The first night, we had a delicious dinner at a restaurant overlooking the harbor.

Then we walked along the harbor until we were all tired and ready to sleep.  We got some beautiful pictures of the sun seat and full moon.

I should also mention that we discovered the night before that we had forgotten to bring our stroller with us.  Oops.

We headed out to the Boston Children’s Museum.  It was cute, and fun.  We’ve been to better children’s museums, but Chloe still seemed to enjoy it, although, she was a bit cranky.  I suspect she didn’t sleep well because we could hear the elevator dinging all night from our hotel room.  We had a delicious (and expensive) lunch at the Barking Crab, then played some more at the museum.

Around two we started our long walk along the Freedom Trail.  Chloe was a trooper, and either walked or rode up on Daddy’s shoulders, but what she didn’t do is nap.

Our last stop was the Cheers bar from the TV show.  Our intention was to only take pictures, but Chloe decided she wanted to eat there.  John and I were like, “Awww shucks, do we have to?”  Just kidding.

Chloe fell asleep on Daddy’s shoulder on the walk back to the car.  John and I decided to make a pit stop at a Target we saw near our hotel and we picked up a cheap stroller for the next day.

This night we were woken up at about 1:30 or 2:00am by some very loud, obnoxious hotel guests.  They continued talking, laughing, and annoying the piss out of us for almost two hours.  I stuck my head out of the room to yell at them, but I couldn’t even see anybody in the hallways, and I didn’t know what room they were in.

The next morning, John had it out with hotel management and we were given free parking and vouchers for a free breakfast.  “Cause, yeah, those weren’t included in the cost of the hotel.

Beach Action Shots.

When we participated in the kazoo band on the 4th of July, they gave Ellen some free passes for the Ocean Grove Beach (we would have gotten some as well, but we forgot to pick them up.)  So, off we went, with Ellen and her crew, to Ocean Grove Beach.

I really liked this beach, it was much cleaner than both Avon and Manasquan.  I am not sure why, but it was practically empty today, so we didn’t have to deal with a lot of beach traffic.   And we were able to find a location that was relatively close to the bathrooms (good for our newly potty trained munchkins.  Okay, Seth has been potty trained for awhile now.)

The only complaint the kids had was the waves were very mellow.  Of course, us Mommy’s were just fine with that!  There was only one mishap when Chloe and I were out in the ocean.  I misjudged the strength of a wave and it knocked me over while I was holding Chloe.  In my attempt to keep Chloe’s head above water, and try to get myself back to a standing position, I wrenched my shoulder and inhaled some sea water.  (I can actually still taste it in my mouth, I should go brush my teeth!)  Luckily, Chloe thought it was funny and it didn’t scare her at all.

She is getting a little too brave for my comfort, though.  Granted, the ocean was extremely calm today, but she wanted to go off by herself (The big kids were doing it!) and was upset that I told her I needed to keep ahold of her.  I guess in some ways I am glad she is challenging herself more.  But, that’s my baby, there is no way in HELL I am letting her go in the ocean.  Sorry, not gonna do it!

“I am a princess, and this is my castle”

See the gallery for more pics.

MANHATTAN!

PLEASE TOUCH MUSEUM, PHILLY.

STATUE OF LIBERTY

CRAYOLA FACTORY, EASTON, PA

I had an absolute BLAST hosting my neice.  But, I have to admit, I am very very tired.  And I will be very happy not to spend a whole lot of time in a car any time soon!

My niece, Tabitha, flew in last night at 11:00 pm. Her flight was uneventful, and I was told she was well behaved. We had a couple of hitches getting home. The first, she INSISTED she had a HUGE red suitcase. She described it to me in detail, and pointed to a suitcase the same size as hers. We waited for twenty minutes until all the baggage was gone, and then went to find out what happened to her suitcase. Turns out, her suitcase was not red, but brown. And it was the size of a carry on. Lesson 1: Ask mommy to describe suitcase. CHECK!

Second, I was listening to her describe her flight instead of following the signs to the highway. We took a oh-so-minor detour home and didn’t get home until 1:00 am. No worries, she slept through most of the drive. Luckily, I did not.

