Monday, December 17, 2012

Ambition: A Tale in Three Acts

Yesterday morning began like any typical morning except for the fact that we knew we were planning for an exceptionally ambitious day. Jen's tendency to lean toward the overly ambitious was being put to its greatest test to date. We had a day planned of three different visits in New York: on in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn. Jen seemed to think that this would be easy and I thought it sounded impossible. The truth ended up being somewhere in the middle though probably closer to impossible than easy.

Act I: Twins²

Our friends Danielle and Eliyanna had twin boys shortly after we did and we finally got a chance to visit them yesterday.

Twins²

There was a brief, miraculous moment where we even got all four of them to sleep at the same time. That left four adults not knowing exactly what to do with ourselves. As a new father I have to say that finding a moment where I don't know what to do with myself is just about the greatest thing I can experience.

Twins²

Before we left we attempted to clumsily pose all the boys together. Martin and Elliott are almost able to sit up on their own so they provided a good leaning post for Hugo and Leo who need a little additional propping.

Leo and Martin (Baby As)

Martin and Leo hit it off particularly well commiserating over the struggles of being older brothers.

Act II: Die Koelner Bierhalle

After this visit we headed out to Die Koelner Bierhalle to visit our friend Jennie on her birthday. It took us about and hour-and-a-half to get there from Manhattan, about twice as long as it should thanks to some pretty awful traffic and a circuitous journey around Park Slope and Prospect Heights.

Martin at Die Koelner Bierhalle

The boys dealt very well with the extremely loud volume in the beer hall. In fact, the place was packed with toddlers and small children.

Jen with Elliott at Die Koelner Bierhalle

There were people in Santa hats passing out cookies and stolen and we had a nice Bratwurst as well as Spaetzel with cheese to accompany our beers.

German Beers

Jen had the Maisel's Weissbier and I had the Zwick'l Kellerbier. Bother were served in obscenely large serving vessels that were actually much smaller than they appeared. It really was only a standard pint of each beer but when you drink a pint from a comically tall mug it makes you seem like you're drinking more than you actually are.

This was a really nice biergarten. They had a specific mug/glass for each type of beer and matched them up perfectly with the corresponding beer. This is something that pleases me greatly. It always disappoints me when I order a beer in a restaurant and they serve it in a glass marked for a different beer, say an Amstel Light. This annoys me for the simple fact that I'm incredibly anal but also because seeing the words "Amstel Light" on a glass that I'm drinking from detracts from my enjoyment of that beverage by about 25%. Just imagine how disappointing this would be for me if I were actually drinking an Amstel Light out of an Amstel Light glass. I think I may prefer a shooter of hamster bile.

At the Beer Hall

Martin had a great time at the beer hall chatting up the ladies.

Katie with Elliott

Elliott also had a good time when I wasn't clumsily changing him on the floor in the men's room. That was not his favorite part of the evening. I must say it wasn't mine either.

Act III: The Christmas Party

After some very unsuccessful feeding attempts we left the bier hall and headed to our final Brooklyn destination: the home of Auntie Caolan (Aunt Tequila) and Uncle Paul.

The Wombats at the Christmas Party

The guys were a pretty big hit with partygoers. Jen was worried that the Wombats were going to steal the spotlight at any party or gathering. I reminded her that since none of our friends are five or under that no one would be terribly upset about the babies getting a lot of attention. Babies are attention-getting. Twin babies means that pretty much everywhere we go we are stopped by strangers and the guys get a lot of attention. That is unless there are triplets present. This has yet to happen.

Uncle Paul with Elliott by the "Fireplace"

Elliott's favorite part of the party was hanging out with his Uncle Paul and watching the "fireplace" in action.

Caolan with Elliott

Or was it snuggling with Auntie Caolan?

Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale

Or was it when his father retired to the kitchen to help himself to a Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale? Or was it when they slept the entire way home and tricked us into thinking they were going to have an extremely restful night's sleep only to be up all night? It's hard to tell. One thing is for sure though, ambition leads to very little sleep.

Remember that the next time you try to accomplish something!

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