The Small Family   

Note: This week’s blog was a joint effort from both of us. We’ve indicated who wrote each section, just to avoid confusion when referring to relatives and such! Also note that there are THREE photo albums this week. We took so many pictures that I had to split them up into three albums because our website limits how many pictures we can post in each album.

Cathy: Our trip to Buffalo and Philly got off to a great start—Theo was an absolute champ on the plane. We had a four-hour flight from Sacramento to Atlanta, and then a two-hour layover in Atlanta, followed by a two-hour flight to Buffalo. We brought a portable DVD player for the long flight to Atlanta…and as it turned out, we didn’t even need it! The plane had video screens built into the backs of the seats, and the Animal Planet channel was free. So, Theo took a nap for an hour of the flight, and then he was engrossed by watching the animals for much of the rest of the flight. Bliss! He got a chance to stretch his legs in Atlanta, and then it was time for the flight to Buffalo. We read several books and sang songs on that flight, and when Theo finally started to wear out and get a little grumpy, we popped in a Baby Einstein DVD, which kept him content for the rest of the flight. On both flights, he got lots of kudos from our fellow passengers on what a great traveler he is!

On Thursday, we drove out to East Arcade (waaaay out in the country!) to scatter some of my Grandma’s ashes on my Uncle Roger’s grave. (The rest are buried in Buffalo, next to my Grandpa.) After going out to the country, we headed back to Lackawanna (near South Buffalo, and notable to me for being where my Dad was born!) to spend the afternoon and have dinner with my cousin Heather, her fiancé Brian, and their daughter, Grace (age 3 ½). Theo had a ball playing with Grace’s toys (in particular a little red car that he fell in love with), and Grace was having a great time showing us her balloons (which she got in the hospital when she had her tonsils out two days before). Heather and Brian made us a dinner fit for kings—steaks on the grill, fresh corn on the cob, salt potatoes (my favorite!!), and a Greek pasta salad…oh, and fresh tomatoes from their envy-inducing tomato plants. (Chris had dismal luck with tomatoes last year, so he was quite jealous of the success they had with their tomato plants.)

After leaving Heather and Brian’s, we made our first stop at Anderson’s Frozen Custard, a treat I never miss when I come to Buffalo! And there, we made a critical error. We got Theo a small cup of sherbet, since he can’t have any of our custard (it’s a dairy base). And he loooooved the sherbet, so we let him eat about half of the small cup we got him. All was fine and dandy until we got back to the hotel and tried to put him to bed. We gave him a bath and put him down with his bop, which is normally pretty foolproof. But oh no…not that night! He finished his bop and was WILD! He kept squalling angrily in his crib, wanting to get out. And because we were in a hotel, we couldn’t exactly let him squall and bother people, so we had to get him out after a couple minutes and try to get him calmed down. Long story short, an hour and 40 minutes later, he FINALLY wound down enough to go to bed...after 45 minutes of repeating “uh oh” over and over to himself. Lesson learned: VERY LITTLE sherbet within an hour or two of bedtime!

Friday we had the morning free, so we took a long drive around South Buffalo, with my Mom showing us places she remembered from growing up (my great-grandmother’s old neighborhood and church, places they used to go, etc.) while Theo napped in the van. And then we headed out to see my Grandma’s grave. (She was buried a week ago.) The headstone looks perfect, and she’s buried with my Grandpa beneath a big, beautiful tree.

After that, we headed to my Aunt Laurel’s for lunch with Aunt Laurel, Aunt Norma (both my grandma’s sisters), Nancy (Aunt Laurel’s daughter), and Tom (Nancy’s son). It was so nice to see everyone, and Theo warmed up to everyone quickly and busily explored Aunt Laurel’s bowl of ornamental fruit on the coffee table. (Why he loved this fruit bowl so much, I couldn’t tell you. But it kept him quite happy!) He also got spoiled by Aunt Norma and Aunt Laurel, who got him a Thomas the Tank Engine plate, a shirt, and a book. Aunt Laurel’s apartment complex is a family complex with a really nice little playground, so Chris and I took Theo to play on that for a while, too. All that excitement wore him out enough that we were able to take another drive through Buffalo to get him another nap, this time visiting the Parkside neighborhood, my Aunt Laurel’s old neighborhood (where the church for the memorial service is), and various other parts of Buffalo. Dinner was Ted’s hot dogs (another Buffalo specialty I never miss!) and a second stop at Anderson’s. Mmmmm!

