Well, we are back from New York. It's hard to believe we were there for three weeks; it seems like the time just flew by! Jay took lots of pictures while we were there, and he has several on his flickr webpage. (As I write this, the first 13 pages are all from this trip, in reverse order that they were taken. For pictures of just us in New York, look at the Family set, at the last few rows. Hopefully, I will get some pictures up on our gallery page soon.) We had a great time, and the weather was much warmer than last time, so we could actually enjoy being outside! The first Saturday were there we took the bus to the Bronx Zoo, which was huge. The kids had a good time riding the "Skyfari" air tram, seeing all the animals, and playing in the Children's Zoo. It was a beautiful day, and the zoo was crowded. During the week, we would sometimes meet Jay for lunch and go over to Bryant Park, where we waited with tons of other people for a table to come open so we could eat. Bryant Park is one of the few places with a patch of grassy lawn, but is was closed while we were there so the grass could take root. (During the winter, there's an ice skating rink on top of the lawn.) Several times during the week, I would take the kids over to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, just a few blocks from our apartment. It was basically a fairly large brick walkway with benches and fountains, but it was the closest place I could let the kids out of the stroller to run around. It was apparently a favorite hangout for the few local kids, so we also got to make a few friends. A few times I walked the kids over to Central Park, where the nearest playgrounds were. It was a pretty good hike, but it sure beat trying to maneuver the subway or bus system by myself!
Sunday, April 22nd, was Earth Day, so there were lots of activities going on for that. One that we thought the kids would enjoy was a free concert in Central Park by the Laurie Berkner Band, a children's group that James enjoys watching on Noggin. We joined thousands of other people with small kids and danced to songs like "We Are the Dinosaurs" and "I'm Gonna Catch You, You Better Run". It was fun to do something we would probably never have had the opportunity to do if we had not been in New York. After the concert, we walked the length of the park (the concert was on the north edge, so we walked south), which is around 50 blocks long. We stopped along the way to play at a large playground, where Jay and James had the traumatic experience of being separated from each other among the hundreds of kids playing there. I was sitting outside the gates of the playground with Eliza, who was asleep in the stroller. James had gone out another entrance of the pyramid that they were playing on, unnoticed by Jay, who was waiting where he had gone in. He was lost for about 10 minutes before Jay found him at the gate, shoes in hand (he was trying to get the sand out), socks wet from stepping in a puddle, and a single tear trail down his cheek. I doubt Jay has ever been more scared in his life! I didn't know anything about it until afterwards, so I was spared the trauma.
The next weekend we decided to go see the Central Park Zoo, which was pretty small, but still a neat collection of animals. They had a children's zoo with lots of opportunities to play and learn about different animals. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Central Park, stopping at a playground to play, and making our way toward the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We wanted to show James and Eliza some of the things they might be interested in, like the collection of armor for knights and the huge Egyptian temple and statues. We are raising some "cultured" kids! Since we're in New York and get into many of these places for free, why not?
Sunday we planned on going to the Statue of Liberty, but we got there in the afternoon and the lines were very long. We decided to ride the Staten Island Ferry instead, and we got a good view of the Statue as we rode by. We explored a little of Staten Island, then rode the ferry back and walked around the south end of Manhattan. The rest of the week we played at the Plaza, walked to Central Park once, met Jay at work a few times to walk him to the apartment, and just had fun being together!
We did a lot of stuff outside, but we also had fun in the apartment. James wanted to play the Wii games almost everyday, so I would play it with him while Eliza was taking her nap. We got really far on the "Zelda" game, and we also would play bowling or target practice. We had some card games that Jay's mom sent us last time we were there, and one of them was "Go Fish". I played it with James a few times, and then Eliza decided she really wanted to play, too. I dealt her in and played with her the first few times. After I had dealt the cards for about the third round and helped her pick out her pairs, she just looked up and said, "James, you have any dolphins?" It was very cute. I helped her out a little after that, and she won several times, which didn't make James very happy. But we still had fun!
Once again, it is good to be home. We got here Saturday evening, but we were not prepared for the heat. We went from around 60 degrees in New York Saturday morning to over 80 degrees with 100 percent humidity when we arrived in Little Rock. Jay mowed the grass after we got home, and the kids played outside, getting all sweaty. They were happy to see the swing set in the backyard, and grass they could run around on! Sunday we went to church, then grabbed a bite to eat before going to visit Mimi, Jay's grandmother who just moved into a nursing home up here. She seems to be doing pretty well, and it was good to visit with her. Then Jay packed up and left for his flight out. He's going to training this week in Colombia, Maryland, which is near Washington, D.C. It will be hard to adjust to being without him again, but I'm sure we'll make it!
Jay's New York contract ends at the end of May, but they have asked to extend it for another three months, and so Jay agreed to stay. This means we will probably be taking a couple more trips to New York this summer to be with him. In the meantime, we have some visiting to do! We still need to make a trip to see baby Hannah before she grows up too much!