Monday, December 31, 2007
More on Star Wars
Here's how the day has gone down so far. Both boys woke up and ran to play Star Wars Lego on the GameCube. Then Otto got out all the ships that we built over Christmas and played with them on the table, so that he could watch Max's game progress at the same time. Then they both wanted to make a movie of their Star Wars Legos, which we did with the video game paused in the background. They shot almost an hour of footage. Max just likes to make the movies at this point. He has no interest in actually watching them. Someday, there's going to be a LOT of footage to go through. Wonder if he ever will.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Max's Missing Teeth
Hard to see, especially since Max does not particularly want it to be photographed, but here is Max's current smile, missing his two front teeth and two on the bottom sides (the middle two bottom teeth appear to be taking up the space where his front teeth should be). If you zoom in for a closer look, you'll see.
Tearing Down the House(s)
The boys destroyed their gingerbread houses so fast this year that I didn't even get a "before" photo. Also of note, Max got hit in the eye with a flying gumball, and then they both opted to wear their safety goggles. We tried to eat some of the houses because it seemed so wasteful to just throw them away, but they were not very good. Otto did chew every gumball enough to get all the candy coating off and then spit the remainder into a bowl. There was a big bowl full of chewed up gum at the end, but I'll spare you that image (well, not mentally, I guess).
Saturday, December 29, 2007
All I Want for Christmas...
We had a really nice Christmas holiday with my parents in Franklin (outside of Nashville, Tennessee). We made a mini vacation out of it on the way down, stopping in Columbus, Indiana for the night. We stayed at the Columbus Inn, right in downtown Columbus and walked the minute or two to a nearby Italian restaurant, Tre Bicchieri, where we were by chance seated at the chef's table (really due to the fact that the restaurant was otherwise full and we were at the end of the rush), so we felt like special guests, sitting in the back amidst all the family photos, peeking in the kitchen, where the staff waved at us.
Max's front tooth was really loose throughout the meal, and you can see here that he was fiddling with it.
After dinner, we walked through the downtown and admired the street lights and the many sculptures (Columbus is a town that has a lot of wonderful art and architecture). We read a story about a little homesick mouse on Christmas that was illustrated by different artists and displayed in different store windows on the main street in town.
Back at the hotel, Max was running around and fell down on the floor, banged his mouth and knocked his front right tooth so hard that he sat up and said, "it's too wiggly, it has to come out," and stuck his hand in his mouth and pulled it right out. It was a relief in so many ways that it went so simply (not really by his choice, but for a very anxious child, this was a great way to dispense with the stress). The tooth fairy brought him a crisp $1 bill, and Max concluded that "this must be what tooth fairies do in other countries." Never mind that we were only one state away from home.
Here we are at the Columbus Starbucks, fortifying ourselves for the drive.
We arrived at my parents house on Sunday afternoon. We spent the afternoon relaxing together and, what else, eating. :) We built some Lego creations to celebrate the season.
On Monday, Christmas Eve, we were busy. Usually my parents have the tree cut and decorated, but this year has been pretty hectic for them, with many renovations on the house still in progress, and they had no time to get a tree. I told them that in Chicago we drive 75 miles for the privilege of cutting down our own tree and wondered how they would even think this was anything short of fantastic. Max and Martin and Grandpa went out in the afternoon on what we thought would be an hour excursion. In less than 15 minutes, they had returned, victorious.
On the walk, they visited the playhouse that Grandpa had designed and built for his grandsons. This is the kind of playhouse you get when your grandpa is an architect. Someday, we hope they will have great campouts there.
They had spotted the perfect tree in only minutes (well, shhhh, don't tell anyone, but they spotted that really fine looking tree on the neighbor's property, and Max apparently said that was the tree he wanted, and his obliging grandpa cut it and ran, so they say). I'm surprised Martin managed to get a photo of him in the act, and I realize by publishing the story here, were are incriminating ourselves. Hopefully the neighbor has no idea I even have a blog and since they are friendly, perhaps he wouldn't hold it against us anyway.
