R-U-B-Y

Ruby loves drawing on Daran's little coaching whiteboard but until now it's just been scribbles and drawings. Last week, though, I noticed her working hard on something, crouching over the board on the floor. Minutes later, she came running down the hall, proudly. And proud she should be. Proud, I was.

Milwaukee

Just a short post to say we made the scene at Milwaukee and I'm here to report Milwaukee is a fine town. It's much nicer than I imagined while growing up thinking about the Milwaukee Bucks, the Milwaukee Brewers and the "Miller Brewing Company Milwaukee Wisconsin." We ate lunch first then flitted around some of the downtown neighborhoods before heading over to Miller Vally, where all the company's buildings are. We were too late for a tour but they showed us the ten minute movie and gave a pass to the Miller Inn where they give you a couple beers on the house. We came home and had a quiet night in preparation for probably a wild weekend in Chicago. Mark, Matt and another guy rejoin us this weekend. Pictures!
On a bridge downtown.

Every team in the NBA will make at least one appearance in the Bradley Center (background) each year. This is right downtown where someone (hypothetically like me) could live a couple hundred feet away - pretty cool.

Chris and I collecting our free beers at the Miller Inn. A hostess reports each Miller employee receives 3 free cases per month, sometimes more. I'd like to know the percentage of alcoholics in the monthly application pool.

Finally, we toured some replica caves where they demonstrate the manufacturing process pre electricity. I'm helping with the ice making.

Chicago

Chris and I made it to Chicago today. It was only my second time in the city and I was much more favorably impressed than ten years ago. Maybe it's because ten years ago I'd recently been to Europe and hiked a bunch of really cool cities, and maybe it's because this is my first time back inside a healthy big city since that last time. We didn't even do much but we did hike a lot of it, mainly in and around Lincoln Park.

Walking around Chicago it was impossible not to feel the energy. People are everywhere doing all manner of things - going to work, going to school, moms pushing babies, people in the bars and restaurants, trains whirling above your head, bums working hard. And it's impossible not to feel the history. The buildings have wear and tear on them but they they've been standing for a decades or centuries and appear to be ready for more. I love how there are long rows of houses and families living in places you wouldn't think are houses - every nook and cranny put to practical use. Of course there are plenty of blighted places we didn't see but where we were it was alive and kicking and looking incredible.

Kirsten has a fantasy of living in New York (I've never been) for a few years and I can't fathom it. I have to say I could see myself living in Chicago and enjoying it. Seeing a well functioning city up close made me a little sad to think of what's happened to all the once healthy big cities our country used have. I really wish I could have experience my birthplace of Detroit - once the country's 4th largest city and referred to as the Paris of the West for its architecture - before it's tragic decline. But we'll always have Chicago.

Chris' mom gave us the shocking news that Milwaukee is only about an hour away from here. I had no idea it was so close. So while you poor saps are working tomorrow we are going to be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin! Eat your hearts out! I've actually heard good things about Milwaukee. And every bartender we talk with at these bars that serve numerous high quality beers speak longingly about all the beers you can only get in Wisconsin. It's all they can do to keep from breaking down about this beer and that beer...only in Wisconsin my friends. So we'll see.

Not to be outdone...

Here I am again!

Every now and then I get a notion to post an old photo of Ruby. Here are a couple from October, 3 years ago. I knew that because of the transitional clothing we're all wearing* and Ruby's pumpkin slippers, worn only once, for these exact photos.

*and not because we ever set the date properly on our camera


I think I mentioned in my previous post that I made the mistake of buying Ruby her first pairs of tights. This was a mistake of grand proportions which I made with the scattermindedness of a full-time working mother without temporary husbandly support, the kind of support which allows me to make reasoned decisions that come from a place of relative calm and peace, a calm and peace which is the result of not being responsible for Ruby round the clock which can put my mind in a frenzy and cause me to forget one of the fundamentals of my daughter's personality: obsessiveness of beloved new items. At the tights store, I was overcome with some weird desire for Ruby to have tights and forgot that she would want to wear them each day, every day, to school, to nap, to bed, to the chicken coop**, you name it. The awesome mother that I am, I convinced her not to wear them to sleep but I am not sure I'll be able to convince her to wear them to school only on days that are less than, say, 85 degrees. It's quite likely we'll have a few more of those before this summer is over. Ruby will be hot and miserable and she won't know why. And it will be my job to try to get her to understand. Good luck, me.

