A Day in the Life of Winston

Yesterday was a Sunday, and Winston had a blast.

In the morning, we took him to Farmer’s Market on California Avenue in Palo Alto, where he watched the musicians play, the chickens roast, and the crepes being made fresh. He insisted on grabbing one of the small bottles of apple cider, so as indulgent parents, we bought the tiny bottle of cider for $4, and he immediately lost interest. He studied the small Japanese eggplants and other fruits and vegetables and ran around. When I stopped at a café to have a cup of coffee and a croissant, he also had a few bites of the croissant and visibly enjoyed the buttery and sweet taste of it.


Winston kneads the naan


Winston pities the poor chickens

Winston inspects the produce

Winston heads the cider heist

Winston commands the cafe

Then we set out for Alamo to visit a friend with two small boys. We had talked about getting together for months, but one thing or another led to the delay of this get-together for almost a year! I know – it’s completely ridiculous. Even now, winston’s cold has not gone away. But my friend said that she did not mind it, as her two boys had already gone through that rite of passage and are much more robust than before. The drive was overall fine, but I was exhausted at the end, as I had to keep getting new toys out of the bag, read books or do other things to entertain Winston, or else he would whine out of boredom.

After an hour's drive, we arrived in Alamo, which is a really beautiful bedroom community. My friend’s house is full of all kinds of toys. Initially Winston was a bit shy and scared by all those strangers, but he got used to it. He loved eating the shrimps and salmon and rosemary potatoes. And he was roaming around the house happily. My friend commented that he was looking more and more like me. Indeed he’s such a little mommy’s boy. When he saw me from a distance, his mouth would open wide into a huge grin and run towards me. He’s so adorable.


Winston plays with the non-toy

Winston soaks in the scenery

After feeding him milk, we said goodbye to our hosts and started driving back home. He was tired and unhappy and cried a bit because it was too sunny in the car. Then he fell asleep. Poor Winston still coughed a couple of times during his sleep as his nose is still runny and he got woken up by his own cough a couple of times. He slept about an hour in total until he got woken up by my cough – yes I caught his cold and I also have not recovered. Since he did not want to go back to sleep, we took him to Palo A lto Junior Museum and Zoo where he could look at the raccoons, the bobcats, the geese, the ducks, the rats, the mice, the rabbits, the birds and a peacock. He played with some of the gadgets too. Because he fell into a puddle, we had to drive him back home to change his pants and then decided to take him to the Stanford Shopping Center, as it was going to get dark soon.

Winston turns the turbine

At Pottery Barn Kids, he was thrilled by the toys there and was constantly getting into other people’s way to reach the toys he wanted. Because he was so absorbed by the toys, he did not even go after the bathroom door often. My major concern right now is that he seems to be only interested in opening and closing doors whenever he goes to a park. But Pottery Barn Kids clearly has enough distraction for him!

Winston rides the Pottery Barn cow

Winston brews the imaginary coffee

Winston beguiles the baketresses

So that’s a day in Winston’s life. I wish that I could say that he often has such full and exciting days, but in reality I have been too delinquent as a mother to take him to many places. Most of the time he’s with the nanny at the same parks and playgrounds every day, coming home to the same toys and books every day, watching the same TV programs while eating his meals every day.