My parents usually get a really tall tree, so my mom has a system for putting the lights and ribbons on the tree before they even stand it up. We all helped with that process and realized it made a lot of sense.
There was lots of baking. We decorated cookies for Santa, so he'd have something to eat on his stop. for goodness' sake.
We tried to get a head start on all the Christmas meals, knowing we'd want to play all day. So we made the sweet rolls for the morning breakfast and the bran rolls for the dinner. We prepared the roast and put it in the refrigerator. It looked like a beautiful porcupine (with rosemary and garlic spikes).
The boys, and by this, I mean the two grown men, made borscht for our Christmas Eve dinner, so we'd have something lovely and red to be festive. It was absolutely yummy.
We wrote our Santa letters, read some Christmas stories, sat by the fire for a while, and then we rang the big bell (my parents have my great uncle's bell, which was for years on their farm and presumably used to signal dinnertime and other such things) to let Santa know we were off to bed.
Otto fell asleep right away, but Max was up for another hour (or more) because his other front tooth was so loose, he felt it also had to come out. But we didn't have the advantage of a good knock or a fall (and we weren't suggesting one, but that method was definitely a lot less stressful for us all). He was very anxious and said it hurt so much (perhaps the area was sensitive from the knock he did receive when losing the other tooth). But anyway, Max just couldn't go to sleep with it so loose, but he couldn't bear for any of us to "help" remove it. The tooth was truly barely hanging in there, he could twist it all the way around. I don't know how it was even still attached, but it was. Finally, after more than an hour of what I think was extreme patience on everyone's part, Max finally agreed to let Martin give it "just ONE try," and luckily, one good try is all Martin needed. Max was so surprised that it actually came out he laughed out loud. But he said it still hurt like mad.
I had been thinking he was going to be able to sing "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." But then again, at the mere mention of this phrase in the previous days, he had become very upset, especially if it was spoken with the lisp that the song usually calls for. "I don't want to sound like that!" So we didn't sing the song, but I privately noted that he just made the deadline.
The tooth fairy brought him a bit of a bonus for the experience and a little note, written in very tiny writing, almost illegible. But she said it was quite a special thing to lose a tooth on Christmas Eve. Max was delighted with it. Visits from Santa and the Tooth Fairy in one night. It's pretty magical to be a kid.
And speaking of Santa...he definitely paid us a visit. He ate his cookies, drank his milk, filled our stockings. We had presents to open from Santa and from each other. We spent the morning dumping out our stockings and playing with those toys, then unwrapping all the other gifts. There were many Lego gifts, and we spent the better part of Christmas day putting them all together.
They also got some more Kapla blocks, and lots of wonderful art supplies for making more claymation and for painting. And some wonderful books.
We sat in front of the fire for most of the afternoon, building, reading, relaxing.
Christmas dinner: roast pork, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, green beans, bran rolls, cranberry salad.
For dessert, we made Crepes Suzette. We turned down the lights and got ready for the show, but we had some trouble making much of a flame. We had talked it up to the boys, and they were quietly watching and waiting for, well, I'm not sure what they thought. We were kind of disappointed, but I think they still liked the drama of it all, and it tasted wonderful.
To make up for that not completely successful attempt, we made flaming coffee on the next night—and that went as we hoped, with big flames that rolled down the goblets and onto the plate below. The boys had hot chocolate and whipped cream in lieu of the coffee, but we all enjoyed the show.
The day after Christmas has traditionally been games day in the our family, the quiet day when all the preparations are over and you can just relax and play with each other and all the new toys and games. We went on a little walk and visited the horses across the street (we took them carrots and apples and parsnips). Max collected some rusted metal objects from the side of the road. Otto fell asleep and was heavier than I remember, as I carried him up the very steep driveway.
