Round up.

A mishmash of pictures from our trip to Oklahoma in November.

Kisses from Grandma Gail
Climbing trees with Grandpa No-no. We call him that because he's always telling Spenser "No, no!" hehehe
Hanging out in a tree with Grandpa No-no's hat
Trying to take pictures of Spenser and his cousin, Owen. Spenser was more interested in poking at Owen and making him laugh.
Spenser's beautiful Great Grandma at his birthday party.
Rocking away in the adorable red rocking chair that was a gift from Grandpa No-no and Grandma Gail.

Sitting on the stairs, waiting for someone to notice....

One year!

Our boy has turned one year old! Time has gone by so quickly and our little baby is well on his way to being a little boy. He's walking with more confidence every day and can climb a flight of stairs in the wink of an eye. He has four teeth on top and three on bottom (with a fourth threatening to poke through any day now). He has a very healthy appetite and frequently eats half of Mom's dinner after finishing his. He loves lemonade and chocolate as rare treats. He continues to jabber away and we are finally recognizing some words: mama, ki-ki (for cat), dah (for dog), up, dada. He uses sign language to let us know when he is hungry, wants more, needs a drink, or is done. He has a few mystery signs that we haven't quite figured out yet. He loves bath time and playing in the water. He frequently tries to climb into the tub before we have gotten him undressed. He is full of giggles and belly laughs.

Here he is at his birthday party!

Ready to go.

Thank you to Aunt Leslie for hosting the party and providing the cool door decorations!
Eating his cake. He ate the whole thing and only a few very tiny crumbs made it to the floor.
Monkey cake! Thank you, Grandma Gail for making Spenser his special birthday cake.

His party was part of a much larger trip back to OK for Thanksgiving. More pics and commentary to come as I get caught up from the horrendous flight back.

First Steps

He's finally taking some independent steps. Now we need to convince him to keep going, even if crawling is faster.

A shift in mobility

Spenser just climbed an entire flight of stairs by himself! Daddy was right behind him so there was no chance of falling, but he didn't provide any help. He hasn't managed to climb a single stair before this, so we were just amazed. Spenser was sooo proud of himself. We could see it in his eyes and his wide toothy grin. (He has four teeth now - two on top and tow on bottom)

Back to New York

Way back in September, we took a trip to New York City. My best friend from residency lives in downtown Manhattan and it had been two years since we had seen each other. C and I also had some shopping to do that we could only do in the big city.

We packed up the boy and took the train from F'burg to New York City. It was the perfect length trip....Spenser was just starting to fuss from boredom when we arrived at Penn Station.

We stayed at the W hotel on Union Square. The hotel was wonderful and the location was perfect. K lives a half block off Union Square. The Square also has a playground and a daily farmer's market that had all kinds of interesting produce, flowers, honey, and baked good to look at.
On Friday, we had dinner at 'Wichcraft. Spenser ate half of his sandwich, part of his fruit cup and most of a huge glass of milk.

Union Square has a great playground with separate areas for the big kids and the little guys. Spenser enjoyed playing there every morning.

His first cab ride. He was so excited to be looking forward and was jabbering to the cabbie through the window. Before anyone gets upset, carseats are not required in public transportation and with NYC traffic, we could hardly go fast enough for it to be hazardous.

We took a round trip ride on the Staten Island ferry so we could see Lady Liberty. C has never seen her, but we didn't think Spenser was quite old enough to be taking a tour inside the statue.
Dinner at the The Knickerbocker in the Village. K is a regular here. Spenser was the perfect gentleman. He ate an entire piece of cornbread, lamb shanks, skirt steak, sweet potato and french fries. He was so worn out by the experience that he fell asleep on the walk back to the hotel and missed out on some really good ice cream.
Spenser LOVED this little rocking chair. It was K's when she was a small child.

Back at the playground.

Swinging!
Test hugging bears at FAO Schwarz.
Resting after a picnic lunch in Central Park.
Who would have guessed that being picked up by your pants and swung around could be so much fun? Apparently M knew this was the case because Spenser just laughed and laughed and she swung him back and forth.

The only non serious face he made while on the carousel in Central Park. It was very serious as he checked out all the horses and music and spinning about.

Happy Birthday!

