A few updates...
Josh really likes to be naked, and sometimes in the evening I'll take off his shirt or even his pants. It's as if his clothes aren't really comfortable, though even sweats and a t-shirt are inferior in his mind to just being free. The other day I noticed him going into the bathroom and followed, suspecting foul play. He protested a little, but when I agreed to just look the other way and read a magazine he permitted me to stay. He stripped down but then wouldn't sit on the little potty chair. Instead he washed his hands for five minutes under cold water. Now, he likes to line up cars and trucks in long lines, but I think there's ample evidence he doesn't have OCD. After that he started messing around to get my attention--playing with things like the toilet paper, which he knows I'll object to, so he can get my attention. Works! I ejected and clothed him soon thereafter.
Here he's wearing his new rain boots which he's very excited about. As are we, since now he can stomp through puddles without our having to dry his sneakers in front of a fan overnight.
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For now, anyway, we are enjoying it. :-)
While he was in his lesson, Josh and I wandered to the adjacent Kodak hall at Eastman theater. I was a little worried about wandering up and down the practice-room hallways, since Josh is anything but quiet. Kodak hall was free of performers, being in between rehearsals, with roustabouts clearing chairs off stage, so we could wander and make noise all we wanted.
It's a beautiful theater and Josh really enjoyed it, as did I. And we got some exercise!
It's been a year or two since Sam had music classes at Eastman. I had forgotten how amazing it is to wander around. Dinnertime on Friday night, and the practice rooms were full, with gorgeous music drifting out from under the doors; a classical guitarist playing in a stairwell of Kodak hall; two harpists playing a duet in a hallway of the main building of Eastman. If that just indicates that they don't have enough practice rooms, we were happy to get the beneficiaries of their lack.
It doesn't hurt that toddlers bring out the best in just about everyone has a smile for a toddler. In a place where even those who aren't in fierce competition with one another are still working their hardest to prove themselves, seeing a toddler must bring to mind both childlike joy and a nurturing environment where you don't have to worry about whether you are good enough--you are because you are loved, and that's enough.
Okay, now for a change of scenery. Last weekend Sam got to go to a birthday party of the other Sam in his class. It was at Wickham Farm, which has mini golf, a corn maze, goats and chickens you can feed if you like, and a very large bouncy pillow thing, which Josh and Sam enjoyed.
Amazingly, Josh suffered no injuries.
Sam wasn't the only peanut-allergic boy there, and the parents of the other Sam were very careful about making everything nut-safe. It was a rare treat not having to bring a piece of cake from home for him to eat. (Which we had to do yesterday for his best friend's party at, get this, Chuck-E-Cheese's. If I never spend another minute in C.E.C. I'll count myself lucky. This time the cops even showed up to break up a fight. (Last time there was a nearly a fight but no cops.) The 18-year-old hostess looked like the experience of running the party would be enough to keep her from having kids for a good decade.
Last weekend we also went to the Rochester Museum and Science Center. It's not a world-class museum, but it has some nice spots, and the hour before closing on a Saturday is a great time to get them all to yourself. One of them is a ball pit. On the back wall of it is a list of simple machines which seems to have nothing to do with the ball pit, but must make the curators feel like it's educational enough for them to include it.
For my money the best part of the museum is a few dark corridors in the back of the second floor with native American artifacts and dioramas depicting Indian life in various parts of North America. Contrary to your recollection of dioramas from grade school, these are extremely evocative and really help you imagine a totally alien way of life. Sam and Josh seem to think so too.
We also made a trip to the Play Museum the day before. (Why so many museums? Susan was out of town, so I was happy to find any way to wear the boys out and keep them from going stir crazy.) Started our visit with a ride on the carousel. Rochester has a huge number of carousels. I can't think of even one in Columbus. Must be an East-coast thing.
Busy week ahead. Have to decorate a pumpkin to make it look like a character from a book; have to prep for Hallowe'en, and find a costume for Josh; have to carve and decorate pumpkins before Thursday and put out decorations; have to drive out to Schutt's Apple Mill Wednesday to buy six dozen of the only nut-safe donuts we've ever found to take to the Fall Fun Festival at church which the youth group puts on for the younger boys and girls; have to work with Sam on an art project which he's doing voluntarily as part of a state-wide art contest (everyone's work gets displayed, and some win awards). And in the midst of it all Susan has deadlines Wednesday and Thursday and I have a dry-run for my conference presentation Thursday just before trick-or-treating. Say a prayer we run the gauntlet successfully!
Thought I'd end with a panorama left over from the weekend we closed up camp. This is a view of Arbuckle from the water transfer station:
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