Furbabies zero, Real Baby one

  People discuss that the natural progression of adult responsibility ascends from plants to fish to mammals to humans.  In other words, keep a basil plant alive before you try to have a kid.  I am not sure if this reasoning is logical for numerous reasons, but I will present a single argument against it below...
  Our dogs are fairly well-mannered beasts and have definitely graduated from their disastrous puppy phase (certain furbabies more than others--Bailes, you know who you are).  Although they are undoubtedly treat-motivated (ok, slobbering-beasts, voracious appetites), Rica and Bailey tend to be well-mannered around the kitchen.  We can trust them to leave food on counters and tables without constant monitoring, until...
Evidence #1--

Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

   Some of our friends joined us this weekend so I happily worked in the kitchen all day Thursday, making cookies, plastic cheese dip, and chicken chili, leaving the cookies to cool while I ran some errands.  Notice the rows upon rows of double stacked, perfectly cooked, lightly browned delectable delights.  Upon entering the house...

Evidence #2--

   No, Tim was not home with 10 of his closest ortho friends.  No, Luke did not suddenly sprout numerous sweet teeth and inhale 40 cookies.  No, we did not leave our doors unlocked for the cookie monster to come by...
   The dogs managed to gently pluck all of the cookies off in such an organized, calculated manner that they did not drag the whole thing onto the floor and there was not a crumb to be found anywhere.
   Switching gears from our ill-mannered beasts to our prince of a son, you will soon see the logic in my argument.  Kids are so cute, smart, fun, blah blah blah.  Lets be honest, we love them for their cool party tricks.  Repeating anything on command (Bowlins, you know who you are), acting out all the motions to Wheels on the Bus (so much cuter when an 18mo does it, Mark Parrett), and flapping wings (Gracie Lokey is a beautiful bird)--the examples of how we show off our kids as proud parents are endless .  Well, Luke is gathering his own circus side-show ideas and wanted to run this one by everyone.
Evidence #3--

  Look closely, the money is in the details.  Yes, he is gorgeous.  Yes, his clothes are immaculately tailored.  Yes, the monkey is well trained.  But what about the...

   Behold, SPOCK EAR!  It is not glued (although Tim really wanted to), we did not do it on purpose (although we have since tried to replicate it without success), and no animals were harmed in the creation of this amazing event.  Just one of the many spectacularly awesome things babies do all on their own.

  So there you have it, I rest my case.  Dogs are not necessarily a natural easy segue for offspring.  Luke is the perfect kid, where most days we consider pelting our furbabies.  Choose your own progression wisely.

Colorado Babies, Unite!

   I am happy to inform all you faithful followers out there that we survived our first locums assignment...mini-man, myself, and Super-G'ma!  Luke and I flew from Salt Lake to Denver, picked up our rental car (more like a roller skate--who says a Ford Fiesta is an intermediate vehicle?!), and headed out to Golden to introduce Little Lev to Little Judkins.  The boys hit it off on the playmat, sharing toys and coos alike.

   Next stop was an exit off I-25 for Luke to meet his cousin, Cody.  As these boys will be teaming up to beat their fathers at biking, kayaking, and skiing in the near future, it was necessary for the training regimens and diet modifications to be implemented early.  The boys are happy to now have a plan in place...first--learn to hold up your own head, second--master the art of NOT pooping in your pants, third--obtain steep and cheap account to purchase all required equipment.  Stay tuned...

   Luke and I enjoyed the hospitality of the Bowlins once again (they have always been a consistent stop during the locums journeys) where we made fancy flatbread pizzas from scratch, sewed baby yoga pants, and learned about all the new gear toddler boys need (three-wheeled scooters, pedal-less bikes, and LOTS of worker-guy tools).  I made it to the Harrison house to clean the gutters and check on the new hot water heater...our tenant is moving out in June so if anyone knows someone who wants to rent a cute house in a great neighborhood, let us know.  We had breakfast with the Hedges--YEA, and missed the Woodsies--BOO!  Hard to fit it all in, but so glad we got to catch up with the friends and family that we did.

