30 years ago today!

geoffrey david archibald was born, hurray! as i learned from the always informative and sometimes entertaining internet, 30 years ago today was the horrific jonestown massacre in guyana. let's focus on geoff!

i was going to write 30 things i love about geoff, but my 2 month old is freaking out a little here, so let's go with 3. each one stands for ten years. :)

1. geoff is the sort of person who does not require an audience-if he thinks something is funny, he will do it or say it, even if nobody is there to ham it up for.
2. geoff is a thoughtful person, both in how he treats other people, and in how he forms his opinions-he doesn't just spout an idea simply because he heard someone else say it.
3. geoff is a fantastic kisser.

i love you geoff! happy birthday!

the depths of my nerdliness know no bounds...

i am so excited! my awesome sister-in-law sarah is in town visiting with her teeny weeny baby (seriously, georgie is only 2 weeks older than edie but georgie looks like she ate edie) and look what we spent 2 hours doing yesterday!!

before

after

yes. i am a dork to be so happy that my pantry now looks like a grocery store shelf. hurray!!

i'm feeling nostalgic...

i've been inspired by my friend mari's blog--she just wrote the story of how she met and married her husband. i know i always love hearing other people's stories, but if you're not interested in this sort of thing--SKIP IT!

edited to add: this ended up being SUPER long, because i remembered a lot more than i thought i did, and i thought it would be good to get it all down in one place. so if you don' t have a long time to sit and read all this stuff, my feelings won't be hurt, i promise...

geoff and i met in september 1997. we were both attending the st. paul fifth ward (aka singles ward), which met at the institute of religion at the university of minnesota. geoff was a freshman that year, and since he was pre-mission, 2.5 years younger than me, and i was dating someone at the time, i didn't give him a second thought.

this person i was dating was geoff's home teacher, however, and he came to me saying, geoff archibald--you know, the freshman? he's having a rough time in his comp. class, and i was wondering if you'd mind helping him out. i said sure, and set up a time with geoff to work on his paper.

we met in the library at the institute, and worked on his composition-he started out by telling me that his professor actually announced that she doesn't give "A"s. nice! the topic of the paper was his green couch. (riveting stuff!!) we actually had a really good time working on the paper and had fun talking together and getting to know each other. geoff was also dating someone, and the 2.5 year age difference seemed enormous at the time, so there was no flirting or tension-just getting to know each other.

the next week, geoff came up to me and said "we got an A!!" i will always remember that, how he said "we". i thought that was pretty cool. we were good friends from that point, and we hung out together relatively often. since we were both involved with other people, it was usually in a group, but we really had a good time.

this is somewhat unrelated but too funny not to include--that winter, there was a sledding activity-after the activity, there were a bunch of us sitting around at the institute drinking hot cocoa and warming up. geoff and i were sitting next to one another on the couch, and nearby, our friend c.j. was flirting like MAD with this girl tessie. they were talking about the movie "somewhere in time" and one of them was saying that they'd never seen it before. they started talking about how they needed to get together to watch it, and geoff pipes up, "oh, i've never seen that movie before, either." c.j. and tessie completely ignored him and kept flirting, and geoff turned to me and said, "did you see that?? they are totally going to get married!!" and guess what--they did! just a funny aside..

geoff went to his parents home in idaho (they moved there right before he started college) for a few weeks before leaving on his mission to england. he called me from idaho, and i was feeling kind of gloomy because i'd just broken up with someone. (video game guy). i remember that he cheered me up and made me remember all the reasons i'd broken up with video game guy--i promised i would write to geoff, and we hung up.

i DID keep my promise---i wrote to geoff once when he was in the missionary training center, and once right before he came home. :) the letter before he came home was actually to see if he'd want to go out on a date with my sister amy. geoff's brother kent and i had been talking, and we thought it would be fun to set up our siblings. i'd called amy out at byu to tell her i had the perfect guy for her, and she said, "geoff? he's more like my friend--i don't think i could think of him that way." my response? "come on, amy! geoff is a great guy and i want you to marry him so i can be related to him!" (too funny!!!)

