Baby Xander

One of the main reasons we went to Chicago was to visit Pat, Stacy and Baby Xander.  Kasia has been talking about going to see Baby Xander for weeks (and to her, it’s never just Xander.  It’s always Baby Xander).  Well, when we all finally got together, Kasia was in heaven.  She loves babies.  She loves baby dolls, but more than that, she loves real babies.  So when she got to hold little Xander… sorry, I mean Baby Xander, she was loving it.  She gave him the little Tigger rattle that she had picked out for him, and was all about showing him how it worked. 

She’s going to make a great babysitter one day.  And then the money will really start to flow in. Cha-Ching!

A Drive to Chicago

The gods must be crazy, because for some reason, Kara, Kasia, and I decided that it was time to take a really long drive… a really, really long drive.  And since we’re going to be driving for a really long time, we may as well go and visit the clan up in Chicago.  Pat and Stacy just had little Baby Xander, and since we hadn’t seen him yet, it seemed like the logical place to go.

This time though, we learned from the mistakes in our past.  First, we decided not to drive straight through.  While the 16 hour drive is possible to do all at once, what usually ends up happening is that we get to my parents’ house in the middle of the night.  Then Kara and I want to crash and go to sleep, but Kasia (who has been sleeping in the car the entire trip) is wired and wants to play.  So if we stop half way there, we avoid all the pains it causes.  Also, to keep her awake during the trip, Kasia’s wonderful Ama and Bupa got her a DVD player for the car so that she could watch movies and DVDs during the drive.  This worked like a charm, and she hardly slept at all during the trip.

Some observations about the drive.  First, Washington D.C. has the worst traffic ever imagined on this planet.  Who would actually want to live in such a place?  Now at least I know why all politicians are crazy.  It’s because they probably sit in that idiotic traffic every day.  All total, it put up three hours behind on our first day.  Whereas we should have made it somewhere near Indiana on day one, we barely made it to Pittsburg.

Another observation is that I think the reason the traffic is so horrible in D.C. is because everyone is texting on their cell phones while driving.  Now, I kind of expect this when I see some girl in her early 20’s driving in her VW Beetle, but I get really disappointed when some dude in a Ford pick up, or some lady my mom’s age, is too busy texting on their phones that they fail to realize traffic is moving again.  All total, we counted less than ten people in all of D.C. who were not on their cell phones.  I actually made Kara grab her phone and text something just so that we would fit in.

Also, I noticed that the Pennsylvania Turnpike (which is one of the most famous of the turnpikes) is a horrible road that is overpriced and always under construction.  I also noticed that every time Kara drives, it immediately starts to rain/snow/hail, or the rapture begins.  Because of this, I think it’s best if maybe I just drive from now on.

And lastly, I noticed that there are far too few gas stations on the Ohio turnpike.  This led us to almost run out of gas in the middle of nowhere.  It was on day two of our drive, and after all the traffic we encountered on day one, we were so thankful to have nothing but open road ahead of us.  We were making great time and Kasia was just about to fall asleep in the back.  We had just over a quarter tank of gas left (about 120 miles worth) as we passed a gas station.  The sign said it was the last one in Ohio.  Not a problem, we thought.  We’re making great time, we’ve got plenty of gas, we’ll just fill up at the next one.  Well, we kept driving, and driving.  I kept looking at the gas gauge getting lower and lower.  Kara kept saying that I was worrying for nothing.  Then the light popped up saying that we were low on gas.  No problem.  The next gas plaza was in 24 miles… and according to our trip computer, we had 32 miles of gas left.  Then we hit the toll plaza and came to dead stop.  Eventually we crawled out of there, and saw a gas station next to a Burger King.  Awesome!  Sadly, it was closed. 

The gas plaza was now 12 miles away.  We had 15 miles worth of gas left.  We were in the middle of nowhere.  I mean, if there was a farmhouse a mile away, we were lucky.  But we kept limping along.  Finally, after a lot of sweating (because we had to turn the AC off) we rolled up to the gas pump.  They were charging 50 cents a gallon more than the last gas station (total gouging) but we made it.  With three miles left, we made it. 

