The House Project

My parents are undertaking a third major home expansion project -- the first being the second story added in the mid 1980s, the second being the porch addition/kitchen expansion of the early 2000s. Other efforts included finishing half the basement, which I think was in the late 1970s (they bought it in 1978), and adding a woodburning stove to the living room, which I think was an early 1990s effort.

This new effort involves taking down the front wall on the right half of the house and extending the dining room south so the entire front of the house is level. That would mean taking down the wall that divides the living room from the front porch as well, with the end result being a new roof line and, more importantly, a much larger living room (the better to accommodate a growing family for things like Christmas and Thanksgiving).

The wraparound window box planter on the southwest corner of the home will come off, and before anything could happen, a tree crew had to come in and take out the "stately" evergreen that bordered the house for as long as anyone can remember and a (pear?) tree closest to the dining room window. The evergreen was circumcised in the July 4, 2003, storm that also costs us a crab apple tree in the backyard and big chunks of the maple and willow trees. The other front yard tree never could thrive as much as possible thanks to the neighbors' maple, which pretty much dominates our entire half of the block because of its size and location.

Anyhow, here is a shot taken the first weekend of August, before and trees were removed.

From House Project

Here's one I took during our visit the very next week.

From House Project

No actual work has taken place since, but the contractor should be getting the stuff from the architect any day now. I'll try to keep you posted.

Life with baby

The new exciting development in our lives -- more exciting than Max's ability to roll himself halfway across a room and Jack's decision to finally shut the door when he uses the toilet -- is Max's first experience with solid food.

Kristie started trying to give him cereal Monday. Not only did she make far too much and waste a good deal of milk in the process, but Max hated it. He didn't like it much better on Tuesday. By Wednesday, she decided to buck convention and start mixing pears with the rice cereal (I guess you're supposed to wait until they like the cereal before you mess with fruit, but it must not be essential) and found Max really, really likes pears.

From Hollands at Home

I'll grant you, this photo doesn't exactly prove that theory, but his face is more of a reaction to the camera's flash than anything else. The feeding is going so well that Kristie plans to try it twice a day, especially since Max has been taking solid afternoon naps after eating around midday.

The next photo is just something I grabbed at the park last night when he was in a particularly good mood.

From Hollands at Home

It also should be noted that Jack returned to preschool this week. On Wednesday, all four of us went for "orientation," which involved going to his new classroom (same teacher, than goodness) and hearing a few words from her and her aide, then spending some time decorating a paper bag that Jack used the next day to carry some important things about his life to show off to his classmates.

Thursday and Friday were regular school days -- on the bus around 8:35 a.m. and off around 11:20 a.m. Kristie said she's been able to get Max to sleep a bit during those time periods, long enough to work in a shower. I'm hoping the three of them will be able to work out a nice morning routine over the next few months.

We also have been able to get Max to transition from sleeping in his car seat to actually using his crib. Nearly all of that effort happened when Kristie and the boys were in Fulton staying with How, so I don't know all the particulars. What I do know is he still needs to be more than 90 percent asleep before we put him down, and he generally needs to be repositioned/replugged at least once a night. This is when having the crib right next to our room comes in handy.

When it does not come in handy is in the middle of the night when one of us has to use the bathroom, because we fear the toilet just a few steps from Max's crib would be too loud, so we sneak through Jack's room (not that we need to sneak; this is the kid who once slept through a jackhammer at a tollbooth) and down the stairs to use the main bathroom.

Other than that, we are making an awful lot of progress with our little man. It remains shocking that he'll be six months old on Tuesday, and also to think back to Oct. 24, 2004, when Jack hit the same benchmark.

National conventions have little substance

Column originally published August 26, 2008

Hey, did you know the Democrats are having a national convention this week in Denver?

A more practical question: How could you not know?

