I'm Going to Have Mommy Friends!!!

(No pictures of said "friends" yet to share though!)

I had pretty much counted on only making friends at church and when none of them were stay-at-home moms (SAHMs), I pretty much gave up on having mom friends this year.  No biggie, just for a year, I thought.  I had even mentioned to my NC playgroup friends before I moved that I wasn't counting on making mommy friends, and one of them told me that she was praying for me to find friends in Boston - such a sweetie!  But since I wasn't planning on actively seeking out any kind of playgroup, I figured it wouldn't happen.

This story starts out kind of weird, unless you look it as God working in his mysterious ways!  About a month ago, Brian took the kids to the park one afternoon to give me a break.  He came home with another mom's name and phone number and email AND quite a bit of her life story to go along with it.  Now I occasionally exchange a few words with another mom at the park, but rarely get to the point of even exchanging names, much less getting contact information.  And Brian's not the kind of guy to chat up women he doesn't know, so this was pretty shocking to me.

Turns out that she is a new SAHM of a 2 1/2 year old girl and she started talking to Brian after her little girl was playing really well with Nathan and Sarah.  She said that her daughter never played this well with other kids and I guess when she found out that I was a SAHM too, decided to find out a little more about us to see if I might be friend material.  Brian said she was nice and seemed normal and like someone who I might like to be friends with.

So I figured it was worth a shot.  We exchanged emails and agreed to meet the next week at the library storytime that the kids and I usually attend.  The mom (A) did seem nice and normal and easy to talk to, and her daughter (E) seemed really sweet and my kids were REALLY excited about seeing E again.  A and her family were going on vacation the next week, but the following week we at a new park and again had a great time.  We had a really good conversation and Sarah and E had a blast playing house together.

Side note: I now wish google maps had elevation information on it.  The kids and I took the bus down the street a little ways and then it was supposed to be a 7 minute walk to the park from the bus stop.  But as we got off the bus, I gazed skyward at THREE BLOCKS of STAIRS leading up towards the park (well, I actually could only see two blocks worth of them at the time.)  Nathan led the way while I followed, lugging the folded stroller on one arm and holding Sarah's hand on the other side.  We all struggled up what I estimate to be 300 steps.  Yeah, no need for a gym membership - I get all the exercise I need just getting around this city!

So I met up with A again this morning along with a playgroup that she recently joined.  And all those moms seem really nice and eager to be friends.  I broke the news early on that we were only going to be here for a year and they said that they always seem to have those moms... that they were always really sad to see them go at the end of the year but that new one year-ers tend to come in to take their place.  And it even turns out that the playgroup is for Sarah's birth year.  So... yay!  Mom friends to hang out and talk with, to get advice on activities and winter survival, and friends for the kids to play with. So thankful for this answer to prayers that God made happen!

A Photo Shoot: Squeeze Paint Art Projects

I saw this art project idea on Pinterest forever and a year ago and it has been one of Nathan's absolutely favorites.  And once I figured out that I could "cook" the dough dry in the microwave or (even better) the oven, rather then sitting for days out on the counter, Mommy learned to love this too.

I bought some smallish "cake decorating" squeeze bottles and into them I mix 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup salt, 1/4 cup water and food coloring.  Then the kids go to town squeezing the paint and decorating their papers, which I quickly learned to place on dollar tree cookie sheets to contain the mess and make the artwork easy to bake.  We currently only have three squeeze bottles (too busy with life to make a run out to the nearest craft store for more), so they put their orders in for a first round of colors, then I make as many more rounds as they're attention span (or overflowing papers) can handle!

The problem that I have (first world parenting problem!) is what to do with the artwork when they're done with it.  The pictures turn out so HEAVY that I knew there was no way I could keep them.  And the weight problem also eliminated them as candidates to mail to grandparents.  But I wanted some way to remember this favorite art project of the kids'... so the camera and tripod to the rescue!

Here's our amusing photo montage:

A Photo Shoot: New and Exciting!

I already shared one of the series of self-portraits the kids and I took using my new tripod, but I though I'd back up and share the pictures we took when the tripod was brand spanking new. It's been over a month that we've had it now and I thought the novelty might wear off, but it definitely has not! Many, many days Nathan will ask to take pictures or a movie with the tripod so this will definitely be a new series on the blog.

I think for the very first photoshoot, I hadn't yet introduced the kids to the self-timer mode on the camera.  Here's Nathan and Sarah's first photo - neither of them were quite sure what's going on. 

Ok, now he gets it and is ready to cheese!

Nathan quickly moved on to wanting to become photographer.  Though the composition isn't the best (I was still learning too), I love these with me and Sarah!

And then Nathan wanted one more turn!

I'm definitely super excited about how many more pictures there are going to be with the kids AND ME now that we have the tripod. So to any moms who read this blog and may be considering purchasing one - DO IT!!

And then, because it was just so cute, I snapped a few photos (with my phone) of the kids playing photographer. I quickly realized, though, that this sight was going to give me heart attacks as I envisioned the camera toppling over!  Now we use the self timer so I can hold the camera steady while the kids press the shutter button and we all can still be a part of the picture.  Everyone wins!

