New York Part Two

But we weren't in town just to see the City. We were there to celebrate a very important birthday. 
Of course we had to take the Subway to get there.  
Now. Little One doesn't get that New Yorkers have a responsibility to their collective reputation not to be friendly.  On the Subway, She smiles and flirts shamelessly until She gets someone to break the code of Unfriendly and adore Her.
On the night we were headed to Jaju's birthday dinner, all dressed up, She found a guy on the train to chitchat with.  Of course, She had to show him Her baby doll.  "This mine Baby!" She held it up proudly.
"Uh oh!", the man played along, "She's crying!"
Oh did you think you were teasing Her, Subway Man?  Think you were going to get Her flustered or worried about Baby? Ha.  You don't know Little One.  Little One handles Her business, Man.  Just cause She's not a New Yorker doesn't mean She's not savvy!
Totally unphased, She turned that baby around and made it look Her right in the eye.
"Baby!" She said.  "Baby you cryin'?  Ok baby."
She took Her little right hand, and put in across Her heart.  (what is She, going to solemnly swear Baby to sleep?)
She hooked Her little thumb under Her dress strap. (uh...wait just a....)
She slid the strap from Her shoulder (oh my. I see now)
Yanked it down to Her elbow, exposing a triangle-swath of toddler skin.  (Little One! Wait-)
Oriented Baby just so (Oh too late now)
And jammed its face onto Her nipple.
"Baby, you hungry.  There go."

In New York, Peanuts, as on all mass public transportation, there is an air of slightly grumpy solemnity.  Everyone is coming off a long day at work.  They are crowded next to strangers and everyone stinks a little. The subway car is s a tin can of a slightly dejected stoicism, and New Yorkers have seen it all.  But I tell you.
When Little One popped that baby on Her bare little chest like that, so matter of fact, it was like dropping a stone into still water.
Little ripples emanated from Her, pulsing through the railcar washing back brow wrinkles and cracking set jaws, until laughter went rolling and splashing around the plastic orange seats.
Little One (whom we know has a thing for anything in the applause family) was highly amused by Her sudden stardom, and worked it a little.
Subway Man had tears in his eyes he laughed so hard, "Well hey! Wow! Where didja learn that?"
A dozen eyes fell on Little Miss, in my arms.  And on me, slightly pinker than usual.
Plink.
Splash.
Another ripple went out and the laughter soaked into the floor and went dripping out the cracks in the door.

With our glamor only slightly tarnished, we arrived uptown to celebrate at a fancy-shmancy restaurant.
The guest of honor got lots of love.

Little One had a great time with Her oh-so-cool older cousins.

And Miss loved all the attention from the grown ups.

 Of course, it was so schmancy in there, that I brought a bottle in case Miss got hungry.  And of course She decided that no way in heck was She going to have anything to do with it, because hasn't She been clear that She will only take a bottle from J? And was J with us on that trip? Nnoooooo.  So (TMI ALERT) part of the party was me in the fancy bathroom with my lovely, HIGH NECK dress up around my not-so-fancy-now shoulders, nursing my stubborn baby.  But hey.  We still had a great time.
Thus is life as a mommy.  You can dress up with your sparkly earrings and your high, high heels.  You can go out and eat things you could never pronounce.  But you have to be flexible.
You have to hike up the occasional cocktail dress.  Or maybe walk out of your Manhattan dinner and skip the after-party.  To strap a baby carrier over that cocktail dress, reach down past the heels to grab your toddlers hand, and take them on the subway looking like this:

 Back to your Brooklyn hotel room. For bedtime.

New York, New York!

Little Miss's first real trip anywhere, first train ride, and first all kinds of things took place in high style- NYC style!  In honor of my step-dad's big 5-0 birthday, we met up with him in his home town.

 While he worked for the first few days, my mom and I took the girls out on the town and saw some sights.

I even took my little singing/dancing queen to Her first ever, real Broadway show! Jazz hands!

We went to see Mary Poppins. When I sat down with my two year old, the people next to me seriously, visibly winced.  The looked at each other like, "Oooh great.  We get the seats by the toddler. Fuggetaboutit!"  But I was not worried, because I knew what would happen, and it did.  Little One sat through about 3 hours of musical without making so much as a peep, other than the occasional whispered "wow!".  She sat straight up, wide eyed and enraptured the whole time, occasionally swaying or bopping a little to the music.  To say that She enjoyed it is like saying I would "enjoy" having my own personal chocolate factory in the garage.  She was enchanted, and She went around copying the dance numbers (step-in-time was her fave) and talking about "Mrs Puffins" for weeks.  Months.  I liked the show, too.  It was great.  But I loved watching Her watch the show, more than anything.

Another of Little One's favorite things about The City was the subway.  She adored the subway.  Because in New York, the Subway is a venue.  Local people are crawling all over the stations with their portable sound systems, their instruments, their voices.  People get on the cars and belt out tunes for change.  As far as Little One is concerned, this is how life should be.  The filthy NY subway system is Her utopia.  Here is a perfect example:
We are waiting on the platform.  No one is making eye contact, no one is paying any attention to the 40th random guy playing drums they have seen that day.  Except Little One.  He started playing, he started singing, and you all know what happened next, doncha Peanuts?!  She started dancing.  She danced Her heart out, She laughed and giggled.  She begged Her grandparents to "Dance wif me! Dance wif me guys!"  They couldn't resist.  Soon the three of them were spinning and boogying on the platform, and people are forming a circle.  They are whooping.  They are clapping in time.  They are laughing, they are joining in!  Forget going to Broadway again.  Little One is making the wide world into a musical.  People spontaniously burst into song and dance! Everyone cheers!  Then the train came. We tipped the musician. But by the look on his face and the "bless you"s he called out to us as we pulled away from the station, I think Little One's enthusiasm was more appreciated than the bills She put in his box.

