Day 1725 - Gleaning

For a while now, we've been looking for ways to involve Ruth in some sort of volunteering or community service.  This is harder than you might think!  I went around a few times with Food Not Bombs before being told by the woman hosting that she didn't want kids in her house. We set up a whole kid-friendly thing for the class a friend and I taught at the Baltimore Free School... only to show up with Ruth and have them, oh wow, the place where the classes meet isn't lead-abated.  And I'm currently waiting for a couple food serving places that don't just rule out kids on their website to even call me back.  After talking to one of their coordinators when I went by to help write Christmas cards for people in local prisons, I've got high hopes that if the Pleasant Hope Church resurrects their social justice committee, Ruth will at least be able to come and hang out - but the goal has really been to get her involved in something she can contribute to in an age-appropriate way.

Well, we may have found it! On Saturday, Ruth, Melissa, and I went out to Zahdraka Farm in Essex to do some gleaning with Gather Baltimore.

For those of you who may not know what gleaning is, it's a tradition (with deep roots at least in Judaism, though I'm sure it has other resonances) of gathering food from the fields that was not harvested/sold, and distributing it to the poor.

Gather Baltimore is a keen organization that has been around for a bit, but (so they told us when we were out there) is only recently scaling up and organizing to have regular volunteers. It started out as a couple of guys and their friends collecting unsold food from the Baltimore Farmers' Market, and has rapidly expanded. They're now partnered with (among other places - but as one guy told me, they need to work with places that can accept literally tons of food, which not every small service organization can) the Franciscan Center, Our Daily Bread, and Movable Feast, and the guy who started the whole thing is currently an Open Society Fellow.

From the start, Ruth was a fan of the set-up. We drove out to the farm, and as soon as the organizers got there, there were donuts for her.  You can't beat carbo-loading while helping those in need.  Seriously, Ruth has turned down the offer of almost anywhere else I will take her for lunch when we're hanging out ("do you want to fly to New York City on an airplane and go to Le Cirque?") to go to Dunkin' Donuts.

They started us on gathering russian kale, and Ruth was eager to help.  Cutting the stems was a little hard for her, but she loved getting to help by piling the cut leaves into the bins.

(I can't fix the weird picture placement. It's a blog. Live with it).

Ultimately, Ruth hooked up with the other little girl there (who was "five and nine-tenths") and they proceeded to smash their boots through every ice-frosted puddle of water within half a mile.  By the time we were done with the kale rows, as you can see, Ruth was pretty thoroughly be-mudded.  We hadn't thought ahead to bring a change of clothes, so the cold mud and soaked-through boots meant that we needed to head out.  But Ruth had fun, as did Melissa and I, and we're looking forward to going back the next time they have a volunteer day.

Next time, we'll bring waterproof pants and/or a change of clothes!

Days 1284-1288: We Did a Lot. What Did we Do?

As I'm trying to reconstruct the past couple of weeks for all you loyal readers, I'm realizing that I should have taken notes!  My Mom is smart.

Don't worry, though, the big trip days I have photos and etc. with date stamps.

The Saturday after Melissa left, my parents wanted to check out the Legon Botanical Gardens, which are a bit unkempt but really quite lovely.  We stopped at the bookstore on the way, which actually has a pretty solid selection of children's books. In the past, I've brought one home for Ruth each time I've been in Ghana - my only disappointment was that on my last two trips they'd had a significant number of children's books in local languages, especially Twi, but not any more.  We sat on the steps outside this time and read Chidi Only Likes Blue.

Unsurprisingly, when we got a bit further, Ruth didn't want to walk all the way to the gardens - my folks had brought a stroller with them, which made it easier for them to walk with Ruth, but also made Ruth a bit of a diva about walking when we didn't have it with us.  So she and I went and played on the lawn behind the Balme Library while my folks explored the gardens a bit, and then we all had some lunch.

Sunday, Ruth and my parents went to La Beach and hung out while I caught up on some work. I missed out!  Apparently they had a grand time and ate lots of plantain chips, but I'll have to let my parents tell that one.

Monday and Tuesday it rained, so they ended up being flop days.  We had initially planned to go to Shai Hills on Tuesday, because the military had re-scheduled my teaching day that day at the last minute, but because the rain, we put it off until Thursday (and the next entry).  Wednesday my folks took Ruth back to the Shangri-La while I taught.

One of those days we went back to the Nigerian restaurant - Monday?  My mom had bonded with the woman who owned it and did the cooking, and had gone over to request goat.  Most of the time when you get goat here in Ghana it's in soup - and much as I like goat, it's honestly not my favorite way to have it.  But this was roasted to perfection.

OK, that's the boring stuff for completeness' sake.  Next up, animals!

Days 1163, 1170 - Previous Dad & Ruth Day Breakfasts

Yes, the second photo is of a Dunkin' Donuts movie-tie-in breakfast pastry.

DON'T JUDGE ME.

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Days 1137-1139 Voyage to Grand-Dad

At the end of May, we went up to visit Melissa's Dad and step-mother in Boston. Lots of fun!

The frequent flyer:

From 21st Century Digital Kid

The frequent flyer in repose:

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We took her first to the Boston Children's Museum, which was a blast, even if she wanted to spend the bulk of her time in the Arthur room. We also saw the reconstructed Japanese home, and...

... climbed things...

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... did SCIENCE! ...

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... construction ...

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... and of course had ice cream from the giant milk bottle outside afterwards!

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But that wasn't enough ice cream! Not by a long shot. The next day, we went to one of Melissa's childhood favorites, Peaceful Meadows.

