Muncie, Indiana, Munice, Indiana, Muncie, Indiana

About a month ago we went to Muncie, Indiana.  (I sing it like the song from Music Man) Mark had a writing conference and the girls and I tagged along.  Here are some of our adventures.

Getting ready to go in the pool.

Our Excursion to the Laundromat

Brynn made her car seat a little messy on the trip to Muncie.  So Claire, Brynn and myself experienced a laundromat.  Claire said it was like the book A Pocket for Corduroy. We had been reading that book a lot around that time.  Claire loved the Laundromat and Brynn did too. 

Minnetrista

We had lots of fun here. It was the Ball family estate and it has become a cultural center and gardens.  We had lots of fun here walking the gardens and exploring Casey's Clubhouse.  It was a little room in the cultural center set up to look like a clubhouse with a million and one things to investigate.  Claire had a blast, she even filled out a field journal entry.  She told me what to write and I transcribed for her.  She did the drawing.  She got a couple of prizes doing that as well. Brynn and I hung out and enjoyed the clubhouse as well. 

We liked exploring the gardens and grounds too.  We actually went back two different times.  On the first day I discovered that Minnetrista used to be the estate for the Ball brothers and their families. Each brother built a grand home on the river within a couple hundred feet of each other.  This family owns Ball glass canning jars.  They moved from New York to Muncie for the family business.  I have to admit that it took me until the second day to realize that Ball State University is named after the family.  Honestly all these years I had no idea why Ball State was named Ball state and it took me two days to figure it out..Geez Louise.  Here are some of the homes and pictures of us frolicking in the children's garden.

 The Muncie Children's Museum

We also visited the children's museum.  Claire loves museums now and talks about going to them occasionally.  This place was great so I can see why she fell in love.  They have a pint sized grocery store and kitchen that was perfect for her she didn't want to leave.  There was a 'fishing' area where you fished for paper cut out fish.  Claire liked that. She thought she was like Papa.  A musical instrument area where Claire played the washboard and cowbell.  Brynn mostly chillaxed in the stroller laughing, eating a bottle and peeing.  Claire also peed too but in the potty and well once in the toddler sized ant tunnel.  But come one would you leave the child sized and tunnel to pee? We left shortly after that:)

 And that was our trip to Muncie, Indiana.  Not that you needed the play by play but I guess (if you made it to the end) you just experienced a modern slide show of our trip.

Thanks for reading,

Katie

 

"Daddy I fell in the toilet!"

This is what Claire announces to Mark at, of course, a quiet moment in the middle of mass. Claire is doing really well with potty training-she has her moments (like the time she peed on some books) but she does pretty well overall.  So I am much better now with outings and no diapers.  We went to church last week and it was a comedy of errors!  I took Claire to the potty before mass started and after the baptisms (they do baptisms once a month, during mass- we just happened to be at the baptism mass)  Claire announces - I have to go potty, leaves the pew and heads for the bathroom. This is an old, all encompassing bathroom with the sink and commode in the same room. Now Claire is Miss Independent and does not like help at times. She would not go to the bathroom with me in the room. So she's pushing me out and saying, "I do it all by myself, Mommy, All by myself."  I'm thinking okay the toilet is pretty low and small and she's had success on public toilets before, I'll let her try it.  Plus if she falls in she's going to realize she needs my help.
Next thing you know I hear:  Splash.  "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!"  I try to get in but she has locked the door! " Mommy can't open the door sweetie you need to turn the knob on the door."  It took a minute but she hoisted herself out of the pot and opened the door.  She's got a big smile on her face and her whole backside is wet!  We walked back to the pew where Mark and Brynn were and while I was getting Claire's change of clothing she let Daddy know what happened had happened to her.  There were a few chuckles in response to her comment.
Claire is also getting ready for preschool.  She is going to be attending St. Mary's Preschool 3 program on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  She is very excited and didn't want to leave all the toys when I went to sign her up.  We think its going to be great for her and then in the afternoons when I have to work Laura (Mondays) and Miss Meg will watch the girls.  We are so lucky that Miss Meg can watch the girls for us until December.  She was wonderful with Claire and now Brynn gets to play with her too.  She makes it so much easier for me to go to work, since I know the girls are great with her.

Claire's lollipop she earned for an accident free day.  She still has 95% of it left!

Brynn is growing like a weed.  I took her in to the doctor, suspecting she had some ailment, since she just wasn't her happy self.  They weighed her and she was 18.10lbs!  Claire wasn't 18 lbs until 6 months and Brynn is only 5 months old!  Brynn is okay now, we think she might be teething and that might have caused her change in behavior.  She is just rolling all over now too.  She is so proud of herself when she does it.  She likes to roll a couple times too.  I've taken to scanning the carpet before I put her down to make sure there are no little pieces she will find in a three foot radius. 

"Look at me, I rolled over!"

Thanks for reading,

Katie

Counting my blessings...

And they are a plentiful.  I have healthy beautiful girls, a wonderful husband, a fantabulous extended family, wonderful friends, a good job, a marvelously mischievous Marty cat, a great house, beautiful weather, a working car.  The list could go on and on.  It seems that I am praying for a lot of people right now for many different things and it makes me realize how amazingly lucky I am.  And on those days when the Mommy-ing can get tiring I try remember these wonderful things that I have.  If you are reading this you are a blessing to me.  Thanks for being one of my many blessings.

