I guess I could update now

I have had an extremely frustrating evening with Miss Maggie ending with me putting the mattress BACK in her crib after I laid on the floor with her for almost an hour. I watched her eyes roll back in her head and she fought and fought falling asleep. I covered my ears as she screamed until she was hoarse. Finally, I was done. She cried for maybe 5 minutes after I put her in the crib and now I have not heard a peep. I have no idea what's going on in her little head. I guess maybe we've had too much visiting this summer? She's slept in our bed too much? I don't know. It's hard to tell. She ate mashed potatoes for dinner tonight. She got upset when I took her plate off the table but when I gave it back to her, she didn't want anything on it. So, I have no clue. I think it's fairly apparent that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing with my daughter.

We had a lot of fun in New York this past weekend. Maggie is an excellent cure for the "Nervous Flyer." (that would be me). We flapped our wings on take off and then I placated her with a Magnadoodle, little teeny farm animals and 2 lollipops. She was quite content for the most part.

We really need to end this fakey smile thing she's got going on lately. She then fell asleep at baggage claim and slept for the entire cab ride. I felt like I was in China again--even the temperature! We got to Meredith and Joe's and Maggie was fascinated by their not exactly child friendly cat and their ultra fragile dog, Miles. Miles is not the kind of dog that you can pound on like you can with Cousy. Miles was dismayed when he saw how much attention M and J were lavishing on Maggie. It's a portent of things to come, buddy.

On Friday, Meredith took the day off work, I mean, she worked from home and we went to the Museum of Natural History. They had a special exhibit on Mythical Creatures that included the unicorn so OF COURSE we had to go. It was very interesting but some of those things were creepy looking. We discussed how we would not like to see them standing beside our beds in the middle of the night. Maggie was quite interested in the dioramas but got crabby in the ocean area because she was being forced to sit in the stroller and wasn't allowed to touch the displays.


Maggie and her 400th stuffed animal, The Unicorn. We decided to leave about an hour after we got there so Mags could eat. Then I decided that we had not gotten our $22 worth so we went back to the museum and looked around for a while. Some hilarity ensued in the Native American gallery. There are many scary masks in there. Then we left and David and Maggie went to the Met and Meredith and I went shopping. Shockingly, Maggie slept through the Met. I would be more than happy to visit it if someone would push me around in a stroller. I helped Meredith pick out some clothes for their baby to be because I am nothing if not helpful when it comes to aiding people in the spending of their money. My college friends can attest to that.

The Met is so.....relaxing.

Here's why Maggie was sleeping.

Great pictures, huh?


That night I decided that I was not going to attempt to bathe Maggie in the bathtub with the glass doors and cabinet in the way and blah blah so Maggie got to bathe in the swimming pool sized sink. She enjoyed it.


The next day, since it was approximately one thousand degrees, we decided to go to Chinatown. There's nothing like the smell of Chinatown in the summer. We took the subway down there and got stuck in the turnstile with the stroller and dropped the Metro card and M and J were embarrassed to be seen with such TOURISTS.

The title for the Chinatown scrapbooking collage that I did not do? Dim sum is YUM YUM! It was. We ate and ate and ate.

Oh no! No more steamed pork buns!


We walked about 50 miles to the Strand after that and it was not acceptably air conditioned. I think I bored Meredith with my extensive time spent in the young adult section. I have some new books for you this year, students!!! If I ever get them read first. Then we took a cab home. Meredith made us some tasty meals while we were there and I forgot to get the recipe for the Carbonara Pizza but it was GOOD. And we found Carvel cakes in the grocery store!

On Sunday, Joe had to work on a brief, allegedly, so David went back to the Met and Meredith and I took Maggie to the Children's Museum of Manhattan and IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!! I only wanted to yell at some kids twice. Maggie had super duper big time fun. Her favorite parts were the slide and the firetruck. And the sand table, I imagine because it was like the beach.

Maggie on the time out couch. No, just kidding! She just wanted to sit on it!

Firechief Maggie is on the job!

Hold on! I'm taking a hard left!

I like how Maggie is looking at me like, "THIS is my mom? Jeez." I also like my quadruple chins.


After we played at the museum for a long time, Maggie fell asleep in the stroller and Meredith and I went for cupcakes at Buttercup Bakery and they were VERY good. We met up with a friend of Meredith's who has a 15 month old daughter and went to the park with them. Maggie had big fun there too.

They had this water park area with a sprinkler and little streams and stuff to play in and Maggie LOVED that. The water was very cold though and I did not really want to be walking around in the water. David met up with us and we walked home. It was really fun. I think Maggie's favorite part of New York may have been that she got to sleep with us every night. Heh.

On Monday, we said our goodbyes (wah) and then David and Maggie and I went to Alice's Tea Cup for brunch. Quite tasty pancakes and tea. Then we headed to the airport and I was SO HOT. Somehow we ended up at the international terminal and had to take the AirTrain back to the domestic terminals. Our flight was leaving out of this trailer-like temporary terminal. Our flight got delayed for an hour and a half and Maggie was okay. Not great but okay. We finally got on the plane and I will be eternally grateful that I bought her her own seat. JetBlue has DirectTV on their flights and that RULES. Maggie ate some more suckers on the plane and I gave her a notepad and some stickers and she had a good time sticking the stickers everywhere, including on her leg. I was glad to be home when we finally got there though.

So, now I have a week until I go back to work. Blah. I think I am going to go drown my sorrows in some Edy's Loaded Cookies 'n Cream ice cream. I can't wait!