Wednesdays with Lou

Dominic the Comedian

When Dominic knows he’s doing something he’s not allowed to he looks over to Brooke and I who try our best to give a stern “No” and shake our heads. Dominic’s reaction to this…he laughs. His favorite game to play is to sit by the TV and reach for the cable box. After we tell him “No” and he laughs at us he then reaches towards the TV again. We say “No” again and he stops doesn’t touch anything and looks back at us and laughs again. We do this routine several more times before we have to move him away from the TV. We’re debating getting a baby gate to put in front of the TV stand but on the bright side he’s learning what No means which will come in handy over the next few years and hopefully his life.

Also this week Dominic learned how to build with his mega-blocks. He learned how to fit the pieces together and stack them. After he puts them together he starts to clap and cheer for himself. Brooke and I also cheer for him to let him know he did it right. The funny part is he still cheers for himself when he doesn’t get it to fit and then looks at us with an expression of “Why aren’t you clapping too?” His expressions are priceless. Dominic is so much fun and continues to amaze Brooke and I everyday with all the new things he’s learning.

Buckeyes

The Buckeye Defense posted back to back shut outs last weekend as OSU rolled Illinois 30-0. Our D-line is applying pressure and our linebackers are all over the field. Our Offense has been struggling to find their identity but once things start to click with them we should be one of the top 2 or 3 teams in College football. Our Defense will keep us in every game for the rest of the season but it’s going to be up to our Offense to win it for us. By the end of the year if teams ahead of us lose which I think will happen we could slide right back into the National Championship or at the very least a BCS bowl and make a statement for once in a big non-conference game. We play Indiana this week on the road at night. I watched the Indiana/Michigan game last week and was impressed with the Hoosiers. Either Michigan isn’t as good as their 4-0 record or Indiana is a good team. Indiana should have won that game last week. My prediction for this week is OSU 33 – Indiana 10. Our Defense gives up a field goal and we give up a TD on special teams. Go BUCKS!

TV + DVR = Amazing

Brooke and I watch a lot of TV and are appreciative of our DVR. Here is a list of all the shows we watch regularly. 1. House, 2. Gossip Girl, 3. How I Met Your Mother 4. Biggest Loser, 5. Hell’s Kitchen, 6. Chopped, 7. Man vs. Food, 8. Guiliana & Bill, 9. America’s Next Top Model, 10. The Office, 11. Parks & Rec, 12. 30 Rock, 13. Community, 14. Grey’s Anatomy, 15. Iron Chef America, 16. Diners Drive-ins and Dives, 17. Simpsons, 18. Family Guy, 19. Cleveland Show, 20. The Practice, 21. Amazing Race, 22. Survivor, 23. Desperate Housewives, 24. Big Brother, 25.Glee. The DVR is such a practical invention. It’s essentially a VCR but way more convenient. Half hour shows are 20 minutes and 60 minute shows are only 40 minutes. Plus you can watch two shows from different networks that are on at the same time. If you don’t have a DVR or something similar it’s worth the investment. Even though Brooke and I watch about 25 different shows we are skilled at multitasking as we are usually both on our computers, talking to each other, or playing a game.

Teach Me Tuesday

This is just a random fact today because I am currently studying for Lab exam and Cross Sectional exam on Tuesday (today) and my Anatomy & Physiology II exam on Thursday..so I'm pretty much fried!
Many people have heard of the procedure done on the heart called an EKG or Electrocardiogram. I've always thought it was weird that it was abbreviated EKG instead of ECG..my lecture professor is originally from Montreal, Canada and she informed us that ONLY in the United States will an EKG be done, everywhere else around the world abbreviates it correctly as ECG.


Reason why: Obviously English isn't spoken worldwide so the pronunciation of certain letters is different worldwide. In the U.S. we also have a procedure called and Electroencephlogram or EEG. This procedure requires a bunch of wires hooked up to the patient's head. Now between American accent changes across the U.S. and penmanship errors...wouldn't it be awful if an unsuspecting patient who was already nervous for an EKG on their heart went in to the hospital and oops..wires on their head? This is why we changed it to EKG instead of ECG..I for one, am glad they did!

Misc. Monday

You can barely see it (sorry for the sad picture) but Dominic's very first tooth is poking through!

Friday night Lou & I held our very own Tonka drag race with Dominic's truck collection. First we drafted our cars and then raced them in heats. See what fun two 27 year old parents can have on a Friday night? My how different things are!
Brooke's team is on the left and Lou's on the right.

The winner's podium Lou made from Dominic's Megablocks. See that school bus on top? I won 1st & 2nd place!


