Living on the Farm

Went outside this afternoon to catch up with Carrie, the sun and let the pooch run around a bit. Carrie was telling me there was a chicken sighting this morning in the front yard. Chicken sighting? Apparently, there was a raggedly looking chicken running around the neighbor's yard. In the Keys chickens are all over the place so it's a common sight, but I don't believe we have ever come across a chicken in Tampa. Hmm, I didn't really think anything of it outside of it being rather odd. So, we went out to the porch and we are conversing about this and that when we see the dog near the woods in his retriever stance tail at attention paw out front.

Carrie decides she is going to brave it and walk down to see what he has. She yells back to me that Lucky has an armadillo cornered. Really?! It's 90-something degrees out so I figured everything would be hiding out until the temperature dropped. I walk down there and it's actually four armadillos running around the woods. First off these things are seriously ugly. They have a rat tail 12+ inches long and this long pointy snout for eating insects I imagine. They are pretty big, close to 2-3 feet long and weigh a good, 10-15 pounds. I wonder if this is beast of Bellingham. Not sure, but they had large claws and were digging all kinds of holes. My lawn! My beautiful lawn! My beautiful, not cheap lawn! The dog had a small creek between him and the 'dillos plus some brush 3 feet high. Carrie and I were fascinated watching these things forage around the woods. We were within a couple of feet and they could've cared less. Neither of us have ever seen them this close before and so many.

The dog was trying to creep closer and closer when all of a sudden a chicken goes flying up out of the brush. Baw, baw, baw, bawk!, BAWK! The chicken scared the bajesus out of the dog with the poultry catching two feet of air, wings flapping about and bawking away. I mean it was the most entertaining hilariouis thing I have ever seen. BAWK! BAWK! WOOF, woof! Armadillo running for cover in the brush. I mean just a crazy chaotic scene. It was like living on the farm. Animals scattering, sun shining, tail wagging, Carrie laughing, me swigging and wishing so bad I had my iPhone to film it. Just an incredible scene. Oh, Florida, we are so going to miss you. The chicken got away (and no it didn't cross the road). He just disappeared. This whole time I was thinking beer butt chicken on the grill tonight. Do you think that wife of mine is up for a chicken plucking tonight? The armadillos totally ditched into their burrow and the dog's tail was just going crazy. He was loving it. With all the excitement over I had to run to grab the computer and share the story.

I still owe part II of the Boston adventure. There is some wildlife for that story too. Here are some more pics from our Boston trip.

Boston, Part I

Quentin added another state to his places I've been list - Taxachussettes. He did well on the flight but is getting so big for the 17 inches of space they give you. On the way home we were sitting in the first handful of rows next to a Jimmy Buffett roadie, which makes for a great seatmate when you have a giant 18 month old that enjoys kicking you, your seat, and standing on your lap slapping the seat ahead and behind you. He was going with the flow. "Another margarita over here!" The drink cart started coming down the aisle and was quickly approaching our row. There is another cart working the first class cabin. Once the first class cabin patrons have been taken care of the cart will move through coach so the first one will bump down several rows so the one behind it can begin serving to maximize efficiency. The first drink cart was right at our row and Quentin was anxiously awaiting his apple juice. We would be the next ones served, but that's when the two carts caught up and the one at our row didn't serve us and just moved on. Quentin didn't like that at all. He was waiting very patiently and then they left him without any juice, juice, juice?!?! He started wailing and wailing. It was hilarious. Everyone around us were cracking up. It caught the attention of the flight attendant so she scurried over to our row to make sure Q got his apple juice. It's nice having a person with you that knows no boundaries and will speak up for you when life treats you unfairly.

We arrived in Boston on Thursday and checked into our hotel in downtown Boston. The location was great so we could walk anywhere we wanted to go. We headed to the Boston Commons that afternoon to run around the park. It's a smaller version of Central Park; right in the middle of the city, a nice green space and ample space to do any activity. There are a few ponds in the middle with ducks and swans. They have paddle boats that are in the shape of swans that Grandma and Grandpa S. took him on while we attended a wedding on Saturday. We walked through the park taking in the massive hundred year old trees and taking in the wildlife. Q took a massive liking to the squirrels and the pigeons. Because so many people are feeding the wildlife the birds and animals will let you get really close. So he would creep up on a squirrel, which thought it was going to score an easy meal only to find out that like a terror this kid was going chasing him all over the park. The squirrels would run up the tree and then he would continue to chase it farther up going around and around the trees. I hate to make the comparison but it was really no different than the Luckster's technique. Quentin loved it. In fact it made me feel bad we don't have a bigger yard. I think up north he may be a hunter. We shall see. The squirrels are in abundance up north in comparison to Florida and much fatter so it makes it more fun. Down here the birds are bigger than you are so it's not a good idea to chase them around. They chase back. It was a whole new world for him.

