History of the J Man

This weekend we headed out of town with our next door neighbors and their 2 kids to spend the weekend in Lake Geneva.  We thought the two 4 year old boys could entertain each other and let us hang out with other adults a little too.

We all got there on Saturday, ate lunch then headed to the beach.  The big kids loved the water and the sand and the little kids seemed content to sleep or play on the blankets.  We got back, cleaned up and went out for a nice dinner.  They stuck us in the basement in a corner but we were totally happy there and the food was really good.  Yeah to Ryan Braun’s Taven for having a gluten-free menu.

The most excitement probably came in the form of Jonah’s first “sleep-over.”  In the basement at the Lake Geneva house is “Jonah’s bed.”  He’s slept down there by himself and also with his Aunts but never with another friend.  The babies went to bed in their respective pack-n-plays in the upstairs bedrooms and then the 2 big boys went to sleep in side-by-side beds in the basement.  The adults all left them around 8:30pm.  Jonah came up a few times, Luca came up a few times, each boy peed about 4 times. They chatted and whispered for at least another hour before finally falling asleep.  We heard them finally quiet down on the monitor and were a little surprised to find that they both fell asleep in their own beds.

The adults got to have a drink and chat for a bit in the upstairs living room and then everyone slept soundly until the babies woke up around 5:45 and the big boys at 7:00.  We went to breakfast at a new place and spent the rest of the day watching the big boys run around in the back yard.  They would wrestle, gather pine cones, look for birds and bugs and play baseball and soccer.   They got along really well the whole weekend, it was nice to see.

Of course the babies nap schedules suffered as we tried to entertain everyone and move with a group of 8 but they didn’t seem any worse for the wear.  Elliott is into everything these days and wants to run and play with the big kids.  If there’s anything going on he doesn’t want to sleep and miss out.  At dinner Saturday night he must have eaten as much as Jonah, easily.  He’s got all 4 first molars almost all the way in seems to be doing a good job of communicating either through signs or new words each day.  His current favorite word, much like Jonah at this age, is “ball.”  With 2 boys in the house some days I feel we’ll soon be overrun with balls and cars.

Well, this post is about two months late, but I at least wanted to get it down before I forgot everything.  Our family went up to Michigan for our annual trip up to Arcadia, Mich., near the Watervale resort where Julie spent many years with her family.  Papa, Nana, Aunt Amy and Uncle Tim came too.  It was Elliott’s first trip up to Michigan.

There’s no way I can give a chronological account of what happened, so here are some of our favorite memories with some added notes:

Going berry picking with Amy and Tim: As usual, we got a big ol’ haul of black and red raspberries.  We tried to tone it down a little this year because we always get too much, but they were delicious as always.  Usually mid-to-late July is the perfect time to pick them, but apparently this year (according to Nancy Meade), because of all the rain, stuff was ready for harvest earlier than usual.  My other favorite memory is watching Jonah eat five berries for every one he put in his bucket.

Climbing Baldy with Dad and Tim and Jonah: This was a big one!  It’s a long hike through woods to the top of a large sand dune, then down the dune and back home along the beach.  To be honest, I thought of it at the last minute and also assumed we’d get about halfway up and then have to turn around because he’d be tired, but Jonah was a trooper.  He did a really great job and didn’t need to be carried until the very end.  He slept well that night, as I recall.  Elliott’s turn next year!

The BBQ and playing tetherball afterwards: BBQ was great, though I didn’t put on an eating show this year.  I figure I have nothing left to prove there.  Jonah loved running around without having to worry about traffic or strangers like at home.  He even made a friend, 6 year old Annibell.  He was sad to go home that night.  One of the activities he really loved was playing with a tetherball they have.  I would pretend the tetherball would knock me down as it came around on the string, which he thought was totally hilarious, though I think he was rather slap-happy that point.

