In a NY state of mind

We have always loved visiting New York. Such a fun, big city filled with hip, cool things to see and do. That is not even taking into consideration the fun we always have with our favorite Upper West side residents, Uncle Eric and Uncle Tim. Since having the children I have been hesitant to make the visit to NYC. Yes, I know children do live in New York and they and their parents get around just fine. But it seems like with the nap schedules we would not really be able to do anything. Well here's an idea, skip the naps! That is what we did. It had huge potential for disaster. There were some points where I am sure on-lookers were annoyed with the meltdowns. You may have heard us leaving Central park yesterday in fact....I am sure Madelyn's wails could be heard clear across the country. But all in all they, and we, did quite well. NYC is totally a great city for children and families. It was a totally different NY than we had ever seen but that was great. Just think twice before you lug a double stroller on the subway during rush hour. NY'ers don't seem to like that.

We started a journey just 42 minutes behind schedule when we left on Friday morning. But we made incredible time and maybe even hit the tail end of the Manhattan rush hour. Or was that normal traffic? Who knows. We breezed right up to Eric and Tim's apartment and found parking, sort of. I still don't really understand that street cleaning car jockeying but we (Kevin) worked it out without getting a ticket.

While Eric finished up some work at the apartment we put our children's museum membership card to good use and went down to the Children's Museum of Manhattan. Lucky for us they are currently featuring a Dora exhibit. We couldn't miss it with our two Dora lovers. It was as if the real Dora was there. Our first (and only) celebrity sighting!
The museum was filled with one exciting thing after another including fire engines to drive, a kid-size post office, sand table, crafts, a giant Lite-Brite and much more. What a great way to spend on a no-nap day. A future NY's finest wannabe:
What's a trip to New York without some shopping? Eric met up with us at the American Girl store. Oh what fun it is to have little girls! This store is chock full of everything girly. While Madelyn and Abigail do not yet know much about the American Girl dolls many of their friends that have older sisters are really into these precious but pricey little beauties. Madelyn swooned over the doll hair salon and had a mini-meltdown when her new doll could not visit the salon. Next time maybe. The little dolls sitting in the hair styling chairs was pretty darn cute. You half expected to see them reading a magazine and sitting under the lights with foils plumping from their roots. But no, as posh as it sounds, it was just a brush and go thing. The dolls just looked off into space dreamy-eyed as their little girls watched in amazement. The hot pink, black and white decor in the cafe was a whole separate story. Mommy was more fascinated by the high tea then the girls were. Good thing I heard reservations are taken quite a bit in advance.

But there was more to 5th Avenue so on we went.....

We had a rushed dinner at a fun burger place, aptly named Burger Joint. It was good but kind of "soup nazi" kind of place where it was hard to get a table and you better not sit and chat too long. The table behind us actually did get asked to leave as the hungry throng circled the tucked away booth. Tense!

So we did experience some of the stereotypical NY rudeness. We received plenty of dirty looks, huffs and puffs, and scoffs. The subway was by far the worst. We actually had an experience when two people started yelling the "F" word at each other. Please, not in front of the kids! Luckily they did not repeat anything...yet.

On Saturday we explored the lovely little town of Ridgewood, NJ. This is where my friend Jen's shower and a big reason for the trip. So Eric came out and met us there and we explored this adorable little village's downtown shops and parks.


I heard two big rumors while in Ridgewood...one, that Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones have a house there and two, Angelina Jolie had her baby at the hospital in town. I have no idea if either is even remotely possibly or if it's all just the talk of the town. Funny enough our very good friend Diana is also from this town. Small world. How lucky is she! You should have seen the public high school--it looks like a castle...or a very expensive private school at least. While I was livin' it up at the Hawaiian themed shower (leis for all to wear and orchids favors) Kevin, Eric and the girls went to Horton Hears a Who. It was apparently a total debacle for now 19-month Abigail. I am sure Kevin could tell a great story. But in fairness to her Madelyn just saw her first movie last year so she was *much* older.

The nights in the hotel were okay. I felt bad for the amount of crying it took for the girls to fall asleep. This is more a phase for Abby than just overtired/uncertain of her surroundings, etc. But Kevin reminded me that likely few people were trying to sleep at 8:30 p.m. so we probably were not keeping anyone up....just annoying them. But hopefully most people were still out on the town. Our "suite" was a larger room but sadly no door to close off that room. So we had to turn off all the lights and pretend to be asleep ourselves while the kids fell asleep. In my case, all that pretending was too much like reality and I nodded off much earlier than usual both nights. That's what vacations are for I suppose.

On Sunday we went back in to NYC for more big city fun. We got major rock star parking in front of Eric and Tim's building. Sunday morning is really the time to score a great spot. The streets were still pretty quiet at 10 a.m. We met some old friends, who ironically live a block from Eric and Tim, for brunch. And yes, brunch in New York was even more exotic than brunch anywhere else. It's the thing to do so we did it.

Before we bid the Big Apple adieu we took the subway (much more pleasant on a Sunday) to Central Park where we took the $34 horse and carriage ride. It was 20 minutes of pure glee for Madelyn (and Abby was quite excited too.) The whole Cinderella thing.



We ended with some time at the (one of the) Central Park playgrounds. We had a great time in the enormous sandbox (without shoes even!) and climbing and jumping. It was very sad to leave as evidence from Madelyn's major meltdown. But it was time to pack up and hit the road back to Maryland. I have a feeling we will be back for more one day soon....