June 2022
2 years ago
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Fondue!
I just flat out do not feel like sorting through hundreds (!) of photos of snow and deciding which tiny thumbnails are the right ones and posting them 5 at a time via the incredibly slowly loading blogger tool. Ahem.
So, still catching up - on Valentine's Day we gave our small children incredibly pointy sticks and allowed them to skewer food items and stick them into vats of very hot substances (cheese and chocolate, 'cause that's how we roll) over open flames.
Must get closer to flame...
OK so technically Andrew was not allowed to wield his own stick.
Where's my stick?
It was a rousing success.
So, still catching up - on Valentine's Day we gave our small children incredibly pointy sticks and allowed them to skewer food items and stick them into vats of very hot substances (cheese and chocolate, 'cause that's how we roll) over open flames.
Must get closer to flame...OK so technically Andrew was not allowed to wield his own stick.
Where's my stick? It was a rousing success.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
BRAT
Nope, the title does not refer to how we all felt after 10+ days of being snowbound. Rather, it's the banana, rice, applesauce, toast diet recommended for upset stomachs. Anoher catch up post from snowmaggedon (still with no snow pictures! I'll get my act together soon.)
Yep. Snowbound, 30+ inches of snow, and stomach virus wound its way through the house. The night the first big snow started (Feb 5), Elizabeth woke in the middle of the night and threw up. We didn't think much of it, and the next day she seemed fine except for a few intestinal difficulties in the bathroom department. Nothing too serious, and no fever or anything. Sat night she was fine, Sunday warned neighbors who came over to watch the superbowl that she seemed to maybe have something, but everyone brushed it off and said it was probably just the three days of being cooped up and eating stashes of junk food (there had been plenty of neighborhood playdates and lots of cookie making and hot chocolate). And then Sunday night, middle of the night, and once again a huge mess in her bed. So, BRAT it was.
But after that, she was mostly fine. Last Monday night at dinner, Andrew had his own experience. He had eaten a big breakfast and lunch, but just picked at dinner. Suddenly, sitting in his chair, he turned to me, opened his mouth, and out gushed a firehose of dinner. You know that playdoh toy that pushes the playdoh out?
Yes, exactly that. I grabbd his head/shoulders and pushed him forward a bit so it would mostly go on the tray. Once dinner came out, he paused, took a breath, opened his mouth, and out came lunch. And once that stream ended, he paused, took a breath, opened his mouth, and out came breakfast. Yes. Perfectly stratified. Never seen anything like it. Hope to never again see anything like it, either. The sheer volume was one thing, but he had blueberries for breakfast so there were a few seconds of panic at the end that perhaps he was vomiting blood, but then we noticed an entire whole blueberry (he just stuffs them in his mouth, but still we thought he did some chewing!) and figured it out.
So, we all had a few days of the BRAT diet. We were able to get to the store on Tuesday and stock back up, which helped. And then Rich and I both felt queasy and a little stomach upset ourselves later in the week, but all told, it wasn't the worst virus we could have experienced while snowbound. Thank goodness no one had to visit a doctor, which would have been nearly impossible under the circumstances.
OK, that's enough of the too graphic posts! I'm gearing up to fight with blogger on pictures, so stay tuned. We just had a bulldozer (yes, a bulldozer!) come down our street to deal with piles of snow, so slowly things are getting back to normal.
Yep. Snowbound, 30+ inches of snow, and stomach virus wound its way through the house. The night the first big snow started (Feb 5), Elizabeth woke in the middle of the night and threw up. We didn't think much of it, and the next day she seemed fine except for a few intestinal difficulties in the bathroom department. Nothing too serious, and no fever or anything. Sat night she was fine, Sunday warned neighbors who came over to watch the superbowl that she seemed to maybe have something, but everyone brushed it off and said it was probably just the three days of being cooped up and eating stashes of junk food (there had been plenty of neighborhood playdates and lots of cookie making and hot chocolate). And then Sunday night, middle of the night, and once again a huge mess in her bed. So, BRAT it was.
But after that, she was mostly fine. Last Monday night at dinner, Andrew had his own experience. He had eaten a big breakfast and lunch, but just picked at dinner. Suddenly, sitting in his chair, he turned to me, opened his mouth, and out gushed a firehose of dinner. You know that playdoh toy that pushes the playdoh out?
Yes, exactly that. I grabbd his head/shoulders and pushed him forward a bit so it would mostly go on the tray. Once dinner came out, he paused, took a breath, opened his mouth, and out came lunch. And once that stream ended, he paused, took a breath, opened his mouth, and out came breakfast. Yes. Perfectly stratified. Never seen anything like it. Hope to never again see anything like it, either. The sheer volume was one thing, but he had blueberries for breakfast so there were a few seconds of panic at the end that perhaps he was vomiting blood, but then we noticed an entire whole blueberry (he just stuffs them in his mouth, but still we thought he did some chewing!) and figured it out.
