Summer is Up On Us

The late spring brought with it its normal difficult-to-predict pattern of beautiful days in the low 70s immediately followed by sweltering days in the mid 90s. The constant bebopping between the two has left us alternately feeling fine, suddenly feeling like we're coming down with the flu, then feeling fine again the next day. This is a phenomenon I don't recall from childhood, or even early adulthood. Along with mysterious aches and pains, sore feet, thumb pain, and throbbing shoulders this is just another marvel as we enter the beginning of middle age.


The hot days have resulted in some fun water days. Elliott has taken advantage of completely loading his water blaster and unloading it on Josephine point blank. Surprisingly this has been met with far more glee by Josephine than I would have predicted.


As the boys become more into eating at the counter they have also been enjoying spending the morning coloring or drawing before school as they continue to make insane breakfast demands. Elliott asks for cereal every day. Martin is more ambiguous saying he wants to "have something I've never had before." Also, sometimes, he just asks for a plate of raw carrots. I called what I thought was his bluff and served him up a plate just to watch him eat the entire thing.


As Josie gets closer and closer to actually walking the boys are still extremely nice to her, although sometimes a bit rough.


One day while I was at work Jen took 30 minutes to set up art supplies for al three of them.


This, of course, meant that they painted for about five minutes before they got bored.



We took them all to the Cavalcade of Planes again this year. Last year's was cancelled so they were very excited to go. They've been regurlarly referring to the "jerks" for the past year. We were excited to not have to console our crying children after a last minute cancellation.


I took Josie with me to the music store and she looked at the Rickenbacker guitars nearly as longingly as I have for the past twenty years.

Some day.


Josie has taken to her play pen much better now that it's outside and she can stand up. She was not a fan of being in the play pen when it was inside this winter. Generally she's not a fan of anything that breaks her direct sightline to mummy.


The boys have been excited to watch the wild prairie grasses grow while dodging bees on our walk to school in the morning. Their mother has been excited to chastise me for my deep hatred of the prairie each morning as well.

What can I say? It's one of my least favorite types of terrain!


June greeted us with our first delicious heirloom tomatoes of the season and even Elliott, recent tomato hater, has even admitted that tomatoes are delicious again. I suspect that he is suffering through what I suffered through as a young child. I think he just likes delicious seasonal tomatoes and doesn't think tomatoes out of season are worth it. You have to respect him for that.




We took a fun drive out to Starved Rock and took a family hike. After being there for 45 minutes we hadn't gotten more than one hundred feet from our cars. It's a little demoralizing when you drive an hour to go for a beautiful nature hike and after another hour are still within sight of your vehicle.

At one point it became clear that Uncle Doug was likely going to throw one or all of the children (and potentially himself) into a canyon. Then, miraculously all the children rallied and everyone did great. It was a beautiful 70 degree day sandwiched between two phenomenally hot and humid days and it couldn't have gone better. Aside from the occasional proclamation of "I can't walk" or "I think my legs are broken" the kids had an amazing day.




I suddenly became very ill for about 24 hours but, unfortunately, I had promised the children I'd take them to the Splash Pad for the first time this season. They had a blast but I mostly just squinted in the shade before going home to take a three-and-a-half hour recovery nap.



On Father's Day I took the boys to The Sports Authority to take advantage of their Going Out of Business Sale. I didn't really find the deep discounts I was expecting. It seemed more like a We're Actually Trying to Stay in Business Sale and Are Having a Really Small Sale Sale. Regardless, the boys had the time of their life trying on football helmets and boxing gloves. I then took them to Target where we got a baseball glove for $80 cheaper than the sale price as well as two bats to use for their tee since they have broken all their bats by pretending to fight a dragon (read: tree) in the back yard.


After an amazing Father's Day we went downtown to see Flight of the Conchords in what was one of the best shows we've ever seen. It was sad to not spend the last hour or two with the kids but great to see this once in a lifetime event. The only other time we ever attempted to go to a concert since moving here was to see Stevie Wonder and had to cancel when Jen got really sick. It looked like illness was going to intervene again this time as our childcare option fell ill but we were miraculously saved by a last minute baby sitter.

It's going to be great to go see another concert in three years.

Crawling to March

February brought on the most sickness we've had to deal with in at least a year. Croup swept through the family with Martin and Josephine getting it twice. Elliot, Mummy, and Daddy were fortunate enough to only each come down with croup once.


Before the croup was to infect our home we were able to celebrate Chinese New Year with Josie enjoying her first ever pork dumplings.


The following night we had Mardi Gras breakfast for dinner followed by paczki which surprisingly the boys did not seem to enjoy as much as I would have expected considering they are the most delicious pastry I've ever consumed in my life.


