Cherry Picking

This weekend we found ourselves in Gilroy once again! It wasn't our intent, but I found out about this farm where you can go pick cherries, and thought Merrick would have a good time.

I just really liked this koi pond at the entrance of the farmhouse:

All the rows of cherry trees. I had never actually gone cherry picking before so it was really cool to see the trees just loaded with cherries:

I think Merrick picked about five cherries in total. At least he still had a good time though, running up and down the rows and getting himself nice and dirty.

A picture of the farming area in Gilroy. The colors against the blue sky were so vivid! I felt like everything was in technicolor.

What started as this:

I turned into this about 5 hours later:

Lessons in Sharing

A while ago, I had the kind of day where you find yourself on the front lines of a battlefield, with your strong-willed 3-year-old son staring you down on the other side, just waiting to see you crumble.

You know that as soon as you regress to the same level as your child (which you have no excuse for because you've got a few decades of experience on him in the social skills department, plus - you're the parent for crying out loud!), the outcome cannot be good.

I took Merrick along with me for a quick trip to the grocery store, and he was feisty from the get-go. He was in the kind of mood where if I said something was black, he was bound to say it was white. If I said it was day, he would argue it was night.

In the car on the way home, he started pulling out the big guns in the battle. "Mom, this isn't your car, this is Daddy's car." "Mom, this is my carseat. You can't touch my carseat." This was "mine", that was "mine"..."mine mine mine mine mine mine mine". Finally, after pulling into the driveway and a few "this is mine"'s later, I broke...I caved...I reverted back to my 3-year-old self and decided to join him in the game.

"Actually Merrick, the car is mine, this driveway is mine...you're mine, Dexter is mine, the doorknob is mine, it's all mine Merrick." Of course our next door neighbor was out in the front yard to witness my moment of weakness. I almost snapped at him too..."ya, you have a problem buddy, this street is mine, the neighborhood is mine, the sky is mine, it's all MINE!" I imagined myself sounding like the evil villain cooking up a plot to take over the world, just shy of ending with a "mwahhh haha haha!"

I finally realized what I was doing and stopped abruptly, only to get this response from Merrick: "actually Mama, the doorknob is not yours. It's Mr. Tim's". Mr. Tim is the landlord of the house we rent here in CA. Okay Merrick, touche'.

I can only hope, since our neighbor has two older kids of his own, that he remembers back to the days when he too may have had a moment of regression while trying to reason with his 3-year-old children.

Gilroy Gardens

Gilroy is a town about 45 minutes south, and a little east, of where we live in Mountain View. My impression is that it's very much an agricultural hotspot (apparently the garlic and artichoke capital of the world, or something along those lines anyway). It's quite rural and seems to be a more hotter/dryer climate than Mountain View as well.

We had heard about a great amusement park down there for smaller kids, and decided to make a day of it. As with most spots, we got lured into a season pass since a couple days there would essentially pay for it anyway. I'm sure we'll be spending quite a bit more time here - Merrick had a blast.

There were lots of rides he was tall enough to enjoy:A really cool splash park where he got to meet new friends and even try a water slide:

And good food too!