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Saturday
Sebastian and I had some fun on Saturday. Teri sleeps in that morning, so I usually take the baby out to give her some uninterrupted sleep.
He was up at 5:20, so I carried him downstairs and started the process of waking (me) up. We hung out for a while (with NO TV), and he had toast, milk, and oatmeal (he's had a great appetite lately). At around 8:30 we hopped into the car. We had a bunch of overdue books to return to the library.
When we got there, though, the library was closed - apparently it doesn't open until 9. Man, was Sebastian upset!
"Library closed?"
"Library closed?"
"Library closed?"
"Library closed?"
"Library closed?"
[With lower lip trembling and tears in eyes] "Closed?"
Of course I kept telling him that it would be open later, and that we would come back then, but that didn't quite calm him down. So I took him on a ride to a local used book store called the Shire.
The Shire is quite unusual; it's an old mill building (i.e. factory) which was converted to commercial space. The bookstore takes the entire ground floor of the building, and it's huge. It's also anything but corporate: HUGE amounts of character, cool and odd knick-knacks on the shelves, and more lovely old books than anywhere else I know except maybe the Strand in New York. Sebastian loved it. The children's section had stuffed animals and a little table with chairs and puzzles that he played with and books about trains...I eventually found three books, and when I finally took him out of there he cried. By the way, we were the only people in there at the time.
We picked up Roundabout Train, a little old book about trains with faces; I don't really remember it specifically, but so much of it echoes in my memory that I must have read it when I was little. We also picked up a large Thomas the Tank Engine flap board book (I dislike Thomas the Tank Engine because it's so bleeping commercial, but what can I do), and lastly I saw a copy of Piet Worm's The Three Little Horses that I simply had to have - the Three Little Horses were favorites of mine when I was little.
I just Googled for Piet Worm, and was surprised and disappointed to find...nothing. Nothing but books for sale and that sort of thing. I was hoping to find some fan sites, because his books were really wonderful. But then, there are a lot of magical old children's books, from the 1900's to the 1960's, that are virtually forgotten now. Meanwhile corporate/big media crap is pushed in every bookstore.
Where was I? Oh yes. We were leaving the Shire, and Sebastian was sobbing and trying to stay (lunging towards the floor, making it very hard to carry him). But once I got him into his car seat and gave him Roundabout Train to read he cheered up.
Later that day Teri woke up and we went to Vinny Testa's (now corporate-owned and renamed "Vinny T's") for an early dinner. The food there hasn't changed; they still give you that great foccacia bread and the roasted garlic in olive oil. It's funny, a while ago I tried dipping the bread in the oil instead of putting garlic on it, and it was fantastic. I had bowties bolognese, which was outstanding as always. Sebastian behaved for a while, and charmed the daylights out of an older woman who was sitting behind us, but eventually he started acting up and we had to get moving.
On the way home Teri suggested going to the Pumpkin festival at Roger Williams State Park. This has been played up quite a bit on Rhode Island TV; apparently it's a beautiful display of hundreds and hundreds of incredibly-carved and lit pumpkins.
It was 5:30 PM when we pulled into the park, and the line was UNBELIEVABLE. Cars everywhere. When we finally found a space, we got in line to buy a ticket - and that line was even WORSE. It was cold, and opening time wasn't for another fifteen minutes, and Sebastian was being driven insane with excitement by all the kids running around. Eventually I had to let him run around himself, just to get it out of his system. He ran up to a big rock that some bigger kids were jumping onto, and struggled up onto it. Once he was there, he waved to Teri and shouted "Mumma! I DID IT!".
6 o'clock came and the line started moving. And oh, how I wish I had a camara. Because the line was just so incredibly long; I've been to concerts and events of all kinds, I saw the Who at Shea Stadium (on one of their supposed "final" tours), but I have never seen a line like this. It was three to four people across, and probably half a mile long. And this was only one of two.
We stood in line for over an hour, and Sebastian started acting up. At first he just kept demanding to see the "Pretty pumpkins!". But later he just wanted "DOWN!". Fortunately the women standing behind us were preschool teachers, and were captivated by Sebastian - so before I knew it (and with Teri's permission, because we don't actually let just anyone do this) he was being held and talked to by one of the teachers. He really took a shine to her.
Which was good, because we'd now been standing in line for NINETY MINUTES. But there had been some movement; we were now only about fifty feet from the entrance. Teri told me to go find out how much the tickets were.
I did, but in the process we discovered that after you bought your tickets there was a whole NEW line...which was even longer. In fact, they started announcing at that point that the waiting time after you got your tickets was currently an hour and fifteen minutes. The tickets were $10 per adult, by the way, and you can't buy them in advance.
It was clear that Sebastian couldn't possibly wait that long, particularly because - get this - strollers weren't allowed on the pumpkin paths. What was next - all visitors had to walk naked on hot coals? This was insane. Sebastian was very upset and asking for "go homey". So we went home.
