Day in the Berks

It's been a while since our family's been able to just hop in the car and take off for a carefree day of fun. But with Mom and Dad back to health, and the sale of our house in motion (fingers still crossed), we took advantage of a beautiful Sunday to spend time together as a family out in the Berkshires.

Our first stop was at our local Tailgate Picnic deli to pick up lunch for, well, a picnic. After driving up Route 20 from Westfield, we stopped at a road side picnic area along the Westfield river near Huntington, MA. With full bellies, we headed further north to Middlefield, where we parked at the Keystone Arch Bridges trail head. Grafton had fallen asleep in the car, so we started out on our hike with Dad carrying the groggy boy in his arms. But Grafton soon awoke and was easily convinced to his hike on his own.

 

 

 

He hiked alongside us for almost 3/4 of a mile and would have gone farther on his own, but the all of the bugs buzzing around us required a faster pace. So we tossed him in the pack.

With Grafton now traveling at Daddy speed, we continued up the trail to check out the beautiful 70' Keystone Arch bridge, once used by trains heading through Berkshire mountains. It was a steep, slippery slope down to the bottom, descending from the trail that previously crossed the bridge.

 

 

After the hike, we headed over to the Lee Outlets, ostensibly to buy some clothes for Dad, but Grafton's the one that made out like a bandit (as always), picking up new pjs, shorts, and shirts for the summer. And we also found a hat for him we couldn't resist buying.

With lunch having taken place many hours earlier, we headed to our favorite Berkshire pizza spot in Great Barrington, aptly named Manhattan Pizza. Neva went in to order our pizza, while Dad stayed in the car with a sleeping Grafton. After bringing the comatosed kid in to the restaurant, he woke to the smell of our freshly baked pizza, smiled, and started right in on his dinner. The only proper way to follow-up such a yummy meal, of course is to get ice cream! So off we went to the SoCo creamery in town.

Where Grafton danced to music inside while we ordered and then ate Daddy's ice cream outside on the sidewalk.

 

All sugared up, and ready for more, we took out Grafton's bicycle for him to ride while we walked alongside down the main street.

As we came upon the Mason Library, Dad noticed its circular sidewalk leading up and down to the entrance, and thought it would make a great race track for Grafton to burn off his sugar high. But after one lap on his bike, Grafton decided he preferred to race around on his feet. We seriously think he did over 20 laps of this course. Fast. Hat flying off, and subsequently retrieved, on just about every lap. Sweat dripping down his brow and arms. A few laps with Dad and Mom racing around with him. All of this fun being had post-bedtime, and over an hour away from home.

On the way home, Grafton did not fall asleep in the car. But he slept well overnight. We all did. So we should have energy for hopefully more fun today at a Memorial Day parade...

The full set of photos of our Day in the Berks

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Grafton can say it! (Yes, he loves the movie, Mary Poppins.) [Apr 24, 2011]

Today [May 14, 2011], Grafton is jumping around and dancing in the den, and then explains he's got a drum on his back. I realized he was imitating the Bert's "One Man Band" from the movie.

Language Challenges

Yes, English is a difficult language to master. Grafton's trying to, and doing well, but he's got a lot more to learn. Here are a few quotes, showing some of the current challenges:

"That's mines" (keeping the pluralization when reversing "that's yours")

"Where is them?" ("where are they?")

"I'm all doned with that." (forming past tense with irregular verbs, applying -ed suffix unnecessarily)

While eating corn on the cob, we explained that it can be "hard" to do. He started pointing at his sternum, saying "bones, my bones are here, they're hard". Oh, the challenges of homonyms! We gave him different examples of how the word "hard" is used, trying to show him that it can be two different words entirely. I'm pretty sure kids don't learn about using homonyms correctly via this type of classroom-like instruction, but we tried to explain it anyway.

While not a challenge, just wanted to note here, while talking about language, that the "why?" question is back in full force.

