The Father's day Miracle

On Thursday, Elliott developed an incredible diaper rash. He didn't seem to care at all but it was pretty ghastly. I was able to avoid a complicated doctor's visit by just having them call in a prescription cream for the sores he had. Unfortunately day care will barely give a baby food without a signed document from a pediatrician so we resorted to only applying at home.


Since this suddenly came on we've enjoyed some nude time after baths recently. Friday night Elliott got to crawl all over our apartment to let his rash air out. By some miracle he did not pee all over the floor. In that regard I feel like Jen and I are particularly lucky. Personally I've only been peed on once or twice by the babies. They have shown amazing restraint in that area.

I'm just hoping this doesn't mean they're going to be pee on us all the time when they're teenagers.


Jen was in the mood for pizza so after getting them to bed on Friday I made this pizza with ricotta, mozzarella, roast chicken, roasted tomatoes, roasted peppers, and balsamic glaze.


To enjoy with the pizza I opened this bottle of Brux, a collaboration between Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Russian River Brewing Company. It was recommended to age this beer but I've had it for about six months and just wanted to have it right away. I'd highly recommend it if you can find a bottle.


After dinner I had a small glass of this Solera Aged Bourbon from Hillrock Estate Distillery in upstate New York. This was an anniversary gift from Jen as it is aged in wood for our wood anniversary.

This was easily the best bourbon I've ever had. Truly incredible. I had to look up what "Solera Aged" meant and after reading all about it I now realize that I still don't understand what it means.

It's damn good though.


Saturday morning was their last swim class of the season. I'm glad they are unable to understand this because if they knew that this was the last class for a while I have a feeling they'd be pissed. They love swimming so we're going to see about how we can get them back soon.


After class we got a visit from Nana STIM, Grandpa Butch, Auntie Debbie, and Uncle Dave. We took them to the park by the beach and had a nice lunch and some playtime. They were a little cranky from having to wear sunscreen and hats but they still had a pretty good time.


When we got back they got to open presents. Grandpa Butch got them some shirts from his trip to Arizona and a book about Rabbits that Martin is in love with.


Uncle Dave got them some Bruins Jerseys which they wore propelling the Bruins to tie up the Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks. That was a sound investment.


Nana STIM brought some incredible moussaka.


To me it looked like it had been made by someone who had confused our group of six normal adults with a group of 12 NFL linebackers, however, there was barely any left when we were done with it.


After a long day of routine-breaking it was time to attempt getting the guys to sleep.


Grandpa Butch got it all on tape. However, what he didn't get on tape after leaving was one of the worst bedtime wind downs of all time. After a long day of getting riled up and being off routine they were not interested in sleeping at all. Eventually, after much wrangling, they drifted off to sleep and we were left stunned, bruised, and ready for sleep ourselves.


I worked on Father's Day but got home early enough to hang out with the guys before their bedtime. When I got home I discovered that Jen had done all of the laundry. I'd pretty much planned on spending all day Monday doing laundry and was now at a loss with how to spend my day knowing there were now zero loads that needed to be done. That may have been the best Father's Day present (or any kind of present) ever given to me.




I also had time to feed them their first nectarine, amongst large quantities of other foods.

In a start contrast to last night we just bathed the babies, fed them their bottles, and they both instantly fell asleep with absolutely no protest. It was possibly the best Father's Day gift I will ever receive.



For some reason I was desperately craving burgers so we ordered some take out from Ruby's Oyster Bar & Bistro and had one of each of their burger options.

It was incredible. If you haven't done it in a while I highly recommend getting two burgers and just eating every last bite and all of the fries. But you have to eat all the fries. Just do it. You'll be glad you did.


To go along with the burger I had this Peche Mortel from Brasserie Dieu du Ciel!, another from our Quebec trip back in February. It's a coffee stout that is barrel aged for a year and it's fantastic.


To top off the evening I enjoyed a small glass of this High West Whiskey from High West Distillery in Utah. This was the other half of my anniversary gift. While not quite to the level of the Hillrock it was still very, very good.

I now have more whiskey and bourbon that anyone has any right owning. If you want to come to my place for a whiskey and bourbon tasting please give me a call.

And do not drive.



When we went to check up on the Bubses after dinner we found the secret to their fuss-free bedtime. Apparently it involved working themselves ito the most uncomfortable positions imaginable. The key to a good night's sleep is apparently in jamming your feet and legs through the slats of your crib.

Hey, whatever works.

Pagpapasalamat

After yesterday's Thanksgiving dinner at home we were fortunate enough to be invited to our good friends' house for a second round. I always feel some level of guilt at eating out or at someone else's house when our fridge is jam-packed with leftover. However, having had Mel's cooking in the past and enjoying their company I was able to let that guilt roll off my back.

This was the Wombats' first trip to Brooklyn meaning they have tackled three out of the five boroughs in less than five months. I'm not sure when we'll be able to get them to Queens (or why) and if we can save some money away we may be able to afford the toll to get them over the Verazzano bridge to Staten Island.