It was our last night together, as we all had to leave in the morning, so we spent the afternoon trying to organize and pack up in addition to playing. We had a snack and played with some of their new clay. The boys watched some Star Wars movies and wanted to share their passion for these films with Grandma and Grandpa. And then we had a nice dinner with some of our fabulous leftover meals in new combinations. Topped off with that flaming coffee.
We watched as much as we could of Star Wars until everyone except Max was asleep.
Mom and Dad left early in the morning to spend New Year's weekend with my dad's brothers and sisters in Connecticut. They will gather for several days of cooking, painting and hanging out together at my aunt's beautiful home. The siblings have a great time together, and there is always much laughter. They will have a black tie dinner on New Year's Eve and then a pajama day on New Year's Day, where they watch movies all day and eat cassoulet. Sounds like a good way to start to the new year, embracing both sides of the celebration—ringing in the new year in style, but relaxing into it as much as possible the next day.
We left the house by 10, a pretty early start for our clan, and we stopped near Horse Cave Kentucky, not to see the caves, but to check out the fine dining at Jerry's Restaurant. Next time, we should probably visit the caves instead.
As for our New Year's Eve, we are planning to join some other friends for a tasty dinner at a neighborhood restaurant where we will "ring in the new year" at 8 pm (our pseudo-midnight) with a bunch of other families. Our late night children might just ring in the year at the actual midnight, but we'll probably do that at home, on the couch, already in our pajamas, most likely having to pause our Star Wars Lego game in order to make the toast.
On New Year's Day, we will drop by our friends annual gathering, an 11-11 affair that we have been attending since before Martin and I were married. Later that day, we have tickets for the Star Wars exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, which the kids have been wanting to see. I guess we'll start the new year much as we will finish the old one, the force with us, surrounding us. May the force be with you, too.
Max's front tooth was really loose throughout the meal, and you can see here that he was fiddling with it.
After dinner, we walked through the downtown and admired the street lights and the many sculptures (Columbus is a town that has a lot of wonderful art and architecture). We read a story about a little homesick mouse on Christmas that was illustrated by different artists and displayed in different store windows on the main street in town.
Back at the hotel, Max was running around and fell down on the floor, banged his mouth and knocked his front right tooth so hard that he sat up and said, "it's too wiggly, it has to come out," and stuck his hand in his mouth and pulled it right out. It was a relief in so many ways that it went so simply (not really by his choice, but for a very anxious child, this was a great way to dispense with the stress). The tooth fairy brought him a crisp $1 bill, and Max concluded that "this must be what tooth fairies do in other countries." Never mind that we were only one state away from home.
Here we are at the Columbus Starbucks, fortifying ourselves for the drive.
We arrived at my parents house on Sunday afternoon. We spent the afternoon relaxing together and, what else, eating. :) We built some Lego creations to celebrate the season.
On Monday, Christmas Eve, we were busy. Usually my parents have the tree cut and decorated, but this year has been pretty hectic for them, with many renovations on the house still in progress, and they had no time to get a tree. I told them that in Chicago we drive 75 miles for the privilege of cutting down our own tree and wondered how they would even think this was anything short of fantastic. Max and Martin and Grandpa went out in the afternoon on what we thought would be an hour excursion. In less than 15 minutes, they had returned, victorious.
On the walk, they visited the playhouse that Grandpa had designed and built for his grandsons. This is the kind of playhouse you get when your grandpa is an architect. Someday, we hope they will have great campouts there.
They had spotted the perfect tree in only minutes (well, shhhh, don't tell anyone, but they spotted that really fine looking tree on the neighbor's property, and Max apparently said that was the tree he wanted, and his obliging grandpa cut it and ran, so they say). I'm surprised Martin managed to get a photo of him in the act, and I realize by publishing the story here, were are incriminating ourselves. Hopefully the neighbor has no idea I even have a blog and since they are friendly, perhaps he wouldn't hold it against us anyway.