Dinosaur Dream

After waking up after a nap at school, Grafton went over to his teacher, Rachel, with a worried look. He told her that he had had a weird dream, "I dreamed a dinosaur ate my lunch. He ate my bagel."

Spider Extraction

While outside on the front porch, Mom and Dad spotted Grafton swiping at the floor with a wet tissue, while saying "bug, bug over here".  After a few seconds, we were able to recreate the events that led up to this moment:

While Mom and Dad were outside on the front porch, Grafton had spotted a small spider inside the house, near the front door. Grafton remembered that Daddy had been performing spider extractions earlier in the day, and knew what to do. First, he would need a tissue to grab the spider safely. He walked down to the den and retrieved one from the tissue box in the den. Next, he would have to wet the tissue (of course). So he retrieved his stepping stool, and brought it over to the kitchen sink, turned on the faucet, wet the tissue, and turned the faucet back off. Finally, he walked back over to the spider and started swiping at with the wet tissue. Mom and Dad, hearing Grafton talking about a "bug" looked over to see what was Grafton was up to. Seeing a spider evasively jumping around on the floor, Dad went over to take the tissue and spider away, and threw them in the trash.

Arizona Vacation Quotes

"Daddy don't fall" (while being carried by Dad in the toddler backpack near Yavapai Point, as Daddy was taking a photo looking down into the canyon), then "Come over here, Mommy" (as Mommy was walking alongside the rim)

"I want to jump down there" (again, while being carried by Dad in the toddler backpack, while walking along the rim of the Grand Canyon, near the Bright Angel trail)

"I'm not old, I'm new!" (response to Mommy when she told him he looks old in the shirt he was wearing that day).

"I'm all fancy!" (after Mom finished getting Grafton dressed in the morning in the hotel room)

"I don't like breakfast, I like salad!" (response to being told it was time to head to the breakfast buffet at the hotel)

"Jeeps are only driven by big guys!" (response to Dad's promise that if we ever moved to Flagstaff, AZ, that Dad would buy a Jeep).  "Daddy is a little guy, no Jeep for Daddy. I'm a big boy, I drive a big Jeep" (answering Dad's question, to confirm whether Dad was a big guy or little guy).

"Daddy, is the grass tickling your legs too?" (while walking through an overgrown field outside Flagstaff, in shorts)

"No! The book will get dirty at dinner." (after offering to bring Grafton's book to a restaurant, so that we could finish reading it to him)

"I'm not tucked! I'm not tucked!" (an alert Grafton issued to his parents who were sitting in the front seat of the rental car, while pulling out of a parking lot in Sedona, after being placed in the car seat, without being buckled in. Phew.)

"You're Bikos, you're Kikos, and I'm Mikonos" (Grafton's new names for Daddy, Mommy, and himself, apparently after eating an imaginary Gyro.)

While having lunch with Daddy near the rim of the Grand Canyon (Mom was off on a hike):
D: "Would you like some of this orange?"
G: "Yes, please." [D offers a 2-piece section]
G: "Thanks." [Examines the offering]
G: "I just want a little bit." [Splits in half and hands back one piece].
G: "This one's for you."


Not a quote, but... While checking out the hotel's game room with Dad, Grafton finds a first-person shooter arcade game, with a pistol attached to the console by a long cable. He picks it up and before I could explain to him that I didn't want him to play with a gun, he drags it over to the car seat of the neighboring racing game, and uses it as a gas pump to fill up the tank of the car.

Step by Step

I sat down to start catching up on our "blog backlog", and put on a David Grover album to keep Grafton entertained. But I started at the second to last song, which caused a disgruntled look to appear on Grafton's face. He looked over at me and started trying to get out into words his dissatisfaction: "I don't want that one. I want, I want, I...that's the end...I want 'Step by Step'".  Now "Step by Step" happens to be the first song on the album.  So not only did he figure out how to tell us that he wanted to start at the beginning, but now he's memorizing song titles.