It's a boy!

Well, I'm about three weeks late posting this, but the title speaks for itself.

My little girl still doesn't understand that she will have to share her Mommy with this little guy.  She knows she's going to be a big sister.  She knows she's going to have a little brother.  But she still says the "baby's mommy will come back and get him."

We're pretty excited about it all.  I'm a little overwhelmed, still cleaning out the hoarder room (mostly, Tammy is cleaning it - better organizational skills.  I'm just doing the heavy lifting).  

Our little boy is a kicker.  He likes to try to reach out and respond to my voice when I talk to him.  Just like with Anna, I always end with "This is Daddy, and  I love you."  Anna was really comfortable with her Daddy's voice (as well as her Mommy's, of course) from day one. 


So far, we've found he either really likes the song Heart of Gold by Neal Young, or he really hates it.  Either way, he is very responsive to music and voices.  I'm pretty excited about that.  It's just normal development, but with a little baby, that's exciting stuff.  I'm so thankful to God that our little guy is doing well and is healthy so far, and that our little girl is so excited about being a big sister...even if she doesn't yet realize that she and little bro have to share Momma and Daddy.

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4th of July Weekend

Neither of my parents have ever been the type to invite everyone over for a 4th of July cookout.  And that's okay.  We get to do plenty of fun things with them throughout the year.  But Tammy and I manage to find lots of fun to be had with our little family.  One year, her friend and former college roommate Allison drove out from Ohio and stayed with us for about a week around Independence Day, and we all had a blast going to other people's cookouts and watching small towns blow up thousands of dollars worth of fireworks.



This year, we started off with the usual Friday routine of being tired and eating pizza.  Very relaxing.

Saturday morning, Tammy, Anna and Lillian (Tammy's mom) went shopping, and I visited a semi-reclusive friend and worked on my truck.  We met up in b-burg for lunch and went to our friends' 4th of July cookout/going away party/birthday party for their middle daughter.  Matt (a good friend) and I headed out shortly after we got there to line up for the parade.  Matt was riding in a 76 El Camino that his dad finished restoring, and I was riding my company's float.  After throwing candy and enjoying a small town parade in the blazing heat, I headed back to the party, and Tammy dropped Anna off with her grandma for a nap.



It was time for waterball.  In Pittsboro, waterball isn't a firefighter competition.  It's open to anyone who can come up with 4 players and sign a waiver.  Waterball is NOT what you find if you search for it on Google.  This is a form of backward tug or war with fire hoses.  A big steel ball about 24 inches wide hangs on pulleys from a horizontal cable and teams try to push it into their opponents' territory or their side of the playing area.   You try to have better aim, better angle, and overwhelm your opponent and force the ball onto their side.   You also get a goalkeeper with another fire hose in case you get into trouble.  The team who pushes it into the opponents' side the longest after the match ends (3 minutes in our case) wins. 
It was over 90 degrees, so waterball was the perfect activity/spectator event.  We went 1-1 and had a blast.
That night, it was time to take Anna to the fireworks.   She LOVED them last year, but we weren't sure if she would react the same this time.  She quickly erased any doubts about her affinity for brightly colored aerial explosions.

Sunday, we relaxed, got some house work done, and then kept Anna up late again for some backyard fireworks.  She was delighted.  After she went to bed we visited with some friends around the fire and the grill until around 3 AM.  Lots of noisy story telling and goofing off.  I'm glad I don't live in one of those neighborhoods with houses all around.  The few neighbors we have know they can be noisy on the weekends whenever they want  as well.

Right back up on Monday, the actual 4th of July.  Tammy, Anna, and Lillian went maternity clothes shopping and came back for nap time.  Then Matt and I headed up to Kokomo to look at a 64 F100 from California for sale (I can't help it).  We got back and went to the Downtown Indy fireworks show: Tammy, Anna, myself, Ben, Lillian, Matt, Marie, Jennette, Jeff, Clive, Travis, and Clayton.  What a way to put an exclamation point on an already awesome weekend.

July 4th weekend set the bar pretty high.  Next Saturday, Anna might be a little disappointed that not every weekend henceforth is going to be so packed with fun.

Well, off to bed I go.  I've gotta go be a work from home dad in about 6 hours.

7-1-11

Posted from the phone, haven't proofread yet.

Well, I got a little lazy this week. We didn't go on as many "adventures" as we normally would. Today, with the threat of rain looming all day long, Anna and I just stayed home. We watched Curious George cartoons and she helped me feed the birds and do some light yard work. Yesterday, we went out to McCloud, talked to the park employees, played with smokey (the cat), and met a bunny named Oreo. Then we were of to the woods to play in the rocks with Anna's bucket an sand shovels. I took lots of pictures, but I can't upload them straight from my phone.
Tuesday, we went to Ellis Park in Danville, the granddaddy of municipal parks (although Washington Township Park is growing on us too). Anna played on the shady playground while I ate my lunch from Hardees, but the place was crowded with a bus load of day car kids. So we moved on to the creek where we ran into Liz from church and her three kids; Cole, Peyton, and little baby Emelia, whom Anna has been talking about since Tuesday now. We played in the water til well past naptime, and headed home. Anna fell asleep as usual, and I got to carry my sweet little girl in an tuck her in to her big girl bed.

