Play Date

Inga's cousin, Ethan, came over Friday morning for a play date. These two have so much fun together. I have never seen such young toddlers actually play together instead of just next to each other. We spent most of the morning in the basement where they have free reign as opposed to upstairs where there are more rules about what you can and cannot play with.

They watched an episode of Sesame Street while eating morning snacks. Ethan had goldfish and I brought down Inga's bag of freeze dried fruit. After a few minutes, they had already traded snacks. 

Eating morning snacks and watching Sesame Street.

 They were sitting in the play house giggling and chatting away. It was very cute, but I ruined the moment when I tried to take a picture.

Ethan found the stack of outdoor pillows that go on the patio chairs. He thought this was so much fun. Inga came over to see what was so exciting and just looked at Ethan like, "Really? A stack of dirty pillows? I'm going back to the cars." 

They were so well behaved until after lunch when both needed naps. A play date with a 16 month old and 2 year old and there were no tears or screams, pretty successful, wouldn't you say?

Playing Dress Up

Inga loves to play dress up. She tries to put on any clothes she finds in laundry baskets, dressers, or closets. She found her party dress the other night and insisted on wearing it. 

She also loves hats, but she doesn't want to wear them. She wants Mommy and Daddy to wear the hats.  In this picture she is also wearing one of those baby headbands that lets strangers know the newborn is a girl. She never wore them as a baby since she's always had a full head of hair, but she found them the other night and put one on.

Fall Happenings

I am terrible at remembering to take pictures. Here are some pictures from the past month. 

Trick-or-treating with cousin Ethan. He was a lion. Inga was a toddler who outgrew her pumpkin costume too soon.

Inga's newest cousin, Zoey. Ethan's little sister was born a few hours after the above picture was taken. 

We now leave boxes out for Inga to play with. What's not to love about a box?

Guarding the bridge and sorting rocks. Such a multi-tasker.

What do you do after all the clean clothes are folded and put away? Get them back out to play in again.

Red River Gorge Camping Trip

We hadn't been camping since before Inga was born, over 1 year ago. That was technically Inga's first camping trip, but she didn't really get to enjoy all the sights and sounds of the great outdoors. Despite our (i.e. Sam's) busy schedule, I really wanted to go camping this year and fall is my favorite time for a camping trip.

We went to the Red River Gorge area in Kentucky, which is only 4 hours away. Sam hadn't been there in years. I went there a few years ago on a girls camping trip, but there is so much to do in the area I knew it was worth another visit. We camped at the Natural Bridge Resort State Park in the Whittleton campground. The campground was very worse for wear with a lot of deferred maintenance. It was a classic case of a campground built in the 50s or 60s during the hey-day of camping and hasn't had much upkeep since then. However, it met our needs of a place to pitch a tent, picnic table, fire ring, and plumbing. 

Our campsite right next to a creek, which bothered my well trained backpacker sensibilities.

It was a long drive for Inga and she was super excited to run around outside and play. She still crawls a lot so she got DIRTY. It was awesome.

First camping meal: beans and rice.

The first night was really cold, but Inga did really well sleeping in the tent in between Mommy and Daddy. We bundled her up really well with warm blankets and she slept on her travel crib mattress. It worked out quite well. She did better with the bedtime routine than a neighboring toddler who cried for about 30 minutes, "I don't wanna go to bed." She woke up once that night pretty scared because she didn't know where she was, but she just snuggled with Mommy and went back to sleep.

The next morning Sam began cooking breakfast like normal. After changing out an empty propane cylinder on the stove, he couldn't get flow from the new cylinder. He messed with it for a long time while Inga got fussier and fussier. He finally gave up, built a fire, and finished cooking breakfast on the fire ring grate. Now I need to take apart the stove and decide if it is worth fixing or upgrade to a better stove.

Breakfast after many technical difficulties. Inga was very happy to finally eat a hot meal.

Cuddling with Daddy and Ornery by the morning fire.

 We took a hike after breakfast on a really short trail that started in our campground. It went up the side of the valley we were in and ended at a sink called Henson's Arch. I don't know why it was called an arch because it was really a sink.

Sam getting a serious quad workout.

Henson's arch. See? It's really a sink.

We then went to the main part of the state park. We hiked up to the natural bridge. Sam carried her all the way up. We got lots of comments on the carrier with many moms saying, "I wish I had one of those when mine were young." The Ergo is that awesome.

Climbing the last steps to the top of the bridge.

View from the bridge.

Inga was in desperate need of a nap at this point.

View of the bridge from a point I can't remember the name of.

At Lover's Leap overlooking the rock climber camping field behind Miguel's Pizza.

She finally fell asleep. 

She was really tired and napped while we ate lunch.

Lover's Leap

 I carried Inga back down to the parking lot. We took the "Balanced Rock" trail back down. It was a lot of work not slipping down the wet path covered with leaves. My ankles and calves were sore the next morning.

Balanced Rock

 We then drove along the Red River Gorge. It was really beautiful. Part of the road goes through an old railroad tunnel called the Nada Tunnel. It is a long, one car only tunnel. Very cool, but I didn't think to take pictures. There are so many great trails in the Daniel Boone National Forest around the gorge. You could spend a whole week just hiking in the area. Inga was not up for another hike, though, so we just stopped by all the overlooks.

