First Day in NYC 2012

Thursday, November 8 found me, my mom, Tate and Lindsey winging our way to NYC via Newark Airport.  My dad dropped us off at the airport.  We breezed through security as Tate in his stroller gets us to the front of the line!  (so grateful to have a child who loves his stroller at 3 years old+)  We grabbed pretzels from Auntie Annie's pretzels for us adults who skipped breakfast.  Tate had noshed on his oatmeal, cheerios and plain yogurt earlier at home!

The plane ride was relatively uneventful. I had packed some crayons, a new coloring book, a train (read AWESOME) sticker book and a couple of new books to be pulled out whenever tears threatened.  I hooked Tate up with his CARES harness and we were golden!  I handed over his new coloring book and I dozed off for at least 45 minutes while he colored and bothered NOONE.  AMAZING!  I then gave him his new train sticker book and he was beside himself with glee.  I pulled out the new Curious George about 15 minutes later.  Then it was time to give him some Benadryl.  No, not to make him sleep but to help prevent him from getting airsick on descent.  He has thrown up twice upon descent and my ped recommended Benadryl about 90 minutes before landing for subsequent flights.  We've flown numerous times since the flights when he got sick, but I'm not interested in finding out if he can tolerate descent yet, so I've always given him the Benadryl.  I know I should let him try, but gah...who wants to throw up?  And who wants to be thrown up on?  It is seriously not fun.  So any event, he gets sleepy and with the promise of an Oma cookie (Regina, his other grandmother, sends him these eggless, sugarless, wheatless, tasteless cookies from Germany that he fell in love with while we were there quite often) if he napped, off to sleep he went for over an hour.  We landed, got our luggage and went to wait for our car service.

Never, ever use Carmel Car Service in NYC.  We waited over 30 minutes for them to pick us up.  And the driver was horrific.  I had not requested a carseat, but had mentioned I had a 3 year old in my reservation.  Car services and cabs do not require carseats in NYC, but good grief...does one really need to drive 91 miles an hour?  I am serious.  It was ridiculous.  Never again.

We arrived safely (very surprisingly) at my girlfriend's house in Manhattan.  Silke and I had gone to college together, yet were mere acquaintances all those years ago.  In 2007 we became 'friends' on MySpace and when FB exploded we became 'friends' on there as well.  At some point in early 2009 I noticed pregnant pictures of her, yet saw no mention of a man, boyfriend etc so I sent her a message asking if she was having a baby on her own, that I was, and she certainly didn't have to respond.

From there, a new friendship was born.  She hooked me up with the national SMC group and we began talking weekly about pregnancy, childbirth, children and our lives since 1989.  Tate and I have stayed with her once before in June of 2010 and saw her when we were in the city again in 2011.  So of course we needed to see her and her sweet girl A, who is 2 1/2 months older than Tate this visit.  We were crashing with her for 2 nights in her new apartment.

We got our (mine, Lindsey and Tate's) stuff situated and opted to go pick her daughter A up from school and then take the kiddos to an area where there was still some snow after the snowfall the day before.  My cousin, Marcus, was due to pick my mom up at 4:30 to take her on back to the Bronx to visit with his family and his mother who lives in the downstairs apartment of their house for the duration of the trip.  We walked to A's daycare, stopping to grab a slice of NYC pizza for the starved 3 adults on the way. Once at A's school, Tate was enthralled immediately as her classroom had TRAINS!!!

Yes, he's wearing A's boots!  

My mom and Lindsey had to head back to Silke's as my cousin had arrived.  Silke and I took the kids to play in the snow together!!

We returned to Silke's with 2 happy kids...let me say Tate loved the snow!  Silke and I got dinner together for the kiddos while they entertained themselves...

And look what Tate found in A's room...

It's like he can smell trains from miles away :)

Meanwhile, Lindsey headed out to hang out with one of her myriad of friends.  Silke and I got the kids bathed...there are pics, but I'm not inclined to post naked pics of my child and/or someone else's child these days.

Then it was time for all 3 year olds to go to bed.  Silke generously gave Tate and me use of her bedroom while she slept on an air mattress in another room (the laundry room no less!) and Lindsey was on the couch in the living room.  I laid down with Tate after stories in Silke's bed to arise almost an hour later in a daze at 9:30  I stumbled out and found Silke in the living room.  We had dined earlier on delivered burgers and fries while the kiddos played.  We drank some more wine and chatted about our lives, our kids, our jobs, her boyfriend, my lack thereof.  It was a nice, warm evening.  We finally turned in around 11pm and I fell asleep almost immediately, my little boy snoozing beside me (Oh and poor little guy fell off the bed at some point while I was hanging out with Silke.  We immediately put up a bed rail on the side he fell off on;  Needless to say this first night's sleep was a bit restless for me as I was up every couple of hours unconsciously checking on sweet Tate).

It was just a lovely start to our little vacation!