Tuesday, March 30, 2010

March outings

Mariah at the Lab of O We had a hard start to the new year, and by the end of February I was feeling raw with grief. So in March we tried extra hard to get out of the house and go on some outings to get our minds off of things.

In early March, Mariah accompanied us to Cornell's Lab of Ornithology. It is always a nice place to go, no matter the season. The snow was still pretty deep in early March: it comes up to the seat level of the wooden bench. But on this day the weather was mild, and it felt good to be out in the fresh air.

The lab had an exhibit of paintings featuring endangered birds, and one of the paintings (the small blue heron) was by Oliver's former physical therapist.

Inside the Lab of Ornithology Paintings at the Lab of O

The Lab of Ornithology


We also made a trip to our excellent local library. It was Oliver's first trip to a library. He got his very own library card, and we checked out an assortment of books and music CDs for him. Oliver was momentarily distracted by some books on dinosaurs, but over all he was not very impressed. Hopefully he'll have more fun next time.

First time at the Library First time at the Library, part 2


We've been reading to Oliver about dinosaurs lately. One of his favorite words right now is "paleontologist." So we thought it would be fun to go to the nearby Museum of the Earth. We elicited a few smiles from him, but he was a bit too young for most of it.


Meeting the dinosaurs T-Rex skull

Mastodon, Meghan, Oliver Mastodon, Shami, Oliver


At the end of March we met Sean and Eliza at the Cayuga Nature Center. It is an old building, and not wheelchair accessible, which made me unhappy. For now we could carry the stroller up stairs, but I don't think this is a place we will be able to take Oliver to in the future unless they follow through with plans to make it more accessible.


Outside the Nature center At the Nature center with Sean

The day was a lot colder than we realized, and we had to borrow a jacket from Eliza to keep Oliver warm. Ollie was confident enough to be seen in pink! Here is a picture of uncle Sean helping to hold him up, stroller and all, so that he could look at a snake.

3 comments:

flask said...

i had wondered how you were; i'm that random stranger who happened to wander into your blog and i like ithaca, so i kind of hung out to see what goes on.

i was in ithaca recently, or more accurately i was in watkins glen and lodi and tburg, which isn't really IN ithaca, but it's pretty close by most standards.

i guess i just want you to know that i do think of you sometimes and i do sometimes keep you in my prayers.

blogs are funny that way; sometimes you catch the prayers and good wishes of assorted random strangers scattered about the globe, and you can't ever have too many kind thoughts out in the world for you.

be well. take care.

Ali said...

I am another random stranger who wandered upon your blog months ago and look forward to your updates. Glad to see you are posting again. Oliver is getting so big and it's great to see you all having fun.

I am in Thailand about to make my way slowly back to the US. Would love to send postcards to Oliver along the way if you are comfortable giving me your address. Reach me at aliflint@yahoo.com and I think you can link directly to my blog from my Blogger profile.

All the best to you.

Meghan said...

The kindness of strangers can do wonders to lift one's spirit - thank you both for taking the time to care and for sending us your good wishes!

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