April 2025

Here's what's new for us in April, and here is a link to the rest of our photos - lots of time outside now that the weather is good (except for a bit of snow).

Weekend Trip to Binghamton and Syracuse

Rob: The first weekend of the month, we had a trip planned in our old stomping grounds of Binghamton (2 hours away), along with a trip up north of there to Syracuse (+1 hour) where Alex had a doctor appointment. Although I've been back to the area a few times in the past few years, Becky and Alex haven't so it was fun to revisit some things there that have changed and other things that haven't, and see how Alex responded. Friday we arrived at an AirBnB in Binghamton, which was a converted top floor of an old home typical of the area with a few beds and a small kitchen. We checked out the mall there, which was really struggling a few years ago. But Dick's Sporting Goods, being a local business with roots in the city, opened a big fancy store there to save the mall and other businesses followed. So the mall feels alive again, which is good to see. Alex's favorite thing there was always the Cobra car ride that you put quarters in. Sadly, it's not there anymore so he was visibly distressed about that. Cinnabon was still there though, and that cheered him up. Also, he discovered that the mall now has a Dave and Busters full of many of his favorite arcade games, so maybe it's a fair trade.

Saturday was rainy and cold, as was most of the weekend. So we mostly did indoor things like visit the Vestal library, take a walk at Otsiningo Park when the rain paused, had spiedies for dinner, and stopped at the Thrifty Shopper second-hand store. The thrift shop turned out to be the biggest hit for Alex because it has a whole room of  used toys, which I'm sure triggered some memories. He stayed there for quite a while. Meanwhile, I decided to check out the pet store nearby. I never actually went in there when we lived in the area, and didn't think it would have much that I was interested in. But I was really impressed, they had all kinds of exotic fish and aquarium plants and even axolotls. But I was really interested in the bottles of nematodes (microscopic worms) they were selling. These are useful for feeding really small baby fish, which I have recently been finding in my aquarium. And while I was looking at them, the guy who makes a small business selling these worms to the pet store happened to be there and I had a really long and nerdy conversation with him about how to propagate the worms, among other things. Anyway, I purchased some of his tiny worms to feed to my tiny baby fish, and was pretty excited about that. Alex was happy about spending lots of time in the thrift store toy room, and Becky was happy because she found some home decor ideas in the thrift store, so it was a good day.

Sunday was also cold and rainy, so we went to the covered playground at MacArthur Elementary. We also went to the Roberson Museum, which has an impressive model train room, some art, some science stuff, and some historic architecture you can wander around in. Alex liked the train and the open space to run around in, but he especially liked the gift shop. We also stopped at the other Thrifty Shopper location near where our house is. I stopped by the house to chat with our tenants to see how things are going. That evening we returned to Dave and Busters at the mall to get dinner while we let Alex run around. That place is so loud I find it overstimulating, but Alex loves it.

Monday morning we checked out and drove up to Syracuse. We got lunch at Salt City Market, which is this fancy hangout spot with a bunch of restaurants. Then we went to Alex's doctor appointment. In the past, we've met with the doctor over Zoom, but the doctor thought it would be good to see Alex in person this time, and we agreed. Among other things, we talked about trying a medication that might help Alex with his OCD behaviors, which are a big barrier for him. He's old enough now that she thought that might be a good idea, and prescribed him something similar to Zoloft, an SSRI-type drug. It's worth a shot, although other things we've tried like Ritalin and Adderall haven't proven useful in his case. The visit was also helpful for getting a letter from the doctor that is used for justification of insurance coverage. After that, we visited the Syracuse mall, which happens to be one of the largest in the state. They have everything there, including another Dave and Busters, which Alex managed to find as if he could somehow sense it. So we spent a lot of time there hanging out with him, and doing some shopping as well, before driving home to the Hudson Valley.

Easter Sunday with Mary

The day before Easter, we went to a lunch activity at the church. The next morning we had a nice musical Easter sacrament meeting at church as well. Alex was a bit more excited about our Easter egg hunt in the yard this year, he seems to have latched on to the idea of it. We usually have fish on Easter, and Becky tried making something new: salmon wellington. It turned out great and we invited our neighbor/landlord Mary next door to come over and join us. Our other kind neighbors across the way had invited her over earlier as well. After the passing of her husband last year, Mary is on her own and declining rapidly. Fortunately she has a lot of neighbors and friends looking out for her. Her son is coming in town in May to help transition her into an assisted living facility, which really seems like the best thing at this point. He'll be cleaning out her space, then renting it out to someone else, and then he'll hand over landlord duties to a property manager.

What Else Is New

Rob: I took Alex to get donuts one last time at a little roadside market that is sadly closing down. Their donuts are made fresh on the spot and pretty amazing. There was a long line of other people doing the same thing, ordering them by the dozen. So we had to come back later that night to pick them up because they were so backed up. Worth it though!

Alex: Alex has discovered a little deer trail at the edge of the yard that goes into the forest a short distance to a little creek. Now he insists on going in there at every chance and spends a lot of time there being lost in his imagination. Inevitably he gets muddy, and its also tick and mosquito season. But its hard to stop a boy from playing in the woods.

Becky:  I hosted a book club, which was was really great, though the book I had them read turned out to be a bit of a stinker in my opinion.  I made pork and veggie-filled Wontons and had apple ginger salad, edamame and ice cream filled mochi balls for apps.  Last book club I also did an Asian theme and made miso peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which were surprisingly tasty.  Always nice to get in a bit of social and it was a lively group:)