Toy Story 3 + Poop: We’d already seen Toy Story 3 back in Chicago, but we thought Jonah would enjoy seeing it again, so we went to the local theater in Frankfurt to check it out (The Garden Theater).  We were all impressed at the renovations on the inside — new seats, new paint, frescoes and other nice touches on the walls.  Unfortunately, about a third of the way through the movie, the screen went dark.  After a few minutes, the voices slowed down.  The movie projector had broke.  No big deal, we thought.  They started it back up, everyone cheered, and on we went.  Until it happened again.  It was around this point that Julie began to notice a strange smell.  She handed Elliott to me to go change him, and it turns out that he’d had a major poop blowout.  It was all over Julie’s wrap, all over our clothes, everything.  We took the opportunity of the broken projector to change him, and there in the harsh glow of the men’s room, it became clear that this was not your normal blowout.  Not only was Elliott’s bottom half pretty much covered in liquified poop, it was all over my shirt and shorts.  Plus, this theater having been built in the 1920s, the men’s room is the size of a closet, so I had to change him on the floor.  It was an ugly scene.  So while this was going on, apparently the proprietors of the theater discovered that fixing the projector wasn’t happening, so they ended the movie and refunded everyone’s money.  And what usually happens at the end of a movie, especially a kid’s movie?  A mad dash for the bathroom.  Unfortunately, I was elbow deep in baby poop, so several boys got an eyeful when they opened the bathroom door.  Needless to say no one came in until I had wrapped up.  So with Elliott clean, there was still the small matter of our clothes.  Julie was able to get her shirt off and put a jacket on, but I was afraid of soiling the car seat with what was on my shorts.  We ended up covering the car seats and seatbelts in newspaper and made the best of it.  As for the broken projector, the best quote was, “Fancy new seats.  Same old Garden.”

Elliott sleeping not that well yet: Since he was only about 2.5 months old at the time, it’s no surprise that Elliott was having trouble sleeping.  Couple that with a strange new place and not too many people in the house were getting much sleep, Julie least of all.  He would nap here and there during the day, but some nights he would be up every other hour or even every hour.  It was definitely challenging, and meant we usually went to bed nice and early.

Catching minnows with John’s net in Lower Herring: Jonah became quite the fisherman on our trip.  He had a little minnow net borrowed from John Meade and Papa and I would help him catch minnows that he would throw back in the lake.  I think he just liked seeing something living so up close.  He liked to touch them, too.  Usually every morning, he would want to run down to the pier and see if there minnows.  If he didn’t see any, he would say, “They must be sleeping right now.”  It’s only a matter of time before he wastes his time going out on the lake to fish with Mark and John in the evenings.

Visiting with John, Nancy and Emily: The Meades were having some extensive work done on their house during the time we were there, including adding on an extra couple of rooms and a bathroom.  That didn’t stop us from going to visit them as often as we could.  As usual, they were gracious with their generosity and we had several great meals not to mention many delicious Oberon beers.  The construction was due to last another month or so (I think) so it will be fun to see it completed and fully decorated when we go up in 2011.  Emily came up mid-week to hang out for a bit as well.

Boat ride with Evan (Mom and Jonah): Jonah got a chance to go on a speedboat with Evan, Nancy Meade’s nephew.  Evan’s mom, Carol, is Nancy’s sister, and Carol’s husband Ron is the one who usually pilots the boat, but Evan took Jonah and Julie out this time.  I stayed back with Elliott, since we didn’t have a life jacket his size.  Jonah had a wonderful time and tried to follow Evan around everywhere he went after that.  Jonah didn’t seem to care that Evan is 16!

Paddle boat ride with Jonah, Mom and Dad: The owners of our cottage also had a paddle boat that they allowed us to use, so we took Jonah out for a ride in that as well, mostly just puttering up and down the shoreline on Lower Herring.  We let Jonah steer for a bit, but as you can imagine, we didn’t get very far that way; we mostly went in circles.  Still, Jonah had a blast as the paddle boat captain.

