Of Snails and Salamanders

  I have to confess that one of my favorite pass times is to try to ruffle my wife feathers. Yes, I know this is hazardous to my well being, but I enjoy living on the edge. One the best ways that I have found over the last two years to get a reaction out of her is, to pin some of Apollo's character traits on Melanie's genetics, i.e., temper tantrums, stubbornness, defiance, just to name a few. There is one trait that I will say is all Melly, although she will dispute this one as well (but we all know better), is the non stop talking! I was not exaggerating at all in my previous posts where I mention that Apollo talks all the time. He literally does talk... all the time. He is constantly giving a play by play narration of everything that he does. In the car he can be even more verbal as he counts trees, and cars, and houses, and on and on and on. He will even tell you he is tired a hundred times during his no stop ramblings, however, he wont stop talking long enough to fall asleep.

Snail with shell

Two spiders

Two wormies

  In conjunction with all this talking, Apollo's imagination is really on high speed developmental mode. I am fascinated with this process and watching it unfold. I see the spark of realization in his eyes, as he makes a correlation between the imaginary and real. A few months ago, Apollo was looking at an "Owee" on his finger. As he extended only his index and middle finger, I could see his wheels turn as he slowly moved his two fingers around. Gone was all the thoughts of his wounded finger. His eyes widened.."Look dada! Its a snail!" Keep in mind, that we have had a constant supply of "pet" garden snails recently, and he is enamored with them, especially their eyes. I know some of this has been helped along by the use of sign language when he was younger, in fact, he still uses the sign for more when he really likes something and wants more. As much as it pains me, I also give Melly a lot  of credit for this, as she does help reinforce his signing abilities. After the snail, came several other critters; worms, spiders, and snakes. He is still trying to come up with a salamander or salaman'ter as he calls it.
  We have a tank full of pollywogs right now that we have had since they were eggs. Apollo loves to reach through the glass and pull out an imaginary tadpole and hold him in his hand. "See my woggy-wog? He's so cute!"

"This is a snake"

  Apollo has a love for all critters. If it moves, he loves it. He will stop and talk to even the smallest ant, point out a bee on a flower, or a beetle on the dirt. He can be relentless in his quest to go hunt for salamanders or snails or worms. If he is not obliged, this can lead to a melt down, especially if he is tired or sick.
  I have to say that the salamander is his favorite right now. He talks about them in his sleep. It will be the first word that he utters upon waking. He will ask several times a day to go find a salamander. He even differentiates between baby, mommy and daddy salamander. He will specify which one he has when you catch it.
  Apollo even likes to pretend that he is a salamander and asks you to feed him salamander food. The amazing part is, as much as he loves salamanders, he is a great sport about letting them go. He may not want to, but he will part ways with them, understanding that they want to go find their mommy or daddy or family. "By salamander! See you."

"Salaman'ter"

  We are often commissioned by Apollo to draw a salamander or snail on the computer or a piece of paper. He will watch intently as you draw it several times, and then will attempt to draw it himself. I love this creative side and watching it unfold and develop before my eyes. The inquisitive nature of a child is to be admired. To view everything from their perspective is refreshing, new, and revitalizing. If only to spend one hour a week to watch, interact, and listen... truly listen to what they actually are saying amongst all the babbling, you will find that youthfulness that slowly becomes dormant in us as we become adults. I begin to see things in a different light, and realize that somethings in life really are that simple.
  At the risk of sounding silly, the Peter Pan story has more meaning to me now as an adult. Sure, it has always had a story and a message, but beyond that boy who refused to grow up, there is that realization that at some point we became "pirates" or adults, and lost our ability to just get lost in our imagination and stay forever young.

Yiayia, Papa and Uncle Gooch

 Ah yes... the family...
  We have been fortunate enough these past few years, that my parents, Apollo's Yiayia and Papa, have been able to come visit every few months and stay a week at a time. We have been even more blessed that Apollo's uncle Gooch has visited us for a few weeks at a time over the past year.

Nap Time

Derald & Margarita Miles
Papa and Yiayia

  There always seems to be a special connection between grandparents and their grand children. Apollo talks to his Yiayia and Papa on Skype, two or three nights a week, so you can imagine how excited he gets when they come to see him in person. He is amazingly sweet with his grandparents and bosses them around to make sure they stay on his agenda. These visits also give Mel and I a little break from toddler duty. Papa was a great sport this time around having to spend much of his time playing cars and allowing Apollo's pet snails crawl all over his hands and arms.  Yiayia got to take Apollo for walks, which amounts to Apollo sitting in his chariot (stroller), enjoying the ride while Yiayia pushed him around the block. They also hunted for "wormies" and "snails".
Once again, Gooch's visit overlapped with the parents visit. Apollo loves his uncle "Goochie" just  much as Yiayia and papa.

Attacking uncle Gooch

I can tell you that Apollo learned some colorful phrases from Gooch and Papa. "Shut your pie hole!" and "Your a dumb dog!" among others. Uncle Gooch also taught Apollo to shake his whole body when prompted by "Shake the baby."
  One of my favorite things about Uncle Gooch, is that he likes to turn everything into an event. This time around, we had two big events; my parents 52nd anniversary, and a camping trip to the coast to go clamming.

