There's nothing better than good friends

On Saturday, we entertained some dear friends for the first time! Joanne and Tony brought over their precious 5.5-month old twin girls, and Shelly brought over her 18-month old son Nate.

Of course wee man was a cranky little thing for the first half of their visit, but he soon got into the little babies (and the pre-arranged marriage with chatty little Ashlyn us Moms have going on), and he and Nate seemed to enjoy playing and watching Sprout. In fact, it was so funny listening to them - one would giggle watching the cartoons and then the other one would giggle back! I did manage to snap a couple of photos while they weren't looking.

I also channeled Australian chef Curtis Stone (I picked him because he's so cute and that accent....yum...) and went to town in the kitchen. I served bacon-wrapped water chestnuts for an appetizer, grilled london broiled and mashed potatoes (done by Chef Husband), brown-sugar glazed carrots, and a vegatarian lasagna for the non-meat eaters!

I haven't tried the lasagna yet myself, but here is the recipe:

Ingredients
1 1/2 quarts spaghetti sauce (your favorite homemade or jar spaghetti sauce)
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 teaspoon oregano
6 cooked lasagna noodles
1 (16 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced zucchini
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
3 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions
1. Mix carrots, oregano, and spaghetti sauce together.
2. Mix Ricotta, spinach, and eggs together in separate bowl.
3. Spread ½ cup spaghetti sauce in bottom of 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
4. Layer 3 lasagna noodles, ½ remaining sauce, ½ Ricotta mixture, ½ sliced zucchini, ½ sliced mushrooms, ½ Mozzarella, and ½ Parmesan.
5. Repeat layers with remaining ingredients.
6. Bake in 350 degrees oven for about 45 minutes.

A new-found baby fever, good wine, good dessert, and great company later, we have decided we need to do this more often! Thank you, friends, for a great night!

Hide your hamburgers!

So, here is the Hamburglar in all his glory. It only took Wee Man a couple of houses until he realized that candy was an easy score when all he had to do to walk up to the door, look cute, reach into the bowl, and then leave. Then, after hauling your basket home, you get to check out the goods!

And because Grammie and Papa realized that candy would be abundant to the wee fellow, they sent him a Blues Clues book - which, as you can see here, he really enjoyed looking at!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Halloween like our family did!

Four-letter word, begins with "s"

No, Gavin hasn't learned to speak like a drunken sailor (though I'm not sure how he's escaped that yet).

The bad word I'm talking about is: S.N.O.W. Now, don't get me wrong - I enjoy snow. In fact, I may even venture out to say that I LOVE snow (ducking all of the virtual snowballs being thrown at me right now).

However, it's still October - the Great Pumpkin hasn't even been to visit yet. How can this be happening so soon? So here in the wonderful Pittsburgh region, we saw snow flurries last night. And I had my first experience standing at the bus stop at 6:30 this morning in even more blustery, windy snow flurries. Brrrrrr...for once I didn't mind the sardine-packed bus - it brought warmth!

It could be worse, though - apparently upstate NY got about 11 inches of the white powdery stuff and Northeastern, PA got 16 inches! Can you imagine waking up to this right now?:

Mother Nature sure is playing tricks on us, though. I guess it's supposed to be in the low 60's the rest of this week - which should help with trick-or-treating tomorrow night. There's nothing worse than wearing a winter coat over a cute costume, you agree?

Hey Al Gore: global warming, my arse.

Can we get more cheese with that ham?

Every time we pull out the camera to catch Wee Man in action, he cheeses it up and gives the biggest grin you can imagine. Then he attacks you to play with the camera and to see the pictures we just took. He's his own critic, I guess.

Here are some more of the little guy - go on and admit it, he makes you smile, doesn't he?

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Linus: The Great Pumpkin always picks the most sincere pumpkin patch to rise out of. He's just gotta pick this pumpkin patch. He's just gotta! Look around. You can see that there' not a sign of hypocrisy anywhere. Nothing but sincerity reaching out as far as the eye can see. (It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! 1966)

What kind of parents would we be if we didn't take our child to the local pumpkin patch before Halloween? I mean, seriously, doesn't everyone know that if you visit the Great Pumpkin Patch, the Great Pumpkin will come and bring toys for all of the children?

