WWF - New London Tour

Wishing for Fish(er)...

Phoebe and Haley eye each other (suspiciously?) at lunch

Our newest nephew/cousin, Fisher, will make his arrival very soon - less than a week now - so we took some time last weekend to get down to Gloucester to visit Micah, Becky and Pheebs before "all he@# breaks loose" (as Andy likes to refer to that blissful time immediately after a child is born).  We had a crib mattress and a box of infant boy clothes from Melanie to deliver, and we secretly wanted to sneak in a little winter coast birding before the year comes to a close.

Walking to Wingershaek

Ho ho ho

Phrozen Pheebs 

 Aiden with the clam fork

Razor Clam Shell

Not much birding was accomplished, aside from a small flock of ruddy ducks that were new for the year, but we had chilly walks on two of Gloucester's finest beaches- Good Harbor and Wingershaek- and a great pizza & subs lunch with Micah, Becky and Phoebe.  Micah wanted to show Aiden how to dig for steamers in the tidal flats at Wingershaek, but it was so frigid that we were only able to bare fingers long enough for a few razor clams.  Poor Haley and Pheebs were essentially sandblasted ice cubes by the time we made it back to Magnolia Ave.  We'll visit again in a few days when Phoebe is a big sister!

Good Harbor Beach

Getting Into the Spirit...

I get a free Christmas Tree at my work- it's one of the perks of working for the Forest Society, since we own a working xmas tree farm in Bethlehem, NH. But...you have to order it, and I completely forgot this year. So found ourselves treeless last weekend, just when we had some perfect downtime to decorate and get into the spirit of the season a little. Luckily, Andy's work came through. His boss's husband's family has a small Christmas Tree operation here in New London, and they put us on the list to pick out a tree. Since they stopped planting new trees at Elephant Rock Farm in the early 2000's, they only plan to do pick-your-own tree for a few more years. Though there weren't thousands of trees, there were plenty of beautiful fraser and balsam firs, and the view alone was so worth the trip! We got a great fraser fir, a tractor ride, and plenty of free greens for a wreath too.

Further ramping up the holiday spirit, we spent an evening at the McVrankens watching Christmas specials in our PJs. The first viewing was The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, a timeless classic if there ever was one. Before the show, the kids acted out the scene where the grinch cleans out Whoville of toys... they tiptoed around filling garbage bags with Molly's stuffies while the adults (whos) pretended to sleep. Those nasty little grinches showed no inclination to give back our stuffies after we woke up, however, so we just did the most logical thing and pressed play on the VCR (that's right, V-C-R). Following the Grinch was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the one with Hermey the dentist-elf and the abominable snowman. I hadn't seen it in at least 15 years, so it was fun to watch this 1960s classic from the perspective of the hyper-PC present... it's so full of bullying, gender stereotypes, and discrimination against those with disabilities that it'd never be made today, but as expected the kids loved every minute.

Other weekend activities included a hike to Clarke Lookout to take advantage of the amazingly sunny and mild weather, and a minor league hockey game for Aiden and Andy. Aiden's friend John took a few of his friends to see a Manchester Monarch's game for his birthday, and they had front-row seats to watch the action. Aiden came home screaming "Lets Go Monarchs! One, Two...One-Two-Three!" and hasn't stopped since. To say he loved going to the game would be a definite understatement. I think we'll have to try it out sometime this winter as a family and see whether Haley can get into hockey too.

At Clarke's Lookout

Let's Go Monarchs!

Redemption for the Poop Eater

For months now, Kimball's breath has been horrific. At first we branded her a "poop-eater"... we'd seen her snarf up little deer nodules in the backyard, goose turds at Low Plain, etc. so it wasn't an entirely unfounded accusation. The problem is goose and deer, both herbivores, don't even have particularly stinky droppings. Was she finding some cat poops in the yard? I remembered TarDog, our big black lab when I was growing up, loved to eat "spicy ground meats" as we called them, left by the cats in the backyard. That always made her breath really foul. But only for a few hours. Kimball's was constant. We gave her every kind of breath-freshning chewie you can find at the pet store, and even started scrubbing her teeth with a special doggie toothbrush (which by the way comes with *gag* beef-flavored toothpaste, so I couldnt imagine how it was going to improve her breath. It didn't.)

