Mi-mi Visits in Boston!

Yay! My mom arrived yesterday morning for a visit and Ellie just couldn't be more excited. I usually refrain from telling Ellie about exciting things that are going to happen until minutes before (I'm so worried something won't work out that I don't want to dash her hopes, plus, it eases the "are we there yet" nagging a bit!), so I only casually mentioned that Mi-mi was coming before she went to bed on Monday night. My mom flew red-eye and got here early yesterday morning just as Ellie was waking up. It was as if all her dreams had come true! She saw my mom come in the door and just melted... it was very sweet.
Anyway, after everyone got freshened up (and had a late-morning nap), we walked around Cambridge and then headed to the Public Gardens (again... I just can't get enough of that place- it's SO beautiful!) to ride the Swan Boats- something we've been waiting to do until Mi-mi came.
Here are some pics from Ellie's first "boat-boat" (as she repeated about 100x during the ride) adventure:


The boats are "powered" by foot pedals... so the top speed is about as fast a live swan would swim across a lagoon.



I love the Weeping Willows that pepper the shore of the lagoon... it gives the Gardens such a fairy-tale like feel.
We sat in the back row, closest to the big swan and Ellie was a bit timid about getting too close...
... come to think of it, it is a rather menacing-looking bird!
Another Willow... this place must look totally different during the [long!] winter!
We even got to see a little turtle climbing up a ramp to the "island" in the middle of the lagoon.
Some ducks- always a big hit (although I found out that we're not supposed to feed the ducks here, so that was interesting to explain to Ellie: "it creates an over-population problem, Sweetie... if the ducks don't migrate, they can't survive the winter and the integrity of the public water supply is compromised..." "Ok, whatever Mommy, can I just have some stale bread now!!?!")



I was trying to get a cute picture of Ellie and Mi-mi on the subway when we were on our way home... by the time I snapped the picture, she had leaned over and put her MOUTH on the wall of train car!!! I'm just going to go ahead and plan on us all being sick again next week... probably just about the time my mom leaves and it's time for us to drive home!

Already being spoiled by Mi-mi: she got a lift home from the subway instead of having to ride in her stroller (which, in her defense, she does spend a lot of time in it, and I brought the cheepie stroller that does look pretty uncomfortable!) Poor Mi-mi had to carry her 5 blocks home while Ellie gave her all sorts of new hair-dos!