Happy Halloween

The thermometer in our house reads 55 degrees! We haven't turned on the heat yet.

An update

Fall has finally hit and my peppers are just starting to grow. I put stakes in the ground yesterday to hold them up. I don't know what took them so long. I hope it doesn't frost before they're ready to pick.

I love going to the library with baby Doodle and picking out all kinds of new books he hasn't read. Every time we trade in the old books for new ones the new batch become is favorites. It's great.

I've been doing a lot of cooking lately. Over the past week I've made split pea soup, polenta with mushrooms and gorganzola cheese, cumin cous cous with butternut squash, chick peas and raisins, cheese cigars for baby Doodle, tilapia poached in white wine and lemon juice served with asparagus, blueberry muffins, pumpkin cake, and brownies. That's all I can think of at the moment. Our refrigerator is packed with tupperware. I love it.

While baby Doodle is napping I need to bring the fans that are scattered throughout the house down to the basement now that I'm sure we won't be using them again this year.

Mom's visit

We've had a very busy month thus far. We went to Vegas in the beginning of the month. Then we had a birthday extravaganza for my thirtieth. Then my mother came to visit on Wednesday and left today (it's Sunday). Her visit was good. Having her around makes me wish she lived in Philly. She came to baby Doodle's CHOP appointment with me. The doctor looked at the lump between his neck and shoulder. It's a vascular mass, which we've known for a while. We're going to have an ultrasound of it as soon as I call and make the appointment.

On Thursday, my mom came with us to gym class and got to see baby Doodle having a ball on the spring board floor. He was thrilled to have her around. Constantly calling "gamma" whenver she wasn't in sight. Friday we went to Linvilla again for a hay ride and pumpkin admiring. Baby Doodle played in the awesome playground for a while, but mostly he wanted to push our friend's stroller around. We left at his nap time and he slept in the car on the way home. The trip was only about a half hour so his nap, instead of being 2 hours, was only a half hour. We went to Boyfiend's birthday party with mom. Then Mr. Doodlebug and my mother brought baby Doodle home and put him to bed. My mother stayed with him and Mr. D joined us back at the party. Girlfiend made an absolutely fabulous chocolate cake. It was so rich and chocolaty it was like eating chocolate fudge brownies with melted chocolate on top. It was heavenly.

Saturday, our neigbors had a yard sale and we put a few things out to sell and made $12. My mom and I went shopping together and had lunch out. Then Mr. D and I went out to dinner in center city while my mom babysat again. I can't say enough about how wonderful it would be to have relatives near by who would want to babysit baby Doodle!

My mother had bought me the cookbook that Jessica Seinfeld wrote about hiding pureed vegetables in your kids' food. I made the sweet potato pancakes this morning and they were a hit. I'm glad my mom got the cookbook for me because I am very annoyed by Jessica Seinfeld's success with the book. She was on Oprah and a bunch of other shows because she's Jerry's wife. She was able to get all these experts to help her create the book because she's Jerry's wife. And it's flying off the shelves of every bookstore because of all the publicity, again, because she's Jerry's wife. Moms have been hiding vegetables in their kids' food for years. It's not a novel idea. I did it before I ever heard of the dumb book. Nevertheless, I'm glad I have it and didn't have to spend my money on it. The recipes are pretty good and I plan to use them frequently.

My mom left this morning for New York where she's attending my cousin's wedding. We didn't go. It was great having my mom around. I'm planning to head up to Vermont with baby Doodle next month before Thanksgiving to see my brother and mom.

birthday

Today, I am thirty years old. It's hard to believe I've been living for that long. Thirty years is a long time. Then I remind myself that thirty-six years is even longer -- that's how old Mr. Doodlebug is. And fifty-eight is even older than that -- that's how old my mother is. I thought I would be depressed on my birthday because I am prone to depression and fight bouts of it from time to time. But I haven't felt the least bit blue about turning 30.

It was great to return from Vegas to my beautiful boy. I believe that his presence in my life is the reason I'm not depressed. It's hard to be down when you have such a loving son whose fun personality is infectious.

Yesterday, my neighbors and friends took me to "The Best Nails" to have manicures and pedicures while we sipped champagne. Girlfiend babysat baby Doodle for which I am grateful. Last night we had a few friends over for pizza and ice cream cake (from Dairyland). We drank wine and talked and had a good time. Baby Doodle went to bed without incident even after some of our guests had arrived.

This morning Mr. Doodlebug got up with baby Doodle and allowed me to get a few more minutes of rest -- I couldn't fall back asleep, but I laid there for a bit. When I came downstairs I was presented with my gifts -- a gift certificate to a spa in center city, the new Josh Ritter CD, a basket with thirty candies in it (Ghiradelli chocolates and fudge), and a frame with two pictures of baby Doodle and me. I had a massage at Millennium in Wynnewood. The massage was good, but the ambiance of the room I was in was not that relaxing. It looked like a room-sized shower with tile walls to the ceiling and a tile floor. Then Mr. Doodlebug and I went out to lunch and left baby Doodle with another friend. He didn't seem to care that we left and when we returned to get him he was riled up and wasn't fazed that we had come back. He's asleep now, but I don't plan to let him sleep past 4:00 because our babysitter is coming over at 7:45 to babysit while we go out to dinner with a bunch of friends. Yes, another meal at a restaurant!

Tomorrow we are heading to Kennett Square where we'll go to Longwood Gardens and then to our friends' house to have dinner and drink and spend the night.

I am totally fine with turning thirty when it's like this.

Hate Vegas? Who me?

