Going On Holiday

Team Johnson is going on holiday. The timing could not be beter. I'm a bit fatigued and will use the break to re-energize. As such, Little Man is going on hiatus. Check back in early April after we return from our trip!

For All The Mommies Out There...

We leave for an overseas trip in less than two weeks. Little Man will not be accompanying us. The first extended trip without Gilbert, Kristen is dealing with all the emotional challenges (I'll miss him too, of course!), but has a paticular sense of dread about us leaving Gilbert.

Would love to hear from the audience about their stories and how they dealt with the flood of emotions!

Bring On Daylight Savings Time

Gilbert has been waking up pre-5am lately. Yes, in the 4am hour. Totally unacceptable. We leave him in his room. Crying, yelling, or reading it doesn't matter. He does not go back to sleep. Ugh. As a result, he can be moody in the morning. And the kicker is he's not tired at night. Still goes to bed at 7am'ish.

I blame Daylight Savings Time. When we 'fell back' he was sleeping until 6am or so. After the switch, it was the current scenario. Kristen and I are counting the days until we 'spring ahead' and get an hour of life back!

Snowballs

After the wildlife experience, we played in the snow. Wet and slushy, the snow was ideal for making, well, SNOWBALLS! Gilbert seemed content to just stand and recconoiter his surroundings.

Getting Close With Urban Wildlife

A short look behind the curtain. I love zombie movies. During our Suburban Experiment I was fixated on total world chaos and used that as a litmus test to determine if we would survive. We failed miserably. So I set out to create a "When All Hell Breaks Loose" kit. It was a sealable Tupperware bin that ended up contains cold weather clothes, blankets, food stuffs, first aid, glow sticks, duct tape, flashlight, rope (you know, to tether the zombies for scientific experiments), water bottles, tool kit, NOA something radio and more. I was quite proud of my achievement. Even made a smaller version for the car.


Back in the city, I stashed the kit in the basement. Well, with all the painting taking place in the condo, I used this time as an opportunity to clean and rearrange our basement storage locker. Out came the kit. Much of the stuff is not needed now as it is in our tiny condo space. Not to mention the foodstuff is not longer, er, food. One item, peanuts was included.



So, we decided to take the peanuts to the park and introduce Gilbert to feeding the geese, ducks, seagulls, etc. What fun!


Gilbert and Kristen hung back while I went down and started to throw the peanuts. First to arrive were the city vultures - seagulls. Then the ducks, and lastly the geese. Geese know no bounds and were quickly up in my grill. Kristen was nervous they would attack Little Man so I had to pick up.


Gilbert loved throwing the peanuts. This was part of the problem. Traveling only a few feet, the geese had to come up close to get the food, thus bring the birds closer to Little Man.

Explain This To Me

Chicago (perhaps Illinois?) schools are closed today celebrating the life of one Mr. Casmir Pulaski. As such, Gilbert is home and so am I. Actually, Little Man and Kristen are going to MI to see grandparents (part of the prep for Dubai). With an empty home, I taking advantage of the quiet time to paint the master bedroom the new color Kristen selected.

I'm moving around furniture and need to understand the following...

We have a wine refrigerator and being the creative sort, velcroed small wood blocks on top and then put a round table top on that draped to convey the presence of an end table. And the resident interior designer has a nice vignette on top (definitely not my handywork!).

I took this apart so I could move the wine refrigerator. When I took off the table top, I found a thick layer of dust on top of it! How is possible? The entire thing was draped with a tablecloth (that easily touches the floor!) underneath that a 30" round table top. So the 'Dust' somehow permeated through the tablecloth and miraculously was able to circulate around and then under the tabletop before settling on the wine frig? C'mon! That just doesn't make sense to me!

Renovation - Curret Status

The goal was to have the renovation completed in a week. Negative, ghost rider. At least another day's worth of work needs to be done.

• The kitchen is nearly complete. Just need to grout and replace the white plate covers with stainless steel.
  
• New doors along with existing and new trim need to be painted.
  
• The master bath has been painted its new color, new light fixtures are in, and the door is in place. Kristen needs to find a mirror and touch up painting remains.


• The now new hallway is nearly complete. Electrical, new light fixture, and new closest doors are in. Just need to add the hardware and some painting.


• New light fixture in the guest bath too.

