kenny's boston adventure

Kenny gets ready to brave the wonderful world of air travel.

We just got back this morning from an extended trip to Overboard's homeland. Our flight was at 6:10am, and we were up at 3am. Kenny slept on Overboard during the flight, and we've all been powernapping on and off ever since. If things go well, Kenny will be back on schedule by the time he goes down for bed tonight and tomorrow will go seamlessly. Yes, that is exactly what shall happen. I mean, when do things ever not go according to plan?

Our trip to Boston was twofold: We rang in the Jewish New Year and also celebrated the wedding of Overboard's good friend Cristina. In between all of that, we bounced from place to place, visiting with friends and family.

The flight up wasn't terrible. Kenny squirmed and fussed as any good toddler would, I cursed the people at Dynex for creating (and Best Buy for selling me) a portable DVD player that only works while plugged in (thus negating the whole "portable" element), and our friendly airlines (rhymes with "Shamerican") tried to sell me a $3 cookie. To top it all off, Kenny finally decided to take a nap just as the wheels touched down on the Boston tarmac. Well played, indeed.

With Grammy Shirley out of town, Cousin Sue was kind enough to house us and provided awesome toys for Kenny to play with that had been in action since the early '60s. How do I know this? Well, the Fisher-Price rolling toys were made of wood, not covered in lead paint and actually made in the USA. Kenny was especially fond of the duck on wheels and carried it everywhere he went inside Sue's place.


Sue tells Kenny all about the bag she keeps getting outbid for on eBay.

On Thursday, we had a great dinner at Amy and John's, where Cousin Sara ran amok with the neighborhood kids, but also brought each of them in to see (and high-five) Kenny. Mr. Man made the most of his time indoors, however, as he ran lap after lap around the house, climbed the stairs, and bonded with Cousin Peter, who would later be our all-star babysitter. This was a full-circle moment unto itself, since Peter was once babysat by Overboard's father, who is Kenny's namesake.


Kenny watches the big kids play and wonders when he'll be allowed outside unsupervised. My first thought? When he's 18. We'll negotiate.

Peter and Kenny have a moment.

On Friday morning, Overboard got together with her girlfriends to swap stories and compare progeny. Kenny was the only boy, and I think he enjoyed being surrounded by so many lovely ladies.


[insert clever line about Kenny and his womens]

Friday night, we discovered that many words are highly amusing to young, Mr. K. As his Uncle John pointed out, he has a love for "fowl language." Confused? Don't be. Just watch the video below and all will be made clear.



Later on in the evening, Overboard hosted a dinner of her own at Grammy Shirley's place. While she got things ready, Kenny and I went on a fowl-finding mission to the Northshore Mall so Daddy could satiate his Chik-Fil-A jones. It was tasty.

At dinner, Kenny was enamored with a talking train that Aunt Amy and Uncle John took from the "Sara the Early Years Collection." The train has a slew of animal heads on it, and when you push one, the animal's name and color are heard, along with a corresponding noise. This helps with our desire to keep teaching Kenny to roar like a lion, but diminishes my ability to remain sane while Kenny pushes the same buttons over and over and over again. After all, if I want somebody to push my buttons I'll just call my brother.


"The green frog says, 'ribbit, ribbit'." And so on.

Also, what's with EVERY SINGLE TOY these days making a sound? John smiled mischievously at me when the train was presented to Kenny, and you could tell he wasn't sad to see it go, even though it must be years since it has seen any action. That kind of mental/aural scarring is hard to heal. In a move that is wise beyond my parental years, I made the executive decision that the train would stay at Grammy Shirley's for the next time Kenny was in town.

When not listening to the train, I relived college memories with Cousin Simona, who is a sophomore at Brandeis. We discussed the finer points of being an RA, the pros and cons of what semester to go JYA, and the drawbacks to classes that begin around 9am (that's just poor planning, Simona...I'm just sayin').

On Saturday, Overboard, Kenny and I met up with our friends Mike and Emily, and their awesome son, Zachary. Zach and Kenny had fun sitting across the table from each other, rolling toys back and forth and swapping books to read. In between all of this, they ate their respective lunches with much gusto. Afterwards, we swung by Overboard's favorite ice cream parlor in the whole wide world, Richardson's Dairy. We were originally going to go look at the cows in the barn behind the store, but the morning rain (and a tight schedule) nixed that plan. We did teach Kenny to moo, though, so that was good.


Kenny's new buddy, Zachary, and his "handlers".

Kenny then went to hang out with Cousin Peter while we went to the wedding in Salem. Salem, most famous for testing the flammability of wrongfully accused Wiccans, is actually a very cool OLD town. The wedding was held at a hall built in the late 18th century, and every other building seemed to be adorned with a "Built in 17something" date or a historical marker.


Dave & Cristina enjoy wedded bliss.

We ate, drank, laughed and played countless rounds of "Who could take who?" at our table. This is a brilliant game where someone poses the theoretical situation of, say, "Rocky vs. a shark: who wins?" My favorite was, "Alice from the Brady Bunch vs. Mr. Belvedere."

Due to our crazy travel schedule, we had to duck out a touch early in order to pick up Kenny from Peter's - who was luckily still in one piece. Peter, that is. The rest, well, you read the intro.

If you want to check out all of the pictures from our trip just click here.

Whew. I'm tired just from typing all of that. Time to feed and bathe the boy then go crash. We actually have to go back to work tomorrow. Oh, the indignity.