Prison Break

Strange but true. Yesterday we were stuck in the Columbus Zoo for over an hour because of an escaped reindeer. They quarantined everyone until the zookeepers could catch it. Thankfully no mass hysteria or pandemonium and the kids enjoyed the free drinks they gave out to keep the crowds happy.

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2008/06/18/reindeer_zoo.html?sid=102

Sick and Wrong

My mother-in-law sent me a gift in the mail today: A copy of her ward's new cookbook. As I skimmed the pages I was very disturbed to see the large number of concoctions involving Jell-O and other various and assorted foodstuffs that all made me want to gag. Why, why, why does the Mormon world have a sick obsession with making disgusting Jell-O "salads"? I use the term very loosely.

Call me a food snob. I prefer to think of myself as a purist. In my opinion, the ONLY thing that should be added to Jell-O (itself not the most nautural of food items) is fruit. And the fewer types in one Jell-O, the better. That's it. No marshmallows, whip cream, carrots (gag!), raisins, or pretzels. And heaven forbid mayonnaise, butter, cream cheese, tapioca, 7-Up, or nuts. What are people thinking??? If, in defending this principle, I am never invited to another barbeque or potluck ever again, so be it.
Lime Jell-O with pineapple. My favorite.

Clothes Horse

So there I was, smugly thinking that only mothers of little girls had to address the issue of children who are very particular about what they want to wear, whether it be the same outfit repeatedly, multiple outfits daily, or crazy clothing combinations. Boy was I wrong. Ben has now entered that phase of toddlerhood.

It all started with his shoes. For the past month or so, we've gone through every pair of Ben's shoes at least once a day, with Ben wanting to wear a new pair every hour or so. Thankfully, he doesn't have all that many shoes, but he managed to discover where I stashed all the clothes he's grown out of, which opened up new opportunities. How do you explain to an insistent three-year-old that the shoes he has his heart set on will not physically fit on his feet anymore? There was much grunting and shoving as I tried to wedge his feet into whatever pair he'd picked out. Many of you also saw the post about the moon boots, which are still going strong. Well, this weekend we moved from shoes into clothes. See below...

Yesterday's ensemble: A 24-month sized snowman sweater with the sleeves halfway up his arms, size 12 month shorts that were a little tight (to say the least), and the always popular sock-with-sandals-that-are-two-sizes-too-small look. You can't tell very well in the picture, but his toes are sticking an inch off the front of his shoes. He wanted to wear this getup all day and we just laughed and obliged. I'd rather save the power struggles for a more important issue.
Ben's room, after' he's torn apart his closet full of too-small clothes, in search of the perfect outfit. If you're thinking, "This room looks like it was none-too-clean to begin with," you would be right.
At this rate, looks like we might have to look forward to a future full of outfits such as the one above (no, not the Iron Maiden one). Note: Photo courtesy of a friend's 80s themed birthday bash for her husband.
Ben, striking his best Blue Steel-esque pose. Work it baby, work it.

Throwing Back a Pint

Andy and I made an amazing discovery tonight. If you are a fan of Cinnabon, or just cinnamon rolls in general, you'll love this. For caramely, cinnamon-infused ice creamy bliss, look no further than to your old friends Ben and Jerry. I couldn't find our favorite Oatmeal Cookie Chunk, so we took a gamble on this one and it definitely paid off. We finished the whole thing in about 15 minutes. Mmmm....I think I'm still on a sugar-induced afterglow. If I was on Facebook, I would be a member of the Chunk Spelunker club. Would you? What is your favorite ice cream flavor? We are also huge fans of Edy's Slow-Churned Light (that's Dryers to all you Westerners).

Nothing Says Summer Like...

1. Picking your own strawberries. I have a newfound appreciation for the plight of migrant workers as well as five delicious batches of homemade freezer jam waiting to be devoured (mainly by me).

It was 90+ degrees with major humidity. Note to self: Pack away the denim until September.
2. A good old-fashioned weenie roast. Thanks to our friends who had us over to celebrate the season with their new fire pit. They have the best backyard ever: Deck, trampoline, aforementioned fire pit, swingset, sandbox, and amazing garden. In short, my dream yard.
The kids loved to make s'mores on the open fire. Ben, not to be outdone by the other kids, jammed four marshmallows onto his stick.