The setbacks. On Wednesday, one of the workers had his van broken into and the wet saw stolen. As a result, the kitchen took longer and the saw was needed for some of the tiles. The ripple effect continued as other aspects feel behind as well. Oh yeah, the master bath and master bedroom were the same paint color. We thought we had some existing paint remaining and would just use that to paint the hallway. Nope. No paint. So Kristen had to scramble to pick a new paint color. We go from light blue to an airy green. I like it!

Overall, we like the changes. A few new challenges have emerged as a result, and we might have done some aspects differently (but isn't that always the case!), but we like what has been done!

And for those of you just riveted by the renovation, a few more pictures. Once the project is completed, I'll post before and after pictures.

ABCs

Little Man has his ABCs nailed. I attempted to capture it on video. Moderate success. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, he likes to recite the ABCs right before we tuck him in for sleep, thus the "Time for Bed" at the end of each video.

Renovation - Day 2

More prep for the big stuff took place on Day 2. However, some noticeable changes are evident.

The master bath/bedroom continues to evolve. The closet door is in place. New electrical is installed with the cuts now taped and mudded over. However, a challenge may have emerged. A stud is in the place where Kristen wants to install one of the lighting sconces. Uh oh!


The door that was removed from the bedroom was recycled and now is in the place of the flimsy, vented bi-fold door for the laundry room. Turns out the w/d was already vented so code does not require a vented door. With the solid door, the noise has been cut down dramatically. Very nice!

In the kitchen the tile backsplash has started to go up. It looks awesome. Still needs to be grouted and run up the side and over the cabinets, but the difference is already profound making the kitchen much lighter!

Swindled By the Girl Scouts

At the office, girl scout cookies are a hot commodity. Many employees aplenty have girls and they are all peddling the same wares. I attempt to spread out my purchases and this year found myself with about 8 boxes.

I brought home the first lode with Kristen and Gilbert eager to taste the sweet bounty! We opened the Thin Mints only to discover, the Girl Scouts swindled us!

Apparently those girls working the assembly line need some lessons in quality control. We were shorted about three cookies in one of the prepackaged rolls. How dare they! There should be congressional hearings on the subject. I demand satisfaction and retribution!

Little Man could not have cared less. All he saw was, "COOOKEEEESS!"

The Expanding Family

No, Team Johnson is not collectively gaining weight! The month of February has produced two new additions to the expanded family.

First, Kristen's brother and his wife welcomed their second child, a girl, Iara back earlier this month. Their second and first girl.

Then, just yesterday, my sister thankfully now has Coleman in her arms and not her belly. Coleman weighed in at a svelte 9lbs. 8 oz. and at 20+ inches! This is also their second child and first boy.

For Gilbert, this means more cousins to play with! We have been talking to him about both Iara and Coleman and he is quite excited to see them. In his time lapsed world that means NOW!

Let The Demolition Begin - Day 1

The condo renovations have officially started. Monday was spent shuffling furniture around and Tuesday morning was used to cover everything with plastic.

The crew ripped out walls and begin to frame out the changes to the bathroom. Gilbert is loving all the action. The crew left all their stuff under tarps, but Little Man was quick to remove it and discover the mother lode of vacuums...the shop vac! All night last and this morning he kept commenting, "Larry's big vacuum!" Larry is the lead.

Here are some pictures of the work in progress.

Living in a condo equals storage space challenges. Solution, raise the bed. As a result, we keep a lot of 'stuff' under our bed. Here is just some of that 'stuff'.

Master bathroom. Looking out from the tub. The master bathroom is connected to a short hallway. A door closes off both from the bedroom. We decided to rip out the door and expand the entry to the same width as the hallway to create a more open floor plan. A new door is being placed at the entrance to the bathroom. We got tired of walking in on each other's 'private time' just to get to the closest!

The living room is the new storage location for all the furniture. Every thing is covered tight to avoid drywall dust collecting. Gilbert loves to play with the plastic!

Master bathroom. Looking from bedroom into bath. You can see the framing is now in where the new door will be hung. Also, we are replacing the developer-grade bi-fold door with nice french doors. Cool.

We are replacing the big slate of glass mirror with a more artisan one (up to Kristen to find it!). Oh yeah, the awesome hollywood lighting is coming out along with the developer-grade faucet. In comes new sconce lighting that will flank the mirror and a cool new faucet. Could more 'goop' have been used to afix the mirror to the wall?

Fun Outing

Gilbert had been harping all last week about wanting to ride the "L" train. With a case of cabin fever, we decided to grant his request and at the same time have a meal out.

With a 2 for 1 coupon, it was off to Goose Island. We rode the Green Line to the Red Line and then hoofed it the rest of the way. Little Man was euphoric! He kept saying 'subway' as we walked down the stairs into the belly of the city to catch the Red Line. And then once off, he loved playing chase and hide on the sidewalk (this game consists of dad running ahead and hiding behind whatever impediment was on the street).

At Goose Island, he was fired up. You can see the mircobrew in process and so we got a lot of "What's that?" questions. Each vat had the Goose Island logo so he would say, "I want to look at the Goose!".

The best part was yet to come. A large party was having dinner and celebrating what appeared to be a birthday. Gilbert spied a homemade cake and starting belting out (unprompted!), "Happy Birthday to you." The matriarch walked over and offered him a piece. Talk about working it.! He even commented on the 'sprinkles'.

After dinner we headed home with Gilbert now wanting to catch the bus. Well, thank you CTA for the service cutbacks as we walked two miles (and made it home) before seeing a bus!

This Is A Must Read

Kristen turned me on to this blog (courtesy of Daily Mayhem). Regardless of whether you are a teacher or administrator, have kids in school or soon-to-be, what this teacher is doing is 1) amazing and 2) revealing the appalling situation at what must be taking place at many other schools across the country.

Check this out and make it a frequent read!

http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/

Makes me feel good this is where Gilbert's food and snacks come from!

Demo and Reno = Lots of Dust!

This weekend we will be spending our time rearranging the condo in preparation for a little demo and renovation work. Nothing too drastic, but we hope the changes will be profound. Replacing the kitchen back splash, reconfiguring the master bath (slightly!), new fixtures here, change the paint there.

Will be sure to put up before, during, and after pictures. It will be interesting to witness all the activity in terms of Little Man. Throughout the week different sections will be covered in plastic, furniture shifted, piled, rearranged. I'm sure he will find it all fun and want to explore (aka be mischievous)!

Stay tuned...

Dr. Biker

Gilbert decided to perform a check up on his bicycle during a recent ride .

Cork

Our collection of wine bottle cork has become unruly. Thinking of a fun project, Gilbert and I sorted through all the cork looking for keepers to make trivets or some other type or project. I asked Little Man to find all the champagne corks. He did a great job sifting through and finding them all!

Chase

"Daddy chase you." That is what Gilbert likes to say. Replace "me" with "you" and that is what I do. I chase Gilbert around the condo and into his room. This is a great wind down activity. Wind down you say? Why, yes? He's so exhausted after doing this a few times, he konks out and we don't hear from him the rest of the night!

What the videos do not capture is the full lap around the condo. He starts in his room, runs around the coffee table in the living room, maybe vers into the master bedroom for a loop and then it is into the kitchen before I chase him back to his sanctuary.

No matter how many times he did this, Little Man always would say, "One more time!" Enjoy!

Witnessing History

I love the Olympics. I believe it started when I was a kid. My parents were big on the Olympics. I remember watching the events with them. After the Miracle On Ice, there was an exhibition tour in the US and my dad took me to see the US and Russia play. It was awesome!

The ad campaign and run up did not seem as grand as Olympics past. Or maybe it is because we don't watch NBC much. Any reason, I wasn't really thinking about being an active viewing participant. That quickly changed. Watching some of the opening ceremonies and ski jumping began to bring back the fond memories and I was quickly hooked.

Well, today I'm glad I watched. I witnessed history, if not from afar. For the first time EVER the US won a medal in the men's combined nordic. Ski jumping and cross-country skiing. Talk about cross training!

The cross country was exhilarating with 3 US in the final pack all vying for a medal. I found myself yelling "Go, go, go!" and slapping the table in encouragement as if I was track-side. It was an awesome sprint finish in which we captured the silver. I even watched it again (thank you DVR!).

My point? If you don't watch the Olympics you are missing out!

What to Do when Valentine's Day Is...Just Another Day?

I'm a creative guy and over the years I like to think Kristen has been surprised by it. Especially on special occasions like Mother's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, and Valentine's Day. However, I must admit over the years rust - or maybe it is a lack of motivation - has formed around the edges.

The push-pull of work, Little Man, and life's daily episodes along with the comfort (and perhaps complacency) of nearing a decade of being in a relationship with thy wifey(counting the courting!) can dull the senses when it comes to the 'little things that count' adage. I just realized I'm in that mode and don't like being in this rut.