geoff came home and we went out--amy (who was home from byu on winter break) and geoff, and me and kent. we had dinner and went to see "o brother, where art thou?". kent and i hung back to let amy and geoff talk, and we thought we were being totally sneaky...

amy went back to school, and i told all my friends in the singles ward to stay away from geoff, since i was reserving him for my sister. (i didn't tell him this, though) geoff didn't have a car, and lived close by me, so i gave him rides often, and we hung out together. then we were asked to be in charge of the activities committee together at church, so we spent even more time together. all this time, we were hanging out, and i thought i was reserving him for amy...

geoff asked me out on a double date, but he did it in such a way that i didn't think he was interested in me, just that he needed someone to go with. we went out together and had a really good time--the story of that date is pee-your-pants funny but this is already getting too long, so i'll save it for another time--after the double date, i started thinking, hmmm, maybe i could be interested in geoff.

i actually called amy up at school and told her i was having a problem, because i was saving geoff for her, and i thought i was starting to like him. she laughed and said to go for it because she wasn't interested. i also told a friend, sara, that i thought i could be interested in geoff. she was excited for me, since i was going on another double date with him the next night. (totally orchestrated by me in a completely manipulative and passive-aggressive, let the guy think he's chasing you but really you're just letting him catch you sort of way)

we went on the double date (to see "the sting" on campus in completely uncomfortable chairs) and after the movie was over, we said good night to the other couple and he asked me if i'd like to go on a walk. it was march 17th. in minnesota. BRRRR...i said of course! we walked around for a few minutes, and when geoff noticed that my face was turning blue, he made his little declaration. it was completely adorable and endearing.

we went back to the car, and i told him i thought he was brave to put his feelings out there when he wasn't sure how i was feeling. he hemmed and hawed, and then admitted that my friend sara "can't keep her mouth shut" vaneps had blown my cover and had told him i was interested. (technically, she didn't TELL him, but she let him know without coming out and saying it. all for the cause, i know! but still!!) we had a good laugh, and then decided to play a practical joke on sara. i called her from the car and told her i was home from the date and that it was a total dud. i told her my crush on geoff had been completely momentary, and i was totally over it. i added that i was SO lucky to have her for a friend, because i could tell her all my stupid secrets and didn't have to worry about anyone ever finding out. poor sara was really squirming at this point, but just to make it really awful, i said, "you didn't TELL anyone, did you?" sara sounded about 2 inches tall and she answered, "ummmm...", but we finally let her off the hook and told her we were just playing a trick on her. not the nicest thing to do to a friend, i know...

geoff and i didn't date too long before getting engaged--just a few months. i know some people would find that foolish, but the nice thing was that we already knew each other really well, since we'd been friends for so long. we were married in the st. paul temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on dec. 28, 2001. we'll be celebrating our seventh anniversary next month, and we've been blessed with 2 beautiful daughters, Quinn and Georgia. it is so wonderful to be married to your best friend.

doings part 2

some of you may know that my sister amy and i are superfans of little house on the prairie--we read all the books, went to the pageant, and raced home from the bus stop to catch the show on channel 9 at 4pm everyday. i even had a little house birthday party one year. so it warms my heart to see my handsome husband wearing his daughter's bonnet. and his "i voted" sticker. what a fashion statement!

georgie's halloween costume. again, note the goofy expression.

geoff and his girls. quinn is holding her baby too.

we carved a jack o'lantern for family home evening one night. quinn really enjoyed it, and made us put the pumpkin facing the house so she could see him from the window.

another picture from the cousin visit. the stuffed dog that quinn is holding was my old dog "arf-arf"-i've had him since i was 2. he is so mangled and nasty, i can't believe i allow my toddler to touch him--he really should be sent up to the great dog bowl in the sky, but i confess it makes me happy to see her playing with him. one of these days he'll just disintegrate completely (does anyone else remember that nasty yellow foam they put into toys in the late '70s? it's coming out of a hole in his neck. nasty.) but until he does, viva arf-arf!