Then, Chloe woke up at 5:30. John was nice enough to get up with Chloe and I got a couple extra hours of sleep.

Today we went to the American Museum of Natural History. It was the perfect day for it, since it was cloudy and rainy in New York. The girls had a great time, and much knowledge was acquired.

See the Gallery for more pictures.

There are a few tips that I would share:

1)  Renting the Villa was one of the best things we could have done.  It gave us a temporary “home” where we could try to develop and maintain a consistent schedule so that she didn’t feel overwhelmed by all the other new experiences we were throwing her into.  She did a lot better when we were at the Villa or when we were at Becky and Roberts house in Germany, then when we were staying in the hotels in Florence and Genoa.  In the Villa, we could also do one day in Rome, then take one day easy, then do another day in Rome, that sort of thing.  So we were able to give her some down time where she could get decent sleep and just be a kid.  Plus, we could put her to bed, then hang out with our friends without worrying about leaving her alone in a hotel room.  It worked out really, really well.

2)  Become familiar with the local grocery store.  We had to replenish the snacks we brought with us much sooner than we thought because Chloe refused to eat the food at the restaurants.  Plus, the other positive with the villa, we had a kitchen.  So, we were able to make Chloe fish sticks, chicken nuggets, and french fries.  Not the healthiest of meal choices, but the child survived on breakfast bars, crackers and popcorn.  The occasional Chicken nugget was a necessity!  In addition to that, we didn’t bring enough pull-ups because we were planning on only having her sleep in them.  When she gave up on potty training, we had to replenish our supply of those, too.  (Having a kitchen also saved us a lot of money when it came to eating out.  We only ate out a few times for lunch and dinner in Rome.  We had breakfast EVERY day at the villa, and ate in most nights.  Luckily, we had some really good cooks with us, so it was a pleasure to hang out at night, eat good food, drink good beer and wine, and relax.  Plus, nobody had to drive home!)

3)  Bring lots of small books and toys.  Chloe’s favorites were little plastic animals.  Just be aware that there is a strong likelihood you will lose one or two of whatever you bring, so don’t bring anything valuable.  We had these with us all the time, so Chloe could play on the train, in a restaurant, or even in the museums, when she got bored with the “statues”.

4)  Don’t worry about sleeping arrangements.  I was extremely concerned and so we brought a camping air mattress with us for Chloe to sleep on.  (It rolled up REALLY small so we could easily fit it in our luggage.)  We only used it when we were at Becky and Robert’s house.  The villa had a pack and play, and it was easy to find a hotel room with two beds (one a single.)  We just rolled up a blanket and tucked it up under her sheets so she wouldn’t roll out of bed.  It worked fine, and she slept well.

5)  Take advantage of technology.  I have an IPOD tv adaptor, so we could plug Chloe’s movies in where ever there was a TV.  It came in handy when we were trying to prepare food, or eat (since she refused to eat with us.)  I know, electronic babysitter, yadda yadda yadda.  Sometimes you just gotta do what ya gotta do.  And she had no trouble accepting that when we got home, her TV use was limited again.  Plus, a video ipod comes in handy when you have to fly for 8-10 hours and your child refuses to sleep on a plane!

6)  I wish we had done this one:  Don’t try to keep your child happy all the time.  I think for the first week or so, we tried to keep her happy because we felt kind of guilty about dragging her around through all of these adult experiences.  Well, she just got increasingly demanding and then unbelievably whiny when she didn’t get her way.  I honestly think if we would have stuck to our normal discipline expectations, that wouldn’t have happened.  So, we learned from our mistake.  Luckily, she never really got THAT bad (I mean, she’s two, so you have to make some allowances for behavior) and she again seemed to return to normal when we got home and back to our routine.

All in all, it worked out very well, and we all had a good time.

When we ask Chloe what she saw in Italy/Germany, she say, “Castles, statues, and towers.”  I will be curious if any of it sticks, although I expect that she won’t remember this trip.  I do plan to take our photos and put them into a photobook, so we can go back and look at them.  I think she will probably remember the trip through the photos and our stories, so I will try and take advantage of that.