It was a Great Day...

Back in January, we purchased tickets for Avery and I to go to Boston to see the Fresh Beat Band live in Boston.  Unfortunately, we could only get 2 tickets, so Josh didn't get to come.  However, even though we missed him, it resulted in a great girls' day out!  We decided to keep it a secret from Avery until the morning of.  Needless to say, she was really excited - a bit confused at first, but excited nonetheless.  Here is she all dressed up to go (if you look closely, you will see her clip on earrings that she insisted on wearing...)

The concert started at noon, so I took advantage of the opportunity and decided to go out for a big, greasy breakfast before driving up to Boston.  I mean, clearly this was the best way to keep her full and to avoid any possibility of a hunger-driven meltdown (not to mention, to satisfy mom's craving for a big, greasy breakfast)...

After breakfast, we drove to Boston.  Man - one would think that I had never been in that city.  I was so freaking lost, it was sad.  But, we managed to make it in plenty of time.

As you can imagine, it was complete chaos once you entered the doors of the theater. I think that every kid in New England was there that day.  Holy crap.  And, not only was every kid in New England there, but every kid in New England was purchasing these....for TEN DOLLARS!!!!!

I still can't get over the fact that those things were $10 - such a racket.  BUT, it worked because EVERY kid had them. I hate to think about what some of these parents paid for this concert in total.  Considering, we paid $60 for the tickets and were in THE.LAST.ROW.OF.THE.THEATER...

It was actually rather comical - when we walked up the first flight of stairs, I handed our tickets to the woman at the theater and she just gave me this pathetic look and said that we could be continuing up another 2 flights of stairs, so to just keep going until we could go no further...she wasn't kidding! 

It actually turned out well because Avery is still getting to the point where she is OK with loud noises, so the further away the better with this stuff, I think.  And, we could still see the show just fine.

For those of you who know Avery, she isn't the type to go nuts and dance in the aisle at things like this.  Instead, she tends to analyze the situation a bit from a far and enjoys it at her own pace (she is truly Josh's daughter in that sense).  She did sing to pretty much every song that they played, which was really cute.  And, don't worry - I made up for the lack of movement - I was THAT mom who was dancing and singing to the entire thing (clearly the last row in the theater is a good place for me to be as well...).  Sorry about the sideways video...



After the show, we went out and sat in Boston Common for a bit to try to figure out what we were going to do for lunch.  And, as I was sitting there, I realized that there was a T Stop right there, so we decided to ride the T!  Something I hadn't done in forever and I figured she'd get a kick out of it...

It happened to be 80 degrees and sunny in Boston that day, which was perfect weather to walk around and to sit outside and have lunch.  It was great - I had a glass of wine and we had lunch out on the patio at a restaurant on Boylston Street.  It couldn't have been any better.

After lunch, I promised Avery that we could go to Ben and Jerry's on Newbury for some ice cream...

And, after that, we got back on the T, but before we did, there was a homeless guy standing on the landing of the stairs going down to the T, so putting my "mother of a girl who is going to catholic school and taught to be kind to all people" hat on, I gave her some money to put in the man's cup. I have to say - she impressed me.  On the way home, she told me that I have to be sure to find that man again the next time we are in Boston because she has a lot more money that she wants to give to him.  I thought that was really sweet.  Granted, she still doesn't really understand the true meaning of money (and the fact that it is actually my money that she is talking about handing out to everyone and anyone), but the fact that she was being so giving was very sweet.

Needless to say, it was a very long day and she was exhausted.  She slept for the second we got in the car until we got home (which was approx 2 hours). 

Although it was a long day, it really was a great day - the concert was great, the weather was great and the company was great (my round face in this picture?  not so great. please disregard). 

Talk About Taking Me Literally

You'd Think We Would Learn

Well, it has happened.  Today, as we were leaving the house, I realized that I had forgotten to give Alex his medicine and as I realized this and said it out loud, Alex's response?

"Oh, Fuck!" 

