Little Friends

It is impossible to get multiple two year-olds to pose, but they are pretty funny when they are together. The first couple pics and Tucker and Finnan, the son of college friends. The second pics are from our Bible study on Sunday where all the little boys decided it was hat time.

Weight lifting

This is Tucker lifting weights with Austin. Sometimes he picks up real 2 1/2 lb plates and carries them around!

Cooking Tip: Peeling Squash

I have a love-hate relationship with winter squash: I love to eat it and hate to peel it. Eating Well magazine had a tip to microwave your winter squash for a minute before peeling it to make it easier to peel.

It worked! I highly recommend this as a new addition to your squash-peeling routine.

"Go that!"

Tucker is very involved these days in driving. His new thing this week is pointing out the car window and shouting for us to "Go that" (i.e. "Go there").

He often seems to shout and point to someplace random where he has never been before (like some fields on the side of the interstate), but be so emphatic that it's like we're passing his favorite Moon Bounce.

At times like these I wonder what is going through his mind. Also, by the time he can tell me what he's thinking in less cryptic language, will it really make any more sense or will his explanation simply be more amusing?

Milk!

Tucker passed his food challenge today with flying colors, and had his first glass of real cow's milk, his first taste of cheese, and lots of real yogurt. I don't think he realizes how exciting this is, but I certainly do.

Apparently the biggest reason that food challenges fail is that they can't get the kid to eat the food in question. So you have to bring them into the allergy clinic HUNGRY to make sure they'll eat whatever unfamiliar food you need them to try.

Tucker's appointment was at 8:30 am, so it was do-able to just bundle him off into the car and tell him he was going to eat breakfast with the doctor. It became harder when the doctor was running late and the challenge didn't start till 9:40 am, with one tiny cup (about a spoonful) of yogurt. Tucker wolfed down that spoonful and just broke into hysterics when he couldn't have more. The deal is you need to wait about 10-20 minutes to make sure there isn't a horrible reaction, before you can really challenge him with a serving or more of the food in question.

It is really sad to see your son begging for the milk and yogurt he sees in front of him, but not be able to give any. (I did end up pulling out cheerios to keep us sane, but still it was not a experience to repeat--next time I'm going to be looser about eating beforehand because he did not need to be that hungry.)

I thought Tucker might have an aversion to the taste of cow's milk after only having rice milk and soy milk his whole life. Not so. He hasn't remarked at all that suddenly his milk is different. And he definitely had no qualms about the yogurt whatsoever. He even liked the cheese I gave him at lunch.

Next up is an egg challenge in November. He'll like that one: real french toast (with syrup!). If all goes well we may have a relatively allergy-free holiday season (of course nuts and seeds are off limits to us, but that is easy to work around).

Oh no! Shoot!

Tucker is a little parrot right now. Whatever we say, he is starting to say. Austin said "Darn" the other day and he ran around saying "Darn." Today his favorite words are "Oh no! Shoot!" Again and again and again.

Just a side note, Tucker does NOT get bored of repeating words he likes. He loves his name and repeats it again and again ad infinitum.

Incidentally, Austin is no longer "Dada" he is now, emphatically, "Dad-DEE."

Tucker also has lots of funny phrases. When he pushes a truck the past few days, rather than making a truck noise he just shouts "NOISE" as he moves the truck back and forth. I think it's pretty funny.

The seasons are changing

Today was the first day that we've had a fire in our wood stove (we still haven't turned on our heat pump). It feels like a momentous occasion, though also a little bizarre because yesterday's high was 72 degrees. But today was a rainy day with the high in the upper 40s and even our old brick house can't hold heat in THAT long.

Last winter we kept the thermostat at 63 degrees, and that was what the house settled at today before we lit the fire. But 63 degrees today felt chilly... thankfully Virginia is good at providing lots of ups and downs in temperatures for the next couple months, so we'll be thoroughly conditioned before it really gets cold.

Helpful living hints

When you are about to put your son down for a nap, don't leave onions sauteeing in oil on the stove, even at the lowest possible heat setting. It may leave a permanent mark on the pan and your husband wondering why the house is filled with smoke.

FYI.

Thought of the day

"I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be." --John Newton

Fireman

Tucker is so excited about his Halloween costume he had to sleep with the jacket in his bed, and put it on before he even got up from his nap.