So, we all had a few days of the BRAT diet. We were able to get to the store on Tuesday and stock back up, which helped. And then Rich and I both felt queasy and a little stomach upset ourselves later in the week, but all told, it wasn't the worst virus we could have experienced while snowbound. Thank goodness no one had to visit a doctor, which would have been nearly impossible under the circumstances.
OK, that's enough of the too graphic posts! I'm gearing up to fight with blogger on pictures, so stay tuned. We just had a bulldozer (yes, a bulldozer!) come down our street to deal with piles of snow, so slowly things are getting back to normal.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Unwelcome Visitors
Many posts to come on snowmaggedon and the follow-on snoverkill, not to mention the fun and games on hand in the house. But as I mentioned at the start of NaBloPoMo, there are lots of posts backed up in my memory banks and photodatabase that have to get out. And some recent excitment makes a missed post from October more pertinent.
One night in late October we had one of those nights. You know the night: Rich up with Andrew at midnight, me up with Elizabeth at 1, me up with Andrew at 1:30, Rich up with Elizabeth at 2. It was a night of shifting bedrooms and partners and if it our life was an english manor mystery, we would have woken with Mr. M dead in the parlor and a house full of suspects.
Oh, right, that's kind of what happened. (warning: graphic photos)
I was awakened at 6 am by Andrew crying in his crib. Rich had finally fallen asleep cuddling with Elizabeth in the wee hours of the morning. I stumbled out of bed, to find the picture above in our bedroom doorway. Unlike a weekend of mystery solving, in our case, the perpetrator made himself apparent very quickly, and received well deserved praise and support for offing the dastardly villian.
Really, I showed my appreciation as best as I could, without being too appreciative. On occasion, Harrison will make his way into bed in the middle of the night, which usually involves him jumping on our heads and sleeping on our pillows (really, there's another post someday about how my cat treats me as a booty call). Thank goodness that part didn't happen - I really prefer not to think of him dragging various mouse parts into our bed, nor cleaning off his paws.....anyway. As near as we could figure in our sleep addled state, Rich remembered hearing Harrison moving around downstairs and meowing around 2 or 3 am. I was up at 6 am, so he probably had a fine time entertaining himself then left us a present of his accomplishment to be found in the morning.
In 2007, he caught 3 mice in the house, all in the kitchen, all hidden behind Aggie's crate. The first time Elizabeth and I were home and I noticed Harrison staring intently at the crack between Aggie's crate and the wall. Not thinking too much of it, though he was totally focused, I just had a feeling and decided to check and see, and moved everything off the crate, positioned Harrison, and pulled the crate quickly away from the wall (Elizabeth, then 2, was safely contained in her booster seat). In a flash, Harrison darted behind the crate and came up with a mouse in his mouth, freaking me the hell out. I grabbed the broom and pushed Harrison out the back door onto the porch.
Using the same broom, I encouraged Harrison to drop the mouse, where upon I promptly swept it off the porch. Not entirely smart, I know, but I just wanted it gone. It was probably that same mouse that showed back up two days later, but Rich was home and while the scenario mostly repeated itself, Rich handled the actual offing of the mouse. I think the next mouse showed up about a week later, but he was also promptly taken care of by Rich and Harrison. After each event, Harrison would spend a couple of days lurking by the site of the previous capture, which we chalked up to him looking for more excitement rather than any actual infestation. This all happened during a cold spell and we did some caulking and checking of possible entry points.
This fall we'd noticed Harrison staring intently at the base of the dishwasher, or along the baseboards in the kitchen, and whenever this happens we always praise and encourage him. With a dog and cat and two small kids, I've never been a big fan of poisons or traps, and have taken more of a you leave me alone or I'll get my cat to take care of you type of person when it came to pests. It's not don't ask don't tell - I explore and look around and trust me, if there were ever droppings or signs of infestation, Measures Would Be Taken. But an isolated event, caused by weather driving pests to look for shelter, quickly dispatched, and it's definitely just been a cause for a bit of excitement. So, this mouse demise happened in late October. Harrison skulked around the kitchen quite a lot after, leaving us suspicious that we might have an Issue. But no signs appeared.
Then we get 30+ inches of snow. And I walked into the kitchen from the front hallway yesterday, to find a mouse bold as you please in the corner by the basement. I'll admit I shrieked at the top of my lungs, causing the mouse to jump a foot straight up in the air, then do a double somersault before dashing to the gap between the cabinets and the fridge. The shriek brought Elizabeth running and she and I grabbed a flashlight and peered behind the fridge but no signs. Rich and Harrison appeared, but Harrison was completely disinterested. Rich moved the fridge out from the wall, and we all peered around and saw several possible escape routes. Harrison remained completely uninterested in the entire endeavor, which made me think our visitor was long gone. (It was a loud shriek.)