3. Warm summer evenings spent with good friends and good conversation.
4. Long afternoons at the YMCA - we love the pool!
5. Yummy treats shared during pool rest periods. Note: This a strange curiosity that I've seen only in Ohio. During the last 15 minutes of every hour, the lifeguards blow the whistle and everyone has to clear out of the pool until the hour. Why is this? Are the lifeguards just sick of being vigilant for long stretches? Do they want to toy with anxious, sweaty kids and tired parents? Anyone who knows, please enlighten me.
6. Trying out a fancy new set of wheels at the bike shop with your dad and a sucker in your mouth. No, we were not getting Ben a new bike, we were just trying to entertain him while Andy had to get a new pump for his bike.
9. The picture speaks for itself.

Looking Back

Please indulge me as I wax nostalgic for a moment. Andy graduated from business school exactly one year ago and all I can do is marvel at how quickly time flies. Like every experience, there were difficut periods (living off-campus our first year, the loneliness before making new friends, having a brand new baby in an unfamiliar city, getting our car towed soon after moving in, etc.) But we loved our two years in Boston and will always look back on it as an idyllic time in our lives. We feel richly blessed to have had such an amazing experience and for all our wonderful friends. Even though we are happily settled in our home in Columbus, I still yearn for the city and all is attendant chaos, vibrancy, history, gastronomic pleasures, beauty (natural and architechtural), and adventures (not to mention playgrounds) around every corner. The top shot is the business school campus and above are a few of the buildings. Everything on the HBS campus is perfectly manicured, inside and out. I loved walking around campus admiring the beautiful architechture and the gorgeous landscaping. One friend of mine joked that they never do anything halfway at HBS. When they wanted to plant new trees, they didn't just get some saplings from the nursery, they brought in huge mature trees and used cranes to hoist them in place, so the foliage would look at home with the rest of the existing trees. They even had people whose sole job was to wash the blackboards after every class. Sometimes I even felt like I was in a dream and that I should pinch myself when I'd call home and tell my family what we did that day. "Oh, we just walked over to Harvard Square and got some hot chocolate before we took a tour of Longfellow's house."
The Baker Library and The Charles River. The river ran right next to campus and we'd often walk or jog along and watch the rowers at all times of the day.

I don't know why I could never get a good picture on graduation day, but here's Andy standing with some of his friends. All the HBS grads gathered and then walked across the river together for the college-wide commencement ceremony.
With Andy's family at the Class Day ceremony the day before graduation. Too bad Andy didn't graduate this year, the commencement speaker was none other that J.K. Rowling. Last year it was Bill Gates, whom we missed because it overlapped with Andy getting his diploma. Each grad got only two tickets for the Harvard Yard ceremony, so I went with Andy's mom. You can see the flags for each of the graduate schools and undergraduate houses. Like the English university system, undergrads not only graduate from the school, but from their houses (a la Hogwarts for all you Potterphiles out there).

The ceremony was long, but very unique and full of tradition. Since the very first graduation in the mid 1600s, "The sheriff [of Middlesex County], resplendent in silk top hat, rises, moves solemnly to the front of the platform and, striking it three times with his silver-tipped staff, proclaims in a resonant voice, 'The meetingwill be in order.'" to begin the day. That is followed by a speech given entirely in Latin. My wonderful girlfriends and our last hurrah before everyone scattered to the four winds. Truly an amazing group of women. I am so thankful that Columbus has many equally wondeful people who have welcomed us with open arms.

Exit Sandman*

This morning Ben decided to wake up at the unhuman hour of 4 a.m. Here's how our morning progressed:

4 a.m. - Ben walks in to our room: "Mom, I need a story." Me: "What?????"
I proceed to blearily read him a Berenstain Bears book and then tuck him back in.
4:15 a.m. - Ben, back in our room: "Mom, I'm hungry." He didn't eat his dinner last night, so we went downstairs and I fed him his leftovers and figured he'd go back to sleep. Not so much.
4:30- Ben: "Mom, I need another story." Me (thinking): "No, I'm not going to read you another @#$%&! story, what in the heck are you doing up at this hour anyway?" I put him back to bed again.
4:35 - I hear him turn his light on in his room and proceed to play with his toys loud enough that we can hear it.
5 a.m. - Ben: "Mom, I need a drink of water." I tell him to get his own in the bathroom, which he does.
5:15 a.m. - Ben: "Mom, I need to wear my boots." (see picture above) These are his too-small moon boots from last winter that he wouldn't wear when there was actual snow on the ground).
5:15- 5:30 a.m. - Ben comes in to our room three or four more times asking to play, jumping in our bed, and sitting on Andy, who is either blessedly able to sleep through this commotion or pretending to be asleep so he doesn't have to deal with it. We'll never know.
5:30 a.m. - Me: "Ben, why don't you go play with your trains." He proceeds to do so.
5:35 a.m. - I know I won't be able to go back to sleep so I head downstairs and eat breakfast.
6:30 a.m. - I finally pop in Toy Story 2 to entertain him and go to the gym since I might as well do something productive

By 8 a.m. we're outside riding his bike around the neighborhood, which he's gotten quite good at. Below is a video of him cruisin' along. We went berry picking at 10 and I thought he'd be zonked out by noon, but unbelievably, he didn't take a nap and only finally fell asleep in the car at 5 p.m. on the way back from the library. As I write this at 10:30 p.m., he's downstairs with Andy reading stories. We did have fun tonight at 9 riding bikes around our neighborhood. Ben rode his trike while Andy rode his next to Ben and they "raced."

