the pizza man

we loves us some pizza 'round here. seriously. i know people in general love pizza, the way it's impossible not to love kittens in a basket or grandmothers or sunny days in june, but beyond the norm we really do love it abnormally... i could eat it four days a week easily if larger pants weren't a factor... i used to make dough in a bread machine ages ago until it broke and we've tried all manner of shortcuts to get our pizza fix ever since...

when i was expecting cole we ordered more pizza than ever. jamie was out of town a lot, so often after a long day of work the only thing i could manage (in that "i'm so tired but have no clue what tired even is since i don't have a baby to deal with yet" kind of way) was to order pizza. we were actually - true story - blacklisted from a local pizza place (panago - boo, hiss) for complaining when our order was wrong and yet managed a work-around to ensure our pizza supply remained constant.

since then, we've branched out. pita pizzas, pizzas from various other places in town, pizzas made with fresh dough from whole foods. it was that last one that really turned the tides. since merging with whole foods, the dough we used to buy from capers has gotten smaller and more expensive. the last time i was picking a dough ball off the shelf - $2.99 for a ball that would barely cover our large pizza pan - i had a change of heart. why not get back to making pizza? i didn't remember it being hard, but then again i don't remember a lot of things nowadays!

i bought a three-pack of yeast instead and came home to search for pizza dough recipes online. found an amazing, amazing one. it makes three times the dough for 1/4 of the price ( (even using organic flour) and it's delicious. and easy - no kneading!

we usually eat ours later at night when cole's asleep - you know, so we can enjoy it, rather than do the gulp n' munch required at times for a meal with a toddler... but once in a while i make him his own little pizza. easy on the toppings - just cheese and sauce and dough really... tonight i got him up on the helping chair and he helped make his pie!

he rolled the dough and then proceeded to eat the shredded cheese...

if you're in the mood try this recipe - it's easier than trying to get your order across with panago or debating how much to tip a guy with b.o. who just rolled over your mailbox!

slow! they called you slow!

obviously, i've been very slow at posting news & photos lately. not for lack of doing things, mind you. many indoor things and a lot of playdates with our neighbours, and a good deal of running around. actually, oddly, because we've been so busy, updating has been low on my list. after things like: doing things, taking photos of us doing things, doing crafty such and such, more of that, some other work, making food, eating food, random and ceaseless chores, catching up on shows i like and people i know and listening to the wind try to carry our bbq away and hey - i guess i'm getting around to it now... ;-)

i braved the world of logic today and took this photo of cole sleeping during naptime:

i actually snuck in to make sure he was ok because a) i am deranged and b) he had his h1n1 vaccination today prior to our upcoming vacation, despite my vacillating about getting it, and i wanted to make sure he was doing ok. he was sleeping like the proverbial baby and even the focusing noise of the camera in his pitch-black room and resulting bounced flash didn't wake him up! i took two, tempting my luck and thankfully i had another hour of his napping in which to do work (sewing tooth fairy pillows - what a grown-up i am!).

after he woke up he was giggly and wanted to snuggle on the couch, where we laughed and played hide & peek (so he calls it) with the blankets and listened to the rain hit the windows. he wanted to hear a story, so i told him a long-winded and rambling tale about a kitty named coco (he names everything coco except sometimes he likes to drum up 'tommy' or 'abby' or 'bobby bobby') who meowed a lot and met an owl and another cat, also named coco. they ran around in a field and meowed some more and i think they might have eaten toys and cream and crackers (i get him to fill in the blanks). the problem with my stories is that i end them and then cole asks for more, so i have to keep the story alive after it's logical demise - kind of like most serial movies. some days we have more ambition and do more, things like going outdoors or even this:

finger painting! we've tried regular painting too, with great success, but of course i had to try the messiest of all painting techniques last week. it was so much fun and cole loved it. the thick yet washable paints were actually a lot less messy than i pictured, and we did it seated at the high chair. i had hippie visions of diapers-only painting on the floor, but i realized during pumpkin carving, when we got pumpkin guts everywhere, that maybe i don't want paint on my couch just yet...

and in case, like us, you are not a super-nerd who practically memorized every simpsons episode back before they went downhill and then straight to hell after about season 7 when every episode became the worst-episode-ever, you would perhaps like to know what the heck i'm talking about in that title? sorry - no video. we live in canada which, you may have realized, should you be the kind of nerd/cheapskate who likes free streaming online videos, might as well be the wilkins ice shelf or poor old pluto.

halloween hoedown

much fun was had on saturday morning, carving the pumpkins we got last week at westham island. the most fun was had, to be honest, during the goo-scooping part. we scooped goo like professional goo-scoopers. cole really enjoyed it and we had a relatively tidy time. but the morning got along and we had plans to head out to langley for some trick-or-treating in gramma & grampa's neck of the candy-stocked woods. so, while cole ate lunch, we took turns doing a lightning-round of pumpkin carving.

and we finally settled on cowboy for cole's halloween costume. it was a tossup between homemade cowboy and last-year's duck, but cowboy got the most votes (in my non-scientific, undocumented, biased, random passing mentions to friends & family...). yee haw:

the costume was a scramble of bits and pieces that turned out really well. on hand we had a hand-me-down plaid flannel shirt that he wears all the time and of course his much-loved cowboy hat. to counter the chill he wore a few sweaters under the shirt - hence the very cowboy-like physique. i have a "mystery drawer" that contains interesting toys and whatnot that i find at random regular intervals. once in a while i grab something fun from the drawer - this time i hauled out a sheriff badge and a six-pack of various stick-on mustaches from the japanese dollar store (it's quite a drawer!). on friday we stopped by the granville island toy store on main because i randomly remembered that they had the horse-on-a-stick toy that would be really perfect, and hey, at least it's a waste of money that turns into long-term entertainment! the horse needed 2aa batteries to make a very authentic clip-clop sound, so i took those from our remote (and used the tv manually - oh, the horror!) oh, and i found a potato gun because apparently i'm promoting violence? (not really - just really into accessories!) and last but not least, i made cole a cowboy-style drooling kerchief late on friday night and then gussied up a pair of brown courdoroy pants by temporarily basting a strip of fringe-cut fleece onto each leg. fancy!

we had a great night, playing outside and, when it got dark enough, trick-or-treating with the lovely folks next door. their little guy james was the cutest frog! the boys really got the hang of it after a couple of houses. mmm... "cole" is really going to enjoy that candy! ;-)