Kitchen Cannots

I was talking to my brother, Matt, on the phone and I was surprised to hear that he was cooking dinner. It was some sort of pesto chicken with corn and rice. Sadly, I had to hang up because of an explosive-leaking-through-Shane's-pants diaper situation, or I could supply more detail.

I called out to my wife. "Hey Carrie! Matt cooks! Maybe I should learn how to cook some more basic things."

She replied, "No."


My wife desires me to be helpless in the kitchen.

My cooking skills are limited to the microwave, peanut butter, sandwich meats, toasters, and anything from the freezer that has a picture on the back with detailed steps. Cooking is not an inability for me as much as it's something I never desired to learn on my own. As a teenager/young-adult, if it took longer for me to cook it than it would take for me to eat it I had no desire to do it. 

Now, I have a family and I would not mind learning more since I wouldn't be the only one partaking. 

My wife comes from a cooking family. I don't always understand them, but I do get a lot of good meals out of our relationship. Plus, Carrie likes to watch the cooking channels, so I've already (at least) quintupled what I knew about food when we first married. I don't have any physical experience with the techniques or the skills to prep anything, but I've learned enough that I'm at least intrigued with some of the possibilities.

Years ago, I offered to be my wife's sous chef.

She replied, "No." 

My wife enjoys 'having an edge' on me. My kitchen bumbling/inexperience often amuses her. So far, it all outweighs the benefits of sharing the kitchen workload.

If I do start poking around the kitchen, Carrie is quick to intervene. I am immediately shooed me out of the kitchen and made a meal. Tonight, Carrie made a seafood chowder with salmon and corn and a loaf of bread (Carrie's gone nuts with the bread maker since we bought it and I'm not complaining!). Dan came up and she ladled him out a bowl, too.

Really, it's not such a bad gig. I eat well, and my wife encourages me to be a pig.

Why Do I Write?

I normally only get a couple of hours of free time every night if I'm lucky. Somehow I have to spend quality time with my wife, take care of chores, and still manage to go bed at a time I won't hate myself for in the morning.

So why write?

It takes up time and effort at a time when I don't have much of either.

A part of me wants this blog to be my insurance. My insurance that if anything were to happen to me, my son would still have a way to get to know me at least a little bit.

A part of me wants to chronicle events before I forget them. I'm often tired and exhausted at the end of a day, but the weeks slip away unnoticed at times. Memories fade and there are good ones that I want to preserve. I want to show the video of Shane's first attempt at picking his nose when he's much older and can see the humor (and possibly be horribly embarrassed) about it.

A part of me wants to believe I could be an author one day. The blog is good practice to get in the rhythm of writing and work on my 'craft.' I feel like I have many stories to tell and I want to tell them. At it's heart, writing is a social activity. It's meant to be shared. 

Another part of me acknowledges I'm ADHD out that whazoo and the act of organizing my thoughts into a coherent story is a rewarding challenge. It helps to process events and focus on the things that I want to remember. I'm a big believer in 'happiness is a choice.' The negative will always be there, and needs to be acknowledged, but if you pray and focus on the positive you (and everyone around you) will be far better off. There are plenty of things I could write about, but they don't pass the "What would I want to re-read a decade from now?" test. Complaining is not at the top of the list.

I write for a lot of reasons. My family has only recently discovered my blog, but any entertainment they get out of reading it is another reason to keep writing. It's hard to believe I've been at this for a couple of years now. It just reinforces another one of my beliefs:

If you want to get anywhere or do anything you have to do something. It doesn't matter how small, if you keep at it then you'll end up further than where you started.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving this year was more of a marathon.

Thursday began with Carrie cooking her famous sweet potato pies. We went over to my parents' house for a Turkey Day lunch bunch! It was the smallest Thanksgiving at Nana and Pop's I can recall. My family attended (Carrie, Shane and I); Megan and Billy were there; Reina came with her son, Bryce; Karin was there for the very beginning, and then there were the house's inhabitants: Patrick, Nana, Pop, and Jama.

