Revisiting the Classics

Fatherhood—well, parenthood, because it's happened to both of us at various times—has brought its share of unanticipated revelations.  For me, one of them has been to revisit children's literature, including many classics and many books I read when young.  (Yes, I read books other than Johnny Tremain, and no, I still haven't read Jane Eyre.)  We've already introduced Nicholas to some of these books, very short ones or picture books.  I don't recall ever reading Goodnight Moon, but we have it, and read it to him, and I'm glad that we have the Little Bear series.

Then there are those that he'll get to when he's a little older.  One of those is My Side of the Mountain, the tale of a 13-year-old who runs away from home and spends a year living off the land in the Catskill Mountains of central New York.  It was brought back to my attention this weekend by a profile piece in the Washington Post Sunday magazine.  The author of the article had read the book when young (many times, apparently), and found it moving enough to try his own hand at camping in the Catskills ... though with the advantages that come with being upper middle class (he bought his food at REI rather than training a falcon to hunt, for example).  In addition to the author's camping adventure, it discusses the origins of the novel in the author's youth (that is, Jean Craighead George, still alive at 90 and living just twenty minutes from my parents' house), some obstacles to publication (you try being a children's book publisher in 1959 and see whether you publish a novel that seems to endorse running away from home).

One thing that struck me in reading the article is that I remember enjoying the book and identifying with the main character (Sam), but for the life of me I can't remember why.  I don't enjoy the outdoors at all, so even if I harbored delusions of running away, it wouldn't have been in so idealistic a manner as to live off the land on my grandfather's farm.  I'm not nearly crafty enough to have figured out how to carve a fishing hook, let alone know how to fish.  On the other hand, I've always admired self-reliance from afar (though ironically I've also read very little Emerson and Thoreau).  And, as silly as this seems, I think I was attracted to the idea that the book was set in New York State.  I know, I'm a geographical snob, but I seem to recall that I found it cool that the story took place nearby, in a place that I was vaguely aware of rather than someplace I would have considered exotic, like California, or China, or the South.

And yes, I'm counting the days until Nicholas is ready for Johnny Tremain.  And April Morning.  And My Brother Sam is Dead.  And the book I read about Paul Revere's horse.  That was a classic, whatever it was called.

UPDATE (10:00 a.m.): Leave it to one of our intrepid readers, herself an elementary school teacher, to bail me out on the title of the book about Paul Revere's horse.  It is Mr. Revere and I, written by Robert Lawson.  And I'd forgotten another of his books (helpfully pointed out to me): Ben and Me, about Benjamin Franklin's friendship with a mouse named Amos.  No word on whether it was the true inspiration behind the Jackson Five song.

First Tooth???

Nicholas may have gotten one thing from me after all--early teething. I'm not positive because it isn't even the tooth that is supposed to be first, but he either has a tooth breaking through the gum on the bottom one to the left of the middle or there is something wrong with his gum. As much as I don't want his teeth to be coming in yet, that seems to be the better of these two options. Updates to follow.

Washington D.C.

As you know, Nicholas and I are always looking for new outings. I'd been pondering recently venturing down to D.C. with him. I figured it's far away, but everything is free and he sleeps in the car so the distance isn't a problem. So our friend Katie and I took the kids (her daughter, Alice, is the same age as Nicholas) in today and had a lot of fun! It was a long drive (made longer by the road closures for the Baltimore marathon) and we had a lot of trouble finding parking, but I'm still glad we didn't try to navigate Metro with two babies and two strollers.

First we walked around the WWII Memorial and the Washington Monument. It was a drizzly and gray morning, but not too cold or rainy.

From Nicholas - Month 5

Then we went into the Museum of American History and the Natural History Museum. I'm not quite sure what Nicholas thought of them because I can't see his face when he's in the Baby Bjorn, but he wasn't fussing, so I assume he was interested.

Here we are in the Museum of Natural History in front of a bison (I think) being attacked. Fun, family friendly activities always.

From Nicholas - Month 5

I don't know how people manage twins. On the drive down and the stroller ride back to the car at the end of the trip both babies slept beautifully. But on the drive home they took turns screaming and waking the other one up. It was actually comical, if a little frustrating.

We may need to go back to try to get some better pictures with the monuments on a prettier day, but I'm really glad we went. It was good to do something different and really wonderful to spend the time with Katie and Alice.

For more pictures, go here, or check out Katie/Alice's blog in Peanut's friends on the sidebar.

Date Night

Thanks to the generosity of our parents, Joe and I went out for an honest to goodness date last night to celebrate our anniversary. The dancing part of "dinner and dancing" was thwarted by a hidden American Legion hall, but it was fun to dress up and go out to a nice restaurant. In fact, it was so rejuvenating to get out and spend some time together that we've decided we need to do it more than once a year. And maybe next time we'll find the dance hall.

Worn Out

I feel like I should write a post in honor of our anniversary reflecting on how our marriage has changed since Nicholas, how much I love Joe, and all that jazz, but I'm too worn out to reflect. So suffice it to say, both of those things are true. And now I'll move on to another boring narrative post because really that is all I currently have the mental capacity to compose.