Now enough schmaltz here are pictures of the girls!

Our little pumpkin

cooking with mommy

 Brynn and her toes!

 Claire in her Cabbage Patch tent. 

 Mommy sleeping with Brynn

 Beautiful Claire sleeping

 Thanks for lookin'
Katie

Toes and Toilets

Interesting title huh!?!  We have begun potty training in earnest and for the most part pee pee training is going well.  Claire has new Dora undies and likes being a big girl.  I am not prepared for leaving the house without my security blanket of a diaper.  Someone told me I just need to do it.  There are accidents but whatever.  Deep breathing and I can do it!  I guess if Claire can, I can.  We might need a few more undies though:)

Brynn has made the amazing discovery that she has toes!  She loves them, adores them.  She'll reach and play with her toes all day if she could.  She wakes up from a nap and reaches for her little piggies.
We had her four month check up today.  Our little pumpkin is 27 inches long (she is off the charts in length)  and she weighs 16lbs 12 oz.  Dr Wozniak said that since she was such a "big girl" we can wait to give her cereal. I asked about holding off to six months anyway.  I had read to help prevent allergies it is better to wait to introduce any foods until after 6 months.  Since Claire was just diagnosed with peanut and tree nut allergies the doctor suggested waiting until six months.  So Brynn is solely on the bottle for two more months now.  I think its okay with her, she enjoys those bottles.  She's even starting to hold the bottle a little or she'll hold your fingers to control the bottle that way. 

Well have a great day:)

Brynn rolled over today!

We were up in the thumb today for Mark's staff party.  One of his coworkers has a cottage right on Lake Huron.  We had a blanket laid out on the sand in the shade for Brynn because Claire did not want to leave the beach.  Brynn rolled over from her back to her tummy!  The sand may have helped her roll over but she did it!  I don't have any pictures since the cameras were up by the house you'll just have to take our word for it:)

Photo Shoot

I wanted to surprise Mark with a picture of the girls for Father's Day.  So I took the girls to Portrait Innovations in Sterling Heights.  They did pretty well.  Claire loves getting her picture taken.  She wanted to help Brynn smile too but she was getting in a couple of the shots so they called in some backup--another photographer to help get Brynn to smile and corral Claire.  I was making sure Brynn didn't fall over, they had her propped up in some precarious positions but the pictures came out cute.  Well I think so anyways, but I may be a little biased. 

Ohio Adventures

Mark had a writing conference Saturday morning in the Cleveland area so we decided to make it a family visit.  We loaded up the girls, two girls take a lot of stuff, thank goodness for the Flex!  After getting the flat tire on the Flex fixed we finally set off at 6:45pm Friday night.  Driving down Woodward I realized - "oh no.  I forgot Mark's Father's day gift!"  I made Mark turn around so I could get them.  I worked hard to get those pictures taken and I wanted to pass them out.

The drive went very well for the most part.  Claire's cutting her two year molars and they were bothering her a bit but she held it together pretty well.  Brynn did amazingly well.  We got to Aunt Terri's and Uncle Larry's a little after 11pm.  Erica gave up her room for us and we all crashed after Brynn got her bottle.  She did a great job sleeping on this trip.  We hung out with Aunt Terri, Uncle Larry, Megan and Erica before heading to Grandma and Poppy's. 

Brynn got to meet most of the Miley clan between Saturday and Sunday's cookout, Chinese food eating fest!  Claire loved playing with her cousins too.  It took a while to warm up to everyone, but I'm chalking that up to teeth.  Once she warmed up she had a great time running around and looking at the horsies.  She even slept with one of Grandma's Care Bears. 

Poppy got Brynn to laugh pretty well while she was playing in her jungle gym Saturday night.  Brynn is a great baby she loved being passed around and seeing everyone.  I think Aunt Terri and Megan want her to visit again really soon:)  Brynn loved sleeping while they were holding her.


Sunday was Father's Day and we headed to church with Nana, Grandma and Poppy.  The girls were dressed in matching outfits they had gotten from Nana and looked pretty good.  After church we gave Mark his Father's Day present and Poppy his present.  Mark loved the picture of the girls I had done as a secret.  I'll have to blog again with all of those cute pictures.

 

Four Generations

There is also one with Poppy but I don't have that one.

After some family pictures we headed over to Grandma Lou's house for a visit. 

We spent Sunday evening and Monday with Grandma Lou.  We visited her at work on Monday where Claire enjoyed the carousel that is in the food court of the mall.  Claire also enjoyed playing with Grandma Lou's toys.  We spent a lot of quality time with those toys.  Monday evening we got to hang out with Uncle Alan and Andrew since Aunt Jenie was in Virginia Beach I think.  They convinced Andrew to hold Brynn for a minute before they left.  I wish I had a picture of that but I was putting Claire to sleep so I missed it. 

 Claire with Grandma Lou's toys.

 Grandma Lou reading to Claire

 Mark and Brynn on the couch

Grandma and Brynn

We had a blast on our vacation thanks everyone!