Month: February 2013

The Saddest Snowman in the World

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The kids have been *dying* to make a snowman. There hasn’t been much of an opportunity this year, since the few times there’s been snow, it’s been too cold and powdery for snowman building. In addition, we got a “frosty the snowman” kit for Christmas from Grandma Kathy, which included a hat, homemade scarf, an actual corn-cob pipe*, a button for a nose, and two lumps of coal for eyes. Believe me the kids were itching to use that kit.

*I remember playing with this pipe when I was a kid. Mom, why did we have a corn cob pipe, and were the ’80’s such a different time that we were allowed to pretend to smoke? My how things change.

So finally the conditions were right, and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

snowman 001

Not pictured is Evie, who was having a sobbing fit.

Poor Evie. On the days where she goes to school and then has to stay in aftercare until I can pick her up, she is completely wiped. She can barely hold it together for the few hours until she goes to bed. In this case, the snowman was just too much. (And to be fair, I’m not necessarily at my best either at about 6:00 after a hard day of work and a long commute.)

The thing is, I know she really wanted to make a snowman. All winter she’s been asking about it. But first her snowpants didn’t feel right. Then she didn’t know that Sara and Ollie had already made the snowballs, and she was pretty upset about that. We offered to make a second snowman with her, but that wasn’t really good enough. We offered to let her put the accoutrements on the snowman, but that wasn’t good either. She didn’t understand we were trying to help her, trying to make it better, and honestly I don’t think she wanted to be helped. I think she just needed to have an emotional outpouring in the form of an absolute meltdown.

So, instead of a fun little thing to do in the snow, it ended in nobody really having a good time, and Evie being carried inside kicking and screaming and making grand declarations like, “I HATE THE SNOWMAN! I’M GOING TO GO BACK OUTSIDE AND RUIN THE SNOWMAN!” Ollie was just kind of confused by all of this.

::sigh:: This is such a hard situation, and one we haven’t really come up with a good solution for. When a kid is that tired, absolutely nothing is going to go right until they get some sleep. If something fun, like making the snowman you’ve been dying to make all winter, goes this poorly, you can imagine how well something like taking a bath or eating dinner goes. On the other hand, it’s not really appropriate to scream your vocal chords out or hit someone or break something because the snowman didn’t go the way you wanted it to. By nature I am very no-nonsense about this kind of behavior, so even though I know it is the result of over-tiredness, I have trouble going lightly on the poor girl (for anything) (ever).

Unfortunately, this is not such an uncommon way to end the evening at our house these days. I can only imagine what it will be like when she’s going to school 5 day s a week…

Meez Meals

/ Shane / 3 Comments

I don’t consider myself or Sara to be lucky people (I mean, aside from being born in a country where people are more worried about their cell phone data plan than if they’re going to have anything to eat tonight) (which is actually kind of relevant to this post, now that I think about it). So it is always a pleasant surprise to actually win something.

And that’s exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago, when Sara won 3 free Meez Meals courtesy of the West of the Loop blog!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, we used to do Dinner by Design and Dream Dinners to stock up food prior to having a new baby. Meez Meals is sort of similar to that, except even better: you get all the ingredients to make a home-cooked meal, but instead going somewhere and assembling the meals, they actually deliver it to your door! (and for roughly the same price)

Some people might wonder why you would pay to have someone deliver food that you then have to make yourself. It’s a valid question, I suppose, but it’s sort of like having all of the upsides of cooking yourself (adjust the salt, add chicken, make it spicier, etc.), without the downsides (chopping all the veggies, having a million different preparation dishes, running out of a key ingredient, etc.). And the food they offer is much more healthful than your average take-out meal.

Some people might also wonder about the price. If you’re cooking it yourself at home anyway, isn’t it a little pricey compared to home cooked meals? Well yes, it is, but it’s not comparable to making dinner at home; you have to compare it to going out to eat. It requires infinitely less effort than planning a meal, shopping for the food, and doing all the preparations.

Still, it’s a fair criticism. It’s not cheap, especially for someone like us who very rarely go out to eat. I wouldn’t advocate abandoning all food-making and only eating from Meez Meals from now on, but I will say that the week we got our 3 free meals, it was a life saver. It could certainly be invaluable now and again. There is no price too high to place for not having to plan meals, and it’s also nice to add a little variety into dinnertime to avoid getting stuck in a rut.