i'm sure i'll post more pictures from the last few weeks soon--and i'm going to try really hard not to get so behind. i'm sorry i've been so lax in posting pictures of georgie, especially. now that she's starting to wake up a bit more we'll have more chances to take good pictures of her with her eyes open.

some of our latest doings..

so i am still somewhat ignorant of how to post pictures--i have a bunch i want to share, but for some reason can only post 5 at a time...i'll end up with multiple posts here, but that's ok i guess.

this is quinn's first official trip to the dentist--of course she's been to the office a million times (thinks she owns the place!) but she's never actually had her teeth checked. she did really well, and barb did a great job of helping her feel comfortable in the chair. thanks barb!
this is a great picture of quinn and her cousin sophie, who came to visit for 2 weeks. we took the kids to the red balloon bookstore in st. paul--this is a fantastic children's bookstore, and the storytime is just the best. well worth the drive. after storytime we walked down the street to cafe latte (the other reason it's well worth the drive) and had yummy lunch. amy snapped this picture of sophie and quinn zipping down the sidewalk with their balloons.
during amy's visit, we also went to pinehaven farm. this place isn't too far from our house, and it has a petting zoo, hay maze, pumpkin patch, and--get this--"minnesota's FIRST pumpkin shooter". amazing, the cultural offerings we have up here in chisago county...:) actually the pumpkin shooter was pretty awesome--according to the guy loading the cannon, the pumpkin comes out at 200 mph, and goes a half mile! modern engineering is a miracle.
here's another shot of the cousins (sophie, quinn, and marcus) on a train ride at pinehaven. quinn and marcus did have a good time, despite the fact that they aren't smiling...
here's a shot of the elusive georgia. she did accompany us to the previously mentioned outings, but she was mostly sleeping, so we figured we'd let her alone and not bug her with posing for pictures. she's just about asleep in this picture too, but since she's only 7 weeks old, that's kind of her main activity. it's kind of hard to catch her awake, and even if you do, she usually has a goofy expression like this one.

i'll post again with more pictures.

this is totally uninteresting, even to me.

i've been lax in posting, not only because we've been busy around here with the new baby and tons of out of town visitors for several weeks, but because geoff and i are super lazy about uploading our pictures from the camera, and i've been stuck in the mindset that i have to have pictures in order to post. wow that was a long sentence, but it's the truth. so more and more time has gone by, and then i feel irritated with myself when i see my friends' blogs--i really enjoy reading them, so i'm assuming they'd like to read mine too. so i hearby resolve to do better, imaginary cyber-friends.

we're starting to fall into more of a routine, which is nice--little Q is finally sleeping through the night again (she would wake up in the middle of the night asking to color, or to ride in the car? i think she was dreaming...), although the baby still needs to eat twice during the night.

i'm finally able to exercise, hallelujah! i haven't managed to figure out how i'm going to do it with the two girls, but at least i have the doctor's go-ahead. so far i've just been doing annoying aerobics videos in my basement and then going running on the days when geoff's home. or at least i WAS running--my feet grew with this baby! they swelled with my first one, but then they went back down. not this time!

so i went to get new shoes this weekend--we were in the big bad city (how i miss you, tall buildings!) and i stopped at running room--can i just say that store is seriously over-rated? at least the grand ave. one is. i found out that i was already wearing my running shoes too tight, and now they're even worse with the extra half size i've gained. after trying on these lovely size tens, i CANNOT go back to my size 9s.OUCH! unfortunately, they didn't have the shoes i wanted in size 10. had to go home and order them...long story short (too late, i know), they are on the way, but the warm weather won't be here for long, and i wanna get out there!! i'm THINKING of trying to run through the winter this year....again, i need to figure out what to do with the girls, but the thought of treadmill running all winter-blahhh...i didn't get to run at all last summer--i miscarried in july--and then this summer i "ran" (ha ha, is it really running when you are shaped like a giant football??) so i've been dying to get out there. this is the deadly dull saga of the running shoes. the end.
p.s. i really am going to post about things worth reading...i promise. just trying to avoid politics for now.

my daughter has AWESOME hair!

she's here!