The convention is seemingly everywhere. While I'm busy hoping to see the Cubs dominate in a three-game trip to Pittsburgh, more than 20 million people will be tuning in to broadcast and cable network coverage of the Democrats' convention at Invesco Field (formerly Mile High Stadium), according to media estimates.

Next week, while I'm worried about the Cubs-Astros series in Wrigley Field, Republicans will have their convention in St. Paul, Minn. And at the end of both weeks, the only news of any value is that Sen. John McCain and Barack Obama will be able to drop the word "presumptive" and continue campaigning as the actual major-party nominees for president.

I could not be less interested in these conventions. I find them to be contrived, phony, over-the-top spectacles that serve no practical purpose in the process by which the general population chooses the next leader of the country.

Continue reading "National conventions have little substance."

Heywood Hilarity

If you've known me (or Tom Robey) long enough, you know about Heywood Banks, the musical comedy genius behind "Toast" and "18 Wheels on a Big Rig." He also penned this ditty, which stands on its own without the images, so I won't be offended if you just listen to the song and skip the video:

Flood update

I'm guessing no one needs to see the full articles, but my Google alerts have told me Coe is housing an Alliant Energy substation for use as backup power, since Alliant's service is still not as reliable as the company would like. Coe also will host some Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra concerts at Sinclair.

Coe is where the CRSO played its debut gig in 1921. The entire 2003-2004 season was performed at Coe while the Paramount was being renovated... and the fact the theater was ravaged less than five years later has to leave a sick taste in many mouths.

Too Much Free Time Seal of Approval

These guys really raise the bar on the TMFT scale.

Kohawk Update

Just so Coe folks don't feel left out, here is a Spencer Daily Reporter article on four Spencer High grads making waves in the world of Chicago theater, including Josh Odor, who laid down a killer Stanley Kowalski on the Dows stage in the spring of 2000. A sample:

Odor, who moved to Chicago five years ago, has worked a myriad of film, commercial and theater projects.

(While his list of films include "A Momentary Lapse of Judgment," "Theologans," "You Made Me Love You," and "The River," he'll portray Texas head football coach Darrell Royal in the upcoming drama "The Express," set for release in October. Odor has also worked in commercials for Shopko, Centennial Wireless, Scottsdale Culinary Art Institute, Arby's, Dave & Busters and General Mills.) Following graduations from Coe College and Cal State Fullerton, the actor has also worked with several theaters, including his current, Pine Box Theatre Company in Chicago.

And yes, the article includes Odor's high school yearbook photo.

Wildcat Update

I've linked before to newspaper stories about Barth Morreale, a former neighbor and Little League teammate for whom I used to dog-sit. Anyway, here is a nice Vernon Hills Review article on what Barth is doing now that his career playing pro ball in Italy has ended.

Wildcat Update

I've got a nice backlog of Coe- and Libertyville-related posts. Here's hoping I can unload a few, starting with this one:

Dave Moosman, standout on the LHS football teams that steamrolled through the state earlier this decade, is finally getting some real playing town at Michigan, which happens to me my college football team of choice. Here's a quick hit from the Libertyville Review:

There are rumblings that David Moosman has locked up the starting center spot for the University of Michigan.

But the 2005 Libertyville High School graduate isn't taking anything for granted.

"The depth chart is still in the works," said Moosman, a redshirt junior. "I have a good shot (at starting)."

According to a depth chart posted on michigan.rivals.com, Moosman will be delivering the football to the Wolverine quarterback when Michigan hosts Utah on Aug. 30 (2:30 p.m., on ABC 7).

One interested observer isn't surprised that Moosman has reached this level.

"Because of his athleticism and size and the fact he started for three years in our program, we all knew he'd be starting somewhere for a good program," said Libertyville High School coach Randy Kuceyeski.

If viewers catch a glimpse of Moosman, they'll see a 6-foot-4, 295-pound player with relatively quick feet.

"I've kind of slimmed down," Moosman related. "We've done a lot of running and conditioning."

Read the full article here.