Playing at the little beach with Jonah and Elliott:  The Big Beach, as it is known, is the shoreline for Lake Michigan.  For our little guys, it’s probably a little beyond them, so playing in the sand over by the Little Beach (on Lower Herring) is perfect.  We went down a couple of days and let Jonah wade in the water, play with his shovel and sand toys and mostly just enjoy the sunshine, or as much as we could with a newborn in tow.  Of course, Elliott was very popular with the other beachgoers, as he usually is anywhere we go.  As a side note, even if we had wanted to go to the Big Beach, there isn’t much sand there as there once was because of the conservation efforts to reduce the erosion of the land.  I can understand it, and it is surely the right thing to do in the long run, but there isn’t as much sand there as there was even just last year.  It’s sort of sad, but you can’t fight Mother Nature, I guess.

Sunset Friday night with Jonah, Mom, Amy and Tim: When Julie found out Jonah, Tim and I had hiked Baldy, she was a little disappointed that she hadn’t yet seen the Big Beach, so she took Jonah and Amy and Tim to go watch the sunset and spend some time out by the big lake.  Apparently the sunset wasn’t that great, but a good time was still had by all.  The other evening activity was that earlier in the week, Tim and I built a fire and we all roasted marshmallows.  The fire was going great until a certain someone decided to make some adjustments, at which point the fire was never the same.  But hey, who’s naming names, right Tim?

Elliott liked the big swing out in front of the cottage: The neighbors had a baby swing hanging from the tree out in front of the cottage, and we discovered that Elliott really enjoyed sitting in it and slowly going back and forth.  I would sit out there with a book for literally hours and let him sleep and read my book.  It was nice also being able to give Julie a break from time to time.  We joked that we might have to take him out there in the middle of the night to calm him down, but luckily it never came to that.

Papa learning ukelele from Uncle Tim: Tim and I are now no longer the only musical members of the family, as Mark tried his (only) hand at uke.  Tim had taught him a lot of simple chords; once he gets the strumming down, look out!  Watervale Open Mic Night, get ready for the Evanston Ukelele King in 2011.

A&W trip for Mom and Dad: It was our only time away from the boys, but one night Julie and I snuck away from some root beer floats at A&W.  I love the boys like crazy, but it was nice to get about 30 minutes of adult time where we could just enjoy one another.  Funny to think it was like that for years at one point!

No traffic on the way home, and Elliott slept most of the way: A wonderful vacation wrapped up nicely in a relatively uneventful ride home.  I think Elliott started crying at the Belmont exit on Lake Shore Drive.  I couldn’t have asked for more.  Plus, sometimes on the way back from Michigan, you have construction or some event is going on in Chicago that bogs things down, but this year we hit barely any traffic on the way home.  Hopefully next year Elliott will be a little better in the car and if we do hit traffic, it won’t be too bad.

Hard to believe I am posting this nearly two months later, but I am glad to have finally written it all down.  Can’t wait to go back next year!

We had a great 4th of July weekend.  We ended up going to my parents’ house up in Lake Geneva for three days and Jonah had a great time going to the beach, walking around town and hanging out with his grandparents and aunts. 

The highlight was definitely our boat trip out on the lake which concluded with a fireworks show.  We were wondering whether we would still go because at dinner it looked as if we were going to get rained out.  Normally from that restaurant you can see across the lake, but the storm that moved in was so severe, you couldn’t see all the way across.  Fortunately the storm had dwindled to a slow drizzle and we made it on the boat. 

It was a double-decker boat, so we elected to sit on the lower level (the upper level was about full anyway).  This ended up being a smart choice because a little ways into the trip, they handed out garbage bags for people to wear for more rain.  We were protected from all of that.  We saw some enormous homes owned mostly by rich Chicago businessmen.  One of them apparently had 55 rooms and had been a money-loser througout the years.  I’m not sure if they give tours of those places, but it would be fun to walk through one of them at some point.