**yes, we have chickens now!

On The Road Again

We shoved off from Plymouth, MI yesterday and pointed the GPS machine towards Marshall, MI, where our (high school) friend Matt and his family lives. But first we stopped in to Ann Arbor one more time to eat lunch at nationally famous (it was on Oprah!) Zingerman's Deli. Amazing sandwiches there; I had the Reuben. The picture we took is still on Chris' camera phone but suffice to say it was about 5 inches tall and delicious. We also stopped in to Arbor Brewing Company where it happened to be happy hour all day Monday. They make good beer and we tried a couple (pictured).

In Marshall we went and checked out their own beer factory, Dark Horse Brewery (seems a necessary feature in Michigan towns). It's amazing how well beer can be made by your average local enthusiast when they put their mind to it. This morning we loaded up the rental car and pointed the GPS to Libertyville, IL, just outside Chicago. We will spend today on into Friday with Chris' mom and her husband while making side trips into Chicago. It should be fun but I'm really missing my wife and child right about now!

Dueling bloggers!

Just because Daran says he' s going to blog every day doesn't mean I have to stay quiet down here in NC.

Simple pleasures: Today I bought Ruby her first pair of tights (actually, 3 pairs). She'd described them to me a few weeks ago, wanting them, even though she didn't know what they were called. I figured, hey, she's a girl, she wants tights, why not? After we returned from the store, she wore them all day, quite pleased. At one point, she looked up at me and said "I'm really happy about my tights." And she really was. I know how she feels. I got some new socks.

Michigan Stadium

I watched a game in Michigan Stadium for the first time in 30 years and that is a win. Michigan lost by 25 points but the experience was pure win. Ann Arbor was a lot of fun . Chris' brother, Alex (in the M hat), is 18 years younger and a senior at UM this year. He picked us up in Plymouth and brought us to AA this morning. We bought some beer and grill food and "tailgated" with his friends next door, which is downtown Ann Arbor. It was a blast. The houses along the street were in full pre-game party mode and it genuinely reminded me of my prime college years in Greenville, NC. After three hours of grilling and drinking we marched to the stadium. All along the way was mayhem spilling out from most every house. Michigan is a football school and it really looked like it today. Our journey to the stadium with a sea of people felt like a genuin happening.

Once inside the stadium I was duly impressed. Michigan Stadium is the largest stadium in North America, and it's just a giant bowl dug into the ground - capacity is about 110, 000. It has a reputation for being populated by a not-so-loud crowd and my expectations were low. Much to my surprise it was very loud. I was also surprised by the intimacy of the place. The bowl - or the lack of tiers - gives the feel of everyone being massed together. And the sound was much more impressive than impression I get watching on TV. It's an amazing venue and it's 80 years old. Too bad Michigan was awful today. Nevertheless it was a great experience and I'm so glad I had it.

Countdown to 40

Hello from Michigan! I have embarked on a trip to celebrate the final throws of my youth, pretending my youth is actually still in existence. I'm on the march to 40!

My long-time friend (from high school) Mark organizes a road trip for a Michigan State football game every fall and I've never made the scene, though I've always wanted to. This year the MSU road game is Northwestern, which is basically in Chicago. The weekend coincides with my 40th birthday. Another friend from high school, Chris, who always makes the MSU trips, suggested we fly up a week early and go to the Illinois v. Michigan game in Ann Arbor this Saturday. We grew up huge Michigan fans and we are excited for the start of the Rich Rodriguez era and I haven't been to Michigan Stadium since the late 70's.

