And More (Because It Wouldn't Let Me Post More Than Five)

Photos From Berkshire Botanical Garden

Mama and Daddy's Big Day Out

On July 3rd, Jamie and I left Duncan in the capable hands of Kristina and Alisa at Housatonic Child Care Center and ventured to Stockbridge. We stopped in Great Barrington for caffeinated beverages and discovered that there is no open public restroom at 8:30 in the morning; luckily, McDonald's is just down the road. Then we hit the Berkshire Botanical Garden. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it. It doesn't begin to compare to the New York Botanical Garden or Longwood, and it won't take an entire day, but it's a nice place to spend a few hours. We hadn't been there since we were scoping out wedding sites (summer of '98?) so it was nice be back. Currently, they are hosting an exhibit from Mass MoCa, most of which I enjoyed. There's also an exhibit of birdhouses, which are available for sale but also artfully displayed throughout the gardens. We had lunch at a nice pub, whose name escapes me, and then drove a few miles up the road to the Norman Rockwell Museum. We've been to NRM many times, but there's always something new to see. This time, there were a few studies and sketches on display we hadn't seen before. There's also a current exhibit of all (save 2) of the Saturday Evening Post covers that Rockwell painted. What I enjoyed the most at NRM was the Garden Gates exhibit. It reminded me a lot of Tilly and her spiritual approach to art and nature. The whole concept of the garden gate as a passageway into another world conjured my memories of all the dirt roads Tilly has been painting lately. (Okay, I swear she WAS painting dirt roads like crazy before she started doing dirt bikes or motorcycles! Go back a few entries! Time really has gotten away with me.) It was a lovely way to end our day out. I haven't uploaded any photos from the day yet, so if you're reading this pictureless, check back to see some of the garden and garden gate photos. They may be lousy since the day was overcast, and I have yet to find a photographer friend to help me shoot in these funny light situations, but we'll see. At least you have the links to get you to some better pictures. I felt rested, relaxed, and reconnected when we picked up Duncan that afternoon (even in the midst of our sleep crisis) so I'm very thankful we made the decision to send Duncan to daycare one day a week. Stay tuned to see what we have in store for this coming Thursday.

Where Have You Been All My Life?

Did you miss me? I did (miss me). I'm not sure where I've been. At my wit's end, to be honest. Whatever day it was that Marcie and Mary Anne and I went out to lunch (I think it was Wednesday June 25?), Jamie and I had had a lousy night putting Duncan to sleep the night before. Tonight, he went to sleep with no fuss. With only one exception, we fought the bedtime battle each night between June 25 and July 8. His arsenal has been a mix of willful escape (running out of his room), refusal to close his eyes, crying, moaning, begging, and a host of other maneuvers I cannot recall at the moment. We tried our old gate (the standby, photographed months ago during the last sleep fiasco), and Duncan swiftly climbed over it. We spent at LEAST a week taking turns sitting in his room with him each night until he finally went to sleep...it was averaging 1 1/2 to 2 hours each night - not just 90 to 120 minutes, but the ONLY CHILD FREE 90 to 120 MINUTES WE HAVE DURING THE DAY. It was the only way we could keep him in his bed and in his room until he fell asleep. Last weekend we retrieved John and Melissa's old gates (with VERTICAL bars) from storage and installed one. Then, we could keep Duncan in his room, but the game switched to his standing at the gate crying "Mama, Daddy..." You get the picture. Then he began to use his language skills against us, and "Mama" became "I want to go downstairs too." I was tempted to reward his excellent use of language, but, frankly, NO. Last night, he gave us "the hand," which he waved in the universal sign for "NO" while declaring "No bedtime Mama Daddy."

Tonight, there was no fuss. He stayed in bed until he fell asleep, no begging, no crying, no lamentations. Today, also, he had no nap. All of you who suggested that maybe it's time to give up his nap, you may be right. I surrender. We have been having similar struggles with naps, and yesterday and today, we let him look at books quietly in his bed in lieu of napping, and he did so willingly. I'll be sad to see the end of the nap, but maybe it's time. At least today, there seems to be a connection between nap skipping and bed going. It may just be a correlation; more research is needed to determine causation.

Who knew it was possible to devote so much attention to sleep?

The more linguistic inclined among you may notice my inconsistent, erratic, and embarrassing mixture of verb tenses. Though I am not sleep deprived, this sleep nightmare has been EXHAUSTING. I do not honestly know in which verb tense I am living. I don't know what happened yesterday, and I have only a vague idea what is to come tomorrow. Much like a teacher on summer vacation who has no idea of the date, I believe a full time parent dealing with sleep issues has no conception of time. So there you have it. That's where I've been since July 2!

Bronx Zoo, Check

Our field trip this week was to the Bronx Zoo. I don't think we saw even a quarter of the zoo, but Duncan was thrilled to see real zebras, baby gorillas ("what those babies doing, Mama?"), flamingos, and elephants. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the gorilla exhibit, which was his favorite, because I was carrying Duncan, having parked the stroller outside. The monorail ride was great fun. I don't recommend going on a Wednesday; it's "Donation Day," which means that you can pay whatever you want for general admission (though you still have to pay for all the extra exhibits, such as the gorillas and the monorail). It also means that the zoo is absolutely packed to capacity with all varieties of people, sort of an exhibit unto themselves. Exiting the zoo was a challenge, and we hit every slow moving family who wanted to stop and examine the ants on the sidewalk. Nevertheless, we returned just in time for dinner. We're all exhausted, but it's the good kind of exhausted, when you have been WOWED to capacity.

Toll House Cookies, Check

Duncan and I baked Toll House Cookies yesterday. It felt like the quintessential Mom thing to do. He couldn't do much except pour ingredients into the mixing bowl and eat the product, but it was a worthwhile venture. The cookies got me thinking, though. Bear with me. I know some of you will be thinking "they're only cookies," but the project struck a chord in me.

I think this generation may come dangerously close to not knowing where any of the food they eat comes from. I had a friend in college who did not know that mashed potatoes were made from potatoes. She HONESTLY believed they came from a box, because that was how her parents had always made them. That was in the '80's. Now, we reached such an age of convenience foods and convenience products that I have students who think "baking cookies" means spooning cookie dough out of a tub purchased already mixed. The checkers at the grocery store inevitably have to look up some piece of produce I'm purchasing, and we don't buy anything THAT exotic. The herbs really throw them off. I already know it's a little peculiar that I like to feed my child a fairly balanced diet and keep him away from prepackaged foods full of chemicals as much as possible. No, we're not feeding him organic as I know we should, but we're generally not feeding him pre-made garbage with the nutrients sucked out either. The boy knows the value of a piece of fruit and a raw carrot. So, ironically, the cookies led me to renew my interest in growing some vegetables. I know it's a little late in the summer to do much, but I want Duncan to see that vegetables grow in the ground and that we can grow them and eat them. It sounds simple, but I think it's an invaluable lesson. Not only does Mama possess the magical ability to bake cookies, but we can also grow some tomatoes and basil and eat them for dinner. I'll let you know how it goes.

The cookies, by the way, were darned good.

Photos

This is just a quick update. I wanted to add some pictures of Duncan's recent art projects so here is a muffin tin print and his wrapping paper collage. Also, in case you thought I was exaggerating the smallness of Amenia's library, I snapped a photo of that yesterday for your viewing pleasure.