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?

On Tuesday Fuller and I took a trip to the Creative Discovery Museum. Fuller really, really enjoys the new Corner Clinic where he can “be doctor” and play with things like the x-ray lights and look up a gigantic nose with a mirror.

Fuller and I have been attending the downtown library’s Wednesday story time. It consists of several books being read (some with children participation), a short film, and a craft. This past Wednesday the theme was Superheros in Space, which was totally up Fuller’s alley.

After story time Fuller and I wander the shelves one through seven and pick out five books. I don’t know why five, I just decided that was a good number. It has been exciting to read to him and then later see him reading the book to himself. He remembers plot lines and key words or sounds. It warms my heart.

We won’t get to keep going on Wednesdays when Moms’ Group starts up again, but we are having fun right now.

Chattanooga is buzzing with Antiques Roadshow rolling into town this week. The official “Welcome to Chattanooga” event was on Thursday morning at the incline and I wanted to go to take pictures. I wasn’t prepared for Fuller’s attraction and pleas we ride the actual incline (or train, as Fuller called it) and he had quite the break down. After many speeches by local city officials and Antique Roadshow personalities, I bought the tickets and Fuller and I took a ride on America’s Most Amazing Mile.

I had never been up the incline before, so it was a fun experience for me too. But Fuller was amazed. He loved going up, he loved the pulleys, and he loved the popcorn in the gift shop.

It was such a fun week, even though it was tiring.

Not to be a poor sport or anything, but MAN, how cool was today’s announcement? For weeks, rumors that Volkswagen would be selecting Huntsville over Chattanooga have abounded. Let’s hear it for the underdogs!

After reading the breaking news at 11:00 AM, we realized we had just enough time to dash over to the Hunter Museum for the 11:30 official announcement. We’ve added a Flickr set, here. They even gave away gift bags afterwards.

Achtung Baby!

One of the best things about being a dad is making stuff for your kid. Last summer, I had this great idea about making a pair of water cannons similar to what you’d find at a water park. I bought a dirty water pump from Harbor Freight and drew up a quick construction plan in my mind. Unfortunately, last summer’s drought put the kibosh of that.

One year later, Lake Martin is back to a respectable level, so I hauled the pump back up to the lake and resumed my suspended project. It took a couple of hours of prep at home - cutting and drilling a few of the larger PVC pipes (to make the water guns more aesthetically pleasing) and mounting the pump in an old plastic 5-gallon bucket. I also spent about three hours cutting and cementing pipe on-site. Then, after waiting about an hour-and-a-half for the pipe cement to dry, it was ready.

Now, we have our own mini-water park. Awesome!

Alli took some photos and posted them on flickr.

Since VBS is over I can say Thursday (Day 4) was the only day Fuller didn’t fight going to VBS. I’m not sure what excited him on that particular day, but he was happy to get in the car and go. His craft that day was making jewelry. He got to string beads into a necklace and apparently he was very good at it, surprising Amber when Fuller didn’t need any help.

When Damon came home in the evening, Fuller was able to remember a lot more about his morning, sharing details with a smile on his face.

After the struggle of getting Fuller to church, he once again was fine being at VBS. I’m not sure what the hesitation was, but he made it through the week so I was happy.

The final day of VBS had Fuller dancing and making sandals out of carpet samples (which are now part of his dress up box). At the end of the day the kids performed for parents, singing songs and saying their Bible verses. We wrapped up with a cookout and tears from Fuller when we had to leave.

I am so happy Fuller was able to be a part of VBS this year and am even looking forward to next year! Maybe Fuller will too.

We are still having problems getting Fuller out of the house for VBS in the mornings. But once he is there, all the struggles of the morning (”you need a new shirt…” “please put on your shoes…” no you can’t take Speed Racer…”) were gone.

Some of his morning was spent pretending to catch fish. At least, that is what I figured out from the imaginary fish we brought home from VBS. I think it is still swimming in the “water” in our blue chair. (This brought back a VBS flashback of my own- I think one year we all got goldfish to take home?)

The past two days Fuller has not had an afternoon nap. His quiet time is spent in his room playing all kinds of imaginary games- building cities out of blocks, fixing things with his tools, and racing his cars. It is fine if he doesn’t nap, I just make sure he is in bed at 8 p.m. sharp.

Today however, the activities caught up to him. He played well for about an hour and half, but when I went to get him at 4, he was fast asleep. So he slept for about another hour and woke up with his “Grumpy Fuller” persona. I pretty much counted the seconds until he went to bed this evening.

Fuller started out this morning telling me he didn’t want to go to Vacation Bible School. But since I had to be there, he wasn’t going to win that fight.

He fussed when we got there, but eventually warmed up to the idea of being with his class and moving through the morning fun. He liked the games and snack, but was reluctant to remember anything else that happened.

Apparently during craft time he said to his leader, “I think I hear my mother calling me” and then made motions to come over to my tent where the boat craft was happening. Tomorrow I won’t be sticking around to take pictures, but dropping him off and taking off. Maybe without me being around he might be more interested in what is going on and can give us a better idea of what he is learning.

Three!

Damon and Maple are gone until tomorrow evening, having left this morning on a hiking/ camping trip to Silers Bald Winding Stair Gap. He was invited by his friend Bob a few months ago and has been planning his strategy little by little for a while. Damon trained by losing weight, going on hikes around Lookout Mountain (and taking Maple) and planning a menu for himself that he tested a few times out by the fire pit.

Since I have a new camera, my old Canon Powershot has been handed down to Damon just in time for this hike. Hopefully he will come home tomorrow with lots of pictures and can share what he cooked. To help inspire him, I gave him a copy of Campfire Cuisine, which is not just about hot dogs and baked beans.

It will be a little strange being just Fuller, Lively, and myself today and tomorrow. But we have planned some time with friends and of course have Sunday School and church tomorrow. I guess before we know it, Damon will be home!

Yesterday morning my mom and I did some final bits of yard work- spreading mulch we had purchased the evening before. If we hadn’t run out of mulch, I am sure there would have been even more work to do. We finished around 9 a.m. and made a mad dash to be ready and out the door so Fuller could show Vieja the penguins and sharks at the aquarium.

Since this was my first aquarium visit with my new camera, I insisted we also visit the butterflies, my favorite part of the aquarium.

While we in the butterfly atrium, Fuller was approached by a volunteer who was holding an injured butterfly. He let Fuller gently hold it, which 1) got Fuller to stop running around and 2) actually hypnotized Fuller into a little bit of awe.

After a little bit (and several pictures by me), Fuller decided the butterfly needed to go back to its natural habitat, so he tried to put it a leaf.

Unfortunately it didn’t work and the volunteer took it back to do whatever they do with injured butterflies.

Later, Fuller saw another butterfly and put his arm out for the butterfly to land on. Fortunately the butterfly had received the memo, because it did land on Fuller. We gave him a quick lecture to not touch the butterflies with his finger (no poking or prodding), but to just let the butterfly sit there.

The aquarium has these laminated identification cards Fuller likes to look at, so while he “held” the butterfly, he and my mom were able to identify it as a Paper Kite Butterfly.

This was such a fun experience, cementing the butterflies as my favorite place in the aquarium. Of course we saw fish, sharks, and penguin (full set here), but all I need are the pretty insects and I am happy.

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