Self-sufficiency

This is Ryan posting again...

I’ve noted with some curiosity that ever since we added Elliot to team Halverson most of our pictures and blogs have been devoted to Oliver, our friends and random events; he's given just enough blog real estate for just a smattering of pictures. I have not yet come to a conclusion that adequately solves this mystery. I can only hope it does not create lasting harm to him.

Hypothetically, it could be that Elliot really hasn’t provided any Kodak-worthy moments with his seemingly tireless routine of eat, sleep, poop and cry. While totally adorable, lovable and heart-warming to Anna and me, I find little about this to spur much thought or observation other than: “Wow. He stopped crying” or “I can’t believe he fell asleep.” Or “Why doesn’t Anna change him?” (this last one thought, though – to be honest – really does race through my mind, is also totally unfair since she is out-diapering me at a pace of at least 20:1.

It is with this as a backdrop that I must apologize to Elliot that my blog is not about him and his new snazzy cloth-diapers, (which, trust me, deserves some analysis)-- but about Oliver.

Where Oliver struggles in the eating and growing department he does make up in other departments. Let me share one example. Recently, Oliver (who is potty-trained) climbed up on to the toilet for his nightly ritual before going to bed. I will pause to add that my deepest respect goes out to this little man, who, at the tender age of 2.5, has already discovered the pleasures of reading in the bathroom, albeit a book read to him by someone else. If we got the paper, I would be half-tempted to start reading him the latest stats and box-scores from the baseball pages. But I digress.

So, there Oliver is… climbing on to the toilet. He sits down and while no one was in the bathroom to read to him, started looking around. He happened to notice that the roll of toilet paper was exhausted. So, he lifted it out of it holder. Stepped down from the toilet and threw the toilet paper roll in the waste basket. I observed all of this with paternal pride. However, just when I thought he was finished with the task… he came out into the hall, opened a closet door and got a brand new roll of toilet paper! He went back into the bathroom, put it on the holder and snapped it down into place. As he climbed back on to the toilet to finish his real business he nodded his head back and forth as if saying to himself, “ahhhh… everything is in its place, now I can go”.

I was as much amused, as I was full of respect for our little guy. My esteem grew even more when I realized that, given the same situation I would have gotten up and found another bathroom that had toilet paper rather than finding and replacing the roll.

And just for icing on the cake, he flushed and closed the lid.

Good Neighbors

We found out recently that our next door neighbors are moving back up to Massachusetts at the end of this month. They had moved down here 2 years ago for a job. They missed their friends and family "up North" and so decided to throw in the towel and move back.

Every time I think about it I get sad. We have lived next door to this family since we moved to Raleigh, a year and a half ago, and yet we only really started to get to spend time with them this spring. When we first met them I decided that we didn't really have much in common so I didn't pursue a friendship. I'm so disappointed in myself for being so unfriendly and stand-offish to this family. It kills me to know that they were so lonely this whole time and we didn't reach out to them at all.

Even though we have just started to get to know the parents, Oliver plays with their 3 kids in our connected backyards for hours almost everyday. They splash around in the water table, they water the plants in my garden (thanks guys!), they hit balls from the T-ball stand, they shoot baskets, they ride Ollie's little pink bike down the hill, slaloming through the bushes, they chase each other around the yard, they swing on their glider, they draw with sidewalk chalk, they blow bubbles, and they enact an endless drama in their little playhouse. Their daughter, Jayla, is just 10 days younger than Oliver and she and Ollie are thick as thieves. He gets so excited when he hears her voice and shouts "friends! friends!" I am really going to miss hearing the knock at our back door every afternoon and their little voices asking if Ollie is up from his nap and can come out to play.

We have had a couple of Friday night cookouts with their family in the last few weeks. Ryan gets home from work and fires up the grill. The kids are usually all in the backyard playing already. They drag over their lawn chairs and we all sit around and eat and talk until it gets dark. It is such a easy way to kick off the weekend. I wish that they were going to be around longer so we could make that an ongoing tradition.

Here are some pictures from our cookout last Friday. You'll notice that Oliver has inherited his mother's love of Nacho cheese Doritos.

Incidentally, there is a GREAT piece in the New York Times today about how increasingly rare it is to really know one's neighbors. You can read it here.

