Earth Day

Today we celebrated Earth Day with Madeline! Again, the day started off with smiles.

I got to lounge with Madeline while Summer got ready for our first order of business: picking up compost (a pile of which had been handily delivered to Brown Stadium, about a block away) .

With a bit of difficulty (we brought to the compost pile only a plastic trash bag and no shovel) we safely secured our compost and then prepared for our second and primary order of business: John H. Chafee Nature Preserve. Specifically, we planned to stroll out to Rome Point and see the seals before they migrate.

Madeline was ready.

And soon enough, after several characteristic wrong turns on my part, we were there.

Once we made it out of the woods and to the bay, Summer examined one of the large sea stars we found. Madeline was not as interested.

She was willing to pose sleepily for a somewhat sticky family portrait. Due to both the bright sun and my propensity for blinking just as I myself pressed the shutter button, even a passable shot took several tries.

We made it out to Rome Point and found a comfortable, grassy place on a small, secluded promontory.

An unusually awake Madeline was bombarded by nature's many sensory offerings; her expression changed frequently from happy to worried to fascinated to confused.

She seemed to enjoy the feel of grass and dirt on her bare feet.

Summer and I saw the seals, albeit unclearly and from a significant distance (binoculars would've been a good call); Madeline's eyesight's probably not that developed yet. Even so, all those sensory experiences made Madeline hungry.

I wandered about collecting things: shells (pictured) and trash to take out of the park (not pictured). I also saw spiders on the beach.

The whole walk back, we picked up candy wrappers and plastic bottle tops and sundry other rubbish. Summer even went for some high-risk, low-reward little plastic bits in thorny nests.

We proceeded down to Narragansett for our third order of business: seafood from Aunt Carrie's. But on the way, Madeline announced that she was hungry, too. We pulled off at Scarborough Beach (still free in April) so she could eat. When she was done, she displayed her contentedness.

But as it turned out, that smile was a bit misleading. On the short drive from Scarborough to Aunt Carrie's, Madeline said she was unhappy again. We tended to her, got takeout, and took off. She said she was unhappy again. She calmed a bit. She said she was unhappy again. When Madeline entered full meltdown mode we had to pull into a parking lot across from the Hannah Robinson Tower. And there we remained for over an hour, trying to soothe our inconsolable daughter. In fact, between Madeline's fusses and a quick but necessary grocery store stop, we didn't arrive home until 9:30 or so.

But hey, the rest of the day was pretty darn good, if maybe a bit overstimulating for a still-new little person. And Madeline seems to have gotten over her unhappiness: at home, she smilingly acceded to her bedtime routine of diaper-and-outfit change, wind-up dog, and a book (tonight, Silly Games -- speaking of which, wow, here's a brutal review of a set of my childhood favorites). And now, sleep.