Fall Fun

In addition to all the normal fun stuff we do, we've been packing in as much fall fun possible.

We went to the Museum of Appalachia with our playgroup to see all the animals. Here's Mr. Linus looking reflective. And the texture of the fence... so yummy in a photo.

There have been two pumpkin patch trips. First we went to the fruit and berry patch with our playgroup.

 

 

Then to Life Down on the Farm as a family. It's the second year we've been there. This year we ran short on time. Next year we may go on a Friday and spend the whole day.

 

 

We took a trip out to the Oliver Springs Fall Festival. Overall, it wasn't my bag (I'm looking at you, Elvis impersonator singing bad karaoke), but that's okay, because we went for the sole purpose of letting Mr. Linus meet up with the Smoky Mountain Rocketry Club. He got to watch a couple of rocket launches. His excitement made the whole day worth it. Even the bad Elvis.

 

 

We've also been making lots of fall crafts. Here are a couple...

...leaf rubbings...

...cotton ball ghosts...

 

  

 

 

We've also been taking lots of walks. We usually end up pocketing some nuts because the kids are fascinated by them. I devised a counting game with these acorns. I'd shake them up bartender-style in these cups, and then give each kid a cup of acorns to count. They made great little manipulatives... until they started growing trees, as seen here.

 

 

 

After the Little Red Riding Hood incident (when I spent months knitting an ADORABLE cape for Veda only to have her refuse to touch it), I thought I'd better change my strategy when it came to knitting a hat for Miss Veda. This time I got her approval on the pattern. Then I took her to the yarn store with me and let her choose the yarn. We ended up with pink, of course. So far, so good. She's pretty excited about her hat. Here she's cuddling with her yarn and asking me to "work it".

 

 

And here's Mr. Linus. And a rocket ship. 

 

Next post... Halloween costumes!

 



Things You Did Today 10/21/2012

Linus, this morning you pointed to the loose skin on my belly, made a concerned face, and asked, "What happened to you?".

I told you, "I had two babies at the same time!".

You covered your face with your sweet little hands and giggled.

Wearing the twin skin proudly... but not in a bikini. ;-)

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I've got to start updating this blog/your baby book more often. Busy or not. Even if it's just to share a sweet little anecdote.

Family Vacation, Day 4

Linus is obsessed with rocket ships.  All day, every day, you’ll find him gripping a toy rocket and rehearsing launches. He watches NASA documentaries in lieu of cartoons and spends his reading time intently perusing books about astronauts, rockets, space and shuttles. It’s become something of a game in our house to ask Linus, “Are you a baby?” because without fail he always answers, “No, I’m an astronaut.” So our visit to Kennedy Space Center was extra special.

We started out in the rocket garden. Linus couldn’t be contained. He ran between the models excitedly pointing to each one and declaring, “Another rocket ship!”.

 

Here’s Veda sitting in a capsule with Nana. Poor Veda, she was pretty uncomfortable that day (see Day 3 parking lot incident).

 

Running through the rocket garden.

Veda being carried through the rocket garden on Granddad’s shoulders. This photo is terribly blurry, but I love it.

Linus studying some models with his dad.

Two subjects I’ve learned a lot about from my son: construction equipment and NASA. Before Linus turned into our resident rocket man, I never thought much about how space vehicles get to their launching pads. I’ve since learned that they’re transported on a huge vehicle called a crawler that moves at a creeping 1 mph. Think a flat top mounted on tank caterpillers. All this I knew from the many library books we’ve studied, but until our KSC visit I didn’t realize just how big all of the involved equipment is.  Here we’re driving by a crawler track. The grass you see is a median between wheels. The rocks you see on each side are where the caterpillers sit. WOW.

 

Fascinated.

This is a building that existed for the purpose of assembling the Saturn and Apollo crafts, and fully assembled, those vehicles took up just about every bit of it. These spacecraft are taller than I ever imagined.  It takes 45 minutes just to raise the hanger door.

Despite not feeling the greatest, Little Miss enjoyed her day as well.

This next exhibit was great. Here’s the control room from the Saturn V launch (Man’s first journey to the moon). It’s the actual equipment as it appeared on that day.

The countdown clock was set to 3 minutes before launch, and we got to hear the recording of the countdown in the control room, with the seat of each member lighting up as he spoke. With all of the documentaries we’ve been watching, it’s gotten pretty easy to be sucked into the emotion of a launch. Even though we already know how each one ended, it’s incredible to imagine being there.

Liftoff!

Even after seeing the assembly building, even after seeing the crawler track, I still couldn’t believe how HUGE the actual Saturn V was. This is the real thing – not a model!

 

Here Veda is touching an actual piece of the moon.

A capsule

Lunar rock

And Veda pointing to a space suit while requesting to eat it. *Sigh* It was time to go.

  

Family Vacation, Days 1-3

Our much-anticipated family vacation has come and gone. Here’s the story in pictures.

Day 1

We dropped Mimi off to have her own vacation at a non-kenneling facility and drove for about a total of 5 ½ hours. I had wrapped car surprises. I had four movies to choose from for the portable dvd player. I had lots of snacks.  It was still a little on the miserable side. Before I had children, I never would have believed how rotten a car ride with little ones can be.  The highlight of the day was our lunch stop at Figo’s, which is a pasta place we don’t have around our parts. My primavera was delicious. Also at Figo’s, the pretentious order-taking youngster cautioned my husband not to throw Linus into the ceiling fan. (um....... okay???)  Hotel sleep. Bringing Nana along meant that I was off bath duty, which was pretty sweet.

