A Visit to Indiana (Hunter's Staycation)

Arden is so advanced for her age, already learning to drive. Hey, aren't you supposed to crawl first? This photo reminds me of the car commercial with the father looking at his daughter as if she's still 5 years old. Someday, that will be a reality for me, but thank goodness that day is not today.





Cierra took both of the kids for a quick 4 day jaunt up to Indiana, leaving me at home, lonely but relaxed this past weekend. It was weird being without everyone, but I needed some time to myself just to reflect on life and realize how good I have it.





This will be a different kind of post, because I'm writing about all these pictures without having been there to experience anything firsthand. So Cierra will be breaking in occasionally to correct my mistaken impressions and provide the finer details.





Great-Grandma Treva and Arden smile for the camera. Cierra told me that Treva made a wonderful meal and all Carter would eat was strawberries and grapes. Boy, Carter, that was a big mistake. Treva's cooking is legendary. Now, I guess I'll try not to take it so hard when he does the same thing to me.

Great-Grandpa Hemmerlein got Arden a birthday cake, and though it was either 5 months late or 7 months early, he's wise enough to know that nobody ever gets mad about getting cake. Arden certainly has a hilarious expression on here and with her arm out like that, looks like she might be about to throw the cake in the direction of the camera.

Carter enjoys a boat ride with Mimi on the "slow boat", their pontoon. They also have a speedboat, which he refers to now as the "fast boat".

Arden is a go-getter like her mother and already training for positions as flower girl that may open up in the years down the road.

Quick guide on how to get all the relatives to show up at Grandview Lake... bring a cute couple of kids by for a couple of days. Either that, or book a sushi chef. We went for the less expensive option. Terri and Kara got their chance to give Arden a squeeze or two.

Great Grandpa Baer got to bounce Arden on his knee...

... While Great-Grandma read to Carter to keep him from getting jealous.

Papa grabs some time with Arden in his lap. I think the pattern on that chair has her attention!

The main reason for the trip was Cierra wanting to help her sister Alexis as she moved in as a freshman at Xavier. Sounds like it was an exciting move-in day, and most other campuses could learn a lot about how to streamline the process from Xavier.

When they pulled the two cars up to her building, the "Move Crew" of upperclassmen descended upon them and had both cars cleaned out in less than a minute. Then they followed her up to her room and deposited everything for her. The only thing she had to carry was her new key. When I think back to lugging everything up 4 flights with no air conditioning in my freshman dorm, I'm feeling just a little unreasonable jealousy. :)

Carter hanging out down by the lake, soaking up the sun amidst Mimi's flowers.

Wait, how did this happen? No one is holding Arden. I know, just off camera, everyone is arm wrestling each other to determine whose turn comes first.

.... Ahh, back to the natural state of things.

Okay, that's all I know... now we'll see how much Cierra has to add. Peace!

Just back from the beach!

Here we are back from our week in Rhode Island at Hunter's family reunion and we've brought back a different little girl than the one that left our house just a week ago. Arden is way more alert, full of smiles and giggles. She grabs things and interacts with them... mostly orally, but you can tell that everything she does is with intention. She can turn over now, and she's even started to be able to scoot sometimes. But the big difference is, now she gets bored if you're not playing with her. Hmmm... 2 kids, one of me. And both wanting my attention. This could get interesting.

So Block Island is a good distance from the mainland, and it takes about an hour by ferry to get there. Carter liked standing on the benches so he could look out over the water.

Here are Arden and Mommy, posing in front of one of our rental cottages. The family rented the DuPont Compound, a grouping of 3 houses on 18 acres of beauty that just happened to be the high point of the entire island. The sunsets were beautiful and we had a great view of the harbor and airport.

The island is covered with stacked stone fences, not built with mortar, just stacked in place. On a 10 square mile island, someone told me there are 200 miles of fence. Think about how much work that was, and how long it took. I imagine that when it was first settled in 1660, it was just littered with rocks all over the place, so that you just had to build the fences so you could walk from A to B without stubbing your toe.

What is Carter thinking? Probably something along the lines of, "How much trouble would I get into if I knocked all these fences down?"

Arden still has those beautiful blue eyes. We're starting to really think she might keep them. Whatever her eyes' color, I think I'll always love staring into them.

