Oregon

Ethan and I are in Oregon right now, visiting my sister and her family. It's been wonderful for Ethan to get to know his cousins. I wish they all lived closer.

We left on a 6am flight on Thursday, which meant getting up at 4am. On the way to the airport we saw lots of frogs crossing the road, their hopping bodies caught in the light from headlights. Ethan predicted that we would also see a deer, and Mark and I sort of laughed and said yes, not really believing it. But sure enough, a mile down the road was a big dear right on the side of the road.

Ethan was a good traveller, and his usually friendly self. In the seats behind us going out to San Fran were two teenage sisters from Maine. Ethan flirted shamelessly with them, but they loved it. ("Mama -- tell them that they are pretty girls"). They even invited him to sit beside them and share their color pencils. They drew for him a unicorn and a green snake, which he got to keep. They suggested to me that he might like acting and drama when he was older, something they like a lot. In the San Fran airport Ethan played in the Kids Spot play area, which made the 3 hour layover go very quickly.

We've done lots of fun things out here. Yesterday we went to a drive-through Safari zoo that had lots of animals running around. We saw bears wrestling in a pond, giraffes that wandered by, cheetahs sleeping in the shade, and hippos wallowing in another pond. It's the closest thing to Africa that's here in the US.

Last night we went to see a stage production of the Wizard of Oz. Ethan sat on my lap and asked questions every three minutes (Why is she mad at dorothy? Is she a real witch? Is she really angry? How did the dog get back? So he thinks he needs a brain? -- you get the idea.) It was quite a good production, and Ethan seemed to like it a lot. Today he's watching the film version with his cousins. Earlier we went blueberry picking, and we all picked 14 pounds of blueberries, plus whatever we ate.

Ethan's cousins S. and P. have been wonderful with Ethan, playing with him and entertaining him for hours. It means a lot to him to have family members giving him so much attention. However, our one six year old has managed to burn out all 5 of us adults in the last few days (S. is 14 and P. is 19, but I'm counting them as adults).

Camping With 3 Six-Year-Olds

This weekend Ethan and I went camping with Beth, her daughter M., Susan, and her daughter ME at Tully Lake. Here’s a photo of our campsite. Ethan and I arrived Saturday morning, set up the tent, and then went swimming in a beautiful lake. Blueberries were all over, so the kids had a lot of fun collecting them into cups. We also took a walk to nearby falls, cooked dinner over the fire, and made s’mores for desert. Ethan had a great time playing with the two girls – they had a good round of hide and seek, climbed some trees, and went into the ‘enchanted’ forest where Ethan turned into a vampire, and the two girls were transformed into his pet cats. Ethan went right to sleep in the tent, and was a good sport about the whole thing.

This afternoon we’re going to meet Lisa, Mike, and R. at White Pond and have a picnic dinner, and a pizza delivered. We became members of White Pond this year, and it’s worked out well because it’s a bit less hectic and crowded than Walden Pond. Ethan loves to try to catch the fish there with his net, and there are some pleasant picnic tables under the trees where I can relax.

Ethan continues to have a great time at camp. I wish he were this relaxed and happy all year. He continues to amaze me with all that he learns and thinks about. He's started getting into a stage of telling us the facts and information that he's learned. The other day he was telling me that Jupiter is the largest planet, and named several others as well. Then he moves on to naming the other characters he knows in Batman stories.

Lots of Firsts, Fourth and Otherwise

I took Ethan to the Boston Museum of Art for the first time last Saturday with our friend Beth and her daughter M. Ethan lasted about one hour, in which time we saw a mummy (is it real?), swords (a big hit), lots of wild boars (why are those dogs chasing it?), people walking like Egyptians, and hieroglyphics (snakes instead of B’s, hawks instead of D’s, etc.). At Beth’s suggestion, we brought pen and paper for the kids – a big hit, and a great idea – and they sketched several Greek coins.

Ethan was on especially good behavior since he had been promised a stuffed animal at the gift shop as incentive to view art (dad’s idea). Huge and dramatic disappointment (crying, running around, hiding, threats, etc) followed at the store when mom would not buy the (in her opinion ugly and wildly overpriced) stuffed dog. Much later in the day, he reluctantly admitted that he really liked the stuffed horse that he had plucked from the shelf with dramatic tears and complaints after it became clear mom was not going to back down about the esthetically unpleasing canines.

Last Friday night we took Ethan to see his first fireworks show. In truth, I think he liked running around at the playground, making random friends, more than the actual show itself. It was rather past his bedtime, and he kept complaining about being bored, which in truth, I had to agree, it was not the most exciting display I've ever seen. It was however next to a beautiful lake, and not too crowded, which were big pluses.

During the day on July 4th, Ethan also got his first ride in a hot-air balloon. It went up around 30 feet, and came down about five minutes later. After, he saw a play about Alice in Wonderland. I’m not sure if it’s the first play he’s seen, but the first with us.

My friend Tom took Ethan to the playground the other day. When they got there, there were no little kids to play with, only some older teenagers hanging out on the swings. Ethan got Tom to ask them if they wanted to play tag. They actually said yes, and everyone had a great time with it. This is such quintessential Ethan – engaging complete strangers to do something unexpected and fun.

Later, Tom took this video of Ethan on a swing singing a made-up song. You’ll hear references to the tag, and also to pumping (he only recently learned to pump a swing himself). The hand gestures, drama, gibberish, rhymes, creativity, etc. are all very Ethan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFB2QT5m8cg