Snow, Spa, and Sis Boom Bah

At the end of last month Jen left again for a work trip. This meant, of course, that I would have late night events to attend downtown which wouldn't bring me home until late at night. It's a strange phenomenon that has developed where I only ever have to go downtown on days when it is impossible for Jen to pick the boys up from day care even though with her new job she is available to do it nearly 100 percent of the time.


This also meant I got a full daddy day with the boys and that Martin would exercise some newfound independence by taking off all his clothes and his diaper and eating dinner in the buff.


An exciting development is Jen's mum letting me borrow her electric griddle so I could mass produce some pancakes for the boys who now eat them at an alarming rate. I don't know how this piece of kitchen gagetry has evaded me for so long. This has made a task I hate into a task that is actually quite enjoyable. The griddle offers a lot more control and even cooking than our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad electric stove.


After making a sextuple batch of batter I was able to easily make and freeze several bags for quick defrosting in the morning.


As a special treat for the boys I made placemats for them thinking that this would make after dinner cleanup a little easier. I was wrong, but elliott enjoyed his Jake and the Never Land Pirates placemat.


Martin enjoyed his Mark Knopfler from the Dire Straits 1983 Alchemy tour placemat even more. The only downside was that since they had some of their favorite things in front of them they didn't want you placing any sort of food or drink on top of them.

Additionally this didn't seem to make the perpetual disgusting state of our table and dining area any better.


We got some good snow at the end of January which meant lots of time for the guys to explore the frozen wonderland with a lot more flexibility. Last year they could basically only take a few steps and fall over.


There was so much snow leading up to the Super Bowl that we were snowed in and couldn't have guests over for our annual Super Bowl party. I'd prepared my usual dishes to celebrate the opposing teams' cities but instead we simply watched the Puppy Bowl with the boys. I had never watched this before which means that maybe I had some faint glimmer of hope for America.

After watching the Puppy Bowl I now know that all is lost.


Instead of celebrating Seattle and New England we celebrated Chili's with a big plate of nachos.


Soon after we rushed away for a pre-baby spa "weekend." The last time we did this was three years ago when Jen was also pregnant and unable to enjoy alcohol. Someday we'll have to do it when Jen's not pregnant.


From the window of our beautiful hotel room we had a view of the moonlight annd the river littered with geese.


Each night they brought us warm cookies and chilled milk from a local dairy. The idea was so romantic to me that I even tried sipping on some of the milk but was reminded that I still think milk is disgusting.


The bathroom in our room was fantastic. It was actually about the same size as our master bathroom at home except laid out in a manner that would lead me to believe it was designed by a human being that has used a bathroom before instead of a blind toddler just randomly dropping blocks using Minecraft.


Before returning home we had one last breakfast by the fire, in peace. We were missing the boys quite a bit by then but I must admit the luxury of having breakfast by a fire paled in comparison to just being able to have breakfast sitting down.


When we returned home Uncle Doug gave me a hand in finally installing the QRD diffusers I'd begun making in November. Step by step the basement studio is coming together.


I'm sure when Uncle Dee Dee is born I'll have plenty of time to spend in my home studio.


Upon returning home we were able to go out into the backyard and play around with the boys in the paths I'd shoveled before leaving. They had fun building a snowman and Martin got to do his second favorite activity in the world: throwing snowballs at me and his mother.

His favorite activity: pretending to throw snowballs at us.

New York Wedding, Illinois Birthday

The best part of kids is that they start doing weird things all the time. Constantly they start doing and saying things and you have no idea where it has come from or what inspired them to do it.


Recently Elliott has taken to saying, "Oh no, Dude!" He says this usually when laughing and mostly when he's cracking up. I'm pretty sure Jen and I haven't said this. So where did it come from? Are people saying this at day care? If so, then why does Martin not say it at all? No one may ever solve this mystery but it's hilarious so who cares?




Since the boys have lately (mostly) been getting to sleep with little incident we've been able to enjoy some slightly earlier and nicer dinners. Recently we got to crack open a nice bottle of wine and even have some cheese and grilled ribeye out on the deck. This would have been a five-day-a-week dinner before children.


The boys have gotten the best new toys which are $0.99 spray bottles that they get to run around the yard squirting. They also hole up by the deck and fire their bottles at the imaginary invaders who have taken over our house.


They've taken to gardening and have also been enjoying many more unsolicited hugs than in the past.


