First Snow

Here's a quick peek at my handywork over 2 rounds of snow shoveling. Ethan came out with me the first time and he loved it.

Out of Office

Mia worked all weekend. I took care of Ethan all weekend.

Then, this morning Mia asked me to take the whole day off work so she could rest. She definitely needed it. So I agreed.

But, I absolutely couldn't stay around the house again all day. Ethan and I went to the booksale at the library. I picked up One Hundred Days of Solitude and Master and Commander.
Ethan got a new Bulldozer book and the Little Train that Could.

Then, we drove down to the Aquarium. It's an easy drive now that we know how to do it. So, I grabbed Mia's aquarium pass and we headed into Boston. Normally the passes are only supposed to allow you into the building if you're with the person named on the card. But, they didn't even bat an eye when Ethan and I were going in.

Ethan loves the Aquarium. Especially the little tide pool that you can stick your hands in. His shirt was all wet from leaning over the edge playing with the starfish, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, and horseshoe crabs.
He also likes the sharks in the big tank at the center. We walked around and he'd climb up on the ledge (designed for kids to stand up a little taller) so he could watch them pass.

After that we went to Quincy Market for lunch. Ethan (a boy after my own heart) enjoys a good corndog, which is what we got. We ate lunch with my friend Ken. Then, I was thinking about going home but we'd already missed naptime. We walked over to the Boston Common. (We followed the Freedom Trail so I wouldn't get lost.)

He ran around in the grass, chased the squirrels, and then ended up in the playground by the frog pond. He loves new playgrounds. At this one he discovered a pyramid-shaped ladder that was about 7ft. high and began to climb it repeatedly.
Then, after a while we saw his friend Juan Fernando. He's just about Ethan's age but we haven't seen him in a few months. Of course, that didn't matter to the boys, they just started running around together having a great time.

Finally, after a long day we walked back to the car and drove home. The boy took a little nap in the car and then we snuggled and watched Toy Story 2 before bedtime. It was a full day but we had a blast.

Heat wave

Boston is coming out of a heatwave that sent the temperatures into the high 90's with upwards of 90% humidity. Needless to say, it was pretty miserable. We have the A/C running quite a bit more than normal and it's been nearly unbearable going outside to do anything.

Fortunately, that seems to have broken. Maybe this means we are settling into a more pleasant temperature for September. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Heat

The heat has arrived in Boston. We've had the AC in for a couple of weeks but haven't turned it on too much. Now, it's on.

Mia's not a big fan of the heat. And neither am I. We both get to a point of being so hot our rational thought processes are turned off. You don't want to see either of us when this happens.

We are also learning that Ethan doesn't much like it either. We went for a walk today, and he immediately wanted to climb in his stroller and just get a ride. But, he's so cute in his little hat and sunglasses.

The walk was to replace my phone. Which we did, I got a new Katana phone. We were looking at the Razr, but the salesguy told us the Katana has a better antenna. Since we know that is a problem in our house, we went for it.
And, because of the way Mia's last phone was handled, she was eligible to get a new phone too. So, we both got Katana's. $20 bucks each (plus tax). Phones are pretty cheap if you aren't buying them without a contract.

They should work out better than our last phones that fell apart just before our 2 year contract was up. We'll be with the same phone company for another 2 years. In case anyone needs to know which one, email me.