My little Picasso

Tucker has discovered a love for painting this week. Austin is constantly painting something: the house, a door, whatever. Tucker was overjoyed when I got out the finger paints and told him that he could paint like Daddy.

Of course, it is still a bit hard to understand that Tucker only gets to paint paper, while Daddy gets to paint lots of different types of objects. Tucker also doesn't like to get his fingers dirty, and is firmly committed to paint brushes, both Daddy-sized and small ones more reasonable for a budding young artist.

There is a slight problem with this new love: it is very parent-intensive. The other day, Austin had just walked in from work and it was dinner time, and I was sick with a 101 fever... and Tucker decides it's painting time. Obviously it was NOT painting time, but it's hard to convince a paint-loving two year-old of that without a major battle sometimes.

Maria Grace Jamison - 9/30/09

I had a whole entry planned out to post this week now that I was safely in my second trimester, to announce baby #2's expected arrival in March.

I was going to tell the story of last weekend, when Tucker and I were reading a board book that identifies some body parts, the various senses, that sort of thing. There's a two page spread that features kids demonstrating lots of emotions: sad, happy, laughing, scared, etc. Tucker looked at the faces and pointed to the tired face and said "Mama." I tried to read the other faces, but all he wanted to do was point at the tired one and repeat "Mama." That is what Tucker thought of me being pregnant.

Unfortunately, we learned on Tuesday that the baby had died.

It's funny, I wouldn't have thought I'd post about a miscarriage... after all, I waited to announce the baby here until the risk of miscarriage was over. But now that it has happened I feel like it has affected our lives too much NOT to post about it.

I love that our church has a service to celebrate the life of the unborn--called "Mass of the Angels"--and love that we have the opportunity to celebrate it as a short but very real life. We decided to name our child, which we think was a girl: Maria Grace Jamison.

In no particular order, here are some lessons I'm taking away from this experience: 1) Never use a home heart beat doppler--they are misleading! We got readings of a heartbeat long after she had died. 2) If you have a first trimester ultrasound, get one after 8 weeks, when the chance of miscarriage drops to 1 in 100. Before then the ultrasound doesn't confirm too much.

But the most important thing for me in this experience is choosing to grieve knowing that this death is for my good and God's glory ("All things work for the good of those who love God" Romans 8:28). Of course it is not how I would make this world to work, and I look forward to the time when sin and death and sorrow cease, but in the meantime, it's time to look for God's grace in the hard times. From the ease of the medical appointments and Tucker's behavior during them, to the outpouring of love around us, to the fact that I serve a real God who is currently holding my baby in His everlasting arms... the list of God's grace to us right now really does go on and on. "For from Him and through Him and to Him are ALL things--to God be the glory forever." (Romans 11:36).

Moon Bounce

We went to another fall festival this weekend, which sounded good on paper but thhe reality was less exciting. The hayrides weren't really happening, you couldn't pick your own apples, and the live music was picturesquely located on some asphalt. However, there was a really cool moon bounce.

Tucker LOVES moon bounces.

But this was a new chapter in his love of moon bounces. This one had two different slides (that were really fast!), and ladder/steps to climb up, and lots of room to bounce. He was in little boy heaven. Austin and I had to tag team bouncing with him, it was so exhausting. Added bonus, of course, was that Tucker's friend John and his parents accompanied us so he got to moon bounce with me, Austin AND John.

Tucker's best friend

Tucker sees a lot of kids in his day-to-day life, but there is one little boy that Tucker just adores, named John.

John hung out with us on Friday afternoon, and Tucker just about flipped out he was so excited. We picked him up on our way home from the doctor, and Tucker spent the ride home furiously kicking his legs in his carseat and being so loud that John was a bit scared. As soon as we walked into the house, Tucker brought every single toy out to show John, and wanted him to play with everything at once.

It is funny how kids' minds work, how they latch on to certain people/things and just talk about them over and over again. Even though John has long gone home, we keep hearing about him and what he's doing. Same with the lawn mower Tucker helped Austin load into the back of his truck last week, and the man riding the motorcycle that tipped over next to us (at a very slow speed)... these things come up ALL the time.

