Musini

Grandma Dawn gave this toy to Bailey several months ago. We got it back down to play with tonight and he finally gets it! It plays music to the beat of vibrations, so he was experimenting with banging on the floor with his hand and stomping his feet. Bailey decided that running in circles works best. He runs around counter-clockwise until he gets dizzy, then turns around and runs clockwise. It's very funny to watch.

March of Dimes

We will be participating in a March of Dimes walk on April 18th in memory of Maddox Tanae Melton-Cruz, who was stillborn on January 8, 2009. I know money is tight in this economy, but if you can contribute anything, it will help. See the link for more information. I'll post a link under "Interesting Links" as well.

Please don't give me any credit for this idea. I'll be walking on Laura Harvison's team. She is Claudia's friend and coworker and the one with this marvelous idea. Thank you Laura!

http://www.marchforbabies.org/jmhughes78

Playing

Sweet boy. He took a tumble off the front porch this morning and landed on his nose!

Potty Time - More Serious Now

At 18 months, we got Bailey a potty seat and he used it a couple times at first, then stopped. This week has been a good potty week. Bailey has been going potty 1 or 2 times a day. Hopefully he will continue this trend. He is very good at doing something once or twice and then not doing it again for a long time (saying Wolf, Hi, Bye, etc. . . . perform monkey!!!).

The Wall... Continued

We redesigned how the wall curves after Travis dug the dirt out, so he had a whole lot of dirt to fill in and compact. Thanks to a day of renting the "Wacker" vibratory rammer, that area was filled in. He is using a manual dirt tamper in the other areas.

Travis got me to operate it a little too, just so I could say I used the "Wacker." I wasn't too good at it in the time that I used it, but I could probably get the hang of it. I've used a jack hammer and a floor buffer in the past, so it's a similar concept - don't muscle it and let the machine do the work for you.

The big area that required the "Wacker."

Travis on his little tractor that has moved a whole lot of dirt and rock.

Shaun the Sheep

Travis found a game on the Internet called Shaun the Sheep. Bailey loves the screen before the game starts. The sheep looks in the direction of the mouse cursor. Bailey thinks it is so funny!

Yogurt Covered Bailey

Bailey and I were attempting to make yogurt covered pretzels. They didn't turn out well (possibly bad powdered sugar), but Bailey had fun anyways.

Yum!
Bailey was a big mess when we were done (and my table and mixer had to be cleaned several times before the stickiness was gone).

Listening to Music

Bailey's Fire Truck Cake & Birthday Party

I wanted to make a fire truck cake for Bailey. I spent several hours researching fire trucks on the internet. I never imagined that there were so many different brands and styles of fire trucks. I decided to make one similar to the fire trucks in our town.

Based on this picture and others, I drew up four elevations and a top view in a CAD program.

I figured out all of the individual parts I need to make and got to work. I spent about 16 hours total making gumpaste parts, baking and carving the cakes, icing, etc. but I spent the most of three days working on it with all of the design and research. My hands hurt so bad because of washing them so many times and they have never been so dry before. Lotion made them sting very bad too.

I'm glad I made this cake. Bailey loved it and he would point to it and say "Fire Truck." I would have done more to it if I had time (adding a stripe, adding detail to make the black glass look shiny, outlining some parts, etc.) , but I stopped about an hour before the party started. I had some help from Lori (painting the silver pieces) and Natalee (wrote "Happy Birthday Bailey"). Thank you so much for your help! I do not plan on doing another cake for a LONG time! One every one and a half to two years is plenty.

Before Natalee's lettering (after I gave up and said "No More!")

After lettering.

Back and right side. Notice the fire hydrant.

Bailey the fire chief - pic by Lindsey. I love this picture!

Bailey opening presents

Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of Bailey's party. We had 23 people over, including us, so I was concerned more about feeding everyone and less about taking pictures.

See Lindsey and Brice's Blog and the Klotz Family Blog for their pictures.

Bailey's Big Boy Tractor

Bailey on his new John Deere tractor.

Something is missing!

Bailey takes the long way to go get the trailer and bring it down to where his tractor is.
Bailey loves his new tractor, but he really needs to practice steering.

Here is Bailey typing:
vniojl,jl, kokiophhyujoiyuuuuuumioggfrtyuhsydsyuuyh yubbbbbbbbbbaaaaaiiiiiilllllllllleeeeeeeeeeewyyyyyyyy6ytyttythlsusde6dyddddddddg6

Fire Chief with Pacifier?

I'm not sure what he is doing with his pacifier in his mouth here. He is supposed to be giving it up and only sleeps with it during his afternoon nap. Hopefully it will be gone soon. Maybe he will continue touching his nose when he is tired and NOT start sucking his thumb.