On our first night together, Jack and I picked out two movies from the video store. We had chicken nuggets and watched Cars and Brother Bear. We drew pictures and drew out the alphabet and primary digits on his toy box. This was pretty fun, but then I thought it might be a better idea if we went out and about.
The following week, we went to the park. We watched some older kids play
basketball, swung on the swings, ran back and forth across the field, and in general had a grand old time. We went to the park two weeks in a row. Jack got to meet various other kids, to whom he always took right away. Here he is eating Cheetos on the swing.
... and then I started carrying wipes in my purse.
We tried to go bowling one week, but leagues have started, and so there is no longer such a thing as an open lane between 6 & 8:30 on a Wednesday night. We can't really get there by 5:00 because I work, and after 8:30 is just way too late to start bowling with a 2 year old. So we'll have to make alternate plans one of these days for a Sunday or Monday trip. We'll see. It was a bummer, though, to get all the way to Burlington and not be able to bowl. Jack was disappointed, but he took it fairly well. He didn't throw a tantrum. He asked about three times over the course of the evening if we could bowl, and I said no, there were no lanes. They were all full. He sighed and resigned himself to playing in the arcade (with a few other kids who's parents were there to bowl). We played the race car driving game and the motorcycle driving game, and Jack drove his race car on the air hockey table. Oh, and he danced on the DDR pad. Then we ate some pizza, and left. On the way home, I spotted a parking lot full of big rigs, so I pulled in and we looked around at those for a minute. Jack was delighted. Then back to Grammy's house, and straight to bed (it was almost 9:00 at that point!).
Last week, we went apple picking at Happy Valley Orchard. Jack didn't want to actually do any picking because the apples are "too heavy." He rode around in the wagon and held onto the bag. I picked the apples and he put them in the bag. On a downhill, we stopped at a tree and silly auntie pulled the handle (and subsequently the front wheels) of the wagon toward me. The wagon tipped, and Jack fell out. He brushed himself off, then he picked up my purse: a true gentleman (and
not a crybaby
at all! at least that time). We had cider and doughnuts. Jack loved that there were bubbles in the cider, though he didn't care as much for the doughnut. We climbed up in the treehouse, and we saw bees eating the apple cores. We went back again this past week. I was trying to find out about going to Moonlit Alpaca farm, but they didn't answer their phone, and have yet to return my call. On this most recent trip to the orchard, we didn't pick apples because I still have a ton. Besides, they're too heavy. But we got peanut butter cookies, and
a tomato and a pear. We met Stan, who works on the
Orchard. Stan was driving a tractor with a lift on the
front of it. We got to watch him lift apple crates off a
flatbed truck with that tractor. Boy was that exciting!
We saw a few other tractors, and looked under a trailer
that was parked out in the yard. And, of course, Jack
got to ride in a wagon again. Despite his protests, I
bought a pumpkin. After we had it in the car, he seemed
a bit more ok about it. I don't know why, but that kid
doesn't seem to like pumpkins. I'll have to change that.
Maybe he'll enjoy them once he gets to experience
scooping out the guts.
This coming week, we have plans to visit our good friends at the Fire Station. I called ahead, and Ryan said that if we came at 6:30, someone could show us around. I'm pretty psyched about that. jack really loves trucks, so it will be really cool if we can go inside a fire truck. I've also discussed the idea of a visit to the police station. Kevin said if I called and made an appointment, I could probably get someone to show us around, and maybe even get to show Jack a cop car, you know, let him play with the siren and all that. We'll see: he might be a bit young for all that.
So that's what's going on so far. I really look forward to our visits, and I know Jack does too. I'll keep you all posted on what we've been up to.
Love,
Katie May
