Greyson's birthday party

We took Greyson and some of his friends bowling last Saturday for his birthday (and no, we're not confused, his actual birthday isn't until this Sunday but it just worked out better this way). However, you won't be seeing any photos of the bowling because although I remembered the camera, I forgot to put the memory card back into it after my last photo download. Instead, here are photos from after we came back for cake and present opening:














The kids seemed to really enjoy themselves, and they got in two full games in 2 hours. I had them pick cards that assigned them into two teams based on Harry Potter, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, and then did it again for the second game so the teams got rearranged. Their take-home treat was a trophy that said what they had "won", like highest score, best average of the two games, most splits, etc. I'm actually not fond of the whole give-guests-a-gift thing, so this was my way to phase it out a bit and have it actually apply to what we did.

Each time we have a party that involves more than just family, I learn a few things. This one was no exception. First, don't invite kids if you don't already know their parents. When Greyson turned 6 we invited some of his classmates, and one parent called that morning to ask if the child's younger brother could come, too, since he was sad that his brother got to go and he didn't. This year, one of the two girls he invited told him at school that she got grounded and couldn't come, but the mom never called/emailed to let me know. When I called her to verify (stories usually come home with mostly incorrect information at this age and I wanted to be sure, plus there was some story about her providing a ride to the other girl who now couldn't come without a ride, but that turned out to be false), she sounded miffed that I had done so. Second, riding in a car with 5 9-10 year olds is painful. I switched vehicles with Dan for the drive home on the pretext that Reece needed me, and he made the same comments I'd been thinking in my head after we returned home. And third, have parties somewhere else so you don't have to clean before and after!

Stuck between babyhood and childhood

Reece is going through a stage right now where he wants to be babied (carried, cuddled, spoken to like a baby and to make baby sounds). He's also been weighing himself on our home scale, so I can say, "You weigh 31 pounds (or thirty-ten, as he says, because the scale says 31.0) and that's too much for me to pick up right now!" But I've been trying to give in when I can, because I actually remember realizing around his age that I would probably never be picked up and carried again. However, I do have my limits, and apparently Dan does as well. Last night, Dan was helping him get ready for bed and here's what happened:

Reece: I want to watch Greyson playing computer.
Dan: No, I gave you your 5-minute warning and now it's time to go potty.
Reece starts crying. Dan carries him into the bathroom and says to him calmly: Go potty and then we'll read a book.
Reece (still crying): No, Daddy, you go potty for me.
Dan: I can't do that.
Reece: Well, you hold my penis and aim and do everything for me.
Dan still refuses and there is much wailing, so I come up from the basement.
Me: Dear, do you need help?
Dan: YES!
So I go in to the bathroom, and Reece (while still crying), starts the process but tries to convince me to aim for him and flush and wash his hands. I give in on the handwashing, but not for the rest. By the time we're drying hands, he's completely calm and ready to cuddle with Daddy and read. I think he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Terrorism in the name of religion

Oh, the humanity...
Our neighbor gets a huge chocolate bunny every year for Easter, and when we visited yesterday so the kids could hide plastic eggs for each other, she said she'd give us some of this year's version to take home. I thought it would be an ear, and she came out with this in a ziploc and brown paper bag. The kids were so excited, they ripped the paper bag, so I had to walk halfway down our street carrying a chocolate rabbit head. It did seem like a fitting end to the secular portion of the holiday.

Marketing gone too far

Is it just me, or does it look like Lightning McQueen is sporting an afro here?:
These shoes are actually part of a recall because the little wheels can come off and become a choking hazard. Anyone who knows Reece will understand why I checked this out as soon as I saw it listed. However, we do not own this particular shoe type, and after seeing the picture, I know why. Even I have limits as to what lengths I will go for my children's happiness.

Bathroom topics

Ever since we had boys and they started potty training, Dan has been unofficially in charge of teaching the intricacies of "standing up to pee". He was well taught by his father to do things like clean up after oneself (ie mop up the dribbles) and put the seat back down (I cannot thank my father-in-law enough for that one). So last night, Reece was getting into position and Dan reminded him to aim. Apparently, Reece is nearly fully recovered from his illness, because his response was to give Dan a smirk and then purposely put his hands behind his back. Dan reiterated the command as Reece continued to do as he pleased, and then once he was done, he actually did a little dance and sang, "I don't have to listen to Daddy...I don't have to aim". I, of course, had a hard time not laughing, and Dan had a hard time keeping the steam from coming out of his ears.