My parents usually get a really tall tree, so my mom has a system for putting the lights and ribbons on the tree before they even stand it up. We all helped with that process and realized it made a lot of sense.
There was lots of baking. We decorated cookies for Santa, so he'd have something to eat on his stop. for goodness' sake.
We tried to get a head start on all the Christmas meals, knowing we'd want to play all day. So we made the sweet rolls for the morning breakfast and the bran rolls for the dinner. We prepared the roast and put it in the refrigerator. It looked like a beautiful porcupine (with rosemary and garlic spikes).
The boys, and by this, I mean the two grown men, made borscht for our Christmas Eve dinner, so we'd have something lovely and red to be festive. It was absolutely yummy.
We wrote our Santa letters, read some Christmas stories, sat by the fire for a while, and then we rang the big bell (my parents have my great uncle's bell, which was for years on their farm and presumably used to signal dinnertime and other such things) to let Santa know we were off to bed.
Otto fell asleep right away, but Max was up for another hour (or more) because his other front tooth was so loose, he felt it also had to come out. But we didn't have the advantage of a good knock or a fall (and we weren't suggesting one, but that method was definitely a lot less stressful for us all). He was very anxious and said it hurt so much (perhaps the area was sensitive from the knock he did receive when losing the other tooth). But anyway, Max just couldn't go to sleep with it so loose, but he couldn't bear for any of us to "help" remove it. The tooth was truly barely hanging in there, he could twist it all the way around. I don't know how it was even still attached, but it was. Finally, after more than an hour of what I think was extreme patience on everyone's part, Max finally agreed to let Martin give it "just ONE try," and luckily, one good try is all Martin needed. Max was so surprised that it actually came out he laughed out loud. But he said it still hurt like mad.
I had been thinking he was going to be able to sing "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." But then again, at the mere mention of this phrase in the previous days, he had become very upset, especially if it was spoken with the lisp that the song usually calls for. "I don't want to sound like that!" So we didn't sing the song, but I privately noted that he just made the deadline.
The tooth fairy brought him a bit of a bonus for the experience and a little note, written in very tiny writing, almost illegible. But she said it was quite a special thing to lose a tooth on Christmas Eve. Max was delighted with it. Visits from Santa and the Tooth Fairy in one night. It's pretty magical to be a kid.
And speaking of Santa...he definitely paid us a visit. He ate his cookies, drank his milk, filled our stockings. We had presents to open from Santa and from each other. We spent the morning dumping out our stockings and playing with those toys, then unwrapping all the other gifts. There were many Lego gifts, and we spent the better part of Christmas day putting them all together.
They also got some more Kapla blocks, and lots of wonderful art supplies for making more claymation and for painting. And some wonderful books.
We sat in front of the fire for most of the afternoon, building, reading, relaxing.
Christmas dinner: roast pork, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, green beans, bran rolls, cranberry salad.
For dessert, we made Crepes Suzette. We turned down the lights and got ready for the show, but we had some trouble making much of a flame. We had talked it up to the boys, and they were quietly watching and waiting for, well, I'm not sure what they thought. We were kind of disappointed, but I think they still liked the drama of it all, and it tasted wonderful.
To make up for that not completely successful attempt, we made flaming coffee on the next night—and that went as we hoped, with big flames that rolled down the goblets and onto the plate below. The boys had hot chocolate and whipped cream in lieu of the coffee, but we all enjoyed the show.
The day after Christmas has traditionally been games day in the our family, the quiet day when all the preparations are over and you can just relax and play with each other and all the new toys and games. We went on a little walk and visited the horses across the street (we took them carrots and apples and parsnips). Max collected some rusted metal objects from the side of the road. Otto fell asleep and was heavier than I remember, as I carried him up the very steep driveway.
It was our last night together, as we all had to leave in the morning, so we spent the afternoon trying to organize and pack up in addition to playing. We had a snack and played with some of their new clay. The boys watched some Star Wars movies and wanted to share their passion for these films with Grandma and Grandpa. And then we had a nice dinner with some of our fabulous leftover meals in new combinations. Topped off with that flaming coffee.