This weekend we visited "Miller's Apple Orchard" with my Mommy Meetup group. The weather wasn't ideal for apple picking but we had a great time! They had so many neat activities set up, like a petting zoo, pony rides and a hay maze. I can't wait to bring Dominic here as he gets older and can really enjoy all there is to offer!

A little blurry from the rain-but such a neat place!

He had so much fun with his friends Skylar & Connor. Here they are in what Skylar called "her choo choo truck"

My pumpkin amongst the pumpkins!

I have a feeling these 3 are going to get into a bit of shenanigans growing up together..Must take after their Mommies!

Look at our big boy standing on his own!
Sunday, Lou took Dominic over to our friends, the Sayers' house for the Browns game while I stayed home to study my brains out for the 3 exams I have this week! Luckily Lou took some pictures for me! Here is Dominic and Madison playing!

He's quite the ladies man!

Show Us Your Life-Favorite Dessert Recipe

This week's installment of "Show Us Your Life" is titled "Favorite Dessert Recipe". I really don't have much of a favorite dessert that I make-but I decided to share Lou's favorite dessert that I make. They aren't the prettiest, and they can be quite messy & gooey, but they sure are yummy. Without further adieu..Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies..

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 cups chocolate chips, 2 Hershey's bars chopped or M&M's

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl stir together flour, salt and baking soda. In another large bowl stir together butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla, and cocoa. Gradually stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined. Stir chocolate chips and walnuts, if using, and stir to distribute evenly.

For cookies: Drop dough by tablespoons onto greased baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes. Cool on baking rack

For bars: Pat dough into a greased 9 inch square baking pan and bake 20-25 minutes. Cut into squares when cooled.

The only picture I had of the cookies. I made them for Lou's 26th Birthday and used them in place of his birthday cake with sugar letters & numbers.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

3 Words Thursday

Wednesdays with Lou

Book Worm

I wasn’t going to do a blog post for this week but just before bed Dominic did something so cute and impressive I have to share it. So I’m standing over by the counter on my laptop about 15 feet from Dominic. He’s standing by his toy bin looking for toys and holding on to his Big Dump Truck. He uses his Dump Truck to help him walk over to me where I see he’s put two of his books in the back of his Truck. He reaches in pulls out both books and raises them up to me. Obviously Dominic wanted me to read those books to him so I took him over to the couch held him on my lap and read him both books. After we finish the books I set him back down on the ground with his books to keep playing. He puts the books back into his Truck and uses the Truck to walk over to Brooke who was on the other couch. He takes both books out and waves them at Brooke for her turn to read him the stories. He is getting so big and doing such amazing things everyday. I am so proud of him and so grateful and blessed to have him.

Buckeyes

After the loss to USC two weeks ago I came away realizing two things. One, USC was not as good as they were last year and two Pryor is not as good as I had hoped he would be at this point in his young career. Last week confirmed both of those as USC lost to Washington and Pryor played well but wasn’t challenged as ESPN reported Mark May (not a fan of him) noted Toledo had the 107th ranked pass defense. Just one of the many reasons I don’t care for Mark May he didn’t give OSU’s defense credit for shutting down Toledo who had the number 1 ranked offense and averaged over 40 points in their first two games. He’s always looking to cut us down and I’m okay with that just give us credit when it’s deserved and our Defense played great Saturday. My prediction for this week is OSU 27 Illinois 17. I’m concerned with Juice Williams but I think our Defense is faster this year and Brian Rolle will have a huge game.

Teach Me Tuesday

Right now, I got nothin'! Dominic is battling a pretty nasty virus so I will try and find something interesting in class tomorrow to share with you all...until then, here is a funny picture from tonight's dinner. Needless to say when you are coughing up a storm-more green beans go out than in!

3 Words Thursday

Wednesdays with Lou

Dominic

Dominic is keeping Brooke and I extra busy these days. He is night and day different than a month ago. He loves to play with his trucks and have books read to him. He can truly brighten up a bad day. Waking up to Dominic yelling Ma Ma Ma Ma while standing in his crib is a great way to start the day. But nothing beats coming home from work and watching him get all excited, crawl over to me, and put his arms up for me to pick him up. He is such a happy little boy. He loves Brooke and I so much and we’re so very lucky and blessed to have him.

Buckeyes

Last weeks game was highly disappointing. We beat ourselves big time and didn’t capitalize on all the opportunities we had to win the game. The outcome is too upsetting to even write about this week. A Big Ten title and BCS bowl game is still within reach so the season is not totally lost. We face Toledo this Saturday at Cleveland Browns stadium. This is a game Brooke and I have really been looking forward too. Brooke is a Toledo alumni but will be wearing her scarlet and grey with pride. My prediction is OSU 37 Toledo 27.

