Another trip to Vermont

Baby Doodle and I got back from Vermont yesterday after spending a week away. We took Amtrak from Philly to Greenfield, MA where my aunt met us at the train station and drove us to her house. The train ride was great. Baby Doodle loved it. He walked up and down the aisles greeting his fellow passengers with a smile and "Hi." Everyone was sweet and smiled or made conversation with him. He even napped for 45 minutes in his car seat.

We spent one night at my aunt's house and then met my mother the next day. She drove us to her house where we hung out for a few hours then went to a Rutland County Democratic fundraiser where Vermont's congressman, Peter Welch, spoke. Baby Doodle thought it was great fun to clap with the crowd. At the end of our large, fatty meal we shared a gigantic piece of apple pie. Now if you remind baby Doodle about the pie he says, "pie, people, clap, Welch." It's really cute.

Monday afternoon baby Doodle got his first real hair cut. The woman who used to cut my hair, still cuts my mom's and did my hair for my wedding cut baby Doodle's. Coincidentally, her son is two months younger than BD and has the same name. We went to an old high school friend's house for dinner on Monday night. She has two kids the younger of whom I hadn't met. They have a great play room in their basement with all kinds of toys that couldn't fit in our house, at least not nicely, like a soccer goal and plastic basketball hoop. Baby Doodle was in heaven.

We went to my old high school where my mother works so she could show him off to her friends. They were appropriately impressed with his cuteness and vocabulary. One day, baby Doodle got to feed a horse grass when we dropped off one of my mom's students at her house. Now when you ask him about the horse he says, "horse, grass, pet, eye." He fed the horse grass, then pet the horse's mane and looked into his huge eye. He didn't actually pet his eye.

We went up to Burlington, VT to see my brother, his girlfriend and the house they recently bought. My brother was quite late meeting us so we got the tour of the house from his girlfriend then went to the restaurant where he met us. I had a delicious microbrew they made there. I've been drinking wine for so long I forgot what it is like to enjoy a good Vermont beer. My ex-boyfriend who was supposed to meet us at the restaurant didn't get there until after 8:00 when we were in the car half way to Rutland (where my mother lives). I was really disappointed, but not that surprised.

My brother drove down to my mother's house the next night, arriving a little before 7:00, to have dinner with us and make up for the fact that we barely got to see him the night before. It was great to hang out with him for a while and make fun of my mother -- just like old times.

Baby Doodle and I boarded the train in Rutland to head home. It was snowing -- the only snow we saw all week. A very nice guy who got on in Rutland helped me figure out what I was doing wrong with the wheels that attach to BD's car seat. When we arrived in New York we had to switch trains with an hour and a half between them. Another really nice guy carried one of my bags up two flights of stairs, along with his own bag, to help me out. A third nice gentleman helped me get baby Doodle's car seat with a huge bag strapped to it onto the train in NY. And yet another guy carried one of my bags up the escalator at 30th Street Station here in Philly. The generosity and kindness of the people I encountered during this trip was fabulous. People are so nice. And I have to say, I experienced the exact opposite when I flew to San Francisco alone with baby Doodle. We had a pleasant train trip in both directions.

Riding the police car at the playground in Rutland. My mother gave him the sunglasses which he loved and actually kept them on his head.

Getting his first hair cut. He looks like a big kid now -- it's kind of sad. You'll have to wait for the Christmas card to see the result.