Mothership Confessional

Week 16 It's amazing to me how my love for this little baby seems to have multiplied in the last week. I love that we know he's a boy. I love that we know his name! We didn't have any ideas for names for a second child, unlike Ava, whose name we had picked out literally years  before she was even born! We stumbled across the name Liam, and we had been trying to find names to go with Alexander, which we agreed that we liked as a middle name. Once the gender-determining ultrasound was done, we spent the rest of the day calling him "Liam Alexander" and seeing how we liked it. By the end of the day, it was clear to us that should be his name! I've been more certain of the movements of little Liam! He was really  active during the ultrasound but I can't feel all those little wiggles yet! But I can feel little twitches when he moves his limbs and changes in pressure in my belly when he moves his whole body - mostly in the area where his head is on my right ...

Its funny how differently I feel with this second pregnancy. Not necessarily physically, but emotionally. With Ava, I truly felt happy and thrilled  and  ecstatic pretty much every single day of pregnancy, even despite the first trimester sickness and third trimester hugeness. It was my first time experiencing pregnancy after trying for 4 long years. I was enjoying every moment of it. I wasn't taking any day for granted and I honestly felt like I was glowing every day. I also had nothing better to do than to sit and daydream, plan and organize for little girl's arrival. This time around, the pregnancy itself was a complete surprise. I mean, we weren't preventing pregnancy so obviously we knew it could happen, but seeing how we didn't get Ava without medical intervention made us have our guards down a little. I still feel the timing for a second pregnancy couldn't have been better. I have absolutely zero regrets or hesitations about being pregnant again. ...

This stuff is so amazing! My husband loves things that are sweet and spicy, and the chili recipe actually came from one of his friends! It is just so good!! And it's a one-pot meal - my favorite type of cooking! It's almost  a dump-and-go meal too, except you have to brown some meat and chop some onions first! Growing up we always had cornbread with chili, and it was always the same recipe. I used that same childhood recipe, except I added shredded cheddar cheese (ok, actually it was colby because that's all I had) and jalapeños (you MUST use Louisiana brand...they are the best!), and I also used whole wheat flour because I ran out of regular flour! Honestly, I think the whole wheat flour made this cornbread better!  Ok...one more thing...I accidentally doubled the amount of oil it calls for...so it didn't bake very evenly! I couldn't help it; I was multitasking a bit too  much in the kitchen while a hungry toddler whined and cried at th...