The music is always Her highlight.  But She had a great time seeing other sights too.  She loved the "Statue O'liverty." She liked how she stands with her arm in the air like that.  She likes how much room there is to run on the island.  She likes that just because She called it "adorable" in a reverent tone, Her mother bought Her a bracelet charm in the gift shop.  Sucker.

We all liked the ferry ride.  

 We also visited Ellis Island.  A moving place, and a great museum. 

We couldn't help but notice that some things don't change much over time. (check out the picture in the background)

Central park was a big hit also.  Little One especially loved the boat pond, the statue of Alice in Wonderland, and the fact that there are dozens of playgrounds (and Jaju never gets tired of pushing Her on the swings).

 I'm convinced She would have liked the Met if She hadn't slept through the whole visit.  But I LOVED it.  There was an entire Egyptian tomb in there! 

I feel you, ancient chick.  Some things never change.

We packed in as much as we could, and I can honestly saw that Little One had a blast and Little Miss was a very good sport.  Most of the time She was in Her Happy Place- the baby carrier- so She had no complaints at all.  I had my mom and a city to explore... I guess sometimes you actually can please everyone at once.

Missed Happenings

We did a lot our last few months in the DC area.  A LOT.  I tried to squeeze as much as possible in, and as it turns out that was a ton.  I could never list it all! But here are a few of the things we got to do before we left.

Embassy Day

With the Japanese Ambassador

This is one of our fave DC events.  All the embassies throw open houses so that people can come and get a taste of the culture they represent.  There is food, music, dances, art, artifacts, all kinds of things.  We of course couldn't make it to every one, but we hit up some great ones.  Little One's favorite was Iraq.  First of all, the food was killer good.  Secondly, the music was great!  Instead of live performers, this one had a DJ spinning Iraqi tunes, and apparently it struck a cord with Her.  She rocked out like only She can.  Of course She had quite the audience after a little while, and pretty much stole the show, getting rounds of applause after various numbers, and lots of compliments for Her parents.  She also loved the wild costumes from some of the South American embassies, the spicy snacks at Tibet, and anything that had music and dancing.

Greek Festival

In another taste of culture and another chance for Little One to dance Her heart out, we went to the Greek Fest.  J and I pigged out on pastries, and Little One joined the dance line.  Miss just hung out and charmed everyone, but we're sure She had fun too.

Children's Fair

We came home with like 500 art projects and two very tired but happy girls.

Kayla's Pony Party

look out! I'm drivin!

At their cousin's birthday party, Little One got to ride ponies and this time, didn't even fall off!  I got to go ride a horse all by myself, and only crashed once.  We all ate cake and had fun times with family, and Little Miss got Her first experience going swimming!  Big hit.

DC Culture Day

This year the three focuses were Peace Corps, Rhythm and Blues, and Columbia.  The Peace Corps exhibits were amazing; there were workshops and demonstrations from all different parts of the world, and lots of interesting projects.  Little One decorated and mailed a postcard to a child in Honduras, and loved watching Shea Butter being made, and then smoothing it into Her skin.

She LOVED the Columbia section, mostly because of the stage with traditional music and dancing.  You know She danced right along!

But the R&B was Her favorite.  She was in heaven.  The beat just carried Her little heart away.  There were a bunch of kids from a dance school there on the floor, and Little One hooked up with a little boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old.  They danced for about half an hour, straight.  Until they were both dripping with sweat and out of breath.  It kills me I have no video of this, because it was amazing.  It was like dancing with the stars! They were such a great little combo.  He was a super sweet kid, very encouraging and sweet to Little One.  The fun thing was watching him teach Her actual dance moves, and watching Her pick them right up.  He'd demonstrate and then before I knew it, She was doing turns under his arm, doing spins around each other, turning under while holding hands, doing a little move where they kicked opposite feet towards each other, and one where they shuffled right and left together.  It was like they had danced together for months.  Little One and I were both kind of sad we didn't get to take the guy home, but sadly his own parents wanted to keep him.


Kayaking

Miss's idea of adventure sports...

When J's sister came, we finally did something we'd wanted to since moving to Maryland, and went kayaking on the Potomac. We took turns paddling and playing on the shore with the kiddos, and it will go down as one of the funnest things ever as far as I'm concerned.  I could kayak every day! Who knew?




Amish Market

We went to this market on our way to Southern Maryland.  J and I got cinnamon rolls and jam.  Little One pet some chicks, and Miss rode a horse.  Fun for everyone!




Berry Picking

We took Little Miss for Her first and last outing at our favorite orchard/farm. Both gals had fun seeing the animals and playing on the hay bales.  We found one very sweet little berry.


Visits and Playdates

Nothing like great-grandparents !

One of my favorite pics of all time.

Love

chillen

Keeping up with the big kids

we miss dinner at aunt wen's

Up Top!

We tried to see everyone before we left, but of course never got to.  We did get to have goodbyes with some of our friends though, and we miss all of them too much.


General Cuteness

Yes.  There has been quite a lot of that.  I have all but given up on even trying to save it up, it is so overwhelming.  But these are some little bits.  We're getting more in all the time, too.