Short Vacation

We were in the Boston area for most of last week on our mini-vacation. Pre-school holiday, doncha know. Of course going to kid-related places during school break is probably not the wisest choice, but on the other hand there are LOTS of kids to mingle with. You get a first hand view of a wide diversity of parents and kids and there’s a feeling that no matter how crazy your son is there’s much, much crazier out there. Among our varied excursions and activities: swimming in the hotel, a nearby playground, the zoo (which had a playground), a nearby playground, swimming, a nearby playground, children’s museum, a nearby playground, and the aquarium.

I think Zane really liked the playgrounds.

Oh, and trains. We took the subway (“T”) into town a couple of times and he then talked about it extensively afterwards. He insisted on calling them Train Bus for some reason. He’s at the age where he repeats everything, no matter if you acknowledge it or not. It reminds me of water dripping on a piece of granite, wearing a groove in the stone over the ages. His two most common expressions are, “What is that?” and “What is XYZ doooing?”

Here’s a typical conversation while driving:

“What is that?”
A camper.
“What is camper dooooing?”
Sitting there.
“Daddy, what is that?”
Lumber.
“What is lumber doing?”
I believe it is being cut into logs, the logs split into firewood, the firewood loaded into that dump truck which then delivers it to people’s houses and they use it to warm their houses when it is cold.
What do YOU think it is doing Zane?
“Sitting there.”

Back home we commenced to take all of our new wisdom and energy and curiosity to play and play and play and play. He runs across something he hasn’t played with for a week and proceeds to focus entirely on it for the next half hour or hour. And then that’s it, on to the next thing. The one thing he always plays with, no matter where we are, is sand and gravel. Bright and early Sunday morning Zane and I built a sandbox (using plastic “wood”). The big question was were to put it: wanting to be out of the wind but also in a safe and shady spot. I ended up buying a gazebo to cover it, which has the added benefit of shade and mosquito netting. After putting it up in the fenced back yard I then fenced the other side so now we have a “kid pen” and don’t have to worry about him wandering to the road or the pond… much.