Biggest Loser

This is going to be a great season. We love this show. This show motivates you to get healthy. It’s amazing watching the contestants turn their life around physically in such a dramatic way. Here are a couple of our favorites. Abby lost her entire family in a car accident 2 ½ years ago. You can’t help but cheer for her. I hope she is strong enough and I know our house will be cheering her on. My favorite teams are Green (Allen & Abby) and Orange (Shay & Daniel). It’s going to be a good year.

If you watched Biggest Loser last year you probably remember Ron and his sons Mike and Max. Mike was on the show and did amazing. I’m hoping they do a follow up with their family to see if Max has lost weight like Ron and Mike last year.

Big Brother 11

I truly stopped caring about this show once Jeff got voted out and the power shifted to Kevin and Natalie. Kevin has been funny enough to keep the show entertaining but it’s been overshadowed by Natalie’s annoyance. The season was totally redeemed with Jordan emerging as the winner of the $500k. Jordan needed the money the most and deserved it over Natalie and made the right move by evicting Kevin. Jordan winning made up for an unwatchable last week.

Teach Me Tuesday

Alrighty, no big stories this week-just a couple things that I was kinda surprised to learn..

If you have O type blood you are a universal donor (meaning anyone, no matter their blood type can safely receive your blood)...I've heard people brag about this because it would seem to be the most unique and rarest of blood type. In fact, type O is actually the most common! And to boot...the universal donor is actually O negative and it kinda stinks because O type blood can only RECEIVE O type blood....I guess it's a good thing that it's so common huh? *Also, type AB+ is the real Universal recipient* I've been studying the anatomy & physiology of the heart in these past couple weeks. I can see that the right side of the heart is smaller than the left side..here is why. The entire right side of your heart is only responsible for pumping blood into the lungs and then back to the heart. The left side of the heart is responsible for EVERYTHING else! No wonder it's bigger and has more muscle! I just find that fact incredible--you would think the whole heart would be working as one unit to pump blood into the entire body..but nope! Knowing how important lungs are to LIVING..I'm glad to have a lopsided heart! :)

Ten Months Old!

What are you up to these days Dominic?

*You can crawl (fast), pull yourself up onto furniture, easily cruise along the furniture and kinda take a step to move to a new piece of furniture, you also walk w/your big truck or use your activity table to walk to places.

*You are a HUGE copycat! When Mom or Dad do something you try and copy!

*No teeth as of yet, but they are (broken record) RIGHT there ready to pop through and judging by your temperature and drool outtake, I think we're going to get them soon!

*You are SOO affectionate! I love it! You give mommy & daddy lots of kisses and snuggles.

*You chase the dogs around like crazy. Most of the time taking TJ's snake toy and teasing him with it. They are just the right size to be perfect playmates!!

*You want to eat EVERYTHING! Mommy let you taste a pickle & sugar cookie today and you loved it! You are getting very good at chewing your food. Not a huge fan of deli turkey but you love cantaloupe!

*Everyday you are learning something new-I just can't believe all the milestones you've reached in the past 3 weeks!

Am I seriously going to have a ONE year old in less than 2 months!?!? This has been the fastest year of my life.

Our honor defend, so we'll fight to the end, for O-HI-O!

I know many readers have their own conference (if they're college football fans) but here in the Grasso household, we are die hard Ohio State Buckeye fans!! We have a HUGE game coming up on Saturday night-not only is our season on the line, but the reputation of the Big Ten Conference. I have/will always love the Buckeyes no matter what. The pressure these young men have on their shoulders tomorrow is heavy--but I will be proud of them none the less. If you have a chance-go to an Ohio State website and look up the tradition that makes Ohio State University...THE Ohio State University...GO BUCKS!! Here are some of the proofs from Dominic's 10 month picure session *JC Pennies Photography* complete with Dominic in a "Tressel Vest"-a man who exemplifies class, and showing off his Uncle Brett's OSU helmet..one day he will brag that his Uncle was on the team that beat Notre Dame, and played in two National Championships...oh did I fail to mention that his Uncle was also playing on the team that beat "the team up North" FOUR years in a row!!!

O-H...I-O!!! Let's GO BUCKS!!!

Go Dominic Go!