The computer is barely hanging on and working so I thought I would start working on the huge backlog of photos I have to post. Let's start with the most important one!


Spenser is 11 months old! He's looking more and more like a little boy and less and less like a little baby. Today, he made the transition out of Small Wonders and into the Bouncing Bunnies classroom. At first I was a little hesitant, but he seems so much happier with the big kids and out of the room with the tiny babies. He gets to play on the playground twice a day and they do frequent art projects as well. I already have a tiny handprint that is painted to look like a turkey. He has started saying "mama" and "dada", but is not consistent about it. He is starting to be insistent that his food not be cut up into tiny little bites. He wants the whole piece of food to chew on. He drinks very well out of a cup if it is held from him and can drink by himself with a sippy cup. He is still a very joyful and happy baby. He is very interested in everything going on around him and he likes to go to the store because there is so much to see. He's a speed demon when he is crawling. He is cruising like crazy. As you can see, his favorite thing to walk with is a bar stool. He pushes them all over the place and prefers them to the little walker that we bought for him. He should be walking independently any day now.

We took a trip to the farm to pick out a pumpkin. It was a beautiful sunny day and Spenser really liked the outing.

Sorting though the baby pumpkins.

He's very interested in textures and likes to scratch at and feel everything. This warty pumpkin kept his fascination for a long time.


Hanging out on Daddy's shoulders.

Happy boy pushing his barstool around.

Taste testing C's great grandmother's oatmeal cookie recipe.

A friend of Spenser's recently turned one. We went to her birthday party where he got to try cupcakes and frosting for the first time. Despite the serious face here, he really, really liked it. I mean, really really really liked it. He wouldn't let us pinch off bites for him, but was shoving us out of the way to grab the whole thing and stuff it in his mouth.

He had such a good time playing with this ball at the party, that I had to get one for him to play with at home.

All the ladies love Spenser. I'm not sure who this girl is, but she climbed into the bounce house just to give him hugs and kisses.

Kinsley, the birthday girl, hugging on Spenser, as well.

It crashed, I'm behind.

My hard drive has taken a nose dive, so I've been without a computer for the past many weeks. Admittedly, we have at least 3 laptops floating around the house, but all my photographs are on the desktop so I've been putting off updating until I could get to our New York photos. I've given up just so I don't forget all the new things Spenser has been doing. He is cruising like crazy and is starting to let go of things to step to the next handhold. Last night, he was hanging on to his closet door for support with one hand. He let go, turned and grabbed the changing table with the other hand so he was completely unsupported for a split second there. C says that Spenser stood up, completely unassisted in the bathtub the other night. I think our little monkey is going to take off running soon.

Spenser has also been going to school every day this week. I have off a few days, but he's in the middle of a transition period where they are getting him used to a new classroom with new rules and schedules. I think it's more important for him to get through the transition smoothly. He continues to jabber and now has lots of hand gesticulating to go along with it. He has many important things to say, but we still haven't found that darn baby-English translation book!

Ten Months Old!

Spenser turned ten months old on the 28th! Our baby is getting bigger by the moment it seems. While I was lucky to get a smiling still shot....




...This is our usual view as he dashes off for new toys or to stir up more trouble about the house. He's starting take a few tentative steps and "cruise" around the edges of the couch. He is very busy and no longer wants to stop for naps as he might miss out on something exciting! He really likes fingerpainting at school. He loves to pull on the cat's whiskers.

We took him to New York City for the weekend, but I will save those details for the next post.

Meat Sauce Tutorial

C loves this meat sauce recipe. It's relatively quick and easy and very, very satisfying. Kudos to Giada de Laurentiis for the original recipe.

Finely dice 1 medium onion and 2 cloves of garlic.

Saute in 1/4 cup olive oil until soft and translucent, about 7 minutes.

Add 1-2 minced carrots...

and 1-2 minced stalks of celery.

Cook until soft and starting to turn golden

Add 1 lb lean ground beef. Turn heat up to medium high and cook until now longer pink, stirring occasionally to break up the meat.

Meat Sauce part 2

Add a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

8 basil leaves, finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper and cook for 20 minutes until slightly thickened.

Add 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan ( I always add a smidge more)

Serve over pasta and enjoy!