Western New York's Dolce Vita

More autumnal fun! Susan took Sam along with Sam's friend Ian and Ian's mom Barb to a local apple farm yesterday. (Ian also goes to Montessori's Children's House--or, as we call it, Zeroth Form.) Surely this is the high point of being a part-time at-home parent: getting to wander around in the open fall air during a weekday afternoon! And not on vacation time, either.

I think the picture of Sam and Ian in the cornfield could well be a movie poster. It looks like they are about to enter some sort of Kansas entry into Narnia. (Where all the sows and mares and hens talk about the evil Witch who's running the slaughterhouse.)

Interestingly, Ian and Sam are about the same age--Sam's ab0ve typical height and Ian's below. It says something that I didn't even notice. You get used to that difference when you are 6'5", I guess.

The house of sticks was one of three -- straw, sticks and faux bricks. We liked what we saw but haven't made an offer yet.

Oh, for those following the Max saga, this morning Sam made a hand puppet out of his own hand, calling him "little Max". When asked what Little Max had to say, Sam had him answer "da da da", which I think is the toddler equivalent of "yada yada yada".

Gingerbread Carnage

Almost forgot! Sam's had a couple of books is his rotation where the Gingerbread Man gets chased and eaten. One is a retelling of the classic fairy tale in a Western motif, the other a story in which the Big Bad Wolf manages to sweet-talk the librarian and ends up winning not only her confidence but also a bag of terrified little gingerbread men. (I really hadn't realized until recently that we are supposed to be glad that the Gingerbread Man, fugitive that he is, is caught and eaten. I always thought it was meant to be a sad story.)

So he requested to bake some dough-people himself and Susan obliged, baking some sugar cookies with him, in the shape of people and hearts. He was thrilled to be able to participate in their decoration, and I understand today they will put icing on the cookies.

Ooh, too other unrelated notes:

• Sam was coughing a lot yesterday so I had him use the inhaler. To get him to focus I grabbed the first thing I could find on the internet, an 80s music video for the song Take on Me by the Norwegian rock group A-ha. It has its moments, and Sam was riveted. In fact, he keeps asking to see it again, and asking about plot points in the tiny little plot of the video. Susan's disturbed by this, and if you image Sam with big hair and a Members-Only jacket, you might be too.
  
• I've mentioned the sock puppet Max which Susan made to pass the time with Sam. And I've mentioned that Sam would often rather talk to Max rather than either of us, even when there's no sock present and Sam is just a talking hand. I haven't mentioned that last night Sam, at one point, wanted to talk to Max, and put his own hand up to his face to make Max! It was short-lived. I think the excitement of talking to Max is less when he has to also answer. If this all sounds like the seeds of neuroses, I suppose I ought to mention that Susan, who has grown sick of Max (and Sam's constant demands to speak to Max), is thinking seriously of faking Max's death.

Tim