**Show Us Your Life has been postponed to next week** So for your viewing pleasure..

3 Words Thursday

Wednesdays with Lou

Toy Buying Frenzy

Dominic has slowly been accumulating more and more toys. Brooke and I realize he doesn’t need every toy on the shelf since his favorite toys are these simple stacking blocks. We’ve been buying him only 1 new big toy a month. For his 10 month birthday present we wanted to get him a push/rider toy since he’s been standing a lot lately and we want to encourage him to start walking. On Sunday I took Dominic out to Toys-R-Us so Brooke could have some quiet time to study. My original plan was to get the leap frog activity table but when I got to the store I was overwhelmed with all the choices of push/riders. I panicked and picked out the best push/rider on the shelf and forgot the activity table. When I got home to show Brooke what I got she asked what happened to the activity table. I explained I got this really cool expensive push/rider instead. Brooke reminded me of what I should have realized at the store that for only $10 more I could have got a different push/rider and the activity table. We figured 2 toys were better than one so back to the store I went to return the toy I just bought and to get the activity table and a different push/rider. On Monday I kept the shopping spree going and got Dominic 150 toy play balls. Brooke thought I could blow up his pool from the summer and we could make a little ball pit for Dominic to play in. Seeing Dominic’s reaction to his new toys makes it all worth it. Here are his new toys.

Ohio State Football

Last weekend was the start of the college football season complete with a big upset win with BYU over Oklahoma and Boise State delivering and receiving a knockout against Oregon. Ohio State won so it was a good football Saturday for me. All the buzz after the game was about Ohio State avoiding the upset against Navy. The game wasn’t nearly as close as the media made it out to be. Ohio State was up 29-14 with just under 7 minutes left when they decided to go for it on 4th and 1 by running the same play that didn’t work on 3rd and 1. First off bad play call, an option or anything putting the ball in Terrelle Pryor’s hands would have got us a first down and possible score on that drive which could have put the score 36-14 or even if we went for a field goal it could have been 32-14. I know this is all hypothetical but still the final score was no indication for how lopsided this win could have easily been. Instead we make a bad play call get stopped and Navy scores on the next play and it’s 29-21. Every time we have a close win I just remember the Championship season of 02 when we had a number of close wins. So I’m not worried for this season.

Ohio State hosts USC this Saturday and I’m pumped. I thought our chances were good last year and was highly disappointed so I’m a little less optimistic this year but still feel good about our chances. A night game at home should be a big advantage for us. I also feel good about facing a true freshman quarterback, Matt Barkley. Ohio State ran a very conservative offense last week against Navy and will open up the playbook more for this game. We didn’t want to give USC anything to game plan against so we played week one a little conservative. I expect a huge game from Terrelle Pryor. A win Saturday should be a big spring board for the rest of the season. Here is a picture from our family room/media room of the game on Saturday on our 90 inch screen. I LOVE THIS!

Teach Me Tuesday

Now that I'm back in school I learn a lot of new & interesting things. My anatomy professor is great-she combines lessons with her real life experiences which always makes lecture exciting. I usually come home every Tuesday or Thursday with a story or interesting fact to tell Lou so I decided to share some of these with you on Tuesdays--who knows you may learn something and help me retain the information as well!!

We have just finished up the reproductive system, including pregnancy, with so many parents reading this blog I hope you find this story as amazing as I did!!

It's a little known fact that a woman's ovaries are NOT connected to the fallopian tubes, when the ovaries release an egg each month, the fimbriae (finger like ends of the tubes) wave and create a current to attract the egg. Well every once and a while the egg does not enter the tube and kinda floats off into a woman's body. Here begins the story:

A woman had been trying to get pregnant for years, had some miscarriages and other fertility problems. After all this time the woman finally got a positive pregnancy test! She and her husband went in to the OB office to get an ultrasound to date the pregnancy. The ultrasound tech scanned her uterus and was heart broken to inform the woman that there was no baby in her uterus. However, her blood work indicated that she was, in fact pregnant. The tech then decided to scan other areas of her body. What she found was incredible..the egg had floated out, as did the sperm and fertilized outside the uterus. The embryo then attached itself to the woman's KIDNEY!! The doctor informed her of the risks and suggested she terminate the pregnancy but after so many years of trying-she was willing to take the risk and ultimate fate of losing her kidney to carry this baby. The baby continued to grow throughout the months, creating a baby bump out the side & back area of her body. At 35 weeks via C-Section, a perfectly healthy baby girl was born!!! The mother lost her kidney, but I'm sure that was the smallest of price to pay to bring her child into the world.

I found this story amazing. What are the odds that the egg & sperm could meet, thrive & survive outside the uterus. Also, can you imagine the story that little miracle of a baby girl gets to share her whole life!! I hope you all enjoyed this post-if you'd like to hear/learn more, let me know! :)

Life with a crawler

**Today should be an installment of "Show Us Your Life" but this week focused on childhood school pictures and I just couldn't find the time to get pictures of Lou & I scanned**

For months Lou & I waited and wished for Dominic to reach the momentous crawling milestone. Welp-we got our wish, and the phrase "be careful what you wish for" has never rang more true!! I guess I never realized how much my day would change with a crawling baby..here are some of my observations..

