find me a cuter baby and i'll pay you (hint: you can't)

oliver and i made it through our 3 days/2 nights completely unscathed. he was a good baby and slept well for me, and he was at day care all day, so no one got hurt. we actually had some very nice evenings together! after he went to bed both nights, i was able to get a few things done around the house, work out, and get in bed early. tuesday night, i even managed to can both the pickled green tomatoes as well as some escabeche. i think we'll try to do some more escabeche, but i had the jars sterilized so figured i'd at least get a few done. i'm really looking forward to enjoying all our canned treats this winter!

a few pics of ollie and i pal'ing around:

tuesday evening, he was being cranky as i attempted to prepare dinner for him. so i gave him a whole pear to eat. the kid LOVES pears and you'd be shocked at how quickly he can eat an *entire* pear. needless to say, it shut him up!


after dinner (and a bath) we took a walk. his fire truck had to come along. notice the big spot of dirt in our yard - that's where the tree used to be.


after our walk, we played around a bit before bed. he loves sitting in the bay window (yes, i know i am creating a bad habit by encouraging it).




i decided that since bryan would be arriving home right at dinner time on thursday, and knew neither of us would be in the mood to cook by the time we arrived home, wednesday night i prepped ingredients for crock pot chili. tossed that together thursday morning before work; added some masa after work thursday; and by the time we got home from the airport on thursday, we had a lovely chili. i just did ground beef, onions, red kidney beans (yes, chris, i know that is heresy!), tomatoes, cumin, oregano, and ground chipotle peppers. we added sharp white cheddar, sour cream, and green onions, and it was a great belly warming and EASY dinner.

friday, i worked from home, and oliver was very well behaved, so i managed to get some work done too. i was a bad mom, though, and he watched lots of blues clues. he's officially addicted to the tv, i think. that night for dinner, bryan took me out to el matador for dinner. we had never been, but always drive past it on the way to and from the zoo, and wanted to give it a try. can i just say, it was terrible! first, we had to wait at the hostess station for 5 minutes. no hostess. it was 5 p.m., so they were not busy yet. a bunch of the bus boys and waitresses were sitting in the corner looking at us. finally one of the waitresses seated us. we asked for non smoking since, duh, we have a baby. the non smoking section is literally 4 tables in the corner of the smoking section. i wish i were exaggerating. a guy 2 tables from us lit up a cigarette and i was like, what the heck? so we finally got out water and placed our order, and the food was just barely mediocre. so, needless to say, we will NOT be going back again (and i'm giving it bad reviews on every web site i can find).


we mostly spent the weekend just hanging out. saturday we hit tarket and office depot (so we could have oliver's birthday party invites printed out - they are SO CUTE). we stopped by gram's house and then aunt mo's house to drop theirs off, then went to see mom and dad for a bit. that night for dinner, bryan made me his famous pizza, which i had been dreaming about. i know it looks huge in the picture but have no fear - bryan and i put a pretty good hurt on it. you can always count on us. oliver wasn't in bed yet, so i didn't have any beer with it, but that would have gone perfectly.

sunday, we went for a bike ride on the oak leaf trail. we rode for 30 - 40 minutes total, and oliver loved every minute of it. he can definitely go longer, so i think we're going to try for an hour next time. it was a gorgeous day, and the trail is very nice (and flat - which works well for bryan pulling the 50 lbs of kiddie trailer). he really seems to love riding in the trailer - which makes me so happy. every time i ride up next to him to check how he's doing, he gives me a great big grin. i really can't wait to take long (as in ride all day, camp overnight somewhere) type rides!


that night for dinner, mom came over for stir fry. bryan and i are far less intuitive when it comes to asian cooking - french, mexican, those are easy and well known. bryan has been wanting to learn how to make a kick ass stir fry so he decided that the first step is to make a few by following a recipe. a novel concept for us. he used some pork butt, carrots, this really awesome celery from our csa, green onion, bamboo shoots, and garlic. mom joined us and we all agreed that it turned out very well, though i think the flavors of the sauce (soy, mirin, and sesame oil) could have been a little more pronounced. i guess that just means he'll have to practice some more!

monday night for dinner, bryan made carnitas with the rest of the pork butt. he served that along with some super cheesy mac n cheese and frilly red mustard greens, which he sauteed quickly with a hot bacon dressing. it was a big hit - even oliver was shoveling big pieces of pork into his cute little mouth! this was after eating ham, even. that boy knows what is good for him, and obviously takes after his momma. viva el pork!

