road trip '09

sheesh. sometimes life is so full, there's no chance to blog about it. we returned from our glorious road trip saturday night. sadly, i had come down with what could be the swine flu. don't think i will ever know for sure, but i took all the precautions, and didn't leave home for many days. it wasn't all that bad, and fortunately (knock on wood) carl and cosmo do not seem to have it. i am fully recovered now, and have finally processed all the vacation photos.





the road was long, and at times grueling, with traffic jams and rain. thankfully, cosmo was a superb traveler, taking naps, entertaining himself, and being easily entertained. we happened upon the world's most picturesque rest stop at lake Chatauqua NY, where we picked a few black raspberries, and identified some hypericum perforatum (st. john's wort).





we camped near corning, NY, home of the beautiful museum of glass, which we (sadly) only drove by. our goal was to get to martha's vineyard by the second night.



we were all happy to get out of the car, and head to the bus that would take us to the ferry, that would take us to the island, where our friends' parents have a lovely cottage.





the ferry ride was all we'd hoped for, complete with fog horns, and seagulls following along, catching bread crumbs mid-air (to the utter delight of cosmo).



martha's vineyard is filled with annoying rich people, and way too many cars, but it has it's charms. we hit the beach once or twice each day we were there. matt had masks and snorkels, and we found some beautiful creatures. this hermit crab had an entire eco-system living on his back. i love the dramatic colors of the whelk shell, and check out that awesome shell "door."


state beach

cosmo took to the water like his mama always has. i don't know that i have ever seen him so giddy in all of his little life. he loved playing in the calm clear waters at state beach, pretending to be a frog in the sand, shelling at edgarstown lighthouse (also known by mika as jingle shell beach) at dusk, and best of all, the crashing waves at gay head.


gay head (aquinnah)

i took him out into the deeper parts and held him in my arms as we rode over waves, or let them crash into us. cosmo squealed with delight-- every. single. time. that moment stands out as my favorite part of the whole trip. when we asked cosmo what his favorite part was, with out any coaxing, he chose the same moment.


on the way to jingle shell beach


searching for perfect scallop shells, and jingle shells

i fell in love with the tabernacle structure in the oak bluffs town center. such a beautiful open-air architecture, with excellent natural light. the kids had a ball in there. they also got to reach for brass rings on the oldest carousel in america, in oak bluffs, followed by pizza and ice cream. doesn't get much better than that.





lunch in the rocking chairs, on a porch near the beach, then an outdoor bath, back at the cottage, rounded out our martha's vineyard adventure. we were sad to say goodbye to our gracious hosts.





after our stay on the island, we headed into boston, to visit carl's ol' stompin' ground, and see some friends. cosmo also wanted to see the public gardens, the salt and pepper bridge, and the swan boats, on account of having checked out make way for ducklings, prior to our trip.





he really dug the big dig, but would have been content to ride the subway all day long. we stopped at the p.a., in somerville, to say hello to carl's ol' buddy jerry. at micheal's place, where we stayed the night, cosmo tried his first shower ever, and really warmed up to the idea. i think the hand-held fixture, and the lower-level sprays had something to do with it. in any case, he was happy to try it when we got home, and now loves it.



i always find that when we travel, cosmo learns so much, and seems to mature in some noticeable way. on this trip, besides the new openness to showers, it seemed like his communication skills blossomed. he now has a greater ability to really talk about things he's experienced, and express his opinions and observations. he thrives on novelty, and enjoyed checking out all the different kinds of bathrooms, trash cans, down spouts and other interesting bits of infrastructure in all the places we found ourselves.


i need to write about the spectacular place we went for lunch in boston, but i'm saving that for it's very own post.

see my garden blog for the astonishing harvest we came home to.

old red returns

we got the stroller back! through the wonders of the bryan park neighborhood association listserv, our beloved stroller has come home. on a whim, i sent an email out, and one of the neighbors, a few blocks away, had found our stroller. we met half way to make the exchange (i gave her one of the brandywine tomatoes from our garden, to thank her for her kindness). we concluded that it had probably been taken for a joy ride by big kid with a skinny but. one of my zip-tie repairs was broken, which tells me that someone a little too heavy was sitting in the seat. in any case, we are so happy to have it back.



in other news, we moved into our new place, across the street from our old place. it is a bigger house, and a better house, yet we are paying significantly less rent. one of our favorite features is the screened in porch in the back. there is also ample garden space, which i have already planted for a fall garden.



after what seems likes weeks and weeks of schlepping stuff across the street, we are finally all the way out of the old house, and carl and i are taking it easy today. our dear friends shawna, lara and kevin made the official "moving day" possible, but their help came at the price of my utter embarrassment for the thousands of boxes of crap that i continue to haul around. would i ever miss that box labled "arch 346 student papers" were it to somehow disappear? the answer is no, and i hereby vow to eliminate many boxes of that nature prior to our next move.*

more on the new place once we get more settled.