We watched as much as we could of Star Wars until everyone except Max was asleep.
Mom and Dad left early in the morning to spend New Year's weekend with my dad's brothers and sisters in Connecticut. They will gather for several days of cooking, painting and hanging out together at my aunt's beautiful home. The siblings have a great time together, and there is always much laughter. They will have a black tie dinner on New Year's Eve and then a pajama day on New Year's Day, where they watch movies all day and eat cassoulet. Sounds like a good way to start to the new year, embracing both sides of the celebration—ringing in the new year in style, but relaxing into it as much as possible the next day.
We left the house by 10, a pretty early start for our clan, and we stopped near Horse Cave Kentucky, not to see the caves, but to check out the fine dining at Jerry's Restaurant. Next time, we should probably visit the caves instead.
As for our New Year's Eve, we are planning to join some other friends for a tasty dinner at a neighborhood restaurant where we will "ring in the new year" at 8 pm (our pseudo-midnight) with a bunch of other families. Our late night children might just ring in the year at the actual midnight, but we'll probably do that at home, on the couch, already in our pajamas, most likely having to pause our Star Wars Lego game in order to make the toast.
On New Year's Day, we will drop by our friends annual gathering, an 11-11 affair that we have been attending since before Martin and I were married. Later that day, we have tickets for the Star Wars exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, which the kids have been wanting to see. I guess we'll start the new year much as we will finish the old one, the force with us, surrounding us. May the force be with you, too.
Friday, December 14, 2007
I Do Like a Bit of Gorgonzola
We made some clay figures of Wallace and Gromit, to do some claymation. Stay tuned for our epic feature, "Wallace throws a ball to Gromit," still in production.
Winter Wonder Fest
Our annual visit to the Winter Wonder Fest at Navy Pier was a big success. It has been such a popular outing in this house that we are probably going to go again this season. (After five hours there, they were still asking for more.) It's like Pump It Up, but with a winter theme. Plus, there's all the fun of being at Navy Pier and going to the Children's Museum, which we didn't even do that day because we had positively too much fun at the fest itself.
They especially liked the inflated train obstacle course, which they did at least a dozen times, each time emerging and enthusiastically telling me, "there's air blowing on me in there!" (That was Otto, actually. Max was already running around to the front of the train to do it again.)
They decorated their own cookies. And by this, I mean they frosted them to within a 1/32 inch of their lives.
The giant candy cane pipe was a hit.
We climbed atop the ten foot rocking horse (I'm absolutely guessing its height, but it was a good view of the place and high enough to make me nervously hold onto Otto.)
Otto took some great pictures of the place as we zoomed by in the train.
They especially liked the inflated train obstacle course, which they did at least a dozen times, each time emerging and enthusiastically telling me, "there's air blowing on me in there!" (That was Otto, actually. Max was already running around to the front of the train to do it again.)
They decorated their own cookies. And by this, I mean they frosted them to within a 1/32 inch of their lives.
The giant candy cane pipe was a hit.
We climbed atop the ten foot rocking horse (I'm absolutely guessing its height, but it was a good view of the place and high enough to make me nervously hold onto Otto.)
Otto took some great pictures of the place as we zoomed by in the train.
Oh Christmas Tree
I realized I didn't post a picture of the finished tree. It's a bit blurry here, but with no flash (so you can see the lights) and a pretty unsteady hand, it's the best I've got.
We strung our own popcorn garland, which Martin thought was a lot of hard work for what we got (it did take a long time, and we ate a lot of the popcorn, rather than stringing it), but when I suggested we stop, both kids shouted and insisted we continue.
Also, the boys picked out the very largest candy canes they could find to hang on the tree, in anticipation of eating them all. They were both disappointed to realize the candy is "too spicy" for them. They are actually still on the tree, much to my surprise, since after they each had one, they decided they didn't want another.
