ms. mommy

Kenny has started referring to the daycare women as "Ms. Derly" and "Ms. Wanda." I don't know who instituted the change, but we have no problem with it. What's humorous is that he's begun to incorporate this into other situations. How? Well, he likes to say, "Ms. Mommy" when talking to Overboard.

Unfortunately, he doesn't quite have the male vs. female pronouns down just yet, which has led to a few "Ms. Daddy" moments.

under construction

After a lot of hemming and hawing, Overboard and I finally pulled the trigger on a much-discussed home expansion project. To make the homestead a better place for our growing family, we're stretching out the upstairs to accommodate another bedroom, and (wait for it), an en suite bathroom for us. To do this, we're putting dormers on both sides of the upstairs.

We spent the two previous weeks emptying the upstairs of all furniture and shtuff, and moving Kenny in to the guest room, while we moved down to the office in the basement. Construction officially began last week, and before we knew it, we had no roof. Then they put on a new one on. Or most of it. The weather hasn't been cooperating fully on that part. But rest assured, we have everything battened down against the elements, and should have roof work completed by Tuesday at the latest (knock on wood).

Everything's gone relatively smooth, save for the two (yes, two) times that a worker has accidentally slipped and put a foot through the floor upstairs/ceiling downstairs (once in the dining room and once in the kitchen). Luckily, the damage was easily contained and the contractor will fix everything in due time.

Considering how well we hear noises throughout the house, I'm not terribly surprised at the thin floor/ceiling phenomenon. Sigh.

But enough yammering...what you want to see are pix. So here ya go:


After the initial demolition.


Starting to pull the roof off. Notice the guy throwing stuff out the bedroom window into the dumpster below. Under normal circumstances, Overboard would never let anyone throw stuff out a second story window.


Almost there...


I came home that day and saw I literally had not provided a roof over my family's head.


The front of the house after the intial dormer was built out.


The back of the house.


Where our bedroom once stood.


Part of the newly expanded "Kenny/Goldblatt" wing.


Home on a sick day with Overboard, Kenny was inspired to undertake a construction project of his own at the park up the street. You should see what he charges.

wait, wait, wait...thomas is german?

The house is currently under construction, as we expand the upstairs to accommodate the newest member of our family. While this is going on, we've moved Kenny into the guest bedroom, and we've taken up residence in the office in the basement.

Kenny has done quite well with the change in venue, and Overboard tried to spruce up his temporary bedroom with some foam wall art of his favorite train friends.

Mr. Man was pretty psyched to see Thomas, Percy and James up on the wall. So psyched that he couldn't keep his hands off of them. Which unfortunately led to a bit of a mishap, when Kenny pulled a piece of Thomas' foam face off. The result? A bit disturbing.

See, when you take Thomas' upper lip off, and the foam behind it is black instead of gray, it looks like he has a mustache. And not a cool one. Nope, more like a Charlie Chaplin-esque one. Or, if you're us, one that makes you think of our least favorite German of all-time. See for yourself:



After a series of hysterical giggle fits, we fixed Thomas' facial hair, but Kenny later struck again. This led to the retiring of Thomas from the wall and the placing of James and Percy in unreachable positions. Such is life.

喂婴儿*

28 weeks down (and boy is Overboard's uterus tired!).

Professor Goldblatt now weighs in around 2.25 lbs and measures around 14.8 inches from head to heels. Or, in produce terms, Goldblatt is about the size of a Chinese cabbage. However, unlike many Chinese products, we can safely say that Goldblatt is not cheaply constructed or covered in lead paint.

The Prof. can open and close her eyelashed peepers, but it's more reflexive than voluntary. Sort of like Kenny fessing up to having a potty accident.

We've noticed that Overboard's belly seems bigger this time around, so speculation has begun as to whether or not Goldblatt will be bigger than Kenny was at birth, or if she's just a little diva who demands a large dressing room.

