Baby in the City

What were we thinking, taking a 4 month old into New York City? We were thinking, if our sister who lives in Texas is going to be that close, there is no way that we are going miss seeing her. And we were thinking this would be a perfect opportunity to visit the sister that lives in NYC. So we decided that it was worth the adventures that it might bring.

I planned for Eamon to wake up at 5:00, as usual, feed him, get ready for the day, feed him again at 8, then leave. But Eamon decided it would be a good day to sleep in until 6, and therefore put everything, except leaving the city, back an hour. We left at 10, drove to Dover, got the train to Penn Station and arrived in the city around 1:30. Eamon slept the entire car ride and ate on the train. As we were nearing our destination, I put him in the MobyWrap so that when we disembarked, we would be all ready to just pick things up and go. It worked perfectly. We got out, met my sister and walked back to her apartment.

At that point, not only were we carrying Eamon, we also had at least 2lbs of ground venison and at least 2lbs of chicken, two bags of tortillas, a block of cheese, our water bottles and a bag of 48 perogies. All those things ended up rather heavy. And my sister was walking like a NYC native. It was a little hard to keep up, but we managed.

Back at the apartment, Kate cuddled Eamon, while I made perogies and Thomas sautéed the onions. While dinner was being made, Thomas’ sister called, letting us know that she was ready to meet us whenever and wherever we wanted. So we started looking up independent bookstores. There were several near her hotel, and one about half way between us; we decided to meet there. Getting us all ready to go took far more time than it should have, but finally we were walking through the city. This time Eamon was in the backpack on Thomas.

The independent bookstore was non-existent. In its place was a very fancy restaurant. In fact, the folks at the coffee shop next door had never heard of the bookstore we were looking for. But we met up with Thomas’ sister, which was the important thing anyway.

Then we all walked to the New York City Public Library. I love this building. Kate says that she pretends that she is a princess and it is the palace her father built and filled with book for her to share with the people. The current display going on around the Guentenburg Bible had all sorts of things belonging to various authors or artists. The most impressive things to me were the book of Audubon’s paintings and the real Winnie the Pooh animals. For some reason, I always imagined Audubon’s book of paintings as a normal sized book, but it isn’t. It is  bunch of full sized – 4x6 feet – painting bound together into a book. Thomas said he thought coffee table books were a more recent idea. The Winnie the Pooh display had the actual stuffed animals belonging to Christopher Robin Milne. There was Kanga, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, and Pooh. They looked just like the Shephard illustrations. But it was also kind of sad to me. Here were stuffed animals that had been loved so much, and now they sit behind glass to be photographed (once they are out of this exhibit) but not touched or loved on any more.

In the middle of looking at the display, Eamon realized he was hungry and tired of the backpack. At first, he seemed to like hearing the echo of his own voice, but soon he just wanted a change. So Kate and I took Eamon back to the apartment and Thomas and Helen finished looking at the library. Kate had to leave for various other commitments, so I visited with her roommate and fed Eamon. She also helped us find a French restaurant just a few blocks away. We packed everything up and said good-bye to everyone there and went to Le Pain Quotidian. It was an organic Belgian bakery and restaurant, and everything was very yummy. We had took eat quickly, because they were closing, and because we had to catch our train home. We said goodbye to Helen on 7^th Avenue and got turned around trying to find Penn Station, but made it there just in time.

I fed Eamon on the train again and then he slept almost the rest of the way home. He had a short crying spell when we put him back in his car seat, but fell asleep just as we were thinking we might have to pull over and I sit in the back.

The next morning, Eamon slept until 6 again, but we still made it to church, almost on time. It had been a fun adventure and I can’t wait until we can do it again.