Con-GRAD-ulations!

Thursday began, as most days do, quite early. On this trip the Wombats have decided that their new favorite thing to do is wake up around 5:00 in the morning, monkey around for a bit, have a bottle, then go back to sleep until about 7:00. I suppose we should be grateful that they do go back to sleep but I think I'd prefer them sleeping through and eliminating the nap after being awake for thirty minutes.

Given the intense disruption we've given their routine on this trip I suppose we should be grateful.


They decided that standing around their grandma's wicker table and banging it as hard as they can was their new favorite morning activity, much to the delight of those in the house that were still asleep.


Thursday I was tasked with making dinner for Lauren's birthday and pending graduation. We all piled in the car and went to the grocery store. This meant that Jen had to sit in the back between the two car seats. As with everything in life now a simple trip to the grocery store became a test of endurance, patience, and pure parenting prowess.


We ended up buying a bunch of stuff we didn't really want or need. It's just that after letting the guys play with, smack, and slobber all over so many items to entertain themselves we felt obliged to purchase. Now we have a bag of tortilla chips, a honeydew, and a rubber ball.


After we arrived home Nana had gotten in from Canada and she was delighted to see the boys not having seen them since there were only two months old.


After an extremely late lunch I got to work on grilling up some vegetables while Jen's father mowed the lawn. I also pretended it wasn't drizzling by cracking open this Saint's Devotion from The Lost Abbey. There was a lot of warning about this beer as it is brewed with brettanomyces. Warnings were of "funk" and other unpleasant sensations. I've always found brettanomyces to be delightful so I was happy to find this one at the local grocery store.

It may be a little fancier than your normal grilling or lawnmower beer but, I'm an insufferable jerk so I found it delightful.


For dinner I grilled up raddichio and made a salad with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and aged cheddar.


Also I grilled zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers, and fennel, then added them to cooked orecchiette, roasted red tomatoes, chopped black olives, capers, and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.


To accompany this I grilled up some lake trout, sea scallops, and shrimp with a little olive oil, salt, ppeper, and fresh chives from the garden.


By brother-in-law and I both brought Three Floyds beers to the dinner and shared both bottles. With dinner we started with this Permanent Funeral, a beer they brewed in collaboration with the band Pig Destroyer.


After dinner we had this Toxic Revolution, another collaboration this time with the band Municipal Waste. At first I thought that they'd done the collaboration with the local government agency until I found out that this was yet another heavy metal band I've never heard of.
As long as there are obscure, comical, gruesomely named heavy metal bands Three Floyds will have an excuse to continue making delicious beers.

It's a weird symbiosis but it works.


Friday morning we awoke and went to visit Amanda and her boys once again. They had a great time playing with the older boys. They even had lunch together and played with an awesome Sesame Street toy from the 70s.


Matthew was kind enough to allow Elliott to smack and poke at his face too. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.


The evening was reserved for Auntie Lauren's graduation. They will now need to refer to her as Dr. Auntie Lauren. She didn't spend seven years in the educational doctorate program to just be called Auntie Lauren.


It was a risky evening as the boys were completely thrown off their schedule for the entire day. They had minimal naps and had almost all of their meals early or late. Even with all of that stacked against them -- and, let's face it, against us -- they managed to keep it together.


Luckily there were so many crazy sights and sounds at the graduation that they were continually entertained. Toward they end we did need to use a carefully deployed stream of puffs to keep them at bay.
The drive home was not pretty but after making it through the graduation with nothing but praise from all and sundry we were just happy to be alive.


In fear of leaving the Chicagoland area without having deep dish pizza we ordered some late night delivery from Lou Malnati's, voted the pizzeria that most sounds like a secret society responsible for masterminding world events.
Despite the fact that we would have been happy eating from the trash given how hungry we were, the pizza was fantastic.


After getting home so late, coaxing the babies to sleep, and getting pizza delivery we were in need of a beer so I opened another from The Lost Abbey, this Inferno Ale. It was a beautiful golden ale from a brewery we have no access to back home.
If you're in the Chicago area I'd highly recommend this combination. Even if garbage and Miller Lite would suffice.

I'm sorry, was that redundant?

Ten Months

Tuesday began with a walk to the park, a walk back home to get their bottles, a walk back to the park, and a walk home.


