Sam's First Day of "School!"

Well... okay... not SCHOOL-school, as in Kindergarten, but his first day of being with other kids and learning and playing and BEING. We've enrolled him three days a week at the Corning Children's Center. This place is awesome; really interactive. We looked into a couple places, and this one won. After being put on a waiting list for a couple months, we "got the call." He's IN.

Today was his first day! Ron had a really thoughtful idea of bringing the teachers a small vase of roses from our garden, which was very well-received. Some of the things they do are "Circle Time," "Storytime" and "Free Playtime."

We arrived at 7:30 - about 2/3 of the class was there already. Some were eating breakfast, some playing... Sally (name changed) had on a teeshirt that said "Everyone loves a cute blue eyed little girl" - this wouldn't have been so funny if she wasn't bawling and pitching a fit like she was! Sam immediately hit the trucks and blocks and play-stethoscope. Ron and i hung out, observing, for about 30 minutes, then boogied.
Sam cried, but i could tell it would be short-lived. We hit a local diner for breakfast, one we would not hit again (rude waitress).

When i picked Sam up at 4:30, he was next in line to go down the slide. WEEE!! At the bottom, he saw me and yelled:

"DAD-DEEEEEEEEEE!"

Yeah. Thanks Sam.

The gals said he cried a bit at naptime, but managed a 30 min. snooze. Not his usual 2-3 hour ZONK OUT session. He is the youngest in the class. He is also very noticeably the BIGGEST. He is bigger and taller than one of his female 2 and a half year old classmates!

I would say the day was a success. I would also safely say that i can kiss the "every other day or third day" baths goodbye. Sam was very much a boy who had played hard all day.

Just About the Most Perfect Weekend EVER! Gosh!*

(*Said in the voice of Napoleon Dynamite, dang it!)

I'm not even sure where to start.

Okay. I lie. I'll start at the beginning.

For the first time in forever, if not EVER, Ron got both Saturday and Sunday off. Unprecidented! After I got out of work on Saturday, we left Sam with Gramma Shirley and headed to Binghamton to visit with our friends Jeff, his fiancee Heather, Dan, and his girlfriend Casey. Jeff and Dan are my buddies from Alfred. We had a great night. We had supper at a local Mexican Restaurant (man, those Corona Lights were going down WAY TOO EASY!), and then retreated to Jeff' for "Game Night." Board games! Did you forget they existed! FUN! We got home around 1am.

The next morning, Ron and i arose for the weekly Corning Hiking Club. It was just the two of us this week, so i suggested we drive a little bit to start the hike
in a new spot. We parked at our vet's office in South Corning and went from there. We ended up at the Community College where we hung out on a pond's dock for about 45 minutes, looking at the clouds, the ducks, the scuttlebugs on the water, and each other. :-) The weather was crisp and refreshing.
We hiked into Spencer Crest Nature Center and out the other end, to hike back down directly to our house. We guestimated that we walked about 7.5 miles and we were gone for 4 hours. It was so nice to have "just you and me" time with Ron.

We put Sam down for a nap, and when he awoke at 3, we ventured to Eldridge Park in Elmira, specifically to ride the carousel. I had heard about it being refurbished last year. Ron climbed up on "Eddie" and propped Sam between his legs.
Sam instinctively grabbed onto the brass pole with both hands and never let go! There was a lot of chatter before the ride started about how FAST it was! It was goin' pretty good, that's for sure. Sam looked very "contemplative" throughout the ride, but I was picking up that he liked it a lot. It was so fun to watch him experiencing something new and fun; i find great joy in observing this in him.

As if our day wasn't full enough already, I suggested to Ron that we check out Harris Hill, where we got married. There is a kiddie ride section there, and I had been feeling for a couple weeks that Sam might be ready to try em out. So we went.

And he was ready!

We put him on three rides: the Tugboat, the Firetruck, and the Airplane. All three go in a slow counter-clockwise fashion! As he was smiling and very visibly and clearly enjoying himself, I was beaming. I said to Ron, you never know how a kid will react. He could either smile gleefully or scream, not wanting any part of it. Happily, the former occurred. Funnily though, on the airplane ride, he didn't crack a smile the whole time. The lady next to me said, "he's a very serious pilot." Laffing, i replied, "well, we don't want the pilot
laffing and not paying attention!" It was really comical to watch, though.

We went home, had supper and gave Sam a bath.

But not before we did the "Mommy Dance" from all of our belted-in seats! Ron's lyrics, of course!

It was very easily the best, most exhilerating and simply HAPPIEST two days Ron and I (and Sam!) have had since our wedding day. We felt so alive. I love embracing that feeling when i recognize it.

Hit n Run

Our mysterious White Man has been reduced to a crumpled mess at our curb.

Could this crazy person be the culprit?

YOU BE THE JUDGE!

Splish Splash Ahhhh

Well, today was the first day of the summer that hit 90 something degrees. And VERY humid. All make for very uncomfortable sticky hotness. Yuck-a-muck! I left this kind of weather back in Virginia 10 years ago - it is NOT supposed to follow me! So - as a relief, Sam and I headed down to The Fountain. Located in the heart of historic and scenic downtown Corning, you can find your hodge podge of life at The Fountain. You got your Corning Inc. executive's wives and their children in designer clothes, or the opposite. I'll just leave it at that. And then everywhere in between, like me and Sam. We're all there for the same purpose - to cool down and have fun! Tonight was pretty crowded, as was to be expected. Sam really loves water, as I've mentioned, and I love watching him play in it. He was quite the hit with the LADIES, i must say. He had two little girls, both older than him, vying for his love and attention. Of course, his only focus was on three things: water, any ball that landed near him, and giving Mommy wet hugs every few splashes. This is a good place to have when its hot and we want to cool down. I think it peters Sam out for bedtime as well - BONUS!