Tucker’s Birthday Sandbox

I have mentioned all of the fun Tuck has been having in his new sandbox, here are some pictures. 

He is so funny when he decides he wants to play in it.  He goes over to the railroad ties, sits down and takes off his shoes. I dread the fight we will have when the weather turns cold and he still wants to take off his shoes.

   The other day he was playing and I asked him “Tucker do you love your sandbox?” He looked up, grinned and said “Oh yeah, thank you, Papaw.”  Is that not the sweetest thing?

We have to put Kora in the lid; otherwise she eats the sand and gravel.  She is usually not so upset about being confined.

Pumpkin Patch With Friends

This weekend we went on a big adventure with some friends from work.  There were 4 of us who had a baby every 3 months three years ago; February, June, August and December.  We all got together this weekend along with additional siblings. We went to Exploration Acres south of Lafayette and had such fun.  The kids played in the Straw tunnel.  Here is Tuck and Dillon.

    

Elizabeth and Tuck in the straw pile. (we found much straw in the diaper)

The kids had fun in the corn maze but got burnt out pretty quick with empty bellies right before lunch.  We found the emergency exit and made a bee line for our picnic baskets.

Then we were all off to the pumpkin patch. Here are Elizabeth, Tucker and Bison looking for the Great Pumpkin.  Tuck cabbaged onto the very first BIG one that he found.  He kept exploring but came back to the first one each time.  Turns out it was a 20# pumpkin.  He could hardly roll it.

Kora found a little pumpkin just her size.  Here she is with the corn maze map.  

Tuck and Elizabeth worked together to pull the wagon out of the patch with their treasures. Angie and I had to laugh.  What will we do when they get married?  Tee Hee.

Angie and I took the kids thru one more maze after the others left.  The kids were pretty tired by the time we left.  I think they were asleep before we hit the highway and slept the whole way home.

He Washed His Hands All By Himself

Last week while we were on our staycation Tuck pulled a doozy.  We were getting ready to leave the hotel after breakfast.  I had taken the kids to the bathroom for a rotation of changing stinky pants.  I was back in the lobby and was nursing Kora before we hit the road. TJ needed to use the bathroom and I sent Tuck with him since I would not be able to run him down if he took off or otherwise caused mischief.  I assumed all was well, but alas, I was soon to learn otherwise.

TJ and Tuck came back to the lobby.  TJ sat down next to me and discreetly whispered: Tuck just washed his hands in the waoieroaiwn.  I leaned closer and asked what.  Repeat: Tuck just washed his hands in the waoieroaiwn.  Now I am getting frustrated because TJ is mumbling and again I ask WHAT.  SO louder TJ says: Tuck just washed his hands in the URINAL.

Oh the mental images that run through your mind. Please oh please tell me you washed his hands with soap at least 20 times. And I only hope he did not use the nice smelling pink soap in the bottom of the urinal while he was at it.

All I can do is laugh.  I picture him standing there, with the water just at his level, so proud, smiling, showing Daddy just what he had done, clueless. 

Oh, my boy.  What will we do with you?

Jane Hardisty Day

Last year, as an award for doing such an outstanding job of public service, our State Conservationist, Jane Hardisty, awarded us a day of leave.  Her only requirement was that we tell her what we did with our special day.  Jane, this blog is for you.

Our family took a staycation to Lafayette. You know how you never take advantage of the sites and sounds that are close to home? Well we took advantage of some of the local recreation opportunities and we had such a good time.

Thursday we did a little shopping on the way to Buccaneer Bay, an indoor water park.  We were the only ones there and Tuck loved having the run of the place.  Kora was ok with it but all of the areas that were shallow enough for her were also the places with water splashing from up above and she did not appreciate getting splashed quite so much. We spent a lot of time just sitting in the water. Tuck loved all of the water cannons and one slide in particular. He was all over the place and even wanted to go back after dinner.  He was one sleepy little guy by the end of the day. SPLASH!!! Kora went down the slide a couple of times with Daddy.  She wasn’t too sure about it though. We had dinner at Olive Garden.  Tuck behaved himself remarkably well and we all shared the most decadent chocolate mouse    pie dessert.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast. Again, Tuck did really well.  He speaks to everyone that walks by.  There was a man in a wheelchair at a table across from us.  When he went by, Tuck gasped and pointed but it was not at his chair it was at his eyepatch.  He called him a pirate and made the man laugh.  I so hope Tuck continues to take people’s differences in stride.

We then headed north up the interstate.  Here are some pictures of the new windmill farms going in to White County.  There are so many of them, these pictures do not do them justice.  For some reason the majority of them were not running. Then we made it to Fair Oaks Farm.  It is a 30,000 cow dairy with an education/ recreation center incorporated into it. Tuck is all about cows and horses these days so this was right up his alley.  He got to hook up the milking machine on a fiberglass cow, see a calf being born (mommy had to excuse herself; the cow was struggling and the calf had to be pulled and the experience was still just a little too raw to witness).    Kora enjoyed cruising around and seeing Tuck climb and run.Then we went on a bus tour of the milking facilities.  We got to drive through the free style barns, see the piles of silage and other feedstuffs,

   see other baby calves just born in the barns and see the 72 cow milking carousel.  These cows step on the carousel and are milked in the time it takes them to make a round then they back off of the carousel.  They do this 3 times a day.  This hits a little close to home as well. This is the bouncing pillow.  Tuck liked it but didn’t like sharing it with the other kids.  He only bounced when there were few others on it. Mommy liked the bouncing pillow.

Here is the cheese maze.  The ropes were too high to inhibit Tuck’s progress to the big block of cheese.  It only took him about 30 seconds to TJ’s 5 minutes and many detours.