We seem to have an edible tree theme going. If only we could find those lovely little chocolate ornaments that we always bought from Meyer's Delicatessen. We would eat our way through the ornaments, and by the time Christmas was over, our tree was only half-decorated. Sadly, Meyer's Deli, our source for German sausage and German candies, closed its doors this year.
So, we can't eat all the ornaments. And I wouldn't recommend it, actually, since many of them are glass. Several of the glass ones have already broken (cause: tree too big, house too small, each time we walk by, we seem to knock off an ornament or two). The left side of the tree is getting to be quite empty! But it's still really pretty, especially with all those lovely colored lights that the boys picked out.
Tag! You're It!
The simply wonderful Madeline has asked me to play tag. Not in the regular sense that I know the childhood game, but in this new (or perhaps not so new) way of playing tag that has evolved in the blogging world. I have seen these tag posts, almost everyone I know has done one, and I was somewhat relieved that I had never been asked to participate. But then again, it's really nice to be asked to come out and play, and so in this sense, I am happy to be included, so thank you, Madeline, for the opportunity.
Apparently this is called a meme. Is this a word I don't know and should? Is it like "Me! Me! Pick Me!" ? Or it related to memento? But anyway, here are the rules:
1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.
Just a little preface: I don't even intend to be brief. See Item number 1.
1. I am rarely, if ever, brief. Even if I start out with the intentions to be brief, giving myself a little pep talk before beginning a conversation (or blog entry, for instance), when I start talking (or typing--and even more if typing, actually, because no one can cut me off and bring me to my senses), it is all forgotten. And to make things more difficult, I talk too fast, so fast that my own brain cannot keep up, much less someone else understand it. (Imagine my German born husband, who has to keep up with me in a second language! How does he do it?)
2. I don't like wooden popsicle sticks, I can't finish the end of a frozen treat that is on one, and if I get even a little bit of it in my mouth, it gives me the heebeegeebees. Even typing this out gave me shivers.
3. I am afraid of our basement (well, any basement) at night (and I have been since I was a child). When I walk in, I often announce my intentions: "I'm here, I don't intend to cause any alarm, I'm just getting the laundry, I'm unloading it now," or whatever else it is I'm doing. And I still give myself the same challenge to get up the stairs to "safety" that I have been giving myself since I was little: I have to make it up the steps by the count of 10.
4. I am fairly certain I went through my entire college life without stepping on a single crack, and I was so efficient at doing it that no one even noticed that I made my steps slightly larger or smaller to accommodate the sidewalk or that I was even paying attention to it.
5. I like to press my nose to my lip and smell it.
6. When I was a kid, I used to think that I had some super power to be able to stand extreme temperatures. My ability became clear to me when, within the short span of taking a shower, I could turn the heat up higher and higher until it was all the way on hot, and it felt almost like it was cold. I concluded I had an amazing tolerance that would build up over those few minutes, and I wondered what I could do with this super power. It was only in later years I realized that 1) I took really long showers, or 2) our hot water tank didn't make enough hot water for our household, or 3) both.
7. I have a terrible sense of direction, and to make matters worse, I tend to "go right" whenever left with a choice. Because right just sounds more likely to be right, as in correct, than left? Because it's easier to turn right when driving? Because, eventually, by making enough right turns, it's possible that I'll end up where I wanted to be?
I have been trying to come up with a list of seven people to tag. Most of my blogging friends have done this meme, and the ones that haven't, it generally seems like it might not be the right time to send them a tag. I can come up with three or four, but I have a hard time doing something only part-way. Like it's somehow better to list no names than just half the required amount.
And so, I am going to post it as is, and make it a tag free-for-all. Anyone who would like to play is encouraged to do so. Consider yourself tagged.
Apparently this is called a meme. Is this a word I don't know and should? Is it like "Me! Me! Pick Me!" ? Or it related to memento? But anyway, here are the rules:
1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.