Dear 1964 Ford F100 from California with "no rust" that's for sale in Kokomo,

I think we're meant to be together.  You're surface rusted hood and roof are nothing compared to the rusted out basket case classic trucks roaming around here in Central Indiana.  If I can find a way to get my 1976 blue scrap heap ready to sell before you're gone, I just might drive up there and get you.  I'm trying to talk myself out of it, but I'm having trouble talking any sense into...me.  Maybe someone will come buy you and save me from spending a big chunk of my savings on something that depreciates, let alone a truck that could probably get it's own AARP card.

Cordially,

Marcus Dugan

pics

at Jamestown Nature Park, looking for dandelions

We like going outside and all, but Indy has the biggest Childrens Museum in the world. 

playing in the water at the Childrens Museum

Anna LOVES the water clock.

McCloud Park

playing in the rocks

still playing in the rocks. 

One of Anna's favorite past times.

Anna and Daddy picnic

wagon upgrade.  The little solid push mower tires it came with didn't do so well on trails.  The wagon needed to be more nature park-ready. 

ready to go off-road

playing in the sand at Ellis Park

So many parks, so many "adventures," not enough time to write about it all

Almost every day during the week, I take my little Anna Rose on an "Adventure."  Sometimes, we go to a park.  Sometimes, we combine it with a trip to my office or going out for lunch somewhere cheap.  Sometimes, especially in iffy weather, we go somewhere like Lowes (her favorite store - especially the garden section and the lighting section with the chandeliers and the disco ball) or Frazee Gardens (not to buy anything - they charge a 100% mark up over full retail on most things because they know their wealthy shallow clientele will unwittingly pay it).  And occasionally, I'll take her to the public library, another one of her favorite places (she gets so excited, she won't sit still for a book, but that's another post for another day).

But our favorite kind of adventure always includes a park.  

So far this Spring/Summer, Anna and I have been to McCloud Nature Park, Scamahorn Park (Pittsboro), Ellis Park (Danville Park), Williams/Blastoff Park (Brownsburg), Arbuckle Acres Park (Brownsburg), Pleasant Acres Nature Park (Jamestown), and Washington Township Park (Avon).  I thing I'm gonna start posting some ratings and descriptions of them all so we can remember which ones are the best...and if anyone ever reads this thing, they might benefit as well. 

In the spring and early summer, every time we headed out to a park or nature park, it was all about the dandelions.  Anna HAD to have a yellow flower and a green leaf every time we went outside.  In the pic, she was focused on going after all the dandelion seed things and saying "We're blowing BUB-bles!" each time she sent the seeds floating through the air.  It was awesome, adorable, and fun; though I'm sure I would forget someday if I didn't write it down, hence the blog : )

As the summer continues, it's been more about going on an adventure and exploring. In this picture, she was playing in the dirt at McCloud Nature Park, the Grand-Daddy of all local parks.  For all it lacks in playgrounds, it makes up for in explorability (not actually a word).  246 acres of wilderness with two creeks, most notably the main fork of Big Walnut Creek, a really cool bridge, and tons of wagon friendly trails.  It's a tough place for a stroller, but not impossible.  You just have to stay off the trails with looser gravel.  Anna calls this "The Big Nature Park" and always looks forward to seeing the nature center, a cat named Smokey who lives there (Anna always calls him a turkey: "You're a TURKEY! Hey, cat, you're a turkey!" just because), and of course the creek.  She always asks to "see the kitty cat?", then moves on to "go down the water?".  She calls some of the shorelines "the beach," which is really cute.  We've spent as much as four + hours there at a time (packed a lunch of course).  Sometimes, we just find a spot on a gravel trail where Anna can sit and play with the rocks.  Sometimes we go off the trails and explore the woods. 

Anna was actually chasing my phone around in circles in this picture.  I had the reverse lens setting on the iPhone on so she could see herself in the picture, which is the only way to get her to smile for a picture so far.

This was the day I got hurt carrying her down to the water.  We decided to go down to the water from the wrong side of the creek.  I got banged up pretty badly when I fell down on a steep hillside carrying her, but I actually had a little pride in my abrasions and bruises because I was able to protect my little girl from getting hurt at all. We found a cool spot on a rocky sandbar with almost no mosquitoes (There was so much rock, it was like being on a large concrete pad) and spent about an hour and half there throwing rocks and playing by the water.

Lots of these pictures are at McCloud, but it's not the only place we've been this summer.  I've got lots more to add.