Indiana State Fair

Last night, armed with coupons we cut out of two newspapers for free admission, we strapped Alaina into the stroller and went to the Indiana State Fair. Mainly because I wanted to go. And I wanted to go almost solely because of the unusual food you can only get there.

In the end, we only ate a few things, the highlights of which (for me) were deep-fried Wisconsin cheese nuggets and a deep-fried Milky Way. Let me just pause for a moment to advise those of you less-experienced with deep-fried state fair concoctions: Skip the deep-fried Oreos, Twinkies, Snickers, etc., and go directly for the Milky Way! Out of the few I've tried, it's the only one worth spending the excessive calories on.

Alaina got to see cows, horses, monkeys, an elephant, tigers, sheep, and lots of native Hoosiers. We had a photo of her petting a 2-week old calf, but it didn't turn out for some reason, so you're left with these sub-par pics.

Alaina gazed longingly at the carousel. I, being a frugal mommy, figured she can stick to riding the "free" one at the children's museum through our membership. I'm planning to hold off on spending $4-5 per ride as long as I can!



Alaina tasted some of the cheddar cheese nuggets, but before that she devoured an entire grilled gouda sandwich at the Dairy Barn.



A couple little recent tidbits probably only interesting to grandparents -- last weekend we were having dinner with friends. The children were playing in another room, and things seemed too quiet so I went to check on them. Another mom noticed a diaper in the middle of the floor. I was surprised to see that Alaina, though wearing her shirt and shorts, had no diaper on. The -- how shall I say this without offending anyone -- stool-soiled diaper on the floor was hers, and I have no idea how she managed to remove it while still keeping on her shorts. Thankfully, no photos of this incident were taken. Also, Alaina has been singing a lot lately, and her songs are becoming more understandable. Like "whee roun go roun" (The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round) for which she knows several verses. And "i bi spid" (Itsy Bitsy Spider). I also enjoy singing songs that are familiar to her and then leaving a blank for her to fill in -- she does great with "You Are My Sunshine."