I'm commandeering the blog - intending to make a blog entry each day but not likely - in an attempt to maintain at least a small connection with Kirsten and Ruby while I'm gone. I don't imagine this will be interesting for anyone else (maybe my mom). It is very rare that our family is separated for more than a day (I think it's happened once) and we are normally loathe to venture out beyond our property line. Maybe that's an exaggeration but after purchasing my plane ticket I thought about canceling my plane ticket immediately, and on most days after. Nonetheless, I'm excited to be here with my friends and I intend to have a great time.

The schedule will be hang at Mark's house in Plymouth, MI, plus Michigan football this weekend. Monday hanging with another high school friend Matt and his family. Chris and I head to Chicago Tuesday and will stay with his mom while exploring that scene all week. Then another weekend of football and fun and...forty!

9 days to go.

a HUGE post - get a snack!!!

Yes, as Daran pointed out, we went practically the whole summer without a post. Many things happened this summer, including trips to Grandpa Ed and Abuelita Luisa's house in Annapolis, MD in early July and our annual trip to MI to visit Grandma Pat and Grandpa Jerry, as well as Daran's grandfather and brother and his family later on in July. Schwester Cate visited in early August, from Texas, too.Ruby at Grandpa Ed's house


Hangin' with the cousins


Picking blackberries with Grandma Pat


Chillin' with mom and a popsicle in the late-day Michigan sun


L to R: Ruby, me, Daran, Grandpa Bob (Daran's grandfather), Grandma Norma, Grandma Pat


Also this summer, many trips to the local free pool were taken; tomatoes were grown and eaten and shared and frozen; a chest freezer was purchased to freeze said tomatoes; and oh! the kitchen! That was completed. Thank you Brad, for that.
Lots of summer veggies in an almost-complete kitchen. Dig that counter space!


Rain fell in these parts enough to keep our grass green and our green beans producing. In fact, we staved off several of the most extreme levels of drought. Rain makes a huge difference in a garden. Huge.
Front and center: an almond tree growing from composted trail mix!


Cucumber vines growing up through tool storage


Wildflower wonder by the mailbox


Peaches (white peaches!) from my peach tree - planted last spring (2007) purchased cheap from Whole Foods


A cornucopia of vegetables


I also ventured into running and I can now run 4 miles without stopping (most of the time.) I ran a few trail runs with a local group, but I am a lazy (slow) runner and the pace of this group was a challenge to me. So, a slow roadrunner I am.

Enough about me. Onto Ruby: Ruby has developed a certain meta-cognition regarding Spanish. I don't say this to boast, but she understands when Spanish needs to be spoken, when English needs to be spoken and can verbalize this. She can translate (individual words) and interpret (conversations or events) and knows who speaks Spanish and who speaks just a little and who speaks none. And, she speaks Spanish!

Back to me: Perhaps a return to school means the end of summer to some, but since it's still mid-90's I can consider it summer anyway. But a return to school it is, for me, and now our 2 parents working fulltime/1 child in school fulltime feels everyday and normal, rather than new and interesting, like it did last year. I am working at a school that is mere moments away by car, and for this I am very grateful. Ruby fully enjoys Mi Escuelita and for this I am grateful, too.

Ruby achieved a few firsts this summer. They may not seem terribly impressive, but to me, the sappy mom, they are momentous. Her first "first" was achieved at Daran's brother's in Michigan. After napping in one of the kids' bunk beds, she decided she wanted to spend the whole night in one. That meant sharing a bed with a cousin, which she did, delightedly. So, Ruby bunked with Grace, her 11-year old cousin, in an upper bunk (she slept on the inside). I considered it a first "sleepover" even though D and I were in the next room.

