Chuck E Cheese gave me an anxiety attack

Yesterday a friend and I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. I don't know why I would do such a thing, really. Those kinds of places always freak me out. The noise, the chaos, the flashing lights and screaming kids; it's all too much. But it was almost worth it for the exchange between my friends on Facebook.

Almost. Not quite.



I love my friends. I really, really do.

Birthday marketing

Seen at a CVS:



Wait, what?

I am thankful for my new Mac!

Now I just have to figure out how to use it. Deeerrrrr....

Liam is a perfect cube

We took Liam to the doctor the day before Thanksgiving for his 4-year check-up. He's perfectly healthy, perfectly normal. Oddly, though, he measures 42.5 inches tall and 42.5 pounds. The doctor joked that he's a perfect cube.


(Photo courtesy Todd, Liam's dad. Thanks!)

Liam got six shots at the doctor, including the seasonal flu and the H1N1 flu shots. He was a champ about it, and only cried a little. Then we went and bought him toys at Target. Thea also got her seasonal flu shot, but because she doesn't have the same respiratory issues that Liam seems to have, she could get the second dose of the H1N1 vaccine as flu mist. After she described the flu mist as feeling like a bug crawled up her nose, I asked her which one she liked better. She said "The shot, because you get presents afterward!" That's my girl.

The kids also got blood drawn for lead and a few other standard tests (cholesterol, etc.). Thea was very brave and only cried for a few seconds. Liam, on the other hand, didn't cry at all and instead giggled demurely. It might be because the pretty phlebotomist complimented his eyelashes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Watching Spongebob in Mommy's bed

It was as close as we came to a much-needed nap today.

Bedtime story by Thea

Once upon a time there was a cat that was named Puss 'n' Boots and one
day Puss 'n' Boots went out and searched for a owner and then he found
a owner.

The end

By Theadora

Thea graduating from daycare to kindergarten

One of my friends whose daughter went to daycare with Thea and Liam is a professional photographer. She got these lovely photos of the day back in June when Thea "graduated" from daycare, ready to leave for kindergarten.

Thea drew a picture of Cinderella for me

NaBloPoMo fatigue

I stare at the screen and have nothing to say. So instead, here's a song I'm a little obsessed with (with thanks to On the Curb for the idea). All members of Grinderman are also in Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, a band that I respect intellectually but never really got into. For whatever reason, the same musicians as Grinderman strike me as genius.

Lightning Man and Thunder Woman

Liam turned four years old yesterday!

It was a great birthday. I made the kids reversible superhero capes, with invaluable help from a dear friend, which turned out to be a big hit. The capes have the kids' initials on them, and Thea said they stood for "Thunder Woman" and "Lightning Man" instead of Thea and Liam. I thought that was terribly clever.



The cake was a hit, too, especially with Mike's homemade buttercream frosting.

Liam has continued to be a sunny, friendly, adorable guy. He has a great sense of humor, though, as with Thea at that age, his punchline is usually "Poop!" His sister and he are great friends; they rarely fight and share with each other better than I have a right to ask for.

Liam's favorite foods are macaroni and cheese and meatballs from Ikea (which were his birthday dinner), but in general he has an adventurous palette. He'll try almost anything, including pickled octopus a few months ago. I was insanely proud, and maybe a little grossed out.

The thing I find baffling about my sweet little boy: he is incredibly outgoing. When we're in the grocery store, for example, he'll say hello and start talking to anyone who catches his eye. I find this to be both charming and unnerving, since I'm usually a person who will avoid talking to strangers at almost any cost. It is a wonderful gift to have him in our lives.

Happy birthday, sweetheart!

See also:

• Liam is three years old today!
• Liam turned two years old today!
• Liam turns one!

Today Liam turns 4

The capes turned out pretty well!

Liam's cape, part two

The trim! Man, I hope I can finish this before 5:00 tomorrow. I would have had a much better chance if not for finding a tick eating my leg this morning and the resulting panic, followed by dog washes, laundry, and doctor's visit. Now I've got two weeks of antibiotics to go through to ward off possible disease, and I'm behind with Liam's birthday plans.

My big kids

My friend Tara took this great photo of the kids a couple months ago. She's got a real knack for photography, I think. She captured a nice moment of calm in an otherwise crazy day.

Are we not men?

I went to see Devo perform Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! at the 9:30 club with a collection of my favorite friends. We were all excited to see them, though I had no idea what to expect. I knew it would be a fun show, just because of the crowd I was going with. But I had no idea Devo would rock so hard. I've been to a lot of shows — hundreds, if you count local bands — and this might be my all-time favorite show. They were amazing.

