This Friday was not our most fun and "adventury," but sometimes you gotta take care of business... Sonny's dad had a late morning for work so we all went to a local cafe for some breakfast and then took a walk over to Target because Sonny had grown out of pretty much all of his shoes and needed some new sneakers. The Target trip took a little longer than expected. Sonny wanted to visit the bicycles and try on all the bike helmets.
Despite the "no school on Fridays" rule, there are occasionally times when I have to make a brief appearance at a meeting or pick something up. Today was one of those times, although it is understood that when that happens, I'll have Sonny with me. I stopped by the library to catch the end of a meeting and pick up some work that was waiting for me, fully expecting to leave and head over to Mucky Kids art studio. I had forgotten that Sonny absolutely loves the 4th floor of my school's library - a big bank of (password protected) computers, a wide open space to run around, a couch to climb onto and off of, a roof deck, lots of staff assistants with treats... So we ended up spending a good deal of time there.
So the morning wouldn't be a total loss, we headed over to Berry Lime for a lunchtime treat of frozen yogurt - fast becoming one of Sonny's all-time favorite foods. Then we headed home for a nap.
After Sonny's nap, we needed to get a birthday present for his friend's second birthday party the next day, so we wandered over to Stellabella Toys in Inman Square (www.stellabellatoys.com). One of the reasons I love Stellabella so much is that they have a number of sample toys out for kids to play with and a whole lot of things at kid-height. Sonny really likes the train table and the kitchen area so he played around a lot while I looked for a present. As a bonus, we also found a diecast garbage truck (a new obsession) so Sonny was pretty happy to run that all around the store.
All in all, though not the most exciting Friday, we had as much fun running errands as could be expected.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Spring Adventure
Sonny is obsessed with trains (and buses, bicycles, firetrucks, ambulances, vans, etc.). Every day when we go home from daycare, we pass over the traintracks for the commuter rail and he asks, "choo choo?" We aren't usually lucky enough to see a choo choo so he has gotten used to saying, "No more choo choo" in response to his own question. I decided, after a great suggestion from my advisor, to take matters into my own hands on a recent beautiful spring Friday and told Sonny we were not only going to see a train, but ride in one! We took the bus to the commuter rail station at Porter Square, bought our tickets and waited on the platform for what Sonny now calls the "big choo choo" (so as, I assume, to distinguish it from the T - or the "regular" choo choo). The ride on the commuter rail turned into one of our best Fridays yet.
We took the 9:05am Fitchburg line train from Porter Square to Concord. The ride is about 20 minutes since there are a bunch of stops that are skipped. The conductors were super friendly and helpful and Sonny loved the big set of stairs he got to climb to get on the train. But not as much as he loved having his own seat to sit in and look out the window from. The ride was just about short enough for Sonny's limited attention span/patience and he really liked that the train went "fast, fast!"
In Concord, if you take a right out of the train station onto Thoreau Street and walk about 2-3 blocks, you come to Emerson Playground
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View Larger Map)
There is a running track, a long jump setup and a very very cool playground with a sand area, great climbing structure (the "rolling bar" slide was a big hit), a climbing wall, swings, etc. We played there for close to 2 hours, despite a preschool class fieldtrip that showed up and sort of took over. There are picnic benches for a snack and a decent amount of shade along the side.
After the playground, we walked back towards the train station and found the new location of Barefoot Books (which had recently - and sadly - closed its Cambridge store). An old favorite of Sonny's in Cambridge, we were very excited to find it again. It is literally across the street from the train station and although they were just opening up, it looks great and looks like they will have story hours, activities and all sorts of fun stuff going on. (www.barefootbooks.com). We ran around the store for a bit and generally wreaked havoc (at least Sonny did, I mostly chatted with the folks working) about which the store employees were totally understanding and sweet.
We were getting hungry so, on the recommendation of the folks at Barefoot Books, we went across the street to Sorrento's Pizza (www.sorrentospizzerias.com) and shared some pizza, followed by pretty awesome homemade ice cream at Bedford Farms next door (www.bedfordfarmsicecream.com). We made it just in time for the 12:10 train back to Porter Square. The train ride back was a bit longer, but Sonny managed just fine either coloring, staring out the window or snuggling in my lap. We decided to walk home from Porter Square since there was no bus coming. Sonny made it the length of the train tracks saying, "Bye big choo choo, bye big choo choo!" before he passed out in the stroller and promptly took a 3.5 hour nap! And so did mama.
We took the 9:05am Fitchburg line train from Porter Square to Concord. The ride is about 20 minutes since there are a bunch of stops that are skipped. The conductors were super friendly and helpful and Sonny loved the big set of stairs he got to climb to get on the train. But not as much as he loved having his own seat to sit in and look out the window from. The ride was just about short enough for Sonny's limited attention span/patience and he really liked that the train went "fast, fast!"
In Concord, if you take a right out of the train station onto Thoreau Street and walk about 2-3 blocks, you come to Emerson Playground
(
View Larger Map)
There is a running track, a long jump setup and a very very cool playground with a sand area, great climbing structure (the "rolling bar" slide was a big hit), a climbing wall, swings, etc. We played there for close to 2 hours, despite a preschool class fieldtrip that showed up and sort of took over. There are picnic benches for a snack and a decent amount of shade along the side.
