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.