Cincinnati Aviation Museum

Hulk didn't have school last Friday. The school district decided a week or two before to make that Friday an inservice day. After having an inservice day and a four day weekend the week before. And I received a letter in the mail this week informing me that Hulk has missed a lot of school this year and that I need to make sure he doesn't miss any more. The letter was also signed by his principle WHO I SEE EVERY DAY. Whom I've talked to about Hulk missing school. But I'm pretty sure the letter was automatically generated by whatever machine tracks the children's attendance and she just signed it off like the perfect little cog she is. My respect for her may have decreased just a smidge. As a whole I am not super impressed with the education that Hulk is getting at school. 

But that's a blog for another time.

Since Hulk didn't have school and we had already hit up our other regular places because of all the other days this last month that he didn't have school I decided that we would try something new. 

Lunken Airport won the draw.

The airport is home to the Cincinnati Aviation Museum which is located in a small room on the second floor of the main building. The airport used to be the largest airfield in the world but by today's standards it was quite small. Hulk was disappointed that the museum was only one room but he and Little Viking Girl appreciated the wooden airplanes and flight pins that the volunteer gave them. 

I found the volunteer staff very friendly and knowledgable. They gave me the history of Lunken Airport and the other two airports in Cincinnati. The great-grandson of the man who started the airport (Edmund Lunken) still visits the museum on Monday afternoons. There were a few old flight attendant uniforms on display and lots of pictures and models of airplanes and the airfield over it's almost 100 year history. There was a live traffic monitor and Hulk enjoyed watching the planes circle Cincinnati. 

The airport itself has been the landing point for famous figures like Charles Lindbergh in 1927, The Beatles in 1964, then President George W. Bush in 2007, and President Donald Trump in 2018.

After spending some time in the one room museum we went outside and walked along the fence looking at the small planes that were parked outside. The Ohio River Trail is right next to the museum as well. I didn't realize the trail went so far east or I may have brought Hulk's bike and had us go along the trail for a bit.

Having been, I don't think we'll ever go back. The National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton is much more impressive but a farther drive. I did really like the volunteers, they made the trip to the museum worth while. If you're an airplane/Cincinnati history enthusiast this museum may be right for you. If you're the parent of a 6 year old who really likes planes, I do not recommend. 

Six Months

We have officially had six months of loving on this boy and his smiles ❤

He is the happiest, sweetest, most easy going baby ever. 

Which I am super grateful for because he has two older siblings
and some days I am a little worn thin.

His pediatrician declared that he is "practically perfect in every way"

and I agree with her :) 

Visit From My Best Friend

I have always considered my dad one of my best friends. Some parents are never able to build a friendly relationship with their kids, some parents are more of a friend than a parent, my dad walks the line between the two really well. He calls me out on my crap like a good parent, encourages me, supports me, and listens to all my complaints. 

He's pretty awesome.

He came for a visit this last week. We ran over 30 miles together with Hulk biking 15 of those miles. I had recently removed Hulk's training wheels and had been taking him on short bike rides (while riding my bike) but I had not tried taking him on a run before. I was really worried (especially when my dad said that he wanted to run 10 miles one day) but Hulk stepped up to the challenge.

When my dad visits someone he likes to have a list of projects. I remember visiting my grandparents while growing up and my dad would ask for a list of things to do. That's his love language, service. So on his second day in Ohio when he asked for a list of things that I need done I said, "spend time with your grandkids." He said, "great!" and then fixed two wrist watches, one sticky door, cut down three trees in my backyard, did the dishes almost every night, and played with his grandkids.

Teaching Hulk how to fix watches

Deforesting our yard

Did I mention how awesome my dad is?

I have been coveting double strollers for a few months now. I feel like it would really free up my life (and allow me to go to bed before 2am) if I was able to run while Hulk was in school, or with Hulk on his bike, or basically just anytime without having to wait for J to be available to watch the kids. I knew with Dad in town that we would be running together but he wouldn't want to leave the kids behind. I considered asking around to borrow a stroller that way we could both push one but I never got around to it. On our first run, Little Viking Girls and Teddy Bear did not enjoy being in the seat together. On our final run, Dad thought outside the box (or rather the stroller's seat?). I was convinced child protective services would be called or that the stroller would hit a bump and Teddy would be hurt but we ran entirely on a smooth bike path and no one has noticed despite me sharing this picture with hundreds of people :)

But I am never going to do it myself. Promise. ;)

I love it when family comes to visit (even though I cry every time they leave). 

Views in a Nutshell

One of our neighbors has an old red truck. This truck has a bumper sticker that reads,

"Blind faith in bad leadership is not patriotism"

And that pretty much summarizes my views: political, personal, and theological.

