Visit from Westerville Kinfolk

While the memories are not completely unfresh, a note or two to accompany a visit from Stu and Sue and Kevin and Emily. Emily came several days ahead of the crew and enjoyed some of the fine summer living in Rochester. She also gave of her time many times to watch Sam so Susan could work towards an upcoming deadline.
Sue, as always, charmed Sam, reading him new books they brought for him.
Kevin and Sam get along better and better. Kevin continue to upbraid those who he perceives as picking on Sam (sadly, that's usually Susan and I!). And Sam grows more and more aware of Kevin, thinking about what Kevin might like, and trying to get inside Kevin's head.
Finally, Stu set dangerous precedents in gymnastic activity, tossing Sam around and generating gales of giggly laughter and shouts for More! (And that's not to mention Uncle Stu's hard work and guidance in upgrading the downstairs bathroom!)
Much fun was had by all in this far-too-short visit. Stu and Sue, come back soon, and stay longer! You and yours are sorely missed.

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Supplementary notes: Sam's sleeping and dreaming have been much on our minds, since he hasn't been doing enough of either. Since the Great Denukification he's had troubling falling asleep, and his bedtime's slipped to 10:15ish pm, which is unacceptable and downright horrendous. But as always there have been amusing moments. The other night I was trying to get him to sleep by first holding him in my lap so he wouldn't wiggle (if he's ever still for 60 s, he's out) and dropping lullabies on him, then finally letting him back in his bed, when I realized how unhealthy it seemed to torturously force immobility for the sake of sleep. I decided at that point to just leave him for 10 minutes to see if he would fall asleep on his own, and he said, "Good--I could use some peace and quiet!"

Last night while lying in a dark room after half an hour of struggling to imbibe the lethe, he said, "Daddy, sleeping is hard" (and the wording may be off). Filled with sympathy I started saying how sleeping's easy, it's falling asleep which is tough, when he continued, "I wish I could eat chocolate day after day after day after day after day..." Fair enough--true, if unrelated.

I may give the impression he's always eloquent beyond his years, but I may not also convey how random the 3-yr-old mind can be. Last weekend when he knew I was recording his words, he had many things to share:

• I wish I could live in a chocolate house. (Sense a theme here?)
  
• I want to eat every thing that's made out of candy except the sky. (Definitely a theme.)
  
• I wish that everything turned into a bicycle when I touched the walls. (Here he's definitely just going for attention because he knows I am going to tell Susan later what he said.)
  

The Aunt Amy Days of Summer

Aunt Amy is visiting this weekend, the hottest so far this summer. Her visits are always too short, but are always very enjoyable. This is Sam's blog, so I'll share a few things Sam got to do with Aunt Amy:

Aunt Amy blew bubbles while Sam chased after them in our back yard. There was enough of a breeze to make this interesting.

We all went to a warehouse-sized facility called Bounce it Out, which is a very large room filled with inflated slides and bouncing chambers and labyrinthine structures clearly designed to wear kids out. A few had the flavor of the obstacle course you see in TV portrayals of boot camp, that is if the drill sargeant is Flippo the Clown. (Points to anyone who recognizes that name.) Sam was ecstatic, rushing from one to another and having a great time. It was hard to get good photos largely because of Sam's speed and the low light. The facility rules forbid parents from doing anything other than watching--drat the luck--so the adults had to hang out and talk instead. Bounce it Out had another strange feature: an unusually large number of boys and men wearing what they used to call "muscle shirts" when I was young but now parents refer to darkly as "wife beaters" (too many Tenesee Williams book clubs these days, I guess). Also saw a very nice boy who reminded us a great deal of Kevin, though more mobile and communicative. Maybe a little autistic? Happily, we'll be seeing Kevin within the week!

Aunt Amy brought up her popcorn-making equipment, including a saucepan with a transparent lid, so you can see the popcorn popping. You'd think we had been deliberately striving to make his life boring the way he excitedly said we wouldn't be putting the popcorn in there--indicating the microwave. Again, a real hit.

Aunt Amy also spent much time playing hide and seek with Sam and building elaborate Lego constructions, much to the delight of all.

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The word-of-the-day: Automatically. Sam said the car door opens automatically, and when I looked interested he was happy to define it for me.

A River Burbles By It

Tonight Sam and Susan and I went on a hike on a trail in a local park about a mile away, the mathematically named "Linear Park." I knew it was there, but only learned recently how beautiful it is. The main trail runs by a creek which is generally not too deep and about 20-40' wide, with a 30' overall elevation drop providing sections of rapids and white water. Due to the elevation drop, it was the site of many mills in bygone days, and you can still see some remnants of their foundations. The Iroquois referred to this section of the creek as Sgoh-Sa-Is-Thah, meaning "smashing water against rock." [Click on the pictures to enlarge them.]

