Grandpa in Disguise (With Glasses)

Tonight, after picking the Wombats up from daycare we had a visit from Nana and Grandpa who wer in town to spend the night and see the guys for the first time in almost three months.

The guys had a little bit of a freak out at the break in routine. Normally, what is supposed to happen, is that I bring them home from daycare, play with them, and feed them all by myself while praying for Jen to return home from work. When they saw that I had two helpers this evening they weren't having any of it. There aren't supposed to be guests when they get home! Dad is supposed to do it all by himself!


After about thirty minutes they settled down and it was business as usual. They accepted the visitors and the fact that Dad had a brief moment of rest


Elliott particularly enjoyed playing with Grandpa.


However, like much of his affection, it may have been a clever ruse to try to steal someone's glasses.


For dinner I made Reubens with the leftover St. Patrick's Day dinner, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, fresh-baked rye bread, fries, and pickles.


Nana STIM had this Jordan Winery Cabernet Sauvignon.


I had what was to be the best of the Irish beers I purchased this year (by a long shot). This was the O'Hara's Leann Folláin from Carlow Brewing Company. It was much better than the regular O'Hara's I had last year, probably due to the 6.0% ABV as opposed to 4.3%. It also had a pleasing carbonation, something lacking in the Guinness and Murphy's styles. A lot of people seem to really love Guinness and Murphys. Those that don't complain about beers like Guinness and Murphy's being too heavy and too bitter. I actually find them both to be exceptionally thin and mild but my main complaint is the very soft carbonation. I don't mind these for what they are but I would far prefer the Leann Folláin. It's the official beer of the Buythefarmshare.com St. Patrick's Day!


Today was the Wombats' Grandad's birthday. In honor of his special day they wore their bear t-shirts to celebrate his obsession with the woodland creature.


They even made a card for him at daycare. They are such thoughtful guys. We posed them with the card. This was a delicate proposition as we had mere seconds to act before they began tearing the card to shreds and trying to eat it.


Things devolved quickly after that.


The card came complete with footprints from the guys.


Elliott gave a nice footprint.


Martin could only spare four of his toes in honor of Granddad's birthday. Apparently he's holding a grudge about something.

Good luck getting in the will now, Martin.

Lucky Charm(s)

The guys had a couple of bad nights followed by days without naps. Luckily, since we are so smart, we had the cure for this. If we got them to take some really good afternoon naps they would not get over-tired and would have fantastic nights of restful sleep. Bonus side effect: so would we.

At least that's how the theory went.


On Friday I successfully got them to take an unprecedented three hour nap. They were rested and refreshed for a night out with friends.

Then came a pretty lousy night.

We did the same yesterday, expecting different results, and were shocked to find the same results.

What's the definition of insanity again?


The time for baby-proofing is almost upon us as Elliott has discovered one of his new favorite hobbies: pulling on the curtains.


Last night we had some friends over including Jennie who did what any great dinner guest does here: keep the Wombats busy so that we can knock out some life's chores we've been ignoring since we last had guests over.


This year I made my corned beef and cabbage a little different by making it a Black and Tan (or Half and Half if you want to be nitpicky). I added a bottle of Harp and a can of Guinness to the pot. The result was not super noticeable. I guess if I had chosen beers with flavor I could have expected more dramatic results.


I took the boys with me to the grocery store and later to the beer store to pick up a selection of sort of crummy Irish beers. I'm sure there are better beers brewed in Ireland but when it comes to what's available in the states this is pretty much the best we can get. That being said I'm pretty excited about trying the slightly pumped up version of the O'Hara's stout.


The Murphy's Brewery Red Ale was a pretty big hit. It wasn't bad at all and maybe the most popular of the Irish beers at our get together.


Meghan and Mario showed up with better, non-Irish beers but Mario still enjoyed a Murphy's Irish Stout with me. I found it to be pretty unremarkable. Descriptions say that it has a nutty, coffee aroma and is less bitter than Guinness. I find both beers to be virtually indistinguishable from one another and to be fairly flavorless. While I don't mind having one at this time of year when everyone is supposed to pretend that they are Irish it's definitely not my go to beer by any stretch.


Mario and Meghan just happened to also bring a really nice, non-Irish beer. They were clever in picking it because it was called Baby Tree, a tribute to the Wombats. It happened to be a very nice Belgian-style Quadruple from Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project in Massachusetts. It also featured a picture of a freaky tree which had babies growing out of it. Apparently there is a real pear tree in Sexhow, UK that has baby dolls hanging in it. Someone was going to throw away all these baby dolls and these two people rescued them and let them live in a tree.

This beer was really good but even if it was terrible it would have been worth it for that story.


While I normally like to branch out with new foods I made the same dinner I've made for the last few years, this corned beef and cabbage with bangers.


I did add a twist, however, by making it a Black and Tan (or Half and Half for you pedants out there) and adding a can of Guinness and a bottle of Harp to the bot.


Jen also made her soda bread with Kerrygold butter. Some things are too delicious to mess with.


After dinner I was very pleased to make my first successful combination of the two beers by Guinness: Harp and Guinness stout.