*Chinese for "Hello, Baby"

i can't

This is Kenny's unfortunate new catchphrase: "I can't."

Not really sure where he picked it up, but we're trying to help him put it back down.

"Kenny, put on your shoes."
"I can't."

"Kenny, climb into your car seat."
"I can't."

"Kenny, please explain thermonuclear dynamics."
"I can't. And you wouldn't understand even if I did."

Every time Mr. K tries to duck out of doing something because "he can't," Overboard reminds him that "The Rolnick Family is not a family of 'I can't's,' but rather, a family of 'I can's.'" Doesn't he know we voted for Obama?

call me a flower

We're now in Week 27 of the adventure that is, "Waiting for Goldblatt."

By now, the good professor weighs roughly two pounds, which is the equivalent of a head of cauliflower (but, again, much, much cuter). She's also around 14.5 inches long with her legs all stretched out. Not that she has her legs stretched out. That would be pretty uncomfortable for Overboard.

Prof. Goldblatt is sleeping at regular intervals, and when she wakes, she's opening and closing her eyes. I can only guess as to what she thinks of her accommodations, but as of yet, we've had nothing in the way of complaints. Hey, that little girl is more than welcome to fill out the comment card whenever she likes.

Our sources also tell us that the professor may be sucking her thumb or fingers. I hope this is not the case, as I can say from personal experience that once you start sucking your thumb, you're heading down a dark and dangerous path that only leads to orthodontist visits. And no one wants that. Except the orthodontists. And, really, who cares about those guys? With their medieval instruments of oral torture and whatnot. What's that you say? A grudge? I harbor no grudge. I'm sure most orthodontists are lovely people with only the best interests of their clients in mind. But if you run into my old orthodontist, feel free to kick him in the shins. But I digress.

Prof. Goldblatt's brain is quite active (as she considers the pros and cons of a career in dentistry, no doubt), and her lungs have reached the point where they could function in the "real world" if necessary (albeit with some serious medical assistance). I was tempted not to even write that one down, as a number of our friends have had babies born prematurely. While every one of them is doing fine, that's something I'm not interested in going through at this juncture. So, allow me to reiterate what I have said to Goldblatt already: "Keep cooking, little girl. We'll be here when you're ready to come on out."

Finally, Overboard is on the lookout these days for little hiccups from the good doctor. They feel like little tickles, which is highly favorable over full-strength kicks. Or so I'm told.

goldblatt the hothouse cucumber

Ready? Sure? Okay then. It's Week 26!

Professor Goldblatt is percolating in Overboard's belly and working on her hearing these days. The network of nerves in her ears are getting more and more developed and adept at eavesdropping on conversations between Overboard and the rest of the world. She's like a tiny lil' member of the NSA in there.

The good professor is also inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which will help her lungs develop and get ready for that first (of many) blasts of air out here in the world.

She's also pudging up, weighing in around a pound and two-thirds.

Finally, Goldblatt is roughly 14 inches from head to heel, or about the size of an English hothouse cucumber. I totally know what that looks like, because I just Googled it to get an image for the top of this post.

In Overboard news, she's doing okay. A bit achy in some joints, and still battling "Pregnant Memory," but generally doing fine and simply leading with her belly.

seder shopping shenanigans

Overboard sent me shopping for Passover Seder supplies the other night. This was not the best possible course of action, but Overboard was tired and I had supposedly promised I would shop, so there it was.

Armed with a detailed grocery list, and a vague notion that bread was a no-no during this particular stop along the Jewish holiday highway, I tried to see if I could round everything up in under an hour (and without calling home to Overboard with questions more than 25 times).

The regular stuff was easy, or so I thought. The Kosher for Passover items are where things got tricky.

"But Evenkeel," you might be saying, "the Kosher for Passover items are marked as such right on the box." That would be true. Of course, many things are also marked "KP" in addition to the normal "K" or circled U. Silly me, I thought that "KP" stood for "Kosher for Passover" when it actually stands for "Kosher Parve" (which just seems like overkill to me...can't you just say "Kosher" and leave it at that?).

