Boston - Day Five

We had suspicions when a certain something was late so on our date night in the North End we stopped at a drug store to pick up a pregnancy test. A faint line on the right (left one is the "control") confirmed our suspicions... we are going to have an October 2012 baby! Hence the reason the blog is waaayy behind. Shortly after we returned home, morning all day sickness hit and certain things took priority over this ole blog (like laying on the couch instead). ha ha ha

 Anyway, onto the rest of day five in BeanTown. Derek and Dan went on some manly errands (Auto Zone, I believe) and Sarah and I pushed Abigail down to a local school playground. 

 She loved having the freedom to just run and play. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day. You would never have guessed it was February. We really lucked out with visiting Boston during a warm spell. Although their winter was a lot like ours in Michigan, just warm all around. 

 For lunch we headed to Redbones for some ribs. I was feeling adventurous and ordered a combo plate. Oh. My. Word. That was a LOT of meat! It was good, but I don't know what I was thinking. :) We had to get a picture of it. 

 One last picture with Auntie and Uncle before heading to bed (Sarah would be off to work by the time we awoke and headed to the airport). 

Boston - Day Four

On Monday we decided to do the tourist thing and head down to Quincy market for some shopping. 

 We had some cookies for for a snack and Abbi showed off her new skill: making funny faces:

 The backpack was great for shopping! We didn't have to maneuver a stroller through aisles or worry about little hands grabbing merchandise. 

 I got my lobster roll and chowda. Mmmmm.... 

 Then Abigail rode on Uncle Dan's back for a high view. We walked to the wharf and down by the aquarium. It was soooo busy because Boston schools had the week off but we just wanted to see the seals outside by the entrance. 

 Then we took the T back. Abigail liked riding the train and still talks about it. 

 That evening we had a special treat: date night! Dan shooed us out the door, he was so excited to have the kiddo all to himself I think (with Sarah too of course). :)

 We have a picture of me on the Freedom Trail (the red line on the ground) from a few years ago in the summer and the temp was in the 90's if I remember right. A little colder in February, but not freezing!

Boston Massacre site (sort of)

Fannuel Hall

 We had dinner at Lucia's on the North End and grabbed some Cannoli from Mike's Pastry before heading home. 

Boston - Day Three

We went to Hope Fellowship Church in the morning. 

 Watching airplanes take off from Boston Logan while we wait for our Brewery tour to begin.

 This was the initial plan for the tour: the backpack. 

 [I don't] Love Beer. Love Life. Harpoon. 

 We were going to squeeze in the tour before naptime rather than wait until after the nap. We never made it off that first section of the tour without someone holding her because she tried to climb out of the backpack! :) 

 After a long nap, we went to Newton to watch Sarah and Dan play soccer. 

 Abigail loved running around inside and pushing all the buttons on the arcade machines. 

 Having a picnic on the bleachers during the game. They won 7-0!

Boston - Day Two

watching some Elmo videos

 After some grocery stops at Trader Joes and Costco we went to the Boston Public Garden. 

 First stop: the ducks from Make Way for Ducklings 

 She thought they were cute but the other little "babies" that were there took more of her attention. 

 Then we stopped at a Starbucks to warm up. 

 Another walk through the garden on our way to Newbury Street. 

 We found a few things at H & M we couldn't go home without. 

We ended our day with dinner at Uburger. 

Boston - Day One

 We took a trip to Boston to visit family: Uncle Dan and Aunt Sarah (Sawah to Abigail)

 I tried to read up on tips for travelling with kids. We knew we wanted to bring a carseat along and didn't really want it to get too slammed around with checked luggage. Abigail flies free until she turns two so technically she would have to sit on our laps the entire flight. But I was hoping a mid-Friday flight would have some empty seats and... yippee, we lucked out! They let us use her carseat on the plane and it was great because she's used to being buckled in and she could be rear-facing and not kick anyone else's seat back!

 We wanted an easy way to transport the carseat through the airport though and if there were no extra seats it needed to be checked at the gate. An old collapsable, luggage cart to the rescue! Remember those things?

 It worked soooo slick! Abigail actually rode in it and thought it was fun to get wheeled through the airport backwards. It was great until the TSA guy tried to JAM our carseat through the safety check x-ray machine and broke their conveyor belt causing us all in line to be rerouted through a different one. Ugh! 

 She did like flying though and the pressure never bothered her because she was snacking a lot, especially through our ascent and descent.  The last 45 minutes or so she was annoyed by the confining flight and all our antics to entertain her and she would just throw the markers or whatever it was we had for her (but she was well past her naptime by then). 

Aunt Sarah picked us up at the airport and we headed back to her apartment for a nap. After Dan came home from school and we had some pizza we headed to the Boston Children's Museum. 

Making bubbles with Daddy

 Friday nights are only $1 admission instead of $12 so we joined the mass of kids and adults to play. 

No surprise, she found a baby doll to play with!

Kissing all her new "friends" (building her immunity?)

A night view from the museum

It was good to see family again and we all slept hard that first night!

"Jesus Loves Me"

Today, in the car on the way home from getting groceries, I started singing, "Jesus Loves me". She likes the song because when I say "Let's sing-- what song shall we sing?" she'll  always reply with a sing-songy Jesus. Today though, I stopped after the first line because she wasn't singing along. She knows how to sing those first three words with me. I figured she just wasn't listening... and then I heard a very small voice, not really singing or talking to me but just to herself, "dis I know... fo da babo tells me so..."

Tea Parties

I have class in GR every Thursday but it's just a bit too rushed to wait for Derek to get home from work so I can go to class. It would be even harder when the weather is bad. Plus, I dont really get to see him at all. So we invite ourselves over to Derek's grandparents in GR. They get to spend time with us and their great granddaughter and often times we even get a meal out of it (we definitely get the better part of the deal!). 

 Abigail loves to play with babies, make pretend food, and drink "tea". This tea set at her great grandmother's house is just adorable. 

 We all have to drink from it. She can tell when you are faking it and not trying very hard. "Mommy, dwink it. Dwink it, Mommy"