We are family (sick version)

A family that sticks together, gets sick together? Sorry, two hours of sleep and an upset stomach leaves me somewhat corny (or maybe delirious is the better word). In any case, after a fun, fun visit to the beautiful city of Seattle, things took a turn for the worse on the ride home. Mizz and Dave decided to develop a miserable dry cough and I decided to rid my stomach of the last week of food. So we stopped often, I bonded with trees, and we all called in sick today. We just watched the Elmo Top Ten countdown and are now trying to feed our sad selves. But it seems the worse is over, Mizz and Dave have managed to not contract the stomach plague and so life seems to be improving.

We're off to Seattle!

Tomorrow morning I will teach my class and then zip home to hit the road for Mizz's littlest cousin's first birthday party. I love first birthday parties for two reasons 1) one year old's are adorable and 2) cake is good. I am also really looking forward to getting out of town. As beautiful and friendly as Portland is, it is really refreshing to leave it once in a while. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, we don't get away nearly as often as we used to pre Mizz. If nothing else, getting away from home helps remind me of all the things that I sometimes take for granted.

Goodnight Moon is no more

We recently started reading Goodnight Moon again as part of the bedtime routine. Today Mizz cracked me and Dave up with his insistence on pointing out all the fires in the fireplaces (approx every other page for oh twenty or some pages). So it went like this:
Mizz: This! (pointing)
Me: What is that Mizz?
Mizz: THIS! (with more emphasis)
Me: Is that a fire?
Mizz: HOT! (frantically waving his hands in an exaggerated copy of what I do to cool off his food)

We did it for every page and Mizz was unrelenting about pointing out all the fires on each page and informing us about their fiery hotness. I realize this telling of the story probably does not capture all of the cuteness and hilarity of the situation, but trust me, it was adorable and hilarious.

Mizz Shots

Oh man is he cute. And he knows it.

Weekend Recap

It was, as usual, great visiting with Alma. I love reminiscing about the past, laughing about our silly teenage foibles and also, comparing notes about our present lives. As noted in the previous posts, we ate and browsed our way through a chunk of the cute Portland neighborhoods. The highlights for me were the Elliot Erwitt photo exhibit at the Portland Art Museum and the pedicure at Zenana's. It only took me six years to check out the museum, and while it was small, I thought it was nicely done, especilly the new Jubitz Hall. We ate at the Heathman Hotel and for some unknown reason I ordered the Crab Cakes--something I have never done--and they were amazingly fantastic. Unfortunately some of the other weekend fare was more disappointing (for example the raw chicken from the Delta Cafe and the close to bland Halibut from Oba). Both places have been amazingly good in the past so the lack of pizazz was disappointing.

And Mizz?

He has been talking about Alma all afternoon. He really took a shine to her although you might not know it with his Mr. Shy Man act every morning. But I think he was just playing hard to get because he clearly enjoyed her games and silliness. Mizz and I spent the afternoon playing catch up since I was out on the town most of the weekend. He was extra cuddly and adorable.

The countdown is almost over

I have been meaning to blog all week about counting down to my BFF's impending visit...but as many of my intentions go, it didn't happen. That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it though, and thankfully it seems like the time has flown since she bought her ticket a few months ago. That's right I said ticket. You see she is leaving her loving family (with apparently some very warm and sunny weather) to come see little ole me and my family. We have some big plans that involve lots of Portland institutions (I shudder slightly at using that phrase given my former line of work) and some serious girlfriend gabbing. And eating. I'm gonna milk her pregnancy for everything it's worth and serious indulge the both of us.

Tulips are better than one

We went with Mizz and Mizz 2 (his new best friend) to the tulip fields this weekend. While I didn't get to spend much time in the fields, I did get to discover how many kid friendly activities the festival puts together. We had a great time and it was an exciting glimpse of the fun to be had this summer.

Cleaning House

Mizz heard me threaten his toys today. I told Dave that we needed to sort through the toys in the living room and give some of them temporary residence in the garage. Mizz took immediate action and hurriedly began stuffing all of the skillions of toy parts into his kitchen--through the hole where the sink pulls out. It was hilarious and actually a great idea. So now his kitchen doubles as a toy box. I hope he forgets about it all for awhile and I can have a brief respite from the balls, puzzles, critters, boats, et al that are pretty constantly underfoot. Mizz appears to be one of those wild creative types that likes to have everything within eye site and reach.

Dave and I also tackled the garage after Mizz went to bed. We made some serious progress and rediscovered some old treasures. Dave and I bid farewell to a trunk load of textbooks that we will never crack again. We were both fairly nostalgic about our school days what with all the reading, writing, and arithmetic. Moving heavy, dusty boxes around the garage was actually relaxing after a day with Mizz. He was on high volume all day and has refined his screaming technique. I miss the days of the old teakettle...Mizz has also demonstrated a curious proclivity for spewing liquid out of his mouth, sometimes spit, sometimes milk. The curious part of it that he sometimes spins around the spot on the floor, and then gets down and tries to lick it up. My diagnostic skill fail me in this case and I am simply considering him to be a general freak like me (although to my knowledge I have never licked the floor).

He Melteth My Heart Part 900

Mizz gives the sweetest of kisses (including to the phone and his bath toys), shares toys, is able to sign that his tooth is hurting, is copying more and more of what we do, and is so earth-shatteringly-sweet in general, it blows me away pretty constantly.

