From the Mouths of Babes

Exposing my kid to criminals and terrifying monkeys

/ Shane / Leave a comment

“Well, it’s official! I’m going to do some jail time!”
– Shouted over the roar of construction equipment, from one construction worker to another, as Evie and I were standing outside our car at the museum.

Coach Jorge: “Can you show me your dinosaur face, Evie?”
Evie: “I’m scared.”
Coach Jorge: “Well, how about a silly monkey then instead?”
::Evie shaking her head and backing away::
Me: “Monkeys aren’t scary.”
Evie: “One monkey is.”

Well folks, you decide for yourself:

"You got that paper mache monkey ready for the kids' playground? Perfect! Exactly how I envisioned it!"

Telling Tales

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Lately Evie has been fond of getting out a book and then “reading” us stories. So here’s 3 stories, as told by Evie. There was a lot more, but I couldn’t write fast enough, so what we have here are just little snippets of her stories.

“…Daddy was so surprised that the big girl was already gone. “Big girl! Big girl!”, he cried, but she didn’t answer. But he was good and kind, and he found her. “Don’t run away from me,” he said, but she didn’t listen, she was already on the jumping things.”

“…Evie saw a snail slithering in her own, new garden. And she was suspicious! So she fell asleep in the car seat because she was a baby and kind of not acting like a big girl. But, they went to Pittsburgh and mommy said she was already a big girl. And Evie jumped right out of her car seat by accident, she was so surprised! And Daddy said, “You can’t go home because you got out of the car seat!” but Mommy said, “I’m sorry. She’s just a big girl.”

“…”I’m going to come back later”, she approached. But now it’s bath time! And everybody was so suspicious. And after bath time was supper time. Oh my goodness! And they had already had their bath, so they laughed and giggled.”

Pittsburgh

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Last weekend we took a few days off and took a road trip to beautiful, sunny Pittsburgh. What’s in Pittsburgh you ask? Well lots of things, but in particular, friends. I had some serious flashbacks to the trip Sara and I took to Pittsburgh about 10 years ago (seriously? 10 years?), before we were even dating. However, there was something a little different this time: kids.

We had the first “are we there yet?” exactly 19 minutes into the 9 hour trip. All in all though, she was actually really good in the car. We made plenty of potty stops and even planned a picnic / park stop for lunch, so we broke things up as much as possible.

Since we took so long getting there and going home, that we only had 2 days in Pittsburgh. So it was mostly a low key trip. We did manage to hit up Primanti Brothers, ride the Incline, and the National Aviary, as well as do some shopping. Evie enjoyed the Aviary, but she was a little panicked about the birds flying around free in the walk-through areas.

Evie, crying: “I don’t want to see real birds, I want to see pretend birds!”

According to Evie, the best part of the trip was “playing with the bath toys”, which I definitely believe. For her (for all of us) the trip wasn’t really about what we did in Pittsburgh, but about visiting friends. She had SO MUCH FUN playing with Ayla and Jackson (who she found quite hilarious). She had been looking forward to taking a bath with them ever since she took a bath with them when they visited us. I would have to agree as well, my favorite parts of the trip were when we were just joking around at night about whatever; minute to win it, baby names, Step Up 2: The Streets, anything.

There was one part of the trip that was particularly memorable. I was taking a shower, when I heard the door open and 3 year old footsteps enter.
“Mommy?”
“No.”
“Daddy?”
::getting nervous due to the rustling at the shower curtain:: “No…It’s Shane.”
::ripping open the shower curtain:: “Hi Shane!”

I’m not the first person to learn that 3 year olds aren’t so great at privacy.

