Cold Spaghetti

Now seven weeks old (!) and working on her first smiles.



 

I’d rather be in Ann Arbor.

Well, not really. But I do miss many things about it (except the climate from November to May). This made me miss it more. What a fun place!

How are we managing life with two kids? Here’s how:

– I am officially ‘taking the summer off’ which means no regular trips to the PhD desk downtown, no regular meetings with advisors, and no real commitment to research time
– Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 8-12pm, Michelle our fabulous babysitter watches Will. When needed, she helps me with Kate, too… so that I can do things like shower without worry. $8/hour.
– Thursday and Friday: 8:30-12:30pm, I take Will to “school” where he has structured activities with a classmate lead by one of their teachers. $17/hour total, split with another family (so $8.50/hour.)

It is incredible how this help — really just watching Will and giving him focused time to play — allows us to do so much!

Fun news: David Scanlan, a friend of mine from high school, came by and visited with us yesterday! Dave’s whole family is from New Orleans; his Mom grew up not far from where we live in Uptown. He is here visiting family and stopped in for the afternoon. It was a great visit and fun to catch up. Some tidbits I learned:
— A ton of CHS folks are on myspace and there is a CHS myspace page (!)
— The rapper Ludacris went to CHS (a class behind ours) (!!)

Both kids were up and active during the visit. Paul did a good job playing with Will so Dave and I could talk (Will was very interested in having this visitor all to himself once he discovered that Dave was up for a game of bucket-head.) Hopefully, Dave will be working at Children’s hospital (a few blocks from our house) during November. (He finishes med school at U of Nebraska in the fall.) It would be very cool to have him close by for more fun chats — although next time, we’ll have to go out NOLA-style and talk over music and drinks.

And also some sad news. DJ Gonzales, a fun, exciting, friendly girl we were in theatre with (a few classes behind ours), died in an apparent suicide a few years back. I’ve been looking for information on this — I have a bunch of pictures from Grandma Betty that include DJ and was thinking about sending them to her family if I can find them. Anyone have any leads?

As said by Will, while he walked to the front room after waking up from last night’s sleep: “That was a good nap.”

Current Will kick: pirates. Pirate do-rag (and shirt, which is currently in the washer and cannot be fished out of the dirty clothes for just one more day) compliments of awesome neighbors Linda and Walt. Sword in pocket built by legos (to horror of pacifist mother). Prisoner Kate unaware of her position as “pirate booty” under the command of the last scourge of the seven seas.
“Argh!”

Somehow, the advent of a second child has actually made us more productive. Two kids, Paul working 10 hour days, and yet we volunteered at Abeona House this weekend, had a great social event Saturday night, took the kids to the Children’s Museum, made good meals at home, AND Paul started to tackle some big projects. What’s the deal??? (Oh, wait. I’m not working and we have childcare help each morning. Hmmm…)

In any case, one “little” project was sanding, priming, and painting the second pocket door arch between the front room and kids play area. Still one more coat of paint to go up, but considering the incredible effort it takes to paint anything in this house, that’s a big deal.

Second, Paul started the shelves for behind the door in the study. To put in the base unit (above), Paul had to take out the door and pull off the trim board. The way he pulls out pieces of this house and puts them back together better than before… a true surgeon! Will watched the whole process with awe and was very helpful with his own red hammer. When completely finished, this lower part will have cabinet doors. We kept the outlet and cabling so that we could run the network and possibly put a printer or other equipment under if we chose.

Tonight, he made the second part of the unit. This part is shallower than the lower unit and we “custom” chose different heights to hold some of the notebooks and books we plan on storing there. This part is in the outbuilding… we need to find a friendly, unsuspecting neighbor to help carry it in tomorrow. Better start making the thank-you cookies…!

See Paul’s blog for more pictures and details! 

From NOLA craigslist baby forum:

Baby with all accessories. This is a caucasian model. Has two arms, legs, every option for a complete functioning human. Accessories include: bottle, clothes and hats, plates and dishes, burping glove, diapers, dust pan for boo boos, other misc. Reason selling: trading up got new model. this is a doll and not real.

The Louisiana Children’s Museum re-opened this weekend!

Not only did they re-open, but for the weekend, they re-opened for free. Plus, we learned there was a special Dr. Seuss exhibit for children ages 3 and under… we were there.We found out about this exciting event from a staff member that Paul met while standing in line at Whole Foods yesterday afternoon. Apparently, lots of other folks must have been in line, too, because the place was PACKED. It was incredibly overwhelming… especially with Kate in tow. But it didn’t stop Will from checking the place out and us from pulling out the cameras.

The Dr. Seuss exhibit was a big hit. (Due to the volume of people, we stuck to this area almost exclusively.) Will spent a lot of time trying to pick up Horton’s egg (above.)

He also pondered the age old question: “Would you, could you, on a boat?”

We loved the museum. Incredible craft activities, play areas, learning exhibits about fitness, health, journalism, New Orleans history, the senses, and more. Definitely worth looking into a family membership.

Will also had a good time meeting the Cat in the Hat. Will was so fond of Mr. Cat that he planted a big kiss on his cheek. But so much for what we thought was recognition. We were just thankful to be out of ear-shot when Will waved back at Mr. Cat and called out “Bye, Snoopy!”

1-4: range of hours between each nighttime nursing
8: current total for Kate’s diaper changes today
5: current total for Will’s
91-93: average highs for the week
3-6: degrees added to the daily high for the “feels like” temperature
50: estimated number of weeds I pulled from our neighbor’s backyard
4: estimated height, in feet, of the largest
22.5: “gifts to grow” points I have at Pampers.com
50: points needs to get a Bob the Builder Benny’s Dig Set legos
30: minutes it took me to make a new recipe for dinner tonight
2: ingredients I forgot
0: people who noticed