Well, what do you know: oreos and peanut butter!

Paul was such a good sport when I was making this pie for his Daddy today.

25 oreos went into the food processor and became like dirt.  You can see Paul in the background there, trapped in his pack and play.  All he really wanted to do was crawl and climb and walk but the making of this pie took all but 10 minutes at most!  It’s that easy!

This is not of the low fat, low cal deal as you can see.  (Be not afraid of the butter there, I only used half of the stick.)

Crumbly-chocolatey oreo crust with rich decadent creamy filling of peanut butter, whipped cream, cream cheese, and confectioner’s sugar.  I know my man will be so pleased he’s getting this for his birthday.  I know because he’s been asking for it since I made this the first time I saw the recipe, which was probably two months ago.  It’s that rich I decided to make it only on special occassions such as today when all stops are pulled.

To celebrate his birthday, we went to Outback.

Paul, being snobbish. Can't blame him...there were a lot more interesting things to look at than the camera.

We originally planned to grill steak from Sam’s at home and make all the fixins for the sides ourselves but we decided to head out to Outback and enjoy being waited on.  It had been ages since we last ate out – nothing like a little boy to keep us homebound, not to mention our resolve to eat in, not out, and spend less, not more.  We figured that the cost of buying a pack of steak at Sam’s would cost about the same as a dinner at Outback.  (The steak they sell there are really good, though!  We tried it at our family reunion in the Smokies in July.)

When we got to Outback, we were seated on a booth with a TV overhead and Paul was just intently watching closely the goings on on the screen.

He hasn’t seen a moving screen for awhile since our No-TV-Month commenced on August 13th.  Pre-season football was on tonight and it sure spiked both Steve and my football fever another notch.  Believe it or not, I am looking forward to football in the Fall!  *Gasp*

Anyway, Paul was a good boy through it all.  He randomly waved at people and I think he just discovered that people do respond when he does that.  He loved the attention at times and at other times was not so sure what to make of it.

We feasted on their delicious bread and that delightful grease-laden thing called bloomin’ onion.

Meanwhile, Paul chewed on at least three coasters and they each ended up looking somewhat like this:

For whatever reason, he shook his head side to side, quite indignantly, each time I brought the spoon of butternut squash to his mouth.  Must be the coasters filled him up good.  Ha!  He did eat a few cheerios off his tray.

Right as we were about done with dinner, he was ready to get out of his chair and he ended up seating next to his Daddy while I finished off my plate.

He is so stinkin cute, isn’t he?

Boy!  He really fancied those coasters!

Steve got to enjoy a piece of his chocolate peanut butter pie when we got home.  Unfortunately for me and this post, my camera’s battery ran out of juice so I don’t have anymore photos to add.  But I can tell you that he was grateful and delighted that his wife made him a pie with both oreos and peanut butter in it.

Let me share one oreo-related birthday story before I close.  It was year 2007 when Steve’s folks were back in the country for their summer furlough from the Philippines.  They came to visit us in Chicago and spent Steve’s birthday with us.  In January of 2006, Steve and I brought a team of worship leaders from the church in Chicago to the church in Baguio, Philippines where his parents are involved in for a short-term missions trip.  That team made wonderful connections with my in-laws and they looked forward to seeing them again.  That happend in August of 2007.

Around the same time, our good friend, Ingmari, was going through a hard time in that her husband, Rick, had just been hospitalized unexpectedly and he was fighting for his life.  She and my mother-in-law really connected during the short stay we had in the Philippines.  Ingmari was so excited to see them that she graciously offered her house as a gathering place for Steve’s birthday.  I don’t remember much of the food but what I do remember was an evening of non-stop laughter, it was almost painful.  I kid you not; we laughed our guts out ’til tears came out the eyes for probably a good four hours.  Four hours.  It was a madhouse.