Tucker at two

Tucker had his two year-old doctor's visit today, and it's confirmed: he's still a big little guy. He weighed in at 31 lbs (~80th percentile) and 37 inches (off the charts). He looks long and lean like his daddy, and has most people tricked into thinking he's a lot older than he is. It is amazing to me that a kid can grow 18 lbs in year one, and less than 5 in year two--and still be large!

In terms of personality, I think Tucker is pretty reserved and relatively cautious (as two year-olds go). He is really sensitive to noise, which is funny because he loves to shout. Several people tell me that he has a long attention span and is very focused. He is very much a collector/organizer; he is always carrying at least one sippy cup and a handful of cars... you never know when they'll come in handy.

He has a lot of words these days, and is just starting to string them together, though usually his "sentences" are a couple nouns stuck together, like today he said "roof wet rain" when what he is trying to point out to me was "The roof is wet from the rain."

He is definitely an outdoors boy. When we get home from an expedition in the car, it is close to child abuse to make him come inside right away. I frequently find him trailing after Austin in the garden. He finds peppers and peas and raspberries even when we think they're all gone. He also stands by the beans and waits for us to pop them open for him. (Tonight I couldn't do it fast enough and he ended up marching up to the house demanding more beans for supper.) He also likes sports... he watches golf with us and runs to the screen and shouts "more!" when someone makes a putt. Balls aren't nearly as cool as trucks, but he does love to make baskets, hit golf balls and kick balls.

Of course, the love of his young life is trucks and all things wheeled. I'm not sure that will be an enduring interest, but the intensity with which he loves them surpasses any other little boy I know, and I think reflects a certain fixation/intensity in him. He is a sweet little boy, and he has a strong sense of order and how things should be (but can be very stubborn about getting them that way)!

It will be interesting to see what of his traits now are phases/developmental and what are the essence of Tucker.

My buddy, my buddy

I think you have to be a child of the 80's to remember the commercial for the "My buddy" doll which is a mini-me doll for little boys. (There was a girl version, kid sister, but it never seemed as cool.)

Tucker is Austin's little buddy these days. Last week, I was the only one who was allowed to wash his hands, give him a bath, put him to bed. This week, the honors have gone to Austin in a big way, and Tucker has morphed into a mini-me shadow of his dad these past few days.

This afternoon, Tucker just about refused to eat lunch in favor of sitting in Austin's office. He said he was hungry, and asked to eat... but when he figured out Austin wasn't going to go down too, he chose hunger over separation from Daddy.

At every opportunity, I am finding Tucker climbing the stairs to Austin's office, narrating what Austin is doing when he is out of sight "Dada work... Dada truck...", and mostly just following him around and "helping" at every opportunity.

Sometimes it's a two-tie day

As you can see, Tucker still has flair. He's wanted to wear his tie ever since church yesterday, and has thrown little tantrums when I insist on taking it off for naptime. It's hard having to give up your tie.


I also wanted to share this picture of the collection of things Tucker likes to eat with. I think the count this morning was one glass of milk, one glass of water, a water bottle, a duck, a pacifier, 2 motorcycles, several trucks, an airplane, a cereal bowl, a boat yogurt, and a placemat propped up on the tray to look at.

Tucker's favorite animal

...is a train.

We went to a petting farm this weekend, that had everything from chickens to camels. The camel was a nice camel that didn't bite or spit (it does, apparently, like to suck hair but we didn't get a demonstration of that). There was a family of wallabies, as well as a HUGE pig, and goats, sheep, and ponies.

I seemed to be more impressed by the petting farm than Tucker. He thought the animals were pretty scary, and that the wooden train they had set up in the yard was a much better way to spend our time. We spent about 15 minutes with the animals and 45 minutes with the train.

More Birthday Pics

These birthday pics are courtesy of PaPa! Thanks!

Birthday cake adventures

I decided to make Tucker a truck birthday cake.

The process started yesterday when I made the cake (so it'd be cool enough to cut out and frost today). I decided I needed to double the recipe to make a 9x13 sheet cake (necessary for the design I was doing), while the recipe called for a bundt pan. I've never actually used a bundt pan, but I know they're in the shape of a doughnut. I had it in my mind that bundt pans are a) smaller than usual pans and b) cook faster because of their shape. It turns out both assumptions are wrong. How did I find this out? Well, it started because I doubled the recipe, so I'd have enough for my 9 x 13 pan. The doubled recipe seemed like a lot. It seemed like too much for the pan, possibly. I ignored my intuition and put the pan in the oven only to discover 4 minutes later that it had already risen enough it was about to overflow.

