Tasting Bugs

Yesterday Jacob had the day off from school, and so he and I ran some errands on campus. We visited my good friend and PhD student, Jeff, who runs the video library, and who also has an ample supply of candy and Halloween themed toys (year round!). At Jeff's office Jacob got a blue lollipop, and he swindled Jeff out of a second lollipop for Casey, which he proudly delivered to her in the car on the way home. During the drive, while Casey crunched on her lollipop, here is the conversation that Josh and I overheard:

Jacob: "Look at the bottom of my tongue. It looks like the bottom of a fern, like spores." (Jacob and I had just been looking at ferns at Phipps Conservatory).

Casey: "My [I] have a red tongue."

Jacob: "Do you see those little bumps? I have tasting bugs on my tongue. Right dad?"

Josh: "Right."

Casey: "I don't want the bugs to get me! I don't want bugs in my mouth!"

Jacob: "You do have the bugs! But they are so tiny you can't see them!"

Casey: "I don't have bugs in my mouth. I DON'T!!!!" (Picture glass breaking here, with the high pitch of Casey's scream).

Jacob: "YOU DO!"

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Here's a picture of the "tasting bugs" on Jacob's tongue, which tasted his blue lollipop!

My Fantasy Team

While I normally reserve this site for cute pictures of my children I've been inspired by recent events to think, nay, fantasize, about drafting my dream team. My husband Josh, for the first time in our 7 year relationship, is playing fantasy football. He has two teams—one that he drafted on an NFL site, and one that he drafted on an ESPN site. Every week he gets points based on the "real game" achievements of his players, and each week he can trade, drop and/or move players around on his roster. It seems to make him happy, and as long as he does the laundry and plays with the kids and rubs my back every night I can't see the harm in it.

But is has gotten me thinking. What would my dream team look like? Who would I draft if I could draft anyone to play on my team?

First, I'd like a personal chef. I think I would have to draft Heidi whose website frequently appears in my Google Ads. She is a vegetarian and a health nut and she photographs her own food; it always looks and sounds delicious. http://www.101cookbooks.com/.

Secondly, I'd like a personal trainer. Jillian from The Biggest Loser seems like she might be good. She can be mean, but, ultimately, she is about all of us believing in our own potential for personal transformation.

That said, I'd like a high powered intellectual writer on my team, and here I'd have to go with Barbara Ehrenreich. She's best known for her best selling book, Nickled and Dimed. Her latest book shreds the positive thinking movement, and it's a tough critique for me to hear, because I was raised on all of that mumbo jumbo. I basically still believe in it. So I'd put Barbara on my team. To keep me honest. http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/books.htm

For my TV pundit I would draft Rachel Maddow. She's adorable and brilliant and left wing and funny and cool.

I'd like an in-house barista, and in this category I'd probably have to go with my good friend E.L. Fricke. She makes the best latté in the burgh.

For husband, I'll keep the one I have, though on my fantasy team he has already finished his dissertation. He already rubs my back every night to help me to get to sleep, and that's just about every woman's fantasy as far as I know.

That seems like a dream team to me! Who would you draft for your dream team?

When Casey Gets Bigger

Lately Casey has become increasingly aware of the things that Jacob gets to do "because he is bigger." Jacob gets to go to weekly golf lessons at Schenley Park. Jacob gets to go to Kindergarten where he can eat Trix in the AM and chocolate milk for lunch. Jacob gets to run from the driveway around to the front steps to check and see if any of us has received a package in the mail. Yesterday, when Jacob got ready to make his daily check of the front steps, Casey was sad to be left behind.

"Can I go with Jacob?"
"No, sweetie. You can run around the front of the house by yourself when you're a little bit bigger."
"OK mom."

Later that evening Casey was jumping on the bed. She had a huge grin on her face, and she was jumping so high and with so much energy that she was out of breath.

"I'm trying to get bigger, mom. So I can run around the front of the house like Jacob!"

September Exploits: TRAVIS'S PINATA

When we were in New England this summer Jacob watched The Beatles' film The Yellow Submarine. Jacob was so inspired by this film that when he was in "Piñata Camp" before kindergarten started he made a yellow submarine piñata. Jacob and I decided to embellish Jacob's craft for Travis's 7th birthday party at a park in Mount Lebanon, which had the Yellow Submarine as its theme. Above is the "original" and our final creation!

