Halloween Treats

Our two dragons survey their pumpkins after trick-or-treating with the dinosaurs at AMNH.

DAY 14: Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween, Y'all! We woke up early so the boys could get in their dragon costumes and practice breathing fire before we headed uptown for all the festivities. First, we stopped at Bryant Park for soup and sandwiches, then we headed to the American Museum of Natural History for their annual Halloween party, and then we headed back down to 69th Street for their neighborhood block party and trick-or-treating. The kids LOVED it!! And I was impressed by the merchants offering treats. I have to say Tucker and Henry never saw the treats from Godiva, but I can tell you they were wonderful. Toddlers can't appreciate quality chocolate! Enjoy the pictures. We missed all of you but hope you relished many treats this Halloween.

Tucker and Henry discover their wings in our apartment before heading out.

Henry, the "little" dragon, gets ready to meet the mammoths inside the AMNH.

Tucker , the "big" dragon, leads Henry on the hunt for treats of the candy variety...

...but was happy enough to give his friend Curious George a high-five!

The 69th Street Neighborhood Association went all-out with decorations. Tucker's favorite was the giant spider next door to this spooky window. Mine was the house divided between pergatory and heaven. Heaven was simply heavenly!

This Surf and Turf costume gave new meaning to being "a piece of meat."

The hoax man, complete with life-like mullet, was a great commentary on recent news.

And last, but certainly not least, this woman posing as the swine flu spoke volumes about UWS creativity. Loved, loved, loved it!

After two trips up and down 69th Street, the "little" dragon was draggin'.:)

So was his brother.

And that was all folks! Until next year, Happy Halloween!

Nemo and Bessie

DAY 13: Friday, October 30, 2009
We attempted to go to a Halloween party this morning on the Upper West Side with our friends Lizzie and Caroline, but discipline issues kept delaying us, so we headed to Madison Square Park instead for lunch at the Shake Shack (finally!), a trip to the holiday market, and an afternoon on the playground. It was a fabulous New York day! At lunch, we sat next to a filmmaker from New Zealand who just won a prestigious contest sponsored by Bloomingdale's, his sister visiting from his homeland, and his four month old son. We talked about the struggles of trying to work from home with an infant and then toddler and the best source for homemade baby food recipes. It made for a lovely conversation, and the long-awaited trial of Shake Shack was worth the wait. Not as good as In-N-Out, but a close second, especially with the Oh My, Pumpkin Pie concrete. Yum!

Following lunch, we went to the holiday market and found a few really cool gifts, added a new monkey to our breakfast room collection, and finally, purchased two adorable hats and mittens. Tucker chose the fish, or Nemo, for himself, and the cow, or Bessie, for Henry. (Henry was sleeping in the stroller.) Then, after giving the merchants high-fives and pounds, Tucker bid his new friends goodbye, and we headed to the playground. Since it was the day before Halloween, there were a dozen or so kids in costume, and Tucker befriended a mermaid named Megan. Megan's dad took him for a spin on the tire swing, which he loved, and the two kiddos played on the slide and climbing wall. Thank goodness for kind strangers! Of course, Tucker pitched a fit when we had to leave, but I think he was adequately exhausted. He fell asleep on the way home, woke up for supper, and then went back to sleep to prepare for his big day tomorrow. It's almost Halloween!!

Why I Will Never Live at the P.O.

DAY 12: Thursday, October 29, 2009

As a teenager, I always chose running over swimming because I detested the sensation of sweating in water. Today, I discovered that I hate sweating in cold weather almost as much! We trapsed across three avenues to the grand post office beside of Penn Station to mail a few important letters. Unfortunately, the stately entrance, composed of several hundred (or maybe just several dozen) steps, did not include a ramp for those of us with wheeled contraptions. So we commenced on a hunt to find the handicapped entrance. The first person we asked, a USPS police officer, told us, in a rather thick Eastern European accent, that there was no ramp into the building and that knowing this was not his job; he was there to guard the door. I refused to believe him, since he was less than convincing and because I thought it was a federal law to make federal buildings handicap accessible. At least I remember a big stink in my hometown over the addition of an unsightly ramp to the historic downtown post office. So, we searched for additional USPS personnel and found one who had the additional benefit of being a helpful citizen. "Yes," the young female mail carrier said. "There is a ramp. It's just on the opposite side of the building." The building, by the way, spans more than two city blocks. So, in the cold weather with the sun beating down on us, we travelled to the other side of the building, which felt like the other side of the world, and found a rickety, rusty ramp into the bottom level of the grand post office. Once inside, I made a bee-line for the elevators to the grand main floor. "No," the lady said. "You can't go up there. You go in that room." In New York , at this post office, those with wheeled contraptions, are relegated to the dungeon. There were three people in line; we waited 45 minutes. Then, the clerk told me I needed to pay extra postage for my two cards because they were too small. Really? "When did the post office start charging extra for cards that were too small?" I asked. I knew there was an extra charge for envelopes that were too large and envelopes that were square, but I had never heard anything about paying extra for an envelope that was too small. The man explained that he didn't have the official measuring sheet, but he was pretty certain that I needed to pay $0.20 extra per card because my 4 x 6 envelopes were small. I told him I would take my chances and immediately thought about my tax dollars at work. If the government could attract and hire competent and efficient workers, I'm quite certain we could be out of debt in no time. With the post office experience behind us, we exited the dungeon and discovered the saving grace of this trip--a magnificent view of the Empire State building from the rickety, rusty ramp. There are silver linings in New York for every cloudy moment. Find other pics from the ramp below.