One of the highlights of the night was Steve’s gifts: he got what seemed like a lifetime supply of oreo cookies.  Not really, but close.  Our friends, by this time, knew that he LOVES oreos.  One of the packs/gifts given him was from Shirley, our crazy wicked friend; wicked in that her sense of humor is…well, wicked.  Practical jokers they’re called and she’s one of them.

Steve got two packs of oreo cookies from Shirley that night.  He’s that special, he got two packs!  He opened the first one which bared what looked like licked pieces of cookies.  None of the pieces were together, they were all taken apart with very little cream filling left on them!  Shirley really did a good job “licking” them.  She went on to say that her husband saw her scraping the cream filling out of each piece of oreos and he thought her crazy.  Well, she is, and I love her dearly!  Needless to say, the second pack of oreos weren’t lick, they were in pristine cookie sandwich form as they should be.  The “licked” oreos?  They were much more fun to eat…and we ate it all.  I should say, Stephen ate them all.

That was one fine night…even Steve said tonight as we were reminiscing that it definitely is one of the more memorable birthdays he’s had.  Laughter does something to the soul.  That night, it made me appreciate the beauty in the friendships formed with each one in that room.

So…to my wonderful husband of seven years and best friend of eight years and counting, happy birthday!  Here’s to many many many more years of making memories.  I love you!  I’m sure if the little tyke can talk he’d say he loves you too.  But you know that he does, just by the bright sweet smile on his face when he sees you walking in the door when you come home from work.  We love you, Stephen Paul Ballast!

Being the oldest grandchild in my extended family, I was asked on many many many (and many more) occassions to babysit my cousins.  The practice has been that as soon as the baby can hold his head up, we “teach” them elimination by giving them the chance to pee or poop right before or after a nap and/or as soon as we see cues, such as a grunt, that they are about to p/p.  It’s sort of a two-step-forward-one-step-back process all the time.  The kids couldn’t talk yet so the parents/caregivers had to really learn their cues and schedule.

See, back in the 80’s and early 90’s, all we had were flour sacks for diapers and it is rather icky to be pooped and/or peed on all the time, besides being burdened with the job of handwashing the diapers, which are limited in number, over and over again.  Ack!  I hate washing those diapers!  First, they had to be soaked to loosen the power of the sticky poop then soaped and rinsed!  And the smell of even just one poopy diaper?  Oh mercy!  Well, you get the picture!

How about a reminder that life is beautiful when you have two beautiful boys like these?

My two boys

Back to the subject at hand.  (Sorry but I have to finish my line of thought here.)  So when I heard about IPT, I got all excited!  I’ve observed that Paul has a rather predictable rhythm to his pooping so I thought I’d give IPT a try.  A couple days ago, I put him on the toilet to try this thing but he was more interested in smiling at me and reaching for the next thing that’s within his reach.  Needless to say, he didn’t even pee!  So this morning, I was hopeful!  And he delivered, not once, but twice!  It felt good flushing the toilet, knowing my baby saved us from one dirty diaper.  Never mind that water costs money too.  But at least that’s one less diaper in the landfill!  Ha!

Anyways…Tonight, Stephen reminded me not to get my hopes up too high.  I know!  I’ve read some mommy chronicles where the mom was about ready to sleep in the toilet with her child all day.  I told my sweet husband not to worry.  All I desire is for Paul to learn the use of a toilet and if it goes really well this early, great!  But if not, I won’t be disappointed.  He’s got many years of learning ahead of him…including pottying in the right place!

I hope I didn’t eek you out too much!  Here’s a good lovely smile from my adorable and beautiful son to spur your mind on to other beautiful and lovely things.

Paul making faces!

Please do come back for more reading.  I promise not to talk too much about my baby’s pottying.  Sorry again!  Would you just look at that!  Awww…

Paul in his carrier during our hike at Cades Cove in the Smokies. (He was 4 months old in this picture)

Do you have stories about your baby’s potty training?  How did it go for you?  I would love to hear from you in the comments section.