Hanging Out with John

I spent a few days hanging out with John in McKinney. He seems to remember me, and will bring me toys and books, let me hold him, change him, help him eat, and so on. I'm learning his routine and preparing us both for our time together when the new baby comes, if it works out that way.

John in his Martha's Vineyard T-shirt from JanMa.
I went with Ashley and John to the Little Gym and watched him climb and play. It is a secure, relatively safe environment and he had a blast. See video at the end of this post. The goal of Little Gym is to help kids build skill and confidence in moving their bodies.

Shoes off, ready for Little Gym time!

Everything is padded. See video at the end for more Little Gym activities.

A drink and shoes back on, time to leave Little Gym.

We stopped at WalMart on the way home, looking for an easy to use bubble blower, since John loved the bubbles at the Little Gym. Even at 15 months John recognizes that there are lots of things in the toy aisles that he wants, and he reaches toward them and grunts and squeals. I loved Ashley's technique of handling that. As she cruised down the aisle and John squealed, she would grab whatever he was reaching for off the shelf and hand it to him. The next aisle he was reaching for something else, and she would hand that to him, returning the first item. So rather than keep telling him NO, she let him hold things, which is what he wanted to do, he really doesn't have a concept of taking it home with him, YET!

After lunch and nap, John gets sunblocked for a visit to the pool. I walked him to the pool, got in with him and Ashley came about 5 minutes later. John was a little anxious without his Mom, and was happy when she showed up.
The next day Jason, Ashley, John and JanMa went shoe shopping for John,
He can take his new shoes off all by himself!
Then to Baby's R'Us to order Taylor's crib. This is what it looks like, but it will be in cherry.

Another of John's shopping activities on both days involved reaching his little arms out to me to be picked up. How sweet, I thought, and of course JanMa picked him up out of the cart or stroller. I would hold him for about 30 seconds before he began to wiggle to get down. Once on the floor, he delighted in leading me on a merry chase around the store. At WalMart it was cute, Baby's R'Us was funny, but by then I was on to his game. Although disappointed that his motivation for reaching for me was only as a means to get to the floor where he could run around (his mom and dad know better!), I still enjoyed holding and playing with him.
After the shoe store, it was on to Fuddrucker's for lunch. Jason is very good at tasting anything that John is going to eat. Brave man, especially when John was eating baby peas and squash! But now John can eat a hamburger, and today was introduced to onion rings.
After lunch, we went to the mall and Jason took John to shop in the Disney store. More of John's wanderings and touching and picking up stuff. Jason did cave and buy John one toy.
Later at home, after John's nap, he shows me how to play with his new toy.
The last activity I got to watch was John in the wading pool with Poindexter. Great way to beat the heat, in the backyard, in the shade, in the wading pool with the water hose. See video below.

Video of John climbing the mountain at the Little Gym. Notice his first time up, he gets a lot of help from Mom. The last few seconds of the video show John climbing it more on his own with great confidence.


Jason also is very patient helping John learn skills. Here is a short clip of Jason and John using a screwdriver to replace batteries in one of John's toys.


Cooling off in the backyard wading pool with Poindexter.

Twins progress while I'm gone to the beach

Jake and Claire sport their Martha's Vineyard T-shirts that JanMa brought back to them.
Jake has started making new faces, this one is sort of a squinty-eyed snort. He was making the snorty face a lot while I was feeding him.

Before I left for Martha's Vineyard, Claire had just started to figure out how to crawl. The video below shows her just starting to sit up and crawl, taken before I left for the Vineyard.


By the time I saw her again, a week later, she not only was crawling,

but pulling herself up to stand.


Jake had learned to sit up...


And the twins are interacting a lot more with each other...




I won't see them for another week while they are vacationing in Austin, I expect Claire to be walking and Jake crawling by the time they get back!