The guys had a very good time at the park playing with Pete and their aunts.


Martin, in particular, was impressed with his Aunt Lisa's cat necklace. It's his new favorite item, knocking the strings from my hoodie down into second place.

Don't feel bad for them. They had a good run.



They guys stayed up fairly late and had a good time yelling and banging bowls together. this is a critical component that is missing from so many meals in the world.


The babies did not get a chance to enjoy the taco salad that we all had.


Nor did they have any of the lemon curd.

Luckily they were happy to simply eat mozzarella, avocado, and multigrain cereal for dinner the third night in a row.


With dinner Doug brought over a bottle of the 16th Anniversary ale from Two Brothers Brewing Company. It was deceptively easy to drink at 16% ABV, so much so that we suspect they are liars. I would believe up to 10%. At any rate it was very tasty.


We followed it up with another find from Three Floyds, this heavy metal collaboration called In the Name of Suffering. We did not suffer through it at all. As with all Three Floyds beer I've had it was very well crafted and drank easily.


Yesterday we took the guys on a tour of downtown Naperville and the riverwalk where Jen served as their tour guide and taught them about where she spent her formative years.


They also enjoyed a tour of the Millenium Carillon and learned about its bells of numerous weights and sizes.


Elliott was quite grumpy as he has been teething so he spent a lot of time simply frowning at the sights.


By the end of the walk they had been won over and their first day wearing shorts and seeing historic Naperville had been a success.


What was not a success was our earlier attempts at nap time for Martin. It ended with me on the floor and Martin showing no signs of giving in to the sleep that he desperately needed.


Instead Martin decided that he was read the morning paper. By read I, of course, mean tear off pieces and try to eat.


After ditching the babies with their aunts and grandma Jen and I headed over to Aurora to meet up with friends at Two Brothers Roundhouse.


Shortly after leaving we got a text message that Martin had taken advantage of his Aunt Lauren's one-click purchasing power on Groupon.

At least someone's using Groupon.


The Roundhouse was great and I sampled a wide variety of what they had on tap along with some fantastic small plates including a smoked brisket risotto.

After a rousing game of "Guess Who?" with our friends, Amanda and Rick, we returned home to two sleeping babies. It's remarkable how much easier life is when someone puts your babies to sleep. I think I may want to consider hiring someone to come in every night and just spend 1-2 hours putting the babies to sleep. We didn't feel the normal feeling of defeat and exhaustion we feel at that hour of the night.


In fact there was even time for another beer, this Anti-Hero IPA from Revolution Brewing. Normally I turn to my evening beer as a way to dull the pain but last night's beer was a celebration.

Oh, and it was their ten-month birthday, so I suppose it was a celebration of that as well.

Hooray!

Wombats in Flight

I hate flying. I normally do not look forward to any plane flight but the prospect of traveling with two babies certainly had me apprehensive to say the least.


We planned on leaving extra early and ended up having no traffic, a quick waltz into the terminal, a very light security line, and a short walk to the gate. This resulted in us having a lot of time to kill which was good because it allowed us to feed the guys at the gate. I mashed up the remaining items in our fridge and they seemed to enjoy their mix of avocado and banana.


Shortly after take off Martin woke up and entertained himself by just looking at the iPad. This picture is deceiving as he spent most of the time looking at the back side while pointing the screen away from him.


Elliott, on the other hand, slept much longer during the flight. He is much like his mother in that sleepin on a plan is an option for him. I guess if I was lying in a giant hammock I may also share his ability for in flight slumber.


After arriving at their grandma and grandad's house Martin was whisked away by his Aunt Lisa who showed him this ancient relic of a long-forgotten time.


They also enjoyed having an audience with standing room only as they had their lunch. Afterwards Jen and I rand out to the store to spend hundreds of dollars on all of their supplies for the week.



Lauren had picked up two beers from 3 Floyds and I was fortunate enough to be able to enjoy them with dinner. I had the Alpha Dog and the Pride & Joy. Both were very good and filled me with rage that there is no chance of ever getting anything from this brewery back home.


To top off the evening I had this Farm Hand French Style Farmhouse Ale from Brewery Vivant. This is the first beer I've had from this brewery which specializes in Belgian style ales in nearby Michigan.

