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.

St. Patrick's Play

March rolls on and the countdown to being able to enjoy our backyard, a yard that really only exists in our imaginations, is nearly over!


I decided last week to set up their kid table for use to eat dinner rather than just for arts and crafts. Elliott took to it immediately, enjoying the idea of being able to put his feet up on the table, something he never did even once when the table was ten feet across the room.


This quickly turned out to be a disaster as they spent most of the time just pushing the table across the floor into their brother until one of them began crying.


Martin became obsessed with wearing his stuffed snake in the manner of Jake the Snake Roberts. He then ran over to the door yelling, "Bye! Bye!"


He desperately tried to make his escape. I'm not sure what his endgame was. I can only presume he was late for snake practice.


The healthy eating streak continued with this kale salad with fig tahini dressing.


I also made an oil-free baked chicken breast (a term I have always despised) with zucchini "spaghetti" and a mixture of boiled potato and broccoli stem topped with a light dusting of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.


Witht he leftover potato and broccoli I made a soup with a splash of milk and vegetable stock.


I also turned the leftover zucchini "spaghetti" into a pizza on multigrain crust with a small amount of mozzarella.


On Friday night we got to watch Evelyn. The boys helped by rocking her violently and yelling Shhhhhh! in an impossibly loud manner.

Despite it all she fell asleep.



On Saturday, before going to a friend's birthday party, they resisted their nap for a full two hours. This was a new record. They were in full-on sleepover mode and once again pants were removed and children collapsed in place when exhaustion finally got the best of them.



Two word sentences have been popping up here and there. Elliott says, "My Daddy!" Martin says, "Big Elmo!"


Saturday night, after the party, Lauren, Doug, Evelyn, and Pete came over. Pete has been hanging out with them since Jen's parents are in Montreal.



There must be some bad blood between Elliott and Pete because Elliott was chasing him around with his harness and seemed to be calling him out to face him. It was as if he was challenging him to some climactic battle, a final showdown between a dog and an overly-dramatic toddler.


Saturday night we made some corned beef and cabbage with pork brats and enjoyed some of Jen's homemade soda bread and Kerrygold Skellig cheese. Jen and Lauren enjoyed watching Frozen. Doug and I watched Frozen but we enjoyed drinking some tasty beers.



The next morning, while Jen was at yoga, I attempted to take the boys' pictures for their passports. The last time we tried to get their photos was at Walgreens. This had been a disaster as the guy was using a $59 point-and-shoot camera that had a fifteen second delay between pressing the button and the picture being taken. Also, he had the boys sit precariously on a 12 pack of bottled water on top of a stool and kept telling us not to get in the shot. This was more difficult than he probably suspected as it's hard to dodge a camera when you're constantly trying to save your child from falling to the floor.


After lunch we played a good game of "Under the Counter" before getting them to bed for their nap and me going to work.

I returned home at midnight to find boy boys awake with their mother in bed watching Eureka. That was just the start to my evening, but certainly not my sleep. After about 5 hours of restless sleep we brought them to day care where apparently the had a fire drill five minutes after we left.

I don't know whether I feel relieved that I am not doing their bedtime tonight or happy that I will merely be working until midnight again.

Sorry, Jen!

Eighteen Months (Out of the Vortex)

The Great Coldmageddon of 2014 has finally drawn to a close. The Polar Vortex has retreated back up north. With a temperature of -17 degrees (and -52 degree wind chills) we spend most of our time hunkered down, waiting out the cold. Luckily our pipes remained unfrozen though our garage door decided it was too cold to work anymore and refused to cooperate until temperatures got back into the 20s.

Along with the cold we got snow.


I shoveled before work.


While I was at work the boys enjoyed having their morning oatmeal while watching the snow continue to fall.


Jen shoveled while I was at work while the Wombats frolicked in the snow.


When I got home from work I got to shovel again.


This time I had an audience. They particularly enjoyed it when I threw shovels full of snow at the windows in front of them. It was a real crowd pleaser.


While we stayed warm I gave the boys their first lesson in astronomy and, yes, I included Pluto because My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Naan just doesn't sound as good.

Elliott was very attentive and he even volunteered to draw the asteroid field. He gets an F for placement.


I also set up one of their two drum sets, a gift from their jackass uncle Chris. Elliott immediately sat on the drum throne and started bashing away.


Martin was a little more interested in supporting Elliott on a technical level.


The other day when I picked them up they were obsessed with dress up and smashing Play-Doh. Who can blame them?


When we got home I was excited to find that we had received our Kickstarter gift from Pocket Vinyl, a painting by Elizabeth Jancewicz. Martin quickly identified the bear-like creature as a Bee-ah!


On Wednesday the guys turned 18-months-old. As they waited for mummy to get home they enjoyed some cheese and crackers at their table along with some cut up bits of chicken.


This quickly devolved into a new game of seeing who can annoy the other more by pushing the table into their chest.


When Jen got home we presented them with some celebratory cupcakes. I tried to get a decent picture of the cupcakes but this was the best I could do.


I was soon intercepted by some meddlesome bubses.


They made a substantial mess but they may have turned a bit of a corner in the eating department. I think they're beginning to get a little neater.


It's hard to believe that it's been a whole eighteen months. It's also hard to believe that it's only been eighteen months. A mere eighteen months before these two punks happened on the scene and changed absolutely everything. It's also hard to believe that we didn't think we had any free time eighteen months ago.

