Post-Thanksgiving Recap

My apologies to all of you eagerly awaiting my blog posts. Okay I guess that is probably just Mom - sorry Mom! We have been busy entertaining the "Quincy contingent" -- Aunt Abby, Uncle Mike, and cousin Charlie, who arrived Thursday and are departing bright and early tomorrow morning. So here's the recap:

1. Successful turkey cooking with the help of Switchin Kitchens for all the side dishes, so the actual meal preparation was not nearly as arduous as it could have been.

2. The cousins have been getting along well for the most part -- Charlie idolizes Ben and is very possessive of him so the only issues we've had in that respect have been when Ben has tried to play with someone else... Charlie yelled at one of the neighborhood kids when she tried to come over to play ("That's MY Ben!") and threw sand at one of Ben's school friends who we happened to run into at the park. He just does not want to share "his" Ben. Becca follows the two of them around trying to compete for some of Charlie's attention -- "Hey Chah-yee! Hey Chah-yee! HEY CHAH-YEE!" (No response). There has also been some toy sharing issues between the two of them. Okay, a lot of sharing issues. But overall, lots of good cousin fun.

3. Friday we took the kids to Monkey Joe's and then Abby and I went out to dinner and a movie, and Saturday we went to the Schiele Museum enroute to which Joel got a $380 traffic ticket for failing to get out of the right hand lane when passing a police car conducting a traffic stop on the shoulder -- I didn't even know there was such a rule -- so I will call that excursion not terrifically successful. Sunday we went to Freedom Park and the Nature Museum, and today (with Ben and Becca back at school) Abby and I did some shopping.

4. tomorrow it's back to business as usual, but I shall leave you with a hodge-podge of random pictures taken over the last five days....

To-Do List

My day-before-Thanksgiving to-do list looked something like this:

1. 9:30 a.m. appointment with cleaning service to do a walk-through & estimate
2. Occupy Ben somehow, off from school today, while working at the same time
3. Pick up pre-assembled side dishes for tomorrow's meal
4. Drop Ben off at the hospital so he could hang out/have lunch with Joel (who had a half day today)
5. Be back by 2pm to supervise delivery and assembly of an elliptical machine (while working)
6. Fix dinner, start the turkey brining (while working).

This was all totally screwed up by Ben, who very early in the day started complaining that his ear hurt. I took him to the doctor in time slot #2 above, which of course screwed up the "while working at the same time" part. #3 above was done while Ben howled in increasing pain, and #4 was replaced by "take Ben to the drug store for tylenol with codeine where he howled in pain and begged for medicine for the entire 20 minutes it took to get the prescription filled". Numbers 5 and part of 6 were with the addition of "while Ben howled in pain because the tylenol with codeine wasn't working".

Finally the medicine kicked in and he happily played computer games with Joel, allowing me to get some of my to-do list done in peace! Turkey is not in the brine yet, and I am going to be finishing up some stuff for work later tonight, but it's all good... I think...

Totally psyched to see Abby, Mike, and Charlie tomorrow!

I Finally Have my Old Kitchen Back!

Back in, oh April sometime I think, Joel decided he wanted to paint the kitchen. He primed a couple of walls, put some paint samples up, and then did nothing.... for months... Eventually he decided he didn't like any of the paint samples he'd put up and didn't feel like painting the whole kitchen, and didn't feel like hiring someone to paint it for him, so he decided he was going to re-paint the kitchen the same color it was before.

By this point I'd been living with paint-smeared kitchen walls for like half a year, and I didn't care what the hell he did as long as MY KITCHEN WAS PAINTED ONE SOLID COLOR BEFORE THANKSGIVING.

So here we are, a couple of days before Thanksgiving, and Joel finished painting the kitchen! The exact same color it was before. Only it wasn't even just as easy as that because he didn't have enough of the original paint, so had to go buy some, which turned out to be the wrong finish, so then he had to go buy some more.

Let's all make fun of him now.

Bonus Room

(Minus elliptical, which is arriving Wednesday).

It's a Good Thing She Has a Hard Head

Becca ran full speed into a table while we were out doing errands this morning. It was out on the sidewalk in front of a store, and rather than go around it, as there was plenty of room to do so, she ran straight into it even though she appeared to be looking where she was going. She hit it right between the eyes, so hard that it knocked her over flat on her back on the sidewalk. I, walking a few steps behind her, was absolutely horrified, but after a few minutes it became apparent that she had no other injuries except the one in between her eyes which Joel assured me is a very thick part of the skull! She is fine now. She just looks like she, well, ran full speed into a table.

Deceptively Angelic

Kathleen was kind enough to send me a picture of Becca she took last weekend. I especially like the halo effect.

