Tuesday, September 21, 2010

nocturnal frog

When you hear a crash like that in the bathroom one room over at 3am you really fly out of bed quickly. Come to find out when it happens a second time a few months later at the same time of day, your heart pumps with the same adrenaline as the first time. It wasn’t until the second incident that I decided to do something about it. What was this incident that had me flying out of bed at roughly 3am multiple times you ask…it was the nocturnal frog.

When we were expecting Lucy some friends gave us the below pictured frog to hang in the bathtub and collect the bath toys. When reading the instructions for installing the frog I misinterpreted a few of the steps. More specifically, the steps regarding suctioning a piece of the frog to the shower wall by cleaning and drying the area before applying suction cups. My interpretation of those steps was to just push really hard when applying suction cups.


The frog stayed up for a while and as a bath toy picker upper and holder it worked great. The basket had holes in it so you can just scoop up the bath toys and the water would run out and back into the tub.

The first time the frog fell off of the wall with an alarmingly loud crash I didn’t initially know what it was. Frankly, my first reaction was fear. I thought someone was in the house or that a deer has jumped through the window. (Oddly, what you first think of when you hear a loud crash in the middle of the night may be genetic. I say this because I distinctly recall my mom saying she thought a deer had jumped through our kitchen window the night our cat knocked the glass gerbil cage over. I have no further evidence of this beyond this one example.)

Although fear was my first reaction I charged out of the room shirtless and more consequently if it was a house invader…weaponless. I was able to take a deep breath after looking in the bottom of the bath tub to see Mermaid Dora, Swimming Elmo, and Back Float Baby staring back at me. I returned to bed, explained to Lib what the noise was, and of course vowed to fix the frog in the morning.

Due to Lucy’s love of the frog and its overall usefulness we gave it a pass on causing a house wide heart attack the night before. The “just push hard” application was used again and we were back in business. Inevitable the frog fell again. Of course it wasn’t during the middle of the day or when we weren’t home, but in the middle of the night. This leaving me no choice but to conclude that the frog is nocturnal.

In response to these two events we have moved to a more grounded system. This pink basket was purchased at Target and although it isn’t shaped like any animal is doing the job quite well. Most importantly is has slept through the night every night since we brought it more. A trick Paige has yet to figure out!?!?!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Shopping Queen or wait…

This weekend Libby’s brother is getting married. We are all very excited for Dan and Mollie. Lucy has been asked to be the flower girl (a blog worthy event if I have ever heard of one). This past weekend we were completing some final preparations, which included a trip the mall. When we go shopping we all have our rolls: Lib has the shopping list, “front pack Paige” looks around and tries to grab anything close, Lucy occasional holds mom's hand and asks for stuffs, and dad just tries to keep up and stay out of the way.

Upon entering Old Navy Lucy quickly found the section of clothes that were her size or in her words “my section”. After Libby found a button down cover up in case Lucy gets cold in her dress she was off to the next section. Lucy wasn’t going any where. As Lucy continued to comb through the racks I began to have visions of an emerging shopping queen. I imagined a young lady with arms full of must have outfits, shopping carts full of shoes, and in store meltdowns with yelling and tears whenever she heard the word no.

As I snapped out of my daydream I noticed she wasn’t really picking anything out, just enjoying looking at the clothes. So wait, maybe not a shopping queen maybe someone with a future in fashion or design. She was heard using such quotes as, “that is cute” and “I like the pink one” or “that would be good” all while talking to the clothing.

Mom stopped by to let us know she was going to the fitting room. This brief visit made Lucy switch gears. She started to organize the clothes, and if any of you have ever been to the St. Louis Park Old Navy you know there is plenty of this needed. She started taking shirts that where on the wrong rack and moving them back with their matches. Shoes and sandals were returned to their right places, sweatshirts were folded (kind of), and shirts were put back on hangers.

With a mother who was has a math degree, a “papa” in accounting, and a soon to be aunt (5 days away at the time of posting) who is a CPA Lucy’s sorting and organizing made me say, “or wait” again. Genetics are powerful and she was looking like the next generation “bean counter”.

When we got home she wanted to turn her bedroom into a clothing store. When I arrived at the store (walked into her room) she started taking clothes out of her closet and drawers that she thought I would like. When she showed me an 18 month sleeper (not sure why we have this out with a 3 year old and 6 month old in the house) for my younger daughter I told her it might be too big. She said she will grow into it. When she showed me a summer dress for my older daughter I told her it might be too cold for this time of year. She replied that she could still wear it inside. As we went through this sales process I said or wait again and thought that a sales career could be in her future.

While we don’t know what Lucy will pursue when she gets older this experience has me convinced she has some options. This week our focus is on her being a 3 year old (bday is the 14th) and on Saturday a Flower Girl. Updates on both will be coming soon.


Sunday, September 5, 2010

DUDE REPORT: Fantasy Football

This is my fifth dude report and it is the fifth that is about sports. This serves as evidence that I am a sports nut. Basketball, baseball, football…I like it all. To take the “nuttiness” to a higher level I enjoy playing fantasy football. Those of you who don’t like football particularly fantasy football, because you think it is something sports nerds use as an extra excuse to analysis stats, because it makes your spouse cheer for odd players on odd teams, or because it make for a frantic hour on the computer before Sunday’s noon kickoff to make sure the lineup is set…you are right on all accounts.

With that all said, my two sports fan highlights of the year are filling out my NCAA March Madness bracket and drafting my fantasy football team. Nutty, nerdy, over the top…guilty on all charges!??! Below are my predictions for this year’s fantasy football season.

If after all that ranting you are interested in giving fantasy football a try or looking to join another league, I would love to offer ESPN’s Gridiron Challenge. It is free, fun, and not too time consuming. I have started a group: Winneconne, etc with the password: packers. (Background: Winneconne is the name of my home town in Wisconsin. I am a Packer fan.)

Before we dive into more sports, I wanted confirm that I still have plans to take the DUDE REPORT into dude topics beyond sports. Grilling, landscaping, and why we all should demand Hollywood make Anchorman 2 to list a few future topic examples!?!?

Booms: (Players who will exceed expectations this year)
QB: Tony Romo, DAL
RB: DeAngelo Williams, CAR & Jonathan Stewart, CAR
RB: Michael Turner, ATL
WR: Greg Jennings, GB
WR: Hakeem Nicks, NYG
TE: Jason Witten, DAL
K: Matt Prater, DEN
DEF: San Francisco 49ers

Busts: (Players that may still have good years, but will underperform to expectations)
QB: Eli Manning, NYG
RB: Rashard Mendenhall, PIT
RB: Ryan Grant, GB
WR: Larry Fitzgerald, ARI
WR: Mike Sims-Walker, JAC
TE: Owen Daniels, HOU
K: Jay Feely, ARI
DEF: Denver Broncos

Sleepers: (Late round picks or players no one is talking about that will make an impact)
QB: Kevin Kolb, PHI
RB: Arian Foster, HOU
RB: Cadillac Williams, TB
WR: Jeremy Maclin, PHI
WR: Jacoby Jones, HOU
TE: Jermaine Gresham, CIN
K: Neil Rackers, HOU
DEF: Cincinnati Bengals