The Boys

The Ham Sandwich Crashes the Blog

Emily and I are still trying to come up with names for the new blog. Ideas include "Monkey Business," and "Three Men and a Lady." We're open to suggestions. In the meantime, I thought that I would keep all this blogging momentum going with a post about Jasper on his big brother's eponymous blog. Jasper, following in his brother's footsteps, has a formidable list of nicknames -- J, J-Dub, J-Bo, Jasperooni, Jazz, J-Doggie, and Bug, just to name a few. He's easy going and quick to smile. And he's a colossal ham. Check out the series of pictures that mom snapped the other night.

Endings and Beginnings

So when 2009 started, our family looked like this:

Then we added this guy:

And most of the time he's a little angel:


But sometimes, he's not:

And you can see that we (Emily) blogged one measly time in all of 2010. Nobody told us that adding a kid would feel like adding five. But anyway, I think now that 2011 is here, Emily and I have caught our breath enough that we can go back to trying to update all you faithful readers (and if there are any left, you are seriously Julianna Margulies in The Good Wife faithful) on our misadventures as we try to keep up with this duo:

We're thinking of moving to a new blog site so that the little chicken doesn't feel left out at his lack of billing. We'll post again to let you know where you can catch up with us.

Hey Shorty, it's Your Birthday

Hello again! It's so nice to be back. We know that posts have been lacking for, oh, about a year now but we have a good excuse. It's this guy:

More on that cute face later. The reason for this post is that someone is 3 today! Happy, happy birthday Gus man. You make 3 look good.

I also have a long video if anyone is interested in seeing some of Gus's moves. And you can see Jasper look at me like I'm a crazy person. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsu9CVxcIWU

Strawberry Shakes

Our car, The CRV, has a temperature gauge that is of marginal usefulness. As Emily and I like to joke, The CRV tends to be a little dramtic when it reports the weather. This is particularly true during the summer months when the weather heats up. Perhaps The CRV has been so beaten down by the harsh, sub-zero Minnesota winters that it can hardly contain itself when it has higher temperatures to report. Today was hot -- and very humid. The mercury crept up to the lower 90s, but The CRV told us that it was 99 degrees! For whatever reason I imagine The CRV saying, 99! No really! 99 degrees guys! Can you believe it? Hot, hot hot!

This is all a long way to say that it was very hot today, and I thought it would nice to revist a cooler memory. In February we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Ueland in Tennessee. During our visit Gus got to make and sample strawberry shakes for the first time. As you can see below, Guster loved it. Unfortunately the pictures don't capture Gus' verbal reaction. When he finally got to sample the shake after all the build up he tipped his glass back, took a big gulp, and then set his glass down and let out a loud, MMMMMM!

He was hooked; The Gus Man continues to attack shakes, malts -- really ice cream in any form with relish. It's his own way to beat the heat.

Put some strawberries in there.

A little more ice cream.

Maybe Gus should sample the ice cream to make sure it's fresh?

Is it ready yet?

How about now, Grandpa? Pretty sure it's ready.

Now?


Finally. Cheers everybody!

A little taste.
Guster likes it.

Renovation

When we bought our house two and half years ago, the kitchen was one of my least favorite parts. The cupboards had been painted a turquoise green, and it felt small and cramped. A kitchen renovation was something that we talked about, but never got around to doing. But with Gus now two years old and number two just a few months away, we decided that we better get cracking. With the invaluable help of Grandpa Ueland, a.k.a., Tennessee Grandpa, we decided to change everything but the appliances. Lots of work -- but the end result was very satisfying.

I really can't emphasize enough just how indebted we are to Grandpa. Plumbing, electrical, laying floors, and hanging cabinets -- there is nothing he can't (or didn't!) do. Thanks, Grandpa!

Here is the kitchen as it was.

Another shot of the old kitchen.

As we got started, we learned that the cabinets were of several vintages. The originals -- above Grandpa and Dad's head here, were a single piece unit. They were nailed to the wall. The floor cabinet to the left, and the wall cabinet that was above it were later additions.


Out with the blue . . . bring on the new.

Sometimes Grandpa and Dad got confused . . .

So we brought in a consultant.

Three heads are better than two.

Gus is ready to work!

That's Navy Blue -- five coats of it!

New cabinets coming are put into place. New counter top too!

Grandpa hard at work.

A job well done. In this picture: new cabinets, new counter, new sink, new floor, smiling Gus, and exhausted Grandpa.

Catching Up and Looking Back

Keeping up with Gus in his second year has proven to be a challenge as evidenced by the lack of posting on this blog. Consider this an effort to catch up.

This past Sunday night, I gave Gus his second haircut. Naturally this made me think about the first time Gus got his haircut.
Back in January, we decided that it was time for Gus to get his first haircut. Or to be more accurate – Gus decided. As his hair grew long and it started to fall into his eyes, and hang over his collar, Emily and I asked Gus whether he thought it was time for a haircut. Gus would grab some of his hair and look at us, and say, “yeah.”

So we made an appointment at Kid’s Hair – the least creative name ever – for Gus to have his ears lowered.

And it went . . . about as well as could be expected. When Gus got into the chair, he was all smiles as he got the apron tied around his neck. And from there, it kind of went downhill a bit. Gus was not a fan of having his hair wet by the spray bottle, and was not exactly sure about the whole experience of having his hair trimmed. Fortunately, he hung in there and emerged a new baby, with a new haircut.
Forward almost six months – and once again it seemed that Gus was in need of another trim. He was dangerously close to emulating his Uncle Jesse’s favored hairstyle – hockey hair, which is known by other names – most commonly, the mullet.

Rather than return to Kid’s Hair, we decided to give Gus a home haircut, and somehow it was determined that I was going to be the one wielding the scissors. I was very nervous that I would inadvertently end up giving Gus a circa-1989 Emo Phillips ‘do, but by some minor miracle, it ended up ok.

At least, my customer seemed satisfied.