My Grandma’s memorial service was Saturday morning, and it was really nice. It was held at her church—the one she went to every Sunday until she moved away from Buffalo. Afterward, we had a brunch reception in the church hall, and it was neat to get to see all my relatives who I haven’t seen in years. Some of my Grandpa’s siblings are still living, and I was able to visit with them for a bit, as well as most of my family from my Mom’s side and some of my Grandma’s old friends, too. Theo, predictably, did not hold out through much of the service itself—but then, we certainly didn’t expect an active 17-month-old to sit quietly through a 45-minute memorial service! Luckily, the church had a playroom, so Chris snuck out with Theo, and they played in the playroom while the service was going on. Later, Grace joined Theo in the playroom, and they both seemed to enjoy themselves in there, although I think the true highlight for both of them was playing on the stage in the church hall!

After the service, my Mom, Chris, and I drove Theo out into the country so he’d get a nice nap…and indeed he did, while we enjoyed the scenery. We stopped to take a walk along a nice path in Williamsville (where my Grandma lived in her later years and where my Aunt Norma still lives), and alas, I ended up covered in poop.

How did this happen, you might ask? Let’s just say that Theo’s digestive tract was NOT in working order for the entire trip. Yep, nine straight days of ick...sometimes up to five times a day. Our best guess as to the culprit is the change in water (used in his juice cup and also to make his bops). Poor kid was like a toxic waste dump, I must say. And so, on the trail, we had probably our eighth diaper blowout in three days. (Disposable diapers do NOT hold blowouts as well as cloth diapers, I have to say!) And I didn’t realize he’d gotten sick again, so I picked him up, turned around, and realized that the front of my black dress was covered in sticky, foul-smelling baby waste. Ewwwwww. It was about a mile walk back to the car, so I wiped off the goo as best I could, cleaned up Theo, and we wandered back to the car with me covered in poo. Not exactly the highlight of the trip, I must say...but it got a bit worse.

We then headed over to my cousin Nancy’s house for a BBQ. My cousin Peter and his family were over as well, so I was looking forward to a relaxing evening with them all. Theo, however, had other ideas. He began the evening by repeatedly climbing the stairs to their above-ground pool. Because ANY time Theo sees a pool, he’s drawn to it like a moth to a flame. I swear it took him less than five minutes to notice it, and he spent the next hour repeatedly walking over to it and starting to climb the steps to get in. (Barricade the steps, you say? Nice try! Nancy put up a barricade, and Theo dismantled it and climbed the steps within 30 seconds or so. Then Dale (Nancy’s husband) put one up, but Theo found a way around that, too. I believe we succeeded in foiling him only after the third barricade attempt. Is it any wonder that we have Theo in float classes? That kid is crazy about pools!)

But Theo then found something else fun to play with—a birdbath! And he was having a blast splashing around in it, making an utter mess. And then he saw a yellow jacket. He pointed at it. I thought it flew away. He squatted down to reach for something, and in the split second it took me to think, “Uh oh, what if the yellow jacket is still there?” he had picked up the darn bee between his thumb and forefinger! How did he do this? It was like Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid, catching the fly with his chopsticks! HOW does my son have the physical dexterity to pick up a yellow jacket? But he did…and he paid the price. It stung him, and I felt SO bad for not realizing a half second sooner what was going on.

Then came about 45 minutes of screaming and crying, while I tried to get through to the Kaiser advice nurse to confirm what dosage of Benadryl we should give him. My cousin Cassie ran over to the store to buy Benadryl for us (thank you, Cassie!), and we finally got Theo calmed down after many tears, some Benadryl, some topical ointment, and the real life-saver, a frozen lemonade (courtesy of my cousin Nancy, who sagely recognized that tasty frozen sweets can bring a smile to any kid’s face!). Theo was a little off for the rest of the evening, so he was periodically fussy and crabby, but once the shock of the bee sting wore off, we were able to enjoy our visit with the family. 