Twelve people probably doesn't sound like a small crew to most people, but I come from a large family. Thanksgiving has always been a blur of fun, chaotic memories of lots of people and lots of food. Now that all of Nana's kids are wed (the oldest four of us to partners and the youngest to his computer) it's harder to match everyone's schedules. It's only going to get more awkward going forward when Megan and Billy go overseas. It felt more like the typical Turkey-fest when my family descended upon Bill and Dan's family get together for desert that night.

All in all, I enjoyed myself eating, watching football, and talking. I wish I got more time to catch up with all of my loved ones.

The only thing that I found stressful was my son's wrath. Shane loves Nana so much, he jealously (and zealously) clings to her. If I walked into a room they were playing in, Shane would yell and either A) try to push me out the door, or B) try to pull Nana out the door and make a hasty retreat. Nana and Pop help so much with childcare already, I wanted to play and help watch my son some (You know, be a good dad!).

Shane would not allow it! I eventually gave up trying. As I posted a long time ago, Nana is the most natural "baby person" I know. Shane squeals and throws a fit almost every time Carrie or I pick him up from 'Nana Day Care.' Pop decided that it would better for him or Nana to "be the bad guy" and stick Shane in his car seat, so it didn't seem like we (his parents) were ripping him away from where he wanted to be. I'm extremely grateful for all their help, but I hope to 'win' my son back some as he gets older. I like to think I've always been good with school-aged children. Watch out, Nana! I'll bring my A-game! (And if you're reading this, don't feel guilty! We love how much help you've been with Shane).

The weekend was spent with Carrie's parents. We drove down first thing Friday morning. The new car DVD player Carrie picked out was a huge help! It was an early Christmas gift from Nana and Pop. Shane plugged in to 'Cars' the whole way down instead of protesting.

It was great.

We all had fun at Carrie's parents' house once we got there. There was food, family, and the ladies went shopping (not once, but twice!). Grandpa and I took Shane to the Science Museum of VA on Saturday. It was awesome. That morning, Shane spent half an hour gawking over Grandpa's model trains. Grandpa knew that the museum was hosting a model train show in addition to the normal exhibits and suggested the trip. I want to go back again next year when Shane's older. There were a ton of interactive physics exhibits Shane wasn't quite old enough to understand (but more than old enough to yank and play on) and the museum closed before we got to see the real train engines.

I almost held off on writing this post for want of pictures, but I didn't want to get behind on posting again. I'll make a separate post whenever I get my hands on them. That's the memory dump for now before my old, rusty steel trap of a brain loses any more details. There will be a couple of fun posts with pictures and details from the weekend at a later date.

Blog Work

I need to do some Turkey Day write-ups, but I haven't felt "in the zone." I'll blame the turkey.

What I have been doing today is going through my old blogs and adding labels. The hope is the labels will help with sorting and searching through old posts. I don't know if anyone will ever actually use them, but it seems like the pro blogger thing to do. I ended up deleting a bunch of old blank and half-started drafts.

It's only taken me at least 10 times longer than expected!

An unexpected bonus popped up from my efforts at organization. I've bumped in to some old posts that I forgot existed. The whole point of writing stuff down is to remember it, so I'm glad the blog is fulfilling it's function!

A few examples:

I found my old New Year's Resolutions for 2012 and added in some updates.

I bumped across Carrie's post and marked it as a guest post. We re-read it together while Shane was napping.

Anyway, I've tagged enough that I feel like I won't need to go back and do it again. There are few updates, typo corrections, etc here and there that are now 'buried blog treasure.'  The battery on the laptop is dying, so it's time to save. I'll do the Thanksgiving posts after we get back from Carrie's parent's house.

EDIT: Carrie asked me "Why [tag everything] if you don't think it will be used?"

"It's what PRO bloggers do!" I replied!

I could end the story there and look cool, but in reality it went a little further.

Carrie arched an eyebrow at me. "Pro?"

We laughed.

I WANT KITTIES!

Shane is intense. When he wants something, he really wants it or the world is going to end!

It's hard being a baby.

If my son had his way, he would always be: A) somewhere outside, B) in front of the TV, or C) in front of the computer watching "kitties" on Youtube.

