We managed to squeeze one last beach day in this week. And we got lucky--it was the one really nice day. Sunny and 75, hot in the rest of the world, but just perfectly comfortable at the beach. I would have gone swimming, but it was way too cold for Adam. But we made some fun. Our plan? Sandcastles.
Lots and lots of sandcastles.
Lots of locals wandered by and were impressed with our project.
Adam also wanted to make a snowman out of sand like Curious George once did. It didn't work well upright, but Marsha managed to pull it off.
It was really quite impressive.
So, so much fun. I'm really glad we snuck one last trip in. Beach day!
We went down to Revels Riversing yesterday afternoon in Harvard Square. Since the trip started out with a train ride, it was an easy sell. When we got there, though, it was crowded and busy, with kids playing and two brass bands. Adam was a little overwhelmed, so we bought a couple of fruit cups and sat as far away from the action as we could. Then we ducked into a taqueria for dinner, which took longer than I expected, since Adam actually seemed interested in eating. So we missed the procession.
(Note Adam still eating his rice and bean plate)
But we caught up with everyone down at the river. Adam didn't want to sing or dance, and didn't want me to sing or dance. But once the music started and we sat on the grass and watched the other kids and sang along, he had a great time.
We ran into a few interesting people--introduced ourselves to friends of Marsha's, who were nice enough to stop and talk to us, and ran into some of our own friends. Then we had our pictures taken with the butterfly and watched the crowd.
And then...well, Adam did this for the rest of the evening:
Other kids started doing this--one mother gave me a direct quote of "I want to do what that kid is doing!" We became the center of a little whirling community for a few minutes. Then we walked back to Harvard Square, back to the train, and to the car, and then on home. On the way home, Adam said, "It's getting dark. We should get me to bed."
Most of yesterday we spent running errands--picking up something Mike left at work, the library, the grocery store, and a lovely lunch at Bertucci's.
But we knew Brenda and Jason were coming over, and that they had a surprise for Adam. He asked all day what the surprise was, and I never quite convinced him that telling him would have defeated the whole purpose.
Then it arrived, and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with it!
Not captured here are the chase scenes running in circles around the tent, the game where Brenda and I are inside and Adam paws at the tent like an animal trying to get in, the game where he zips or unzips and someone else uses the other zipper to keep him from opening and closing, and the general bossing around Adam did.
Mike tells me that Adam's first question this morning was whether Brenda and Jason were still here. Apparently his disappointment was ameliorated by the fact that they left the tent for him. I woke up to the sound of Mike and Adam having a shrieking good time in the front yard.
On Sunday, I was feeling edgy and Adam was feeling whiny, so we went on a little adventure to get out of the house. Luckily, Adam's a cheap date.
We took the train into Boston and got some lunch in Chinatown. Then we ate it sitting in the park.
After we finished lunch, we walked down to Downtown Crossing to get home. On the way, we bought a lemonade slush from a cart in the Common. Adam was fascinated and thrilled. So the next day, we set up the ice cream maker and made lemonade slush ourselves. It was so exciting!
Adam slept till 8:30 this morning. At 8:35, I went in to wake him up. When I saw how he was sleeping, I ran downstairs to get the camera. Then I took pictures using the flash--which didn't wake him up. I had to poke him several times. When I asked how he was doing, though, he said, "Good" without moving an inch.
This is what I saw.
My favorite part is his feet pressed through the bars of the crib against the wall.
Note: I took three pictures with the flash and he didn't move. What a funny monkey.
The goal was to take a canoe ride, using our almost unusable Groupon (it's really hard to spend $60 in one outing at that pond!). Adam was very excited for the trip, so when we met Jo and Tom there and realized how long the line was, we were kind of nervous. Adam's not going to wait this long. What can we do?
There is, believe it or not, a good answer: ice cream.
After a trip to Friendly's and a quick stroll around the Stone Zoo (llamas! bats! One of the bats pooped!), we headed back to the pond and got on the water at 4:45 or so.
Jo & Tom in their double kayak.
Adam in our canoe.
Mike!
We did find an Adam-sized paddle, but he mostly dragged it in the water, rather than paddling it. It was still pretty fun, though, and a lovely day on the water.
