Photo Friday

Annabelle & Oliver playing together today. Annabelle's dad Chris came to pick her and Linsey up, and was behind the camera doing a sort of "Simon Says", and the kids were doing everything he asked, adorably cute, of course!

 Watching Chris

 Hands up!

 Shake your hands!

 Arms out!

 Give yourself a hug!

 Cover your eyes!

 Annabelle cover your eyes, Oliver cover your mouth!

 Annabelle cover your ears, Oliver cover your eyes!

 Wink! (Oliver can't do it)

Sing! (Apparently, Annabelle didn't like Oliver's singing)

 Kiss!

Awwwwwwwwwww!

Happy Birthday Marty!

35 years ago today you were born, and I was in 3rd grade learning multiplication tables!!

You are a wonderful husband, and I am so lucky to get to spend the rest of my life with a man who is not only thoughtful, hilarious, caring, and devoted, but also apparently a hottie! Oliver is lucky to have such a fun, loving, and smart father, who loves to play with him every day. We love you to the moon and back!

These photos are from a birthday party at My Gym a few months ago. Yes, they are both wearing matching Blackhawks jerseys. Awwwww!

Bragging, part 2

Seriously, this kid amazes me every single day. When he's not driving me crazy, that is!

This time, I have to brag on my little budding artist! I know I have bragged on this before, when I talked about him painting on the computer (in the Paint program, not on the actual computer, phew!). Almost every morning, he asks to "Do paint please!", which is great because it's a nice quiet activity he can do while I watch the news and wake up. Tuesday morning, he said, "Look mommy! I draw a guy!" I look over at the computer, and sure enough, he had!

When I first looked, all he had drawn was the guy on the left, just his eyes, nose, and mouth. Then he told me he needed to add hair, which he did on top, ears, and eyebrows (maybe it was Daddy?), proceeding to add each one as he told me. Then he went on to add the other two "guys" on the right, though I'm not sure what that one on the bottom is doing, or who it is exactly.

The reason I am so excited by this is that it's the first time he's ever drawn anything "real" aside from rainbows, which are really just colored lines. All his art up to this point has been much more, er, abstract. Hey, I love abstraction as much as the next art historian, but to see this advance in his development just makes me smile. You should have seen  how quickly I ran to hit the "save" button on the file before he changed it into a big brown rectangle or something. So now I have a budding artist/archaeologist/architect/engineer/train conductor/map maker on my hands! Have I mentioned the map obsession? That's another post on my to-do list. Love the obsessions of a three year old mind!!

Allow me a moment to brag

Oliver can read!!!

Yes, that's right, I said my 3 year old can read!

Ok, so he's not reading whole books or anything (except How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but that is from his freakish memory, not reading), but he can read 3 whole words! Four if you count his name, which he can now also write. Hey, I said I was going to brag!

Word #1: Zoo. That was the first word I noticed him reading. I thought it was like "reading" logos, like Target or Shoprite, that he was just recognizing it kind of like a logo, instead of actually reading it. But then we saw it in one of his books, and he pointed at it and said, "That says zoo." And has said that every time we see it since. This was several months ago. I figured it was a fluke, so I didn't make a big deal out of it.

Word #2: No. (Go figure.) A few weeks ago, Marty and Oliver returned from a visit to the pool, and Marty said he could read the word "no" on the rules sign, and on the "no diving" sign on the pool. Then that same week, he pointed out a "no" on the No Parking sign at the grocery store. Still, I was like, eh, it's barely a word, 2 little letters, does that really count?

Word #3: Red. On our recent trip to NYC (which I'll blog about soon, I promise), we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant named Red. Neither Marty nor I had mentioned the name, we just happened upon it and said, "This looks good, let's eat here." After our mediocre dinner, Marty was waiting for the disappearing waitress to bring him the check, so I took an impatient Oliver to walk around the pedestrian area outside the restaurant. We wandered away, then wandered back, wondering what was taking Marty so long, and when we got to the restaurant, Oliver pointed at the sign and said, "That says Red." I asked, "How do you know?" thinking he just recognized it from something else, but wasn't really reading it. He pointed at each letter and said, "That's a R, that's a E, that's a D. That spells Red." He was really reading!!! And so I did what every proud mother would do--I took a picture!

