The Big Winner At Trivia Is…

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Jen

Bob’s cousin is in the high school band and for the past couple of years, they have held a trivia night to raise funds to purchase new band equipment. Of course we are suckers for trivia nights (it’s an addiction, I need help) so we drove down to Oakville to exercise our trivia skills. The first trivia night of 2012!

The trivia night was pretty good, there were some difficult categories (catastrophes, potpourri, famous women) and some easy ones (retro toys and nostalgic candy). The creepiest moment of the night happened in the retro toys round:

And for those who care, that’s Pregnant Midge.

But the real excitement for me that night was the silent auction items. I went a bit crazy and bid on quite a few things and surprisingly, I won quite a few things. Whoops! The loot: 2 white rocking chairs (yep, you heard right, I won 2 freakin’ rocking chairs for $55 each, it was bullshit that I had to bid on them separately and would have been mighty upset if I only got one), a photography session for $25 that includes an 11×14 photo (I figured now that I have a kid, I better take some family photos) and the biggest basket of Bath & Bodyworks products (luckily I split that with Bob’s aunt or else people would be getting lotions as gifts for YEARS). Score! Now, I can’t wait until spring so I can have a professional photo session of me sitting in my rocking chair spritzing Ben with the scent of Black Amethyst.

2011 Year in Review

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Jen

2011 in Review from Cracker and Cheese on Vimeo.

Since we are already a month into 2012, it’s time for us to review what happened in 2011! Totally makes sense, doesn’t it?

Let’s Recap the Holidays, Shall We?

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Jen

As everyone knows, the holidays are rough, you are constantly on the go, no time to breathe and stress and anxiety courses through your veins for 6 weeks until the new year rolls around. What have we been doing for the past month and a half? Why, we’ve been hiding under a rock, waiting for the holidays to roll by before emerging, unscathed. Just kidding, we were in the trenches and have the scars to prove it.

Thanksgiving weekend, the start of the holiday season. I kick it off with the girls’ pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving and I love it. It’s a great way for all of us to gear up for a month of gluttony. It was different this year, we had it in a new house and we did have a guy attend (but he is the exception, he is too young to play poker). Then on Thanksgiving, it was the Ameristar Thanksgiving buffet. Excellent dinner and not too bad with the lines for turkey. That evening, we then went to another Thanksgiving to pick up Ben, who apparently was wiped from all the tryptophan:

Rough life, isn’t it, kid? To be snuggled with and loved on all night.

Saturday night was round two of the turkey-eatin’, Ben-lovin’ extravaganza. There was more food and more baby-holding. We even got to meet the newest addition to the Menkhus clan:

December took off like a bat out of hell. It was go, go, go and we never looked back. You would think that having a child would slow us down, nope. Instead, we are even more exhausted, more cranky and more stressed than ever before. Time management was not on our side. We went out to dinner for Bob’s birthday, celebrated another friend’s birthday, went to the Peimanns’ annual Ugly Sweater Party (with a sweater I found that night), had the Sherron Christmas party to attend and made sure Ben had his first photo with Santa:

And here’s the kicker, we hosted Christmas this year with Bob’s side of the family! Talk about one ball of stress for me! Can you imagine? Cleaning a house for a party? It’s a struggle for me to clean even when I didn’t have a baby. But it all worked out. The Sam’s ham was wonderful, everyone brought a dish, it worked out perfectly. And I think we are going to start a new tradition:

So, in a nutshell, time flew by so quickly and now I just need to take some time and sleep for 3 days straight.

On Fathers, Sons and Foosball

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Bob

One of my fondest memories was playing games with my dad in the evenings after work. Many summer nights, we’d play catch in the backyard, but if the weather didn’t cooperate, we’d often head to the basement and play ping pong. Now, nobody wins in a game of catch. Ping pong, on the other hand is a different story. My dad taught me how to lose graciously for many years. When I finally did beat him it was the best feeling in the world.

Last month, I had the opportunity to pick up a used foosball table from a friend who was about to move. My dad came over and helped me put it together and we played a few games for old times sake. I’m still working on teaching Benjamin good sportsmanship — right now he just cries like a baby when I demolish him 10-0. But more than anything, I’m looking forward to the time when he beats me at my own game.

I just hope it isn’t too soon.

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Jen

As most of you know, Bob is known for having active dreams. You guys have heard me tell you about him looking for gnomes under the bed, mice along the headboard and kicking me out of bed to go get the paper. Now with Ben, his dreams have become all about the baby or the subject of babies. Let me just tell you a few of them.

Dream #1: Bob wakes up, freaked out. Why? Because apparently we had triplets and they were sleeping in bed with us and he rolled over one of them.

Dream #2: Bob wakes up, freaked out. He’s fumbling around in the sheets frantically. I wake up after only 15 minutes of sleep to him asking me, “Where’s the baby? Where’s the baby?” Apparently, he was holding the baby and lost him in the bed.

Dream #3: After feeding Ben, I go back to bed and tug on the comforter because Bob has it all bunched up. He holds on to the comforter in a tight grip and won’t let go.

Bob: “Stop pulling on the baby!”
Jen: “I’m not pulling on the baby! Wake up!”
Bob: “Stop pulling on the baby!” He tugs harder.
Jen: “Wake up!” I shake him awake.
Bob: He sits up, looks around, confused. “What happened to the baby?”
Jen: “You never had the baby.”
Bob: “What happened to the baby?”
Jen: Annoyed. “Wake up, you never had the baby.”
Bob: “Oh, okay.” He lays back down. 30 seconds later, “Seriously, what happened to the baby?”
Jen: Sigh. I give up and go to sleep.

Besides the dreams, Bob also is very confused and discombobulated whenever you wake him up to tend to Ben. It is pretty hilarious. I’ll wake him up and he’ll ask me such crazy and random things. Or he’ll pop up out of bed and walk away without the baby. Or he’ll just sit up, look at me and then lay back to to go to sleep. After 8 weeks of Ben, he still can’t wake up properly.

I do have to say one thing about all of this, Bob’s antics do add some comic relief to the late night feedings.