   Finally, it was time to do some work...although, I was not sad that the work never materialized.  The set-up is I check-in at the hospital on Friday morning at 7am and pick up the pager.  I round on the in-patients and then go back to the hotel and wait for something to happen.  I am confined to a 20 minute response time in case a big trauma comes in, but the area around the hotel is filled with stores and restaurants so there is plenty to do.  I had less than 3 hrs of real work each day and did only two cases in the OR--lovely!

   One of the many benefits of G'ma joining the locums party is eating MUCH better food.  When it was just prego me, I would get some cereal and milk, hummus and carrots, fruit and chips at the grocery store, making some combo of those things my meals for the weekend.  With my mom and Steph (who came down to hang out when she wasn't working), we ate at a steakhouse, chinese, Panera Cafe, and Chipotle--YUM!  Deanna and the kids even joined us one night--the cousins love Baby Luke.

  Overall, it was a successful trip.  Luke is a great flyer, packing for two is getting much easier, and I love to share our little mini-man with friends and family.  Next job is a week in Montrose, an amazing small town in Western Colorado just north of Telluride where Tim and I are hoping will be our permanent landing spot next fall....more on that later.

Fancy cameras and our urban family

 We Love Visitors! Come with your dogs, come with your kiddos, come with beer!  The Bowlins came out to meet Luke and visit with us last weekend and we loved it.  Paul, Sarah and George are part of our Denver Urban Family, along with the Woods and Hedges.  Our unofficial dinner club, playgroup, gardening & seed co-op, CSA troupe.  We have been missing them dearly and lo and behold, they show up on our front doorstep--yippee!
   Our big plans for their stay included good food, beer, pictures, park, and a trip to the spa for Sarah and I.  All in all, it was a rousing success.  Made it to the Red Iguana for lunch, Patagonia Outlet for retail therapy, Liberty Park for exercise, and Epic Brewing Co. for the good stuff (not to mention the cases of Colorado beer that magically showed up in our living room).  The boys snuggled and bonded, the adults caught up on life, and we made it through the weekend with only one batch of the infamous chocolate chip cookies.

  Paul and Sarah have a nice digital Nikon camera and snapped quite a few shots of the family while they were here.  We are inspired now to add a real camera to our point-and-shoot variety.  That means some lessons on ISO, aperture, and lenses--time for this old dog to learn some new tricks.
  Tim's grandma passed away a year ago at the age of 89.  Although Luke never got to meet her, we know she is sending blessings to him everyday.  Last week, we received a check in the mail for a monetary gift she left to all her grand kids.  We decided that Grandma would have liked to contribute to a 'fancy' camera for priceless shots of her great-grand kids.  Thanks Grandma Wright!

Best chocolate chip cookies...EVER!