Blindly following someone robs you of agency. It is good to ask questions and seek answers. J and I don't adhere to a political party because neither of us believes in voting a certain way because that party says to vote that way. My voting ballots are an eclectic mixture of democrat, republican, independent, etc by the time I submit them. Not doing bad ground research on people before voting is lazy and, as a woman, I believe it is an insult to the women suffragettes who fought for the right to vote.

The senate just acquitted our current President, Donald Trump from impeachment. Republican representative Mitt Romney voted for impeachment and is facing a lot of backlash from his party. My feelings towards Romney are ambiguous at best but I commend him for stepping out of line with his party and doing what he felt was the moral correct choice.

The introduction of solids

Little Viking Girl is a daddy's girl. The first thing she asks when she gets up in the morning and the thing I hear most consistently throughout the day is, "where's daddy?" But, it wasn't always like that. When she was exclusively breast fed, I was her favorite. For obvious reasons. Once we started introducing solid foods, she started liking J a lot more.

I think for that reason J has been excited about introducing solid foods to Teddy.
When Teddy was first born I pumped several ounces of milk but ended up throwing it away after three months because it hadn't been touched and I had thought that milk is only good for three months in the freezer (but a quick google search while writing this post indicates that it's actually good for six months, who knew?).

Shortly after throwing the milk away J started asking me when I was going to start pumping because he wanted to help feed Teddy. Apparently he had forgotten all about the milk that I had pumped months earlier. Men, am I right?

Teddy has also been showing an obvious interest in our food. If we're holding him during dinner he will dive for our plate and try to grab our fork or spoon. One night, I was holding him while cooking tacos for dinner and he swiped a tortilla from my hand while I was distracted by the food on the stove.

We started giving our two older kids solid foods when they were five months but Teddy is my baby, his teeth haven't broken yet (unlike his siblings at his age), and did I mention he's my baby? I'm not ready. Emotionally or for stinky diapers.

But Sunday, while holding Teddy during dinner, J slipped him some banana. Since then we've been giving him food. He loves bananas, grapes, and corn but does not like black beans. We adhere to the "baby led weaning" method where we put him in a high chair, put a small selection of food out for him and let him explore. It's messy. I don't prepare things especially for him but give him bits of whatever we're eating.

I'm sad that we've moved into this phase of his life but he's having fun and I think he's a lot happier too. :)

Hulk - the RockStar

Yesterday was THE PINEWOOD DERBY.

Honestly, we finished his car a week ago and then forgot about it until the night before when really we should have been working graphite into the wheel axels.

But nobody's got time for that.

Hulk had a lot of fun playing the games the Bear Den had set up, Little Viking Girl had fun eating donuts that the Wolf Den had brought, and Teddy Bear was just happy.
Which is totally normal for him.
He's an odd kid.

JC spent time online looking at different ideas for the car design and showed several to Hulk who then picked out his favorite. JC then took Hulk to our friend's house to cut the wood. The car was then finished at our home by JC and Hulk (but mostly JC).

I think it's very clever.
It's a pinewood derby car of a pinewood derby race!
How Inception of them ;)

Hulk's car placed 2nd in the pack. He was pretty upset because he placed 2nd last year.
But last year he placed 2nd in his den.
Big difference.

After we came home I was able to get Little Viking Girl and Teddy Bear to nap - on their own.
Which is a pretty big deal for Little Girl.
She still sleeps in our bed at night.
It's pretty rough.

I then told Hulk how stressed I was about the two days' worth of dishes in the sink so I was going to spend my time on that.
Hulk said that he was going to help me.
So we spent the next two hours cleaning dishes, sweeping the floor, vacuuming, and general cleaning.
Hulk set up our rolling office chair to look like a janitorial cart (stuffed with garbage bags and cleaning supplies) and went around the house pretending he was a janitor. He even took out ALL OF THE GARBAGE AND REPLACED THE BAGS.
I then chased Link around the neighborhood for 10 minutes because he had escaped.

While I was doing that Little Viking Girl woke up and demanded I spend time with her so the spurge of cleaning that had been happening at my house ended.

Three hours after I had put Teddy in his crib I decided to go check on him.
He was awake, just laying in his bed and sucking on his blanket.

This morning, after we arrived at church I was trying to get the kids out of the car. When I turned around Hulk wasn't there and I asked J where he went. We found Hulk at the door of our church wearing the name tag of one of the full time missionaries and helping hold the door open for people.

After church we went on a family bike ride and learned that Link is strong enough to pull a bike trailer for a few miles.

This weekend was a good one for parenting.
Which is nice because not all weekends are like this.

I have great kids.
Especially Hulk.
He's a Rockstar.