Visiting Daddy's Work

This past weekend the Caterpillar Tech Center hosted their 50th Anniversary party. To have the entire facility open to families of employees is a huge deal.The entire facility is fenced in with barbed-wire coils along the top. Employees must swipe their badge to enter and exit turnstiles, and all visitors (usually) must be at least 12 years old, have their picture taken at the admistration building, and wear a name badge. If you try to google map it, it doesn't exist! Needless to say,  Collin was so excited to get to go inside the gates!

They really out-did themselves for this party! For lunch, they had the usually hamburgers, hot dogs and barbeque chicken sandwiches. We ate under one of 5 big white tents and then headed to one of the three inflatable bounce houses. I wonder how many people were there; it was a mad house.

For some BIZARRE reason, Collin was super outgoing and brave and wanted to do EVERYTHING. It was awesome and very unlike him.

After the bounce house, we headed to the big dump truck, which despite the huge sign asking people not to climb on it, the men running the station were letting all the kids climb around. Collin sat in the driver's seat for a few minutes, but the line was so long, I made him get down to let others take a turn. Then we headed to the passenger side where he sat for a while pushing all the buttons and handles too. The rest of the time we were inside the fence, he kept BEGGING to return to sit in the dump truck. So cute!

Every family got to have their picture taken in front of one of the machines. Here's our little group in front of a bulldozer.

Then we headed to Ryan's building. We got to see his desk, which he thought was rather boring (and it was quite honestly), but I really wanted to get to see his little cubicle. The best part was seeing all the pictures and crafts I've made for him sitting prominently in the corner.

Unfortunately, Ryan's engine was part of the restricted portion of the tour, so we didn't get to see what causes all his headaches. This is us outside his building. (We forgot our camera so all the pictures are from our phones, hence the supurb quality.)

This is what we were trying to get in the background.

Next we headed to the ice cream stand and fire engines. The Tech Center has their own fire department (good thing since Ryan has caught two engines on fire in three years). Remember Collin was being super brave? No other kids were on the fire truck, so I told him his wasn't allowed. Then a fire fighter came up to us, and COLLIN asked him if he could get in the seat. He NEVER talks to strangers. And honestly, who could deny this little face? Anyway, they let him climb up, and he pushed more buttons and pretended to drive for a few minutes. Kid heaven.

The last place we stopped by was at a lab where they test paver-quality. They dumped a bunch of blacktop gravel on a piece of plywood, and then ran a miniature paver over the top. The employee explained that his job was to test how long it took the machine to auto-correct for depressions and such. The same room also had a miniature dump truck being loaded with dirt and dumping it to mimic a real load, and even a place where employees mix different types of dirt in order to practice for different regions of the world. I never could have imagined dirt was such a science.

This is how the B-man spent the afternoon. He couldn't have been better behaved. And by the end, we'd each acquired a bag filled with goodies, all pasted with the Cat logo: water bottle, pencil, rubber hat and eraser, poker chip (!), antibacterial hand sanitizer.

What an awesome day, especially for a two-year-old whose favorite activity is driving to seeing the "new houses" being built. He calls everything with Cat's logo on it "Daddy's work mud things."

8 Months!

So now that Brennan is eight months, we are definitely getting a better idea of his personality.

Top Ten Quirks of Brennan

10 - He doesn't like to be an only child (ie awake when Collin is napping). I'd say the only time I ever see him fussy is when Collin is missing.

9 - No matter how much he eats before bed, he'll still be hungry before 6am. Anyone want to join me at 4:30am?

8 - No matter how full he is, he will continue to eat fruit (bananas, strawberries, applesauce, kiwi, pears) until he throws up.

7 - He bites with incredible strength if I try to nurse him less than 5 hours apart. No more convenience-nursings for me, since the painful bites are firmly etched in my mind.

6 - This little one can devour Cheerios, pretzels, Goldfish and puffs endlessly. He never fills up. You'd think only have two teeth would hold him back...

5 - He prefers to be ignored by his Mom, but he is quite offended when Daddy or Collin leave him out of the fun.

4 - "Airplane" is his favorite game. He lays on his tummy, sticks his arms straight out to the sides, and kicks his feet in the air as if swimming. It's far from the best method for movement. He does finally sit well on his bum (10 minutes or so before tipping), but he gets around best by rolling and pivoting. He sometimes chooses to scoot across the floor on his forehead (looks like carpet-burn-central to me). Bottom line: He's quite a long ways for having the strength to lift his heft up to crawl.

3 - No matter how hard you try, he still wants to be swaddled before bed - even though his first goal before falling asleep is to wriggle out of the swaddler. Guess we'll be teaching his wife that trick.

2 - No matter how tired he gets, he doesn't cry, fuss... or fall asleep. He just gets smilier and gigglier. He rolls his ankles and wrists incessantly, and ever more intently the more tired he gets. But sleep? Only swaddled in his crib.

And the most bizarre thing about my 8-month old boy...

1 - Don't even try to feed him homemade baby food.. unless you plan on spooning into a store-bought jar first. Picky, picky.

Chicago Stay-cation

This was our summer of stay-cations - we spent several weekends in and around Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. It's been fun to explore the area we've called home now for more than three years.

Labor Day Weekend was no exception. We headed up to Chicago for a couple of get-away days.

 

Driving on numerous toll roads - $3.20

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One successful trip to IKEA - $60

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Two nights in a hotel by the temple- $165
Exercising in the hotel exercise room - Free
Swimming in the pool and soaking in the hot tub - Free

Collin enjoying our "guest room" - PRICELESS

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Rotating playing with the kiddos and attending the temple - Free

Doing sealings in the temple with my eternal companion - PRICELESS

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Touring Wagner Dairy Farm (Bet you're wondering why we left Peoria to do this...) - Free

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Eating Subway on the temple lawn - $16

Watching the toddlers run and run and run around the circle - Free

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Spending time with treasured, old friends - PRICELESS

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Thanks for a wonderful long weekend, Stock Family! Jenn, thanks for helping with the planning and making sure that it happened. We have to make our Labor Day trips together a tradition. Can't wait for next year.