Dispatches from New York: Week 3

It's not what you know...

We had more great weather last weekend, so we decided to head uptown to visit Central Park and the UWS. We did this without much planning, so by the time we got to the park, it was lunch time and Fletcher and I were hungry (oops!)

After a little exploration of the playground and admiration of the horses that were pulling tourists in carriages (Kijk! Paardje!), we headed back out of the park in search of lunch.

We walked a little ways and ended up at Gray's Pappaya to experience the world famous Hot dog. I had a chili cheese dog. YUM. Fletcher enjoyed his hot dog, which was followed by some frozen yogurt. By then we had realized how tired we both were from a busy week and headed back downtown to relax for the afternoon.

On Sunday we walked up 5th avenue to midtown and spent the afternoon checking out the playgrounds and shops of the area.  We stopped at lunch at another local hotspot: The Shake Shack, at Maddison Square Park. All I can say is OH MYYYY. I'm glad I'm walking as much as I am. The burger was Lekker! 

Monday came around and it marked the beginning of our 3rd week in New York. We did the normal things, playground, grocery shopping...nothing to remarkable. The weather was holding on- still sunny and warm :).

Tuesday I went to the playground as per normal, and ran in to a woman I had met last week at the Wee Arts class, an Australian named Kate who lived in New York with her daughter Scout (3 1/2). We got to talking and after a while she mentioned she was going to the 'Key Playground' a playground a few blocks away that you needed a key to get access to. We went along with her and spent a very enjoyable afternoon at the Washington Square Village Key Park. It's a big park surrounded by NYU residential buildings. There are toys scattered everywhere- lots of dump trucks and buckets, plus a large 'Fire Engine' climbing structure. Fletcher was in heaven. My first question was "how can I get a key?'

On Wednesday Fletcher and I went to Wee Arts again at the Children's Museum of the Arts where we painted, stamped, built, sang and drummed, then spent a half an hour in the ball room bouncing around. 

Afterwards we went to grab lunch with Kate and Scout and took it to the playground across the street from our house. After a while we decided to go to the WSV Key Park and I picked up a key from the main office (we live close enough to the park to get one, yay!).

It was nice hanging out with Kate- having someone to chat with besides Fletcher! She came up to me in the Wee arts class last week and asked if I was Australian. We got to talking and when I told her I was from Huntington Beach, CA, she said 'That must be it. You seemed so relaxed compared to most of the mothers here'. :). Her daughter is also lovely. She's a bit older than Fletcher, but when we walk next to each other they are chat with each other in their strollers. Really cute.

Thursday we went to the New York City Fire Museum which is just down the street on Spring (Did I mention we live in a fantastic neighborhood?). At the museum we mostly looked at the history of Fire Engines in New York city, from horse pulled carriages to steam engines. Pretty cool.

We also scored Fletcher's first Halloween costume as....wait for it.... a Fireman! So adorable! He loves it!

New York City is the place to be on Halloween, so we are lucky that Fletcher will spend his first one here. I will probably take Fletcher to various  events in the city the days leading up to Halloween (Like the Screamin Green Halloween at Battery Park, and on Halloween itself we will go to Washington Square park and possibly the Museum of Natural History.

On Thursday night we decided to go out, so walked to China town and had dumplings and shredded beef at Joe's Shanghai.

We tried hailing a cab, but it was rush hour so we decided to just walk. Fletcher did his best too...Our little New Yorker.

Fletcher has had a developmental milestone of sorts this week. Every night before Fletcher goes to sleep, I ask him 'What did we do today?'. Normally I ask and I answer, but on Wednesday night when I said 'What did we do today?' He answered for the first time! He said 'Speltuin' (Playground) 2 fire engine (we say two fire engines on the street) and Paint! (we painted at Wee arts). Very cool!

On Friday it rained, and I wasn't feeling well, so Fletcher and I mostly hung around the house. On Saturday, however, it was a beautiful day, so we went to the playground, then headed down to the Financial District to do a little shopping, have lunch and walk back along the hudson.

Another lovely week...