Harry's Whirlwind Trip to Minneapolis

On Wednesday and Thursday, we kicked off our rockin spring break with a trip to Minneapolis, where I had to present 2 papers at a conference. It was neat to be in a room with grownups, with no evidence of my child (except my rockin boobs), talking about my research. But I missed Harry really bad and was glad to see him after my panels were over. He and I went to a nice place for lunch on Thursday-- just the two of us-- and I ordered a Bloody Mary that came with a beer back and made me fell like an old alkie (ah, the good old days), but after a couple of sips, I realized that I was gonna be DRUNK if I had anymore, so I sucked on the vodka soaked olive and tried to feed Harry some turkey from a jar before he freaked out. Then we went back to our hotel and Harry nursed in the lobby (which was awkward, I'm not gonna lie, but we already checked out of our room, and Ben was at lunch with a friend, but that's where I got the cute nap photos below) and I checked out the real estate section of the paper because we really like Minneapolis and what the hell? Moving is a breeze. Then we went home.

Before all that happened, though, we had dinner at Heidi and Jeremy's house. It was delicious-- espeically Heidi's buttery brownies-- and it was so fun to see how big Mr. Kaleb is. Last time we saw him, Harry was still a fetus, and Kaleb was about the age Harry is now. Now, he talks and walks and even jumps-- very cute. Excpet he totally ratted me out by saying "Uh-Oh in the most adorable way when I dropped my fork under the dinner table. You can take the girl out of Pekin... Kaleb was also very good at sharing his toys and very tolerant when Harry tired to snatch things away (note the emphasis on "tried" because Harry was no match for his toddler cousin.

Here he is walking down Nicollette Mall with his Daddy

Playing with Mr. Kaleb





The confernce bored the *&%$ out of Harry



Before Harry can fall asleep in the car, he MUST take off his shoes and socks. Then we get somewhere and it's cold outside, and our kid is barefoot. Cool.

Playing with the awesomest toys ever

No more boxes-- we're all moved in

We've moved! After a month of waiting and painting and waiting for new floors and painting some more, we've finally moved! And unpacked. Harry has been so helpful. First of all, he decided that needs to go to bed at 8 or 8:30, not 7:00, so we can all spend more time together as a family. Good timing on that one, little buddy. He's also been instrumental in keeping the new floors clean by eating almost anything that stands in the way of him and well polished perfection. He prefers styrofoam, but cardboard and little bits of tape are cool, too. It's also incredibly yummy to lick the business end of the DustBuster. You know what's not palatable? His old Rice Krispies, puffs, and Cheerios. He won't eat FOOD off the floor-- what do you think he is? A dog? Today, Harry helped me put together a shoe rack whose box promised that it "Locks Together in Seconds." That turned out to be true, if by "Locks Together in Seconds" they meant "Can Be Hammered Together in Thirty Minutes, with Minimal Tears--Maybe Longer if You Spend 20 Minutes Running From the Basement to the Bedroomand Back Several Times with Increasing Degrees of Hysteria Looking For the Effing Piece You Are Holding in Your Hand." How did Harry help, you ask. In two ways. First, by crying plaintively while I stuck him in his crib to run downstairs because the package warned me that "damage" would occur if I assembled the rack on carpet, and the ambiguity was enough to freak me out. Second, Harry helped by licking the bottoms of our shoes as I placed them on the rack. But that's all behind us now because we are UNPACKED and loving it. Only a couple casualities of the moving blitz-- one margarita glass and two (discontinued, grr) wine glasses were killed in action, and our alarm clock is MIA, but we hear it's being held prisoner behind enemy lines in the cedar chest that's in the garage until we can figure out what to do with it. We have plans to overthrow the clutter enemy and liberate the clock tomorrow. And that metaphor is dead. Viva la resistance and enjoy the pics.




Checking his email real quck before we go

Harry on the slippery floors


Our stuff in the truck

Saying buh-bye to the old place

Harry loves cords more than anything in the world. Except maybe styrofoam.

His first bath in the big boy bathtub-- he kept crawling and rolling over


Caged in

Harry with a little something on his chin

Our holycrapthatroomiseffingyellow bedroom, which is really growing on us, espeically sincce we filled it to bursting with brown furniture to cut the yellow a little





Our cute little monkey bathroom-- while painting it, we discovered that it was ALL WALLPAPER that the previous owner sloppily painted over. What a nice surprise.

Harry the Bear's adorbale little room. He loves to play in there because everything that's safe is totally on his level.




This is the first time all week that I have looked like a girl.

Looking down the stairs-- thanks to Harry for decorating with toys.

The view from the entry way

The entry way itself

The couch and our new lamp, for which we shopped for weeks. Literally, weekes!

Ben's chair and our oldest possession-- our lamp table

Harry getting ready to chow down...

right next to the shrine to him

Our teeny little kitchen-- note the plate of Ben's favorite copokies-- am I an awesome wife, or what?

The powder room, which may seem like an anticlimactic ending, but it is easily the most improved room in the house-- it used to have flourescent light, glossy green paint, and gold linoleum. Even though we primed before we painted, the room still looks a bit green, even though it's yellow!

That's all for now-- if you want to see more come visit!

The cake that looked like dookie

The Baker

The Baked

The Bakery

Here I am eating. Again. A quick note from Harry.

What the heck is this stuff? Just because I am a baby does not mean you have to give me slime and mush at every meal, mother.




A snack in my Excersaucer? This is highly unusual. I like it, though. I really like it. And, if I do say so myself, I have lovely eyes.


Mother? Mother? Excuse me, I think I've misplaced my sippy cup. Have you seen it? Yellow with a purple lid? Disposable but you never throw it away because you are cheap about weird things? It was on my tray a mere moment ago, Mother, I think IT'S ON THE FREAKING FLOOR AND I WANT IT RIGHT FREAKING NOW. Please. If that wouldn't trouble you too much, my dear.