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!

Whirlwind of activity

Spenser has become a whirling dervish in these past few days. He's mastered crawling and is zooming all over the house. He's trying to open all the cabinet doors and drawers. He bangs on anything he sees with his wooden spoon. He's pulled up to standing a few times and has made a couple of unsuccessful attempts at going up the stairs. He has so much energy that just watching him makes me tired! He has started clapping his hands. Today, we noticed the outline of a little tooth starting to poke through on his upper gum. Yay! The drool rate will slow down a bit for a while.



This is his sneaky look.



I love his happy smile here!



Working on the stairs. He gets up to this point and then just gets stuck. He gets very frustrated and yells a lot because he can't figure out how to go up and he can't get back down to sitting yet.