Declarations of Love

Several weeks ago, when Will and Mom were in town, Henry and I sat waiting in the car for everyone else to finish up in the hardware store. We were trying to play I Spy ("Play I Pie Mom!") which wasn't very successful because the parking lot was fairly desolate. When Will, Mom and Pete came out of the hardware store Will was carrying a bag of free popcorn for Henry. I hesitated and then said I wasn't sure he could have it- he hadn't had popcorn before, it's a big choking hazard etc. But I gave in and let him have it. Henry had been listening carefully to the whole exchange and he tried out his popcorn quite thoughtfully. He ate several pieces and then looked up and said "I yuv popcorn!" This was Henry's first spontaneous declaration of love. A few days ago he had another one "I yuv play-doh!"
However, when we were having a good-morning cuddle this morning our conversation went a little more like this:
Me: "You know what? I love you."
Henry: "You know what? I want bepfast!"

Nyaa Nyaa!

Mother Nature is sticking her tongue out at us after that early warm-weather tease. So, while we're stuck inside today (rainy and 49 F.) I'll post a few remaining warm day pics.
Here is the tiniest little plant I ever did see.
I had to sacrifice a few hosta(s?) while digging up my new vegetable garden spot. I just didn't have it in me to try to relocate them (did enough of that last year). I did try to relocate a few daylillies. They are now surrounding Bart who is back in his under-the-shrub spot after a brief winter vacation to the patio. Anyway, the point is that I think maybe that tiny plant is a little baby hosta.
Here's Henry barking at the screen door ("I'm a puppy dog!) Franklin came over to get a few barks in too. Poor Linus may never venture out there again.
Here are the tomatoes and peppers I'm starting. We'll call this the 'before' picture.
Henry and Papa spent some time bird watching in the yard. Henry's learning to identify birds by their songs as well as by sight. We're all learning together, actually. So far Henry can tell the Mourning Dove by it's song and the Red Wing Blackbird by sight.
But now it's cold and icky! Henry seems to be trying to bring a little bit of warmth to the day by talking about birthdays...
Henry: "and Franklin's birthday and the pillow's birthday and the drum's birthday....where are your presents?"
Me: "I don't know! Where are my presents?"
Henry: "Papa's finding them."
Me: "Oh good."

Lasagnyum!

Henry and I made some lasagna for dinner.
First step: Lie down on the floor in the middle of the grocery store because you don't want to get in the cart. (I wish someone would push me around the grocery in a cart! I wouldn't lie down on the floor and throw a tantrum to avoid it!) Fortunately, the tantrum was short and I don't think the parents of any former or current students saw us.
So we got the groceries and headed home. I did all the prep work and then Pete brought Henry's table in. Here he is adding the first layer of sauce.
Here is the almost completed lasagna. There was surprisingly minimal mess.
When cooking with a child it helps to have one of these around to help with clean-up:
Here is the finished and very messy over-stuffed lasagna (a few pieces already removed):
Henry wanted to keep his table in the family room/kitchen to eat. I sat with him, Pete chose to sit at the regular-sized table.
Note: Wearing orange and/or stripes is conducive to hiding lasagna stains. I have not yet discovered what is conducive to hiding the mess in the family room.

Beautification

Henry and I tried a local garden shop this morning and were unimpressed. We made only one purchase (see Henry's head in photos 2, 4 and 5).
So we decided to try Gigantic Chain Home Improvement Store instead. We found a wider selection of fairly priced plants and spent too much money.
Here are the planters that came with the house:
Notice their ugly plastic-ness.
And here is a cute little boy in a new frog visor preparing our new planters from the local hardware store:
Notice the little brick pagodas I built to raise them up a bit. I wasn't quite sure that they were big enough, or tall enough or something. I bought some plant stands, which turned out to be too wimpy. Fortunately, our house came with lots of random bricks placed around the driveway and the backyard. This is the second useful purpose I have found for them in two days, the first being to expand the vegetable garden-to-be.
And here is the planter all filled with the new plants:
Notice the tallness I added with the spikey plant. Henry did most of the choosing of the flowers. He couldn't seem to decide upon color, so we just bought a bunch. Snapdragons towards the back, pansies and then violas at the front.
Here is Henry showing off the newly beautified entrance. He wanted me to take several shots like this.
And here is the planting Henry did in the old planters:

Nice Weekend

The great weather this weekend, plus Mom being in town made for niceness all around.
On Saturday we met Grandma and Bampa at the Deerfield library for an exhibition by the North Central O Gaugers club. We spent almost an hour watching the trains go around.
Last night Pete and I took advantage of the built-in babysitter and went out to dinner and a movie. We saw The Namesake and quite enjoyed it except for the fact that we had to sit in the second row. I don't like when you have to physically turn your head to see the whole screen at a movie.
This morning Henry and Mom donned their ear protection and played some drums.

