Pendleton Fall Festival

The little town of Pendleton, just southeast of Clemson, has a really nice small town square they call the "Village Green," and they LOVE to hold events there. We went to the tenth annual Fall Harvest Festival there a couple weeks ago.
There were the usual arts and crafts booths, local insurance companies, fundraising tents selling cookies and hotdogs, and fried foods trailers that show up at every carnival.
They also had a "Bubba Bake-Off," featuring cakes (seven, I think) by local men; representatives from the Carolina Raptor Center (CRC), bluegrass music, and honest-to-gosh sack races and three-legged races...

John's favorites were the birds. CRC returns injured and sick birds to the wild and cares for birds that cannot be re-released. There was a golden eagle, a red-tailed hawk, a barred owl, and a small barn owl, with just one eye.



John and Tony checked out the Bubba Bake Off. John loves cake.


He also liked just hanging out with the nearby trees.


And also, hanging out with DADDY!!

Thunderhoof!

This is John reciting the first part of one of our favorite stories: Syd Hoff's "Thunderhoof."
Here are the words (to make it easier for you to follow along):

[Way out West,] one great horse still ran wild.
His name was Thunderhoof.
Cowboys tried to catch him, be he ran too fast for them.
If they got a rope around his neck, he shook it off...

Then he loses track and starts to work on being cute!

Debate

Tony and I have compatible parenting styles, very similar on the big issues, in theory anyway. But often on the little techniques of day to day, he sometimes is unsure about my methods for interacting with John.
I think one of those that he is not particularly fond of is the counting technique: "I'm going to count to five, and if you are not climbing into your car seat by then, I'm going to put you in it." It's crude, I agree, but it gets John's attention, gives him a clear amount of time to make the decision and begin to execute it, and expresses what the consequences will be if he doesn't do it. It also gives me one more chance to give him one more chance, but still have a clear end to whatever the battle, I mean task, is...

Do you use the counting technique? How often? Does it work? Does your partner use it too?

Filler pics

I am several events behind in updating the blog and am kind of "behind in life" right now, so here are some random pictures to tide you over...

Day Out with Thomas, Part 4

Here is an picture of us riding the turntable outside the Round House.


In order to avoid the line for pictures with Thomas, I got the bright idea to have Tony and John to stand next to the track when Thomas was puffing by. Tony saw the flaw in this before I did...




We did end up standing in the line, and just made it before Thomas was about to depart, but John would not look at the photographer, so I took this one on the run as we fled the scene.


Then we started to focus on the other celebrity at the event: BOB!




It was a big day!


He perked up on the way home!

Here are the words of the verse, to help you follow along:
Scoop, Muck, and Dizzy, and Roley too.
Lofty and Wendy join the crew.
Pilchard and Bird, Travis and Spud,
Working together like good friends should!

Day Out with Thomas, Part 3

Obligatory fire truck: I had no idea that having a child was so tied up with fire trucks!!


I just think this picture is funny. Plus, I'm in it!


We sighted Sir Topham Hatt posing with his fans, but did not approach him.


John liked the typical groundskeeper ATV.


I liked the user-friendly diaper changing area!


(I tried to NOT get any of the people in this shot, that's why it's framed so badly!)


Here's Mommy showing John how to get a tattoo. (John picked out Thomas's friend Emily for me.)


We then went into the Round House, which is where most of the activities were.


John liked playing with the small Thomas tables. They had three.


They had a Lego Thomas.


They had a working miniature train set up. One of the trains was full of construction machines! Perfect!


This is also where they had the majority of the museum displays, including a working train shop. They had lots and lots of bays for fixing working trains. We walked past these on our trek to the bathroom!

Day Out with Thomas, Part 2

There were lots of old and young volunteers wandering around. The young guys were the train car crew, who were assigned to each car, handing out certificates and making sure everyone stayed sitting down. The old guys were the ones actually driving the train.


We also saw the conductor!


The train trip was about 25 minutes, and 3 miles long. We went forward then backwards and then forwards again on two lines around the museum grounds. There was a "narrator" who told us the rules, asked us where we were from, helped us yell to Thomas, and sing songs, etc. He was pretty good.
John seemed to enjoy it, but he was mostly overwhelmed with all the people and taking stuff in. Plus, while you are on Thomas's train, you can't SEE Thomas! No going around the bends on this route!





After that, we checked out all the fun stuff they had to offer.

Day out with Thomas, Part 1

On Friday, we drove up to Salisbury, NC, which is about a half-hour northeast of Charlotte.

Here is a picture of John in our jacuzzi tub at the Super 8 we stayed in. The desk guy was nice enough to switch us up to a King jacuzzi room for the same rate as our paltry little 2 double beds!


John watched Thomas on the DVD player in bed with Daddy to get ready for the next morning.


Our tickets for the train were at 8:30am on Saturday, but it was on the 10-minute drive from our hotel that we saw the highlight of the trip for Tony:

"They're not great, but they're OK."

We made it to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC, at about 7:45am.


You could see the line for Thomas the Tank Engine from the road.



We had no trouble finding a parking place, but there were already about 100 people waiting in line to board the train when we got there at 8. I stood in line while Daddy and John went to look at Thomas!

Great Crib Gate Removal on track so far

John and Tony took the rail off together before dinner last night. John came down to get a small cup to hold the screws, he was very excited to help his Daddy with screwdrivers. They called me up when they were done and showed me how John could climb in and out. We put his new construction machine sheets on the bed, and John said he wanted to take a nap right then. About 30 seconds after that he announced "I'm awake!"

He was pretty tired by the time we got to the end of the bedtime routine, so there were no attempts to escape. He actually interrupted Tony's recitation of "The Gruffalo" and asked to get in his "big boy crib."
I was not on monitor duty this morning, but I don't think he climbed out. Since the rail goes completely from one side to the other there's still a barrier. Ironically, I have more fear that he will pinch himself or fall if he pushes on the rail than I did of him falling while trying to climb over the regular crib rail. I guess that's me just having to worry about something!
Thanks to everyone for your concern and support. The process so far has been much less dramatic than I thought it would be (of course), but we'll let you know when he starts showing up next to our bed at 3am!

Our quick trip to NC

We are leaving to go to Salisbury and Spencer, North Carolina this afternoon for "A Day Out with Thomas" and the North Carolina Transportation Museum.
Our tickets are for 8:30am tomorrow morning!
(Peep, peep!)

Thomas Bed

I have to squeeze in these pictures before the Great Crib Gate Removal, which is scheduled for this afternoon.
I got this Thomas Playhut for John at the consignment sale at the beginning of September. I couldn't resist!

Urgent News Update!

During a time-out yesterday afternoon, John climbed out of his crib! The maneuver was completed out of site of the authorities, but no injuries or falls occurred. The current administration is debating its options. We will keep you updated.
This has been a John News Update, with your host, Mommy.