New York, New York

View out the apartment window

This week, I got a chance to go to New York City. I went all by myself - no husband, no kids -and met my mother-in-law there for a couple of days in the big apple. This is only the second time I have gone anywhere all be myself since Emma was born so it was a very big deal! The kids were home with a babysitter the first day and Dan stayed home from work the second day (they had a blast!)
Traveling alone feels light years away from traveling with two small children, as anyone who has done it can attest to.
For this trip, I brought one carry-on bag and my purse. If the kids were with me, I would have checked two bags, had a huge carry-on with Henry's carseat attached to it in addition to my ever-present diaper bag.
For this trip, I walked calmly to security, took off my shoes, took my little ziplock bag of toiletries (what a glamorous way to pack by the way!) out of my purse, sent everything through the machine, put my shoes back on and was done. If the kids were with me, I would have made my way to security while trying to carry everything, hang on to Henry, and make sure Emma was close by. Then I would have taken off three pairs of shoes and everyone's jacket, put them through the machine with all our other belongings, tried to keep Henry within arms reach - not an easy thing to do - forgotten to take out my little ziplock bag so everything would have to go throught the machine a second time and I would be sweating by the time everyone's shoes were back on as we would be walking to the gate.
For this trip, I sat quietly at the gate waiting to board the plane. If the kids were with me, I would have chased them around the terminal, trying to tire them out before we got on the plane, while also trying to cause the least amount of disturbance to other travelers. I would have taken Emma to the restroom one last time, while carrying all our stuff and trying to keep Henry from laying down on the public restroom floor - why does he do that!?
For this trip, I read my book during the entire flight, pausing only to eat my freshly baked chocolate chip cookies (I love Midwest Airlines) If the kids were with me - I think you are starting to get the picture - I would be trying to entertain a 3-year old and an almost 2-year old with anything I could think of: DVD player, snacks, stickers, snacks, books, snacks and of course the chocolate chip cookies that would end up everywhere!
Not that I blame the kids at all...they are so young and I think we subject them to a lot of things that are hard from them to handle. At least this time they got to stay at home!

So I got to New York well rested and excited to spend the next two days doing fun things with Nancy.
First we headed to 5th Avenue for some shopping. It was fun!
Next we took the subway to 86th and Madison to look at all the beautiful childrens' boutiques they have in that area. Emma and Henry got some fabulous things. We'll have to do a fashion show when their clothes arrive.
Dinner that evening was at Aquavit. The chef there is Swedish so of course this restaurant is a favorite of mine. The food is devine. I thought it was funny that most of the patrons were men, I suppose it is a restaurant for business dinners and expense accounts. Anyway, I loved my meal!
Nancy and I called it a night pretty early, especially for New Work standards, I'm sure. We had a big day ahead of us. More on that later.