Quittin' Time!

For the past week and a half, I have been struggling to sort and box up things for a yard sale. When that became too much work for what have been too little money, I decided to look up charities that would come and get the stuff. I settled on the Vietnam Veterans of America who will take all manner of stuff, sell it to approved second hand retailers and use the proceeds to aid vets of all generations and their families.
I've had Alex "helping" with this task - mostly in the form of his agreeing to play outside while I work.

This morning...this hot, hot morning, I collected all of the donated stuff on the lawn for their collection; scheduled to happen today sometime between 8 and 5. The photo of it all appears with this post. While I worked, Alex played with a potato bug he found on the lawn who he put in his bug keeper and to whom we fed small bits of apple.

When I was down to the last items to be moved from the garage, Alex announced that it was time to go inside for a cold drink and a snack.

"I'm hungry from all this work." he said.

That's my hard workin' guy.

Friday, June 10

Harbor Fest '11

Today was Harbor Fest in the village. Alex had loved seeing a tall ship in the marina last year. We were hoping he'd get to see some interesting things again this year. I was glad we went. This year's fest had so much more than last year's!

The tall ship "Soundwaters" was moored at the public dock this year. Soundwaters is part of a traveling marine ecology educational center based out of Stamford. They do public sails of the ship. It is staffed by people educated in environmental sciences and marine biology who show visitors all sorts of wildlife and talk about the habitats in and around Long Island Sound. Alex wasn't too crazy about seeing the rock crab and the spider crab, especially when the guy showing the tank placed a spider crab directly on deck. Alex wasn't too crazy about the horseshoe crab either, no matter how much we assured him it was harmless. Those back spines don't look too harmless I suppose.

We also stopped by a booth staffed by personnel from Mystic Seaport, where I learned how we can plan a short family trip there. We stopped by the US Coast Guard's booth, where they had a rolling robot ship called "Coastie" for children's entertainment.

There was ice cream to be had. There were begging swans in the marina waters. (Alex wouldn't share more of his goldfish with them. The male swan hissed at me for that.) There were some prizes to be won at the Petco booth. There were foods to be sampled (I had Indian. Daddy had shish kabob.). And there was music to be heard. (All from the 50s. Huh??)
Alex's favorite part was getting a new bubble gun. 10 dollars at the vendor's stand. Inside CVS, we saw a couple with two children buying two bubble guns for six dollars each. Wish we'd thought of that.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable day and Alex was so tired that he went to bed asleep by 7:30. Now that made for a nice, quiet night for Mommy and Daddy.

Bring on more festivals Mamaroneck!!!

Sunday, June 5

The End of an Era

On Halloween 2009, while Alex was really into "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything", we all dressed up like pirates to go Trick-or-Treating. We told Alex that we were going to have lunch at a real pirate pub like he saw in the movie. We went to The Barnacle on Boston Post Road, but called it "Jolly Joe's" like the fictional pirate pub. We've also long called Alex "Captain Salty Dog" after a onesie he received as a birth gift from our neighbor Leticia. There's a clam bar not far from here called "Powell's", but due to its nautical decor, Alex kept getting it confused with The Barnacle. So, we called Powell's, "Captain Salty Dog's".

Last week while we were out on Boston Post Road, I asked Alex if he wanted to get a snack in Jolly Joe's. He looked at the sign above the door and said "That's a B. B-uh, Buh," he was sounding the letter B. "What does that say?" he asked me of the sign, so I told him what the restaurant's real name was. We could still call it "Jolly Joe's", though, right? No. "It's the Barnacle, actually", Alex informed me.

Today, I asked him if he'd like to have dinner at Captain Salty Dog's. He said "It's called 'Powell's', actually." I had told him that sometime last week too.

Seems our toddler-to-preschooler make believe world is coming to an end. Oh well. It was a lot of fun while it lasted.

Friday, June 3