Toy madness

Our living room floor, and often the kitchen and hallway too, are generally strewn with my kids' three favorite things: cars, balls, and books.  And I'm ok with that - they live here too, after all.  But when we bought this house I never suspected how grateful I'd be for the random room in the front of the house, which we have dubbed the "toy room".  From the parts of our house we use the most, you can't even see this:

Thank goodness.

Fenway

What's a trip to Boston without a stop at Fenway?  The Sox were in town the last night of our vacation, so we took part in America's Favorite Pastime at the legendary ballpark.

We're atop the Green Monster!

YOOOOOOOK!!!  We witnessed the battle of the Sox - Red vs. White.  We were more than a little amused at the reaction from the Boston fans every single time Kevin Youkilis came up to bat.  He had just been traded to Chicago, and this was his first time at Fenway in a different uniform.  He got a standing O his first time up, and to our surprise the home fans continued to cheer for him the entire game, even when he scored... can you say misguided loyalty?!?!?

We really enjoyed the atmosphere of the game - before, during, and after - you were well aware you were surrounded by die-hard baseball fans enjoying their traditions.  There was a definite energy in the air as we walked around outside the stadium before the game (we went to a great place for a quick dinner and a few beers - The Yardhouse - 180 beers on tap!!).  And while we are very glad we got to see a game in the historic 100-year old stadium, there are definitely some modern conveniences and comforts that we missed!  And now we can check this ballpark off our list...

Ears: all clear!

We had Charlie's follow-up appointment with the ENT doc this week, to make sure the tubes were in place and clear, and to have his hearing tested.  We got the news we hoped for - everything looks good.

Since Charlie had the tubes put in, it's been noticeable how much more he chatters.  Some of it is a bit clearer, and we've heard new words like yucky (yah-ee) and potty (pah-ee), and he is calling many of the neighbor kids by name.  He definitely enjoys the sound of his own voice more, particularly his shrieks.  Yikes.  We know we've got a ways to go, but we're delighted with the improvement already!

We also are never going to know how much of Charlie's speech delay is related to his hearing and/or some other issue, and how much of it is just his nature.  Our boy is pretty strong-willed, and would much rather do things that are his idea than whatever you are suggesting.  So perhaps it's no coincidence that the words he speaks the most clearly are the things he loves the most - anything related to cars.

While with the ENT doc, Charlie spotted one of his matchbox cars in my bag.  He pointed to it and said "green car" - clear enough than anyone would understand what he just said.  The nurse's jaw dropped open, and she said "I thought he was here because he had a speech delay??"  The doctor started raving about how that was the second level of speech, that he could already describe the car as green.  He proclaimed that Charlie was going to go to MIT.  (I'm not kidding, it really made me smile.)

I didn't have the heart to tell them that yes, while Charlie does know a lot of colors, when he uses them, it's almost always in reference to a car.  Anything that is blue is a blue car.  He'll stand in my closet and point at red shirts saying "red car, red car."  I have no idea why, but perhaps it just shows us how much his world revolves around cars!

Hah-vahd

It's hard to walk around the Boston area without stumbling upon an institution for higher learning.  Driving in from the cape with Liz and Zac, trying to find our B&B in Cambridge, we accidentally drove through MIT.  While on a long walking tour, Scott and I saw quite a bit of BU.  And, of course, we wandered around the Harvard campus...

See John Harvard's shiny shoe?  Apparently if you touch his foot, you'll get into Harvard.  A little late for us, but maybe you can pass the luck down...?

Harvard Square

Step outside the hallowed brick walls, and you're in a different world!

The photos of the stadium don't it justice - very imposing massive amounts of concrete & stone!

Harvard business school

Life is good

Non-curlers don't realize that the actual curling is only a small part of the draw of a bonspiel.  Most spiels have all sorts of entertainment and hospitality, but the most fun generally comes simply from the people that you meet.  I haven't played in that many bonspiels, particularly out-of-town ones, but it seems like we always bond the most with the first team we play.  The Cape Cod Summer Spiel was no different.

The team we played Thursday night was from The Country Club.  Yes, that's what it's called - emphasis on the "the".  Their club is in the Boston area, and as is more common on the east coast, is an actual country club, complete with golf and curling.  We learned these couples had been friends a long time, and were both relocating to the cape full-time.  All were from the east coast originally, tracing their roots back far and deep, and their children are closer in age to us than they are.  But, as is often the case with curlers, our differences didn't matter a bit!

