Faux Easter

This was our real Easter. It included General Conference for our church with lots of background noise from Rocco and his toys, homemade bagels, gluten overload remorse,Rocco in play clothes and rain boots, a nauseated husband (new eye contact prescription), fruit snacks in plastic eggs, dead grass (can't wait for our patio!), and Rocco barfing before bedtime from being too wild.

This was our faux Easter. We had a beautiful brunch on our new patio. Rocco was dressed in his cute Easter outfit and did not get any dirt or food on his clothes all day. We listened to General Conference and Rocco did not make any noise. Nick felt wonderful. My house was clean all day. Later, our family came over for an Easter egg hunt in our lush grass. None of the children cried and they did not gorge themselves on candy or act so wild that they made themselves throw up.

Rocco Right Now

Rocco right now: is 20 months; insists on feeding himself and often ends up coated in food; says "wow, huh, geese, no, nana (banana), and mmmm what's that?"; seems to understand the threat of "you will get put in your crib if you don't stop screaming"; likes to brush his teeth; knows to fold his arms and close his eyes for praying; rips apart all his board books; still loves sticks and rocks.

Rocco right now: likes to put lotion on his face; is very responsive to any kind of music or beat; is starting to avoid vegetables but loves fruit; has a little friend across the street; has begun to recognize babies as being different, small, and cute; gives hugs and kisses.

Rocco right now: has become more attached to me lately and gets upset if I leave; can identify candy simply by the way it looks, even if he has never seen that kind before; likes to put his blanket over his head and walk around the house; wants to wear shoes (mine, his, or Nick's); can identify his nose, ears, and tushy; knows the sound of a Diet Coke 2 liter being opened.

Jacksonville Zoo

Recently we took Monsieur La Roche to the zoo. It's a nice zoo with a lot of animals, but I don't think he was that impressed. He was much more interested in the people than the animals. He didn't care about the new penguin exhibit, or when the lions wrestled and roared, or when the huge silverback gorilla ran by and pounded on the plastic viewing divide. The highlight of the day for him was when we happened upon some children playing hide and seek. He chased them around and followed them through the bushes and trees until I ruined his fun and retrieved him. It's a good thing for us there are always lots of children at zoos because we bought an annual pass.

Photo opp at the carousel!

Our Weekend (WARNING: May bore you to death if you are not a grandparent)

Here's a few pics from the VERY EXCITING moments of our weekend!

We worked in our garden this Saturday. It's our first one so we don't really know what we're doing and hope something besides weeds will grow. Rocco is very helpful digging in the dirt, holding worms, playing with the hose, and running around the yard screaming.

We went to church on Sunday of course. Rocco is in nursery while Nick and I co-teach an all boys primary class. We're told he only screams a little bit. After church Rocco decided to rub his pot roast and vegetables all over his head and Nick decided to let him. I couldn't quite capture the true reality of the gross factor, but I tried. If you look closely, you can see a chunk of meat in his ear.

Nothing better than a fresh babe, so Nick scrubbed Rocco before bed while I scrubbed the table and floor. THE END

Angry Rocco

This is the look I get when I don't let Rocco do something he wants to do like clean out the fridge, play with the computer wires, crawl around the garage, or play with my camera when I'm trying to take a picture of him. He's got a very good accusatory look going, don't you think?

Baking

Mmmmm....Black and White cookies. Ever had them? I had never heard of them until I moved to New York, and didn't start craving them until after living in South Florida. There are a lot of awful B&W's out there, but if you get a good one, it is hard to stop yourself from going back and taking another nibble time and again. A few weeks ago I decided to bake them myself since I no longer had easy access to that S. Florida bakery. They were very good and I just have to post a pic for Aunt Lisa, Muggs, and Grandma.

My recent baking project was a 50th Wedding Anniversary cake. It was for a great couple here in Jacksonville that are grandparents of the kids I used to nanny in Fort Lauderdale.

I made a white cake with a vanilla swiss buttercream and a ganache filling. I put a cursive Z on top (their initial) because I couldn't find a topper I liked. Why are toppers so cheesy?

The cake was served after a service at the synagogue and so it had to be kosher. This meant that I had to make it in the synagogue's dairy kitchen. They don't have much there as far as making cakes. They only had one 4 quart mixer from the 60's while I have two 6 quart Professionals (thank you Joansies) at home. It is quite a feat to make a cake, ganache, and buttercream for 100 people with one little mixer. I didn't even have a hand mixer for back up. There was a lot of mixing, transferring, cleaning and mixing again. I also didn't have access to my regular line up of cake tools because they were not kosher, so I had to really simplify the whole process as much as possible.

This picture doesn't capture how truly sad this little mixer was.

Is that my child sucking on a 22 lb bag of chocolate? Why yes it is, I guess some things are genetic! Several times a day, until I smartened up and moved the bag, Rocco would crawl over to this bag of chocolate, suck on the outside and cry.

Rocco's Room

Our new house is painted a neutral beige throughout minus one gold and one turquoise bathroom and a turquoise front door. I painted the door first and wish I had a before picture to post. My next project was Rocco's room. This is our first time not renting, and our first opportunity to personalize with paint colors. For those of you not on Facebook, here are some pictures of my project.

Here is a picture of Rocco in his crib with beige walls in the back. They were fine, but I wanted a more nursery look.

I think the green walls look bright and cheery.

RIP Nick's Smoker

When we moved to our new house, Nick gussied up his meat smoker by purchasing a plant stand to set it on instead of a pile of bricks that had been dug up from the backyard. It did look less WT, unfortunately the visual improvement might have been the death of the smoker. We had a crazy summer storm with hail and intense winds that blew over the heavy pots set high on the thin metal legs and Nick's beloved was no more. RIP Nick's smoker.

Help Around The House

Rocco is not so interested in toys these days. He is much more interested in helping me do my household chores.

He helps me clean out the fridge.

He helps with the laundry. For awhile he was satisfied with the dryer, but now he also wants to be lifted up to see what's in the washer too.

He runs the bath for me.

He unloads the dishwasher.

He even works under the sink!

Listen To This!