While at the park he took his first ride on a carousel. I took tons of pictures but he has this odd stoic emotionless face on so it appears he's not having any fun, until we tried to move on. Then he was really missing the horsey he was riding with momma (his new favorite word). Every time we went by a carousel the rest of the weekend, and there are a surprising amount of carousels spread out around the city, he wanted to go for a spin. And who wouldn't! It was a great experience for him.

We have too many Boston stories to put in one post. So I will get another one out tomorrow with some more stories. We had a great experience swimming in a rooftop pool 12 stories above the city. Here are a few pics!

My Feet are Big

I came home from an exhausting long strange trip this past week to find our son with a 103.5 degree temperature, a record for little Quinny. Into the ice bath he went. That parenting class taught me few medical skills (outside of slurping snot out of his nose with that bubble syringe) so we called the doc to make sure he wasn't going to burst into flames and tossed him into the bath to cool him down. He survived the weekend but it was a whiny one. Both parents over here were tired and crabby from single parenting (her the dog and kids, me attempting to take care of myself) so it made for a long weekend, but we think we are hitting our stride again. Quinny is going through a never ending I wake up every 15 minutes post 2:30 am phase again so we played hardball with him last night letting him scream it out for most of the wee hours of the morning. It really provides some solid one on one time with your wife when you have that romantic child screaming serenading you in the background. Sort of puts you in the mood to think about how many kids you really might want. For us, as your mind drifts off into thoughts of what it would be like to sleep more than 3 hours in a row, you reflect on the impending arrival of number two that is conveniently in between you as you are having the discussion. That leads to prayer time where you are really focused on producing a healthy child first, but a very sleepy one too. One might even wish for a narcoleptic. Is that really too much to ask for? Do 13 year olds still crawl into bed with you wanting to spend that precious 2:30 am - wake up kicking you in the face? At least people have stopped telling us it's going to happen soon. We don't hear that any more. No, this son is never going to sleep through the night and wake up at a reasonable hour. Junior number two is already acting up late at night similar to Quinny so we think we may be in trouble.

We did find the time to take Mr. Big Foot to the mall to get some new shoes. He's heading to Boston in the middle of this week and he needs to look sharp. It is a pedestrian city with actual public transportation one can count on. We are meeting my parents there who haven't seen him since Christmas (gasp!) so it will be an especially fun trip. Carrie and I will be attending a Bostonian wedding on Saturday and with babysitters in tow, the aforementioned parents, it may be a glorious curfew free night. Quinny got his feet measured and surprise surprise before wearing out the last pair he has grown out of them. He is now wearing an 8 1/2. Yes, an 8.5. You should see these things. He looks like he's walking around with flippers on. He's also out of velcro and into ties already. Is it time to have the bunny ears conversation? You know take this ear and wrap it around the tree and down the rabbit hole and tie. Or something like that.

He's also into squirt guns at the moment. He still has that love of water. We bought him these tiny little guns and he can't quite get his hands around the grip properly so Mr. Genius holds it backwards using his thumb as his trigger finger. So smart. He can make anything work. This resulted in shooting the gun straight up into the air or right into his face depending on the grip. That was last weekend. This weekend he learned to aim much better and started coming up behind you and shooting you execution style in the back of the head. Lovely. I hope that isn't a premonition of things to come. It is refreshing as we move through these 90+ degree days passing the summer days on the patio enjoying our fleeting moments of island life.

