father's day II - electric boogaloo

Fresh from an extended waterpark adventure in Wisconsin*, the Oakland Rolnicks came into town on Father's Day for a brief, but exciting, visit.

Cousin Adam was happy to see his old train set again and also got a kick out of Kenny's new remote control car, while his "little" sister, Hannah (aka "Xiao Pa-Pow") enjoyed gnawing on Kenny's other toys. Mr. K was fascinated by his cousins, but managed not to try and yank Adam's blond locks the way he did back in Oakland earlier this year.



Later in the day, we decided that what everybody needed was another trip to the pool, so we all went to go for a swim.

Afterwards, Overboard and Aunt Carol took "the dads" (and everyone else) out to a special Father's Day dinner at Benihana, where our personal chef was a nice Hispanic man named "Sapporo" (or so his nametag said). Dinner was delicious, and we learned a great new way to get Kenny to eat, as he happily munched away while staring intently at the culinary show unfolding before his eyes. Heck, he even got to have some of Overboard's ice cream at the end of the night, which surprising no one, was a big hit. If my son could talk, I believe what he would have said was, "DAMN! This is soooooooo freakin' tasty! It's like melty sugar in my mouth! Why have you denied me this all of my life? Don't you love me? Hey, Mommy, keep it coming there!" Instead, I believe he squealed with excitement and said, "DAAAA!"**




Unfortunately, our guests were back on the road in the morning, but we had a fun time in the short time they were in town. Could this be the start of a new Father's Day tradition? The Rolnick men and their families celebrating together? Well, if the travel plans don't work out, maybe we'll just keep the Benihana part.

Check out all of the pictures here. Almost all of them. I'll have more shots, including the pool adventure, as soon as Aunt Carol sends them my way [ahem].



*Yeah, I know, sounds ridiculous, but Wisconsin apparently has an abundance of waterparks for when the weather isn't sub-zero. Seems like an expensive investment for, what, six weeks out of the year? Oh well, must be all that cheese meddling with their ability to maintain any rational thoughts.

**It's not really what he said, but how he said it.

who's counting?

Well, I guess Aunt Carol is.

In a previous post I may have mentioned that we celebrated Evenkeel's first Father's Day the other weekend, when, in actuality, it was his second. Thank you, Aunt Carol, for pointing out that Evenkeel has no sense of time or space.

Yes, we celebrated Evenkeel's second Father's Day, but in my defense, the first one passed by in a blur of sleep-deprivation and general new-daddy confusion.

My apologies to all.

go northeast, young man

Evenkeel streaks down the ice, trying to impress the scouts.

For the first time in their storied history, the Chicago Phantoms qualified to play in the HNA hockey championships, held each June in Toronto. The trip had its oh-so-fun moments of van towing and tiny hotel rooms with twin-sized beds, but it also had a sweet trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame and four hockey games in less than 48 hours.


The Phantoms and hockey's holy grail (we couldn't get it past the guards).

The Phantoms lost a heart-breaker in OT of the semi-final game, which was followed by an unfortunate trip to a local hospital, after alternate captain Jay Smith had his arm broken in the waning minutes of the game.


Jay gets loaded into the ambulance...not the car he had called for. Must have been the language barrier.

About nine hours later, with a new appreciation for the snail-like pace of the Canadian health care system, we drove back home. I rolled back into my driveway at 5am, took care of Kenny when he woke up, then went and worked a 12 hour day at the office. How I stayed conscious, I'll never know. But here's hoping we earn a slot again next season so we can get another shot at the title.

Click here to check out some great team shots from the semi-final game.


Evenkeel's jersey dries in the sun after an unfortunate incident involving an exploding Gatorade bottle and his hockey bag.

no, we're not hiding. yes, i have negelected the blog.

As soon as I grab some time to do so, I will update the blog with a bunch of new pix and stories of hockey in Toronto, visits from California relatives, Evenkeel's first Father's Day, Kenny's trip to the pool and first taste of ice cream, Kenny's dangling on the precipice of walking, car seats that face forward now, a visit from another Bay Area resident, and tales of Kenny's first street festival.

But for now, I got nothin'. Sorry. I will go hang my head in shame.

what we say, what he hears

Kenny is being quite the stinker these days. Not only quick to voice his displeasure with things, he has developed a love for blowing raspberries and spraying spit and food willy nilly (to be exact, a fair amount of willy and quite a bit of nilly).