*(exact number of boxes to be determined at a later date)

homework

cosmo missed the taste test at his parent's day out summer camp. they were spending the week exploring various aspects of tropical rain forests. they set up a taste test of some tropical foods, and then graphed the results on a chart. cosmo was sad to see his name on the chart, but no results. he went home early that day, and missed it. he was so distraught, i promised him that we would do it at home, and bring in our results. the day we bought the stuff, and were planning to do it, he was so anxious to get to it, that when i insisted on a slight delay, to stop by julie's to pick up some tadpole food, he resisted, and while we were there, visiting ever-so-briefly with julie and willow, he threatened me with a fork in my face, whispering through clenched teeth "lets just GO!" embarrassing, to say the least.



the test itself though, was a lot of fun for all of us. we bought a whole coconut, and cosmo got to crack it open.



while it was the most interesting object in the test, the coconut was the only thing we all agreed tasted bad. raw, unsweetened coconut is almost putrid. i'm not kidding.
everything else got a thumbs up, especially the chocolate (duh!).

two mysteries

mystery no. 1:
who steals strollers from people's yards? our jogging stroller is gone. we are all very sad about it. we rarely use a stroller anymore, but when we do, we use the jogging stroller. it's a smooth ride, easy to handle, and was a sweet gift from warren, before he had a little one of his own. cosmo started crying when he realized it was gone. i get a little teary myself every time i think about it. the audacity! we had a plastic toddler slide stolen from our yard last year, and i heard that sydney's trike was taken from julie's yard! WHO DOES THIS? arrrrggh!



mystery no. 2:
who had a beekeeping supplies catalog sent to us? come on, fess up! it was addressed to "Cosmo & C & K Young," and i have never ordered anything under that particular configuration of our names. so, i can only conclude that someone thought we should have this info, and had it sent to us. carl was alarmed when he pulled it out of the mail box. he said, "is there something you aren't telling me? is a hive about to arrive on our doorstep?" pretty funny.
we aren't ready for beekeeping yet, but someday...someday.

bloomington summer

at 6pm on tuesday, it was warm enough for this:



a 9am on wednesday, cool enough for this:



no complaints here.

home sweet home*

a few lines that could be heard from our reunion, which turned out to involve lots of physical play and more "wrastling" than i'm used to:

cosmo: you are a big women turtle...that can talk!

mama: aaaaghh! i am not a pillow, i'm a person!

cosmo: your arm is an elevator.

cosmo: i love spending time with you, mama.

mama: i love spending time with you too, cosmo.

i truly relished my time alone. i gardened for longer stretches of time than i ever get to. i goofed off, read, and let the dishes pile up in the sink.



as sweet as it was, i was ecstatic to see my two guys when they pulled up in the driveway.

*carl and i watched a mike leigh movie last night called home sweet home. not as cheery as the title sounds, but, if you know mike leigh films, you already knew that...

travelers

cosmo and i took a short trip to texas last weekend, to visit family. i had my birthday there, and was pampered with 3 hours of spa treatments! thus, i got to skip the trip to chuck-e-cheese.



nani always throws a party when cosmo comes to town, and cosmo got to spend some quality time with family (including his newest cousin, davis) and help out with farm chores.







for the fourth, we headed out to shawna's place, on lake lemon for fireworks, which conveniently happened on the third (july 4th was rainy all day, and the city fireworks were canceled).



cosmo got to stay up late enough to see the whole show. he also saw a beaver in the water, a blue heron fly overhead, and some bats. we camped out in shawna's yard.



it wasn't too wet for the parade, but the down-pour began just after it ended. sylvan and cosmo made the best of it with their rain fort.



this morning, carl and cosmo left for kentucky, to visit uncle eric, and cousin clem. i'm home alone for almost THREE DAYS! this is a first for me, and i don't quite know what to do with myself. or, rather i do, but deciding amongst the 37 projects on my list is a bit of a challenge. lara said that when she's looking forward to time alone, it is like a birthday check: she spends it over and over in her mind, a million different ways. kinda feels like that. i actually did try not to make a list, to just relax, play it by ear, do WHAT i feel like, WHEN i feel like it, for as LONG as i like. that never happens.



ahhhhh...such a gift. (which is not to say that i won't miss the crap outta both of them, and be jonesin' for 'em by tomorrow morning!)