Sunday was our day to drive to Philly, but before leaving Buffalo, we had to indulge in one last regional favorite—a Beef on Weck (a.k.a. roast beef sandwich on kimmelweck roll, which is a roll crusted with caraway seeds and pretzel salt) at Schwabl’s. My parents used to go on dates to Schwabl’s—it’s been around for more than 100 years! In an odd coincidence, it was also just (within the last few weeks) featured on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations show on the Travel Channel. So, we drove out to East Aurora (where my Dad grew up), visited the Roycroft (where my parents had their wedding breakfast), saw my Dad’s childhood home, and then headed to Schwabl’s for lunch. The Beef on Weck and German potato salad were as delicious as I remembered, and Theo enjoyed the French fries (surprise, surprise). We left Schwabl’s at 2:30 and decided we’d just drive to Ithaca (of Cornell University fame) and stay the night there, since we got a late start. We drove along Seneca Lake, one of the Finger Lakes, and it was gorgeous. But along the way, we decided, “What the heck—let’s just keep going to Philly.” Our hotel room was already paid for, and Theo was napping in the car, so we pressed on. We actually stopped in two places with some personal interest—first for a leg-stretching break in Horseheads, New York, where Chris and I stayed for three nights on our first trip to New York four years ago when I presented at a Mark Twain conference in nearby Elmira, and then for food and gas in Johnson City, where my sister was born—it’s in the southern part of the state, right near the Pennsylvania state line. Theo slept almost the entire rest of the three-hour drive down the Pennsylvania Turnpike, missing the fleeting views of  Scranton and Wilkes Barre. We arrived in Norristown (outside Philly) at 11:30pm, tired but relieved to be at our hotel.

Chris: On Monday, we started out the day driving around the Valley Forge area a little bit—I pointed out some of the landmarks I could remember offhand in Phoenixville—and stopped to let Theo wander around a park for a while. We intended to go to central Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, etc., but Theo fell asleep on the way, so we decided to keep driving to Delaware instead. We stopped in Wilmington for lunch—the city wasn’t overly impressive to us, but we did manage a really nice seafood lunch along the riverfront (if you could ignore the slightly funky aroma from the river). To give you an idea about Wilmington, its nickname is apparently the “Chemical Capital of the U.S.,” and it is known as being the first city in the country to be under constant 24-hour police surveillance, thanks to the skyrocketing crime rate. Seriously, it probably has its nice parts, but we just didn’t really see any of them—what we saw was on the depressing side.

After lunch, we drove into New Jersey for a bit. Why, you ask? The three of us have a goal to visit all 50 states. (Well, Theo doesn’t know that’s his goal, but he’ll come around to it!) I’m up to 26 states, I think, and Cath is upwards of 35. Even Theo is now up to a pretty impressive 13 (CA, OR, WA, NV, TX, CO, WY, NE, GA, NY, PA, DE, and NJ)—about one every six weeks on average!

After New Jersey, we headed back to Valley Forge and a long walk around the King of Prussia Mall, the largest mall on the east coast (though curiously lacking in play areas). Dinner that night was an adventure given that it was Labor Day (almost nothing was open when we got back to Norristown…KFC was about it), though we did pick up a few boxes of TastyKakes at the grocery store. If you haven’t ever tried TastyKakes, they’re pretty well known back east, especially the KandyKakes, which are white cakes covered with peanut butter and chocolate. Have to say, though—we were even fonder of the dark chocolate–covered coconut cakes they brought out for Halloween!

Tuesday, we headed back to downtown Philly, after stopping at George Washington Cemetery in Plymouth Meeting to see where my Grandmom Dot, Grandpa Ted, and Uncle Gary (my dad’s younger brother and my middle-name-sake, who passed away as a child) are buried. I hadn’t been there since I was about 8, but wanted to go this time because we had to miss Grandmom Dot’s service last year when Theo was only about a month old. We managed to stumble on a couple other relatives while there, too, including my dad’s great-uncle Walter Levering.

Downtown Philly I’ve been to a few times with my family, but never with Cath or Theo, so it was really fun showing them around. The central city has lots of beautiful old brick buildings and lots of history. Busy, but not overwhelming—and there were some quiet residential streets that were just really wonderful places to stroll, with big, old trees shading the streets. Theo isn’t much for museums yet, so we went through the Liberty Bell pavilion quickly, but we were glad to see it (and I got to tell Theo about the time I touched the Bell, back when they let you do that). We walked by Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, but didn’t go on the tour. Afterward, we took a walk up Market Street and found a great place for lunch—the Reading Terminal Market, which has something like 50 specialty food vendors under one roof. We opted for Philly cheesesteaks, naturally (which were as good as advertised—Cath opted for mushrooms and cheese sauce, while I went for plain with provolone), plus some cookies from a local bakery.