Just a little preface: I don't even intend to be brief. See Item number 1.
1. I am rarely, if ever, brief. Even if I start out with the intentions to be brief, giving myself a little pep talk before beginning a conversation (or blog entry, for instance), when I start talking (or typing--and even more if typing, actually, because no one can cut me off and bring me to my senses), it is all forgotten. And to make things more difficult, I talk too fast, so fast that my own brain cannot keep up, much less someone else understand it. (Imagine my German born husband, who has to keep up with me in a second language! How does he do it?)
2. I don't like wooden popsicle sticks, I can't finish the end of a frozen treat that is on one, and if I get even a little bit of it in my mouth, it gives me the heebeegeebees. Even typing this out gave me shivers.
3. I am afraid of our basement (well, any basement) at night (and I have been since I was a child). When I walk in, I often announce my intentions: "I'm here, I don't intend to cause any alarm, I'm just getting the laundry, I'm unloading it now," or whatever else it is I'm doing. And I still give myself the same challenge to get up the stairs to "safety" that I have been giving myself since I was little: I have to make it up the steps by the count of 10.
4. I am fairly certain I went through my entire college life without stepping on a single crack, and I was so efficient at doing it that no one even noticed that I made my steps slightly larger or smaller to accommodate the sidewalk or that I was even paying attention to it.
5. I like to press my nose to my lip and smell it.
6. When I was a kid, I used to think that I had some super power to be able to stand extreme temperatures. My ability became clear to me when, within the short span of taking a shower, I could turn the heat up higher and higher until it was all the way on hot, and it felt almost like it was cold. I concluded I had an amazing tolerance that would build up over those few minutes, and I wondered what I could do with this super power. It was only in later years I realized that 1) I took really long showers, or 2) our hot water tank didn't make enough hot water for our household, or 3) both.
7. I have a terrible sense of direction, and to make matters worse, I tend to "go right" whenever left with a choice. Because right just sounds more likely to be right, as in correct, than left? Because it's easier to turn right when driving? Because, eventually, by making enough right turns, it's possible that I'll end up where I wanted to be?
I have been trying to come up with a list of seven people to tag. Most of my blogging friends have done this meme, and the ones that haven't, it generally seems like it might not be the right time to send them a tag. I can come up with three or four, but I have a hard time doing something only part-way. Like it's somehow better to list no names than just half the required amount.
And so, I am going to post it as is, and make it a tag free-for-all. Anyone who would like to play is encouraged to do so. Consider yourself tagged.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Another Tooth Out
I forgot an important detail from our Saturday, and that is that Max lost his third tooth while we were brushing our teeth for bed. Another tooth from the bottom, although this one came out without the permanent tooth actually emerging (his first two teeth came in as "shark teeth" right behind the baby teeth).
It has been very wiggly, but Max does not like any interference with the natural process of the tooth falling out, so we just left him to wiggle it on his own, knowing it would come out when it was good and ready.
He was brushing his teeth, and his mouth was full of foam, and he said, indistinctly, "this tooth is too wiggly to stay in," and wanted me to help him get it out before we went to sleep. First, he needed to spit out all that foam! He did so, and then all it took was one or two wiggles on my part and it just came right out. Hardly any bleeding this time.
Martin went to a Christmas party that night, so he missed the event, but the tooth fairy gave Max another gold dollar, appropriately the third president for his third tooth. He's been pretty lucky how that worked out for him, although his interest in all things about presidents is waning a bit.
Max has three more teeth that are loose, one on the bottom and his two front teeth. I was almost sure he would lose those before Christmas and be able to sing the old classic, "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth." But he just might hang onto them after all. As Pippi Longstocking would say, "We shall see what we shall see."
It has been very wiggly, but Max does not like any interference with the natural process of the tooth falling out, so we just left him to wiggle it on his own, knowing it would come out when it was good and ready.
