My Baby Daddy

Judah is in a big daddy phase right now. His best word is “daddy,” and when Jared is around, I’m chopped liver. In fact, when we try to get Judah to list the members of our family (”Daddy, Mama, Judah”), he confidently responds, “Daddy, Judah!”

Awesome.

I’m really not all that sensitive about it, fortunately. I love that Judah adores his daddy and that, unlike so many children in this world, he has a daddy who loves him and is always there for him.

Click for more pictures of daddy-son cuteness

So in honor of the wonderful daddy in Judah’s life, the daddy who is in charge of bath time, bed time, and shoulder rides, we celebrated Jared twice this year. I wish I could say it was intentional, but alas, it was not. I just mixed up the date. I made Jared breakfast in bed on June 14 and gave him his card before I realized I was a week early! Oops. So we celebrated him on the appropriate day, as well.

We started on Saturday with a trip to Chicago’s Green City Market to pick out some food for Sunday lunch (Jared loves open-air markets). Then we spent some time at the Lincoln Park Zoo (Judah’s first experience with a zoo; he was more intrigued by the panhandler musicians than he was by the animals). On Sunday we started the day with Jared’s favorite breakfast–blueberry pancakes (Jared ate four, I was stuffed at two, and Judah ate THREE). And for lunch I made several more of Jared’s favorites, which he had picked out at the market, including asparagus with hollandaise sauce and strawberry-rhubarb crisp.

I know, I know. We tend to celebrate all holidays with food (including our eighth anniversary this year, which we honored with a trip to a trip to a great local restaurant). Are you surprised?

Thanks, Jared, for being such a great daddy to our munchkin. And just remember that every time he points at you and yells, “Dadd-eeee!” he’s thanking you, too.

She’s Just Not That Into Shoes

I promise this will be the last thinky post before this blog commences with photos of my adorable progeny.

So Jared recently discovered this hilarious comedian named Sarah Haskins who does these “Target: Women” segments on Current.com. (Or go to YouTube and search for Sarah Haskins to watch them all.)

I have not laughed this hard in ages. And part of me is just an eensy bit bitter because she is doing (and getting famous for doing) exactly what I tried to do during those two years I taught English Comp classes: getting people to recognize (and be appalled by) lame gender stereotypes propagated by advertising. Because didn’t you know? All women diet and love shoe shopping. All men love fatty foods and are idiots when it comes to women and household chores.

Anyway, for a good laugh, click the above link and watch the segment on Lady Friends. It made me cry a little bit. I’m serious. By myself, on the couch, silent laughter, tears. It makes fun of the way commercials imply that women share a lifetime of deep and meaningful relationships based on shared love of fashion and smelly candles.

I also loved the one about yogurt, which as all women know can be as good as cute guys and shoe shopping and getting massages. “Say more stuff I generically relate to!”

Here are some of Sarah’s funnier tidbits about all those things that are near and dear to women (according to advertisers, anyway):

Depression: “If you’ve been feeling down lately, you might want to think about checking yourself for sweatpants. You can do this by patting your legs. Do you feel sweatpants? Yeah, I have some bad news. You’re depressed.”
Cleaning: “So slip into something a little less comfortable, like a business casual outfit—cardigan, khakis, pearls—and go to work.”
Skin care: “You can’t get much more scientific than graphic representations of chemistry things. Are those molecules? I’m not sure. But the science of beauty isn’t just about pictures. Science also uses words, words that sound sciencey!”
Cars: “We want cars that say, I’m not just a mom, I’m a MILF!”
Chocolate: “Chocolate can make you feel like a little girl again: hopscotch, clapping games, dangerous tree sitting, psychadelic carousels in the park. (I should also note that mushrooms do the same thing.)”
Jewelry: “So this Christmas season when you’re thinking about buying your lady a car with a big red ribbon on it, stop. That’s so stupid. Cars are super expensive. And useful. But we’re in a recession. So just muster up your sentimentality and buy her jewelry at the mall.”
Botox: “(Your face looks weird. Everybody knows.)”
Illness: “Hi there. I’m not feeling well. You can probably tell because I’m in black and white. I’ve got all the classic symptoms: sleeplessness, staring out windows, and walking sadly in comfy sweaters. Should I go to the doctor? No! I can diagnose myself by watching TV!”
Edward Cullen: “I want forbidden and exciting, too, but in real life, bad guy romance is only fun until he dumps you in a grocery store parking lot at midnight, and you have to call your mom to come get you. Hypothetically.”

Oh, Sarah. Can I be you?

A Trivial Culture

Click the image for a frighteningly accurate description of American culture. (Don’t worry; it’s just a cartoon, so it won’t capture your attention for too long…)

Orwell was afraid of external tyranny–that we would be controlled by outside forces. Huxley was afraid of internal tyranny–that we would be controlled by our own pleasure and distractions. Dang. I need to read Brave New World again, a book written in the 1930s and intended not as prediction so much as a warning. Clearly we weren’t warned. 