At this point, you're probably saying, "Evenkeel, I hope this is leading somewhere."

To which I respond, "Yes. Now stop speaking out loud at your computer monitor."

One of the key items on my shopping list was matzoh, specifically, egg flavored matzoh. Unfortunately, the store offered me limited options in this department. Up front, they had Costco-style packages of 8-10 boxes of matzoh bundled together, but I didn't need that much, and come to think of it, I don't know that anyone really does. Back on the shelf in the Kosher Foods section, the matzoh choices included "Garlic" and "Other Flavors That Sound Like A Bad Idea." The one box I saw that seemed reasonable was a "healthy" option made with whole grains or something.

When I got home, Overboard took a look at the box and shook her head in dismay. She then informed me that the matzoh I purchased - the matzoh, I would like to repeat here - was not Kosher for Passover. I still don't believe her. Why? BECAUSE IT'S MATZOH! Who the %$#@ eats matzoh at any other time of year? As far as I'm concerned, it's inherently Kosher for Passover. But not according to Overboard. Which is why we ended up using leftover egg matzoh from last year, that remarkably, tasted just like it did last year.

Good grief.

Other fun moments from the store:

I cruised up and down the canned vegetables looking for the "Celery Hearts" Overboard has requested, which I took to be some odd variation on artichoke hearts. They are not. They are celery.

I also spent a good eight minutes angrily searching the cereal aisle for a box of "K4POs" for Overboard. Thankfully, I managed to figure out that "K4PO" stood for "Kosher for Passover" as well as "Evenkeel is a total moron and Overboard needs to do her own shopping from now on to help save him from public embarrassment."

go fly a kite

Saturday morning was a busy one. We started out with our usual trek to the Kohl Children's Museum (though this time Overboard came along for the fun), and afterwards, we went across the street to the 2nd annual Glenview Kite Festival.

Just like last year, we met up with the Brandts and had fun oooohing and aaaaahing at all of the various kites. There were super-basic ones that the kids could build at a workshop onsite, plenty of "regular" ones like the triangle kite Overboard dug out of the basement (which had once belonged to Kenny's Aunt Amy), stunt kites that whizzed through the air, diving and swooping, and ginormous kites that resembled Nemo or a big blue teddy bear who didn't seem to have his own TV show, movie, or merchandise deal.

Victoria took some great shots, which she was nice enough to share. And here they are (with commentary).


These were the two Brandt kites. Ava is all about the Hello Kitty.


AJ and Ava get their kites on. So to speak.


This is Kenny flying the Hello Kitty kite.


This is Kenny wondering what the Hello Kitty kite would look like if he let go and it suddenly took a nosedive and attacked the ground, thus causing the string to wrap around the kite 1600 times, thus forcing Victoria to spend the next two hours trying to untangle it, while all the while assuring Evenkeel that it was no big deal.


The family that crashes kites together, um, poses for pictures together?


What's more fun than flying a kite? Getting Daddy to chase you all over the field.

photo booth

So there's this fun application on the Mac called "photo booth" where you can take snapshots from your computer camera and, if you're feeling inventive, digitally alter them. We've had some fun with this over the past two years or so, and here are some of my personal favorites. Enjoy.

"who you callin' a rutabaga?"

It's...[extended drumroll]...WEEK 25! Wooo. Wooo, indeed.

According to our handy-dandy fetal info source, Prof. Goldblatt is now somewhere in the neighborhood of 13.5 inches long and weighs roughly 1.5 pounds. Which is to say, she's about the size of a rutabaga, but a lot more appealing to imagine. She's starting to plump up and add more baby fat to her lean frame. Consequently, she's getting slightly less "left in the shower too long, and now I'm a prune," and more "creased newborn" in her appearance. The Prof. is also growing more hair, which I'm told we'd be able to tell what color it was, if we could actually see her. But we can't. Which is fine, 'cause we're not quite ready for her to come out yet. So there's that.

