The V Files

Walkscore.com recently ranked America's most walkable neighborhoods and cities. Where does your hometown land in the rankings? And how much do you actually find yourself walking instead of driving?

Well, I went to the site and entered my current address. On a score of 0-100, with 100 being the best, most walkable city, our address yielded a big fat ZERO, or "car dependent," which is completely understandable for these parts. Curious of our family's past homes, I entered all our old addresses. The verdict (in order of living)= 55 (which was declared "somewhat walkable," which also happens to be pretty accurate for that home), 25, 38, 18, and 0......yeah, we've lived a lot of places........

 I have always thought it would be nice to live in a place where I could go for weeks without getting into my car, not really for environmental reasons, but because I just don't really like to drive. Being able to commute via mass transportation as well would be nice. Now that I have a kiddo though, that does not really sound too intriguing anymore. I am curious as to how people in NYC, or some other large city, make it through travel with a toddler in tow, especially when they do not even own a car, completely relying on subways or cabs. I mean, do you haul the car seat out into the street, wave down a cab, and then lock in the seat, situate the belts, etc. That would be exhausting! One summer, I pulled a long stint on my bike, visiting friends, going to the park, and making errand runs via those two wheels and my two legs. At that point, we lived at the 55 walkscore home, so it was not too bad, other than the poorly kept city sidewalks. Again, with Daniel, that would not be too feasible anymore. I could just see myself losing my balance and tumbling my poor baby over into the street. Yikes!

So, as for me and my zero "walk score," it looks like I will be relying on my car and nearly $4 a gallon gas for a long time---unless I am going to the neighbor's house to chat or borrow a cup of sugar :o).

Thomas and I met in college at The Wesley Foundation. "Wesley" as we affectionately call it, was our home away from home during those precious college years. We met some of the most amazing people while there, and we learned so much about faith and life through Wesleyan influences. And, through all our Wesley connections, we can quickly get in contact with some pretty helpful people: doctors, lawyers, optometrists, engineers, teachers, dentists, full time mommies, therapists, nurses, veterinarians and so forth. Pretty fortunate, eh? Needless to say, Wesley holds a very special place in our hearts, for without it, we would not have some of our closest friends, nor would we have each other.

Every summer, Wesley holds a summer picnic. Graduates and current students attend, meeting new folks and catching up with the old ones. This summer, we officially realized that we are the "old" Wesley Alumni (most of which are pictured above). This picnic was a bit different than previous due to the crazy toddler we had to chase. Last year he was just a little fella, and the year before that he was extremely portable and agreeable via the womb. Daniel had his fair share of cute moments, as well as frustrating ones, but it was nice to see some of the younger Wesley folks humor him with silly follow the leader type games. He even had a few playmates, thanks to Honey and Clark. While he and Luke explored the grounds, I managed to snap this cute little photo of some Wesley love.

Time went way too fast this year. I felt like I had to cut several conversations short, especially due to my mobile son. Plus, we had a commute this year, unlike last, so we had to head out a little earlier than I would have liked. Poor Daniel was pooped (hence his absence in the larger group photo.....he was already in the car, stuffed animal in hand). Even though we do touch base with many of our Wesley friends throughout the year, there are others we only get to see at the picnic. We hope to keep making our trips to THE Wesley Summer Picnic, for where else can you get your picture taken between two lovely gals named Summer? :o)

I saw this license plate on the back of a sewage truck and I figured that I should take a picture:

Can you read it? It says "GOT POOP?" Such a plate seems fitting for a sewage truck.

We took Daniel on his very first trip to "Where the Wild Things Are" a.k.a, the ZOO! We met up with Thomas' s sister and her family as soon as the zoo opened in order to avoid some of the day's heat. Yeah right---it was HOT. But we did have a nice time regardless. The zoo was not too crowded (guess many folks were not silly enough to venture out in the heat), and the animals were out and about, so Thomas was able to take some really great pictures of the animals that the zoo had to offer.

There is also a huge playground at the zoo, which happens to be one of the best I've seen in our area. It even had a "Tot Town" bounce house. Those two items alone made the trip worth it. We, however, did not get to playing until the end of our visit, so everyone was a little hot and bothered by that point. Regardless, Daniel was very happy (see right) while exploring the enormous playground. He even gave a tiny bit of resistance (perhaps all his tiny body could muster) upon our playground exit.

