Week 16--Time for some guacamole!

These past two weeks baby has reached the size of my two favorite guacamole ingredients: an avocado and an onion. Week 16 (which began last Sunday while we were on Houseboats) found baby reaching about 4 1/2 inches in length and weighing about 3 1/2 ounces--about the length of an avocado--one of the best pieces of produce on the planet if you ask me! Apparently in the next couple weeks baby is going to be headed into a growth spurt--doubling his weight. His eyes and ears have moved pretty close to their final positions (did you know your eyes start on the side of your head??) and his little toenails are starting to grow. I saw my doctor again at the end of July and she moved my due date to January 15th (instead of the 13th) so now each new week starts on a Sunday. She did the doplar heart monitor again and immediately we heard the amazing "whooshing" of our baby's heart beat. It's strong and healthy sounding at 155 beats per minute. I love that little sound and wish I could hear it every day :)

We headed to LA last Wednesday (a week and a half ago) and have LOVED our time with friends here. It's been SO good for us to get away from Seattle and be in a place surrounded by people who know us both so well. Here's a little of what baby and I have been up to since getting here:

The night before we left for Houseboats Jenn & I threw a dinner party for our husbands and Ryan & Alethia. It was a blast cooking with her, and enjoying an evening of catching up with dear, dear friends whom we have missed like crazy! Both the Gunthers and the Whites traveled Europe this summer so we decided to serve the meal "French style" where you eat each thing as a separate course. Jenn and Josh eat a gluten free diet and also adhere to the Paleo diet (which you can read more about by clicking on the link above) so everything we served was fresh, healthy, and gluten free. Here are a few photos from our evening:

The coffee table became the dining room table as we set it for six.The chefs

In our French evening we served drinks and appetizers first (even guacamole in honor of baby's size this week!)Our second course was the salad course (which I didn't get a photo of but involved Jenn's homemade basil vinaigrette dressing that everyone absolutely raved about). You can find the recipe on her food blog here.

Our third course were the potatoes--oven roasted with fresh herbs and olive oil--delicious!The potatoes were followed by almond chicken and sauteed zucchini with a bit of Parmesan.

In France a cheese course always concludes the meal (before dessert) so we served three types of cheese.It was a delicious evening that we finished off by playing with Jenn's camera and taking some fun photos:
Some of our Soul MatesThe beautiful AlethiaMy sweet, adorable husbandMe!Our incredible hostessRyan, looking slightly like he has something he's schemingJosh, the photography instructor :)
Other than our dinner party and Houseboats, we've been enjoying time with friends--Chuck surfed two different times, we had several coffee/meal dates with others, and have relaxed a lot. It's been a fantastic vacation!