And now you're older still

Column originally published Aug. 19, 2008

Age is a funny thing, isn't it?

There are several well-known statements about ages and aging, such as Mark Twain's "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." American actress Billie Burke said, "Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese."

Groucho Marx once quipped, "Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough."

Yet as I turned 29 last week, I couldn't keep my mind from drifting back to the number over and again, as if there were a giant 2 and 9 flashing above my head for all to see.

I don't now and never have felt particularly old. Despite having all the trappings of a bona fide adult — wife, two kids, mortgage, full-time job — I still see myself as a younger person. When I see someone in the grocery store who must be all of 35, I think that person surely is an adult, but not me.

I still watch "The Real World" each year on MTV despite being 10 years older than some of the cast members. I've never bought a copy of the Wall Street Journal. I'm on Facebook and MySpace. I don't know what time "Meet the Press" comes on the air.

Continue reading "And now you're older still."

Stream of consciousness

Between work being busy and Max being a handful, I seldom have time to write down all the thoughts in my head. That means you, dear readers, are deprived of countless tales of cute baby moments, head-scratching Jack-speak and a more-than-pictures glimpse at our young family.

Now, with How trying to get Max down for a nap and Kristie helping Jack ride his big wheel, I will attempt to share a few things.

***
The first that springs to mind is the stunt Jack pulled two weeks ago in Libertyville. It was Sunday night and we were backing out the driveway to return to Ottawa. Pops and K were in the driveway waving goodbye. From the back seat, Jack screams "Wait!" Exasperated, I asked what he wanted. "I have to ask Pops and K something!" he asserted. Even more exasperated, I asked what he needed to ask them. "I need to ask them that I love them."

So I threw the car into park and beckoned my parents to Jack's window so he could deliver his message. How could I not? Little wonder he repeated the same trick the very next week.

***
Another Jack story happened Tuesday morning at our house. It was about 5:30 a.m., and I was a few seconds from leaving for work. I had been i the kitchen throwing breakfast down my hole, when I thought I heard the pitter-patter of 4-year-old feet. 'Twas true, and followed quickly by the sound of a 4-year-old with a huge bladder and impressive pressure emptying out. Once he finished, after what seemed like a full minute, he hiked his night diaper back up and came out to see me.

He looked me up and down in my work clothes and asked me if I was going to work (observant, I know). After I replied in the affirmative, he said "But there's supposed to be a mom or a dad downstairs with me when I am awake."

Hard to argue, but I had to go to work anyway, which meant Kristie's morning started a lot earlier than she'd have liked.

***
Toward the end of birthday dinner at Pops and K's, I asked Jack (who was sitting next to me, in my seat to pass me the salt. Instead of sliding it one post to his left, Jack instead routed the salt around the entire table, calling out everyone by name and explaining they had to pass the salt to the next person in line until it got to me. Once I used the salt once, he sent it around again for good measure. But at least he got everyone's name right.

***
When I got to Fulton last night, one of the first things I notices -- besides the fact Max seemed not to react to me as much as usual -- was how hoarse the little guy sounded. It's kind of hard to detect a sore throat in a nontalker, but it was clearly perceptible to me. I'm not sure why exactly I shared that story, except to make you think about how sad it is for such a little creature to sound so pathetic.

***
A select few of you are lucky enough to be frequent recipients of phone calls from Jack. This has been going on for quite a while, but seemed to really pick up over the winter. His usual process is to grab Kristie's cell phone, access the recent calls menu and scroll down until he finds the victim he wants.

On a good day, I get four or five calls from Jack at work. Sometimes he's asking me to come home and play, sometimes he's giving me a shopping list. Once in a while he's calling to tell me Kristie won't play with him. Several times she's not aware he's even calling, which is fine. I'm pretty used to it.

Friday he called me from How's house. Though he usually calls my cell phone, this time he called my office phone, which also has caller ID. I was on the other line with a work call and couldn't talk to Jack. That didn't stop him, however, from leaving a detailed message, explaining what we'd be doing when I arrived.

