Up, Up, and Away

Eamon and Mommy on the beach

Aaron decided that he wanted to go to Boston during my Spring Break. He hadn’t really gotten to see Boston the last time he was up in Massachusetts, and gosh darn it, he wanted to go. I put up absolutely no fight, as that’s the area where my best friend, Julie, lives. I profoundly agreed that Boston had a lot of history that deserved to be seen…and then I called Julie and worked it out so that her husband, Nick, would do all the sightseeing with Aaron while Julie, Eamon, and I could hit the malls.

We knew that we were going to fly. Air Tran flies out of the Newport News airport, which is only 10 minutes away from us, and has really cheap flights to Logan Airport in Boston. We could easily afford tickets for Aaron, me, and Eamon. We decided to buy Eamon his own seat since he’s a big, squirmy kid and we didn’t like the idea of trying to wrestle him still for the hour and a half plane ride. We took our car seat since we heard that we could strap it into the airplane seat…and therefore strap Eamon into the car seat.

How was flying with a toddler? Interesting. Actually, he’s a very good little guy, so it wasn’t too bad. It was also easier because Julie’s sister (also a Kate) lent us a Pack n’ Play, stroller, and toys so that didn’t have to lug all that through the airport. On the plane ride up, the flight attendants told us we couldn’t use the car seat (grr) so we had to check it and Eamon ended up sitting on my lap most of the time because it only took him about a minute to figure out how to unbuckle his lap belt.

We were really waiting for Eamon’s ears to act up on the descent. Aaron had ear problems growing up, and I always ended up with ear infections when flying. We let Eamon have his pacifier (which we usually only do at night), and he only pulled on his ear about twice. He was absolutely fine otherwise. I don’t know how he avoided getting the ear issue genes, but thank goodness he did.

Eamon pulled over the dog bed, crawled in it, and watched his Sign Language videos while Julie's poor dog, Oz, looked on in confusion.

While in Massachusetts, Eamon was mostly able to stick to his routine. We had a pretty great time. On Saturday, when we arrived, Julie dropped Nick and Aaron off in Boston to do all manner of historical things (Aaron told me what they all were, but it’s possible I wasn’t really listening). Julie, Eamon, and myself hit the mall. I love the malls in Massachusetts. They have the same stores as down here, but they’re about three times bigger and have a much better selection.

Eamon watched Julie's three year old niece and nephew drawing with sidewalk chalk, but obviously didn't *quite* understand the concept.

On Sunday, we went to Easter dinner at Julie’s parents’ house. We really weren’t planning on spending Easter in Massachusetts; we just didn’t realize that Easter was during the first weekend of April this year, which is also my Spring Break (our school division has Spring Break the first week of April every year, rather than tying it to Easter). Julie devised an Easter Egg hunt for Eamon and her niece and nephew, Daniel and Riley (who are both three). Eamon didn’t entirely understand the Easter Egg hunt, but Daniel kindly picked up all Eamon’s eggs for him and put them in Eamon’s basket (Daniel was very worried that Eamon wasn’t going to get any Easter eggs, which is just plain sweet).

With Mommy's help, Eamon picked up an Easter egg and put it in his basket before wandering off to do something else (eat a stick, I think).

On Monday, we attempted to go to Sturbridge Village. We drove the hour out there, only to find it closed. So we turned around and instead went to the mall (yay!), and then spent the rest of the day relaxing and letting Eamon terrorize Oz, Julie and Nick’s rather skitterish but lovable dog. That evening, Aaron’s cousins Kristin and David came over, which was great, since we think they’re lots of fun but don’t get to see them often as they live in Massachusetts. On a side note, I watched Eamon take his Easter basket, dump all the eggs on the ground, and then proceed to put them all back in the basket, so he did get the concept—just a day late.

Eamon and Julie examine shells on the beach. Julie attempts to explain what each shell is while Eamon attempts to eat it.

On Tuesday, we went to Salem. Unfortunately, it was overcast and rainy (the weather was beautiful the rest of the time). Also, we couldn’t really do any tours with Eamon. Aaron went on one tour while Julie and took Eamon to small beach and then perused an antique shop. We then went to a very rickety little wax museum. Because it was rainy and things were pretty overpriced, we decided to just head back to the car and drive to the airport. On the way back, we stopped at one of those vintage photo places and Julie, Eamon, and I dressed up as Salem witches because…well, we wanted to. Again, Eamon was spectacular and put up with us.

We were hoping that on the car ride to Boston, Eamon would nap…but he didn’t. He got ridiculously overtired, but even so he was just manically running around. He was pretty happy and would follow directions as long as you kept him moving and didn’t let him get bored (like, not even for a second). On the plane, the flight attendants not only let us use the car seat, but even showed us a sticker on our car seat and that said it was acceptable for airplane use. We strapped Eamon in and within a minute after take-off, he was fast asleep.

It was a good trip. Eamon is a good little traveler, and I know that as he gets older and even more able to understand and cooperate (and carry his own things!) we’ll be going lots of places with him.

Goodbye, Julie! See you next time!