last night for dinner, we finally got around to having the whole trout we had. bryan seared it on the flat top in bacon fat (oh yeah, you heard me right - bacon fat), then finished it in the oven. we came up with a great salad to serve that on top of which included the rest of the frilly red mustard greens, arugula, beet greens, turnip greens, israeli couscous, french breakfast radishes, blanched green beans, sauteed baby bella mushrooms, and a lovely heirloom tomato from our garden. we used the leftover hot bacon dressing. some toasted pecans probably wouldn't have hurt it all that much, either. it was absolutely delicious! oliver was fascinated by the whole trout cooking on the cast iron griddle. it may be my imagination, but i swear he loves watching things cook. which is good, otherwise he'll be very, very bored for the next 17 years.

oliver has expanded his vocabulary (which i define as words he uses consistently and correctly) to include "hi" (so now he knows 2 words - "uh oh" and "hi"). it is the CUTEST THING EVER. he had said it randomly before, but i realized on friday he knows it as the word you say on the phone. i was changing him when the house phone rang, and he put the toy he was holding up to his ear and said "hi!" later i had a conference call, and when they dialed me and and i answered, oliver kept saying "hi" and trying to grab my cell phone. so he will push buttons on the phone, and say "hi" into it, and pretend to talk. holy bejesus, it's so cute. i got some video of that last night - enjoy!

bunch new pictures in the october gallery.

WFD: tuna casserole and brussel sprouts. i got some fancy pants tuna from the outpost, along with some lovely egg pasta. we're out of mushrooms, but we'll make a nice thyme cream sauce (none of that condensed soup crap in our house!), and top it with homemade bread crumbs (but of course). bryan makes the best brussel sprouts ever by blanching them, halving them, caramelizing them in butter, and adding bread crumbs at the last minute. if you haven't yet made your reservation, i am sorry - we're all booked up.

holy crap, it's spring

the weekend was fairly phenomenal. i'm almost afraid to believe it, but springs seems to FINALLY be upon us, and the weather was absolutely amazing. i'm not deluding myself into thinking we won't get another day or 8 of 30 degree weather at some point in the next month, though.

but before we get to the weekend, i must brag a little about our dinner last thursday. bryan made carnitas (something he's rather adept at), and they were really, really good. i had mine with a little salsa verde and sauteed zucchini. bryan made a little salad type side as well. super delish, and not many leftovers to speak of. bryan certainly seems to have a divine ability for cooking true mexican cuisine. i'm sure his training in the more classic/french styles helps him to do that so well (technique is universal in some aspects). i am happy to reap the benefits either way.

then came friday. i worked from home, as our day care provider had the day off. the day started out with me realizing that with ollie's morning change i was using up the last diaper in the basket. i had thought earlier in the week what we had would last until saturday, but i was off. by a day. that's a LONG TIME in Infant Diaperland. luckily we have a few back ups floating around, so we were able to make it until mid-day. between naps, oliver and i had fun playing with toys (his grip gets better every day) and in his jumperoo (he can spend hours in it and i can spend hours watching him). we went to home depot to meet with one of their designers about kitchen plans. oliver's nap schedule luckily coincided with our appointment time perfectly. i love well rested and not cranky baby. we really liked the plan the designer came up with, and started making a few small adjustments. we have a few more updates to make, but we're pretty happy. then it's time to write down all the $$ numbers and figure out how we're going to pay for it, since we're not too keen on incurring too much debt. that aspect of the whole thing has me feeling a little nervous, but we're both REALLY excited to have a new kitchen. all these years of planning "well, if it were OUR kitchen..." and "well, when we do our OWN kitchen..." while renting will finally come to fruition! we're still trying to decide on final choices for the counters, floors, and backsplash... and then we're off! my laptop also decided to DIE COMPLETELY late friday afternoon... as in not even trying to come on, no sound, no lights. it worked when i arrived in this office this am, but i'm still having the helpdesk come take a look since i've been having a few problems.

saturday dawned bright and sunny. oliver had some oatmeal with bananas for breakfast, then he and i played for awhile (which consisted mainly of him trying to chew the bejesus out of everything i handed him). bryan woke up right when ollie was settling down for a nap, so i assigned him to baby duty so i could clean the house, thereby regaining a little of my sanity. bryan even took the babe with him to the grocery store to do all our grocery shopping so i could continue cleaning. it took me half the day, but i was finally able to get the house cleaned the way i like, oh happy day! bryan's friend dirk arrived around lunchtime to work on computer stuff, and he and bryan made us roast chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. oliver decided he was NOT in the mood for his last nap of the day, so the 3 of us whisked ourselves off to target to get some shopping done before dinnertime. the day passed too quickly, that is for sure.