Ironically, red is my least favorite color. But I guess it would be expecting a lot for him to be able to read purple! Or for there to be a restaurant with that name!

The Hudson River Valley

For Memorial Day weekend . . . yes, that's right, I said Memorial Day, so I'm a little behind . . . we took a spontaneous trip to the Hudson River Valley. Marty had a few extra days off, and we decided we should go somewhere, so we checked out some websites and Marty discovered this itinerary. When he showed it to me, I got all excited, because there were several things on there I had known about from when I lived in NYC, and always wanted to do, but had forgotten. It was perfectly planned out too, so we just adjusted it a bit based on our traveling companion (Oliver), and added Saratoga Springs because Marty wanted to see the horses.

Traveling with a 3 year old isn't easy. Actually, it used to be easy, but suddenly, it's hard. So we had some challenges that grew worse on a later trip (that I'll get to eventually...patience people!).

Our first day, we headed to Storm King Art Center, a place I had known all about, and always wanted to visit. I'm just sorry we didn't go there earlier in our time here in the Northeast, as I think it would have been amazing to visit at different times of the year. It is a 500 acre sculpture park, with 100 works of modern site-specific sculpture. One of my areas of interest in Art History was Earth Art, as well as post-war American Art, so this was just my thing. It is an amazingly beautiful landscape, and it was a gorgeous day to visit. We all loved it, even Oliver, who was very interested in all the cool shapes and colors, and we talked a lot about what we saw and how big this one was or how many squares that one had. I think we've got an art lover! Makes Mommy proud!!

 Mark di Suvero's massive pieces. See that guy walking for a sense of scale. And yet the landscape around it was so big they were tiny in comparison.

 Oliver, communing with nature (don't mind the sunscreen marks on his face).

 Yes, he has had a haircut since then!

 Oliver and I go check out the big red Calder.

 My favorite, by Andy Goldsworthy

 Art inspired by nature. Love.

 Oliver's favorite mode of transportation these days. Walking to see that piece (I forgot the artist)

 Still full of energy, leading us on.

Up close, flat as a pancake.

"Let's go that way!", pointing towards the car. It was time for a very late lunch.

After lunch, we headed to the Staatsburg State Historic Site, where some cool big mansion was located on a state park. Eh, it was not all that interesting and we seemed to have arrived in the midst of a family reunion. Oliver didn't like it, so we just drove around, and then went back to see a Vanderbilt Mansion down the road. It was closed, but we walked around the grounds. Another trip, another Vanderbilt Mansion (we had seen several on our Newport trip). Oh, to have been a Vanderbilt!

The next day, we went to see Olana, the historic home of the famous Hudson River School painter, Frederic Church, which he designed based on Persian architecture he had seen on his travels. Another one of those places that I had always wanted to see. Unfortunately, Oliver did not. Not that tours of antique homes are high on the to-do list of 3 year olds, but one can always hope. So I took the tour alone, while he and Daddy enjoyed the landscape and waited oh so patiently for me to return. 

 Posing for me . . . 

 but only for a second.

 The view from the house.

 Another view of the porch, overlooking the river.

Stopping for a snack, on the custom built rustic outdoor benches.

How he really felt about the whole thing.

Our plan was to also visit Thomas Cole's home and studio (another HRS painter), but given the mood of the day, we decided to skip it. We attempted a drive to the Kaaterskill Falls, but so did everyone else in the state this Memorial Day weekend. Given that there are approximately 23 parking spaces in the area, the mountain road had turned into a very dangerous parking lot. So we turned around while we still could and got out of there. It was a pretty drive though! It was a long day in the car, so we headed to our hotel, found some dinner, and crashed. Finally, Oliver was happy. That kid loves hotels! 