September Exploits: CASEY'S ROUGH TUMBLE

Last weekend Jacob and Casey and I were torn between going to the park and going on a "nature walk." We decided to do both by going to the "Dinosaur Park" that opens up onto a series of limestone trails that wind down at a pretty steep incline to the pond at the base of Panther Hollow. The trip started out nicely enough, with the kids posing in the "jail" at the playground, and on various play equipment. After we headed out on the "nature walk," however, Casey asked: "Can I run?" I said yes. She started to run down the path. She tripped, flew up in the air, and somehow landed smack on her eye. She cried in my arms for a long time, and we then hiked back up the trail, drove home, and got her cleaned up. She modeled her bad eye with her signature "pirate squint." It's been about 4 days now, and her eye is healing well. Poor little buddy!

September Exploits: MOTHER AND SON FUN

On September 19th Jacob and I participated in a "Mother and Son" day at the Children's Museum. The event had 4 parts. First we were assigned the task of creating a "safe landing basket" for a water balloons using a bunch of recycled materials. The goal was to create a cradle that would allow the thrower to have the most amount of distance between the himself/herself and the basket. There was a long measuring tape that we could use to check our range.

This was an interesting challenge. Jacob immediately grabbed a piece of egg carton foam, and I found a broken down box. We made an effective and safe basket for our balloon, but because our opening was fairly small, it was hard to get a lot of distance between us and our target. The most successful baskets had three high walls and one open side, almost like a horseshoe pit. We could safely throw our balloon about 3 feet. One mother/son pair threw their balloon safely at a distance of 11 feet!





Next we walked a few blocks to a park that had a shallow pond for kayaking. There was also a climbing wall with harness and counterweighted ropes (to help us repel to the ground when we were ready to stop). Jacob wasn't up for the climb, but I gave it a try and I got about 1/3 of the way up the wall. I was so scared I was shaking! I turned around and asked Jacob how I was doing. He said, "not that great, mom. You're not very high on the wall."

Kayaking was a blast. Jacob used his paddle very effectively in the water and we paddled around the pond for about 10 minutes. Jacob loved it, even though he had told me earlier in the day that he was too scared to get in the boat.



After kayaking we returned to the Children's Museum for a cookout. The museum workers grilled hotdogs, burger and veggie burgers; they also served several different kinds of salad. The food was great, and it was a beautiful outdoor picnic!

At the end of our morning we went inside and decorated sturdy paper photo frames. The museum workers had taken pictures of the various mother/son pairs, and they printed out the photos for us to put in our frames. On the way home Jacob said, "Mom, that was one of the funnest times I've ever had!" It was for me, too!

September Exploits: THE STORY WALK

For years I have been hearing other parents talk about the Frick park "Story Walk." This is a giant event in the park that we live near now, in which story books "come to life" through theater and song. Our friends DW, EF and their son came over for bagels before we set out on our walk. The Chica Chica Boom Boom station captured Casey's imagination (see Casey grabbing one of the "shakers" from the shaker basket), and so did the Where the Wild Things performance. We also ran into virtually everyone we know! This was definitely the place to be if you had children under 7!




At the entrance to the park Jacob was captivated by "Aquatic Bingo." Amon showed off his balance and coordination on the steep park hill!

Spring and Summer in Review: THE ANNIVERSARY

We were lucky enough to get the help of our good friends David and Heather who kept the kids over night so we could jet off to NYC. Our first stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Francis Bacon exhibit. Bacon, a self-taught, working class gay male artist had a unique, dark and disturbing view of his life and loves on canvas.


After I'd had my fill of the Bacon exhibit I escaped into a small museum cafe for a rasberry mojito. After the drink I was more relaxed, and better able to handle the stress and bustle of the city. Turns out I'm a small town girl after all.


Here is a lyrical sculpture that helped me to relax while I drank my rasberry mojito!


We stayed at a small, stylish hotel in midtown Manhattan and we dined at an Italian restaurant in the Theater district. Even though it's garish and over-the-top, I love Times Square!


The next morning we had the most delicious tiny Italian fritters (beignets) made of ricotta cheese, flour, pine nuts and raisins. I could have eaten a bucket of them! We also had the world's best cappacinos! (See below).

Spring and Summer in Review: FATHER'S DAY CRUISE

The reason I'm posting the "spring and summer in review" is that I finally liberated a few dozen photos from my cellphone. All of the pictures in this "spring and summer in review" series were taken with my Gphone. Not bad, eh? Here's me and the kids on the Gateway Clipper ship where we celebrated Father's Day. Brunch was included, but we know better now and next time we'll definitely skip the food. The boat itself was a gas, and the kids ran around a lot and met some other kids. The morning was sunny and warm---but not too warm.



We ponied up for the "official" photo (above) taken by the highway robbers who run the Gateway cruises. It was nice, nonetheless, to get a picture with everyone in it!


