A walk in the park with Tom

Janice has jury duty, and Tom went to VA to babysit.  I decided to drive to Arlington to have lunch with Tom at Mark's Dock House.  We had some dim sum.  Not bad!  Then we did a nice shopping excursion to the Whole Food.  Tom got three out of the four items Janice asked him to buy.  The shop was temporarily out of arrow root powder.  I introduced two breakfast cereals I like with good fiber and low sugar.  I was impressed that Tom decided to also buy them to try.  My big brother listened to me!  I am so delighted and consider that quite an achievement.  Respect is earned.  And indeed it needs to be earned for someone who is much younger than the big brother.  We then took an one hour a walk at the nearby park before heading back.  We were so good with time that I did not have to fight the afternoon rush hour.  There were some birds flying against the light blue sky under a shinning sun.  I appreciate and am grateful for the feeling of peace and joy driving home.

Dark Hollow Fall Hiking

Following the horseback riding on Saturday, we drove to the Shenandoah National Park.  The fog and rain provided a somewhat different mood for us.  The Dark Hollow Fall is a Fall most close to the road, right adjacent to the Big Meadow visitor's center.  The round trip was only 1.7 miles.  We had a good time.

Horseback riding in Stouton

Florence and Rosy are very into this "Groupon" thing, and got a horseback riding deal for this past Saturday. So the three of us traveled from Sandy Spring on Friday night, and arrived Stouton after 3.5 hours drive.  Saturday morning we drove to the horse farm and rode pleasantly on the horseback for about 3 hours.  Lunch was included (a sandwich, some potato chips, a trail mix, a sneaker bar, and a bottle of water; a small apple was meant to be shared with ones horse).  The horses were quite well behaved ones.  The owner apparently are good to their animals - 20 horses, 2 dogs, and 3 cats).  The trail dog named Enepe (American Indian name for brave) was ultra friendly.  He snuggled tightly with Vicki (from Taiwan) and Vivian (from Hong Kong) in the truck on the way back and forth from the farm to the trail.  And he led the horses when we were on the trail.  Vicki, Vivian, Yu Mou (from Shangdong), and Ethan (born in Vietnam, and grown up in US) were riders we met on this event.  They were friends from the International Group on campus and came as a group.   They are a young group and reminded me of some good old days of past years.

We also saw some beautiful color change of the very early fall.

"Diamond" is the name of the horse I rode on:

Tearing up paper towel is sheer fun

While Joshua seriously studied his toys, he simply enjoyed tearing up paper towel with sheer delight.  I used a piece of paper towel to wipe his mouth, then placed it on the piano.  He is at the height that he can reach the piano cover, and he picked-up the paper towel.  WOW!  He started to tear it apart, and then uttered a giggle with sheer delight when he listened to the tearing sound.  That certainly fascinated me too.  So I giggled with him.  That action seemed to qualified me as his buddy (or co-conspirator) in his mind.  He gave me such wonderful smiles, later he took a nap on me comfortably.  He woke up without looking at me as if I were a stranger.  I think he felt that he can now confined in me after he and I have gone through the tearing up paper towel adventure together.

Yes, Grand Yau Yau, we are in this together!

Ya, I still remember you as my paper towel pal after my nap!  and you surely deserve a big smile from me, buddy!

Toys are meant to be figured out

Last Friday I went babysitting Joshua.  His Mom warned me that he is not in a good mood during the week due to his teething.  So I tried to play his toys with him.    He definitely have very good motor skills.  He pounded and grabed the purple mushroom to make it sound noises.  he tried to figure out what made the little musicin turn around.  The musicin is turned on by pushing a small button in front of him.  joshua has not found out that trick yet.  He turned the toy around and checked the backside of the toy and could not find anything.  I remember that Bowtie used to be facinated by my printer.  He would jump to look at the backside of the printer and try to find out what made the printer spit out papers.   It was serious business.  Joshua was very serious when he played and examined the toys.  He was STUDYING them! From the picture, you can see that he stands and walks around the table very well by himself.

Cousins are dandy

We celebrated David's 4th birthday at his Mom and Dad's house on Sunday a week ago.  A pleasant surprise was that Jennifer and Doug also came to the party.  They came to the DC area for a funeral of a friends and was able to join the birthday party.  Elizabeth served spaghetti and meat balls (David's favorite).  It was delicious!  The four kids plus the the two big "kids" (Jennifer and Doug) played well together.  It certainly was delightful to watch them. 

Putt Putt

When I was in Lewes last month, I accompanied Janice to take Meghan and Alexander to Putt Putt and the Fun Land.  I guess it is human nature that we always want to win.  Not winning sometimes brings unhappiness.  Oh well.  I know it certainly was a learning process for me to develop appreciation of what is more important in life, and how to adjust my attitude dealing with losing.

Yakima

Last night was the Chinese Moon Festival.  The moon illuminated its quiet beauty hanging high.  When we had the family reunion at Ed's place in July, we also saw the full moon from his deck.  We also saw a wonderful double rainbow from his deck.  As I grow older, I no longer remember the time, place, and various details from event to event.  But I just remembered the "moments" when my heart was moved.  The walk along the Cowiche Canyon was delightful.  I remember the pleasure of surprise when I saw the backside of Columbine, and the excitement of being able (or unable) to catch a shot of those interesting quails.