Mean Mr. Mosquito

Jen commented that she referenced last year's blog entries and came to the conclusion that it hasn't rained any more this year than last year. Then they reported in the news that this past June was the wettest in recorded history. However, I don't know how scientific that study was as they didn't reference reading our blog at all.

I'll wait for more information before I make any judgments.


Father's Day was fairly forgiving as far as the rain went and we were able to spend a pretty nice day outside, grilling, and having a good time.


Jen's mum made me some lemon curd which I wasn't able to enjoy until the following week after spending most of the week working in the city. However, I was able to settle down and enjoy it one afternoon while the boys slept during a brief dry period on the deck.


We began our most recent farm share as well, splitting it with Auntie Lauren and Uncle Doug, and I was able to throw together a summer vegetable stew which was pretty tasty, flavored with herbs from our garden.


Jen's birthday followed on the heels of Father's Day and we were able to get to the Morton Arboretum for the second year in a row to watch the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This year they were performing music from a series of movies about heroes. So we got to listen to the soundtrack from Star Wars, Airplane!, Batman, and Austin Powers among others. It was pretty rad.


Two days later we celebrated Jen's birthday dinner with a family dinner inside thanks to rain.


There were a few brief periods of rainlessness which the boys took advantage of by challenging Uncle Doug to sword fights.


This was a challenge they were quick to regret.


The following day Martin came home from day care with his eye looking a little swollen from a mosquito bite. A few weeks back his ankle had done the same thing.


Then, much like his ankle, the next day we gasped upon seeing him in the morning. He was a little scared at first but then quickly snapped out of it. Elliott, for unknown reasons, had a meltdown (maybe instead of his brother) while Martin calmly ate breakfast.

After picking him up from daycare his teachers told us that he was proudly bragging about his eye to anyone and everyone that would listen.


Then he had me help him climb a tree while he regaled me with tales of his swollen eye.


Yesterday we celebrated Canada Day with some grilled salmon burgers and some homemade poutine.

Now I have a couple of days off and we're trying to cram in all the Fourth of July festivities we can before I have to return to work on the fourth. Typically there are four hundred events in this area around July Fourth for all the people who don't have jobs that require them to work on weekends and holidays.

Or as I call them: spoiled jerks.

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.

Only in [INSERT STATE HERE]

With the boys over their illness it was time to try to return to somewhat normal routines and diets.


I thawed out some leftover braised short ribs and made these tortilla stacks with an avocado, radish, and tomato salad. I also used some guacamole made by Uncle Doug in the tortillas.


Temperatures climbed into the 60s for a day and I was even able to fire up the grill for the first time. The grill is mostly repaired and I was able to quickly season some chicken and grill it up. It was an amazing experience to get out there and grill on my own damn grill, on the deck of my own damn house. It certainly beats loading all my ingredients into a giant Rubbermaid tub and schlepping it around behind the house to do a little bit of grilling.


After being better Martin threw up at day care and had to come home. Of course he was completely fine so we came home where he ate his body weight in oatmeal and practiced drinking from a cup.


Last Saturday it actually got to 80 degrees and we quickly snatched this opportunity to have dinner and even hang out a little bit outside. Grandada made this fantastic pasta with white beans and escarole.


There was cake after dinner that was mostly wrestled away from adults by greedy little piglet toddlers.


On day 7 of amoxicillin Martin broke out in a huge, full body rash. Just like his mother he is not allergic to this terrible antibiotic. The doctor told us to take him off of it. We did. The rash went away. Then the doctor said to give it to him again. We did. The rash came back immediately.

Go figure.


Grandad returned form a work function where he got these little toys that entertained the guys immensely. Martin felt the term "Wow!" was not adequate enough to express his amazement and coined the term, "Big wow!" They liked them so much that I sent them to day care with them one day because the refused to let them go. When I picked them up they toys were cracked into several pieces and barely lit up when the buttons were pressed.

Little wow.


On Martin's sick day we went to the playground where he explored on his own and even did the slide without any help from me. He was also fascinated with the gazebo in the center of the park but was confused why there was no ceiling fan like at Grandma and Grandad's.


Before Jen left for her trip to Seattle for work I made this ham and split pea soup from frozen ham leftover from Christmas. It came out great. The boys even enjoyed it despite the fact that it was neither cheese nor a cookie.


Jen FaceTimed from Seattle and showed us her lightly obscured view of the Space Needle. This went about as well most FaceTime calls go. In other words, it ended with both of them repeatedly hanging up on Mummy and fighting over the phone.


One night while Jen was away they both asked, one after the other, to take their shirts off. Then they spent the entire night walking around like little two-foot-tall Vladimir Putins playing with their Zebra and looking at my guitar.


