McKinley's First...QUAKE

No, I don't mean the tasty little rice cake chips that I am so addicted to. It was a real, live Earthquake.

The saying goes...if the house is a rockin', don't come a knockin'. Guess it rings true in the midwest today.

At around 5:30 this morning we ALL had a rude awakening from Mother Nature. Not only did we feel it, we could hear it too. Everything that could rattle, rattled. Of course, I was still half asleep when this occured as I hear Cary exclaim, "Are we having an EARTHQUAKE?", like a smart person (sense the sarcasm) I lept out of bed and wobbled around the house. WHY? I don't know. Guess I needed confirmation that the ground beneath me was shaking.

First thing I did was check on McKinley, who lay wide awake in his crib. I have to laugh because he really looked perplexed. Then I ran in the living room. Gunther, who had been SOUND asleep above my head, followed me, along with Valentine, who's belly was touching the floor as she crawled VERY, VERY slowly, afraid of what she might find. CUTE! I immediately turned on the TV to find a 'wired' weatherman interrupting his forcast to confirm the quake. Oh, good. WE AREN'T CRAZY! Finally, I went back to bed. Cary asked what I'd heard. I explained, then I remembered waking up about an hour earlier to check on McKinley. The first thing I found in his room then was Valentine, wide awake sitting at the doorway of the nursery. At the time, I thought, 'Hmmm...how strange".

I got goosebumps when I realized that you're supposed to go to a doorway for safety during a quake.

Our sweet kitty-girl must have known what was coming, so she went in to be with McKinley.

I don't care what you think of animals, you HAVE to respect their senses. How crazy is that?

She stayed in the nursery until she crawled down the hallway with me, post-quake.

I've ALWAYS thought Valentine was very intuitive. She has been by our sides during illnesses, consoled me many times during my grief over Dad, and would not leave the nursery before McKinley was born. Even when we were all sick earlier this year, she stayed every night in the nursery. She's our little mother!

Hope everyone is safe and had no damage from today's little wild ride and it's late-morning aftershock.

In honor of Val, here's a pic. Here's Cary feeding a VERY young McKinley while Valentine looks on and admires her two favorite men.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynn

McKinley's First ride on the swing

The weather FINALLY turned 'spring-like' for us. We took full advantage and decided to introduce McKinley to a place I loved as a child. One of our City Parks, Deming is very near and dear to my heart. The playground has certainly changed over the last 30 years (uh, did I just say that?), but one thing remains the same. The kids of this city LOVE it there!

The new playground is equipped with two 'age-appropriate' stations and even has some kind of super-cushy, shock absorbent 'flooring', if you will. Um...Cary and I had the distinct privilege of landing on asphalt and gravel when we romped around on the playground as kiddies. I have scars to prove it and I'm SURE that Cary does too. Now, McKinley will be fortunate enough to make a soft, pillow-like landing!

Anyway, we walked over, found the little swings, placed McKinley in and, 'whoosh'! He loved it!

Cary and I took turns pushing him for a while then headed over to the Deming Park version of Disney's Tea Cups for babies. Whew...that was funny. I think I'd puke. McKinley remained calm and chill (see picture), he just smiled and got comfy, enjoying Daddy pushing his little 'cup' while Mommy took pictures.

We ended the nap-inducing trip with McKinley's very first slide experience...with Daddy, of course. It was pretty cute to see Cary climb up that slide with McKinley. I don't think McKinley was too amused yet, but he'll LOVE it soon enough.

McKinley was no sooner in his car seat and was peacefully napping, dreaming of his first swing in the park.

Today McKinley is 9 months old. We are only THREE months away from having a toddler. Can this be possible?
He is continuing with new syllables and loving the fact that he is becoming more and more mobile by the day.

It was so nice every day this week until Saturday, other than a little rain. So,we dusted off the jogging stroller (which had a very long hiatus during the winter) and have walked every day this week...except for Saturday when it suddenly turned bitter cold and actually spat a snow-like mixture...uh, hello? It's April. Anyway, McKinley LOVES being outside. He sings and waves his hands in the air as if to catch the wind. I pack a toy each time we go, but he barely bats an eyelash at it. Too much to see and do! Passers-by think he is waving at them and they get very excited over that. Do you know he even lets us put sunglasses and a hat on him every time? Can't start eye and skin protection too soon!

We have a 9 month pedi appointment this week...I'm sure we'll update McKinley's new stats as soon as we find out! Check back when you can...

Have a great week!

Lynn

GNO + DMB + PiP = GREAT weekend!