---------------------------------------

I am all for saving energy, but I think my place of work has taken things too far. The lights in the women's bathroom are now on a motion sensor. However, apparently they are not sensitive enough to detect small movements, and they are also set to very short time intervals. The result of which is that if only one person is in the bathroom and not moving much for about 15 seconds, the lights turn off! Then said person must waive her arms or make some other silly movement to get them to turn back on. I just hope there are no cameras tied into the sensors...

Trip, interrupted

I took the boys to DC to visit a good friend and her husband this weekend, since Greyson had spring break last week. Turns out, it's only a 6 hour trip including stops, which for us (and our trusty DVD players) is not bad. We left Thursday afternoon, and the plan was to go downtown Friday morning to see the monuments and cherry blossoms and avoid the heaviest crowds, then something away from downtown that afternoon. Saturday we were going to the Udvar-Hazy Center (part of the National Air and Space Museum, near Dulles Airport in Virginia) in the morning and then to see a children's theater production of Heidi in Bethesda in the afternoon. Then we'd come back home Sunday during the day. However, both weather and kids' illnesses changed our plans somewhat. Here's what we did instead:

Friday am: It rained, so we saw the Monsters and Aliens movie (cute, kids liked it, just OK for adults).

Friday pm: After lunch the weather had cleared up enough, so we headed downtown on the Metro and walked around near the tidal basin (saw the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial from a distance - even on a cloudy and very windy day the blossoms are beautiful) and walked around in the WWII memorial (Greyson is doing a power point presentation on D-Day, so we got some great pics for that). Reece was acting droopy and felt warm by then, and by the time we got back he just wanted to sleep. He woke twice in the night and ended up sleeping with me.

Sat. am: We all slept late Sat. morning and missed the chance to do both things in the time frame we had. Reece was still not feeling well, and I was tired from interrupted sleep. So we decided we'd leave in the afternoon to head home rather than try to drag Reece places while sick. The Tylenol had kicked in enough that we went to a playground to get some exercise and fresh air (it was sunny and 65, although very windy still).

Sat. pm: Had a yummy pizza lunch and then packed up to leave. Turns out it was the right choice, because every time the drugs wore off Reece, he was hot and lethargic again. We got home about 9pm, and Reece ended up sleeping with me but still woke twice and was inconsolable for a while both times. Dan let me sleep in this morning, and we had nothing planned for today anyway, so we were able to have a relaxing day. Reece even got to eat lunch on a tray in the living room.

Even with only one day between drives, I'm glad we went. We're hoping to get back soon to see more of the DC sights when it's not peak visitor time. And maybe next time we'll plan far enough in advance that Dan can come, too!

Signs of spring

I would like to apologize to anyone who is currently buried in snow, but here it REALLY feels like spring. It is 60 degrees and sunny today, and we're going to grill dinner (pork tenderloin) this evening. The crocuses are up, and we saw a rabbit in the yard last night. I do realize that since Dan has tickets to the Indians' home opener a week from Friday, there will most likely be a blizzard that day, but for now I'm just going to pretend that the current weather will continue for the next month. However, the true indicator of spring is, of course, when the gardening gear is broken out:
Two hours after this was taken, I had two boys covered in mud and a lovely moat near the swingset. It's very freeing to not care about a dug-up, muddy backyard, since it will be much worse in two months when the house renovations start.

Why I have at least 20 more gray hairs

Yesterday morning, Greyson had already left for the bus stop and Reece was ready to go, but I still had to get my shoes and jacket on. Reece asked if he could start walking, and I've let him do this before because 1) he's quite a slow walker, so it's easy for me to catch up with him, and 2) I would be out in less than one minute - usually about the time he would be in front of our next-door neighbors' house. So I told him "Yes" and that I would be right out. I'm sure you're already anticipating where this is going, if you know Reece at all. I put my stuff on, grabbed keys, locked the back door, and walked at my usual pretty quick pace to the end of the driveway. There was no sign of the boy. Then I looked up the street toward the bus stop, and he was RUNNING and about one house away from the corner. I took off running, yelling his name and for him to stop. He turned around, looked at me, and KEPT RUNNING. I lost sight of him, immediately heard a honk, and saw my two neighbors, who had been at the bus stop with their kids already, running back across the cross-street. My thoughts - he's been hit and is dead and I wish I had learned to run much faster. Turns out the bus was already at the corner and saw him running and honked while simultaneously telling the other moms what she could see but they couldn't - Greyson's little brother running toward the road. He actually stopped at the stop sign, which he is 75% of the time very good at doing, but of course no one knew he would do that for sure.

