Chef Benjamin

Hi friends. This is Mark writing. I've been meaning to write for a while about all of Ben's culinary endeavors. Man, this boy really loves to be in the kitchen! We still make "cheesy eggs" almost every morning. He can rattle off all the ingredients we'll need anytime you ask. On the weekends he wants to make waffles. "How about frozen waffles Ben?" "No, I want to MAKE waffles!" He and Katherine make muffins most weekends too. This is great because they make pretty healthy ones with things like oatmeal and zucchini and not too much sugar. And these make great snacks throughout the week. He and I usually whip up something on Monday afternoons to take to our bible study. Often it's just break-and-bake cookies but he has fun still. We recently had a great time as a family assembling potstickers. That's something I didn't imagine three years ago. I really like this about Ben, and it truly is a blast to see him having so much fun. But sometimes it tries my patience, especially when I'm trying to make something unfamiliar or delicate. For example, I was trying to make empanadas a few weeks ago. If you've never done that, it involves puff pastry which is really awesome stuff, but has to be handled gingerly. That was a bad idea to have a 2 year old involved. So here's some pictures of us in the kitchen, and a few bonus ones. Enjoy!

Ben and Katherine making muffins. You can tell he's very proud of his work:




Transferring some lettuce:


Helping at the stove (okay, mostly just watching):




Oopsy


Contemplating jack-o-lantern design


The finished piece:

Pat is a ...

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it??!!! We are absolutely giddy with excitement. It also seems much more real that we're really going to have another baby. I (Mark) have found it hard to get too attached when it's just a little human, rather than a little boy or girl. WOOHOO!!!!

Patricia or Patrick?

Wednesday, if he/she cooperates, we could find out Pat's gender.

While we are hoping for a girl, the Griffith clan reproductive history indicates Pat will be a boy. And, no, I don't have a "motherly instinct" regarding gender. And if I did, I'd probably be wrong. I was SURE Ben was a girl until we found out otherwise.

Any guesses out there?

"It's Cold! It's Cold!"

Mark here. When we went outside this morning about 8:30am, Benjamin most accurately expressed how we all felt. He ran around in circles, yelling over and over, "It's cold! It's cold! It's cold!" Katherine and I were a little more reserved, limiting our displays to a few deep breaths of the cold air and a sigh of pleasure.

It's that most wonderful day in Houston, when your first breath of outside air tells you that fall is probably here to stay. It's the first time the air bites your lungs just the tiniest bit on its way in. That little bite reminds us that we've got 6 months of gorgeous weather ahead. It's been an uncommonly hot summer, and unusually long. June is normally hot, but tolerable. Then the pain really gets going in July and August. September and October are when the length of the summer beats Houstonians into submission. This year, June was crazy, crazy hot. So you can understand why today's cool morning was very, very welcome, even more so than in the past.

3 Month Profile

I think this picture was actually taken around week 14.5, but it's pretty close to the 3-month mark. Definitely think I'm bigger at 3 months this time around, and this afternoon a neighbor asked me if I was expecting based on the size of my belly --- it's the first time someone has asked based on how I look.

More updates coming soon (hopefully!)...