The Headless Horseman

On Saturday, we went to watch a showing of The Headless Horseman put on by a local puppetry troupe called The Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers. They are not only great people, but they are really talented at puppeteering. We watch their shows every year at Christmas and Halloween. It was a real treat to be able to take Liam to his first puppet show. He was entranced throughout most of the show. He fell asleep for the last fifteen minutes. Other than that, he was up and watching carefully to the action on the stage. Watching him soak up new events is such a treat. One of the best parts of going to these shows is to listen to the children in the audience as they laugh and clap during the show. The joy that these puppets bring to small children is well worth the price of admission. I look forward to the days when Liam is a bit older and can give a big belly laugh to the puppets antics.
After the show, we went up to see the puppets first hand. Liam was pretty enthralled with them. It makes me wonder what goes on in his head. How does a little mind even begin to sort through and make sense of a puppet?

Sunday was another gorgeous fall day. We enjoyed a very relaxing morning and then set off to find a letterbox. No, this does not mean that we were shopping for a new mailbox for our house. This does mean that we were searching for what is known as a letterbox. Letterboxing is a fun activity, which we have just recently learned about. It is much like a treasure hunt. People all over the United States and England who are into Letterboxing hide little containers, which hold a stamp and minature notepad. Then they post clues as to where these containers are hid. Then fellow Letterboxers follow the clues to the box. Usually, Letterboxers carry with them their own stamp pad, stamp and notebook. Once you find a Letterbox you stamp your stamp into the logbook and then take the Letterboxes stamp and stamp your notebook. The notebook from the hidden container acts as a logbook to see where fellow Letterboxers are from.

The Letterbox we found was hidden at the Indian Point Blagden Nature Conservancy right here on MDI. It was well hidden and contained stamps from people all over the United States. This is only the second Letterbox Liam and I have found and the first for Mike. I have a feeling that as Liam grows older this could turn into a fun family activity. It appears to be the kind of thing that you could do no matter where you went in the US.

After finding the Letterbox, we continued down the trail and landed at the ocean. We enjoyed walking on the beach and then took a small fire road back up to the car. On our way up the road, Mike spotted a little cemetery set back in the woods. As most of you know, I have a love of cemeteries. Finding one hidden in the woods is pretty exciting to me. We stopped to check it out. What we found was pretty interesting. There seemed to be two main families represented in the cemetery. It appeared that both families lost many of their children in 1863. Our guess is that some sort of epidemic swept through the island at that time. I hope to have time to research that theory. Finding the cemetery added even more fun to our day. I have very fond memories of going on cemetery hikes with my dad when I was a kid. He taught me so much on those hikes and started a love for history and genealogy that I carry with me today. I hope to be able to pass on the same to Liam as we continue to explore cemeteries together.

Pumpkins & Cranberries

Last weekend we did two very fall like activities. We got Liam his first pumpkin and we went cranberry picking.
I am a nut for holidays. Because I am a nut for holidays I find it very exciting that with Halloween we are starting in on what I feel is the beginning of the holiday season. To me this starts with buying a pumpkin and ends when you take down your Christmas decorations. It is so easy to see the ghosts of Christmas future. A little Liam in footed pajamas sleeping under a lit up Christmas tree. I love the image that brings to mind. Needless to say, I couldn't wait for us to go pick out pumpkins. Of course this activity was really for my benefit and not Liam's. Mike and I have very different feelings towards getting holiday decorations. I am of the sort that is ready to get our pumpkins as soon as I see the first ones being sold at a roadside stand. I also always want to pull out Christmas decorations and buy a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Not Mike. He likes to wait. I believe that he might like the anticipation of waiting. It will be interesting to see how having Liam helps us to create our own holiday traditions.

With pumpkins purchased, we decided to try a new fall activity. We have heard for years that there is an area on the island to harvest cranberries. So, we put the canoe on the jeep and headed out to find them. The weather was quintessential fall weather. Just the perfect amount of chill in the air. The sky was blue and made the perfect backdrop for the colorful leaves. We paddled for a bit and took a small tributary towards our cranberries. We had been told the general area in which to find the cranberries. True to the directions given, we found the berries on low bushes not far from the shores of the creek. Mike and I both tried to pick them at first but Liam was not impressed with being held in the front pack while I was bent over picking cranberries. So, Mike took a turn sitting with Liam as I searched for the berries and then we switched jobs. It was harder work than we anticipated but it was also fun. It was almost like a mini treasure hunt trying to search through the bushes. Hopefully, we will be rewarded for all of our hard work with a cranberry tart that Mike plans to make.

