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Ipods are for sharing...


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IT STARTS

The grandparent’s gonna-miss-that-boy countdown has begun. Today, Mary comes in from a morning with the ducks and says to me: “This was the last time Sam and I fed the ducks.” Then we hold each other tight for a bit. We’re hopeless. I wonder if Sam is starting to notice. Yeah, right.

We’re also becoming more and more convinced that the trip is a good idea, much to my surprise and consternation. Ducks notwithstanding, it will be an extraordinary opportunity for Sam to hear different voices, feel different textures, and grow from a precocious 2.25 yr old boy to a wise-soul 3.25yrs. Wish we could be there to see that happen, but we’ve seen so much in the past two years that our hearts will be full for a long long time.

Or so I like to think.



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But back to the ducks: Sam walked the entire distance (about a mile and a half), clutching his bag of bread. The ducks cluster around the Inwood bays (inpouchings from the Harlem River and the Hudson), and Sam likes to stalk them for a bit before they discover his bread-crumb wealth. The squirrels like to get into the act as well. We are a bit careful these days: it seems that a child was bitten by a squirrel recently. And keeping the pigeons away is a real problem. Rats in the sky, I call them. Today Mary said that a pigeon literally swooped in and grabbed a piece of bread right out of Sam’s hand. Damn. If I’d been there I might have…

Paul and Sonja will protect him. And keep him safe.

Hope there are fewer pigeons in Zagreb.

Probably not.

SAM AND THE CRANBERRIES



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I’ve mentioned this inumerable times, I know, but it’s still so much fun for Sam to have a grandma who is also and early childhood specialist. Because of her background, training, and many years of experience, Mary has Sam doing some remarkable (and visually beautiful) things. Here is an example:

Mary lays out a blue plastic dropcloth, and on it puts a large bowl filled with water and cranberries. Why?

Sam can practice ladling/scooping.

He can hide and reveal to himself various body parts:
Elbow
Arm (And feels the textures of the floating cranberries)
Foot
And he can put cranberries between his toes.

When was the last time you got to put cranberries between your toes?

I thought so.

Finally:
Who’s eyes are bigger, more pentetrating, more beautiful?



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