President's Day weekend, my friends and former co-workers Rose and Julie and Rose's daughter Kendra had planned a trip to NYC to see the sights and The Little Mermaid on Broadway. They had a very full schedule, but we managed to meet up for dinner on Saturday night of that weekend. I took Mzee with me and we rode the train into the city and took two subways to get near Times Square and the restaurant where we met Rose, Julie and Kendra. The subway stop was right across the street from the restaurant, so we didn't have to walk too far. Although, funny story, we got off the Metro-North train at Grand Central and were taking an escalator to the subway and Mzee and I were talking about how we would have to take the subway and he said, "good, because my legs are tired." We hadn't even begun to walk, so that made me laugh. He did great as a walker that night.
We met up at MARS 2112 a Mars themed restaurant that a co-worker of mine suggested is a fun place for kids. Kendra had just completed studying space in school and Mzee wants to be an astronaut when he grows up, so it seemed perfect for the kids. In order to enter the restaurant you need to take a space ship to get to Mars, of course! This was one of those motion simulated rides many of you may have been on before. I knew it would be dark inside and was concerned that Mzee might get scared inside, so was doing my best to explain it to him while we waited in the line. In talking with Julie, Rose and Kendra, Mzee informed them that "he was going to Mars because he is going to be an ASTRONAUT when he gets big!" Needless today, I didn't need to worry about him. When we got into the ride, it of course got dark, but then the screen lit up and the commander started talking. As the ride got more exciting Mzee started to yell, "Yahoo!!" And then, the words Mzee LOVED to here. The commander announced, "You have all become astronauts today!" This made his night! The ride took us to Mars and when we got out we were on the red planet. We had quite a wait for our table, so we spent some time in the arcade. Mzee is still happy to play on arcade games without adding any money, so this was fine. When we finally got seated, the Martians came by our table to say hello. Kendra even danced with one of them. Mzee was excited to meet the Martians and shook their hands. Here's a picture of Mzee with Captain Orion:
All in all, the kids had a great time and it was wonderful to visit with Julie and Rose too. After dinner, we took a walk a couple blocks to M&M World at Times Square. By this time it was VERY late for Mzee, so he and I made our way back to the train station for the train ride home. Many on the train slept on the ride as it was late, but not Mzee. He was so excited from his adventure he was a little chatterbox!We enjoyed the long weekend and on Monday it was a very nice day so we ventured to the Bronx Zoo. We live in a great location and it's just a short drive to the zoo. Mzee was very excited and when I asked him what the one thing was that he wanted to see at the zoo that day he said elephants. When we consulted the zoo map, we didn't see any elephant exhibit. "What kind of zoo doesn't have elephants?" I said to Don. There are four zoos and an aquarium in the NYC area all under one membership, so we decided that they must not have all animals at every zoo. We went through the bird building and then were heading for the tigers when the rain started. Don suggested we go into the tiger exhibit area, and it was a great suggestion because there was a covered shelter where we could see the tigers. As soon as we got there, it started to downpour. We stayed there until the rain stopped, which wasn't too long and then we made our way through to the other things we needed to do, register for our membership and then ride the Bug Carousel. I managed to get both kids on the carousel where instead of horses, they are all different kinds of bugs. Milan loved it, it was her first carousel ride! We then saw a few more things including polar bears. We didn't see the entire zoo, but got the feeling that the Omaha zoo is still much nicer. Of course, it was winter, so I'm sure it is much better in the summer. And the kids always have a great time, so I'm sure we'll get our money's worth from our membership.
Watching the fish in the aquarium at the Bronx ZooOn Friday the 22nd, we got our first big snowstorm of the year! Mzee was SO excited and was out shoveling before school. It was ironic as the schools are all closed the week of President's Day for Winter Break, so there were no snow days. Mzee's daycare was open but Don picked him up early so he could play in the snow. All told, I think we got around six inches...not much by Midwest standards this year, we've been blessed here with a VERY mild winter! Even so, Milan has become very attached to her coat, hat and mi-mi's (mittens). She often asks for her coat and wants to go outside. She also now always asks for her had an mi-mi's once she has her coat on.
Milan getting bundled up for the big storm.