The rest of the day was spent in the backyard. Spring is really here!
Pete cleaned out the garage, Mom cleaned out the back porch, Henry worked in the sand and I ran around doing various things like making trips to the hardware store and Starbucks and putting Henry down for a nap.
I also took on this project:
I decided that I want this to be the spot for my vegetable garden, but it wasn't quite large enough. So I moved the bricks and started to dig up the sod. I called Pete in to help with the sod while I started placing the bricks around the new, larger plot. Above is the before, below is the after shot. It may not look like a lot, but it's a considerably larger spot and it took quite a bit of muscle. I've started some tomatoes and peppers from seeds inside. I also have peas and squash to try out this year. My first real attempt at vegetables from seed.

I also did some work on the back of the yard. I raked up the soil around the back fence and scattered seeds for some blue stem grass and several wild flowers. I found all of the seeds on a rack of native plants at a local garden shop. I think I'll go back for more. I'm very excited to see how they do. Here's a photo of the back patio while everything was in full swing. We managed to get everything tidied up and back inside before dinner.
Dinner was chicken tika masala with jasmine rice and wilted spinach. Pretty tasty. I found a good ready-made sauce at Whole Foods, which made everything quite easy.

We tried to watch Cars before bed, but everyone (Henry and Mom) got quite sleepy. It's only 8:10 now, but I'm wondering how much longer I'll stay awake...

And here, just because I feel like there was a dearth of fun Henry photos on this posting, is a photo of Henry with a Pull-Up diaper on his head. He did this entirely by himself. Then he spent a lot of time in front of the mirror laughing at himself.

Forgot to mention...

The This American Life that includes clips from the live shows like the one we attended is now online. You can get the free podcast for maybe a few more days...?
I haven't heard it yet, but have it in my itunes, so if you miss it you can always listen to it at my house.
That's all.

Grand Central Station

I've mentioned to a few people that our house has felt like Grand Central Station lately, what with all the coming and going. I'm not complaining at all- it has been very nice. It's just made things a little crazy, but you know, the good kind of crazy that you kind of feel fortunate to have.
Will and Mom were here over the weekend. Will and Pete played Mr.'s Fix-It. They installed a new ceiling fan, which has lights- so we don't have to use that horrid and unsightly light fixture you see on the beam in this photo. They also fixed the stove so that it doesn't stick way out into the kitchen anymore. Will got some cookies for his efforts.
While Will and Mom were here we all went up to Deerfield to celebrate Peter Sr.'s birthday. Mary fixed a yummy German meal, capped off with German Chocolate cake. Will almost ate a Brussels sprout, but transferred it to my plate at the last minute. Henry, of course, captivated all present with his delightful antics. Thanks to Mary and Peter for including my side of the family in the celebration. It's nice when we can all get together.
We spent Sunday's pleasant weather outside. Henry and I wanted to show everyone else the nature center that we first discovered in the fall.
We spent lots of time looking at the birds and trying to get the sleepy fox to look up.
We also did lots of stomping in puddles and around through the woods. We saw some deer, a few woodpeckers and lots of squirrels. That night we went out for dinner to celebrate Mom's birthday. It was a yummy dinner, but about the longest wait I've had in a restaurant ever. They did give us a couple of free desserts, which was nice. Happy Birthday Mom!
Monday morning Will went off to a work thing and Mom went back home. In the afternoon Pete left for a week-long class in Madison. Will came back for one more night (we ate cookies for dinner) and then he left on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon Dad came into town for a couple of days. He had a consulting thing at Northwestern, but we had a good time enjoying the nice weather. Henry and I also showed Dad around the children's museum- which he thought was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of Dad's time here, but I do have this picture of Henry enjoying the last bits of snow in our yard. The snow is all gone now, and I hope it stays away until next winter. We're very much looking forward to spending time in our yard. I'm starting to make some big plans for improving the look of the front of the house...stay tuned! I'm sure there will be many stories of hijinx and disaster to come. Dad left on Thursday and Pete came home on Friday. Things seem to be settling down for a while. On our agenda for later today, though, is to look at calendars and start to make plans for the spring and summer...oh where does the time go?

Squirrelly McFluffytail (update)

Squirrelly McFluffytail made a brave escape from our back porch, at least, that is what all evidence indicates at this point in time. Henry was napping and Pete was out of town at the time of the incident. Franklin, surprisingly, was not going crazy insane over the near presence of a squirrel. (Is "near presence" redundant?)
I first noticed Squirrelly McFluffytail when I was sitting on the couch, absorbed in Harry Potter (Half-Blood Prince- more on that later) and I heard a small crash in the back yard. When I looked out I saw that the lid was off the birdseed mini-trashcan. There was a big fluffy tail hopping about. I grabbed the camera and went to a closer window. At this point Squirrelly had clearly figured out that he was trapped, because he was running all over the porch in a horizontal fashion- clinging to the screens trying to find a way out. I took a few pictures, chuckling to myself, while I tried to figure out the quietest way to let Squirrelly out. I envisioned several unpleasant scenarios ranging from the mild (waking Henry up) to the disastrous (me in the backyard, swinging a broom blindly with a rabid squirrel clinging to my face and the dog barking furiously doing circles around my ankles, thus waking Henry).
The actual outcome was anti-climactic. I propped the door open with a rock and came back to the porch where I could keep watch. Squirrelly must have escaped while my back was turned, because I never saw him again. Though, some nights I lie awake listening to the noises of the night, wondering if Squirrelly is out there, once again enjoying his freedom...

