"New York City, You're So Pretty"

Last week, my little brother Eric called us up and said he was flying out to NY to interview for an internship with an investment banking firm. I asked if he would stay a few extra days after it was over so we could rendezvous up there over the weekend. He politely acquiesced and we had a blast doing all the fun New Yorky things there are to do up there.

We knew it would be rainy Friday morning when we got there, but didn't anticipate rain ALL DAY, or 35 MPH wind gusts all day the next day and snow in the afternoon (wind chill was in the teens; I know, I know: it's February, but still). However cold we were, the fun factor outweighed any discomfort we had and the girls had a blast with their Uncle Eric.

First up, the Wall Street Bull photo-op. We especially loved the cop tasked to man the statue continuing to scream at the spectators lined up along the street, "GET OUTTA DA STREET PEOPLE! I'M GONNA BE LAUGHIN' WHEN A CAR COMES SPEEDING BY AND RUNS YOU ALL OVER." Enter strange New Yorker #1.

Second, FAO Schwartz (I felt we needed to reward the girls after our drive up there and for being angels in the car). Makenna, Addison and Drew tore it up on the Big Piano. Beat that, Tom Hanks.

Then we headed up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is one of my favorite places in the city. Drew was insistent on proving what an awesome mate he is and begged me so that he could take the girls to the basement to run around while Eric and I leisurely roamed through the museum to our hearts' content (okay, it may not have happened exactly like that, but it ended up that way). One of my fave pieces...

(Edward Hopper's "The Lighthouse at Two Lights", which we visited last summer while up in Maine...gorgeous)

The afternoon proceeded quite uneventfully at the Met, until it was time to leave and I needed to change Addison's diaper in the bathroom's handicapped stall. It started with her running in and attempting to open up the stall door. It ended with a certifiably INSANE woman who informed me that as an American, she "had the right to urinate in peace and quiet without an awful little child terrorizing her in the bathroom." The screaming went on for quite awhile longer ("You're not allowed to use this stall. It's only for the elderly, not for little babies. Go away NOW," with fellow patrons casting sympathetic glances our way and Addison grabbing at her diaper from behind. Enter strange New Yorker #2.)

Day #2: Ferry ride to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Always wanted to do it, never have. We buckled down on the windiest day in New York history and did it. Collectively, I think we wore every piece of clothing we brought (I was literally wearing 5 layers of clothing and still freezing). Uncle Eric is not one to leave extra layers going unused and, very elegantly, fashioned a head scarf out of Addison's mimi (blanket).

Lady Liberty was amazingly beautiful up close, although we didn't get any pictures with her b/c I brought the wrong lens and couldn't back up enough to get everything in the shot. But here are Drew and me nearly getting completely blown over on a tiny island in the middle of a big bay.

We spent the minimum time of 30 minutes there before the next ferry arrived and we ran onto it, taking cover from the cold.

Ellis Island: Amazing history. Haunting photos and artifacts. Beautifully restored. LOVED THIS PLACE.

We ended the day with a delicious dinner at Lombardi's Pizzeria in Little Italy. This is Addison exhausted after 2 days of nonstop FUN. She nearly fell asleep with cheese stringing from her mouth.

Times Square: What kind of doting parents would we be if we didn't make a stop at the Disney Store? Terrible ones, I'd say. So here's Makenna in front of the magic mirror, where if you wave a wand, a princess shows up and talks to you...MESMERIZING to my 4-year-old. We may or may not have caved and bought her the Tangled figurines which may or may not have kept her utterly entertained the entire drive home to Virginia.

Rockefeller Center. Don't worry, it's just so cold it's SNOWING. We had fun watching the ice skaters, though, and got a super nice guy to take our picture (although it's pretty blurry).

The next day we packed up, did a drive-by of Central Park and a little bit of street shopping, then we reluctantly said good-bye so Eric could head to the airport and we could make our way home after a super fun, impromptu vacation up to NYC.

(St. Patrick's Cathedral by night)

Thanks, Eric for a fabulous weekend! We miss you already.

Happenings this month

We've had a busy month so far; I'm talking non-stop. I have a bajillion pictures to share, so bear with us. It's gonna be a long one folks.