After that, Theo was in need of a nap, so on the advice of Cath’s friend Janeane, we drove up to Princeton, NJ. We have a goal of visiting all the Ivy League campuses someday (Princeton made four), plus we like visiting college towns—they normally have neat little downtowns good for strolling, and Princeton was no exception. We found a cool playground on the campus grounds for Theo, then walked the streets after he had a chance to burn off some energy. Dinner was at a small pizzeria, which has the most interesting garlic bread either of us had ever seen (a roll with a ton of minced garlic, but almost no butter), and we had cupcakes for dessert. Of course, we also had to try a coffeehouse Janeane had recommended, which did not disappoint.

Wednesday, we met up with my dad’s Uncle Russ and Aunt Bettie (not to be confused with his Aunt Betty from Florida), and we had a wonderful time visiting the Amish country west of the Valley Forge area. We went to the Shady Maple, a well-known giant smorgasbord that had more food than Cath says she’s ever seen in one place. Cath kept with her tradition of trying regional foods when we visit places, which in this case was dried corn and scrapple. (I’ve had scrapple a few times, but not in quite a while.) Dried corn is sort of like creamed corn, and scrapple is pretty much pig scraps and cornmeal (hence, “scrapple”) formed into a patty and fried. Much better than it sounds—a little like Spam. Uncle Russ directed us down a whole bunch of back roads on the way out and back, and Aunt Bettie pointed out more family-specific points of interest than I think I can ever remember (including a few places my dad lived as a kid).

Theo did great all day, playing peek-a-boo with Aunt Bettie all the way back to Lansdale, though we did have another diaper adventure at the mall after we got back to Norristown. (We miss our cloth diapers when we travel—it may be a pain to wash them, but they hold up so much better than disposables!) After the huge lunch, we opted for a late dinner—a hoagie from Lee’s. My dad had been telling us for months that we needed to have a hoagie, which is an east-coast sub sandwich, and we wondered what made it any different than what you’d find out here. Admittedly, I’ve had them before, but couldn’t remember them being anything extraordinary. Well, call us both converts—a hoagie is a very good sandwich indeed, especially the Italian version! It was the usual Italian meats on a good roll, but what makes it is the oil, vinegar, oregano, and sweet peppers (or hot peppers, if you want them).

Cathy: Thursday we went to a wonderful museum called the Please Touch Museum in downtown Philly. What a fantastic place—I wish we had something like it in Sacramento! It’s a huge museum (in the old Memorial Hall)—two stories of interactive exhibits for children, and they can touch everything! It was heaven for Theo, who loves to explore and touch everything in sight. They have a lot of areas dedicated to toddlers ages three and younger, but Theo didn’t seem to have much interest in those…rather, he preferred the older-kid areas, which were also suitable for young children. In particular, he loved the transportation exhibit, which featured cars and trucks that kids could climb in and “drive,” a bus they could drive or ride in, and even a backhoe they could climb on and operate! He was also hilarious in the supermarket exhibit, which has shelves and shelves of aisles stocked with food and other groceries, and kids can push around small shopping carts and shop, just like mommy and daddy do. (They can even work the cash registers.) His other favorite area was the music area, which had lots of xylophones, bells, and other percussion instruments…and his favorite, a small piano, just his size, which he played with great vigor and passion a la Jerry Lee Lewis.

It’s neat to see his personality and interests developing. At the Please Touch Museum, he enjoyed the space, river/waterway, Alice in Wonderland, doctor’s office, and house/front yard exhibits, too…but it was very clear that his favorites were the vehicle, construction, and musical instrument exhibits. He kept going back to those, even if he had to toddler-stagger all the way across the giant museum to get to them! It was great to just be able to put him down and let him roam, knowing that there was absolutely nothing he couldn’t touch. Two hours of pure bliss for Theo…and for his mama and daddy!

He’s actually doing really well at sharing, too, which I know is VERY hard for a child of his age to understand. Obviously it takes some guidance, but he does it, which pleases us. (We don’t ever want to be the parents of the bully kid who won’t share, so we figure we might as well start helping him learn to share early on.)