More Pee, And Some Other Stuff

1. Rebecca peed on the potty AGAIN tonight! This was her second straight successful peeing attempt. This time she sat down on the potty with a very determined look, and refused to get up until some pee was forthcoming.

2. Ben successfully tested for his yellow belt at Tae Kwon Do yesterday. Of course, being the absent-minded guy he is, he forgot to tell me about it beforehand. So I MISSED GETTING TO SEE HIM BREAK A BOARD! Okay, it was less board-ish and more small-piece-of-balsa-wood-ish, but still! So proud, so proud...

3. Joel spent his week off buying me a 50 inch Samsung plasma TV for our bedroom, which is replacing the 46 inch Sony LCD we had in our room, which is going (has gone already I should say) up into the bonus room. He also bought me an elliptical trainer, so that I can work out in the bonus room while watching a very large TV. Way to go Joel!! Quality way to spend vacation time, I must say. Neither purchase is actually in-house yet, but we are hoping to have them both before Thanksgiving.

4. In reference to #3 above, Joel moved the 46 inch Sony up to the bonus room today. After dinner tonight Becca headed into our bedroom to demand we put Backyardigans on for her (as is her usual after dinner habit) and when she went into the room she stopped, looked all around with a very puzzled look on her face, and yelled, "WHERE MY PEEDEE GO??"

Pee Pee on the Potty!

A milestone -- Becca peed on the potty last night!! Not intentionally, really; she just happened to be sitting on her potty seat naked while waiting for me to get her bath ready, and some pee came out. She was quite surprised, and I don't think she really knew what it was. She looked in the potty and said, "Water! I got water!" and then she immediately tried to lift out the potty seat to dump the pee -- where? not sure because I quickly took it from her ;) I called for Joel and Ben and we all gave her a round of applause. She beamed at her accomplishment, though still not really seeming sure of what exactly the fuss was about! No pictures, as I'm not really one of those photograph-bodily-fluids kind of type... as I am sure you'll thank me for...

You Can't Put a Price on Fun in the Snow

Or, maybe you can... apparently it's $35 per person age 3 and over, for two hours. So it is at SnowParkUSA which opens at Symphony Park (about ten minutes from here) next Friday, and stays open through March. It sounds awesome, if not a little bit pricey... I mean, what could be better than getting to enjoy playing in the snow, without the hassle of, well, you know, snow? I am sure we'll check it out ourselves at some point this winter, despite the steep price tag... if we can get in. Looks like it's pretty much sold out through December already. Mittens? Hats? Do we own such things??

Becca's Pirate Dance

Weekend with Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathleen

We've had a busy and fun weekend hosting Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathleen! They arrived Friday, at about the same time as the weather miraculously cleared up, and we could not have asked for a more gorgeous weekend! Today was sunny and in the upper 70s, and yesterday was sunny and mid-70s. Yesterday we took the kids to the North Carolina Renaissance Festival, and later Nanny came over to babysit so we could take Mike out for his birthday. We went to Chima, a Brazilian barbecue, and ate vast quantities of meat which later woke me up at 5:30 a.m with a stomach ache. But totally worth it!

This morning we enjoyed some more gorgeous weather -- Kathleen and I took the kids for walk at the Greenway -- and this afternoon the kids went to see Sesame Street Live with Nanny and Papa. Joel and Mike watched football while Kathleen and I shopped and went out to dinner. Who could ask for a better day???

In the next few posts below I have put some pictures and video from our weekend.

Ben Evens The Score

Ben Plays D

Ben got to play a lot of basketball with his favorite Uncle this weekend. Good defense Ben!!

Renaissance Faire

Saturday we took the kids to the Renaissance Faire. The weather was beautiful, the Faire was extremely crowded, and the kids were somewhat grouchy, whiny, and coughing and snotting profusely. We did manage to squeeze a little bit of fun and a few good pictures out of the event before deciding to call it a "semi-failed experiment" (as Uncle Mike put it) and head home.

It Has Been Raining For 48 Hours Straight

Not the subject of this post, necessarily, but true. It has also been cold and windy - in the 40s today. YUCK!! Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathleen arrive tomorrow, and according to the forecast the weekend will be warm and sunny, in the 70s. Hooray for Mike and Kathleen, miraculous changers of weather!

Let's see, what's going on... Ben had off for Veteran's day yesterday, and spent the day with the JCC's J-Team program bowling and swimming. Thank goodness for that! It is nice to know that he has fun things to do with friends on days off from school rather than watching TV all day while I work. Rebecca's first parent-teacher conference -- if you can call it that -- was yesterday, and her teacher confirmed what I have known all along... that Rebecca is an awesome kid! ;)

Remember how I mentioned whenever Rebecca sees a particular picture of a starfish in one of her books and calls it a cookie? Well last night Ben was "reading" to Rebecca and he accidentally called a picture of a snail a cinnamon roll! I guess it did kind of look like a cinammon roll.... he was very cute and sheepish when I pointed out (after I finished dying on the floor laughing) that the picture was not of a cinnamon roll.

