Fuhgeddaboudit!

My buddy Vince is going to be a big brother soon, so we had a mafia-themed baby shower for Uncle Chris, Auntie Gayle and Baby Theo! Everyone came in costume - old-fashioned mafia, New Jersey mafia, Sicilian mafia... It was hilarious!

We all took mug shots and played "Pin the Geep on Sicily". We had Italian food with a spaghetti & meatball cake and Theo Huxtable tiramisu for dessert!

We're so excited for Baby Theo to arrive! Hopefully he'll enjoy many parties to come with all these wiseguys!

Lá Fhéile Pádraig

St. Patrick's Day - Lá Fhéile Pádraig in Gaelic. Did you know that St. Patrick used the shamrock to describe the Holy Trinity? Just as a shamrock is both one leaf and three, God is one God, and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together are God. British-born St. Patrick is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, and legend has it he rid the island of snakes! Here is a link if you'd like to learn more about the patron saint of Ireland. http://www.entourages.com/barbs/stpatrick.htm

For our St. Patrick's Day in Italy, we stayed home and had Guinness Cake with the Tatros and the Jacobs. Mommy will share the recipe she used because it was very good, and she hopes you will try it! Auntie Gayle made shamrock shakes, too. Delicious!

GUINNESS CAKE

Recipe created by Seth Roth and Bryan Devlin

Cake:

2 sticks butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 cup Guinness stout

6 eggs

Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 stick butter, softened

1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a bowl, cream together the butter and both sugars. In another bowl, mix together the baking powder, spices, salt, flour and cocoa. At the very last moment, add the Guinness to the eggs. (Don't let it sit too long, or the alcohol will begin to cook the eggs!)

Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and blend, then add half of the wet ingredients. Repeat this process until all the ingredients are combined.

Preheat the oven to 350°, and line the bottom of at least two 9-inch diameter cake pans with wax paper. (Use as many layers as you like for your own cake.) Divide the batter between pans, and bake until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for about 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack and peel off the wax paper. Let the layers cool completely before frosting.

In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until mixed, then beat in the sugar. Finally, add the vanilla. Place one cake layer, bottom side up, on a platter. Spread with frosting, then top with another layer, bottom side down. Repeat with each layer, then spread the remaining frosting smoothly over the top and sides of the cake.

Four Months Old

Time is flying! I'm growing up so fast. Mommy was looking at all my clothes that don't fit anymore and it made her a little sad to think I'll never be a tiny baby again. That's alright. Each day I do something new and exciting. I'm starting to laugh, but sometimes I can't decide if I want to laugh or cry, and it comes out as both! I can roll from my tummy to my back; well, at least I could. I haven't done it in a while. I don't like being on my tummy at all, so Mommy and Daddy have their doubts as to whether or not I will ever learn to crawl. I love to grab things and stick them in my mouth. I especially love to suck on bibs and blankies. Don't you love the feeling of cotton in your mouth? Yum! At my 4-month check-up, I weighed 15 pounds, 3 ounces and was 24 3/4 inches tall. That's 50th percentile for both, so I'm right on track. I had to get more painful shots, but I cried even less than I did at 2 months. Mommy was so glad!

Cosa Nostra

The Mafia. It's a real thing. It still exists in Sicily. We've even been told not to talk too much about it to the locals... it's no joke. We even know a person or two who are rumored to be involved. YIKES! But, here we are in the land of The Godfather, and we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a little sightseeing!

To kick off our weekend, our usual group of friends came over to watch The Godfather. We had (well, they had) yummy Italian food & wine and took note of scenes in the movie that were shot in Sicily. The next day the Morrows, Tatros and Grovemans set out to visit the towns of Fiumefreddo, Forza D'Agro and Savoca.

In Fiumefreddo, we found Don Tommasino's villa. You'll remember from the movie, this is where they shot the scene of the car exploding. Unfortunately the Don wasn't home, and the gate was locked when we arrived, so it was onto Forza D'Agro. There we visited the church from The Godfather II. The actual town of Corleone was too developed to use for filming, so they chose these remote towns instead.

Savoca is famous for Bar Vitelli - the place where Michael Corleone arranges to meet his future bride (via her father), and it's also famous for the church where the couple marries in the film. It really is a quaint and pretty village - sometimes hard to find in Sicily! Bar Vitelli was closed, but we had fun taking pictures. It was especially amusing when Daddy, Chris and Jon sported their mafia attire - wifebeaters and newsboy caps! Even Italians were running over to snap pictures with their cell phones!

I'd say I did pretty well for a boy who was running a temperature of 102 that day! Although I won't remember this when I'm old enough to brag, it'll be fun watching the movies with my buddies and telling them, "I've been there!"

CIAO, AMICI!

I'm an Orthodox Christian

On Sunday, February 17, while we were in the States, I was churched and baptized at St. George Cathedral in Wichita, Kansas. This is the same church where my Papa is a priest and where Mommy and Daddy got married!

Before Divine Liturgy, Mommy and I were churched. This was my introduction to the Orthodox church. The priest (my Papa, in this case) comes to the back of the church and says a blessing over the mother and baby. This is usually done when baby is 40 days old. That's an old tradition that allowed the mother and baby time to recover from the birth. For me, we waited until I was brought to the States to do my churching. Papa then carried me up to and behind the altar and said more prayers before handing me back to Mommy.

Uncle Marco and Auntie Tini are my Godparents. During an Orthodox baptism, the Godparents speak on behalf of the child, rejecting Satan and accepting Christ into his life. I was dunked into the water 3 times - in the name of the Father (dunk!) and of the Son (dunk!) and of the Holy Spirit (dunk!). I was Chrismated and received my first Holy Communion at my baptism.

After the baptism, we had a nice lunch at Papa & Oma's house. It was a really nice day, even though I cried a lot after I was dunked! Thanks to all my family for sharing that day with me.