Halloween, Oscar's Half-Birthday, and Go To Pasta Dish

On the plate:  My go to pasta dish

Soundtrack to cook to:  Boyz II Men "II", "CooleyHighHarmony", and Queen's Greatest Hits....I know, I was all over the place when I was cooking.

Happy (belated) Halloween!!  Argh!  I lost my adaptor cable that helps me to download my pictures from my camera to the computer.  Of course it's not a universal one, either.  Thus, I had to suck it up that I lost something, and had to order a replacement on amazon...thank goodness for Amazon Prime...I'll get it in 2 days and be back on track.  For the time being, I'll have to transfer the files from my camera to the USB drive, to my laptop....but I just couldn't deny the public of adorable pictures of Alexander in his Halloween costume!

Joseph and I were racking our brains on what Alexander and Oscar should be for Halloween this year.  We like to do themes (last year Alexander was a monkey and Oscar was a banana), but just couldn't come up with the right combination.  Then, we were shopping at The Children's Place and found their costumes were on sale.  It was totally serendipitous that the only boy costume that was available was an 18-24 mos. size and it was a puppy.  We were thinking that we could dress Alexander up as a puppy, and Oscar as a boy.  I didn't end up finding the right hat for Oscar, so we recycled one of Oscar's old costumes and he was a cowboy this year.  Here's how our Halloween went:

The saddest little cowboy.  Needless to say,
the costume didn't stay on too long.

Alexander looking around for his buddies.

He looks pretty cute, doesn't he? :)

"Hey mom!  When is this parade going to begin?"
Once his buddies got out of the classroom, the
parade around the block began.

After the parade, Alexander and his buddies
hung out on the rug and greeted each other.
It was so cute to see Alexander "hanging out"
with his friends.

Alexander was saying, "Hi!!" to all of his
friends when he sat down.  So cute!!

Well, my little strawberry friend got up,
so I guess I will, too!

Dinner time!  Surprisingly, Alexander is not
a huge fan of pizza (or any other typical "kid" food).
He prefers vegetables, fruit, and cheese crackers.
I thought that since the pizza had broccoli, that
he would be drawn to it, but unfortunately he wasn't. 

Thankfully, I always come prepared, and had
Alexander's snack trap full of crackers and
raisins for him to snack on.  

I think he looks so darned cute, all stuffed into
the table with his big, dog belly hanging over the chair portion.

After his snack, his favorite music teacher, Wayne Potash, came to the daycare to perform for an hour.  Alexander loved hearing his favorite songs and enjoyed dancing and playing around with his friends.  We had to leave the party a little bit early because I had to make sure Alexander got some real food into him before the trick-or-treaters came.

We rushed home, I fed him, and then we hung out downstairs and waited for the trick-or-treaters.  Last year we had about 70 trick-or-treaters, so we came prepared with tons of candy and were readied for the madness.  Surprisingly, we only had about 30-40 trick-or-treaters this year!  However, Alexander loved going to the door to see what kind of characters would show up.  He was overly delighted to see a child dressed up as Thomas the Tank Engine.  Needless to say, that kid got way more candy from us than the rest of the trick-or-treaters. :)

Each year, we like to celebrate Oscar's birthday and his half birthday, because after all, he was our first child. :)  His birthday dinner typically consists of a cheeseburger with bacon and a side of fries.  This year, since he was fixed, his metabolism isn't what it used to be.  Thus, we just opted for the burger and not the fries.

Although there weren't any fries, Oscar thoroughly enjoyed
his half-birthday dinner. :)

Now on to dinner for the humans...my go to pasta dish.  This is a dish that I typically throw together when I have nothing in mind and have a lot of vegetables in the fridge.  It's derived from my mother's pasta dish that she had adapted from a recipe from Lidia's Italy.  It's SO incredibly simple.

Cut up any veggies that you have in the fridge.  Make sure that
you have at least one onion and 5-6 garlic cloves.  Brown up some
ground turkey (or any ground meat you like), throw in the vegetables,
add in 1 can of tomato paste, ~2 cups chicken stock, Italian seasoning,
and salt and pepper.  Let it cook and...

add in any pasta that you like.  Voila!  You've got a delicious,
hearty, and healthy dinner!  It's a delectable dish that is a
crowd pleaser.  There's always leftovers, and I swear, they're
even better the next day.

After Halloween this year, it was interesting to reflect and think about where I was this time last year.  Last year, Alexander was still not sleeping through the night and wasn't even crawling, I was still pumping 3 times a day, and Joseph and I were still incredibly sleep deprived.  

Now, Alexander's sleeping through the night (thank goodness!!) and is walking, and I'm no longer sleep deprived (although Joseph still is, but for different reasons - he's in his surgery rotation for the next 3 months).  It's nice to get back into the swing of things and to be able to watch Alexander develop each day.  I never thought I'd get to this point again, but it sure is nice to be back. :)  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki