Temper Tantrums 101

Daddy and I have started our schooling in the fine art of temper tantrums.

Our Professor, one Oliver Don, has opted for a more home school teaching approach where we can receive training at any given time. Yesterday, for example, our class schedule was packed: morning car ride home from church, while reading books before dinner, and diaper less on the first floor of the house (apparently that freaks the professor out- as he's only really been diaper less on the second floor). I think that works out to about 12 parent credits. I also received a bonus pop quiz on "middle of the night melt downs" at 3am. Very informative.

For those with sensitive hearing we recommend earplugs as our Professor can get quite impassioned during a lecture.

We welcome anyone who'd like to audit the class and/or join a discussion group on how you dealt with your own impassioned Professors.

Dapper Dan

"Yes sir, that's my baby!"
Eat your heart out Ladies

Nothing if not determined...

We went to the Apple Orchard yesterday, mostly just to visit their bakery. We bought apple doughnuts, apple turnovers, stocked up on apple sauce, pondered getting apple jelly, and tasted a variety of apple slices.

It was an Apple day and what did Oliver find that he couldn't stop talking about?

As we were checking out he turned to the very nice lady waiting behind us and said "Honey Bear?" "Please". It was adorable, and slightly sad. The plastic jar shaped as a bear filled with yummy honey was just sitting innocently on the shelf, looking so cute. I had let him hold and touch two different bottles but he wanted to see them all. We did not buy a bottle, but if I run out of ideas for gifts I know where I'm heading.

The whole ride home was "honey bear" "bye-bye honey bear" "please Honey bear"... poor little guy. Not even a few drinks of Daddy's fresh Apple cider could distract him.

"Come what may" Adventure day (continued)

Our Destination:
We drove to Amish country (the biggest population of Amish in the state) to see a natural wonder. A CAVE. I'm fascinated with under ground rock formations and being completely under the earth. This cave has a 60 foot waterfall in one of its explored chambers. Then we walked about 1/2 mile down a different cave tunnel to the end of the path where we were 200 ft under the earth. It was one of the greatest caves I've ever been in and totally worth the $10.50 a person (Oliver was free). Parts of the cave tunnel were only a couple of feet wide but the ceiling above us stretched up 70 feet or so.

There were 250 stairs (x2 once going down and then coming back out again)...luckily not all in a row, or I might not have made it out. Jerimy took Oliver when we headed back to the entrance, because I was completely out of breathe walking at what seemed like break neck speed to keep up with the rest of the tour group. I am super glad I thought ahead and brought the sling to carry Oliver in (Absolutely best baby invention ever, by the way). There was not really a great toddler walking zone, and no one was supposed to touch the "living walls", so Oliver got carried the whole cave distance.

At one point about a quarter of a mile down the path, Oliver was getting restless and did not want to be on our adventure any longer. Thankfully the pacifier and flipping him upside down stopped the fussing. (Fussing in a cave, quite annoying and loud). Of course, flipping our son in a tunnel that's only a couple feet wide while going down stairs and watching intently as to not hit his head on a rock... that was a challenge.

Afterwards, we all hopped in the car, grabbed a little ice cream from town and headed home. Oliver made it most of the way home nicely, with a bunch of entertaining with books, songs and the "Um game" (we just say random words of things we see and in between say "ummmmmmmmm"). About twenty minutes from home Oliver started to get restless and threw a tantrum, but we were close to home and managed to survived.

Highly recommend the trip!

"Come what may" Adventure day

We rode in the car about 2 1/2 hours South. The first twenty minutes Oliver stared out the window probably thinking "where is Marmee and Dad taking me today?" Then he took a half hour nap- we thought he'd sleep longer but he must have been hungry. He snacked and talked for the next hour. We had to make a pit stop to use the small town gas station toilets. As we pulled out of the gas station we noticed a really fun looking park called Tree Top Towers across the street. If we hadn't stopped to go potty, we wouldn't have even seen the park.

We all got out, stretched our legs and played for a while, we weren't in any hurry. I'm trying to be good about having fun on the journey, not so intent on getting to our destination.

After a little swinging, sliding, and climbing we hit the road again and it was closer than we thought- only about a half hour away from the park. Fantastic.

To Be Continued...

Can you Guess??

Please play along, I know you want too. I think this one will be easy.

Can you name all three activities Oliver is enjoying while on our family adventure today?
I'll tell you all about our amazing road trip after I hear a few guesses.
I will share with you that Oliver spent a lot of time in the car and he did incredibly well. Daddy and I were both quite impressed with his patience as we traveled to our exciting destination.

Game Time

Oliver and I have been enjoying game nights in the evenings when I get home from work. It's been fun to watch him enjoy new things, and I love how his face gets super concentrated. I know the box says 7+ but who wouldn't love that k-k-k-k-klink of the connect four pieces hitting the bottom of the game board.