Before falling sick herself Josie was on the move, inching closer every day to crawling. She has also had a great time playing the piano with me on my days off.


The boys have continued to expand their love of Hamilton with impromptu performances of new songs. Here they are singing a slowed down, soul version of "The Schuyler Sisters."


Martin eventually developed a fever of 103 and was so miserable that I had to take him out for a walk in the freezing cold air to help his lungs. It worked well but you could tell he was sick because he was silent for our entire 45 minute walk where normally he would have spent the entire time telling me about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He managed to put on a great fake smile for me when I came around to see how he was doing. His hat was completely covering his face but he was too sick and tired to even bother asking me to remove it.



On Valentine's Day Jen set up some great breakfast tables for the kids while I was at work. That night we had dinner with the family.


Soon after that Josephine got sick and while she spends most of her days laughing and smiling she was a wreck. There was little or no sleeping or napping while she fought a fever that got up to 104 one night despite our intense regimen of alternating ibuprofen and acetaminophen.


After a few days everyone shook off the last round of croup and were able to play inside to build a bear cave on the freezing cold days.


Josie's mobility increased every day. We wouldn't see her do anything but when we would check back she'd be across the room.


The kids had a "Noodles and Doodles" night at school where we ate immense amounts of spaghetti and I got to make a macaroni necklace for the first time in over thirty years.


With Josie moving about I brought up the boys' old play center from the basement. Unfortunately she was evicted from it immediately and they set it up as a jail where Batman could put bad guys, something they had previously only been able to enjoy in the basement.


Josie has had tons of new foods including pancakes, waffles, strawberries, grapes, and oranges. All of that has paled in comparison to her first go at some chocolate brownies at Auntie Lauren's house.


We were able to get a small portion of the basement carpeted again after our December sump pump flood. This has been just enough for me to set up the music studio again for the boys to play. One day I may even get to use it again. It is a huge relief to have this back up and running.


Elliot has spent a lot of time playing the trombone and violin.


Martin has mostly focused on his guitar and keyboard chops.


And, finally, a couple of nights ago Josie made her first real crawl across the floor, beating her brother Elliott's record by almost a month. As I write this she has made tremendous progress and now can crawl extremely quickly. With her brothers this was a pivotal moment in our lives getting harder. I fear that the ease of having three children has just been washed away.

We had it easy anyway.

Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum

November began with an end to Nana and Grandpa's visit, an event that was not popular with Martin or Elliott. With Nana and Grandpa gone who would watch them descend the staircase each morning? Certainly not stinky old Mummy or Daddy.


We had a nice visit then it was time to continue life as it was prior to the visit.


This meant me taking a couple of hours to sand down all the wood I'd cut for the diffusers I'm using in the basement then carving out 45 minute spans of uninterrupted time where I could actually put them together. In the past month I've assembled three. That means, essentially, that I've had three 45 minute stretches of uninterrupted time in a month.

Sounds about right.


Martin's obsession with the drums has continued and possibly even intensified.


Sadly this coincided with Jen getting yet another stomach bug, our fourth of 2014.


While Jen rested I got a few odds and ends done in the studio to get it ready for use. That was, until, I had my own bout of the stomach virus a few days later. Martin threw up once and was cranky for about an hour. Elliott was unscathed. Jen and I were both out of commission for a full two days.


We had our first snowfall just before Thanksgiving. They boys were much more interested in it this year. They also seem to actually think it's cold outside whereas last year they just said, "Cold! Cold!" But I don't think they actually believed it.


We had some nights in the teens and were able to get our first fire of the season going. This intrigued both of them despite the fact that Elliott refused to pose for a picture.


On Thanksgiving we made a nice breakfast of pancakes and fruit salad and, most importantly, got to lounge around in our robes and pyjamas all morning until breakfast.


On Friday we went to IKEA to buy a few things for the house, most notably their first full size beds.


The drum set that Martin has been smashing endlessly for most of the year finally became so destroyed that it had to be thrown away.


Luckily Uncle Chris had gotten us two drum sets! He was pretty upset when he found out we did not give them to them both at the same time which was his intent in buying us two drum sets. I guess he'll have to move within a thousand miles of us to better police how the toys he buys them are being used.

Suck it, Uncle Chris!



We even set up some of the lights and decorations in the yard which was of great interest to both of the boys.


I was able to assemble both beds in the next couple of days and Elliott took it upon himself to test them while yelling, "No more Elliotts jumping on the bed!"



Jen told them about keyboards when listening to music and they both came home excited to play keyboards of their own.

I'm a little worried that the piano that Grandma is getting them for Christmas will now confuse them.