Where did we leave off? Korean food? We spent the afternoon at the playground before cooking up the delicious dinner.
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| Run. it. OUT. |
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| Blessed reinforcements have arrived!! |
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| Happiness sizzling on the stove and bubbling in the glasses |
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| Making silhouettes to fill in a spot on my wall seemed like a logical use of time the day before my parents arrived into town. Totally normal. Do not need medication. Perfectly fine. |
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| Will holding court with his captive audience |
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| I can't get over how happy he is all the time! |
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| Will's first time riding in the cart - and the deluxe super duper limousine cart at that! He spent the entire time staring at everything while randomly throwing his head back and laughing. |
Finally it was Friday morning and time to pick my parents up from the airport!!
We went into Brooklyn to a bagel shop and got some bagels, then we were off to see the Brooklyn Bridge. Steve and I always always ALWAYS find a random lucky parking spot on this one street, but we must have circled that block six times trying to find something legal and never could find anything. By that time, we had driven by the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges multiple (probably six) times, Will was fussy, I had to pee, and the kids were more than restless at the lack of playgrounds appearing before them. We decided to scrap our plans and head home where the grandparents were immediately put to work.
After lunch and naps we went down to our favorite local bakery and picked out a few desserts to have after dinner.
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| Fun to look, hard to choose.... |
We had an amazing carb-o-licious Italian dinner that was delivered to our doorstep (love that about NYC!!) and cannolis and eclairs for dessert.
The next morning we went back to Brooklyn, but this time to take my parents to a donut shop before heading to Governor's Island.
This place is quite popular so by the time we got here, there was a decent line that was headed out the door. Steve stayed in the car with the kids while my parents and I went in. I called him while in line and asked him what kind of donut he wanted and to make sure the kids were being good and "earning" their donuts. The line creeped slowly forward and when we finally got to the front to place our order, I guess I got flustered and spit out our order as quickly as I could. We got our donuts, snapped the above picture, and hustled back to the car. As soon as I shut my door, I realized it. I ordered a donut for everyone, except Steve. He thought I was joking and didn't look terribly happy that I wasn't... I told him I'd run back in, but after standing in line for a while, he got worried that we'd miss the ferry, so I abandoned my spot in line and my parents did their best at pretending they only like to eat half a donut. I felt too guilty to eat my donut (seriously- HOW COULD I FORGET HIS DONUT) and we ended up making it to the ferry in plenty of time. You better believe I won't be forgetting his order again anytime soon.
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| We got to ride the upper deck this time- much nicer and breezier! |
As soon as we stepped off the ferry, it started spitting big fat raindrops. Pretty soon it was raining, but not pouring. It was semi-refreshing and it felt like the crowd thinned out a bit because of it. We made our way over to the slides (so wet- everyone flying right off the end) and then to see Lady Liberty.
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| Right where we left her |
Obligatory picture time
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| The rain had moved on to the city by that point and it was really neat to see! |
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| "chicken wings out" |
We had a nice picnic lunch on some rocks (since the ground was still pretty wet from the rain).
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| The area behind us was roped off, so we assumed that was the grass we were supposed to be keeping off of. We don't have a total disregard for rules. |
After lunch, the hills!
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| The Statue of Liberty pose is a popular one with these two. |
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| A pose for all ages! |
Molly caught sight of some goats on our walk across the island, so as we circled back, we HAD to stop and see them. At first we couldn't figure out how to get back to them, so we told Molly that you have to have an appointment to see the goats, and we didn't have one. But on our way out, we ran into one of the garden workers who told us a way to get in. Suddenly we had an appointment! Molly met the farmer who cared for the goats and thanked him for the appointment. Luckily, I don't think he understood what she said.
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| Such an unusual sight, right?? |
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| Even more unusual, yes?? |
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| Will was riveted, as usual. |
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| Ferry ride home |
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| Molly got my phone and snapped this photo of my dad rubbing my mom's feet after our long day of walking, and I think it's pretty sweet. |
Sunday morning we headed to a local bagel shop for breakfast before heading into Manhattan. Steve found us THE BEST parking spots throughout the city. So close to everything we wanted to see. We started off at Rockefeller Center, where of course, we located a potty (very nice clean potties at that).
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| Parks the car AND wears the baby! |
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| This poor child- the LEGO store doesn't open until 11 or something crazy and he only ever gets to stare at it through the window. Gonna have to bring him back sometime so he can see this place from the inside for a change. |
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| St Patrick's Cathedral |
Next stop: Times Square.
