Kicking off our Tour of the Midwest

Tomorrow we kick off our 5 week tour of the Midwest, as we head for the airport and fly to Iowa to visit the kids' Great Grandma Knepper. It's a mini-reunion of sorts-- all six of her great grandkids will be there on Saturday for a small gathering. Next weekend, while John is at the Warrior Dash in Illinois, I will drive with the kids and my dad to St. Louis, where we'll spend the weekend visiting with my sister Christine and her family, who will have driven in from Kansas. After a weekend at home, we'll head on 4th of July weekend to Indiana, for a family reunion on John's side (his mother's family). The following weekend we plan to head to Cleveland to visit some Robenalts and celebrate high school graduations for two of John's cousins.

While the month ahead has excitement on the road, the month just past was full of activities at home. Charlie has settled into Preschool, and seems to have built some favorite activities already. John likes to say that he picks the math and science stations when he drops off in the morning, but for me, he seems to head for the sensory table or the block area most of the time when he doesn't head straight for snacks. His favorite thing to build with the blocks is either a house for the animals or a fire station. He's been really diligent about cleaning up after himself, and has learned the various routines of the room. Yesterday was their first water play day for the summer, and he had a great time. He has started taking Spanish two days a week at the daycare, and continues his Stretch and Grow class once a week.

At home, we converted Charlie's bed back to the smaller toddler size, because he did not seem to like it "big." He kept wanting to sleep on the floor. When we made the change, we also put the new Star Wars sheets on the bed, and now he's excited by them. Now that Charlie is 3, we tried to get him to taste some peanut butter cookies so we can eliminate thoughts of a peanut allergy, but he refused to try them-- he was completely non-interested. As part two of my Mothers Day gift (the first was our trip to the zoo), John bought me some new planters for the front porch, and Charlie went with me to pick out some flowers to put in them. He used his new gardening tools (birthday gift) to help me dig in the dirt and plant the flowers. He enjoys going out with me about once a week to water them-- he wants to make sure they don't "died."

The second half of May included several birthday parties, our own annual grill out, the Civil Rights game (Cards vs. Reds), and a playdate with one of Charlie's toddler room friends. Charlie finished up his Saturday morning swimming lessons just this past Saturday. I got a chance to head out with the girls to see SATC2, and to the butterfly show for a photography night. Work has continued to be hectic for both John and me. Somewhere in the midst of all this craziness, Charlie said to me one day, "When you get little like a boy, you can play on the monkey bars, and I will go to work." I told him that sounded good to me!

While Charlie keeps us entertained with his new vocabulary and grasp of new concepts, Liam quietly grows like a weed. He still hates tummy time, and I don't know when he'll ever get around to really rolling over easily and eventually crawling, but he's sitting up well and sleeping really well at night. Still no teeth in sight, but we've been working through various new fruits and vegetables and different cereals. His hair still stands on end, and he's quite the charmer in the infant room.