Last Thursday, Mike, Mazzy and I drove upstate to spend the weekend with his college friends at a cabin on a lake (our lake cabin adventures will actually be covered tomorrow; in a nutshell— 3 couples, 5 kids, and 1 bathroom. Add food poisoning into the mix and you've got yourself some memories).
Since the drive to the lake was 6 hours, we decided to spend Thursday night at Mike's cousins' house (two hours short of our destination) to break up the trip.
His cousins (Akiva, Megan and their two-year-old son, Forest) live my definition of "off the grid". Which means— they refuse to own a television but they have no problem accessing Netflix through their computer.
They also have 16 chickens, 3 cats, 2 dogs, a large vegetable garden, an apple orchard and a well where their water comes from. Almost 85% of what we ate while we were there, was pulled right out of their yard. (Don't worry— we left the dogs and cats alone.)
Basically, if there was some sort of apocalypse, Akiva, Megan and Forest would be just fine while Mike, Mazzy and I would be trying desperately to trade worthless Apple stock for scraps of bread from the corner bodega.
Amusing aside: Before we left, I told Mazzy we were visiting Daddy's cousins. When we arrived and Mazzy saw the chicken farm, she screamed excitedly, "DADDY'S COUSINS ARE CHICKENS!!!!"
Mazzy continues to repeat this phrase every time someone says the word "cousins".
This was her first time meeting Forest and she loved him immediately. Below is a picture of Mazzy trying to smother him with Boo (her blankie) which is my daughter's ultimate show of affection.
Forest probably would have returned the love sooner if not for one small misstep. Akiva and Megan sometimes call him "For" for short and at one point, Mazzy got confused and called him "Two".
Watching Mazzy run around the property, feed the chickens, chomp on cucumbers pulled straight from the garden, throw rocks in the creek, climb up on a tractor like she was born to ride it, eat dinner on an open porch in the midst of a huge rainstorm— all made me think twice about bringing our child up on the 12th floor of an apartment building in the middle of a sea of concrete.
But one tantrum after Mazzy tried to access a YouTube episode of Calliou on the iPad, because she couldn't deal with the slow loading time of a poor wireless connection, I knew I had made the right decision.
In her heart, Mazzy's as city as me.
Next up, inviting our cousins to Manhattan and then blowing Forest's mind by shoving him into our small apartment, ordering take-out and then sending our garbage down a chute.
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Over on Babble today, I'm talking about our need to transition Mazzy into a toddler bed (yes, she's still using her crib) with 12 Awesome Toddler Beds That Might Keep Your Toddler in Bed.
“Daddy’s cousins are chickens” – best line ever.
Regular bed + railing = kids staying in. At least in my house, my oldest had a crib that converted to a daybed, I think because the crib frame was the same she didn’t clue in she could escape? Even though would climb in. I dunno. I guess it is habit. My second we transitioned into a trundle bed that has a huge rail as is ridicilously high ( I didn’t realize and had a heart attack until I found a huge rail!). Too high to comfortably escape from, whew.
But good call re: wanting an option she will still stay in. When my eldest was three she was still yelling to us when she awoke – we finally one morning yelled back for her to come to us, she dashed in ” what, what, what’s wrong?” ” nothing honey – you can just get out of bed yourself”. ” oooohhhhhh”.
And from then on regretted it – not due to morning escapes but that was then the start of her leaving her bed each night and crawling into ours …. no kidding! Hence our high trundle being kept as a blessing in disguise with kiddo number two!
In reference to the toddler bed thing- we just took the side off of Caitlyn’s crib and added a safety railing. I wasn’t expecting her to stay in her crib either, especially since she does NOT like being in there. Surprisingly, it took her over a month to figure out that she could just get out whenever she wants. For the first few weeks, she would still call for us to take her out of there and I made the unfortunate decision of explaining to her several times that she could just get out of bed when she wants. And now she gets out of bed whenever she wants. And climbs into our bed. Every night.
Love it! That’s so great for Mazzy to get that country livin’ exposure! We’ve actually been having that “What would we do if the grid went down?” conversation a LOT lately (not sure why), and have concluded that us city folk are beyond screwed. Too bad you can’t make apple pie with that Apple stock!!