Finally it got dark out and the fireworks began.  Jonah entertained everyone through his sheer enthusiasm.  As each one went off, he would shout excitedly.  On some of them, he said, “It’s magic!” and ”Magic fireworks!”  About halfway through, he proclaimed, “I like fireworks!”  He proceeded to say this about a dozen times during the show, much to everyone’s pleasure.  At one point the captain of the ship said, “He’s more fun than the fireworks!”  The only downside was that I did get a bit seasick toward the end.  I know, I know, how could someone get seasick on Lake Geneva of all places – it wasn’t like we were braving 30-foot swells in the North Atlantic — but I guess I just don’t handle water too well.  Still, it was worth it to see Jonah have such a good time.

The rest of the weekend was fairly mellow.  We spent time at the beach or sitting on the deck for lunches and dinners.  We brought Bianca too, and she didn’t much like the fireworks going off set by amateurs throughout the weekend, but I think it was better than being back in Chicago.  Our neighborhood sounds like a warzone sometimes during the 4th.

All in all it was a fun, relaxing weekend, though of course quite crowded.  We’re looking forward to going up again, maybe in the fall, when it won’t be quite as congested.  I don’t have any photos now, but will post some once they are available.

We’ve been slow to post about our annual trip to Michigan because it’s always hard to come back from a trip, unpack, get back into the grind of work and still get all the photos downloaded. 

We actually didn’t take a ton of photos because we had aunts, uncles and grandparents around to act as paparazzi so I really only have the video below to include. 

We stayed in the same house as last year and had a great time.  The weather was nice the whole week.  We got a bit of rain here and there but nothing that stayed around long enough to dampen our fun.  Not that it would have mattered to Jonah.  He loved running around in the living room (as you can see in the video) and making garages and parking spaces for his cars, trucks and trains with the Jenga blocks that Aunt Amy brought.  And as long as Aunt Amy was around he was happy.  He woke up in the morning not saying hi Mama or Daddy but, “Amy, Amy?” 

Jonah at Watervale 2009 from Julie Diehl on Vimeo.

Last year the first couple nights sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room were hard for Jonah but this year we didn’t have any problems.  It probably helped that by the time he went down he was pooped!  He slept from about 8:30-6:30 each day.  Of course we always try to tell him to sleep in till 8:00 but that only happens VERY rarely. 

This year we got to spend a day on the public beach in Frankfort which we’ve never really done in the past.  We were going to meet everyone for lunch in town later so we thought we’d just head to that beach and be right there in time for lunch.  We got there around 9:30 and were the first ones at the beach!  By the time we got to Dinghy’s and got our food I literally had to catch Jonah as he fell asleep in his chair.  He was in a booster seat so we were worried he’d fall right out!  He napped for the next hour in his stroller as we walked around.

Jonah also got to go on his first boat ride on this trip. Chris’s parents (and sisters and future uncle) rented a house about 15 minutes away on Crystal Lake. Their cabin came with bikes and a pontoon boat. The day Chris, Papa and Uncle Tim went golfing Jonah, myself and the rest of the Diehl’s went out on the pontoon boat. Jonah even got a chance to drive the boat (he likes to turn left we learned, as we did a complete circle in the middle of the lake)!

This is what the weather was like on our trip to Florida.  Check out Chris’s jacket and pants.  Jonah didn’t seem to mind too much though.  He always loves to swing.

Florida Swing Video from Julie Diehl on Vimeo.

On Tuesday we flew back from Tampa, Florida, having spent about four days there. How did we pass the time, you ask?

Sorry to say, but the weather was a little on the cool side. I know, I know, everyone from Chicago feels our pain. But seriously, we were hoping to lounge by the pool and do a little swimming in the Gulf, but we actually ended up wearing jeans and jackets pretty much the whole time we were there. But still, it was way better being in 60 degree Tampa than 20 degree Chicago.

We stayed at the Tradewinds Resort, located in St. Pete’s Beach, a small resort town to the southwest of St. Petersburg proper. The company Julie was visiting on business put us up for one night and then we paid for the other two, so it was a bit cheaper than if we’d gone by ourselves. The location of the hotel could not have been better as it was a short elevator ride from our 6th floor room, and then another short one minute walk and you were on the beach. It’s really too bad the weather didn’t cooperate.

