I had My Book About Me when I was a child. I still have it today, as a matter of fact. I got it when I was ten, and filled out a good deal of it right away. The kids have loved that book probably more than I did, to look at it now — binding falling off, pages a little torn. They’ve pored over every page until I decided that the book had enough love and retired it to the fragile shelf.

Christopher asked for his own copy of the book, and I played dumb, telling him we’d think about it, knowing full well that I already ordered him a copy for his birthday. Heidi thought it would be a good thank you present for his help during labor, so we gave him the book a few days ago.

It features a lot of things a child might find interesting about themselves. Like how many teeth they have, and the name of their best friend. There are pages to write about favorite pets and sports, how many steps your house has, how many light fixtures. A page to practice writing a story and another page to practice drawing. There’s even a page to collect autographs from fairly obscure people. Like your mailman. And a person 6′3″ tall. Our mailman’s name is Howard, by the way. Christopher often speaks of Howard these days.

Every spare moment he has, he steals away to add more to the book. With the exception of “how many zippers do you have” and a “very special autograph collection” he’s pretty much done. Kind of.

See, he’s making sure to do everything in pencil. In case something changes. Like his hair color. The hair color page has brown, red, green, etc. It also has grey. See, Christopher knows his hair is going to change color some day, so he’s reserving the option to change the hair color when his hair changes. Same way with the page about wearing glasses. If there’s the slightest possibility of something changing, he reserves the right to erase and amend. Like the shape of his nose.

“I might break it, you know.”

Remember that Friends episode where the guys get into a bet about who know more about whom, and the girls end up betting their apartment over the lightning round? Whenever someone asks me what my favorite food is, I remember this part of that episode. (click to play):

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Yeah, so replace “Joey” with “Kit” and that’s what goes through me head. There’s nothing quite like a good sandwich. Sandwiches may be my favorite comfort food, with cold cereal running a close second.

I had a bunch of fresh veggies laying around and some decent hoagie rolls, and I got to thinking what the best way to combine them all would be. Then I remembered this:

George, we’re using the toaster more often for grilling our chicken, but tonight, sir, your little grilling wonder will be put to good use.

So, first, I coated a chicken breast liberally with some italian parmesan dressing we had in the fridge and grilled that sucker to 155, letting it glide on up to 160.

While that was grilling, I caramelized some onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers (which came from my garden!).

Then I sliced the roll in half and coated the insides with a conservative amount of mayo. The mayo forms a nice seal so the bread doesn’t get too soggy. Then I layered.

1. chicken down first, sliced, laying as flat as I can manage
2. layer of fresh spinach leaves
3. tomato slices (also from the garden!)
4. caramelized veggies
5. a layer of colby jack — all I had — pepper jack would have been awesome

Then I gave it a firm mush before I lightly coated the outside with a little olive oil, then down on the George Foreman Grill it went. I gently pressed it flat, and five minutes later I had this:

I didn’t wait enough time before I bit into it, and I burned the heck out of my mouth, but it was so worth it! Between the flavors of the food I selected, and the crisp toastiness of the bread, this was a seriously tasty sandwich. I’ll be looking for excuses to try this again before the week is out.

(Update: Here’s the big reveal! Okay, not so big. Kind of typographic, really.)

Just when you though the belly was about to POP! Our newest addition has finally arrived, 1:40 PM, CST. See the picture — cute, huh? Everyone is doing great. Perhaps we’ll post a name later (maybe). Heidi is resting and will write soon, I’m sure.

Though we know you’re dying to know gender, we’re going to hold on to the mystery a little while longer. Heidi wants to see how long we can hold out. And we realize the threats will increase. Don’t worry, the kids will spill the beans. Eventually. Now, if you go and read this and the paragraph above, you may discover what we have named our baby.

Perhaps we should offer a prize?

If you’re the first to break our exceedingly clever and devious code, let us know. Each sentence has a clue. Read back from the beginning. Check closely.

Email us when you figure it out.

(Heidi adds - those of you that wondered when we had time for this in labor, Kit had it written up and ready to post last week. He’s tricky AND well prepared.)

We had the greek chicken pitas again tonight. This time I tried a cup of wheat flour instead of all white. They were delicious. And the chicken was perfect, if I can stow the humility for a little while. 160°, little bit of oregano, salt, and pepper — the digital probe thermometer is your friend. Homemade tsatsiki sauce. We didn’t grow the cucumber ourselves, but ask me again in a week. We have one that will be ready by then. I admit that we didn’t use our own yogurt for it this time around, but that’s only because the last batch I made up was a lightly sweetened variety. The tomato, however, I grew. One finally survived Bennett.

Then Heidi and I served dinner. Bennett by himself ate almost one chicken breast by himself. Everyone enjoyed the pitas, first with chicken, then with peanut butter and honey. Some kids sampled the tomato, others the cucumber, and we had a really enjoyable dinner. This is one of those fine times when, not only do I make a fantastic meal that everybody enjoys, but I totally knocked it out of the park.

And then it hit me as I was working on the dishes, that this was the high point of my day. The delicious food, the elation of having created this excellent meal with my own hands, and the family enjoying it all was giving me a high I couldn’t beat. I made pitas, dangit. With my own two hands. And the kids helped me. And they were good. I know that thousands of Greek people do the same thing every day and don’t think anything of it, but I’m not Greek. And I made pitas.

Any meal of the day — breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack — I look forward to. I admit, I’m not always in the mood to cook, but I’ll also admit that I like that I get to cook breakfast and dinner. I’d be sad if Heidi were to decide that she would rather do all of the cooking — we currently split the duties between us.

Food is primal. We require it. We celebrate with it. We grieve with it. I have no aspirations to being a chef or anything like it. But I so enjoy cooking.

All of our kids take turns reading scriptures. Emy just started joining in, and Heidi thought it was too cute, so we decided to get it on tape before they go and grow up on us. And here you are.

(Photo credit: Confessions of a Pioneer Woman)

I’m not going to bore you with my rundown of this recipe. We found it at Confessions of a Pioneer Woman — a lovely and funny blog of itself.

What I will say is that this recipe combines my favorite elements of my two favorite potato dishes — pan fried and baked — all in one tasty and easy dish.

I had to stop myself at four. And I’m not happy about it.

or, “Baby Come Out Song” if you ask Mo.

C and Mo collaborated on a welcome home song for Mojo, with a little help from Dad. Seriously. Just a little. I only balanced volume levels and such. I’m just the producer, I swear.

The drums, mandolin, and piano are canned loops. The harmonica was performed by both Mo and C — they took turns. And of course, they sang all their own parts.

Anyway, here’s the song. Song For Mojo.mp3

Now, I had a little trouble wrangling the kids closer to the mic. I know, that’s the job of the producer, but it’s a little nerve wracking to sing into a mic for any purpose, so we applaud their bravery all the same.

Here are the lyrics, in case you want to follow along:

(C’s verse)
A new one is coming.
It will be joyful.
It’s a happy time of year!

(Mo’s verse)
It’s fun to watch the baby asleep
with that song on.
But I like to play the drum song
with the baby awake.