Halloween

To start our Halloween festivities we carved a pumpkin. I figured either Luca would have a ball playing in all the goop, or not want anything to do with it. Unfortunately, aside from a minute or two using the spoon to scrape the last little bit out of the pumpkin, it was the latter. Fortunately, neither Josh or I have carved a pumpkin in years, so we still had fun =) So Luca played in the basement and we created an absolute masterpiece!

Even though this was Luca's second Halloween, it was his first to dress up and celebrate. As shy as he is around strangers and as much as he dislikes new things, I didn't figure we'd actually go trick-or-treating. Especially since he probably wouldn't be able to eat much of anything he got. So we made plans to visit his grandparents and great grandparents and a couple of their neighbors. He was going to dress up as a skeleton, we had the costume for ages. And then the afternoon before Halloween I thought he should dress up as something that he would pick if he understood what was going on. That night I went out to buy him a black sweatshirt and hat, and judged all the people picking out costumes last minute until I remembered I was doing the exact same thing... Eventually found what I needed, made it the next day with help from my mom, and just in time, Luca got to dress up as Jude!

Happy Halloween!

Third Pumpkin Patch

The weather was just so pretty, and we hadn't been back to the pumpkin farm from last year, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to go! It was fun to see how much he'd grown since last year propping him up in the pumpkins and this year chasing him all over.

7 mo old Luca

19 mo old Luca hears an airplane

Last year we pushed Luca around in the stroller, he sat in with the pumpkins and straw, tried to eat everything that was within his arms reach, and that was about it.















This year he got to enjoy all the little houses they had, and the slides and climbing stuff and petting zoo and teepee and mud and everything. =)

Cookies!

I've been wanting to try some new cookie recipes recently, and picked two. Against all odds, both turned out and are good enough to go in my recipe box! I thought you might be looking for a new cookie too, but I tried to find the recipes online and couldn't. So, I'll post them.

I had to try this one because it sounded so strange, I figured it was going to be so new and awesome or a hot mess. And I lucked out and it was the first. The directions say to juice the orange and then finely chop the peel. I chose to zest the orange and then juice it. It also says 3 tsp powder, but 1T is 3 tsp... so I just used 1 T. Every time I make cookies I set the timer for half of the cookie time and then rotate the cookie sheet 180* and do the other half of the time. It's probably not always necessary, but the first time I did it the cookies turned out so well that I do it all the time now. Anyway, here's the cookies!

Orange-Peanut Butter Cookies
(From "The Cookie Book, ed Culinary Arts Institute, 1965)
1 Orange
1/2 C Shortening
3/4 C chunk-style peanut butter
1 C Sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 C sifted flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 package (6 oz.) butterscotch flavored pieces

Cut orange in half; extract juice (about 1/4 C). Grind peel or chop fine (about 1/2 C). Cream shortening, peanut butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and extract until fluffy. Blend in orange peel. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with orange juice. Stir in butterscotch bits. Drop from teaspoon onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350* F. 10-12 min. Makes 4 doz. cookies.


When I asked Josh what kind of cookie he might want, he said something with peppermint. So I went through my cook books and found these Mint Meltaways. I don't think I've ever made a cookie without eggs, it was a little odd to not feel bad about licking the beaters. ;) There are a bunch of variations on the basic recipe, and I plan on making them for Christmas so I'll try out some of the other ones too probably. These were meant to have green food coloring to tint the dough, and I forgot. So I rolled them in blue sprinkles instead, which is kind of the same thing. Ish. I also just realized I was supposed to use cake flour and I instead used regular flour. Oops. Next time I'll make them right...

Green Peppermint Meltaway Cookies
(From "Cooky Book" by Betty Crocker, 1963)
1 C butter
1/2 C sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tsp peppermint extract
2 1/4 Cake Flour
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 400* (mod. hot). Mix butter, confectioners' sugar, and peppermint thoroughly. Measure flour by spooning into a cup and leveling off or by sifting. Stir flour and salt together; blend into shortening mixture. Add a few drops of green food coloring. Drop by teaspoonfuls on ungreased baking sheet. (Cookies do not spread.) Bake about 8 min., or until set but not brown. While warm, dip in confectioners' sugar. Cool. Makes 5 doz. cookies.

All in all, four new recipes so far this week, and all four have been good! A rare treat for me, to be sure. Still looking for some new cookies to make, we'll see what else I can find...

Pumpkin Patch Part Two

We got to try out another pumpkin farm and met Grammie, Poppie, Ryland, Great Grandma and Great Papa. This one was huge and had so much stuff to do! We rode on a train pulled by a tractor made up of a bunch of barrels painted to look like cows. Ours was named Cupcake and oh my goodness was it a bumpy ride. Good thing I didn't need to pee... I mean, really, bumpy. There was a sign warning pregnant people not to ride. It sort of reminded me of a wooden roller coaster. But, still fun. They also had "antique" tractors on a big loop to drive around.

