jennanddave.com

Lately Henry has become Mr. Independent. He no longer wants assistance with anything. Before, he would want a finger to hold onto while stepping down stairs. Now he'd rather get down on his knees, turn himself over so he's sitting, then scoot forward and down, one step at a time. It's a much more time- and labor-intensive way to go about it, but in the end he can say it was all him, and that's the point. It took us a while to catch on that Dave and I were obsolete as far as Henry was concerned. We carried on with the (now) old-school way of doing things, blithely offering assistance in little ways: trying to hold on to his hands while going down the tiniest step, handing him his water bottle from the top of the counter, lifting him up onto chairs when it seemed like he needed a little push up, each time wondering why by the time we'd helped him get to where he obviously wanted to be he was a puddle of tears. Once we had the minor epiphany that he wanted to do everything himself, life became a lot easier for everyone.

Except, Henry's growing up awfully fast. Which, I know, is what kid's are supposed to do, except, really? This fast? I hardly ever get to sneak a snuggle in anymore because he's always either running or, if I do luck out and catch him, pushing away.

I think maybe he sensed we were feeling a little mothballed because lately, before naptime and bedtime, Henry has insisted on crashing out on either Dave or myself in the capt's chair in his room. This generally occurs right after we finish a book, and right before he goes into his crib. It doesn't last very long, maybe five minutes, just long enough for him to chill out and relax, but not long enough for him to go to sleep.

It's the most glorious five minutes of the day.

Posted by Jenn at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Thursday, after enjoying some fine BBQ courtesy of Dave, Henry and I left the safety of our backyard and headed off to explore the cemetary down the street from us. Henry's a big fan of flags, and the day before, new flags had been installed at veterans' graves in time for Memorial Day. He ran from flag to flag, stopping and pointing at each one, impatiently waiting for me to say "Yeah, Henry, that's a FLAG!" before moving on to the next one.

On the way home, we stopped a chatted with a neighbor who was sweeping grass clippings off of her sidewalk and into the street. Dave caught up with us as she was herding Henry and me into the backyard. We spent the next fifteen minutes lounging in her patio swing, alternately watching her sweep her patio and keeping an eye on Henry who had his entire arm up to his shoulder in her watering can. Our neighbor was telling us about all of the things she had to do to get ready for some guests that were arriving on Saturday. As she finished sweeping and we got up to take Henry home for a bath, I told her she should relax, have some lemonade, and enjoy the evening. She laughed and said she didn't have time to, then said she should add lemonade to her grocery list because her guests would probably enjoy it. That's when I noticed a carpenter bee fly up underneath her porch. Then I noticed the big pile of sawdust on the ground. I pointed it out to her and she was obviously unhappy to have yet another thing to deal with. We both commiserated over how once you make any kind of headway with your house, something else falls apart. On the way home, I felt vaguely guilty about having added yet another item to her "To do" list.

There's a saying that most everyone's familiar with: "Payback's a bitch." The next evening I heard a buzz and looked up to see a carpenter bee flying up through a gap between our stone facade and the roofline. Then I saw a pile of sawdust on our gutters, directly beneath the gap. Nothing gives me the heebie-jeebies like the thought of bees drilling holes in our eaves. Then, after giving the dog a bath in the upstairs bathroom, I came downstairs, went into the garage, and stepped right into a puddle of water. We have a leak that appears to be running down from the second floor bathroom and leaching through the wood frame of the door that leads into our garage. Plumbing problems are the worst, although I think Dave's a little excited about the prospect of sleuthing out what's going on. Better him than me.

Both of these recent developments just make me want to take a nap.

Here's our updated to-do list:

1. Finish refinishing the hardwood floors.
2. Finish the living room.
3. Fix range.
4. Fix upstairs sink.
5. Find 2nd floor leak. (The one that happens when it rains.)
6. Paint back hallway.
7. Paint back room.
8. Paint hallway to upstairs.
9. New front door.
10. Bathroom ceiling.
11. Repaint trim in living room.
12. Recaulk around the fireplace.
13. Buy (and install!) a proper mailbox.
14. Find 2nd floor leak. (The one that happens when we use the tub.)
15. Call exterminator about carpenter bees.

Posted by Jenn at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Henry and I are having a pretty good day today. Instead of stressing out about running around to playgrounds and getting errands out of the way, we put on our best lounging clothes and kicked around the house all morning, indulging in our deepest darkest desires: I spent some time rearranging everything in the back room now that's it's got a fresh new coat of paint livening things up while Henry got busy watching DVD's and tearing apart the living room. It looks like a toy factory exploded in there so mission accomplished. Right now he's upstairs napping, no doubt dreaming about chasing cats, cats being his most favoritest thing ever in the whole wide world, after cheddar bunnies, pears, sidewalk chalk, and slides.

