Blog Archives - July 2008

So we just got home from grocery shopping and I was playing with Michael and his new dump truck and bulldozer in the front yard while Julie put away the frozen groceries when I heard a helicopter coming. It sounded real close, like it was just about to come over the houses down the street. So I grabbed Mike and pointed to the sky just in time to see a rotor peak over the trees and then disappear. Within a few seconds the roar of the copter subsided, too.

When Julie came back outside I told her about the helicopter that disappeared and while I was telling her we started hearing it again. So we waited for a helicopter to appear and once again the sound subsided. This happened several times and had us stumped. And I never saw rotor blades again after that first time.

Julie thought a helicopter made an emergency landing in a nearby corn field and couldn't take off again. I thought maybe there was construction going on and they were moving heavy loads short distances with the helicopter. Anyway, we got back into the car and decided to take a drive to see where this mystery helicopter was.

It turned out that a farmer across the street from the back end of our subdivision was using a helicopter to crop dust. So he would make a pass over the field, fly up over the neighborhood to turn around, and fly back over the field. I've seen airplanes crop dusting before, but never a helicopter. It was pretty cool to watch. We pulled over and watched the helicopter make a few passes and then headed home 'cause Mike looked like he was about to fall asleep (no such luck once we got home though).

Anyway, I didn't have the camera with me this time, but I'll keep an ear open for the next time the helicopter takes flight and maybe I'll get a few pictures. It was pretty cool, and just another reminder that 60 miles can be a loooong way from Chicago.

Here is a video of another helicopter crop dusting. It's very similar to what we saw: YouTube: Helicopter Crop Dusting

Well, I finally got the pictures from Wednesday uploaded. I whittled down 346 pictures and 6 videos to 70 pictures and 4 videos (plus 4 video captures).
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Well, today was the big day. It was Touch a Truck & Touch a Tractor day in DeKalb. Mike has been waiting for this forever (actually since he saw tractors last Saturday, but to him it seemed like forever). I took the day off of work so we could have tons of time to see everything. And we expanded the day's events by going to the John Deere dealer and Blumen Gardens, too. Unfortunately Ava and Joey were sick so they couldn't join us this year, but we may do our own home-made truck & tractor day in a week or two.

But back to the trucks and tractors... Mike was absolutely astounded. He loved it. As soon as we got out of the car it was nothing but "Oh Wow!" and "Ooooh!". Julie and I were a little disappointed - it was smaller this year than last year (there were fewer trucks and no real tractors, just some large John Deere mowers and loaders). But that didn't diminish Mike's excitement. He got to sit on several different John Deere's, 'drove' a tow truck, a large city vehicle, and a fire truck, and got to play in a bobcat. It was really a blast to see him so excited.

After seeing everything multiple times we headed to Tom & Jerry's for a nutritious delicious lunch of hot dogs and burgers. Then we set out to find the local John Deere dealer. We got out of the car at DeKalb Implement Company and Mike immediately saw the tractors and started saying "Wow! Wow! Oh, wow!" over and over and over. For nearly five minutes that's all he said and barely got a breath in between the wows. He ran from the loader/digger combo to the tractors to huge combines to big plows, back to the combines, over to a forklift, and around and around and around... We spent nearly an hour wandering the lot. The equipment was amazing. From the huge John Deere combines to the New Holland tractors, it made us feel very small.

After a long time looking at green and yellow we drove to Blumen Gardens, our favorite garden center. As usual I took a ton of pictures, maybe too many. Mike and I wandered all around while Julie lusted over the plants and flowers. And after an hour Mike was still finding interesting things to look at, so then both of us followed him around. He played with flowers, gave kisses to stone bunnies and dogs, gazed into (and patted) the gazing balls, played in fountains, and tons more. It was really a lot of fun.

So after almost two hours at Blumen Gardens we decided it was time for Ollie's Frozen Custard, because what is a day out without some Ollie's? We ate our custard and then played in the field behind there for a while. Mike got to fly, we blew dandelions, and had a nice relaxing time.

Then it was back home for dinner, some gardening, and playing in the park. In all, I'd say it was a perfect day off. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, Mike or me (Julie had fun, too!)...

Pictures will be up soon, but since I took 346 plus several videos today it'll be a bit before I get an album up.

There are new corner graphics on the site now. The mouse-over animation in the top right has a current picture of Mike. Now if I can just get Julie to do a picture of all of us so I can update the header picture...

The tractor photos from yesterday are now up online! (see the post from yesterday) Michael is still asking for more tractors!