Each night Jen picks the strawberries which grow along the front of our house and share some with the boys.


Then they put them in a giant container and they fight over control of the container.


Last weekend we woke up super early and got to the airport to take a 6:45 AM flight to New York to celebrate the wedding of our good friends Joe and Ryan. When we got to the airport the flight had been canceled and they'd stealthily changed the flight time from AM to PM resulting in a minor panic that we'd actually purchased the wrong tickets. After several frustrating calls we were re-booked to a flight about six hours later which meant we got to go back home, sleep for two hours, then drive back to the airport and get into New York (now New Jersey) six hours later than we'd planned. This, sadly, meant no time to do anything or see anyone we had plans with.

American Airlines cited weather as the reason for the flight being canceled. It was a little cloudy and apparently the weather that was so dangerous as to cancel our flight didn't so much as delay the flight to LaGuardia that arrived 20 minutes after ours was scheduled to.

That's some sneaky weather.



Eventually we did arrive, got to keep our dinner plans with our friends in New Jersey, then head out to the wedding in the Catskills the next morning.


Then, the next morning, there was the terrible drive back to the airport. All the nostalgia and homesickness we felt at the wedding and driving through upstate New York was quickly erased by the horrors and misery of New York/New Jersey traffic.



Thanks to the traffic our planned two hour lunch with Paul and Caolan and Baby Jane changed to about twenty minutes of getting to snuggle Jane and feed her a few strawberries before dashing out to LaGuardia and flying back home.

This would have been entirely unsatisfying if it weren't for Jane's cuteness and the fact that she created a funny little dance to celebrate the brief meeting.


Back home, aside from our house being entirely infested with houseflies, all was well. Martin had continued to work on his puppet show act and show us his new routine.


The next day we took the boys to the Children's museum in the morning where they had a great time.


This was followed by a trip to the restaurant for lunch where Jen got to sit and have lunch with Martin and I had to chase Elliott all over the dining room. They also discovered that the waitress was the source of food so they took to yelling, "Lady! More chocolate milk!"

I think their age and charm will only get them by a little longer with manners like that.


Jen left mid morning on Friday, her birthday, to go to the dentist. Most people would not consider this a treat but since the trip was the final appointment in the two-year saga of having her dental implant finished she was pretty excited. And now that Elliott's head is a little more stable he probably won't knock it out again. Unless he kicks her in the mouth while he's sleeping which is entirely possible.


While Jen was at the dentist I assembled the horrible new composter we got, another thrill for Jen. Apparently only terrible things make her happy on her birthday.


We also got to pick up the second week of our new farm share from Green Earth Institute. We missed week one as we were in New York but we'd probably be overflowing with lettuce if we had picked it up.


We did have some fun by watching the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform at the Morton Arboretum and having a picnic dinner, some of Jen's favorite things to do.


Sunday morning a giant truck arrived. The boys ran out to the front yard to check it out and this quickly became the best morning they ever had as they got to watcha man lower a little truck off the back of a big truck and then move around some pallets of mulch. They yelled, "More!" after he was done but, sadly, our neighbors had not ordered any more.


After this excitement, chatting with our new neighbors and looking at the tree that had fallen in their yard earlier that morning, we took off to the beach downtown. It was the reverse of their swim lessons. Elliott was a little more timid about approaching the water but soon they were both having a blast.


Then we enjoyed some lunch at the snack bar and headed home.



They fell asleep three minutes into our car ride home then slept pretty solidly after that. Elliott put up a fight a little later but Jen was able to get him to sleep on our bed.


After the nap Grandma came over with some flowers for Jen which Elliott took great joy in helping her move to the back yard.



Grandma and Grandad came over for dinner and we had a late celebration of Jen's birthday.




Pretty much everything for dinner was made by Jen's parents, I simply put together some lobster rolls. While wrangling these lunatic monkey men that is just my speed.




There was a terrific lightning and thunder storm overnight which kept the guys up for a lot of the wee hours. We all slept in this morning after Jen left for work and since we'd slept in so late I gave them some French toast to eat in the stroller on the walk to day care.

The next birthday that comes up will be theirs. This may be the last time they are really not aware of that so it makes present buying a snap. I'm guessing things will get a little trickier when we can't hide their presents in plain sight.

I'm guessing a lot of things will get trickier as well.