I've looked all around and there are no signs of mice. Harrison, despite a ton of encouragement, shows zero interest in the kitchen. Given his track record, we're sticking with him for now and remaining vigilant.
One night in late October we had one of those nights. You know the night: Rich up with Andrew at midnight, me up with Elizabeth at 1, me up with Andrew at 1:30, Rich up with Elizabeth at 2. It was a night of shifting bedrooms and partners and if it our life was an english manor mystery, we would have woken with Mr. M dead in the parlor and a house full of suspects.
Oh, right, that's kind of what happened. (warning: graphic photos)
I was awakened at 6 am by Andrew crying in his crib. Rich had finally fallen asleep cuddling with Elizabeth in the wee hours of the morning. I stumbled out of bed, to find the picture above in our bedroom doorway. Unlike a weekend of mystery solving, in our case, the perpetrator made himself apparent very quickly, and received well deserved praise and support for offing the dastardly villian.
Really, I showed my appreciation as best as I could, without being too appreciative. On occasion, Harrison will make his way into bed in the middle of the night, which usually involves him jumping on our heads and sleeping on our pillows (really, there's another post someday about how my cat treats me as a booty call). Thank goodness that part didn't happen - I really prefer not to think of him dragging various mouse parts into our bed, nor cleaning off his paws.....anyway. As near as we could figure in our sleep addled state, Rich remembered hearing Harrison moving around downstairs and meowing around 2 or 3 am. I was up at 6 am, so he probably had a fine time entertaining himself then left us a present of his accomplishment to be found in the morning.In 2007, he caught 3 mice in the house, all in the kitchen, all hidden behind Aggie's crate. The first time Elizabeth and I were home and I noticed Harrison staring intently at the crack between Aggie's crate and the wall. Not thinking too much of it, though he was totally focused, I just had a feeling and decided to check and see, and moved everything off the crate, positioned Harrison, and pulled the crate quickly away from the wall (Elizabeth, then 2, was safely contained in her booster seat). In a flash, Harrison darted behind the crate and came up with a mouse in his mouth, freaking me the hell out. I grabbed the broom and pushed Harrison out the back door onto the porch.
Using the same broom, I encouraged Harrison to drop the mouse, where upon I promptly swept it off the porch. Not entirely smart, I know, but I just wanted it gone. It was probably that same mouse that showed back up two days later, but Rich was home and while the scenario mostly repeated itself, Rich handled the actual offing of the mouse. I think the next mouse showed up about a week later, but he was also promptly taken care of by Rich and Harrison. After each event, Harrison would spend a couple of days lurking by the site of the previous capture, which we chalked up to him looking for more excitement rather than any actual infestation. This all happened during a cold spell and we did some caulking and checking of possible entry points. This fall we'd noticed Harrison staring intently at the base of the dishwasher, or along the baseboards in the kitchen, and whenever this happens we always praise and encourage him. With a dog and cat and two small kids, I've never been a big fan of poisons or traps, and have taken more of a you leave me alone or I'll get my cat to take care of you type of person when it came to pests. It's not don't ask don't tell - I explore and look around and trust me, if there were ever droppings or signs of infestation, Measures Would Be Taken. But an isolated event, caused by weather driving pests to look for shelter, quickly dispatched, and it's definitely just been a cause for a bit of excitement. So, this mouse demise happened in late October. Harrison skulked around the kitchen quite a lot after, leaving us suspicious that we might have an Issue. But no signs appeared.
Then we get 30+ inches of snow. And I walked into the kitchen from the front hallway yesterday, to find a mouse bold as you please in the corner by the basement. I'll admit I shrieked at the top of my lungs, causing the mouse to jump a foot straight up in the air, then do a double somersault before dashing to the gap between the cabinets and the fridge. The shriek brought Elizabeth running and she and I grabbed a flashlight and peered behind the fridge but no signs. Rich and Harrison appeared, but Harrison was completely disinterested. Rich moved the fridge out from the wall, and we all peered around and saw several possible escape routes. Harrison remained completely uninterested in the entire endeavor, which made me think our visitor was long gone. (It was a loud shriek.)
I've looked all around and there are no signs of mice. Harrison, despite a ton of encouragement, shows zero interest in the kitchen. Given his track record, we're sticking with him for now and remaining vigilant.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Happy Birthday Grandma W!
A couple grandkids that are too cool for school. Especially since E hasn't gone to school at all this week.
So what do you get a Grandma for her birthday when she has 3 wonderful grandkids already (Cousin Sam not pictured)? If her birthday is in Feb, then a couple major snowstorms should do the trick!
Trying to dig out today. Hopefully we can all get out and about this weekend before we go completely stir crazy!
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