Must. Break. Free. Suggestions?

Camera Shy

I attempted to capture Gilbert doing some fantastic talking and singing. Instead, he decided to be elusive!

Children's Museum

To escape what was becoming the 'winter blues' in our home, we joined the Chicago Children's Museum last weekend. What a good call! The annual membership is incredibly cheap (considering what a single admission costs) and there is aplenty to do for Gilbert.

For the first go around, we just wandered all the areas letting him explore. And explore he did! A few favorites did emerge and we were happy to just let him roam and explore!

He particularly enjoyed the water stations and was quite enamored with the car, especially filling up the gas tank and washing the windows. Funny!

We will definitely be visiting often!

Lesson Learned

At a friend's house to watch the Super Bowl, Gilbert attempted to play with the two resident cats. He got a little too close and up in their business and was the recipient with a bite to the cheek. All is good, now.

We mentioned this to his teacher and when she asked Gilbert how he got the ouchies on his face, he said, "I squeeze the kitty." The teach told him he should not do that to cats and he replied, "Yes, I am."

Lesson learned?

In the Kitchen...More.

And now the conversation...

Kitchen Helper

This is what we have to deal with if there is activity in the kitchen...our little helper has to be in the middle and involved. Lots of fun!

Who Reads Stories?

Gilbert prefers to have Kristen read stories to him before bed. We enjoy playing with him as to who reads stories. As such, he's developed a quick response.

Kalahari

We spent the weekend at the Kalahari. No, not in Africa. The Wisconsin Dells!

Quite a set up, the resort has an indoor waterpark to help shake the winter blahs. Quickly becoming an annual pilgrimage, we went up with two other families for a fun, and wet, weekend!

Last year, Gilbert had yet to start walking so we were limited to the kiddie section. Not this year! He wanted to do it all! He especially liked going down the big raft rides with mommy and daddy. I got a workout carrying him up five flights of stairs! By the end of the trip, I had him going down the ride with arm ups and screaming at the same time. His eyes wide with fun, excitement, and a splash of fear. The ingredients for a thrilling experience!

When not going on the rides, he was interested in a water pouring pulleys throughout the place. You know, pull the rope and water fills up the top bucket and then spills over into the other and so forth often drenching the very person pulling on the rope!

The Night

After a full day of waterpark fun, you'd think the kids would be exhausted. Not! Instead, we had six of them running throughout the three connected rooms playing tag and hide and seek. All in their jammies, they did pause for a few minutes to jump on the beds!

The Drive Up

On the drive up to Kalahari, Gilbert was in need of a snack. Not to lose time, we violated our rule and let him eat while driving.

I had been taking a nap and in doing so removed the headrest. Gilbert promptly turned it into a foot rest!

Savvy Daddy

A friend of mine just passed along a blog worth checking out...Savvy Daddy. Ladies, you might want to send the link to your hubbies!

Train Store Outing

The weather was particularly gray and dour this past weekend so looking for fun activities to get us out of the condo, Kristen had the idea of visiting a train store in Berwyn. Great idea!

At first, Gilbert didn't know how to react. Toys and trains were everywhere! Once comfortable with the surroundings, he was running all over the store. From the Thomas section to the electric train models and then back and forth, back and forth. It was fun to see him so excited! Of course, we picked up some vital additions to the track so I, er, Gilbert could add some complexity to his set up at home.

ABCs

I've posted before about Gilbert's animal letter cards. I wiped off the dust on them a few days ago and he showed renewed interest. His mastery of the alphabet continues as well as cognitive recognition of the letters with the animals and ability to pronunciate. It is so much fun!

Oh yeah, Gilbert sees 'choo choo tracks' in everything. A straight line or items in a row are a choo choo track to him.

And how many times can I say "very good"? Jeez!

Who Would Have Thought?

Continually exploring how to get veggies into Little Man, I went deep into the archives for a recipe I used to make, Black Bean Polenta.

The recipe is a layered casserole with polenta, chopped peppers (red, orange, yellow), black beans, tomato sauce and cheese. Gilbert is a texture eater, so black beans (big on protein, low on fat) is not on his approved list. As an alternative, I used refried black beans instead. Looks like it worked!

In future versions, I might add some purees to the sauce such as eggplant, onions, and zucchini to give it more flavor and increase the veggie count. But for now, I'm happy with the outcome!

