Ah, a beautiful fall week in New England. What’s not to like?

We did approach this trip with some trepidation since this would be the first time Xander would set foot in a plane. We had no idea if he got my fully functional eustation tubes or Tam’s…um…less than fully functional ones. We prayed for our own sanity and that of everyone else sitting within earshot (read: the entire farking plane) that it would be the former. And toting along everything that he would need during the course of a week compounded the already less than fun packing process.

Luckily, Xander didn’t so much as bat an eyelash at the airplane experience. Just business as usual: eating, “walking”, pooping, sleeping, and cooing. I do have to mention that it’s shocking that United’s fleet of 757 aircraft doesn’t have changing tables. We had to settle for changing him at our seats since that allowed us the most amount of room. Balancing a large, thrashing child on the toilet lid was fun only once. Don’t worry, the lavatory was still clean when we did that.

We arrived in Boston to amazing weather. I was expecting it to be much colder and far rainier than it actually was. We definitely weren’t complaining. Tam and Xander spent the week in Andover staying with her cousin’s family while I spent the majority of the week in Cambridge attending the mostly good User Interface 11 Conference.

Apparently the mission this time to New England was to get an eyeful of really great Fall color. Unlike last year when we went a bit too early, we managed to hit it just right. Apologies in advance to any sisters-in-law that might bear grudges.

But the major milestone of the week was when Xander finally figured out how to roll over. I missed recording his first attempt because it caught me off guard (naw, he ain’t going to make it…oh crap…he did it!) but captured the second one that took place immediately following the first one. If it helps the readers out there any, the second one looked just like the first one. Really. I swear. Experience the shrillness for the first time!