*I have to literally crawl around the house each day and check for little dangers that could be around. I've found those little plastic tags that attach price tags to clothes, plastic bag pieces that were clear and very hard to see, a button, string...not sure how the Dyson isn't picking this up, which leads me to my next observation..
*Vacuuming-Dominic has now made me a serial vacuumer! Which is a good thing!
*I miss the days were I could set Dom on the floor, put a pile of toys around him and let him go to town..if I try that now he just takes off in any direction.
*Everything is/has to be put out of reach this includes shoes, the dog bowls, cell phones, any & everything on the coffee or end tables. (Oh did I fail to mention Dominic also pulls himself up on everything and cruises along)
*90% of my day consists of watching Dominic crawl over to a no-no area, pulling him back or redirecting him somewhere else just to have him crawl vigorously back to that area...rather, rinse, repeat. I think crawling is more exhausting for me than him!
*Baby proofing our home is EXPENSIVE! We went out to Babies R Us this past weekend to gather up some essentials and my goodness are there are ton of items. Companies make a killing off us first time parents!!

When all is said and done, I may gripe just to get it out of my system but my heart swells with pride when I watch his little naked bottom crawling away from me when I change his diaper! LOL Never a dull moment that's for sure and our little baby is growing up!! Baby gates galore

There he goes-right into the kitchen..destination: the dog's water bowl

I looked over and he found himself a standing spot

This picture just made me laugh. He looks so tough! I think this will be his typical Football tough-guy picture in high school.

3 Words Thursday

A Dog's Life

Wednesdays with Lou

Dominic

Just like that Dominic has gone from a blazing fast butt scooter to a scooting, crawling, standing machine. He moves at lightning fast speeds now throughout the house and will pull himself up to standing on nearly everything. Before I know it he’ll be walking. He’s much more independent now and is extremely talkative. It’s amazing to me how quickly he has changed and developed these last several weeks. It’s like a light switch has turned on, it’s happened that quick.

Dominic has been on formula for a little over a week and the biggest difference I’ve noticed is in the seat of his pants, STINKY! There is NO question he’s pooped because you can smell it across the room. Aside from the money we saved breast feeding we also avoided 9 ½ months of the most fowl smelling odors possible.

Buckeye Season

OSU takes the field for their first game this Saturday against Navy. I am so amped for the start of the new season I feel like Saturday is Christmas. This is by far my favorite time of the year and Saturday can’t come soon enough. Brooke and I are planning on watching this first game at home with Dominic in our media room on our new 90 in projector HD TV. I bought the mini fridge for the room last week and fixed up the bathroom the other day so we’re all set for the season. If you’re a Buckeye fan or a fan of College football I plan to include a discussion about the previous/upcoming game each week along with an opinion or two about other teams. My prediction for this week is OSU 37 – Navy 17.

Cleveland Browns

Coach Mangini needs to step up, be a leader, and declare the starting quarterback for the season. Our starter needs at least 80% of the snaps in practice with the first team. Splitting our starter’s snaps hurts our team. Maybe Quinn is a terrible practice player but if you’re judging on the preseason games then Quinn should be the starter. Aside from Quinn’s performance he’s much more athletic than DA and makes better decisions than DA. In the extremely rare chance anyone with connections to the Browns organization reads this please declare your starting QB and move on so that Player can get the necessary practice needed to get better and help our team. For more Browns Blog coverage check out my brothers blog at http://www.blawgpound.com/

Big Brother

Looks like Jeff is going home Thursday and with that I’m about 95% done caring about this season of Big Brother. I’m not fan of Natalie and Kevin. I used to like Michelle but she has gotten on my nerves lately. As far as Jordan I think she is the dark horse here and could surprise people. Jeff and Jordan have done a lot of studying and the other HG are underestimating her big time. I’m hoping Jordan wins because she needs the money the most out of the remaining HG.

Running Update

I started running again on June 11th and like most exercise routines I started strong. As of August 14th I had run 143.5 miles in just about 2 months. I was able to run 5.25 miles in 41 minutes which is just under an 8 minute pace. The bad news is I haven’t run since August 14th but have maintained my diet and still managed to lose a couple lb’s. I am going to start back running Wednesday morning and try to go 3 days a week with 6 miles each time. My goal is to run a 5k in October in under 24 minutes and to run 1,000 miles by next June.