Mel and Jule are great hosts and made a very nice spread featuring some classic Thanksgiving dishes as well as some family favorites.

I'm always intrigued by the items found on some people's Thanksgiving tables. Usually this is just some form of family recipe from their cultural background. To me this always seems exciting to me. Then I realize that, having French-Canadian and Italian ancestry most people's Thanksgiving dinners did not consist of lasagna or meat stuffing. Jen says she had never really had chicken parmesan or linguine with clam sauce until she was in her teenage years and got it at a restaurant. For me these were meals we had on a weekly basis.



Mel and Jule's Thanksgiving dinner included lumpia and pancit. This was a big draw for me in that I've had Mel's pancit and lumpia in the past and I'm a big fan. Having it alongside stuffing and sweet potatoes was an exciting diversion from my normal Thanksgiving experience. While it seems wild and exciting I had to remind myself that it's actually not much different from pairing Lasagna with stuffing. One family's tradition is another family's exciting twist on a classic theme.


After dinner there was a bit of a Poopsplosion™ incident. Elliott is still taking his amoxicillin which seems to do nothing in the way of making his ear infection and conjunctivitis just clear up on their own but has some unfortunate gastrointestinal side effects. This means a lot of diaper changes and a lot of spare clothes were packed.


Unfortunately we forgot the clothes in the car and, by some miracle, Mel and Jule had a spare set of pajamas in Elliott's size from when their son wore it four years ago. This was extremely lucky for us and I am committing to leaving a few random sets of clothes around our apartment for the visiting parents of the future so that they may be beset with such good fortune as we were.


Martin was not bothered by Elliott's incident and slept in an incredibly uncomfortable position on the couch through the entire episode.


After returning home we got the Wombats to bed which required a bit more of letting them cry it out than normal. Still they were both asleep a bit after 9:00 and I poured myself this Nut Brown Ale from Samuel Smith's Brewery to cap off the evening. That is no better way to top off a holiday than with some old-timey British beer. Samuel Smith's is a beer steeped in the tradition of the 1700s and 1800s. I can only assume that nostalgic attitude is why their website is steeped in the tradition of the 1990s.

Overall I think the Wombats have enjoyed the three Thanksgivings they've had this year. It seems unfair that through all of this delicious holiday food they can only eat milk. Soon, however, they will be onto solid food. This solid food won't have anything to do with the holiday, but by next year they'll be able to have some of it. Then they can systematically begin rejecting and hating all the food that we eat.

Then the holidays will truly be complete.

Good Eats, Great Aunts

The Wombats have had some visits from some aunts. Don't get me wrong, they've been some pretty good aunts. Even really good aunts but today they were visited, for the first time, by great aunts!


One reason they are great is that they brought us both lunch and dinner. Another reason they are great is a technicality in that they are my mother's sisters.

After a long day of watching indoor Olympic volleyball it was nice to get a visit and take some time off from watching the most overly-televised sport of the 2012 Summer Games.




Great Aunt Pat made her famous spinach pie (much to my father's dismay) along with Italian snack mix and I put together a salad with whatever was left lying around in the fridge.


We also celebrated the great arrival with a bottle of 2010 Marigny-Neuf Sauvignon Blanc. Well, they did. I had water because I was the designated parent.


After that it was a long day of hanging out with the Wombats . . .


. . . opening lots of gifts . . .


. . . and ruining Grandpa Butch's shirt.


For dinner my mother made a big pan of lasagna and vegetarian meatballs, Great Aunt Pat made a delicious bean salad.


I also opened this bottle of 2007 Chateau Lalande-Boire Saint-Julien to celebrate the occasion. This was a nice reminder of our trip to Bordeaux last summer, the last time we will be to France (or outside the New York City Metro Area) for quite some time.


Great Aunt Debbie made my favorite blondies as well, the perfect end to a great day.

I'm hopeful that we can have guests every day for the next year that will come over, bring dinner, and do dishes. If we receive this level of support then things are going to be much, much easier.

Email me if you want to volunteer for some shifts!

Good Friends Bring Food

This morning I woke up nice and early so that I could watch the Olympic cycling men's road race. I was cheering for Alexandre Vinokourov and was excited to see him win the gold. My waking up early was entirely due to my love of Olympic road cycling and had nothing to do with the fact that the babies had another awful night.

I give the guys a D- for last night. Poor work, gentlemen.



After watching the conclusion of the race and having Jen awake from the brief sleep she was allowed I made up some lunch. I took last night's leftover salmon and made it into a salad with red onion, scallion from the farm, a little mayonnaise, whole grain mustard, and hot sauce. I put it on toasted bread with sliced avocado and sliced tomato I got at the Greenmarket.