Making a cape for Liam's birthday

It'll be reversible, personalized, and handmade when we're done. But,
man, what a lot of effort. Thanks for being my co-conspirator in this,
Mike!

Tough guy and his cocktail

Sibling love

(A real post tomorrow, I swear.)

Wishing peace and health to our veterans

(Hmm, I don't think I get what this poster is saying. It's a leeeettle too subtle for me.)

Moon bounce at a Greek Festival in Baltimore

This video is from a few months ago. I took the kids to the Greek festival in Baltimore, and their favorite thing was not learning about their heritage but the fact that the moon bounce was relatively empty. They bounced for at least an hour.

You can take the girl out of the country...

I went to a swank opening for Yinka Shonibare at the Smithsonian's African Art Museum tonight. I looked fabulous, by the way, until I spilled a plate of food on my new and very fashionable boots. Typical.

The exhibit was amazing, but it gave me a parental identity crisis. More on that tomorrow.

Visiting the donkey at Watkins Park

Throwing rocks in the lake

Dinner tonight rocked

My friend Mike and I made this, from a recipe I found in SeriousEats.com:

Acorn Squash Lasagna
with Béchamel Sauce
Serves 8

Ingredients

• 1 medium acorn squash
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, diced small
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 Tablespoons chopped fresh sage (from my garden!)
  
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups milk
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups freshly grated cheese (we used Parmigiano-Reggiano and kasseri cheeses), divided
• 2 eggs
• 15 lasagna noodles

1. Preheat the oven to 450° F. Halve the squash lengthwise, discard the seeds, and roast until tender, about 40 minutes. Let cool slightly, then scoop out flesh into a medium bowl and mash with a fork. Stir in the ricotta cheese. Reduce the oven temperature to 375° F.

2. While the squash is roasting, melt the butter over medium heat in a medium pot. Add the onion, garlic, and sage and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to soften. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pot to prevent burning, for one minute. Add the milk along with the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Then reduce the heat to maintain a brisk simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in one cup of the Parmigiano cheese.

3. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Very slowly pour in about one cup of the sauce while whisking the eggs with a fork. (This tempers the eggs so they don't scramble during the next step.) Then pour the tempered egg mixture into the pot with the sauce and stir to combine thoroughly.

4. In a 9x13x2-inch pan, assemble the lasagna. Spread 1/2 cup of the sauce on the bottom of the pan. Lay five lasagna noodles on top, slightly overlapping them and breaking up the fifth noodle as necessary to cover the whole bottom. Top with half the squash mixture and then about 1 1/4 cups sauce. Repeat with a second layer of noodles, squash mixture and sauce. Add a third layer of noodles and top with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup Parmigiano cheese on top. Bake on the center rack until bubbly and slightly browned on top, about 35-40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Bubble wands at a suburban barbecue

Ahem. No comment.

Heartless Bastards at the 9:30 in DC tonight

They were amazing, even if they didn't play my favorite song. Excellent photo courtesy Todd.

Fall festival at a farm

I'm going through my email and finding all these things I meant to post ages ago. This video clip is from when my friend Michael and I took the kids to a fall festival at a nearby farm.



We were excited because the website said they had hand-dipped ice cream. In fact, it was the main reason we decided to go to this particular pumpkin patch, 40 miles away. To my friend and me, "hand-dipped ice cream" means softserve that is dipped in a vat of chocolate that hardens into a shell. To our disappointment, though, the farmers thought it meant someone scooping ice cream by hand. As opposed to, I guess, by foot? I'm still a little bitter.

At any rate, the kids had a blast.

Halloween wrap-up

Like most girls Thea's age, Thea wanted to be a princess for Halloween. Here she is at a costume party with our dear family friend Rosie, who is also dressed as a princess.



Somewhere along the way, though, she changed her mind and decided to be a vampire. She told me this the day before Halloween, and I was so thrilled I told her I'd do anything I could to make it happen. This was the best I could come up with, a cape made from two pillow cases and her school clothes. She wouldn't wear the teeth, but Liam was game:



Liam has been steadfast in his love of bats and this one costume in particular (see 2008 and 2007).



And here's the pumpkin I carved, inspired by our neighbor's pumpkin last year.

Pony ride at the RennFest

It's the first day of NaBloPoMo. It'll be a miracle if I manage to post every day, but I'll give it a try.