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Over the weekend, we took ARR with my parents up to the Berkshires, where my uncles have a gorgeous mountain house. (They're also marvelous cooks, so it was a very enjoyable trip for all concerned.)
ARR had a fantastic time, partially because he got a whole series of "firsts".
- First time roasting marshmallows over a fire. He's had s'mores before, but only microwaved ones which are not at all the same. Uncles M and P have a fire pit in the backyard, which ARR was completely fascinated by. P was gracious enough to light a fire for him, which was completely fascinating. When given the eternal choice between setting the marshmallow on fire (the fast but sooty way) or gently roasting it (the time-consuming but-I think-tastier way), he chose b. I warned him it needed patience, but he declared "I can be patient" and you know what? He could.
- First time picking blackberries. He only picked one or two--they were high up and very prickly. (I went back during naptime...twice.) He ate a bunch, I ate...a lot more. But it's important to me that he understand where food comes from.
- First time swimming in a lake.
- First waterfall, and first hike. Oh, he loved that one so much. Less the waterfall, more the large pool and stream with big rocks you could scramble over and little rocks you could throw in. I spent a fair amount of time trying to keep him from breaking an ankle. Trying to keep him from falling in was hopeless--he came home sodden, covered in mud, and happy. We also saw lots of different kinds of mushrooms and a dried out bone of some animal. There was a short but fairly steep and difficult path he scrambled right up. I think I'm going to have a hiking buddy.
Other cool things:
- We went to a farm, http://www.iokavalleyfarm.com/uncle-dons-barnyard/ whose owners were really quite brilliant. They've built an elaborate playground/activity center using basically just the stuff you find lying around on the farm or can order from McMaster Carr (with a handful of toys thrown in). It's an impressive array that ARR loved as much as he's loved carefully designed and engineered rides and playgrounds, maybe more.
There were assorted animals to feed--chickens, turkeys, rabbits, sheep, cows, pigs, llamas, and goats. The goats, by the way, had an elaborate two story ramp they could walk up, and a pulley going to the top so you could raise a bucket and feed the goats at the top. One, henceforth known as "Mr. SmartyGoat", figured out how to grab the rope in the middle so when you put food in the bucket, he would pull it to himself and bypass the other goats. This was fascinating. There were sandboxes both inside and out (mostly dirt and poor quality gravel, not that ARR cared at all). There was a box of mixed seeds with sifters so you could sort them.
They'd built a terrifying hay bale maze--it was one bale high, so once you crawled in you couldn't stand up and were in complete darkness. ARR wanted to go but was clearly scared, so I crawled in first and he followed me. It was actually really unnerving. It was much, much longer that it looked, and you couldn't tell how far you'd gone. The only way to tell when you'd reached a turn was when your head banged into a hay bale. ARR ended up holding onto my ankles for most of them. And partway through, had to start singing a song to keep his spirits up. I do not remember the song itself, but most of the lyrics (which he made up himself) had to do with that fact that it was very, very dark.
They had a handpump connected to a bunch of pvc pipes with chucks you could use to divert the flow in multiple directions, which was clearly the most fascinating thing ever. They had four handpumps you could use for rubber ducky races. They had tire swings and horse-shaped swings made out of tires. They had wiggle cars and kid-sized pedal carts and adult-sized pedal carts. They had cows made out of oil drums that you could "milk" that squirted water out the teats. They had cows made out of oil drums with wheels attached that they hitched to a tractor to make a Cow Train. (The lady ahead of us on the Cow Train dropped her sunglasses. ARR was very upset, and after the ride insisted on hiking back through the grass to find the pieces for her.) They had farm clothes to dress up in, and a giant slide made out of the black tubing you use to make access tunnels and chicks and kittens.
ARR had the best time.
- We also took him to a railway museum that was a little lame except that he got to actually drive a train. Sat on the engineer's lap, turned on the bell, pulled the whistle, opened the throttle, pulled the brake. It was pretty awesome.
- Uncles M and P have dogs--two very sweet puggles. ARR's general feelings on dogs have ranged from mild distrust to outright terror. (It doesn't help that he's been knocked over a couple times by overly enthusiastic large dogs, and had a really nasty large black lab snarl and snap at his face once through no fault of his own.) But he's been watching a lot of Paw Patrol lately, and these dogs are both relatively mellow and also smaller than he is. I'd been concerned, but he got along with them really well. When the dogs decided to defend their home by barking like crazy at a motorcycle on the road, he decided that this was apparently the appropriate activity for all small mammals in the household and joined them at the door, yelling "Woof! Woof! Woof!"