This afternoon the babies got a visit from friends who were kind enough to hold and snuggle the babies until it was time for me to go change their poopy diapers. I was envious of them because I remember being them. I remember going to visit friends with babies, holding them for fifteen minute and thinking, "Huh, this isn't so bad. I could do this."

I was a fool.

Then the baby would cry, I'd hand it back to the mother or father and mosey on home.



I love to cook. You may have gathered that from the last seven or eight hundred blog entries. However, there is nothing better with two newborn babies than having friends come to visit and bringing food. Time is precious and this gives me more time to focus on changing poopy diapers, burping, sleeping for fifteen minute increments, or staring blankly at a wall in a fit of exhaustion.

Matt made this vegetarian casserole with vegetable crumble, beans, and some sort of cornmeal crust. It was very tasty. He said his father calls it "Indian Goulash" but that he has adapted it as "Native American Goulash." Goulash seems like an odd term for such a dish but this was nice and tasty and the leftovers will be thoroughly enjoyed for lunch tomorrow.



Our friends were also kind enough to bring wine, this 2010 cabernet from Agustinos in Chile. I had a glass but, of course, dinner would not be complete without another trip to the beer cellar.



For beer I poured this Blanche from Weyerbacher. I was a little surprised at how subtle the flavor was in this beer. There was no alcohol percentage listed on the bottle but I'd imagine it was 5% or lower. It was nice and very refreshing but I'd have expected a little more flavor from the style. Perhaps at 6-7% that could be accomplished. At any rate it would be a great beer if you were planning on drinking more than one on a hot summer day.

I'm a light weight so I can't imagine drinking more than one. Who drinks two beers? Rock stars and wreckless fools, that's who.



Our friend Jennie was also kind enough to research and bake us a Canadian treat: Nanaimo Bars. These are some of my all time favorite dessert bars from the home country and Jennie's take on them was faithful and delicious.

Ah, friends. It's great getting delicious food and not having to do anything about it. While we were glad to see them and grateful for the food it is a little scary that someday these babies' novelty might fade and we will be greeted with far less help from families and fewer dinners prepared for us.

We will be on our own and it is terrifying.

Giant Babies

When I leave the house I see babies everywhere. Giant babies! Regular sized babies are freaking me out right now. They're so damned big! Every corner I turn there is some chunky, hulking, bruiser in a stroller. The baby must be ten or eleven pounds! How do you deal with babies that big?



For an example, here's the giant mammoth they put on the Baby Bjorn Babysitter Balance box. This item was recommended to us as an amazing unit to use to sooth fussy babies.



Here's Elliott on his inaugural ride in the Babysitter Balance. The waist harness rubbing against his forehead just seemed to make him all the more cranky.



I returned to work yesterday. That was really difficult. I was so exhausted after staying up all night with the babies, and Jen picking up the farm share, that I couldn't even bring myself to unpack the bags and take a proper picture. I just came home, took a picture, then sat around all cranky before going to bed.

This week we got two pounds more of summer squash, an eggplant, some Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage, a bunch of Chiogga beets with greens, scallions, sage, lemon basil, Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, nectarines, peaches, and blueberries.



Tonight we got a visit from Aunt Caolan and Uncle Paul. Not only did they come to visit the babies but they brought dinner. We were thinking of instituting a rule whereby people needed to pay admission to see the babies and this would be in the form of dinner so that we could have a second's rest. Caolan and Paul had such foresight that they did this without even having to be notified of the changes to our policies and procedures!



To celebrate our dinner guests I opened this bottle of 2007 Cremant de Bordeaux that we'd miraculously been able to sneak home from France last year much to the chagrin of our liquid-averse TSA.



I put out a salad with some tomatoes I got at the market, feta, olive oil, salt, pepper, and sage that my mother brought from her garden last weekend.



The main course was macaroni and cheese made by Caolan which was fantastic. The babies even kept quiet for five or ten minutes so that we could enjoy dinner with our friends. Well, I don't actually think they had any intention of giving us any peace and quiet. It just worked out that way. It's nice to imagine that they are that thoughtful.



For a drink I had this Sorachi Ace from Brooklyn Brewery. I've been eyeballing this beer for years now and I finally just picked up a bottle yesterday to have with dinner. After trying their Oishi at the brewery a few months back I was even more excited to try it and it did not disappoint. It had a wonderful citrus taste from the hops and beautiful carbonation streaming up from the bottom of the glass.



The boys were a little difficult this afternoon. Jen and her mum still managed to find time to make this crisp with sugar plums and peaches from the farm. Reportedly it took 90 minutes for them to put it together but still a great accomplishment that they were able to do anything at all with the babies in Full Fuss Mode.



After dinner the boys were showered with gifts by Paul and Caolan. They were able to restrain their excitement in this photo but I could tell they were psyched.

My only regret about today is that I just couldn't have more than one glass of that tasty beer for fear of passing out.



Though one glass was plenty. Martin managed to stay awake though.

That's good because he was my designated snuggler.