A Sunday Garden

Sunday was project day for us and we set about turning a section of the backyard into a flower cutting garden for Kate. We started off the day with a fresh pot of coffee and a sausage scramble with some of Farmer Brown's eggs. Fed and caffeinated we went to Menards and got some supplies. Back at home El Finno was ready for a nap and Kate and I got busy removing the grass from a Kidney bean shaped area next to the garage. The ground was fairly wet but it was still hard work and 6 blisters and 2 hours later we had the space cleared. I used a lot of the removed grass in dirt to fill in the sink hole behind the garage, it might not be a permanent fix but at least none of the drunks will fall in as they stumble down our alley. I'm always looking out for the stumbling drunk! On the dugout bean we then laid a mixture of manure, peat moss, and vermiculite for the plants. Apparently all that stuff is plant crack and they really dig it. We then laid down a weed barrier over the space and fed the now awake baby before heading out again to Home Depot for the plants. Kate had drawn out a plan for the house and listed the flowers and shrubs that she wanted to Finn and I just played in the cart as she went around loading it up. Back at the house we planted the newly purchased flowers, shrubs, and apple tree in our little space and then covered the area with mulch. It turned out nice but at the end of the day I was beat and my hands are all tore up. There are still some plants to go in but it does look great and it felt very good to get started on the yard this spring, and on earth day no less. Pictures to come once I mow the lawn.

Updated: with photo goodness

Stealing is the highest form of flattery

I am reading Nick Hornby's book Housekeeping vs. The Dirt which is a collection of columns that he has written for the literary magazine The Believer in which he writes about the books he has read for the month. It is an entertaining read but it has left me feeling that I am reading far too much non-fiction and not nearly enough literature. Hornby makes a great case for reading what you enjoy and lately that has been practical books on finances, parenting, and the doomed middle class. I think the issue I have at the library is that I know what I'm getting into with non-fiction. The title pretty much sums up the book and if that looks interesting to me then the book will be interesting as well. With Fiction you have more of a crap-shoot. Who knows if this book is going to be good or not? I mostly go by the cover of the book to get an idea of how I will like a book but that has been rather hit or miss as well. I think I will just go through this book and pick out the books that Hornby liked to see how close our tastes run. From what I have read so far we have a similar take on some of the classics so maybe this will work. I also thought that I would borrow from his idea to write about what he is reading and maybe post a little monthly blurb on what I have been reading myself. Seems kinda of strange to write about a book I am reading that is a collection of writings on books that he is reading. Almost like pointing the video camera at the TV that is showing what you are filming. Soon we will be sucked in to an alternate universe and controlled with a high power remote control 100 times more powerful then the one Christopher Walken created in Click. Anyway I am setting out to read more Fiction , please email any titles that you have enjoyed lately (except for Linsey, your books are too hard for a college drop out like me) and I'll tell you what I think.

Two men and a baby

Rainy Day

Finny is just up from a nap and noisily slurping down a bottle on the pillow next to me. It is raining and cold outside and we are laying in bed, him in his pajamas and me in my pink polo and jeans. We don't have anything to do today and the bone chilling rain beyond the front and back doors does not invite adventure. Finn will dictate the days events as he is doing now with his chatter between slugs of formula. I will change his diaper and his clothes, we will read a book or two with Finn making up a much more interesting story then the one I am reading off the pages. I won't understand his version but he will make me laugh and then look back at me and smile. We will play peek-a-boo on the floor as Finn tries to taste the delicacies found stuck in the carpet. There will be another nap and more food and all sorts of other adventures that Finn will not let me write about. He has discarded the bottle and is now climbing over me to type his own message out: it reads "Down with e the computer daddy, it's time to play!"

Jessica Will be proud of me(then again maybe not)

Perusing the feeds on Google reader like isles at the grovery store I came across this poem that one blogger used with permission and I will use without:

Beannacht ("Blessing") by John O’Donohue

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

Also I suggest that you make this frequent read!

Finny Eats

Finn was cracking us up with his antics while eating last night. This is something where I'm sure you had to be there but just incase I am posting it here. He would raise his hands in the air and smack them down on the tray. You can see this at the end of this video. He was alos making crazy faces, twitching, and tensing up.

