Exploring a whole new world
Randall has been talking and dreaming so much about his 5th birthday. So here comes our busy birthday weekend: a celebration at school on Friday, setting up the trampoline on Saturday, and inviting his friend, Anthony, to play with him on Sunday. And that marks the start of daylight savings time and Spring in Chicago.
We had a pretty decent snow on Saturday and thought Randall would be excited to try making a snowman, but we ended up finding him more interested in snow shoveling.
He shoveled and dumped a big pile of snow for mommy to make a snowman that afternoon, and the next morning he was out there again, working hard!
After dealing with all the hassle and hustle of house buying and moving, we are left with hardly any energy or money for a beachside vacation, so here we are–nice, warm, sweet home. To be fair, though, we still have the beach, and a rollercoaster to entertain ourselves with!
This Thanksgiving holiday, instead of doing the usual “to-somewhere-warm” trip, we picked a special destination: the place where Randall started, as a little person.
Among all those places he’d been to before we left New York, the Hippo Playground was the one he had visited most. Although he had almost no memory of what had happened then, he enjoyed playing at the parks, even more than he had before. Look how time has flown and how he has grown!
We walked down the streets we used to walk everyday, past our old apartment building, took subway at the 96th St station, and ate at our favorite neighborhood restaurants. We had the same Thanksgiving lunch at Boulud Sud as we had had three years before, although unfortunately we missed the parade this time.
Well, it’s not all about reminiscing. We did our first in-person Thanksgiving shopping at the Lego store at Rockefeller Center. And the very next day we headed to Rockefeller Center again for the Top of Rock observation deck. It was chilly but it was also clear and perfect for pictures.
The trip ended with a reunion with our old friends in New York, and a wonderful Peking duck dinner at Decoy. Randall’s favorite part? The New York subway, and “Stand clear of the closing doors!” Read more…
It’s the pumpkin time of the year, and we finally got this nice beautiful day for a pumpkin patch trip. It was a long drive and nothing was too interesting except a road sign saying “Randall Rd. Exit 52”. But as soon as we arrived, we realized that it was well worth the drive.
The place was definitely more a farm-style amusement park than a pumpkin patch. There were just so many fun things to do: the corn box, the pumpkin express train ride, the petting farm, the munchkin corn maze, the pony ride, the little digger which Randall became a master of manipulating, and a lot more!
Randall enjoyed feeding the animals and couldn’t have enough of it. And of course in the end, we came home with a bunch of weird-looking pumpkins. Randall liked one of them especially, which, in his own words, “looks like a balloon but smells just like a pumpkin”.
Randall is happy feeding the ducks with his own snacks until he suddenly realizes that “there is not much left”. “No more!”, he tells the ducks, but they seem quite determined and won’t leave. How about “you can have one more and that’s it”? They stay for more. Randall ends up giving all his goldfish away. Now both Randall and the ducks are happy.
Randall was watching mommy peel a hard boiled egg and suggested, “I can help you, mommy.” Mommy wasn’t sure if he could do it and said, “Maybe when you get a little older.” “But I do it at school!”, Randall replied.
Randall is back in Berkeley this week, and has reunited with his old school friends, Connor, Amelia, and many more! Best part of it? Cable car! What’s new? Riding BART! Anything for a foodie? Cherry and peach picking!
