Year: 2010
Wherein a small child invades NYC
Yesterday I began my extended holiday early by heading into New York City for The Moppet’s first trip into the big, bad city. After a sprint to catch the train, it started like this:
And ended like this:
And in between there was stuff like this:
Overall it was more of a proof of concept than a true holiday excursion. There was no real planning beyond, “Let’s go to the city and see the big tree.” Which was somewhat silly to do so close to Christmas, but miraculously worked out.
We started with a lovely lunch at Le Pain Quotidien (which means The Quotidien Bread – thank you 4 years of high school French!) as The Woman used to frequent there for their decadent hot chocolate. After which we made our way over to one of the most famous toy stores… only 3 days before Christmas. Brilliant, I know. Surprisingly, once past the main entrance and all of the mammoth stuffed animals, the store was “relatively quiet.” Very busy, but certainly not the hectic nightmare of consumerism I had expected.
Once the nonstop parade of toys she can’t play with began to overwhelm Kayleigh, we packed up and headed to see “a really big tree.” Yes, that was enough to convince her that there was more to see outside. Thanks to a little help from Facebook we were able to meet up with a friend in the area who was even kind enough to take a picture of us in front of said tree. Maybe someday I’ll get around to posting it. In the meantime, just picture three people in front of a really huge tree. That’s close enough.
And that was also enough for us. Come spring time I’d like to really walk around with The Moppet and introduce her to the joys of CD shopping in The Village and fighting tourists in Times Square, but 4 hours was enough stress for now. Especially with the regular addition and subtraction of many layers that sort of, but not quite, kept us at decent temperatures. Still, she was quite the trooper throughout the tramping around such a strange environment and was even kind enough to fall asleep in her stroller for the walk back to Penn Station.
Fortunately she woke up in time for her favorite part – staring out the window of a moving train.
Sunday morning thought #2
I know it’s just a chain restaurant, but I love our times at Panera. I don’t want these days to end.
My week of Wawa
When they began development on a vacant lot about a quarter mile off my usual commute I didn’t pay much mind. Not too surprisingly they started to dig up the ground to put in some tanks. A gas station seemed to be the obvious choice for the location. If nothing else it might add a little convenience – but a new gas station in New Jersey isn’t something to get excited about.
And then the building began to take shape. There seemed to be a familiar feeling to the store front. A particular angled roof appeared that hearkened back to a place that heavily populated my childhood.
No. It couldn’t be. Not here in north Jersey…
Yes, yes it was. A WAWA! Not just anywhere, but right along my daily commute!
It may seem silly, but in a land populated with Dunkin Donuts every 5 miles, Starbucks on every corner and crappy 7-11s and their ilk in the most inconvenient locations one thing I have certainly missed is Wawa. Growing up you could hardly swing proverbially dead cats without hitting them. But like many of the great Philly treats, they dried up once you crossed I78 or so.
But the grand opening last Friday signaled a new era in my professional life. One that includes a chance to stop off for cheap and tasty built-to-order hoagies, pork roll sandwiches and fresh-brewed roadside coffee whenever I so desire. And with coffee being free this week, I have most definitely been in the desirin’ mood. Everyday has offered me the chance to sample a different variety of greasy breakfast goods with questionable nutritional value. How many other places give me the opportunity to bite into a ciabatta roll filled with philly cheesesteak and sauteed onions (oh yeah, and egg) before 9 am?
Once the free coffee dries up I’ll need to limit myself, but in the meantime… oh the times I shall have…
Sunday morning thought
My biggest fear these days:
Leaving the door open while indisposed to “keep an eye” on The Moppet leaves me vulnerable to someone breaking in and catching me with my pants down both figuratively and literally. Either that or an overly aggressive sales person will provide an unwanted intimate moment for the entire neighborhood.
