Meeting Miss Susie

It's been a blessed couple of weeks - I've gotten to hold two babies and sort of in the same category, a baby kitteh (more on that to come). First was cutie patootie Olivia and then I had the opportunity to meet Susie for the first time at a girls' brunch (plus the proud papa) on Saturday. It was a gathering of friends from BC, and this was the first time I got to meet
Susie as she was still in her mama's stomach the last time I saw her parents.

Susie literally had our Greek male waiter gushing over her and calling her an "angel from heaven" - most likely due to her baby blues, blonde curls and chubby cheeks:


She didn't let out a peep the whole time we were together, even though we kept pulling away all sorts of interesting things she wanted to hold (like butter packets and salt shakers). She was completely sweet and calm as she was passed along from person to person.


I think this was my favorite photo as Carolyn was holding her - I love the sense of wonder on her face and the way she's pursing her lips:


I only wish that Sarah and Mike lived closer to MA than Long Island!

Sweet Treat for a Cutie Patootie

I appear to be on a chocolate chip baking kick lately - first it was the chocolate chip cookie dough brownies and then Alton Brown's "The Chewy" cookies.

This time, I stuck with an old favorite recipe - Chocolate Chip Cookie bars.

The occasion? I was meeting up with a friend and her adorable baby Olivia and I didn't want to show up empty handed!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of packed light brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine melted

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla (I dropped this to 1 teaspoon and added a teaspoon of almond extract)

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt (I used kosher salt)

2 cups of chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13" x 9" pan (I used my Pyrex pan).
2. Beat together brown sugar, white sugar and butter in large bowl; beat in eggs and vanilla (and almond extract). Add flour and salt, beating until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips; spread batter in prepared pan.
3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the surface is lightly browned. Cool completely; cut into bars.

I think using kosher salt helps develop a glazed top, similar to the sheen that "The Chewy" cookies had:

But enough about the bars - now onto the really sweet topic of my post!

Walking into Bertucci's, I found that Olivia had grown A LOT since I had first seen her months ago and had grown into a little person. Also, I had to laugh, since she still looks so much like her father Rob. I told Jen that meant that their next child was due to look exactly like her!

Olivia was a sweetheart all through lunch, and enjoyed a healthy lunch of avocado and sweet potato while we chomped down on pasta and sandwiches:

That's her saying, "Umm, Umm, good! I love sweet potatoes!"

Although she may look serious in some of her pictures, I swear she was laughing and smiling the whole time. But for some reason, I wasn't able to capture it on film until I took like 15 minutes straight - it was so worth it!

She even let me hold her for a minute (truthfully, she was fine when she was facing her Momma and I quickly handed her back once she started to fret):

The piece de resistance? Her strawberry hat! I told Jen that now I understood why people say "I can eat you up" to small children - scary, yes, but oh so appropriate when they are this cute!

I told Jen we have to start meeting for monthly lunch dates so I can get my baby fix.

Meeting Miss Olivia

Tired, first-time parents Jen and Rob were kind enough to let us stop by tonight to meet Olivia for the first time.

She was busy with her beauty sleep for most of the time we were there:


Which allowed me to get a few close-ups, although I was warned that Olivia prefers no flash photography from the paparazzi:


Finally, she realized she had an audience and gave us a look out of her open eyes while Rob changed her diaper:


Then Olivia decided it was time to eat which meant it was time for us to hit the road!

But I did get to hold her for a long time and there is nothing sweeter than holding a tiny, beautiful baby and smelling that unique baby smell (and this was before she needed to be changed).

Welcome Olivia!

Jen and Rob are the proud parents of "Liv" - born on Tuesday, July 21 at 2:40, just shy of 7
pounds and 20.5 inches long.

Meeting Marie Elizabeth

After a busy couple of weekends and a long day yesterday, it was nice to sleep in today and have a leisurely breakfast while perusing wedding venue sites.

Then it was on to get ready for lunch with our friends Jeanne, Mike and their seven-week-old daughter, Marie Elizabeth!

Some things that I was once told by a new mother that I remember each time when I'm getting gifts are:

1. Getting a complete meal to freeze and reheat for dinner later is very helpful for new parents who are too tired to cook a meal from scratch.
2. Diapers are one of the best gifts you can get for new parents - they are always needed!
3. If you buy clothing (which I tend to do for a baby shower, and then buy diapers after the baby is born), buy it in larger sizes since parents will get a ton of newborn clothing that the baby will quickly outgrow. I tend to get clothing sized for 12 months as a safe bet.

So for lunch, I made two pans of my Mac and Cheese - one to eat today and one to be frozen for later - since I don't cook much, this one of my tried and true recipes:

I was lazy and went with a bagged lite Ceasar Salad to accompany the meal and a mixed dessert plate (consisting of small portions of desserts I had made in the past month and frozen) - including brownies with Andes mints, chocolate chip cookies, cranberry oatmeal cookies and chocolate and cream cheese chocolate chip cupcakes:

For the frozen meal to be eaten later, I included a bag of four Pillsbury frozen garlic rolls (I highly recommend these) and a bag of the cranberry oatmeal cookies, as I know Jeanne and Mike enjoy them in particular.

The food was what I was stressing about before arriving at their place - upon arrival, the focus was all on Marie!

Marie is adorable! For seven weeks, she is at a healthy weight and therefore, doesn't have the typical scrunched-up newborn appearance. I fell in love right away with her wide eyes and long eyelashes and was pleasantly surprised by her calm personality. She remained chill while being held and loved moving her head and listening to people talk. And, if you can't tell from the picture, she was decked in head-to-toe LSU gear by her proud parents and alums:

While Andrew passed on holding her due to her fragile appearance, I was able to get my baby fix for the day (Did I mention the chubby cheeks? the soft hair? the little fingers? All so cute!)