Carriage Hill

To pass one morning last week, we visited Carriage Hill MetroPark.  (Many things were closed last week due to power outages, but we figured Carriage Hill should be open--it's a working 1880's farm, and last I heard, farms in the 1880's didn't rely on electricity.  We were right!)

Life off the grid

Playing in the "wreckage". . . 

Cooking with Daddy. . . 
Vegging out with the portable DVD player. . . 
Spending lots of time at the park. . . 

In other news

Life marched on, even without electricity.

• Mary is no longer the One-Tooth-Wonder. She cut a second tooth. And she's eleven months old now.
• David badly burnt his fingers when he touched a hot panel on the lawnmower. In typical David fashion, he (after a fair share of hysterics) pushed the pain out of his mind (this kid has a pain threshold higher than K2), thereby impressing the doctor, who commented that he "took it like a man."
• Despite injuring his hamstring three weeks ago, Greg finished his second marathon today, and with a new personal best--3:43:05!

Since I had little to do this week (besides watch my laundry pile up), I found myself taking a lot of pictures. Stay tuned.

And then there was light

Finally!  At 12 :13 pm.  It was a long 141 hours.

The leftovers

Sunday afternoon we got Ike's leftovers. (I had no idea he was going to save so much for us!) Since then, no internet, no electricity. We lost a few shingles and part of a tree in the front yard, but nothing serious. Good information is hard to come by, but we should have power restored this weekend. (After 72 hours, we are definitely ready!)

In the meantime, we are grateful for

• batteries


• our next door neighbor with the chain saw and friends with electricity and washing machines


• the ice at the commissary


• the cool (but no cold) weather


• car a/c adaptors for our cell phones and DVD player


• our running water (I learned on my mission that one can go without "la luz" for a long, long time--but being without water is really, really miserable.)


• Andy, who late Sunday night (E.D.T) and from a remote location in Boise, reset our Vonage phone to forward all home phone calls (which we can't get without the internet) to our cell phones--so you can call our house!


• The Greene, a retail oasis of bright lights and warm food--including Panera with its Wi-Fi and electrical outlets. (You can thank Panera and Greg--who was willing to brave the crowds here again--for this post.)

Mary's visitor

As far as David was concerned, Grandpa Mike was here solely to visit/entertain him--and Mary was just fine with that arrangement. She was more comfortable keeping her distance. I think it was the moustache. That and the fact she's very slow to warm up to unknown persons. But progress was made during the few days my dad was here, and I even got a few pictures. (Aren't they great pictures?)


Most importantly, my dad promised to report to my mom that Mary is really cute.

David's visitor--part 3

How could David let his grandpa come visit without a trip to the farm? We headed out to Young's Jersey Dairy with my dad, who explained to me that the milk from Jersey cows has more fat than the milk from Holsteins. (Ah ha! No wonder the ice cream is so good!)

Here are David and Grandpa Mike observing/discussing cows.

David rode the tractor pull ride again.
But David wasn't the only one who had fun. Mary rode a tractor . . .
. . . and a calf!

Grandpa Mike took over story time again that night, and even stayed home Sunday morning with David (who had a bad cough and couldn't go to nursery Sunday School). David and Grandpa Mike were such good pals that I offered my dad a job as our nanny, but he respectfully declined and decided to return to the exciting world of aggregates. So David's last adventure with his grandpa (for this visit, anyway) was taking him to the airport (in the middle of the storm!).

David's visitor--part 2

[I am posting these pictures as if I had done it exactly one week ago--which I would have, had we not lost power. Ah, the ability to revise history! Thank you, Blogger.]

Saturday morning David took Grandpa Mike to the Presidential and R&D galleries at the Air Force Museum (which are located in a large hangar on the base itself). We were able to walk through many different planes that presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt have used.

Below is "the" Air Force One, where Lydon B. Johnson was sworn in as president.

We also checked out the experimental planes in the Research & Development Gallery. David thought this one looked like a rocket ship. But much more exciting was the stroller we borrowed.
Next David took my dad out to Huffman Prairie, where the Wright Brothers learned to fly. (Yeah, yeah, the first flight was technically in Kittyhawk, North Carolina--but, besides inventing/building their crafts in Dayton, this is where they learned to be pilots and build controllable, practical planes. I used to be skeptical of Ohio's claim of being the "birthplace of aviation"--the first flight was in N.C., after all--but now I am a complete convert!)

Here is David explaining to Grandpa Mike how the Wright Brothers used a starting rail to get the plane up in the air.

Then it was back to the house for naps!

Rocket ship

David has been really into rocket ships lately.  So last night he was ecstatic when he spotted a rocket ship in the bath with him.  Can you spot the rocket ship?

(Thanks to my dad for snapping this picture.)

David's visitor--part 1

A few days ago when I told David that Grandpa Mike was coming to visit, he shouted for joy:  "Grandpa Mike is coming to play with ME!  Exciting!"  There was no doubt in David's mind as to why Grandpa Mike was coming.  (What other explanation could there be?)

