Rib Fest 2007

This week marked my half birthday and I am now 3.5. We had a little celebration with cupcakes after swimming lessons on Thursday. Mom measured me on my growth chart and I have grown quite a bit since I was three.

On Saturday we jetted off to Indy for the day (in the minivan, of course) for a visit with Jen, Buddy and Hannah and Grandma and Poppy. Poppy was there to do some work and to serve as a judge in the neighborhood rib cook-off. When Dad caught wind of the opportunity he asked if he could get on the judging panel as well (and Poppy was relieved to not have so much pressure).

Hannah, Caroline and I had a fun time playing, but the refrain "careful" is heard a lot when I am around. Although, the real agressor was Miss Hannah who seemed intent on tackling me as soon as we arrived! We all did a nice job sharing the toys. Caroline did take a toy away from Hannah, who had a look of shock on her face . . . and then tried to grab it back. The two of them liked playing with the music table-- until Caroline decided to push it around the room as a walking toy. I also got to play with Jen & Buddy's neighbor who is my age, and spent quite a bit of time over there while the little ones were napping/trying to nap. It rained off and on, so we ended up inside more than we had planned, but it was still fun.

You can see Buddy monitoring his ribs in the red apron below.
Compared to some previous journeys to Indy, this was an easy one-- no floods, no barfing, no traffic problems. We got home around 8:30 and went right to bed.

Sunday morning I was up around 6:45, as usual and we let Daddy sleep in. Caroline slept until 8:30 and then I went to help say good morning. After a trip to the grocery, we headed to an outdoor mall for lunch. I enjoyed a delicious PBJ sandwich and then we walked around and I played in the fountains.

We went home and the girls all had naps (including Mommy). Mom & Dad got my new window shade installed, so they are hoping I will sleep a little more, with the room a bit darker. I was excited about the shade until I saw it and discovered that it inhibits my ability to peek out the window and watch the neighbor kids.

Caroline enjoyed a fist full of mashed potatoes tonight and seems to get messier and messier at dinner. She gets tired about halfway through and starts rubbing her eyes. Last night she had mashed potatoes in her eyebrows!

Happy Dad's Day!

It was a busy week for us with lots of evening activites, including swimming lessons for me, golf and baseball games for Dad and a social commitment for Mom. Caroline just went with the flow, as she always does. Mom's glad it's summer because we have lots of salads, sandwiches and homemade pizzas for dinner, which I like a lot too. Caroline likes to eat toast. And don't you think toast always looks good when someone else has it? So one night Jamma called and said to Mom, I am sure you are busy trying to get everyone dinner. And Mom said no we're all just eating toast!

On Friday night Mom was out celebrating Ricia's birthday, so Dad got his turn in charge. We had hot dogs and french fries. Guess who loves french fries???? She was one happy girl.

Saturday was our warm up to Father's Day and we took Dad out to dinner. Overall we were pretty good. We went to an Italian restaurant where they gave me pizza dough to play with and I am always happy when I can have my own "Insalata Bambino" (with ranch, of course).
Sunday, Mom and I made breakfast for Dad and gave him his present: monogrammed cuff links that open like a locket with pictures of us inside. It was a smart gift choice because I didn't know what they were called, so I couldn't ruin the surprise for Dad. And Mom did hear me blab about the blueberry cheesecake!

We also took Daddy on a Father's Day picnic that I helped plan. I mostly ate the potato chips and cookies, but the sandwiches and grapes were good too. It was really hot and humid, so we didn't linger long, but were glad for the occasional breeze. Tank chilled in the stroller and ate crackers.

Luckily this picnic tired me out, so I had a great nap (another present to Dad), while Mom made the aforementioned cheesecake and cleaned the garage. Then when I was awake we all went to the Y for a swim. I enjoyed showing off my swimming skills, but I prefer to float around on the noodles. Caroline enjoyed her water time as well. Now that we have a pool membership they can do "Mom & Me" stuff whenever. Thankfully I am not old enough to be embarassed about Mom and Dad singing to Caroline at the pool. The only down side to this trip was that we left the house in a hurry and didn't prepare well for the ride home. I am not going to name names, but some of us didn't have underwear to change into and Caroline's clothes were left at home, so she rode home in just a diaper!
We ended the day with a nice meal. Caroline ate all regular "grown-up" food and like Dad, was a huge fan of Mom's cheesey potatoes. I loved the blueberry cheesecake best and had two helpings.