Nathan the Photographer first checks the camera settings...

...then he checks the composition of the picture (I think this was a few days later when he took lots and lots of pictures of his trike)...

... and finally, time to walk around and press the shutter button!

More photo shoot pictures to come!

Surprise!

Didn't expect that, did you?!

Haha, Sarah's not at all potty training/trained yet, though she does love to sit on the toilet with Nathan's potty seat.  We've actually had two three (one more this morning) "successful" visits to the potty, one of each "kind" which were duly celebrated.  But this Mama is just too busy hauling the kids around Boston to get serious about potty training a toddler right now.  I took it as my personal mission in life to get Nathan trained before his second birthday, but I am purposefully NOT trying to meet that goal for Sarah.  (Though I sound sarcastic, that's actually how I felt with Nathan!  I thought that accomplishment would get me an "A" in Mothering or a gold star or something.  I have since realized that motherhood is neither a graded activity nor a competition!).  I do try and let Sarah sit on the potty when she asks (don't want to discourage her) but it's really nice that Nathan and I can both make it on an exploring outing in the city for the whole morning without having to stop and search for a restroom.  Plus taking a little girl to a public restroom is somewhat of a yucky-er prospect then a little boy!  I figure when the snow drifts are over the kids heads might be a more optimal time for some serious potty training.

In addition to this "somewhat milestone" report about Sarah, I'd also share a "somewhat milestone" about Nathan.  He stopped wearing diapers at night... for about 6 weeks.  The back story is that we had a couple of weeks where Nathan was leaking through his diaper VERY often at night.  My suggestion was to wake him up and  take him to the bathroom when Brian and I go to bed, which worked quite well.  So well, in fact, that Nathan seemed to be waking up dry every morning!  So after a while (a week or two?), I decided that we should try him in underwear at night.  In hindsight I don't think I paid close enough attention for long enough to his diaper status, but we had about 10 of his diapers left and were about to make a Target run, so I wanted to make the decision before buying him a new pack of diapers rather then after.  Because, you know, Target is the only store in the whole world that sells diapers so it was a "now or never" decision (sarcasm intended, but once again I'm giving you a peek into my actual thought process, illogical as it may be).  Note - there was also a quick Amazon purchase of a waterproof mattress pad somewhere during this time.

Unfortunately after switching to underwear, we had approximately twice weekly night wakings due to Nathan's accidents.  I thought that they would taper off as he got "used" to wearing underwear, but after about 6 weeks I finally got fed up with the extra laundry and middle-of-the-night hastle.  So last week we went back to diapers for Nathan at night.

I'm not sure when we'll try switching to underwear again, but in the meantime we are also working on instituting a suggestion of Brian's (ahem, that he made at the beginning of this whole escapade) - to get serious about eliminating milk for the kids at bedtime.  We had tried just drastically reducing the amount of milk in Nathan's cup, but that didn't seem to work.  So now my "rule" is no liquids after 7:00 pm.  And, contrary to my worries, we haven't had rioting from either child when I've had to deny them milk after that time.  But this week I'll be stocking up on diapers again at Target (or maybe just a small pack)!

Pure Childhood Happiness

These pictures from August sat almost untouched for a month because there were just so many that I loved. I finally decided I would just post them all, so prepare for an even more picture-heavy post then usual!

Since Brian's started back to work, I've had a flexible schedule in mind for the kids' and my weeks.  I like to do our big activities in the morning and then stay at home or visit a nearby park in the afternoons.  So we have: grocery day, museum/aquarium day, library day, stay-at-home-and-clean-and-do-laundry day, and one day a week I like to explore somewhere new in the city.  There's not a set day of the weeks that these all take place on (except Library Day on Thursday), I just plan our weekly schedule around the weather forecast and grocery needs. 

This particular week in August I didn't have inspiration for our "explore" day, so I asked Nathan the night before if there was anything he would like to do.  Well!  He informed me that we had been on the green line and red line and blue line (of the "T"), but not the orange line - and he wanted to go somewhere on the orange line!

I spent some time that evening looking at the orange line route and saw that one of the stops was near The First Church of Christ, Scientist.  The church was supposed to have some nice park-like grounds, complete with a reflecting pool and fountains for kids to play in.  (Actually the fastest way to get there was straight off our T line, the green line, but we spent some extra time on the T to fulfill Nathan's request for the outing!)

The first sight that greeted us upon arriving at the church was the lovely reflecting pool.

I almost felt like I was in Europe due to the beautiful architecture of the church!

At the far end of the reflecting pool, we found the fountains.  I thought the kids might want to play so I brought a change of clothes just in case.  And how fortunate that was because the kids had an absolutely amazing time playing in the water!  This next series of pictures can speak for themselves...

When the kids were finally all fountain-ed out, we changed clothes and scouted out a nice shaded spot to eat lunch.  During that scouting I spotted a very exciting sight for Mommy: a "Bon Me" food truck.  I had randomly watched a few episodes of The Food Network's Amazing Food Truck Race show a few years ago, and one of the trucks (I think the one that won) sold bahn mi's, a Vietnamese sandwich.  So I was pumped for the chance to try one for myself!  Here's Nathan holding our sandwich and a pair of chopsticks, which he requested I pick up from the condiment/napkin selection even though they weren't needed to eat our food. 

