- We survived Hurricane Irene! We were super fortunate that we only lost power for a few hours and had no major property damage. I cannot say the same for most of the state (and the states around us), where most people are still without power and will be for a few days, or near my parents in New York, where many towns are under water. Our neighbors also had a tree fall into their house. Super scary, but luckily no one was hurt.

- In preparation of the storm, in addition to hoarding water and hiding lawn furniture, I made those black bean veggie burgers. I figured if we found ourselves without power, I could cook them on our gas stove and not worry about them spoiling quickly like beef would. The recipe yielded 9 good-sized patties and they were really, really good. I’ve cooked them two ways — in the oven (20 minutes at 375 degrees, turning one) and on grill pan (10 minutes each side). I like them both ways. Out of the oven was best for Owen, as I could crumble it up small, but I prefered the grill as it gave the burger a nice crust. Either way, a definite winning recipe and one I will continue to make again and again. Glad I wrote it on that recipe card!

Bad cell phone picture, but these are what they look like.

- Unless some crazy freak incident occurs in the next two weeks, the house sale FINALLY WENT THROUGH!!!!!!!!! I won’t go into the ridiculous details, but I have to tell you that dealing with banks is something I hope not to have to do again for a long time. The issue that held us up was, as Michael calls it, “pure silliness”, and had nothing to do with actual banking or financing. A clerical issue at best, that was not resolved until the last.possible.minute., leaving us convinced that we had lost the house. As much as I do not want to pack and deal with moving, I cannot wait until September 15th, when I will hopefully be posting a happy post about our new home.

- The fabulous Mr. Owen continues to blow my mind and warm my heart. Obviously I love this kid to pieces, but I really do even more each day. He’s become such a personality and is certainly no longer a baby. At 14 months old now (wait, didn’t he just turn one?), he just took his first steps the other day!!!! Sure, a little later than some, but certainly not “behind”. He’s not full-blown walking yet, but is getting more and more confident at letting go of my hand and going on his own.

He also continues to talk up a storm, recently adding yellow “yeh-yo” to his vocabulary, which for some reason cracks me up. He can’t always correctly identify which object is in fact yellow, but he enjoys saying it none-the-less.

And the night weaning? I’m kind of typing this in hushed whispers just in case, but, um…it took one night. That night I wrote about the morning after we first started. The second night he woke up around 3 a.m., cried for four minutes and went back to sleep. The next night he did the same thing around 5. And after that? Well…he just started sleeping through the night. Just like that.

Sometimes he will wake up at 5:30, at which point I do nurse him because he will go back down until around 7, but most nights I don’t hear from him until the 6 o’clock hour. THANK YOU, OWEN!

So there’s the long, rambling life update for you. We’re off to the playground now, because the passing of Irene left us with some A+ weather and sitting in front of the computer just seems lame.

PS – Giveaway coming this week! For something delicious!