What's Cookin'

This year I finally convinced Ryan to join a CSA (community supported agriculture)/ farm share. The way a CSA subscription works is that you contract with a local farmer at the beginning of the season and share in the harvest all spring/summer/fall. So, you pay a set amount in, say, February, and then get fresh produce all season long. Ryan had been reluctant to give it a try because one Spetember in Ithaca we "took over" the last 2 or 3 weeks of a friend's CSA and we got inundated with mountains of beets and Swiss chard. There was so much it wouldn't fit in our fridge. It was a total fiasco. But I found a local farm that not only offered fruits and veggies but eggs, beef, pork and chicken, and, best of all, actually lets us choose what goes in our box each week. Brinkley Farms sends us an email with a list of what's available and we choose what we want. Then on Wednesday afternoon we go pick it up at a drop spot in Raleigh about 3 miles from our house (the farm itself is about 20 miles away.)

It's been a great way to try out new foods like kohlrabi and bok choi, which I had never eaten before, much less cooked. I love trying to find new recipes for the food that we order. It's sort of like a puzzle. Last night I made this awesome soup with onions, kale, chorizo and potatoes that we got from the CSA. It's really delicious so I'm putting the recipe here. I didn't take pictures (such an amateur blogger!) but if I decide to have some for lunch I'll set up a photo shoot.

Portuguese Greens Soup (Caldo Verde)
Heat in a large soup pot, over medium-low heat:
1 1/2 TBS olive oil
Add and cook, stirring, until tender but not browned, 5-10 minutes:
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Stir in:
8 cups of water
4 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced [I used 1 qt. red new potatoes, unpeeled]
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat. Using a potato masher, lightly mash the potatoes right in the pot. This will give the soup a chunky texture.
While the soup is simmering, heat a medium skillet, over medium-high heat and cook, stirring, until browned:
1 lb. chorizo sausage
Add browned chorizo to the soup pot after mashing the potatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in:
4 cups shredded kale, washed and dried.
Simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in:
2 TBS fresh lemon juice
Ladle into warmed bowls. Yum!

Caveat Emptor

So yesterday I had the most unwelcome birthday surprise--I discovered that I'd been scammed by an online ticket agency. My dad, half-brother Anson, Uncle Trow and cousin Robert are all heading over to Austria in a few days to go to the European Cup (soccer) finals. We were all supposed to go with them but then we found out that we were expecting in May and so that sort of put the kibosh on travel in June. Anyway, back in January I bought 4 tickets for a game in Vienna on June 20. The tickets were supposed to arrive in early May...then that got changed to late May...then it was "tomorrow"...and then it was "next week"...and finally, quite suddenly I couldn't get a hold of anyone at the "customer service" number.

I thought I had done my due diligence on this company (Eurofootballtickets2008.com), but I clearly hadn't dug deep enough. There was nothing amiss about that site, but when I checked out their parent company, Xclusiveticket.com, which supposedly had "over 25 years of experience in the ticketing business" it became all too apparent that they were a sham business, set up "xclusively" to scam unwitting customers. If you Google "xclusiveticket.com" and "scam" you'll read all sorts of angry testimony from other people who have been duped by this ticket scam.

Anyway, so we (my dad and I) spent the morning yesterday calling American Express, the FBI, the Better Business Bureau, the British consulate (supposedly they are registered in the UK), the Austrian embassy, and finally some legitimate ticket brokers to get new tickets for the game, which at this point are more than twice what they cost in January. Argh!

A day later, it doesn't seem like such a big deal, we'll get our money back from American Express and the guys will still get to see the game, but boy was I stressed out yesterday. What really burns me up is that these shysters have been operating with impunity for a few years, and they haven't been shut down. They have a front for Beijing Olympic tickets as well as other concerts and festivals in the UK. One of their employees even has his CV, or resume, posted on the web...it can't be too hard to find these people, right? Why aren't they in jail??? Another ARGH!!! (I feel like a pirate!)

In other news, I attempted to cut Oliver's hair a few days ago. Disaster. My hatchet job had to be fixed by a friend with more experience and wisdom. It looks pretty cute and all grown up. Here are some pics.

Of course he's crying! "Mom, what have you done to my bangs?" This was "mid haircut". It actually got worse after this. I had been taking pictures of Elliot, and I thought, Oliver, you are so cute, but your hair is a mess. A wet comb would have worked wonders, but no, I grabbed the scissors instead. Big mistake.
This is actually an "after" picture...there's not much we can do but wait for the bangs to grow out, but at least it looks normal everywhere else. And even the bangs look cute when I comb them over to the side, you can't tell that they have been hacked.

