Girl's Day Out

We had a brief but fabulous glimpse into spring earlier this week. Since it was a Wednesday, and I'm home on Wednesdays, we decided to take a trip to the Zoo. But first we had a few errands to run, including a 6-month cleaning for me at the dentist. GG came with me on my last trip as well, but she was just 11 months then and totally content to sit in her stroller and hang out. Errrrrrrr, not the case these days. I strapped her in to her stroller, grabbed a few toys and the magic black box, and said a little prayer. At first she did great! Watching her video (now known as "watch wo-wo") was like putting a brick wall between her and her surroundings. Until the hygienist tilted me back and started the initial teeth-check, at which point I heard a super sad little kitten whine, and turned to find Genevieve staring at me with huge saucer eyes filled with giant tears, and the full on bottom lip quiver to boot. Obviously she was terrified at what was happening to mama, but it never occurred to me until that moment how it must look to see someone get their teeth cleaned. Fortunately the hygienist was also a young mom and together we talked about how much the cleaning tickled and mama is so lucky to have clean teeth, and isn't this just fun?? The dentist came in to do the final check and asked me what G and I planned to do that afternoon. I mentioned that I was hoping to take her to the Zoo, which caused the dentist to ask, "You're the second person who's said that. What's the big deal at the Zoo today?". The hygienist and I replied in unison, "Gotta get out of the house!". She and I are now BFF.

I received my clean bill of dental health and we loaded back up and headed home. After a couple midday hours of tempestuous toddler behavior she finally went down for a snooze. Indeed, after she woke up, we headed to the Zoo. But first I had to grab a few shots of this little munchkin whose nap turned her from cranky tot to happy camper:

fluffing her post-nap curls


and yes, that's a new 'do she's sporting. only took two or three separate attempts to get it even.


can't get this pic to rotate correctly...but still had to post


snuggling with teddy

So finally we made it to the Zoo, which is funny since it's only about 10 minutes away. This was the first time G has gone since she's really been able to identify animals and surroundings. She was pretty taken with the wildlife...but even more impressed with the other kid's rides.

super impressed with the elephants, until she spotted a kid being pushed in a fancy bike thing. she was immediately impressed. guess i know what's on the 'garage sale hunt' list for this summer.


showing me the giraffes


ummmmm, how thick is that glass again?


a "rowr!"

Incidentally, there was a boy lion and a girl lion in the enclosure at the time we were there. He was licking her which I pointed out to Genevieve. This oddball dude standing next to me felt compelled to interject, "Yeah, he's got something else on his mind." Insert fake laugh, move on down the line. Dude appeared again and announced that we had just missed a mating session. So I said something about teaching the kids young, and tried to move away again. He popped up AGAIN to show me a picture he had taken of the act on his phone. Hey, congratulations on being 12. By now I was convinced that this dude was the decoy for someone to reach into my diaper bag and steal my wallet or something, but soon realized that no, he was not that clever. Just some mid-20's guy hanging out at the zoo on a Wednesday afternoon. Totally normal.

That was the end of the Big Cat exhibit.

We strolled around a bit more until it was time for daddy to come home, then headed home. All in all it was a fun day and I am excited to spend plenty of time with the animals this summer (sans nutball guys with nothing better to do, that is).

Have We Met?

Blogger has been irritating me with their inability to publish videos lately, so You Tube, here we come. Check the vid out here (but please comment on the blog, if you are so inclined!).

Belly Up

Who doesn't love the 2 for 1 special at Bar Maio?

Gone to the Dogs

For the occasion of my 30th birthday, my mom conspired with Matt to zip me off to New York for 5 days in February, to attend the 134th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. My hubby graciously agreed to be a single parent for a few days while I hung with the big dogs at Madison Square Garden.

We arrived on a Saturday and, since the show didn't start until Monday, we took off about the city. It was about 1:30 when we arrived at our hotel so our first stop was the cafe in the lobby. Never has a $21 Reuben tasted better. And yes, that $5 Diet Coke was just the thing to wash it down. We wandered around the neighborhood for the rest of Saturday afternoon and spent the better portion of Sunday cruising around SoHo. It was fun at the time but even flat shoes are no match for 6 hours of city walking. We also spent a few hours hanging in the hotel lobby, checking out our fellow travelers. The Hotel Pennsylvania is directly across the street from the Garden, so most of the entrants to the Show stay there as well. We made some new friends.