The way home was roughly the same as the way out. It was raining in the morning, but it finally cleared up in the afternoon, so we took a side trip to South Bend to hit up a park. This little side trip ended up being pretty interesting. First off, I got to passively pump gas and watch the police try to rouse a homeless guy who was…well, let’s just say he was never going to be roused by a policeman again. Afterwards, we took a delicious detour to the South Bend Chocolate Company. The food was awesome, but the place was bizarrely empty. It worked out well for us, however, since the place had a big indoor playground and we were the only ones using it. The structure was pretty awesome, except for the stuffed demon monkey statue thing perched on top of one of the tubes. The thing freaked Evie out so much that she wouldn’t go inside without me. I can’t say I blame her. Who puts a stuffed demon monkey statue, complete with sharp teeth in it’s screaming mouth, on top of a kid’s playground? Brilliant design decision.

So anyway, all it all a great trip. Being forced to make stops and take the trip there and back slowly ended up being something of a blessing in disguise. It was kind of nice to be able to stop whenever and feel no stress. Evie is already asking when we can go back, and making plans for what we will do when we go.

Quotes, except on Tuesday

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Shane: “I’m really looking forward to…”
Sara: “No. There is nothing to look forward to. Ever.”

Evie: “My ear feels better, it’s not squirting blood anymore.”
Well, she did have a pretty bad ear infection…

Evie, preparing to read a story: “Okay, everyone, turn off your cell phones!”

Evie fell down and skinned her knee a little bit. She was perfectly fine at the time, but I promised her we could put on one of her special Hello Kitty band aids when we got home. So, of course, she ran the rest of the way home perfectly fine, but the second the band aid went on, she was instantly struck lame with agony.
Evie, crying: “Carry me!”
Shane: “I’m going to take off the band aid. Did it help you heal?”
Evie, relieved: “It healed right up, just in time!”

We even have a quote from someone other than Evie this week:
Alexis: “Do you want a pretzel?”
Ayla: “Put some chocolate on it.”
Alexis: “I’ve never heard of such a thing!”
Ayla: “It’s brown and it tastes good.”

Evie: “Can you carry me?”
Shane: “No, we’re very close.”
Evie, crying: “But my bones are getting stronger by walking!”

What a horrible dad I am, improving her bones. In fact, “Daddy is mean!” has been something of a battle cry around the house lately. She has been proclaiming that to anybody who will listen, even though she, “can’t think of any examples.”

Sara: “Is Daddy a nice daddy?”
Evie: “Yes, he is…n’t”

New Garden

/ Shane / 6 Comments

I’m not sure how much of the garden saga was been here on the blog. Long story short, the University owned the land that the garden was on. Eventually, it was time to pay the piper and the University decided to pull the plug on the garden to use the land as a “construction staging area” for a building they were going to build next door.

Obviously this was hard on everybody. As much as we loved the garden, there were people who had been there for years and years. However, their pleas fell on deaf ears, and the University insisted that the garden had always been a temporary arrangement, and the time was up.

Every time we pass the site of the old garden, Evie offers some commentary. “I don’t want them to tear down the garden!” or “Why are they going to tear down our garden, I love that garden!”

We went to a community meeting on the subject, and things got a little heated. After seeing how adamant the University was on the topic, my personal opinion was, let’s move on. It became obvious that continuing the argument about keeping the garden was beating your head against the wall. The University owned the land, and they were exercising that right. Although, I did agree that it was frustrating that the University was going to be using the land for something so temporary as construction staging, and that it was somewhat ironic that the garden was going to be destroyed to build a certified “green” building.

Some people, however, were not content to complain about the past, but instead took the Alderman up on his offer of space for new gardens, throughout the neighborhood. In a stroke that can only be described as fate, one of the locations selected for a new garden is the trash-filled abandoned lot almost directly across the street from our condo.

This is a win-win for us. Not only have we already secured a spot in the new garden which is literally across the street, we also get to get rid of an ugly eye sore. How much better is the neighborhood with a lush garden than an abandoned lot? Evie was pretty excited about it too:

Shane: “They are going to make a new garden here.”
Evie: “Thank you world!”
Evie: “I was saying thank you world because the world made a new garden. I still miss the old garden though.”