I had a pretty terrible week last week. On Friday, I had the chance to take Maddox out for a quick lunch. All morning I had been getting him excited about going to get burgers and fries at an awesome diner in Merrimac called Skip’s.
We were both excited and starving by the time lunch rolled around. But, in a pretty good representation of what my week was like, we drove up to find the place closed for the season. I drove into a nearby spot and just rested my head on the steering wheel.
“Yook! They’re open!” Maddox said, pointing to a window replacement store next door (his l’s currently sound like y’s — yook, yock, yight).
“They don’t have hamburgers there, buddy.” I replied.
“Oh. That’s sad. Hamburgers are closed. That’s sad,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“Wait! I know! Pizza is happy! Pizza makes you not sad! Get to it!” (“Get to it” is a random phrase Maddox has latched on to recently).
And thus, we drove around the corner to Flatbread Pizza in Amesbury, and lunch was saved.
Something weird is happening. Maddox is making us into “outdoor people.” Today we drove out to Plum Island to walk along the Hellcat trail, which went through a series of dune and then marsh. If you had told us, oh, four years ago that we would have voluntarily done this, I would have called you crazy. In fact, there are pictures of me (and my sisters) sulkenly lying on the plankboard trail about ten years ago, when my family went here for a vacation.
Today though, we had a great time. It’s amazing to find such a vast amount of open space in the area.
Maddox loves trails, and always has — he is still endlessly entertained by the simple act of moving forward. A trail just seems to drive him on.
Plus, there were stairs on this trail. Can you imagine being of the age where stairs fill you with happiness and wonder?
I’m also still amazed at his energy. The trail wasn’t strenous at all, but he was halfway running the whole time. He did stop at one point, plop himself down, and request water and raisins.
He made it nearly two miles before he requested a piggyback!
Every year, Newburyport has something called Yankee Homecoming, a week of summer activites, many of which are great for kids. One of those is Family Day at nearby Maudslay State Park.
Last year we went, in what was a good example of a phase we went through where we went to anything remotely kid oriented even if it really wasn’t geared towards one year-olds. Well, Maddox was two this year, so I figured there had to be something he would find interesting.
After we walked through the whole fair, past 45 booths or so, can you guess what he found most interesting? That’s right, a rock. To give him credit, it was a pretty interesting rock as far as rocks go.
Luckily, on the way back they had started another activity: Gymanstics demonstrations. Maddox found this fascinating. Whenever someone would finish their routine, he would yell “More jump!”. After a few minutes he actually sat down and would clap whenever someone finished.
After watching demonstrations, the gymnasts came out and let the kids run around on the pads. One of the girls came up to Maddox, and he gladly held her hand as she led him around on the equipment.
He even surprised me when he asked for my hand as he approached the balance beam. I have no idea when he learned to walk a balance beam, but after holding my hand he slowly walked across it, putting one foot in front of the other.
Maddox has been interacting more and more with other children recently. Whereas before, when he was younger, they would mostly just do this kind of creepy stare, now they actually do something resembling social interaction. Even if that interaction involves teaching bad habits.
For example, Maddox met another boy named Sascha at the playground a few weeks ago. One of Sascha’s favorite activities was running around with a stick in his mouth. Well Maddox found this absolutely fascinating, so he decided to do the same thing.
In turn, Maddox decided to show Sascha how awesome it was to splash in muddy puddles and get as much of your shoes, socks, and clothes as soaked as possible.
And all of this occurred in just about ten minutes. I can’t wait to see what he picks up once he starts pre-school.
Leanne and I always get very excited for when we come up with what we think will be the *perfect* day for Maddox, one that will make him incredibly happy, where we can look back and say, man, aren’t we just the best parents.
Of course, it never really works out that way. But the great thing is that, when just being in the company of your wife and son is the greatest thing in the world, the best laid plans that go awry often end up being your favorite memories.
Such was the case today, when I took the day off of work and we planned to catch the ferry into Boston and go to the aquarium. Turns out the ferry only runs once every few hours though, and we missed the morning one, so we had to scratch that.
Instead we drove in, and while getting to Boston went smoothly, making the correct turn off the freeway to south Boston did not. So we started the day by paying a $3.50 toll to drive around the departure gates at Logan airport. This is what happens when I get too busy espousing the wonders of my new GPS app to Leanne to actually pay attention to the directions.
Twenty minutes and $18 later we found a parking garage and made our way to the aquarium. I was very excited that we were here on a Friday instead of a summer weekend, thrilled that we wouldn’t have to fight mobs of children to see a turtle.
Until I saw six school buses pull up.
Walking in the entrance door, squeezed in between what I estimated to be roughly 80 small beings who were screaming and laughing and running I circles, I said to myself that I am **never** having kids, and then remembered that I was pushing a stroller.
Just kidding. I don’t know if it’s because I have a child now too and see these children all as potential friends for him, but I actually found them quite endearing. All 876 of them.
Eventually we did make our way up to the aquariums, at which point Maddox would often yell “YUCKY FISH!” and demand instead to look down the ramp which was pretty much his favorite exhibit at the place. The ramp. At this point I was very grateful to Leanne for picking up passes from the library to save $30 on admission to the New England Ramp Center I mean Aquarium.
I was still looking forward to showing Maddox the sharks and sting rays in the big tank, which I knew he would recognize from **Finding Nemo**. I was having trouble spotting them though, and thought, “Where are the sharks and sting rays?”.
Then I saw a big sign that said “Where are the sharks and sting rays?”. Turns out they’re “vacationing” due to some type of parasite in the tank.
At this point, we decided it was best to head out. On the way back to the garage, Maddox discovered a puddle. A puddle! He was beyond thrilled, and spent the next fifteen minutes splashing through every puddle he could find, laughing manically. It was as if he was saying, now that you guys got finished having your fun, I get to have mine!
In the end, it turned out to be a pretty great day.