Grumpy face Inga, happy Daddy, and amazing view

Smiles with Mommy

Red River Gorge

 The next morning Inga ate a cold breakfast consisting of applesauce and cereal bars while we packed up camp. Inga was super worn out by the past 2 days' adventures and took a great morning nap in the car. I have heard many horror stories of camping with babies and toddlers, but I think it went better than expected. Yes, Inga got filthy since we let her crawl around camp in toddler heaven. Yes, she was a normal toddler and fussed about going to bed. No one got burned in the fire or hot chocolate dumped on their laps. Diaper changes just weren't a big deal. Inga loved seeing the big "ra, ra" (rocks) and saying hi to all the fellow hikers. Camping win.

On the way home, we decided to stop by the famed Pottery Barn Outlet store that's off I-71 south of Columbus to see what they had. We bought a coffee table (the one I had been eyeing for awhile) and a dining table at great deals. Sam said it was the most expensive camping trip he has taken. 

Yard Projects

We have put off doing any inside improvements on our house during the summer to focus on the yard. It needed a lot of attention when we moved in, but after 6 months it is in passable condition. The lawn came in pretty nicely by the end of summer. The front flower bed was planted, but I will probably always be tinkering with that. We also started our herb garden in the front as well (close to the kitchen).   We planted 9 trees in the spring and I hope to add more in a few years. Next summer I want to add a vegetable garden and continue landscaping the front with perennials. 

Here are some pictures of our bigger projects. 

Sam bought several tons of river rock for landscaping. So far we have put in an arroyo to help with drainage down one side of our lot. It is also a perfect play area for toddlers. We will be adding a few more of these river rock features where the lawn keeps washing out in heavy rain. 

We still need to do more landscaping around the arroyo, but that will have to wait for next spring.

The big project was building the sand set, brick patio. It is finally complete. Well, yard projects are never really complete, but all the bricks are installed and we just put the fire ring in tonight.

 See all the work left to do? Back fill edges, move dirt piles around yard to fill in low spots, plants things other than turf grass, etc.

 Sam built a little landing pad outside the other walk out door in the basement.

Enjoying our new patio and fire ring. Who wants to come over for a fire?

Bike Ride at Black Hand Gorge

A few weekends ago we took a break from yard work and went for a little bike ride at Black Hand Gorge. We rode about 6 miles by which point Inga was getting pretty fussy about being on such a long bike ride. She might have also been a little chilly. It was much cooler in the gorge than at our house that day. Hopefully next summer we can get out for more bike rides.

 The baby seat is on Sam's bike because it was easier to install there when I didn't know what I was doing. I think I will have to get the extra iBert fork so we can move the seat between our bikes. Then Inga and Mommy can bike into town for after dinner ice cream!

12 Months!!

A whole year has gone by since Inga was born. She is quickly entering toddler-hood. Her communication skills get better everyday. She also has more and more preferences everyday. Along with preferences comes tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. They usually aren't too bad because a one year old has such a short attention span. While not walking yet, she is on the move everywhere. She likes to sneak off to our bedroom to "read" our books that are currently stacked on the floor. She was also sneak off to her bedroom to take everything off her changing table and all the clothes out of her dresser. I know the toddler years can be difficult, but I am looking forward to them. She is just becoming so much fun to hang out with and take places.

I attempted photos on Friday (one day after her birthday), but it didn't go well.

 Sam then helped me with photos on Saturday before her birthday party. Not only was she in her birthday dress, but she was cooperative! Much better pictures.

Installing a Patio: Digging the Hole

Sam is installing a brick patio by hand. He is on the digging phase. (I do help a little, too. Mostly by doing other chores while he digs.) To be able to dig a hole by hand in August you have to soften the ground by running the hose. Well, this tends to create a bit of a mud pit. Inga found the mud the other and thought it was the best thing ever!

She had to be stripped down and hosed off after this. She also thought that was awesome mostly because she was naked outside.

11 Months

It's almost her first birthday and I am just getting around to posting the 11 month pictures. We have been doing too many home projects in the evenings for me to have time to post. Anyway, little Inga is turning into the busy one year old. 

She is a total chatter box. I wake up to her talking to her two best friends, Fox Mulder and Ornery the Otter. She tells you all about her night at breakfast and tells you all about her day at dinner. This girl has a lot to say! She regularly says "Nigh, Nigh" to mean she wants to go to sleep (including naps). She can say "wa" for water, "mo" for more, "ra" for rain, "yes", "hi", and probably a few other things I am forgetting. She also nods her head "yes". Her appetite for language means she's also our bookworm. I read Where's Baby's Belly Button? to her 4 or 5 times today. (That's her new favorite.) She will just bring you books to read and say "Mom, dis" or "Daddy, dis". I can hardly complain about that. She even spelled a real word with her bathtub letters the other day (the letters that stick to the side of the tub when wet). You may be wondering the word and I am slightly embarrassed to say, but she spelled "gin". Now "g", "n", and "i" were the only letters in the tub at the time so don't go thinking something you shouldn't. We continue to be amazed at her language development. Her motor skills are more normal; crawling, pulling herself to standing, etc. Enough yakking, here are the pictures. 

 The best photo and I cut off her head!

 Sharing a joke with pink bear

 "Why am I still on the couch and not playing on the floor? I can see all my toys."

"Dis?"