{heirloom tomato}

How far along? 19 weeks! (+ 1 day) baby is the size of a large heirloom tomato!
Total weight gain: about 8ish pounds (despite looking like I swallowed a whole cantelope)

Maternity clothes? It's official, I think I need some maternity pants. I tried squeezing into "fat jeans" (size 1's or 3's) two days ago, and um, it was embarassing.
Stretch marks? Nope!
Sleep: I wake up consistently at 2 am to pee. Then I'm awake until 3-3:30ish because I've finally reached the point where I can't sleep on my stomach, yet sleeping that way has never sounded comfier.
Best moment this week: Has nothing to do with being pregnant, but on a whim I decided to make some 4-ingredient peanut butter cookies, and turned them into sandwich cookies with some pb filling, for Keegan. Yea, "for Keegan." Oh my heaven. Don't worry, I'll share the recipe :)
Miss Anything? a night of uninterrupted sleep would be divine.
Movement: A lot of swirls, which feel like that drop you experience in your stomach when you're on a roller coaster. Today there were a ton of strong kicks!
Food cravings: Lemons, lemons, lemons! I'll just cut them up and eat them, sprinkled with sugar. Toddler Wonder wanted to try some the other day, and hilarity ensued when he chomped down on a segment. I've also been on a weird stretch where I'm actually eating things I've always hated (Jess, if you read this, still no ketchup. Don't worry). I despise ranch dressing, yet now I can't eat veggies or salad without it. And today I ate pizza, another absolute ick for me before.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Actually I've been feeling really great this week!
Gender: We will find out soon.... :)
Labor Signs: are a long ways away!
Symptoms: I've definitely reached the emotional stage (or if you ask hubs he'll tell you I was always there, it's just now worse). I cried over America's Got Talent auditions the other night. Oh, and over The Price is Right, and Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune... all when the winners were announced. (side note- when did I become a geriatric? sheesh). At least they're happy tears?
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to: Baby appointment next Friday and hopefully finding out if Aldon has a baby brother or sister! (I've been having dream after dream that baby is a girl. With Aldon, I didn't want to know his gender at my appt- 17 wks is when we found out with him- but this time around, I. Cannot. Wait.!)

For comparison purposes, this was me pregnant with Aldon at 19 weeks. Definitely poppin', but those jeans were a size 0 and fit me into my third trimester.  

....and 19 weeks with baby 2! (another size comparison, Aldon then at 19 weeks gestation and now, just shy of 19 months!). The pants? elastic, baby.

And as promised, some peanut butter amazingness! 

Keegan's favorite cookies are pb, and I'm sure he would eat his own hand if someone covered it in Reese's. However, I suck at baking and find it a pain in the ass, especially cookies. None more than pb cookies (they're a bit prissy don't you think? Roll the dough into perfect little balls, then roll in sugar, then make the little fork marks.. ugh). Needless to say, I never make pb cookies.
And then I stumbled upon this recipe, posted by Jillee! I'm beginning to be a little obsessed with her blog. Amazing. The cookies are designed to be gluten-free, and consquently have only 4 ingredients. None of us care about gluten, but I LOVED that they literally took 5 minutes to mix up and then 10 in the oven. Oh, and did I mention that they're freakin' delicious?? Taste just like 'original' pb cookies, except they have a much softer, chewier texture. 

Ingredients:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar (I followed Jillee's tip and used 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white)
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda

Directions:
Mix everything together into a bowl with a spoon, it comes together in 5 minutes or less I swear. Then follow the usual directions for making peanut butter cookies: roll into small balls, roll these into white sugar, place on a baking tray and press down lightly with a fork to flatten. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

The cookies by themselves were seriously amazing. But there's always room for improvement, right?! Following another Jillee post, I decided to whip up some peanut butter filling to turn these babies into peanut butter sandwich cookies! For the pb filling you will need a 2:1 ratio of creamy peanut butter to powdered sugar (I used 1 cup of peanut butter, and 1/2 of the sugar, and had a ton left over. Next time I would reduce it down to 1/2 peanut butter, 1/4 sugar). Whip with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Then spread a dallop between two cookies and smoosh :)