Carter stares at a tree? Not sure where this was taken, but it might have been at Carter's "jumping rocks", which were 2 low-lying rocks near our house that he liked to stand on and jump off with big fanfare. I tried to do it with him, but he got very upset. These are my jumping rocks daddy. Get your own.

Looks like Arden is auditioning for the role of flower girl in future weddings!

Carter got to the beach one day to play and build sandcastles with his second cousins Zidane and Biggie. Well, they built them, Carter was more in a knocking down mood. Nobody wanted to go near the water, though. Carter got the closest, with a few toes going in before he ran away in tears. The other 2 kids wouldn't go within 15 feet of the ocean. In fact, they even refused to sit in the wet sand, and kept sending me with their tiny buckets to fetch more water for their building.

Carter loves the family reunion because there's always music! Practically everyone plays something. Here, my cousin Stone entertains.

The day of cousin Seth's wedding. Mom and Dad are dressed up, and so is Arden....

... But nobody can come close to Carter and his little suit. He is PIMPIN!!! You can't see it that well but there's a tiny purple hankerchief in his pocket to match his little purple tie.

All three of the cousins sit together after the wedding. Carter was so patient, he sat through a ceremony that lasted nearly an hour!

Arden Turns FOUR Months!

Carter picks his favorite thing in the garden... cherry tomatoes. "This one... higher. This one lower.", he says, pointing up and down at the little red globes. He concentrates on the lower ones, and not too many of them make it into his bucket. I just let him go to town while I pick the big slicers. The other day I turned around to see him pick up one of the big ones and take a bite out of one side. "Carter, what are you doing?" I exclaimed. He started and dropped the tomato back in the bin, and turned around as if to say "What? I wasn't doing anything."

So much has happened since we last wrote a blog entry! We've had guests galore... in fact, we had a solid week of guests here. First Gary, April, and Alexis were here for the 4th of July, then my brother Freeman came through town for a few hours and dropped off my Mom to stay for a couple of days. Freeman was able to overlap for just a few minutes with Krin, and so got to meet Cierra's family members for the first time (4 in one day, and an unlikely combination.) As seen above, Krin's energy just makes the kids come alive!

Oma and Arden, clearly enjoying a relaxing moment together.

Carter is using the WiiFit to ski down a hill, with a little help from Opa. Gosh, thinks Carter. Don't know why everyone else was having so much trouble. This thing drives itself!

Aunt Alexis loved meeting Arden. The toy she is holding has become her new obsession. The only problem... it just won't go all the way into her mouth!

Jump! JUMP! Carter is allowed to jump off his red chair. And sometimes he does it a lot. Here he is in mid-air, one of many in a single photo session. Everytime I thought we were done, he said "Again" and climbed up, waiting for me to raise the camera again and count him down.

Now we can read to them both at once! Carter likes to turn the pages faster than anyone can read and Arden wants to touch (and probably eat) the book.

How cute she is! She just draws you in with every smile. Sometimes, it's just so she can spit up on you. Erp!

Today was Arden's 4 month checkup at the doctor. She got 2 shots, but this brave little girl didn't really seem to notice. Carter got one and pitched a fit. At least it was over quickly.

Arden is changing rapidly. She's now rolling over from her belly to her back, which usually makes her really mad. She can reach for and grab toys hanging over her head... in fact she seems to be miles ahead on that front compared to Carter at the same age. Talk, talk, talk, that's all she wants to do, and sometimes it seems like she's upset when she really isn't just due to how high-pitched her squeals can be.

One, two kids. Okay, I didn't leave any at the grocery store. We're good.

This is Carter with his friend Daniel at a playdate. We're trying to get Carter out of the house more often (and not just to the garden to gorge on tomatoes). These two are both pretty laid back, and therefore play well together.

Well, we'll keep on flying for another few weeks (got a vacation coming up... woo hoo! Hopefully it won't take us too long into August to get back on here and tell you all about it.

Garden of Eating....

Now is the blissful time of year when we gardeners are rewarded in spades for our efforts earlier in the seasons. When our children gobble round red tomatoes as if they were Halloween candy hordes... and really, aren't they nearly as sweet? A few weeks ago, I had to cajole Carter to get him to come to the garden with me. Now, once out the door, he makes a beeline for our planting space, singing out "strawberries" and "tomatoes". He can identify "garlic" "onions" and "peppers". Should he ever have to grow his own food, I'm giving him a great early education.

