The Howards

Today, in order to give Marlene some time to study, Ahow brought Adelaide & Miriam up to Fowler for a visit. The girls started out extremely shy, but quickly got down to business playing with every toy in the house!

We ate some spaghetti out on the screened in porch and the adults watched some (really bad) Colts football. Fortunately, Miriam & Taryn didn't realize that they should be embarrassed to be decked out in Colts gear.

Taryn had some trouble saying both their names. She managed to call Adelaide "Addie", but would hardly take a stab at Miriam. While I was taking these pictures, I told Taryn "Ok, now get with Adelaide." She pointed at Adelaide and said "That one?"

Thanks for the visits Howards! Hopefully next time we get together Marlene will be done with her studies!!

I LOVE BAGELS!

Taryn is absolutely and totally obsessed with bagels lately. She had her first bagel with cream cheese down in TN earlier this summer and now she can't get enough. She wants them morning, noon & night.

Here she is looking super cool with her sunglasses (upside down), bagel and two drinks!

Taryn & Max

Yeah, if you can't tell, I'm way behind on getting some pics up here!

We were able to visit Grant, Ashley & Max at their new house last month. The house looks great! I couldn't believe some of the stories of what it looked like when they first got it.
Taryn and Max were a little shy at first, but they definitely warmed up and had some fun.

I hope we can get these two together again soon! Thanks for your hospitality Goldmans!

Welcome Brock Christopher!

Matt & Christi welcomed their 3rd son, Brock Christopher in early August. He is just a little guy and is so cute. He loves to suck his bottom lip in which is just precious.

Notice the toddler hand creeping in on this pic. Shocking.
The baby fanatic.

Brock & the fam.

Taryn decided SHE wanted to be Matt's baby and lay in the Boppy on his lap.

We got to see him again a week later at Drew's birthday party. (Don't mind Lee's face, he had a Police Academy injury.)

Cell Phone Purge

Thought I would do a post of all my cell phone pics before I start back to school Monday. As if my posting wasn't sporadic enough, now I'm back to having a job! A job where I can't blog at work!

My Dad is famous for reading the newspaper for HOURS on end in a given day. My Mom always said he didn't read the newspaper, he memorized it. This picture is for Papa Jeff!

I gave Taryn her blanket so that maybe she would fall asleep in the car... Instead she did this.

Picking Taryn up at daycare. She's carrying her "pack-pack". (Just so you know, it may look heavy, but all it contains is 1 small blanket and a paci. I'm not into child labor or anything.)

This is why our 4 block walks take like 45 minutes. Notice the sippy cup in her stroller's "saddle bag". Also, notice that I brough a hat for Taryn to wear and sunglasses for ME to wear... Yeah, that didn't work out to well for me.

Painting on the screened-in porch...

SURPRISE! Jasper walked out onto the porch.

Taryn fell in love with this baby at Nicholas Dragut's birthday party today. He is 10 months old and sturdy as heck. Taryn could actually play with him without being completely delicate. Which meant she took over his life. She was holding his hand, feeding him his bottle and trying to teach him to walk.

Weekends are GOOD

We are officially over halfway through the Police Academy. 8 weeks down, 7 weeks to go. I must say... It. Is. Dragging. But, it makes the weekends even more sweet because it means the return of DADDY!

Sitting on the porch welcoming Daddy home.
Trying hard to immitate Daddy.

Daddy & Taryn with Matt Painter. Don't mind how flat he looks... Or the large line across his chin. It's totally him.

Mommy Juice

*** It is probably not a shock to any of the readers of this blog that on occasion, I like to enjoy a beer or a glass of wine. Apparently, Taryn has also taken notice of what Lee and I each drink. A few weeks ago, Taryn and I were at the IGA (grocery store) and I noticed a good price on wine. I grabbed two 4-packs (classy) of the mini-wine bottles. Taryn enthusiastically yells out "MOMMY JUICE!!!" Such a proud moment.

*** When my mom and I were driving around Indy on Tuesday, somehow we got on the subject of "mommy juice". My mom asked Taryn, what is mommy juice, what does mommy drink? Taryn made this horribly disgusted face and said "wine". Hoping that Lee would receive the same ridicule, I said "And what is daddy juice, what does daddy drink?" She happily replied "beer".

So, moral of the story, it's AOK that daddy drinks beer, but just awful that mommy drinks wine.

Indianapolis Children's Museum

On Tuesday my mom and I took Taryn to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. I actually hadn't been there since I fell in the "children" category. The place has changed. A lot. Since then. From the outside, we could see giant dinosaurs busting into the wall of the museum.

Here are the dinos poking into the museum. This is right by where you buy tickets. Taryn was a little unsure of the dinosaurs and the large Transformer in the lobby, but we bought the tickets (not cheap) and went in. We weren't 10 steps past the ticket taker when a Barney-esque guy walked up to try to greet Taryn. It looked like an electric current went through her when he said HI. She immediately dove for my mom scared poop-less. Being the sensitive mom I am, I couldn't stop laughing about it. She'll probably be telling her therapist about this one someday...
I tried to rebound with a visit to some trains. She was not impressed. She was still traumatized from the stuffed dinosaur. I was beginning to think "Wow, we just totally blew $50."

But then... We found the Barbie exhibit.

We looked at Barbie's, we tried on clothes, we were hair stylists, photographers, dj's, etc.

And of course, we were Barbie supermodels.

At Barbie's desk, you could text a number and you would get a phone call from Barbie. Taryn was so amazed that she was on the phone with Barbie.

Now that we were in the groove, we hit up the Dora the Explorer exhibit.

Finally, we found a place for kids under 5 that had just about everything Taryn would want to play with. Water, sand, and of course, a kitchen. Complete with baby doll, highchair and cradle. aka, Taryn's idea of heaven. It is so strange how domestic she is considering her mom is definitely not a good example. Maybe she got it from Lee's mom...

Everyone follows up their time in the kitchen with a ride in a bulldozer.

We actually had to tear Taryn away from the Playscape area. We finally got her up for a ride on the carousel. My mom hopped right on without a second thought. When she got off the ride, she was like "I don't know why I went on that. I get dizzy really easily." Anything for her granddaughter!

All in all, it ended up to be a fun visit. Now that I know my way around a little better, I definitely think our next trip will be more successful! And I'll especially make sure to avoid Barney at the entrance!

On Tuesday, my mom and I took Taryn down to the Children's Museum. (More on that in the next post.) Going to Indy gave us an excuse to meet up with this handsome little guy and his mom!

Those cheeks, that hair... He's such a charmer.
The cousins and their munchkins.

My mom & Jamie are like two peas in a pod!

This was such an adorable moment. Taryn finally got to "feed" a real live baby. Poor Kylan thought he was getting food, but all she had was an empty spoon.

As much as Taryn loves babies, I know she is going to be excited when her little cousins can bounce around and play with her!

P.S. We ate at Union Jacks in Broadripple. They had some delicious pizza and a pretty impressive beer menu. I had a couple Peroni's with lunch as a reminder of my fun times at Quenchers in Chicago! Yum!

Hi I'm Daddy