I should have known.  It happened right around this time with Avery as well (actually, probably a bit younger with her).  I blame Avery's potty mouth on Josh.  However, unfortunately, I have to take full blame for this one.  Because, you see, Alex has been REALLY challenging lately.  He has been sick all week, so I'm sure that is the culprit, but man!  I mean, things like, today, he was putting carrots in Deacon's Kong before we left the house and I helped put ONE carrot in - "I WANT TO DO IT"  MELTDOWN!!!!!!!!!  Or,  when I went to pick up his hat from the ground so that we could get into the car - "I WANT TO DO IT!" MELTDOWN!!!!! So, I put it back on the ground so that he can pick it up - "WELL, DON'T PUT IT THERE!!!!!!!"  MELTDOWN!  I mean, it truly is unbelievable.  And, up until this point, he has never uttered a bad word and obviously - yes, I realize that it is totally wrong to swear in general - much less in front of your two-year-old.  And, it isn't like I've been screaming profanities around him.  But, I will admit - especially in the last week or so, there have probably been a few times when some not so nice words have been said under my breath.  Well, apparently, he heard those words.  I took the same approach we did with Avery - just ignored it.  Let's hope this works.  Knowing Al, it won't be that easy.  Fuck.

 

The Things We Do For Our Kids

As most of you know, Avery is attending a Catholic School.  As most of you also know, I'm not Catholic.  Not only am I not Catholic, but I have never really practiced any religion.  We were that family who went on Christmas and Easter (I think?) growing up.  Now, that isn't to say that I'm against religion because I'm not.  It is just something that I'm not 100% comfortable with because I just don't know much about it. 

So...now you are probably wondering why we are sending her to a Catholic school?  Well, the primary reason is because she is going to get an amazing education there.  Whether that is because it is Catholic or whether it's because it is private, or whether it is just this school specifically, I'm not sure.  But, I do know that they are already learning things that I probably didn't learn until I was in at least 4th or 5th grade.  Secondly, Josh went there growing up and turned out pretty ok.  Third, we are not huge fans of our local school district, so really, the only option was to send her to private.  And, since Josh went to this school and loved it, it just made sense to send her there.  Not only that, but it is also about $7K cheaper per year than the other private school options.  And, while I'm not 100% comfortable with the religion thing, I do think that it is good to introduce it to her and to let her decide how far she wants to go with it when she gets older. 

Well, as you can imagine, since it is a Catholic school, Avery is learning about religion.  They don't go nutso with it - she is really just learning that God wants you to be a good person and wants you to be nice to others, etc.  However, she is also learning prayers, songs, the story of Jesus, etc.  And, I have to say, she is really enjoying it.  Now, again - I don't know much about the Catholic religion, so it is slightly awkward when she asks me if I know Hail Mary and I have to say no.  But, at the same time, I have explained to her that I am not Catholic, so I never learned these prayers and that is an ok thing.  While I fully support her learning about religion, I also want her to know that it is ok if some people aren't quite as religious and that we aren't going to hell because of it (ok, so I haven't used those exact words, but you know what I mean).  Now, with all of that said, I knew full well that there would be a time when we would have to become a bit more involved in the religion side of things at school.  And, that time was last weekend.

I had received a flyer about Family Mass at the school, which was followed by a pancake breakfast. As you can imagine, I just kind of skipped over the details and went on my merry way.  Well, apparently the teachers mentioned it in class because Avery very excitedly came home one day asking, "Mom, did you know that they are having pancakes at school this weekend?"  Awesome.  Now, getting two of us motivated on a Sunday morning to get dressed up and out the door in time for Mass is hard enough - we weren't about to try to get all 4 of us dressed and ready.  Not only that, but we didn't really want to deal with a 2 year old at mass, so it was decided that one of us would take Avery.  Now, one would think that it would only make sense that Josh would go since he's the Catholic one, but shockingly, not only did he not jump at the opportunity - he didn't even flinch at the opportunity.  So, this, combined with my mommy guilt for not knowing who the hell King Herod is resulted in me accompanying Avery to mass.

Overall, it wasn't too bad.  Just a few minor incidents along the way:

1.  At one point, Avery wanted to be picked up, so I was holding her and standing during one of the (500000) times that we had to stand during the service.  Well, as I was holding her, she had her hand on my back and then came across my bra and decided to SNAP IT IN THE MIDDLE OF MASS!!!!!!!!  Seriously?  And, no - we weren't in the back row.  We were in the 3rd row with 10000 people behind us. 

