Peter's first trip to campus

Tonight was a GORGEOUS summer evening - low 70s, sunny, just perfect. We've been so lucky this summer. One of our favorite things to do when the weather is nice is to take a nice long stroll along Mt. Oread, so we decided to take Peter up for his first campus walk.

*~*~*


Rather than pack up the Peg Perego, we broke out the Quinny for the first time. Big Boy Stroller alert! Peter really enjoyed strollering from the front rather than having to look at our ugly mugs the entire time.

He wore his lucky Jayhawk shoes for this special occasion.


Peter and Jay in front of the Union. As you can see from the pictures, Peter could hardly contain his excitement.








We parked about mid-campus, and walked to the Union. By the time we were almost looped back to the car, Peter was ready to go into his Bjorn instead. So we packed the stroller into the back of the car, and off we went again with Scott wearing Peter.


Checked out the Chi O fountain (one day, Peter will take a dip).

We could hear the band practicing the fight song, so stopped to watch them for a little while.



Before you knew it, it was time to head home for some baby bedtime. The Campanile was our last stop for the day. I'm the only one who has graduated and thus the only one allowed inside, so I took some pictures of the boys while in there :)

Roasted Summer Tomatoes with Pasta

I just had to add this recipe to the blog. It is so perfect for the summer, when your garden produces way more tomatoes than you think you could ever use. It tastes so fresh, and is so healthy (at least our reincarnation of the recipe is healthy). Enough leftovers, too, for lunches the next day. Doesn't get much better :)


Roasted Summer Tomatoes with Pasta
(adapted from Emeril's recipe)

Ingredients:
2.5 to 3 lbs. assorted garden tomatoes (we used: yellow pears, brandywine, and Aunt Ruby's green Germans)
1/4 c. olive oil
3-4 Tbsp. garlic
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 c. chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp. minced fresh oregano
1 lb. whole wheat spaghetti
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Additional chopped fresh herbs for garnish

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 F. Slice and dice tomatoes.



Peel and sliver the garlic.



Collect other ingredients.






In a large, glass baking dish, toss the tomatoes with the oil, garlic, vinegar, salt, red pepper flakes, and pepper. Roast until the tomatoes are tender, stirring occasionally, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and add the basil, parsley, and oregano. Stir well.



Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until al dente, about 7 minutes.
Drain and return to pot. Toss with the extra-virgin olive oil. Add the tomatoes and pan juices and cook over low heat until juices have thickened, 5-10 minutes.



Remove from the heat and transfer to a large serving bowl.

Top with Parmesan cheese. Garnish with additional herbs, as desired, and serve immediately.

Weekend Update 08.16.09

Well, let's just say that it was an interesting week and weekend.


On an awesome, thank-the-Lord-finally sort of note: our tomatoes have started to ripen nicely. It took them awhile, given the mild and rainy summer we've had. We've pulled a ton of the yellow pears, and have had a decent amount of the Green Germans. The Brandwine, well... The birds seem to be enjoying them before we can get too many of them picked, but they are truly good if we can get one of our own! We have a kick-butt recipe for tomato and pasta that we're going to post in a sec. We've made it twice already with the garden tomatoes and man, but we slurp that stuff up. It is fantastic, and uses about 3 lbs. of tomatoes every time we make it. Nice way to use up the garden bounty :)



Work was busy all week, for both of us. We are officially in a family weekday routine, Peter off to daycare. Scott off to the basement office. Me off to Allen Press...

I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet, but Peter's daycare is in North Lawrence. They have just started construction on the bridge to North Lawrence, it should last well into the winter. And did I mention that the bridge is the only way to get to North Lawrence from town? Sometimes the traffic gets so clogged up trying to get over that bridge, that I will (1) drive across town, (2) get on the turnpike, and (3) take the N. Lawrence exit (paying a quarter)... All just to get to Peter's daycare in a decent amount of time. It's somewhat insane and still takes 20 minutes, but hey. Quicker than waiting to get across the brige. Plus: he absolutely ADORES his daycare, and Fanta does such a good job with him. It's totally worth it if you ask me.

So where was I? Oh yeah. So on to the weekend. On Saturday we hit up the Farmers Market early, bought some heirloom peppers and a few more different types of heirloom tomatoes. We did a nerdy little "heirloom tomato tasting" where we just sliced them up, sprinkled them with salt, and had them for lunch. Mmmmm, sooooo good.