52 Years! 14 March 1959-2011

Melly Making Filo

For Yiayia and Papa's anniversary, we went to Bodega Bay, and harvested some fresh mussels off the rocks at low tide, stopped by the docks and picked up some fresh Dungeoness Crabs, and headed home to prepare a feast. Yiayia taught Melanie how to make home made filo dough and some field greens, shepherds pie.
  Gooch, Kim, Ian and Aden, cleaned and prep'd the mussels, and I cooked the crabs. All said and done, it was quite an impressive seafood feast. Even Apollo was overly excited by all the "crabbies"!

"Get in my Belly!"

"It's as big as me"

  There is nothing like harvesting a meal from what is essentially your own back yard. Even the lemons came from our tree and the field greens came from a field near by our home, and included mustard greens, radicchio, fennel, and other wild greens. Simple, delicious, and amazing.
  After Yiayia and Papa left, Gooch planned a camping trip to the coast. We were headed for Lawson's Landing in Dillon Beach, to dig clams, fish and crab. In complete denial that the weather was going to be anything but cooperative, we packed up the R.V. and away we went. We arrived earlier Friday evening. The skies had cleared and the sun was peaking through. It was nearly low tide, so we quickly set up camp and hurried out onto the flats and found a few horse neck clams to dig. We patted ourselves on the back for our success and the fact that we were the only ones out there taking advantage of the semi-clear sky and the low tide. The skies were stormy, and the wind was blowing. The clouds were backed up against the hills on the far side of the bay, which made for a beautiful sunset. As the tide creeped back in, so did the rain. It was an off and on, windy type of rain, and not enough to dampen our spirits. We cleaned the clams for Melly to cook.

Tomales bay in the background. Lawsons landing is at the edge of the water

 In the mean time, we had a fire going and some coals prep'd to cook dinner. In typical late night Greek dinner fashion, Gooch slow cooked some racks of ribs for us. We ate dinner around 11:30pm. The rain picked up, so we all climbed into the motorhome to eat. There were eight of us in there! Melanie and myself, Gooch, Kim, Ian, Aden, Apollo, and our Friend Calli who joined us for the evening. She owns a cool old Spartan trailer that is semi-permanently set up at Lawson's landing.

  Needless to say, after dinner we kicked everyone out of the motorhome, and finally went to sleep in the wee hours of the morning.  Now, the next morning, we should have cut our losses, packed up and went home. The wind started gusting and destroyed a new easy up canopy, and Ian and Aden's tent. We thought we had salvaged the tent and used ropes to tie it off to the R.V.. Through out the day, the wind increased off and on, along with the rain. By night fall, we were experiencing gale force winds. Ian and Aden's tent was completely blown apart. Gooch and Kim's tent was on the verge of demise, when Gooch and Aden decided to collapsed it, tied it off the the R.V. and threw some heavy objects on it. Tarps were thrown on top of the rest of the gear outside and everyone once again, piled into the motorhome, along with all their wet gear.

Gooch and Kim

Ian and Aden

I can not describe how hard the wind blew, only that it peaked between midnight and 3 am, and was so loud that I could not sleep. I thought for sure that the motorhome would be blown over at some point, with all of us in it. Fortunately, we were pointed in the direction of the wind and it was not hitting us broad side. One by one, as the wind howled, I watched the tarps get ripped from the ground, tossing all that held them down, and disappear into the night. I opened the window a few times and looked out side to judge how far the motorhome was being rocked back and forth, and saw that our ice chest was gone. Left behind was a one pound cube of butter and some eggs. As the wind died down, I fell asleep. I awoke to a pretty silent morning about 6am. In the dawn light I opened the window and peered outside to assess the damage. The first thing I noticed, was that the cube of butter had been eaten on both ends and reduced to about 1/2 pound. We had three dozen eggs of different varieties. All that remained was one dozen of store bought white eggs, of which eight were intact. There was also one jumbo egg out of a dozen that remained intact from uncle Gooch's egg selection, along with several others broken and strewn about. The amazing thing to me was, that we had brought a dozen, home grown, farm fresh brown eggs. These were eaten with out a trace to be found, along with a five pound tri-tip roast. The wild animals did not touch the store bought eggs. Itmakes you stop and wonder why.

Flooded road on the way home

  We spent the better part of an hour collecting our belongings that had been blow away. With the worst weather behind us, we headed down to the flats again for one last try at clamming. This time, we were joined by a dozen other enthusiast that pulled in that morning, to try for the coveted clams. There was only one problem; the low tide never materialized. Apparently the torrential rains and high winds had a great effect on the tide that morning.  So, this might sound like a horrible trip to some, but overall, I have to say, I had a great time. I love the unexpected, and admire the power of the wind and mother nature. That coupled with the fact that we were inside a motorhome that kept us warm and dry, made it a memorable, fun and exciting experience. I am looking forward to uncle Gooch's next visit. Maybe next time we can camp on a quaking fault.