Here (above) is my shot of Josh and the children. You can see the Duquesne incline (featured up close, below). Directly below is a view of the Smithfield Street bridge from underneath!

Spring and Summer in Review: DUQUESNE INCLINE

One late spring afternoon Jacob and I found ourselves near Mount Washington. We decided to take a ride on the Duquesne incline---an old rail car that is run by the city public transit system and goes up and down the cliff overlooking the "triangle" of Pittsburgh where three rivers meet. You can see a Jacob's face, and in the back ground are Heinz field and the city itself.

Spring and Summer in Review: THE CAROUSEL

The libraries sponsored a day of free rides on the Oakland Carousel on a day last spring that felt like the first day of summer. Casey was still scared on the ride---but she was OK as long as she was holding onto dad!

Spring and Summer in Review: STATE COLLEGE

Last May, when Josh took the kids to Grandma and Papa's house, Kathy traveled to State College to see Rich, Amy and their kids. We hiked Mount Nittany (Kathy's first time) and found lots of wild orchids!

Spring and Summer in Review: THE ZOO

For much of the winter Amy's daughter Violet begged to be taken to Pittsburgh to see the zoo. They came in early May and we checked out the new shark exhibit. I especially love the bottom picture. The "under water" tunnel creates such a beautiful light for photographs!

First Day of Kindergarten: THE PICTURES

Here are some of the pictures, as promised in the post below. Night before school alphabet soup (somewhat ruined by spinach), first day of school pink pancakes, and Jacob standing on the steps of his new school on the first day.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Jacob, when all is said and done, is a pretty easy young man to please. Give him a bowl of Trix, a small carton of juice (at the "before care" program), a dessert AND chocolate milk at lunch, the world's shortest nap time (according to Jacob) and no trip to the Principal's office (Jacob's greatest pre-kindergarten fear, thanks to the amazing Miss Nelson books that Nana has, http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Nelson-Missing-Harry-Allard/dp/0395401461/ref=pd_sim_b_16), and Jacob had a great first day at kindergarten. He made one friend (that I know of), who I met at the end of the day, and whose name is Shawn. He was adorable, and almost a foot shorter than Jacob! He looked right at me and said "our life rocks." I had no idea what he was talking about, but it was very endearing.

Jacob reported that he followed all of the rules, though he cannot remember what any of them are. He said they sang the alphabet song, and when I asked him what they did with numbers he said there was "a chart of them." He had some work papers that the teacher sent home where Jacob had to color all of the words that started with "r" and one where he had to write the number of rings on the racoon's tail. He got everything right.

Let's see, what else. He said he didn't get water the whole day, and the one time he had a chance to use the water fountain he forgot. He said that that at recess he went on the slide by himself. He said there was a girl from his pinata class there, but he couldn't remember her name (and neither can I, though I swear, and I'm not kidding, that it was Emma or Sophie).

Casey also had a great first day at kindergarten. I dressed her in her Steelers track suit. It's all yellow and the sweatshirt says "Luv Ya Black and Gold." All the older girls at Jacob's school thought Casey in that Steelers outfit was the cutest thing they had ever seen. Then she convinced some of the big kids at the gym to let her play ball with them. Then she found out that Jacob got to eat a bowl of Trix and it was all she could talk about for the rest of the day. When I went to pick her up at her daycare at the end of the day she said, "can I got to kindergarten and get Trix?"

The night before kindergarten I let Jacob pick the dinner menu for that night. He picked chicken soup with alphabet pasta. Jacob and I made it together, and I think it would have been pretty good except that I added some spinach at the end and I kind of ruined it. For breakfast this AM, though, we did have our famous pink pancakes (from Deceptively Delicious---only I never try to hide the vegetables that I use when I make recipes from that cookbook), which are pancakes with beet and apple pureé in them. They are very good, and very pink! I think we'll make pink pancakes a first day of school tradition!

Countdown to Kindergarden!

Kindergarten starts tomorrow! 10 days ago we made a colorful "countdown to kindergarten." Kathy drew the numbers, and the kids decorated them. We lined them up in the hallway. Every morning Jacob has excitedly crossed out a number. This morning he crossed out number one! No more days until Kindergarten!

Josh's Birthday Weekend, Part 1

On Saturday, September 5, we went to the zoo before going to Jean Marc Chantillier's (our favorite French bakery) to pick up Josh's cake. It was a beautiful day, and the zoo was crowded with happy family and active animals. Kathy enjoyed taking pictures of the elephants and the polar bears. She finally saw the polar bears swimming in the tunnel!