It was stressful, poopy, and lacking in any semblance of
sleep schedule, but with the help of good friends and being a freaking
spectacular kid, Jack managed to get me home again with most of my sanity in
place.
It was such an adventure - so many new things and people and
modes of transportation! Jack smiles at almost everyone and is talk-a-tive to the extreme sometimes,
not that we have any idea what he’s gabbering on about.
He has also in the last month gotten much more confident and
explorey. Of course, this made plane travel a little more challenging, but with
a little nap, the joy of pulling everything out of the seatback pocket five
hundred times and by the power of one. goldfish. cracker. at. a. time. for. an.
hour. we made it through the first leg, touching down in New York.
Last time we were in New York Jack was just a zygote and I
was refusing to believe I was pregnant. Guess what? … I was!
On our next flight, Manhattan to Boston, he fell asleep
almost as soon as we took off and slept all the way to touch down. That was my
last opportunity to just sit and think, to contemplate babies and quiet and
calm and coastlines.
We were raring to go once we got off the plane, though, with
some serious wiggles! Our friend Cassie met us at the airport and we didn’t
stop going the whole week it seems. We tried to limit our sightseeing/activity
to one thing a day, with some addendums along the way. It will be awhile before
we can do our patented full steam-ahead approach to vacations, but at the same
time it’s kinda nice. In fact, it’s very nice. And we have a ton of reasons to
visit Boston again! Yea!
Miss Cassie is so smart…she brought snacks with her to the
airport. It nice to be around someone
who knows me that well and still wants to be around me, someone who understands
how to, um, circumvent certain individual’s tendencies to let low blood sugar alter
their core personality.
And then she just kept feeding us!
We stayed in a funky, fun neighborhood that was so patentedly
New England I couldn’t believe it. Everywhere I looked I was smitten with
cuteness! In the early morning, I heard the bells of the church down the block
ringing in the hour.
She and her roommates were incredibly accommodating - they
pulled out all the toy and toy-like items they had stashed and let Jack go hog
wild. Of course, he preferred to crawl around naked trying to rip up his diaper
that he refused to let me put on him. That and their stacks of magazines proved
irresistible.
We went for long walks around her neighborhood and Jamaica
Pond and once to the Arboretum. There were so many babies and dogs at the pond
there was always something fun to see. And there were still some lilacs and
other flowering trees blooming, which was really beautiful.
Friday I wanted to go on a harbor tour - Jack’s first boat
ride! (which rounded out his experience with buses, trains, planes and
subways!) We walked around the area briefly and stopped at Mike’s Pastry beforehand
- so many gigantic cannolis and so many flavors! It’s a good thing we were in a
time crunch because I could have spent way too long contemplating my options.
It was fun to see all the ladies behind the counter tie up
the boxes with string from spools hooked up to the ceiling. Our lady gave us an
almond sprinkle cookie for Jack. Instead of explaining that he’s too young for
sugar, I graciously took it and Cass and I split it later. No good deed goes
unpunished.
The harbor tour was fun, even though Jack slept for half of
it. The tour guide highlighted various places with interesting anecdotes. My
family went to Boston when I was about 13 or 14 and it’s was incredible how much
I’d retained without realizing it. Memory is so weird.
We got a calzone the size of a pizza box from a place Cassie
goes to at least once a week. We walked in there with Jack (who looks
considerably more like Cass in his coloring than he looks like me) and the
woman who took our order was really confused. She thought he was Cassie’s kid
and she’d never brought him in, just left him at home while she ran around town.
That was fun explaining….
And we got to meet Willem and Aunt Mindi! They took the bus
down to Boston on Saturday. We met them at the Boston Public Library, which has
beautiful murals and architecture. There was an exhibit of their print
collection which I could have spent hours poring over and a history of children’s
literature which I could have looked at for days, but by then we were starting
to get hungry and a little cranky. We sat out by the fountain courtyard that’s
in the middle of the library while Mindi changed Willem into shorts and we sat
in the shade for a bit, just sort of enjoying the moment. Willem is so sweet
and cuddly. Contrasting to my beast who was trying to wiggle out of my lap and
make a bee line for the fountain…
We did a little shopping, trying to find a suitable outfit
for Willem. We didn’t have much luck, but it was nice to walk around and see
all the shops and people and street performers out on Newbury Street on a
beautiful sunny day. Also, I think this trip will be the first in recorded
history in which I did not buy anything for myself. This is shocking, but facts
don’t lie. Unless you consider the cute little Red Sox hat I bought Jack that
he refuses to wear. I guess that’s sort of like a present for me. Also a
present - the delicious ice cream we got
from Emack and Bolio’s, though I should have splurged on one their insane
looking waffle cones.