Imagine our delight when they invited us to join them on their boat Friday afternoon.  We were literally almost pinching ourselves as we cruised comfortably through the Vineyard Sound, enjoying fantastic company, delicious food, and amazing views.  Life truly is good.*

They look pretty comfy, don't they?

Ummm... did you notice there's a helicopter parked on this boat?  And who knew helicopters had covers???  As a side note, we saw an enormous boat leave the Falmouth Harbor at the same time we did, and were informed it belonged to the CEO of Boston Scientific.  It was one of his SIX boats...!

Paddle-boarding - it's even a craze on the vineyard!

Geronimo!

 Enjoying a delicious lunch spread.  Pictured are Liz, Zac, Coco, and Ann.  The headless body is Phil; the elbow belongs to Ben.  How I wish I'd gotten a group picture of these wonderful people!!!

Kickin' back on our way back to the Cape.

Thanks for the great ride Coco and Ben!!!

*The very next day we discovered exactly how good we'd had it, as we pushed and shoved our way on board the ferry to the Vineyard, feeling like we'd been down-graded to steerage.  A very different experience!

@ the CCCC

Looking at my pictures, I realized I did a terrible job documenting the reason we went out to Cape Cod in the first place - the bonspiel!  We didn't take a picture in front of the lovely Cape Cod Curling Club (the CCCC) because, well, the sign was in disrepair and just said "curling club"!  I did remember, after our very last game, to have a team picture taken, but it's a little blurry and doesn't even show the cool blue rock!  And worst of all, I didn't get any good pictures of the very fun and generous team we spent the most time with - the team we played the first night.  I'm going to have to hope Zac did better with his camera than I did!

Team "Saint Paul II" - Zac, Liz, Scott, and Liz (yes, we only hang out with people whose names are in our family already).  While we didn't play as well as we could have, we had fun!

Cheers! Lobster dinner with our Saturday opponents - Buffalo (although they're really from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls - long story)

Scott's first lobster dinner... in the dark, with mosquitoes attacking us!

3 of the 4 men representing St. Paul

Teams St. Paul I and St. Paul II (Ron, Scott, Zac, Liz, Julie, Eric; Brenda & me in front)

Teams from the first three events being piped onto the ice - always a fun tradition!

For the record, we won two and lost two.  One of the teams we lost to went on to win the bonspiel, defeating a team that included a three-time Olympian.  Oh well.  As I said, we had a good time anyway!

Flowers of the Cape

We had a fantastic vacation out east, and I am full of stories to tell and pictures to show.  But the idea of starting at the beginning is just too much.  I am planning to create a photo book of this trip, with most of my pictures and ones from our friend Zac too.  Between curling, boat rides, Harvard, Fenway, the beach, the vineyard, and Paul Revere, it just feels like too much for the blog!  So instead of my usual details in chronological order, I'll just try to give you a feel for the trip, with whatever feels right at that moment.  And at this particular moment, I am loving memories of the flowers out on the Cape and Martha's Vineyard...

Where I come from, the hydrangeas are pretty much white.  Not good enough for the Vineyard!

And just so much charm...

So random

A totally random update for your perusal...

1.  I forgot about some super-cute pictures I found on my camera from a trip to the little free zoo we took with our friends Kasey & Reagan (and Jenny too!).  Charlie is delightful to take to the zoo; he giggles unrestrainedly at the animals - for some reason they are all hilarious to him.  Zach has never been an animal guy; he spends most of the time asking Charlie if he's ready to move on to the next exhibit.  But he loves the rides - what zoo would be complete without rides???

2.  While Charlie's ear tube surgery went swimmingly (pun intended), he developed a high fever that evening.  After phone calls to the ENT doctor and a trip to urgent care, we were assured the fever was unrelated to the surgery, that he had coincidentally caught some bug.  I wouldn't be surprised if he'd picked up those germs at his pre-op physical at the pediatricians two days before!  Fortunately, the fever only lasted 12 hours, and he was back to his normal self.  A self who seems to enjoy the sound of his own happy screams a lot more these days...!

3.  Zach had his end-of-the-season t-ball tournament this weekend.  Three games total, although those games followed the usual rules - no outs, everyone gets to first, no score kept.  So we're not really sure why they call it a tournament!  :)  But boy, you should see the cool medal he got!  And he's ready - bring on coach-pitch next year!