Boston Children's Museum

Today we went to the Boston Children's Museum, for the second time.  I am happy to say that I have now broken even on my ASTC-ACM membership, $120 earned and spent!  And, it is only February.  Two reasons why I am glad I got my money's worth now, even though the membership does not expire until November:  1 - I am going back to work, probably not going to be able to manage weekly excursions any longer...  But, and duh - something that was just brought up to me is #2 - I work for a non-profit that has reciprocal free entry with other institutions...  So, starting March 19th I am going to have a whole new set of places to visit, for free!  Love it!

Anyway, once again I felt the Museum was mobbed.  But was told by many that it was practically empty.  They cautioned that it would be madness next week (school vacation).  We will be happy to stay away!  We stayed mostly in the playspace area, which is also where we ate.  I brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which FYI are a no-no in these sorts of places.  The other Moms I was with were in the know, they had jelly and cream cheese and jelly.  Whoops.  Baby James ate everything, ran around using the push cart, crawled all over the place and tried to eat every small toy.

Joel Andrew had an awesome time too.  He played with the choo-choos, enjoyed some games and puzzles, drove his fellow friends in the car, and asked to go poopy on the potty.

Yes, you heard me, the day came when I had to take my toddler to a public restroom and watch him touch the toilet and the stall walls and deal with all that while a baby was in the carriage, all so he could go poopy on the potty. This has been our last hold-out for complete potty training, because I am such a germie that I did not think I could handle this.  Luckily Kate was there to support me, and Joel kinda forced the issue because he asked to go - so it all worked out.  Mommy wiped it down, he went on, did his thing, and that was that!  It is especially hard though because school taught him to sit backwards, so he needs to take his pants off which means he needs to take his shoes off too - have you ever heard of this?  Can I now re-train him to go forwards?

It was a great day, and they are "chill in' " in their beds now.  It makes me sad because with all of our travels coming up this maybe our last Museum excursion as I am a stay at home Mom.  I am going to need to take a day here or there to go on one, or get out on the weekends too.  Because even though it is challenging and a lot of work, it is a lot of fun too.

For memory sake, thought I would record what a day like today usually looks like:

7am - wake up boys, potty try, get dressed, play in rooms
7:45ish - downstairs, bottle for baby james while we watch the news.
8:15ish - breakfast for all  - today, eggy-woos
8:45ish - mommy cleans up while the boys watch a Mickey, then it is "spa-time"- boys get their nails cut
9:15ish - we all go upstairs and all get changed into our second outfits (the real-camera-ready outfits for the day)
9:45ish - last part of the Mickey, and baby james has another bottle (have to pack them in now, because he is not a public drinker).  Then load up in the car, and go
10ish - Ride in - quick stop at Dunkin Donuts for coffee for me, and three plain munchkins for Joel...  By the time we are on the highway baby james is passed out for his morning nap.
11:15ish - arrive at our destination.
Play time
2:30ish - back on the road, all ride home baby james naps.  Sometimes, usually with 5 minutes left in the ride, Joel naps.  Today Joel did not nap, which meant baby james only napped 40 minutes, which means awkward afternoon (since he is accustomed to napping 4 hours during the day and today only caught 90 minutes).  If Joel does fall asleep, I drive around and around until one or both wakes up.  If he doesn't we book it home, get Joel in for a nap and try to transfer baby james.

Sadly, today baby james did not transfer.