Have I mentioned Dave and I got tickets to a Wiggles concert that's taking place in late July? Pretty exciting stuff. Seriously. We're excited! We have plans to go to Asilomar (Dave has a conference there next Spring) and Hawaii next year, so we're not going to go on vacation this year because we're trying to save for those two potentially expensive trips. However, since summer vacation season is almost in full swing, and since we have to drive two hours to get to the Wiggles concert, I've been sniffing around the web trying to scout out beaches that are near where we're going to be. I've come up with Bradley Beach. Anyone know anything about it? It's on the Jersey Shore, which scares me a little bit because everything I know about it I learned from MTV's "True Life: Jersey Shore" ("...maaaan, that's good from far, but far from good"). We don't want insane nightlife, we just want a quiet beach. Wait! No! Stop! Really! We can't afford it! And yet...

Want to see pictures of our back room? Here's the before:

and the after:

We have a weight machine taking up a lot of floorspace in the back room, which we use as an office and as a guest room. Future guests will perhaps be happy to hear that we're moving the weight machine into the garage, and in its place will be a headboard and footboard, with a bed taking up the empty space between the two. We think you've earned it.

Posted by Jenn at 01:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the past few weeks, a couple of creative people have managed to put Henry's hometown here in Central PA on the youtube map.

E. Pickens music video:

A clever short film about copyright laws made by local University prof:

And since this is a post all about youtube, I'll share with you Henry's latest favorite video:

Posted by Jenn at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just finished mowing and weed whacking and generally beating back our yard. And now, as a reward for all of my efforts, I get to sit and revel in the glory of a full-blown allergy attack. Claritin, you may take the edge off when a stray dust mote tickles my nose, but boy do you cower in a dark corner when I face the allergin demons head-on.

Yesterday was a really bad day. I've felt complete and utter exhaustion nipping at my heels for that past few weeks, and yesterday it finally caught up with me. One thing that didn't help was we didn't really break up the monotony of our weekday routine over the weekend. We had plans to go to an amusement park, but saw that the forecast predicted rain, so we decided to do something we've wanted to do for a long time: repaint the backroom. We spent the rest of the cloudless, perfect day getting supplies and shuffling furniture around. Henry and I gave Dave and break in the morning, heading out to the local park, then Sherwin-Williams, then the grocery store. Same thing we do most days during the week. Then we scrounged up some lunch, Henry took a nap, I read, then we had dinner. The next day we primed the walls, scrounged up some lunch, Henry took a nap, I painted and read, then we had dinner. I never realized how important it is to shake up that routine until Monday, when I was utterly wiped out and facing five days of the same untll Saturday. It was completely demoralizing. By naptime yesterday afternoon, the list of things I wanted to do during those three hours had been whittled down to "at least pay the bills". After that, I lay down on the couch for a bit and the next thing I knew it was 4:30, three hours and fifteen minutes after Henry had gone down for a nap. I didn't hear him fussing, so I rolled over and closed my eyes again, this time opening them at 5:05. It took all of my willpower to get up off the couch. I think if I'd had my way, I would've stayed there until this morning.

Lessons I've learned: go to the amusement park despite what the local forecast says, because really, what do they know anyway? Also, painting the back room is no substitute for aforementioned amusement park trip, despite how great it now looks; be a little more creative about finding other things to do.

Posted by Jenn at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave spent the day today in Philadelphia attending a conference. I spent a lot of the day worrying about how Henry and I would pass the time, especially since we were without a car. By this evening I was a little pooped out and rather than spend the last half hour of the evening crashed out on the couch while Henry watched Teletubbies, I strapped him into his stroller and we headed to the park. We chased each other around, slid down some slides, got spooked by a couple of teenagers who were cuddling in a remote corner of a faux castle, and pretended we were the captains of a boat. Right after telling Henry we had five more minutes before we had to head home for a bath, I introduced him to one of my favorite pastimes: I picked a dandelion and blew on it, sending the fluff everywhere. Henry thought this was hilarious and ran immediately to another patch of dandelions, picked one and handed it to me. He did this over and over until he realized he didn't have to relinquish the dandelion to me, he could in fact retain possession of it while I blew on it, which added a whole new element of excitement to this particular adventure. As I was sitting there watching my kid walk amongst the dandelions, carefully considering which were the best candidates for being defluffed, I couldn't help stopping and really holding on to that moment, knowing that it would soon be over. God, motherhood has made me so sentimental.

Posted by Jenn at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last night was the series finale of Gilmore Girls. I will attempt to fill the inescapable void created in my life by the departure of this show by eating lots of junk food and drinking gallons of coffee every Tuesday night from 8-9, starting next week. Care to join me?

Henry's finally decided to pipe up and express an opinion about the state of things in the world. When I ask him what his feeling are about climate change he says "Milk!" When I ask him who he loves most in this world, he says "'key!" (short for binkey). When I point to Flash and ask her who that is, he says "The world's laziest dog! Seriously!" Actually, he just says "Dog!" He can also say "book", plus some other things that I can't think of right now, but trust me when I say he's really cute when he says whatever else it is he can say. Also, MY BABY IS TALKING! He's also actively avoiding taking a nap, right now, as I type this. I can hear him banging on the wall upstairs.

Posted by Jenn at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check me out, I totally finished my socks. Both of them, even. In fact, I'm wearing them right now. Every once in a while I stop and hike up my pant legs so I can admire them. You know who's really impressed with my socks? Dave. When I cast on for the first sock, he asked what I was knitting. When I told him, he waxed poetic about how nice it is that I know how to knit something so basic and utilitarian as a sock because how many people know how to do that (The answer is, of course, lots and lots.) and how he's comforted by the knowledge that should all of the knitting machines in the world suddenly stop working tomorrow, his wife will at least be able to keep his sock drawer filled with lots of handknit socks. Henry and I met him after work today and I happened to mention that I was wearing my hot-off-the-needles, brand-spanking-new socks at that very moment and he stopped in his tracks and said "Get out. Nuh-uh." He seemed even more amazed that not only can I knit socks, but I can knit socks that a person can wear! In shoes! And that I was wearing them right then! I might have to knit him a pair...

Anyway, on with the picture:

I used Kid Hollow Farm yarn in color "New Mexico". I used the basic sock pattern I got at my sock knitting class, but instead of working a 2X2 rib followed by straight stockinette stitch for the leg of the sock, I decided to purl for an inch and a half (or so), then switch to stockinette stitch in order to get the folded cuff. They worked up really fast, which made me really happy, because sometimes facing the prospect of a second anything (sock, sleeve, front panel) is a little demoralizing. Actually, the yarn was so pretty, I didn't mind sitting down with it for an hour every night.

Posted by Jenn at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight after Henry's bath I let him go around in the buff for a little bit so that he could air-dry, because who doesn't love to indulge in a little post-bath air-dry every once in a while. And Henry, wow, does he love running around naked. The only problem is, almost every time he does get to "make it a nudie" (Props to my elderly next door neighbor who is always telling us on hot summer days that he is going to go for a dip in the near-by stream and that he's going to make it a nudie.) he leaves a little present for us somewhere. Tonight was no exception. He was squatting while flipping through a book. I didn't think anything of it because he always squats while flipping through books. I turned my back for five seconds and when I turned back around, there it was, a nice little present sitting on the floor, waving at me. Not exactly what I wanted for Mother's Day, and frankly, the absence of even the littlest grunt makes me think he didn't put much effort into it. Later, I mentioned it to Dave, who was mowing the lawn at the time, and he asked when we need to start thinking about potty training. I told him our book recommends waiting until they actually know what "poop" and "potty", etc. etc. are. So basically, not quite yet. I'm trying to convince myself that his penchant for doing his business on the floor stems from an innate enjoyment of being able to do it without having to sit in it for an uncertain amount of time (ie. until Dave and I notice the green fog emanating from the back of his diaper). This would bode well for potty training. I think I'll stop thinking about it.

Posted by Jenn at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just changed the left front turn signal light bulb on our car. All by myself.

Things that made me feel like one totally hot chick:
- popping the hood.
- rummaging through Dave's 4000-strong collection of wrenches until I found the right size.
- using the aforementioned wrench.
- getting on my back to scoot under the car to look and see if I could reach the wrench after I dropped it into the engine area.
- when my neighbors walked by and hooted at me and acted very impressed that I was working on the car.
- all the grease on my hands when I'd finished.
- having a working turn signal again.
- the fact that I got it working on the first try.

Things that made me feel very much not like a hot chick:
- dropping the wrench into the engine area just as I was about to finish.
- using kitchen tongs to see if I could finagle it out without having to disassemble the headlight panel.
- using really long tweezers to see if I could finagle out the wrench.
- yelping when a yellow jacket flew by.
- dropping the wrench into the engine area again because obviously I did not learn my lesson the first time. At least I was able to reach it without having to disassemble anything.

Overall, I'm feeling very much like one totally hot chick. I think I may have discovered a passion for car mechanics (no pun intended).

Posted by Jenn at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We just got back from playgroup. Since the weather has been nice the last two Monday's, we've been meeting at a local park. This seemed like a good idea when it was first mentioned, but my kid runs from slide to tunnel to fire truck to swings to slide to fire truck to tunnel and so on and so on the entire time we're there. I spend the two hours running after Henry and staring wistfully at the other mom's who are standing around chatting as their kids play around them or wait patiently for them to finish their conversation. If that's what four years of age is going to bring with it, I can't wait. I don't think I appreciated enough the joy that a room full of toys and kids and a closed door can bring. To me, anyway.

This morning after one and a half hours of non-stop running, Henry spotted a little girl having a snack at one of the picnic tables. He ran over to her and hovered around her, slobbering over her oranges. I got his cereal bar and water from the car and I sat down and reveled in the two minutes of rest. Then with a gulp he was off again, running running running. About ten minutes later one of the other mom's from our playgroup came over and asked if we'd already taken a snack break. I said we had, then took off to catch up with Henry. At some point he noticed the rest of the kids in our group sitting around a picnic table chowing down, so he ran over to them. I hadn't brought any other snack because the kid's been eating barely more than nothing lately so I figured he wasn't going to be interested in much of a snack. I was wrong. He ate almost an entire bag of raisins that had been utterly spurned by the two girls they had been brought for, plus a big pretzel, plus a lot of watermelon. He was acting like he hadn't eaten in twenty years. He was practically crawling over the table to get at everyone's food. I told the other parents that next week I was going to bring Henry lots of different bags of snacks and that I was going to hand them out to the other parents to give to him because he certainly wasn't interested if I was the one offering him food.

After snacktime, we ran over to the music play station at the park where Henry banged on some big plastic drums. Then he ran over to the musical bells and smacked one with his hand. Then he collapsed on the ground and tried to go to sleep. So we came home. Another successful playgroup.

Posted by Jenn at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Am I allowed to direct the spotlight to Dave's blog? Because he wrote a really good post today. What are you waiting for? Go read it!

Speaking of CNN, there's a headline on the front page right now that reads "Queen joins Virginia's party" which immediately begs the question, "Is she wearing her New Jersey?"

Posted by Jenn at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When Dave and I first moved into this house, it was surrounded by a forest of trees. Neighborhood rumors indicated that the guy who lived here wanted to have a cabin in the woods, so he made an effort to achieve that goal by planting lots of pine trees, birch trees, hollys, rhododendrons, spireas, various maples, and boxwoods. Imagine all of that on 1/4 of an acre.

We didn't realize the full extent of how planted up the house was because we first saw it in early April before the non-pine trees had leafed out. We stood on the sidewalk across the street and admired the stone facade, the winding brick path, the lampost. After the closing in mid-July, we stood on the same sidewalk and wondered where the house had gone. You couldn't see it unless you stood directly in front of the path leading up to the front door, and even then, all you could see was the front door. It was completely enclosed by trees. In central Pennsylvania, that also meant the air was stagnant, and there's nothing worse than hot, humid, stagnant central PA air in the middle of the summer. Oh wait, yes there is; I forgot to mention the huge clouds of gnats that would get stuck in our yard with no way to get out.

The first order of business was to get rid of a lot of the trees. We got rid of all of the pines (there were seven, maybe eight of them), a few yews, probably a couple more trees we couldn't identify, five or six hollys, and four or five rhododendrons. It was a huge improvement, not just because it completely opened up our yard, but because we became part of the neighborhood.

The empty spaces created by taking down the trees that were in the front yard had a meandering flow to it, perfect for the amazing country garden I envisioned, replete with bee balm, lavender, black-eyed susans, plus a bunch of other plants that I have flagged in the five bazillion "How to Create an English-Style Garden" books I've got. After three years of trying to create the perennial flower garden of my dreams, I have to concede complete and utter defeat. Things either randomly die off over the winter (even the plants that have done really well for a few years) which means I have to start almost from scratch every spring which is expensive, or they develop powedery mildew and just look sad and pathetic. My favorite plant in the whole world is bee balm. In Salem it would grow up to my waist, a huge billowy mass with tons of flowers. Here it gets a good start, then gets more and more sickly looking until all that's left are a few blooms hanging on for dear life atop sad, almost leafless stalks. By the end of July, all of the plants at the local garden centers look exactly the same. It's got to be something to do with the humid climate. I just haven't figured it out.

Today I spent some time outdoors moving around the shasta daisy that grows like a weed and trying to figure out what my game plan is for this year. So far here's what I've come up with: nothing. I should get Mr. L, one-time sower of the worlds most amazing vegetable garden, to come over and give me some advice.

Posted by Jenn at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)