A Day at the County Fair

The County Fair started yesterday. Yeah! We live only two streets away from the County Fairgrounds, so Mike and I have been Fair aficionados for years. Farm Bureau makes the world's best chocolate milk shakes. I love petting the goats and playing the bowling ball game. You know, the one that you have to push the ball hard enough to go over the first hill and get stuck in the valley, but not so hard it goes over both hills and rebounds back? Yesterday, Mike and I had our first milkshakes of the season - so delicious! I won a stuffed banana with a cute face during my first annual bout with the bowling ball game. Joshua was adorable in his bonding to "BananaMan". All the way home, he talked to him and snuggled him, patting his back.

This morning, Joshua and I returned to the fairgrounds to watch the goat judging. It was really cute to watch the junior showmanship round. Those kids work really hard with their kids (so to speak) to have the animals cooperate during the designated walking routine. Plus, the children looked very spiffy in their white shirts and pants with brown braided belts. It must be the official uniform. I found one little girl with a pygmy goat that didn't mind taking a quick picture with Joshua, who was very interested in the goat.

Before heading home, I decided to take a few photos of Joshua in front of a patch of Black-Eyed Susans. They are very prolific in Indiana during this time of year. They are a nice, manly flower for little boy pictures, too, right? I am a photography junky.

Visit to the Swimming Pool

Last weekend at the pool, we enjoyed a couple of more firsts for Joshua. On Saturday, he crawled out of the pool and all around the water spout play area! Seeing the other children playing motivated him to take the adventure. He sure has grown-- the spouts used to make him nervous and now he crawls to them to play! Joshua showed his mettle, too. His first crawling technique dragged the tops of his feet, so they got a little bit scraped. The very next day (and each day since), he continued to crawl out of the pool to play with the water spouts. Now, though, he bends he feet and keeps his toes slightly elevated off the cement. His knees are covered with the swim trunks, so he is good to go, now. That's a good problem-solver.

On Sunday, Joshua creeped all the way down the pool wall to play with a little girl and her toys! It was so cute-- the little girl didn't know what to think of this very friendly little boy sharing her bucket, basket, rake, and bouyant sea horses. At home, he has done a little creeping along the couch, but this was the futhest he has gone. Walking without assistance sure isn't too far away...

New Boy's Bathroom

Over the course of the last week, We did a makeover of the peach and floral guest bathroom to remodel it for our little boy. So, what says little boy better than frogs?

Joshua was super curious about the painting process and he was quite watchful, from the safety of his walker. Mike was amazing: he removed the entire toilet so I could paint that whole wall without interruption. He also removed all the hardware and mirror from the walls and ceiling. In case that wasn't sweet enough, he also brought me a dozen deep red roses yesterday!

As you can see from the photos, we painted the walls aloe vera and the trim one shade darker. For decoration, I found a great dark copper sun with green streaks and several adorable frog pictures to place in a collage frame. The towels, bath mat, and soap dispenser were purchased as a set and inspired the paint color. By the way, the soap dispenser says, "Ribbit, ribbit" when you push on it to get soap. No detail left undone, huh?

Exploring

Joshua is doing a fantastic job crawling. He leaves his bedroom to come into the kitchen if I happen to be doing dishes or cooking. One of his favorite areas is Daisy's dog bed and dish area. This picture shows a glorious smile after Joshua played in Daisy's water dish...

While I painted his bathroom this week, Joshua walked up and down the hallway in his walker. Boy, is he fast.

I have a feeling he will be walking without the walker before too long.

Fourth of July Camping Trip

For the 4th, we went camping in one of our favorite places: Clifty Falls State Park. As usual, Joshua enjoyed watching Mike & I set up the campsite when we arrived. He's playing really well by himself, crawling to something interesting and sitting to play with whatever he finds appealing. In addition to his toys, magazines and water bottles are high on the list of interesting items.

The hiking was spectacular and we went after breakfast each day, so it wasn't as hot (the country is starting a heat wave this week). We were so fortunate with wildlife spotting this time! Not only did we see lots of bunnies, we saw deer several times -- including four fawns. We also went on a birding walk with a ranger and enjoyed learning which songs belonged to each songbird. Also, I saw my first Persimmon tree. Apparently, persimmon pudding is an old regional favorite.

Mike found a fantastic piece of gear this summer: a high chair that can mount to picnic tables! It's so nice that Joshua can feed himself a little and eat with Mike and I at a table. He's growing up so fast! We noticed that Joshua seems to always feed himself with his left hand, so we likely have a southpaw on our hands. You can see Mike and Joshua sharing an applesauce in this picture. His other new food this weekend was cantaloupe, which was a huge hit.

An unexpected treat after the fireworks was a musical performance. About three campsites away, a large group of Mexican people were having a sing-a-long around their campfire. Boy, did they harmonize well!

Yeah, Cheerios!

Joshua is so excited about being able to feed little bits of food to himself. The newest food was Cheerios. As you can see from the pictures, he likes to examine objects before tasting them. Then, there's a big grin of happiness.

The other new food this week is tofu balls, which I call tofutti. The toddler appetiser idea was from the Super Baby Food book and consists of mashed tofu, wheat germ, and low sodium soy sauce rolled into balls and baked. These are surprisingly tasty, by the way. Joshua & I both like them, but Mike is skeptical...

Second Haircut

Joshua & I celebrated our 99-degree summer day by getting haircuts in a cool salon, then walking around the mall. His bangs had grown into his eyes since his fourth-month haircut, so it was definitely time. He did a great job- even letting the stylist use the trimmer a little on his sideburns. My hair looks pretty flat from the humidity, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to take a self-portrait.