We were idiots.

2013 Holiday Recap

The past two weeks have brought snow, cold, and plenty of holiday cheer. This has also been an initiation into home ownership by necessitating endless shoveling. It has also made me exceptionally happy that we did not get one of the other houses we were interested in on the corner of two streets for it would have meant triple the shoveling we have at this place.

Our next house will be chosen as the one with the smallest yard and shoveling space.


The snow did afford a nice opportunity to have all the cousins sled together and still sort of be scared of the outside and the snow.


They did, however, tolerate a forced sled ride.


Before my parents' arrival I had to go pick up some stuff at Crate & Barrel. In exchange for using her car Lauren gave me a mouse from her basement that I was to deposit on the other side of the river from their house in a designated wildlife area. I did bring it to the other side of the river but I may have used the parking lot of the Crate & Barrel as the designated wildlife area. There was some grass across the street so I'm sure the mouse had a blast if he made it to the other side alive.



Nana and Grandpa arrived right on schedule and the boys were very happy to have the guests.


Particularly since Nana usually travels with six or seven different media devices, all of which are able to play various Elmo videos.

They like anyone who can give them access to Elmo.


The days leading up to Christmas were full of lots of assembly. My dad assembled their table and chairs while I assembled their wagon. They both wanted to help with assembly but when the wagon began to take form they wouldn't stop crawling into it making the task of putting it together take about ten times as long as if they weren't around.

Then, they wouldn't accept anything other than riding in their freshly assembled wagon.


On Christmas we put out their kitchen which my Dad had put together and they enjoyed having another large toy which they could fight over.


Christmas morning was full of delicious breakfast, mimosas, and opening about 25% of our presents before it was time for the guys to take their nap.


During their nap we continued to open presents, then picked it back up when they woke up, right up until dinner time.


They didn't even know what to make of it when they received an Elmo of their very own. They have been obsessed with Elmo in his many forms but no Elmo has ever captured their attention like the Elmo who stands and watches guard on their daycare room from high atop a shelf.

Now there was an even larger Elmo in their own home, one they could hug, interact with, and ultimately fight over.



For Christmas dinner I made my first ever crown roast of pork which was sensational.


It went down wonderfully with a huge bottle of Anchor Brewing Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.


After a very quick week Nana and Grandpa had to leave and hit the road back to Rhode Island.


We missed them right away but Elliott comforted himself knowing that he had the Zebra they had given Martin for Christmas, his new favorite toy.


Shortly thereafter Aunt Lisa had to depart as well.


Only after she reclaimed her sunglasses and phone from Elliott. All he needed was her wolf purse and he would have pretty much had her entire persona captured.


On the warmest night in the past month, with temperatures all the way in the 20s, we went to The Illumination at the Morton Aboretum.


They mostly just sat in the wagon, unmoving in the terrible cold.


Afterward we warmed up by the fire while I finished a beer that remained icy cold on our long walk through the park.



At home I was able to enjoy this Narragansett Coffee Milk Stout, a great after-dinner beer combining some of my favorite Rhode Island things all in one. It was a gift from my parents for Christmas along with my father's Narragansett beer glass that he got after touring their brewery in the late 1960s.


As things wound down after Christmas I made this leftover risotto with Jen's father's Christmas Eve ham and some peas.


Martin has taken to sitting down right beside our fireplace and just hanging out there.


Elliott, on the other hand, prefers climbing inside of one of our kitchen cabinets and hanging out on the shelf.

They have each found their respective fortresses of solitude.


For New Year's Day we made cassoulet, for the first time, in a Crock Pot. I have never used a Crock Pot in my life until moving to Illinois. Since we have embraced the return to suburban living so heartily it seems only fitting that we eat frequently from the warm bowl of a Crock Pot. It's only a matter of time before our pantry is stocked exclusively with cans of cream of mushroom soup and Ritz crackers.


In the past couple of days Elliott has discovered something new: tantrums. His latest thing is that he will actually lie on his belly and smash his own face into the floor as hard as he can. It takes very little to trigger this. It's not like he wants something and we tell him he can't have it. It's usually something small like he goes to pick something up and drops it, or that Martin gently bumps into him.

Last night was the worst night in a while as far as tantrums. Luckily it would seem that the head-banging thing is self-regulating in that eventually he will grow weary of bashing his head into the floor because it hurts pretty bad. Unfortunately, until he figures this out, he will have a pretty large bruise on his forehead.

We have also been serious about sleep training in the past week. As we have been guests in someone else's home for the past few months we felt it best not to torment our hosts with screaming babies more than they already were being tormented. Now it's time to get serious and let the guys, mostly Elliott, scream before bed. We've gotten good at not caving in and simply patting their backs or holding their hands until they fall asleep. It's too bad because it would be so much nicer and so much easier to just hold them until they fall asleep.

The funny thing is that while Elliott carries on a lot more before getting to bed, he has been sleeping through the night regularly since we started being strict about it. Could it be that this new technique has made for a better chance of the kids sleeping through the night?

Or could it be that I just jinxed us for a terrible, terrible night tonight?

Either way we're going to continue Googling: "Foolproof, easy way to make sure your child never has a tantrum." So far we haven't found anything but the answer has got to be there somewhere.

The truth is out there.