April 2022

Here are all our photos and videos from April, and here is some description of what is in the photos and what else we've been up to:

Outings (Rob)

The mall has a large arcade that Alex always enjoys, so we went there a few times. There are a few games we play, but mostly he just runs around like crazy pushing all of the buttons. There are some videos of that. 

We found a nicely paved trail not far from where we live that is a great place for walks with the stroller and is also near a McDonalds, so we made a few trips there this month after dinner. 

We went back to the Motorcylepedia museum. It is always a fun place to walk around and also had this funky machine with wheels and pulley that move when you push a button, which Alex did repeatedly like last time we went there. It is free on Thursday nights and the volunteers there are always so nice, and gave us some nice little motorcycle-related take-home gifts.

I took Alex to a tractor pull at the Farmer's museum nearby us, there is some video of that. He is not as crazy about tractors as he was a couple years ago though, so it's too bad we didn't do the tractor pull then. 

We went to Beacon, NY to visit the Wee Tots Playground that has a toddler play area, a regular playground, and a bunch of logs for climbing too. Alex mostly wanted to play in the toddler section that has a bunch of little cars and slides that might have been his size the last time he went there, but now he is now too big for. 

Later in the month we visited the Orange County arboretum, where cherry blossoms were almost in full bloom. 

And earlier in the month, we had a really nice walk around the lake at a park near where we live, with some success getting Alex to walk on the trail with us rather than wandering off into the woods. Unfortunately, that is also where he probably picked up a tick (see next section). We found a tick on Alex last April too, they are particularly hungry this time of the year I guess.

Season of the Ticks, pt. 2 (Rob)

While combing Alex's hair after a bath one night, we found something a bit larger than a grain of rice poking straight out. It was a tick, attached and fully engorged with blood. Very gross, and also concerning since Lyme disease has been on the rise here in the Northeast.  We pulled the tick out immediately and saved it so we could identify it (here's a photo of it if you want to see how gross it is).  

There are mainly two kinds of ticks found here in NY: Black Legged Deer Ticks that can cause Lyme disease, and Dog Ticks that don't spread Lyme disease, but can spread various other less common diseases. Since it was engorged, there was a good chance it had been hiding in Alex's hair and feeding for a few days. The longer a tick feeds, the more likely it can spread disease. We found it on a Wednesday night, and had been out hiking around a lake near a woodland area the Saturday before. We took Alex to his pediatrician the next day and she looked at the tick, and looked on his scalp for any reaction, and her advice was to just watch it and let her know if any redness or fever appears. She thought it was a dog tick, but I wasn't so convinced (it's harder to tell when they are engorged). So I found a really useful webpage from the University of Rhode Island for figuring this stuff out. You can send them a photo of a tick, and they will respond in the next day telling you what kind of tick it is. So I did that, and sure enough, they said it was an adult female deer tick. Up to 50% of adult female deer ticks can transmit Lyme disease. 

The University tick center works with a service that offers tick testing -- you can mail them the tick and they will test it for the bacteria that cause the most common diseases, including Lyme disease and anaplasmosis. So I mailed them the tick and paid $50 for that test, and and additional $20 for them to tell me if it was full of human or animal blood. For another $150 they will test for all kinds of other things that are more rare, like the Powassan virus that killed a man in Maine this month following a tick bite. But I chose not to do those tests.  After a few days, the results came back. They confirmed it was a female black legged Deer Tick with human blood that had been feeding for about 100 hours, and it was absent of the bacteria that cause Lyme disease and anaplasmosis. In the meantime, Alex seemed pretty normal in terms of health, but the added peace of mind was worth the $70. 

Alex Resumes Physical Therapy and Swimming (Becky)

We finally took Alex back to the indoor pool and he is already getting much more comfortable in the water.  We don't exactly know what we're doing, but we're trying to teach him some basics before we enroll him in more swim lessons.  So great to see him smiling and starting to relax in the water.  Alex also resumed physical therapy in a new school district.  I'll always think it's silly that they don't let me observe, but his PT, Maria, is a nice lady who tries to show me exercises to do with him after each session.  She says Alex is a sweetheart who complies with whatever she shows him.  He's a brave little guy and seems to enjoy the sessions, as he is willing to take  Maria's hand and head off down the hall for his two, after-school sessions each week.

Easter (Rob)

We had no major plans for Easter, just the egg hunts, church, and fancy dinner.  Alex won't try candy, so for egg prizes we used small cars in the eggs that Becky's mom sent, or small rubber erasers that look like food, which he was really excited about. We made salmon for dinner and went for a walk, and had a brief Zoom chat with my family. 

Favorite New Things in April

Rob: We tried this Orange County Bagel shop nearby where we live that I really like. It's not hard to find bagel shops in NY, but I think these bagels are my favorite so far. Alex of course likes it too, as he loves all things carby and especially bagels.

Becky: "Love and Monsters" on Amazon Prime.  It's a goofy, apocalyptic movie.  It reminded me of "Warm Bodies", another goofy movie (about a Zombie apocalypse) that I found surprisingly entertaining.  

Alex somehow found this Trollabration video on YouTube that he gets pretty excited about. He has also been really into squeezes lately. He likes to climb on mom or dad and say "squeeeeeze," meaning he wants us to carry him around and squeeze him.

Looking Ahead

We are planning to visit NYC for a little mini vacation May 20-21. Although its only an hour or so away, we haven't visited (although Becky did go there years ago). We'll plan to some Alex-friendly activities, so it will be some low-key tourism.