Tricks and Treats

You know that episode of ‘Friends’ where Ross and Carol get the chance to find out the sex of their baby? Ross doesn’t want to find out, but everyone around him knows so there’s a lot of thought being put into what words can be said around him, a lot of whispers, etc. He starts to get annoyed that everyone but him knows the truth. He finds out that Monica has told one more person and he gets even more annoyed. Monica blurts out, “Sorry, I’m just excited about being an aunt!” And Joey jumps in, thinking she just gave away the ultimate secret and says, “…OR an uncle!“, with a big wink to everyone.

That’s how I’ve been feeling the last several weeks, more or less. My husband and I had our big ultrasound and we weren’t quite sure if we wanted to find out or not until the morning of. After we found out, we still decided to keep it a secret for awhile…a little treat for ourselves. This is our last baby and we’ve put a lot of thought into everything we’ve done so far. It’s been a challenge, to say the least, to not slip up and say He…I mean, She…I mean…See what I mean? I don’t like the idea of referring to the baby as an It, that just seems cruel. So from now on, this baby will be referred to as Pat.

The day of the ultrasound, we brought along our son and told him all morning that we were going to go see a picture of the baby in mommy’s tuppy on a big TV. He seemed to understand. The last time we had seen a picture of this baby was around 10 weeks ago when Pat was the size of a kidney bean and this is what we saw:
So even though I’ve gone through all of this before, it was still a shock to see how much the kidney bean had grown! We got to see Pat move around, we got to see fingers curl and toes wiggle and it was amazing. It was incredible that now Pat looks like an actual baby and less like a glowworm wearing a Snuggy. Pat is now the size of an heirloom tomato, weighing in at 8 ounces.

What’s even more incredible is that since I’ve gone through all of this before, I know that this is what Pat will actually look like. When we saw our son’s ultrasound I was amazed at how much he resembled my husband, and he came out looking exactly like his picture. So now when I feel Pat move I can picture the face and the fingers and the toes that are causing all that commotion. It’s been amazing, knowing that secret. When my husband and I are alone in our house, we can speak freely about Pat, our little heirloom tomato. We were a bit concerned at first that our son might rat us out. But if you ask him what’s inside mommy’s belly, he says,

Then if you ask him if it’s a boy or a girl baby, he says,

(that used to scare the crap out of me).
Then if you say,

And he says,

(If I hadn’t seen the ultrasound and Pat’s up close and personals, that would scare the heck out of me too).
Anywho, since this is a cooking blog I should say something about cooking, right? Well, I’m catering a big Halloween party for a client so I’ve been doing a lot of cooking, just not a lot of my own cooking. And our wedding anniversary is the day before Halloween. I’ve been trying to get as much stuff done as I can before Saturday so I’m not working on our big day.

When I was little my mom always had ‘pigs in a blanket’ for dinner for my brother and me on Halloween night. Then, I think it turned to lentil soup and her famous oatmeal raisin cookies. I think Halloween night dinner should be something that can take care of itself in the oven while you’re out trick or treating. The last thing you want to do is come home and cook in your costume. I’ve served chili, pot roast, various soups or stews but this year I’m planning on being a little cheeky with dinner. We’re having meatloaf and mashed potatoes. No, I know that’s not cheeky…I’m getting there. I’m baking the meatloaf in muffin tins and then piping the mashed potatoes on top of each one after they’re baked so they look like cupcakes. It’s my little trick and treat. Kids love them.

So if we don’t speak before Halloween, I hope you all have a wonderful and safe night filled with laughter and silly costumes. May you see many babies dressed as ducks, many unsmashed pumpkins along the way and may there not be an apple anywhere near your treat bag.