Friendship at three

We hit the Detroit Zoo today with Calvin's friend, Noah, and the two of them interacting together was a large percentage of the animal behavior I enjoyed while there.  It was amazing to watch them participate in actual conversation, sharing, and cooperation.  They discussed (seriously) the difference between a camel, as Noah called it, and a Bactrian Camel, as Calvin called it; They shared food at lunch; they helped each other get drinks from the drinking fountain; and they did all of this without prompting or help.  I was incredibly proud of both of them.  Watching them grow up, Calvin and all of his friends, is such a bittersweet thing.

There are several more pictures of their wonderful fun at the zoo (remember when I used to take pictures of the four legged animals at the zoo?), and since my mom hates scrolling through the plethera of monthly pictures to get to the most recent ones, you can click here to go straight to the first picture in the series and scroll through from there.

Dazed in Dexter

Our adorable little village, population a bit over 3K, hosts a somewhat rowdy and completely underdone little festival every August.  They call this little festival Dexter Daze, and before you let your mind wander into the various meanings of that second word, let me just say that it is not a rehash of the cannabis festivus that takes place every spring in Ann Arbor.  Activities at Dexter Daze, actually, range from shopping at the "artist" tents (including everything from woodworking to Pampered Chef), entering one of several raffles (with prizes from gift cards to playhouses), enjoying live music (from Elvis outside the bakery to RFD Boys on the stage), and eating, eating, eating.  The Daze takes place over two, well, days, and we had every intention of walking down Friday night, then spending Saturday hiding from the heat in the shade of our own home, but it turned out that we just couldn't stay away.  We did walk down Friday night and enjoyed great shopping at the library's book sale, followed by brats and ice cream from the food vendors and a beautiful sunset set to the tunes of a really great blues band on stage.  It was so much fun that when boredom started to set in on Saturday morning we decided to walk back into town to eat at the BBQ chicken dinner, served at 11am at a downtown church and peruse the sales tents on the park lawn.  Strangely enough we found that several people in town recognized and "knew" us already, either me, since I run through town four mornings a week, or Calvin, since he is, apparently, a celebrity at the downtown bakery.  That feeling of small town camaraderie is one of the things we really love about our new home, and it is the reason we felt compelled to walk back downtown after naptime to enjoy the final evening of the Daze.  The music, thanks to the RFD Boys, was just as good the second night, and we were joined by my parents for pizza and drinks in the beer tent, followed by another round of ice cream (did I just admit to that?).  My only complaint was the lack of beverage selection–next year they need something other than Miller Light.

Flying in the face of conventional wisdom...

...perhaps the earth really is flat?

Adult entertainment

And no, it's not what you think, but when the kids get to the age where they can play happily by themselves, dinner parites again assume that purpse that is a relaxing and enjoyable part of adult social life. We enjoyed just such an evening with good friends tonight.  Just don't ask my parents about their first escapade into that arena, around thirty years ago, while my cousin and I were off playing happily together...at painting the bathroom with toothpaste. 

Thirty out of forty-eight as two

Don't spend too much time doing the math, I'll just tell you.  This weekend we spent thirty hours out of the weekend as just the two of us.  Nine of those hours were spent sleeping, about eight of them driving, and maybe two eating; another three or so were spent loafing, then five spent at a wedding reception and three spent at a zoo.  Don't bother with that math either, it adds up to thirty (but wouldn't it be funny if it didn't and I was just testing you? After all, not enough people leave us comments). Was it fun to be just two?  Yes.  Saturday morning we headed down into Ohio territory (not Columbus, thankfully, but west and north of Akron) to attend the wedding reception of a dear high school friend of mine.  Even the drive down was fun, being able to talk at random about whatever we wished without having to either censor (don't ask) or explain.  The party was fun, too, and small enough that we got to spend some time with the bride and groom themselves, as well as dance and enjoy some wine, since we partied and slept in the same hotel.  Back in our room, just for the fun of it, we tried to stay up late, but found ourselves nodding off in front of junk TV that, since we gave it up in our home over a year ago, should have felt like a guiltier pleasure than the chocolates and sodas we were sharing between us, but only ended up being a big disappoinment.  Sleeping in, however, was everything we knew it could be, and when we finally rolled out of bed at almost 8:30, we actually felt refreshed and ready for the day (what sarcasm?).  But after an enjoyable breakfast with the bride and groom and their families, we hit the road and high-tailed it to the Cleveland Zoo.  If you've been reading this blog since it's inception over four years ago (that math you might want to check), you'll already know that we have always been zoo goers.  For the rest of you I'll just say that long before we even thought of children we were seeking out zoos to enjoy.  We zooed in New Orleans, in San Diego, in LA, in Orlando, in DC, in, well, everywhere we've been.  What was great about Cleveland is that our Toledo membership got us in free.  Well, that and the fact that the Mexican wolves were amazingly active, one of the rhinos was singing (seriously), the beaver was building something, and we got to feed a sea lion.  This is why we loves zoos–they are always different–and getting another chance to enjoy one again without that short three-year-old attention span was fantastic.  Don't get me wrong–I love going on zoo trips with Calvin, and the teaching and sharing opportunities that such an event presents, but being just two for a while really was refreshing.  I'm sure it would be awful of me to admit that we were so busy trying to get as much enjoyment out of our thirty hours as possible that we didn't really miss our son, but even if that is true, we were happy to see him when we got home.  Though he was so relatively spoiled while we were gone that I'm not sure opposite was true.

And you'll notice that I got way behind on posting and have caught up by shamelessly pre-dating my posts to the days on which I drafted their content.  There are three total new posts, so scroll down to see the other two, and over 50 new photos in the August 2009 photo album.  I'll try to do better in the future.