One month!

At one month old, Scott weighs 10 lbs, 12 oz! That's nearly 4 pounds in just under 4 weeks.


We took our first out-of-town trip and visited family this weekend. Happy birthday to Flash and thank you to all the Fort Worth Wagners for giving Luke & me such great sleep! Looking forward to seeing Mom & Dad Koop this week for the Willie Nelson concert.

Scott came with us to the polls for early voting today. I tried to get a photo of the "I Voted" sticker, but this is what turned out. The room was kind of dark and the flash must have taken the guys by surprise. What pleasant faces, huh?

Wagner men are very handsome.

While Luke & Scott hung out today, I went to a Women's Studies class. The topic? Childbirth in modern U.S. society. It was nice to have an adult activity and interesting to be part of an academic discussion on an event that I have more than an academic interest in. (For anyone interested in the use of technology in childbirth, I've got a great article written by a female OB.)

Non-baby website of the day: fivethirtyeight.com, an electoral projection and poll summary site with really great graphs & charts.

hi from the little peanut!

Who knows Scott best?

Congratulations to Grandpa Koop (aka Cap) for winning the baby birth guessing game! His guesses were off by 4.5 days, one ounce, and 0.75 inches. None of the rest of us were anywhere close to such overall accuracy, but honorable mention to (newly engaged!) cousin Katie for guessing the right birthday.

Ooo baby baby

I meant to write about something non-baby related in this post, but my mind is handicapped by little sleep ...

One thing I love about being Mommy: I get to sing out loud a lot and my audience doesn't care if I know the real words. Turns out, though, that at 1 am (and 3 am, and 5 am, and 7 am ...), I can't think of many lyrics. I'm driving myself crazy singing "Lullaby and goodnight" and "Leaving on a Jet Plane". I'd sing Tom Petty, but the only songs I know are about girls ("American Girl" and "Free Falling").

What songs does Scott need to hear? Post me a comment & I'll sing them to him! & check out Karen's excellent nerd rock recommendation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMiRZ48d4Nc&NR=1

Events

<--- roses from Luke
I have three big events to write about today. Globally to locally:

1. This week, the US Senate overwhelmingly approved (86 to 13) the US-India nuclear deal. News of the approval has been overshadowed by the economic crisis and Pres/VP debates, but it's a pretty cool deal. It means that India can now buy and sell items that can be used for nuclear power generation -- including, as several US nuclear vendors are hoping, entire power plants.

There's been some talk in the news about whether this is a good thing, since India never signed the NPT (non-proliferation treaty), but little explanation as to why they haven't signed. The NPT states that the 5 countries with nukes at that time the treaty opened for signatures in '68 (US, China, Russia, UK, France) were the only five ever allowed to have nukes. India was developing a nuclear weapon (tested in '74) and therefore didn't sign the treaty. At least they were being honest.

2. EARLY VOTING FOR THE PRESIDENTAL CAMPAIGN has opened in some states. In others, the VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE to be eligible for Nov. 4 voting is quickly approaching. Check out voteforchange.com for more info on your area. TEXANS: postmark your voter registration application by Oct. 6 to be sure you're able to vote in this extremely important election!

3. Scott visited the pediatrician for his 2 week check up. :) He's now 8 lb., 2 oz. and 21 inches! Wow. He also had his first vaccination (very hard to watch) and has a cool band-aid to prove it.


Love to you all!

Really good lasagna

This spinach lasagna freezes well & tastes great. It uses less cheese than most lasagnas. I leave out the garlic and throw in a little extra spinach.

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
Garlic to taste (recommend fresh cloves chopped)
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1 28-oz. can whole tomatoes crushed by hand, with juice (important -- & fun! -- to crush by hand!)
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 c. chicken stock or water
1 egg
1 10-oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, as much moisture squeezed out as possible
1 c. ricotta cheese
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 lb. lasagna noodles, cooked until firm, drained
1/2 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated

Heat 1 Tbs. of the oil in a sauté pan over medium heat, and sauté the onion and garlic until they begin to soften. Add the mushrooms and continue to sauté gently until they lose most of their moisture -- about 5 minutes more. Stir in the tomato sauce, canned tomatoes and liquid, tomato paste, salt, oregano, basil, and stock or water. Simmer 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat the egg and combine with the spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, and remaining Tbs. of oil.

If you plan to freeze the lasagna, line the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with heavy-duty aluminum foil, with enough foil hanging over each edge to cover the top.

Assemble: noodle layer in bottom of pan, 1/2 tomato mixture, noodles, spinach mixture, noodles, rest of tomato, mozzarella.

Wrap the foil around the entire top of lasagna and cool in the refrigerator. Freeze overnight and remove from the serving dish, then cover with an additional layer of plastic wrap. (This way you can use your pan for other things.) To reheat, thaw SLIGHTLY in fridge, remove all foil and wrap, and place in the original baking dish to thaw completely.

Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

One week

One week ago, Luke and I were getting settled in the hospital. Now I'm sitting here with this angel baby on my lap, unable to believe how much has happened in 7 days! Scott has learned so much: how to breathe, cry, eat, and make us fall apart with happiness and laughter. What an excellent addition to Team Wagner!

Thank you to sister/aunt Karen for posting early pictures and news on baby Scott for us and thank you for all the family and friends that have visited and helped us. We're looking forward to seeing the rest of you soon! For the first few days, we were pretty much holed up in our little nest, doing a lot of resting:



Last night we watched the presidential debate at Kelly's house, and lately we've been taking walks with Scott in the sling (which both he and I love). Today we took our Freebird's gift card (thank you Alex!) and went out for lunch and a stroll.

Our first non-family visitors -- Jeff, Shanna (with a little baby bump) and family -- stopped by on their way to the football game this morning. Scott was dressed for game day.



More soon!