A walk by the river

Question of the day

D: "If the planet fell, would it roll?"

From the Indy Children's Museum

This place was incredible! We were there from 11-5 and only saw about half of what was there. We hope for the chance to get to go back again.


The handblown glass structure from artist Dale Chihuly

The underside of the huge glass structure:

There was an amazing dinosaur display complete with several little play stations with terrain (caves & simulated water) and toy dinosaurs. They also had a dig site and a very well done scavenger hunt. Interestingly, they had a skull of a dinosaur with a brain tumor.

This is the closest that Dillon needs to be to driving for quite some time:

And as a great way to transition the kids out the door at closing time, they have a parade led by Rex the dinosaur down the spiral ramp straight to the front door. We had to give Dillon a lesson on safe flag waving after she accidently hit Corryn in the head. Corryn was understandably not amused by this.
Dillon has asked several times already to go back. We've promised her we will if we end up in Indiana. She's keeping her fingers crossed (OK, we are too, but as much for the museum as she is).

It's official: She's mobile!

She figured it out last night as she was trying to get to something she wanted.

What was it that finally prompted her to coordinate the separate erratic movements of the upper and lower halves of her body? Her beloved mom? A really interesting toy?

Nope-the dog's nasty rawhide.

No matter where I put them, she seems to have a radar for them and has managed to work her way toward them as she has been figuring out how to crawl. The dog doesn't help in that when I toss it somewhere else, so goes and gets it, then proudly brings it back to where it was-won't fetch anything else, mind you. She doesn't even care that Corryn plays with it. Corryn doens't care about the multitude of little pieces of flotsam and jetsom all over the carpet. For her, the rawhide is key.

So now you know how to motivate your teething baby to crawl. Forget teethers- throw a rawhide down on the floor!

8 months old

8 months old! I can't believe it! Isn't she a cutie? :)

Let's see...
She's trying really hard to crawl. She can get on her hands and knees & can even make a little forward progress with her legs. She can't quite coordinate this with the upper half yet though and ends up spinning around in a big circle a lot. She did manage several inches of going forward earlier, so I think she'll get it soon. She can sit independently for a few minutes, then topples over sideways.

She still loves to feel of hair, which means I have to keep the canopy thing on the backpack so that she doesn't jerk all the hair out of my head. The dog is now one of her favorite toys. Thank goodness she's so tolerant.

And she did beautifully flying- hardly a peep out of her the whole time we were on airplanes. Sleeping in several new places was not so much her idea of a good time, but we made it through.

A few pics from the Indy zoo

Home again

10 days, 2 interviews, 3 hotel rooms, 4 different airplanes. It's good to be home. Really, it was overall a good trip with some not so great parts to it. It's just difficult to all be in a hotel room together for that long, especially when one member is an infant that sleeps at various times throughout the day. Both jobs he interviewed for have potential; one is almost exactly what we were hoping for when daydreaming about the perfect situation. Flying home went far smoother than flying there and the hour plus drive home- always the hardest part after flying all day with young kids who don't sleep in the car- went pretty well.

I'm going through the pictures I took, but here's one the day we left- Dillon all twitterpated at the trip ahead. Note the oh-so-very-pink Barbie suitcase (nevermind the kid rarely plays with a Barbie...) and the sparkly shoes. In the suitcase? Various toys that never got a moment's attention plus a pair of sandals that never got worn. The providence of childhood- someone else worries about the fact that you'll need underwear for your trip while you focus on the fun stuff :)

As she sees it

The girls and I are being taken to lunch today by the spouse's group while Dave is on his interview. I am a bit nervous about this, not for my own sake, but for the sake of the highly impatient Dillon. Sitting in a restaurant is not one of her favorite activities and often acts accordingly. Therefore, we've had numerous conversations about expected behavior during this lunch.

Yesterday, we were pretending to talk to one another on the phone & I asked her what she'd be doing today. Her response was "I'm going to a fancy lunch where I won't be able to do anything fun."

At least she's mostly dressed her way- a yellow capri outfit, stripey yellow socks (though a different shade of yellow) and multi-colored sparkly shoes with dark brown bows.

It's good that we don't do these kind of lunches often- I'd never manage if I had to put this much energy into her attire everday. I'm more along the philosophy of mostly clean, mostly well- fitting- matching is far down the list.

First Tooth!

Corryn has her first tooth! I noticed it this morning as she was chewing on my finger. It has just broken through enough to feel & is just barely visible, but it is there nonetheless. It explains her grumpiness over the last couple of days. I thought it was just that she was out of sorts with our travels, but I guess not. I'll miss that toothless grin :)

We're still in Indiana- arrived in Lafayette today after having spent the last 2 days in downtown Indianapolis. We were supposed to have gone to Vinceinnes for a job interview during that time, but the position was unexpectedly filled. So, as a "consolation prize," they put us up in the Embassy Suites in downtown Indianapolis. We visited the zoo and children's museum and are exhausted. We can't complain, though, we had a good time. I'll post pictures when we get back home.

Lessons from the airports

--If you don't explicitly instruct your very bouncy 4 year old to stay with her father, she will unexpectedly follow her mother through the security thingie, then start wandering in restricted areas. This really raises the dander of TSA agents (because we all know what high security risks 4 year olds are...). This, in turn, will upset the 4 year old who will cling to her mother, crying inconsolably.

--While it seems altruistic for Fisher Price to set up a play area in the airport, it is actually a not so cleverly disguised marketing ploy. Were it altruism, they would not have encased the oh-so-very interesting (albeit far too noisy) toys in a plastic display case, annoying both the 4 year old ("I want to see what they feel like!!"), as well as her parents since they have to answer numerous times why the case is there.

--The airport is so very interesting when you're an airplane-enthralled child. It ranks faaaaaaaarrrrr higher than eating. This means that when it comes time cope with some less-than-fun aspect of flying (like your little sister needing the window seat because of the car seat), you are too hungry to cope with this well and crying loudly seems the only reasonable option. Your parents find this to be beyond frustrating, but are at a loss of how to make it different- short of physically stuffing food into your mouth.

--It is difficult for both Dave and Dillon to fit in the airplane bathroom.

-- Even with what felt like a distinctly un-fun experience for the adults, being in the airport and on the airplane were Dillon's favorite, favorite, favorite activities and she can't wait to do it again.

So, here we are in Indiana, outside of Indianapolis. It's a nice place & I'd forgotten how nice Midwesterners are. Dave interviewed most of the day yesterday and is doing so part of today. We're planning to go into Indy some this weekend to do some touristy things. As neither of us are big-city people anymore, I'm sure it'll be fun for a while, then all that concrete and cars will get old and we'll start wanting something a little less crowded.