Min-Eh-So-Dah

In law school, 5 of us survived two years in a cramped, expensive two-bedroom-converted-to-three, mice-infested apartment in the projects near school.  It's amazing how an experience like that means you will forever be friends with those people.  For my birthday, I told Nilda that I wanted to go visit Matt and Mary, two survivors, who moved to Minneapolis.  I got what I wanted and we had a great time.  Here's what I learned:

• Minnesota has a street called "Minnehaha."  This will never stop being funny.  
• There's water everyfreakingwhere you look.  The license plates say "10,000 Lakes," but there are actually more than 11,000.  This is a great source of pride to Minnesotans for some reason.  
• Matt told me that Prince is from Minneapolis and I haven't been able to get the soundtrack to "Purple Rain" out my head ever since.
• Matt and Mary have a wonderful house and we were incredibly comfortable there.  Matt knows about all the neighborhoods in the twin cities and can tell you which ones have nice houses.
• It's amazing how you can go for months without talking to someone and then hang out like no time has passed at all. 
• Mary is looking HOT these days!

Matt and Mary have two dogs and Charlie was fascinated by them.  We learned that Charlie cannot try to eat the dog food or drink the dog's water if he has a pacifier in his mouth.  Here he is crossed between wanting to explore the dog and trying to not get licked in the face.  

We finally got to meet Gracie!  She's the adorable little girl that Matt and Mary adopted from China, as documented on Mary's incredible blog, growingournest.blogspot.com.  I knew she was adorable, but I didn't expect this sweet little voice to come out of her.

Gracie loves the iPad. I put some animal puzzles, princess coloring games and Dora apps on there and she was at it for hours.  Every time she completed a puzzle, she went, "I dittit!"  She woke up the next morning saying, "I want to play the game."

We spent most of the weekend either singing or watching "Gangnam Style" or "Share It Maybe."  I highly recommend you stay away from both of these.  Here is Gracie showing off doing Gangnam Style.  

I had a great time playing with their two boys, Noah (8) and Luke (6).  I told Noah that I was a black belt in "Jew-Jitsu" and he and his brother went to their room and came out wearing their yellow belts, ready to go.  It's a miracle I didn't get punched in the balls. 

As the readers of Mary's awesome blog already know, Noah has diabetes and we got to see first-hand how they deal with it.  There's a lot of testing and a lot of math, but they have found a way to manage it that is remarkably impressive.  I wouldn't say they made it look easy, but everything would be much more difficult if Noah wasn't as capable and mature as he is.  
  

I went with Matt and the kids to Target.  They boys were looking at Wii games and I took a picture of Gracie going right for a princess game.

She looked at me and said, "Cheeeese!!"

I asked her to stand still for a picture please and got this.  Man, she's adorable!

Gracie has a clever strategy for when she is reprimanded.  She started screaming out of the blue in the car and Matt and Mary (I thought nicely) asked her to stopping screaming, since Charlie was sleeping.  This led to Gracie immediately tearing up and crying uncontrollably.  I had to show her Gangnam Style on my phone to calm her down, all with her lower lip quivering.  Well played, Gracie, well played.  

Here is the picture of Gracie and Charlie that we will use to make fun of them when they're older.

Here we are by Lake Minnetonka.  There are some really nice houses by there.  Ask Matt, he'll tell you.

• We ate incredibly well.  We got a babysitter Saturday night and went out for a fantastic dinner that would rival any place in New York (except for price).  We got the 9-course tasting menu because, as Nilda aptly pointed out, a 7-course menu just isn't enough.   
• From what we saw, most casual restaurants are set up where you wait in line, order your food, and then they bring it to you.
• Mary had suggested a cozy little local seafood place known for its biscuits that I was really curious to try, but when we got there, no one wanted to go except for me.  Check it out for yourself (www.redlobster.com).
• One things Minnesotans do not understand is pizza.  They take these thick crusts that are straight out the Papa John's/Domino's style and fill them with all kinds of crap liked potato salad.  Paulie Gee would not be impressed.  

We finally had to go home.  The lesson is that flying with Charlie in the evening, when he's tired, is easier than flying in the morning, when he's wiiiide awake and looking to explore everything on the airplane.

Charlie had a great time, but he was ready to go home to his own bed.

Not only was it my 37th birthday on November 19, but Charlie turned 11 months old, meaning he'll almost be one year old!  It feels like only yesterday I was changing his poopy diaper.  Oh wait, that was yesterday. 

 

P.S. - Dear Santa, please ignore Mary and get Matt and Mary a microwave for Christmas. Seriously, it's just weird.