He was brushing his teeth, and his mouth was full of foam, and he said, indistinctly, "this tooth is too wiggly to stay in," and wanted me to help him get it out before we went to sleep. First, he needed to spit out all that foam! He did so, and then all it took was one or two wiggles on my part and it just came right out. Hardly any bleeding this time.
Martin went to a Christmas party that night, so he missed the event, but the tooth fairy gave Max another gold dollar, appropriately the third president for his third tooth. He's been pretty lucky how that worked out for him, although his interest in all things about presidents is waning a bit.
Max has three more teeth that are loose, one on the bottom and his two front teeth. I was almost sure he would lose those before Christmas and be able to sing the old classic, "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth." But he just might hang onto them after all. As Pippi Longstocking would say, "We shall see what we shall see."
Ben's Tree Farm
This weekend was all about the Christmas tree. On Saturday, we drove to Harvard Illinois to visit Ben's Tree Farm. It was cold (it was 12 degrees when we walked through the field), but it was a very nice day for such an activity.
We stopped on the way at Swiss Made Bakery in downtown Harvard, a fourth generation family owned bakery. We talked with one of the elder generation about the original bakery, which was in Chicago, on North Avenue. His father sold the business and moved to Harvard to pursue the good life of farming. I guess he soon realized that that life was not as good as he had hoped, that there was no money in it, that it was darned difficult, and he went back to the business he knew, the bakery business. They've since invested in lots of Harvard real estate, and they seem pretty prominent in the small and quaint town.
At the farm, it was getting late and the sky was getting dark already. We were pretty quick in our tree selection (and lucky to find a tree that shouted, "pick me!" almost immediately. In previous years, we've walked up and down the aisles trying to find the perfect specimen, but this year, it was easy. Martin cut it down and carried it to the barn, where they shook it, wrapped it up and measured it (9 feet—the biggest tree we've had).
We wanted to go for a horse-drawn sled ride, but we missed it, the horses were being packed up in the trailer after a long cold day, just as we finished with our tree selection. So we just said hello to the horses and went for a little sled ride around the farm while Martin put the tree on the car.
Then we all headed to the barn for hot chocolate. We saw another Chicago family in the barn that we know from one of our unschooling groups, so we talked with them about their tree selection process, which was quite lengthy. Then we headed back to the car to drive the 75 miles back to Chicago.
When we calculated the expense of the gasoline for the drive and the cost of the tree, we had to laugh at ourselves. But the whole experience is worth every penny.
We stopped on the way at Swiss Made Bakery in downtown Harvard, a fourth generation family owned bakery. We talked with one of the elder generation about the original bakery, which was in Chicago, on North Avenue. His father sold the business and moved to Harvard to pursue the good life of farming. I guess he soon realized that that life was not as good as he had hoped, that there was no money in it, that it was darned difficult, and he went back to the business he knew, the bakery business. They've since invested in lots of Harvard real estate, and they seem pretty prominent in the small and quaint town.
At the farm, it was getting late and the sky was getting dark already. We were pretty quick in our tree selection (and lucky to find a tree that shouted, "pick me!" almost immediately. In previous years, we've walked up and down the aisles trying to find the perfect specimen, but this year, it was easy. Martin cut it down and carried it to the barn, where they shook it, wrapped it up and measured it (9 feet—the biggest tree we've had).
We wanted to go for a horse-drawn sled ride, but we missed it, the horses were being packed up in the trailer after a long cold day, just as we finished with our tree selection. So we just said hello to the horses and went for a little sled ride around the farm while Martin put the tree on the car.
Then we all headed to the barn for hot chocolate. We saw another Chicago family in the barn that we know from one of our unschooling groups, so we talked with them about their tree selection process, which was quite lengthy. Then we headed back to the car to drive the 75 miles back to Chicago.
When we calculated the expense of the gasoline for the drive and the cost of the tree, we had to laugh at ourselves. But the whole experience is worth every penny.
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