10 things from my really boring life
The topic of Livejournal has popped up a couple times on the social network du jour. More specifically the topic of “Does anyone still use Livejournal?” has popped up. Of course I was never much into the service to begin with. Aside from the occasional annoying meme or “anyone free?” post, my account was merely to view all the juicy details of my friends’ sordid lives. Not surprisingly it’s pretty useless these days…
Recently it came to my attention that the private feeds I used to keep track of you all had stopped working – largely because I accidentally deleted them. Not only did it take me months to realize, but once I logged back in there was almost nothing to read. No offense to those of you still writing there, but maybe 2 or 3 people had written anything in the last 6 months with most accounts blank for the year.
So it’s time for me to cut ties with that sinking ship. The only posts that really mattered were imported years ago, but I did notice one labelled “10 things from my really boring life” that seemed to fit the typically boring content over here:
- Helped an old lady cross a street in NYC.
- Stabbed a good friend…
- Gotten so drunk my dad had to drive from train station to train station before he found me wandering around a deserted parking lot at the end of the line.
- Built a large window-sized structure completely out of Snapple bottles.
- Skied through clouds.
- Had my car totaled by a police officer.
- Been hit by a lawyer when I almost did something stupid in court.
- Built a dorm room that became a regular stop on campus tours.
- Got a guitar string from a famous musician (Roger Miller) and helped someone get one from another (Chris Cornell).
- Sued Apple… oh wait, that was a different Thomas Slattery… How about almost been killed at a concert?
Fascinating life I led, eh? Not that there’s much to add over 5 years later…
She’s warming up to me
As has been pointed out many times in the past, Kayleigh is a mama’s girl. It’s kind of hard to compete with all of the time she spends with The Woman, so I figured it was best to just give up and hope for a boy next time around.
Kidding! I’m only kidding. You know he’d be a mama’s boy anyway…
Lately The Moppet has seemingly taken more of a shine to her old man. Beyond merely accepting me as a substitute for when the preferred personnel is unavailable, she actually appears to desire my company on occasion. First it began with some late mornings. Sleeping in past 8:30 left me with no option but to head off without a hug or kiss or even a demand that I leave the room and get Mommy. Much to my surprise, once awake she asked where I was and wasn’t I joining in all of the festivities.
And here I thought she didn’t even know I existed.
Today the expansion of my role continued, thanks to a half day at work so The Woman could flex her bread winning ways. Who would have guessed that the girl who popularized the phrase “No, mommy will do it” would express joy that I came home early. She even let me hold her after her failed nap, despite The Woman being readily available.
Just to emphasize how buddy-buddy she was acting, the night concluded with a father/daughter dinner at Whole Food listening to a jazz duo. Sure, she was totally bonkers from the lack of a nap, but I had a blast chasing her around the store and dancing with her in front of the crowd. They were clearly jealous of our moves. I’m hoping this becomes our “thing” – a way for us to bond while simultaneously combating the overexposure to Billy Joel courtesy of her mother. Sooner or later she’s got to pick up something more from me then screaming “holy cow” at the TV whenever certain sporting events are on.
Supra Genius
I’m sitting here in front of my computer with some “spare” time thanks to my new morning routine (it’s only sort of working, but much better than before, thank you very much) and can’t think of a single thing to actually write about. So I start diving into the drafts to see if any unfinished thoughts can get themselves finished. And the first one to tickle my fancy is date… JULY OF 2009?!?! Brilliant. Sprucing it up for now would entail a complete rewrite, so I’ll just start with what was here already:
I never want to become the kind of parent that completely blows every little thing their child does out of the water. The kind that insists that their precious baby is the most beautiful or the most athletic or the most intelligent. But the fact that Kayleigh is the most beautiful baby girl makes that a little hard to do. And now I’ve got to deal with the fact that she’s just too frickin’ smart for a 1 year old.
Let’s preface this by saying that all babies are smart. Really smart. Seriously. Just ask any parent. We’re amazed at the level of genius they reach that allows them to pick up a straw and not poke their own eye out. They master the hand-eye coordination necessary to throw their toys without smacking themselves in the face and they deserve mounds of praise. Hell, parents go crazy when they manage to poop – something
Kayleigh hasn’t been that interested in the whole mobility thing. At about a week past her first birthday she’s just now getting frustrated with not being able to reach items on her own. Instead she’s been focused on more intellectual pursuits – such as which words will bend Mommy and Daddy to her will. She’s also learned how to turn and wait for the appropriate praise upon completion of a task as difficult as pointing out a circle. As I said, she’s becoming quite the intellectual.
