Mommy & Jaime Trips to Manhattan

The week following the brunch in the West Village I took the train into the city three more times all in a row... given that it takes 1 to 1.5 hours to get somewhere from our apt that was a lot for me.  It made me fully realize how much living in the suburbs was going to suck after being able to get to work in 20 minutes from our last apartment in Chicago.  After that initial trip into the city Jaime and I went on several city adventures just the two of us.

The first was a lunch with some other July 2012 moms in Battery Park.  I missed the train I needed (of course) so almost didn't go and was very late.  I am glad that I went.  After the lunch we did a nice slow walk back to the World Trade Center PATH station with a stop for iced coffee and a cookie and a photo with the Wall St bull.  I felt like myself walking city streets.  And my goodness did Jaime attract attention bringing smiles to people's faces.

Our next trip in was the very next morning for Jaime's pediatrician appointment in Tribeca.  The pedi office totally makes me laugh as it is trying to be chic and totally different from the one I picked out in Chicago.  The office itself is very cool with a typical storefront for the neighborhood and a big entry for stroller parking.  The infant rooms have the scale built into the exam table which is round.  The nurse practitioner that did the exam was in this organza dress which was very pretty but the type of dress that I wouldn't know where to wear... Anyways we found out that Jaime is a total beefcake and then took a little time to wander the surrounding streets getting an iced latte and old fashioned donut before heading back to the train.

The train stations at rush hour are insanely busy.  I have been commuting in downtown Chicago for what seems like forever and it is a whole different level of busy here.  I was a little bit wide eyed.  I tried to sneak a picture at the WTC Path station but was intimidated by the guys in fatigues carrying rifles.  So yeah.

Another trip took Jaime and I to Soho so we could pick up some items for goodie box to mail at Dean and Deluca's.  Soho seems to always be intense around Broadway and I found myself wishing that Dan was with us.  Once we started to head a little further into the neighborhood it was a bit more calm.  This was after Jaime's first vaccine shots and he was completely out the whole time... still getting attention from people on the street and in check out lines.  "Look at that adorable little person!"  Side note - at this pedi appointment as I went to put Jaime's diaper on after they weighed and measured him he peed all over the place.

Jaime napped a lot during most of the those early mommy and baby trips to the city.  He would wake up and look around checking things out but it was so hot and during those first eight weeks or so he would sleep like it was his job when in the baby carrier. 

I learned a valuable lesson in suburban travel to NYC with a baby.  You can plan your PATH train to make the NJ Transit train in Newark but that PATH train will inevitably be late and will be sitting in Newark's station for 30 minutes with a hungry bored baby.  Now I often just take the subway to NY Penn Station and take the NJ Transit straight to our little town as it is easier and quicker for me.  And I have no problem nursing the baby on the train but Newark's station is not the place for nursing nor is the PATH. :/

One Friday morning I planned to take the train into the city to hit up a few sites and take my big camera (instead of just camera phone shots like the above) but as I went to load the baby into the baby carrier I got massively puked on so we missed our train and I scraped the trip. (I wanted morning light for the sites I was planning on visiting).  Later that day it was in the news that there was a crazy person shooting a previous manager and then getting taken down by the police at on of the sites I was planning to visit and it happened at the time that I was trying to get there... good thing the kid puked!

Even with almost being at the scene of a crime and baby vaccines... We love our trips into the city!