2. Communion - 1) She hasn't received her first communion and 2) well, I'm not Catholic (just in case you forgot that) so, what in the hell are we supposed to do during communion?????!!!!!  I was seriously panicking when the time came.  Well, thankfully a friend of mine was there and she informed me that all I had to do was cross my arms on my chest and that he would just bless Avery vs. giving her communion because of her age.  Ok, fine.  So, we both walk up there and I have my arms crossed and I'm kind of giving him this look like, "Hey father - see these?  My arms are crossed.  i.e., I will go to hell if you try to give me that bread" and I tried to just kind of sneak by him until....he realized what was going on and yelled at me to come back because he had to bless me.  REALLY?  I had to be blessed????  Ok, so I'm blessed.  I don't know what that means, but it's official - I've been blessed.

3. The pancake breakfast - this was very well done and the kids (and, who am I kidding - the moms) enjoyed it.  However, there wasn't a ton of seating.  Luckily, we were one of the first families through the line, so we grabbed seats at one of the tables - leaving about 6 seats empty.  Well, low and behold - who comes to sit next to us?????  The 6 nuns who were the founding sisters of the school and who were in town for a visit AND the principal of the school!  REALLY?  They pick the only table with a non-Catholic parent?  Oh - and, by the way, "nice to meet you Mrs. Principal - I'm the one who wrote to you and complained about the lack of naps my child is getting at your school."  Well, thankfully, the line had gotten just long enough at that point that we were able to finish our breakfast before the nuns and the principal returned.  I don't know about you, but I'm thinking the blessing that I had received during mass helped me out in that situation - the big guy up above and I were clearly friends at that point and he was looking out for me...

Overall, other than the 3 incidents above, it wasn't that bad.  And, I have to say that I was really proud of Avery- she really does know her stuff and made it very clear by saying every prayer and belting out every song that was sung.  And, now that I've been to one, I've learned a few lessons to help make the next experience an even more comfortable one...stand in the back row, don't run away from the priest during communion and eat pancakes quickly!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

A couple of weeks ago, we surprised Avery by taking her and her best friend, Maggie to go and see Mary Poppins Live.  We had bought the tickets a long time ago, but didn't tell the girls until we got a bit closer to the date - partially to let them unwind from the holidays and partially to avoid the "Mom - when are we going to see Mary Poppins?" question that was sure to follow daily from the time we told her until the show. 

It was a great girls' day all around.  Avery, Maggie and her mom Jill and I all went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory before the show and then afterwards, had some time to kill at the mall, so we walked around, did a little shopping and got some ice cream.  I have to say - for a mall with stores like Tiffany's, Nordstroms, Bailey Banks and Biddle, etc. - the PP Mall sure does have it's fair share of "interesting people" walking around.  I think that Avery summed it up well by saying, "Mom - there were a lot of weird people in the mall!  And, a lot of women who weren't wearing any bras!!!  Where were their bras?"  I mean, I couldn't blame her given that half of the women (i.e., girls anywhere between 14 years old and 60 years old) were definitely "hanging out" a bit more than I would like to consider appropriate.

The show was great. And, while it did get to be a bit long for 2 4-year-olds, they did really really well.  I am not sure they fully understood the idea of live, so we did prepare them by saying that there would be loud music, real people, etc.  I have to admit - I was a bit nervous when the music started and I looked over to see Maggie covering both ears with her hands.  I was thinking it was going to be a long 2 1/2 hours for poor Jill, but, she was a trooper and got over it quickly and enjoyed the show - music and all. 

Definitely a good (albeit, expensive) test to see if they are ready for anything else like this in the future.  Can't wait to do it again (minus the boobs at PP Mall) soon!

Cap Challenged

Apparently, I was jumping the gun a bit when I posted this post about having hope that Alex would actually be organized because, approximately 24 hours after he built that train?  I found this on the kids table...

He had taken the cap off of nearly every marker and just left them sitting there!!  And, I can confirm that he didn't even use a single one of these, so it isn't like he took the cap off with the purpose of actually drawing. Nope.  He just took the caps off to take the caps off (and, I'm pretty certain to just piss me off given that we have had the "you need to put the caps back on the markers so they don't dry out" conversation oh, I don't know, ONE HUNDRED times???).  So, where were all of the caps, you ask?

Well, they were in the sink of their kitchen, of course!  A rather logical place.  OH - and, in case you are wondering?  Those are in fact covers of the play dough containers that he never put back on and as a result, the play dough got hard and had to be thrown away.  I give up...