Without A Net

This is Anna again...

Today was my first day at home alone with the two boys. My mom came out before I even left the hospital and stayed with us for 10 days. It was so great to have her here, not only to help out with Oliver and Elliot, but also to keep me company during the day. I was really nervous when she left. I started crying before I took her to the airport. I think that freaked Oliver out but he tried to comfort me by bringing me his cement mixer (doesn't that make everything better?!) I was so touched by his sweet little attempt to cheer me up that I actually cheered up.

Anyway, today wasn't so bad. I was really nervous, but it actually went really well. We spent most of the morning in the backyard. Ollie was content to hit balls off the t-ball stand and make mudpies in his water table while I nursed Elliot. Ollie is proving to be a very sweet big brother. He loves to watch the baby and gives him gentle touches or kisses on the head. When Elliot cries Ollie insists that he needs his "pacie fider" and helps put it in Elliot's mouth. Ollie and Elliot both went down for a nap in the afternoon and so I was able to get some things done and take a short nap myself. Then in the late afternoon all the neighbor kids were out playing together so Ollie played with them while I took care of Elliot. It all seemed to go so swimmingly...so I'm bracing myself for a topsy turvy day tomorrow, because, really, that's just the way things go.

A Glorious Weekend

An Obligatory Elliot Update:
Dear reader. Since Elliot's arrival, I have taken up the blogging responsibility. At first, it was to me like taking a dog for a walk. A necessity. I now find that I enjoy it. Unfortunately, for Anna, the dog analogy stops here since I have never enjoyed walking a dog and I don't want her to get any ideas. Because, she has ideas about dogs.



Power Play
Since Anna arrived home from the hospital on Monday we have enjoyed Nana's company. She has been a tremendously helpful presence in the house while we transition from an overpowering 2-to-1 child-care to man-to-man defense. Yes, it was she who came to my rescue on Thursday morning at 3:30 a.m. with a crying Elliot in my arms, an out of sorts Oliver going "poo poo" on the toilet (when did he start waking up to do this?) and my sleeping eyes barely open while I was slumped on the bathroom floor.

On Saturday we added Abby to the team, who flew in from NYC. This has been an ideal situation. It's like being on a hockey team with a 2 man advantage.
- Nana has dinner
- Abby has Oliver
- Anna has Elliot
- Ryan has the remote. On the couch. Watching the Celtics.
I became accustomed to this situation almost immediately, except that I was completely weirded out by it, like I was breathing underwater or resistant to gravitational forces. Yet, I have given into to all weekend. And all I can say is: Blissful. I rue Wednesday when all help is gone and we go back to the man-to-man defense, and if you promise not tell the boys, I will admit it is quite porous as neither Anna nor I have perfected it.

The Screen Door
Because I have all this time on my hand I decided to install a screen door. With Oliver's love of the great outdoors -- he calls our postage stamp size backyard the "field" even though I could cut the entire lawn with a pair of nail clippers in about 15 minutes -- the backdoor is always open, inviting flies into the house.

A screen door installation is a rather benign undertaking if you are a real man. I, unfortunately, am not that kind of man. Note that I am very comfortable in my own manliness. I work in HR, a heavily female-dominated profession, ask for directions the first hint of being lost, enjoy photography and read books in my spare time. This makes me uniquely challenged and underqualified for installing a screen door. It required my going over to a real man's house for his help to make sure I did it right. He's got a man's garage with drills, saws, nails, and a panapoly of man tools the likes of which I can barely even fathom the purpose. I got drill-bit envy. In fact, I realize, though do not admit aloud, that I do not even own drill-bits. I spent about an hour sawing and drilling. He, as a real man, ensured the installation was perfect. However, he could not save me from myself. So, after returning with my real man's door, this slightly-less-than-a real-man realized he hadn't bothered -- even though Anna nagged me -- to check to make sure I had measured correctly.

11 holes on the wrong side of the door and a quick trip to white-putty-put-your-mistakes-away-to-the-noticeable-eye store we have a newly minted screen door on our house. You can come over and see it anytime... AND the new Dewalt drill-bits I purchased on Saturday. I have no idea if I'll ever use them... but now maybe you'll have drill-bit envy.

Elliot at Home

Elliot and Anna came home yesteday (Monday) to a house eager to welcome them back. Nana (Anna's Mother) flew in from NY to throw the balance of parents to children ratio to manageable numbers.