After greeting his visitor at the airport with a big hug, we drove straight home so David could give Grandpa the grand tour of all of his toys.  (Every single one--even the stupid ones from Happy Meals.)  As David himself observed, "I have a lot of toys," so the tour took a really long time, until well past his bedtime.  (I have to pause here and point out how wonderfully patient my dad is.)

The next morning David took Grandpa for a ride in an F-4 at the Air Force Museum:

In the afternoon, Greg and I took Mary and ran some errands.  Meanwhile, David insisted on taking Grandpa to "the new digging park" (more commonly known as Orchardly Park), where he did a lot of showing off:
That evening David firmly requested Grandpa for storytime, which began traditionally enough...
...and ended with Grandpa's Blackberry:
The fun continued for David and his playmate today.  Pictures soon to come.

First steps!

Mary took her first steps!  

We knew she's had it in her for a while.  But she decided to wait until Grandpa Mike was here. What a thoughtful little girl! 

(Now Grandpa can go home and make Grandma jealous.  I sense a visit from Grandma in the near future.  Like I said, Mary is a thoughtful little girl.)

Because I live in Ohio

I took David and Mary canvassing with me this evening.  This is the first time I have taken them.  Greg is out of town, the weather is gorgeous, and this is Ohio, so I thought, why not?  It could have been a total disaster, but it wasn't.  Although, David got the idea we were following a map to Barack Obama's house, and he wanted to know which one it was.  So that was a bit of a let down.  But the fact that I finally let him out of the stroller to ring doorbells more than compensated for it.  Mary was thrilled because David let her sit in the front seat, so for once she had a good view.  It ended when David said he had to go pee-pee.  Actually, it ended thirty minutes later.  As previously mentioned, he has a bladder the size of Lake Erie, and I was betting he could hang on for just one more street.  He did.  And he could have probably gone longer, but I didn't want to push it.  Even in Ohio.

First day of preschool

Hallelujah!  The first day of preschool!  

Not surprisingly, we were running late--so the only picture I got was this one I snapped at a red light on the way.  

Also not surprisingly, David marched right in and plopped down on the floor for circle time.  

Also also not surprisingly, it was a glorious two and a half hours for me.  How I have missed sending my son to school for 2 1/2 hours 2 times a week (and how fortunate I was to do it last year when he was but a wee un-potty-trained lad of 2).  What a long, long summer it's been.

Twinners

Testing out my birthday present in very, very, incredibly low light with no flash.  Not too bad...

By chance/fate/coincidence/luck/accident/the hand of God, David and Mary have matching jammies.  Aren't they cute?  

The white bus

Greg finally did it.  He surprised me!  Greg loves to surprise me.  Rather, he would love to surprise me--if I would let him.  Unfortunately, I hate surprises.  Greg gets so excited about his surprises that he can barely contain himself.  Which means he is easy to crack.  Which I do, since I don't like surprises.  

One morning last week Greg took David and Mary out for a morning of Mommy-birthday-prep errands.  Upon their return, David came rushing in the door, arms overflowing with flowers, Tinkerbell wrapping paper, and Hello Kitty napkins, yelling, "Mommy, it's your birthday now!"  (Unfortunately, my birthday was still several days away, which David was deeply disappointed to learn.) Before David got too excited about sharing with me their adventures of the morning, Greg intervened to remind him, "David, remember we talked about what a secret is?  Shh . . . don't tell Mommy the secret."  

Of course, five minutes later, when Greg was in the other room, I set to work interrogating my three-year-old.  "David, where did you go with Daddy?"  "Go Target."  "What did you buy for Mommy?"  (I'm heartless, I know.)  "Buy Mommy a white bus!"  Huh?  "You bought Mommy a white bus?"  "A white bus!"  Whatever.  That didn't make any sense, but he clearly believed it was a white bus.  I figured it must be something that could look like a white bus.  Maybe a white toaster or bread maker?  But Greg wouldn't surprise me with an appliance for my birthday--he knows better than that.  Even if it were a toy (why?), I have the toy aisles at Target memorized, and there are no white buses.  Then there was the whole issue that David could be saying what sounds like "white bus," but mean something entirely different.  I was baffled.  I considered dragging the kid to Target and having him point out the "white bus," but I decided that would be going too far.  For once, I just accepted that I was going to have to be surprised.

For several days David repeatedly talked about the "white bus," asking where it was and telling me it was for my birthday party.  I couldn't wait until it was my birthday so I could finally learn what the "white bus" really was!  When it was time to open presents, all wrapped nicely in the Tinkerbell paper David had picked out (the Hello Kitty plates and napkins were Greg's pick--he vetoed David's Spiderman choice--because he knows I have a soft girly spot in my heart for Hello Kitty), you bet I went straight for the present from David and Mary.  I knew the present from Greg was the camera, so I figured the one from David and Mary was the "white bus."  

And guess what it was.  A white bus!  

In time David will learn what makes the white bus so cool.