We ended that day just chilling in Copley Park beneath the
monolithic cathedral. Dogs ran around, jumping into the fountain, and then a
hoard of one thousand zombies walked by. I think they must have been at the end
of a run, since most of their make-up was sloughing off. Quote of the day: “Get
down from that tree before you get arrested. Again.”
A few nights we just spent hanging out with Cassie’s
roommates, boyfriend, her roomate’s boyfriend, and various other friends who
stopped by “to see the baby!” We watched the sport games on tv - there was a
Red Sox/Phillies game and also Sixers/Celtics game at the same time. Oooo! But
it was fun doing the whole carefree-in-the-city-chillin-with-my-homies thing -
watching movies, making taco salad, talking and not stressing! How often do I get to do that in my life of
go, go, go, all the time? Blissful.
Sunday was very easy going. We hung out in the morning and
played and ate. That’s a good morning. In the afternoon we walked down to the Arb
and past a nunnery (we challenged Cassie to take a 5-minute vow of silence…and
then didn’t tell her when the time was up *evil giggle*), we tried out the ice cream
at J.P. Licks. I tried a sample of the chocolate hemp sorbet, which was, well,
grassy and not very appetizing. My scoop of oreo ice cream went down a whole
lot easier! Mmmm! Buskers fiddled in an old-timey, hipster bluegrass outside.
We met up with Mindi and Willem on Monday for a little more
shopping, and traveled to MIT to meet her husband and his colleagues for dinner
at The Friendly Toast. Sam and I had eaten at another branch of this chain when
we’d visited them in New Hampshire, so I was more inclined to make such a late night of it than I might otherwise be (hello 10 pm bedtime for the tyke).
Cassie was a little more hesitant, but when she realized it was breakfast food
she yelled at me for not saying so in the first place! And such good food (huge
slice of French toasted anadema bread - cornmeal and molasses) and the kitschy décor
is fun, too.
Jack was, once again, pretty much the ambassador for babies
and flirted shamelessly with our server (a skinny, blond haired, bearded dude
in a trucker cap) and the ladies sitting near us and just about anyone who passed
our table, between demanding bites of his egg hash and toast, that is. Good thing, too, since we were relegated to the end of the table and had nearly nothing to talk to about with the rest of the party.
It was a challenge, and proved impossible, trying to keep
Jack’s naps organized. He fell asleep in his stroller twice this trip - which
is 200% more than he’s ever fallen asleep in his stroller in the past 6 months.
Also, he was waking up at least once a night (those pack’n’plays
can’t be terribly comfortable) and, because I didn’t want him crying and waking
everyone else up, I’d let him nurse in the middle of the night, even though
that messed him up in the morning. On Sunday he nursed and napped for two hours
in the morning; he refused to be put down (I got caught up on what Martha Stewart
recommends for Christams decorations and gift giving ideas…). Then on Tuesday
he woke up early, ready to play, and
then napped from 9-11. We had to wake him up, which I hate doing, because we
wanted to go to the Samuel Adam’s Brewery tour before we headed home.
The tour was really fun, and I think worth it, even though I
made Cassie and Jack slog through the rain to get there. Jack kept waving and
screeching at the tour guide because he was gesturing and talking, but not acknowledging
Jack. I think he had a good time, though. I know I did - a quick pint and a
half in the tasting room and I was feeling pretty awesome!
So many things were interesting just because they were different.
Jack got his baths in a plastic tub that just barely fit him, which looked hilarious.
On one of our walks we passed a church yard where a man was weed-whacking around
the gravestones - and leaving all the wild flowers that were popping up across
the yard.
With all the eating and disruption, though, Jack’s digestion
got pretty messed up. Tell you what - you haven’t lived until you’re logging
into your pediatrician’s website at four in the morning to determine if you
should wake up your friend and take your baby to the ER. That was great fun.
But I decided he was fine and over the course of the next
two days he got somewhat back to normal. Until the last leg of our trip, when
the child exploded in poo just as we pulled away from the gangway for our two
hour flight home. It was all up his back and soaking into his shirt! I corralled
what I could and got into the restroom as soon as possible (30 minutes later) to
clean him up. Got back to our seats, put a fresh outfit on him, and -BAM- time
to head back to the lavatory for round two!!!! He was finally able to get to
sleep, curled up on my shoulder after fighting it for 40 minutes and then we
landed. Egads.
And there are two middle-aged men about there who helped me
with my baggage and stroller. Those guys are my favorite!
Our last day in Boston was Jack’s 11-month birthday (and the
incredible in-flight poo incident). I know he won’t have any memories of this
trip, but I’m so glad we went for it and had such a (mostly) fun time visiting
our amazing friend. I can’t wait for our
next adventure!