Martin's hatred of bedtime grows with each passing day. He has now taken to selecting no fewer than a dozen books before bed. No matter many you read he puts up a finger and says, "One more book! One more book!" This would be fine except that he breaks this promise every time by repeating his mantra.

One more book! One more book.


While Jen was away there was a lot of Curious George that was consumed via Netflix. It was lazy of me but it was the only thing that could buy me fifteen minutes to throw dinner together. Elliott caught a glimpse of Elmo for Sesame Street as I passed through the shows and demanded to watch.


I was surprised that Elliott seemed to know every character on Sesame Street without having ever watched a single episode. The above video shows that he is able to identify almost everyone. The problem with Sesame Street is that it does not really feature enough Elmo for either of their likings.

I tried to explain the concept of an ensemble cast to both of them during one of their Elmo fits but I'm not sure they entirely grasped it.


The night before Jen returned, two days after our 80 degree day, it snowed all over our nice new patio furniture and, presumably, the rest of the surrounding area. It's to be expected during a seasonal transition. It was fun to see friends on Facebook from Rhode Island, Massachussetts, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan all lament: "__ degrees two days ago and it's snowing today! Only in [INSERT STATE NAME HERE]."

Yes. Only in ________.


Miraculously, after Jen's return, I was able to throw together a couple of dinners that were about 25% of the level of the dinners I was making a year or more ago! I made some very nice poached flounder potatoes, carrots, garlic, shallots, garlic braised kale, and a sauvignon blanc butter sauce.


I also used some leftover corn, tomato, spinach, and ricotta to make this risotto.


The boys had a fever yesterday and had to stay home from day care. Jen took them to meet me for lunch where Elliott enjoyed a ham and gruyere strata.


Martin had no interest in the strata but as soon as Jen looked away he stole a giant piece of her sushi and scarfed it down. Apparently, like his father as a child, he may have developed a strange pickiness yet desire to eat raw seafood.

It must be the Rhode Island in his genes.

Snow March

Book! Book! Book!


It is the sound that fills the rooms of our mostly-empty home on a daily basis. The boys have developed an insatiable appetite for reading. Their definition of reading is that they get to bring you a book, sit in your lap, turn pages while you're reading, and excitedly point to pictures on the page to either identify them or eagerly ask you what they are.

Reading is exhausting.


They have also decided that most of the time they would rather scream and writhe around like angered snakes than sit in their high chairs. This means that sometimes they sit in regular seats and eat from the other side of their high chair tray.


Sometimes we can trick them into sitting in their seats if we give them a fun activity like blowing on their stew to cool it down.


There hasn't been much cooking going on these days but I did make a turkey chili that I threw together late one night using almost exclusively foods rejected by the boys at dinner. While it's not typical to have broccoli in one's chili it actually worked out pretty well.


Nana and Grandpa came to visit at the beginning of the month and this meant that we could once again break out the terrible Peek-a-Zoo book. I don't mean to disparage Peek-a-Zoo. It's a very nice book but it awakens an ancient animal ferocity in the boys such that it cannot be left in the normal book rotation. It inevitably leads to fights, hitting, and crying. Also, they enjoy ripping the book to pieces when given the chance.

They love it too much.


The best part of Nana and Grandpa's visit is that they bring their various electronic devices and allow them to be played with. While the boys don't fully understand the use of such devices they do understand that they are portals to Elmo videos. The good part of this is that I think they now think that only Nana and Grandpa hold the keys to the Elmo treasure so that frees us to live a largely Elmo-free life.


At least for now.


My parents also brought me this Spencer Trappist Ale from the first Trappist brewery in America which is conveniently located a short drive from my parents' house where I grew up. This was a much more exciting moment

This was like my own personal Elmo.


For dinner I threw together French Onion Soup made with the stout beef broth leftover from the short ribs I made a while back. It came out very well with the stout taking the place of the more traditional red wine. Perhaps it was more like an Irish Onion Soup though I probably lose points for note making the crostini on top in the shape of a shamrock.


Doug brought over this local Polar Vortex beer to celebrate what has been one of the most hellishly cold (poor metaphor) winter.


I don't remember which night it was but the boys somehow got their shirts so wet and/or dirty that they were forced to brush their teeth shirtless like a couple of beefcakes.


Martin has become frantic when I pick him up at day care. He insists that he be allowed to hold his daily report sheet for the duration of the trip home. Sometimes he is generous and allows Elliott to hold his own sheet but more often he wishes to hold them both.


On a Sunday morning, while Jen was at yoga, we took the guys grocery shopping. It is an activity which can entertain them for up to 60 minutes before they get bored. While it's not a book about a zoo it is a chance to identify many produce items. I'd say that they are probably at a fifth grade level for identifying produce and possibly a college level for animals.


