Soren Reads the Times

Chris is usually reading the newspaper at the dining room table when Soren and I come down for breakfast in the morning, and we occasionally get some good toddler comments on the latest world happenings. Or at least the pictures of said happenings.

This morning, Soren was looking at the front page of the arts section and saying, "That's a brown bee. That's a brown bee, Daddy." Chris was like, Whuh? But then he looked more closely and saw that Soren was pointing to a photo of a ring-tailed lemur. Brown bee, indeed.

When I got my turn with the paper, Soren pointed to a photo on the front page and asked, "Who's that? Who's that man?" I said, "It's Matthew Tannin."

"That's Mafu Taddin." Then he asked, "What's he doing?"

"He's... riding in a car." He was actually being placed into a police cruiser by an officer, but, you know, details.

"He's driving a car! He's happy!"

Sweet, innocent little boy.

E.G.'s Happenin' Music Scene

It's Wednesday night, or, as we call it here at Ichabod House: Bagpipe Nite! Almost every Wednesday, a small group of bagpipers, occasionally accompanied by a drummer, practices in the empty parking lot across the street. It's pretty cool, although I wish: 1) they would write more than two songs for the bagpipes; and 2) they would stop playing at 7:30. But besides that, it's amusing, and toddlers like to dance to it (just ask Soren and Ian).

Last Wednesday, after Chris got home from work, we all took a little walk around the neighborhood and stopped at a playground for a little while. We could still hear the bagpipes pretty clearly through the neighborhood from a quarter-mile away, so I guess Ichabod House isn't the only one that gets to appreciate Bagpipe Nite. Anyway, after a little while, we started hearing a drummer playing not too far away, so we went to check it out... and there was a fife and drum corps playing at the Kentish Guards armory! They, too, were being appreciated by toddlers, as several families sat across the street listening. The fife and drum corps practice is apparently another regular Wednesday thing in summer, so I guess we'll have our choice of old-skool flava. It's kind of awesome.

Bii My Friend

OK, all you people with Wiis, I need more Wii buddies! I don't think there's any reason I shouldn't just post my Wii info online, so here goes... if you want to use these to stalk me somehow, I'd be interested to see how you manage to pull that off.

Console ID: 4653 1210 0847 5760

Dr. Mario Online friend code: 1895 0608 1184

Mario Kart Mii numbers:
Kirsten: 0817 4948 5014
Chris: 5327 2105 1280

That's a lot of numbers. Now send your IDs to me!

If You Live in Alaska, Go Ahead and Laugh

Okay, I admit it.... I'm full-on crazy jealous of my friends in Anchorage right now, because it is freaking gross hot here, and will continue to be so for a few days. Yesterday, on the first day of the heat wave, when it hadn't gotten hot in the house yet, I was feeling all green (ecologically-minded, not nauseated) and was like, "Oh, let's not put in the air conditioners this year. It's not that bad! The house is shaded!" But today, I'm feeling more like punishing the environment, because it started being mean to me first, so the ACs are in. Plus Soren is running a little fever, so we should probably be nice to him.

My poor little guy -- all he wants to do is sit on the couch and watch me play Mario Kart. Chris will get extra Father's Day props this year, because he's been doing things like washing the deck and fixing the bulkhead out in this heat, and I'm somehow taking care of Soren by playing video games. I'm sure it will all even out somehow as I get progressively larger this summer and suffer terribly as I carry his unborn child, but for now, Chris is the hero. Go Chris! You rock!

Someone... Doesn't Get It

A bumper sticker I saw recently:

"Don't Blame Me - I Voted for Nader"

I'm kind of surprised the sticker was still intact.

Happy Birthday to Soren!!!!!

Our big boy turned two today! We've had a couple parties for him, and there's been a steady flow of presents coming in for the past couple weeks, so I think the end of the birthday season might be a little tough on the poor guy, but he's had a great time. Grammy and Grampy Anderson visited over Memorial Day weekend, and the Pressers (Chris' aunt + uncle + cousins) joined us for party number one, and then a bunch of our friends came over yesterday for party number two. There was cake both times, and lots of Cornhole.



And babies with fake mustaches.



For the actual big day, we went to a lovely garden with the local moms' Meetup group this morning and enjoyed the fine weather, and then got some ice cream with our friends Renee and Ian. Soren and Ian are pretty cute together.



Soren thought is was a perfect day to show off his birthday belly.



Happy birthday, Soren! We love you!