Taking in the Homeless

I took in a homeless pregnant woman and her 3 yr. old daughter for two weeks.
Well she was "technically" homeless, temporarily, after her transferred husband had already left for a new job and their house had been emptied of all furniture. She was a work colleague from back in the day... when I worked! Since I live about 5 minutes from the office, and 1 minute from her daughter's daycare, I offered her the upstairs part of my house, along with kitchen privileges, the pool and free wi-fi. It worked out great for me, because I was gone 6 days of that time to Martha's Vineyard, and she kept up with the house, pool, and fed the cats. Worked out great for me, and I hope for her also. She is now reunited with her husband in their new city, and I hope she likes cloudy rainy weather!! Her last evening here we cooked hot dogs and invited some other work people over.

Baxter, the dog, belongs to the couple below, and he likes to go visiting.


Three year old daughter trying on my sun hat.
Her little kitty had to stay at home when she went to school each day.
It was fun for me to have them here, and I wish her the best with the move, the distance, and the new baby in the fall.

Martha's Vineyard - highlights

The first full day at Martha's Vineyard started with breakfast at the Black Dog Tavern in Oak Bluffs, overlooking the water and lots of boats. Then we drove to Edgartown to look around, have lunch, watch more boats and finally ended up at South Beach, to see the big waves.
There are no chain motel/hotels on the Vineyard, so all the accomodations are cute and quaint. Here is the view off our balcony at the Island Inn looking over a bird sanctuary.

Black Dog Tavern, we ate breakfast there one morning and lunch a few days later.
A very pretty Colonial Inn in Edgartown.
The flowers bloomed everywhere, lots of roses and hydrangeas.

Lighthouse at Edgartown, there are 5 lighthouses on the Vineyard, including the one on Chappaquidick that we were not able to see.
On the sand at south beach, windy and cool, cold water.
Start of oversand trail from south beach to Chappaquidick, $30 permit fee required. Along with 4-wheel drive, which we didn't have in the rent car!
The end of the first day, I was pretty whipped.

Second day started off at a Farmer's Market, I bought some sweet rolls for the next day's breakfast.
While at the market, I tried the wheat grass drink, which I had read about in a guide book.
See this video for the results...

We then continued to the west side of the Vineyard, to see the Gay Head Cliffs and Lighthouse. This is Indian reservation land. The wind was blowing, the water was vast, and the temps were cool.

While at the west end of the island, we stopped at Lobsterville Beach.
This was one of those rocky beaches, no shells to speak of, no wave action, and lots of rocks of a wide variety of colors.

We returned to Oak Bluffs for lunch, then toured the camp meeting grounds. This is an area of about 300+ small cottages that circle around a central Tabernacle. Originally this was the site of a Methodist Church camp meeting, where folks would come for revivals during the summer. Various churches had sections of land for their tents that people could stay in during the revivals that went on all summer. Over time, the canvas tents were replaced by wooden ones, and later as families came to "own" the tent, houses were built. The houses are now individually owned, you don't have to be Methodist, or even church-going, but the land is leased and controlled by the Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association Board. So if the home owner is of the wild and wooly nature, the Board can revoke the lease and force that person to sell and vacate the house. Most of the cottages are used only in July and August, the summer season on the Vineyard.
The cottages are small, quaint and colorful. There is no work on the cottages allowed during July and August, so all the painting, touch-ups, whatever was going on during June.

Other highlights included The Flying Horses, the oldest carousel in the US.
I of course had to ride it.
And another lighthouse...
Lifesaving equipment at Wasque Point beach on Chappaquidick...
What I believe is a nest for the ocean plover? an endangered bird on the Vineyard

Turkeys wandering around in a yard...
One of the large ferry boats coming in to dock
At the ferry dock, was this trailer, I guess they expect the Gulf Stream to bring the oil north...
Another lunch in a diner...
Bill and I on our last full day on the island. He wasn't shaving, but that was OK, I wasn't wearing any makeup. A great vacation...

Trip to Martha's Vineyard - passing time at the airport

The trip to Martha's Vineyard was long, but we were excited about starting our adventure. The first layover was in Charlotte, NC. The restrooms had attendants, and the lady on duty when Carolyn and I stopped, was a real surprise.