Shane cracks up when he watches cat highlights. My wife insists it's because he likes cats better. I'm not so sure. If 1 in 1,000 cats can do a cool trick for a second and 1 in 1,000 of the tricks are caught on tape, then it's a good thing there are countless millions of cats out there to make a minute montage for my son!

The boy is an addict. He can sit in front of the computer for way longer than my patience holds. When I do try to transition him to another activity it sparks an instant tantrum. Too bad for Shane, Dada ignores the tantrums and closes the computer anyway. There's only so much internet cat-capades a man can take. If Shane's lucky, Mama will be the one watching the kittens with him. She not only has a longer tolerance than Dada, but she'll get giddy and giggle along with the boy.

Once upon at time, I posted a video of Shane seeing Maru the "box cat" for the first time. He's only gotten more animated since.

Hide and Go Poop

You can always tell when a #2 is afoot with Shane.

His brow furrows in concentration; his mouth becomes a grim line of determination!

And he grunts.

Loudly!

Yes sirree, it's obvious when Shane puts on his 'poop face.' If you don't catch him in the act, you'll definitely catch a whiff as he runs by afterwards.

Somewhere along the way, Shane developed a certain shyness whenever he puts on his poop face. The boy will be playing with you one second, jump up, and run around a corner out of sight. You can't see the game face, but the grunts are still audible!

Thus, my son has discovered "hide and go poop."

Carrie swears that it's not uncommon for toddlers, but I still get a kick out of messing with Shane's game. I'll stealthily inch to wear I can barely see him. If Shane sees me, he'll scoot a few inches or whatever it takes to break my line of sight.

Normally, I stop at that point. I was spotted, confirmed poop sign, and no man really wants to interrupt another man's doody (er duty!).

Sometimes though, Shane feels the urge to do his thing where he there's no corner convenient to run around. He's got a trick up his sleeve for emergencies. My son will look up, make eye contact, and throw his arm over his eyes! Instant baby invisibility! The grunting starts and everyone who witnesses it is left feeling slightly awkward if they're not cracking up.

The first time Shane did this was in the middle of Patrick's room. I about died laughing as Shane stood over a pile of dirty clothes, eyes shielded. He had the biggest grin when he finished, too. It was hard not to be proud.

Maybe this game is commonplace. Carrie says that most toddlers like some privacy, but I still thought it was funny enough to post.

Muay Thai Class 5

To my shock and amazement, Patrick not only showed up for class he showed up on time.

This is not something my side of the family (outside of Pop) is known for.

I was glad to see him, though. Sports are always more fun when you have family and friends around. Carrie and I cannot attend class together since one of us always has to watch Shane. Plus, I was happy to get Patrick out of his room and doing something physical and not electronic.

Patrick got to punch me in the face, so I think he enjoyed himself too!

Locked Out!

Carrie, Shane and I came home from church today to discover we were locked out of our own house.

Resurrected Post: April Fool's 2010

Today was April Fool's Day.  Mom called and wanted me to fool Jama for her.  Jama fools Mom every year and every year Mom swears it will be the last.  Mom wanted me to tell Jama that Carrie was preggers.  I didn't want to do anything without letting Carrie know (since we are talking about her belly), so I waited until Carrie was home from an appointment.  We called later, and we got Jama a little excited but whenever someone asks "is this an April Fool's joke?" you're basically done.   We also called Carrie's mom and sang Happy Birthday on her voicemail.  Ironically enough, Carrie couldn't remember if today was her mom's actual birthday!  Could it be an April Fool's prank?  A quick call home yielded surprising results: today was not Mrs. Cassano's birthday.

It was yesterday.  Oops.

Life continues.  We went out to get sushi with Kent to celebrate his new job.  When we got back Matt called to congratulate Carrie and I on her pregnancy.  Huh?  Mom, in her eagerness, sent out an email to the family detailing new life in Carrie's belly.  She got Matt!  Mom later called to have me tell Patrick the details.  He was wise to her scheming.  In the meantime, Carrie was shocked as she checked her email and read the notice of her pregnancy.  "A little notice would've been nice!"  

*Ironically, I found out that Carrie WAS PREGNANT four days later at 3 in the morning. 