After the playground, we walked back towards the train station and found the new location of Barefoot Books (which had recently - and sadly - closed its Cambridge store). An old favorite of Sonny's in Cambridge, we were very excited to find it again. It is literally across the street from the train station and although they were just opening up, it looks great and looks like they will have story hours, activities and all sorts of fun stuff going on. (www.barefootbooks.com). We ran around the store for a bit and generally wreaked havoc (at least Sonny did, I mostly chatted with the folks working) about which the store employees were totally understanding and sweet.
We were getting hungry so, on the recommendation of the folks at Barefoot Books, we went across the street to Sorrento's Pizza (www.sorrentospizzerias.com) and shared some pizza, followed by pretty awesome homemade ice cream at Bedford Farms next door (www.bedfordfarmsicecream.com). We made it just in time for the 12:10 train back to Porter Square. The train ride back was a bit longer, but Sonny managed just fine either coloring, staring out the window or snuggling in my lap. We decided to walk home from Porter Square since there was no bus coming. Sonny made it the length of the train tracks saying, "Bye big choo choo, bye big choo choo!" before he passed out in the stroller and promptly took a 3.5 hour nap! And so did mama.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Here we go!
As a first time parent of a 22-month old, I have toyed off and on with the idea of blogging. I read mommy blogs, I subscribe to mommy listservs and I have benefited from them. I just wasn't sure the world needed another first-time mom blog. I also wasn't sure I wanted my son's childhood public for the world to see. Mostly, I wasn't sure what I would say.
I have been really fortunate to have been able to spend a lot of time with Sonny in the first 2 years of his life. I was home with him full-time for the first 4 months. One of the most valuable lessons I learned during that time was that there are no hard and fast rules to parenting. You do what works for you and for your family. I loved staying home. But I also missed working and that made me sad. However, I wasn't willing to give up being at home either. Somehow, by some stroke of luck, I was offered a job that allowed me to work 3 days/week, which allowed me to be home with Sonny 2 days a week. I fell in love with the balance that provided. We had this schedule until he turned 15 months and I began a graduate program. With two years of coursework looming, my schedule became less flexible. I soon realized though that the school offered very few classes on Fridays. Partly because of financial reasons (one less day of daycare to pay for) and partly because I missed having time alone with Sonny, I decided I wouldn't take any classes, attend any meetings, or otherwise do any schoolwork (okay, maybe a little during naptime) on Fridays. And so, while I of course am still a mom the other days of the week, Fridays have become in my house, "Mama day."
Living in a new city, faced with the prospect of wide open Fridays and a really active toddler, I spend a lot of time figuring out fun things for us to do on Fridays. This blog is my attempt to chronicle and catalog those things - both for myself (you can only come up with so many ideas!) and for anyone else looking for fun things to do in the Boston area on Fridays. (BTW, we are car-free and I have a transportation-obsessed toddler, so much of our adventuring focuses on trains and buses). Some of the activities are indoors (the winter is looong here) and many are outdoors. They include more obvious (museums, etc.) and the less obvious (commuter rail trips). I'm hoping some rainy Friday, when I have very little energy to be creative, I'll be able to scan the blog and say, "Oh, that was a fun day, let's do that again!" And maybe you will too!
I have been really fortunate to have been able to spend a lot of time with Sonny in the first 2 years of his life. I was home with him full-time for the first 4 months. One of the most valuable lessons I learned during that time was that there are no hard and fast rules to parenting. You do what works for you and for your family. I loved staying home. But I also missed working and that made me sad. However, I wasn't willing to give up being at home either. Somehow, by some stroke of luck, I was offered a job that allowed me to work 3 days/week, which allowed me to be home with Sonny 2 days a week. I fell in love with the balance that provided. We had this schedule until he turned 15 months and I began a graduate program. With two years of coursework looming, my schedule became less flexible. I soon realized though that the school offered very few classes on Fridays. Partly because of financial reasons (one less day of daycare to pay for) and partly because I missed having time alone with Sonny, I decided I wouldn't take any classes, attend any meetings, or otherwise do any schoolwork (okay, maybe a little during naptime) on Fridays. And so, while I of course am still a mom the other days of the week, Fridays have become in my house, "Mama day."
Living in a new city, faced with the prospect of wide open Fridays and a really active toddler, I spend a lot of time figuring out fun things for us to do on Fridays. This blog is my attempt to chronicle and catalog those things - both for myself (you can only come up with so many ideas!) and for anyone else looking for fun things to do in the Boston area on Fridays. (BTW, we are car-free and I have a transportation-obsessed toddler, so much of our adventuring focuses on trains and buses). Some of the activities are indoors (the winter is looong here) and many are outdoors. They include more obvious (museums, etc.) and the less obvious (commuter rail trips). I'm hoping some rainy Friday, when I have very little energy to be creative, I'll be able to scan the blog and say, "Oh, that was a fun day, let's do that again!" And maybe you will too!
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