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We spent a lovely week upstate in the Catskills last week. We rented a charming little cottage on a dead-end country lane. There was no cell phone reception or television set, and it was glorious. There was a hammock in the back yard, and a little creek behind the house that was perfect for throwing sticks and rocks into. I was going to post a bunch of pictures, but realized that out of about 150 photos, 130 of them involve some view of Milo in all of his full-frontal nude glory, so I’ll just post a few of the not-completely-invasive-of-his-privacy pics.
The always lovely Ari of sunsaturatedsidethoughts drove down from Hudson with Lars and Miss Bee (who has the most perfectly shaped head you’ve ever seen…this lady was born to rock a pixie cut at least once in her life) on Thursday afternoon. After some minor squabbling over the bubble wand, Milo and Lars decided to take off their clothes, run through the kiddie pool and chill out in the hammock, a la natural. Lars donned the red netting that had covered a pint of strawberries and wore it as a very becoming sort of hat for most of the afternoon. After he left, Milo decided to give it a try-on.
We rode an antique train one day. We’d been driving past it parked on the tracks along the main road every day, and Milo would always watch faithfully as we’d approach it. “More train? More caboose?” he’d ask as we drove past it. We found out that it ran on the weekends, so Matt and I figured it was a no-brainer. As it pulled into the station that day, Milo went batshit with excitement, screaming “I SEE A TRAIN I SEE A TRAIN” “THERE”S A WHISTLE” several times.
After his head stopped spinning around, we boarded. After discovering that he would not, in fact, be allowed to stick his head out of the window while the train was in motion nor would he be allowed to run back and forth between the cars, the train ride seemed to lose his interest. Zachary, as always, remained unimpressed.
We took a trip up to Tannersville on Ari’s advice and went swimming in North-South Lake. (Really, Tannersville? That’s the best you could come up with? “North-South”?) Milo insisted on skinny-dipping. We went scootering on the Ashokan Reservoir (aka NYC’s water supply) (don’t worry, fellow NYC folks, I didn’t let Milo get naked anywhere near our water supply).
Mostly though, we just enjoyed each others company. Pancakes and bacon for breakfast every morning. Amazing food cooked up by Matt. Campari and sodas in the afternoon. Ice cream every night. Classic country music channel on the XM Radio in the cabin. Lots of family cuddling in bed. I read “In the Warmth of Other Suns” finally (fabulous, btw), Lauren Groff’s “Arcadia” (very good), and knit 3 whole rows of a blanket. I haven’t had time to knit at all since Z was born, so even though I didn’t make much progress on it, it was still relaxing. Zachary discovered his toes last week, so there was a lot of toe-wriggling and grabbing going on. I was sad to leave, but happy to get back to our life in the city. Seriously, I don’t think I could ever live up in the boonies full-time again. I think I’d fall into a serious funk of loneliness and depression the minute Matt walked out the door in the morning. But, you know, if I ever win the lottery, weekend house in the country here I come!