Her brain has just started moving at a ridiculous pace lately. One day a couple weeks ago I’m watching her play with a wooden puzzle – this typically involves her taking out all of the pieces and tossing them over her shoulder. This time, however, she suddenly decides to start putting them back. In the right place! She matches the blue circle piece with the blues circle hole and the orange square piece with the orange square hole. DO YOU KNOW HOW CRAZY DIFFICULT THAT IS?!?!
Okay, it’s not like she did the whole thing or does it on a regular basis, but these are the minor activities that send parents over the edge. And I totally get that now.
It’s kind of a shame I didn’t just pot it as is. That was a pretty solid entry. My point was that watching babies do things isn’t that exciting – but watching a baby grow up is. Crawling, walking, talking, etc. – pretty much all babies get around to doing this. But that doesn’t change how awesome it is to watch one figure it out.
I remember in those innocent days of my 20s having no clue want parenthood was about listening to people ask questions like “Is he playing peek-a-boo yet?” All I could think was who cares? He’s probably not playing tic-tac-toe either, is that really a big deal? And then one morning on the changing table Kayleigh pulled a cloth over her head and pulled it down to play peek-a-b00 and suddenly… HOLY CRAP, MY BABY’S A GENIUS!
It all came together that these little milestones really show off how newborns, babies and toddlers learn. Realizing that for the first time she was deliberating trying to hide meant way more than simply a new game in her repertoire. It was a demonstration of her understanding the world around her and how it works.
So this post may seem a tad ill-timed considering Kayleigh is now a “fully functional” toddler. But those moments still come. Whether it’s figuring out how to put together a jigsaw puzzle or realizing why we want her to sit on the potty (seriously, peeing elicited a response you might think would be reserved for pony rides or a shower of puppies), there’s still plenty more to discover.
And also, my girl really is a freakin’ genius. But I’ll talk about that later…
Wake me up before you…
I used to be a morning person. Alright, to be fair I was an anytime person. The Woman has said that I’m the only person she knows that you can wake up in the middle of the night and expect to be completely functional and rational within 2 minutes. Some call it a gift, I call it… useful.
But while I could easily stay up until 2 and still be bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7 am for years, that came screeching to a halt at the most inconvenient time. A few months before the little moppet was born sleep started to become an issue for me. And then she was born. And, I don’t know if you know this, but newborns can cause trouble for your sleep habits. My night times went from only needing 5 hours or so to needing 8 hours to only getting 3 hours. Kids sure are inconvenient.
I don’t feel like rehashing the whole sleep progression thing again. Kayleigh has become an excellent nighttime sleeper these days, and that means that we get to sleep in past 7 am 99% of mornings. Of course not much further than that, mind you, since my internal alarm clock is now pretty much permanently wired for 7:15. Initially we were so afraid of this new morning routine not lasting that we packed our evenings with as much TV watching, Internet surfing, time wasting activities we could muster. That started a very bad habit of staying up later than was good simply to maximize the adult time – but without really doing anything beyond clearing the DVR.
So now I’m thinking that I need to re-wire myself back to being a morning person. It’s time for me to get up before Kayleigh and actually accomplish things. When she wakes up I should be sitting at my computer writing and listening to music while already showered, shaved and fed. For this to work some boundaries need to be put in place. Stop watching the umpteenth rerun of Scrubs simply because it’s on TV. Don’t try to start typing up a post at 11:30 with eyelids already drooping. And for goodness sakes, give Angry Birds a rest already!
Seriously, those green pigs can wait ’til tomorrow.
Your moment of (Kayleigh) zen #2
The last one should have been Kayleigh zen #1. Maybe I’ll get around to renaming it. But most of my video efforts should be focused on removing the awful sound of my voice from everything…