(She writes while she simultaneously blogs, tweets, works, and listens to music. Distraction, anyone?)

Pine Mouth

So yesterday I developed this very strange malady: a horrid taste in my mouth. It started out of the blue, after my mid-afternoon snack of banana bread. It tasted bitter and sour, like I had just gargled with grapefruit seed extract. I’d brushed my teeth that day, hadn’t eaten anything bizarre, and was otherwise feeling fine. 

The bitter taste abated but then picked up again after dinner. By this time I was getting paranoid. Jared recently broke our water purifier so we’ve been drinking Chicago’s finest tap water while Amazon takes its sweet time sending us the new purifier. So suddenly I started wondering, what if I’ve been consuming LEAD? Worse, what if I’ve been serving poison-water to my SON?

I’m not typically a paranoid conspiracy theorist or a hypochondriac, but darnit if the rancid taste made me a bit cranky. I did some research on the Internet, scouring medical websites for clues to the cause of icky-mouth. (Why do these sites even exist? How do they help people when their best answer is, “It’s probably nothing but could be diabetes or cancer.” Basically, don’t worry but you might die. Swell!)

I eventually stumbled across a web forum in which someone was complaining about my exact symptoms: bitter/sour taste at the back of the tongue that seems to get worse after eating. The culprit? 

Pine nuts. 

Pine nuts! If I were in a movie, my face would be bathed in light and the scene would flash back to clips from the last three days: me merrily and cluelessly sprinkling pine nuts on salads, adding them to pasta, grabbing small handfuls from the fridge as a snack. Anyway, I confirmed the theory on Wikipedia, right there under the subheader “Risks of Eating Pine Nuts” (dah dah dummmm). 

The eating of pine nuts can cause serious taste disturbances, developing 1-3 days after consumption and lasting for days or weeks. [Fantastic.] A bitter, metallic taste is described. In general, a minority of pine nuts on the market present this problem. Though very unpleasant, there does not seem to be a real health concern.

This phenomenon was first described in a scientific paper in 2001. Since the article, experiences of the phenomenon have been reported by hundreds of people worldwide (US, Canada, South Africa, Finland, Iceland, Germany, and many more). [Reported? To whom? Seriously, who is doing this mysterious "reporting of pine-nut mouth"? Is there a hotline?]

Several other sites confirmed the growing problem of “pine mouth” and a study of the phenomenon has even been published by a medical journal. No one seems to be able to figure out why this happens to certain people and what causes it, but there seems to be one common link between the pine-mouth-causing nuts: China. Big surprise there! (Yet another reminder to read labels and avoid food from China.) Regardless of the cause, everyone seems to agree that pine mouth produces a foul, metallic taste can last weeks and make practically all food and drink unpalatable. 

So I guess I won’t be dying from diabetes or cancer or lead poisoning, at least not any time soon. But unfortunately, everything I eat will taste like I just sucked on a penny. If nothing else, I guess it’s a good summer diet program.

A Wedding and a Day to Remember

Last weekend we attended the wedding of my good friend Ana’s sister, Flora. We’ve known Flora for several years, and she’s a Chicago transplant like us. Even married a Chicagoan. She and Chris have babysit for Judah and are even living in the building next-door to the temporary apartment we lived in last summer!

Our friends David and Ana came in from New York City for the event, as did Blake and Ashley from Arkansas. (How perfect is it that the four of us were attendants in David and Ana’s wedding way back in 2005? [side note: I cannot beLIEVE I've been blogging long enough to provide you with that link!]) Everyone bunked at our place, and believe me, you can comfortably squeeze six adults and one baby in a 1400-square-foot apartment only if you’re close friends. Which, fortunately, we are.

Flora and Chris got married in a gorgeous ivy-covered church that stands right in the middle of downtown Chicago’s skyscrapers. The cool thing about getting married downtown is that we stopped all the pedestrian traffic on Michigan Avenue. Crowds gathered and were actually heard people saying, “Who’s that?” and “I think they’re famous!” It helps that Chris and Flora are a great-looking couple.

We took a charming trolley ride to their reception locale, which was a restaurant right on the river with a great skyline view. The pictures don’t do it justice! 

We ate and drank and listened to mariachi music (yet again, gracias a Dios!) and had a grand old time.

Sunday was a lazy day–church, brunch, and the worst Clue game in history (I won a very unsatisfying victory). That night, Jared got himself into yet another compromising position with his friends. Poor David was the meat in the man-sandwich, but his sad little air mattress took the brunt of the abuse.

David and Ana had to leave on Monday (Memorial Day), so we went downtown with Blake and Ashley. After lunch and shopping in the rainy drizzle, the boys took Judah home and Ashley and I checked out the art institute. I know, I know, I was there just a week earlier with my parents. But we had visited only the brand-new new modern wing, and I’ve got to say I’m more impressed with the original exhibits that Ash and I visited. Monet, Seurat, Van Gogh, oh my! Even a Boticelli or two.