Chris: After the Please Touch Museum, we went over to see my dad’s cousin Mike and his wife Joyce in Phoenixville. We stayed at Mike and Joyce’s house quite often when I was young, and it was really fun to see Theo wandering up the same stairs I did at his age. Mike and Joyce have four grandsons and lots of fun toys and books, which Theo thought was great fun. For lunch, Mike gave us a few options, so we of course opted for hoagies, and they were just as good as the ones the previous night! After lunch, we walked over to visit with Mike’s mom, my dad’s Aunt Florence (Grandmom Dot’s older sister), who lives around the block, for about a half-hour, then drove to see some houses in Oaks where my relatives lived, including a house my great-great-grandparents owned in Oaks and the one next door, where Grandmom Dot was born, which may not be standing too much longer if a local developer has his way. The highlight of the afternoon for Cath was when Theo came toddling across Aunt Florence’s yard with Joyce on his heels, walked up the porch steps, and came over to Cath with a tiny flower clutched in his sweaty little hand, which he proudly presented to her. A tear was shed by his touched mama!

Later, Mike and Joyce’s daughter, Karen, came over to babysit Theo for a couple hours while the four of us went to dinner at a local brewpub. Ah, dinner with adults, with no one throwing Cheerios and demanding bits of bread every three seconds—heaven! Theo had fun with Karen, too—he had no qualms about spending a couple hours with the nice lady he hadn’t ever met before—they were fast friends. It’s funny how separation anxiety can come and go, although Karen’s certainly a pro with boys, given that she has two of her own (and remembers me as a toddler).

Friday finally brought the wind and rain that had been forecast all week, so we were left with very few options for things to do. We decided to go back to the Please Touch Museum, then take Mike and Joyce up on an offer to come over for dinner afterward. Theo seemed enjoy the museum even more the second time around. He gravitated toward the vehicle, construction, and musical instrument displays, but he did visit the other areas as well. It wore him out so much that he fell asleep in the van before we even left the parking lot, so we took a nice, long, leisurely drive back to Phoenixville, where we went over to Mike and Joyce’s house for a homemade spaghetti and meatballs dinner (something no one should ever turn down). Theo woke up 10 minutes before we got there, so he was well-rested and happy to once again play with their toys and watch some selections from Mike’s Baby Einstein DVD library while we all ate spaghetti and had dessert and coffee.

On Saturday, our trip back started a little ominously, with our usually reliable GPS misdirecting us several times as we tried to find a gas station near the airport, and then us waiting through long lines at the ticket counter and security, and then being split up in our seat assignments on the flight to Denver (remedied by a very nice flight attendant and fellow passengers). Thankfully, though, the rest of the trip was a breeze, and we made it home in time to spend some time at a block party our neighbors had organized. Theo toddled around with the other kids for a good two hours before we headed in to give him his first homemade meal in a week and a much-needed good night of sleep.

Cathy: I think the best overall part of this trip was seeing how happy Theo was. He met a LOT of new people, which can be overwhelming for a kid his age sometimes, but he was an absolute trooper through all of it. The only time he really got upset the entire trip was when he got stung by the yellow jacket…and I think that was pretty justified, as I’d be mad as a hornet if I got stung, too! Overall, he had a ball exploring all these new places and meeting people, and it was a real delight to spend 10 days with him without the pressures of housework or editing work. At home, we spend a lot of time with Theo, and I do think we manage to get a lot of quality time with him…but obviously the drudgery of everyday life creeps in, and with me working at home, there’s always that looming overhead. When we travel, it’s ten days of just enjoying our son and our families and friends and just having fun…can’t ask for anything better than that! And the time we spent allowed us to witness 10 days of language explosion, in which Theo started saying “juice,” “Widge” (his nickname from when he was in utero and we called him Pigwidgeon), “uh oh,” “baby,” “down,” “bear,” and “duck.” Our little baby is growing up into a fun little boy for sure!

Thanks to everyone in Buffalo and Philly for helping to make our trip a great one. We’ll be back—count on it!

Please note: Our website seems to have mysteriously decided to delete the blog posts from before this one. Be on the lookout for a format change next week. I think I've figured out a way to keep this from happening again.