Peter started acting a little under the weather on Saturday, and by the evening he was in full-on illness mode. Lots of stuffy nose and coughing/sneezing, but also vomiting and other stuff which was... not nice. He got a wee bit dehydrated, which made for a long night. Early (early) morn and he was a bit better, thank goodness. As a rare treat, we let the poor little guy sleep in our bed. I think he really enjoyed that...



Sunday we fed him Pedialyte every chance we got, and by the evening he was good as new. Which was nice, because we have another busy week ahead. No rest for the wicked, right??

Weekend Update 08.09.09

Our pretty, scenic drive to Halstead!

OH MY GOSH.

Okay, I've dropped the ball. This is obviously on the blog back-dated about, oh, say, 3 weeks too late... But I have a great excuse! Work, it's been nutso! And evenings are just too short! And we've been super busy I swear! So anyway, I'm sorry. This is way late. I'll try to type quickly and get it posted for ya.

So, three weeks ago. Hum. Well, work started up again. I went back to the office and was greeted by hundreds upon hundreds of emails (seriously). Deadlines. Found out a client was flying in from the east coast for training the next week... It was lovely. But! Kept me nice and busy, and besides our assistant did an AMAZING job of keeping up while I was away, so I can't complain much :)

Also our boy turned 2 months old officially. TWO MONTHS OLD. How did this happen already, I just had him?!? He wore his Robot romper for the last time, sadly, it was quite tight. He wore that in the hospital and it was swimming on him...

The weekend (8th/9th) was spent in Halstead to visit family, friends, and check out the Halstead annual festival (Old Settlers). We had lots of fun! Peter, however, is not fond of car rides. Now, he usually howls the entire time when we're toodling around town here and there. So it's not a new thing. However we hoped he would maybe kick back and enjoy road trips a bit better.

Not so much.

Anyhoo: once in Halstead we first hit up the parade, watched with family. Then we went to visit Scott's buddy Tim. Saw the Hortons quickly, then back up to the park to visit Grandpa Mueller at the Scouts hamburger stand. It was insanely hot out, and we figured that was not so good for baby, so we headed back to Kris and Alfie's to cool off and relax a bit.

Scott and I had a quick date that evening, Peter stayed with his grandparents and had a lovely time :) We had dinner and then headed back to the park to see who we could see. Got to watch the fireworks with Cody and Kirsten, us girls caught up a bit which was nice :)

Sunday we lounged around and enjoyed time with grandma and grandpa. Dawdled over a late lunch, then back to Lawrence for us. The trip seemed to go by too fast!

That was about it for the week/weekend. Lots of stuff going on, keeping us busy! :)

Weekend Update 8.02.09

Busy busy week in the Mueller household!

First off and most importantly: the day finally arrived. I was so nervous. Peter started daycare this past Monday.

Why was I so worried about it? Why was I so upset? Everything went fine. And it was sooo nice to have a bit of quiet, to get things done, to take an uninterrupted shower and get dressed nicely and do my hair. I had forgotten how different things are without a baby around! It was refreshing, and I felt back to my old self again. Not to sound like I don't love the little guy; when I pick him up from daycare, I literally have butterflies I am so excited to see him. But there really is something to be said for getting a piece of your own life back, instead of being 100% engrossed in baby baby baby all the time. Much more healthy for the both of us.

That being said, I still kept him home with me on Wednesday and Thursday.

Scott keeps threatening to make a garden post on here, but since that has yet to happen I'm happy to announce that - our tomatoes are FINALLY starting to ripen. Scott brought in a bunch of the yellow pears late this week. We also are harvesting the last of the cucumbers (lots and LOTS of cucumbers). Scott got all the potatoes, garlic, and onions out of the plot. Needless to say, we have a nice cellar stash started!

Weekend was busy - Saturday was the baptism (see post here). Sunday I attended a baby shower for Carrie, and pulled together a baby package for my cousin Joy. She's expecting in September, our boys will be close in age, so I'm super excited! Now if I can only get her package out in the mail sometime soon...

The week ahead: I start back at work. That, my friends, will be hectic. And strange. And wow, hopefully I can keep up! Also we're off to Halstead next weekend...

Peter's Baptism

Peter's baptism was on August 1st. It was a great day - beautiful weather, lots of fun. We're all a bit tuckered out, so here are a bunch of pictures (and just a few words) from the big day :)

And a big thanks to Nikki for being our photographer at the ceremony!

We were getting ready to start the baptism in this one. Miss Mahni was pretty curious about the whole thing, she never left my side and asked lots of questions.