The last day, we drove up to Saratoga Springs to see the horses, which we saw online were racing that day. We figured everyone would like this! Well, oops, the harness races were that day, but not the regular horse races. Turns out there are 2 race tracks in 2 locations, and it's very confusing which is which. Oh well, we checked out the cute little town, with a very vibrant revitalized downtown, had a great lunch, and played in the park for a while. We saw all the old hotels from when people used to come "take the waters." Very retro. Then we went to the harness races, why not? We even bet on a horse: Oliver's Kiss! He lost. Apparently nothing there was camera-worthy, because we have no pics from the entire day.

We drove back home through Vermont, so that we could say we've been there. The Green Mountains were beautiful, and it seemed like a very peaceful area. Oliver was great in the car, as he usually is, which bodes well for our upcoming (in 1 week, 2 days!) long trip. Now I have another state to add to my list! So, overall the trip was nice. Things didn't work out totally according to plan, but things seldom do when you have a 3 year old. Still, I'm really glad we got to see that part of the country, it really is so beautiful.

Photo Friday

It's official: the dinosaur obsession is now firmly entrenched.

One Last Visit to the Beach

As our time here in Connecticut is winding down (3 weeks and 2 days, but who's counting? Oh yeah, I am), we are trying to spend our weekends doing things we have enjoyed one last time, or going places we hadn't been yet, but were on "the list." So one Saturday a few weeks ago, we decided to go back to the beach so my boys could play and run in the sand. It was the last free weekend before Memorial Day, when the beaches start charging for access, and was supposed to be a nice day after the fog cleared, so we headed out early to beat the crowds. Only there were no crowds. I guess people in Connecticut like to pay. Or more likely, they understand the local weather better and knew the fog wasn't going to clear. That's ok, it made for some good photos!

 Checking it all out.

 Digging in the sand.

 Watching Daddy run by (he's that speck at the shoreline).

 Donning his sunglasses, despite the fog.

 Oliver and Marty walked down to the water to see what they could find. That sailboat that you can barely see just past them was very close to shore. That's how foggy it was, we couldn't see beyond that. I don't know how they were boating, and there were others out there too.

 More digging.

 Sifting.

 Pausing for a picture.

 Chasing the seagulls. 

Yes, there's a story here. Earlier we had stopped to have a snack, and of course within minutes a few seagulls were standing near our blanket, hoping for a handout. So I shooed them away, saying "Go away birdies," and of course, Oliver asked "Why?" and I had to explain that we couldn't feed them or they'd swarm us. So a little while later, a family at a picnic table not too far away from us was having lunch, and they let their little kids feed the seagulls. Oh, I was livid! Isn't there some beach etiquette that everyone knows not to feed the seagulls?? So of course we were completely swarmed, I mean hundreds of them. So Oliver had apparently thought about what I had told him earlier, and got up and started running after the seagulls yelling "Go away birdies!!" like a crazy man. It was hilarious. He wouldn't stop. He was actually somewhat successful in getting them to go away, and eventually that family figured out they were idiots and put their food away.

 Still running. This is only a fraction of the number of birds that were there before he started chasing them.

 Marty ran after him because he was getting too far away for comfort. But notice, no more seagulls!

 Marty herding Oliver back as he tries to get rid of the last bird.

All that bird chasing was hard work! Pausing for a nap. Hah! I wish. Nope, he was just pretending, trying to be like Mommy because that's what I was doing while he and Marty were playing by the water.

Oh look, more birds! One last chase before we left. 

This time, the seagulls were attacking someone's blanket. The people weren't there, I guess they had gone for a walk. Well, the birds first got into a grocery bag and were pulling out sandwiches and eating them. Then, and I'm not making this up, they got their cooler open, and were pilfering all the food from it! Everyone nearby watched with amazement, but didn't do anything. Then Oliver to the rescue! Actually, this time, he only drove them away for a minute. Those birds were intent. It actually looked dangerous, so Marty pulled him away. We didn't stick around long enough to see the people come back and their reaction, though it was tempting. But it was time to go get lunch and hopefully, a nap for my energetic boy.

So it didn't turn out to be a warm day at the beach full of sunshine, but it wasn't cold, and Oliver got to dig in the sand and chase birds, Marty got to run on the beach, and Mommy got to lazily flip through magazines. And nobody got sunburned. I'd say that was a good day.