Rice and Rivers

We're camping at Farm Island near Pierre! Ok, so David, Tay, Kassy and I are camping without Allen for today, anyway. We took Allen and Kurt to the Pierre airport this morning at 6:15 to catch a flight bound for Brookings and then on to Minneapolis for a meeting on the new crop insurance SRA.

I had nothing for breakfast at the camper, so after dropping the guys off, we drove through McDonald's and went back to the camper to eat. David and Taylor ate their breakfast while I fed Kassy rice cereal (her favorite!). I dumped rice cereal in a bowl and added water. Pretty simple. Rice cereal reminds me of paper mache--very sticky when wet and hard and crusty when dry. Kassy's not the neatest eater, and if I don't get her wiped off well enough after she eats, it's pretty obvious--white crusties on her beautiful black skin. I cleaned Kassy up and set her on the floor to play with David and Tay then I cleaned up breakfast stuff and sat on the floor to get Kassy dressed. David climbed up on the booth bench and played at the table while Tay helped me with Kassy. It took a few minutes for me to notice that David was pretty quiet. I stood up to see what he was doing and was suprised (although I'm not sure why I was suprised) to see him dumping water into a bowl with rice cereal in it. Cereal covered the table and was clumping in places he'd managed to pour water. He was a mess, the table was a mess, and now we have no more rice cereal for Kassy. To top the mess off, our campsite didn't have water or sewer hookups, so the tank of water we had needed to last us for four days and we are only on morning one! I used a lot of wet wipes to clean David up and finished with a wash rag. It didn't work well to clean the table with wet wipes so had to use camper water to clean it.  Add rice cereal and wet wipes to the grocery list! David is a very observant little boy!

It was pretty hot, so the kids didn't want to play outside. We borrowed a movie from Christine, put David down for a nap, and hung out in the camper. Eventually Kassy, Tay and I fell asleep. When David woke up around 2:30 we went back to McDonald's for lunch. Hey, I'm on vacation too! Who wants to cook in 101 degree weather? David and Tay ate and played in playland while I fed Kassy rice cereal from the emergency rations. Then we went to Walmart and got groceries for the rest of the weekend.

By the time we got back to the camper, Christine, Conrad, and Johanna were ready to go swimming. The seven of us trooped down to the water-a great swimming beach ran the length of the campground. David and Conrad ran right to the water. David loved to splash and Conrad pushed David's plastic tractor around in the water. Both boys chased each other on the beach and had a great time. Christine and Johanna sat and played in the water while I tried to take pictures and Kassy tried to eat sand. Kassy loved the water too-she isn't crawling yet but is pretty close to it-she leans forward and just before the water gets her face she sits back. She loved to splash and didn't mind it when she splashed on herself.

Kassy splashing in the Missouri River

Tay enjoyed the water too-after she got past the fact that fish swim in the same place that she was swimming-and you know what fish do! They poop! She was a little squeamish about not seeing what was on the bottom and the plants that tickled her legs in the deeper water. The water temperature was perfect! Cool enough to cool us off but not too warm to remind me of a mud puddle.

Allen and Kurt returned from their meeting just in time to take their families out for pizza for supper. Yummy!

Today

Today Kassy and I are answering phones at Allen's office. So far only 5 phone calls and two folks stopped by. Everybody has gone to a meeting. My mom is at home with David and the two of them are having a good time. Mom is really fantastic at sending us photos and videos whenever she is taking care of the kids. Helps me miss them less!

Kassy ate breakfast and got dressed at the office this morning. Talk about life of leisure! She is a wonderful little girl and it amazes me each time I look into her eyes just how much she can communicate. She's been fun to have with me today and I now realize how much I miss David. When we are home together, he runs from room to room in his play, which keeps her entertained. I got to entertain her by myself today, and yes, I did feed her something other than crackers! 

Still too little to be doing Daddy's job!

And in the midst of all our fun, I managed to get all my photos glued down for the State Fair!

Yesterday

So we learned yesterday that David probably isn't teething.

I took Kassy to the doctor yesterday morning because she still wasn't feeling well. Everything looked good except for red throat and puss on tonsils. An antibiotic was prescribed. David was playing with Conrad and Johanna at Grandma Pickard's, so we went to get him. He wasn't feeling well, so I made a doctor appointment for him in the afternoon. We went home right after lunch because he was tired--he fell asleep in his carseat before we even left the yard. I found a hard bump on one of David's heels so I planned to ask the doc about that and have her check to be sure he just had heat rash in his diaper area. As it turned out, the "bump" and "heat rash" are related to the sore on the end of his tongue---hand, foot, and mouth virus. Very contagious through saliva. David shouldn't play with other kids for 7-10 days or until the bumps heal. We were planning on attending the Pickard Cousin camping excursion to Pierre this weekend, but there's lots of potential victims, so that trip may not happen.

More Teething

This time it's David's turn!

Sweet Corn and Carnival Season

We ate the first sweet corn of the season today! My mom has been here this week helping me with the kids because Allen has been in Redwood Falls, MN at Farmfest and she brought fresh corn from my dad's field. I knew that David liked sweet corn, and today I learned that he likes it on the cob too.  Sabrina, Jonah and Caleb were here with us and I went out to the swingset to shuck corn for dinner and chat with the kids. David and Kassy were swinging but I noticed David eyeing my sack.

David: "Mommy, what's that?"
Me: "Corn for dinner."
David: "Sweet!"
Me: "Yup, David, it's sweet corn. You like corn don't you? Grandpa grew this in his field."
David: "I want to try some!"

For the most part, it's pretty hard to get David to try new things, so I was a little doubtful that he'd actually try the corn. Mom cooked it for dinner and I cooled it and stuck the corn holders into the ear and gave Jonah and David half of an ear. I don't know if he was inspired by Jonah's enthusiasim or not, but David ate every kernel on his cob. Sabrina was wiping his fingers off so he could go play when he spied a kernel that he'd missed, and he wasn't leaving the table without eating it. I guess I know I'm safe to serve corn on the cob!

David's combining his sweet corn

Tonight was the last night of VBS. Kassy has spent the last week in the nursery while I helped Sylvia teach one of the 3-year-old classes while David hung out at home with my mom. Both kids got to go with me tonight and listen while the kids sang a few songs for their parents. Then we enjoyed burgers and hot dogs for supper at the carnival. David enjoyed jumping and sliding on one of the inflatables and had a train ride with Taylor. Grandma and Grandpa helped him put his two tatoos (a grasshopper and a Noah's Ark) on his arms. As good as he was trying the corn on the cob today he wouldn't even lick the cotton candy, so I had to eat it. Too bad for him, great for me! The best part of the day though, is that Allen is home again!

Kassy has two teeth showing today! She has figured out how to use them to bite the spoon when I feed her. She doesn't want anyone to see them, so she gives only small glimpses if you are fortunate to get your finger in past her tongue. Sorry the video's sideways, but  it is cute!

Kassy's favorite action activity (besides watching her brother) is jumping in the exer-saucer.

The Formula for VBS

So today I must have been really tired packing the diaper bag to go to VBS. Mom stayed home with David and Kassy and I rode with Grandma Sylvia to church. I dropped Kassy off in the nursery and went to class as usual. We weren't even halfway through the evening when one of the nursery workers stuck her head in the door and asked if I wanted them to make formula for Kassy in her sippy cup. I said "no" and asked if there was a problem. She said they were just curious because there was formula to put into the bottle but no water in the bottle......Slap my forehead.....and be glad that I remembered to at least bring powder and a bottle. *sigh*