**I'm not a huge fan of how I used to write, but much of it was marked private on an old journal site. It's more  of a thought-dump and I didn't expect it to ever be read. I'd like to think my writing has improved since.

An Ode to a Different Matt

I'm feeling nostalgic tonight.

I work with a lot of kids from a lot of different backgrounds. Sometimes the home situations are happy and more 'normal.' Sometimes the home situations are strained. Sometimes the situations are bleak and painful and most times they are no fault of the child. Tough situations are not reserved for special education students, but we have more than our fair share of hardship and broken homes.

And to think, I owe a large part of my choice of career to a Matt in my life.

This Matt is no longer among us. He passed away a couple of years ago. My dad spoke at the funeral. It's one of the few times my wife has seen me cry.

So who is he?

Muay Tired

I've been a little frustrated/disappointed that I've only been to a handful of Muay Thai classes in the 2.5 months since I started. It seems like something always comes up. I was almost a total hypocrite Monday, because I was going to go but then I ate a big Chipotle burrito (and boy was it good!). I ended up digesting enough in time that I wouldn't hurl beans and rice working out, but Carrie felt sick and laid down for the night while I was giving Shane his bath.

Still, there is hope!  It sounds like Patrick is interested in classes. He and I may go on Saturday. Since Carrie and I can't go at the same time, having a family member start going could be great motivation to make sure one of us follows suit. I'd be okay with Carrie going in my stead. I just don't like starting something and then not continuing it.

Shane's 2nd Halloween

Do you detect a theme?

My wife is a trekkie. She was a closet trekkie in high school and she's clearly come out of that closet long ago. She bought herself an authentic replica of a command gold uniform from the original series. Shane got to wear blue, and I donned the feared red shirt.

"Our son outranks you!" my wife giggled.

Actually, we got a lot out of the uniforms. Carrie wore hers to work. Her boss demanded it. She ended up in the state capitol giving a presentation all decked out! Hilarious.

I wasn't sure if I could wear mine to work since we discourage the kids from wearing costumes. I asked two different administrators if I could rock the red, and do you know what the response I got was?  

Affirmative!

The AP I asked even said "I didn't even realize it was a costume."

Several kids asked me if I realized the danger I was in. "We'll see if I'll last the day!"

Fun times.

We even drove to Chic-Fil-A and got free food for wearing costumes. 

Hmmm

I got home, put Shane to bed, and kissed Carrie as she ran off to Target. Grandma mentioned Nana posted some Halloween pictures (did I really not blog that?), so I wanted to pop on Facebook to see them.

My account was locked.

Facebook wanted me to watch a little video about extensions in Chrome and confirm I'd run a virus scan. Then it told me that I wouldn't be able to post for the next 48 hours.

My first response: I did all of that Monday! I deleted all my extensions, virus scanned, and malware/adware scanned the moment Carrie noticed something funny. I double-checked the sent box and trash can on my email as well to make sure no random spam was spawning in my name, too!

Of course, I decided to make a snarky post about late Facebook was to the party (you're reading it).

What I didn't realize is that whatever jumped on Carrie's and then my Facebook accounts also created 31 spam blogs on blogger through my account.

Yuck.

I browsed through the help sections but there was no quick way listed to delete the spam blogs. I deleted them manually one by one. I was tempted to click on one and see what was there since there were "no posts," but the last thing I wanted to do was give the bot/extension that made them the satisfaction.

Oh, the glory and the bother of the internet! It made for a quick post, though! I was feeling a little lazy after work, class, bottle-necked traffic and the like, but now I can pretend I was productive enough to goof off for an hour before bed.

Working it!

Multitasking is the only way to accomplish anything as a parent of a toddler. I think that 99.9% of all parents will agree with me.

Thus, Shane watched "funny cats" while I typed up a response for my online class. I made more than one typo as he bounced and chortled!

Wonky Computer

Hmm.....

Carrie's facebook page posted a random event.

My facebook page posted/followed a random picture.

My blog doesn't look right, but the computer swears it's the same theme.

Yeah, it's virus and spam check central over here.

