We’ve been laying low for the past two months since A. came home — partly due to busy-ness, partly because we want to firmly imprint everyday routines within the chaotic toddler brain, and partly because I hadn’t fully recovered from my momentous trip to Addis Ababa and most days didn’t feel the desire to venture any further than the local playground.
But 8 weeks have gone by since A. and I stepped off that plane, and I think we were all growing a little stir crazy in our local environs. (This is the part when Mr. P and I give each other a high-five and yell “Road trip!”)
We left Saturday morning after a harried morning during which I packed enough clothes for A. to last a summer-long European tour rather than a single night in NYC. We didn’t even try to explain to A. what was happening, although he could tell from all the preparation that this wasn’t the everyday trip to the swimming pool. It’s hard to convey abstract concepts like time and distance to him; I tried telling him that Mommy, Daddy, and A. would be sleeping “outside” tonight (I think outside means any place other than home to A.) and it seemed like he thought I meant now, because he began to refuse to sleep: “No tenny,” he said steadily, as if he had put great thought into my proposal. “No tenny.”
First stop was the Mystic Aquarium, a great kiddie pit-stop that was worth taking I-95 for. The aquarium staff forced us to pose for a picture with a person dressed in a mangy pengiun costume, and A. visibly recoiled, taunt and upset in my arms. He was quickly distracted from this horror by the beluga whale exhibit, which he could have watched all day.
Mystic Aquarium Beluga Whales
A. didn’t know what to make of the sea lions and the penguins looked lethargic, but he enjoyed walking through the “marsh” and spotting frogs. We decided to pay extra to enter the indoor bird house, where you can hold up sticks of food to hundreds of free-roaming canaries and parrots.
Birds
We were really not surprised that A. was terrified by the birds.
Bird Terror
“No bird! No bird!”
Why are you people tormenting me?
Of course, after the initial 10 minutes of concern, A. gradually grew bold enough to seize a stick and hold it in the general direction of a bird.
Feeding the birds
After the birds, it was time to move on to more less-threatening animals, like barricuda, sharks, sting rays, and jellyfish. A. was fascinated by nearly every type of fish in the indoor aquarium, although his heart stayed with the beluga whale.
From the aquarium, we stopped at a seafood restaurant (because I guess people’s appetites for fish are stoked by endless glass-enclosed aquatic vivariums) and then we walked around the dreary seaport area and downtown Mystic.
Mystic
Mystic
While waiting in an ice cream shop for Mr. P’s sugar dose, the bell for the drawbridge went off and I hurried outside with A. for a front-row seat to the action. A. was completely fascinated by the drawbridge and watched with rapt attention. Of course, he wanted to see the bridge go up and down again, and got rather huffy with me when I said no. I can’t wait until he reaches the age when he realizes that some things are just beyond my control, and that’s it’s not always Mommy being mean.
After all the fun of Mystic, we continued south to the Bronx, where we arrived at 6pm. A. was initially shy and self-conscious at my friend’s house, but seeing how comfortable we were allowed him to quickly let it all hang out. The black cat in residence was both a source of consernation and fascination, and A. quickly charmed everyone he met with his stunning good looks and joy-filled laugh. He was beyond thrilled to be able to sleep in a bed with Mommy and Daddy, and the excitement of the day kept him babbling happily for 5 minutes under the covers before sleeping the sleep of the dead.