I love the NY Times

This video talks about the famous Zimbardo Prison Experiment and how it aplies to modern life be it Abu Graib or an innercity high school. I'm tickled pink to hear Limbardo talk.

Promised Pics

Here are the tulip pics. Blogger wasn't cooperating a few days ago.







Oh yeah, and the lion made another appearance. It was our first foray into the world of facepainting. I see no reasons to limit costume use to just Halloween.

Sederific

I am completely wiped out from the wildest Seder that I have ever attended. My best guess puts the toddler count at five and the infants at two. Fill in the room with 14 or so parents trying to chase the wild beasts and you get some serious Manischevitz chaos. Our potluck seder was a little non traditional. We used this as our Hagaddah.



Fashion wise, Mizz's sweater vest made another appearence. He looked like quite the little Jew boy complete with his little man shirt and his cordoroys. In a nod to past years, I made Dave take pictures of me and the Mizz before we loaded up the car. In a nod to Portland, Dave and I simply wore the jeans we had on from earlier in the day.

And Mizz met his new best friend, a little boy with the same name, born two days later! They were quite the pair and I was happy to see that Mizz's "business" is completely normal. His mom and I are looking forward to getting together soon and letting them play. We'll have to do it soon because she is 6 1/2 months pregnant. Yikes! I can't imagine having a baby right around Mizz's second birthday.

Food wise, Mizz ate a whole Gilfite fish by himself! Ew! I mean Oy!
All the food was appropriately belt busting and my Apple Matzoh kugel and Apricot Date Haroset from Bon Apetit came out amazingly delicious despite my inability to read directions. I had a completely content and somewhat surreal moment after mixing them and tasting the familiar flavors, when I realized that I was doing what I had watched Janet and other relatives do for years. As Janet put it, it was liked being handed the torch from one generation to another. The older I get the more I understand traditions and what makes them so special.

Spring Madness

Is it wrong to steal candy from a toddler? Mizz's Easter basket arrived today and due to the glorious sunshine some of the candy needed to be resuscitated in the fridge. Due to operator error though, some of the candy didn't make it. I mean I scarfed it down. I blame it on Friday and a pretty "active" day at the zoo, I mean daycare. I needed some mood stabilization and energy and I needed it fast. So Mizz is minus a few eggs and bars and I owe a huge THANK YOU to Tutu! We get to continue our spring ritual celebration tomorrow with our first ever, hopefully annual Seder Potluck with the Portland J Mamas. It should be fun provided I don't burn the house down making the kugel.

Borat report

Or more aptly, the Bore-at report. We saw Borat and I have to say I was gravely disappointed. That's right, gravely. I should know by now that high expectations hurt most films. When it wasn't being painfully unfunny, it was boring. Bummer. I have to admit I am sort of in awe over how and why they filmed the wrestling scene.

Mizzsterious Mizz

I will never understand how Mizz will eat mulch but often views with suspicion, items like applebutter, ketchup, sweet potato etc that I have placed lovingly on his plate. What gives Mizz? Since we are on the food topic, I am happy to report that we have bid adieu to the highchair. It was time I realized one day, when on a whim, I simply sat him down at the table for a graham cracker feast. He did really well and seemed to be very pleased with the arrangement. I always talk about expectations at work (as in you treat em like babies, and they'll act like babies) but when it comes to my own child it's another story. Mizz is doing really well at the table and the amount of mess I have to deal with has decreased remarkably. Not that he still doesn't like to see what happens when you turn the bowl over (ten times out of ten it will spill). He is emphatic that he would rather pour the contents of his cup out as opposed to drinking it. So the sippy cup remains an essential at this time. Maybe by middle school the lid will come off...

Titleless

In case you haven't noticed I have been rather silent recently. In both the great blogosphere (should a blogger even use that word?) and in my life. Because frankly, I am sick of anything I have to say. I have been waging a completely self inflicted, one man, er woman, battle in the great Mommy War for so long that I am not even sure what the dispute is about anymore.

But on the bright side, it is sunny out and Mizz and I spent the better part of the morning frolicking in the yard blowing bubbles and moving rocks. Mizz also tried to shred my tulips much to my chagrin. Here are some pics.

No dollars can get you a lot also!

Mizz scored big time yesterday. We went to visit my friend Kristi and her son the E-Man. They had just loaded up a bag full of toys destined for the thrift shop, which we were more than happy to take off their hands. Mizz is enraptured with the Magnadoodle and has so many new trucks and trains that I am considering moving out. Just kidding, but seriously, the living might as well be called Gepetto's workshop or something to that effect. I am going to have to take a hint from Alma and procure some type of cabinet to conceal his wonders.

Maybe karma will continue to hook me up. You see, yesterday we bid farewell to our trusty old waterbed a la the free section on Craigslist. After months of listing it for $450 and then in smaller and smaller amounts we became more interested in reclaiming the space in our garage than the cash. Within minutes of posting it I had ten replies. It seems that people are all over free waterbeds. I felt really good about the guy who came to haul it away. He seemed nice and told us that he was just moving into a new apartment with his son and they had no furniture. At least they will have a place to sleep. It was all I could do to not offer him half the stuff in our garage. I continue to be on a mean cleaning streak (I think Dave would definitely agree with that turn of phrase) and am taking no prisoners when it comes to getting rid of stuff. Through in some sympathy and I might start donating organs pretty soon. I might have to chill out though, as I sit here typing I just realized that my lower back is cleaning me from a recent assault (of the cleaning variety) on the tub.