The next "first" happened on our way back from Michigan. We all shared one hotel room!!! OK, I know this is really not all that exciting to most, so feel free to skip this paragraph if you want. Ruby's always been a particular sort of sleeper, and we have acquiesed to this particularity in the interest of getting a good night's sleep, which has become a matter of great importance since Ruby was born, especially for me, a light sleeper, prone to insomnia, and all that. In travels past, we have booked a suite when staying in a hotel, so that the lil' one could get to bed at her decent hour and we could stay up later, as needed. But, our desire to bargain-hunt gained the forefront this time 'round and we tried out a regular ole' hotel room. Ruby went to bed a little later than usual, I went to bed a little earlier than usual, Daran had only the glow of the computer screen to light his way and I won't say sleep aids weren't used (by me). And we survived!

Finally, today Ruby attended her first "drop-off" birthday party. I have off-and-on wondered when this phenomenon would occur. (I didn't think it would be so soon!) But, one of Ruby's good friends from school (turning 3) invited her to a party where parents were not required. I researched some thrift shops in Durham (where the party was to be held), delivered her to the party and headed, somewhat nervously, off. I thrift-shopped and returned 2 hours later to find Ruby with a new princess dress, tiara, jewelry, stickers and magic wand and full of pizza and ice cream and cake.

And now for a few more pictures:

Ruby and Henry


Ruby and Belly (and popsicle)

The blog has fallen on hard times

I accidentally clicked the link to 740 News and see we are coming up on three months since the last post - my word! Somebody make a post!

We intend to post video of the new kitchen (I'm having trouble authoring DVDs at the moment and I have no room on my hard drive for more video). Suffice to say the kitchen turned out great. Ruby is in one of her better behaved phases right now, just chugging right along. Kirsten returned to work and has her own classroom with windows to the outside. Football season has started. Life is good.

Garden firsts

Today: first green bean and first cherry tomato.
A few days ago: first raspberry.

Summer Swimming Season

June 1 means summer is here, for better (Kirsten) or worse (me). One thing we like to do is take Ruby to the public pool about a mile from our house. Here is a video clip of Ruby finding the courage to jump into the pool where her encouraging mother awaits. I filmed this using our 5-year-old camera that has no audio. The silent clip kinda reminds me of an old home movie.

Big Beetle

Just a few quick shots of short-haired Ruby befriending a huge wood beetle:




A closer look at that haircut:


We'll be back later for photos and tales of our kitchen renovation!

We're still here!!!

Zoiks! Over 2 months since our last post! Time for a few updates.

1. Ruby is totally potty trained. No more posts about that. I promise.

2. Daffodils. We bought into a backyard of naturalized daffodils when we bought our house. Ever since we've lived here, there have been hundreds and hundreds of daffodils at the bottom of our steep downhill backyard, different varieties blooming at different times for weeks upon weeks of daffodil viewing pleasure. I carved out a decent path to the bottom and Ruby and I spent some good quality time down there this spring.





3. Brad. Ruby also got some quality time with Brad, as you can see. And Brad is going to remodel our kitchen!

4. Our kitchen. Next time you visit, please feel free to make some toast while in the bathroom. We're remodeling the kitchen. It's gonna be AWESOME, but in the meantime, if anyone wants to invite us over for dinner to save us from culinary and household disaster, and an overabundance of paper plates in the compost pile, we won't say no.

5. In the Garden. All the time I should have spent researching appropriate refrigerators and flooring have been spent on the garden. I can't stay away! Dirty garden gloves at every corner! Spring is such a wonderful, yet misleading, time of year. Everything greens up beyond your wildest dreams. You begin to feel you have the most incredible garden EVER!!! Then July hits and you get 800 days of no rain and temps over 100. 2007 - lesson learned. Don't get your hopes up. Don't go buying a chest freezer for all those tomatoes you'll never harvest. Buy canned tomatoes, frozen beans. And never let April fool you again.

6. But seriously, the garden looks great. I'm (foolishly) hopeful. I made a pea trellis that peas will grow upon and that Ruby (only) can walk through and pick peas at her leisure. Radishes have been ready for the picking for weeks now. Carrots starting to show themselves. Lots of tomato and pepper seedlings planted and awaiting consistent warmth. Beans popping through. Schwester Cate's Jerusalem artichokes are coming to life. Irises out of control, including a nice new yellow one from friend Caroline.