   Now, this is a warning up front that I will not take any responsibility for uncontrollable urges, expanding waistlines, or packed on pounds.  I mean what I say--this is the BEST recipe I have ever made for chocolate chip cookies.  That means a lot coming from me, Ms Wakefield herself (4-H demonstration project, long story).  I love my desserts, given my numerous sweet teeth--yes, plural!
  So when my lovely neighbor, Amelia Parrett, made these for her family over Thanksgiving (and we scooted across our shared driveway in our slippers to join them), I didn't appreciate the ramifications of her actions.  Many people tout this recipe or that recipe as the greatest for one reason or another, but plain ol' chocolate chip cookies?  
   The story starts even before that when we went over to their house for dinner November 18th for some Basque Chicken with cous-cous.  You lovers of all things Luke will recognize that date as the day before he was born.  We were almost a week past our due date and had already tried the infamous labor-inducing garlic pizza at Trios the night before.  The Parretts invited us over for food and beer to keep our minds off what wasn't happening.  The meal was superb and before we left, Amelia whipped out her recipe cards and jotted down the simple ingredients.  "And, oh, by the way, let me give you a good chocolate chip cookie recipe," she said innocently.  I should have recognized the peril I was in by the call for turbinado sugar and some hand-crumbled gourmet chocolate bars on the list of ingredients.  Nonetheless, I went into labor the next morning and forgot about the recipe until a week later, the day after Thanksgiving.
  After sharing pizza and salad with their houseful of guests, Amelia brought out a plate of cookies and brownies.  "These are the cookies, the ones I was telling you about last week," she said.  I grabbed one (and then four more) and the rest is history.  I have made the recipe at least once a week since then, one of which never made it to the oven, if you know what I mean.  Tim has forbid me from making them anymore and even hid the Kitchen-Aid stand mixer.  
   So read on at your own risk...
1 3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c turbinado sugar (sugar-in-the-raw...in baking aisle with other sugars)
1/4 c white sugar
1 c salted butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
12 oz chocolate bar pieces
course sea salt
   Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla.  Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in separate bowl.  Stir into butter mixture slowly.  Add chocolate pieces.  Drop rounded balls onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Flatten out top slightly and sprinkle sea salt lightly over the cookies.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 min...do NOT overbake!
   A few modifications I have made during my extensive relationship with this recipe over the last few months:
* My cheap, practical self still uses chocolate chips--we always have a Costco-sized bag lying around
* Delete white sugar--you will never miss it
* Increase turbinado sugar to 1/3 c (because it is delicious)
* Decrease brown sugar to 1 1/2 c
* Use 1 3/4 c whole wheat flour and 1 3/4 c regular unbleached flour (if you think this makes the recipe    
    healthy, it does not--don't be delusional)
* Add 1 c oatmeal (and decrease total flour to 3 c)
* Add 1 c toasted pecans or walnuts-yum!


As this is not a food blog, no awesome pictures of cookies, but...

Beautiful hand-knit blanket by Grandma Meri-lyn

Only hat he will probably ever have that was not made by his mama...

A man at the dog park said, as he got closer, "oh, you have a little bambino in there.  And I thought you were just fat."

The Judki on Skis

Is there a baby in there?

Nice form, mom!

   No, the snow is still absent from Utah...and Colorado...and Idaho.  No, we have not converted all our skis to rock skis...yet.  Yes, the mini-man has gone skiing.  Not in the 'point them straight, at the top of an infamous chute, after a gnarly traverse, at the Bird' kind of way.  More in the 'load up in the parking lot as the snow falls gently down, into the baby carrier with our down onesie, to ski up a road, and ski back down said road' kind of way.  But don't miss the point that our favorite 7 week old baby has been out on skis! 

No snow, so boot fittings in the living room!

   The plan for the epic Utah winter is still a dream, but with 12 inches of the fluffy white stuff this weekend, the glimmer is a bit brighter.  Just to give you an idea, Snowbird had a storm last December that dumped 64 inches in 48 hours...yes, 5 feet of snow in one storm!  We are about 10 feet behind where we should be right now, but even a bad year here is 400 inches, so a lot of big powder days must be right around the corner.  Luke and mom are praying for more snow....and dad is shopping for the smallest skis out there.

The Awesomeness of The Awesome Kammerer Family

13 people in one rental house in the great SLC all to welcome the newest addition to the brood...

AWESOME Food

AWESOME Wii Battles

AWESOME Babysitters-in-training

AWESOME Generations--4of them!

AWESOME Swim Lessons

AWESOME Liberty Park Outings

AWESOME Group Diaper Changes

AWESOME G'pa Introduction to the Wubbanub

AWESOME Computer Programming 101

 AWESOME Team Kammerer USA Training Sessions

December 29-Jan 2:  

It was a wonderful time of fellowship, wrestling, and all around tom-foolery (dumpster diving for pizza, anyone?).  The Judki thank the Kammerers for the time, effort, and sacrifices it took to get out here--we're talking 6 humans in the Land Yacht, aka mini-van, for hours too numerous to count and a Caddy cruising across the Nevada desert at 11 pm.  We welcome you back anytime...as long as you rent a separate house again so we can escape the AWESOME Awesomeness that is the Kammerer family from time to time.  And next time, bring some snow!!!!