We had a great dinner  later that night (slow-cooked brisket, Mom’s corn casserole, grilled zucchini, and chocolate divinity). Our friends left the next morning, and we’ve spent all week catching up on work and recovering from nearly two solid weeks of visitors. We don’t have any more guests coming…until our entire small group descends on us this Sunday. Ah well, it’s a lovely problem to have!

You’re Not Welcome

This made me laugh out loud about six times. Favorite quotes: 

• “I would never want a book’s autograph.”
• “I feel like to misuse, overuse or abuse someone is negative.”
• “I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life.”

I’m so happy to hear that Mr. West doesn’t read books. He’s just strengthened the case of English teachers everywhere.

Water Sports

My dad and Carol were in town last weekend to visit Grandma (since they missed her birthday party due to Dad’s injury) and to attend the baptism of my nephew John Richard. They spent a couple days with Grandma, then last Saturday morning we all piled into a rented minivan (Dad, Carol, Jared, Judah, Grandma, and me) and drove more than six hours to my brother’s house in the Cleveland area.

It was an interesting trip to say the least, with my handicapped Dad keeping his foot elevated at all times, my 90-year-old Grandma who moves very slowly, and my 16-month-old son who decided after a few hours in the car that enough was enough. Add to the equation a minivan that nearly broke down on the way. It’s a miracle we all survived with our sanity intact.

Anyway, Dad performed the baptism of his namesake, which was pretty cool. We had a great brunch with Andrea’s family (her parents, brother, and sister-in-law) and spent a fun two days with them. Then on Monday morning we made the trip back to Chicago, dropped Grandma off at her retirement community, and spent a couple more days with Dad and Carol in our ‘hood. Whew! It was a blur.

We went to the new modern wing of the Contemporary Art Museum on Tuesday, which was free all last week. The architecture was amazing, and Jared and I plan to go back when it’s less crowded and we have more time to spend in the exhibits.

After the museum, we went on a walk through Millennium Park (which looked absolutely gorgeous decked out in its spring finery) and made our way to the Crown Fountain, where we lathered Judah with sunblock and let him run around like a crazy kid through the water. He got soaking wet and didn’t stop squealing or swinging his arms for an hour. He slept really well that night.

Click for more photos

That afternoon I dropped Dad and Carol off at the airport, and we’ve had a couple of days to recuperate and clean up before more company arrives this weekend. My good friend Ana’s sister is getting married tonight, and our friends Blake and Ashley and Dave and Ana will be staying with us for the wedding and for Memorial Day festivities. Jared’s making an airport run as I write this.

So with that, our summer is properly kicked off!

The Doors

One of Judah’s favorite games these days is to open and close doors. The below sequence is actually from a couple of weeks ago, but it’s so cute I had to share it. These days he’s more enamored of the sliding glass doors (see last post), which, though too heavy for him to open and close, have nifty screen doors that he can manage. I could have an entire conference call while he’s entertaining himself with various doors.

The above sequence was repeated a hundred times. I sat on the other side of my door with the camera, saying “boo!” every time he opened the door and capturing his expression. He thought it was the funniest. thing. ever. So entertaining that even Murphy wanted in on the action.

Spring in the City

Spring has finally come to Chicago. It doesn’t feel much like it today, which climbed all the way up into the whopping 50s, but we had a sunny, 80-degree weekend and have a relatively warm (though wet) week ahead of us.

Thanks to the arrival of spring, the two pear trees outside our balcony have bloomed. I love looking outside and seeing their white blooms–even if they do stink like body odor. (Seriously, why can’t pear tree blossoms smell like pears?)

The warmer weather means we’ve been wearing fewer layers and spending more time outside. Here’s Judah playing his new favorite game: walking in and out of the open balcony doors. In and out. In and out. It never gets old, really!

The warm weather also means that everyone else is spending time outside, too. I love living near a park for many reasons, and people watching is certainly one of them. By late afternoon, our park is swarmed with moms and their strollers, dogs and their owners, and of course, sunbathers. Some people look far better sunbathing than others. (Just examine this picture full-size and you’ll see what I mean. Yes, I did feel like a voyeur taking this shot.)

The improved weather has had me daydreaming about grilling out, potting some herbs, buying rocking chairs for the balcony, and installing flower boxes on our railing. But alas, we just received a notice from the property manager stating that they will begin work on our building’s exterior facade (complete with some lovely scaffolding) and that all items must be cleared off the balconies until JULY. Including grills, plants, and furniture. Well, that puts a serious damper on summer. Just when we hoped to get some use out of the balcony, we’re banned from it. Oh well, at least the view from the balcony is nice. Most of the time.

Von

UPDATE ON VON: The fever has gone down and he’s home again. Praise God! Read more about it here. 

______________________________

Please be in prayer for Von, the four-year-old son of my colleague Jason and his wife, Lisa. Von has leukemia (my not-so-favorite disease) and is fighting for his life. He’s in the final week of the most intense phase of his chemotherapy, and as you can imagine, it’s taking a toll on his fragile little body. Read more here. 

Please, please pray for Von and his family: Jason, Lisa, and their three daughters.