Finny Laughs

Birthday

I know so many of you reading this have been wondering what to get me for my birthday next month. Normally I would say "Oh I don't want anything for my birthday, blah blah blah." and really mean it but his year is different. I'm gonna be honest with you because I feel like we are close like that. Kate and I are a young married couple with a baby, one income, and all of the cliche issues that those things entail. Money is tight and that means we focus on the essentials and not much else. It is a some times difficult time but also crazy romantic and fun. I really do love this time for all the worry it causes me. Anyway I was thinking about my birthday in light of all that and how asking for anything would be greedy. But that isn't true. Expecting something is greedy, letting people know what you would like, if they choose to get something for you, is just good manners. This seemed a lot better in my head but is suffering greatly in the typing. Anyway here are some things that I like if your asking:

T-Shirts from Threadless - Who doesn't like cool t-shirts, and this is a cool place for t-shirts.

Golf Lessons - I love playing Golf but I am not good, not good at all. The ball goes where it goes seemingly detached from my efforts.

Books - I love books and have been reading like crazy since coming home to raise Finny. If you love a book and want to pass it on then I would like to read it.

Gin and tonic - For Christmas Kate bought me a bottle of Hendrick's Gin and it was great. The bottle was funky and Gin had a Cucumber hint to it. Really any Distilled Spirit is nice here especially the different ones. There is a Vodka made from Grapes called Ciroq which is technically an Eau de vie and not a vodka but I would like to try it anyway.

Power tools - This summer we are going to start working on the house in earnest again and I am woefully lacking in the proper tools. I really am an embarrassment to my brother and dad. Right now I have a corded drill that I am not even sure is mine.

Allergies, Sunshine, and snow

In the Midwest the weather is a big deal. Much bigger then it was when we were in Santa Barbara. Apart from the June Gloom there wasn't any real mystery with SoCal weather. It's gonna be nice, real nice! Here in the Cross Roads of America is a different story though and nothing shows the difference like the last two weeks. Two Sundays ago we had Sunday dinner at our house and ate in the back yard under a warm setting sun. It was a wonderful spring evening with great friends and even a traveling musician playing some Southern Blues and Gospel tunes with the kids helping on the chorus. The warm weather continued for another week and then it went from 75 degrees in the afternoon to snow flurries the next morning. There was a 50 degree drop in temp in less then 24 hours! In between the Sun and snow was a Thunder storm, or more aptly a lightning storm since the Thunder doesn't really bother me as much as the thought of getting hit with one of those bolts, that turned the sky green and dropped copious amounts of rain and hail. We had Tornado warnings, Thunder Storm Warnings, and Flash flood warnings for a triple crown of Midwest danger. During all this craziness my allergies have been flaring up like mad. It is really bizarre to have itchy, watery eyes when it freezing outside. I have been in a medicated haze that is particularly unique to allergy medicine.

Finny the Orange

I'm gonna be honest with you, I have no idea what I'm doing on a daily basis raising Finn. What he should eat, when should he sleep, is he sick...... I think the key to parenting is just faking it until you get into a rythem. Really, I think it is that simple. I read a lot and watch people that I respect (Tina, Carrie, John) but then I just come home and pretend like I know what I'm doing and everything seems to work out. Yesterday I was feeding Finn some Lasagna Dinner baby food and he kept reach for the jar and the spoon when I would get it close to him. I started getting a little frustrated that he was thwarting my efforts to nourish him. I finally said fine you do it yourself and he did. He fed himself just fine without my help and had a blast doing it. He made an absolute mess but messes clean and Finn and I laughed ourselves silly on the back porch while he ate. I don't know if he relizes I'm faking it but even if he does I think we'll be OK. I'm a good faker and he's a good sport.

Finny got his hair did too

His locks are trimmed and he looks like a much older baby now.

