Hangin' with the boys...

When you don't have kids of your own, taking care of someone else's children can be hard. This past weekend, Todd and I took two of my nephews into the city and they stayed with us overnight. My brother and sister-in-law were going to a wedding, which is the reason we took the kids. Usually we will baby-sit the kids at their house and when the parents come, that's when we would normally leave. We picked them up at around 2pm on Saturday, and our initial plans were to head back to my apartment, hop on the T and head to the Boston Commons to go on the Swan Boats. We knew they closed at 4 on Saturday... why so early, who knows! Since we were still on the T at 3:30, we realized it wasn't going to happen. Our plan B was to go to the Museum of Science since we had free passes. We got there at 4 and only managed to see one exhibit hall. We read on the free pass ticket that it closed at 7, but if you read the fine print, the actual Museum closes at 5, but there are certain shows that are open till 7, which were not free. That's not to say that we wouldn't have gone to see a show you had to pay for, but my nephews aren't quite old enough for them. Before we left the Museum, we obviously had to go to the Gift Shop, where I told the boys that I would buy them something. They picked up 2 cups with a spiral straw and a Shadow game and since they had found a bag of Astronaut Ice Cream and opened it, we bought that too! We were also going to go on a Duck Tour, but since it was 90 degree's, and humid, we didn't think it was such a good idea with the kids. Plus, all of the tours were sold out, so we couldn't have gone either way. Our next stop: Harvard Square. It was not 5:30 and we're back on the T - lot's of T time for the kids, but they love it! I think I also forgot to mention that my youngest nephew, he'll be 4 in August, does not like to walk around a lot. So, I had the pleasure of carrying him pretty much everywhere we went. Humid, 90 weather does not exactly mix well with a 35lb toddler. I'm not really sure of his exact weight, but by the end of the night, he felt like he weighed 100 lbs! We got to Harvard Square and went to the Garage for some hot dogs and hamburgers. After dinner, we walked around and enjoyed the street performers. Mostly solo musicians and 1 band. They were all pretty good - better than what I could do anyway! It was 8 o'clock and our last stop was right near the entrance to the T. A guy who spray paints sceneries - which was pretty cool was setting up shop. My oldest nephew (I have a niece and 3 nephews. The youngest (Ryan) and oldest (Ben) boys are brothers, which are the one's that Todd and I had) is not really afraid to do much of anything. When we had stopped to see one of the solo guitarists singing, he went right up to him and asked him how long he had been playing the Guitar for. When the spray painter was finished with his first picture, Ben wanted to go up to him and tell him he did a great job. Ben was also the first to start clapping after the man was finished. It was now 8:30 and Ryan was practically falling asleep standing up. We got on the T and headed home. Ryan was asleep shortly after we got on the T and Ben was wide awake. We got home at 9:15 (WAY past their bed time!!!) and since Ryan was already sleeping, we put Ben in bed.

I didn't sleep well, since Ryan was sleeping in an air mattress not only could I hear him move around, but I was afraid that he'd end up on the floor. I had finally fallen asleep and the next thing I knew, Ben was trying to wake me up. I looked at the clock and it was 4 am! He asked me if it was time to get up and I told him to go back to sleep! 6:30 came along pretty quickly after that and I was up for the day. We had some "TV time" for a few hours while they drank their chocolate milk. We went to IHOP and drove them home. It was a nice weekend and I always love any time I can spend with me nephews. Even though Ryan can be a devil sometimes, I still love them!