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.

Tanks for the May-mories

May has come and (almost) gone and we've seen the departure of the beloved Rhode Island arm of our family as they head back home. In a few weeks they'll be back for the boys' birthday but for now it is back to just our nuclear family.


Before leaving we had a photo shoot courtesy of the great Katie Kuropas, who did a great job of capturing us in front of a house with better landscaping than our own.


Upon returning home Auntie Pat and Debbie gave the boys some presents including these Ninja Turtle costumes.


They were put to instant use in punishing Uncle Dave who filled in as a makeshift Shredder and took all the abuse deserved by the evil ninja master.


Josie also received more gifts including these Lolly and Cholly dolls that belonged to my cousin Samantha. They were an instant hit, even moreso with the boys who added them to the collection of toys they'd already pilfered from her birthday loot.


Auntie Pat made a big farewell dinner with pasta, meatballs, and gravy made from tomatoes from last year's harvest in the freezer. We also learned why our family never grew up calling it gravy, an Italian tradition we somehow avoided.


The following day we said goodbye to Nana and Grandpa, returning in about 5 weeks time now for the boys' birthday.


Afterwards we took the kids to the arboretum for a fun-filled, frog-finding adventure.


After, Martin took an unprecedented voluntary nap in a very uncomfortable position and one we could not wake him from.


On Mother's Day we had an enjoying evening at the house and enjoyed the beautiful weather.


We also planned out our summer road trip and I showed the boys all the places we were going to go.


The new drums continue to be a big hit in the studio and so far the boys have gotten more use out of them than I have.


A very late cold spell brought frost and made it so we had to use every bed sheet and beach towel we own to protect all of our plants.


I came home from work one night with a strange craving for martinis. In the past month I've had three martinis which doubles the amount of martinis I've had in my entire life. It makes me the perfect 1950s dad that I have a martini after work some nights now. The only difference is that I am not greeted at the door with it by my wife while she puts all the children to bed and I smoke a pipe.

Men in the 1950s had it made. Except for the whole dying incredibly young thing.


I even tried my hand at negronis, a delicious before dinner drink and something, it turns out, that Uncle Doug does not care for in the least.


On a rainy day Jen did science experiments with the boys and they recorded their findings. In this experiment they smelled different smells and wrote down what they thought they smelled like.


Josephine has quite quickly learned how to climb the stairs, and just about anything. We have been extra diligent about making sure the gate is closed but still there have been a few breakaways we were not able to contain.


With the warmer days Jen's insatiable desire to make and consume popsicles has been passed down to her sons. A long summer of half-eaten frozen treats and stained clothing awaits us!


Josephine has also discovered a true passion for Play-Doh.


Elliott has taken to sleeping with my Raggedy Andy doll which he refers to as "The Daddy Owl" for reasons unknown.


The boys came home from school asking a lot of questions about The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, questions I could not answer, having never watched the show. Finally I just put it on and they are hooked.


We continued to feed their Ninja Turtle obsession by taking them to the turtle-themed day at the Cosley Zoo where they got to choose items from their favorite turtles. Martin, breaking all conventions, went with all Donatello-themed attire. This convinced me he'd have a meltdown later when he realized he'd made a mistake but, thankfully, he has no remorse about his choice.


We also wrangled a picnic with all five children at the zoo, only needing to interrupt our lunch ten or twenty times to chase after fleeing children.


Grandma got Josephine a water table despite our vocal protests and she loves it. Even when Elliott stands across from her and blasts her in the chest with a fully loaded water cannon.


I set up some bar stools at the kitchen counter so the boys could eat breakfast there and they love it. It makes cleanup and serving a whole lot easier for me and it makes it a lot harder for them to wander off. So far the novelty is still fresh so we're hoping this continues to be effective as it wears off.


We also had a visit from our good friends Lindsay Ellyn and Taylor Alexander who entertained the boys with music and games.


They also dealt with the boys playing along with them on trombone and violin, something most professional musicians do not tolerate.


Josephine was exceptionally sick for about 10 or 14 days. She had a high temperature of 104+ degrees and all of a sudden it broke, she got a small rash, then she was back to normal. It was a rough couple of weeks though. Lindsay and Taylor's visit night she had the worst night of sleep ever. It ended with me taking her for a walk at 5:00 AM to get her to sleep and then feeling like a truck hit me all day long. The next night she was fidgety and refusing to sleep and we were in the depth of despair like we would never sleep again. Then she slept through the night.

Then she slept through the next four nights. While she's been waking up on the early side there is nothing that can take away the joy from having more than two uninterrupted hours of sleep nightly. I'm not getting cocky but I'm pretty excited as to what this could mean for the future.


Jen entered the cheese making stage in her life and has erupted into a frenzy of homemade ricotta and marinated feta.


I'm hoping this stage of her life never ends.


We took the boys on a surprise trip to Cantigny, an outdoor park of sorts that houses U.S. Army tanks and beautiful gardens. Most of our trip was spent climbing up the former and now the boys are obsessed with tanks.


Josie did less climbing than her brothers but after climbing about a dozen tanks and getting out of there with no injuries for the entire family I consider that a pretty good close to Memorial Day weekend.

Now we merely need to figure out how to keep an eye on Josephine and prevent her from climbing onto the dining room table while also managing her lunatic brothers.

Others have seemed to do this in the past so that fills me with optimism.