Despite the sour looks on their faces and Will's outright refusal to even look in the proper direction (yes, I frequently ruin their lives by asking them to take pictures), they had a great time taking this place in. They probably could have sat on these little benches for hours and been completely entertained. Especially if someone brought them a "cheesebooger" from Old McDonald's.
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| There's never a wrong time to emulate Lady Liberty |
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| That cheeky little smirk! |
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| The Plaza Hotel with a side of Molly's saddest face ever |
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| This is the parking spot Steve got us when I said our next stop was The Plaza and Central Park. I mean..... come on. |
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| One of the rare times Sam voluntarily offered up a picture |
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| How nicely they pose for me |
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| Outside the Dairy |
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| Poor Pops. His reward for climbing this rock was an enthusiastic slap to his no-nos from an overly excited Molly. |
Being that Steve and I (and luckily, my parents) are obsessed with Seinfeld, we went to have lunch at the coffeeshop featured on the show.
I couldn't resist collage-ing this together. 2009 and 2016.
Sam is his father's son in many ways, but one of them includes a deep devotion to ketchup. He loves it and he needs lots of it. Sam assured my dad that he could get the ketchup out of the glass bottle and proceeded to put a modest (for Sam) amount on his plate. As he turned it right side up, my world started spinning in slow motion as I yelled, "Nooooooooooooooooooooo....." but it was too late. Sam had LICKED THE RIM. We locked eyes for at least a solid minute before I started laughing. We are just bound to contract the latest strand of hand, foot, and mouth at some point in the next week.
And Will? Well Will was as happy as a baby with a french fry. Until the french fry was taken away and then all hell broke loose as the cafe filled with angry baby shrieks. Steve had finished his lunch (all that Army training to eat your food fast has sure come in handy since having kids) and took him outside until the rest of us finished. And that is the story of how we sprinkled birth control all over the Upper West Side. The End.
Monday morning brought the most beautiful weather (to include temperatures) that I've seen since mid-June, so we headed down to a playground and "a beach." (Can you hear me barfing from there?)
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| BACK UP before you catch tetanus! |
We got home in plenty of time to collect suitcases and drop my parents back off at the airport. Well, I thought I did. I didn't anticipate LaGuardia to be a parking lot.
All that red is just where we sat with a scream-y hungry baby and two overtired, hungry big kids. No big deal. My poor parents essentially got kicked to the curb as we witnessed no moving of the car line and people hopping guard rails and taking to the streets with their suitcases. I gunned it for the nearest exit ramp only to find that all of the roads surrounding the airport were also parking lots. More screaming, more sweating, more cursing at how friggin POPULATED this area is before just hopping on a road that was moving. I didn't even care that we were going in the wrong direction, just anything to get out of that area!!!
It was about 15 minutes after I said goodbye to my parents that I got a call from my dad, on my mom's cell phone. In their rapid military-style exit of the car, my dad's cell phone was left on the floorboard of my backseat. We were able to overnight it to him luckily and then I figured, what the hell, let's go to the grocery store now too. We have basically cheated death today. We deserve to treat ourselves
to eggs and baby food. Since the nap schedule was royally fcked by that point due to various sweaty car naps, we headed straight for a playground and soaked up the beautiful weather.
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| Forget the nice playground. They'd rather dig through wood chips with sticks. Sticks are like preschool currency. And Sam is RICH. |
Needless to say, we all slept good that night. Well, everyone but Will, but by this point, who even cares, right? I tell myself that he'll sleep one day. Hopefully. Then I'll blink and he'll be a gigantic almost-6-year-old that is fixin to leave me for kindergarten. WOE.
Today we caught up on some house cleaning and laundry before meeting up with Casey and "Wowee" at the Ft Totten playground for a picnic and maybe a little wine. You can take the mom outta the party (by making any party start after 8pm, and thus, too late to consider attending) but you can't take the party outta the mom, amiright??
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| Will finds this all very entertaining |
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| Watching Casey set up an elaborate obstacle course for the big kids to hustle through. Neither one of them is impressed at all. Not. At. All. |
Not sure what tomorrow holds but I sure do hope it's more of this beautiful weather and nice naps and maybe Will sleeping through until morning light and no whining/fighting/complaining about what I'm serving for dinner (Sam politely informed me tonight that my tuna fish was dog food) and maybe endless coffee and cake that doesn't stick to my hips and I think it's time I go to sleep so I can finish this sweet dream....