Georgia Carrie Archibald
9/17/08
9 lbs, 4 oz
20.75 inches

Just wanted to take a minute and let everyone know of the new addition to our family--Georgia was born last Wednesday and it's been a busy week with little sleep, but we're really enjoying her. Quinn has been fantastic-she loves to "help" and has a little stool next to the bassinet so she can look in on her sister.

We were in the hospital for 2 days and Quinn stayed with Baba and Grandma Danny--she had a really good time, and they all got to come to the hospital and visit. Quinn was pretty hyped up but she had been prepped fairly well, so she was bouncy but relatively well behaved in the hospital...the curtains on the rollerball track were nearly more exciting than the new baby sister. :)

Just like Quinn, Georgie had a case of jaundice, but fortunately for us, she is a much better eater than her big sister was. There has been no worry of keeping this baby awake long enough to eat--she is a hungry girl! She does let us sleep for a few hours at a time, so it's not too bad--Geoff's working half days this week and next, and that's made a huge difference. The hospital sent us home with a bili light and we had to keep this thing on her for 20 hours a day-I was just starting to get a bad case of cabin fever when they finally told us we could take it off. We should just be grateful that we were able to bring her home instead of being under the light at the hospital, but I was seriously going bonkers being at home for an entire week. It's probably a good thing, it forced me to take it easy for a little while.

We are now gearing up for another marathon of visitors--Geoff's parents are coming into town for Georgia's baby blessing this weekend, and his mom will stay until Oct. 4 (yay!) Our good friend Annie lives in Pittsburgh, but she has an art history conference in St. Paul, so she'll stay with us for a few days as well. After they leave, my sister Amy and her 2 kids are coming to visit for 2 weeks! We are excited, and we are also glad the basement project is done so we have a place to put all these people. :)

We'll post again soon with pictures from the baby blessing and all the family fun.

A visit from the fam

We are recovering from a wonderful 10 day visit by Kent, Christine, and Ian. They live in Virginia now, and we have been going through withdrawal since they moved. For those who don't know, we shared a duplex with them for 4 years, and Ian and Quinn are just 6 weeks apart. They are best buddies, and it was really fun to see them back together, especially now that they are speaking in sentences...there was no warm-up time at all, they just hit the ground running and never looked back. Some highlights of the trip include a trip to the state fair, a train ride, and a local "wildlife education center". We also spent a lot of time just hanging out at home and at the park. Geoff and Kent got to have some much needed brother time when they drove down to Nauvoo for our good friend Robert's wedding. (Congrats to Robert and Jamie!)

We're also continuing preparations for baby Georgia--Quinn and Ian got to take a tour of the hospital and to see where she will be born...at first they weren't too excited about it, until Christine and I told them "We're not bringing any babies home today, we're just looking." :)

Quinn now has a baby doll (named baby Georgia--creative, eh?) that she's been putting into the crib at night and carrying around the house. It's been good practice being gentle, except for when she decided her dolly wanted to learn how to fly. Oh well...

why leaving a 2 year old unsupervised for 10 minutes is a really REALLY bad idea

this is why we aren't going to be nominated for minnesota parents of the year anytime soon...:) at least she managed to stay on the dropcloth, but it did take three days to get all the yellow paint out of her hair. two year olds are so much fun!

Our athletic endeavors...

Here we see 2 pictures of Quinn at her "jumping kwass". She is an enthusiastic gymnast, and demonstrates her abilities at home by jumping on the couch and attempting to help the cat learn tumbling tricks. Really, it's been a lot of fun taking her to this little class---her confidence and her willingness to try new things has increased quite a bit since she's started. Plus, check out the little dress! So cute. She loves wearing this dress and is always sad when it has to go in the "wondwee".