In Overboard news, she's doing fine, albeit nervous about the fact that Goldblatt likes to wake her up fairly regularly around 4:17 am. Hopefully, this is not a sign of wake up times to come once Goldblatt is out in the world.

Overboard also reports that Goldblatt is quite "squirmy" and has let loose a few kicks of late.

That's all I got, people. See you next week.

kenny pix

It took me some time, but I finally uploaded some more pictures taken during Kenny's big grandparental visit in February (pix courtesy of Grandma Jackie).


My son, Max Roach. Or is it Animal?


"Drums are fun! So why do drummers get such a bad rap?"


Kenny checks out the fish at the aquarium. "HELLO, FISH!"


Kenny and Grandpa Alan play a rousing game of "Grandpa Monster".


Kenny, Buzz and Grandpa enjoy some TV time. An educational documentary, I'm sure. If I know Grandpa, it involved learning to count by watching the World Series of Poker.


Future Thrasher, Kenny "Killer" Rolnick.


"Daddy gets all smiley when I wear this thing. I have no idea why, but I like to humor him."


Kenny and his grandparents take a minute to pose for the mom and poperazzi before bedtime.


Overboard and Kenny read some bedtime stories that most likely involved animals, trains or a combination of the two.

trains, trains, trains

As most readers know, Kenny loves him some trains. With that in mind, here are a few (relatively) recent Kenny and trains pix.


At the Kohl Children's Museum train table, where Kenny has been known to while away many a Saturday morning. This was taken by Grandma Jackie.


At the new Railroad Cafe in Glenview, where Kenny was loathe to actually sit down and eat anything, because it meant not playing with their awesome train set. Various buttons on the side of the display made different things go on the large train table. The food was lousy, but the trains were pretty impressive.


Cell phone pic from another Saturday morning at Kohl. This one is courtesy of me, Prof. Evenkeel. I love how the table has two big holes in the middle, so the kids can pop up in there and have better access to the tracks. It took Kenny a while to figure out the benefit of climbing under the table and popping up in the middle, but now he's all about it.

kenny's latest achievements

Kenny is growing more and more independent these days and can do a number of things for himself. For instance...

Mr. Man has finally mastered the art of climbing into bed, which means he can now come and go in his room as he pleases. I showed him how to place his foot in between the mattresses of his bed and push himself up. It took a few tries, and quite a bit of frustrated yelling, but he got it. Of course, this also means that he can now get out of bed in the middle of the night to grab toys if he so chooses without worrying about having to sleep on the floor. Not that he's done this. But he could. And that's the kind of thing that keeps me up at night: worrying about what the boy could be doing.

Kenny now knows how to open his CD player, get a new CD from the drawer in his dresser, switch out the discs and press play. He also knows to flip the switch to "ON" so that he can actually hear something. While this has resulted in an increase in CD scratches, on the whole it's going pretty well. Especially since he doesn't know to grab CDs from the basement where Daddy's library of music is contained.

While we still pick out Kenny's clothes for him, he can put a lot of things on himself these days. In addition to his underpants, pants and shirt, Kenny can put on his jacket and shoes. The jacket is fun, as he employs the upside-down-from-the-floor technique, where you lay the jacket down on the ground, facing away from him. He then puts his arms through the sleeves and flips the jacket up over his head and onto his back.

Kenny is also getting more versatile around the kitchen. At daycare he has been known to make his own sandwiches and he helps put his dirty dishes in the sink. Overboard and I haven't tried letting him make meals at home yet, but we have started asking that he hand us his dishes to place in the sink (which is still somewhat out of reach). Sadie is trying to get in on this too, and has been encouraging Kenny to pass her his dishes, especially the ones that still have leftover food on them.