It was early enough in the process that I simply scooped out enough for a dozen cupcakes and put everything back in the oven. Surprisingly, this didn't seem to hurt the result too much. What DID hurt the result, however, was assuming that a sheet cake takes longer to bake than a bundt cake. It turns out this is not true. Thankfully, the cake I was making was naturally really moist so the extra 20+ minutes in the oven didn't really hurt things too much, unless you knew how good the cake should've been if done right.

Fast forward to today.

Tucker was napping and it was time to make his cake. All was going according to plan, until I made batch #2 of frosting. I am still puzzled about this, but somehow I managed to curdle my frosting. Keep in mind that I'm making vegan frosting due to Tucker's allergies... and keep in mind that batch #1 and #2 had identical ingredients. The big question: how is it possible to curdle frosting? It was just confectioner's sugar, vanilla, Tucker's "butter", rice milk and a little crisco (I know, gross, but the recipe said it would really help the frosting be decent).

Anyway, everything curdled. At first I pretended that it was just a little thing that maybe only I would notice, or that would go away if I smooshed it on the cake. Not so. The rice milk and food coloring basically remained liquid while everything else precipitated out. A quick trip to the store for more confectioner's sugar, and a helpful hint from my friend that marshmallow fluff might be a good thickener for vegan frosting, and the cake making process started seeming more hopeful again.

The only problem with learning these lessons is that there is NO way I'm going to remember these little details by the time I bake my next cake in 6 months or a year.

But, all in all, the cake turned out well and at least Tucker was impressed.

Happy Birthday Tucker

Today was Tucker's second birthday, and we had a fabulous day. I only took a few pictures, but more are coming from David in the next couple days.

The morning started by opening presents from Austin and I in bed. Tucker is still at the age where he could spend 20 or 30 minutes on each present, so even opening 4 presents in a row was a lot for him. If you can tell from the pictures, it was serious business, and culminated in him shooting baskets outside in his new plastic hoop at 8 am (having still not eaten breakfast).

We went into town and met all three grandparents for a morning trolley ride around town. Tucker LOVES buses, so what could be better than riding the bus with all his favorite people? Not much. We got on two different trolleys and each time as soon as he sat down he started shouting "Bus! Bus! Bus! Bus!" Incidentally, he got a little matchbox car cement mixer this morning, and we managed to spot SIX cement mixers while we were on our way to and from town, as well as a dozen school buses and city buses. As I said, it was a very good day.

We had a wonderful lunch in town (I was concerned Tucker might try to eat nothing but sugar today, but he actually ate a whole hamburger), and I enlisted the help of a lollipop to keep Tucker awake on the way home. In retrospect, I'm not sure it was necessary, because he was so excited about the bus ride and playing with his grandparents.

After a decent nap, the festivities began again with all the grandparents showering Tucker with their gifts. He was positively delighted (and a bit overwhelmed!) with everything--he decided he liked his train table so much he needed to sit in the center of it. He liked his tricycle so much he decided it was actually a motorcycle. Aunt Liz's garbage truck had to accompany him inside and outside all afternoon. And he is currently asleep with Uncle Mike's motorcycles. This video shows what he thinks of the motorcycles....

Harvest Festival

We went to a local harvest festival this morning, put on by a local seed exchange company. It was on a private mountaintop overlooking our town, and it was a glorious day. Unfortunately, I am out of practice with remembering my camera, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Some of the highlights included
*Tucker trying to shake a gourd to help with the live music
*Hot, fresh apple cider donuts (honestly, I've never thought much of apple cider donuts before, but these were really spectacular)
*Tucker running down the big grassy hill like a maniac
*Lots of samples... everything from butternut squash soup to tofu mint brownies and all sorts of varieties of tomatoes, peppers, vinegar, apples...

On our way home, the exit looped through a vineyard where there were several dogs spread out lazing among the grapes. It looked like they were strategically placed guardian hounds (we saw a plastic dog kennel set up for one of them). It was bizarre. Who has ever heard of dogs guarding grapes? To scare off deer???