At the National Zoo: January 31st...60 degrees and sunny. WHA? We've had the lamest winter this year. A trace of snow here and there, but mostly it just feels like April a lot. So we took advantage of the sunny weather with some friends and I took the girls to see their favorite animals, which they loved. Addison (our future zoologist) was in complete and utter heaven.



Hanging around at home. These two have a blast together (most of the time; the other times they scream and screech because one of them thinks the other is chasing her.)

Preschool field trip to a farm this month. Not surprisingly, Addison was the brave one of the two and ventured onto the horse by herself while Makenna sat by, watching.



Last Friday all of our regular plans fell through and I felt inspired to take the girls to the Natural History Museum, wait for it...by myself. Before 10 am, guess who was already parked and pushing a double stroller on the busy streets of downtown, on a mission to find some killer dinosaur fossils like Miss Independent? You got it. These girls were incredibly well-behaved the entire time, not ever running off, and holding hands like they were supposed to. The whole day was one of my finer mommy moments; I was quite proud.

The day went so well, in fact, that the next morning on Saturday, they were begging Drew to go back with us to see everything a 2nd time! We acquiesced and enjoyed another morning roaming through the animal displays. It's a good thing the Smithsonian's are free!


We've begun to learn to read! Makenna loves it and we've been making extra trips to the library lately.

Valentine's lunches for the kids (cheese quesadilla love birds).

And a little Valentine's photo wreath for the mantle.

I've been watching some kids lately, only until May- 2 kids, 3 days a week. Addison's been lightening my load a bit by taking extra good care of the baby dolls. It's one less thing for me to worry about:)

And that about does it for the last month! We've stayed extra busy, but we like it that way. By the way, Makenna's new favorite movie is Sound of Music. As I'm writing this, her eyes are glued to the TV, watching the Von Trapp's sing and dance their way into her heart. And the last few weeks, there has been nothing cuter than to sneak up on her belting out "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?".

Life is good.

Christmas

It's been busy. It's been hectic. It's been scary. It's been wonderful. It's been...life, mixed in with the holidays.

Remember the seizure? Well, my friends, that was just the beginning. I'm not going to follow up my last post with another depressing account of our recent reality-check brought about by Addison, but I will let you know that after we got home from the ER after the seizure, my baby girl got worse. A few days afterward (and the week of Christmas), I took her in and the pediatrician got kind of frantic, saying we needed to rush her to the hospital because she had acute bacterial pneumonia in both lungs and that she could go "downhill" at any moment, which scared the bejeebers out of me. So we spent a couple days at the hospital by her side (how painful is it to watch your child hooked up to an IV and a bunch of other strange wires?). Thanks to the extreme generosity of our friends, neighbors, and both Visiting and Home Teachers, our load was lightened immensely and we got through everything unscathed. But scary, nonetheless.

And on to the busy...
Cupcakes for Makenna's preschool party (thank you Pinterest)


Stocking Stuffers for Makenna (we call them SS's in our house- we like to be cool and talk code sometimes) Play make-up made out of nail polish (again, thank you Pinterest)
(BTW, Christmas morning with the make-up was a hit)

Gingerbread houses with our friends. These kids did an awesome job decorating their houses- I was impressed 100%.

Bull Run Festival of Lights in Manassas- incredible! We meant to do this last year but never got around to it. It's a driving light tour through the Bull Run Battlefield.

And the little carnival they had at the end of it-
The Botanical Gardens downtown and their amazing train display (jaw-dropping artistry, I'm telling you) with our friends.


Christmas baking and my helpers:

Daddy-daughter time (I don't know how we got so lucky, but because of the whole pneumonia scare/hospital stay, Drew ended up taking off 2 whole weeks from work- we were in heaven):
Christmas morning:


My mom coming for 10 STRAIGHT DAYS, which was heaven, and so much fun.


(Please, oh please, don't disown me Mom for posting this. It just proves how AWESOME of a grandma you are:)

And last but not least, the little taste of snow we got this week. Beautiful, but a little lacking in amount.

What a fabulous Christmas we had here in Virginia, sans family, which I was weepy at first about, but later came to grips with and embraced.

The End of a ridiculous amount of family pictures.