Next theory was that at around 6 months of age, maybe she was losing baby teeth. I'd read online that puppy's mouths can become a bit sour when they are getting adult teeth. "A bit sour" did not begin to describe our cute little pup's breath, but maybe.... that theory was abandoned by her 7 month birthday, when her adult teeth should all have been solidly in place. I began to suspect a gastrointestinal issue- I mean, she has been diagnosed with Giardia and Coccidia before, and those can be terribly hard to get rid of. Maybe parasite activity was wreaking havoc on her GI system, causing chronic halitosis?

Poor Kimball, recovering

Wrong, wrong, all wrong. Finally, while dutifully brushing Kimball's teeth one night, Andy discovered that one of her teeth was turning brown at the base. A trip to the vet confirmed that Kimball had at least one rotten adult tooth. "Hmm... I have never seen this before in a dog this young..." was the vet's comment. Great. Anyway, poor DimbleDog was put on antibiotics immediately (which in less than 24 hours, completely cleared up the bad breath) and then went under anaesthesia to have the tooth extracted. After the procedure, the vets gave us her tooth (now in 4 pieces) in a little bag- apparently it was deformed wtih an abnormally long root, which probably contributed to it's "going bad" soon after coming in. Hopefully, the rest of her teeth will fare better. We are just so happy to be able to enjoy puppy kisses again!

Thanksgiving 2011

Aiden and Grandma Chris at Alley Pond Park

Our holiday trip to Long Island was as frenetic as ever this year. We do LOTS of driving, on crazy roads with crazy NY drivers, as we have LOTS of family and friends to visit in a very short time. Long Island to New Jersey to Long Island to Queens to Long Island to Queens back to Long Island... and so on. It's a whirlwind, but very worth it. We spent Thanksgiving Day at Uncle Mike and Aunt Mary's house in New Jersey, where there were 26 of us sharing the Thanksgiving table. Aiden and Haley are the youngest by far, so they get lots of special attention (mostly of the tickling variety) and get to play with the Rapps' old legos, transformers and playmobile sets. Of course, they are in heaven. Aiden also got some tutoring in a Wii version of the Legend of Zelda from his cousin Douglas, and some geography lessons from cousin Jeanne. The roast turkey, thanksgiving sides, and numerous pies were all incredibly delicious, as was the lithuanian kielbasi. Haley sat on my lap at dinner and the kielbasi was all she would eat. Later that evening she burped in my face and I don't think I've ever smelled that telltale garlicky meat stink from anyone that small before. It was a bit unnerving!

"Kids" end of the table

"Spin & Point" to where you want to go!

We also spent some great time with Grandpa Dada, including a gorgeous walk on the Fire Island lighthouse beach in nearly 70 degree weather. Not to shabby for a few days before December. Kimball liked chasing the surf, and Haley liked plopping her butt on the sand to just sit and watch the mesmerizing crash of waves rolling in and out. When Aiden gets to a beach he's automatically in treasure hunting mode; he loves to see what kinds of flotsam and jetsam he can discover in the wrack lines and receding waves. His haul this day included three skate egg cases, a cool sputnik-like seed pod, and a handful of little clamshells as tiny as a pinky nail.

Fire Island lighthouse beach

DimbleDog at the beach

...notice Haley watching the waves

Learning something important

We had a lovely brunch with the Siegers & Hamms on Saturday, visited with Grandma Guppy in Queens and Grandma Rising in Brightwaters, spent lots of time with Dan & Paulette, and I even got to zip into Queens to meet Lisa, Whitney, Aly, Will and Ed at a delicious "hole in the wall" korean BBQ place one night. Pretty much as full as four days can be. We're very thankful.

Little Peter on his swingset

Carrie and Elizabeth

Aiden's new "Amityville Warriors" hat- thanks Grandpa Dada!

Run-Eat-Bird (the newest triathalon?)

Andy ran the Seacoast Half Marathon last weekend. We both trained over the summer and early fall for separate half marathons (mine last month, Andy's in November) because the races are always on weekends and finding childcare for most of a whole day is often a bigger hassle than we want to deal with. So we divide and conquer. It's not the most streamlined solution, but it works for us.

Andy's race day was mild and sunny, and he ran the 13.1 miles lickety-split. Andy, Haley and I drove to Ordione Point State Park in Rye to watch since the runners passed right by the entrance. Aiden was busy holding out orange gatorade to the racers when someone shouted "Thanks Aiden Buddy!" grabbing the gatorade from him as he sped past. Aiden was totally beaming after that, amazed that his Dad figured out he was there and chose his gatorade! Of course Andy had known beforehand that was where we'd be, but I didn't let Aiden in on the secret. It's still easy to make a big impression at age 5! I'm only sad I didn't have my camera right with me to capture the moment.

After Andy passed by, we were free to spend some time exploring the playground and science center, and of course Ordione Point's beautiful rocky beaches. The beaches there are perfect for collecting ocean treasures like periwinkle shells, tumbled sea glass, bits of lobster traps and crab claws. By the time Andy crossed the finish line and joined us at Ordione, our pockets (and minds) were so full of scallops, mussels, snails, and crabs that we had to find a seafood joint FAST! For lunch, Aiden got his own whole lobster for the first time... it was a treat to watch how much he enjoyed it, since I completely remember how much Micah and I loved cracking into lobster dinners when we were kids. Its funny how the best part for a kid is always getting that little bit of meat out of the legs or even sucking it out of the antennae, while most adults couldn't be bothered with anything besides the claws and tail. Andy and I had chowder and greasy fried fisherman's platter delights... which, in case you're wondering, Andy would not recommend subjecting his stomach to again following a long running race.

Lobstah!

After lunch we went birding. A very rare thing these days. The bird in question was a Barnacle Goose, direct from Northern Europe, or Greenland, or maybe not direct from anywhere as he had definitely lost his way and was now hanging out in a flock of Canada and Snow Geese in Newbury, Mass. It was a life bird for everyone (including Haley, though it's not fair to start her list before she can really even say "duck, duck goose") and Aiden was especially proud to be able to identify and scope the interloping goose on his own. From there, we made a short jaunt to run around on the sandy beach at Plum Island, and then started the long drive back to New London. It was a beautiful mid-November day on the seacoast.

Aiden and a bunch of other serious birders lined up to see the rare goose

Haley at Plum Island

Snuggle In, Hunker Down, Cozy Up

I feel like November is when the brakes finally get put on the crazy, hectic run that is our "warm season" here. Late May through October is literally packed to bursting with activities, adventures, and longer trips; there' s barely a spare weekend at home with time for domesticities like mowing the lawn or tending the garden. But now in November we're mostly home, and mostly free. It's nice. Sure, we have the holidays coming up and those are frenetic, but aside from that, the calendar's pretty empty.

This past weekend was gorgeous (for November) and we took some time to rake and mow the lawn one last time, and plant some garlic. Aiden and Haley played in the leaves, we had "chocolate" tea parties and snuggled with Kimball, discovered a new (to us) Korean restaurant, and just generally enjoyed being around with no agenda.

Stealth Ninja & Lil' Stinker

Considering we had close to a foot of snow on the ground, Halloween didn't turn out to be half as unpleasant as you might imagine. It was a sunny day, not exactly warm but not frigid, and not a breath of wind... for the most part the sidewalks were shoveled too. Aiden got to wear his ninja costume during a parade at school, followed by a delicious soup & sandwich lunch to which all the parents were invited. It's so sweet to let Aiden show us around his classroom, pointing out things he has worked on, his favorite toys, and his personal journal which he has to work on every week. The kindergarten class invites the parents to a meal once a month (last month was a pancake breakfast), and I'm really enjoying them despite the fact it's sometimes a hassle to juggle schedules around so that one or both of us can definitely be there.

After school we hurried to get the kids into their costumes again, and picked up a pizza en route to the McVrankens house before trick-or-treating. As usual our socializing made us a bit late for the Haunted Woods, but we made it before the nice high school students handing out candy turned into freakish ghouls and groping zombies. Phew. Then it was back along main street until all the kids (Haley included) had a good haul of the sweet stuff. Haley did most of her trick-or-treating from the carrier on Andy's back, and while we couldn't get her to say "trick-or-treat" she had been practicing "thank you" for a few weeks and was churning that out like crazy. Andy said she was whispering it in his ear all night, mostly between houses..."thay yoo" "thay yoo" ...since I think she was usually too stunned watching the action on the actual doorstep to spit it out then. Andy took Haley back for bed at about 730PM and Aiden and I headed back to the McVrankens to dump, sort, and trade loot (isn't that one of the best parts of Halloween? The dump, sort, and trade?!) And of course, everyone got to eat a few goodies too. It was such a tiring day that a few kit-kats couldn't do much damage to Aiden's heavy eyelids once he climbed into the fleecy pile of blankets on his bed. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........