On Monday we took them to the children's museum where we also met up with grandma and they had a blast.


Martin refused to wear his apron and got completely soaked before I was able to force one onto him. It didn't seem to bother him that it was 15 degrees outside and he was wearing a completely soaked shirt.


It also didn't stop him from falling asleep in the car and even allowing me to put him in his crib. He did wake up after about 45 minutes and I changed his shirt for him before he immediately passed out again.


Elliott had no such problems.


They had a nice three hour nap to build the energy back up to wrestle with Grandpa.


On Tuesday it was Mardi Gras and I threw together the quickest possible breakfast for dinner to keep with our tradition. While not as elaborate as years past it was tasty.


Elliott would not calm down so we had to have him sit with us during dinner. Eventually he cried so much that I had to take him to to the doctor.


The only time he cried this badly was when he had a double-ear infection. Apparently this time he was only teething so after some ibuprofen and cuddling he eventually fell asleep and spent the night with us.





The next day we got a visit from Auntie Anne and Cousin Jackson. Evelyn joined in and even had her first taste of Mum-Mums. She got through most of them before Elliott ate her leftovers.


The toddlers enjoyed guitar time. Daddy did not because it usually involves them holding the strings so that they don't make any noise then yelling, "Bye!" I'm not really sure why that is.


Grandad and Grandma gave us this gigantic bear after an evening where we complained about the sheer number of stuffed animals we were inundated with. This unwanted addition now increases the volume of our stuffed animal collection by 100%.


To add to our pain Elliott has become quite proficient at climbing up onto our tables and just sort of crawling around.


Martin has also become proficient at identifying his cousin Jackson which is no doubt a treat for Jackson to be poked on the head while having his own name shouted at him.


After one nap where the ladies went shopping I came up to wake them from their nap and found Martin in a completely empty crib wearing no pants.


Apparently he'd run out of things to throw into Elliott's crib before he fell asleep and resorted to removing clothing. Elliott didn't seem to mind.


Elliott also didn't seem to mind pushing Jackson around on his rolling zebra. This surprised me a bit because it seemed like riding would be the sweeter of the two gigs but as long as they weren't fighting over the toy I was going to obey the Prime Directive.


The Saturday dinner at Jen's parents' house reminded me of what it would be like if I could actually have a few uninterrupted hours to actually make something nice for dinner for a change. It harkens back to a long ago time that I deeply miss.


But at least we have an obnoxiously large stuffed bear now.


I picked up some 20 month cupcakes for the kids to enjoy and make a huge mess with since Saturday was the 20 month birthday for the Wombats.




Even Evelyn got in on the action by frantically licking a cupcake.


On Monday temperatures crept up into the 50s! It was hard not to resist a walk to day care to pick them up. This proved to be a little treacherous as I bounded through giant piles of melting snow and ice. I had to improvise on the walk home and take a somewhat more circuitous route on the return.


The whole way home they identified the sky, many birds, and incorrectly called vans buses. I had not ever walked to our new house with them so when we entered the garage they saw their cozy coupes and wagons and demanded many rides.


They also demanded to eat dinner at the table like adults. Adults that get food all over the floor and cry when they aren't immediately presented with more cheese.

One thing about Elliott: when eating avocado he will not eat a bite until you confirm his correct identification of it when he shouts "Av-ca! Av-ca! Av-ca!" I lost focus and didn't realize that he had been sitting their yelling "Av-ca! Av-ca! Av-ca!" for several minutes. When I confirmed, "Yes, avocado!" he immediately ate the bite.


Since Peek-a-zoo still remains locked up above the TV Martin will go over every so often and yell, "Zoo! Zoo!" There are fewer tears now but he must have seen me hide it because he has never forgotten.


The last five months have been the unhealthiest we've eaten in years. Quick dinners, more takeout, lots of heavy sauces, Thanksgiving, Christmas, family visits, and an overall lack of outdoor activity have contributed to (me in particular) feeling like an unhealthy ball of crap. This has lead to a greater focus on healthier cooking. So far, so good. We'll see how long we can keep this up.


This morning we got about five or six inches of extremely heavy snow in what most are hoping will be the last accumulation of the season. A woman from a few houses down came over and used her snow blower to clear our driveway before I was able to shovel it all so I feel like we owe her a debt of gratitude.


The yard looks beautiful with the midday sun reflecting off of the fresh snow but I've seen enough. It's time to melt, go away, and leave my hard to be a Woodstock-like mud pit and usher in the inevitable 48 hours of spring before temperatures get over 100.

After eating dinner outside a grand total of zero times last year I am looking forward to once again grilling and having dinner outside, a joy that seems like an unthinkable reality at the moment.

Almost there.