My officemate John tells me he goes there to fly fish and generally catches trout. This was confirmed by a fisherman we met last night who was clambering among the rocks by the shore, saying he'd caught a foot-long trout and it'd just slipped out of his hands and was hiding among the rocks. (He was catching & releasing, so that worked out well.) The sign at the entrance to the trail says that the stream has river trout, yellow perch, pumpkinseed sunfish, brown bullhead, carp, and even salmon. The salmon come from the Northern Atlantic, make their way to the great lakes and from Lake Ontario they pass through Irodequoit Bay to Irodequoit Creek. John says that in October when they are spawning, quite a number of large salmon (e.g. 3') can be seen heading upstream.

It's a short hike--maybe half a mile--and quite pleasant. (That's just the maintained part of the trail. I'm told you can go further if you are willing to bushwhack a little.) It's reasonably well kept up, with several little bridges. Just right for a little boy! Sam had a great time running along the path and over bridges and clambering over logs. When it's little warmer and there's more time, I expect we'll do some wading. Tonight as we left the sky was deep peach in the West and the trail was growing dark.

Sam and I went without Susan last night, and discovered a little waterfall set off from the path, which we named "Mommy Falls" in Susan's honor. (It's on Honey Creek, a much smaller creek which joins the main one around there.) The wasterfall is hidden well enough that you have to be looking in the right direction at the right time. And there are other side trails which don't follow the water which we will have to explore on future trips. Maybe this weekend!

This is truly the joy of Western New York: so many great trails and waterfalls and creeks, just waiting to be found.

* * *

By the way, Sam's taking his nuk removal like a trooper. He's asked for it several times, but not fussed too much. He clearly misses it a lot. We all do, since now Sam has a much harder time going to sleep. 10:15 p.m. the last two nights, 10:45 the night before, and always after a struggle. But, surely in time he will learn to fall asleep without it. Surely.

A tangled theological bed of moss

Sam and Susan are eating lunch when he says:

Sam: Can God see me? (Making Susan wonder if he'd done anything wrong.)
Susan: Of course! God can see everything.
Sam: How can he see me if he's dead? (Susan thinks, "Oh great, he's been reading Nietzsche!")
Susan: God isn't dead! Are you thinking of when Jesus died on the cross?
Sam: Oh, I forgot. I meant to say Jesus.
Susan: Jesus died on the cross but he also rose again--remember? He's not dead anymore.

(Sam glazes over.)

This morning Sam asked to smell the bottle of Tums. After, he said, "It smells like bad perfume." Given the earlier remarks a la Nietzsche, we were a little worried he would start talking about his time in Hanoi during 'Nam.

* * *

This morning Sam got out of his bed and into ours and said to Susan, "I had an adventurous dream", which he proceeded to describe, including centrally stealing (pirate?) gold. (Other good words used lately: "astonished", which he described as "surprised", and "passageway". I tried to get him to start using "ubiquitous", but it hasn't stuck.)

Other than that, a quiet weekend. Carried Sam around the house in a blanket slung over my shoulder, which is one of his favorite things. The play-liturgy requires me to pretend my bag of potatoes has started talking, and requires Susan to poke and prod it to see if it's really a bag of potatoes.

Tonight we take away the pacifier, on dentist's orders. (The replacement object of affection and source of comfort, a large teddy bear, is shown.) Pray for us all.

Return from the Plains

Yesterday we made our way back from South Dakota—up at 6:40 a.m. and, we hope, back in Rochester at midnight. (This is being written at 8:30 p.m. in the Detroit airport.)

The return back was uneventful, aside from the usual bumps in the road. This was a day of wandering around Detroit’s airport, coloring, extensive etch-a-sketch use, and some DVD use. (Oh, and dinner at a Mediterranean bistro-ish place—good stuff.) In Mitchell, Sam displayed even renewed enthusiasm for and skill at his coloring. This came with a greater sense of ownership, so that at one point, when Uncle Paul admitted he had seen what Sam was working on before it was finished, Sam gave him to know that was not the way it worked. Later, Sam wanted Susan to color along with him, and graciously allowed, “Yes, you can color that. But even if you don’t color what I want, I still love you.” (Phew!)