Jennie was kind enough to bring over some delicious chocolate and mint brownies and, wouldn't you know, they went perfectly with some Guinness stout. They probably would have been even better with a really good stout but the luck of the Irish was not with me. Or it was with me depending on how you look at it.


After several successful attempts to put Martin to bed it seemed obvious that he was going to be joining us for after dinner drinks as he loves to do. I think Martin is going to grow up to be quite the entertainer. Since Elliott is always the youngest guy in the house Martin feels it is appropriate that Elliott goes to sleep at a reasonable bed time. That way Martin can stay up and socialize with the rest of the adults.


Last night was a new record with Martin staying up until midnight with us, happily watching Netflix and showing obvious signs of fatigue. It was sort of like that episode of The Cosby Show where Rudy insists on staying up late to watch The Tonight Show only to fall asleep just as Ed McMahon was announcing, "Here's Johnny!"

Martin emulated Rudy beautifully except for the part where she fell asleep. During that point he chose to ad lib by staying up for another hour. Thankfully there are three hour naps to make up for things for Martin.

If only they existed for parents as well.

Clap for Babies!

We have a pretty good system down with the Wombats. We feed them their dinner, follow up with snacks, read them a story, sing them a song, and put them to bed. Sometimes we follow up with a bottle if necessary. It all seems to work pretty well most nights.

Most nights.

Last night was one of those nights where everything went out the window. I was by myself. Often when I'm by myself my sweet little sons take pity on me and give me an easy night. Last night they decided they were going to lose their minds.


I got them home from day care and noticed Elliott happily clapping in his car seat. I'd never seen him clap before so, after a minute or so, I took this video. At the end of the video you can hear Martin working himself up and you can see Elliott quickly fade from happy clapper to distressed baby.

The next 90 minutes was a blur of screaming, tears, and a frantic race to put them to bed and hope they could fall asleep.

Ten minutes before Jen arrived home they were both sound asleep. Jen was disappointed she missed seeing the guys and wanted to go peek at them while they slept.

I warned her against this with the promise of a quick and furious violence.


While working on a very quick dinner I had this Terre Ferme from À l’abri de la Tempête, another purchase from our recent Quebec trip. It was a nice IPA bordering on Pale Ale. I'm pretty sure that after that baby wrestling match a can of Milwaukee's Best would have been every bit as enjoyable.

Or maybe just pure grain alcohol.


During the hurricane, when we were staying at a hotel in the city, we ordered room service and I ordered one of my favorite dishes: pasta puttanesca. Unfortunately what I got was one of the worst plates of puttanesca I've ever had. It's been over five months so I decided I would make a redemption puttanesca. I cooked some anchovies in a pan, added the leftover sauce from the roast cod the other night, then tossed in some cooked spaghetti. The result ended up being approximately 15³² times better than what we paid probably $30 for at our hotel.

Added bonus: no hurricane!

____
After dinner I was still enjoying the peace brought on by two sleeping babies and decided to open one of these tiny Horn Dogs from Flying Dog Brewery. I bought them in 2011 and have been hanging onto them ever since. It was a decent American barleywine and a nice cap to a meal. It had far less carbonation than I would have expected. At 10.2% ABV I was very happy to only have a seven ounce bottle. That was the perfect amount to cap off the evening.

Elliott ended up waking up around 1:00 AM and I put him in bed with us, ignoring Jen's 5:00 AM rule. Sometimes it's just easier that way to get some sleep.

I'll take sleep any way I can get it. Even with a baby's feet in my ribs and his tiny hands smacking me in the side of the head.

Good Sleep, Bad Sleep, and Paella!

Last night was a triumph. Jen successfully put the babies to bed around 8:00 PM and we did not hear a peep from either of them until 5:00 AM. This would have been even better had we gone to bed before midnight, however, we will take what we can get.


The guys often transition into our bed at some point during the early morning. Jen has set a firm time of 5:00 AM. Often times a fussy baby will become relatively docile and fall asleep quickly after being transplanted to our bed. We just try to use this foolproof technique only as a last ditch effort. It must be the warm embrace of Mum and Dad that is so great at getting the guys to sleep.

Either that or our bedroom has a carbon monoxide leak.


I picked them up from day care where, apparently, they had barely napped at all. Before having to take them with me to pick up my car at the service center I put them both down for a nap. Lately they've enjoyed taking turns with one being the napper and the other showing no signs of fatigue. Can you spot which one is which in this photo?


One reason we got to bed so late last night was because I decided to have this Golding Pale Ale Britannique, another beer from Brasseurs Illimités. I intedned to just enjoy a quick beer before bed but ten minutes after pouring it the head was still rocketing up out of the glass making it look more like an ice cream cone than a beer.

The beer was very good but now I know for next time to give myself a little more lead time if I intend on drinking it in the same evening that it is poured.



Tonight the Wombats tried something new: corn. They really liked it. It was hard to tell if that was because it was really good or if they were just starving to death after having a 90 minute freak out session prior to Jen getting home. Magically after Mummy returned home they were giggly, snuggly, and charming. Prior to her arrival they were screaming and crying so badly that they were hyperventilating.