During a 2 hour layover in Boston, that ended up stretching to 3 hours, we watched Bill and Jack take off in the G4 for Martha's Vineyard. They sent text messages that they were taxiing out, we found a good spot of large windows in the terminal to watch from, and got some video of them leaving Boston.



There was an incident with a passenger on the plane from Charlotte to Boston. A man a few rows ahead of me refused to turn off some type of electronic device in preparation for landing. The flight attendant asked him to turn it off, he said it was in airport mode, she said it still had to be off for the landing, and he could turn it off or else, I missed the or else part, and it was his choice. He argued with her, she restated the airline regulations, he still refused, and she walked away to take her seat for landing. As soon as the door was open at the gate, Boston state police boarded the plane and took the man into custody. I got a few seconds of video, trying to not be too obtrusive about it. The man taken into custody is the bald guy in the blue shirt. Video isn't good, but I along with many of the passengers were glad to see the cops there to handle a jerk on the plane.




We finally arrived about an hour late at Martha's Vineyard airport, but it is a very small airport, Jack and Bill met us with their rent cars, and within 30 minutes Bill and I were at the Island Inn having a take-out salad and pizza, enjoying the cool breezes on the balcony. And that was the end of the first day.

Martha's Vineyard Beaches

Going to the beach at Martha's Vineyard is different from going to the beach in Texas. First, the water is really cold up there, quite unlike the warm Texas Gulf Coast waters. Second, the "beach season" runs from July through August. Even in mid-June, we had a few days of cool temperatures and lots of wind, NOT conducive to laying out on the beach with a good book. The last day we were there, June 15, skies were sunny, temps reaching 73, and very little wind. There is no shrimp or crawfish on any menus, instead there are lobster rolls, cold water fish, and even - LOBSTER ICE CREAM! Plus everyone has a Yankee accent, and they are probably all Democrats!!
The beaches around Martha's Vineyard are very different depending on which side of the island the beach is on. The whole part of the country sits on layers of granite bedrock, tumbled by ice ages. The south side of the island is most exposed to open water, has higher waves, more beach erosion, lots of sand, no shells or pebbles, and the sand is more coarse-grained than Gulf Coast beaches.
The eastern beaches are more protected, less wave action, lots of shells and beach glass, small gravel that washes up in layers. You can dig down through a sand ridge and find lots of shells and stuff underneath. I saw several folks with long-handled shovels digging small holes to find hidden treasures.

Beach glass Bill and I collected after 2 hours of beach walking.

We also rode the ferry to Chappaquidick (yep, the place where in 1969 Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge into the water and the woman in the car with him drowned cause he didn't get her out, nor did he report it for 9 hours. Apparently Massachusetts forgave him for that.) Chappy (the locals' name) is a small island next to Martha's Vineyard, access via a small, 3-car ferry boat that takes about 60 seconds to make the 100 foot crossing. Video at the end of this post gives a good idea of the speed and distance to Chappy.
The beaches on Chappy are exposed to open water, lots of sand and beach erosion, such that you can't really walk down by the water.

The beaches on the north/western side of the island are more protected, less wave action, but also have very large rocks at the water's edge. Maybe I was there at low tide, but there was no "walking on the beach" possible. We did watch birds dive into the water, grab small crabs, then fly onto the shore, drop the crab then pick it to pieces for lunch.


The most popular beaches are those by the towns, and one morning as Bill and I were walking the nice beach looking for beach glass, we noticed some folks carrying table-top grills and ice chests down to the sand. Then I looked up at the boardwalk to see a line of children in blue T-shirts walking along the boardwalk, heading for the beach. I chatted with one of the adults, 90 students and parents had just ferried over from Rochester (New York??) for the annual end-of-school beach picnic on Martha's Vineyard. The kids were walking the 4 blocks from the ferry landing to the beach. They didn't get out of school til June 16. We left and found another beach!!

Chappaquidick Ferry crossing