Telephone Tucker

Tucker loves talking on the phone. He grabs our cell phones at least once a day and runs through the list of everyone he wants to call. Today we called Liz, and Tucker proceeded to run away with the phone into his "office"... the corner of the room, behind the coffee table. Last weekend he played forever back there. I also enjoy this set of pictures as a good illustration of what it's like to watch sports with Tucker. He is essentially sitting on Austin's neck in one of those pictures, as Austin tries to watch football. Tucker has a unique sense of personal space.

Bear sighting

No, we didn't see a bear, but our neighbors did. A juvenile black bear approximately 200-250 lbs was sighted yesterday crossing the mouth of the private road that leads the last little bit to our house. There are lots of bears in the mountains but it's apparently been several years since one was sighted in the neighborhood.

Pretty cool. Though I do admit I'm not sure I'd want to encounter one on one of my walks with Tucker.

Sweet Pea

I like to call Tucker "sweet pea." I'm not sure where that came from, but it has become my little nickname for him. The only problem is that when I start using a pet name like that, I tend to use it ubiquitously. What's the problem here, you ask? Well, I start calling Tucker "sweet pea"... and then suddenly I'm calling Ben the dog "sweet pea"... and then Austin "sweet pea." Which is where the thing ends, of course, because Austin refuses to be called the same name as Tucker AND Ben. This isn't the first time this has happened. I call Ben "buddy"... and then Tucker "buddy"... and then Austin "buddy"... you get the idea.

There was even one time a couple months ago when Austin made some smart remark and I cried in outrage all three names before I got the right one: "Ben! Tucker! Austin!"

Even I admit this is not good. I'm trying, really trying, to keep each name specific to ONE person (or canine). I'm sure this will work well, if I could only find those brain cells before I open my mouth.

Haven't we done this already?

Tucker is back to the separation anxiety stage, after being totally fine about being dropped off at the nursery in church or the YMCA for ages. Only this time he's bigger, stronger, and much more dramatic. He also is a lot less easily distracted.

We walk into a nursery setting and I see a fun toy that Tucker would love. Tucker obstinately refuses to look at it, just waiting for me to leave so he can pitch a fit.

Two minutes after I'm out the door, he's fine.

I personally don't think it's separation anxiety at all... maybe the new term should be separation obstinancy?

Our hike, x2

We went on a family excursion to Western Augusta county this morning to take advantage of another day to play. We decided on a little hike-and-picnic, and picked a 3 mile loop that looked like it might be relatively accessible for Tucker.

Since it was only 3 miles, we didn't take the hiking portion of our morning very seriously. No compass. One water bottle for three people and a dog.

Our hike was going great; in fact, we were laughing about the excessive signage. Usually most trails only have signs at junctions, our trail had several signs in between that seemed totally unnecessary.

Everything was going smoothly until it kinda felt like we had been going too long. We had expected to meet our trail junction awhile back and it had never appeared. Suddenly we were at a parking lot and campground that apparently was not marked on our map. We couldn't figure out what had happened, how we had missed the junction, or where the mysterious campground was in relation to the trails we were supposed to be on. Our only option was to turn around and retrace our steps, turning our 3 mile hike into an almost-six mile hike.

The kicker was that when we got back to the starting place, we saw a woman who we had passed on the trail who had obviously been able to complete the loop and had not had to backtrack.

We're still not 100% sure what happened, but our leading theory is that the parking lot/campground we encountered was actually just a different part of the parking lot/day use area where we parked, and if we had just come out and walked a tenth of a mile, we would've been at our car.

The only problem with that theory is that the parking lot we came upon had a bright blue port-a-potty at the trail head, and we found what looked like the exact same spot afterwards in our car, but it didn't have the port-a-potty. Austin thinks the port-a-potty was magically removed on Labor Day, during the hour and a half between our first and second visit. I think that's virtually impossible.

Mokeys

Tucker has lots of entertaining things to say these days, but I especially love it when he points out mokeys (motorcycles). For the longest time I thought he was saying monkey. Incidentally, he loves motorcycles so this word comes up a lot.