Out in the snow!!The following weekend, Mzee and Don went to an open house for an organization that does kids sports. They have soccer, baseball and basketball for kids starting at 3 years old. It is a great program where the parent works with the kids on skill building. Mzee is signed up for basketball and is very excited about it! He already can kick a soccer ball well, and has his dad to teach him the basics. And, he can already hit a baseball, often even when we pitch it to him, so Don thought basketball would be a good choice. Mzee LOVES to "shoot hoops" so is very excited about basketball, which starts this coming weekend.
Last week we had some excitement! Don flew back to Omaha and became a U.S. citizen! He didn't know when he left that he would be able to participate in a citizenship ceremony the same day as his final interview, but they had an opening so it seemed logical to go ahead with it. I was a little sad that the kids and I couldn't be there for the ceremony, but it would have been impractical to postpone the ceremony.
While Don was gone I took one day off to stay home with Milan as she did not have full time daycare yet last week. I thought that would be a great day to get her 18 month pictures taken. It just so happened that it was about the coldest day of the year and I really would have rather just stayed home where it was warm. We got to JCPenney before the store opened. It is a free standing store in the Bronx, and I noticed something odd when I arrived, I could not see the doors as they are protected by those metal garage door type doors when the store closes. I guess exposed glass just invites criminals. These garage door type doors are common on the shops in parts of the city, but I found it odd on a JCPenney in a shopping center. Once we got in the store, Milan wanted to walk around the store on her own. I managed to distract her and with a lot of coercing the photographer got a few good smiles. Then she suggested I change her to her other outfit and it was all downhill after that. Once I changed her outfit she insisted on walking and launched in to one of her most recent developments, a full-blown tantrum, when I told her no. She and I are still learning how to deal with these tantrums. She doesn't have as much drama when Don is around, so I'm working on how to handle these episodes. Ignoring her, doesn't seem to help, so I have to get more creative in providing distractions. Hopefully these tantrums are a short-lived phase!
This week Milan started full time at the same daycare as Mzee. Two days in and she is transitioning beautifully! She was engrossed in playing play-doh with the teacher this morning when we dropped her off and she didn't even cry. She is playing great with the kids and the teachers report that she is a great sleeper and eater, which we already knew, but it's good to know she's comfortable at her daycare. Mzee thinks it is great to have his little sister at the same daycare, even though they are not in the same class. He said the day she started, "if I hear my sister cry, I'll go tell her it's OK." I was asking Milan about her day today and saying some of the kids names and she already can say some of their names. She is in a very small class with just four other kids and two teachers, so she gets a great deal of one on one time with the teachers! She is learning lots of new things in this class and can already drink from a regular cup wonderfully. She is doing great using utensils to eat as well. Her vocabulary is really expanding and she is putting two words together now. Her day somewhat revolves around meals as as soon as we get her up in the morning to get dressed she is telling us "eat, eat." And as soon as we get home at night she heads to her booster seat - she transitioned from the high chair a month or so ago and LOVES her booster seat. She says "seat, seat" and will sit at the table in her seat and wait for us to fix her dinner. We visit with her about her day while she is there, and she's usually very patient until she sees something on a plate, then she starts getting antsy.
Mzee is in an astronaut phase, fueled I'm sure by the Mars 2112 visit. He also got a new Backyardigans DVD where they take a trip to Mars. So our house is a space station, and he is an astronaut and I'm usually Mission control. He is doing well at school and usually has a lot to report about his day. This past weekend we spent a couple hours at the playground and Mzee got a large splinter that we could not remove, so he and Don made their first visit to urgent care here. The doctor there isn't certain he removed the splinter, so we are watching it closely.
Mzee's class took a walk to the pet store last week and purchased a pet frog for their class. They've named the frog Max, and Mzee's teacher told us that Mzee was curious about the things between the frogs toes, so they had a discussion about webbed feet.
Today was a fun commute, a building collapsed near the train tracks, so train service was suspended for nearly two hours and just started up at 5:00 in time for the evening rush. However, then all trains were jam packed and moving very slowly. I managed to get on a train about a half hour later than usual, but then it went pretty slowly and we were on the wrong track, so the train bypassed the first two stops, which included our town. They said we could get off at the first actual stop and a train would be waiting to take us back. Don was already waiting at the train station so he drove over to the next town to pick me up. It was a good thing, because there was no train in sight for the return and the train station was chaos with people trying to take taxis and carpool back to the other two towns that were skipped. After listening to the news, my delay was nothing compared to some, so it could have been a lot worse. Mass transit is generally great, and a day like this makes me realize how great it is as these types of issues are very few and far between.
