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October 24, 2008

Vacation, Rexalocution

By Glenn Fleishman

I’ve been meaning to write something here about our awesome vacation in Maine, spent largely on Mount Desert Island. It was awesome in that it went so well, not awesome like it put 3 years back on my life. The boys traveled generally very well. Both wound up with ear infections a few days in, but responded well to treatment. We all slept mostly fine; we all generally did a few things we really wanted to. Lynn and I really want to go back in a couple years when the kids will be able to do more.

We had a bunch of firsts.

First time Rex slept away from home since brought home from the hospital. This is nearly ridiculous at 18 months, but there you go. Friends and family have been nice enough to come to us. (Ben has spent several nights away from home this year.)

First time Rex flew! (Fourth time for Ben.) He didn’t understand the “must stay pretty much in your seat” rule at first, but got used to it. Ben and Rex passed out for most of the return flight, JFK to SEA.

First time we all slept in one room. We’ve been lucky enough to have the boys together for several months, but we’ve never had or needed to sleep in one room. We did that in a hotel the first night, and it went just fine. Lynn and Ben slept in one bed, I slept in another, and Rex slept in a pack and play provided by the hotel. We all went to bed at about 2 a.m. Eastern!

First family vacation. Ben has traveled to visit family, but at various of their houses. This was Lynn’s brother and sister and their significant others and Lynn’s folks at a vacation locale. Very nice. With my folks recently moved to Port Townsend where my aunt and uncle settled full time over a year ago, we’ll have more trips there in the future.

First time for either boy in Maine! Yay! Yay!

First time various of my friends and Lynn’s relatives met Ben and Rex.

First rented minivan.

During the trip, Rex’s elocution, vocabulary, and grammar went through the roof. We’ve seen this before: whenever Ben was in close contact with family for a few days, a development jump occurred. Rex started becoming a mimic on the trip, repeating things — the best was “hot pursuit!” — as well as pronouncing multiple syllable words like “driveway.”

One of the best moments of the trip was after we’d landed in Seattle, and Ben was still passed out and Rex just recently awake. We managed our way off the plane, grabbed our gate-checked gear, and headed to baggage check. The boys were giggly and very happy. They were certainly pleased to be home.

I asked Ben while Lynn was off at a restroom whether he had missed home. He said, “Not so much because there were so many fun things to do.” Which is great: I’d worried he’d been a little constrained and bored. The flip side: he’d had six other adults talking and playing with him at various times.

I love this picture of Ben because it looks like he’s seriously out in the middle of a lake kayaking. What you can’t quite tell from the photo is that there’s a line tied to the kayak, his grandpa is a few feet away in the water, the water is about a foot deep, and he’s about 5 feet from shore! He was ready to go scooting off a mile into the lake, though. (He’s also wearing a life jacket.)

Posted by Glennf at 8:47 PM

October 1, 2008

Heavens Preserve Us

By Glenn Fleishman

Lynn and I spent an hour last night blanching peaches, peeling them, depitting them, cutting them, and putting them on trays for the freezer. With the high price of food (especially organic) and the challenge of feeding two growing boys, we’re taking this small and first measure towards trying to be more sensible about what’s available in the winter and what’s available for bulk. Lynn bought a flat of certified organic peaches from the local farmer’s market, and our investment was a few BTUs of natural gas, a little boiling water, and some time, to wind up with pounds of frozen fruit.

Preserving and canning is much much more difficult, but they might be in our future.





What a peach!

Posted by Glennf at 8:12 PM | TrackBack

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