So he and I had a very serious talk and he is no longer allowed to go out ahead of me. And I'm still trying to get my heart to stop beating out of my chest.

25 Reasons I love Cleveland (the first 10)

Have you seen all the "25-whatever" lists going around Facebook? I like the 25 Random Things About Me one, because people get very creative and you can really learn interesting things about people you thought you knew. But some of the list topics are not so appealing. The whole first childbirth one? TMI, and some strange questions. So I decided to create my own (listed in no particular order).

Trashing Cleveland is considered fun times in some circles, and I know some people are not living here by choice. But those of us who are and who genuinely enjoy being here and appreciate its many attributes should be touting it to one and all. Just getting morale up could do wonders for the entire northeast Ohio area! Hopefully, those who actually read this blog might learn some interesting and positive facts about Cleveland here. I also welcome any additions to the list.

1) Lake Erie.
Boating, swimming, fishing. Granted, Lake Erie hasn't been the cleanest in past times. But here's a testiment to how far things have come: the Monterey Bay Aquarium lists Lake Erie Yellow Perch as its best choice for perch in its Central US Seafood Watch guide! It beats out perch from both Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. Sorry Alpena!

2) The Cleveland Orchestra is in the top tier of orchestras in the country.
Supposedly no one actually ranks orchestras, but if you ask anyone who plays an orchestral instrument as a career, they know which ones are considered the best. And ours is one. I had no idea until I met someone who moved here specifically to play in it. They offer great children's concerts, many of which we've attended.

3) The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Affectionately knows as the Rock Hall around here, the place is awesome even for those who are not rock music aficionados. And it was designed by I.M. Pei to look like a record player from the air (bet you didn't know that - or if you're young enough you don't even know what a record player is). If you want to see for yourself, go to google maps and type in "rock and roll hall of fame", then zoom in.

4) Accessible, reliable public transportation.
The Greater Cleveland RTA won the "America's Best Transit System" award for 2007.

5) Great Lakes Science Center.
This is a terrific place to take kids of varying ages. Until Greyson got too old for it, our favorite part was the Polymer Playhouse for kids age 7 and under. We discovered by accident that this is the best place to watch the Cleveland Air Show as well. If you have a child who gets scared of loud noises, you just let them play inside and you place yourself by a window that looks out over the lake.

6) The weather.
Yes, I said it. I love the changing seasons and the variety within each season. Probably March-April is the only yucky time, and that doesn't even hold this year because today it's going to be 60 and sunny! And summer and fall are terrific - we spend 3/4 of our time outdoors then.

7) West Side Market.
Fresh produce, every meat you can think of, pastries, cheeses, and pierogies with pretty much any possible filling. It makes every famous foodie's list for good reason. And it's right on the RTA path, so you don't even have to worry about parking - just making sure you don't buy so much you can't carry it home!

8) The Cleveland Museum of Art.
It just recently reopened after a 3-year renovation, so now is definitely the time to go. I took two art history classes as an undergrad at Case, and we met AT THE MUSEUM, which was awesome. Every period is represented, and major tours come through all the time.

9) Little Italy.
I know other cities have larger and more well-known little Italies, but this one fits everything you'd want into a small area and has survived many changes in areas surrounding it. A wide variety of Italian restaurant options in a span of about 5 blocks, awesome pastries, the Feast of the Assumption celebration, and Cleveland cassata cake (not to be confused with true Italian cassata cake that is somewhat like spumoni).

10) The Cleveland Playhouse and Playhouse Square.
Yes, it's confusing at first that there are two separate theater areas that sound so similar and are only a few miles down the same road from each other. They both have a wide variety of shows, although the Playhouse seems to do smaller and lesser-known plays and has an association with Case's fine arts master's program, and the Playhouse Square theaters get the Broadway plays and bigger productions.

I'll post the next 10 in a few days and then the last 5 after that.

Silliness on the 2nd floor

Reece decided on his own to create his own "headphones":




UPDATE: I don't know why it stops suddenly, but you can watch the whole thing by moving the arrow just a little each time it does that. I'll see if I can fix the problem, but don't hold your breath.

UPDATE #2: Now it's working fine, and I didn't do anything but wait a day. Probably a life lesson right there.