He also talks about airplanes a lot, but can't bring them up without talking about the video he saw of the monster truck jumping over (and onto) an airplane. The matchbox airplane he has lives on our floor with a miniature monster truck on top of it.

*I posted this half an hour ago, but in the meantime Tucker found the keys to my car, and figured out that if he presses the lock button continually, it makes the car beep. He also, of course, needs to remind us that GoGo's car in Vermont beeped, and that he saw a truck crush an airplane in Vermont. Hopefully this video doesn't take a lifetime to load.

Back in action

I just bought a digital camera for $25 on craigslist, so I'm back in action for pictures. Of course, Tucker is still sleeping and Austin is fighting with the new front door he's trying to install, so there hasn't been many good opportunities for pictures. Still, I'm thrilled to have a working camera again. I think it did a good job capturing the frustration on Austin's face as he slumped on the couch.

(On a sidenote, the door IS in, just some minor problems now like a lock that isn't working... but who wants a Saturday morning project to extend till Saturday afternoon at 3:30 on the first day of college football season???)

This post wouldn't be complete without mentioning that I got to see a 3 day old baby at the house where I picked up the camera! Awwwww...

Austin's new coach

Tucker is Austin's new weightlifting coach. He watches Austin workout and likes to tell him to get to work. Okay, so really he just repeats the word "WORK," demanding that Austin get back into the shed. He pushes for Austin to have longer workouts, and less rest. It's pretty funny.

Tucker and Austin also have a new game where Tucker rides on Austin's back around the house. It looks like Tucker gets the better part of that deal.

Also, on a completely different note, our fantasy football draft just ended and I am projected to beat my husband in Week 1. Thank you very much.

There Goes a Monster Truck

Tucker LOVES the monster truck video we checked out of the library. He still has a relatively high fever (thankfully it topped out at 103.5 yesterday, so not scary high), which means that the little guy is tired and a bit cranky and needs some entertaining.

Toddlers aren't super good at lying down and resting when they're sick, so we let Tucker watch lots of videos when he's not up to snuff.

Unfortunately, the only video he will let us play for him is the same monster truck video, over and over again. Yesterday he watched it at least three times, and today he's working on his third time right now. I think I've memorized Monster Truck Driver Dave and Monster Truck Driver Becky's lines.

He shows no signs of getting bored of it. He is sitting over there smiling, with just rapt attention. I, on the other hand....

More wedding pics

This gives a bit more of the flavor of the day.

In other news, we are now safely back in Virginia. It feels good to be home... but at dinnertime Tucker felt pretty warm: 102.3 fever. Argh! Probably just adjusting to the hot weather??? Riiight.

Vacation

Here's the only picture that has emerged thus far of the wedding (and Tucker having finished his ring mission)... I'm sure more will follow, but as you can tell it was a gorgeous setting.

Tucker has been involved in lots of very important pursuits since the wedding at GoGo's house, like learning how to make his stuffed monkey sing "If you're happy and you know it" and stuffing his pacifier in the monkey's mouth (which opens and closes to the song).

He also has been telling us all about what his little friend in Charlottesville is doing. John hung out with us a few times in the past couple weeks, and according to Tucker he is accompanying us on this trip. We hear each day that John is sleeping, that John has a truck, and more.

Other than that, Tucker has been enjoying being the center of attention. My dad's family was around until yesterday, and Tucker really liked having about 10 people to order around, who for the most part listened to him. (His parents don't think his commands are quite as cute!)

There is an enormous amount of junk food around, and I think he manages to go whole days on vacation without eating much real food. It will be a tough transition to go home tomorrow!

I know, there's been a disappointing lack of pictures on this blog lately... hopefully we will get a working camera soon!

Wedding highlights

Tucker made it down the aisle.

It's risky to have a ring bearer who is not quite 2, but Tucker was a champ and willingly rolled down the aisle at my brother's wedding this weekend, and successfully delivered the (real) rings. He even willingly wore his tuxedo for almost four hours. Wow.

I was too busy making sure we made it to the ceremony in one piece to keep track of a camera, but I know other people took pics of him, so we'll eventually have the evidence.

Of course, the real highlight was that Mike and Kat got married--but I wasn't in nearly as much suspense about whether that would happen as I was about the ring bearer's performance. :)

The weather did throw them some curves, like raining so hard there was a foot of standing water on the road the afternoon of the rehearsal dinner. But the rain held off for the three hours before the ceremony, and the skies didn't let loose until the bride and groom had recessed (I think the rest of the wedding party got a little wet...).