The elusive Squirrelly McF tries to hide his face, thus concealing his identity.

Happy St. Pat's

Hats off to you on this happy green day!!

Squirrelly McFluffytail

There is lots to blog about, since I haven't posted anything for a while. But, you know, sometimes you just don't feel like blogging.

And then a squirrel gets trapped in your porch.

Blowing Kisses

Henry has just fallen asleep for his nap. I tucked him in, read a couple books and then sat on the floor reading to myself while he settled himself in. It worked like a charm. He fell asleep within 15 minutes. Before nodding off, though, he was restless...playing with his "friends" and burying his soccer ball in the covers. While trying to lay back on the pillow he bonked the top of his head on the wall. Instead of turning to me and crying he kissed his own hand, layed it atop his head and blew a little puff of air. He blew himself a kiss to heal his own little hurt! Brilliant and adorable!

Rock Star

Thanks to our pal Jonah, and an unfortunate stomach bug (sorry Jonah, hope you and your folks are feeling better!) Henry got to go to his first ever rock concert. It was at 10:30 on Saturday morning. Ralph's World live! On stage! At the House of Blues! Heavily endorsed by Kellog's! We took the photo op for Will, who had to remind me that he works for the other guys. (I already knew this- that's why we took the picture.)
Henry was mesmerized by the lights even before the show started.
He mostly felt pretty mellow during the show. I'm not sure if it was the volume or the crowd, but his dancing was minimal. He did do a small rendition of the Fancy Pants Dance which his papa taught him. This is a a dance which involves sort of a circular hips and hands motion with a subtle "oh yeah".
Ralph played several of our favorites, including Dinosaur Rumble, Teddy Bear Named Freddy Bear and The Coffee Song (m-o-mm-y needs c-o-ff-ee, d-a-dd-y needs c-o-ff-ee).
After the show Henry surprised us by not falling immediately asleep in the car. So we had lunch at Nookies. Henry loves pancakes. I'm afraid I've created a monster.

Happy Birthday Bob.

A big 3-4 to Rob today! Happy happy!
Here's an especially studly photo of the birthday boy....

Gyotaku

Yesterday was a crappy weather day again. (When will it be spring?!?) Henry and I ventured out into the blustery-ness to spend some time at the Children's Museum. They have an exhibit right now of Japanese children's activities. The art room was dedicated to Gyotaku which is, apparently, the Japanese art of fish printing.
Instead of real fish, they had very realistic rubbery fish.
Henry would press the fish down onto a foam pad of paint. Then he used a roller to press it down.
Then he'd carry the fish over and slap it down on his paper. One side of each fish was textured like a real fish, so the fins and scales would create interesting patterns.
On our way out Henry wanted to stop at this light table to play with the colorful clear legos. He decided to leave when two other kids came. He's not so sure about new kids...
Here's the finished print, hanging on our fridge. Beautiful, isn't it?

This American Life

Two tickets to a show, including handling charge: $120
Dinners of filet mignon and chicken breast, with a salad and 3 glasses of wine: $99
Tip: $20
Downtown parking for 4 1/2 hours: $27
North-Suburban babysitter for 6 hours: $48
Experiencing Ira Glass, Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff and Dan Savage live: Priceless
An evening out with the husband: Priceless
Coming home to a snoozing tot and finding out he wasn't so hard to put down to bed after all: Priceless!!

Okay! Okay!!

Amber posted a comment, so now I can move on with all of the important blogging I have to do... Actually, I don't have much to write about...that's why my blog has been stale.
But here are a couple pictures from our bad-weather weekend. We were supposed to go to Schuba's Saturday night to hear Brett Dennon, but we decided not to risk the weather. Instead we stayed in and had fondue.
I had seen Rachel Ray make a beer and cheese fondue, and it seemed like a perfect snowy night meal. I had to run to the grocery to get some beer and other items. Of course I saw a few people I know from school. Seems like every time I go to the local grocery I'm buying alcohol, and I always see a parent of a student. Just the other night I was there again to buy sherry for a soup recipe...
Here's what it looked like in our backyard. Poor Bart has put up with a lot of weather, but I guess that's the life of a garden gnome.
Next morning we had chocolate chip pancakes. Pete's holding his fancy boyscout "Leader" mug. Henry has his Elmo jammies on. My pancakes are waiting there with the comics. Gotta love Sundays!
And that's about it. Dad and Kathie were just here for a couple nights, but I didn't take any photos, and we didn't do much out-of-the-ordinary. Tonight Henry gets a babysitter and Pete and I are going out to a This American Life live-audience show downtown. It's my Valentine's present. I'm excited! But a little worried about how Henry will be at bedtime...we've been having some separation issues lately that overlap into bedtime. If there's anything interesting to report I'll blog again tomorrow.
Sorry for the boring post...just a little taste of our typical life...