What impressed me most was his ability to understand he was leaving a message and speak accordingly. He was succinct and courteous. Of course, after he got done, there was 20 seconds of background noise before he actually shut off the phone he used to call me, but the actual message was pretty neat.

***
Jack would like to use How's computer to play a Little Einsteins game on the high-speed Internet connection, so I guess I'm done until I get another moment to sort out my thoughts.

Libertyville leftovers

Since the camera was in Fulton, I didn't get a chance to upload these shots, which I captured Sunday before and during our mass birthday celebration, yet after the post I put up last Sunday morning.

From At Pops and K's

From At Pops and K's

From At Pops and K's

From At Pops and K's

Fulton fun

Kristie, Jack and Max have been in Fulton since Tuesday afternoon. It was a good time for a visit since it's right before Uncle Kyle starts his freshman year of high school and, more importantly, his varsity golf career. Plus, Kristie was able to get in to see the dentist and orthodontist, plus Jack got his hair cut. Tonight, How's birthday present to me is babysitting and a dinner at a restaurant of my choice.

While I was toiling away in Ottawa (and enjoying a nice birthday out with work friends -- no photographic evidence, unfortunately), this was happening in Fulton:

From At How's House

There's a video of this, too, but I'm pretty sure you get the gist. I snapped a photo myself today of this blessed event...

From At How's House

... apparently How relents when little boys whine for candy at the drug store.

Yesteryear

Last Saturday was Aug. 2, when Max was exactly five months old. That made me thing back to Sept. 24, 2004, the day Jack tuned five months old. On both of our kids' five-month days, we got together with Nick and Alexis.

Last Saturday was a simple pizza dinner at Pops and K's. Nick and Alexis brought Carter and Zoe up from Glen Ellyn for the night, which was a treat since we hadn't met Zoe (born June 24) and we hadn't seen Carter (or his parents) since the Coe event in Aurora last September.

The day Jack hit five months, however, was a bit more complex, as it was the day before Nick and Alexis got married in Minnesota. Looking at Max last Saturday and trying to remember the trip we took to the Ergang wedding was an interesting comparison. I remember a lot of Jack as a baby, but I need landmark events like this wedding or major holidays to help me put everything in context.

From On the Road (At the reception.)

The other side of the coin is to think about all the ways things have changed for us (and Nick and Alexis) over the last four years, and also the special bonds Hollands and Ergangs share going back several decades. In trying to explain a circa 1983 trip to Crivitz, Wis., I explained it to Kristie as our four parents along with two Jacks and a Carter, only if Carter were a girl (and if Jack were a little less, well Jack).

Being a growing family is an odd situation. Even if we have no more kids, we're still evolving because Max has only the very beginnings of a personality. Ten years down the road, who knows what things will be like. Being here today with two adults, three "kids," (plus a wife, a girlfriend and, later, a boyfriend) two grandkids and three dogs, it certainly feels like a complete circus, and that's before any more kids enter the equation -- not to mention the house expansion my parents are about to undertake.

Anyhow, it was really nice to see Nick and Alexis. They're great parents and have so much in common with us right now, it's a great opportunity for us to see not just people our own age but also dealing with the same things we experience on a daily basis. I was hoping seeing Zoe would give me a new respect for how big Max is, but it turns out Zoe is almost his size already. What I didn't expect is how seeing Carter -- who will be 2 1/2 on Wednesday -- reminded me of how big Jack has become. Sometimes that's hard to focus on when I see him and Max -- there's so much in between that doesn't seem possible for Max and yet seems like ancient history for Jack.

Thanks for indulging. Enjoy the photos. And get those birthday cards in the mail tomorrow if you want them to get to me by Wednesday.

Saturday at Pops & K's

We're back in Libertyville this weekend. Kim got back from two weeks in San Francisco today and Matt & Jen came up from the city with Nina and Blue, Matt's new 75-pound Australian Shepherd. They turned 23 on Friday, I hit something that's not quite 30 on Wednesday.