Help from the Great Grandparents

There were animals to pet (including tiny piglets and emo llamas that looked like they could use a hair cut but whatever that's just how they express themselves). There was a jumpy inflated pillow thingy, pumpkins everywhere, water pumps, a corn bin and a giant hay pyramid to climb on. I may have also climbed on the hay pyramid, but it was probably only because there were "squishy" parts where the hay wasn't as dense and it was hard to walk on so Luca needed help. And it was Ry's idea to climb all the way to the top to slide down the slide, honest.

Luca got a pumpkin to take home, and a picture with his cousin. You can't hardly tell they're related, right? Right.

And Mother Nature waited until right when we were getting in the car to start raining. So thoughtful, she is. ;)

19 months

Another month already? Geez. Let's see, what's new...

He's adding new words regularly, including snack, off, bye, cra (for cracker), Bryce, Ry (his cousins), blue, uh-oh, bath, cook (for cookie), and go fast. "No" just recently made it into his vocab, but he doesn't usually say it to refuse something, rather just keeps repeating it while he's walking around or climbing the stairs or whatever. My favorite is when he turns his head away and says it very quietly. He is constantly jabbering, and there's theories circulating that we play "Learn Korean" tapes while he sleeps because his jabbering does not sound like English at all.
He puts his arms straight behind him turns them palms up and we fly around the house like airplanes making whooshing noises. When we're outside and he hears a plane engine he points up and looks for the airplane.
Jude is no longer safe anywhere because Luca can climb on the furniture. I even caught him the other day stepping on a toy to reach further back on the end table.
His eye teeth are coming in and he's chewing on everything.
We went and got a couple potty chairs a couple weeks ago because he will point to his diaper when he needs to go to the bathroom. Once, he actually used the chair. Mostly, he's terrified of them and refuses to sit on them. At his 18 month well-baby doctor's appointment his pediatrician made a point to say to not even bother thinking about potty training until he's two or even two and a half. I thought, maybe, since he tells me when he needs to, it could work. But until his little chair stops being so scary it's a huge no-go. Ah well. We don't push the issue.
He loves being outside and whenever I say I'm taking the dog out he starts patting his head (telling me he wants his hat on) so he can come outside too. And he doesn't want to come back inside. I had a chat with him about a week ago, explaining how much I hate the cold and that I will be happy to put a thousand layers on him and he can play outside as long as he wants, but that I will only be watching him from the relative warmth of the kitchen. We'll see how that goes...

Apparently, there is a time limit to videos I can upload to here. So, here is a super long video (broken into chunks) where I am annoyingly persistent in trying to get Luca to show off and he is sometimes obliging and sometimes crazy.

Pumpkin Farm

We decided to try a different pumpkin farm than last year and found a really good one! Free admission, cheap pumpkins/gourds/squash, and lots for Luca to do. All of their pumpkins are right at the front, and they had some Huge ones!

Kid patted them and laid his head on them and loved them and did not want to look at any of the other, smaller ones. He clearly preferred the ones he could have hollowed out and made a home in.

Go Duckies, Go!

Eventually we managed to tear him from them and wandered further back. There was a set of four water pumps on a recycling system so he had fun pumping water and sending the little rubber duckies swimming down the chute.

Baby cow thought Grandma was delicious!

 They had a baby cow and a couple piglets in a little fenced in area. Luca wasn't quite sure at first about any of them, and didn't ever really warm up to the cow. But the pigs were eating and sticking their tongues out to do it. So now when you ask him what a pig says he sticks his tongue in and out. It's funny, so I don't correct him (I make a lousy pig noise anyway)  ;) 




 
 Then they had a "Fun Barn" with a pyramid of hay bales and bins full of corn kernels for kids to play in. While he never strayed far from the door, he did enjoy being in it and throwing the kernels around.

 And going around to the back of the corn bin, we found a GIANT pig eating all the kernels kids had thrown out of the bin. Just going to town. So Luca, being the sweet little boy he is, tried to feed him =)  Oddly, the pig wasn't interested in Luca's little handful of corn... But seriously, that pig was huge. It clearly lived happily supplementing it's diet in the Fun Barn.


 

So, we grabbed some pumpkins on the way out. Some Luca sized ones, one big one that we will carve later (Stay Tuned, should be fun!) and a huge butternut squash for $2. Did I mention this place was super cheap? We'll be keeping this place in mind for next year, or later this month with his cousins!