Having a Ball

I started big kid swimming lessons this week-- that means no Mommy and Me stuff. I go all by myself! Our lessons are two nights a week in the evening and I have been enjoying it. Every day I ask if it's a swimming day. We go right from preschool so it requires a little bit more planning and prep work for Mom to remember the swimsuits, snacks, etc. She also learned that she shouldn't wear her best shoes to work those days because it's hard to help someone else shower and stay dry.

The highlight of my week was Mom's new princess shoes. She and Daddy went to a very fancy ball on Saturday night and I swear it was just like Cinderella. Except they left in our minivan instead of a horse and carriage. And they weren't home by midnight. But other than those things, very similar to Cinderella. I told Mom that we could "share" the shoes. She got to wear them for Saturday and I get to wear them every other day. I actually get around in them pretty well.

Two funny things happened while Mommy was getting ready for the ball. First, while Daddy was busy doing something outside in front of our house, I went in the backyard and turned on our sprinkler which was sitting right next to the house. So there it is spraying back and forth all over our house (and the many, many sunroom windows), I am crying because I can't turn it off without getting all wet and Mommy can't help me because her hair and makeup were already done. Later, I also had a rare potty accident, so Mom had to clean that up, which made her feel very much like Cinderella as well!
Sunday we went and got a pool for Caroline and I to play in. Daddy selected the Bonzai Super Slide (or something like that), which included a slide and a raft thing as well. Dad then got to enjoy his role as the inflator, which Mom says is a boy job. It was really fun. My neighbor came over to play, too. Lily thought it was refreshing to have such a big water bowl in the back yard. And Dad enjoyed firing me down the slide.

Caroline napped through most of our pool play time, but she stuck her toes in later. She is working on a new tooth on top (#5 for those keeping score at home). She is eating more and more regular food, (which she loves) and kicks her feet with delight when something new is making its way to her highchair tray. Our only complaint is that she doesn't nap much at school (20 minutes on an average day), but she is still a jolly, happy soul most of the time. She used to need a power nap from 6-6:30 when we walked in the door, but she is now able to do without that, which is nice so that we can all have dinner together.

Reuniting with Old Friends

Reported by Beth this week:
We just returned home from a weekend in South Bend for a reunion of my high school friends, and in particular to welcome home friend Tom Large who has spent the past 4+ months serving as an orthopedic surgeon in Afghanistan as part of his Air Force commitment following the completion of his residency.

The party took place at the Large's house and almost the whole gang made it into town for the event, including all of our parents, spouses and the growing group of offspring (with four more currently on the way!) Fourteen years ago we had a similar party at the Large's house to send us off to college, at which point we were dubbed the "College Bound Gang." Cheesily enough, we still refer to ourselves as CBG. And to document the occasion we took a group photo in front of the same pine tree. (For those of you wondering, Tom --now officially Major Large-- is the second guy from the right in the photo below).

We all had a great time catching up, eating, and watching the little ones play together. Katie had a terrific time with some new friends (especially Mallory below and Miss Kim, further down). It was a very warm day and then a big thunderstorm blew in, which made things interesting. When the storm hit, Mom was helping Katie get some cake and Dad was holding Caroline. They all headed into the house and I ended up in the tent. Jamie laughingly said that I was the only one who ran through the pelting rain to get to the tent! Thankfully the tent had sides and brave Steven Yarger served as the corner holder and kept us all dry.

Caroline was a trooper and lasted 3 hours, at which time Jamie took the girls home to my parent's house to nap and to free up my hands to drink beer!

We also enjoyed a nice visit with my parents and got in some sprinkler time, a trip to the neighbor's koi pond and a walk, in addition to a lot of coloring, play with the Strawberry Shortcake dollhouse and Mom forcing me to clean out some of my old school stuff.

Our drive home was speedy and uneventful and both Katie and I had little naps. We deserved this since our trip to South Bend included a vomiting incident about an hour away from my parent's. Caroline threw up all over her car seat. I was driving, so Jamie had to manage containment, which was comical since he didn't know where to find things. And during all of it, Katie was yelling that it smelled. Fortunately, if there is anything fortunate in someone throwing up, it occurred just a few miles away from a rest stop. Unfortunately, I was on clean-up duty and had to bathe my daughter in the rest stop sink. Please don't alert the authorities! I washed the basin with soap first and gave her another bath when we arrived at my parents. Thankfully, she didn't have any more episodes, so it must have been a carsickness thing. Katie enjoyed faking us out the rest of the way there with false puke reports: "She got sick again!!! Oh wait, she just coughed. . ."