Divide and Conquer

The Wombats seem to do their worst when Jen and I are split up. When they were younger it almost seemed as if they would give us a break when just one of us was left alone with them. Lately I think they are done giving us a pass. Lately they have made us pay the price for trying to watch them alone.

More on that later.


On Sunday I had to work late so before I left for work we took the guys on a walk to the beach to enjoy the nice weather and to try to keep our leg muscles from atrophying. It was a nice walk, even the second half of the noise where Martin made blew raspberries the entire walk home. We didn't discourage him in hopes that all this practice would lead to a lucrative career as a jazz trumpeter.


After I went to work Jen put them in their new pajamas, put them to bed, then had one of the worst nights of her mothering life as Elliott erupted into what she described as a "river of vomit" followed later by an "ocean of vomit." Of course the ocean came after a clean up and pajama change for maximum laundry devastation.


After an hour or two of horrors she was able to get them both sleeping. I had it relatively easy. All I had to do was work all night long.


About twenty minutes after returning home the guys both woke up to join us in bed and this ended with the guys being a little less than generous with their sharing of the bed. I was so tired that I have no memory of this but Jen had the foresight to capture it on film.


As I got a few hours she got the guys ready for day care. Then the sock stealing began. Things started out fine.


Then Martin removed both his socks in the hallway, throwing one of them outside his car seat.


Elliott did the same by the time she reached the car.


Then she had to leave them by the car as she retraced her steps to find the missing socks and hopefully return them to day care fully clothed.


After work I picked the guys up and opened this La Vache Folle E.S.B. from Microbrasserie Charlevoix. This was another fine beer from this Quebec brewery. It turns out that my method of selecting beers based solely on how cool (or funny) their labels are paid off once again!


After an Italian dinner I concluded the evening with this Backwoods Bastard from Founders Brewing Co. This was a very nice barrel-aged beer which reminded me a lot of a nice whiskey. The only difference is that you can drink an entire bottle without getting drunk, something regular whiskey sadly lacks. At least for me. If you are reading this and thinking that drinking a whole bottle of whiskey only gives you a slightly buzz I'd recommend the proverbial slowing of your roll.


Tonight the guys enjoyed a dinner of puffs, Mum-Mums, almond butter toast, chicken with corn and ricotta and avocado, and bottles.


I enjoyed a pre-dinner of this La Bavaroise Brune from Le Gobelet. Well, I almost enjoyed it except for that I think it may have had some sort of infection.


A couple of minutes after pouring it the head actually had increased in size and overflowed. It had a slightly metallic and sour taste to it. The rest of their beers have been really good so I'm thinking there was just something wrong with this particular batch or bottle.

I drank it anyway. Even slightly off Quebec beer is okay in my book.


During their feeding Elliott seemed tired. It seemed like he was just giving up and sleeping on his high chair tray but he rallied quickly after Jen got home.


When Jen was home she gave them some practice with their sippy cups. Martin has been doing pretty well with it lately where Elliott needs a little coaching.


For dinner I made some mushroom pierogies with ham, sauerkraut, cornichons, whole grain mustard, and sour cream. It was pretty great. It would have been great with a nice German beer.


Instead I poured this new collaboration beer from Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada. It was an odd IPA which, a blend of east coast and west coast hops. While it was not the German beer that would have gone best (or Polish beer if I knew of any besides Tyskie) it was still quite enjoyable.

As baseball season is upon us we have been celebrating by watching baseball . . . movies. So far we've watched A League of Their Own. Tonight we are going to watch Major League, a movie that shockingly has never been seen by either of us.

I really hope none of my friends back home read this. They would probably consider this an unforgivable affront.