Tag Archives: swings

Trinh Family Fun Day 2

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Early last month (October 8th, 2011) we had our 2nd Family Fun Day! It actually started with me waking up early and playing with Daniel so that Tary could sleep in a bit. I don’t like sleeping in so I really enjoyed the extra Daddy-Daniel time.

After Tary woke up in the late morning, we went to Parlee Farms in Tyngsboro. We first visited a petting area with goats, sheep, chickens, and rabbits. Daniel seemed to enjoy looking at the different animals but only from the safety of my arms. We bought a few small handfuls of food to feed the animals with but Daniel was hesitant to let the animals eat from his hands. So I fed a few animals as Daniel intently watched on.

We then went to a hay bale play area. There were lots of older kids running around and on top of the hay bales so we stayed on the outside of it so that Daniel wouldn’t get accidentally knocked down. He enjoyed picking up loose strands of straw and tossing them around.

Tary and Daniel at the Hay Play Area

We then got in a long line and waited for the tractors to come and take us to the apple orchards. Daniel sat on my lap and he seemed to enjoy the hayride. When we got to the orchard we let Daniel pick his own apple. He gently (or as gently as a toddler can) pulled an apple off of the tree and happily ate the entire thing! He hasn’t quite figured out that he needs to rotate the apple as he’s eating it so he ate through the core too! Even when there was nothing left of the apple, he didn’t want to let go of it. I carried him around as we walked up and down a few aisles while picking some apples along the way. I really enjoyed “sampling” a few as well.

We rode the hayride back to the main area. We walked over to an area with hundreds of loose pumpkins and we let Daniel pick out a few. We bought two small pumpkins that he picked out (tossed around). We had to go inside a store area to pay for them. While inside we also bought some apple cider donuts for us and a drink for Daniel. The donuts were warm and dusted with sugar. They were so delicious!

Daniel Picking out a Pumpkin

After Parlee Farms we dropped Daniel off at my parents so they could spend some more quality time with him while Tary and I could have our time together. We went to the Burlington Mall and bought some furniture for Daniel’s new room at Pottery Barn Kids. We bought a platform bed frame, a dresser, a nightstand, and guard rail. The store is expensive but I like the higher quality construction.

Since Tary felt a little guilty making us go to Pottery Barn on our Family Fun Day, we went to REI next so I could pick up some supplies for my upcoming backpack camping trip. It was going to be the 3rd trip of the year. There was a sweet sale going on for REI members and Tary bought me a nice pair of trekking poles and I bought a lot of freeze-dried meals.

Tary and I then went to dinner at LongHorn Steakhouse. I ordered a 16 oz prime rib (medium-rare) and Tary ordered a rack of ribs. It was very delicious and we were stuffed. Even when we get some alone time to ourselves from Daniel, we still enjoy talking about him.

We picked up Daniel from my parents’ house and we continued our Family Fun Day at McPherson Park. I used to play here as a child and I thought it might be fun to make some new memories with Daniel here. I was a little surprised at the changes that have occurred here. The old playground was replaced and a new one was added closer to where I parked the car.

Daniel had a lot of fun on the baby swing. We went to another area of the playground and Daniel really enjoyed climbing up the jungle gym and scooting down the slide. A girl who was around preschool age played alongside Daniel and said that he was really adorable.

One thing that stunk about this playground was there were a lot of ghetto kids there. Some white kids were pretending to act tough and said to each other, “MF this”, “MF that”, “n**** this”, n**** that”. I didn’t want Daniel to be exposed to that filth and it was getting dark so we went home.

Overall I think it was a very good Family Fun Day. I know Daniel probably won’t remember all of these activities but maybe when he’s old enough to read this, he’ll see how much we all love each other and enjoy doing things as a family.

Family Fun Day

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We’re always so busy trying to balance work, taking care of Daniel, visiting our families, doing household chores, running errands, and being with friends. We never take time for ourselves so we planned a “Trinh Family Fun Day” to spend some quality time together and take Daniel to do some fun activities. We even planned the day far in advance and scheduled it into our Google Calendars so that we didn’t accidentally double book that day.

Our first stop was an indoor gym called One Stop Fun in Westford, MA. They only had one small section for kids under the age of 4 which had a ball pit and a slide. We placed Daniel in the ball pit and he loved tossing the balls around and climbing in and out of the pit. I escorted him to the top of the slide. Daniel insisted that he slid down by himself so I watched intently as he positioned himself on his belly at the top of the slide. He would then slide backward on his stomach and look back up at me with a huge smile on his face. It was a little disappointing that all of the other areas were too advanced for him. At least the price of admission ($10) was reasonable.

After Daniel had his fill of One Stop Fun, we drove to Toys R Us to let Daniel pick out some of his own toys using some gift cards he received on his 1st birthday party. We picked out a few similar toys that he looked interested in and put them in front of him as we pushed him around the store in the shopping cart. He really liked one toy that was basically a toy steering wheel with a gear shift knob, turn signals, ignition key, and horn.

We also bought Daniel some new bath toys. (Note to self: Squirt toys can get mold inside and is very gross when you find out.) We bought some toys that can he could use to scoop the water. I think the best toy that we bought him was a musical bubble blowing machine which blew bubbles and played some songs when buttons were pressed.

After a meal at home we went to a local park playground. Daniel really enjoyed being in the baby swing. It was great seeing his face light up. I swung on an adult-sized swing next to him and he tried to imitate me kicking my legs to gain momentum. We then went down a slide with Daniel sitting on my lap. We also carried him back to the top of the slide and Tary would help hold him as he slid down by himself. He really loves showing us that he’s a big boy now. We then put Daniel on a spring-mounted motorcycle thingy. It was similar to a bouncy toy at home so Daniel already knew how to rock back and forth on it. Then Tary got on a merry-go-round while holding Daniel and I spun both of them a few times.

As we were wrapping up at the park, my friend Sai texted me saying to come over for a BBQ so we agreed and headed over there. It turned out that the BBQ was a combined party for his father, brother, and cousin’s birthdays. A lot of Sai’s relatives were there and it was really interesting seeing a strong family resemblance on his mother’s side of the family. It makes me wonder if Daniel will end up looking more like me or Tary when he gets older. Sometimes I see my mom in him. In either case, we enjoyed some light conversation and I had some more food even though I was already full from a prior meal but Sai’s parents wanted to make sure I was well fed.

It was getting late so we returned home. It was Daniel’s bath night and we were anxious to see how he’d react to his new bath toys. He really loved the new bubble blowing machine. Each time the machine blew some more bubbles into the air he would loudly shout, “Bubbles!” and try to pop as many of them as he can. He also loved scooping the water and trying to dump it into his mouth. I guess he doesn’t quite understand the meaning of the word “icky”. The new bath toys were a hit and I couldn’t get him out of the tub. I just watched on as he played with his new toys until he got nice and pruny.

Daniel seemed to really enjoy our Family Fun Day. He was generally happy and it was cute how he would randomly hug Tary and me. We should definitely take him outside more and let him experience new things. For the next outing, we may have a friends and family picnic and maybe some berry picking and petting zoo.