Cannonball, the Basset Hound. According to his owner/handler, his friends call him "Mr. Balls".


Anchor, the Mastiff (that's 225 pounds of lap dog right there)


Anchor's dad - whose name currently escapes me - who clearly was underwhelmed by the crowds


A Neapolitan Mastiff. This is an ancient breed and looks like he just belongs on the set of "Rome"

The show started on Monday and went from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. Monday was the non sporting, hound, toy, and herding groups, and Tuesday featured the sporting, terrier, and working groups. Each breed belongs to one of these seven groups, so throughout the day each breed was shown individually in one of six rings set up on the floor of the Garden. The winner of each breed would continue that night to the best in group (this is the part that is televised), and each best in group winner continues on to compete for best in show.

So during the course of the two days, over 2,500 dogs were shown. In order to qualify for Westminster, every dog must be a champion, meaning they have earned a specific number of points by winning other shows throughout the country. We're talking hard core fanatics here. During the day sessions, each was assigned a specific time in a specific ring, with every breed lasting between 10-45 minutes, depending on how many entrants there were. But Westminster does a thing called 'benching' which means that the dogs and handlers have to be in the backstage area from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. This is really cool for the spectators because we get to go back there and check out the dogs up close and personal, but it obviously makes for really long days for the dogs and handlers.

The benching area


I feel confident saying that this woman spends more time on her dog's hair than, say, her own

I was impressed the entire time with the way that the dogs handled all of the commotion, people, and short bursts of show time interrupted by long stretches of doing nothing. Most of the handlers were also very friendly, but some were also crazy. You know how sometimes you see a handler hold a treat with their teeth to free up their hands? Ok, that's gross enough, but we saw a handler who was full on chewing on this beefy bit, like it was a Blow Pop or something. NASTY. Or the holier-than-thou handlers who would just ignore you if you asked a question about their dog or breed. Mostly, though, they were lovely and we enjoyed the days full of watching our favorite breeds show their stuff. I am happy to say that there was more than one occasion where, on their initial warm up jog around the ring, I picked out the breed winners. Yeah, I consider that an accomplishment.

William, who did not win his breed, but who was a charmer


Checking out the breeds


We were free to choose any seat in the Garden, or walk around on the floor during the daytime breed showings. I was shocked at how packed the entire event was.

We returned to the Garden each night for the televised best in group events. There were some I loved and some I thought were absolutely robbed. Robbed I tell you! It was fun to see the handlers keep their dogs occupied during the commercial breaks. The Greyhound in particular was especially entertaining, jumping about six feet in the air and attacking a stuffed rabbit toy. Nice to see that they are normal dogs as well as stewards of their breed standards.

There was one dog in particular who was 'rumored' to be the favorite. She came in second in show last year and was, apparently, out for redemption. Here she is, during the breed competition:

Champion Roundtown Mercedes of Maryscot aka Sadie

That night, we returned for the best in group, followed by best in show.

The best in breeds, ready for their big moment


The judge has made his decision...who will take home the prize?


Sadie wins - redemption at last!

We flew home early on Wednesday and I was home and doing laundry by lunchtime. I went to pick up Genevieve from daycare and was HORRIFIED to see that she had grown at least 6 inches and learned about 94 new words in the time I had been gone. My mom predicted that at first she would laugh and be happy to see me, but then she would remember that I had been gone and start to cry. This is exactly what happened, so we had to hang out at daycare for a bit longer than usual to pull ourselves together. She 'told' me all about her time hanging out with daddy and grandma Kathy and how much fun she had. I had a great time too, but was definitely ready to be back home with the tiny tot. I told her that one day mommy will take her to New York, to which she replied, "Ok". Clever girl.

Super Kids, Super Bowl

We came together with good friends for our annual Super Bowl weekend-o-fun. This year the festivities were held at the House of Harms in Poplar. We carpooled with the Bansemars in their fancy new family-mobile and collectively tried to make the best of the trip. According to the experts at Google the drive is about 7 hours, but add a few little ones to the equation and it was about 8 hours each way. That is A LOT of carseat time for a busy toddler. We left Friday night and arrived shortly after midnight. Or maybe it was a little later? Hmm, hard to recall. In any case we tried not to wake the house full of sleeping babes...6 kids under 26 months among the four families!...and keep Genevieve and Alana as drowsy as possible so they would hopefully go right back to sleep. Alana is still wee so she needed a midnight snack but fortunately G passed right out after we laid her in bed.

