More Recent Pictures...

Teeter Totter Fun!

The Indiana Jones Look

Tubby Time Fun!

A new art medium is introduced...

No Caption Needed. Just Fun!

Hair and a new word....

Will's hair is getting crazy again, and I feel the need to cut it. In fact, TWO people in Indiana thought he was a girl! However, cutting it makes me sad and nervous that I will mess it up. I love his little curls, but they are getting tangled more and more. I'll think about it. The only other thing that has popped up is a new word. It is accidental. He watches the Teletubbies as you know, and they have a segment where the weird speaker says "trot,trot,trot, trot" and they all trot around. He loves it! So now he goes around saying it, and trotting. The only problem is he can't say "Trot" instead he says "Twat" so it sounds terrible! It is also pretty funny!

Way Down in Kokomo...

3 Generations of Armstrong Men

There was a lot of reading this week!

First Harvest! Happy let William pick his first ripe cherry tomatoes of the season. Will even said "Tomato" very clearly!

Happy has this nice kitty that has adopted him, and Will is thrilled by her. He chases her all over and she is very kind about it.

Here you see Jason and Will, Jeanie, Happy and Aunt Louise (Happy's sister)

Like many children before him, Will played with the coasters...

There is nothing quite like the feeling of the wide open spaces in Indiana farm country. Will spent about 2 hours in the farmyard at Aunt Louise's playing with rocks and running around with nothing to stop him! I wish I had about 5 acres fenced where I could just turn him loose every day!

Will made an appearance in his kilt, but it had to be removed quickly. He found some poison ivy and rolled around in it in his kilt!

Will was facinated by Happy's "Jolly Green Giant" aka: ride on mower

Will loved the playgrounds here. He scared us all to death by going up on the tallest slides and peeking over the sides! The playgrounds here have a lot of the fun stuff they had when I was a kid, but have been removed for safety reasons elsewhere. What's more fun than burning your bottom on a hot metal slide?

Child Proof

Yesterday we spent the day visiting one house after another of elderly people with adult children. Taking a toddler on these types of social calls doesn't go well. Everyone thinks it's a great idea. "Oh, your great-grandson is in town? I would just love to see him" But then the toddler enters the house and it all begins to fall apart. "Oh dear, don't touch that Ming Vase that my late husband brought over from China as a gift from Chairman Mao.", "Oh, no-no, don't touch that fragile piece of art glass, the slightest movement and it will shatter!" and it goes on and on. He pulls down doilies, he yanks at fake flower arrangements, he tries to eat artificial fruit, he rips pages in magazines, he climbs coffee tables and takes cushions off the couches. It is very nerve wracking to be a parent at these times. I think parents forget all too quickly what it is like to have a toddler. Maybe mine is unusually active and curious, but when I beg you to let us visit in the yard, please comply.

Thank God I'm a Country Boy!

1880's Period Chicken
William observing said chickens.


Peep,Peep! Baby Chicks!

I am not sure if I was supposed to get one out to let him pet it, but I did. It wasn't locked.

How are Ewe? Ha,Ha!

William is making the sheep sound in this one, over and over!

Mama Cow and her Calf. William stayed there a long time watching them.

In this one and the next we thought Will was trying to turn the wheel. He was really smearing his hands with axle grease. Which Pampers wipes takes off, Go Pampers!

They had these neat platforms built up next to the stalls in the barn so the youngest visitors didn't have to miss out, so nice!

We stopped at Slate Run Historical Farm outside of Columbus. (Which is next to Licking County, Seriously) It was an barn, and house built in 1880 that the family had donated to the county in the 1900's to preserve it. It is exactly as it was! Even down to the 2 seater outhouse! They had women cooking food from the farm in the kitchen on a wood stove, and it smelled great! However, seeing those women in long dresses with petticoats over a hot stove made me all the more grateful for a phone and delivery pizza. William had a ball, he got to pet all sorts of animals, dig around in dirt, corn, and straw, and we even got to see a chicken sitting on her eggs! He spent about 10 minutes standing in front of the sheep saying "Baaa!Baaa!" over and over. The sheep looked SO hot, and yet they were all snuggled in one shady corner of the field, and you kinda wanted to make them understand that if they would spread out they might cool off! The horses were very cool, they had 4 big draft horses that were very nice and friendly. Jason and I greatly enjoyed observing a bizarre group of homschoolers that were there. There was this tall, lanky boy dressed in full medieval costume, and I really wanted to tell him he was a few centuries off. His sister was wearing a toga made out of an old flowered bed sheet, so I am not sure what look she was going for. There were also various other kids in the mix, who asked really obscure questions, and laughed at the oddest things. I know they don't represent all homeschoolers, but it was fun to see the weird period costumes that didn't match the period. After all this fun we got back on the road and finally got to Kokomo at about 9:30pm.

Getting There is Half the Fun...

Will knows something is going on when he is tossed into the car in his jammies!
The trunk is loaded, we have everything we could ever need.

Let's hit the road!

Will loves scribbling on his magna doodle, and I love the neat-factor!

The Portable DVD Player.

Quite Possibly Man's Greatest Invention.

Somehow we managed to turn a 10 hour drive into a 14 hour drive. This is mainly due to a weak bladder and occasional bouts of straining against the car seat straps and shrieking. We only really stopped 4 times, but 2 of those were meals and one was a historical farm site which took 2 hours. William did great all in all though. The DVD player was a HUGE help, and I will never make another long drive without it. It has also been helpful here at the hotel where he can watch a DVD since there is nothing for him on TV. The hotel is nice, but life is very different with one room. Will had a really hard time the first night and ended up sleeping IN OUR BED! A huge no-no in our house, but I felt so bad for him and he seemed to not understand what was going on. However it is amazing to see how one 28 pound kid who is less than 3 feet tall can make a king sized bed seem like a twin. Within a few hours Jason and I were almost off the bed, and William insisted on keeping his head against Jason's back all night. Needless to say, we did NOT repeat this last night. We stuck to the routine as closely as possible and it worked. He slept till 7:20 this morning in his pack n play. More later.

All Packed Up!

We are ready. If it isn't in the car it simply isn't going. We are leaving for Indiana bright and early, and thanks to a hotel with wi-fi and a laptop you won't have to wait till we return for updates! Pray for a safe journey for us all!

Redirection...

Child experts tell you that instead of punishment you should redirect inappropriate activities into an appropriate activity. Hence the tub crayons. I think he looks like a "Lost Boy" with the crayon on his face!

Baby's First Graffiti

He looks innocent enough, doesn't he?

He has proven however that he has a

future as a no-goodnick street thug.

See the example below...
William chose my tablecloth as his first surface to deface. A rebel without a cause.