On the home front we have found a house in Cedar Rapids. That's Iowa for the geographically challenged. (I also found out there is such a thing as a corn belt and we are in it)! That will be good now that Nebraska is in the Big Ten. The house at least it one less task to stress out about. We now need to fool the government to continue to get our resident tax break on our "permanent residence in Florida." And by permanent I mean we will be locked into this thing for the rest of our lives. It's willed to Q. No chance of selling for at least 25 years we are told. Lovely. We wanted to keep the backyard theme that is representative of our location. In Florida we have a pond filled with four foot tall birds, fish, snakes and our friends the gators. In Cedar Rapids we went with the cornfield backyard. When in Rome as they say. I asked my new neighbors if all corn is created equal. Really, I wanted to know if I could just sort of head out to the backyard and collect some ears for dinner. It turns out that most corn is made for non-human consumption. Buzz kill. The gators we have are open for purse or boot season down here and if adventurous you can make gator nuggets and contrary to what people tell you it doesn't taste like chicken. We are happy to have something to look forward to - the house, not the corn. Nothing against corn, but it's tough to get excited about. The bucket list is officially in motion as we have a move date on the calendar. Ironically it will be 9 years to the day that I left Madison on my journey around the eastern states. I can't wait for Q's first snowball fight or the day he turns old enough to shovel the driveway for me while I drink my warm coffee next to the fireplace "supervising." There will be a party. Two actually. One for leaving and another for arriving. Details to follow.

Here are a few pics of Quinny a couple of weekends ago when his 4th cousin or something (I can't keep track of these things), an aspiring photographer, shot many a cutie-Q and here are a couple favorites.

Happy Birthday...

...to me! Ahh, the beauty of writing your own blog as you get to take time out to give yourself a pat on the back once in a while. I turn 29 today and had another solid year in the books. I have a great son attempting to wish me a happy birthday at dinner last night in the video. He's got the happy part down and then just goes blshpshs for the birthday part. You can see him eyeballing me and then back to his mother holding the camera. I think all that talk about not keeping him can come to an end. We are definitely going to keep him. His is going to be a serious handful for his teachers. He's all trouble. He's the kid that's too smart for his own good, which leads to boredom, which leads to stirring the pot to make things interesting. And by interesting I mean to him and painful for everyone else. Oh, yes, I see many a trip to the principal's office. Hmm, who does that remind you of? Yup, Carrie was quite the trouble maker growing up. Okay, that's not exactly true. Here we are at 18 months (he's wearing 3-T) and I am already feeling sorry for his teachers that are years away from having him in their class. It's that obvious. And deep down it brings a cheshire grin to my face because he's just like me and you know they say the best form of flattery is replication so how can I not be in love with his trouble maker personality? I am almost going to skip into Mr. Principal's office chuckling all the way that it's fine. Secret high fives on the way home. (I'm a horrible parent) but a proud poppa! Ice cream son? That prank was awesome! Oh, and for show you're grounded. Ha!

He's really working on his vocabulary. He can't say Lucky and around here getting called Stinky is a compliment so he knows the dog's nickname is Stinky and he can say that. So he wakes up in the morning - always in our bed so when I say wake up I really mean for like the third or fourth time. He crawls over me with no regard to my aging body and says, "Hi Sthinky!" A ton of enthusiasm behind that hello too. We find him just calling him Stinky all the time even when we aren't really paying attention and then you hear it and just bust out laughing. So our poor abused dog now had his name reduced to Stinky. I hope the Luckster knows that round these parts that's a compliment. We love our stinkbomb (Q) and our loyal dog Stinky. When I begin to affectionately refer to my wife as Smelly I know we've lost all sanity and gone too far. Until then it works for us.

For the first time in a long time I didn't wake up by Q crying at dawn. Somehow I was dreaming right through it and then got straight cold cocked in the forehead. I jump up shaken and thinking what the hell was that? I knew it couldn't be junior because I hadn't heard him cry yet. I lean over and see somehow he broke out of his crib and was just getting comfortable at my expense. As I peer over spread out boy I see a foot squarely jammed into Carrie's jaw so apparently it was my birthday and I got the upper torso instead of the stinky feet treatment. You have to take the small wins in this house. I'm up, she's up and milk the cows boy is sleeping soundly with arm jammed into my face and foot squished into my wife's face. Seriously, this kid better put me in the most expensive home money can buy when I need my diapers changed. He owes - big time for all the abuse we are taking. Another 16.5 years of this plus I'm required to pay for college? Seriously? People should really be drawing you a better picture before you go for the his kid-plunge.

So today a little hookie from work, a round of golf and then a buddy from college is flying in so I pity our neighbors tonight. The tiki torches are lit and the adult refreshments will be cold. We haven't see our gator friend in a few days and I hope he makes an appearance for our guests. Another beautiful day in paradise with Stinky and Stinkbomb.