Wii Fit - On Steroids!

I've posted before about my affinity for Wii Fit. Well, I've rekindled my love for it.

Thanks to the folks at EA, a new program has been designed specifically for the Wii Fit. EA Active is Wii Fit on STEROIDS!

The best way to explain the difference is such...Wii Fit is a good exercise, while EA Active is a workout!

EA Active comes with a personal trainer so you can set goals (similar to Wii Fit) as well as participate in a 6 Week program and other preset programs. Supporting this approach are prepared workout regimens. The cool part is the ability to create customized workouts.

For example, categories include cardio, lower, upper, fitness, and warm up/cool down. In the cardio section a variety of runs exist including running with a partner, sprinting, free runs, etc. Fitness is loaded with fun activities such as boxing, sparring, obstacle courses, water paddling, and more. The key is the program comes with a leg wrap where the nunchuck sits so the program registers leg movements.

Oh yeah, it tracks calories. To test the accuracy, I strapped on my heart rate monitor and found the results to be nearly identical!

Back to workouts. This is by far the coolest feature. I built a few and tested them over the weekend. 45 minutes later I was a sweaty mess, burnt 500 calories and felt as if I did actually get a workout!

For those of you that like 'classes', there is a slew of preprogrammed step aerobics programs varying in both duration and intensity.

I really enjoy the boxing/sparring, obstacles course, and water paddling. I still enjoy the yoga and some of the strength activities in the Wii Fit, but EA Active is definitely more that...active!Check it out!

Priorities

It was time for bed and Gilbert only had on his shirt, but he noticed something on the floor that needed to vacuumed up! Out came his play Dirt Devil, and Little Man was off to do some housecleaning!

Train Tracks

Gilbert sees 'train tracks' in everything. The latest fatuation is the dish washer. Other than what you see below, he's studying the wheels on the lower level and how the cart rolls in and out. Future engineer in the making!

Avatar

I was in need of a mental health day, so I took the day off from work on Friday. We dropped Gilbert off at school and started our day with a workout. From there it was off to catch the matinee showing of Avatar. I wanted to see it in IMAX, but in 3D Kristen thought she would not be able to handle it (she gets queasy easily). And with the 3D movie, comes the stylish 3D glassed. Actually, these weren't bad, just a bad imitation of Ray-Ban Wayfarers.

Probably a good call! The movie was visually amazing. The story was solid, not groundbreaking. The value in seeing the movie on the big screen is the visual experience. Unbelievable! The director, James Cameron, was recently on Charlie Rose and it was incredible to learn that he cooked up Avatar more than 12 years ago. All in his head! He invested his own money and worked directly with Sony in creating the 3D cameras used for the movie as well. Visionary, indeed!

If you are on the fence about seeing the movie, find time!

It Is A Work Day!

Gilbert likes to get ready for 'work' like his mommy and daddy. It is a hoot seeing what he gathers for his 'work day'!

This Is What Happens When...

You let your child pick clothes for bed! He insisted on wearing mesh shorts to bed, "like daddy"!

At least he's color coordinated!

Sunday Breakfast

We had what is fast becoming a monthly ritual having breakfast with our good friends Tony and Vanessa. They recently added a third to the family and have since moved to the suburbs. This weekend we ventured out to their neck of the nape for breakfast.

Little Man LOVES breakfast out! All day Saturday he talked about having pancakes with syrup and eggs. Oh yeah, toast with butter. Healthy, huh?

When done, Gilbert wanted to play with Maddie so it was fun to capture some pics watching them check each other out!

Shake My Brain

When Gilbert wants to be silly, he'll shake his brain while eating dinner. Hurts mine just to watch!

Cupcakes!

It was a snow day on Friday, so Kristen and Gilbert had a home project...make cupcakes!

Saturday was scheduled for a haircut, so as a treat/gift they made cupcakes for all the ladies that work at the barber shop. Both Gilbert and me get our haircut from Lexi, one of two twins that own their own shop in the West Loop.

Little Man is smitten with all of them and hams it for them throwing around hugs to all! Of course, the ladies eat him up!

Sledding With No Snow

I keep finding stuff to post about from our trip to MI! On our last day, we were determined to be outside. The original plan was to do some sledding in the backyard (they have a lot of land!).

Snow was on the ground when we went to bed, but the freezing rain overnight removed most of the snow. Not to be deterred, we did some sledding so Gilbert could get the experience. Good times!