Dyl wanted to join in the fun too. I love my face in this one - I was probably thinking "hmmm can I hold my own son during his baptism?". It appears that the answer was "no", as Scott held him the entire time. Proud dad ;)

Making the sign of the cross on Peter's head.

The baptizing with holy water. Scott and I think that the baptismal font at our church looks like an outdoor water feature.

The lighting of the candle from the Pascal candle. Then we had the blessing of the parents and godparents (Beah and Paulo), and the welcoming into the church. All done! Fr. John does not waste time, I will say that. It was over in the blink of an eye.

The happy family! Plus Mahni, she was very excited by the whole thing so she squeezed in for pictures :)

Nikki also got a shot of the Kemmeters in attendance.

Peter lounging with Muzzy and Nikki, having a bottle after the ceremony.

Beah's pretty little toes. She'll probably kill me for posting this shot.

The cake! Grandma Mueller made the baptism cake, it was quite yummy. Eric helped by sprinkling it with pickle juice.

After lunch and cake, we played around outside for a bit. Here's Paul, who didn't join in with our 3D Chalk Debauchery but enjoyed watching us act like morons.

Let's just say that the way you feel from the lack of sleep that comes with having an infant? It's akin to how you act after drinking 5 glasses of wine.

Mahni checking out our masterpieces.

Dylan gets in the act as well.

The mighty Beah!

After everyone left to go home, Peter decided to relax by stripping down to his diaper and playing in the exersaucer that Beah loaned to us. He can't reach the bottom yet but boy, he still enjoyed the thing! I see many hours of entertainment ahead of him. Thank the lord for Beah and her exersaucer.

The End! See you all another week :)

Weekend Update 7.26.09

Here's what I was up to this week: I baked, a lot. Three loaves of homemade cinnamon raisin bread (not that great, sadly), homemade white bread (good, but not as good as Muzzie's), and 2 new cookie recipes. One for banana oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies, and yes as good as they sound. The other was a repeat but a goodie as well: double-chocolate and sour cherry cookies. I didn't get either photographed, which is a bummer because they were both definitely blog-worthy.


The cookies were supposed to be for book club, but alas - Scott didn't fully fix the little air flow issue, so the car died in the middle of a fairly-busy intersection while I was on my way to book club. Lovely. I didn't read the book anyway, so I guess it wasn't a huge loss. I just drowned my sorrows in cookies.


Peter had his 6-week dr. appointment on Thursday. All is well, weight and height in the 75-80% range. His head circumference is still small, this time in the 25% percentile (better than his 2-week size in the 15% percentile, but still). Poor little pinhead baby. Everything else is just fine, thank you very much. He does have tummy issues and the dr. said to have him sleep sitting up, so it's all swing or car seat or inclined-bassinet for Peter. Fine by me, whatever helps that tummy of his!


Our weekend was pretty low key - just one of those lovely, quiet, relaxing weekends (the last before a busy week). Friday night I tried a new tortilla soup recipe. Oh my gosh, the BEST tortilla soup; recipe is here and you must make it exactly as given (including the tortillas and avocado for toppings; they really make the soup). We chowed down on soup while watching several episodes of Mad Men. One of my new favorite (totally addictive) shows.

Peter and Gabrielle!

On Saturday Audrey and her little cutie Gabrielle came over to meet Mr. Peter. Then later that afternoon Kala also stopped by to visit. It was a day of visitors! That evening, Scott met up with his old buddy Brek at Kaufmann to take in a KC Royals game. Hillman got thrown out and surprise surprise: the Royals won. Good night for a game!


Peter and I camped out in the bedroom that evening, where we watched more Mad Men episodes, planned the baptism menu, and basically just snuggled together in the cozy bed. I may or may not have had half a bag of Oreida french fries for dinner that night. In bed. Using Peter for a plate holder. Er, maybe. In my defense: he's nice and flat when swaddled, and he just snoozed most of the time.

Sunday morning picture time while "sleeping in".

Sunday all of us slept in, then went to the late Mass at church. Now I remember why we haven't attended that Mass in almost 3 years - lots of singing, and hand holding (don't even ask). We won't be making that mistake again for awhile. After church we had a late breakfast of Huevos Rancheros The rest of the day was spent shopping for daycare stuff, then carefully folding, labeling, and packing all the things we needed to take to daycare the next morning. Sniff. A pretty sad little chore for me. I am very, very grateful that we decided to do a trial of daycare before I head back to work, because methinks I'll be keeping him home a few days at least.