You can see the back left wheel is gimpy from where Andy ran over it.
Love those crazy moon boots. He wore them ALL day, including to go strawberry picking in 90 degree heat with killer humidity, around the house, and to the library.

* Pop Quiz: Five points to the person who can tell me what song the blog post is referring to. Just want to see how up you are on your 90s heavy metal. :)

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Andy has been gone alot lately with church business so Ben is missing his daddy. Here's his prayer from tonight:

"Dear Heavenly Father, I'm thankful for my daddy who goes to church...and I cry." (Note: It gets a little more positive from there). "I'm thankful for concrete, and cement, and dump trucks, and diggers, and rollers, and shovels...Amen."

There might have been a few other building machines in there that I forgot, but you get the picture. It was all I could do to supress my laughter. He is such a cutie and says the funniest things. Yesterday Ben was eating a waffle and I asked him if I could have a bite of it. He said, "No Nollie. Only boys can eat waffles!" I'll have to remember that next time I eat out at a diner. The last funny thing was today. By 5 p.m. I was exhausted and sprawled out on the couch with one arm over my eyes. The next thing I know, Ben is laying on our loveseat in the same position, with his arm over his eye, sighing. I ended up putting in The Parent Trap for us to watch (the old version, thank you very much. I am on a personal Lindsey Lohan boycott) and we enjoyed the last half hour until Andy got home.

Deutschland Delights

One of the many gems in Columbus is the picturesque neighborhood of German Village. One of the oldest areas in the city, it is full of historic architechture, quaint shops, cobblestone streets, and delicious eats. We ventured down last Saturday with our friends, the Storeys, to sample some of the legendary brats and cream puffs at Schmidt's Sausage Haus. We wanted to go with Ross because he lived in Germany for two years as a missionary and is our expert on all things German. We got our food to go and then walked the few blocks to Schiller Park, where we chatted in the warm evening air as Ben and Nessie played.
Sadly, we did not pose in the cut-out faces. Andy would not go for that.

The picture does not do the cream puffs justice. If you go, sample the pretzel appetizer as well.
Chowing down at the park - yet again, I caught everyone in unflattering poses. I blame our camera. It has the slowest reaction time in history.
Ben, the shoeless wonder. I had to threaten him with going home to get him to put them on.
Ben and his good friend Nessie Boo. They have a love...
Hate relationship, as you can see.

Emergency!

This week we got lucky and got to crash a great activity put on by one of my friends who is a preschool teacher. Ben is not actually in her class, but she let us come anyway. For her end of year event she had the firefighters come to her house and bring a truck and the safehouse where kids learn what to do in the event of a fire. How cool is that? The kids loved being able to sit in the driver's seat and "steer" the truck and a firewoman led them in chants of "9-1-1" so they'd remember who to call if they had an emergency.

The funniest part for me was as we were walking up to the house. I told Ben we were going to learn about how to be safe. He said, "If there is an emergency?" I said yes, and then he ran up to the firemen and shouted, "Emergency, emergency! My bike got stuck under our car!" This actually did happen two weeks ago when Ben's bike got left out and Andy backed over it. We had to jack up the car to get it out and now Ben pedals around with a lopsided tricycle. The firefighters were kind and just smiled and let him tell them about it. I laughed thinking about Ben while we were trying to get his bike out. He kept running up to the neighborhood kids who were out playing by our house, yelling, "Emergency, emergency!"
Thanks to Heather Whitehead and Sarah Walton for taking pictures. Heather is a pro and took these very artistic shots. Kaylee, you have a kindred spirit. (Kaylee is my little sister who also has a very good eye for the aesthetic.)

The kids engrossed in the firefighter's talk.
Ben crawling out of the "smoke" in the safe house.
I can't decide whether or not to do a family night with Ben about fire safety. My parents did one with us when I was a kid, complete with a terrifying video of burning homes and people climbing out. None of us slept for days afterward because we were so afraid our house would burn down. It was one of our most memorable and scarring family nights on record.