But on Saturday, it was just the six of us. Max slept in a portable crib from 10:30 p.m. Friday until 3:30 a.m. -- a new record for sleeping outside a car seat -- and then from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. with me on the floor in the living room. After that, he was pretty darn happy.

From At Pops and K's

After Kristie and I went to the Y in Vernon Hills, we hung out outside with Jack.

From At Pops and K's

Jack did some digging in the yard and played with Maggie, but not before making sure the radio was just right.

From At Pops and K's

On Saturday night, Pops & K went to a wedding, so we took the boys to Butler Lake Park, where we enjoyed the playground...

From At Pops and K's

...and the lake itself.

From At Pops and K's

Jack, of course, had a blast throwing rocks in the water. Max pretty much just watched.

From At Pops and K's

Today is set aside to celebrate all the birthdays, plus it's a chance for Max to take a strangely long afternoon nap, for Jack to have a meltdown about watering plants, only to have the meltdown evaporate when K offered to take him to Jewel where he picked out Happy Birthday ballons and Happy Birthday cakes for me, Matt and Kim.

Having just heard Max make noise for the first time in three hours, it might be time t end this post. Here's hoping your weekend was as relaxing as ours.

Color blind?

Earlier this week Jack got to help me mow the lawn, under one condition: He had to put on real clothes instead of his pajamas, which he'd been wearing all day.

No problem, he said, and he went upstairs to find clothes. This is the outfit he came down with. The shorts are from part of a pajama set that fit better last year. Then he insisted on shoes and socks, instead of the sandals he wears every other day in the summer. (Why? To protect his feet, of course, and I was so impressed he use the word protect properly I didn't argue about the shoes.)

Anyway, here's our little fashion maven:

From Hollands at Home

Brother, can you spare a nickel?

Column originally published Aug. 5, 2008

When I was a grade school student in the north suburbs in the 1980s, there were a few messages adults repeatedly drilled into impressionable young minds like mine.

"Say no to drugs" was a big one, courtesy of Nancy Reagan. Another oft-stressed message was the importance of always wearing a seat belt. This one stuck in my brain from the first day, and I still latch up just to pull a car into a garage. I once refused to get in the car with my dad if he didn't wear his seat belt. I'm sure he was beyond peeved at my stubborn attitude — I know I am when my kid won't get in the car — but I had horrific visions of a crash test video showing a mannequin head spinning through the air in slow motion, all for lack of a seat belt.

Yet another concept was the notion of environmental responsibility. In short, "Give a hoot — don't pollute." It was with that mantra — and an eye for cash — I set out on the first real money-making effort of my young life: recycling aluminum cans.

I'm old enough — barely — to remember when my family bought soft drinks in glass bottles. I also had a Fisher-Price record player as a kid and learned to type on our home electric typewriter, but that's not really the point. I turn 30 in 53 weeks and am feeling plenty old as it is. So let's just focus on the cans, shall we?

Continue reading "Brother, can you spare a nickel?"

Photo backlog

Sorry for a lousy week in terms of posting. To make up for it, here is...

Jack and Max sharing a moment in our recliner:

From Hollands at Home

Max digging the bouncy seat action:

From Hollands at Home

Max in his stroller during the Coe band concert at Cook Park:

From At Pops and K's

Jack and Carter playing on the porch at my parents' house:

From At Pops and K's

The newest Ergang, baby Zoe... five weeks old and nearly as big as Max:

From At Pops and K's

Jack and Carter

Jack was very excited to see Carter today and show him all the cool stuff at Pops and K's house, especially the toys on the porch. They played very well together until Jack had a meltdown and earned an early bed time.



(Pictures, including one of baby Zoe, to come up either Sunday or Monday.)

Live from Libertyville

A little clip from today's Coe band concert in Libertyville. Featuring Max.