We got back from Las Vegas yesterday after a three-day vacation without baby Doodle. It was awesome! I highly recommend traveling without a baby. It is SO much easier. It was amazing how quickly we fell back into our pre-baby lifestyle. We ate at nice restaurants without interruption, we drank adult beverages and were able to sleep off any hangover we may have gotten, I wore jewelry including my engagement ring without anyone tugging at them or putting their yogurt-covered hands all over them. Yes, it was a fine weekend.

We arrived ten minutes late for a surprise 40th birthday party at the Bellagio which was incredibly stressful, but once we were there we drank and ate and were merry. We checked into our hotel after midnight and went straight to bed (it was 3:00 a.m. our time). I woke up late and ran on the treadmill, which might not seem very vacationy, but it was great for me to run in peace and on a treadmill which I don't have free access to here. I took my time getting ready for the day even blow drying my hair, which I never do. I sat out by the pool for a bit and had lunch. Then I hooked up with Mr. Doodlebug to tour around the enormous hotels on the strip. That day, Saturday, we went to Luxor, Paris, -- where I bought a giant plastic Eiffel Tower filled with strawberry daquiri -- Bellagio and Casino Royal where I made my first attempt at gambling. I played black jack and turned my whopping $20 into $33 (an odd number because I had black jack three times and you're paid $6 for your $5 -- yes, I was at a $5 table).

That night we went out to a steakhouse and I had Dover Sole for the first time. It was delicious. I also had the best macaroni and cheese I've ever had -- and I've had a lot of mac and cheese in my life. We went out on the strip and I played a little more black jack and lost. I watched our friends play craps, we drank a bit and then went to the hotel to sleep.

We slept in again Sunday. We checked out the most incredible hotel I've ever seen -- the Wynn (the same guy who built the Bellagio). There was a tall, but more impressively, wide waterfall at the far end of a shallow infinity pool with statues of the backs of a nude man and two nude women. They looked as if they were wading in deeper water. There was a patio with tables and umbrellas where people were enjoying Sunday brunch. Rather than explain every little thing, I'll post a few pictures. We also went to the Venetian which was massive and very cool. We got a brownie sundae from Ghiradelli after lunch. Unexpectedly, the birthday boy offered me a ticket to the Cirque du Soleil show for which there was an extra ticket (his brother-in-law didn't make the trip to Vegas). I offered to pay for my ticket, of course, but he didn't take any money. So at 7:00 p.m. I saw The Beatles Love at the Mirage. It was incredible. Really, just undescribable. I won't even attempt it.

After the show I met up with Mr. D and we walked back to our hotel. We ate some tapas at an awesome Spanish restuarant next door to our hotel. We went to bed around 10:30 p.m. because we had a 6:00 a.m. flight. Luckily, the airport is practically on the Strip so our cab ride was about seven minutes.

Great, great, great weekend. I'm so glad we went. Thank you, H, for turning 40! And thank you Grammy and Grandad for watching baby Doodle. What a treat.

An autumn display inside the Bellagio.

Fresh flower balls hanging from trees inside the Wynn.

The waterfall and pool outside the Wynn. Obviously the picture doesn't do it justice.



Hanging chandeliers inside the Wynn.

Part of the Wynn's grounds.

apples apples apples

The great thing about Linvilla is you can go apple picking and make a day of it with your 18-month old baby. The great thing about apple picking when they're having a buy a half bushell of apples and get a half bushell free sale is you can make even more things with apples. To date I have made three batches of applesauce (two are frozen), fourteen apple muffins (also frozen), two apple cakes and three apple pies (the third is in the oven now). And there are still plenty of apples left.

Today for lunch I had a delicious sandwich -- lettuce, Cabot cheddar cheese and thinly sliced apples with a light film of mayo on both pieces of bread. It was tasty.

18-months old

My boy is a year and a half old. It's hard to believe. As he gets older his personality is revealed more and more. Baby Doodle is sweet and kind, he's verbal and smart, he's loving and excitable. He's so adorable it's hard not to hug and kiss him all the time. As far as his advancements go, they're not that different from last month.

He now says his name when specifically prompted -- that's not to say he answers when you say "what is your name, baby Doodle (except we don't call him that)?" You have to point to Dad or Mom first and then to him.

He climbs up and down the stairs without assistance. He comes down forward facing, like an adult, holding onto the spindles with both hands. He climbs up the stairs both by half crawling-half walking and by walking holding onto the banister and/or an adult's hand. It's nice to not be super worried about the stairs any more. We still use the gates to keep him contained, but he's pretty self-sufficient on the stairs.

He goes down the slide unattended. First he went down on his belly facing backwards by himself. Today for the first time he went down the slide sitting up like a big boy. Once he did it for the first time he kept doing it over and over.

He understands almost everything we say to him. He follows directions like, "put the block back in the box," or "can you go get your shoe and bring it to me?"

He tells me when he's pooping and sometimes when he's peeing. A few times he's asked me to "clean" his poop meaning he wants a diaper change, which is a nice switch from screaming when I change his diaper.

His vocabulary is upwards of 75 words. That is a total guess, I stopped counting three months ago when he had 30+.

He's become a bit of a picky eater. Some days he'll eat pasta with tomato sauce and then the next day he'll outright reject it like I'm insane for even offering such crap. He doesn't eat many vegetables any more. He'll appease me and eat a few peas every now and then, but he mostly rejects any vegetable I put in front of him no matter how well it's disguised.

At his pediatrician appointment today he weighed in at 23.6 pounds which is almost exactly three pounds heavier than he was three months ago. He's now in the 10th percentile instead of the 2nd or 4th.

He's a wonderful baby, excuse me, toddler. He makes me smile every day, and that is a great thing. It's hard to believe how much you can love your child.