Tuesday in Boston

Playing with trains at the children's museum

with Mommy and Daddy

The Make Way for Ducklings statue in the Public Garden

Meeting Oliver

Playing with Oliver

Emily's first kiss!!!

Sharing some cheerios and goldfish

Looking out the window together

We had a great Tuesday in Boston. Emily and I met Greg at the Children's Museum after Emiloy had napped and Greg had attended some talks at his conference. She had fun in the playscape which was for kids under 3, but the rest of the museum was a bit too big for her, she couldn't reach things! After that, we all had lunch and Greg went back to his conference and Emily and I went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.

After Emily's nap, we met up with Chris, Danielle, and Oliver. Emily and Oliver are one month to the day apart and were so adorable together. Emily got her first kiss from Oliver and the shared some cheerios and goldfish together. And they played really well together. It was the first time that I've seen Emily doing a little more than just parallel play. They also enjoyed looking out the hotel window at the trucks and buses below.

It was really neat seeing Oliver, but also interesting to see the differences between boys and girls at this age. Emily is very into her hat and shoes. Since it was cooler, she loved having her sweater. She likes her accessories! Oliver, couldn't care less about a hat. He was really interested in the trucks and buses, which Emily doesn't give a second glance to.

We had a great visit with Chris and Danielle and loved meeting Oliver. We're hoping that we'll be able to see them again sometime soon!

Monday in Boston

Hats in the morning!

On the swan boat

The frog at the playground

Hat at bedtime

Emily started out Monday morning in Boston with both Greg's and my Red Sox hats on her head while still in her pj's. She must have known that we were on Boston and wanted to be a local. Greg needed to spend all day at his conference, so after she had her morning nap, she and I left on the T for the Museum of Science. We managed on the T quite well by ourselves. Emily didn't mind the subway at all and really liked to look at people until they looked at her and and then she would put her thumb in her mouth and bury her head in me. She made lots of "friends" on the subway and had lots of people waving hi to her. At the Museum of Science, I realized that I could get in for free since I'm a teacher and Emily was free since she's so young that it was a very inexpensive museum for us to visit. We went to the Discovery Center which is for kids 0-8 and had a lot of hands on things to play with. They had a special area within that for kids younger than 5 so we spent some time in there. We looked at a couple of books, saw a really big (fake) beehive, played with plastic fish in a vat of water that simulated river currents, and did a lot of exploring. Once we left that area, we checked out the math exhibit in the main museum, but Emily wasn't impressed by it and it was too much for me to read with a squirmy kid, so we did a quick walk through of the exhibits near us and then were on our way. I brought lunch for Emily and fed it to her before we left the museum and she and I had a similar ride back on the T as we had coming.

She took a good nap back at the hotel and after that we packed ourselves up in the stroller again and started walking towards a park that had been recommended to me as being good for toddlers. When we got to the park (30 minutes of walking), it was closed for reconstruction. We kept going a few blocks to the Public Gardens and took a swan boat ride. Emily was relatively unimpressed by the boat because she had to sit down, but once she and I worked out a way for her to stand with me holding on, she had fun. We managed to catch the last boat ride of the day, so after that we walked around Boston Commons to the playground there. The playground was a bit big for Emily and was geared towards older kids, but Emily had fun. I had to get up and help her on everything, but it kept me moving. Greg came and met us at the playground when he finished his conference and we all went to dinner back near the hotel.

As Emily got ready for bed, she had to have my Red Sox hat on her head again. So, she started and ended her day with the hats!

The Aquarium and Friends

On Sunday we met up with Bobbi and Jason and their 2 girls. The girls had gotten so big since we last saw them! They were very excited about Emily and were very good with her while we were together. We all met up with them at the Boston Aquarium. Greg had to leave for his conference shortly after we got together with them, but I had company for the afternoon. Emily enjoyed seeing all of the fish and sea animals in the big tanks at the Aquarium. Afterwards, we walked around Fanueil hall and then went into the North End for dinner. No Italian dinner is complete without some cannoli's from Mike's so we got a couple of those for the road before we headed back to the hotel for the night.

The Drive

Emily's first fast food lunch

Snack Stop

We went to Boston last Saturday for Greg to attend a conference. We decided to drive up there since it should only be a 4 hour drive without traffic. We got on the road nice and early Saturday morning and made good time until we got a flat tire about an hour from our house. We've waited till Emily is almost 18 months old to take a little road trip and our first road trip with a baby we get a flat. We had a tow truck come out and change it and then had to sit for a bit while it got repaired. Around the tire store were a few fast food restaurants so we decided to make our unplanned stop worthwhile and had an early lunch. This is the first time that Emily has had a fast food meal! She had chicken nuggets and got mandarin orange slices instead of fries and had some milk. As far as fast food meals go, it wasn't too bad nutritionally. The tire stop cost us about 2.5 hours. After we drove for another couple of hours and Emily had napped a bit, we stopped at a Panera Bread an hour and a half out of Boston. Emily sat just like a big girl on the chair and held her tray and ate pieces of a roll.

