Children's Museum of the Arts

The first Sunday in February we all bundled up after the morning nap and headed to Soho to go to the kiddo art museum.  It is this really awesome place that is all about getting kids creating and making and exploring the arts.  They have interactive stations for a variety of ages but pre-school through lower elementary is the target age.  So I had put this on my list for much later in our stay in Manhattan.  But the need for something to do that is inside and Chinese New Year festival brought it up the list.

Before heading into kidland we stopped for lunch at a neat little spot across the street.  The waitress complimented Jaime's sweater and then when I said it was his dad's she didn't get it and thought I was nuts.  Jaime thinks it is pretty awesome when we go out to eat.

Then we headed into the museum.  I have never been surrounded by so many little kids and it was pretty intense when you first get there.  You had to be careful when you walked or you might step on one (seriously - I almost stepped on a kid).  But once past the entry things became easier as the kids were a bit more dispersed.  We found some different things for Jaime to play with and he thought it was pretty cool.

We played with big huge blocks.

We played with playdough.

And then it had been a couple of hours and we were all ready for a nap.  It was fun and when Jaime is a little older we will head back.

January in a nutshell

The problem with being so behind in blogging is that when you get a few minutes to blog you can't remember the stories as you are going through your photos trying to remember what happened so you can get caught up.

In addition to the nyc exporing adventures we had a lot of family time at snuggled up at home.  January started out pretty nice. Nice for January anyways.  It was not that cold even it if was dark and gray all the time.  But then we got some super cold days thrown at us too to remind us it was winter.  Mike and Megan came to visit during one of the really cold weekends and we tried to get out as much as possible without letting Jaime's nose get frostbite. 

Much of January was spent trying to get a picture of Jaime's attempts to get into crawling position (he would go down to his tummy every time the shutter clicked) and pictures of his fun with teething.  The poor guy had some tough times with those first teeth (and then again with the first top teeth - oy). He wanted to stand constantly and thought he was big stuff holding onto his dresser.  He started reading his books by himself, sleeping on his tummy, going after things, and was a super easy and fun baby at this time.

We also watched both seasons of Homeland and read a couple of books.  January was good stuff. 

Oh and January was when the dogs went on vacation to the U. Bed and Breakfast.  But that is a post for another day.

Exploring: Grand Central Station and the New York Public Library

One Saturday in January we set out for an afternoon of exploring. 

We made our way to Grand Central Station.  What a cool place.  There is so much to look at.

Next we headed to the New York Public Library - the big building. 

{we walked up the halls...}

The main agenda was to go to the children's room so Jaime could play and look at books.  But we had quite the time finding it.  That place is amazing.  There was so much to see and Dan was getting a little tired but I was zero help finding the kid's room as I couldn't stop staring at all of the details in this place.

{we walked down the halls}

Then it was time to head home. 

It was a lot of walking and we were all done for the day.

We are so artsy

One of my goals for our time here in NYC and for 2013 is to try new things.  Jaime is sure to make that easy but I also mean things like going to interactive art exhibits.

I saw some chatter about an interactive installation that looked really cool - a big huge room with swings that move a big huge piece of floaty fabric.  I thought it would be interesting to check out so added it to our calendar... where it got pushed back several times until its last weekend.  So I was adamant that the we go on that first Saturday of 2013.

We headed to the Upper East Side and then my face fell when I saw the line wrapping around the building of people waiting to get in.  Of course I was not so interested to wait in that long of a line.  But as we passed by the front door chatting about what we should do instead I saw that some people were getting to go right in... basically if you needed to buy your ticket you waited forever but if you already bought your ticket online you could go right in.  Thank you smart phones.  We promptly went to their website and bought our tickets while standing in front of the building and then showed the person our e-ticket and walked it.  Suckers waiting in line!

The exhibit was cool.  Dan wasn't impressed.  But it is hard to not enjoy it when there were so many people having fun, laughing, smiling.  We had a good time.  Jaime woke up from his nap and wondered where the hell did he go from sleeping in the carrier to being surrounded by people on swings. 

We waited in a short line to do the swings, which was entertaining, but there was no way I was waiting for the people camped out under the fabric to let go of a spot.  So that was that.  Our first interactive art installation. "We are so artsy."

As we walked back across the park we decided to make a stop at the Museum of Natural History to check out the Dinosaur Hall.

It was also a good spot for an afternoon snack.

They have so many dinosaurs!  It was really cool and I can't wait to take Jaime when he is older.  Which made us start talking about how long we will live here... will it be long enough for Jaime to remember?  I don't know.

Our first weekend of 2013 was a nice start to the year.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning we woke up and went straight to the business of opening presents.  Jaime was opening presents like a pro after having a practice round the night before.  He was very excited by the art of paper ripping and about having so many new things to figure out. 

After a few presents each we decided to save the rest of Jaime's for another round of presents in the afternoon and some for another day as he was content with what he had opened.  Then it was time for a nap!

After nap time we headed around the corner to a local, longtime favorite restaurant for brunch, Popover Cafe.  We had the world's worst waiter but still had a very good time enjoying our family - Jaime was being a character keeping us entertained.

We went for a family walk in Central Park.  Played with the new toys.  Took another nap or two. Posed by the tree.

To borrow Devon's idea of posting outtakes... here are a few from trying to get Jaime's tree pic.  He kept looking at the dogs.

We went to make lasagne but I forgot a few ingredients so we ordered Vietnamese for dinner and watched a movie.  It was a perfectly relaxed day spent simply enjoying quality time as a family.

After Christmas it was a quiet end to 2012.  This year brought so many changes for our family - it was a crazy, whirlwind of a year and I am happy to say that it was filled with so many good memories.  It was a really good year - I wouldn't skip it for anything!

For new year's eve Dan made that lasagna that was supposed to be on Christmas day but I came down with the flu and instead had a piece of toast before going to bed at like 8pm.  The fireworks from Time Square woke me from my fever-filled sleeping. 

Welcome 2013!  We have lots of plans for this year and I can't wait to see how they unfold.