sunday, bryan performed in our church's passion drama. good friday got snowed out (that was the 16" snow day, if i recall), but the pastor put a lot of work into the drama, so they moved it to this past sunday. and added scenes. lucky us. it was LONG. oliver's AM schedule worked fine with church, and he would have been ready for his next feeding and nap about 20 minutes after getting home from church - on a normal day. but this drama was LONG so he ended up pretty cranky.

after a much deserved nap (for both oliver and i), bryan hooked the bike trailer up to his bike so we could all go for a spin in the gorgeous weather. i had been looking forward to this weather for this exact purpose! oliver grinned at us from behind the mesh of his seat (not for the picture though, of course!). he seemed VERY excited at this new experience! i think he was also very happy that he was outside, it wasn't chilly, and the wind wasn't blowing in his face (another new experience for him). i was thrilled to be on the bike again, and while the ride wasn't very long (just around the block to the park and around the park once), my butt is currently remembering how a bike seat makes it feel the next day. i look forward to overcoming that pain. oliver seemed to enjoy the ride, at least until the end, when i think the strap was rubbing against his neck, making it a little uncomfortable. he was pretty happy to get home and out of the contraption. we'll have to come up with a solution for that. if he'd just learn to sit up already, that would do it! :) hopefully we can think of something (and he should be sitting up unassisted in the next month or so), so that we can take some long weekend rides together. i want to wear the wheels out on that trailer! actually, not really, as i don't want to have to spend money on new wheels.

oliver and i spent some time sitting on the back deck watching daddy do some yard work. it was at this time that i believe to have diagnosed oliver's current sniffle situation. he's had some congestion and a light, dry cough for a little over 2 weeks now. we saw dr andy week before last, who said it was viral and come see him again if it lasted more than 2 weeks. this weekend, his nose started dripping, his congestion seemed worse (especially at night), and his eyes looked watery and red. when we were sitting outside, his nose went into overtime snot production. allergies! so we have that to contend with. unfortunately, there's nothing the doctor could do to make him feel better, as he's too young for any kind of treatment. and i am not thrilled with the prospect of subjecting oliver to allergy testing (my memories of the same have a nightmareish tinge to them, and i was old enough to understand what was going on), but i think he's too young for that anyways. we have oliver's 6 month wellness visit next week (6 months! already!), so i'll be sure to discuss it with the doc then. in the meantime, we'll continue with the baby vicks, nose drops, humidifier, elevated crib mattress, tylenol at night when he's feeling just terrible, and extra hugs and snuggles.


oliver's new food this week was green beans. he likes them. :)

last night for dinner, we had planned on making a ham, but i was excited by the weather and we decided to smoke it today instead (see the WFD below). so instead, we made a teriyaki glazed pork loin with pineapple "crust", teriyaki onions, grilled baby bok choy, and crispy potatoes. bryan augmented a bottle of teriyaki with soy and mirin. i seared the pork loin in the cast iron, then transferred it to the oven to roast, continually basting with the teriyaki. in the meantime, i let sliced onions marinade in the teriyaki. at the end, i dumped the onions into the pan, pressed crushed pineapple onto the pork, and turned on the broiler. it worked out rather well. it would be much better with fresh pineapple; we had the canned variety, leftovers from a cake i had made. i thinly sliced potatoes, which bryan pan fried and then broiled until a bit crispy. the baby bok choy i simply seared on the cast iron griddle, which still had a trace of butter on it from the grilled cheese bryan made me for lunch. bryan had 2 helpings of everything. :)

check out new pictures and movies in the april 2008 gallery. the new gallery plays the movies much better, fyi.

WFD: the aforementioned ham. as i stated, the weather inspired me to eat outdoor type food, and in the absence of gas for the grill, i thought about the smoker. smoke & spice, our go to bbq book, had a few good recipes for smoking whole hams. since i didn't have any ginger jam, i opted for a more traditional maple bourbon recipe, to which i added some brown sugar. i scored the ham and rubbed in a wet rub, wrapped that sucker up in plastic wrap, and left it to ruminate overnight. bryan's had it going on the smoker since mid day, using some cherry wood i believe. we'll just make some cheater's mac n cheese (orzo+cheddar) and grilled zucchini to go along with it. i've got a few ideas for that leftover ham too... but more on that in good time. :)