We drove back on Wednesday and had a less eventful ride. We did end up hitting a lot of traffic towards the end of the drive. The ride was shorter, but nowhere near the 4 hour time frame that we had hoped for.

Emily surprised us and was a pretty good passenger. We tried to stop every 2 hours or so, before she needed the stop so that she could move around and get the wiggles out of her. In the car she kept herself well entertained with a couple of toys. We did let her have her Molly monkey that she sleeps with and she loved that, especially since Molly usually has to stay in her crib.

Babies and New Shoes

After our bike ride on Sunday, we had some friends over for an early dinner with their 6 month old twins. We hadn't seen the boys since shortly after they were born, so it was fun to see how much they had changed. You can see Emily checking them out in the top picture. Emily was interested in them and kept saying "baby," but didn't try to interact too much with them. I held one of the boys on my lap for a bit at the end of dinner while Emily was playing on the floor and she did not want me to do that. She came over and put her hands up and made it very clear that she wanted up on Mommy, even though she usually would much rather play on the floor. She was happy to share her toys, but not her mommy.



Emily got new shoes. Again! Her first pair of adorable white sandals were getting pretty small so we went to the store and got her first pair of Crocs! They are so cute on her. I wasn't ready for a pair of sneakers since we still have at least a month left of summer. And these will be great to wear with socks as the weather gets cooler, also. Emily took a few minutes checking them out when we tried them on at the store, but then finally figured that they were ok to walk in. She loves them now. Even when we bought them, the lady gave her the bag and there was no getting it away from her. We'll need to look out, she's already developing a love of shopping! They sometimes fall off of her feet when we carry her, but she loves to walk in them and seems to be pretty comfortable.

Yesterday morning while Emily and I were still both in our pj's, she brought me my shoes from near the door, then brought me her new shoes to wear, and then a few minutes later she brought me her hat to help her put on. I don't know where she thought we would go, but we both had shoes on and she had a hat. I think Emily will be a big fan of playing dress up in the next couple of years!

Bike Ride!

Ready to go!

Playing in the tunnel at the playground mid-ride

Ready to head home again

We took Emily on a bike ride on Sunday. We didn't time it perfectly, but since she'd woken up late and still takes a morning nap, by the time we would have gotten out of the house after the nap, it would have been getting pretty hot, since the forecast was for around 90. So, we left and hoped for the best. Emily got a little fussy so we decided to go to a playground a little closer than where we had planned on going. It had a great toddler section, so it was really good for Emily. She loved crawling through the tunnel and could get all the way in it by herself which is a new accomplishment for her. She wore her yellow, Discovery Channel jersey, so she looked like a pro out there. She doesn't love the helmet, I think that is what causes the complaints that we here. She loves to put it on, but wants to be able to take it back off. We'll still get her out some more this year and hopefully by next summer she'll be able to understand that she has to wear the helmet and won't get so frustrated by it.

It is certainly a good workout for Greg and I (we pull her with our tandem). We were both pretty tired afterwards.

Piano Player

Tired after her performance!

Emily had such fun playing the piano at Grandy and Poppy's house. She played with the keys very gently and every now and then would bend over to look at the pedals. Only time will tell if we have a budding young piano prodigy on our hands. She has her own little 8 key piano at home to practice on!

Grandy and Poppy

Morning at the Zoo

On the big bug

Watching the elephants with Poppy

In front of the bears

Chilling in the stroller

We went to the zoo while we were in St. Louis. It had changed a lot since I'd last been there and was really nice now. It was really hot, so we got there by 8:30 and left around 10:30. Emily was exhausted when we left, but I think she had fun looking at everything. We tried to get her picture several different times, but she wanted nothing to do with being held by anyone to pose for a picture. She either wants to be on the go by herself or chilling in the stroller. She is certainlly becoming Miss Independent.

Lots of Food

Yummy pancake!

Nonnie fed Emily her snack one day. Emily is the third generation that Nonnie has fed.

Mommy's Old Toys

We had a lot of fun in St. Louis. Grandy and Poppy had an inflatable pool so we set it up in a shady area on the deck in the afternoons. Emily had so much fun playing in the pool, she finally started moving around in it a bit and playing with all of the water toys that we found in their basement.

One of Emily's favorite things to play with was the Toddler Taxi push toy (middle picture). Emily pushed it all around the house and loved to take toys in and out of the center part. Somehow in that picture she had lost the top to her jammies. I'm guessing she may have spilled on it while having breakfast.

On the lower level of the house we put most of the toys for Emily. She had a field day exploring all of these toys that were new to her, but most were at least 30 years old from when I was little.