And that was our Saturday.
He was up at 5:20, so I carried him downstairs and started the process of waking (me) up. We hung out for a while (with NO TV), and he had toast, milk, and oatmeal (he's had a great appetite lately). At around 8:30 we hopped into the car. We had a bunch of overdue books to return to the library.
When we got there, though, the library was closed - apparently it doesn't open until 9. Man, was Sebastian upset!
"Library closed?"
"Library closed?"
"Library closed?"
"Library closed?"
"Library closed?"
[With lower lip trembling and tears in eyes] "Closed?"
Of course I kept telling him that it would be open later, and that we would come back then, but that didn't quite calm him down. So I took him on a ride to a local used book store called the Shire.
The Shire is quite unusual; it's an old mill building (i.e. factory) which was converted to commercial space. The bookstore takes the entire ground floor of the building, and it's huge. It's also anything but corporate: HUGE amounts of character, cool and odd knick-knacks on the shelves, and more lovely old books than anywhere else I know except maybe the Strand in New York. Sebastian loved it. The children's section had stuffed animals and a little table with chairs and puzzles that he played with and books about trains...I eventually found three books, and when I finally took him out of there he cried. By the way, we were the only people in there at the time.
We picked up Roundabout Train, a little old book about trains with faces; I don't really remember it specifically, but so much of it echoes in my memory that I must have read it when I was little. We also picked up a large Thomas the Tank Engine flap board book (I dislike Thomas the Tank Engine because it's so bleeping commercial, but what can I do), and lastly I saw a copy of Piet Worm's The Three Little Horses that I simply had to have - the Three Little Horses were favorites of mine when I was little.
I just Googled for Piet Worm, and was surprised and disappointed to find...nothing. Nothing but books for sale and that sort of thing. I was hoping to find some fan sites, because his books were really wonderful. But then, there are a lot of magical old children's books, from the 1900's to the 1960's, that are virtually forgotten now. Meanwhile corporate/big media crap is pushed in every bookstore.
Where was I? Oh yes. We were leaving the Shire, and Sebastian was sobbing and trying to stay (lunging towards the floor, making it very hard to carry him). But once I got him into his car seat and gave him Roundabout Train to read he cheered up.
Later that day Teri woke up and we went to Vinny Testa's (now corporate-owned and renamed "Vinny T's") for an early dinner. The food there hasn't changed; they still give you that great foccacia bread and the roasted garlic in olive oil. It's funny, a while ago I tried dipping the bread in the oil instead of putting garlic on it, and it was fantastic. I had bowties bolognese, which was outstanding as always. Sebastian behaved for a while, and charmed the daylights out of an older woman who was sitting behind us, but eventually he started acting up and we had to get moving.
On the way home Teri suggested going to the Pumpkin festival at Roger Williams State Park. This has been played up quite a bit on Rhode Island TV; apparently it's a beautiful display of hundreds and hundreds of incredibly-carved and lit pumpkins.
It was 5:30 PM when we pulled into the park, and the line was UNBELIEVABLE. Cars everywhere. When we finally found a space, we got in line to buy a ticket - and that line was even WORSE. It was cold, and opening time wasn't for another fifteen minutes, and Sebastian was being driven insane with excitement by all the kids running around. Eventually I had to let him run around himself, just to get it out of his system. He ran up to a big rock that some bigger kids were jumping onto, and struggled up onto it. Once he was there, he waved to Teri and shouted "Mumma! I DID IT!".
6 o'clock came and the line started moving. And oh, how I wish I had a camara. Because the line was just so incredibly long; I've been to concerts and events of all kinds, I saw the Who at Shea Stadium (on one of their supposed "final" tours), but I have never seen a line like this. It was three to four people across, and probably half a mile long. And this was only one of two.
We stood in line for over an hour, and Sebastian started acting up. At first he just kept demanding to see the "Pretty pumpkins!". But later he just wanted "DOWN!". Fortunately the women standing behind us were preschool teachers, and were captivated by Sebastian - so before I knew it (and with Teri's permission, because we don't actually let just anyone do this) he was being held and talked to by one of the teachers. He really took a shine to her.
Which was good, because we'd now been standing in line for NINETY MINUTES. But there had been some movement; we were now only about fifty feet from the entrance. Teri told me to go find out how much the tickets were.
I did, but in the process we discovered that after you bought your tickets there was a whole NEW line...which was even longer. In fact, they started announcing at that point that the waiting time after you got your tickets was currently an hour and fifteen minutes. The tickets were $10 per adult, by the way, and you can't buy them in advance.
It was clear that Sebastian couldn't possibly wait that long, particularly because - get this - strollers weren't allowed on the pumpkin paths. What was next - all visitors had to walk naked on hot coals? This was insane. Sebastian was very upset and asking for "go homey". So we went home.
And that was our Saturday.
how cute is that!
(Anonymous) 2003-10-21 09:55 am (UTC)(link)!!
flight of stairs