So, over the weekend, we finally took Wee Man out to the Great Pumpkin Patch - better known as the farmstand conglomerate Soergel's. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Daddy was in a great mood because he had a Steelers game to look forward to, and I was happy to finally snap some pics of the little guy amongst those colorful orbs known as pumpkins.

Soergel's was having one of their weekly Fall festivals that seems to attract everyone who lives within the same hemisphere of Pittsburgh. We fought the crowds, hiked up the big hill to the patch and snapped away. We took the tractor-pulled hayride back down and enjoyed some treats and people watching. Our little buddy enjoyed all of it - especially playing the drums on the pumpkins.

Oh and for those who enjoyed the walk down memory lane, I believe ABC will be showing "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" tonight (Tuesday) at 8p. It's too bad Wee Man will already be in bed.

Chicken Spinach Lasagna

I saw this recipe in a magazine recently and thought it looked like a quick and easy twist on lasagna. This past Sunday, I decided to tackle it. Luckily, it was a hit. (Even Wee Man enjoyed the spinach!)

I did use lowfat versions of the mayo and sour cream, as well as doubled the amount of spinach (due to a large amount of chicken I had and the big baking dish!). Oh, and I skipped the nuts too. You know, becausee I'm such a seasoned chef and all.

Chicken Spinach Lasagna Casserole
by Trisha Yearwood, featured in Redbook Magazine

Ingredients
1(10-oz.) frozen spinach,thawed and drained
2c cooked chicken,shreaded
2c grated cheddar cheese
1/3c chopped onion
1Tbs cornstarch
1/2tsp salt
1/4tsp black pepper
1Tbs soy sauce
1(10oz) can cream of mushroom soup
1c sour cream
1(41/2oz)jar sliced mushrooms,drained
1/3c mayonaisse
6 lasagna noodles,cooked
1c grated parmesan cheese
1c chopped pecans

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, combine spinach,chicken,cheddar cheese,onions,cornstarch,salt,pepper,soy sauce,soup,sour cream,mushrrooms and mayonaisse. Put a layer of noodles in bottom of greased 9x13" lasagna pan. Spread half of spinach mixture over noodles. Place another layer of noodles on top and cover with remaining spinach mixture. Sprinkle parmesan cheese,then pecans on top and bake for 1 hour.

Ref, we need a timeout!

It's official. Wee Man got his first timeout last night.

I can't really blame his behavior, though. I mean, the Kid is so exhausted these evenings, as he has so much to do at school and only 2 hours to nap. He just can't help himself I think. Anyway, the crime was due to his wild throwing arm. He was quietly playing with his glow turtle:

(with its hard shell back) and *crack!* we heard the poor thing whack against the coffee table.

So, over to Wee Man I went. I picked him up, placed him in the corner of the couch, scolded him for throwing, and told him to sit there. He attempted to get off the couch, and I sat him back again. Another attempt = same results.

Anyway, I have to say that I am very impressed because he sat there, sucking away at his paci, and never tried to move again. Even after I told him he could get down, he stayed there. He knew he was doing wrong. Thankfully, he got over the punishment real quick, though. He did get off the couch and came over to both the husband and I and gave us both hugs and a kiss.

Score: 1 for the parents. 0 for the Kid.

For now, anyway.

Easy as pie

For those that know me, they know that I tend to be a bit challenged when it comes to the kitchen. I will say that over the years, I've gotten better (stop the snickering) with cooking. My baking, however, seriously lacks. Betty Crocker and Pillsbury are my BFF's on baking and I shun those who deny the existence of them.

Last week I was in the grocer's dairy aisle, and I was excited to come across a new Cozy Shack item - pumpkin spiced pudding. However, since I related CS with rice pudding, I thought I was getting pumpkin spiced rice pudding. Could it get more heavenly than that, I ask you?

I opened it up earlier this week and realized, however, that it was pudding and it was just so-so. I went on to read the packaging and saw that if I just had a pie shell, I could make pumpkin pie with it! So Wednesday night I attempted just that. That cute little Keebler elf assisted me in the shell part, I dumped the pudding into the shell and spread it out evenly. Into the oven it all went for 40 minutes on 400.

Voila! After some cooling the fridge, the husband and I enjoyed a nice little pumpkin pie, with whipped topping, for dessert last night.

I think I might do this for Thanksgiving and see if the family can tell the difference. I think like this kind of "baking!"