Wombats in Rhode Island

Saturday began with having a doctor visit our house. It was like an old-timey house call. It was quaint except that instead of a guy smoking a pipe and holding a leather case with his stethoscope in it (and, presumably, a flask of sippin' whiskey) it was a woman who mostly just asked us questions about our family medical history so we could finalize our life insurance policy. That and complain bitterly about the lovebirds she kept in her bathroom.

At least I think she was a doctor.





After that nonsense was over we made a mad dash up to Rhode Island to visit the place of my birth and their fourth of These United States. The first stop was my parents' house where they were the starts of a massive open house where they met a huge number of close family and friends. The Wombats were in top form after sleeping through every single minute of our three-hour commute. This made for some very fun family time and allayed all of my fears of a possible over-stimulation meltdown.


After the long drive and afternoon, however, I couldn't resist sampling this Red Seal Ale from North Coast Brewing Company I found in my parents' fridge.


Then I couldn't resist falling asleep on the couch knowing that my family would not only look after the babies but wouldn't miss me all that much while they were occupied.

After a nice family pasta dinner we packed up the babies and headed to our hotel. It is a little strange as this is the first time I've ever stayed in a hotel room in the city where I was born but necessary as not to take over the house and life of any of our family members for the evening.


When we entered our hotel room it was a bit like walking into a meat locker. A quick check of the thermostat revealed the temperature was 58 degrees. I went to blast the heat and found it only created noise by the heating unit with no movement of air, warm or otherwise.


After a quick room change, and walk through a marijuana smoke-filled hallway, we warmed up with some Rhode Island classics: maple glazed donuts from Honey Dew and Pyramid Beer. The Outburst Imperial IPA I picked up from across the street and it reminded me of my life in Rhode Island in the 90s. The Pyramid Breweries are not actually located in Rhode Island. They are located in Washington State but they are not distributed in New York so this was a rare treat. Pyramid was one of the first craft breweries I ever had. I selected it initially because I was fond of the pyramids on the label. It seems that little has changed in the approach to my selection of beers over the years.

I don't remember the Outburst from the 90s. It probably is a more recent beer as I don't remember Imperial IPAs being much of a thing in the 90s. Jen and I enjoyed it immensely after we lulled the Wombats to sleep and watched the USA defeat Sweden in the men's under 20 ice hockey finals.

Just another wild Saturday night.


Sunday morning began with little breads at Aunt Pauline's house and a meeting of the Wombats with their cousins.


This was particularly exciting for Elliott because it meant there were brand new fingers that he had not yet chewed on.





After breakfast at Aunt Pauline's we returned to the grandparents' house for round two of the open house here the babies met up with a bunch more relatives who were all eager to hold and entertain the babies. This was great because it meant something very important . . .


. . . I got to nap again.


The final event of the trip was a baby extravaganza at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Liz's house where all manner of babies were bandied about, showed off, dressed up in silly shirts, and posed for memorable family photos.

What's the point of having babies if you can't use them as fun props?


I forgot the Bumbos in the car so that when I brought them in they were ice cold. Nicole and Liz volunteered to act as human Bumbos while Jen and Jeff were the feeders. Even after warning them of the mess we need to clean out of their Bumbos each evening they were both willing to make this sacrifice. That is true friendship.


While they wrestled with that I helped myself to a Spiced Amber Ale from Blue Moon Brewing Co.

I did my part.



Tonight, after returning from day care, we gave the boys their first taste of avocado. It was a smash success, far better received than the green peas of last week. Elliott consumed massive quantities of peas and Martin had a small amount but spent much of the time fiddling around the spoon and kidding himself into thinking that he was feeding himself.


After a rather lengthy battle getting the babies to bed we settled down with some beer, this Winter Shredder from Cisco Brewers. It was unseasonably warm today but this beer went down nicely. Of course, after the two-hour ordeal we had putting the Wombats to bed anything would have tasted like heaven.


By the time we'd struggled to have dinner Martin was still wide awake. Jen set him up on the couch to watch The Shop Around the Corner in a last ditch effort to get him to doze off. Nothing really worked until I rocked him with my foot for forty-five minutes while I wrote all of this nonsense.

We're hoping tonight was just an anomaly after an action-packed weekend. Two hours of wrestling with fussy babies is trying. There is no finer dream than the fantasy that after getting them to sleep we would be able to follow up with sleep of our own. Unfortunately once the babies get to sleep our work has only yet to begin.

Bring on the dirty bottles!