... and if Carter could only grow Jelly Toast, we'd be all set. Actually "Toast... Cream Cheese... Jelly" is the official order of the day. After breakfast, we head straight to the bathroom for a good scrubbing. He loves to watch in the mirror as I scrub a dub his face to remove all the sticky residue. I smush his cheeks into funny shapes and he just smiles away.

Arden, you are so lucky to have Carter as an older brother. He's all kindness and kisses. We've seen some kids at the playground who don't get along so well with their siblings.

Arden looking happy and alert. Happy is not what she's been with her napping today... because she just learned to roll over from her belly to her back. She's been going to sleep on her belly, waking up when she rolls over and howling with frustration when she can't figure out how to get back to where she began.

But in general she's still a pretty happy sort. Lots of smiles for belly raspberries and daddy tickles. I've even got a few giggles.

What a respectable young gentleman.

Come here! I'm going to lick you in the face!

I went in to get Carter up from a nap the other day and he came over to me while I was sitting on the floor getting a diaper ready. I thought he was going to kiss me on the cheek, but instead he stuck out his tounge and licked my cheek very deliberately. "Carter! Did you just lick me?" I chortled. So, of course, he did it again.

Greg and Deann, proud grandparents (aka Papa and Mimi) stopped by this weekend to participate in the bounty and to visit us and the lil' ones. Okay, mostly the lil' ones and a little bit us.

They're into thoroughbred horse racing (they have quite a few horses now) and it was different having the laptops tapping into racetrack feeds all day Sunday. One of Deann's horses is named Ready's Rocket and it has the modern-day record for number of races one at Churchill Downs.... I got to watch him extend his record live, it was quite a thrill and I didn't even have any skin in the game.
My in-laws have never been quite so happy with me as they were this weekend at the dinner table. It was as if I was on Iron Chef and the secret ingredient was tomatoes. Well, okay, I took a half day to do it instead of just an hour. Fried Green Tomatoes, a platter of sliced tomatoes with fresh basil, balsamic and homemade mozzarella cheese, and Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce and homemade Meatballs.

The harvest continues at breakneck pace. I have 4 trays of tomatoes ripening on top of my freezer, and I just pulled up a wheelbarrow full of onions this evening, with more needing to come out in the next couple of days. Whew!

Summertime

Summer is in full swing now and I just can't catch my breath most days. Here's Carter at the splash pool in the next neighborhood over. We're not members but his friend Mira gets him in with her guest pass. He likes to splash around in the various little fountains but lately he's been copying the adults and getting into a chair to relax and socialize.

Well, I can't say where or when this picture was taken but I'll bet Cierra took it and Arden was looking at Carter. She just lights up when she can watch her big brother doing things. And Carter really loves it when she makes her little communication noises. He laughs hysterically and then tries to repeat it back to her.

The garden is in full production right now. Peppers are starting to come in, and the tomatoes are at it in earnest. I've been giving away tomatoes left and right. Our biggest so far this year was 1lb, 6 oz. It was ripe enough today that I figured we'd better get to eating, so Cierra and I took some hearty slices off it to make some fantastic BLTs for lunch. We still had half of it left, so I carved that up, threw on some cheese and balsalmic and had that for dinner. Our garlic is all dug for this year, hung and drying in the barn. Onions are bulbing up nicely, and the watermelon is just beginning to set fruit.

I'm looking forward to my first market day of the year in early July. I'd be there more often, but it's rare that Cierra is off on a market day!

Sandwiches, sandwiches.... Carter likes bread. Toast for breakfast, Sandwiches for lunch, and sometimes toast for dinner. Peanut butter and jelly is a favorite....

And he likes to eat them all by himself.

Whoa, big brother. You'd better go clean your face before you give me any more kisses.

Cierra taking a moment to help Arden learn to fly. Cierra's got so much going on, but she is great about leaving work outside the house so she can spend time with them when she gets home. And that gives me a little breathing room most evenings.

Reality check: Arden is 3 months old now. Can you believe it? I can't. Time is flying.

Well that's all the pictures and I don't have any amazing stories springing to mind so I'm going to get some pre-Father's Day rest. Good night all!