He puts the “star” in “Wistar”…
Yesterday the Wistar family went up to Lee, MA for some conspicuous consumption at the factory outlets with our friends Stephen and Alisa. Ben was quite a trooper as we spent about 3 hours browsing through various clothing stores. He enjoyed trying on shoes that were way too big for him, as well as playing hide-and-seek, as you can see:
Ben has acquired a new hobby — balancing himself bodily on the inflatable beach ball toy we bought for him several months ago. It’s funny to see him repurpose a toy like this for a totally new activity. In addition to these hijinks, Ben has also learned how to climb onto our bed by himself and also get onto the couch. It’s fun to watch but it does create an added level of risk that we have to monitor.
On our last day, we continued our tour of the wild kingdom by going to visit the Trevor Zoo at the nearby Millbrook School. Although it’s not nearly as expansive as a municipal zoo, the fact that it is less than an hour away makes it very appealing. I didn’t even know it existed until I was searching vainly for activities for today. Anyway, they have a variety of different kinds of animals from around the globe, including lemurs, snakes, raptors, big birds, and even the Domestic Rabbit. Ben seemed to enjoy looking at all the different kinds of animals, especially the lemurs.
On Thursday I decided to play my big trump card and take Ben to the Dutchess County Fair. It’s pretty big as fairs go — the one we went to last week seems very small by comparison. Ben and I had a fine day there. In the morning we watched a dog agility demonstration, and in the afternoon we toured the various animal barns. As always, the highlight for me was interacting with the goats and sheep. So cute — wouldn’t they make a good pet?
Marcie is away in NYC for a training program, so Ben and I will be spending the next three days together. Wow — it’s pretty intense! I can’t imagine how Marcie managed for almost a whole week when I was down in Maryland for the NECC conference. The day went fine, but it was a lot, lot of work.
In the morning, we went over to the playground in Millerton after Ben’s second breakfast. Ben had a lot of fun playing on the swings, and then he got really interested in the sand. After I got tired of emptying sand out of his pockets, he climbed up onto the big jungle gym structure and played with some of the hands-on toys there before a big trip down the slide.
After lunch, Ben and I decided to go down to the Hotchkiss beach for a nice swim. Ben had a good time in the water, although he wasn’t as comfortable in his life jacket as he was in the pool down in Maryland. He really enjoyed walking around in the shallow water, and there were only a few minor scares when he inhaled some lake water. He found a snail shell in the water and that was fascinating for a while.
In the afternoon we came back and hung out in the apartment until dinner time, followed by the usual shower and story time. I’m exhausted — see you tomorrow!
Ben has acquired a new favorite hobby: spinning. Like a crazed disco dance machine, he loves to stand in the middle of the room and make full-body spins until he gets dizzy and falls down. This of course is hilarious for him. Sometimes he likes to stop in mid-rotation and then start spinning in the other direction. That is an automatic fall-down. He also likes it when I count out loud as he finishes each complete turn. Who knows where this will lead?
We managed to find a local county fair to attend today sponsored by the Lions Club in Waterbury. Although the grounds were very wet, they had lots of animals out on display, which Ben seemed to enjoy very much. After a delicious lunch of deep-fried food, we watched an ox pulling competition for a while, and then decided to return home.
Ben seems to be settling down a little bit — this morning went off without major incident. His coxsackie is totally gone, by the way, which is a big relief. One reason why he might be a little crankier these days is his teething. He is still finishing getting in a molar on his top-left side, and his top-right molar has started to come in as well. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like when I was a baby, but I imagine it is really painful!
Ed. Note: The previous posts aren’t part of some avant-garde photoessay project. Marcie’s got the pictures up from our cruise and I just haven’t written the copy for those entries. I’ll try to get them finished by the end of the week.
My first thought when Dad and Andrea pulled up and I was reunited with Ben was, “Hmm… I’m not sure he recognizes me.” He seemed a little confused by what was happening. On the way home he seemed to regain his memories and start to reattach himself to us. That’s when we noticed that he was *really* reattaching himself. I mean, the kid is velcroed to us now — especially Marcie. It seems like he is terrified that whenever one of us leaves his sight that we might not be back for days. This has caused some drama-filled days since Sunday, but we are making it through OK.
I’m sure that this is just a normal reaction to being separated from one’s parents for a while, and that he will return to his more easy-going self after a while, but it can be very stressful to see him completely lose it when Marcie gets up to go to the bathroom. Right now we are just giving him lots of comfort and reassurance and hoping that the storm passes quickly.
