When you drive into Dayton, toward my parents’ house, you pass by the Carillon Historical Park. The Deeds Carillon is perched high on a hill, greeting people as they enter the downtown area.

Fuller noticed the Carillon (though he just calls them “the bells”) when we drove in last Thursday, and remembered our last visit. He immediately started asking to see them again. He even started making plans for us, “We go Vieja’s house then go see the bells!”

Today my mom decided we had been all work and no play for too many days, so we headed over to the Historical Park to see not only the bells, but the buildings and artifacts inside the park as well. Fuller mainly wanted to see the bells, and didn’t understand the definition of park (thinking we would end up at a local playground).

I have to say, Dayton loves its history. They embrace and show off their golden boys, The Wright Brothers, and really want people to know even more inventors came from this Ohio city.

While mom and I wandered in and out of the buildings, checking out the artifacts, separating replicas from the real things, we watched Fuller run around obsessed with the map he was carrying and wondering exactly when we would be visiting the bells.

Fuller’s highlight of the actual visit was seeing the 1930s printing presses in action. He was entranced by the action and we probably could have left him there for quite some time.

It was an excellent morning, capped off with lunch at Culp’s Cafe, the recreation of a cafeteria in the 1930s. Mom was able to enjoy a Cherry Phosphate, a drink she enjoyed as a child. Fuller liked it too.

Soon after our lunch, Fuller was running toward the bells, his morning capped off with his original destination.

If you visit Dayton, Ohio I really recommend the Carillon Historical Park (lots of pictures here). You can see the original Wright Flyer III from 1905, a canal lock, and one of the Sugar Camp WAVE cabins (my personal favorite). And if you can catch a Carillon concert, it is a real treat.

Technorati Tags: Dayton, Ohio, Carillon Historical Park, Wright Brothers, Sugar Camp WAVE

About ten minutes before Fuller and I were leaving Chattanooga my mom called to tell us there was a Celtic Festival this weekend and to bring Fuller’s kilt. Damon took the call and took the order seriously. He gathered the kilt, sporan, and said since it was an outdoor thing Fuller could just wear a white polo shirt. It was all packed in our suitcase and we took off for Ohio.

I researched the Celtic Festival Saturday morning to understand what we were getting into. There was music to be heard, demonstrations to be seen, and a children’s area to amuse Fuller. It looked like a lot of fun.

It was a long day, but Fuller really only suffered one melt down and enjoyed himself the rest of the time. After we got some bouncing out of the way, we headed over to see some kids doing their Celtic dancing.

Fuller enjoyed the performance and wanted to know when it was his turn to dance.

We wandered around, enjoying some of the wares of merchants. Food, kilts, Celtic jewelry, plastic swords, and plenty of apparel proudly displaying the word “Ireland” or “Guinness” were all there to take our money.

We heard a storyteller while we ate lunch, enjoyed a fiddle demonstration, and finished our afternoon listening to Gaelic Storm. They were very lively, told some great stories, and had an excellent energy for their modern Celtic music. Apparently they are very big in Dayton, because the venue was packed for the performance.

Fuller definitely enjoyed himself and I’m glad we had his kilt for this fun afternoon. And of course, we had plenty of pictures to help us remember the fun we had.

Technorati Tags: Dayton, Ohio, Celtic Festival, United Irish of Dayton, kilt, Gaelic Storm

Fuller and I helped my mom today by running a bunch of errands with her. Crossing things off her to do list, especially the ones that are running around town, is what we are here to do.

We did some shopping and of course the price of everything just seems so high to me. As we drove around town I kept my eye on gas prices, just curious how prices compare to prices down south.

Of course as we are preparing for baby number two, cost of things are in the front of my mind. I told my mom I wanted to convince Damon to let us use cloth diapers this time around. I’ve been really inspired by my friend Betsy, and talking to other cloth Mamas about how they diaper their kiddos.

At first glance, the price of cloth diapers seems high. But when I think about all the money we sunk into diapers with Fuller, cloth diapers are really, really cheap. And hey, if I were to win some, that would help too, right?

Baby Cheapskate is a great resource on cutting costs on raising children and has several recent posts on cloth diapering. I hope I win, because I really think this would be an excellent start in saving money with baby number two.

Technorati Tags: Baby Cheapskate, cloth diapers, contest

I’m supposed to be packing, but I wanted to enjoy my coffee. Enjoying coffee is easier in front of the computer, not the suitcase, so here I sit.

Fuller and I will embark on a roadtrip today (we would have left at 7 a.m. if Fuller had his way) to visit my mom. She is moving in a few weeks and needs some help with stuff. Or just wants to see Fuller (maybe me too). So, I will be putting clothes into the bag soon so we can be off.

I don’t have anything really exciting to blog about. I am dipping into my maternity clothes now, and my morning sickness is a bit more manageable if I take my Zofran. Only one of those are blog worthy, and I already wrote about it.

So for our family blog readers I just give this glimpse at coolness Damon showed us yesterday.

Enjoy!

Our afternoons have been sprinkled with summer storms. It keeps me from having to go outside and water the plants, but sometimes it kind of wrecks and hour or so of our time. Case in point: yesterday’s storm.

When the thunder and lightning preceeded the actual dumping of water from the sky, I was on the phone with Damon. It started to pour and I could see the wind picking up by the movement in the trees. At one point the color of a tree changed completely because all I could see was the silvery-green underside of the leaves. As I hung up with Damon I told him it wasn’t the rain that bothered me, but the wind.

We have a rather established Tulip Poplar tree in our back yard. Four months after we moved into this house, a wicked storm blew through and knocked a really big portion of the tree into the street. It crushed the chain link fence we had at the time, and ruined a perfectly good afternoon nap.

At some other point in the nine years we have lived here, a storm blew a heavy branch onto my car, smashing the windshield. This is a possible side effect of parking under a tree.

And yesterday, we lost some more of that tree into the alleyway behind our house.

I had to call Damon and ask him to try and come home sooner rather than later because it was blocking the alleyway, specifically the driveway of the house behind ours. I moved some of the manageable branches, but really the biggest hunk had to managed by the strength of my husband’s chainsaw.

Damon told me he would come home as soon as the rain passed from downtown. I didn’t realize he meant downtown was suffering from flash flooding.

We are really fortunate the debris fell where it did, because it didn’t land on any cars (ours or anyone else’s), our fence, or nearby buildings. And yet, our tree still stands tall. Hope it doesn’t fall completely down during the next storm.

Hi! I’m Fuller! I play wit you? We can play puppets!

This is snail. He smiles and isn’t a bad guy.

Mommy Bird says “tweet! tweet!” Louder! “TWEET! TWEET!”

Baby Bird gets lost from Mommy Bird a lot. Baby Bird doesn’t obey and cries.

Galigator is bad guy. He tries to eat Baby Bird and Mommy Bird. Baby Bird cries. (Fuller Mommy says Baby Bird cries a lot.)

Galigator is green. Green is my favorite color. Mommy’s favorite color is orange. Daddy loves blue.

Ion is bad guy. He stomps on Galigator and Baby Bird and Mommy Bird and Snail.

Spider-Man Puppet is good guy. He gets Galigator and Ion with his webs and sends them to the police. He saves Baby Bird and Mommy Bird and Baby Bird. Baby Bird says “Thank you!” and doesn’t cry.

Come back in my room and I play wit you?