Ian's Long Trip - Central NY

One goal of this trip was to visit Great-Grandma. This turned out to be easier than expected due to the decision to stay in Syracuse for a few days. On Tuesday we headed to Binghamton. Ian had a fun afternoon with older Grandma. He sang a lot while I played old hymns, he played with Grandma's fake pets (dog and cat), and he pretended that her exercise handweights were microphones and recorded a podcast. They read some classic books and poems together. Miraculously, we did not break anything while there, despite Ian's best efforts. Also we remembered to retrieve Grandma's walker from where he moved it before we left for home. Ian was particularly intrigued by this set of Russian doll style nested clowns that Grandma has:



In Syracuse on Wednesday we visited the zoo. Good old zoo. Most is the way I remember it, but there were some nice new exhibits -- one a large penguin exhibit and the other an outdoor primate area. Here is Ian pretending to be a penguin:



Grandma and Grandpa's backyard is at least as fascinating as the zoo. Ian picked (and ate) raspberries, threw peanuts to the blue jays, observed mealworms that were on their way to being chickadee food, and took everything in. Grandma and Grandpa grow a surprising amount of food in their standard suburban backyard. Here Ian is helping Grandpa sort ground cherries in preparation for jam making. Apparently he was actually quite helpful. Never heard of a ground cherry? Well, now you have. They make good jam.:



Here is Ian in the front yard checking out the pesticide-free sign. I'm sure this will end up in one of Grandma's presentations eventually. I hate feeling like the grass is contaminated with pesticides and not that healthy for children, so we're for pesticide-free yards. We have one at our house with our grassy postage stamp front lawn (much more traditional than the bird/bee/food supporting yard in Syracuse), and it's pretty amazingly lush without anything but water.



Here Ian is digging in the garden, looking for worms. Last time he was in Syracuse he was shoveling snow. As long as every season affords some digging type activity, he'll be happy: