Gus: 1; Wily Jeneric: 0

Wily Jeneric prides themselves on being mediocre gardeners. Every year, we plant a variety of crops, from peas in March to garlic in the fall. And every year, we haul out bushels of tomatoes, buckets of peas, a few bowls of lettuce, and bits and pieces of other crops. This year, we were so bold as to plant leeks (for leek soup, of course) and broccoli. Despite our worst efforts, these two crops survived to be planted outside and carefully tended (we hand picked the caterpillars off the broccoli every day!).

Enter Gus.

Gus is rather large, with a voracious yet oddly single-tracked appetite. He prefers to eat one crop at a time, starting with the cucumbers. At first, he nibbled. Then, he lost all control and like a junkie looking for a fix, he grazed through our garden in less than a day.

Then he was gone for a few days.

On the fourth day of the siege, Eric noticed some nibbles on the broccoli – the precious broccoli. Bunnies, perhaps? Nothing to worry about – the rabbits never do more than test the produce before moving on.

Day five. Jenni returns home from school to this alarming site:

The glove has been thrown and we of Wily Jeneric have taken up the challenge. Gus the groundhog will be defeated.

Bonus points to whoever can figure out the link between Operation Gus and Baby Jeneric.

RAOK!

Unexpected surprises (RAOK – random act of kindness) are always the best. Baby Jeneric hasn’t even been born and s/he has already been RAOKed!

The Landscape Architecture program is blessed with an efficient administrator, Pam. She found time this summer to crochet not one but two blankets for Baby Jeneric. Many thanks, Pam!

We also received a nice two from Elizabeth, an instructor in the LA department that Jenni taught to knit (one at a time, we knitters will take over the world). She kindly gifted Baby Jeneric with a wonderful hat and the best little jumper. Merci!

Updates on Coming out of the Closet:
1. Wallpaper and lots of it. Eric has scraped off at least 5 hideous layers.


2. Plaster. So not a good sign. Jenni’s Mom patched a rather large hole and Eric will endeavor to fix what we affectionately call the great divide.

3. Note that Jenni is not helping. That’s right – we’ve got some lead-based paint hazards! We figure our parenting skills will be a large enough detriment to any child; no need to exacerbate the situation with lead paint.

Miss Bootsie, why won't you eat the fish?

In spite of the heat advisory and ozone alert we managed to sneak in a quick kayak trip down our favorite lake (read: nearest) – Lake Farrington. The fishermen were out by the handful and the turtles were sunning themselves, too. We opted for a leisurely paddle, sticking to the shady side.

As we paddled back to the car, we slid under a low bridge and noticed that Miss Bootsie

needed to eat some fish.

Welcome to small town New Jersey. The graffiti doesn’t get any stranger than this!

For those keeping score in the race between the fetus and Jenni’s life vest, the above picture of Jenni should confirm that Jenni is very much in the lead. No strap adjustments were necessary prior to this morning’s kayak adventure. It’s still anybody’s game (well, almost anyone’s. We are sad to announce that with today’s kayaking trip, Teresa, the contemplative Canadian, is officially out of the race. Next on the chopping block: Gelfling, with a guess of July 27).

Changes

The setting: Our dentist’s office.
The pivot point: When the hygienist said, “Next time I see you, you’ll be a Mom.”
What went through Jenni’s head: ‘Why yes, I suppose so. Wait. I can’t just leave a two month old in the waiting room. But I don’t want a baby sitter so I can go to the dentist. I know. I’ll make Eric’s appointment for just after mine. We can take turns watching the baby. Perfect.’

As Eric said later that night, the transformation has begun. Our lives are beginning to revolve around our child.

Stage 1 of the parental transformation: complete.

Trading Spaces?

It has come to our attention that sometime in the next 4 months, Baby Jeneric will (voluntarily, we hope) trade out his/her current accommodations for a somewhat larger space. Apparently, this means we need to transform a room into a suitable baby depository, er, nursery.

Eric and I are clever people (some might call us wily) and when we moved into our house nearly 3 years ago, we knew which room would become a nursery (we just didn’t know when) so we painted it accordingly – yellow. We thought we’d be on easy street when the time came – move out any furniture, replace with crib, changing table and baby.

Right.

Have you seen the closets in this house? No? Here’s a peak.

You’ll note that they are:
1. Small.
2. Lacking plaster, in parts.
3. Peeling their skin, er, wallpaper.
4. Small.
5. Unsuitable in any way for babies and their gear.

This weekend we will attempt to rectify Numbers 2, 3 and 5 on the above list. As an added challenge, we will also be renovating the hall closet, which is even smaller than the nursery closet and has larger holes.

Too bad Atlantic City is still closed – you can’t take bets on whether we’ll finish everything this month or not!

Happy Independence Day, all around!

As un-American as it might sound, we used the long weekend to head north, way north, all the way to Ontario, Canada. We
have friends who recently returned, after many years stateside, and we figured we ought to visit.

Our drive up was uneventful. We tried to stop in Jenni’s hometown, but found the region flooded.




Undaunted, we continued north, until we found the town of Kitchener, Ontario. There we did all things Canadian, including:

1. Kayaking, under duress (yes, that’s Eric draining his leaky kayak, for the 4th? 5th? time that day).



2. Geocaching. (psst! That's our 50th find, finally.)


3. Visiting Toronto.



4. Eating maple-infused products (including sticky buns and ice cream).

5. Listening to Canadians list their most notorious Colossal mistakes, in hono(u)r of Canada Day (did you know someone in Canada came up with fruit flavo(u)red potato chips?). We are told this reflects the Canadian ability for honest self-introspection and is best done on Canada day.

What does this have to do with the baby, which is, after all, the subject of this web site? Not much, except to confirm that:
1. The life vest still fits (and dare we say it? Jenni hasn’t moved the straps in 2 weeks!).
2. If we plan to visit the Canadians next year, will we need a passport for the baby?
3. We’re not sure the baby likes Canada. S/he stopped kicking for nearly a day when we first got there.

In case the maternity was in question

This ultrasound photo clearly demonstrates that Jenni is the mother. No, the baby’s not picking his/her nose (like Eric thought). Nope, s/he is doing exactly what his/her mother did for 5+ years – sucking his/her thumb.


In case it wasn’t obvious, we’ve been sharing the results from our latest ultrasound, which was about a week ago (we know – we’ve been holding out). This was the best picture of the day. You can see the spine, bladder and heart. Now, do the math. What’s the amniotic fluid composed of?