Epic East Coast Journey

G and I set off on Thursday, May 14th to do some visiting in NJ. He was a great traveler and enjoyed (and was enjoyed) by everyone. I'm looking forward to doing it again soon!

Kicking back on the plane with his iPod and rice cake (still in his jams from being woken at 5am to go to the airport).

We stayed with Patti, Ernie, and Louie. Louie made this basket of books and shared his toys with Gabriel. They had a lot of fun together!

Friday we visited Gram. It was warm enough to go outside. We listened to the iPod (Marvelous Toy, Frank Sinatra, and Irish fiddle tunes), attempted to read the Chica Chica Boom Boom book...G wanted Gram to read it, and he wouldn't read it (even though it is a book he has memorized)...and we looked at some old pictures of Gram. Gram was able to tell us about herself: she was Mary O'Connor from West Orange, her parents were Irish, she was Irish. She also told me she had a son named Vincent, who was grown now (she said this when I showed her a picture of she and dad from when he was around 8 years old). She asked about G -- his age, his gender. She was impressed by the things he was doing, for someone his age.

G also shared his big chalk with Gram.

Gram handing the chalk back to G.

We had dinner Friday night at Grandma and Grandpa's, in the gazebo. We really enjoyed dinner...

especially the "big corn".

Grandma and G read the Biscuit books together.

Grandpa and G played with the tennis ball in the yard.

G and I spent some time looking at all of Gram's paintings (and also Grandpa's paintings). G was a very appreciative viewer -- lots of "wow"s as I unveiled each piece.

This one TOTALLY looks like the cabin, and will be hanging up there soon.

I like the little deer peeking around the tree in this one.

This one makes me think of Sachi and Shami (sp?).

This is one of my favorites...it is a specific hole at the East Orange golf course.

We spent Saturday staying close to home at Patti's house (aka "Louie's House" if you are G). The boys (including Ernie) all played together in the morning, down at the creek and on the play structure. Then Patti and I took Louie and G to Ringing Rock Park.

Can you tell from this picture what people do at ringing rock park? ;-)

Speaking of parks, we attended Louie's baseball game in the afternoon. There are no pixs of the game (someone was a little cranky after their nap, and no, it wasn't me!), but here are the post-game-let's-go-play-on-the-play-structure pixs...

G considers his destiny...

Whew! Made it! Now, maybe I will jump off!

Oooh, a tunnel!

On Sunday we visited Gram again. She was in her room and it was too cold to go outside (oh, um, I think we did go outside for a sec, just to wake her up a bit...it worked, but the staff seemed concerned!). Even so, she was not as clear-minded as she was on Friday. We played with Louie's cars and with Play-Doh. Noelani had told me that folks with Alzhiemers do well with tactile things, and play-doh is especially good.

I went back by myself later in the day and Gram was in bed. It was a quieter visit without G, and harder.

On Monday, G and I visited Suzanne (Cooperman) Gill, and Casey & Timmy. Timmy and G had a little breakfast together. They also played trains.

Casey and G played some tunes on the piano. The visit ended with G being chased all around the house, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Then we went to see Gram again. She was in a great mood! She had to stay in her room because she was hooked up to her feeding tube machine, but she was spunky and very responsive to all of us (mom and dad joined us there). She was especially interested in the iPod doc, and moved her arms a lot more than I'd seen her do -- reaching for the chalk, the iPod, blowing her nose. She had some sustained conversations and really seemed to dig G. It was a nice way to end the trip.