Drumroll . . . Ultrasound results!

 I really wanted a brother for Noble, but at our ultrasound today the wee bairn in my uterus was not a boy. She was a she. Wah wah. I obviously have mixed feelings about it. Besides wanting a brother for Noble, I've been an adolescent girl and would just as soon spare my children from that fate! Girls be crazy. Not to mention, my lack of obvious femininity. Let me backpedal here. I am not without womanliness, but I don't over-exert myself on maintenance. Having a girl definitely adds a whole different dimension of pressure to being a female role model. You can bet your bottom dollar I am now hoping for a pseudo-tomboy, and they say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree so I have hope.

On the bright side, once we leave all the pink and princess at the store, having a girl will be pretty darn fun. I'm excited for cute boots and dress patterns and frilly things. I've had a strong feeling from the beginning of this pregnancy that whatever gender the baby was, it was what our family needed. I am excited and very grateful that Noble will have a sibling and we will have a daughter.

The technician was super friendly, but perhaps not super experienced (ironically the opposite of our last experience) since we were there twice as long as expected, she had to come back for other views, her supervisor had to come back for other views, and none of the printed images were really all that great. But we got to see the sweet little face of our baby girl. Her name is Afton. ♥

Head turned away a little, one hand by forehead, other hand to the right.
We may have a thumb sucker.

Give Him the Chair

I don't want you to think we have the Boob Tube on all the time at our house. We don't. But each of us has our favorite shows. Jonathan watches football. I watch cooking shows like Chopped--inexplicably, because 1) I don't cook often and 2) my relationship with food right now is definitely love-hate-hate. And Noble watches Dinosaur Train and Curious George. Mostly Dinosaur Train. We also discovered last week that he can last through an entire movie (Monsters, Inc.), and his preferred viewing angle is with his face 12 inches from the TV screen.

We appreciated his focus. We enjoyed watching him turn his head side-to-side to catch the action, like he was at a tennis match. But as relatively new parents, we were exasperated. We felt a little like failures that our 21-month-old was glued to the screen for 1 hr 20 min. If our kid enjoys watching some TV, that's fine, but we'd never seen Noble focus on it so long. We didn't even want to watch the whole movie! We were just going to let him wake up from his nap, wait for him to lose interest in the movie, and then take him out. Instead, he never lost interest and watched the whole thing.

Long term goal: don't rot out our child's brain with TV. If you have advice, we would appreciate it!

Short term goal: get him a throne to watch TV from an optometrist-approved distance.

p.s. In other news, I've been hankering for Moochie's meatball sandwich. For our Sunday dinner, I whipped up my best approximation. I couldn't find a recipe claiming to be a copycat, but I still felt very Italian (ha!) and the results were satisfying.

The Elephant in the Womb

I am happy to tell you that we are cooking up a sibling for Noble! I am eleven and a half weeks along so Baby is due June 30, just two weeks after my spring finals end. I suspect Baby will come a week or so early since that's what Noble did, so hopefully the timing is perfect. We are very blessed. And we are excited for this new addition to our family. Yesterday was my first doctor's appointment and Noble, Jonathan, and I took a look at our new one for the first time.   

The Not-So-Skinny: I am still not a fan of being pregnant. Morning sickness is stupid and I resent it. I wouldn't mind being tired, except I miss life. And everything is somehow different this time. For example, you are not being deluged with an overly-lengthy, overly-excited narrative of finding out we are pregnant, nor are you being shown a stick with my urine on it. Improvement?

Recipe for a Family Favorite

Dear Food Eaters,

We don't run an extremely civilized culinary ship around here, but once in a while we do something that gives us hope. Several months ago, I was looking for a recipe to recreate a meal that Jonathan had years ago. He has raved about how awesome it was. I remained skeptical, but finally decided to give it a shot. I couldn't find quite the right recipe, so I mashed four or five recipes off of AllRecipes.com together and found perfection. Hearty. Unexpected. Delicious. Completely worth handling raw chicken and onions. If you don't believe me, come visit! I love you and I will make it for you. If you do believe me but live far away, I love you and am sharing the recipe with you. Let me know how you like it!

Hungry Love,

Me

White Bean Chicken Chili

Serves 8-10. 

Ready to eat in about 40 minutes. I am getting faster with practice :)
Ingredients

2+ tablespoon vegetable oil
20-24 oz skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into cubes
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
6-16 oz. salsa verde to taste (about half a jar of World Table Salsa Verde for mild chili)
1 (smallest) can green chilies
1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
3/4 cup water
1 can of sweet white corn
3 (15 ounce) cans white kidney beans (Northern and cannellini), rinsed and drained
Optional: mash 1/3 of the beans for a thicker chili
1 pinch salt and black pepper to taste
optional: a jalapeno or serrano pepper, chopped

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a medium/large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, chili powder, cumin, oregano, onion, garlic, and pepper (optional) and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the onion is tender, stirring often.

The saucepan. You might be asking yourself, "Where is the onion?"
That's a fine chop job right there. I have a phobia of onions.
Thank you, Food Processor. 

2. Stir together the salsa verde, green chilies, soup, water, corn, and beans in a pot and heat to a boil. Add the saucepan ingredients (chicken, etc.). Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
(Alternatively, throw it all in a slow cooker instead of a pot and it comes out great.)

3. Chili is technically ready to go, but cover and simmer for another 15+ minutes to let the flavors come together.

4. Suggested garnishes: limes, cilantro, cheese, avocado, sour cream, tortilla chips.

To freeze chili, transfer the chili to a freezer container leaving an inch of head space. Let cool completely, then seal, label, and freeze for up to 12 months.

Camping tip: Makes a great ice block for your cooler. Thawed and ready to heat for dinner by ~2 days into your adventure.

Breakfast tip: Leftovers make AWESOME breakfast burritos. Combine leftover chili, scrambled eggs, and garnishes of your choice and wrap it all up in tortilla goodness.