Boston - September 26

We got up fairly early. Liam was a bit under the weather still, so we let him sleep. Meanwhile Marisa's new computer arrived. Unfortunately HP hadn't finished configuring it and  we spent a long time on the phone trying to sort it out. We eventually escaped and decided to go to lunch at John Harvard's. This was very good again. We spent the rest of the day picking up things Marisa wanted from various places. I finally managed to get her anniversary gift, which had been set aside at the shop since last Thursday.We picked up some pizza for dinner and went back to the hotel.

Boston - September 25

We set off to have breakfast at IHOP in Shrewsbury. We followed the directions, but somehow I managed to turn off into St Annes Church yard just before a service. We turned around and then tried to escape the way we came. This was one way, so we drove around the car park again looking for an exit. I remarked that someone was trying to tell me something.

After going around the houses (literally) for about 10 minutes we arrived. We had a bit of a wait until we were given a table. I ordered the corned beef hash omlette. This came with hash browns and 3 large pancakes. Marisa also had an omlette. We managed most of it between us. Liam helped a little bit, but most of what he had he left on the floor.
After this we travelled north to the Davis Farmland. Here we saw and fed the llamas, sheep and goats. Liam went in the pygmy goat pen and was enjoying the baby goats. They had several rare species, such as a Highland cow. We also saw the chicken coop and reptile house. Liam was fascinated with the cockerel.

Following this we went to the apple orchard and picked a half peck. They had macintosh and courtland apples in the field. They also had a tub full of pumpkins. We went back to the farm and had lunch before the Birds of Prey demonstration. They had several Bs of P including the Great Horned Owl, Screech Owl, Turkey Vulture, Red Tailed hawk, Peregrine Falcon and Kestrel. They had all been permanently injured as a result of the impact of man and so were being taken care of in a permanent animal shelter.

We took a slightly longer route back to Natick and then a little later drove to Chef Orient and had a very nice hibatchi meal. Liam was staring at the chef as he twirled his knives, banged and clashed his equipment and then jumped back when the chef built the onion ring volcano. Unfortuntely he got rather fussy during dinner so we had to pass him back and forth. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel.

Boston - September 24

After a night where we all saw every hour we tried to sleep in a bit. We then visited Home Depot, had some McDonalds and Christmas Tree Shops and set out for Wrentham to meet Carrie, Peter and Ellie. The GPS irritated us during this trip - we took forever to drive through Framingham thanks to people who had difficulty using the roundabout.

The outlet mall parking lot was rammed. It took us about 20 minutes to find parking. It was great meeting each other's little ones for the first tome. we did some shopping but the stores were really crowded so we walked out of quite a few. The kids benefitted the most from the shopping...and I did pick up some deals at Kate Spade.

We headed to Natick for dinner. Unfortunately Cheesecake Factory had a very long wait. We tried another restaurant and finally settled on chinese and thai food at the Food Court. It was still fun and the kids were too adorable.

Boston - September 23

After breakfast in the restaurant we were running late for my eye apppointment in Brookline. I jumped out of the car and ran to the office and was about 15 minutes late. After a quick appointment (my eyesight is still the same) I then had to choose frames. At that point Aidan was there with Liam. I held the very tired little boy while Aidan and the Lenscrafters guy sorted out what would look best on me.

We had an hour to kill until my glasses were ready. So we went to put more money on the meter and what do you know.... we had a ticket. The meter had expired 5 minutes ago... Oh well. So we put more money in the meter and went for lunch at Friendly's.

Feeling better about the world we then drove to the New England Aquarium. We had a great time. Aidan loved the penguins. Liam slept through moost of the visit but seemed to like the penguins when he was awake. We got him a stuffed rock hopper which he really likes. We left to find parking surprise #2 - parking cost us $35 for 2 hours and a bit. Aidan was livid and I was speechless. Apparently if we went to dinner nearby we could have gotten the ticket validated... anyway!

We headed to Cambridgeside Galleria to have dinner with my roommate from my post-Spelma , pre-Babson days. It was so good to catch up and Cheesecake Factory was great!

Liam - Week 39

Date/Week: September 21st; week 39 

My Total weight gain/loss: 

His Stats:

Milestones: 2nd trip abroad.  Crawling on the grass (hates it).  

Developmental Progress:  He's doing a proper crawl but I think he finds it slow;  Climbed down off of a chair; waving is looking more and more like a wave

Energy level: Not much sleep because it has been a difficult teething week. So far the trend has continued into our vacation with the addition of a cold...

Thoughts and Feelings? I have no idea how people travel with more than one kid. It's like we were flying with the whole house. Getting to the rental car was insane. Still, I must say that travelling with a 9 month old has been fun thus far... he likes to travel

What I am looking forward to: Enjoying Boston - the Aquarium, Salem, etc.

Boston - September 22

It was a long, long night. Liam has a cold or an ear ache and is teething... and it's not fun. We were up every hour. We did manage to not start our day proper until 8am. We were all bleary eyed at breakfast but enjoyed the Hampton Inn hot breakfast.

We first headed to see my fibroid removal doctor at Brigham and Women's. It was good to see her and Liam was his charming self. We then headed to Babson and spent the afternoon there. It was nice being on campus and I honestly believe that I did not enjoy the campus to the full extent when I was there.

We spent the balance of the afternoon at the Mall. It's our anniversary and I still had to buy a gift for Aidan (I'm awful... I know). The guy in the Brookstone store was teasing me because I was the first woman that he had to help 'find a gift' on the anniversary day (yes, I feel great about that too).

Aidan got us dinner from Cheesecake Factory while I worked on getting a very overtired and sick Liam to bed. We're hoping for a quiet night...

Boston: September 21

Ord day did not start like a vacation day. I had to go into work and Aidan had to run around with Liam in tow. Due to that, the morning flew by. I was picked up at noon in Hamilton and was greeted by an overstuffed car. The wonders of travelling with Liam. I truly do not know how anyone travels with more than one kid. We managed to stop and see all of the grandparents before finally being dropped off at the airport by Aidan's dad. I guess that's when vacation really began...

Check-in was simple and we checked everything including the carseat and stroller through to Boston. Liam was pleasant through the whole thing. When we finally got through security we took Liam to the children's play area and he had a grand time with the other kids. He also started crawling on his knees consistently (and has continued to do so all day). We then boarded a very empty plane to Boston. It meant we were able to really spread out. Liam was great. He didn't cry or fuss at all. he played in the seat with the seatbelt and even climbed off of the seat. He did knock over Aidan's juice but it wasn't a total mess. He eventually slept through to Boston and was excellent during the landing.

Once we landed we had to get our car and then deal with rush hour traffic. It all went smoothly though. Our hotel is great. Nice spaceous room and a crib for Liam. We went to the natick Mall and did dinner at CPK tonight. Off to bed now because our anniversary is tomorrow!