Additionally, he's embraced his reputation as the "Mad Flinger," and refuses to put his sippy cup back on the tray after taking a few swigs. Instead, he prefers to fling the cup across the room, no matter how many times we admonish him not to.

This disregard for his parents wishes makes me wonder if when we say, "No, Kenny. We put our cup back down when we're done drinking. We don't fling it..." what Kenny actually hears sounds something more like this.

Good grief.

kenny's zoological expedition

Sounds better than "Kenny's first trip to the zoo," don't it?

Overboard and I took the boy to the Lincoln Park Zoo on Sunday, the last free zoo in the country. While a number of the inmates, er, animals, were sleeping and not making themselves available for viewing, others were more than happy to entertain Mr. K. He especially liked the penguins, where two of the well-dressed flightless waterfowl swam up next to the glass he was happily smacking his hand on.

As for the lions, well, Kenny wasn't as impressed. The male was crashed out on top of his perch, and from Kenny's point of view, he sees Sadie like that everyday.


The King of the Urban Jungle does his best Sadie impression.


Kenny gives his approval of zoos located near the lakefront.

my drycleaner thinks work is camp

The other day I took a peek at the inside corner of one of my "dress shirts" (as I like to call any shirt I own that has a collar) and noticed that my last name had been written there in permanent marker. Now, I suppose there could be many explanations for why my drycleaner would take it upon herself to label my shirt to make sure it wasn't mistaken for someone else's, but I've decided that it is because she believes my work operates under the same rules and regulations as summer camp.

Yes, no one will dare take my shirt when they can clearly see that it has my name on it! Which is good to know. I mean, who can say when I'll decide to take my shirt off in the office and leave it lying there for any random co-worker to grab under the false assumption that it was theirs?

Yup, I'm feeling pretty secure now and maybe I'll go ahead and start labeling all of my other clothes just in case. Heck, with the way Overboard has been liberally "borrowing" my t-shirts these days, this may be just the fix I need.

scaling mt. grandpa

Grandpa Alan and Kenny invented a new game to test Kenny's climbing skills and Grandpa Alan's lying motionless skills. Truly a challenge on both sides. Check it out.

kenny's birthday swim

As a special treat for Kenny's first birthday, we took him over to Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Alan's hotel for his very first swim! He was a little weirded out at first, but then decided it was kind of fun (and tasty, in a chlorinated kind of way).

We've signed up for infant swim classes at the park district center, so Overboard and I will be trading off Saturdays to take Kenny swimming starting this month. Should be enjoyable and highly entertaining.

Of course, as I have said before (and quite recently), don't take my word for it. Let's go to the videotape!

birthday photos!

Instead of posting 40 photos or so, I encourage you to simply click here and see the slideshow at Ofoto. There are pix from Kenny's birthday party and the family portrait session we held just before the guests arrived (courtesy of Kenny superfan Susan Hahn...who was kind enough to lend her photography expertise to the proceedings as a gift for Mr. K).

However, since I can't resist, here are a few of my favorites...

our son is one

Yes, one. As in a full year old. As in, holy crap, the kid is almost walking now and it was over 365 days ago that Overboard woke me up in the middle of the night and said, "I think my water just broke." If it weren't for the multitude of posts on ye olde blog, I might not believe it myself, but there they are, milestones and memories all recorded for posterity and good bargaining/blackmailing material when Kenny is old enough to be thoroughly embarrassed by parents who don't wish him to drive 16 friends to the mall.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, he's our Mr. Awesome and we all had a lot of fun celebrating his first year on Earth. As you'll see in the following video, he was a big fan of birthday cake and chasing after young Ms. Ava Brandt. Yes, we now know the best motivation for Kenny to walk: Chicks. Go figure.

I especially liked the way he dove into his first piece of cake. He began by taking his right hand and scraping off the frosting and depositing it in the vicinity of his mouth. He then took his left hand and repeated the process, making sure not to miss any frosting, but not being as careful about missing his mouth. He then let the sugar rush kick in and began grabbing fistfuls of cake and screaming with glee. That's my boy!

But don't take my word for it. Let's go to the videotape!