I look forward to trying a vast array of local beers while the Wombats are being overwhelmed by their adoring family and fans.

They are more than lovable sons, they are great distractions.

The Lead Up

This week has been a bit of a challenge. With the guys swapping sick days and day care not allowing them in it's made for an interesting lead up to our soon-to-be first plane trip/vacation with the Wombats.

The whole family stayed home sick on Monday with a doctor's appointment revealing a nasty cold for Martin and an ear infection for Elliott. I was terrified of giving Elliott amoxicillin after his last bout it but, thankfully, this time it did not seem to have the same messy side effects, particularly after mixing it up with yogurt. He actually looked forward to his twice daily doses.


I made the Wombats a dinner of shrimp with spinach, avocado, and brown rice. The shrimp is still a bit touch for them as they both only have two available teeth to chew with. I spent much of the dinner picking out unchewed pieces of shrimp from their mouths.


I made chicken soup for Jen Monday night with things we happened to have lying around: garlic, onion, fennel, celery, carrot, chicken breast, pasta rings, herbs, and chicken stock from the freezer.


When I'm sick I like to have a little brandy. I was feeling a bit of the normal low grade sore throat and cold we've had pretty much since they started day care. Instead of brandy itself I decided to have this beer called Goliath from Le Grimoire Microbrasserie, another find from our recent Quebec trip. This beer is brewed with cognac. It was an interesting experiment but I'm not sure if I'd rush back for a second shot at it. I appreciate the risks they took but sometimes when you take risks you miss the mark.


Afterward I had this Hurlevent from Le Trèfle Noir. This was a competently done Belgian-style dubbel and a nice follow up to the risky cognac-infused beer that preceded it.


I stayed home with Elliott on Tuesday as he was still not cleared for day care. Elliott spent a good amount of time trying to (and succeeding in) toppling his learning farm as he is the World's Strongest Baby.


He was also unaware that he was actually sick and was in high-energy mode trying to tear off his bib during meals.


We also took a walk to the park where he delighted, once again, in the magic of the playground swing set.


It was a piece of cake putting him down for a nap where he looked kind of like a drunken hobo.


On Thursday I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a bottle of Doom from Founders Brewing Co. It was definitely one of the better beers I've had this year. It was extremely different in that it was barrel aged and had a beautiful tropical hop taste to it. I'm sad that I only had one bottle but, in my quest to taste every beer ever made, I must move on.


Saturday started with swim class. Last week I brought Elliott into the locker room where he was exposed to a veritable cornucopia of male genitalia. This week it was Martin's turn and he enjoyed sitting on the floor wrapped in his towel while the nude older gentleman standing above him chatted about his grandkids.


Nana STIM and Grandpa came to visit in the afternoon and Martin was quick to show off his new favorite trick, sticking out his tongue. He stuck it out in the morning.


He stuck it out in the evening.


And he stuck it out in the afternoon.

We took a nice walk into town and hung out with the babies in the park. Elliott flirted with an older lady that walked by. Most ladies are older when compared to Elliott.


I displayed excellent parenting skills by drinking this hefeweizen by Hefeweizen from Lake Placid Craft Brewing while we ate our lunch in the park. I think technically this is against the law but I figured we'd probably be pretty safe from scrutiny by the police as I was with my wife, two babies, and my parents. Besides, I'd seen Natural Light cans amongst the trees in that park in the past so they'd at least have to give me points for selecting a higher quality beer.


After a long family nap, interspersed with packing, we did our annual tradition of drinking mint juleps and not watching the Kentucky Derby. This is an annual tradition because that's about how long it takes Jen to forget that she doesn't like mint juleps and request them again.



My parents had a great day with the guys. Jen and I had a great day of doing the laundry and trying to get the house cleaned for our return trip home.


Once the babies were asleep we had a very late dinner and I made these two pizzas with pepperoni, broccoli rabe, mozzarella, and ricotta. It was the most painless way I could find to feed us all while dirtying the fewest number of dishes and therefore keeping our travel plans mostly on track.

It has been a great week. Here's to hoping the next week and the babies' first plane flight goes a bit more smoothly. I can't wait to see our family so that they can help us with the babies and we can sleep and generally loaf around see how much the wombats have grown!

Wish us luck.