I have since decided that Ohio and their turnpike both stink.  I will avoid them as much as I can in the future.

Oh, and we did eventually make it to Chicago.  We suffered through Chicago traffic, but it was not nearly as bad as Washington D.C.

She's Ready for Hell's Angels

For the longest time, Kasia struggled with being able to work the pedals on a tricycle.  Then, one evening (May 8th to be exact) she finally got it.  Everything finally came together and she was cruising around on her three wheeled bike like a pro.  Granted, she wasn't very good at steering and kept hitting things, but she had it down.

So we decided that maybe it was time we upgraded her to a real bike.  It took her a few days to figure out that you can't pedal backwards to go backwards on this bike.  She eventually figured out that her two choices were forward and stopped.  And now that she's got that, she is all over the place on her new bike.  Her steering is still somewhat shaky, and she feels the need to always ride in the very center of the street.  

Next year we're going to upgrade her again to a Harley.   Or maybe I'll upgrade myself to the Harley and Kasia can just watch from the sidecar. 

Kasia's New Game

Kasia has a truly unique talent.  She can spot a school bus, anywhere at anytime. She can spot a "baby school bus" (aka The Short Bus) a mile away, doing 70mph, on a different street.  Her abilities to spot a bus are so good that we've turned it into a game.  While we're driving in the car, the first person who sees a school bus has to shout "SCHOOL BUS" and whoever does it first, wins.  

When we first started playing, every time Kasia would spot one first, we would always say, "Oh  no, you got me."  Soon, Kasia started to inform us that she "got us."  She no longer says just "SCHOOL BUS" anymore, but "SCHOOL BUS!  GOT YOU!"  But when you hear her say it, she doesn't pause between the words. So it comes out "SCHOOLBUSGOTYOU!"  

And while Kara and I try to compete with her at this game, it's just not a contest.  Unless we know where the buses are parked, Kasia will lay waste to us, hands down.  It's amazing. 

Confusion at the Gruetzmacher's

There is a lot of confusion around our house today concerning food categories.  It all started last night when I read an interesting bit of trivia.  Apparently a raspberry is not really a berry.  And neither is a strawberry, but that technically a tomato is a berry.  Huh?

I mean, I knew a tomato was a fruit, despite the urge to say it's a vegetable, but a  strawberry isn't a berry?  Not only that, but banana's and grapes actually are berries.  

It only got weirder from there.  After trying to figure out why the strawberry isn't a berry, we discovered that bell peppers are actually fruits.  So are squash and cucumbers.  I always thought these things were vegetables.  

The world has gone completely topsy turvy for me where up is down and left is right.  Just too weird.

Bye Bye Birdies

The era has finally ended.  Kasia's all time favorite Children's Play Area is soon to be no more.  After being members for a year and a half, we're having to say goodbye to Birdie's because they're shutting their doors forever.  

There were three different segments to Birdie's.  There was an indoor mini golf course.  There was the children's play area.  And there was a rental side for renting the giant inflatable play slides and such.  They've decided to let their lease on the building expire and focus all their attention on to the rental side.  According to their flyer, "this doesn't mean Birdie's is closing, but that it will be bigger and better than ever."  I fail to see the logic in that seeing as how they're eliminating two-thirds of their business, including the one that I actually use, and downscaling their operation.  

So it's time to say bye, bye to Birdie's.  Kasia had many, many hours of fun there.  She met Santa Claus there.  She went on her first Easter egg hunt there.  It's a sad and rainy day.

Best Friends

Kasia had a great time the other day as her "best friend" Gabby came over to play in her pool.  Gabby's mom was putting together a swingset for her, so since she watched Kasia while I was putting the Sky Fort together (see previous post), I was more than happy to watch Gabby.  To be honest, there's no need for watching really.  She and Kasia just play together so amazingly well that it's just plain awesome.