Still More Monkeyshines

Thanks to the suggestion of a loyal reader, I have discovered the wonderful world of disposable digital photography. I purchased a disposable digital camera at Riteaid Friday evening and shot all 25 pictures during Saturday’s visit with the kids. Unfortunately, when I took the camera back to Riteaid that evening, the worker-bee there said that they had to send it out to be “developed,” and that I would not have the disk and prints until Thursday evening. It seems a bit extreme, but this is just a grand experiment anyway, check back to see what we get!

Onward with monkeyshines: This weekend’s visit was especially nice. Daddy rode his bike up to the Sensory Gym, after his eye appointment and met the gang there. Zachy was a bit sad upon arrival, because he wanted to go to the park instead of putting in the hard work at the gym. Daddy told him that he could ride the bike back to lunch if he did his work and the tears soon dried. While Zach did his therapy, Miranda, Mommy and Daddy went to Dunkin Doughnuts for refreshments and Miranda’s obligatory muffin on a stick. While there, Miss Miranda discovered the miracle of poppy seeds which it turns out, she liked very much.

Since Saturday turned out to be much sunnier and warmer than predicted, Miss Miranda decided that going to the park would be a nice way of passing time until big brother Zach was done. We headed to the park by the William O’Connor School, at the bottom of 95th Street. Miranda enjoyed having Daddy push her on the swings for a time, then headed over to the big-girl slide. She did some conventional siding then decided that it would be fun to try going down on her belly. This proved to be great fun and occupied us for quite some time. Miss Miranda also discovered a pigeon feather, while looking at the leaves on the ground.

After an hour, it was time to go collect our little guy, so we said a fond farewell to the park and went back to the gym. Luz, Zach’s therapist gave an outstanding report on the session, saying that Zach’s attention is “just blossoming.” This made Daddy and Mommy very happy and very proud. We packed up the stroller, put Zach on Daddy’s bicycle and rolled on over to Daddy’s house for lunch. Zach really enjoyed being up high on Daddy’s bike and did a great job of holding on to the handlebars (though we did have to stop once to get our fire truck in hand).

When we got to Daddy’s house, Zach went straight up the stairs and right to the correct apartment (he knows where Daddy lives). We all went inside and commenced playing. This week the magnetic numbers were of interest, as well as domino throwing. Miranda had fun with the candycorn playing cards from Aunt Susie and playing with her weebles and schoolhouse. We read some books, played with our toys and even got out the tunnels and tents after Miss Miranda asked for them. Daddy made everything-free rice pasta with organic sauce for lunch. We also had sweet peas, strawberries, blackberries and bananas. Miss Miranda didn’t eat much, but Zach did a great job on a heaping bowl of pasta, using his fork instead of his hands. We ate buffet style because we were watching Pinky Dinky Doo on Noggin. Miss Miranda had a bottle of juice on the couch and eventually crashed into a nice afternoon nap.

Since it was still such a nice day out, and since Zach hadn’t been able to go to the park earlier, we decided to take a trip down to the park at 79th Street and Shore Road. Zach had a great time speed sliding and swinging on the swings. At about 4:30 it was finally time to head for home, so with Miranda still sleeping in the stroller and Zachy doing a big-boy walk, holding Daddy’s hand, we strolled back up to Ridge Blvd. Where we parted ways, looking forward, as always, to our next installment of Monkeyshines.