That was Then, This is Now

or "Blink and You'll Miss It" part 3

Every so often our day care provider emails pictures of Charlotte playing outside or hanging out in the house. Leaving her at day care can be hard, so it's comforting to see that she's happy and having fun.

Last year, on October 4,  we were sent this picture of Charlotte enjoying the fall leaves.

One year and 20 hours later, we got this one.

Charlotte won't stop growing, so I guess this blog is my way of pushing the "pause" button. Otherwise, I might not take the time to try to appreciate the enormity of raising her. 

Name This Song

Courtesy of http://www.teefury.com/ (10/09/12 only)

Mother, Jugs, and Speed

If you were to ask me what I was going to do last night, I wouldn't have told you, "I'm gonna grab a few empty milk jugs and go for a jog with the family." But that's what we did.

Of course, we had to make a few stops along the way.

I can't explain the milk jugs. Sometimes Char pulls them out of the recycling bin and demands we each have one. 

As for this post's title, my dad's nickname for me as a kid was "Speed". I'm not sure why, but he called me that all the time. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074923/

Closure Doors During Bath Time

Closure: (noun) a Gestalt principle of perceptual organization that explains how humans fill in visual gaps in order to perceive disconnected parts as a whole object.

You'll have to fill in the blanks on this one.

What Did the Fish Say When It Hit the Wall?

Dam.

When I moved out of my first apartment and into a townhouse, I was pretty pumped for a lot of reasons. One exciting prospect was decorating my own place for Halloween and handing out candy. But without knowing it, I'd become a bit of a Halloween traditionalist. I was actually offended when I first heard that Des Moines homeowners handed out candy the night before Halloween, and that they called it "Beggars Night".

What's that all about? Halloween is on the 31st, and it isn't about begging. Halloween is chance to see your neighbors at their best when you are dressed at your worst. It's about teaching your kids that their community can be caring and giving. Halloween is one of the highlights of childhood, and opening your door to children is a nostalgia pipeline to your own... umm... oops. Sorry, I'm getting carried away... (steps off soap box).

Anyway, when the big night came and the doorbell rang, I popped open the door with huge bowl of regular-length candy bars in tow ("Fun Size"? What's fun about getting an inch of a Snickers bar? Might as well call it "You-Just-Got-Cheated Size"). Instead of  "Trick or Treat!" yelled in unison, I was greeted by a tiny Frankenstein mumbling  something about a booger and a skeleton.

Well that was weird, and it didn't end there. For the next two hours every vampire, princess, ghost, and zombie insisted on fumbling through a joke before reaching into the candy bowl. One little ballerina even had "joke notes" scribbled on her arm in her mom's handwriting (she was told to take two candy bars).

When I asked about the jokes the next day at school, the high school kids also insisted that that was what you did on Halloween. They were incredulous that I didn't tell jokes to get candy when I was a kid - some of the students looked at me like I was from Mars (candy pun).

The next year an article in the Des Moines Register newspaper answered my questions:  

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/99999999/ENT/41007010/Jokes-set-local-Halloween-apart

She's with the Band

Apologies to Coach Sam Anderson and the Urbandale High School football team, but when Charlotte attends a UHS football game, the main attraction is the marching band. Chalk it up to having a mom who is a middle school band director. Char loves marching band music and singing the Urbandale fight song. She likes to sing the song while riding in our car.

A few weeks ago, we took Charlotte to her first football game/ marching band show. We stood on the ground level, up against the chain-link fence, so she could get a better view of the band playing during the prelims. When they finished playing the national anthem, the band hustled over to form a tunnel the players could run through as they entered the stadium. At the same time, the loudspeakers began playing Metallica's "Enter Sandman". 

I was in a high school marching band, and I have nothing against the music, but it doesn't really trip my trigger. I'm more of a rock guy, and hearing Metallica quietly creeping across the football field really caught my attention. It caught Char's attention, too.

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

First she began to sway with the opening guitar riff, and when the drums kicked in, Char squeezed her eyes closed and started to bob her head with the beat. As the song's volume gained strength, she began jumping up and down, and her head movements became more savage. Moments later, Char was all over the place. She had hooked her small fingers into the chain-link, so she could hang on while she rocked out.

I couldn't have been more proud. 

I didn't have my camera with me that night, but I brought it along for the next game. Although not exactly a repeat performance, Char still got pretty pumped up.

Before she was born, Charlotte spent a lot of time in front of her mom's instrumental band, hearing their music. But when Daphne was almost four months pregnant, we all attended an AC/DC concert, too. 

Maybe both were influential?

PS: Charlotte is not the only kid to like Metallica:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CPHnZV0K-k

Growing Fears

During the first day of the Iowa State Fair, Char toured the Agricultural Building, and she was given a cup of dirt and a sunflower seed to plant. We took the cup home, and I've been watering both pretty regularly.

Here's where we started:

Look at us now:

I don't know; it's cool for Charlotte and I to watch this sunflower seed grow into a plant, but now I keep wondering if I swallowed a sunflower seed whole would it eventually burst through my stomach like the monster in Alien? Probably not, but I'm not going to take these seeds for granted anymore.

Click at your own risk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXG-e9gFJvE

The Monsons are Big on Alternative Desserts

or "Why No One Else Wants to Eat at Our House"

Sometimes I read old charity cookbooks looking for a laugh. Usually, it doesn't take me long to find one.

I'm not the only one that thinks this drawing is funny. When I first showed this "design" to Daphne, she exclaimed, "Hairy pickles!?!" She began laughing so hard that she could no longer stand. Daph ran to our bedroom and flopped onto the bed with one hand to her mouth and the other pressed into her side.

Other times I'm looking for a recipe that sounds like it would be gross, but probably tastes great.  This Velveeta Cheese Fudge recipe nails these requirements. 

Why would I trust a recipe like this? Most of these cookbooks are published for small town churches. I grew up in a small town, and I know all about small town gossip and petty competition. I'm pretty confident that Nelma Neumayer wouldn't put her name on a recipe that she thought was iffy. And by ending the instructions with "never fails", Velma's throwing down the gauntlet.

Daphne made this last spring, and we couldn't taste the cheese. The fudge was actually quite creamy. Out of curiosity, I google "Velveeta Cheese Fudge", and I found pages of similar recipes. My favorite title was "Trailer Truffles".

Last week the Penzeys Spices catalog came in the mail, and this recipe was in there.

I wanted to give Tomato Juice Cake a spin, and Daphne was happy to make it. Here's our last night's dessert:

Daphne held a fork laden with cake in front of Charlotte's face and asked her, "Do you want a bite of Tomato Juice Cake?" Char screwed up her face and turned her head so quickly you'd think she might actually know what tomato juice is. I rephrased the question into "Do you want to try some T.J. cake?", and our little girl was all over it.

Like that Velveeta cheese in the fudge, you can't taste any tomatoes in here. My best comparison is to a spice cake. Daphne's not sold on the frosting, but I like anything with that much butter.

So, what's next?

http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/Recipe-Sweet-corn-ice-cream/-/9357080/16283978/-/6ll19kz/-/index.html?absolute=true

PS. Speaking of odd food combinations:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/bagel-head-forehead-injections-japan-saline_n_1916188.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

fyi: I'm In Here Somewhere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNcScR1gcWk&feature=youtu.be

It's a Costco Picnic

Samples rock, and it's even cooler when we count them as lunch.