7. In the wild. Poor dogwood in front of our window. It's about out of life. Any suggestions for a beautiful tree that doesn't grow too terribly slowly, grows in low light, and can tolerate drought? We're gonna need to replace this one soon. I thought: redbud, but I guess they're kinda weedy-looking? Also, tent caterpillars are making their marks on the cherry trees of the 'hood and also on some happy preschool teachers. (To explain - Ruby captured a few caterpillars right before they made their cocoons in her critter cage. She took the cage to school for Show and Tell and her teacher, Fabiola, was ecstatic! She'd been teaching the kids about caterpillars, even teaching them the song Cucinita Pepe (=Pepe the Caterpillar) Ruby is now obliged to keep the cage at school until they emerge from their cocoons).

8. Ruby. She's still in a delightful period of equilibrium. I try every day to remember that she won't always be so cute, so loving, so innocent. But today she is, and I try to savor the moment.

I think eight updates is enough. G'night!

As promised...

...hopefully, our final post about potty training:

And again, a warning - if you don't care to read about Ruby's bathroom goings-on, then don't read this post.

Anyway, remember way back when, when I said that Ruby had finally done the #2 deed in the pot and I felt that my day had come? My day hadn't come - that was just a teaser.

The one good thing I can say about the PTing process with Ruby is that she never had accidents - never, ever, ever. (OK, maybe once). She was the type to hold it in til she had a diaper on. Yeah yeah, I've written about this before. But I'm tellin' ya, there was no way to deny that girl a diaper. There just wasn't. Trust me.

So, once #1 had been achieved we knew what our next hurdle was. We figured one day she'd just decide to do #2 in the pot (like she had with #1) and that would be that. Well, by this point in the story she's 3 and everyone's looking at us askance. No, actually, no one was but I felt askance about it and just wanted it done!

At some point, my mom gave me an article by John Rosemond (whom we both sort of love and hate for his practical but sarcastically delivered parenting advice), the jist of which said to corral your kid in the bathroom til they go. This did not work. One can't poop when hysterical. So much for that.

So, onto the next little trick. The cut-up pull-up. For anyone reading this who hasn't diapered a child in a little while, a pull-up is basically a diaper without the straps on the side. It's like underwear with absorbent diaper-stuff inside.

So where were we? Ruby would do her deed in a diaper or pull-up, but not straight on the potty. She'd be in the bathroom, sitting on her potty, but had to have a diaper on. So, I first cut a big enough hole in the pull-up so that things could be deposited into the potty. That went well enough. I gradually made the hole bigger and bigger until the only step left was to cut the legholes off altogether, leaving us with a wide waistband:



And all is well! That's right, in order to poop in the potty, Ruby just pulls this "diaper" on (like a belt! HAHAHA!!!) and sits down and takes care of business. If you carefully inspect the picture, as I'm sure you're wont to do, you might notice some first aid tape which I used to seal the cut edges, lest some absorbent granules fall out on the floor and make a mess.

My plan is to gradually reduce the width of the waistband until even Ruby realizes how ridiculous it is to be putting on this accessory before using the john and then we can call it 100%.

Hey Jude

Have you seen this? A must for Beatles fans or Korean toddler fans:

Guess what?

It's photo catch-up time again! So, without further ado...

In the fall, we had French doors put in connecting the living room and the deck. Here's the doors waiting to be put into place.

Cousins decorating cookies: 2 happy cousins and 1 sad cousin.
Now here's a happy cousin! New Dora and babies - what more could a gal want?


Doing the Santa Stomp! (Notice the nice light coming in through the new doors. Don't notice how we haven't yet primed and painted around the doors.)



Ruby's first sleepover with Iris (just kidding).
The blizzard of '08. Witness - you can barely make out the grass!
That's all for now. Stay tuned for a riveting post about how Ruby is ALMOST potty trained for #2!!!

The girls

I just thought this was a sweet picture of our sometimes-peaceable kingdom.