First Food

As Mike said, Liam has been started on rice cereal. He seems to really enjoy the act of eating. It cracks him up to try to grab the spoon and help to put in his mouth. The funny part is that when he nurses he has to push his tongue out. This is exactly opposite of what needs to happen when he eats. This being the case, he ends up pushing much of the cereal out with his tongue. He was starting to get the hang of it last night. Connie, Liam's babysitter, reported a more contented kid yesterday. We are guessing that having a belly that is full is a major plus.

It has been hard getting back to work. Having to be away from him for so long is sad. He seems to be adjusting just fine though. The lack of sleep is starting to get to me though. It figures that the week before I started back was the week he decided not to sleep as well. It is difficult to go from him only waking up once during the night to waking up multiple times.

Even with being tired and having to juggle going back to work. I couldn't be more thrilled with the little guy. He seems to learn new things every day.

The pictures for today are of him eating. I also added in a funny picture that was taken this past weekend. Liam makes a pretty funny mad face!

Love those three day weekends

Another fantastic three-day weekend, and was it ever a beauty. Warm and blue skies and turning leaves. A perfect autumn weekend in Maine. As you can see, my parents visited for the weekend, making the 11 hour drive from Rochester. We managed to squeeze in a lot of activity, including practical stuff (insulating the new bathroom, installing the dishwasher (hooray!)), and fun stuff too. We tried to get into the park every day. On Saturday, we hiked the Witch Hole Pond Loop, Saturday it was Day Mountain (a beauty neither Tara nor I had done), and Sunday was a seaside hike from Otter Point to Thunder Hole. The tide was high so Thunder Hole wasn't exactly thundering. But that didn't stop the bus throngs from gathering at the top of the Thunderhole walk-down - digital cameras ready - to snap that perfect shot of splashing seawater. It was a rather hilarious sight.

In less positive news, Liam has not been sleeping all that well of late. It seems like he is up every hour, crying for food. Tara had been feeding him, but we decided today to get him started on solid food a little early - rice cereal, and he seemed to like it. Milk alone didn't seem to be satiating him, and maybe a little bit of rice cereal will stick to the ribs and allow him to sleep. Will have to post pics of the first solid food tomorrow. I take it for granted that he only knows how to eat one way - suction. This whole chewing thing is more like swishing the cereal arounnd in his mouth, and kind of swallowing half (or hiding it in the crease of their neck). T will post some pictures tomorrow.

Camping at Baxter

This past weekend we went on what we thought was going to be a canoe camping trip. We decided that we would leave early so that we could get up to Baxter State Park early. We wanted to make sure that we had plenty of time to paddle. Well, we set off on time but we had quite a time trying to find the best place to paddle and camp. Once we got near Baxter we decided we would try a lake right out of the park. We traveled down an access road in an attempt to get to what sounded like a beautiful lake. The lake might have turned out to be gorgeous but we weren't able to get to it due to the state of the access road. It took a good hour to travel just over 2 miles and we still had 2 miles left to travel. So, we headed up to the access gate for Baxter. We arrived to find out that the only campsites available were 17 miles into the park. Baxter is a very pristine park. It has only one narrow dirt road that winds though the park. The speed limit on said road is 20 mph. Needless to say it took us awhile to get to our campsite. Once we finally arrived we set up camp and then took a short hike. It started to get dark so we headed back to our campsite and got there just before total nightfall.
As always Liam was such a trooper. I swear he sleeps better in a tent then in our house. I woke him up once during the night to eat otherwise I think he would have slept the entire night without waking.

The next morning we had a nice breakfast then packed up our campsite. We decided to drive all the way up to the north gate in order to check on another possible camping spot for future trips. The drive was amazing. The fall colors were so bold. It was well worth the drive to see them. We stopped along our way to take a short hike down to a river to eat lunch. We put Liam down on some rocks and he slept for a good 45 minutes with the sound of the river in his ears. Again, he seems to like napping on rocks better then in his Pack-n-Play. Crazy kid.

Even with our lack of canoeing and the insanely long car trip on the first day, we had a great trip. I can't get enough of watching Liam soak up his time outdoors. He is a true nature lover.