No, no, no - nah nye Daddy

We decided early on that discipline for an early-stage toddler would be slap on the hand (depending on the severity of the sin) and/or a stern "Not nice!"

Daddy had Wee Man in the bath last week and boy, does Wee Man loooove his bath. Anyway, Daddy did all of the necessary washing of crevices, got breakfast, lunch and dinner rubbed out of the hair, and got the cup ready for rinsing. This is the part the Child is not fond of, but they both went through the motions pretty much unscathed.

Minutes later, Daddy got a pointy finger and a "No, no, no, nah nye Daddy!" Apparently Wee Man didn't think Daddy was being very nice for rinsing his hair.

Ah the things they pick up on....

It all comes out in the wash

So last night I did a load of Wee Man's laundry after he went to bed so that he would have a fresh, clean blankie for school this morning. Everything was going fine until I went to put the load in the dryer.

I opened up the lid to the washer and thousands..ok millions..of little gel balls were covering the clothes. I screeched. The husband flew downstairs to see what was wrong (awww my very own Superman!). I was befuddled. He was dumbfounded. We stood there scratching our heads, mentally going over what could be in the coin-sized pockets that make up an 18-month old's pants.

I kept digging, scattering these little gems all over my laundry room. And there it was - the culprit - a disposable diaper.

HUH?! Well, apparently we've been so proud of ourselves for teaching Wee Man how to throw tissues in the garabage and laundry in the laundry bin, that we never thought there was a downside. It turns out, Wee Man scooped up his pile of dirty clothes from yesterday (the diaper was underneath the pile) and tossed it all in.

45 minutes of cleaning the floor, cursing, running an empty wash, cursing, rerunning the clothes wash (on HOT), and some more cursing later....everything made it safely into the dryer and was good to go this morning.

All I'm gonna say is, it could have been worse. The number two diapers happened earlier in the day.

Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day

Please keep in your hearts and prayers, all of those who have suffered the loss of a little one. http://www.october15th.com/

How to avoid a hairy situation....

In short, you drive 6 miles each way, pay $20 (plus tip), and walk out after 15 minutes of service.

And what am I talking about, you may ask? It's called a toddler's first "real" haircut.

Wee Man takes after his Mom and has a very ticklish neck. He takes after his Dad in that he wiggles a lot. Ok, not really, but I just wanted to give some credit to Dad here...

Anywho, we took him to Sharky's in Cranberry - he got to sit in a Blue Angels fighter jet and watch Elmo. As we left, he got a lollipop and balloon. I mean really, does it get any better than that?!

Fall is the air...

I love this time of year - the air is getting a little crisper, I can smell the wonderful aroma of fireplaces, pumpkin spice....well, everything is pumpkin spice flavored!, the magnificent colors the season brings, and scarecrows.

And then there is Halloween. But, before I go on, let me paint a picture. Now that we have a house and a toddler, my husband is really getting into the decorating spirit. Come the holiday season, let's just say I call him "Sparky" (ala: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - you know, 250,000 lights!). Ok - maybe I'm exaggerating a little....a wee little.

This Halloween is no different. Although maybe a bit more on the demure side...for this year anyway. On Sunday, my husband broke out the knife and carved the pumpkin we bought the prior week. He hooked up a light for the inside, I arranged the spider webbing on the 300-lb surprise boulder gift (don't ask) and voila! It looked nice.

Fast forward 15 minutes - the husband has disappeared, only to be found rummaging through a storage closet for the big bin of fall decorations. Out came a plastic, light-up pumpkin. Out came Fall swags. Out came the scarecrow.

Ok - I could see where this was going and I thought, "How nice! He's excited about this!"

After arranging everything, the husband disappeared again; only to emerge a few minutes later with a saw blade. HUH? Apparently scarecrows should be scary.

Thankfully, I was able to successfully nix the idea based on images of crazy people wielding a saw blade and the knowledge that home insurance wouldn't cover it.

So, without further ado, I give you the almost-deadly weapon-wielding scarecrow. Don't let the big smile fool you - this is one mean scarecrow.

It's a Wee World

So, after much deliberating about blogging....After much discussion with the hubbie on a title....And after much waiting and forgetting about it....

Welcome to "It's a Wee World" - basically the name is derived from the fact that I call my son "wee man." Also, our family is based around the world.. eh, maybe not that original, but it's going to have to do.

Enjoy!