La Familia Brophy

Today Nathan and I went to the New England Aquarium. It was his first trip there. The whole adventure started off a little shaky as we got to the commuter rail station I learned that the train before ours was cancelled and that ours was running 20 minutes late. I decided to wait and in fact ours was running about 7 minutes late but I knew it would be crowded. Indeed it was and once again (this has happened before) I was amazed that no one offered me a seat. I was there with 22 pounds of Nathan strapped to my back and not one person even pretended to notice. Since the train was moving so slowly (and my feet were hurting) I got off early at Ruggles. I got right on the orange line which was equally crowded and was immediately offered a seat. I have a whole social commentary to offer here but it might offend some. Let me just say when you are white and privileged enough to ride the commuter rail then you might be unable to see the needs of others or maybe you just feel you have more of a right to a seat then someone who has it a little harder than you…

We finally made it to the aquarium just after it opened. Nathan enjoyed it pretty well but there isn’t much that is low enough for him. It was funny to see him interested in the fish but equally interested in the neon lights, the hoses (they were cleaning the penguins’ rocks), and crawling up and down the ramp (over and over). He liked signing water over and over again since there was lots of it to see. He played in the little tidal pool a little but again it was too high for him and I was worried he would hurt one of the animals there. Mostly I just handed him the empty shells and he threw them back in the water. He didn’t seem to mind the cold water which was at about 40 degrees I think. Brrrr… Hopefully that means that he will like his swim class that starts in a few weeks.

Oh by the way you should see how beautiful the Aquarium T stop is now. It still smells like raw sewage but you can’t see it dripping from the ceiling anymore and it is all fancy and new. Also the Big Dig clean up down there is incredible.

On our way back we saw our lawyer from Bogota, Maria Consuelo at Copley Square. That would have been an amazing coincidence but through the magic of cell phones we knew she’d be there. We already had dinner plans with her for tonight but it was nice to get a quick hello in on our own this afternoon.

Now we are home and Nathan is sleeping and want to be. I am very sorry that I didn’t bring the camera to get a picture of Nathan today. There were many opportunities but I didn’t even think of bringing the camera. bad mama.

I just wanted to see how the Boston Public Libraries Wireless works, I n case i want to try working from here one day. It’s not so great. The signal is really weak, I am perched on a rack of magazines in the spot where I seem to get the strongest signal. Still, i have hope I can find a good spot if i look harder. It is so hot in here though, and I’m not feeling too well so I think I’ll head home. Lisa and Nathan are looking at board books. He is the loudest person here. It’s pretty busy here though for 4:00 on a Monday. Lot’s of students using the computers, a fair number of adults doing useful looking stuff as well.

Here’s a new blog feature. I will report on Nathan’s current favorite books. Nathan and I spend a lot of time reading together, and he is a passionate bibliophile. This week he has two favorite books. I will also be linking to Amazon, in such a way that if you buy one of these books we will get 10% of the money. This is not because I want you to buy the books. But if you do, why shouldn’t I get a little kick back? And (the real reason) I just think it is cool that one can do that with Amazon. But really, get the books from your library if you’re interested.

Bunbun at Bedtime
What is it about this book? Is that Nathan lies to sleep with a stuffed bunny named ‘Mr. Bunbun’ every night? I think it’s the books excellent rhythm, alternating between Bunbun’s virtuous siblings, and naughty bun staying up late playing.<spoiler>The book also has great climax, with the action speeding up as bun hastily prepares for bed after being spooked by an ominous sound.</spoiler> Nathan’s favorite page is midway through the book, when Bunbun’s siblings are taking a bath. Their bathroom is tiled with fish tiles, and there is a pleasing sound effect. Splish! Splash!

My big truck book
Last week Lisa gave Nathan a choice at the book store. Would he like the big book of truck photos or the big book or train photos? He picked the trucks, and has enjoyed the book several times a day since then. I get tripped up by the fact that the illustrator didn’t finish photoshopping all of the images and you can see distorted scenery through the trucks windows, but nothing behind them. Nathan likes the big muscular machines, and has no need for those aesthetic niceties. His favorite page is right up front - ‘Construction trucks’ followed closely by ‘Farm trucks’, seven images of John Deere’s shiny green beauties.

Nathan said his first “sentence” this morning. As usual it had to do with food. While he ate his breakfast he said, “Sauce apple yum Naynay.” It is pretty close to caveman speech but it really was a great attempt at putting words together. My translation is, “I think applesauce is delicious.”

Another first for today was learning how to open the refrigerator. This is a bad thing.

Here he is kissing a picture of Papi who was busy at work but thinking of us all day. (I actually couldn’t catch him in the act of kissing but it had just happened seconds before this photo was taken.

Lisa staged an Easter Egg hunt for Nathan this morning. He had a lot of fun finding eggs and putting them in a basket. Then he got his Easter basket. He thought the best part about the basket, indeed the best part of Easter, were the Cheddar Bunnies. All day he demanded more, more, MORE bunny, more CRACKER! (in sign language of course).

Here’s Nathan on our car ride back from a weekend in Connecticut. He slept squeezing his new bunny and I snapped this photo just as he woke up. He is pretty happy in the car for the 3 hour journey but we learned that while he is awake he does best if we listen to kid music. That can be difficult.