Well, I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting from the past few weeks, but I think I'm mostly caught up. Enjoy!
Last week we had some excitement! Don flew back to Omaha and became a U.S. citizen! He didn't know when he left that he would be able to participate in a citizenship ceremony the same day as his final interview, but they had an opening so it seemed logical to go ahead with it. I was a little sad that the kids and I couldn't be there for the ceremony, but it would have been impractical to postpone the ceremony.
While Don was gone I took one day off to stay home with Milan as she did not have full time daycare yet last week. I thought that would be a great day to get her 18 month pictures taken. It just so happened that it was about the coldest day of the year and I really would have rather just stayed home where it was warm. We got to JCPenney before the store opened. It is a free standing store in the Bronx, and I noticed something odd when I arrived, I could not see the doors as they are protected by those metal garage door type doors when the store closes. I guess exposed glass just invites criminals. These garage door type doors are common on the shops in parts of the city, but I found it odd on a JCPenney in a shopping center. Once we got in the store, Milan wanted to walk around the store on her own. I managed to distract her and with a lot of coercing the photographer got a few good smiles. Then she suggested I change her to her other outfit and it was all downhill after that. Once I changed her outfit she insisted on walking and launched in to one of her most recent developments, a full-blown tantrum, when I told her no. She and I are still learning how to deal with these tantrums. She doesn't have as much drama when Don is around, so I'm working on how to handle these episodes. Ignoring her, doesn't seem to help, so I have to get more creative in providing distractions. Hopefully these tantrums are a short-lived phase!
This week Milan started full time at the same daycare as Mzee. Two days in and she is transitioning beautifully! She was engrossed in playing play-doh with the teacher this morning when we dropped her off and she didn't even cry. She is playing great with the kids and the teachers report that she is a great sleeper and eater, which we already knew, but it's good to know she's comfortable at her daycare. Mzee thinks it is great to have his little sister at the same daycare, even though they are not in the same class. He said the day she started, "if I hear my sister cry, I'll go tell her it's OK." I was asking Milan about her day today and saying some of the kids names and she already can say some of their names. She is in a very small class with just four other kids and two teachers, so she gets a great deal of one on one time with the teachers! She is learning lots of new things in this class and can already drink from a regular cup wonderfully. She is doing great using utensils to eat as well. Her vocabulary is really expanding and she is putting two words together now. Her day somewhat revolves around meals as as soon as we get her up in the morning to get dressed she is telling us "eat, eat." And as soon as we get home at night she heads to her booster seat - she transitioned from the high chair a month or so ago and LOVES her booster seat. She says "seat, seat" and will sit at the table in her seat and wait for us to fix her dinner. We visit with her about her day while she is there, and she's usually very patient until she sees something on a plate, then she starts getting antsy.
Mzee is in an astronaut phase, fueled I'm sure by the Mars 2112 visit. He also got a new Backyardigans DVD where they take a trip to Mars. So our house is a space station, and he is an astronaut and I'm usually Mission control. He is doing well at school and usually has a lot to report about his day. This past weekend we spent a couple hours at the playground and Mzee got a large splinter that we could not remove, so he and Don made their first visit to urgent care here. The doctor there isn't certain he removed the splinter, so we are watching it closely.
Mzee's class took a walk to the pet store last week and purchased a pet frog for their class. They've named the frog Max, and Mzee's teacher told us that Mzee was curious about the things between the frogs toes, so they had a discussion about webbed feet.
Today was a fun commute, a building collapsed near the train tracks, so train service was suspended for nearly two hours and just started up at 5:00 in time for the evening rush. However, then all trains were jam packed and moving very slowly. I managed to get on a train about a half hour later than usual, but then it went pretty slowly and we were on the wrong track, so the train bypassed the first two stops, which included our town. They said we could get off at the first actual stop and a train would be waiting to take us back. Don was already waiting at the train station so he drove over to the next town to pick me up. It was a good thing, because there was no train in sight for the return and the train station was chaos with people trying to take taxis and carpool back to the other two towns that were skipped. After listening to the news, my delay was nothing compared to some, so it could have been a lot worse. Mass transit is generally great, and a day like this makes me realize how great it is as these types of issues are very few and far between.
Well, I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting from the past few weeks, but I think I'm mostly caught up. Enjoy!
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