What's Up Wednesday | January

Happy almost end-of January! How can it be? Today I'm linking up for a little What's Up Wednesday...

What we're eating...

After not being into sweets the first trimester-and-a-half, baby has now decided that I need #allthesweets. I made waffles this weekend and topped them with these caramelized bananas - so yummy! 

And when you're pregnant and planning a training lunch for Junior League, it's dessert for everyone! Crème Brûlée for the win! To add to the sweets, there's not a week that goes by where we don't have tacos (Max and Parker would happily eat Mexican food all day every day, and Baby seems to be a fan, too). 

What I'm reminiscing about...

Getting ready for Baby #2 has me thinking of newborn baby Parker! He was so tiny! How is that little thing almost six years old now?

What we've been up to...

Every January for the past few years, we've done a family night out at the local symphony. Parker has been obsessed with classical music since before he could talk, and even at age three he was the best little audience member. He was super excited that this year, we'd be listening to works by his favorite composer, Beethoven!

What I'm dreading...

I had been dreading the infamous second-trimester glucose test, but I knocked it out a couple weeks ago. They do the three draw, two-hour fasting one here, ugh. I got super sick when I did the regular one-hour one with Parker, so I was a bit apprehensive this time, but I made it through (and bonus, since getting the tip from my cardiologist to put up my feet during blood draws to prevent all the blood from rushing to my legs, I haven't fainted once!).

What I'm working on...

Workin' on my fitness, y'all! I walked and did yoga while pregnant with Parker, and I think it helped so much during labor and delivery to be physically fit. This time around, it's been too cold for outside walking, and the one prenatal yoga class in town is at a hard time for me (though I have attended a couple). Instead, I'm sticking with Pilates and barre! Pure Barre celebrates class milestones, and I am so close to my 250th class! 

What I'm excited about...

Hello, third trimester! Brother or sister is going to be here before we know it! 

What I'm watching/reading...

I've been waiting for what seems like forever to introduce Parker to the world of Harry Potter. I was in high school/college/grad school/teaching classes of my own while the series came out, and remember staying up literally all night reading book number seven the day it came out. If you're a fan as well, you know that the books get deeper/darker as the series goes on (each one follows a new year with an older Harry Potter). I knew that the later books wouldn't be appropriate for our almost six-year-old, but since I hadn't read them in so long, I wasn't sure about the earlier ones. Luckily, Common Sense Media has a whole recommendation section dedicated to just Harry Potter. If you've never been to the site before, it's a wealth of information on movies, books and video games - type in any movie, and it will break it down by a series of categories (violence, language, etc.) and will also give an age recommendation. They are very conservative with their recommendations, though so are we with what we allow Parker to watch, so we usually stick to around the age listed for the movies. According to their Harry Potter analyses, the first three books and the first two movies can be introduced to age seven. Since Parker is almost six, we decided to give the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a go. We started it the first week of January over Christmas Break - I fully expected it would take all month to read it, but we have a HP fanatic of a little guy. Any chance he got, he was pulling the book out and asking us to read it, waking us up in bed book in hand, and insisting on full chapters at night (meaning we'd be reading close to an hour each night!). We flew through books one and two, and as January comes to a close, we are almost finished with book three! I snapped the photo above last Wednesday morning - it was a late start day, and Parker bounded into my bed, book in hand, just wanting to be read to. We watched the first movie as a family last weekend, and though the end was a bit scary for him, Parker thought it was just the best thing ever (partly because we don't have television and really limit the number of movies we do watch). Now he's obsessed with being called Harry Potter and walks around the house wand in hand wearing Gryffindor colors... and playing indoor Quidditch, which usually consists of him knocking balloons in the house with empty tubes (as seen below while Facetiming traveling Daddy). 

What I'm wearing...

If it's not maternity, I'm not fitting into it 🙈 I also sized up in my beloved Ugg Ansley Slippers that I literally wear at all times in the house because my pregnant feet have also grown! Curiously, I'm still able to wear my wedding rings (at this point with Parker, I couldn't even get them on my finger!).

Favorite Valentine's Day traditions...

Pre-Parker, Max and I would do a fancy dinner out for Valentine's Day at Petite Maison in Scottsdale. Once Parker came along (and we moved to Alabama), we started doing dinners in... in year's past it's been king crab or fondue (I think this year, it will be both, lol). My favorite tradition, however, is filling the house with heart shaped balloons! Plus, Valentine's Day totally calls for a special themed breakfast and sweet little gifts. Click HERE for all things Valentine's Day on the blog!