Our Village

Sunday nights we have dinner with a growing group of people in our neighborhood. The meal is hosted by a different family each week and we are up to 9 different families who make meals. The host invites whomever they want to join the core group and the meals are always great. This past Sunday dinner was at the Aalsma's house which is one of my favorite places in the neighborhood. The Aalsma's are just so cool you could easily be intimidated but they are too friendly for that to last long. Their house is big with lots of great art, funky fold furniture, stacks of books, and toys for all kids of all ages. They had two tables set up in the dinning room and kids running around everywhere as parents took turns eating and watching each others kids.

Like I said the meals are always great but part of the magic of Sunday nights is community. The living of life in close proximity to each other. I got my haircut in the middle of the room where the babies were pulling every toy they could reach out of the box on the floor. Older kids ran around Tina as she deftly maneuvered her pregnant belly and scissored hands without hitting me with either. College Basketball played silently on the TV in the corner even though very few beside me cared what happened between Kansas and Kentucky. A friend of one of the families, who happened to be a pediatrician, stopped by to check on an ear of one of the kids. Around the table Kate was recruiting writers for the neighborhood paper and babysitting duties were traded like baseball cards.

Next week the dinner will be at our house again and it might be nice enough to be outside. I can't wait to see what happens, who comes, where the conversations goes, what gets broken. This week Kate and I will worry about what to make, not with any unhealthy pressure to impress, but with the desire to cook something fitting of the great people that will come. We will invite someone from Kate's work that she wants to be friends with and neighbors from down the block. It will be a great night and most of us will not realize just how great until years later. We don't often get a sense for how great something is until much later in life but lately I have had a real tangible sense of how great Sunday night is. There is something so beautiful about the time, the people, the whole event that I sometimes start to think about when it will inevitably end and can't help but get sad. But it is not ending this week, and this week we get to have our house over run with life and the energy of it lived in such close proximity and it makes me smile.

Kate got her hair did

Zen and the art of Child Rearing

It’s the middle of the third quarter and the Lakers 4 point lead has turned into a 9 point deficit in the last 3 minutes. Smush is bringing the ball up looking to the sideline to see if Coach Phil Jackson is going to call time out. This seems like a dumb move since I know he’s not going to call it, the other team knows he’s not going to call it, hell the cheerleaders preening on the sideline know he’s not going to call it. Phil doesn’t call time outs in that situation because he wants the guys on the floor to work it out themselves. He has been like that through all 9 championships, 4 books, and countless wins so he might be on to something.

As I’m yelling at Smush through my computer screen Finn is screaming in the other room. It is close to midnight and Finn has been having a rough go at it this evening. I have been in and out of his room most of the night and he calms down for a couple of minutes but then winds back up. Kobe kicks the ball out to Odom for a jumper and 2 points and then the Lakers steal the ball and score again. They are working it out themselves just like Phil knew they would and I think I need a little more Zen in my child care. Finn needs to learn to work things out himself as well. I don’t need to call a time out right now and go soothe him, this is an opportunity for him to expand and learn how to soothe himself. So I watch the game and tell Kate it’s OK, let him work it out when she wakes up and starts to go to Finn.

After about 45 minutes of Finn failing to work it out himself Kate finally gets up, gives Finn his bottle and puts him back to sleep where he sleeps soundly through the night. In the morning Kate asked me why I let him cry so long and I told her about the Lakers, about Phil Jackson and his Zen coching style. I told her I was letting him work it out, not calling a time out, giving Finn the opportunity to see he had it in him all along. Kate rolled her eyes at me saying rather patronizingly “So your taking your parenting cues from a basketball coach now?” Then kissed me on my forhead and said “You’re an idiot honey.” As she headed off to bathroom I knew she was right. Then I thought: I wonder how John Wooden would have handled the situation.

Finny's Prison Scar

Finn worked one of his teething biscuits down pretty good before biting into it and breaking it in half. He spit half of it out and the part left in his hand had a fairly sharp end on it. While bouncing in his Jumperoo and trying to get it back in his mouth he scratched himself pretty good from just under his mouth to up close to his eye. His reaction was a quick head shake and toss of his biscuit as if he were some ditching his home made prison shiv after knifing another inmate. The scratch has since healed but he looked pretty tough for a couple of days.