Today we went to the Waterman Summer Fest and Tractor Show in Waterman, IL - just a few miles south of DeKalb. Michael thought he was in heaven (and I wasn't too far behind). There were tractors everywhere!

We saw tons of John Deere tractors, which Michael loved, and a bunch of other brands, too, like Steiger, Ford, Minneapolis-Moline, and more. There were current tractors and antiques as old as from the 1930's.

There was also a petting zoo. Michael pet a horse, sheep, cow, and bunny, and saw chickens and a goat. And the Waterman Fire Department had some antique trucks out and a dunk tank. They let Michael try to throw a ball at the tank. Needless to say he was a bit short.

And there was a small rail road. So Michael got to ride a train! And a tractor ride, too. We rode in a wagon behind the tractor. Michael didn't know what to go see next. It was a blast.

Waterman also has a really cool park with some neat slides, swings, and other stuff. So we relaxed and played in the park, too. And we ended the day up by going to Ollies. Michael was grinning all day and fell asleep talking about tractors and asking for more.

Wednesday is Touch a Truck and Touch a Tractor day in DeKalb, so he doesn't have to wait for long. I'll have pictures and videos from everything up in a day or two.

Wow! Three posts in one day! I finished the old blog post that I started on July 1st (mentioned in my earlier post today). And (shame on me) I back-dated it. So there's lots to read below...

I know. I haven't posted in almost two months. I'm awful. I've started blogs several times but always got interrupted. I had a pretty long one that I started and then ended up saving as a text file so I could get back to it. But that was over a week ago. The good news is I've been keeping the photo album pretty up-to-date. So you can see what we've been up to there.

But anyway, tonight I just had to post a real quick message about lightning bugs. Michael's been noticing them a bit over the last few days and tonight we were working in the yard when they started coming out en masse. At first Michael was a bit hesitant, but soon he warmed up to them. He started pointing and saying "lights!" It wasn't long before he worked his way out of my arms and was chasing them around the yard...

Moxie thought they were great, too. She was chasing them all around trying to catch them right there with Mike. It was a blast to watch.

Anyway, I'll try to post more short updates, I promise (but don't hold me to it). And I'll try to get out the long post I was working on. It'll be a little out of order, but at least there will be updates.

Oh yeah, and before I forget, Michael got his first haircut on Saturday, July 5th. He sat very nicely for it. Very cute.

I know, I know... It's been over 6 weeks since my last post. The good news is I have been keeping up with the photo album. I have pictures from May up and a ton from June. Julie taught Vacation Bible School for a week so I watched Mike in the mornings. And although Michael was sick with roseola, we had a blast together, seeing lawnmowers at Lowes, visiting the John Deere dealer (he says "dot deer"), and playing at the park. Despite a high (nearly 105!) fever in the evenings he was fine during the day and was very happy to be out and about instead of cooped up in the house. Anyway, that's over now and he's all better.

So over the last month and a half Mike's grown a lot. He seems bigger and more "person like" every day. The little baby is pretty much gone now and we have a little guy running around the house... and yard... and neighborhood...

He is absolutely fascinated with lawnmowers (nonower), trucks (duhk), trains (choo choo), and buses (dus). For some reason most of his words start with D, regardless of what the real sound is. And if he doesn't have a word for something he just says "daah" and points. We think "daah" might mean "that" because he definitely has things in mind, even though they usually sound the same. One time he'll point and say "daah", I'll ask "the bird?" and he'll say "no". "The tree?", "No". "The bunny?", "Uh huuuuh." Five minutes later it's point again and say "daah". "The bunny?", "No". "The bird?", "Uh huuuuh." So he understands pretty much everything and knows what things are. And many times he'll repeat what we say, at least the syllables. Each syllable gets a "duh" sound. So "big red truck" comes out as "duh duh duhk".

In the last few days he's been using sounds to describe things more. He can differentiate between school buses (dook dus) and the public 'big red buses' (dih deh dus). We even bought him a matchbox bus with a hot rod engine and flames on the side. I told him it was a 'hot rod bus' and he goes around the house holding it up saying "dot dah dus"...

We also had a family of birds move in. The mother bird built a nest in the wreath Julie made for our front door. A few days later there were eggs, then little squirmy things that grew into baby birds. On the weekend before Father's Day they all learned to fly away. We got to watch them in the front yard.

And Michael has learned the joys of ice cream and bike rides (I've been taking him out in the bike trailer a lot). And he likes making "messes" with paints, crayons, and chalk.

In all it's been a great month and a half. We've been busy, but Michael is growing and learning and keeping us on our toes. It's so fun to watch him explore and experience new things. It makes them seem new to us, too. Big trucks and buses are fascinating things again!