Happy autumnal equinox

Or, in other words, welcome to the first day of fall.  We rang in the new season with style, or geeky fanaticism in lieu thereof (like mommy like baby, evidently).  We started the day with our usual pre-game tailgate, the only difference today being that Calvin was awake for the majority of it.  It would appear that as the days get shorter and shorter, Calvin's daily alert time gets longer and longer (or, more likely, it is due to the fact hat he is sleeping more at night).  Following the pregame party we headed home, again as usual, to watch the game on TV.  And, again, Calvin was awake for the majority it, allowing us to introduce him to the finer points of football, including singing cheering, how to tackle dad, and how to denote a key play (see photo).  The only question we have to ask is this:  what quarterback was wearing jersey number seven last week, and why did he give it back to Henne this week?  At least we won.  

But aside from the ending of summer, today marks another ending/beginning;  as of today Calvin has officially outgrown his bassinet.  And, try as we might to get used to the idea of him sleeping in the next room, we find ourselves incapable.  Mind you that this is purely a selfish situation - Calvin has no trouble sleeping alone in his crib in his nursery and does so for every nap, but we are very used to him being only an arm's reach away and are not ready to give up that feeling of safety and security.  Nonetheless, he has most definitely outgrown the bassinet, which comes with a weight limit of only 15lbs (in fact, he's been sleeping in there "illegally" for nearly two weeks now).  Today we racked our brains to come up with a solution to this self proclaimed crisis, and the answer presented itself in the form of a larger bassinet.  Not imaginative, we know, and, most definitely, not brave.  But we must choose our battles, and this is not a "man versus self" style battle that we choose to take on.  It's not worth it.  And besides, where's the fun in that?  So, at least for a few months longer, our family will continue to enjoy nightly sleepovers.

The season opener

Today we celebrated the opening day of Michigan football season with a great tailgate, a mediocre game, and a great after game party.  The tailgate was Calvin's first, of course.  We did our usual - park for free and walk about a mile - and on our way to the tailgate itself we were remembering that it was during last year's football season that we first found out we were expecting Calvin (or, actually, Raspberry).  We remember thinking back then about the day we would be pushing a stroller to our favorite pre-game destination, with the caveat "as long as nothing goes wrong."  June seemed so far away back then!  Thinking about the excitement and constant uncertainty of that time made us remember again how blessed we are to have Calvin.  It also made us remember the shaky football team of last season and we were hoping to be able to put that source of uncertainty behind us as well, but now we're not so sure.  But whether the win was shaky or not, both the pre and post game parties were a blast.  Calvin spent a lot of time sprawled in other people's arms and we spent a lot of time eating.  The post game party was, in some ways, a rehash of last weekend's barbecue and we blissfully found ourselves once again in the company of other young families and babies.  Some of those babies were a little more fuzzy than others, but we won't split hairs (insert groan here).

Birthday Tailgate

How many Michigan fans have an October 10th birthday? We had four to celebrate at the tailgate today: Jon, Curtis, Bobbi, and Tom and Carrie's baby, who is to be delivered on Monday! Cortney made some tasty peanut butter brownies, and planted maize and blue candles for each of the birthday folk in them. Of course, that wasn't the only food on the menu.  Judi's sweets are, of course, always the best.  Bobbi brought the tastiest taco dip ever (we've requested that again for next week), and someone else brought pretzel jello - never heard of it, but it was really good.  Cortney's mom's chili and Charlie's grilled hotdogs were the party food du jour, and were a welcome warm treat during the cold snap. This was the first football Saturday of the year to really feel like fall, at around 50 degrees. And to think that it was 80 degrees just a few days ago!

Notice that the only discussion here is of the tailgating menu.  We won't be discussing the game.  After all, Halloween isn't for another few weeks, so there's no sense in scaring everyone now. 

Dedicated to Matt

Go Blue!  Today's tailgate was topnotch, as usual.  We even celebrated the fifth birthday of a friend's daughter this morning, complete with a flying Barbie (yes, a flying Barbie) and cupcakes.  The game was wet and Eastern isn't much of an opponent (there was no wavering in Cortney's allegiences).  But even without the highly tense moments of a good football game, the afternoon at the stadium was highly worth the ode to Monty Python and the Holy Grail  performed by the marching band during halftime, complete with King Arthurs (read: band members) lopping legs off of Black Knights (read: mascots of other teams) and commentary in a thick British accent.  In other football news, a certain other green & white team pulled out a win in the first overtime against a certain blue and gold team, which can be construed as a positive thing, if it weren't so darned hard to root for MSU.

And tonight's entry is dedicated to Matt ("I don't make the blog enough") and his favorite heroic characters, Zooperboy and Moo, as pictured at right.  Thanks for making dinner tonight, even if we did have to assemble our own desserts, and even though Kristin and Cortney are not sorry about beating you  and Jon in Mario Party.

Please continue to pray for the vicitms of Hurricane Katrina and give if you can.

www.salvationarmyusa.org 

Just checking in.

Wow it's been a long week, and yet there really isn't a whole lot to say.  Yes, gone are the days of summer when being busy was accompanied by suntans and photographs.  That being said, we do have a couple of pictures to share from last week's tailgating party. A funny story, in fact, attested to by the pictures.  We had a lot of stove trouble this week, so yes, that second picture is all of us at someone else's party.  We did not go hungry, and the tailgating is by far a highlight of our fall weeks, thanks to the whole crew.  Go pink flamingo!  "Go Blue," however, was a little lacking.  The game was such a disappointment (who let them put a high school quarterback in for such an important game anyhow?) that we decided not to bother writing about it last week.  The Ohio State game was just as disappointing if you are a Big Ten fan, but oddly exhilarating if you are purely a Michigan fan.  But the tailgating was a riot. 

Please continue to pray for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and give if you can.  The road to recovery will be a long one for many.

www.salvationarmyusa.org