1st Place

My Philadelphia Phillies haven't been in a situation like this since I was 16. Tied for first place with 3 games to play. Throw your good karma this way. Down with the Nationals. Down with the Mets!

Life is good.

Know When to Fold 'Em.

A couple of weeks back, I mentioned that I was growing a beard. Well those days are officially over. I guess it lasted about three weeks. Recorded responses that may or may not have led to it's demise:

• Vincent: "After his shower Daddy will go and shave his beard."


• Peter, through his publicist: "This is getting absurd. First I'm teething and now this. Do you see what it's doing to my cheeks? Does anyone have any moisturizer?"


• Mom: "You definitely look older." (In the nicest possible way, though.)


• Mother-in-law: "So still with the beard, huh?" (Also in a nice way...I think.)


• Rose: "It hurts to kiss you."

That pretty much wraps it up. To see the only known photograph of my achievement, see below. I'm pictured with frequent Chachi Milk Comments contributer and owner/proprieter of http://www.robbloom.com/, Rob Bloom. He's shown feigning drunk after one Amstel Light on his 30th birthday. Or was he really drunk? The world may never know.

Vermont

After a long overdue 6 weeks, I bring you Part 2 in Chachi Milk's Vacation Photo Essays. In our last installment, we visited Ocean City, New Jersey. Well, just a few short hours after we got home from that trip, we turned around and drove north for our first trip to Aunt Theresa & Uncle John's new Lincoln, Vermont chateau. I was only able to stay for about 30 hours (some little fella's birth ate up a large chunk of my vacation time....) but man were we active. Luckily, Rose and the boys were able to stay on for about 5 days and take it all in. The photos tell the story.

Just a few hours in, we walked a few hundred feet to this awesome creek. Vincent's desire to walk amongst the giant stones and uneven (but fairly shallow) water sent my patented Over-Protection Meter into a frenzy but it was such a cool place to be.

We visited a great cheesemaking (2 yr. old Vermont cheddar = ridiculous) farm and got our fair share of animal contact. Chickens roamed freely around your feet, cows could be milked, and they actually had a small "Guess That Poop" exhibit. I poop you not.

And you could sit on a giant, old tractor. What's not to love?

This family photo serves three purposes: 1. It's a cool family photo. 2. We wore Phillies clothing in Red Sox country. 3. It serves as the LOOK !PETER WAS THERE TOO! photo. When you can't walk around and touch animals, tractors or foliage, you just don't get in that many Vermont photos.

And lastly, what better way to cap off a chilly 57 degree August night in the mountains than by roasting marshmallows in your firepit. By the way - when we get our next house or ...even in this one, I'm getting a firepit. I mean c'mon. It's a firepit.

And that was Vermont. We can't wait to go back. We're probably gonna fly, though.

File under "Genius"

One of the cool things about having a lean older child and a chubby younger one? Diaper sharing! I put the boys to bed* by myself tonight and found out that we were out of Vincent's diapers (only worn at night). What did I do?

Pop one of Peter's 3s on that little guy. I mean - Vincent only wears 4s as it is, so what's the difference? I guess I won't be saying that if there's pee on the bed in 5 or 6 hours.

*I added the asterisk because as of the beginning of this writing, Vincent wasn't in bed per se. He was screaming, "DAAAAADDAAAAAAAAAAY!" at the top of the stairs. Yep - we're going through a phase.

We're Off We're Off We're Off We're Off We're Ooooaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhfff!

Over the past three weeks, The Wizard of Oz has been the major obsession of our household. By household, I mean Vincent. Who knew that a film from 1939 could relate to a nearly 3 year old in 2007? Now I could do a whole list of fun facts about the film that I rip from Wikipedia. That wouldn't be much fun though, would it? Okay - it could be fun but it wouldn't be original.

So instead I bring you, 10 Things We at Chachi Milk Have Noticed About The Wizard of Oz After Watching it Daily for Three Straight Weeks:

The talking apple tree throws like a girl.

One of the main Munchkin characters (the Coroner? Mayor?) lived on the street I grew up on in Broomall, PA. I'm not kidding.

The Lion has all the best lines. "Pullin' an ax on me, eeaay?" Classic.

Snowfall cannot just wake you up from a poison poppy-induced coma. It's just not possible.

The Tin Man's singing in "If I Only Had a Heart" is questionable. Not to be confused with Judy Garland's singing, which is perfect throughout.

The string arrangement in The Munchkinland Sequence is bad*ss.

The farmhands names are Zeke, Hunk, and Hickory (later known as Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion). Yes - Hunk.

Continuity Alert: When the the Wicked Witch hurls her fireball at Scarecrow, the Tin Man takes off his hat to douse the flames. He then puts it back on. After a cut away, it cuts back to him and the hat is facing the opposite direction (3 weeks straight. Everyday, people.).

The tornado effects are particularly amazing. I mean - it was 1939.

Why do they call the Wizard, "Oz" if he's the Wizard of Oz? Isn't Oz the town? He clearly states that he's just recently dropped in and become the Wizard. Did he change his name to the town's name?

And one last bonus point: What is a dingaderry?

There you have it. Feel free to add your own. It's a long, weird movie that's chock-full of fun. Watch it 67 or so times and we'll chat.

Tidbits

School: Vincent had his first day of school all by himself. He did really well but told us that he "got sad when it was circle time." The cool thing was that circle time was at the beginning of the day, so he felt better, played on the jungle gym and drew a picture of his family! Our family even has a dog and cat we didn't know about! I consider this day a victory.

Peter Sits Up, Jumps: When he sits he gets into a cool bulldog squat where his butt and legs are sitting but his arms and hands are straight out, supporting his body. It's awesome. He's also been introduced to his Jumparoo. It's like the kid was born to jump.

Kenny Rogers Chronicles, Vol. 1: I'm growing a beard. There's no two ways about it. Responses recorded thus far:

Rose: "You know how I feel about this. I don't like how it makes your face look."

Vincent: "Will it be like Santa Claus?"

Peter, through his publicist: "Ouch. Are you serious, dude?"

CLOWNWATCH, 2007!: Two sightings this weekend alone. One was at the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival but in all fairness, it was a juggler with clown pants and shoes but no makeup. It was enough to make Vincent wary but not enough to ruin the day. The second sighting was a doozy. 2 clowns, wide open field, at our township's community day. The fear was palpable. I felt really bad for him. We discussed that clowns are just silly people trying to make people laugh but there was only one option - leave now.

Posts to look out for: Wizard of Oz obsession, Vermont summary.

First Day of School (Sort of)!

Our big man started preschool today. It was actually an open house where the parents go with the kids to check things out, meet the teachers and get the lay of the land. Thus proving that Vincent has his fair share of his mother in him, he was virtually anxiety-free! He walked right in, found the puzzles and started playing. There wasn't much kid-to-kid interaction but a combination of the chaos of the day and the age group is probably the reason. That and the fact that all of us parents were lurking about.

Tomorrow is the first day we actually leave him there. It could be a whole new ballgame (hopefully not the style our Phillies have been playing lately) or he could walk right in and head for the puzzles.

My gut says the latter. More to come!

Ahhhh Summer...

Happy Labor Day, fine folks. It's hard to believe summer is unofficially over. Vincent starts preschool this week. I think I'm having more trouble dealing with it than he is. Check in later this week for the adventures.