I guess this was just to balance the scales of baby justice after having such a great night last night.


They have been waking up early lately and have been hungry in the middle of the night. I advnaced a theory that maybe they were actually thirsty and not hungry. As it's extremely dry in our apartment I thought maybe we should give them some water before bed. It always seemed really weird to me that babies don't really drink. Sure, they have milk all day long, but never a glass of water. Tonight we figured we'd start them on water to see how they handle it.


It went about as well as could be expected.


Elliott was able to figure out how to put it in his mouth but didn't quite figure out how to extract any amount of water from it.


Martin mostly ignored his cup but occasionally would bash it into the tray of his high chair before tossing it onto the floor.

Success!


While this debacle was going on I put the finishing touches on dinner. In the interest of time I have been much more interested in quick-and-easy one pan meals lately. So it was that I put together a quick paella. I browned some garlic, threw in onion and pepper, chorizo, seared some chicken thighs, scallops, and shrimp, added some chicken stock from the freezer with saffron threads, added some chopped tomatoes, added some Valencia rice, littlenecks, and let it simmer on the stove until it was ready.


What better way to counter this Spanish meal than beer from Quebec? Specifically I opened this Flacatoune from Microbrasserie Charlevoix. This was a very, very nice Belgian-style pale ale. Maybe it was the stress of the lead up to dinner or the fatigue I was feeling but this was one of the more enjoyable beers I've had in a long, long time.

With the babies in bed and New Girl on the television we can only hope that we get as good a night as we did last night. Since the babies did next to no napping today you would think they'd sleep like logs -- I don't believe in the term 'sleep like a baby' ever since living with two babies -- but babies' sleeping habits do not often follow any form of logic. Life would be so much simpler if babies followed some sort of predictable pattern.

Or if they were just not so stupid that they couldn't figure out that they were tired and how to get to sleep on their own.

Dummies.

Guests From Rhode Island, Cheese from Vermont, Beer from Canada, and Babies from New York

Last night we had a very special visitor, Aunt Liza! The Wombats are always excited when we have guests. We are also excited because any tiny bit of additional help makes it feel like we're on vacation for the night.


While they still reeled from the time change we let them convert half of our table into a play area and watched as they rubbed their eyes and tried to fool themselves into thinking that they weren't actually ready for bed.


What better match for playing with babies than a Vermont cheese plate? From left to right: Weybridge from Scholten Family Farm, Pawlet from Consider Bardwell Farm, and Bonne Bouche from Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery.


To celebrate the arrival of our out of town guest we cracked open this bottle of Prosecco. Jen celebrates any time anyone comes over by drinking sparkling wines since she loves them so dearly and, sadly, I am not always eager to share them. It' snot that I dislike sparkling wines it's just that I'd rather be drinking beer.


Like this tasty La British from La microbrasserie À la Fût. This was another very tasty British-style brown ale from our recent trip to Quebec. It's surprising because I would have thought that Quebec would have done a better job with their Belgian-style ales given their attachment to that beer culture. I'm finding that their British entries tend to be a bit nicer so far. It is early still in the selection. I'll be able to form a better opinion in another twenty or thirty beers.


For dinner I made them chicken with kale, multigrain cereal, and milk. Elliott liked it okay.


Martin, on the other hand, seemed to hate it. He does this from time to time so I'm hesitant to trust any of his initial reactions to foods. Sometimes he gets a little over dramatic and acts as though we are poisoning him. He likes chicken. He likes kale. He likes multigrain cereal. He certainly likes milk.


Come to think of it, Elliott may not have been in love with his dinner either. I think he's just too polite to make his feelings known. Martin is a little more direct.

After Jen made some sweet potato and apple and Martin suddenly regained his appetite.


After getting the guys to sleep I put out this salad with avocado, radish, red onion, grape tomato, Lisbon lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper.


I also made toscani with fresh peas, roasted red and yellow tomatoes, chopped parsley, and a little Parmigiano-Reggiano.


For the ladies I poured this 2011 Bishop's Peak Chardonnay from Talley Vineyards in Arroyo Grande, California. Again, I like wine but it tends to take valuable drinking attention away from beer.

Also, I find Chardonnay to be not that great. Sorry, Chardonnay lovers. It's just who I am.


For the main course I got a beautiful piece of cod which I roasted in the pan with crushed plum tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, capers, and kalamata olives.


I served it with broccoli rabe, olive oil, and garlic.


For my "Chardonnay" I had this La Vache Folle RyePA from Microbrasserie Charlevoix, another Quebec treasure. This was a really nice beer with a nice grapefruit hoppiness and great maltiness. The downside of having a really good beer like this is knowing that I probably won't get another one for a good long while.

That is part of the perils of spending way too much money on beer from a faraway land.

I like peril.


After many unsuccessful attempts Martin refused to believe that he was actually tired and finally joined us at the table for some adult conversation. He just cannot stand it when there are things going on and he has to go to bed. The little guy doesn't want to miss anything. Besides, he had some fascinating insight on our political discussion.

Who knew the little guy was so well read?