Meet Petie, my mom's dog

He was an early Christmas surprise to my mom from me and Thomas (she had been wanting a dog). My friend, Molly, had to give him up, for she was moving to a new community that had some restrictions on the number of dogs you could own. The limit was 4, and being that Petie was doggie #5, he was the one they decided to part with. I guess the last to come is the first to go. Anyway, their loss was my mom's gain. Petie is an excellent dog. We were worried at first that things might now work out so well at his new home, but he soon adjusted to his new surroundings in the country very nicely. He began to lose weight from chasing squirrels and such, and now he looks like a much healthier Jack Russell.

Recently, mom has discovered that Petie is a BIG FAN of water. After work, she will turn on the hose and let him run wild. Petie is in dog heaven. He chases the spray and chomps at every drop. He loves to get his fur wet, and running straight into the hose's spray is one of his favorite moves. If you stop for too long, Petie will beg for more, literally. It is quite an enjoyable sight to see this dog so happy over the water. Daniel loves to help spray the water for Petie as well. All in all, it will provide a great laugh and lift anyone's spirits.

"Oh cool!" is often my response to Daniel when he shows me something, rather it be a page in one of his books or a piece of paper he found on the floor. It has become such a habit. He now echoes "Oh cool!" when he sees something he likes and wants to show us. And to what did he say "oh cool!" today?

MY NEW DIGITAL CAMERA! I am very pumped to have this item. "Oh cool!" is right on target.

Thomas was the one to suggest that I needed a new camera, although there might have been some prompting from a friend (thanks Dawn). The little point and shoot that I currently have is around 4 years old, which is quite old in digital camera age. It has a tiny LCD screen in the back and the batteries, no matter how new, always seemed to lose charge---at the most inopportune times. Now, my new Cannon SD750 has a 3in LCD screen on the back, an internal, rechargeable battery, and it is totally awesome. We've done some saving, researching, and sale watching on cameras, and today was the day that we finally got one.

A few extra things I love:

• When you flip the camera sideways, the images on the back flip too
• You have no need for a viewfinder on the back--even in sunny situations--because the screen is so big you can see everything.
• I have a video camera on this one as well, but the quality will be much more crisp and clear.

And, for the first pic (of many more to come)....................................
  anyone in the market for a used Nikon CoolPix 3200????

Cute.....but ornery....trust me, his cuteness is deceiving!

Oh how I love my son, but the past week he has been such a pill. The poor thing is teething his top right and left back teeth, so they are hard to reach and painful, hence a grumpy little man for me. There is little to do to assuage his little gums way back in the back. He did, however, find my headband on the couch the other night, which he quickly placed in his mouth because it hit perfectly on each side in the rear, right where he needed it.

On top of the teeth issues, he is coming into his own, wanting specific items that he can't always specifically request. Gone are the days where the baby is hungry and the baby eats whatever is put before him, completely content because he is simply eating. Now, its goldfish, not peanut butter crackers. Bananas, not strawberries.

Also, Daniel has been discovering even more about his ability to get into nearly anything and everything. His long and lean physique makes nearly all items within reach. I'm running out of places to put things, especially in the kitchen, for he can reach everything that is placed on the counters unless they are pushed back to the wall or dead center of the island.

When it comes to his mobility, Daniel is pretty capable of doing what he desires. He will frequently need a little boost or a quick hand grab to get a task done, yet, there are times when he does not want any help. He wants to try and try and grunt and whine, sometimes breaking down and getting help, but other times becoming successful. It is hard for me, however, to know which is which--does he want help or not?

It is neat to see him developing likes and dislikes (for instance, he likes pulling his peanut butter crackers apart, having one piece in each hand). But I just wish he could put up with the dislikes a little more cordially.

Let's just say we have both been learning about patience this past week! He is clearly a toddler. 

  One of my dear brothers, John, who works for Google out in sunny California, was on TLC's new show Master of Dance last night. Since we don't get the frills of cable television, we did not see it. In an attempt to catch a glimpse of John on the show, I checked out YouTube. Although I could not find the episode, here is a promotional video of the show. If you care to see him, you might want to just skip forward to 4:20 or so. He begins to cut a rug shortly after that point. He is in some other quick scenes in the background, but at around 4:20 is when he dances.

