I have a lot of things to talk about tonight, but first I need to give a quick re-cap of Monica and Zack's visit. They came up on the train (after many delays) and missed seeing Ethan their first night. This was disappointing as everyone who comes to visit us wants to see Ethan right away. :)
The next day, they got to play with Ethan in the morning, and after his initial "Who are these people" reaction, he warmed up to them. Monica and Zack headed into the city to cruise around while I went to work.
On Friday, we all went into the city. This was, I think, Ethan's first trip into downtown Boston. We drove in (we were feeling brave) and parked near the Aquarium. Our first stop was catching the ferry over to the USS Constitution because you can walk around it for free. Of course the ferry was 12 dollars each, but they gave a nice tour of the harbor on the way, so it was worth it.

We toured the battleship from WWII and Old Ironsides both of which were very interesting. We'd like to go back for a longer tour of the ship, including the below deck section. We couldn't on this trip because another group was coming and Ethan was starting to fall asleep in his stoller.

After getting back across the harbor we had lunch at Quincy Market. What a great place to eat. If you have never been to Boston, Quincy Market is kind of like a food court. And by kind of, I mean it's two long (think, really long) hallways that aren't all that wide and little food counters on both sides. In the middle of them is a seating area that is always full (even the standing room is taken). You can get pretty much any kind of food you want. Seafood, Indian food, pub food, hamburgers, steaks, steak sandwiches, it's all there.
Then, parallel to the food court on both sides, are rows of little kiosks selling all kinds souveniers and Boston Red Sox gear.
Then, on the outside of the building, since it's right downtown, there are areas that street performers set up. There are jugglers, break dancers, singers, we saw some guys with bells attached to their legs clapping sticks (I think it's some kind of Folk Eurpoean thing).
And then, surrounding this all are more mainstream retail shops. GAP, Discovery Store, Godiva Chocolate (we get desserts there alot) and so on.
So, all in all, if you are coming to Boston, this is a great place to visit.

After all that excitement, we just hung out on Saturday and played a game called Lost Cities, that Monica and Zack picked up for us at a local game shop. It's a fun game and great because it's two players.
I drove them to the airport on Sunday morning and they were off to Colorado.

So, that's that.

Now, onto the good stuff. Ethan!

He's got another tooth, this time on the top. It's so cute to see this little tooth poking out of his gum. It hasn't come in very far yet, and we think the one next to it is trying to push down as well. Ethan has been kind of fussy and crying and hasn't been sleeping as well. I hope that whatever has gotten into him will pass soon.

Besides the tooth, he's also standing up alot more often. Mia and I decided to get him a birthday present early because of this. We got him one of those little toys that works as a ride-on and a walker. It's a little car with a phone on the front. We gave it to him yesterday and he has been having so much fun with it. At first he tried to lean too heavily on it and he couldn't stand up in time. He would "walk" behind it on his knees. Today, Mia said that he has been getting better about not leaning so hard on it and has been actually walking around behind it.

He's cute when he does. He gets this big grin on his face and has the best time moving around. We love to encourage him because it makes him so happy.
I'm going to try taking some video with our little camera and see if I can get some up onto my site.