Back to the grindstone...

Wow, I think it's going to take a week or so to upload all the pictures we took in NYC. I can't believe how many pictures we snapped, considering that we continually left our camera back at the hotel.

We had fun in the city, though we missed Sadie very much. Reports from Mom and Dad that Sadie was adjusting just fine helped us relax and enjoy the city sights. New York is very different than I remember it from my past visits. I used to visit some friends in the East Village when I was in college, and the Manhattan of the late 80's was definitely more "edgy" than the family friendly tourist juggernaut it is today. Last time I visited, I was constantly accosted by panhandlers and tripped over homeless people on every street corner. The city has been radically cleaned up- some may say sanitized. Though I am sure that residents prefer their streets safe and clean, I couldn't help but wonder where the homeless and transient residents have been relocated. Have their lives been improved, or have they just been plopped down in the suburbs to plague the less "glamorous" locales? Times Square may be very, very safe now, but it also seems sterile and commercial- like the worst of mainstream American overconsumption- while I don't miss the stripper clubs and peep shows on every corner, I'm not certain that a Sbarro on every corner is much of an improvement either...

Though I previously had spent most of my time on the lower side of Manhattan, I really enjoyed branching out on this visit. We spent some time in Brooklyn in Park Slope, and I thought it was a nice family-oriented neighborhood with beautiful brownstones. We enjoyed eating at Amy Ruth's in Harlem and walking around the neighborhood. We pretty much ate our way through town, and we're paying for it now! Anyway, over the next week or so, I'll drop in a few pictures at a time, with some descriptions of what we did.

Sadie started school last week- so far, she's been four times, for a few hours each, and is set to start full time later this week, we think. She has done pretty well, though she's not wildly crazy about going yet, and cries when we drop her off. I know this is normal and part of the transition, but it still tugs at the heartstrings to hear her cry. She thinks her school is "the library" for some reason, and whenever we go to the car she announces "No library!". Sigh. I am hoping she learns to enjoy her time at school eventually.

Here are a couple of pics of Central Park:

Random irises peeking through the ground...


One of the many examples of Manhattan Schist, a very hard bedrock that underlies Manhattan.


Turtle pond, from Belvedere Castle.

Belvedere Castle. This building was designed in 1865.


One of the many ponds in Central Park. Unfortunately, I forgot which one!


One would never guess that this pastoral hillside is in the middle of Manhattan.

Statue of Duke Ellington on the Northeastern corner of Central Park. The women holding up the piano are his "muses". They are also naked. I'm sure Duke didn't mind.



Malcolm Shabazz Mosque in Harlem. I believe that at one time, this was the official Nation of Islam HQ in NYC.

Looking down a street of Harlem brownstones.

And the famous Apollo Theater...



And because it's not a blog entry without Sadie, here's Sadie enjoying a strawberry on one of our recent picnics. This child is suddenly obsessed with picnics. She asks for one almost every day. Luckily, we have several parks nearby, so we just bag up our lunches and head to a park with a playground. Lunch is so much more glamorous eating at a picnic table.



And here she is singing "Hold on Tight" ,a tune from the Backyardigans "Viking" episode...

I'll be adding more NYC pictures throughout the week, so be sure to check back!

Inflatable fun....

Thanks to my friend Anne for sending me pictures of Sadie's adventure at TK Jungle in Durham last Saturday, as I forgot to bring my camera along. I've never been to one of these places, but I guess there are many of these across the country. It's a giant inside play area full of inflated structures with slides and tunnels. Sadie was somewhat ambivalent- adults cannot follow the kids inside, and she's not really used to being out of the sight of mommy and daddy (you know, because I helicopter! ;-) ) But she did finally relax and enjoy some of the installations. I went with my friend Anne and her two kids Elizabeth and Max.

I'm not sure about this!



Alright, I'll give it a try...


It's a little scary in here!

Well, all these other kids seem to be having fun...

Max and Elizabeth do that kid thing of going UP the slides.

And then, Sadie decides that this palm tree is infinitely more interesting than a big inflatable playground...

I think I'll strew these rocks everywhere...

Here are Max and Elizabeth, driving an inflatable car. Hey, they have inflatable places to go and inflatable people to see. ;-)

On Saturday morning, Redmond and I will be heading to NYC until Wednesday afternoon. This will be our first real trip away from Sadie. We did have a weekend trip in the mountains where we were both sick and miserable, so I don't really count that trip. We supposedly have free Wi-fi in our rooms, so I'll try to post some pictures of the city.

Orange County Swimming Pool

Swimming pool? Who needs a swimming pool? We're in the OC. That's the North Cackalacky OC, of course...









Laundry Hamper "Cheese"!

Losing our Marbles...

This weekend, we took Sadie to Marbles Museum in Raleigh. Formerly home to the bizarrely executed Exploris Museum, Marbles is another typical children's museum with multiple play stations featuring a play ambulance with a plethora of tiny babies swaddled in blankets, a fire station with a fire engine, a grocery store, a garden, a log cabin, several craft and building areas, and the ubiquitous train table area where children slug it out for their favorite engines. It was extremely crowded, and it was a sociological experiment in watching clashing parental philosophies play out.

I don't feel like I overparent, but Redmond overheard two ironiclad hipster parents complaining about these "helicoptering" parents who just don't let their kids work things out for themselves, while staring right at me. I was attempting to keep my daughter from bogarting all of the Thomas engines, and was gently trying to teach her how to share, while making sure some of the younger and less assertive tots had some engines to play with. The hipster parents in question were slinging an infant and pretty much ignoring their three year old boy while he bullied the other children and yanked engines from all the other kids. I try to not be one of those know-it-all parents who believes their own parental style is far superior to other parents, but it rankled me to know I was being judged for "helicoptering" when I was just trying to make sure that my daughter begins to learn to share and not to annoy the other children and their parents. What they call helicoptering I consider basic courtesy. Judgmental parents need to realize that there are as many valid parenting styles as there are children, and that the vast majority of us share the same common goals and love for our children. Children also have vastly differing temperaments, and sorry, but if I didn't "helicopter" my particular curious and high energy two year old, I probably would lose her in a crowded museum. Anyway, enough venting. ;-)

Here is a demonstration of Sadie's incredible attention span at Marbles in Raleigh.



Fireman, save my shopping cart! Note how quickly Sadie abandons her cart when she sees the train table!



Some pictures from the museum.

Giant Leggo structures plus secret tunnels equals happy toddler.


Sadie against an artsy backdrop.


Sadie conspires with other curious toddler girls in a Leggo tunnel.


Holding up a wall...

This is the fun graffiti wall. There are all kinds of crayons and markers and kids can draw whatever they want on the wall. Sadie has decided to take the high road and drags a chair over for more clearance.


In the "musical instruments of the world/parents needing Tylenol" room.


These maraca-type shakers make a fetching hat...

Fireman, save my ginormous stuffed dog!


Sadie rescues a baby from a burning building...

And then proceeds to deliver twins...


Sadie, train table diva.
We really had a hard time getting her to leave the fireman gear behind...

There were several craft areas in the museum. This was an exhibit sponsored by the Scrap Exchange, a nifty warehouse in Durham where all kinds of scraps are donated, and rather than taking up landfill space, kids and adults alike can make crafts and projects from other peoples' discards.

Drawing, coloring, and attempting to paint giant blobs of color on one's hands.


I think it's time for a bangs trim. She looks like a little baby college student after a long night clubbing, which isn't really the look most of us mommies are striving towards with our two year olds.

Enjoying an artery clogging lunch at Gypsy's Shiny Diner afterwards...

Here's a few pictures from the weekend before, when Pee Paw came to visit.

Pushing Sadie in the wagon...


Playing in the canoe at the pond. Note that our ponds are beginning to fill up with water, and after the rains we had this weekend, they may be almost back to normal now.