BOSTON!

Growing up in Arizona, I spent a LOT of time with my cousins in the northern part of the state - Fred, Ken (whom you've seen here) and Dani. We used to travel the three hours to Flagstaff so my mom could french braid Dani's hair so she could compete in karate contests and flatten boys twice her age and twice her size - true story.

So, life goes on, they moved to Wisconsin, Dani played ice hockey at Princeton, she married a great guy (Jason) and moved to Boston. We both had kids around the same time and flash forward to now - we are FINALLY seeing each other after too many years!

Here's Dani... all grown up. No french braids.

But before I go on and on about what a fun trip we had, please allow me to GUSH about JetBlue Airlines. LOVE them! No charge for bags! No charge for gate checking a stroller AND a car seat! There were empty seats on the plane and they let me take Molly's car seat on, strap her in and enjoy an hour of quiet for NO CHARGE! PLUS, every seat has extra legroom and a video monitor in each seat back with over 50 channels of real time TV. Oh, AND an extensive snack and beverage list for - yes, you guessed it - NO CHARGE! Our round trip tix to Boston? 100 bucks. You should go to their website now because if JetBlue flies to your town, you can bet you'll be seeing us soon.

See? Here I am on the plane with earphones in, a baby I don't have to hold, and so much legroom I don't know what to do with myself.

Dani has two kids - Peter (4 1/2) and Calvin (14 mo). James & Peter became FAST friends. I don't think we were there for an hour when James laid his head on Peter's shoulder and said, "Peter, I love you." Peter confirmed that, although James was coming on a little strong, he too loved James and the two were inseparable from that moment on.

They did a lot of this:

and not so much of this:

There's a famous book, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. Here are the bronze ducks from that book in the Public Garden.

Little Calvin

I don't know why James thinks that tipping musicians is a speed sport, but he drops that money in like he's being chased.

We went to a Kids Science Museum, aka THE BEST PLACE EVER to James because it had an entire room of drums.

Note:

Peter - NOT a fan.

Molly had a fun trip too. She sat in a lot of leaves...

and on bronze frogs...

and on daddy's shoulders....

There was a "baby" section of the kids museum for her to crawl around in, play with stuff, use her brain. She loved it.

Yes, she is standing by herself here.

(Yes, we know life is over as we know it.)

While at the museum, we were asked if James might like to participate in a study on "ownership" for kids age 3-5. Not ones to shy away from experimenting with James' brain, we said yes. He did a great job - he sat still and answered all the questions. He also offered several alternative scenarios instead of answering the questions directly, causing the interviewer to have to get a pen and paper.

Jason's mom babysat (all FOUR KIDS!) on our last night so we could go out to dinner and actually hold a conversation.

Here's James making a spider web out of tape right before we left.... you know, to make it easy on her.

You Have No Idea

Hey, remember when you JUDGED me for going completely over-the-top for James' 3rd birthday? Here's a reminder: James' 3rd Birthday.

Yeah, turns out, that was N.O.T.H.I.N.G.

We went to good friend Max's 6th birthday a couple of weeks ago and we were blown away. It was a space themed party. The kids made real exploding rockets, they drank TANG, they discovered moon rocks. They received certificates for "completing the mission." Every single item in the goody bag was space related: Starburst candies, Moon pies, Milky Way candy bars.....

I would like to point out that at James' party, I made the kids decorate their own cakes. THIS was the cake at Max's birthday:

Oh, do not adjust your monitor. My friend, Susannah (Max's mom) MADE that. The sun was yellow cake and the moon was chocolate and the planets in between were fondant wrapped around styrofoam balls. It was gorgeous AND delicious.

There was a small hiccup at the party when Molly discovered she was wearing the same sweater as another girl. She begged me to take her back home to change. I mean really, how embarrassing! I taught her a lesson on "embracing it," but as you can see here - she wasn't buying it.

See what I am up against? You'll have to get used to reading shorter posts now as I obviously have some prep to do for James' 4th birthday..... SEVEN months from now.

Surprisingly....

.... no one was injured during this bathtub experiment.

"Hey, wouldn't it be easier to just give them both a bath at the same time?"

Of course, Molly LOVED it.

James just kept saying, "is Molly done with the bath now?"

But I think maybe he loved it too.

It's His Thing.