Alas, I wish I could tell you that the food itself knocked my socks off, but I thought it was only okay. However, my main complaint was that a lot of it was somewhat bland, which is probably something I could actually do something about. Oliver, on the other hand, couldn’t stuff spaghetti squash in his mouth fast enough, literally, eventually abandoning the taco part altogether:

2013_02_21_9719

Oh, two more things I want to mention!

First, we saw some complaints that the food comes in a million plastic bags, which was true, and it did kind of drive me and (especially) Sara crazy. Sara boycotts entire brands for using too much packaging. However, we heard that in Chicago the bags are recyclable. We haven’t confirmed that yet, which is why we have a huge stack of what looks like trash sitting next to the dishes.

Second, this email:

We’re Sorry!We’ve heard from some members that the Moroccan Tacos are delicious, but the portion was smaller than we intended.Please have a meal on us next time.  Go ahead and place your next order the usual way, then send us a note with your pick for an extra meal.  We’ll get it all together for you.

How’s that for customer service?? We found the portions were more than generous and had plenty for leftovers, including the Moroccan Tacos. So that was really going above and beyond if you ask me.

So anyway, special thanks to Meez Meals and West of the Loop for hooking us up. We’ll have to do it again some time (I mean, except not for free) (unless you’re open to that, because I would definitely not turn you down).

A Love Letter from Evie to her Daddy

/ Shane / 3 Comments

February 008Dad. Sorry, I love you last. Mom first, Nala, Ollie, then you Daddy.

I should point out that Nala is the cat.

One of the dangers of having a socially advanced kid is that she came out of the womb adept at using her love as a weapon. I don’t know where she learned this from, since it’s obviously not something she’s learned from example. Sometimes she’s actively trying to see if she can press your buttons, or punishing you for some perceived transgression. I wouldn’t say it’s exactly an attractive trait.

Unfortunately for her, I am completely immune to this, and I have hung the above declaration over my desk at work (oh yeah, and then posted it on the Internet).

My hope has always been that by ignoring these attempts and not making a big deal about them, she will realize that they don’t work and knock it off. The bad news is that she’s already practicing these skills, and will have honed them to a razor’s edge by the time she’s a teenager. But in the meantime, we can all have a good laugh over it.

What’s that? Oh, I guess I just have something in my eye…

Quote Monday is starting to kind of understand how things work (but not really)

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Me, singing: “Baby it’s cold outside.”
Ollie, singing: “I have to stay in momma’s tummy!”
::Me, laughing::
Ollie: “Because a baby has to stay warm in its momma’s tummy.”

Oliver: “Ooh, look at that eagle!” – as a pigeon soared majestically overhead

Grandma Kathy – “Okay, how far do you want me to count?”
Oliver: “Until 8:30.”

It was about 5:30.

Evie: “If you didn’t want to wake up early, you shouldn’t have invited me over to your house!”

Testicle Eating Fish Caught in Illinois

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Eh? Title get your attention? Oh, it’s real my friends. And it’s coming for your testicles.

Turns out they’ve found a couple of pacu in a lake in Illinois, most likely discarded pets. Pacu are related to piranha, but “much larger” and have “straighter teeth like a human”.

Very well, but where do the testicles come in? Turns out the pacu has previously been introduced in Papa New Guinea:

There, according to British fisherman Jeremy Wade, the pacu is known as the “ball cutter.” In 2011, Wade said locals informed him that two fisherman had died from blood loss after something in the water had bitten off their testicles.

“The locals told me that this thing was like a human in the water, biting at the testicles of fishermen,” Wade said.

You know, biting at the testicles of fishermen, like a human.

Maybe it’s because in the wild, pacu eat nuts (literally and figuratively it seems). Maybe it’s because fish don’t like fishermen, and pacu have the teeth to do something about it. Maybe it’s because people of Papa New Guinea fish pants-less, and pacu find this offensive. Or maybe they’re just mimicking humans, because apparently that’s what humans do to fishermen in Papa New Guinea. Who knows.

But what I do know is that if you’re planning to come swimming in my neck of the woods, gird your loins my friends. Gird your loins.