Back in Beantown

Last night, Simon went straight to bed when we got back from Andy and Maeve's and I didn't really think about the fact that he didn't have his BrrBrrr or his blanket in his bed with him. At 5:40 this morning, Simon came into our room to ask for them. I sent David downstairs to find them, but unfortunately he could only find BrrrBrrr. At that point, Eli woke up too so we all watched the Doodlebops together. Despite our early wake-up, we still got on the road an hour later than planned. We stopped in New Haven to see the Galpers who are currently staying at Shira's parents house until the renovations are done on their really nice new house. It was so nice to see them and Elan is suddenly very grown-up but still loving the Wiggles! Simon informed Shira's dad that the car in his driveway was a jag. He also looked at Elan's car (which is really our old Murano--they took over the lease) and he said "hey, that car has the same wheels as our Boston car" and then he looked more closely and said "and the same brakes too!" Had he looked inside, he might have also seen a balloon string that he had tied to the seat as well as his extra carseat that Elan borrowed!
We went to Claire's (a yummy kosher restaurant in New Haven) for brunch. Eli ate some pea soup and some spilled on the table. He suddenly got really whiny and was pointing at something and we couldn't figure out what he wanted. Finally, David handed him a napkin and he immediately smiled and started wiping the table. Apparently he just wanted to clean up!
The kids slept in the car (Simon with his blanket on his head) on the way up to Boston so they missed all the beautiful New England fall foliage. We went to Farrah and Barry's and met their new dog Morris, who was more afraid of the kids than they were of him. He made a good impression on Simon who wanted to take him with us when we left. We went to the park across the street from their house and ran into Simon's friend Tia who was in his class at the JCC last year.
Finally, we arrived at Ducky and Papu's. Simon walked in and said "oh, hi Ducky" as if he were surprised to see her here. The boys had fun playing outside and Papu took Simon down to the garage to look at all the fancy cars. A while after Simon went to bed, he came out of his room and told me he was scared. I took him back to bed and he said "will there be any monsters here?" I said no and then told him that I would lie down with him for a few minutes. He said "can you stay because I don't like to be alone in this room?" I said "first of all, you're not alone because Eli is in here." He said "what is the second-of-all?" After I lay down with him for a minute he said "actually, where is Ducky?" and then he asked for her to come lie down with him. She did until he fell asleep.