And here is our little farmer.  He loved the little tractors.  He would drive them for a while then park them both in the barn, load them with some “hay” (lawn clippings) and then take them out again to repeat the process.

  And Kora was content to sit and eat the lush grass.  She fit right in with the cow theme. She was a little fussy most of the time.  We stopped at an urgent care center in Lafayette on the way home and they confirmed my suspicion: another ear infection.  But now she is on another antibiotic and hopefully on her way to recovery or on the way to the ear-nose-and-throat doctor for tubes; we will find out on Tuesday when we go for her 9 month checkup.  So thank you Jane for my free day.  We had such a good time and it was so good to spend some quality time together.  I hope you know how much we appreciate your support.

Random Thought

With all of the “Made in China” products in the US, isn’t it ironic that Chinese fortune cookies aren’t?

Willy Worm Research

Why did the willy worm cross the road?  I don’t know but there were so many of them on the move on the way home tonight. They were all cinnamon brown.  I think that means a mild winter; the more black signifies a harsh winter.  And 85% of them were heading west and only 15% of them were heading east.  I told you this was research based. Do you call them willy worms too?  I know wooly worm makes more sense but we always called them by name.

Weekend At The Cabin

Kora got to stay at home with Grandma Connie while Tuck and I went on a weekend adventure to the cabin.  TJ had gone down on Fri and Tuck and I headed south on Sat morning.  I was looking so forward to spending some quality time with my boys and I was not disappointed.

On the way down I told Tuck that if he took a nap in the car then he would be able to play as soon as we got there and he would not have to have a nap.  He immediately shut his eyes and started with the fake “honk-shoe’s” but it didn’t take long before he was asleep for real.

 

So once we got there it was off to the adventures.  And fishing was high on the list.  When we left Crawfordsville, Tuck looked out the window and said “Here I come, fishies.  I am going to catch you.”  And so he did with three of them.  Here he is looking for his next victim.

Daddy helped him cast the line.

And here is Savannah, Uncle Nolic’s granddaughter.  Tuck finally called Nolic by name and I thought I was going to fall out of the campchair laughing.  He calls him “No-Nuts”.  Nolic did not think it was as funny as I did.  

This picture cracks me up because THIS is exactly how Papaw stands, with that little hip jaunt.  I hate to admit it but there is a bit of me in that stance too.

And here is the big bluegill.  Microseconds after this shot, the fish flopped and Tuck took off running for the cabin, never to reel another one in again.  There will be more.

And THIS is the Hunting Hilton.  The big boys have been working on this bad boy all summer.  (Yes, it was only supposed to take a weekend).  It is 4x8 with a door and window on the back, windows on each end and the two on the front.  Yes that is 5 windows.  The bottom of the windows are 16’ up in the air. There will be no sneaky deer here, they will be seen.  And of course they HAD to build this so that Tuck would have a safe place to hunt from.  There is carpet on the floor and talk of heaters, and who knows, maybe wireless.  Oh, did I mention the seating arrangements? Pretty luxurious, eh?I love this picture.  See Tuck’s hands?  That was how he held on the whole time, to my wrists.  That way he thought he was in control.  There was the one time that I hit the start button not realizing that he was holding the throttle.  Mommy ALMOST got dumped and we went SO FAST.  Oh, that’s Uncle No-nuts in the background.

LiveJournal Tags: cabin,camping,fish,Tuck

My Little Vegetarians

My wee ones and I were in the backyard this afternoon enjoying the nice weather.  Tucker had been playing in the sandbox and then in the hose.  The little dear then turned the hose on his little sister.  She got a good dosing but only screeched for a moment before spashing in the puddle it left.  Tucker headed to the tomato patch and my sweet darlings were both eating their vegetables; Tucker was eating tomatos and Kora was chowing down on leaves from the patio.  Ah the little dears.

Hiking with E

My friend Angie and I took the kids to Zionsville for a little hiking.  Tuck and Elizabeth had a ball.  We started at the playground where we rode horses and played on the swings.  Then we did some hiking.  The trail started out really nice, wide and graveled.  We made it to a gazebo overlooking a muskrat in the wetland; the kids thought it was cool.  Then we continued on the trails which rapidly deteriorated for stroller travel.  Kora was a real trooper on her 4x4 adventure over roots and a devils backbone trail. Then we found some acorns.  I had the kids looking for a special one with a “hat”.  Elizabeth found hers and put it discreetly in her pocket.  Tuck on the other hand, gathered every one he found and put them in every pocket he had.  His pants were already too big and the weight of the dozens of acorns wrecked havoc on gravity.  (Now, two weeks later, we are still finding acorns around the house.)

Here Tucker was putting acorns into my pockets. 

We had a picnic lunch and then played some more on the playground.  There was a little shelf there and the kids were “selling” ice cream.  I asked Tuck what the specialty was and he ordered up a sundae with chipmunk ice cream.  Delicious.  They were really into their little soda fountain with a make believe place for everything including all the sauces and sprinkles.

And then we walked into town for real ice cream.

Tuck was a mess.  This was his first cone.  He loved it. Here is Elizabeth and Angie enjoying theirs.  E was so neat and polite.  It must just be a girl thing. Kora loved mine.  I had chocolate walnut and it was so good.  She agreed.

On the walk back we sang a lot of songs.  “Ole McFarmer had a farm” was a particular favorite.  He had chickens, pigs, multiple cows, and even a rhinoceros.  Kora fell fast asleep to our serenade.  Did I mention Tuck’s droopy pants?  He just could not keep them up and we started calling him Cool J.  Angie was doing her best rapper stance.  I love these people!

LiveJournal Tags: Tuck,Elizabeth,hike,ice cream