On the first flight today Sam was thrilled to see the view out the window and enthusiastically enjoyed the whole flight. Somehow, hand-puppet Max appeared early on in the flight (following a game of “I spy with my little eye something which is ). Sam couldn’t have been more pleased to have his old protégé back to coach in the ways of high-speed interstate air flight. He advised Max, “Up in the sky cars look small like birds, except birds can’t drive.”

He also walked the fine line between reality and fantasy when, eager to have Max peek out the window while I was busy writing something, he ripped the pen out of my hand and grabbed Max to tell him where to look! He proceeded to observe that Max has no eyes, but Max, who was by then starting to munch on Sam’s hand, did have a (pretend) mouth. So, clearly he knows Max isn’t real, but Sam is still very excited to have someone to give advice to! Sam was so excited he hugged Max more than once.

Speaking of the flights, our initial flight was delayed an hour, which made us miss the next, giving us four hours to sit in the Detroit airport waiting for the last flight to Buffalo. Fortunately, Detroit has a very nice airport and we found plenty to entertain us. Including a bird which had somehow made it in, and was flying around the spacious causeway. Sam’s opinion, perhaps colored by the toy store he’d just been in: “I think it’s electronic.”

Our South Dakota visit included many high points. Nothing can take the place of his time with Uncle Paul, Aunt Ruth, Cousin Katie and Cousin Jon, all of whom were objects of much affection. (I keep wanting to say that Katie and Jon were big hits, but that might give the impression that Paul and Ruth weren’t also, and they were. This may have something to do with Aunt Ruth's giving Sam slices of banana topped with whipped cream for his final South Dakota breakfast—which also brings to mind Grandpa Gene who generously bought Sam breakfast at Country Kitchen consisting of a pancake with an Oreo cookie in the middle.) And, for the sadly brief time he was able, Sam loved playing with cousins Joey, Megan and Erin. That said, here are some other experiences he won’t soon forget:

· A trip to Cabela’s sport-goods store, a huge and amazing place with a 3-story wall modeled after a rocky mountain face, bearing a plethora of mounted animals all shown to great effect. It also has a huge circular fish tank with all manner of very large fresh-water game fish. Sam had a great time wandering the forest of clothes racks and playing with the pop guns.

· Sam’s first ride down a full water slide, at the hotel where the Colorado Gilberts were staying. I gave the slide a test run and stayed upright, so with confidence took him on my second run. (Sam, having recently taking his first swimming lessons, has no experience being submerged.) Unfortunately, I used a different type of inner tube on the second trip, and Sam ended up getting dunked—which was followed by coughing and many tears. Amazingly, after a few calming minutes with mom he was willing to go down again (on the other type of inner tube), and I successfully kept him out of the water. We did that several times before he was ready to be dried off.

· Sam also got to visit the world-famous Mitchell Corn Palace, a large rectangular building decorated with multicolored cobs and husks of Indian corn. In its own unique way it is quite impressive, and Sam loved it. Perhaps the best part was when the adult dressed as mascot Cornelius in a large corn-cob suit wandered up to say hi. Sam was so happy he actually followed Cornelius around for a while. (Besides an outside shot and one with the mascot, there’s a photo of Sam simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of stuff animals in the huge central gift shop.)

· I don’t know if I mentioned this in the last post, but one of the great things about living in an apartment attached to a warehouse- sized shed with a full basketball court and workout facility… is being pushed around at full speed by your cousin Katie in a wheelchair. Amazingly, a lot of people don’t know this.

It’s late and we are approaching Buffalo, so I’ll sign off and add things as I remember them…

Update from the Field

Greetings from sunny Mitchell, South Dakota, birthplace of author Susan Gilbert-Collins, and home to Ruth, Paul and Katie.

Having spent two days in Brookings with Susan's father Gene, and having celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary (the amazing spread shown below), we are now relaxing and enjoying the fine accommodations provided by the Nydhams, friends of Ruth and Paul.

Sam's having a great time, and the Mansons have been great playing with him and making us all feel very much at home.

The Mansons' apartment is attached to warehouse which serves as something of a sports center, with a basketball court and billiards table and other equipment. Sam's already had a great time playing with the pool table and running around with his cousins kicking and throwing basketballs, beach balls, and some balls I can't identify.

Not much in terms of Sam anecdotes except this: Our trip out involved driving 1.5 hrs to Buffalo, flying via Detroit to Omaha, and then driving 3+ hours to Brookings. Along the way Susan encouraged Sam to take a nap by telling him to count sheep in his head. Sam paused and then thoughtfully tapped his head several times. He then looked at Susan and said, "There are six!"

More as events unfold...