We flew in Saturday and after an aggravatingly long wait for our rental car, we checked in and realized our room was right outside the bar where they had live music every night starting at 8pm. With Jonah in tow, we knew this wasn’t going to work out so we ended up switching rooms. After all of that, we basically had time to explore the hotel a bit (where Jonah got to dip his feet into the kiddie pool) and go to dinner and that was it, so after much deliberation we settled on Crabby Bill’s, a fine seafood establishment if you really like fried food. Jonah had a tough time going to sleep that first night, but he finally settled down after Julie went in to soothe him. As for our sleeping experience, our first room by the bar had one queen, but this new room had two doubles, so we ended up each having our own bed for a couple of nights. After our purchase of a king, sharing a full bed was just too confining!

Julie didn’t have to do any work until Monday, so on Sunday we went out to breakfast and discussed what we might do that day. It was overcast and looked ready to rain any second, and wouldn’t you know it, no sooner had we gotten back to our room than it started to rain. Our indoor activity was to visit the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. After checking out the aquarium down in Atlanta, this one was not as impressive, but what was really fun was that Jonah was much more interested in the fish and other wildlife on display this time around. He was especially enamored with the ducks, as he seems to be in love with any rubber ducky that comes his way these days. As a matter of fact, after the aquarium, we did a little shopping and bought Jonah a couple more ducks for his now-formidable collection.

Our dinner on Sunday was at a Cuban place down the street from our hotel, where Jonah made friends with a young woman sitting at the table next to us. That seemed to be his thing–he was very popular with the ladies down in Florida.

Monday was clear, thankfully, but still chilly. We decided to visit The Pier in downtown St. Petersburg, which was essentially a homeless man’s version of Navy Pier–that is, kinda lame. But the walk down the pier itself was very pleasant and we saw a lot of pelicans, which was a bonus. After taking the trolley back into downtown for lunch (Johnny Rockets, where Jonah ate his weight in French fries), we went back to the hotel for naptime.

That evening Julie had dinner with work people, so Jonah and I were on our own, so we went to the sports bar they had on site at the hotel. That night after Julie came back, we were hoping Jonah would sleep a little better, but he wasn’t having any of it, so we ended up letting him stay up waaaaaay past his bedtime to watch a movie (The Tale of Despereaux, which I do not recommend). Thankfully he fell asleep somewhat easily after that. I think he just needs a couple nighs to get used to a place that isn’t home before he’s ready to crash there.

Julie had meetings pretty much all day on Tuesday, so once again it was a boys’ trip. We went to Dunedin Stadium in Dunedin, Fla. (which I think is now called Knology Park, but whatever) which is the spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays. Basically, we picked it because it was convenient to where we’d need to pick Julie up after her meeting and the Phillies (who play in Clearwater) didn’t have a home game. But hey, it was a great opportunity to see Team Canada warm up for the World Baseball Classic!

We arrived early, at about 11:30am for a 1pm game. In addition to visiting the aquarium in Atlanta, we also took Jonah to his first baseball game at Turner Field, where he wasn’t too interested in the game. I’m happy to report that he was much more engaged this time around. We watched Team Canada take BP and he was in awe of the balls as they sailed out of the park. We went to gift shop where I bought him a baseball that he carried around with him the whole time (side note to other dads: official league balls do not make good toddler toys). Jonah also reveled in eating bad food like hot dogs, super salty popcorn and cheese pizza.

We didn’t really meet any players, and there were actually a lot of well-known players there for Canada, like Justin Morneau (New Westminster, British Columbia), Jason Bay (Trail, British Columbia), Matt Stairs (St. John, New Brunswick) and Corey Koskie (Anola, Manitoba). Did you know Corey Koskie is only 35? Doesn’t it seem like he should be, like, 53 years old? I think Jonah and I were some of the only Americans there, as they sang both the Canadian national anthem, which was sung by the whole stadium, and then they did the Star Spangled Banner and I think Jonah and I were the only ones singing.

