Grandma and Ithaca

Grandma Ross stayed with us from last Friday night to early this Thursday morning, and it was wonderful! We had a lot of fun playing together, and Grandma even met a bunch of Aidan's friends (Gus, Dakota, Yuxin, Grace, Jack, and Nate & Dillon) and their mommies! On Monday, we relaxed after a busy weekend and walked to some parks. Aidan got into a band-aid box and had a blast taking out all the bandaids with applause from Grandma, watching her put them back in again, and then taking them all out again.

On Tuesday, Mommy, Aidan and Grandma trained down to 112th street to meet Daddy for lunch. We ate Thai take-out beside the beautiful Fountain of Peace statue next to the St. John the Divine cathedral. Aidan thought the insides of his curry puffs were delicious with jasmine rice, but that didn't stop him from toddling happily around the statue.

On Wednesday, Mommy, Aidan and Grandma took a bus up to the Cloisters and enjoyed exploring it. Aidan was determined to eat the pebbles that grounded the potted plants in one of its courtyards, but we managed to distract him with big wooden benches to pound on, pink marble to pet, and big open art gallery rooms to explore. We met a father with a baby about Aidan's age who was also interestedly squeaking about the art exhibits, and he said that the babies must be having their own conversation about all the artwork!


Grandma left before dawn on Thursday, and we all missed her! We wish we could hang out together more often!!

After Grandma left, we had to get ready for a busy weekend. On Friday, Mommy, Daddy and Aidan drove up to Ithaca, NY through rain, lightning and thunder, and even fog! We made it safely, and Aidan slept for most of the trip, but it was a pretty exciting trip! On Saturday, we celebrated college friend Ari's wedding. Aidan was wonderful during the ceremony in Sage Chapel, and he was awed and excited to try ice-cream for the first time at the luncheon afterward! The ceremony was beautiful and it was fun for Mommy and Daddy to show Aidan Cornell - the place where we first met.

We stayed with college friends Jenn & Kirk while we were in Ithaca at their new house, and it was wonderful to see them. Aidan petted their chickens, sat on their giant horse Thunder, and had fun playing with Jenn and Kirk: he sat on Jenn's lap and let her read more pages of the "Over in the Ocean" book than usual, and he loved strumming and banging on the guitar and piano with Kirk. We're looking forward to seeing them again soon!

One last update: last week we forgot to note that Aidan now has more teeth! His top right one finally cut all the way through to complete the four front (two top, two bottom) teeth, the next one over on the bottom-left side is through, and the matching top and bottom others are on their way! Aidan is starting to refuse food that is too finely diced (after all, Mommy and Daddy don't eat their food like that), and his teeth are helping make this decision one that is okay.