Other adversity included my cousin Steve's almost 40-hour saga getting to the wedding. A family member had bought his plane ticket, so the credit card name was not in his own name--and he got flagged for potential fraud. But the ticket counters were so backed up, and he had to wait in three different lines that by the time his ticket was striaghtened out the door to his flight had closed. No rehearsal dinner for Steve.

But the story gets even worse. It was a red eye flight, so his only option was to go home and come back in 6 hours for the first flight out in the morning. That went off without a hitch, and he got to Dulles with plenty of time for his connection to Burlington. Of course, it was raining cats and dogs in Burlington so the flight there was delayed an hour. They finally boarded, only to be informed when the flight's doors were closed that Burlington's runways were still closed and they just had to wait. The flight to Burlington is only about an hour... they held Steve's flight on the ground in Dulles for THREE hours, before giving up and letting them disembark. By this time, two flights to Burlington had been cancelled and there were 120 Burlington passengers in line at the ticket counter with one representative.

Steve spent two hours in line before confirming that no flights were available to either Burlington or Albany in the next day, at which time he took a taxi to the Amtrak station and had about an hour to kill before a 3 am train ride to Albany. Of course, his connection in NY was delayed and then due to track flooding the train slowed to a top speed of 20 mph for a chunk of the journey.

He did make it to the wedding, though. :)

Austin is a busy guy

According to Tucker, Austin drives:
...every ambulance we see
...every bus we see
...every tractor
...every tractor trailer, and
...every pickup truck.

It all started last week when Austin was away for a couple of nights at a conference, and I checked a book out of the library entitled "Drive." The book is about Daddy who goes to work really early in the morning to drive his tractor trailer. It shows a sleeping boy when Daddy leaves, and then Daddy comes home and they play baseball together. Well, Tucker identified with the book. Each time we read it, he points to the little blonde haired boy and says "Tucker" and each page he points to the man and says "Dada" (well, that or "hat" because he loves hats and the man wears one...).

It's like the mystery has been solved for Tucker about what Dada does all day: drive big trucks. So now that he knows that, he spends his time in the car showing me all the vehicles that Austin is driving.

In other Tucker news, Tucker has taken recently to wearing Ducky on his head. I'm not sure how it started, but now he really enjoys wearing Ducky like a hat and it's a minor tragedy each time Ducky falls off.

Yesterday was an exciting day because the UPS truck brought Tucker a package. He is going to be good at opening birthday presents this year, because he couldn't wait to get inside to find a pair of crocs from Henny and PaPa. Austin has a pair of crocs, so Tucker was beside himself to have the same type of shoes. And the box they came in were cool, and Ducky spent a lot of time going into and out of the box.

We are leaving on Thursday for my brother's wedding in Vermont, and Tucker informs us every day that we're going to go on an airplane to see GoGo. He is REALLY excited about the whole thing.

(Mis)Communication

Austin and I do pretty well with communication, but occasionally one of us really misses something. Here's a case in point.

A month or more ago Austin set up a mini-reunion with some college friends in DC for tomorrow. He wasn't sure if families were invited, but I said that Tucker and I might come along anyway and just hang out in DC that day while he was busy.

A couple weeks later I told him that we probably wouldn't accompany him to DC. I was thinking: it doesn't make sense for T. and I to go to DC just to hang out by ourselves that day. He heard: I don't want to go to DC even if families are invited.

Fast forward till this afternoon when it emerges that 1) families ARE invited and 2) he doesn't think I want to go and 3) has tried not to bring it up and pressure me and 4) I have totally missed the invite and would love to go.

The only obstacle to all this is that now I've scheduled three appointments for Sunday afternoon.

All are rescheduled now, so all's well that ends well. But it does make me wonder how much gets missed in day to day conversation....

The dog ate the gutter... really

We had some of the gutters on our house replaced today in the hopes of actually being able to keep the water out of our basement, and out of the wall in our bedroom. (They even found and patched a hole in the roof that was so big they could stick their finger through it!)

So, it was one of those necessary but not fun projects. Until Ben decided to have some fun.