Day 2

On the road again. We logged several hours in the car again, but things started looking up with a stop at Little Talbot Island. My only vacation regret is that I completely failed to take any beach photos. I know. I know. But it was a pretty long trek to the beach from the car, and we had two kids, the world’s largest beach bag, kiddie life jackets, a tent, and chairs… it was just too much. And I also hate exposing my camera to all the sand that gets kicked up on a windy day.

Anyhoo, we finally rolled into the driveway of the house we rented for the week in St. Augustine, Florida. House rental = great for families, especially when you’re traveling with grandparents, as we were.

Day 3

Our vacation was packed with plenty of lessons in history and science. Our first St. Augustine excursion was to the Castillo de San Marcos, an old Spanish fort. Two of the many interesting facts we learned about San Marcos: It was the queen of Spain’s idea to construct it out of stone because its wooden predecessors (the king’s idea) had repeatedly been destroyed by fire and weather. It’s still standing, so score one for the queen. Interesting fact #2 – it’s made of coquina, which is a natural material made of bonded ancient seashells.

 

I didn’t have the right lens on my camera to get the ideal shot of what I’m about to show you, but check out the beautiful texture of the interior walls.

 

The kids. Veda demonstrating her new favorite pose.

 

Little handsome climbing the stairs to the top of the fort.

 

Veda on the way up

Linus at the top of the fort with the Matanzas Bay behind him.

 

It was hot. Soooo hot.

 

A canon firing drill. It was in Spanish, so I didn’t understand most of it. But fuego – I knew that word. Even with our ears covered, it was deafening. Another interesting fact – those old, old canons were capable of accurately hitting a target three miles away.

 

After we left the fort, we headed to the pirate museum. We weren’t there long, though, because Linus was absolutely terrified of the place (and we left before he ever saw the talking severed head of Blackbeard).

Our next stop was at the Hyppo, which sells gourmet $3.50 popsicles. But they’re worth it. Man, those were some fantastic popsicles. The kids both had Straight Up Strawberry. Ray went with Key Lime, and I settled on Pink Grapefruit.

 

Between the heat, the walking, the terror at the pirate museum, and the adventure at the fort, the kids were CONKED OUT for their afternoon nap. No kidding, I think Linus slept about four hours. When they finally woke up, we ventured out for dinner. We were hoping for some nice local seafood. What we got was this:

 

In the parking of the restaurant, Veda tried to run away from my mom and was headed for the road. They both tripped over a huge crack in the pavement of the parking lot, and Veda fell flat on her face. She had a bloody nose and mouth, but she really didn’t look too bad. Then as I laid her out on my seat in the car for further inspection, the enormous bruise on her forehead began to show, and I started wondering if we would be using the GPS to find the closest emergency room. She looked pitiful, but there was no permanent injury.  I was a little worried that the fine strangers of Florida might call the CPS people on me, but only a few people gasped and asked, “What happened to her face?!”.

 So, yeah, needless to say, we did not enjoy fresh local seafood that night.

 

Things and Stuff

Since all the big kids are back in school here, we're enjoying visiting some cool kid spots during the week without the crowds and the danger of being run over by older kids.

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I've been working on the kids' Halloween costumes for about a month now. The main component of Veda's costume is a knitted piece, which I'm about 60% finished with. As soon as I finish with hers, which I hope will be soon for the sake of getting both costumes ready in time to get lots of Halloween use of out them, I'll start on Linus's. I'll be knitting a hat and then sewing a vest for him (without a pattern for the vest - wish me luck!).

Veda's costume is the first thing I've knitted in many years. The last thing I knitted those years ago was a baby blanket for my own maybe baby. I remember how deeply sad I felt every time I picked it up to work on it. Honestly, it was a pretty stupid project for an Infertile to take on. As soon as I thought it was reasonable to call it done, I stuffed it in a closet and gave up on knitting.

What happened to the blanket? I've used it a couple of times with the kids. Did I take it out and feel all warm and fuzzy about it? Nope. It actually made me feel exactly the way I felt about it when I was knitting it. Infertility is weird like that.

But this project for Veda? It makes me feel exactly the way knitting should make someone feel. Every time I pick it up, I'm so enamored with how beautiful the stitches are and proud of mastering the new cast-on I had to learn. I've also noticed that I'm far more patient than I was when I started knitting about ten years ago. It's become a more meditative activity. It's good.

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We've been doing an elimination diet with Veda to test for food allergies, and I believe we've found the culprit. SOY. There are a couple more steps to make sure that that's the thing (and the only thing), but I'm almost completely certain. While we've been doing the elimination diet Veda's GI symptoms have abated (well, until we introduced some soy back in), and she's grown about 1/2 of an inch within the last month and looks to have filled out a bit more. I'm excited to think that we've finally gotten to the bottom of things. At the same time, a soy allergy is going to be a PAIN IN THE A$$. Do you realize just how many things contain soy? Practically all processed foods. Ice cream, crackers, frozen foods... it's everywhere. And for this vegetarian mom and dad, it throws some serious complications into dinner. No tofu... no freezer section veggie burgers...it's going to change things up.

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Remember this little pooch?

That's our little Mimi. I got her as a puppy five years ago. Five years goes fast, and it seems that Mimi is no longer a spring chicken. A couple of problems have sprung up for our girl. She's become incontinent, which is common for spayed females, but it seems to have happened a little early for Mimi. She's going to be going on a medication to help her have some more control, but sadly she'll have to be on it for the rest of her life. She also has some pateller luxation, which means that one of her knee joints sometimes slides out of place. It's painful enough for her that it causes her to limp for a few days at a time and have trouble getting up and down. Her case isn't serious enough to require surgery, so we'll treat her with medication when it's bothering her. It's going to cause arthritis down the road, but we'll deal with that when we get there.