If you really want to blow their minds…ORDER IN BREAKFAST!
The suburbs are not so bad. We’ve got a good mix of strong internet signal, easy city access, easy chicken access, and plenty of room to play outside here in Bergen County.
Please don’t tell my kids about chickens as they may try to take me out of the city.
Unfortunately, I already know this will not be the case with Mazzy because whenever we go away for the weekend, we put Mazzy in a pack n play. When she wakes up, she climbs right on out, finds us and lets us know. Oh well.
Our crib has a kit to transition it to a toddler bed, which would be ideal because Mazzy would have some familiarity with it.
Right now, I’m trying to decide whether it makes more sense to transition the crib and buy another for the new baby or just buy a toddler bed and give the new baby the crib.
Decisions, decisions.
Beyond. I would have no worthy skills to trade on whatsoever. Nobody needs an art director or a writer in a crisis. I’d probably end up whoring myself out on the street.
That blows MY MIND! You are fancy.
Yes, I suppose the suburbs do have that nice balance between trees and strong internet signals.
I enjoy the country soooo much but I often wonder if it’s precisely because I get to leave there and come home to the city.
Also, my daughter is 4 and still sleeps in her crib. I’m terrified of effing up a good thing. (She loves it in there and sleeps like a dream.)
I am sure an artistic whore is a valid fetish. You would do just fine 😉
you’re making the best memories ever. keep those chicken cousins in the family, your daughter will be asking for them the rest of her life!
I vote let Mazzy keep her crib because first of all is best bet she will stay in as maybe won’t realize can escape as per my comment above re: my first kid. And secondly she sounds to be really smart and also used to ruling the roost – but new babies need a lot of time and attention potentially leading to jealousy and can potentially cause regression – even if she transitions well to a new bed now, doesn’t mean she won’t demand ” her” crib back. So why have that worry? And really I feel for the kids … there is no bed like “my” bed, I hate transitions too!
It is like going to our friend’s house – except the chickens are in the yard behind their 400K MN home and pool on Lake Minnetonka. 😉
Love all the pictures! Mazzy is so cute with Forest and with the chickens! Awww!
Our crib didn’t transistion but we left the crib up and added a toddler bed to the room and let her choose. At nap time she choose the crib, at night she picked the toddler bed. We did this for a couple months and once she decided she like the toddler bed and would stay in it (for the most part {this is still a challange})we took the crib down. We have a new baby boy due the day after Izzy’s 3rd Birthday on 9.20 and we won’t put it back up untill baby is here b/c he’ll be sleeping in a co-sleeper in our room for a bit. That way we figure she can be a part of the setting up of her old crib for her baby brother. They will be sharing a room, we live in an VERY small house thats why we went with the toddler bed. 😉
I’m a country girl through and through my son is a little younger than Mazzy and he was rowing a canoe while fishing this weekend and can’t image living in an apartment but wow strong internet signal does sound rather nice…But it takes all kinds to make the world go round.
As far as the bed goes we are in the same predicament sorta we are adopting another baby and have no clue when it will arrive but our son just turned 2 1/2 loves his crib has only escaped once but will stay in there till about 9 – 9:30 on Weekends with just a few hollar outs just to make sure we are aware he is awake other than that he will just play in it. I know for a fact that once he is not in his (cage) he will never sleep again. He is very independent and will go fix his own snacks and tries to fix his own drinks and knows how to turn on the tv. Thinking he will be into everything while we sleep.
No clue how to avoid a real bed though in the near future! Good luck to yall!
Umm, my 6 year old has the same tshirt as Mike’s cousin.
I wouldn’t say I’m a country girl, but I’m also not a city girl. Can’t wait for you to show off the big city life to “for”
This would make a great real-life City Mouse, Country Mouse book. Once For takes that trip to the city, you should seriously consider writing it. Also, I agree the suburbs are great. I grew up in Bergan County when my mom was a doctor in Manhattan and feel like I can be at home just about anywhere, from my family vacations in Maine to the Asian city I currently live in with 2 million people. My husband, who spent his formative years in Hong Kong — let’s just say he’s not so good in Maine and I think values a good Internet connection over running water. Growing up in the suburbs may not be as exciting as either other option, but it tends to make you the environmental equivalent of bi-lingual.