I LOVED the sandwich but (fortunately for Mama) the kids weren't a fan.  So while they dined on cheese and crackers and fruit and veggies, I inhaled my delicious sandwich.  However Nathan did find a use for his chopsticks - they are excellent for stabbing and picking up grapes

This was the view from our picnic spot, absolutely beautiful!

After lunch I mentioned that I would like to see inside the church and to my surprise Nathan was enthused about the idea.  As we walked around the far side of the church, we saw a man standing at the open door at the back of the church.  I chatted him up and he said that actually the small chapel (where we were standing) was open and had a service starting in 15 minutes that we were welcome to attend.  I asked if I could just take the kids up and see the church since we needed to head home soon for naptime. 

The chapel was beautiful inside and as the children and I sat in one of the back pews, I showed them the organ and the beautiful stained glass windows in the church.  An older gentlemen chatted with me in the sanctuary and then I talked with lady on the way out who was originally from North Carolina.  Everyone was super friendly!

We also found out that the main church didn't open until 1:00 pm that day, so a tour of that was out as well.  Nathan acted genuinely disappointed that we wouldn't be able to see it, so we'll try to make it back another day (strategically scheduled on a Bon Me truck day, of course!).

As we walked around the front of the church, a man randomly spoke to me and told me not to miss the sculptures scattered around the front of the church.  I'm so glad he did because I would have missed them and we hadn't seen anything like this before.  First there were "boulders" in the trees in one area...

...then behind them there were trees dressed up in giant clothes!

On our way back to the T we finally got a beautiful view of the font of the church.

Another successful exploring day!

Of Course He Did!

I wanted to share some good news that we got yesterday...

Brian smashed, oops I mean passed, the Anesthesia written boards that he took at the end of July.  Of course he did! 

Next step will be oral boards.  Brian's hoping to take them in April in... Chicago!  (Otherwise it will be in October in Chicago).

A Boston Tradition: The Italian Fisherman's Feast

Before we moved to Boston, I found out that every weekend in August a different festival was held in the North End (Italian) neighborhood of the city.  I wanted to try and make it to one, and it happened to work out that we went to the biggest of them all - the Fisherman's Feast.  This festival has been held annually in Boston since 1910 and has its roots in 16th century Sicily (source and more info here).  (BTW, I love looking up and learning more info about our activities in the process of writing these blog posts.  Definitely an unanticipated benefit of this hobby!)  We weren't really sure what to expect, but this is the view that we got as we came out from a side street onto the main road of the festival on Saturday evening.

We braved the crowds for a little bit before deciding our best course of action was buying some food and then finding a side street where we could all sit down on the ground and eat.  While the kids and I tried out our first selection of fried ravioli, Brian braved the crowds again for additional items.  The fried ravioli turned out to be the family favorite, but we also tried a fried rice ball filled with hamburger (never heard of this "Italian" food, but plenty of the food stalls were selling them - we, however, were not impressed), lamb kabobs and steak kabobs (also a favorite, especially with Nathan) and an Italian sausage with peppers and onions. 

Some kind passerby-ers took pity on me trying to get a shot of us and our food and offered to take a family picture.

Our main goal of the evening was eating, so after finishing dinner we headed back into the crowd for some dessert.  The kids were mesmerized by a huge table full of all kinds of caramel apples.  Of course they wanted the one rolled in sprinkles!  I got a cannoli and Brian got zeppole (fried Italian "doughnuts") for us to share.  We're doing our best to try all sorts of authentic food while we're here in Boston!

Though they both seemed to enjoy their apple, Brian had a bite and said it just tasted waxy from all the sprinkles.  Needless to say we had quite a bit left over to take home.  I stuck it in the back of the fridge, but when no one asked about it for two days, it had a quiet appointment with the trashcan. 

Before the festival, as we were walking from the T to the North End, we found a few gems.  First was the Haymarket produce market, where produce is CHEAP CHEAP (mangos 2 for $1, $1 pineapples, $1 for 6oz ORGANIC blueberries, and more)!  We stopped and bought as much as I could stuff into my backpack and then shoved a few more things into the bottom of the stroller (which Sarah proceeded to kick the rest of the night).  We've been back twice since then!

The other great find was these fountains at the North End Park!  We came back here for the kids to play after we had enough of the North End crowds.  They had so much fun running through the fountains and all around the park that we've made it a tradition to come here and eat dinner after shopping at the produce market, which we've done twice since.

Sarah was running towards me with her hand outstretched and I realized she was giving me a thumbs up!  First time I'd seen her do it!

More running and thumbs-up-ing.  Behind the kids is the view back towards downtown Boston. 

Oh the joy of running!

The tongue seems to come out often when she runs.

I just loved this expression on Sarah's face!

The North End Park may be one of my favorite places so far in the city.  It's so much fun to come with the family in the evening to eat and enjoy the water and grass and the beautiful view of downtown!