The other picture is of the three of us when we "ran" the Lindstrom Loppet a couple weeks ago. This is a local 5K, and I put the word "run" in quotation marks, because if you saw us, you'd understand how generous it is to call what we did "running". I've tried really hard to keep up with running during this pregnancy, and I'm pretty pleased that I'm still able to do it (although not with this heat this past week!) but our times show that we were burning up the road with a 14 minute mile! Not that I was very fast before being pregnant, but at least I could do a ten minute mile. Whatever--I'm still proud of us. Geoff stayed with me and earned the distinction of being the very LAST person in his age category as a result. What a guy! Even going 14 minutes a mile, I still managed to beat 10 people in my age category...I'm thinking they might have been clinically dead people being pushed on stretchers? Maybe people who only have half a leg.

just another manic monday

not really much to report, but i'm trying to get better at writing more often...you'll see that geoff uploaded a bunch of pictures last night--if you're interested in seeing more, click on the link that says "our web photo albums" to the right...

Quinn seems to be starting to understand that this baby everyone keeps talking about is actually a real baby. when we see babies in the store or at the park she wants to touch my stomach and talk about her baby "stister". oh--we picked a name! i think this is something else that's made the whole thing a little more real for Quinny--being able to refer to her sister as baby georgia. the full name is georgia carrie archibald (geoff's mom's name is carrie). we'll probably call her georgie when she's little, but i really like the name georgia too. we had originally ruled the name out, even though we liked it, because geoff's business partner has a dog named georgie, and we thought we cared. but we decided that we don't care. and the dog won't live forever...morbid i know. but in any case, baby georgia is the name!

what else is new...oh, we got a new car! well, new to us, anyway. this news in and of itself might not be so blog-worthy, but the way in which we obtained the car is a funny story--we had decided that the mazda 5 was the car we'd really like to have, and i'd even gone and test-driven one. then we started looking online for one, and realized how hard they are to come by. the mazda 5 is a cross between a mini-van and a car--it has 3 rows of 2 seats each, with sliding doors like a van, but it is sized more like a car, and gets better gas mileage than a minivan. (about 29 mpg). mazda only started making them 2 years ago, so there aren't many for sale, and we wanted a stick-shift, which apparently lots of people don't like (WHY??? i don't understand). so the end result is that these cars are hard to come by, and consequently, out of our price range...or so we thought!

the plot thickens!!

2 weeks ago geoff came upstairs with this funny look on his face and said, "i just did something." of course i was instantly curious, and then he told me he's spotted a stick-shift mazda 5 on ebay and he'd gone ahead and placed a bid. i was kind of annoyed at first until he told me that he'd only bid 9K and there is NO way the car would go for so low a price. we had a good laugh about it and forgot the whole thing.

UNTIL--a week later, i was up at a girlfriend's cabin for a few days and geoff called to tell me that there were only 3 hours left on the auction and the price was still pretty low--well within our price range. We decided to go for it, and we are now officially People Who Have Bought A Car on E-bay and Lived to Tell the Tale. unfortunately the car was in san antonio TX, but fortunately, my awesome dad was up for an adventure, so he and geoff flew to TX on the 4th of july, made the transaction and were back on the road an hour later...did you know that you can take highway 35 all the way from san antonio TX straight to our house? i guess the gps wasn't really necessary. :) i think the best part of the whole story was geoff's mom's reaction when i called and told her we'd bought the car on e-bay. she said, "geoff? OUR geoff?" it is a pretty un-geoffish thing to do, but apparently e-bay actually has a good history of protecting the buyer. and we did get a good car, so it all turned out. but watch for us on the people's court in case we end up having to sue the seller...i love people's court!

Here are some more pictures including some pictures of the new car.

Some pictures of when Grandma Archibald came to visit:

Helping Grandma with the vacuuming.
Doing some reading with Grandma.

Helping Daddy make some bread.

The funny thing my kid said today

I have a wonderful book!

In which we redeem ourselves, photographically speaking

so let it be said: the archibalds do not let more than 5 months pass without adding photos to their blog. we actually just posted a ton of photos to our web album, including pictures from the recent trip to north carolina, so if you're so inclined, feel free to look at those!

