okay, this doesn't star kenny, but it's AWESOME

This is the best hockey video I've seen in a long time. When Kenny is old enough, he can definitely strap on skates, but I'm not sure about dropping gloves. Of course, I think this whole incident has more to do with these poor kids being Islanders fans than anything else. Overboard laughed so hard she cried when she saw this. Me too.

since you were wondering

A number of wonderful folks have been asking me about hockey and how my teams are doing. The answer? Quite well, thanks. I do want to remind everyone that you can follow the team and read game recaps at the Phantoms web site, as well as the Season 3 recap page of Rolnick.net.

In other exciting hockey news, five of my Phantoms teammates and I will be competing in the US Pond Hockey Championships this January in Minneapolis. It's a four on four tournament that takes place on Lake Calhoun, and we're all looking forward to it. Since there are no divisions, just one big open group, we will potentially be competing against teams consisting of everything from beer league shlubs like us to ex-NHL players, and the full spectrum in between.

Another one of our teammates is a freelance cameraman and editor, and will be coming along to film the weekend for what will undoubtedly by an entertaining documentary.

Okay then.

a stylish case of cradle cap

Like many other infants, Kenny is dealing with a slight bout of "cradle cap." According to a lovely site I found online, cradle cap can be understood thusly:

"We are constantly making new skin cells at about the rate that we lose old, dry skin cells. The old skin falls off and we usually don't even notice the process. In many healthy infants, the skin cells on their scalp grow faster than they can fall off, leaving a layer of somewhat crusty, extra skin.

Cradle cap is a crusting and scaling rash found on the scalps of many healthy babies. The sebaceous glands in their skin are hyperactivated often because of mom’s hormones that crossed the placenta just before birth. These glands pump out a greasy substance that keeps the old skin cells attached as it dries."

So there you have it. Kenny's scalp is peeling like Mommy and Daddy did after they got burnt to a crisp on their honeymoon in Hawaii. Fortunately for the boy, his peeling is a lot less obvious and a million times less painful. Well, that is, when we don't get overexuberant in our "cleaning" of his head.

As the pictures above attest, we often find ourselves picking at the boy's noggin, trying to help the cradle cap along. What breaks your heart is that sometimes when you get some of the peeling skin, you also take a few hairs as well. On that note, his hair does seem to be lightening up a bit. This makes me curious, as my mom says my thick head of dark hair I was born with eventually fell out and was replaced by the toe-head blond locks of my youth (my hair didn't darken until I was 13 or so).

In the meantime, we'll continue our gorilla-esque grooming and see if we can't help this cradle cap run its course.

le tir et.....le but!

Kenny and I took in the Thrashers/Canadians game the other week, which was broadcast on the Center Ice package off of the RDS French-Canadian feed. I got to teach Mr. K how to say, "He shoots....He SCORES!" en francais (refer to the title of this post), and convinced myself that it was okay he was watching television since it was 1. Hockey and 2. In French. C'mon, that's educational!

the turkey was wikkid good, ma

Okay, in an effort to get lots of pictures up at one time, I created a Flickr account and set up a Thanksgiving 2006 slideshow. I'm still learning how the application works (and deciding if I like it), but in the meantime, check out the Flickr slideshow here.

If you click on each individual picture, there is usually a caption to go with. Why they make you click on each one to see the caption, I have no idea. Oh well.

Thanksgiving stories to come soon, but enjoy the pix for now!

a visit from evan

My buddy Evan, whom I've known since we were 12 and at summer camp, was in town the other week for a business trip. He managed to squeeze in some time to come over for dinner and meet Mr. Kenny, and tell us all about how his two girls are doing (his youngest, Maya, is even newer than Mr. K).


"Wow, I think I have more hair than this guy."


Evan tried to tell Kenny how he used to beat me in tennis at summer camp all those years ago, but the boy just looked at him in disbelief. I'd like to think it's because he can't imagine anyone being better at anything than his daddy, but it was probably because he just didn't get what the heck Evan was talking about. Like I said, I'm going with option #1.

somewhere out there, a boy misses his exer-saucer

But that boy sure as heck ain't mine...






Once again, our awesome next door neighbors hooked us up with a phenomenal piece of hand-me-down baby equipment: the exer-saucer. Kenny loves scootin' around in circles, while pushing buttons, grabbing at toys, and generally checking out things while standing up. He even discovered a highly entertaining game where he drops his toys over the side and Overboard picks them up and hands them back. Apparently, this game can be played over and over and over and over again without ever getting old. Amazing.

ladies and gentlemen, once again, mr. awesome

rollin' with my homies

The weekend we went to St. Louis, Kenny took a large leap (or roll) forward (or backwards), when he began turning over onto his tummy from his back. After some hard work, small hissy fits, and general confusion over just what the heck was going on, Mr. K mastered the art of rolling onto his belly and back again.

Kenny's bald spot is thankful, as now he tends to sleep mostly on his belly, thus giving the back of his head (and hairline) a bit of a break. Of course, the longer he works on this, the more he has begun to explore the confines of his crib. Nowadays, we find invariably put him down to sleep on his back in the center of his crib, then when we go back to check on him, he's made his way up to the top corner, where he is either on his side or tummy. Our favorite is when he falls asleep with his arms tucked under his stomach, and his tush stuck way up in the air, as he rests on his knees. In the words of his mother, it's "wikkid cute." I concur.

He has also made a great deal of headway with his tummy time, and often rocks a bit on his knees, while holding his head way up in the air. I think this means that crawling is a lot closer than we think, which means we have some serious baby-proofing to do around here...

"this kid! he never cries!"

Great Grandpa Jesse spent an enjoyable and relaxing week with us in October, and brought some fun interactive music books for Mr. K. "GG" as I have come to dub him, also reclaimed his battle cry of, "This kid never cries!" GG is absolutely floored by the mellow boy we call "Mr. Unflappable" (unless we're in a noisy suburban Giordanos, then all bets are off).

While quality time with his great-grandson was the top priority, GG also got in a lot of QT with his great-granddaughter, Sadie, while Kenny was at daycare and Overboard and I were at work. You gotta love a man who needs little to no entertaining. What I find most amusing is that GG watched more Thrashers games with me here in Glenview than he ever does back in Atlanta.

halloween pix from glenview and the oakland hills

Kenny's Aunt Carol sent over some great pix of his cousin Adam at Halloween dressed up as a sushi chef...I mean, samurai warrior.



Overboard and I did a fantastic job of stalling on getting Kenny a good costume*, so we were forced to go with the last minute "My parent's obviously don't love me since they call this a costume" costume. Overboard cut up a pillow case to make a toga, took some leaves from the fake ficus, and we called him "Caesar." Yeah, it wasn't pretty. Overboard took Kenny "in costume" to a Glenview parents gathering and all of the dads that were there thought he was supposed to be Bluto from "Animal House."


Great Grandpa Jesse was in town for Halloween, and helped us hand out candy to the few kids who stopped by. I'm not exactly sure why we didn't get that many trick or treaters, but the ones that did come by made out like bandits. In lieu of having pounds of extra candy, we gave out enormous handfuls to the lucky tykes.


AJ and Victoria (and AJ's mom) brought Ava over, and though our depleted camera battery kept us from taking any pictures, Victoria did take a few of us that she passed along.



The leftover candy eventually made its way to my office, where we still have a giant candy bowl located near my desk that has slowly become stagnant, due to the "good stuff" already being picked out of it.


*Speaking of good Halloween intentions thwarted by procrastination, our pumpkin had a design sketched on it for us to then carve out, but we didn't so much get that far. Thus, our porch pumpkin was un-carved, and somewhat resembled an aborted "paint by numbers" kit. I'm wondering if they're going to revoke our suburban citizenship...

another marathon visitor

Overboard's childhood friend, Michelle, came in from Iowa to watch her brother run the Chicago Marathon. The bonus was that she stayed with us the night before and got to meet Mr. Kenny.

Michelle is an outstanding writer and raconteur, and had us all in stitches with her stories, especially the ones involving her and Overboard's youth summer camp experiences. Apparently, camp memories are all about perspective. While Overboard LOVED being at camp and naturally assumed that everyone else felt the same, Michelle was not such a fan. She had me rolling when recounting how, as an 11 year old, she worked out a "deal" with her high school aged counselor involving reading said counselor's summer reading list Russian literature classic in return for being excused from physical activity. As Overboard said, incredulously, "I mean, who does that?"

the wild world of niklas smith

I consider myself a relatively humorous guy, but my hockey teammate, Jay, puts me to shame. He has a phenomenal blog for his new son, Niklas that is outstanding. While I personally find the "Rosenblog" to be funny, the "Niklasblog" is HYSTERICAL. Read all about it here, you'll be glad you did.

Of course, what this really means is that I need to raise my blogging game. Did I ever tell you the one about the mommy, the daddy, and the rabbi?

The Muppets - Manamana

We're always looking for new ways to make Kenny smile and laugh. The other morning, while getting ready in the bathroom, I looked down at Kenny in his bouncy seat and started singing the "Manamana" song from the Muppet Show. A giggle fit ensued, and I have been utilizing this method for about a week now with much success. What's interesting is that when Overboard does it, Kenny gives a grin, but when I do it, he busts up. Maybe Overboard just didn't watch enough Muppet Show as a kid and it comes through in her performance. Just a theory...

a pre-marathon visit with sushi mike and cousin robin

The Chicago Marathon was held on Sunday, October 22, and became memorable for its big finish, when Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya slipped and fell just as he was about to cross the finish line. Mr. Cheruiyot suffered a mild concussion and some global embarrassment, but I think his million dollar winner's check probably helped ease the pain.

The bigger story in our household was that Overboard's cousin Robin came in from Atlanta to run the race. On Friday night, we met up at Tanoshii and had some fantastic sushi courtesy of our main man, Sushi Mike. Kenny made his first real foray to Tanoshii (he had swung through once before to say hi to Mike), and had a great time watching the proceedings, enjoying a bottle, and eventually passing out.

Kenny chilling out at the corner of the bar

"I think you're safe, Mr. Froggy. I'm pretty sure they don't serve frog here. Could be wrong, tho."

Sushi Mike in his natural habitat.

Kenny passes on the raw fish and opts for some tasty formula.

Overboard and Robin (aka She Who Used to Run & She Who Will Soon Wonder Why On Earth She's Running)

Robin was suitably impressed with Mike's culinary creations, and we were suitably impressed with her demented desire to run 26.2 miles without anyone chasing her with a sharp knife, blunt object, or loaded weapon. One of my hockey teammates was also running, and combining that with Our Man & Woman in LA's recent running adventures, I have no idea what's going on with people these days. Personally, I don't find much pleasure in running unless it's from home to first, along the perimeter of the soccer pitch, or from the locker room to the ice when I'm late for a game. Overboard used to be a bit of a runner, until her knees got in a fight with her brain and came out the big winner.

On Monday, Robin went with some friends to a taping of Oprah, and got to see Madonna yammer on about her latest African adoption. Talk about culture shock for that little boy, but I digress. Overboard was supposed to go with Robin to the show, but had to work instead. I tried to help soothe any bummed feelings by pointing out that at least it was only Madonna, and not "You get a free car driven by Bono" day.

overboard and kenny's lion: long lost twins?

you be the judge...