When it rains...it pours

DAY 11: Wednesday, October 28, 2009

With rain in the forecast for the second day in a row, we started the day with a strong contingency plan. Having gathered pumpkins at Union Square on Friday and purchased paints from Duane Reade on Saturday, Tucker and I spent the entirety of Henry's morning nap decorating our pumpkin family. Initially, we planned on painting each one to resemble one of the five of us, including our sweet dog Charlie who's staying at Camp Slagle with GP and Papa, but after Tucker threw one of the family members across the room as if it was a ball, we changed our plan. One pumpkin became a traditional Jack-o-lantern; another became a patriotic pumpkin; the third became a lesson in combining blue and yellow to make green; the next one became a lesson in combining blue and red to make purple; and last but not least, Tucker's pumpkin became a scary, scary, scary pumpkin. Check it out below:

When Henry woke up, the pumpkins were finished, so we found great joy in having a picnic lunch indoors. Tucker sported Thomas the Train underpants. Henry had on his skeleton shirt in the Halloween holiday spirit.

After lunch, we were on to the thrill of turning the furnace fan on high and laughing at the funky flip hairdos it created...Then, we played a little more before afternoon naps and quick walk around the block...at long last.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

DAY 10: Tuesday, October 27, 2009

If children go crazy in other parts of the country when it rains, then they go crazy 10,000 times faster in Manhattan. They use up the space they have in a nanosecond, mostly because there is less of it, and then commence on tormenting their caretaker, whether that person is a mother, father, grandparent, nanny, manny, or babysitter. By lunch today, our first real day of rain, I was on the edge, so I put raincoats onTucker and Henry, and we hit the streets. In no way could our outing be confused with an adventure, but it was definitely a quest. The mission--find bad weather gear for the stroller and more food for the fridge.

Buy Buy Baby on 7th Avenue met the first challenge and gave Tucker and Henry a makeshift indoor gym to explore while I shopped. (See photo above.) I audibly thanked God for putting understanding staff members in our path, even a few who played games with them! While there, we outfitted the stroller with a wind and rain cover and bought footmuffs for both kiddos, and I made the decision that if any children come our way in the future, I'm coming to NYC to prepare--so many useful gadgets!

Next door, we found Stevia at Whole Foods Whole Body store. (It's in the regular grocery aisles in Atlanta, but apparently, New York law mandates it be sold with herbs and dietary supplements. Perhaps this outing could count as continuing ed?!?) We almost made it outside, when I realized Henry's hat was missing. We made a sweep through the six or seven extraordinarily narrow aisles, annoying at least a dozen health-conscious yet entirely disgruntled shoppers, but came up empty-handed. We went back to Buy Buy Baby. No cigar. Then we tried Whole Foods Whole Body again. Bingo! It seems Henry thought his hat added just the right touch to a display of women's scarves. Maybe he's beginning a career as a display artist. Or maybe he's just a toddler. Hmmm...

Onto the grocery store... We gathered several items, including tasty spinach crepes that were being showcased by a demo chef, and headed home. At least the outing, while not an adventure, used enough energy to prompt naps!

Heckscher Playground in Central Park

DAY 9: Monday, October 26, 2009
Today we pretended to be real New Yorkers. We took an early morning walk to Central Park where we met friends from San Diego for a playdate. Lizzie left San Diego a year or so before we did for New York and added a second daughter a year or so later. Her oldest daughter is in kindergarten on the Upper West Side, so Tucker and Henry played with her younger daughter Caroline, who is almost two. The three kiddos had a ball, and Lizzie and I got a fair amount of exercise in while chasing them around the climbing walls, slides, and ball pits. There were a few older kids at the playground who appeared to be skipping school, and their behavior was a bit too risque for toddler eyes, so we eventually left for a walk along Central Park South. Tucker begged Caroline to trade snack cups with him. He wanted her goldfish instead of his peanut butter pows. Thank goodness, she held strong to her choice, only a few germs were shared, and we parted ways, stopping by a corner store to buy goldfish (what else?) then Wes's work for a quick lunch before heading home and a three-hour nap. We'll be going to the playground every morning if that's the result!

