Jay’s week off is almost to an end. I’ll definitely be sorry to have him go back to work. It was fun having him around during the day. I think Kahlil will be sad for him to go back to work too. He is such a Daddy’s Boy! We finally got our car so we could venture a little further than the city center. It’s nice that we don’t have to kill ourselves to try and see everything Dublin/Ireland has to offer in just a few days. Over the last week we got a lot of rest and did some sight-seeing.
We went to Kilmainham Gaol (aka Jail). It was run as a prison from 1789 to 1924. As you might expect from a prison during this time period, a LOT of people died/were killed there over the years. It is also an important building in the fight for Irish independence from British rule. Kahlil was not very impressed. He was hungry (we should have had lunch before we went) and didn’t really find the commentary very interesting. I had to keep back a bit to feed him pretzels and keep him from moaning and ruining everybody else’s tour. I couldn’t help but find the irony in that I was breaking the rules – in prison – by having food.
We also made a trip to the Dublin Castle to see the State Apartments. This was quite a contrast to the Kilmainham Gaol! The Castle site has been built on since the time of the Vikings. The tour went through just a fraction of the building since much of the castle is used for government business like the tax office. We did see St. Patrick’s Hall where the Irish president is inaugurated every seven years. And the coolest thing we saw was the excavation they are doing under the tax office… There they found the Powder Tower, a tower of the original 1258 castle that blew up during a fire. While excavating they were surprised to find an even older wall that was built by the Vikings. Vikings sure did get around! Kahlil found this tour more interesting that the Gaol. He seemed to enjoy all the beautiful Waterford crystal chandlers and mirrors.
Yesterday we made a quick trip to the National Botanic Garden. Of course I loved it. Jay really enjoyed it. And Kahlil was a little unsure. He liked walking around but didn’t seem to have much patience; a longer nap might have made a big difference for him. There were several large Victorian glass housed that contained all sorts of tropical plants. Outside it was winter so there wasn’t much to see in the way of plants and flowers. Jay pointed out this is a good time of year to see the shape of trees – a golden lining I suppose. There were lots of beds of bulbs – tulips and daffodils – that might be just starting to bloom towards the end of our trip.
Now an update on Kahlil’s signing. As I mentioned before, he is pretty good with ‘more’. He uses this when every he wants something – whither or not he has already had some and can actually get more. He recently picked up ‘milk’. He is pretty good with this sign and seems to know what he’s asking for. I’ve tried to teach ‘water’ but he’s less interested in the outcome of using that sign. He also can do ‘all done’, ‘down’ and ‘bath’. He will use these at appropriate times, but he’s not always happy with the outcome. Sometimes he’ll ask to get down, but then be mad when you put him down. It was pretty amazing the other night though – we were finishing up dinner and he told us he was ‘all done’, wanted ‘down’, and a ‘bath’. We were stunned and couldn’t do anything but take him down and give him a bath. And he has FINALLY started to wave goodbye.
Tonight Carrie, Flor and Alex are coming over for dinner and a little New Year’s cheer. They just got here yesterday and aren’t fully recovered from the trip so it might be a quiet/short evening.
We went to Kilmainham Gaol (aka Jail). It was run as a prison from 1789 to 1924. As you might expect from a prison during this time period, a LOT of people died/were killed there over the years. It is also an important building in the fight for Irish independence from British rule. Kahlil was not very impressed. He was hungry (we should have had lunch before we went) and didn’t really find the commentary very interesting. I had to keep back a bit to feed him pretzels and keep him from moaning and ruining everybody else’s tour. I couldn’t help but find the irony in that I was breaking the rules – in prison – by having food.
We also made a trip to the Dublin Castle to see the State Apartments. This was quite a contrast to the Kilmainham Gaol! The Castle site has been built on since the time of the Vikings. The tour went through just a fraction of the building since much of the castle is used for government business like the tax office. We did see St. Patrick’s Hall where the Irish president is inaugurated every seven years. And the coolest thing we saw was the excavation they are doing under the tax office… There they found the Powder Tower, a tower of the original 1258 castle that blew up during a fire. While excavating they were surprised to find an even older wall that was built by the Vikings. Vikings sure did get around! Kahlil found this tour more interesting that the Gaol. He seemed to enjoy all the beautiful Waterford crystal chandlers and mirrors.
Yesterday we made a quick trip to the National Botanic Garden. Of course I loved it. Jay really enjoyed it. And Kahlil was a little unsure. He liked walking around but didn’t seem to have much patience; a longer nap might have made a big difference for him. There were several large Victorian glass housed that contained all sorts of tropical plants. Outside it was winter so there wasn’t much to see in the way of plants and flowers. Jay pointed out this is a good time of year to see the shape of trees – a golden lining I suppose. There were lots of beds of bulbs – tulips and daffodils – that might be just starting to bloom towards the end of our trip.Now an update on Kahlil’s signing. As I mentioned before, he is pretty good with ‘more’. He uses this when every he wants something – whither or not he has already had some and can actually get more. He recently picked up ‘milk’. He is pretty good with this sign and seems to know what he’s asking for. I’ve tried to teach ‘water’ but he’s less interested in the outcome of using that sign. He also can do ‘all done’, ‘down’ and ‘bath’. He will use these at appropriate times, but he’s not always happy with the outcome. Sometimes he’ll ask to get down, but then be mad when you put him down. It was pretty amazing the other night though – we were finishing up dinner and he told us he was ‘all done’, wanted ‘down’, and a ‘bath’. We were stunned and couldn’t do anything but take him down and give him a bath. And he has FINALLY started to wave goodbye.
Tonight Carrie, Flor and Alex are coming over for dinner and a little New Year’s cheer. They just got here yesterday and aren’t fully recovered from the trip so it might be a quiet/short evening.
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