In conclusion, very successful little adventure.
ARR had a fantastic time, partially because he got a whole series of "firsts".
- First time roasting marshmallows over a fire. He's had s'mores before, but only microwaved ones which are not at all the same. Uncles M and P have a fire pit in the backyard, which ARR was completely fascinated by. P was gracious enough to light a fire for him, which was completely fascinating. When given the eternal choice between setting the marshmallow on fire (the fast but sooty way) or gently roasting it (the time-consuming but-I think-tastier way), he chose b. I warned him it needed patience, but he declared "I can be patient" and you know what? He could.
- First time picking blackberries. He only picked one or two--they were high up and very prickly. (I went back during naptime...twice.) He ate a bunch, I ate...a lot more. But it's important to me that he understand where food comes from.
- First time swimming in a lake.
- First waterfall, and first hike. Oh, he loved that one so much. Less the waterfall, more the large pool and stream with big rocks you could scramble over and little rocks you could throw in. I spent a fair amount of time trying to keep him from breaking an ankle. Trying to keep him from falling in was hopeless--he came home sodden, covered in mud, and happy. We also saw lots of different kinds of mushrooms and a dried out bone of some animal. There was a short but fairly steep and difficult path he scrambled right up. I think I'm going to have a hiking buddy.
Other cool things:
- We went to a farm, http://www.iokavalleyfarm.com/uncle-dons-barnyard/ whose owners were really quite brilliant. They've built an elaborate playground/activity center using basically just the stuff you find lying around on the farm or can order from McMaster Carr (with a handful of toys thrown in). It's an impressive array that ARR loved as much as he's loved carefully designed and engineered rides and playgrounds, maybe more.
There were assorted animals to feed--chickens, turkeys, rabbits, sheep, cows, pigs, llamas, and goats. The goats, by the way, had an elaborate two story ramp they could walk up, and a pulley going to the top so you could raise a bucket and feed the goats at the top. One, henceforth known as "Mr. SmartyGoat", figured out how to grab the rope in the middle so when you put food in the bucket, he would pull it to himself and bypass the other goats. This was fascinating. There were sandboxes both inside and out (mostly dirt and poor quality gravel, not that ARR cared at all). There was a box of mixed seeds with sifters so you could sort them.
They'd built a terrifying hay bale maze--it was one bale high, so once you crawled in you couldn't stand up and were in complete darkness. ARR wanted to go but was clearly scared, so I crawled in first and he followed me. It was actually really unnerving. It was much, much longer that it looked, and you couldn't tell how far you'd gone. The only way to tell when you'd reached a turn was when your head banged into a hay bale. ARR ended up holding onto my ankles for most of them. And partway through, had to start singing a song to keep his spirits up. I do not remember the song itself, but most of the lyrics (which he made up himself) had to do with that fact that it was very, very dark.
They had a handpump connected to a bunch of pvc pipes with chucks you could use to divert the flow in multiple directions, which was clearly the most fascinating thing ever. They had four handpumps you could use for rubber ducky races. They had tire swings and horse-shaped swings made out of tires. They had wiggle cars and kid-sized pedal carts and adult-sized pedal carts. They had cows made out of oil drums that you could "milk" that squirted water out the teats. They had cows made out of oil drums with wheels attached that they hitched to a tractor to make a Cow Train. (The lady ahead of us on the Cow Train dropped her sunglasses. ARR was very upset, and after the ride insisted on hiking back through the grass to find the pieces for her.) They had farm clothes to dress up in, and a giant slide made out of the black tubing you use to make access tunnels and chicks and kittens.
ARR had the best time.
- We also took him to a railway museum that was a little lame except that he got to actually drive a train. Sat on the engineer's lap, turned on the bell, pulled the whistle, opened the throttle, pulled the brake. It was pretty awesome.
- Uncles M and P have dogs--two very sweet puggles. ARR's general feelings on dogs have ranged from mild distrust to outright terror. (It doesn't help that he's been knocked over a couple times by overly enthusiastic large dogs, and had a really nasty large black lab snarl and snap at his face once through no fault of his own.) But he's been watching a lot of Paw Patrol lately, and these dogs are both relatively mellow and also smaller than he is. I'd been concerned, but he got along with them really well. When the dogs decided to defend their home by barking like crazy at a motorcycle on the road, he decided that this was apparently the appropriate activity for all small mammals in the household and joined them at the door, yelling "Woof! Woof! Woof!"
In conclusion, very successful little adventure.
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Date: 2016-08-26 11:19 am (UTC)From: