1st Halloweem

Carved pumpkins!!

A friend threw a Harry Potter Halloween party last night.  The party was complete with potions, Hogwarts history, charms class, and the rest.  We decided to go as 2 dementors  (jailers for the wizard prison in the book series) and a prisoner from that jail.  He's an adorable prisoner, covered with kisses.

I made the costume out of a scrap of stripped jersey.  Andrew made the sign out of a manila folder.

Andrew and I dressed in black, with a small cape covered in scraps of fabric and a cut up trash bag.  I spent too much time seeing those capes, considering we wore them for all of an hour.  

Baby X cooing

About half the time he's awake, he's complaining.  Everything that happens is the worst thing that has ever happened; naturally since his life is so recent and his memory isn't that good.

But more and more, he's starting g to coo.  Here he is caught on film.

the cutest pumpkin in the patch

Call me biased, but I think he's the cutest thing.

How long have I waited to bring a little one to a pumpkin patch?  Well, this was my year.  A friend gave us this adorable little pumpkin costume (which is a little too big), so of course baby x had to wear it.

It makes my teeth ache, he's so cute.  These were taken a moment before he slipped completely to the ground.  He's a rolly little pumpkin.

Something is missing

Since we brought the little guy home, he has been on a leash.  A clear, colorless leash attached with stickers to the sides of his face.  We spent a lot of time nudging the thing back into his nose.  He spent a lot of time trying to tear it off.  We got deliveries of oxygen tanks, large and small, brought by some interesting young men so we could plug him in home and abroad.  The travel bag was designed by someone that clearly never had to use it, as it swings around unsteadily.   The tube, when not connected to it's tank, was in constant danger of being stepped on, or snagged on corners, and poor baby's head would suddenly snap back (not hard, I promise).

Ceremonial removing his stickers.  I'd told little guy he could remove them himself, but he didn't get to it fast enough.

Applying the puls-ox reader.

                               
Soomehow this red light can red the amount of oxygen in the blood.

But now it's gone.  His oxygen levels are up to the point where he doesn't need that little boost anymore.

Isn't he handsome?

Because you can never have too many canning supplies

What can I say?  There was a sale on strawberries and on apples.  And then the sale on mason jars.

Andrew loves jams and jellies.  He even ate the strawberry jalapeño jam I canned last year as an experiment.  This year, I thought I would go classic strawberry.  But then I found some black berries in the freezer from the beginning of the year when we were doing green smoothies, right around the time I started finding green smoothies completely disgusting (read I found out I was pregnant).

So as a way to use up what's available, I made a recipe of strawberry, and half a recipe of strawberr/blackberry.  There must have been too much sugar in the recipe because I don't think this is supposed to happen.

A representing of the goodness.  From left to right: 2 of the two-berry jam, 2 of the strawberry, apple jelly and apple butter.  See how the strawberry has a giant air pocket at the bottom of the jar?  I turned the jars upside down  while they cooled and this jar stayed like that.

While my friend Anadine came to visit (hi, anadine) I took the opportunity of not staring fixated like at baby x to make apple butter and apple jelly.

Andrew LOVEs apple butter.  It's super easy to make, and thought it was super clever to use the skins and cores to make apple jelly at the same time.
Super clever rarely works as planned.

I'll spare you the suspense by saying the apple jelly didn't set.  It needs to be boiled again with more pectin.

The recipe I used for the Apple butter (because I'll look for it later)

5-5 1/2 lb apples (mostly Jonagold, some granny smith)
3 T cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp whole cloves
1 1/2 c brown sugar

Core and peel apples.  Fill slow cooker.  On low for 6 hours until apples are completely soft.  Mash with potato masher.  Stir in sugar (less if apples are sweeter) and spices.  Adjust to taste.  Continue in slow cooker low for 6 more hours, until dark brown.  Use blender or immersion blender for smooth texture.
To jar:  heat jars as normal.  Fill with hot apple butter, cover with lid and rings.  Process in hot bath for 10, covered by 1 inch of water.


In the mean time, here's a gratuitous pic of the baby.

how big is baby?

So big!  6lbs 13oz and 20 inches to be precise.  Two weeks ago, the pediatrician noticed baby's weight gain had fallen off, so we started upping the formula to water ratio and giving him a bit more volume, too.  It woked, because he's filled out some, making us all happy.

And say good bye to preemie clothes.  We had gotten lots of 0-3 months sized clothes, and some newborn sized, too, but never occurred to me to buy preemie.  I was supposed to have a full term, 8lb baby.  A couple of my friends (Diana and Anadine) very kindly bought us some cute tiny tiny outfits, and then Andrew's step mother brought us some pajamas to round things out.  Baby x really did get some wear out of everything, not just a token try-on.  But now, no more preemie.  Is it weird that I'm a little sad he's already grown so much?

 At least he still looks so Tony in his newborn sized things.

Brave boy got his two months shots today, too.  He's unhappy, so we're all unhappy.  Here's his not quite chubby thigh with colorful bandages.

P.S.  it's 5 am.  He's been up every 2 hours.  I'm a bit tired.