Translation:

Girls Night Out plus Dave Matthews plus McKinley and his mommy's picture in print equals a really great weekend!

Friday, April 11th I left 'the boys' alone (they had a great evening together, by the way...boys' night!) and went to dinner with my Mom, Jodi, her sister Jill and their Mom, Brenda. After that, we headed over for this city-wide Girls Night Out thing at the arena. The feature of the evening was this absolutely HILARIOUS comedienne, Anita Renfroe. She does this 'estrogen flavored' comedy, as she calls it, that will seriously leave you in stitches, if you can laugh about yourself or the woman in your life. I laughed until I cried. I laughed so much that I bought her DVD, of which she signed for me and took pics with all of us girls! NO WAY! The pics are on Mom's camera...will upload ASAP. In the meantime, here we all are at dinner. Good times, good times.

This comedienne is WAY famous for her insane version of the William Tell Overture, you've probably seen it, but just incase...click and watch. It's on youtube and has had millions and millions of hits.

Now, before our GNO...Thursday night Cary checks his weekly DMB (Dave Matthews Band) email. He starts yelling, very excited. I came running. He informs me that in some crazy twist of fate, Dave Matthews has chosen BLOOMINGTON'S Assembly Hall at I.U. to give a 'small' concert with his friend and awesome guitarist, Tim Reynolds to show support for his candidate of choice...Obama. Okay, whatever about the Obama stuff...really. Oh, did I mention that the concert was FREE?

RIIIGGGHHHTTT. Another April Fools joke? No. Cary's dream come true? Yep. Dave & Tim...IU...on a Sunday afternoon. Awesome.

I called the T.H. Obama office to double check, sure enough...they said they would have tickets the following morning. We began to plan our strategy of ticket-getting. So, the next day, McKinley, Mom and I headed to the TH Obama headquarters to line up for some tickets. Mom would get Cary's ticket for us, since it was only one ticket per Indiana resident/registered voter. After waiting for almost 2 hours (McKinley was warm and cozy in the car), we got to the front door of the headquarters, where a Trib photographer suddenly went papparazzi crazy. He picked up to snap, snap, snap. Once we were out of the door and glowingly holding our tickets, the photog stopped us and took McKinley's and my name. He said we would be in the paper the following day. OMG. GREAT! Now everyone will think I'm crazy for Obama. I tried to make it VERY clear to Mr. Photographer that we were only there for DAVE tickets. LOL, he got the gist. You have to look hard for our well-bundled McKinley...and I look like I am completely lost, but whatever. I love the caption. Well put.

So, we'd already been planning on spending the night with Cary's parents over the weekend. That worked out really well. They offered to watch McKinley (we REALLY had to twist their arms...hahahahah, right.) while we had some good quality time together. Just the two of us and 17,000 other Dave fans. It was fabulous. One of the top three concerts for sure (we go to Dave every year...it's our thing). We even got to see Dave's twin girls! And he talked about his baby boy, born just before McKinley. I'm sure August and McKinley would be great friends...
We got home SO late Sunday night, but nobody minded. McKinley was fast asleep, dreaming of his walk with Grandma & Grandpa. He never even woke up when we put him in bed!

Not our best pic...but for a self-portrait on a super-sunny day as we searched for the end of the line...not bad, I guess.

Oh, and he said the concert was being recorded for a CD...yahoooooo!

Here are clips from the concert...click and check it out!

The Wave-we're in there some where!

Crush

It sure was a busy couple of days, but so fun!

Lynn

Adventures in Indy

WOW, did we have fun in Indy this week! McKinley, Mom and I headed up to meet Diane (McKinley's 'Honey'), Shelby and Mary for lunch at Circle Centre. It was so great catching up with them during Shelby's Spring Break. We even got to do a little shopping while we were there.

Many pictures to share of our super-fun day...we can't wait to do it again!

Lynn









Here, McKinley cozies up to 'Honey'











McKinley, Nonna and Honey (I was SO excited when I snapped this pic! "Stayin' Alive" was playing at Johnny Rocket's and these two were dancing away with McKinley. It was hilarious!)

McKinley opens his new present from Honey...a telephone!
Look closely, you might remember this very toy! Mary and I decided they have not updated it too much. We remember having it as children, it looks the same after all these years! Not that Mary and I are old, but whatever.

Here's McKinley, at home Tuesday evening playing with his new phone. I SWEAR we didn't show him how to use a phone like this. He seriously just picked up the 'receiver' with his left hand and started 'dialing' with his right! Hahahahaha!