I was going to post about being shocked by a new car, or perhaps there was Veteran's Day crayfish fun or a story about how Shane likes to play "Hide and Go Poop" but those will have to wait for now! Plus, I have homework anyway.

Time to fix, fix, fix...

Odd Squodd

Saturday, Shane and I spent spent a lot of time out on his new playground. At one point, I turned around and saw something odd under our deck....

...an orange cat eating a dead squirrel. I tried to get a closer picture, but the cat ran off. He must have still been hungry later because he came back and ate the head off the squirrel. Maybe he just wanted the brains? (Zombie cat?!)

Well, there's no love lost between me and squirrels. I still have the voicemail of a panicked Carrie announcing a squirrel looking at her through a hole in the basement of our old townhouse! I'll have to bag the body later so the boy doesn't play with it.

Lucky for Dan, he just installed the blinds Carrie bought for downstairs! He'd have quite the view otherwise!

Carrie's Project

It looks like Carrie beat me to posting about this on Facebook. Oh well! It means the pictures were transferred, so that I can upload them more easily!

Thanks to Mama, Shane has a backyard playground!

Outdoor Shaneannigans Part 2

Now that I've introduced you to life in our driveway, I need to paint the rest of the picture.

Shane and I don't typically stay just in our driveway.

The walking tradition started back at the townhouse. My early post mentioning it was back in June 2011, but I know I started when the weather turned nice (maybe as early as May). It was a great way to get a little exercise, get out of the house, keep the boy happy, and tucker him out for bed time. Back then, Shane sat calmly and made me do all the work.

Nowadays, Shane "helps." I figure I do more work with his "help" than I did without!

Stubborn to the Bitter End

Shane fell asleep on the ride home from church today. I submit to you that a child who can't stay awake for 5-10 minutes is tried.

So why is Shane refusing to nap?

I brought him in, gave him a bottle, laid him down, and BOOM! The crying started once I left the room. He was at it for half an hour before he learned a new trick.

He just learned he can pile blankets to get out of his crib.

Epic nap fail.

Dada's frustrated. I removed some of the blankets and toys from the crib and I just heard another "thud." Time to go check on the boy wonder.

Please go to sleep! You're cranky as all get out when you refuse to nap for a day.

EDIT: It wasn't stepping on a pile that helped Shane escape. I went up with a bottle, tried to soothe him, and then I sat in the room with him. The boy pulls himself up and uses his feet to scale the side of the crib. I know Game Over when I see it. He's running around me as I type this. I'm not going to make him lay there because I'm too stubborn to admit that he's not going to sleep.

I hope the 2 minutes he slept from the last light before our house to home was enough to last until his 8 o'clock bedtime. He certainly has enough energy right now!

Busy Saturday

Saturdays are as busy as any other day around here. I vacuumed, washed clothes, cleaned the kitchen, and watched Shane. There was an hour and a half of break time here and there before he went down to sleep. I often wonder what the teenage Mike would think whenever I thank God for an opportunity to do my online homework and dishes! Is it bad that I'm tempted to vacuum right now? The whole house is asleep, so it'd be a bad idea, but I do want to get it done...

Carrie was very busy as well. She's working on a project that I wish I could claim more credit for. It's all her, though. I'll be taking pictures as it develops and it will get it's own blog post later. Hopefully, Monday when it's all said and done. She's up sleeping now, so I have more spare time than I'm used to. I can write!

I'm working on finishing Outdoor Shane-annigans Part 2 next. It's funny how much time you can spend taking pictures, uploading, and downloading them. I'll try to finish it up tonight, so I can check spelling and post tomorrow.

Bed Times

Bed time is not the happy-fun time it used to be.

The vents in Shane's old room banged all night long, so Carrie switched out the furniture between Shane's room and the guest bed room on Monday. It's quite cozy and I'm surprised we didn't set Shane up in there to begin with. Shane slept well the first night (minus waking up early), but he's thrown tantrums whenever he's supposed to sleep since.

Wednesday, Shane discovered he could vault out of his crib. He laid quietly in my arms as I sang and he drank. He rolled over and laid on me for a while as I hugged him. I lowered him into his bed, said "Nighty-night" and closed the door.

Instant screaming.