One of the joys of my life in this Hudson River town is the chance to spend time with my nephews – today I picked up my almost four year old nephew from school and we had an adventure (isn’t life ALL an adventure at that age?) Below is the text from the email I sent my family about the adventure:Today I picked up W at his school since his momma had a meeting in NYC . I arrived early – was the first “parent” there! – and then chatted with Zach whose daughter Haley is in the same class as W came out and looks SO GROWN UP! I swear each time I see him he looks like such a BIG BOY! I was surprised that he had no jacket as it has FINALLLLLLY turned cooler – we hope the hot temps are gone for good ! – but as per W’s warm blood he had no jacket. He was very good about holding my hand as we went to my car – and several parents said goodbye to W who responded nicely to them.
When we got to the car – we discovered that Zach and Haley were parked right next to us! W has his own booster seat in my car – and he is, as always very good, about lifting his arm so I can buckle the seat belt. We went to the Pizzeria for his favorite meal – pizza! ;o On the way we discussed the big worksite that is now going on at the corner gas station – SO many trucks. And that Mr Shaka the gas man is working at another gas station while the renovation is being done.
We had a lovely lunch of pizza – W is very good at eating his pizza by himself without CUTTING – he told me “I can hold it with both my hands now, I don’t have to fold it like when i was littler” After almost half the slice (it was a BIG slice) we went back to the car with the other half to take home and as I was backing out W said – “Look a BOAT!” … and sure enough at the end of the street – (at which you can see the river) there was a BIG barge going by – so we drove down the street to the bottom of the hill and then over the bridge over the train tracks with all the construction trucks working on the bridge and then thru the parking lot that runs right along the river to the very northwest corner where we had a FABULOUS view of the river. We were hoping we would get there in time… and we were just in time to see the Barge going right by the parking lot. We decided to stay and watch it go under the BIG Bridge – the Tappan Zee bridge. It was going very fast and we talked about the way the water was coming down the river and the boat was going up the river and how hard that is for the boat and W said “it takes a lot of fuel” which is very true. And we talked about how good the pilot has to be to steer the boat thru the water and then under and around the bridge.As the boat approached the Bridge it slowed down and we talked about how maybe the pilot needed to let the bridge men know that he was coming under the bridge – then the boat went under the Bridge and we watched it so more – and talked about how the river turns VERY sharply past the bridge at that point like our arm when we bend our elbow – and we bent our arms to see what that looked like. Then W saw ANOTHER BARGE! There was a tugboat – a RED one -it was very small and was pushing a BIG barge – four times the size of the tugboat.
W said it was a BUSY day on the river!
And so we waited awhile and watched the red tugboat and then W noticed that the big boat was turning up on the river – we could JUST make it out as it was far away now.
SO much watching was fun – but we decided it was time to go home …. oh I forgot that before pizza we had stopped by my house to see the DUMPSTER that was delivered this morning (VERY EARLY) in front of the house RIGHT next door to me – taking up all of one precious and few parking spot but leaving most of the other one … W decided it was a BIG dumpster – and we are going to come back and see if it gets filled up with things.
After all this excitement W said it was time to go home but NOT TO NAP as he is a BIG BOY and doesn’t take naps just like the WORKMEN don’t take naps! On the way home, we saw the workmen working on the railroad station on the river side of the tracks and the workmen working on the bridge and the workmen working on the street near our house and MaMa’s apartment. The street was almost ALL closed off and we had to wait for the workman with the flag to let us thru as there was only one lane.
When we got home, I was surprised to see a NEW addition to the family Landscape – a lovely little cottage has sprung up in the night – and next to it is a large cleared out space ready for a SWINGSET for W and L and S to play on …. right were W’s momma can work and look out the window and see them playing… well, when they are a bit older ;o
We went inside and found W’s 10 month old baby brother L in the “crawl” position on the floor – he is ALMOST there – any day now and he will be OFF and mobile and then, Lord help us!
There were many changes in the house especially in the living and dining room but I was not allowed to see the new bed alcove that W’s Nanny’s husband, Martin has built for W – apparently I have to wait for awhile ….but all the other changes looked wonderful as usual.
Then we went outside and worked at the worksite while W’s nanny put L down for his nap but in a few minutes they came out – L wanted to see what was going on! At one point it seemed as if it was going to rain and W was very concerned for the two workmen in the cottage and we went to tell them that is was raining in case they needed to go outside so they would get an umbrella. ( I think they were installing electricity or something).
And then it was time to go… and thus endeth my sojourn with W today and a grand time it was.
Drew Powers Red Sox Into Decisive Game 7
a southern gal in the north 
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