We woke up Saturday morning to greet all of the Harms's, and the Kroenings who had arrived earlier on Friday. This included our first chance to meet the newest addition, Mr. Henry Kroening, who was born just 10 short days earlier! Robin was a brave woman to make the trek but we were so happy to meet this new little man.

hey munchkin

So now there are three big kids (Ethan, Miles, and G) and three little kids (Addie, Alana, and Henry). All of the kids did so well over the course of the weekend, and the three big kids were super well behaved. Obviously a reflection of their collectively marvelous parents. They played and shared and were generally adorable:

our kiddo collection


the big kids 2009 to 2010


hey miles!


hugs/wrestling


more hugs!


hello blackmail


the little girls, Addie and Alana


everyone loves story time


genevieve was a slidin' fool. if she went down once, she went down 100 times

At some point, Anna was recalling the days when their driveway was filled with sports cars instead of minivans and SUVs, and that it wasn't that long ago that we were eating out for every meal, sleeping in late, and spending long nights out on the town. Although we officially did not leave the house the entire weekend, we had a great time watching the tots play together. On Sunday, we sent the dads out with the big kids to get some fresh air and wear them out a bit. Although I'm pretty sure the dads were more wiped than the kids:

mush, daddy, mush!


winter wonderland


each of the boys took a turn hauling the princess around. surprisingly she didn't seem to show interest in doing any of the work.

And let me allay your fears that anyone left hungry. There were mountains of food throughout the weekend, especially at Game Time.

my newest specialty: 7-layer dip, with a mostly olive-free portion for our less enthusiastic Oleaceae fans

We hit the road mid-morning on Monday for the pilgrimage back home, finally pulling into our driveway at about 6:30 that night. We did a no-no and had G's carseat facing forward for the trip, but it was worth it for the freedom to let her see the DVD player, and the scenery going by. Overall she did marvelously in the car, and we were so glad to see all of our friends and their fabulous little munchkins.

Catching Up

I know, it's been a while. Even Matt chided me for not blogging more in January. But there just wasn't that much new and exciting. We got through the month just enjoying the typical antics of our squishable little tot and her furry sidekick and catching up on our DVRd shows while stuck inside due to the fact that it's January in Wisconsin. Ick.

For some of us, there was definitely a low point in January which was not the re-try of my 29th birthday but instead the Packers losing in the playoffs. I enjoy football but can't say that I support one team (Vikings) or the other (Packers) even though I could legitimately follow either. Matt is working as hard as he can to turn Genevieve into a born and bred Packer fan though, so they spent some quality time together during the last few games of the season.

Turns out a lot of people in this house take comfort in our buddy cheetah (or as G says, Tee-tah)


And also purple donkey


It's like the scene in Forrest Gump where he and little Forrest are fishing together...except in Wisconsin

But when the Green & Gold lost on a pretty crappy play, the tears welled up in Matt's eyes and he collapsed on the floor, consumed by sorrow. Like the little villain she is, here was Genevieve's reaction:

Life quickly returned back to normal after that, which these days means a very chatty little parrot of a girl running around. She's very into giving everything she likes hugs and kisses (and exclaiming 'huk!' 'kiss!'), and I mean everything including her stuffed animals, pages of a book, or her own reflection ("baby! mmmmwah!") . This particular night she was making sure we knew that she had all her body parts accounted for, then she gave some love to her guy Elmo. Except this particular Elmo was on her diaper. Which was clean. Thankfully. PS - naked baby alert!!

Pre-bath, pointing out her butt. Check out that full belly!!! Love it.

Toes (socks are scattered all over the house these days)


Knees (usually pretty surprised to see there are two of them)


"Kiss Emo"


"Huk Emo"

There will be lots more to come this month as we will be in Poplar next weekend for our annual SuperBowl weekend with all of our scattered friends (possibly to include new addition baby Henry, hooray for the Kroenings!!), followed by my trip to NYC for Westminster. Oh, we're also looking at buying a new house, but whatev. Stay tuned, followers!