This morning on the way to preschool Becca was looking out the window at the other cars on the road, and she noticed (I guess for the first time) the exhaust coming out of the tailpipe of the car in front of us. Since it looked like steam (especially in the cold and rain this morning) she said, "Oh God! Look! That car is hot!" I have NO idea where she gets "Oh God" from -- I don't say it -- but oh god, it's cute!

Cake Cake!

Yesterday I took Rebecca to a classmate's birthday party at Plaza Fiesta. I had never been, but had heard of it, so it was neat to go. They have a two story indoor playground - picture a McDonald's Play Place on steroids, perhaps? Rebecca wasted no time in climbing all the way to the top (with me close behind her). Once up there we chose to go down one of the big corkscrew slides -- not a very well-thought-out decision, as it was a bit scary for me, let alone for poor Rebecca on my lap. She seemed slightly traumatized after that and preferred to stick to the smaller slides thereafter. She had lots of fun running around with her little friends, but was very impatient during lunch (waiting for birthday cake). Who could blame her? Tres leche birthday cake.... Mmmmmm....

Ben had his last soccer game of the season yesterday, and cupcakes afterwards, though I missed out on seeing his final game because I ended up having to work yesterday afternoon (BOOOO...). After soccer we had birthday Chinese takeout and MORE CAKE! to celebrate Nanny's birthday. Rebecca got lots of practice with her "Happy Bah Day to You" song and eating "Happy Bah Day to You cake", as she calls it. Or sometimes just, "cake cake".

Although she doesn't know it yet, she will get to sing Happy Bah Day to You AGAIN this weekend when Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathleen visit, and we celebrate Mike's birthday! YEAH! More Cake cake!

Boy Vs. Food

This afternoon during Rebecca's nap Ben and I were watching Man Vs. Food on the Travel Channel. We happened to catch the episode where Adam takes on an ice cream challenge -- to eat two gallons of ice cream with whipped cream and toppings in under an hour. This was the first time Ben had seen the show, and he was totally sucked into it. "Will we get to see him throw up?" he mused. (If you're wondering, he did not throw up, and he did successfully complete the challenge).

Fast forward to tonight after dinner, when we stopped into Ben and Jerry's for dessert. Ben almost never finishes ice cream, so I thought it was vaguely unusual that he was polishing off his kids cup of cookie dough ice cream with gummy bears and chocolate sprinkles with a singleminded determination... Then he set down his empty cup an announced, "Man vs. Food... MAN WON!!"

Thursday Update

I seem to be doing a lot of "Thursday updates" lately, huh... it generally means nothing particularly interesting is going on but if I go any longer without blogging, someone will call or email to ask why I have fallen off the face of the Earth. However, that is too long of a title for a blog post so "Thursday update" will have to do.

1. We let Ben stay up for the first hour of each of games 5 and 6 of the World Series. Upon learning this morning that the Phillies lost, he announced, "Well, I wanted the Yankees to win anyway." To which I replied, "Don't say that to your father!"

2. I have received some unusual items in the mail this week, including a framed drawing of a deer that I drew when I was 5 years old and home sick from kindergarten one day -- I do have a vague memory of drawing it; I think my mom's point in sending it was to say that Ben's inability to draw does NOT come from my side of the family. My sister-in-law also sent me 5 boxes of Japanese curry, which I think is her way of saying that I need to fatten Ben up and Japanese curry will be just the thing to do it. Thank you Mom, and thank you Miki! I think we will be having curry for dinner tomorrow...

3. I was forced to make my bi-yearly pilgrimmage to the opthamologist this morning, thanks to a letter from the DMV stating that they needed to periodically review my ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. For the honor and privilege of being poked and prodded for two hours (and I didn't even let them dilate my pupils -- told them I'd come back for that later) I had to shell out $112. $35 copay to see a specialist, and $77 for the visual field acuity test they gave me, which is not covered by insurance because it is not a medical requirement (only a DMV requirement). I will add this to my mental list, which I have been keeping for 33 years now, of why I do not like eye doctors.

4. Plans this weekend include three birthday parties (Ben is an invitee to two, and Becca to one) which I think might be a birthday party record. We've done two in a weekend before, but never three I think. Ben also has his last soccer game on Sunday, and I think an after-soccer party also. Party overload! I am sure it will be fun though (if tiring).

That's all I've got...

Becca Sings ABCs

Here she is folks, at only 2 years 1 month, singing her ABCs... though she did get a little confused at the end... clearly a prodigy nonetheless :)