I woke up this morning intending to take Nicholas to the aquarium as our morning outing, but the rain they were predicting had already passed and it was a gorgeous fall day out, so we changed our plans. I decided to try out a playground, so we went to the one up at Oregon Ridge because it is large and cool looking. However, I'm obviously new to the playground scene because I didn't think about the fact that the overnight rain would mean everything would be wet. So after we walked around for about 5 minutes and I determined there was nothing we could do, we went to the other section of the park to go for a hike.

From Nicholas - Month 5

About 5 minutes into that, however, I changed my mind again. Thanks to the wind there were nuts, fruit, and branches falling all around us and that just didn't seem safe. So instead we spent quite awhile looking at the turkeys outside and the turtles in the nature center. Nicholas seems intrigued by animals as long as they keep moving. If they stop moving it is like he can't even see them anymore. He really liked when one of the turkeys came up to us and started poking his head through the fence. I, however, took a large step backwards.

After some errands, lunch, and some playtime at home, I was beat. But Nicholas was still too energized to fall asleep, so back out we went. This time we just went to the playground up the road. Everything was dry, so we played for awhile. I went down the slides with him, went on the swings with him, and even had him do one slide by himself with me holding him (as opposed to on my lap). I was bummed that he seemed completely nonplussed by the whole thing. He wasn't upset by them, but he also didn't seem particularly excited or interested.

From Nicholas - Month 5

Honestly, he seemed most interested in looking at the trees moving in the wind and watching cars drive past. So we did that for awhile. Sometimes I forget that he really is still just 4 months old and so his interests are pretty simple. But I have to admit that just sitting outside on a beautiful day looking at the trees with him was sort of nice. There is something to be said for quiet, simple, and calm.

Apple Picking

From Nicholas - Month 5

We went apple picking this morning with my mom and had a lot of fun. It was the perfect day for it--sunny and warm, but not too hot. It only took us about half an hour to pick all the apples we can use, but it was good to be outside. And, as I was telling Nicholas, I remember going apple picking with my grandparents. And on Monday he and I will go down and help my mom make applesauce, something I think I will forever associate with Grandma O.

Nicholas obviously couldn't pick any apples, but he was intrigued by them (as you can see in the picture at the top). And he enjoyed looking around at all the trees and plants and just being outside and hanging out with my mom. He got pretty worn out and went into thumb-sucking mode, but after a 2-minute power nap he was recharged enough to be good all through lunch. He is now beat, however, and is sound asleep after only half waking up to eat his own lunch. I consider him being this exhausted a sign of a good morning because it means he was working hard and playing hard.

The other nice thing about apple picking is that it was outside and so I got to take pictures in natural light. The first few had too much light, but here are a couple that I like a lot:

From Nicholas - Month 5

From Nicholas - Month 5

Out and About

Nicholas has had an eventful couple days, full of fun outings. And since he is in bed and I am not looking forward to finishing the book I need to integrate into a chapter, I'll tell you about them.

I had him all day yesterday and he was already sick of his toys by 8:30am, so we ran every errand I could think of. We were gone for 3 whole hours! I got a lot done and he took a series of catnaps, intermixed with looking around at the variety of stores we were in. He would look around for a bit, get cranky, find his thumb, fall asleep, and sleep until I had the audacity to stop moving to look at something or check out. I know, mean mommy. Then his eyes would pop open and we'd repeat the cycle. There isn't much else to note about our errands except I was convinced yet again that whoever runs babyGap has never actually tried to shop there (seriously, a baby store that you can't get a stroller through?! And they must be the only store left in the world that doesn't put store credit on giftcards). But the day got better because apparently the Auntie Anne's at the White Marsh mall is doing a half-price pretzel of the day! Yum!

After lunch and a shorter-than-normal nap, we still had a couple hours left to kill before Joe got home, so off on another outing we went. This time to Oregon Ridge, which is a county-run park about 5-10 minutes away. We've never actually made it to the nature center because he is usually cranky by the end of our hike, so I decided we'd start there. It isn't the biggest nature center, but it had some pretty cool turtles in tanks. And they seemed interested in us and were actually pushing at each other to get to the front of the tank. I'm not sure what Nicholas thought of this because I can't see his face when he's in the Baby Bjorn, but I was thoroughly amused. We ended up just taking a short hike because after the turtles, Nicholas wasn't up for a long adventure. He really does love trees, though. It will be interesting to see his reaction when they aren't green anymore.

This morning Joe took Nicholas back to the aquarium. I hear there were a couple minor meltdowns (large groups of middle schoolers=overwhelmed baby), but that he loved the fish wall again. The way the aquarium is designed, there are a bunch of small tanks and exhibits as you work your way upstairs (on moving escalators) and then there is a ramp going back down where all the walls are the glass sides of a huge tank full of fish. Nicholas seems to love this part. And for some reason the crowds have thinned out by that section, which doesn't hurt.

There are no pictures for this post because it is really hard to take pictures when just one of us has him on an outing. But tomorrow morning we're going apple picking with my mom, so hopefully we'll have some fun pictures to post of that. Oh, yeah, and hopefully we'll have a good time too. :)