Minnesota Perfect

Each spring and fall in Minnesota there is a two week period of perfect weather. The days are warm but not too hot. There are not many bugs out yet. Everything is green. And most important, everyone is happy.

Everyone is happy because Minnesotans are some of the most forgetful people in the United States. We get three days of beautiful weather and all of a sudden we forget we live in a state where winter drags on for six months out of the year. It is as though our minds, so long deprived of sunshine and warmth, get overloaded and our long term memory shuts down. We no longer can recall the dreariness of winter or the onslaught of killer mosquitoes in the summer and instead we are left in a state of constant euphoria.

Suddenly people start talking about what a wonderful place Minnesota is to live in, and how they could never leave this place. The Twin Cities has one of the highest college graduate retention rates in the nation. I suspect this has more to do with the fact that graduation and the big career decisions which come with it occur at the same time as this two week window. Young naive, college grads think, why would they want to move someplace else when they can live here. They make their decision to stay and then WHAM! the crummy Minnesota weather comes charging back.

Think I am exaggerating? My business partner and I were incredibly close to deciding to move to the beautiful town of McMinnville, Oregon. We set a date by which we would make our decision to either stay here or move which unbeknowst to us fell within the Fall window of beautiful weather. After two weeks of gorgeous weather we decided Minnesota was the place for us and felt pretty good about it. Three days later the temperature dropped like a rock and the whole state went into hibernation for six months. But it was too late, our decision had been made and I was left having to stand by my choice.

At least for two weeks in the spring and another two in the fall I can feel like I made the right decision.

we have blogging shame

creating this blog was supposed to make it easy for us to keep the masses updated on all the comings and goings of our little family. instead, we've put it off and now it's been so long it's just plain embarrassing, because there's actually a lot to report. so we will just come right out and admit it--we are horrible bloggers. we can add blogging to the list of things we are officially horrible at. this list also includes gems like hackeysack and alphabetizing my recipes. moving on...


the biggest news is that as of september, the firm of g and m archibald will be bringing on another associate. yes that's right--quinn will no longer be our sole apprentice. according to the ultrasound tech, it's another girl! we are thrilled that quinn will have a sister, and geoff's parents are over the moon, because they are getting THREE new grandchildren this year. our cat boo trembles with anticipation...

the other big project at our house is that we are finishing off the basement (riveting stuff, we know) to make a playroom, and more importantly, a guest room and bathroom. this means we have space for visitors! if anyone in blogland is still willing to be our friend after our lackluster blogging performance, please know that you have a place to stay if you wanna come hang out with us!

i'm actually at my sister's new place in north carolina as i write this, so i don't have any pictures to upload, but will bug geoff to do so, so this post has a little more visual zip. in the meantime, you'll have to be content with my content. hee hee. word humor is funny. i'm a nerd.

chomp chomp

this weekend we took a drive down to a place called the eagle's nest, which is basically toddler nirvana. for five bucks you get to watch your kid zoom around a room full of huge padded playground equipment, until they finally fall to a happy heap on the floor. Quinn discovered her bliss in the ball pit. once she entered it, she refused to leave. we were only able to get her out by promising food, and even that was a stretch.

the other big event of the day also happened at the eagle's nest....ladies and gentlemen, we have a biter. yes, it's true. our sweet little Q has developed a territorial streak that runs deep. she was playing with something and another little girl came along to check it out--bad move. this poor kid never saw it coming, but unfortunately i did. i was sitting across the room and it was just like slow-motion. i ran over there with a big "noooooooooooo" but the damage was done. Quinn had a big smile on her face and the other kid had 20 little teeth marks neatly pressed into her hand. this did not go over well with the other kid, as you might imagine. we had to go sit in the corner for a few minutes, after apologizing profusely of course. oh the SHAME!!! any suggestions are more than welcome, but please don't tell me to "bite her back!" she isn't even two yet...

goodbye, monkey song...you will not be missed.

i already posted on this in another group blog i participate in, but i am overflowing with joy about this discovery so i have to write a little more about this here...let me preface by saying that for some reason blogger is not allowing me to use exclamation points (huh???) so just know that despite my seemingly blase attitude here, i am super happy about this. yes, that's right. SUPER happy.

many of you who know me know that i am somewhat of a music nerd and that i love finding new singers and bands to drag geoff all over town to go see live. i also happen to be a parent, and this creates a bit of a problem, considering that 99% of all kids music is wretched. it either contains references to licensed characters, or preaches about healthy eating and/or sharing. sometimes both. (oh the horrors...dora the explorer moralizing in her squeaky spanglish---ayudame.)

i've been on a mission since baby Q was born to find good music that she and i could both enjoy...ok that sounds nice but really i've just made her listen to my stuff. middling success here...she is now a certified beatles fan, but i haven't been able to sway her on the sultry tones of suzanne vega. she'll groove to certain trip shakespeare songs, but is holding firm on her "i hate the decemberists" stance.

it's not to say i hate ALL kids music. i've tried to expose her to some old chestnuts--wheels on the bus, old macdonald--they have their place in the musical annals. but you can only sing these so many times before you start feeling like you've got early-onset alzheimers. so you get creative. old macdonald might have a zebra on his farm one time. then the kitties start appearing on the bus, singing meow-meow-meow...hey, i'm not proud of this, but i make no apology. when there's 12 minutes of road between you and home, the official line between Things I'll Never Do When I'm A Parent and Please Please Make It Stop, I'll Do Anything You Want Just Stop Screaming Already can start to get pretty blurry.

so yeah. it's not as bad as "the wiggles" or (shudder) "the doodlebops", but i fear the slippery slope that i've started down. you don't believe me? i give you exhibit A: the monkey song. nothing, and i mean NOTHING gets baby Q moving like "the monkey song". i have to put it in quotes because it's not actually a real song. "the monkey song" is...are you ready for this? it is "you are my sunshine", with every other word replaced with the word...monkey. the monkey song is pretty much the gold standard in our house--it can fix just about any problem, be it the classic "we're all out of milk", or "the cat doesn't want you to body slam her anymore, honey", or even the worst of all---"i'll be RIGHT. BACK." like its fellow miracles, penicillin and clearasil, the monkey song was discovered by a lucky accident. in the middle of the night, sheer exhaustion led me to mix up my "you are my sunshine" and my "old macdonald" (the jungle version). it made her stop CRYING already, so now we sing it about 452 times per day.

that is to say, we USED to sing it 452 times a day. i have now discovered Wonderground Radio. (please note the reverential use of correct capitalization here, folks). Wonderground Radio is a side project the geniuses over at minnesota public radio launched about a month ago. it is "non commercial music for kids and their grownups"...ahh. even typing it makes me happy. we found this gem 2 days ago and haven't listened to anything else since. the catch is that it's an HD station, so unless you have an HD receiver or 200 bucks to buy one, you'll have to listen on the web like me. but hey, it's free. i have no problem turning up the volume knobs on our tiny computer speakers so i can hear it in the living room or the kitchen. if it ever stopped being available online i would buy the 200 buck thing in a heartbeat.

Wonderground Radio is a nice mix of old and new, with lots of local stuff mixed in. just like the current (mpr's excellent non-commercial "adult alternative" station) but 100% kid friendly. they jump from james brown to mason jennings and back to the jackson five. oh and now the pixies just came on. holy mama this is good stuff.

please check this thing out and tell me how much you love it...just google Wonderland Radio and you'll find it. i'm so excited to be a Wonderland Radio missionary.


i have composed a short list of new slogans for Wonderground Radio--if anyone over at mpr is reading this and wants to use one, feel free.
*Wonderground Radio plays kid friendly music that doesn't make you want to shoot yourself.
*Wonderground Radio: because your kids don't HAVE to listen to crap!
*if you are sick of barney-induced auditory diabetes, try Wonderground Radio.
*Wonderground Radio is music for people of all heights.
*Wonderground Radio: throw your wiggles cd away, lady. you won't be needing it anymore.