Apparently one of the guys was on the roof, and the other guy was holding a downspout when they heard the gutter machine turn on in reverse and start chewing up some of the gutter material they had brought. They turned around and a very surprised Ben was turning tail and running from the machine. It turns out he managed to turn on the gutter machine with his nose! It was not a completely simple switch, so this is quite the accomplishment. The workmen were shocked... in all their years on the job the worst havoc a dog has wreaked (till now) was running away with their hammer.

Thankfully, Ben's antics only ripped up 3' of gutter, and they were able to finish the job today with inches to spare.

You know you need to clean the car when...

...Your son continually asks for the half-eaten muffin on the floor of the car that he threw there several days ago.

I actually did clean the car yesterday, but apparently the muffin had hung around long enough in the car that now whenever we go anywhere Tucker points to where it was and asks for "muff."

Dear son, muffins aren't supposed to live in cars. Love, Mom

New Talents

Tucker took a nap at Henny and PaPa's yesterday. During naptime over there, he often falls asleep with one of them in the room, either napping on the adjacent bed or working on the computer.

Yesterday, Helen watched while Tucker attempted to suspend two Duckies by their tags, pinched between his big toe and next toe, one Duck for each foot. I don't think he quite was able to do one duck per foot before he fell asleep, though I'm impressed with his ambitions.

He's in his crib now, supposedly napping but still making noise... I think I know what he's doing instead of sleeping. :)

In other Ducky news, he has taken to giving Ducky to us to help us... like this weekend on our hike, Austin was going up a steep hill and told Tucker it was hard, so Tucker gave him Ducky to hold while he climbed it. Such a sensitive little guy.

Baking soda subsitutions

Today I decided to make a big batch of waffles so we could have frozen waffles in our fridge all week, in addition to a great Sunday breakfast. The only problem was that we were running low on baking supplies, so I had to scramble a bit to substitute for whole wheat flour (ground up oats to make oat flour), and we were also completely out of baking powder. Having a vague recollection that baking soda isn't as strong as baking powder, I decided to wing the substitution and put in a heaping tablespoon of baking soda for every 3 teaspoons of baking powder the recipe called for. Problem solved.

Until I tried the first waffle and found that it was inedible, with that baking soda-salt taste. Yuck. Keep in mind I tripled the recipe and was not about to let all that go to waste (as well as our breakfast).

So what's a gal to do? Basically I just added more of everything, especially the things that could mask the taste (sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin, banana)... and then added more of everything again, until the waffles were fine (though if you looked for it, you could notice the baking soda aftertaste).

If you start with a tripled recipe, and then add more of everything to make it edible, what do you get? A LOT of waffles. To be exact, we fed four people this morning and still have 21 waffles in our freezer.

P.S. Even the salty trial waffles got put to good use as frozen dog treats....

What lies beneath...

I think I've mentioned that our house is constantly full of surprises. Let me tell you about this weekend's two newest surprises:

1) Mystery smell. We have a mystery smell that Austin claims started earlier this week, but I didn't smell until yesterday. Austin says it started outside, but I first smelled it on the loveseat in the sunroom, and then near the refrigerator. No, I'm not talking about a good smell. I think we have a dead animal somewhere. But the funny this is the smell is diffuse and wafts here and there and we can't quite pin it down. Austin asked "how long could a dead animal smell? A week?" Let's hope so....

2) Bees, wasps, and hornets, oh my! Austin is in the process of scraping the side of our house that is most in need of a fresh coat of paint. It also happens to be the side of our house with a lot of wasps, and bees, and who knows what other stinging insects. Austin makes me very nervous on a tall ladder, scraping paint, with all these stinging insects around (one of them got in his shoe the other night while he was on the ladder). Yes, we're trying to kill them, but they have nested in the actual siding of our house, and it's difficult to get wasp spray up into siding at the right angle to kill a wasp. Today the situation got even worse when Austin took a break from the scraping to begin repairing the laundry room window which involved removing the casing to actually take the window out, only to find that the wasps were living inside the wall there and started flying into the house. The vacuum is currently sitting in the laundry room, waiting to suck up the errant wasps still wandering through.....

That's it for news around Midway Farm tonight... I'm not sure I can take too much more excitement like this!