I bought a seat close to home plate, where the GM of the Blue Jays J.P. Ricciardi sat in the row in front of us. All around us were scouts with big notebooks, laptops and radar guns, talking shop about the young guys on the Blue Jays. It was pretty cool and made me wish for about two seconds that I had pursued a career in baseball, until I remembered that scouts are basically paid minimum wage. The game was far from sold out, so to get Jonah out of the sun, we went up to find some shade where Jonah had an entire section all to himself and he goofed off by running up and down the aisles about 300 times. If you’re interested, it appears Team Canada won the game 6-4, but we had to leave midway through to head to the airport.

The plane ride back went OK, though I feel bad for the people sitting directly in front of us. Jonah was pretty active and was kicking the seats occasionally and we got some dirty looks, but there wasn’t much we could do. Overall though, he did really great on the plane. Bringing some new toys and books definitely helped.

This week it was back to work. All in all, a good four days off.

Well, we’re back from Arcadia, Michigan. If your wondering where that is, check out the map on the left. It’s about a six hour drive. If you’re wondering how Jonah did, on the way up, we couldn’t be prouder. Only one stop for lunch (at McDonald’s, which won’t be happening again any time soon).

Overall, it was a great trip, though the weather was not the best. The beginning of the week was nice–Mark (Julie’s dad), Tim (Julie’s brother-in-law) and I went golfing. I marked that trip as a success in that I came back with the same number of golf balls with which I left and even nailed a couple of long putts. Also in my genius, I neglected to wear sunscreen and bug spray, so I was a bit sore for the remainder of the trip.

The cottage where we stayed was very spacious and slept everyone comfortably. The first night, Jonah had a hard time falling asleep, but as the week went on, things got better.

After wondering weather Jonah would take to the beach, it didn’t take long for everyone to find out that he loved the sand. The money we spent on his beach toys was a great investment. One of his favorite activities was to use his shovel to fling sand everywhere. as you can see from the photo below. Unfortunately, he developed a bit of diaper rash, so he got the chance to run around naked while also playing in the sand. If you’re wondering, he had a blast.

Tuesday we went to visit my family who was staying up north in Glen Arbor, about 45 minutes away. They stayed in a condo on a ski resort that had a pool, tennis courts and a great workout facility. None of which they were able to use. Doh! Still, while the accommodations were modest in terms of size, they were quite modern compared to where we stayed.

On Wednesday, it was time for my family to come down to visit us. My Dad, Mark and Tim decided to climb “Baldy,” basically a large sand dune located near the Watervale resort, which is where Julie’s family has gone to stay in past years. The kids (my sisters and I and our significant others) spent the day at the “Big Beach,” a stretch of beach on Lake Michigan. There’s another beach near the resort called the “Little Beach,” which is on Lower Lake Herring, a smaller lake just to the east of Lake Michigan.

That night, we all ate at the barbeque at Watervale that had to be moved inside because of rain. Normally, the BBQ is outside and having it indoors definitely took off a bit of the luster, but we made do. The damage for me included:

• 1 hot dog
• 1 bratwurst
• 1 hamburger
• 4 ribs
• 7 chicken pieces
• green beans
• 1 ear of corn
• 1 ice cream bar
• 3 deviled eggs
• salad

Not bad. I’ve done better and now that I have 2008’s list, I can shoot for something more next year.

The highlight for Thursday was definitely going to The Shed (a local bar) to see Tim play his ukelele. He played three songs, including “Over the Rainbow,” a Flaming Lips song and one other one.

The rest of the week, we pretty much relaxed, played a few board games, spent some more time at the beach and ate greasy food. I went for a swim on the Friday before we left in Lake Michigan which was especially relaxing. The water was really warm this year.

Hopefully next year, when Jonah won’t need his morning nap anymore, it will free us to do more things like go berry picking or a glider ride. I know Grandpa Koslen is quite anxious to take him fishing.