Road Trip

I found this little guy under the snow.  He used to be one of our jack-o-lanterns from Halloween but he is pretty much how I feel right now: pale, empty, and dried up only much plumper.  I have been pretty blue lately for many reasons. I am working my way out of it and hopefully will be my slightly brighter self soon.  

I meet a good friend from college at the Please Touch Museum in Philly on Saturday.  I have not seen her since my baby shower and as usual, we always say we need to get together soon and never did.  This time we were committed and made plans.  She lives in NJ and the muesum was a place we could meet in the middle and have something to entertain the kids.  She brought her daughters Kaitlyn and Lauren. 

On the way to Philly Baylor kept asking where we are going.  I told him we were going to Philly and he wanted to know if we were going to see Rocky.  I said we were going to a museum and he wanted to know if it was the one with the steps Rocky ran up and yelled.  Lori has an obsession with Rocky and I cannot stand the movies.  She used to fall asleep to them every night like her own special lullaby. Apparently she introduced the movie to Baylor last week so it was fresh in his memory.  He was running up the steps like Rocky in front of the museum.

The girls were very good with Baylor and I really think he should have been a little brother.  He really looks up the older kids and would follow them anywhere.  They all got a kick out of the floor piano and the one on the wall was from the movie BIG.  Even Janice took a turn.

They have smaller sections fenced off for children under three.  I saw the cow and knew this was the place for us to go.  He still talks about milking the cow at the farm show and showed the girls his milking skills. 

They are perfect models and would pose any time I pointed the camera at them.  And they are beautiful girls too! 

There is a large Alice In Wonderland exhibit and this was one of the rooms that get smaller towards the back. Lauren had to duck and Baylor looks as tall as a door.  There was a maze and a huge tree that went from the bottom floor up to the first floor with rooms on both levels. 

These are heavy plastic strips hanging from the ceiling.  He loved running through them and would disappear into them every time we were near it.  He is a good kid and never wants to be too far from me so it was good to know he would always come back to me. 

In the one room of the tree they had a kitchen set up and he was in love with the tea set and pepper shaker.  One girl had the Alice costume on and was cooking on the stove behind Baylor.  He is wearing a costume of the one of the card guards.  He did not mind wearing it and is serving tea to Kaitlyn. 

In one of other toddler areas there was a farm and two houses.  He was picking up plastic potatoes with a shovel and then we spied the mower.  And it was a John Deere one to boot! One Mom was chasing after her son and asked me to move her son was running off.  Keep in mind these areas are fenced off and employees are at the gates.  I was trying to move Baylor though a fence inside the area at the time.  I wanted to tell her I would be happy to knock down my son so she could get to hers but I just hustled Baylor a bit faster and out of her way.  Like the kid was going anywhere and he was Baylor's age so it was not like he was one or something and could not take care of himself for a second or two. 

Who knew there were scooters built for 4!

This was more my style and Baylor loved it.  It was beautiful and worth the extra three dollars for the ride. 

Of course we rode an interior horse that moved.  He was smiling the entire ride.

Towards the end he was getting tired and the wooby came out of the bag and into his mouth.  Too keep his hands free of course for other things.  This is not called the Please Touch Muesum for nothing. 

I took photos of everyone as the Statue of Liberty.  They have a huge piece of art in the center of the main hall that is the raised arm of the Statue made out of toys and this was at the bottom of the platform.  It was a good visit with my friend and I am glad we made the trip. 

In other news we are trying this month for a sibling for Baylor.  It may be our last if we go with what Lori wants to do.  I go tomorrow for an ultrasound to check if I have any egglets growing and that will be ready this week.  I hope it goes well and sticks this time.  I am not sure if I am ready to stop even though it is killing me financially. 

Random Photos

Baylor and Buddy shoveling snow.  Baylor is obsessed with the shovels and moving the snow.  He uses his push mover as a snow blowder.

Mom forgot Baylor's Stocking at Christmas. He finally opened it when they came up for my birthday.

He is an excellent bird watcher and feeder.  He can sit on his toy box and wait for the birds at this window feeder. 

He asked me to take a picture of his hand.  And then I was asked to photograph his feet. 

Hanging out with Buddy in their under shirts.  Mom is finally taking down the Christmas tree. 

He looks like is is drunk driving his bike but I think he is eating chocolate while driving. 

Mom. Stacey and me at her baby shower. Stacey and I have been friends since 8th grade and she is having her first baby next month.  I am so happy for her. 

Lordy, Lordy

Look who's 40.

And what does a 40 year old do on her birthday?  She colors her hair to cover up the grays that have massively multiplied since becoming a mom and she contemplates her next steps in her attempt to have a baby at 40!!  And she mopped the floor and did laundry.  Just another day in my trip around the sun!  I am truly blessed to  have my son and my wife and my dog!   I am looking forward to the next year.

2011 Farm Show

I took Tuesday off to take Baylor to the Farm Show. Lori took him on a whim last year but he was not walking and talking too much. She told me about the cow pooping while they were standing there and he wrinkled his nose and waved bye-bye.  So they moved on.  This year when we asked him what he wanted to see at the Farm Show it went from Tractors to forklifts to cow poopy and pitch forks. 

Meme bought him a John Deer.e shirt this week and of course he wore it today.  He still loves his John Deer.e books and reading about the tractors. 

One of the first of many exciting experiences of the day was riding the bus to the complex.  He saw the bus  as we were parking.  I got out of the car and he started shouting, 'Get me out of here!' He was so excited to ride the bus he just wanted out of the car.  We got on the bus, he picked out our seat, and I took a pretty good photo of the three of us. 

We had french fries and potato donuts for breakfast!  Delicious.

And then we proceed to sit on every tractor in the building! At least it felt like it.  But he loved it and of course I put him on every tractor he wanted to sit on. 

We could have used this tractor with a snow blower this morning but we managed with the broom and shovel.

The corn bin was a big hit especially with the shovel and the wagon.  He played at a corn bin this fall at the apple stand and he still talks about it.  There was another bin at another stand and we spent a lot of time there also.

There is nothing like a big chicken to stand next to and take photos! There was a huge cow outside at the enterance but we never made it over to it to take a photo. 

We read many tractor books and one has big tractors which Baylor calls biggie tractors. When we found a biggie tractor we were super excited.  At the front tire another boy was laying in the rim.  This tractor was on sale for $229,500.00 marked down from $289,650.00. 

They have a lot of kid friendly exhibits and his favorite was the cow they could milk.  It was water but he loved it and we had to go back and milk the cow again before we left.  He kept taking off his shoes and the second time he went to milk the cow he did not have his shoes on. I was not paying attention and forgot about the shoes being off.  His socks were soaked by the time I realized it. 

This is a horse the kids could pet.  They stood on hay bales and leaned on a fence.  He liked standing on the hay best.  There was a sign to not pet the horse's face so I guess that is why I did not include it in the photo. 

The alpacas were outside their booth and too cute not to pet.  Most of the time I was juggling a camera and a toddler and I did not want to lose the toddler.  A lot of photos are without the toddler because he was in my arms.  Lori was off somewhere standing with the stroller out of the way.

Of course we had to have a milk shake.  Part of the fun of the farm show is the food!  The food is something they even cover on the local news.  It is the same every year and delicious every year.  Except the two years we ordered the deep fried mushrooms and they were still frozen in the middle.  This year they were perfect.  By the time we were leaving at 1:00 it was too crowded for us to go back to the food area and get lunch so we did not have any beef or pork sandwiches.  There is always fair food this summer to get those! 

They had a large bee exhibit which was also on the news and he was very interested in the bees.  These bees were pretty much sleeping but interesting none the less.  He would point to the spots on the glass and tell me there is honey in there. 

He loved the slides on the climbing fort. We saw kids playing on the on the local channel that covers the farm show so we knew they were there with the clowns.  He had some trouble with the ramp the first few times but he got the hang of it and would still be doing the loop of the ramp and slides if we would have let him.

On the way out we went through the fowl room with the chickens, roosters, geese, and turkeys. He kept asking to see the eggs.  We never made it to see the pigs and sheep and we did not want to walk back to go see them.  We had to tell Baylor that they were sleeping and we would see them next year.  

Some of the roosters had very interesting configuations of hair to say the least.  I loved this guy's eye lashes.

The turkey was very full of himself when we went by. He would have made a nice dinner.

On the way out Baylor was being silly and wearing his sticker on his nose.  He did really well through the entire day.  There were no major meltdowns and he stayed with us when he was out of the stroller.  He says he wants to be a farmer when he grows up and his Meme is going to cook his food for him.  He will be driving the tractors.  I found a stand that facilitates vacations on PA farms and I think if he is still interested in them in a few years we will look into it.  Lori says she will not be going on that vacation though.   

He was asleep within 5 minutes of being in the car and when we got home, we all took a nap.  It was a fun morning and I cannot wait for next year to go again! 

Snow Day

Let him sleep

for when he wakes he will move mountains.

or at least he will move his toys.  Time to take him to bed.

Happy New Year

No real direction to this post just a few photos from this week.  No real direction for the new year either but that is not too much of a change for me.

Ok I just think he is a very cute kid and I love this picture of him.  Santa brought me a new camera for Christmas and I can edit photos directly on the camera.  So far I like it a lot. 

I know this will not last but right now he loves to vacuum and I let him anytime he wants to.  He may not do the best job or use the best vacuum we have but at least it is getting done.

Molly gave Baylor a Toucan finger puppet for Christmas.  He wanted to feed the bird in the morning and put it up to the window where we have one of the feeders. 

This is my best friend Molly.  She has been spending New Year's with us for many years now and we look forward to it.  We also look forward to coloring her hair aubergine or burgundy. 

Santa brought Baylor a playhouse but calls it a dog house.  The other night we were playing in it and he did not want to go inside because he wanted to live in the dog house.  It has a tunnel in the bottom and he likes for us to watch him crawl through it.

It has dutch doors, I think that is what they are called, and three windows.  Lori and I have both gone down the slide and he can climb up to the deck all by himself.  His favorite thing right now is 'all by myself'.

Hope you have a happy new year and thank you for reading!