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Stay classy, Ruth:

From 21st Century Digital Kid

And, finally, we went down to the beach. Ruth and I splashed about in the shallows, and saw some cool things, like barnacles, and pink jellyfish (we didn't touch!).

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Day 1177 - Dad and Ruth Day

Because I'm leaving for Ghana soon, I've been trying to keep Ruth home with me one day each week for a Dad & Ruth day. The past couple of weeks, she has wanted to go to school every day instead (my feelings aren't giving me smiles). But two weeks ago, we took the day and went to breakfast and the zoo.

Here's Ruth at her favorite breakfast spot, Pete's Grille, double-fisting bacon and rocking out to Can't Hurry Love:

From 21st Century Digital Kid

And here's her on one of her favorite things to do at the zoo, ride the banana space ships:

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Day 1186 - Artscape!

Last Saturday, Melissa had a work thing, so Ruth and I went to Artscape and had a lot of fun right before the sun decided to devour the earth.

Ruth wasn't a huge fan of the Art Cars - too loud! she said, and I hadn't thought to bring the ear muffs we bought her after our ill-fated trip to see the fireworks at Oregon Ridge park. But she was a huge fan of the Art Car Lounge, with furniture made out of old auto parts. It looked sort of like my Dad's dream living room:

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From there, we went to the kid-friendly sculpture garden, where the big hit was all of the crazily painted and accessorized playhouses. Ruth fell in with a gaggle of kids, including one wearing a shirt the exact same color as hers (Dad pro-tip: do not try to check your phone while keeping one eye on your child when this happens, as you will end up following the other kid around for a while before you panic).

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Then, it was lunch time! Ruth wanted hot dogs, but I saw something better. Dad pro-tip: if you ask your child, "would you like hot dogs ON A STICK?" the answer will probably be yes, but you need to play up your enthusiasm.

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Then, as promised, ice cream.

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After ice cream, we headed over to the 80s tribute stage (this will explain the photos a bit) to see Ruth's dance teacher's rock ballet dedicated to Nina Hagen. This also included a good friend of ours, Claudia (with the red-brown hair - and yes, she always looks that stylin', but sorry boys and girls, she's married).

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Ruth's comment: "They're dressed up as space people!"

After all the excitement, back to Ruth's favorite spot:

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

ME: No smiles?
RUTH: My feelings aren't giving me smiles right now.

Day 1060 - Ruth is a Princess/Chef

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Yep. I'll be trying to update things a bit better. Gimme a minute.

Day 1031 - There was a party at school

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Day 1000!

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From 21st Century Digital Kid

1/11/11 was Ruth's 1000th day on Earth (she spent 3 days on Jupiter for Spring Break). It was also a Tuesday, which means movie night.

Schober-Levine Family Channukha!

Earlier, my folks came down to celebrate Channukha with Ruth, along with Uncle David and Meli. The hit of the visit (Day 952) was, of course, icing/sprinkling cookies with Grammy, and then licking the bowl.

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Day 817 - Hot Dog

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Day 824 - The Infamous Bench

Ruth used to love sitting on this bench for a bit before heading home from Miss Tyra's (Little Scholars).

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Day 758 - Weird Kid

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While Melissa was out and about for her birthday, I took Ruth to Paper Moon for lunch ("hamburger time!"). Despite the exclamation, she only nibbled on the hamburger, but scarfed sweet potato fries and both lemons from my iced tea. Yes, the lemons.

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Day 731 - Begin Year Three

We had Ruth's 2nd birthday party in the small park (the Abell open space) near our house. Some of the family couldn't come - Melissa's Dad was tied up with work, and her sister got sick - along with my Aunt Connie's roommate, Sharon. And it was a bit blustery for an April day, so there weren't as many kids at the park as usual. So I made too much cake - one special blueberry cake at Ruth's request (actually, blueberry-lemon cake with white chocolate icing... though Ruth was mostly interested in the inexpertly applied blue piped icing I wrote on it with, as the pictures below will attest). Still, it was a pretty fun time. My parents came, Melissa's friend Claudia brought her daughter Lucy, and Ruth's best bud Christian from daycare showed up, along with (a bit later on) some friends from the neighborhood - Jerome, Colette, Kingston, Max, and some others. There were photos on my camera, my phone, and my Dad's phone, so this probably isn't all of them, but it's a start. I'll put up a post with the rest when I dig 'em up.

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

That little dinosaur topper was on a lot of my cakes when I was a kid, and we're hoping to make it a thing to put it on Ruth's cakes as long as she'll let us (I expect that she'll start to hate it around 12 and then think it's totally sweet and ask us what happened to it around 20 or 21).

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Claudia with Lucy.

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My mom found an old kid's tricycle at a Church sale and fixed it up for Ruth for her birthday present. She still hasn't quite mastered the pedals.

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(L to R): My mom, Max, Pam (Max' mom), Lucy, Claudia (Lucy's mom)

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Dude in the blue sweatshirt is my future son-in-law, Christian.

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The gal in the wagon with Ruth is Colette.

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The woman with the dark hair and sunglasses is Colette and Kingston's mom, Melissa.

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In the pale blue is Roisin.

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The slightly older girl pulling the wagon is Mikaela.

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From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

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As always, if you'd like a copy of the Ruth Year Two DVD, including all the photos you've seen here AND MORE in PHOTO PRINT QUALITY, and you're not one of the creepy spammers who has forced me to moderate comments on this blog, just let me know.