I want to be a part of it

Did we ever have a good time in New York! It was busy and hot and I got Maggie completely off of her schedule but in the grand scheme of things, does that really matter that much? Nah.



Maggie and I got up at our usual school day time on Thursday and went to David's dad's house as he was taking us to the airport. David had already flown out of bed at 3:45 am and I was not awake when he left the house. Good wife. We had some time to kill at the airport so we got Starbucks and sat in the big rocking chairs in the main hallway. Maggie liked that a lot. We were flying standby on a buddy pass so we had to wait and see if there were any seats left on the flight to LaGuardia, which there were not. Rege said he could get us on a flight into Newark if we left right then and we were ready to go, so he ran down to the plane headed to LGA, grabbed our luggage and got it on the flight to Newark and still had time to meet us at the end of the jetway for one last hug and kiss! Then I had to get in a small altercation with a guy on the plane because I was sitting in his seat and he wouldn't trade with me because he HAD to have an aisle seat. No way was I letting Maggie sit 2 rows ahead of me by herself. Yeah, right. Luckily a nice woman sitting across the aisle agreed to trade so all was well. Maggie was VERY good on the plane and played with her Polly Pockets and we ate an entire bag of Life Savers Gummis and she showed every single thing in her backpack to the girl sitting next to us on the plane. When we got to Newark, I got our luggage with little trouble and got in line at the taxi stand. I knew our taxi ride was going to be interesting when I saw that the driver had a GPS system on his windshield. I wondered if he knew where we were going. I am not sure he did. We sat at the taxi stand for at least 10 minutes while he played with the GPS and it said, "Cancel. Cancel. Cancel," about a thousand times. My blood pressure started to go up. Then he finally pulled out into traffic and promptly pulled into the kind of no man's land where 2 lanes split apart and continued to press "Cancel. Cancel. Cancel." SIGH. Finally we got going and he got on the phone and asked someone which way to go. We drove through the Lincoln Tunnel (I think) and up by the river and finally got to Meredith's apartment, thank goodness.

We had tons of fun at Meredith and Joe's and you should really go over to her blog and see her pictures because her camera is way faster than mine and is much better at being able to capture the lightning like movements of a 2 year old.   We checked out Noelle's room and all her CUTE clothes and if Maggie were smaller, some of them might have "accidentally" come home in my suitcase.  Maggie also completely decimated Noelle's neatly organized toy shelves and dragged everything out to the den to play.  We took Maggie to suh-wing at the park that first day and there were a million kids there and also, it was VERY hot, and there just happened to be a fountain so Maggie played in that.  
Her dress got wet, which she did not like, so I took it off and let her play in her shorts and fake Crocs.  Then when we walked home, I brought a little of The South to The City and let Maggie walk home with no shirt on.  Classy.

On Friday, we went to the Central Park Zoo which was OVERRUN with school groups and we were afraid we were going to be stampeded by the hordes of very loud children. Maggie also had a slight meltdown at the clock (aka glockenspiel) because we did not stop to let her look at it. She said, "Stop. STOP! I wanna look at the clock!" and started crying. We decided perhaps she was hungry so we went to S'mac and got mac and cheese for lunch and OMG. It was SO GOOD. Meredith and I ate lunch so fast that we were in a food coma afterwards. Maggie took a good nap and we went to meet a friend of Meredith's and her 2 year old daughter. We played with them in the park last year too. Maggie and Olivia had a good time together but their personalities are very different. Maggie was content to sit on the lawn and eat goldfish while Olivia ran around and got in someone's family picture and went and sat down on another family's blanket. Very funny.



On Saturday, we went to Chinatown and I told Meredith in an email that I might hate that place. In the summer, at least, because it is ridiculously hot and crowded. But we had to have dim sum which was delicious except for David's foray into TONGUE, which Joe later determined was tripe. EW EW EW. I did not eat that.

The offending tripe is the beige stuff in the front bamboo steamer.

Thank goodness for air conditioning and distracting BlackBerries.

I love this picture!

We also went to the Strand that day and I let Maggie pick out some books. Noelle got some books too! There was a giant thunderstorm that afternoon and thankfully, we had just made it home when the skies opened up. David and his high school crew were not so lucky.

This post is like a travelogue. I'm sorry if it's boring. On Sunday, we met David at Macy's for a father's day lunch and then Meredith, Joe, Maggie and I went to Build a Bear so Maggie could make a bear for Noelle. I was completely prepared for Maggie to select the pink cheetah but instead she went for the more sedate black bear. Hmm. But then she did me proud with "Bear's" outfit. Rhinestone flipflops, pink leggings with lace trim, white spaghetti strap tank top with lace trim and pink hearts and a white quilted pocketbook. Awesome. In retrospect, I took almost no pictures on this trip for whatever reason. That's kind of frustrating. But like I said earlier, Meredith did take some great shots so go to her blog for better pictures. We walked a super long way on Sunday, which I didn't realize, but David, Mr. New York City himself, was astounded.

Overall, though, the best part of the trip was just hanging out with Meredith and Joe. We had such a good time with them and Maggie broke in all of Noelle's toys and got every one to "bouncy her on a ball" (their exercise ball). Maggie looooved Joe. Each morning, when she woke up, she would say, "Where my Joe?" and she RAN to meet him at the door Friday night when he got home from work. Meredith got some good practice in taking Maggie to the bathroom COUNTLESS times and I told her I would buy her lunch if she'd take Maggie to the potty at the dim sum place. We laughed and laughed and watched Tivo'd episodes of "Intervention" and DVD's of "The Brady Bunch" and great fun was had by all. Maggie also liked their dog "Mile" (Miles) in small doses, except when he tried to nuzzle her neck and was fascinated by their cat, "Stupid Cat." (Atticus) When we got home, she said Louie was not a stupid cat.

I slept in the guest bed with Maggie because she was NOT about to sleep in the crib. Maggie is a major bed hog. I clung to the edge of the bed each night. She also slept with her head UNDER my pillow. She bathed in the giant kitchen sink again and ate cereal for dinner one night. She had time out one evening because she has developed this habit of sticking her tongue out (mostly at me) when she doesn't like something that I've said. This was right after her bath so she sat on the floor naked and WAILED. I had to look out the window so she couldn't see me smiling. Speaking of looking out the window, we also broke out Joe's telescope and tried to spy on the people across the way but were mostly unsuccessful. Oops, was that a secret? Maggie got to ride on the choo choo train (the subway) All in all, a great trip and I was secretly glad that we were in such a rush to leave on Monday morning so I didn't have time to get sad. So, Meredith and Joe, thank you again for letting us come and mess up your neat apartment and disrupt your lives. We had SUCH a good time. We can't wait to see you again next month!