Long Walk to Lady Liberty

DAY 8: Sunday, October 25, 2009

Since the day we decided to spend this time in New York as a family, Tucker has been talking about the Statue of Liberty. He pointed it out from South Ferry as soon as it was in sight, drawing the attention of strangers around us, and he was impressed by its size, how "big" it was. What impressed me, though, was the thought that while it is indeed an enormous structure, especially if you're two, it represents something so much bigger. To be free is something we frequently take for granted as Americans, but this statue represents all the people who have sacrificed their lives and lifestyles to make our collective freedom a reality. I am so humbled by their service to our country, and I hope my children will know how blessed they are to be part of a stable democracy and take seriously the responsibilities that come with being free.

On a lighter note, follow our footsteps from earlier today as we walked from our apartment in midtown to Greenwich Village for a bite to eat, stopping at a local toy store on the way, before hopping on the subway to South Ferry where we caught a boat to Liberty Island for a date with Lady Liberty herself.

Strapped in and ready to go on a lovely walk in beautiful weather!

Happy Halloween! Storefronts along our route through Chelsea were ready for trick-or-treaters.

A fantastic alternative to FAO Schwarz. Bigger is definitely not always better! We'll be back here.

Henry plays the xylophone. A budding musician? Hmmm...

Bye, bye, toys!

On the road (or sidewalk) again, this time with a new truck.

Flower stand in the Village. Another of my favorite things about New York--affordable fresh flowers everywhere!

I'm pretty sure this is never enforced...

Our food stop, kid-friendly plus we could see the game. Win-win!

Taking a train from Sheridan Square to South Ferry.

Tucker spots Lady Liberty. Once we disembarked, he was off like a bandit and fled from me every time he saw the camera. Maybe he's finished with the family photo shoots, too. Like father, like son!

Henry plays with lower Manhattan in the background.

Before we left, with both boys falling asleep in the stroller, Wes and I took a trademark shot of ourselves. We wanted to prove we were there, too!

Trains, Pumpkins, Toys, and the Park

DAY 7: Saturday, October 24, 2009
Our inaugural Saturday as a family in New York was a day of many firsts for the boys--the first subway ride, the first diner experience, the first city festival, the first trip to Central Park, and the first--and possibly last--trip to FAO Schwarz. The day included our first random encounter with friends, something that happens with amazing frequency as I discovered the last time I lived in the city. Saturdays like this one are why I love New York. Here's our day in pictures...

Trains... For our first family subway experience, we started with the line we knew best, since gaining stroller access was enough of a hassle! From Penn Station, we took the 2/3 line to 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue. Not sure I'll attempt the subway alone with the stroller, but watching Tucker break the grimace of a few hardened New Yorkers with high-pitched screams of "There's another train, Mommy!" might be worth it!

Random Encounters... Of course, when you hope you'll see no one you know, you do! Just after exiting the subway, we ran into Kim Radford Henderson, one of my favorite hallmates from freshman year at Wake Forest who actually grew up in Atlanta. It was great to catch up on the sidewalk with her, meet her husband, and get a recommendation for brunch! Such a small world!

Diners... Thank goodness for family-friendly spots like this one! We parked the stroller in the corner and enjoyed typical diner fare for brunch at Utopia Cafe on the Upper West Side. Satisfied enough by his food, Tucker found the two ladies chatting outside much more interesting. Perhaps we have a serial eavesdropper? Hmmm...the stories he'll be able to tell.

Festivals... Street fairs and festivals are incredible in the city, especially in the fall with holidays to celebrate! After brunch, we walked to the park, through Strawberry Fields, and found the reason we ventured uptown--the Pumpkin Festival at Central Park! The line was atrocious for the pumpkin patch, and since we didn't care to carry a pumpkin back to our apartment, we skipped it and went straight to the performers and vendors.

Wes and the boys watch unicyclists and other sundry performers from the Big Apple Circus. Clearly, Wes is thrilled to be part of the family photo shoot.

A sample of Vermont cheddar lights up the face of our little Dairy King. This was Henry's favorite part of the day!

Central Park... Once we had our fill of the Pumpkin Festival, we strolled through Central Park, taking in the gorgeous fall foliage along Author's Way. Tucker was free to run and loved every second while Henry lobbied to escape confinement.

Free at last! A rare shot of the brothers in their raincoats together. Tucker assumed the character of his jacket and proclaimed himself to be a pirate. Ahoy, mate! Henry was just happy to be out of the stroller and splashing in the puddles.

Henry on his own in Central Park.

Toys... We left the natural wonders of Central Park for the material jewels of Fifth Avenue. Our first and only stop, a child's paradise, the famed FAO Schwarz. Tucker loved EVERYTHING and wanted to take it all home.

Greetings from Toyland! This is the main entrance, where the madness begins.

Tucker checks out a wall of cars but leaves with a dinosaur to add to his toy collection. The selection of the triceratops may have been a forced decision; we had to make it back for the Tennessee game, and we did...just in time. A good day for all!