The Hubby and I took a few nights away from the kiddo to enjoy some time at Holiday World- water and amusement park- for our anniversary! It was a great time! The park was not very crowded, so we were able to enjoy short or non-existent lines to ride the rides. The park is very family friendly, clean, and very affordable. They have free unlimited soft drinks for goodness sake! All you had to do was go to a "Pepsi Oasis" and grab a cup, filling it up with the beverage of your choice. No catch. The place even offered free sunscreen! Some folks, as identified by their bright red lobster skin, did not take advantage of this perk. We, however, used it to re-lather mid-day.

My ultimate favorite had to be the Bakuli, which means "bowl" in Swahili

When I got off this ride, I giggled like a little girl--seriously. It was so much fun! I could have done that one about 20 times, but alas, we settled for just 2, for it is a brand new water slide, and very popular, thus it had one of the longest lines in the entire park.

The amusement portion of the park, per its name, is divided into holiday sections: Christmas, Fourth of July, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. Most of the hard core rides were in the Halloween section, such as "The Legend" and "The Raven." The literary gal in me liked their little puns. While riding "The Legend" for the second time, our coaster pulled up to about 3 people waiting to get on to ride! They eventually ended up taking one of the coasters off, just operating on one, because the park was just not crowded.
 

The Thanksgiving section contained their most recent coaster, "The Voyage," which is themed off of the pilgrims and their journey to the new world. Let's just say this coaster was not for anyone weak of heart! It is a wooden coaster that is 1.2 miles long, going over 65 miles per hour. It starts off by dropping you 153 feet....right from the get go.  When we got off, Thomas said, "Those poor pilgrims had it bad!" So true. That one made us realize that we are not getting any younger! If you want to take a look yourself, they have a video of folks riding it on their site.

Overall, we really enjoyed the park. We liked that it was less crowded during our trip. Also, being that we got 1/2 off

tickets, soft drinks were free, parking was free, a locker rental (where we stored camera, phones, clothes for the entire day) was 3 bucks, sunscreen was free, and we both ate a filling lunch at the park for under 10 dollars, we had great fun for a low price! What a great way to celebrate.

The downside---Holiday World is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

And yes, we played skeeball---because I really like it and it was only a quarter a play, so we blew 2 bucks.

Daniel loves to brush his teeth. He really just sucks on the mini-toothbrush and wiggles it around in his mouth, but you get my drift. I forget to brush his teeth in all honesty, but he reminds me. He will either see me brushing mine and point and grunt until I get him his toothbrush or he will just go into the bathroom, pointing and grunting, until I come and get him the items.

The new trick is getting Daniel to actually stay still while brushing his teeth. He would prefer to just dance around the entire house, doing whatever deeds he feels necessary while he cleans his teeth (which is something I might do, until recently, when we've been trying to teach him not to do so). We've been trying to teach him to "stay in the bathroom when you brush your teeth." I bet I've said that a hundred times already in his short teeth brushing life. If he steps out of the bathroom, he is asked to come back. If he keeps walking, teeth brushing time is over.

Anyway, today I was brushing my teeth and Daniel did his point and grunt. I, of course, tell him "This is your toothbrush. Can you say toothbrush?," to which Daniel responds "no." Guess he's being honest. I grab the brush, slap on some kiddie toothpaste, and hand it over to Daniel, for which he gives me a very sweet "tank ewe," which is "thank you" to those of you that don't speak toddler.

As you might have guessed, Daniel steps out of the bathroom. I ask him kindly to come back because "you need to stay in the bathroom when you brush your teeth." My son then reacts to that with a sprint to the bedroom door, which every mother loves to see---your child running with a toothbrush in his mouth.

I catch up and grab back the toothbrush while Daniel proceeds to scream and wallow on the floor. Lovely. At least we are alone in our home rather than in public. My job now consists of ignoring the tantrum and cleaning off the toothbrush, putting it back in its proper place. I am not sure how long he pouted because I just continued on with getting ready.

A tiny bit later, I begin to hear this smacking sound. Next, I feel a tug on my leg. I look down and Daniel is making the lips for kisses, along with the smacking sound. I lean down and give him the kiss he was requesting; Daniel leans in and give me a hug. Although he didn't say the words, that was Daniel's "I'm sorry."

Too sweet.