon, by the way), but not super exciting. The waffles were yeasted, which meant they were light and crispy, but they also got cold really quickly. They were nice, but I think we prefer non-yeasted waffles (which is weird, because a lot of people love yeasted waffles!).

3. Halibut and sweet potato chowder - This was better on the second day after the flavors had blended a little. We used half the amount of halibut called for (halibut is expensive!), and it was still plenty fishy. I liked the twist of using sweet potatoes in the chowder, but I don't think I'd make this particular recipe again (a common theme for this week).

4. Pumpkin custard (from Rustic Fruit Desserts) - This was pretty labor-intensive (because you make vanilla shortbread cookies to use as the crust), but it was tasty! The vanilla shortbread dough was crumbly and kind of frustrating to work with, but the cookies tasted good. The custard was nice and smooth and tasted just like pumpkin pie (not too surprising). Yum! I think given the amount of work involved, it would have been easier to just bake a pumpkin pie. I do like things in ramekins though!

5. Chewy almond cookie + ganache sandwiches (old-fashioned almond cookie recipe from Paris Sweets) - I had some egg whites to use up, and this recipe seemed like a good candidate. I made one batch using the standard recipe, and a second batch using the cocoa powder and cinnamon variation mentioned in the book. I liked the original almond cookies the best, but both types were yummy with ganache in the middle. Kind of like macarons, but not quite. The sandwiches ended up a little too tall to eat daintily, but they were still good. I figured the almonds and egg whites provided some protein, so they weren't the unhealthiest cookies ever!