Blessings, Bliss, and Bailey: Staying Busy!

Since July 4th, we have been super busy around here! Christian's parents came to visit, Bailey got locked in the car, Christian is back in school, and we went to the Iowa state fair!

Christian's parents visited us in July which was nice since the last time they came it was October. Once you live in the midwest, you begin to see the year as only being 6 months long... Summer and Fall... any other months are too cold, too snowy, and too difficult to travel. It was nice having them come when we could enjoy being outside. We took them downtown to the Farmers Market where I think we bought something from practically every booth! It was a blast - Bailey LOVES her Boppy :)

Of course Boppy (Christian's mom) showed up with tons of new stuff for B :) Lot's of dress up clothes, toys, and puzzles. Yes, puzzles. I know, I know, I am biased about my daughter. Who isn't? But seriously, we have unlocked a talent that I am a bit obsessed with. Puzzles.

It started with a little 9 piece Target puzzle and after one day, she had identified corners and edges and was putting the pieces together with thought and logic - not just accidental. So, I started thinking it was too easy so I got her 4 dinosaur puzzles. These did not have the edges that lend hints to where pieces go - it was just a basic puzzle - 12 pieces. After 2 days, she had done all 4! So, I headed out for more puzzles and found a 24 piece floor puzzle for 5 and up.
I figured her and Christian could do it together over the weekend. Once we pulled it out of the box, she yelled "NO! I do it!" So, we stepped back and let her get to work. Watching her pick up the pieces then go find another with the same patterns or shapes was fascinating! She has no concept yet that the finished image is on the box, so she is completely doing it with no hints. She would see a figure, then say, "Where is the eye?" Then sort through the pieces and find the eye. I mean, come on! We were impressed to say the least. After about an hour - she had finished the puzzle - the entire thing all by herself!!! Now, I haven't been around many other 2.5 year olds so I have nothing to compare her to - but I think to be able to do a 5 and up puzzle all by yourself is pretty impressive.
Of course, I hit the books... What does it mean when your child likes puzzles? Well, being an ex teacher, I know that it is a sign that she is a visual-spatial learner but she also loves sorting objects by color, size, pattern and shape which would hint to auditory-sequential. This is interesting because it is completely opposite of me but right down Christian's alley. We will see what comes of all of this, but for now, we are buying lots of toys to help nurture these natural gifts :)

Too bad that ability to solve puzzles didn't help us last week in the parking lot... Yes, I did what all moms fear... I locked my child AND my keys in my car. It was a nightmare. I was walking out of the store and remotely started my car so that the A/C would run. Then, like everyone, I strap Bailey in before I unload my cart or anything else. Somewhere between unloading and closing the door, I must have hit the lock button. I shut the door and then realize I left my keys on the seat, I go to reopen it and it wont open! I try again. Nope. There happened to be a man right next to me in the parking lot and he says, "You didn't just lock your keys in your car did you?" I say, "yes!! and my 2 year old!"
His first reaction was to call Onstar since I have a Tahoe - but as luck would have it... I cancelled my subscription in MARCH!! I was paying $200 a year for it and never used it so I let it expire. I called anyway but they said there was no way they could help but that they were calling 911.
I hang up and stand there. I now have about 6 people standing around me and ALL of them have a plan but I needed to THINK. My A/C was running and would run for 12 minutes before automatically shutting off. The firemen would just shatter my window and that would suck but I also had a spare set of keys at home. So, I call Christian screaming, crying, and shaking. He actually answered! Usually he has meetings all day or something... So, he runs out of the office. He is about 10-12 minutes from home and then about 15 minutes to me from there. So, I tell the firefighters that he is coming. They agreed to wait since my A/C was still on and Bailey was not in distress... she was actually laughing and smiling. I think she thought that I just ran into some friends in the parking lot and was having a really long conversation...
At this point, about 5 minutes have gone by. Soon, the car would turn off. Within another 5 minutes it did and now the clock was ticking. They would not allow her to sit in the car for too long but luckily it was like 65 degrees out so we weren't in the heat of the day. Those 15-20 minutes seemed to go on forever! Everyone just stood by the car with me talking, keeping me calm while Bailey just sat in her carseat - completely calm and smiling. Christian finally got there and was given a hero's welcome! It was super embarrassing... I mean, I like being the center of attention, but not for something like this. Before the firetruck left, I did get a photo :) LOL! As a side note, I think God was watching out for me because as I was getting dressed that morning I was like, I'm only going for an hour - I'm not going to wear a bra... but decided that I would - thank goodness! It would have been even MORE embarrassing if the firemen showed up and I was all loosy goosy! Gah! Anyhow, I got in and pressed that blue button. We are now re-connected with Onstar... oy vey.

Christian once again surprised our family with a last minute trip to Des Moines to go to the Iowa state fair. We have been wanting to go to Des Moines but kept putting it off - this was the PERFECT opportunity! I have never been to a state fair - the only recollection I have of a fair is from Atlanta, and believe me, you don't want to go... it always ends with someone getting shot!
Before going, I reached out to a few friends asking for tips. This thing is HUGE! Over a million people will attend the fair in the 10 days that it is open and it has been ranked in the NYTimes 100 Things To Do In America Before You Die... Most of my friends said it was a lot of fun but to be prepared for "hillbillies". People, come on... I grew up in North Carolina and then lived in Georgia for 8 years. I KNOW a hillbilly and what I saw at the fair doesn't hold a flame to the backwoods crazies I am familiar with!
Anyhow, we headed over to Des Moines and spent nearly 5 hours roaming around the Iowa State Fairgrounds. It was AWESOME! Christian has already said we are going again next year. It was incredibly clean, organized, safe, entertaining, educational, cultural, and FUN! Bailey enjoyed all of the action - we saw all sorts of animals and ate all sorts of foods. We decided before we left that we were going to go all out. I had read articles about how crazy the food is at the fair - and every bit of it was true. We had funnel cakes, fried oreos, fried snickers, bacon wrapped ribs, corn dogs, curly fries, and much more! We steered away from the fried butter but I may try it again next year! Some of our favorite parts:
- the John Deere Exhibit - I mean, who knew those tractors can cost up to a half a million dollars! They were HUGE and so cool to look at.
- The Giant Slide - you ride down it on a burlap sack - Bailey LOVED it... I was actually a little scared
- cattle judging - we saw the dairy cattle, it was just cool to watch them judge
- animals - they were so beautiful - we saw a goose that was freaking 4 feet tall! horses, chickens, you name it...
- Giant Food! The pumpkin was NUTS!
- Pork - we didn't realize that you could go to the fair and bid on animals to ultimately "Eat"... we got a chuckle out of the fact that they were selling lamb chops right outside the sheep auction...
- cowboys - there is something about them... mmm mmm

After the fair we were exhausted so we went for dinner and headed back to the hotel. Sunday we woke up and went to the Blank Park Zoo which was awesome! (except that we got s#%^@!* on within the first 5 minutes in the bird sanctuary) Bailey especially loved the giraffes :) We spent most of the afternoon Sunday walking the streets of Des Moines and eating more food before heading home Monday :(((
The first thing I did this morning was run 4 miles on the treadmill... jeesh...
Christian's EMBA starts back up next week so that is going to really cramp my style - had we not moved, he would have graduated last May... but our transfer put him in at a weird time and he essentially had to take a semester off. The only good part about him in school at U of Iowa is hanging out in Iowa City - lots of fun - reminds me of Downtown Decatur back in the A :)
Lastly, I have been working on getting our family photos done and really wanted to take advantage of these beautiful Iowa summer days... I got a little sneak peak today :)

xoxo