It's my un-tested, un-researched, un-documented theory that every parent has their "thing." The thing that makes their hair stand up on end every time their kid does it. The thing that drives them batty and makes their left eye twitch. For me, it's the thing that makes me roll my eyes.... A LOT.

While manners and the inability to focus on ONE TASK are high up on the list, banging is number one. NUMBER ONE. And let me tell you, three year old boys like to bang on things a lot.

So guess, JUST GUESS, what James' favorite new activity - actually occupies him for long periods of time - is?

Oh, you betcha.

DRUMMING.

L.O.V.E.S. it.

This is a special "silent drum" that Uncle Kevin has. You listen to what you're playing on the headphones. This does seem like the perfect answer to James' new hobby/my eye rolling until you get to the price tag. Uh, not so much.

But it's not just Uncle Kevin's fancy drum kit, it's all drumming, all the time. ANYTHING can be a drum. My legs, overturned pots and tubs, the trash can... James even took a small metal tin and filled it with something and named it his snare drum.

Here he is playing his "drums" in the playroom. Please note the metal tin "snare drum" and magnifying glass "cymbals."

Exactly buddy, exactly.

Molly 9 Months Old and VERY Important

Setting aside your political opinions (Grandma, this means you) - how cool is this? In case you can't see it...

It's a letter.

For Miss Molly Catherine Coyne.

From the White House.

Yes, THAT White House.

Inside: Welcome to the world! Your arrival is a cause for great celebration for your proud family. We wish you a long and happy life filled with chances to learn, ideas to explore, people to love, and dreams to fulfill. Sincerely, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama

In case Molly ever asks.... No, not just ANYBODY can get this for their kid. No, we didn't send a birth announcement to the White House. It's just her. She's that special.

Got it?

FALLing Behind

Ha! Get it?

I was not kidding when I said Fall is chock full of activities around here. But not every outing has an adventure story (surprisingly, given the personalities of these two kids...) so I am just posting a whole bunch of pics and a little background to give you an idea of what we've been up to. I mean, really, stop right now and go get a cup of coffee - this is going to be a long one. Chock. Full.

This fall, poor James and Molly have been doing a lot of POSING and not well, I might add. There is no leaf pile, no pumpkin patch, no funny fake train that I will not put my kids in and make them pose. "Open your eyes!" "Molly!" "Molly!" "James, look at me!" "No buddy, a NICE smile." "Molly!" I ended up with about 400 photos of James with his eyes closed and 200 pictures of Molly trying to eat leaves.

See?

But we forgive her because she can rock those pink (faux) Uggs - how cute are those boots?!

The beginning of Molly's costume...

This is a pumpkin patch outside of James' school. I told him we could pick out a pumpkin....ANY pumpkin and THIS is what he chose.

The smallest Charlie Brown runt pumpkin in the whole patch.

Total cost: one whole dollar.

See?

This is the Burke Pumpkin Playground we went to (twice!) last year.

Brian didn't get to go last year. I bet James is pretty happy he was able to this year so they could go down the huge slide together....

...and so Brian could roll James down the side of a hill inside a big dirty plastic tube.

Good times.

Big boy doing the slide all by himself.

No wait, there's more. I think we ended up with over ten pumpkins this year from various activities, patches, and decorative purposes.

We let James "design" the pumpkin this year by him telling us what shape he wanted everything to be. He had absolutely no interest in touching any of the "guts." There is a chance I should have chosen another word for the stuff inside the pumpkin....

While I did all the dirty work, he colored a pumpkin for our front door.

The finished product:

Kind of spooky for a 3 year old, no?

Trick or Treating....

In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.

One Sunday morning, the warm sun came up and -pop! - out of the egg came a tiny and Very Hungry Caterpillar.

He started to look for some food.

On Monday he ate through one apple.

(blah blah blah blah blah blah)

He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself.

He stayed inside for more than two weeks.

Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out and...

he was a beautiful butterfly!

(Eric Carle)

We did our square block of neighborhood houses and then ventured a couple more blocks to the biggest Halloween street party I have ever seen. Streets were closed, police officers were on duty and the candy was endless.

No matter how loud it got or how big the crowds were, James always did his rehearsed routine:

"Trick or Treat!"

"Thank you!"

"Happy Halloween to you!"

This last part, he would repeat over and over and louder and louder until he was acknowledged by the candy giver.

Molly with neighbor Pilar:

The loot: